So far the three masters were agreed on all the plans. It took more time when Arn announced that he would be taking along as many Bedouins as possible.
The other two frowned at this proposal. The fortresses at Castel Arnald and Toron des Chevaliers had no Bedouins, and the other two had no experience with such dirty, unbelieving and, according to rumor, completely treacherous troops. Nothing good could come of this.
Arn agreed that his Bedouins were untrustworthy unless one was victorious, and that in the worst case tomorrow could end with all three of them being dragged behind camels to be sold to Saladin. The Bedouins no doubt knew that Templar knights were worthless captives because they could never be ransomed like worldly barons. But the Bedouins did have horses as fast as the wind, and their camels could easily traverse any mountain or rocky wasteland. So if you had them on your side, you could always get information about the enemy. As it looked now, such information, next to God’s grace, was the most important component of the coming battle.
The other two reluctantly acquiesced. They had probably seen from Arn that he had no intention of yielding in this matter. And as the Grand Master had decreed, he was the one who would make the final decision whenever there was disagreement.
To anyone who like Arn and his confanonierfrom Gaza had witnessed Saladin’s enormous Mameluke army parading for more than an hour simply to show off his cavalry, the Christian army that set out from Ashkelon on this early November morning must not have looked very strong.
The weather was raw and damp, with light winds from the northwest that refused to blow away the fog that came and went at will. The limited visibility could be advantageous to one side and a detriment to the other, but if any army was favored by the bad weather it was certainly the Christians, who knew the region well. This was especially true of the two leaders of the secular army, the brothers Baldwin and Balian d’Ibelin. But in the rear guard of the Christians were also the two fortress masters from Toron des Chevaliers and Castel Arnald, and the Christian army was headed directly inland between these two fortresses.
No one could understand how the Bedouins found their way in the fog. But they appeared and then departed, carrying various messages for Arn de Gothia from the first hours of the advance.
Around midday the Christians began to encounter small groups of heavily laden Egyptians, who preferred to give the approaching soldiers a wide berth. They wanted to keep their plunder rather than throw down the loot and pick a fight. It was clear from this that Saladin now knew that his enemy was on the way. That gave him the opportunity to decide when and where to engage them.
And as could be expected, soon a mounted army in tight formation appeared right in front of the Christian vanguard. They were now in the vicinity of the fortress Mont Gisard, not far from Ramle.
The secular army immediately went on the offensive, without first ascertaining how large the forces were before them. The army’s center was left behind with the king, the bishop of Bethlehem, the massed standards, and their guards.
Behind them came the Templar knights, but Arn gave no order to engage. Rushing out into the fog against an enemy they couldn’t see did not seem very wise, either to him or to his two closest officers, the two other fortress masters. Especially not when the Mameluke cavalry immediately gave way and fled in retreat. This was a well-known Saracen tactic. Anyone who chased such a fleeing center force would almost certainly be surrounded on both sides by advancing enemy forces. And when that flanking movement was done, horn signals would sound and suddenly the fleeing group would turn around and go on the offensive, so that those who had been pursuers were quickly surrounded on all sides.
Arn’s Bedouins arrived with news which showed that this was exactly what was happening, but only from one direction, from the south.
In that case Saladin would be coming straight across the lands of the Toron des Chevaliers fortress. And the fortress master Siegfried de Turenne knew the terrain like the back of his hand.
Arn ordered the column of Templar knights to halt, and they dismounted for a brief council. Siegfried drew a map on the ground with his dagger to show them a broad ravine that narrowed toward the south. Saladin would most likely be coming that way.
Quick decisions had to be made if the Christians were not to lose the opportunity. Arn sent a sergeant to the Grand Master in the center of the Christian army, which now had halted and taken up a circular defense. He brought word of the Templar knights’ plans. Then the Grand Master ordered the knights to advance at a brisk trot in the direction his brother Siegfried was riding, leading the way.
When they reached the ravine they were high atop a long, gentle slope at the place where the ravine narrowed like the neck of a Damascene bottle. If the enemy troops came that way, they would be able to surround the Christians from two directions. But right now there was only silence and the drifting fog that came and went, limiting their visibility.
There were two possibilities. Either the Templar knights had ridden to exactly the spot God had indicated for them to save the Christians, or else they were in the wrong place and risked leaving the secular army with no protection.
Arn ordered a general dismount and prayer. As quietly as possible all two hundred knights climbed down from their horses, holding the bridles as they knelt next to the horses’ forelegs. When the prayer was done, Arn ordered them all to take off their mantles, roll them up, and fasten them behind their saddles. It might be chilly to wait for a long time like this, and there was a risk they would get stiff with cold before the battle. But if the enemy came soon and caught them by surprise it would be worse to try and fight with their mantles in the way.
In silence they sat and stared down into the fog until one knight thought he heard something, though another said it was only his imagination. It was difficult to endure sitting still, because if they were waiting at the wrong place the day would end in defeat, and the blame would be on the Templar knights. If nothing happened in a while, they would have to return to the part of the Christian army where the True Cross was now held in great danger with far too few defenders. If the True Cross were lost to the unbelievers, then it would be Arn’s fault more than any other man’s.
He exchanged a few glances with Siegfried de Turenne and Arnoldo de Aragon. They sat with heads bowed as if praying under great duress; they were thinking the same thing.
But it was as if God’s Mother then filled him with confidence, as if he had received the necessary knowledge. He ordered his two fortress master brothers to ride cautiously out to the sides and each take command of one flank. They would ride out at the edges; like Arn they had a wide black border under the red cross on their horses’ side armor. In the fog they would lose track of one another if there weren’t at least some clear colors or signs to follow. The Templar knights’ white tunics and mantles were usually considered a disadvantage since they were always visible from far away. Yet perhaps they were also a warning that made the enemy flee if he was not of superior strength. But here in the fog the Templar knights seemed to blend into the whiteness and disappear.
As quietly as possible the knights began to form a line, as if they already knew the direction in which they should attack. But it was actually as if God’s Mother were holding Her hand over them, for suddenly they spied the first gleaming gold uniforms down below. They were Mameluke lancers, those who would lead the charge. They were proceeding in long columns down the hillside across from them, hidden in the fog. There was no way of telling how many they were; anything between a thousand and four thousand was possible. It depended on how large their center force was, which now functioned as bait to draw the secular Christian army into the trap.