out Orders through every Quarter of the Camp that the Soldiers should be ready to march the Morning following being the third day of June and accordingly at high Noon he marched at the Head of the commanded Party with Trumpets sounding that so the Besieged taking Notice of them might suppose they were going upon some Design abroad and be the more secure of any thing intended against them at home but towards the Evening having taken a long Circuit behind the Mountains towards the South he turned Head and taking his March Westward to the left Hand he stopped in a Valley a little distance from the Western Gate where stood one of the Towers which was to be put into his Hands From thence he sent sixty of the most resolute Soldiers with a Ladder of Ropes of the length which Pyrrhus had directed But as a certain Lombard who had the Signal which was to shew that Bohemond and Pyrrhus were met was about to give it there followed an Accident which had like to have lost all The Turks who were ever jealous of the Christians had received Advice that there was some Treachery hatching in the Town and that in particular there was some Reason to suspect Pyrrhus Accien who was resolved to clear the Matter sent for him as was customary to the Council where this matter was under Debate and asked his Advice to see whether he would change his Countenance and so betray his Guilt of such a Design But this cunning Man perceiving the Intention of the Turk without the least Hesitation or mark of Astonishment replied briskly That nothing ought to be neglected upon such an Occasion and that he had thought of a most easy and certain Expedient to hinder so great a Mischief For said he with the greatest Assurance imaginable there needs no more but to change the Captains who command at the Gates and in the Towers to break all the Measures of those who may have entertained any Intelligence with the Enemies This Expedient which appeared so proper made them banish the Suspition which they had entertained of him and which they had no positive Evidence to support but considering that such a Change could not be made on the suddain year 1098 as Pyrrhus had well foreseen the Execution of it was deferred till the next Morning and then it was resolved by this means to cure the Distrusts which they had of the Christians and thereby to quiet the Fears of the People however Orders were given to those who went the Round that Night to acquit themselves of their Charge with all the Care and Circumspection that was possible Now as the Lombard began to speak to Pyrrhus the Captain who walked the Round in that Quarter came by with one carrying a Lanthorn before him and without doubt all had been discovered if Pyrrhus who saw him coming had not instantly acquainted the Soldiers with it and ordered them to fall flat upon their Bellies After which the Round who found all in good Order being passed by Pyrrhus who had so luckily escaped two such eminent Dangers having perceived the Sign of Bohemond threw down a Cord by which he drew up the Ladder which he fastened to one of the Battlements of the Tower The sixty Soldiers being now gotten up Bohemond who was advertised by the Lombard that all was their own ran with the rest who mounted with so much heat and in such a Throng that the Ladder being overcharged pulled down the Battlement to which it was tied which with its Fall crushed some of the Soldiers but this did not hinder but that the Ladder being well fastened again others mounted it with an equal Ardor and whilest some of them made themselves Masters of the Towers killing all the Turks which they met others broke open a Sally-Port by which Bohemond entred followed by the rest of his Troops who seizing upon the Gates by break of day the whole Army was without Resistance got into the City where Bohemond as it were to take Possession had caused his Standard to be planted It is impossible to express the horrible Consequences of this Surprize which being favoured by a great Wind the sleeping Turks had scarcely heard the Noise which the Victorious Army made in their Entry All went down indifferently which came in their way in that terrible Tumult the very Brother of Pyrrhus was slain among the rest being unknown and which was most deplorable by the Hand of his Brother Pyrrhus as the Archbishop of Tyre writes either because he had discovered the Design or because he opposed it but this is contrary to the positive Evidence of all those who were present who affirm that Pyrrhus was most sensibly touched with this Misfortune which was wholy to be attributed to Chance however Bohemond did what he could to Comfort him and gave order for the Preservation of his Family and of all the Christians who to distinguish themselves came before the Conquerors singing the Prayers of the Church The greatest part of the Turks were killed either in the Houses or in the Streets indeavouring either to defend themselves by sighting or save their Lives by flying Few there were who saved themselves all the Gates being either shut or possessed by the Crusades and at the last those who indeavoured to escape over the Walls or who to fly into the Castle were without Mercy put to the Sword The unfortunate Accien whether it were that his Fear had destroyed his Judgment or that he thought thereby to hasten the Relief or that he feared there was the same Treachery in the Castle fled out by the Gate of the Plain in a Disguise and having hid himself in a little Hut he was discovered by some Christians of Syria and by them slain and his Head presented to Bohemond After this the Soldiers fell to Plunder and by that piece of Witchcraft of good Fortune which makes Men in Prosperity too commonly to forget God they plunged themselves headlong into all manner of Debauches as it were to make a Recompence to those great Evils they had suffered by a long Siege by committing greator But God that he might punish this brutish Ingratitude permitted them to fall into greater and more insupportable than any they had yet indured for within three or four days after the Town was taken Corbagath arriving with his Army and having put what Men he thought good into the Castle to attaque the Retrenchments of the Christians and having possessed all the Avenues and made himself Master of all the Forts which the Crusades had raised he Incamped in the Plain between the Orontes and the Mountains and besieged the City much more closely than it was before So that there remaining but little Provision in the Town after so long a Siege year 1098 and the time being too little after it was taken to lay in more and impossible to get any into the Town the whole Christian Army being there shut up the Famine in a little time
