Α.Ο. 1177. CASTLES GARRISONED BY THE KING. 453 them the wood of the cross of our Lord. Making a bold attack upon the pagans, they forced them to give way, and, Oh supreme bounty of the Most High ! the Christians, who were not in number more than ten thousand fighting men, gained the victory over five hundred thousand pagans, and that by the aid of the Most High. For it appeared in a vision to the pagans as though the hosts of the armies of heaven were descending by a ladder under the form of armed knights, and aiding the Christians in the attack upon them. The pagans being unable to endure their onset, were put to, flight, on which, the Christians, pursuing them, put them to the edge of the sword, and slew of them more than a hundred thousand, and took a great number of prisoners. But Saladin, by means of his coursers, made his escape ; however, in this battle he lost many of his nephews and kinsmen, and of the principal men of his army. In addition to this, to the utter confusion of the pagans, and for the establishment of the Christian faith, it appeared to the pagans that the extremity of the wood of the cross of our Lord, whieh the bishop of Bethlehem was carrying, reached up to heaven, and that its arms were embracing the whole world ; at which being greatly alarmed, they took to flight. The Christians, on gaining this glorious victory, returned with joyousness to Jerusalem, and filled the land with the spoils of the slain. This battle took place, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon the plain of Itamah, in the year of grace eleven hundred and seventy-seven, on the seventh day before the calends of December, being the feast of Saint Catherine the "Virgin and Martyr. In the same year, the Christians fortified a very strong castle in the kingdom of Saladin, at the Ford of Jacob, beyond the river Jordan ; but Saladin t»ok it by storm, and with it was taken the grand Master of the Hospital at Jerusalem, who, being carried into the territory of Saladin, died there of hunger. In the same year, our lord the king of England, the father, delivered to William de StuteviUe the custody of the castle of Rakesburt,95 to ltoger de Stuteville the custody of the castle of the Maidens,*6* to William de Neville the custody of the castle of Norham, to Roger, archbishop of York, the custody of the castle of Scartheburg,*- to Geoffrey de Neville the custody of the castle of Berwick, and to Roger de M 94 " Roxburgh.* Edinburgh. Scarliorough.