Meanwhile Gilbert went farther up into the mountains, searching out the
best way to the pass, distrusting the Greek guides, who nevertheless
feared him and told him the truth, though it was the secret wish of the
Greek Emperor that the army should all be destroyed, because he desired
no increase of the western power in Asia. But Gilbert told the guides
severally and all together that he would cut off the head of the first
one who should even seem to be false; and he kept them under his own
eye, and his long sword was always loose in the sheath.
He went very cautiously now, setting sentinels at night and sleeping
little himself, so that he might often go alone from post to post and
see that all was well. But the Seljuks never came in the darkness, for
as yet there were not many of them, and they trusted to their bows by
day, when they could see; but they feared to come to close quarters
with the picked swordsmen of the French army. Since they had first
shown themselves, the Christians all rode fully armed in mail and hood,
knights and men-at-arms and young squires alike, with the half-dozen
pack-horses and a few spare mounts in the midst; and good mail was
proof against arrows, but Gilbert wished that he had brought fifty
archers with him, such marksmen as little Alric, his groom.
There was some fighting every day, when he was able to overtake the
swift Seljuks in some narrow place. They fled when they could, but when
they were brought to bay they turned savagely and fought like panthers,
yelling their war-cry: "Hurr! Hurr!" which in the Tartar tongue
signifies: "Kill! Kill!"
But more often the Christians killed them, being stronger men and
better armed, and Gilbert was ever the first to strike; and one day, as
the fiercest of a band of Seljuks rode at him, whirling a crooked sword
and shouting the cry, Gilbert cut off his arm at one stroke and it fell
to the ground with the fist still grasping the scimitar; whereat
Gilbert laughed fiercely and mocked the unbeliever's cry.
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