forward immediately
dispersed in alarm, and the galley moved from the shore. Ere long, the
Count of Poictiers, who had remained as a hostage in Damietta till the
ransom of the Crusaders was paid, came on board; and, all being now in
readiness for leaving the place where he had experienced so many
misfortunes and so much misery, the saint-king made a sign to the
mariners, the sails were given to the wind, and the fleet of the armed
pilgrims--the wreck of a brilliant army--glided away towards Syria. But
thousands of the survivors still remained in captivity, and, albeit
Louis was conscientiously bent on ransoming them, their prospect was
gloomy, and the thought of their unhappy plight clouded the saint-king's
brow.

And sad was the heart of Walter Espec, as he recalled the day when he
landed at Damietta side by side with Guy Muschamp; and for the hundredth
time asked himself mournfully whether his brother-in-arms had died for
his faith, or whether a worse fate had befallen him.

But why linger on the Egyptian shore amid scenes suggestive of
reminiscences so melancholy and so dismal--reminiscences of misfortunes
and calamities and losses not to be repaired? Let us on to the Syrian
coast, and gladden our eyes with a sight of the white walls of Acre,
washed by the blue waters of the Mediterranean.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

ACRE.

AT the time when King Louis, sad but unsubdued, left Damietta and
steered for the Syrian coast, Acre, situated on a promontory at the foot
of Mount Carmel and washed by the blue waters of the Mediterranean, was
a place of great strength, and renowned throughout Christendom for
riches and splendour. For a long period previous to its destruction by
the Mameluke Sultan--indeed, from the time of the seizure of Jerusalem
by Saladin the Great--Acre was regarded as of higher importance than any
city in the Christian kingdom of which Jerusalem had been the
metropolis; and thither, when driven from other towns which they had
called their own in the days of Godfrey and the Baldwins, most of the
Christians carried such wealth as they could save from the grasp of
sultans and emirs. Acre had, in fact, come to be regarded as the capital
of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and by far the finest of the cities in
Syria.

Naturally enough, a capital so wealthy was rather tempting to men bent
on conquest. But Acre had the advantage of being strongly fortified. On
the land side it was surrounded by a double wall, wit