Chapter XCIII
A week later Trudy was still angry with me and insisting that I address her as "Sitt", but we could not avoid one another, for all the house was crowded with women and children who had come in from the country, seeking safety in the city. The four of us - Trudy, Fatima, Hilmi and myself - were together all the time. We ate together, we slept together, we went down to the bazaar together to listen to the news and rumours, and in the evening we walked on the walls together to catch the breeze.
We were in the bazaar, walking idly through the crowd and marvelling at how empty the shops were, when we heard one shouting to another and suddenly every shop-keeper began to close his shop, hurrying his customers out of the way and pulling closed the heavy wooden shutters that protected his goods. The crowd of women and children ran scurrying and screaming and disappeared into nearby doorways. Within moments the bazaar was deserted apart from a few idlers like ourselves and we stared at one another in surprise.
"The Sultan is coming," one of these people called to us.
"Too late, by God," Hilmi said, nodding towards es-Sitt. "Ya Sitt, I said that we should take you to Gibran days ago."
Trudy turned and I saw that her eyes were fearful, though she laughed easily enough. "Let us go on the walls," she said. "If it is the Sultan it should be worth watching."
"From which direction is the Sultan coming?" Hilmi shouted to the man who had spoken to us.
"From Bethany, so they say," he replied.
This surprised us, for the latest news we had heard put the Sultan to the west, in Joppa, making preparations for an attack on Ascalon - though it was always possible that those preparations were really for an attack on Jerusalem. Still, we hurried along towards the gate of St Stephen and saw, with fear in our hearts, that the gate was closed. When we came closer, however, we saw that the guards were standing around talking instead of barring the gate and manning the walls.
"What is going on?" I asked the guards when we came up to them.
"There is a horseman coming," they replied. "He is dressed like an Arab, but he is alone. Perhaps he is a messenger from the Sultan."
We climbed up on the wall and no one sought to prevent us. There was a soldier up there and he pointed down into the valley.
"He is down there," he told us. "You can't see him now, but he is coming up towards the gate."
A minute later and the horseman came into view. Hilmi leaned forward and exclaimed, "That's no enemy, that's Charles!"
The soldier looked at us.
"You know this man?" he asked.
"Yes!" Hilmi said and I nodded agreement, for I too had recognised our companion. "He is in the same service as ourselves."
The soldier turned and shouted down to his companions. "He's nearly up to the gate and these lads say that they know him."
The captain of the soldiers came out of the guardroom and ran up the stairs to us.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "You're Arabs, aren't you?"
Before we could reply Trudy stepped forward. "They are my father's squires," she said. "I am the daughter of Sir Guy d'Orleans and I recognise that man as well. He is Charles of Blois, another of my father's squires."
"What's he doing in Arab dress?" the captain asked, stepping foward and peering down at Charles.
"I have no idea," Trudy said. "Why don't you ask him?"
The captain leaned over the parapet and shouted down to Charles. "Who are you?"
Charles looked up at us and lifted his turbanned helmet off his head and smiled. "I am Charles of Blois," he yelled. "Ask them, they know me. Greetings, Trudy. How are you, Hilmi and Fuad? My service to you, Fatima."
"Why are you dressed like one of the Sultan's men?" I called down to him.
"I escaped in disguise," Charles shouted. "Are you going to let me in?"
The captain called down to his men and we all went down the stairs to meet Charles as the guards opened the postern and let him in. As soon as the door was open Charles stepped through and tugged his horse in after him.
"Are you alone?" the captain demanded.
"Unfortunately, yes," Charles replied.
"Have you seen any sign of the Sultan's army near here?"
Charles looked startled. "No - and if I had, I wouldn't be standing here. I've seen enough of them to last me a lifetime."
"You said that you had escaped," Trudy interrupted. "Tell us."
"Come inside and tell all of us," the captain said, leading the way into the guardroom.
We all crowded into the guardroom; the captain sat at his table and one of the soldiers brought a rough chair for Trudy, the rest of us stood around the wall or squatted on the floor as Charles told us his story.
"I guess you all know how the battle went," Charles said. "We were in the thick of it, half way down the hill with the king's tent at the top. There was Sir Guy, my lord, Karl, Phillipe, and several others that we knew and we were all fighting on foot, for the horses were spent."
He laughed shortly. "By God, we were spent as well. I have never been so thirsty in my life, for we had been without water since the previous afternoon and fighting all the time in between." He turned to Hilmi and me. "Did you know that after you left we took our horses to the spring but they refused to drink? Some said that the Sultan had poisoned the water but I drank from it and it tasted fine to me. I think they were just nervous from all the commotion going on."
"You said 'fighting'," the captain interrupted. "You mean you were actually at grips with the enemy?"
Charles shook his head. "Most of the time there was no actual fighting, just the Sultan's men firing arrows at us, but that still involves a degree of activity, you know, dodging around, helping those who were hit and keeping our shields up. I got three arrows in my shield, you know."
"My father was there?" Trudy interrupted.
