Chapter CIII
A guest who stays too long becomes wearisome to the host and though we could with justice claim hospitality while the winter was still upon us, after two months there were signs of spring and I determined to leave. I went to the house of ibn Hamza and thanked him for his hospitality and his help in the matter of es-Sid.
"I am sorry that I could not help you," he said, "for by God I would surely tell you if I had received any news." He paused. "It is your wife, is it not, who seeks word of her father?"
"It is my wife," I agreed.
"There were many men slain on that day," he told me. "It was hard fighting at the foot of the hill. Every man's fate is written beforehand."
"It is as you say, Sid," I told him. "Nonetheless, for my wife's sake I must continue to seek in the whole of the Sultan's domains. Of your kindness, give me a writing to someone in Homs that I may go to him for help."
Once more ibn Hamza summoned his scribe and gave me letters, not only to the mudir in Homs but also to his own steward in Hamath, where he had an estate, and also to the governor of Aleppo.
"Also," he said while the scribe was writing, "if you cross these mountains and follow the Beqa'a to a place called Baalbek, you will find there one who is known to you, for now that the Sultan controls all of Palestine Harun no longer travels back and forth to Misr and has been given a small estate in that place as reward for his many dangers."
I thanked him and departed, asking blessings from God upon him for his kindness. The following day we packed our tent and other possessions on our donkeys, gathered our sheep, who had grown fat with much grazing and little walking, and left to climb the mountains, following the river of Damascus until it become nothing and then crossing the ridge and descending into a great valley that stretched as far as one could see to both north and south.
After five days we came to Baalbek and found the estate of Harun but he was not there, having gone to join the Sultan at the siege of Belvoir. His steward received us kindly and we spent many days there making enquiries in the neighbourhood, but there were few Frankish slaves or captives there, it being so close to the coast and too easy for such people to escape.
From there we travelled to Homs, making enquiries at every place we came to. Frequently we found Franks working in the fields and most were resigned to their lot and only vaguely hoped for deliverance. Several of them had heard of Sir Guy d'Orleans, but none had news of him since the battle.
Along the way five of the sheep gave birth so that my flock was increased and also we were able to start to milk the sheep. When we came to Homs I bought another water skin in the market place and made a tripod from which we could hang it so that we could make cheese and butter, some to sell and some for Trudy to eat.
It is only a short distance from Homs to Hamath but it took us two weeks to reach there, for the newborn lambs only went slowly or ran in many directions so that I had to chase after them. Several times we saw armed men riding past and by their dress I knew them for Hashashin, followers of the Old Man of the Mountain, but they did not trouble us. In one place where I went to trade sheep's milk and cheese for some vegetables that Trudy craved I was told that Masyaf, the castle of the Old Man of the Mountain, was only a short distance away in the mountains on our left.
In Hamath ibn Hamza's steward received us and let us pitch our tent in a field belonging to his master where our sheep could graze. We stayed there for a week, selling our cheese and seeking in all places for word of es-Sid but without success.
From there we went to Ma'arat an-Nu'man where we stayed in a field outside the town and I went daily to the great khan to ask among the merchants and travellers there for news of es-Sid. People still talked of the great earthquake which had toppled the minaret of the mosque and boasted of the new minaret, but I had no time for such things, for by now Trudy's belly was grown so great that it was difficult for her to walk and the heat of these plains was oppressive to her.
I had to give thought to the birth of the child, for clearly it could not be far off - though Trudy said that it was yet three months away - and I was not minded to have even the rumour of Trudy's beauty spread abroad by some midwife with a tongue as long as a camel's. Surely there would be great danger in this, for it was not common for a bedu to marry a Frank, even a Frankish captive, and it might be thought that we were spies.
I enquired carefully in the bazaar whether there were any Christians in the area and learned that there was a Nasrani village a day's journey to the west. The next day I emptied one of the water skins and packed all the treasure into the other, where it seemed to cry out its presence by the bulges and bumps in the skin. The whole way to an-Nasiriyeh I went in fear, for though I had my sword concealed among the tent poles I was only one and could do nothing if robbers came upon us. However the purpose of doing this was so that there was an unladen donkey on which Trudy could ride.
When we reached an-Nasiriyeh I led the animals straight into the centre of the village and asked for the sheikh of the place. When we were taken to him I asked hospitality for my wife but he would not receive us. At first I could not believe that anyone could be so lacking in courtesy as to refuse hospitality to a stranger and particularly to a woman of his own faith and when I finally understood that he was nothing but a peasant I grew angry and cursed him and would have taken my sword and slain him except that Trudy held my arm and so we went away, but on the outskirts of the village we met a priest coming towards us and Trudy spoke to him in his own language.
The man stopped and stared at us until Trudy reached up and put back her veil to show her white skin and red hair. At that he smiled and, turning his speech to Arabic, bade us go with him.
"You must not blame our sheikh," said he when I complained of the lack of hospitality in the village. "We are constantly troubled by the beduin of this area, for they come and demand 'hospitality' and eat up our food and steal our possessions and we dare say nothing against them for they are many and we are few."
"He dared refuse us," I snarled.
"He was probably happy to do so once he discovered that you were a stranger and had no friends among the tribes here. I'm sorry," the priest said.
"Can you not complain to the mudir about these beduin?" I asked him a little later when my anger had abated.
"What good is it to complain?" the priest said. "The word of ten Christians or a hundred will not prevail against the word of a single Muslim."
He took us into his own house and a woman came to greet him and us.
"This is my wife Martha," he said to Trudy. "She has some skill in these matters, so stay with us until your time comes." He turned to me. "I have no place here where your animals can graze but I will go to the sheikh and explain the situation."
He went and came again with the news that I could place my tent on the outskirts of the village and graze my animals with those belonging to the community. While Trudy stayed in the house I went with him to a field that was not far from the church and there he helped me set up the tent, exclaiming with astonishment at the way the poles and ropes and cloth made a dwelling.
