That night Balak had a fearful dream. He thought that he met the terrible Jocelyn, alone and unprotected, and that the Christian knight, hurling him to the ground, tore out both his eyes. Awaking with fright, he sent off messengers in hot haste to behead Jocelyn at once. They arrived too late. The castle was taken and the bird was flown. But the flight of the count was full of dangers. He got safely enough to the banks of the Euphrates, but here an unforeseen difficulty met him, for he could not swim. How to cross the river? They had two leathern bottles. These, inflated, they tied round Jocelyn’s body, and the other two men, who could swim, steering by the right and left, managed to get him across the water. Then they went on, bare-footed, hungry, and thirsty, till Jocelyn could travel no farther, and, covering himself with branches, in order to conceal himself, he lay down to sleep. One of the attendants, meantime, was sent off to find some inhabitant of the country, and either beg, buy, or rob provisions of some kind. He met an Armenian peasant loaded with grapes and wild figs, whom he brought along to his master. The peasant knew him. “Hail, Lord Jocelyn!” he cried, at sight of the ragged knight. “At these words,” says Foulcher, “which the count would fain not have heard, he replied, all in alarm but nevertheless with mildness, ‘I am not he whom you name; may the Lord help him wherever he be,’
“‘Seek not,’ said the peasant, ‘to conceal thyself. Fear nothing, and tell me what evil has befallen thee.’
“‘Whoever thou art,’ said the count, ‘have pity on me; do not, I pray, make known my misfortune to my enemies; lead me into some place where I may be in safety.... I am a fugitive and a wanderer.... Tell me what property thou hast in this place, and what is its value; and I will give thee property of far more worth in my own dominion.’
“‘Seigneur, I ask nothing,’ replied the other. ‘I will lead thee safe and sound where thou wishest to go; once thou didst deprive thyself of bread to make me eat. It is now my turn. I have a wife, an only daughter of tender years, an ass, two brothers, and two oxen. I will go with thee and carry everything away. I have also a pig, which I will bring here immediately.’
