Wedgwood, Ethel . The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville
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CHAPTER XI




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   THE TARTARS TAKE BAGDAD -- CRUEL REVENGE OF THE TARTAR KING -- ANECDOTES OF THE CAMP AT SIDON -- JOINVILLE MAKES A PILGRIMAGE TO TORTOSA.

    WHILST the King was fortifying the city of Sajetta, there came merchants to the camp, who told us and related how the King of the Tartars had taken the city of Bagdad with the Saracen Pope, who was lord of the town, and whom they called "the Caliph of Bagdad." The manner in which they captured the city of Bagdad and the Caliph was related to us by the merchants, and it was as follows.

   When they had laid siege to the Caliph's city, the Tartar King sent him word that he was ready to make a marriage between their children, and the Caliph's councillors advised him to agree to the marriage. Then the Tartar King sent him word, that he must send him as many as forty persons from among his councillors and the chief men, to


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swear to the marriage; which the Caliph did. Again the Tartar King desired him to send forty of the richest and best men that he had; and the Caliph did so. A third time he sent word to him to send forty of the very best he had; and he did so. When the Tartar King saw that he had got into his possession all the leading men of the town, he thought within himself, that the common people in the town would not be able to defend themselves without a leader. He had all the six score men beheaded; and then stormed the town, and took it and the Caliph with it.

   In order to cloak his treachery, and throw on the Caliph the blame of the town's capture, he had the Caliph seized and put into an iron cage; and had him starved, as far as one can starve a man without killing him; and then sent to ask him, whether he were hungry. The Caliph said: Yes, and no wonder. Then the Tartar King caused a great charger of gold to be brought to him, laden with jewels and precious stones, and said to him, " Dost thou know these jewels?" And the Caliph said yes, "they were mine." Then he asked him if he were very fond of them. He answered: Yes.


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" Since thou cost like them so well," said the Tartar King, " Come, take whichever thou wouldest, and eat." The Caliph answered that it was impossible, inasmuch as they were not food for eating. Then said the King of the Tartars to him, " Now mayst thou see in this bowl wherein thy defence lay. For hadst thou parted with some of thy golden treasure, it would have been thy defence against us, if thou hadst but spent it; whereas now it fails thee at thy greatest need."

   Whilst the King was fortifying Cesarea, I was going once to mass at daybreak, and he bade me wait for him, for he wished to take a ride. I did so; and as we rode through the fields we came upon a little chapel, and saw from on horseback a priest singing mass. The King told me that this chapel had been built in honour of the miracle which God performed when he cast out the devil from the body of the widow's daughter; and said that, if I were willing, he would stay there, and hear the mass which the priest had begun; and I replied that I thought we might as well do so. When it came to the kiss of Peace, I noticed that the clerk who was helping to sing mass, was tall and dark and lean


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and unkempt, and a suspicion seized me, that if he came near the King he might perhaps be an Assassin, a wicked man, and might kill the King; and I went and took the kiss of Peace from him and brought it to the King. When mass was over, and we had mounted our horses, we met the Legate in the fields, and the King drew near to him, and called me and said to the Legate: " I have a complaint to make to you against the Seneschal; he brought me the kiss of Peace, and would not allow the poor clerk to bring it."

   I told the Legate the reason why I had done so; and the Legate said, I had done quite right. The King replied: "Indeed he did not!" and they had a great argument; but I held my peace. This story I have told you, that you may see his great humility.

   As for that miracle which God performed on the woman's daughter, the Gospel says that God, when he performed it, was "in parte Tyri et Sidonis," for at that time the city of Sur was called Tyr, and the city of Sajetta (which I have mentioned) Sidon.

   Whilst the King was fortifying Sajetta, there came to him messengers from a great lord of


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Farther Greece, who styled himself "The Great Comnenus and Lord of Trebizond." He brought the King various precious things as a gift; amongst others, bows made of the wood of the service tree, whose arrow-notches screwed into the bow, and when they were released, one saw that they were very sharp and well made.

