me to defend this bridge, and not on any account to quit it, and that he would go and seek for succour. I was sitting quietly there on my horse, having my cousin Sir John de Soissone on m y right and Sir Peter de Nouille on my left hand, when a Turk, galloping from where the king was, struck Sir Peter de Nouille so heavy a blow with his battle-axe on the back as felled him on the neck of his horse, and then crossed the bridge full speed to his own people, imagining that we would abandon our post and follow him, and thus they might gain the bridge. When they perceived that we would on no account quit our post, tbey crossed the rivulet, and placed themselves between it and the river ; on which we marched towards them in such-wise that we were ready to charge them, if they had further advanced. In our front were two of the king's heralds : the name of one was Guillaume de Bron, and that of the other John de Gaymaches ; against whom the Turks, who, as I have said, had posted themselves between the rivulet and river, led a rabble of peasants of the country, who pelted them with clods of earth and large stones. At last, they brought a villanous Turk, who thrice flung Greek fires at them ; and by one of them was the tabard of Guillaume de Bron set on fire; but he soon threw it off, and good need had he, for if it had set fire to his clothes, he must have been burnt. We were also covered with these showers of stones and arrows which the Turks dis charged at the two heralds. I luckily found near me a gaubison* of coarse cloth which had belonged to a Saracen, and turning the slit part inward, I made a sort of shield, which was of much service to me ; ^for I was only wounded by their shots in five places, whereas my horse was hurt in fifteen. Soon after, as God willed it, one of my vassals of Joinville brought me a banner with my arms, and a long knife for war, which I was in want of ; and then, when these Turkish villains, who were on foot, pressed on the heralds, we made a charge on them, and put them in stantly to flight. * It should be gambiion, which is the name of this sort of dress. Roger Koveden, in the year 1181, uses the word wanbatia, and in page 614 that of wanbais. The gamboison was a quilted dress, well stuffed with wool, that had been soaked in, and beat up with vinegar, which Pliny, in the 48th chapter of his 8th book, says resists iron. 2 R