Success of an Assault given against the Rules of War by the Advice of a Hermite who pretended a Revelation for it The Description of Duke Godfrey 's Engines The solemn Procession of the Besiegers about the City The second General Assault for three days together Two Magicians who were Conjuring upon the Walls have their Brains beaten out with a Stone from Duke Godfrey 's wooden Castle The Artifice of Godfrey to drive the Enemies from the Walls He is the first that by the Bridge of his Castle mounts the Walls Jerusalem taken The fearful Slaughter of the Saracens By Godfrey 's Example the whole Army return solemn Thanks to God at the Holy Sepulchre An Assembly of the Princes to chuse a King and a Patriarch The Speech of Robert Duke of Normandy upon this Subject Godfrey of Bullen chosen and proclaimed King of Jerusalem The memorable Battle of Ascalon against the Sultan of Egypt and the Victory of the Christians which concluded this first Crusade The Return of the Crusades The Conquests of Godfrey of Bullen and his Death An Abridgment of the History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem till the time of the second Crusade The Reign of Baldwin the First The flourishing Estate of the Christians in the East till his Death The Reign of Baldwin the Second The Relation of the founding the Military Orders of the Knights Hospitallers The Captivity of King Baldwin His Deliverance His Victories and Death He is succeeded by his Son-in-Law Fowk d' Anjou The Prosperity of his Reign His Death and the Regency of Queen Melesintha during the Minority of Baldwin the Third The Occasion of the second Expedition of the Crusades The Relation of the two Josselins de Courtenay Earls of Edessa The taking of that City by Sanguin Sultan of Alepo and afterwards by Noradin his Son The Character of that Prince and his Conquests over the Christians Applications made to Lewis the young King of France His Character and what moved him to undertake the Crusade He Consults Saint Bernard concerning it The Character of that Saint and the Order he received from Pope Eugenius the Third to Preach the Crusade The General Assemblies of Bourges Vezelay and Chartress for the Crusade It is Published by Saint Bernard in France and Germany The Emperor and King take up the Cross The Abbot Sugere declared Regent in France His Character and Advice concerning the Expedition The Voyage of the Emperor The Description of the Tempest which almost ruined his Army upon the Banks of the River Melas The Fleet of the Crusades take Lisbon from the Saracens The Original of the Kings of Portugal The Character and Perfidy of the Greek Emperor Manuel His underhand Treating with the Turks The miserable Overthrow of the Emperor's Army The Voyage of King Lewis to Constantinople and his Reception The Advice of the Bishop of Langress who Counsels the King to take Constantinople his Speech upon that Subject the reason that his Advice was not followed the Treacheries of Manuel thereupon The Kings Voyage into Asia His Interview with the Emperor Conrade and the Return of that Prince to Constantinople The Description of the River Meander and the famous Passage of the King of France with his Army over it year 1099 JErusalem which after that Herod the Great had beautified it with the most magnificent Structures and had repaired the Temple had been one of the Wonders of the World and one of the fairest Cities of all the East was nothing but a horrible Heap of Cinders and Ruines after its fatal Destruction till such time as the Emperor Adrian who was the last that ruined it caused it to be rebuilt in a manner far different from what it was before For in times-past there was comprised within the Circuit of its Walls four Mountains upon which it was successively Built The first called Salem otherwise Acra which was founded by Melchisedeck The second opposite to that towards the South and which was far higher was the Holy and Famous Mount Sion which David after he had taken the Fortress of the Jebusites joyned to the former by a Wall which invironed it on all parts to distinguish it from the other which in comparison of this new City was called the Lower City The third was the Mountain of Moriah between these towards the East where the Temple of Solomon stood And the fourth upon the North was the Hill Betheza where the same King built a new Town which was afterwards much inlarged by Hezekiah and took in all the Valley between the East and the North to the lower Town This Glorious City of God was afterwards destroyed by the Chaldeans and with the Temple restored to its first Estate in divers Ages by Zorobabel Nehemiah the Machabees and by Herod the Great and was at the last overthrown to the very Ground and laid in Heaps of Rubbish by the Emperor Titus Vespasian three only of the fairest Towers called the Hippico year 1099 Phasele and Mariamne which Herod had Builded escaping the general Desolation for Titus was willing to preserve them as also part of the North Wall of the higher Town to which they were joyned that they might remain as Monuments of the Greatness of his Victory when Posterity should by the Strength of those make a Judgment how Impregnable that City was which he had taken though defended by such mighty Walls and lofty Towers But the Jews Revolting in the time of the Emperor Adrian that Prince after he had made the most horrible Slaughter among the Rebels caused those three Towers and the Wall also to be demolished and razed to the very Foundation thus without designing it intirely accomplishing the dreadful