Again and again did the knights charge through the ranks of the Moslems, while the billmen stoutly kept together and resisted the onslaughts of the enemy's cavalry.

In spite of their bravery, however, the storm of arrows shot by the desert horsemen thinned their ranks with terrible rapidity.

Charging up to the very point of the spears, these wild horsemen fired their arrows into the faces of their foe, and although numbers of them fell beneath the more formidable missiles sent by the English archers, their numbers were so overwhelming that the little band melted away.

The small party of knights, too, were rapidly thinned, although performing prodigious deeds of valour.

The Saracens when dismounted or wounded still fought on foot, their object being always to stab or hough the horses, and so dismount the riders.
King Richard and his force, though making the most desperate efforts to return to the assistance of the rearguard, were baffled by the sturdy resistance of the Saracens, and the position of those in the rear was fast becoming hopeless.
One by one the gallant little band of knights fell, and a sea of turbans closed over the fluttering plumes.