40 HISTOR V OF FRANCE. [chap. reinfoiccincntb ; and when he went forward with 60,000 men he became entangled in the canals of the delta, and was a month going thirty miles. The great canal near Mansoiirah barred his passage, and fifty days were lost in trying in vain to make a causeway over it before a ford was found. The Earl of Salisbury advised that no attack should be made on the enemy by the first who should cross, till the others had come to their support. But the king's brother, Robert., Count 0/ Artois, chose to think this cowardly, and the unhappy quarrel caused both earl and count to charge the Memlooks the instant they crossed, and to rush headlong after them into the narrow crooked lanes of Mansourah. Here the knights on their heavy horses were helpless, and all were cut off, though the king's own promptness and vigour saved the rest of the army, and disldged the enemy from their camp. There however the causeway was afterwards attacked by the Memlooks, and they had to fight a second terrible battle. The victory was indeed theirs, but they were living in a swamp which bred deadly sickness, while swarms of the Memlooks and Arabs harassed them on all sides with discharges of the missile called Greek fire, which was blown from a reed, and set in a blaze whatever it touched. There was no choice but retreat, and boats were collected for the sick, among whom was Lewis himself, though he chose to ride in the rearguard, striving to guard the passage, and charging again and again on the swarming foes. The enemy cut down every straggler, seized all the boats, and at last, after desperate fighting captured the whole army with Lewis himself, who was found with exhausted strength lying helpless on the ground. He and his two brothers were put into chains, and all who would not deny their faith were either slaughtered or sold for slaves, unless the richness of their armour gave cause to hope for a ransom. The garrison at Damietla daily expected to be seized by the Memlooks, and Queen Margaret, who had just given birth to a son, made the old knight who guarded her swear that he would kill her rather than let her be taken by the Saracens. Happily for them, the sultan was just dead, and the power was in the hands of the Memlook emir, Tonrass C/ia/i, who only wanted to make a profit of his captives. At first he threatened death or torture to all unless they yielded all the I*" ranks held in Palestine ; but when Lewis answered that they were not his, and that he
