SIEGE AND BATTLE OF JAFFA. 61 



christian corps at Csesarea. The wind served, and 

 when Saladin arrived he received inteUigence that he 

 came too late. Again foiled in this manoeuvre, he re- 

 solved, with admirable tact and perseverance, to march 

 back again to Jaffa, and, now that the Enghsh hero 

 was almost alone, to recover the city and force him 

 to fly. 



Richard, meantime, had commenced repairing the 

 breaches in the walls and clearing the streets, when, 

 on the second day, the Saracen corps, after a forced 

 march, again arrived behind their outposts, which had 

 not been withdrawn since they had evacuated Jaffa. 

 It was evening, and after some emirs, who, along with 

 Cadi Boha-eddin, had reconnoitered the enemy, and 

 had ascertained that the force before them consisted of 

 only ten tents, it was proposed in council to surprise 

 the king in his bed before day-light, and the plan was 

 approved with shouts of exultation. Richard, in truth, 

 was almost alone, his own household included there 

 were present only forty-five knights, about four hun- 

 dred cross-bows and archers ; the billmen, armourers, 

 varlets, together with some well-armed Genouese and 

 Pisans, reckoned together, did not in the whole amount 

 to 2,000 men. The royal tent, with nine others, really 

 constituted the camp, and, although the ground they 

 occupied outside of the walls was confessedly danger- 

 ous, yet it was thought preferable to trust to their 

 vigilance and their swords rather than fall a certain 

 sacrifice within them to the infection which the dead 

 bodies had created. 



In pursuance of the hostile resolution, a body of 

 Saracens, distinguished in the chronicles of the times 

 by the names of menelons and cordives, probably 

 Coordish mountaineers, (a fierce and daring race of 

 robbers, of the same nation as Saladin himself,) began 

 to approach the camp, under cover of the darkness ; 

 but it seems they had some misgivings about the re- 

 sult, for though it is said they disputed about the 

 mode of attack, no one may have been particularly 

 anxious for the distinction of taking the lion by the 



