A.D. 1189. THE MANNER OF THE SIEGE OF ACEE. 127 of the Temple, and the Marshal of the Temple, with eighteen of the brethren, who had behaved most valiantly, were slain; the Christians also lost many other soldiers, and among them forty knights and one hundred Turcopoles.31 Saladin, however, lost Mirsalim, his eldest son, and his nephew Tekehedin, Migemal, hie seneschal, and a hundred of the choicest of his troops, besides many others, whose numbers were not ascertained. On the fourth day of the week, Saladin again approached with his army; but when the Christians showed a readiness to engage with him, he hastily retreated, and, on the third day after, shifted his camp, and hastened to a place which has the name of Saftan, while his army occupied the whole space that lies between Casale l'Eveque and Docus; as, from the time that Saladin was born, he had never levied such a mighty army as this. For, throughout the whole of his territories, there was not a person fitted for war who was not included in this army. Nor do I believe that any person could ever have set eyes upon so large and so valiant a band of Christians as he might have seen on this occasion. In addition to this, after the battle was over, there arrived five hundred most valiant Christian knights and ten thousand men, brave warriors, well provided with all kinds of arms. In the same year, also, there came to those shores ships and busses,32 more than five hundred in number, besides numerous galleys and cutters, which immediately returned to Apulia, that they might bring further supplies of men and provisions. The ships, however, of the Germans and of the Danes remained at Acre, for the purpose of fuel : as the Christians there had no fuel with which to cook their food, except such as the ships had brought, and the ships themselves. It deserves to be described how the city of Acre was besieged ;—Guido, king of Jerusalem, with the queen, his wife, and his two daughters, was lodged at Turon, looking towards the sea, and near the summit of the mountain, Heraclius, the Patriarch, and Geoffrey, the king's brother, being with him. The whole sea-line, which extends to Caiaphas, was 3 1 Sons of Christian mothers by Saracenic fathers. 1 1 " Burciœ," or " bussa;," " busses," were a kind of large merchant ships, rounded fore and aft, and with capacious hulls. Spelman thinks that they took their name from the English word "buss," signifying " a box." It has been, however, suggested that they were so called from their resemblance to a wine-cask, which the Greeks of the middle ages called ββτζιον.