   They brought a request from their lord that the King would send him a damsel of his palace, and he would take her to wife. And the King replied, that he had brought none with him from across the sea; and advised them to go to Constantinople to the Emperor, who was the King's cousin, and desire him to give them a wife for their lord, one who should be of the King's lineage and of his own. This he did, that the Emperor might have the alliance of this powerful, rich man against Vataces, who at that time was Emperor of the Greeks.

   The Queen, who was but newly recovered of Lady Blanche, of whom she had been brought to bed at Jaffa, landed at Sajetta, for she had come by sea. When I heard that she had arrived, I rose from the King's presence and went to meet her, and escorted her as far as the castle; and when I got


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back to the King, who was in his chapel, he asked me, if the Queen and the children were in good health? I told him: Yes; and he said to me: " I knew very well when you rose and left me, that you were going to meet the Queen, and so I made them wait the sermon for you."

   I have recorded this, because I had been already five years about his person, and he had never yet mentioned the Queen nor his children to me, nor to anyone else, in my hearing; and it was not a good fashion, it seems to me, to be so reserved about his wife and children.

   On All Saints' Day, I invited all the rich men of the army to my house which was by the sea; and while they were there, a poor knight came ashore in a barge, with his wife and his four sons. I made them come and dine in my house; and when we had dined, I called together the rich men who were there and said to them: " Let us do a deed of great charity, and disburden this poor man of his children; let us each take one of them, and I will take one." Each chose one and fought for him. The poor knight seeing this, began to weep for joy, and his wife too. Now it happened that when the Count of


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Eu returned from dining at the King's house, he came to visit the rich men who were with me, and he took my child from me, he being about twelve years old. And the boy served the Count so well and faithfully, that when he returned to France, the Count married him, and made him a knight; and whenever I was in the same place as the Count, the boy would hardly leave my side, and used to say to me, " God repay you, Sir! for it is you that have raised me to this honour." As to the other three brothers, I know not what became of them.

   I begged the King to let me go on pilgrimage to Our Lady of Tortosa, to which many pilgrims used to resort, because it is the first altar that ever was raised in honour of the Mother of God upon earth; and Our Lady was wont to perform very great miracles there. Amongst others, there was a man out of his mind and possessed with the devil. There, whilst his friends who had brought him thither were beseeching the Mother of God to grant him health, the Enemy, who was inside him, answered them: " Our Lady is not here; for she is gone to Egypt, to help the King of France and the Christians who will land to-day, and will be on


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foot against the pagans on horseback." The day was written down and brought to the Legate, and his lordship told it me with his own lips. And you may be sure that she did help us, and would have helped us still more, if we had not angered her and her son, as I said before.

   The King gave me leave to go; and bade me, in full council, buy him a hundred pieces of hair-cloth of divers colours to give to the Franciscans when we should come to France. Then my heart was eased, for I thought that he could not mean to stay long.

   When we reached Tripoli, my knights asked me what I was going to do with the stuffs; and I said to them: " May be" said I " I have stolen them to trade with."

   The Prince God rest him! welcomed us gladly, and showed us all the honour in his power; and would have given great gifts to me and my knights, if we would have accepted them. We would take nothing, except some of his relics, which I brought to the King with the stuffs I had bought for him.

   I sent four of the pieces of stuff at once to the Queen. The knight who took them, carried them


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wrapped up in a white cloth. When the Queen saw him enter the chamber where she was, she knelt down before him, and the knight on his side knelt down before her; and the Queen said to him: " Rise, Sir knight, you who carry relics ought not to kneel." But the knight said: " Lady, these are not relics; they are some pieces of hair-cloth that my lord sends you." When the Queen and her ladies heard this, they burst out laughing, and the Queen said to my knight: " Tell your lord, that woe betide him the day that he made me kneel to his haircloth! "

   Whilst the King was at Sajetta, they brought him a stone which was formed in layers, the most wonderful in the world; for when one lifted off a layer, one found between the two stones, the figure of a sea-fish. The fish was in stone, but nothing was wanting to its shape, neither eyes, nor bones, nor colour, nor anything; but it was exactly the same as though it were alive. The King sent me a stone, and I found a tench inside it, brown in colour, and just as a tench ought to be.