While we watched, the gate of the fortress opened and a column of cavalry appeared like a black worm spitting out of the fortress mouth and it wound and uncurled along the road over the neck of land from the main walls. The men must have been on horseback for they moved fast.
‘He’s ready to cast,’ Sabraham said. ‘Watch for the fall of the shot.’
It was almost dead calm. The fall of the stone from the machine vanished into the water, and we didn’t see it. Three-quarters of a mile is just too far.
I pointed at the column of cavalry. ‘That must be a goodly portion of the Pharos garrison,’ I said.
The turcopolier nodded. ‘You think we could take the fortress by escalade?’ he asked.
I shrugged. ‘I’ve known it done.’
When the admiral returned, we had the beginning of a plan. Which is to say we had an idea.
The old Savoyard pursed his lips and stared at our model of the shore and our fortress and it’s outpost, the Casteleto on the opposite spit. He looked very serious indeed, but he kept his council and allowed us to take Brother Robert and his galliot.
By moonlight, we were rowed across the entrance to the new harbour. We stayed well out of bowshot, but Brother Robert was willing to risk the machines in the citadel.
‘In the dark?’ he asked. ‘No. God is not going to let my poor ship take a stone from heathens in the dark.’
When we reached a certain point, our rowers were ordered by whispers to cease rowing. We rocked in the very gentle swell. There was almost no wind, almost no waves, and we could hear everything.
We listened and listened. We heard very little besides gulls and two women having an argument. Sabraham translated some of the choicer moments.
‘It can be done,’ I said.
Sabraham, for once, looked unsure.
‘Now,’ I said.
‘And this is your idea,’ Nerio said.
‘All mine,’ I muttered.
All of the Order’s volunteers, as well as a dozen of the English crusaders who were in the turcopolier’s galley and another dozen Gascons from the admiral’s galley were with me. To top it all, I had Chretien d’Albret and his retinue of French and Gascons and Savoyards. I should have wondered why he was following me, but at the time I was merely delighted to have some crusaders to add to my assault.
And most of them, especially the Gascons, had done this before.
We stripped all of the Order’s galleys of their stern ladders and the carpenters pegged them together.
None of us wore any harness.
Nor did we carry any weapons but our swords and daggers. I put the Emperor’s sword naked through my belt and left the scabbard for another day.
It is difficult to prepare for a fight in full darkness. At least we didn’t have to arm, or get at our horses. We had eighty men-at-arms – a pitiful number against the city of Alexandria.
The admiral brought us all the lanterns of the galley, and we used them to prepare, and then we swiped lamp-black off the insides and used it and the lids from the small cook pots to blacken our faces.
‘Go with God, messires,’ he said. ‘If you succeed, it will be a great deed.’
‘And you may save the crusade,’ Sir Robert Hales breathed.
‘The king’s attack goes in at first light,’ the admiral continued.