The misfortune befalling Eric was not over yet.
According to Eric's agreement with Suleiman Shah, he was to gift the English Crusaders three castles neighboring Tripoli.
However, Eric soon discovered the castles were far from as valuable as Suleiman Shah had described.
It took Eric and his men two days to reach the first castle—Shazha Castle—only to find it guarded by fewer than ten men and surrounded by a small village of no more than twenty people. Though its position against a hill made it look sturdy and easily defensible, the castle was, in fact, useless.
Viewed with a malicious eye, one could almost call it an out-and-out trap. The castle's water source was located outside its walls, and the source itself was quite distant. Once the water was cut off, the defenders would have no choice but to die of thirst or surrender.
This immediately ignited the fury of the Counts and Barons. They had no doubt they had been deceived.
