…Arsuf on his horse (unusual for this period, especially considering the high death rate of horses during the First Crusade and afterwards, the name of the horse has survived: she was called Gazala).

He does not want to risk venturing out of the city for fear of being captured by the Egyptians, so he convinces the English pirate Godric of Finchale to break through the Egyptian blockade of Jaffa, which is being besieged also by land.