On the day appointed the counsellors came before the King, who said to them, “What do you advise?  Shall I go, or shall I stay?” They said that they had chosen one from among them, a certain Guy Malvoisin, to speak for them.  Thereupon this Guy said, “These lords have taken counsel together, and are agreed that you cannot tarry in this country without damage to yourself and your kingdom.  For think how that of all the knights whom you had in Cyprus, two thousand eight hundred in number, there remain with you here in Acre scarce one hundred.  Our counsel, therefore, is that you return to France, and there gather another army, with which you may come hither again and take vengeance on your enemies for their trespasses against God and against you.”

Then the King turned to a certain John, who was Count of Jaffa, and asked him for his judgment.  Count John answered:  “Ask me not, sire; my domain is here, and if I bid you stay, then it will be said that I did this for my own profit.”  But when the King was urgent for his advice he said, “If you stay for a year it will be for your honour.”  And one other of the counsellors gave the same judgment; but all the rest were urgent for the King’s return.  Then the King said, “I will tell you eight days hence what it is my pleasure to do.”

On the day appointed they all came together again, and the King said, “I thank you, my lords, for your counsel—­both those who have advised my going back and those who have advised my staying.  Now I hold that if I stay, my kingdom of France will be in no peril, seeing that the Queen, my mother, is well able to keep it in charge; but that if I depart, then the kingdom of Jerusalem will most certainly be lost, because no man will be bold enough to stay after I am gone.  Now, it was for the sake of this same kingdom of Jerusalem that I have come hither.  My purpose, therefore, is to stay.”  There was no little trouble among the barons when they heard these words.  There were some among them who could not hold back their tears.  But though the King resolved himself to stay, yet he commanded his brothers to depart.  And this they did before many days.

While the King tarried at Acre there came to him messengers from the Old Man of the Mountain.  One of the messengers was the spokesman, and had his place in front; the second had in his hand three daggers, to signify what danger threatened him who should not listen to the message; the third carried a shroud of buckram for him who should be smitten with the daggers.  The King said to the first envoy, “Speak on.”  Then the envoy said, “My master says, ’Know you me?’” The King answered, “I know him not, for I have never seen him; yet I have often heard others talk of him.”  “Why, then,” went on the envoy, “have you not sent him such gifts as would have gained his friendship, even as the Emperor of Germany and the King of Hungary and other princes have done, yea, and do now year after year, knowing well that they cannot live save by my