Ch. XIX THE DECLINE AND FALL OF JERUSALEM 607 
 
i 187) the king, on the advice of his barons, sent another mission to Tiberias.
Gerard, Roger of Les Moulins, Joscius, archbishop of Tyre, Balian of Ibelin,
Reginald of Sidon, and others set out, stopping at Nablus and the Templar
castle of al-Fülah, which they reached on April 30. Balian, however,
remained an extra day at Nablus; and Reginald of Sidon took another route
altogether. But before they had left the castle of al-Fülah an extraordinary
thing happened. 
 One of Saladin's sons, who was then in camp across the Jordan near Jacob's
Ford, was ordered by his father to raid Christian territory in retaliation
for Reginald's attack on the caravan. Since he would have to pass through
Raymond's lordship of Tiberias, he asked the count's permission to traverse
his territory. Raymond, sorely embarrassed by this strange request, but still
unwilling to risk losing Saladin's help against his rivals, granted the permission
on certain conditions. The Moslem leader must enter the kingdom after sunrise
and leave before sunset. Meanwhile, in order to warn his fellow Christians
of what he had done, he sent word to Nazareth and all the surrounding country
and to the embassy at alFülah. On April 30 he closed Tiberias. 
 Some historians have doubted the authenticity of this admittedly romantic
tale.'6 Yet there is good reason to accept its essential features. Certainly
a raid took place with the count's permission and without any effort on his
part to prevent it. Further, although he may have expected his warning to
have been better heeded than was the case, he must in a large part be held
responsible for what subsequently happened. 
 On May i the raid took place. The Templars and the others at al-Fülah,
probably at the instigation of Gerard and certainly contrary to the intention
of Raymond, decided to resist. The result was a battle at "the spring of
Cresson" near Nazareth, in which the hastily assembled Christian troops were
badly defeated by a superior Saracen force. Gerard and one or two of his
knights escaped, but some sixty Templars were killed, and forty men from
Nazareth were captured. The kingdom could ill afford the loss in manpower
and morale, and the animosity between Raymond and Gerard was further aggravated.
Gerard, in fact, did not continue 
 
 16 Stevenson, Crusaders, p. 242, note 2, questions the story. Röhricht,
Königreich, pp. 423—424; Grousset, Croisades, II, 782—783;
Baldwin, Raymond III, pp. 88—90; and Runciman, Crusades, II, p. 452,
accept it. It is given in the Continuation (Eracles, pp. 37—38; Ernoul,
pp. 144—145). The Moslem authorities do not contradict the story and
in certain matters substantiate it. H. A. R. Gibb, above, chapter XVIII,
p. ~ calls it a "demonstration raid", and locates the battle at ~affuriyah.