It took him till mid-day to order these things; and then he caused the drums called nacaires to be beaten; and ther they charged us, foot and horse. And first I will tell you oJ the King of Sicily who was then Count of Anjou because he was first on the side towards Babylon. The foe came against him as men play chess, for they first caused him to be attacked by their foot-men, and the foot-men assailed him with Greek fire; and the men, mounted and dis mounted, pressed upon our people so sore that they discomfited the King of Sicily, who was on foot, among his knights.
And they came to the king, and told him of the great jeopardy in which liis brother stood. And when the king heard this, he rode spurring amidst his brother’s men, with his sword in his fist, and dashed so far among the Turks that they burnt the crupper of his horse with Greek fire. And by this charge that the king made he succoured the King of Sicily and his men, and drove the Turks from the camp.
Troops came the troops
After the troops of the King of Sicily came the troops of the barons oversea, of whom the Lord Guy of Ibelin and Lord Baldwin his brother were the chiefs. After their troops came the troops of my Lord Walter of Chatillon, full of right worthy men, and of good chivalry. These two divisions defended themselves so vigorously that the Turks were never able to pierce through them or drive them back.
After the troops of my Lord Walter came brother William Sonnac, Master of the Temple, with the few brethren that remained to him after the battle of Tuesday. He had caused a work of defense to be erected in front of him with the engines that we had taken from the Saracens. When the Saracens came to attack him they threw Greek fire on to the hoardings he had erected, and these took fire easily, for the Templars had put into them a great quantity of pinewood planks.
And you must know that the Turks did not wait till the fire had burned itself out, but ran in upon the Templars through the flumes. In this battle brother William, the Master of the Temple, lost an eye, and the other he had lost on Shrove Tuesday; and he died thereof, the said lord on whom God have mercy! And you must know that behind the place where the Templars stood there was a space, the size of a journeyman’s labour, so thickly covered with the Saracens’ darts that the earth could not be seen by reason they were so many.
Ottoman in Bulgaria 