Chapter LXXII
Truly in those days it seemed as if Allah's curse was upon the Franks, for barely a month later, three months after the feast of Christmas, King Baldwin the leper died and for the second time I entered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre without a party of pilgrims, this time accompanied by all Sir Guy's household, to attend the king's funeral. There was such a press of people there that I feared for my life but by God's mercy we all escaped alive.
Then when it was time to reap the crops we realised just how poor the rains had been over the winter, for there was barely enough harvest to last till the beginning of winter and long caravans of pack animals and wagons groaned over the hills from Tyre and Acre, carrying grain brought in from Cyprus and Byzantium.
In this extremity Raymond felt that he had no choice but to send messengers to the Sultan, God protect him, and beg for a truce. Babrak went with the messengers as translator and clerk and came back with greetings from the Emir ibn Hamza and the news that the Sultan, of his mercy, had granted a truce of four years.
"Why?" we demanded of Babrak. "He has these Franks at his mercy; why is he sparing them for four years?"
Babrak shrugged. "Who can understand the mind of kings?"
Sid Guy, however, when we asked him the same question, smiled knowingly.
"Have you forgotten that Egypt is only newly won?" he asked. "The Sultan probably feels that it is not wise to leave his new subjects and the source of his wealth and his soldiers without his watchful eye on them."
"So he will grow stronger and more able to attack us at the end of four years?" Phillipe sounded dismayed.
Guy shrugged. "God grant that we use the time wisely and are also able to grow stronger."
That, however, seemed unlikely, for news came that the king of Sicily was gathering men to attack the Greeks.
"He is called William the Good," Phillipe told us, "but he is far from being good. He is one of those accursed Normans who conquered Sicily a hundred and forty years ago and does nothing but make trouble for the Lord Pope. God send that he blunts his teeth against the walls of Byzantium."
"If he gets that far," Charles muttered.
As summer came, however, it seemed that God began again to favour the Franks, for the pilgrims returned in great numbers, bringing wealth to the kingdom and great weariness to us, for we were kept constantly busy taking groups to Jericho or Bethlehem or even as far as Galilee. There were many among these pilgrims who spoke of staying on in Outremer to help the Franks against the Sultan but most were deceived by the peacefulness and some even laughed at us for taking fright at shadows if we spoke of how we had spent the previous summer.
Only when winter came and the sea was closed did we have rest and even then some braved the perils of storms to come and celebrate the feast of Christ's birth in Bethlehem.
Before that, however, terrible news came from Greece, for the Sicilian army conquered the great city of Thessalonica and the man who brought us the news, grew shrill with horror as he told of it.
"My lord," he said when we brought him to have speech with es-Sid, "the Normans broke into the city like a tidal wave and massacred the people. Some say that seven thousand were killed, others that as many as twenty thousand perished. More than that, they looted every house and palace and even the churches were not spared, for they stripped them of their riches and behaved like animals, mocking the icons and desecrating the altars - and not just the altars only, but they killed monks, raped nuns, and if nuns are not spared, what can ordinary women expect?"
"How do you know all this?" Guy demanded.
"My lord, I passed through the city a week after it fell and bodies were still lying in the streets. I had thought to gain merit by visiting some of the churches, for St Paul went to Thessalonica and, it is said, wrote letters to the people there which form a part of Holy Writ, but there was not a single church that had not been defiled."
Es-Sid gave him a present and dismissed him and then went to take the news to the palace, though as he admitted to Trudy and me when he returned, he dared not tell the whole of the pilgrim's tale to a mere boy.
"I'll have to wait until I can have a word with Count Raymond on his own," he said. "He needs to know, because if the Greeks are all taken up with this affair it means that we can look for no help from them."
"What about the king of Rum?" I asked. "I thought that he favoured us?"
Guy shrugged. "Who can tell what he favours or does not favour? I am told that he spends all his time listening to soothsayers and torturing or killing those he suspects of plotting against him."
Truly in those days everyone went around with grim and unsmiling faces, for as es-Sid said, if only the king of Sicily had used his preparations and his armament to come to our aid, what a great blow might have been struck for the Nasrani cause. Even ash-Shams could not have stood against an army strong enough to threaten the mighty city of the Romans.
