The Saracens, seeing that there was no possibility of escape, and having no hope of mercy if they fell into Richard's hands, determined to scuttle the ship, and to sink themselves and the vessel together. They accordingly cut holes through the bottom as well as they could with hatchets, and the water began to pour in. In the mean time, Richard's galleys had surrounded the vessel, and a dreadful combat ensued. Both parties fought like tigers. The Crusaders were furious to get on board before the ship should go down, and the Saracens, though they had no expectation of finally defending themselves against their enemies, still hoped to keep them back until it should be too late for them to obtain any advantage from their victory.
For a time they were quite successful in their resistance, chiefly by means of what was called Greek fire. This Greek fire was a celebrated means of warfare in those days, and was very terrible in its nature and effects. It is not known precisely what it was, or how it was made. It was an exceedingly combustible substance, and was to be thrown, on fire, at the enemy; and such was its nature, that when once in flames nothing could extinguish it; and, besides the heat and burning that it produced, it threw out great volumes of poisonous and stifling vapors, which suffocated all that came near. The men threw it sometimes in balls, sometimes on the ends of darts and arrows, where it was enveloped in flax or tow to keep it in its place. It burned fiercely and furiously wherever it fell. Even water did not extinguish it, and it was said that in this combat the sea all around the Saracens' ship seemed on fire, and the decks of the galleys that attacked them were blazing with it in every direction. Great numbers of Richard's men were killed by it.
But the superiority of numbers on Richard's side was too great, and after a time the Saracens were subdued, before the ship had admitted water enough through the scuttlings to carry her down. Richard's men poured in on board of her in great numbers. They immediately proceeded to massacre or throw overboard the men as fast as possible, and to seize the stores and transfer them to their own ships. They also did all they could to stop the leaks, so as to delay the sinking of the ship as long as possible. They had time to transfer to their own vessels nearly all the valuable part of the cargo, and to kill and drown all the men. Out of twelve or fifteen hundred, only about thirty-five were spared.
When, afterward, public sentiment seemed inclined to condemn this terrible and inexcusable massacre, Richard defended himself by saying that he found on board the vessel a number of jars containing certain poisonous reptiles, which he alleged the Saracens were going to take to Acre, and there let them loose near the Crusaders' camp to bite the soldiers, and that men who could resort to so barbarous a mode of warfare as this deserved no quarter. However this may be, the poor Saracens received no quarter. It might be supposed that Richard deserved some credit for his humanity in saving the thirty-five. But his object in saving these was not to show mercy, but to gain ransom-money. These thirty-five were the emirs, or other officers of the Saracens, or persons who looked as if they might be rich or have rich friends. When they reached the shore, Richard fixed upon a certain sum of money for each of them, and allowed them to send word to their friends that if they would raise that money and send it to Richard, he would set them at liberty. A great proportion of them were thus afterward ransomed, and Richard realized from this source quite a large sum.
When Richard's soldiers found that the time for the captured ship to sink was drawing nigh, they abandoned her, leaving on board every thing that they had not been able to save, and, withdrawing to a safe distance, they saw her go down. The sea all around her was covered with the bodies of the dead and dying, and also with bales of merchandise, broken weapons, fragments of the wreck, and with the flickering and exhausted remnants of the Greek fire.
The fleet then got under way again, and pursued its course to Acre.
CHAPTER XII. THE ARRIVAL AT ACRE.
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The besieging army at Acre.-Motives of the Saracens.-Motives of the Christians.-Envyings and jealousy among the besiegers.-King of Jerusalem.-A common danger makes a common cause.-The terrible loss of life in the siege of Acre.-The unwieldy armor of the knights.-King Richard received by the besieging army.-Berengaria a bride.-Philip's conciliation.
While Richard was thus, with his fleet, drawing near to Acre, the armies of the Crusaders that were besieging the town had been for some time gradually getting into a very critical situation. This army was made up of a great many different bodies of troops, that had come in the course of years from all parts of Europe to recover the Holy Land from the possession of the unbelievers. There were Germans, and French, and Normans, and Italians, and people from the different kingdoms of Spain, with knights, and barons, and earls, and bishops, and archbishops, and princes, and other dignitaries of all kinds without number. With such a heterogeneous mass there could be no common bond, nor any general and central authority. They spoke a great variety of languages, and were accustomed to very different modes of warfare; and the several orders of knights, and the different bodies of troops, were continually getting involved in dissensions arising from the jealousies and rivalries which they bore to each other. The enemy, on the other hand, were united under the command of one great and powerful Saracen leader named Saladin.
There was another great difference between the Crusaders and the Saracens which was greatly to the advantage of the latter. The Saracens were fighting simply to deliver their country from these bands of invaders. Thus their object was one. If any part of the army achieved a success, the other divisions rejoiced at it, for it tended to advance them all toward the common end that all had in view. On the other hand, the chief end and aim of the Crusaders was to get glory to themselves in the estimation of friends and neighbors at home, and of Europe in general. It is true that they desired to obtain this glory by victories over the unbelievers and the conquest of the Holy Land, but these last objects were the means and not the end. The end, in their view, was their own personal glory. The consequence was, that while the Saracens would naturally all rejoice at an advantage gained over the enemy by any portion of their army, yet in the camp of the Crusaders, if one body of knights performed a great deed of strength or bravery which was likely to attract attention in Europe, the rest were apt to be disappointed and vexed instead of being pleased. They were envious of the fame which the successful party had acquired. In a word, when an advantage was gained by any particular body of troops, the rest did not think of the benefit to the common cause which had thereby been secured, but only of the danger that the fame acquired by those who gained it might eclipse or outshine their own renown.
The various orders of knights and the commanders of the different bodies of troops vied with each other, not only in respect to the acquisition of glory, but also in the elegance of their arms, the splendor of their tents and banners, the beauty and gorgeous caparisons of the horses, and the pomp and parade with which they conducted all their movements and operations. The camp was full of quarrels, too, among the great leaders in respect to the command of the places in the Holy Land which had been conquered in previous campaigns. These places, as fast as they had been taken, had been made principalities and kingdoms, to give titles of rank to the crusaders who had taken them; and, though the places themselves had in many instances been lost again, and given up to the Saracens, the titles remained to be quarreled about among the Crusaders. There was particularly a great quarrel at this time about the title of King of Jerusalem. It was a mere empty title, for Jerusalem was in the hands of the Saracens, but there were twenty very powerful and influential claimants to it, each of whom manoeuvred and intrigued incessantly with all the other knights and commanders in the army to gain partisans to his side. Thus the camp of the Crusaders, from one cause and another, had become one universal scene of rivalry, jealousy, and discord.