prominent men and their families hostage until Saladin should meet his demands.
'But Saladin refused to hand over the men and money on the appointed day. Some said he had already killed the Christian prisoners, others that he had sent word that he couldn't yet raise the full sum of money demanded, and was asking for more time. Who can tell which was the truth? I only know that these two great leaders could not come to terms, so Richard gave the order that every hostage in the city was to be slain.
'Gerard and I were mercifully spared the task of actually slaughtering the captives, instead we were sent to drive them out of the city, so that they could be executed in plain sight of Saladin's camp. We were ordered to go from house to house and drive them to the gates of the city. The men were bound and led out like slaves, the women and children left to walk behind or, if they refused, lashed together with ropes and dragged out. Beyond the walls we could hear the screams and wails as Richard's men herded them together. The men they dragged to their knees and struck off their heads; the women and children they ran through with swords and pikes.
'It was late in the afternoon when we came to a house on the far side of the city. We were exhausted, sodden with sweat and maddened by the flies that crawled over every stone in that city. A man ran out of the house and knelt before Gerard. He seemed to be trying to tell us his name was Ayaz. He had a cloth in his hands and he opened it up to show Gerard. He'd evidently bundled up anything of value he possessed — his wife's jewels, tiny silver cups, coins and other trinkets. He begged Gerard to take them all in exchange for their lives. Gerard refused, but Ayaz continued to plead. He laid the cloth at Gerard's feet, picking up handfuls of the gold and silver, trying to thrust them into Gerard's hand.
'Gerard was wearily pushing them away. Then suddenly he froze, staring at one of the objects in his hand.
' "My father's ring!" he cried. He held up a gold ring with a single pearl held in place by a knot of gold. "This is my father's ring. Where did you get it?"
'But the man couldn't understand him.
'Gerard pushed the ring in his face. "Where! Where!" he was shouting.
'Ayaz kept shaking his head in incomprehension, then finally he shrugged and drew his finger across his throat to show he had taken it from a dead man, a murdered man. I heard Gerard gasp and turned to look at him. An expression of horror and rage was spreading across his face. Gerard had realized that it was this very Saracen grovelling before him who had slain his beloved father; the father he had arrived too late to save.
'With a scream of grief and fury that seemed to rip heaven itself apart, Gerard lifted his sword, then stabbed it into the Saracen's heart. Ayaz dropped where he still knelt, a look of utter bewilderment on his face. Gerard, pausing only to draw out his blade, ran into the house. I followed hard on his heels. Ayaz's wife lay dead inside, a bloody knife in her hands. She had stabbed herself rather than be taken alive. Gerard was beside himself with rage. He ran from room to room searching everywhere. He was sure she had hidden her children and he was determined that not a single child of his father's murderer should remain alive to carry on that infidel's name.
'But though he searched every conceivable nook and chamber, he could not find another person in the house. Then he heard a baby crying. He followed the sound and eventually found the infant hidden in a basket under a pile of linen. I watched him pick the baby boy up by the feet. I shouted at him to stop, and he turned to face me, the infant dangling from his hands.
' "And let him grow up to slaughter other good Christian men?"
'His voice was harsh and bitter. I'd never heard him speak like that before, it was as if another man was speaking through his mouth. It wasn't him, I know it wasn't him. Then, as if he was killing a fish, he dashed the baby's head as hard as he could against the white wall.
'I was horrified.