Lord Balthazar

Balthazar paced in the cramped room. His two attendants waited patiently at the door. Balthazar ranted: "Damn them! They have taken Acre, now? Bah! It will serve them ill when they rot in Hell's deepest pits! I will reclaim my throne! I have allies, I know I do. They will come when I call. And then we will see who has lost this little war!"

Balthazar ends his pacing at the far end of the short room, facing a wall. He mumbles intensely. One of his two attendants pulls a dagger from his vest and lunges; the other, surprised, reacts too slowly. The assassin sinks his dagger up to the hilt into Lord Balthazar, last of the lords of the Kingdom of Ascalon.

Lord Balthazar turns slowly. He shows only slight discomfort at the wound. He grasps the assassin's hand and pulls the dagger out of his body by main force, shattering the blade. Drawing his sword, he pushes the assassin onto the floor and beheads him. Then he looks at the broken dagger in hand. "A neat souvenir," he notes. "Perhaps I will mount a new blade onto it and use it to kill my greatest enemy, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria."

His wound bled not at all.

-

Lord Balthazar sat atop his high horse, amid the rest of the Crusader cavalry. Their armor is fine and shining, cleaned regularly to keep off dust and sand. Banners flap wildly in the wind. They are opposed by the forces of the jihad: thirty thousand men, ragged in rank and file. They are exhausted, and ill-prepared for a pitched battle. Behind them, Lord Balthazar can see the banner of his enemy. He cries out to his men, "Charge!"



With a roar, the Crusaders charged. The Muslim cavalry set to meet them. In a rush, Balthazar was upon them. His lance was lost almost immediately, and he set to with sword and (when that was lost) a mace. His arm ran red with blood. "Hah ha!" he shouted gleefully, looking into the distance. The banner of the Sultan was nearly in reach - then, with a lurch, it began to recede.

The Muslim army was dissolving. Fleeing men were everywhere. Lord Balthazar could make no headway under the press. Reining in his horse, he shook his fist at the Sultan's banner, shouting "Coward! Coward!"

His armor was pierced in a half-dozen places, and an arrow was embedded in his shoulder. He didn't seem to notice.

-

He marched now (disgruntledly) with King Richard - "The Lion." Balthazar wished that his erstwhile ally did not take that lion's pride so much to heart. He himself had been relocated to a secondary role in the Siege of Jerusalem - the last step on the long road to freeing the Holy City, and Balthazar's capitol. He sat impatiently, watching the trebuchets hurl rocks and flaming pitch at the defenders, and the Sultan's banner flutter above the walls.

Then a section of the wall crumbled away entirely as a well-flung trebuchet shot hit. Balthazar, all too eager for battle, waved his men forward to the gap. King Richard raised his hand for a moment, then lowered it slowly. His troops made no motion to pursue.

Balthazar laughed. "Cowards. He is no lion at all - he has the heart of a mouse! Well, we will see who reaps the glory!" His men ran with him toward the opening. Arrows rained down on them, and men dropped like flies. Balthazar ignored it. He saw the face of his enemy, the great sultan, milling about in the midst of the waiting Muslim troops. "I will have my revenge, infidel!" he shouted, and raised the assassin's dagger high.

A trebuchet shot aimed for the wall fell upon Lord Balthazar then. Of Lord Balthazar, last of the lords of the Kingdom of Ascalon, no more need be said.

Note: This post plays rather 'fast and loose' with history. Trust no facts it presents! They may not be such - but, rather, fiction.