ucted safely to
Damietta.'

It was Thursday before the Feast of Ascension; and, while the King of
France, and the Crusaders were conveyed down the Nile in galleys, Touran
Chah travelled by land from Mansourah, in order to receive Damietta, and
perform the conditions of peace. On reaching Pharescour, however, the
sultan halted to dine with his chiefs; and, while the other Crusaders
lay in their galleys on the river, the king and his brethren were
invited to land, and received into a pavilion, where they had an
interview with the sultan, when Saturday was appointed for the payment
of the golden bezants and the surrender of Damietta. But long ere
Saturday a terrible tragedy was to occur, and render Pharescour
memorable as the scene of a deed of violence, startling both to Asia and
Europe. Already, while the sultan held his interview with the King of
France and the Counts of Poictiers and Anjou, everything was prepared;
and soon after Touran Chah had left Louis and his brothers shut up in
the pavilion, they were roused by loud shouts of distress and a mighty
tumult; and, while they breathlessly asked each other whether the French
captives were being massacred or Damietta taken by storm, in rushed
twenty Saracens, their swords red and reeking with blood, and spots of
blood on their vestments and their faces, stamping, threatening
furiously, and uttering fierce cries.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE TRAGEDY OF PHARESCOUR.

AT Pharescour, on the margin of the Nile, the Sultan of Egypt had a
remarkable palace. It appears to have been constructed of wood, and
covered with cloth of brilliant colours. At the entrance was a pavilion,
where the emirs and chiefs were in the habit of leaving their swords,
when they had audience of the sultan; and beyond this pavilion was a
handsome gateway which led to the great hall where the sultan feasted;
and adjoining the great hall was a tower, by which the sultan ascended
to his private apartments.

Between the palace and the river was a spacious lawn, in which there was
a tower, to which the sultan was wont to ascend when he wished to make
observations on the surrounding country; and hard by was an alley which
led towards the margin of the hill, and a summer-house formed of
trellis-work and covered with Indian linen, where he frequently repaired
for the purpose of bathing.

The chroniclers of the period who write of the crusade of St. Louis
fully describe this palace. Indeed, the appearanc