Actum Tornaci, anno
domenice incarnationis M.C. III, regnante rege Philippo, episcopante
domo Baldrico pontifice_. Extracts for use in the ecclesiastic history
of Belgium, 2d year, p. 10."]
Leaving the _chansons de geste_, Guinemer reappears in the history of
the Crusades. Count Baudouin of Flanders and his knights, while making
war in the Holy Land (1097), see a vessel approaching, more than three
miles from the city of Tarsus. They wait on the shore, and the vessel
casts anchor. "Whence do you come?" is always the first question asked
in like circumstances. "From Flanders, from Holland, and from
Friesland." They were repentant pirates, who after having combed the
seas had come to do penance by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Christian
warriors joyously welcome these sailors whose help will be useful to
them. Their chief is a Guinemer, not from Saint-Omer but Boulogne. He
recognizes in Count Baudouin his liege lord, leaves his ship and decides
to remain with the crusaders. "_Moult estait riche de ce mauvais
gaeng._" The whilom pirate contributes his ill-gotten gains to the
crusade.
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