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.4.n. 1192.] rnn roar or mann rs Assauman. 285 Richard, who hated delay, started with his men from Ascalon, and sent his stone-engines, which had been placed piece- meal on board the shipa to proceed thither by sea. The king deputed men to guard the city, and hired others, at the most lavish price, to keep a good look-out hy day towards the neighbouring forts, and a careful watch h night to prevent the Turks from carrying supplies as befhre to Darum, or whatever might be wanted by the army at Jerusalem, or from any longer having a safe retreat to Darum, whence they frequently planned ambnscades our men. Then the king, with his own soldiers only, set out armed for the fort of Darnm, and arriving there on a Sunday, he pitched his tent and those of his followers at a short distance from it. Owing to the paucity of our men, it was doubted which part of the fort they should attack, as they were unable entirely to surround it; for if our small numbers were scattered, the would not be able to storm the tower, or withstand the attach of the Turks; wherefore they retired in a body towards a village situated in a plain, where they drew up. The Turks, on seeing so small an army, came forth from the castle, as if to solicit and challenge them to battle, and then retired again, and having barred their gates very strongly, prepared to defend themselves. Immediately afterwards, the king’s stone- engiues arrived in his ships, which being disjointed, and in dif- ferent pieces, the kin , his princes, and nobles, carried on their shoulders from the shore, not without much sweating, as we ourselves saw, for nearly a mile. At last, when the engines were put together, and men placed to work them, the king took upon himself to manage one of them, and with it to attack the principal tower of the fort, the Normans had the second, and the men of Poictou the third; and all of them were put in motion for the destruction of the fort. The Turks saw that utter destruction was close at hand; but for all that, they endeavoured to defend themselves manfully. King Richard caused his engines to he plied day and night. Darum had seventeen strong and compact towers, one of which was higher and stronger than the others, and externally it was surrounded by a deep ditch, which was built on one side of layers of paving stones, and a natural rock hung over the other. And now cowardly fears came upon the un- believing race, lest they shonld not be able to defend them-