"Yes," Charles nodded. "He was beside me most of the time, with Phillipe beside me and Karl on the other side. Anyway, just when it seemed that things couldn't get worse the Sultan's men started to charge right at us and at first we thought that was a good sign, a sign of desperation, for it meant that we could come to grips with our swords instead of just standing helplessly while they shot at us." He smiled ruefully. "Of course, now I realise that it was a sign of our weakness."
"Go on," the captain said.
"Well, there's not much to tell," Charles said. "There were two charges and it was all a bit of a mess - hacking at the men and horses that came at us and driving them back. I really don't know what happened; I think now that I may have fainted from the heat and thirst, but it is possible someone I didn't see hit me on the head; I just don't know."
"Why?" Trudy asked. "What happened?"
"Well, I don't really know. All I know is that I came to when someone trod on my arm and I found myself lying on my back. Fortunately I was too weak to move at first and that gave me time to think. The noise of battle was gone and that told me that something was wrong, so when I opened my eyes I turned my head cautiously. There were the Sultan's men at the top of the hill and bodies on the ground all around me."
Trudy's eyes were round and even Fatima seemed impressed. "What did you do?" Trudy asked.
Charles looked sheepish. "I daren't stand up, as you can imagine, for that would certainly have attracted attention. I was lying with my head uphill, so I very slowly slid down out of my mail."
"You slid out of your mail?" the captain sounded incredulous.
"Yes," Charles nodded. "It wasn't as difficult as you might think, though it did take a while. Anyway, once I was out of my mail I crawled over to where one of the Sultan's men was lying dead and took his clothes. The first thing I did was put his helmet on my head and after that if anyone came near I just sat still with my head bowed until they had passed."
"Why?" Hilmi asked.
Charles gestured to his face. "Blue eyes, blond hair. Not many of those in the Sultan's army. Anyway, eventually I had a more or less complete set of Muslim clothes and weapons and after that it was a simple matter to stand up and catch a horse - there were plenty of them wandering around - and ride away."
"What about my father?" Trudy asked in a quiet voice.
Charles turned to face Trudy and spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I'm sorry, I have no idea. I didn't think to look around me where I was lying - I was concentrating too hard on getting out of my mail - and by the time I thought of it I had moved over to the dead man and from there I couldn't see anyone I knew, either alive or dead. All I can say is that the last I saw of him he was alive and well and the Sultan's men did take prisoners; I saw a whole crowd of our men being guarded by the Sultan's men."
"Did you recognise any of them?" I asked.
Charles laughed. "No, I didn't go close enough - in fact I took very good care not to go anywhere near them. There was a line of men and animals coming and going from the lake and I rode slowly in the same direction, just gradually edging further away from them until I was right out of sight." His face broke into a beaming smile. "Water has never tasted so good, I can tell you."
"I believe you," I said fervently, having often been thirsty myself.
"It did cross my mind to join the Sultan's men around the prisoners and see if I could help some of our men to escape and if I had dark hair and eyes I might have tried it, but when I thought about it I could see that it wasn't really possible, so I left them and here I am."
"You've taken your time getting here," the captain growled.
Charles looked embarrassed. "I know," he said. "Actually, I've been to Madeba. I needed to see someone there."
"Hah!" Hilmi exclaimed. "The sheikh's daughter."
Charles' face turned red. "Yes," he said, "the sheikh's daughter. I'm - er - I'm going back there more or less right away. They've offered me a house and some land and if things go badly for us I can stay there. They'll hide me, sort of thing. Of course," he added hurriedly, "if Sir Guy comes back I'll not forget my duty and you know where to find me, but otherwise . . ." His voice trailed away.
"Have you seen any of the Sultan's men at all?" the captain asked.
"Yes, they're all over the place," Charles said. "They're swarming all up and down the Valley and the hills around Madeba, small groups, messengers, that sort of thing." He waved his hand over his Muslim garb. "That's why I'm still wearing this stuff, I wouldn't have lasted five minutes dressed as a Frank."
We walked together back to the house and Trudy and Fatima helped Charles pack his things and busied themselves repairing some of his garments. That evening, after we had eaten, we sat around talking and Hilmi appealed to Charles for support.
"Don't you think es-Sitt should leave al-Quds?" he asked. "Look at the panic when just one man dressed as the Sultan's men appeared. How will it be when the Sultan's army really arrives?"
Charles thought for a moment and then nodded his head. "Yes, I definitely think it. Mind you, where could you take her? You could never bring her to Madeba, for example. As I told the captain at the gate, the whole area to the east is swarming with the Sultan's men. What is it like around here?"
"I came from Gibran a couple of days ago," I told him. "I saw several bands of armed men, but that was all."
"Good idea," Charles said. "If you can get to Gibran, do so, for once the Sultan turns towards Jerusalem it will be impossible to move."
"But what if my father sends a message?" Trudy protested, her eyes filling with tears. "What if he needs a ransom?"
"Leave a message," Charles said. "Better still, leave Fatima. She's a Muslim, she'll have nothing to fear if the Sultan takes Jerusalem." He stood up. "Come on, let's get to bed early and we'll leave for Gibran as soon as the gates open."
