the banks.'

'Well,' replied Joinville, 'I choose rather to be run on a mud bank than
to be carried ashore, where even now I see our people being
slaughtered.'

But escape proved impossible. Almost as he spoke, Joinville perceived
four of the sultan's galleys making towards his barge; and, giving
himself up for lost, he took a little casket containing his jewels, and
threw it into the Nile. However, it turned out that, though he could not
save his liberty, there was still a chance of saving his life.

'My lord,' said the mariner, 'you must permit me to say you are the
king's cousin; if not, we are as good as murdered.'

'Say what you please,' replied Joinville.

And now Joinville met with a protector, whose coming he attributed to
the direct interposition of heaven. 'It was God,' says he, 'who then, as
I verily believe, sent to my aid a Saracen, who was a subject of the
Emperor of Germany. He wore a pair of coarse trowsers, and, swimming
straight to me, he came into my vessel and embraced my knees. "My lord,"
he said, "if you do not what I shall advise, you are lost. In order to
save yourself, you must leap into the river, without being observed." He
had a cord thrown to me, and I leaped into the river, followed by the
Saracen, who saved me, and conducted me to a galley, wherein were
fourteen score of men, besides those who had boarded my vessel. But this
good Saracen held me fast in his arms.'

Shortly after, Joinville with the good Saracen's aid was landed, and
the other Saracens rushed on him to cut his throat, and he expected no
better fate. But the Saracen who had saved him would not quit his hold.

'He is the king's cousin,' shouted he; 'the king's cousin.'

'I had already,' says Joinville, 'felt the knife at my throat, and cast
myself on my knees; but, by the hands of this good Saracen, God
delivered me from this peril; and I was led to the castle where the
Saracen chiefs had assembled.'

When Joinville was conducted with some of his company, along with the
spoils of his barge, into the presence of the emirs, they took off his
coat of mail; and perceiving that he was very ill, they, from pity,
threw one of his scarlet coverlids lined with minever over him, and gave
him a white leathern girdle, with which he girded the coverlid round
him, and placed a small cap on his head. Nevertheless, what with his
fright and his malady, he soon began to shake so that his teeth
chattered, and he complained of thirst.