The main narrative picks up with the Barons' Crusade under King Theobald I of Navarre gathering at Marseille in 1239. This section, which is vivid and detailed, is interrupted at one point for an excursus on the names of Babylon. One chapter (27) is devoted to the Ayyubid Egyptian intelligence system. Two chapters (30–31) are poems written by discouraged crusaders, one written by a nobleman in captivity. The expedition of Earl Richard of Cornwall is covered in less detail than that of the king of Navarre (chapter 36). Two chapters (40–41) cover the Khwarazmian conquest of Jerusalem (1244) and the Crusaders' defeat at the battle of La Forbie (1244).