tead of three scouts, we had three hundred men lying in
ambush along that road, we could have broken Charles's attack and
perhaps killed him and the Tartars then and there._

Daoud thanked Nuwaihi, Abdul, and Said and sent them to join the Sons of
the Falcon, riding today as the rear guard. He rode back to Manfred,
hoping he could persuade the king and his commanders to use wisely the
great army they had assembled.

Soon Manfred, Erhard Barth, several of Manfred's German and Italian
commanders, Lorenzo, and Daoud were dismounted and gathered in a field
beside the line of march. Manfred's orderly had brought a map of the
region and spread it out on the ground, weighting the edges with rocks.

As Manfred crouched over the map, his five-pointed silver star with its
ruby center hung over a town, represented on the map by an archway and a
church surrounded by a wall. The drawing was marked with the Latin name
"Beneventum."

"We can be in Benevento by nightfall," said Barth. "And Anjou's army
will probably arrive at the same time. There is but one road they can
follow." He pointed to a brown line that ran down from a large oval, at
the top of the map, drawn around a collection of buildings and marked
"Roma." Between Rome and Benevento was a series of towns, each indicated
by a drawing of one or two buildings surrounded by walls. Mountains were
shown as rows of sharp little points.

"Benevento is a Guelfo town," said Manfred, "and deserves to have us
move in on it and quarter our troops there. The town is at the end of a
long valley that runs north to south. The opening at the north end of
the valley is a narrow pass. Anjou's army must come through that pass.
They will find it easier to get into the valley than to get out, because
we will be waiting for them."

Daoud felt a surge of exasperation, and quickly pushed it back down.
Anger would not help him.

"Waiting for them?" he said. "If we are making war, we do not _want_ to
meet them."

Manfred frowned. "If we drive them up against the north end of the
valley, we will have them trapped." Manfred smashed his fist into his
palm. "There will be nowhere for them to escape to."

_He is getting tired of my giving advice that contradicts the way he
thinks things should be done. After all, he did win battles before I
came here._

But to simply meet Charles's army face-to-face, like two bulls butting
heads, seemed lunacy to Daoud.

"Such a battle will be bad for both si