and the other ladies, went on board a
Genoese vessel. As night advanced, Oliver de Thermes and all the
Crusaders who had garrisoned Damietta embarked on the Nile, and Geoffrey
de Segrines, having brought the keys to the emirs, the Saracens took
possession. Next morning at daybreak the Moslem standards were floating
over tower and turret. But still King Louis was in the hands of his
enemies, and still the emirs were debating whether or not they ought to
put him and the companions of his captivity to death.

At the mouth of the Nile, a Genoese galley awaited the king; and, while
every eye was strained towards the shore with an anxiety which was not
without cause, Walter Espec and Bisset, the English knight, stood on
deck in no enviable frame of mind.

'I mislike all this delay,' said Walter, more agitated than he was wont
to appear. 'What if, after all, these emirs should prove false to their
covenant?'

'In truth,' replied Bisset, 'it would not amaze me so much as many
things that have come to pass of late; and both the king and his nobles
may yet find to their cost that their hopes of freedom are dashed; for
we all know the truth of the proverb as to there being so much between
the cup and the lip.'

At this moment they observed the galleys, on board of which Joinville
and other captive Crusaders were, move up the Nile, and each uttered an
exclamation of horror.

'Now may Holy Katherine be our aid,' cried Walter, 'for our worst
anticipations are like to be realised.'

'The saints forbid,' replied Bisset; 'and yet I am not so hopeful as I
might be, for I have long since learned not to holloa till out of the
wood.'

It was indeed a critical moment for Louis and his nobles; but in the
council of the emirs the milder views ultimately prevailed, and Bisset
and Walter Espec observed with delight that the galleys which had moved
up the Nile were brought back towards Damietta, and that Louis,
attended by a multitude of Saracens who watched his movements in
silence, was approaching. Immediately the Genoese galley moved towards
the shore, and Louis, having been joined by the Count of Anjou and the
Lord of Joinville, stepped on board, while the other knights and nobles
hastened to embark in the vessels that lay in wait for them. As soon as
the king was on board, Bisset made a signal; and, as he did so, eighty
archers with their crossbows strung appeared on deck so suddenly that
the crowd of Saracens who had been pressing