Yet, only a month later the threat vanished like a cloud in the morning. A monk of Constantinople, coming to Jerusalem on pilgrimage, brought the news of how the Normans had been defeated, telling it as evidence of God's favour towards the Greeks. Karl met him at Joppa and brought him on horseback to speak with es-Sid, for his news was news indeed.
"Kurios," the man said, standing in front of Sid Guy and looking unhappy at being so close to one whom he considered a schismatic and an heretic, "I was in Byzantium when news came of the disaster at Thessalonika and there never was such terror in the city."
"Of the Normans?" Guy asked.
"No, of the Basileus," the monk replied. "Such a wave of arrests and tortures and executions; none was spared, high or low. One of the soothsayers in whom the Basileus put such trust whispered to him that his cousin, Isaac Angelus, was plotting against him and the Basileus sent messengers to arrest him. Isaac, however, knowing that to be taken before the Basileus was a short route to a painful death, took up arms and slew the messengers, then went out into the streets and called on the mob to come to his aid."
Guy nodded. "I can imagine what happened next."
"Indeed, kurios. The people are terrible in their wrath. They gathered in front of the great church and hammered on the gates of the palace and then, when the guard resisted them, they took up weapons and fought against the palace. I stood near the hippodrome and watched as they attacked and I saw that while some held the guards by shooting with bows, others went by another way and climbed up on the walls and once inside they opened the gates. Kurios, that night I saw the treasury emptied and beggars swaggering about with purses filled with gold or silver. Mind you, they kept very little of it."
"Oh?" Guy raised his eyebrows. "Who took it from them?"
The monk laughed shortly. "The innkeepers and women of ill-repute, kurios. Indeed, it could be said that no one took it from them but they gave it up freely of their own freewill. It is said that 1,200 pounds of gold and 3,000 pounds of silver were taken from the treasury."
"And Andronicus?" Guy asked.
"He fled when the mob entered the palace, taking with him his wife and a flute girl called Maraptica who is said to have been his mistress."
"Agnes!" Guy exclaimed. "Agnes of France! What happened to her?"
The monk shrugged. "I do not know, kurios. The Basileus himself was captured and given to the mob, who tortured him to death. The new Basileus Isaac began to reign and immediately appointed a new general for the army. Led by a man they could trust, the army fell upon the Normans when they were not expecting them and defeated them utterly. They fled back to Thessalonica, thinking to find shelter there, but as soon as they entered the city the gates were shut and the men of Thessalonica rose up and did to them as they had done to the Thessalonians. Not a man escaped."
"Well," Guy said, reaching into his purse for a coin with which to reward the man, "that is indeed good news and I thank you for bringing it to me."
"Alas, kurios," the monk said and his voice almost broke with emotion. "Alas, the news is of the very worst. Kurios, the most precious letter written by the hand of the Blessed Saviour Himself and sent to King Abgar of Edessa, has disappeared. It was kept as a most precious relic in the palace, in the treasury itself, but when the treasury was looted the letter was taken along with all else. Strict search is being made for it, but when I left the city nothing had been found."
"You think it has been destroyed?" Sid Guy gasped, looking stricken.
"Surely God would not permit such a thing to be destroyed," the monk muttered. "Surely it will be found, but whether in Byzantium or sold to the heretics, who can tell? Truly, if it is gone from our city it must be a sign that God has deserted us."
When the monk had gone Sid Guy rose and called for his cloak.
"I must take this news to the king at once," he said.
"Is it good news or bad?" Trudy asked.
Guy shook his head. "Truly I do not know. It is good that Byzantium is saved, it is bad that the Sicilians have been destroyed, for we might have looked to them for aid. Indeed, if they had conquered Byzantium we might have expected great things from them, for then all the wealth and power of the Greek empire could have come to save us. Now, however, Byzantium has been weakened by this useless war and the emperor is not likely to favour us when we have attacked him."
"And the letter?" Trudy asked.
Guy shrugged. "It was indeed a most precious relic, but it may be that for our sins God has taken it from us. Certainly we must mourn its loss, but what it means, who can tell?"
