We shall have more fighting before we have done, and I
know that that suits your mood as well as my own."
The king's vessel was far in advance of any of the others, when early
the following morning it arrived at Jaffa.
"Your eyes are better than mine," the king said to Cuthbert. "Tell me
what is that flag flying on the top of the town."
Cuthbert looked at it earnestly.
"I fear, sire, that it is the crescent. We have arrived too late."
"By the holy cross," said King Richard, "that shall not be so; for if
the place be taken, we will retake it."
As the vessel neared the shore a monk ran out into the water up to his
shoulders, and said to the king that the citadel still held out, and
that even now the Saracens might be driven back. Without delay the king
leaped into the water, followed by the knights and men-at-arms, and
entering the gate, threw himself upon the infidels within, who, busy
plundering, had not noticed the arrival of the ship.
The war cry of "St. George! St. George!" which the king always shouted
in battle, struck panic among the infidels; and although the king was
followed but by five knights and a few men-at-arms, the Saracens, to the
number of three thousand, fled before him, and all who tarried were
smitten down.
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