Prediction of the Son of God That the day should come when there should not be one Stone left upon another in that miserable City After this that Emperor to immortalize his own Name in abolishing that of Jerusalem caused a new City to be there Built which according to his own Name was called Aelia giving it also a quite differing Form from the Ancient City whose Memory as well as Name he thought thereby for ever to extinguish For he left out of it the whole Mountain of Sion which had been the best and most Beautiful as well as strongest part of Jerusalem almost all that which had been called the New City and a great part of the Lower Town He made Mount Moriah be levelled and inclosed that and the little Remainder of the New and Low Town as also Mount Calvarie which was nothing but a little Corner of Mount Gihon which was out of the Ancient City towards the West So that this Aelia as it was not by one half so large as Jerusalem so it had quite a differing Figure For the Ancient Jerusalem in its Dimensions approached to a Square though not altogether Regular being something longer than it was broad for it was Extended from North to South a good League the Breadth from East to West being something
into a dark and loathsome Prison thereby in a manner wholly Barbarous violating the very Law of Nations to oblige the Ambassadors of Saladin who used their utmost Efforts to engage him so deeply in a War with Frederick that he might not know how to go back from his Promises to their Master Then following the Advice of his Dositheos who was of Confederacy with the Sarasins he armed powerfully and sent his Cousin Manuel the Great Master of the Horse with a numerous Army and Orders to dispute the Passes with the Germans and to cut off all Provisions from them But the Cowardise of the Greeks was but a feeble Obstacle to the Invincible Forces of Frederick for not being able so much as to indure the sight of the Duke of Suabia who with his Sword in his Hand marched against them at the Head of the Vanguard they immediately turned their Backs and abandoned the Barricades and Retrenchments which they had made at the first Pass of the Mountains year 1189 which lead into Thracia So that all the Army falling into that Country the Emperor to punish the Treachery of the Greeks permitted them to live at Discretion as they did finding in the Fields great abundance of all kinds of Grain it being now August which the Greeks had not time to carry into the fenced Towns and Cities according to the Orders which had been given But that which finished his Ruin was the insupportable Vanity of Isaacius who sending to treat with Frederick did it in the most brutish manner in the World denying him the Title of Emperor for he sent to him to let him understand That he knew no other Emperor but of Constantinople which was himself and that if he would acknowledge him in that Quality for his Lord and Master and give him so many Hostages as he demanded for Security that he would Enterprize nothing contrary to his Service or Interests and give him the Moiety of all the Conquests which he should make upon the Sarasins then and upon no other Terms he was resolved to afford him the Liberty of the Passage which he desired Now whether the Greek Emperor was so indiscreet to command in this kind of Insolent Language which seems agreeable enough to his Character and his Genius or that the Envoys as Nicetas in excusing it would assure us exceeded the Limits of their Commission is uncertain But Frederick though he was not a little picqued yet had the Discretion to conceal and smother his Resentment till he had procured the Liberty of his Ambassadours And therefore he contented himself with returning this Answer with a disdainful Smile which manifested a great measure of Assurance and but little Sharpness That he trusted in God and in all those brave men which accompanied him that there was yet no great Necessity for his complying with such kind Terms that for any thing more when their Master speaking to the Ambassadours had restored to him his Ambassadours whom he held in Chains with so much Inhumanity and so much against the Law of all Nations to the Shame of the Christian Name which thereby he exposed to the Derision of the Sarasins he should have a Subject whereupon in some sort to acknowledge himself obliged to him the Honour of God and the Empire still excepted After with advancing daily without staying for the Answer of the Greek and seizing without Resistance upon all the Places in his Passage upon the twentieth fifth day of August he incamped within View of Philioppopolis a great and rich City upon the Hebrus scituate between three Hills at the Foot of Mount Hemus The Historian Nicetas Acominatus a person of Quality and first Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Emperor was then Governour of that Province whereof this was the Capital City Now as he received every Day several Orders by the lightness and instability of his Masters Mind who to Day would command that all Hands should be at work upon the Fortifications and to Morrow that they should demolish them and quit the Town he was before he could do the one or the other surprized in such manner as to be constrained with the principal of the Inhabitants to seek his Safety in quitting the City There Frederick quartered his whole Army to refresh his Men with the prodigious Plenty of Provisions which he found there for the City was very Rich by the Traffick which they had with the Armenians who were a great party of the Inhabitants and who loved the Franks extremely Four Days after this Manuel the General of the Greek Army being perpetually sollicited by the Emperor who accused him of Cowardice advanced within six Miles of Philippopolis with express Order to combat the Germans But he was so little acquainted with War that some of the Vancouriers of the Germans who were abroad to discover the Enemies Posture having taken some Prisoners who were straggling took a Resolution to assault their whole Army which they did with such Courage that those cowardly Greeks believing that they had all Frederick's in the Head of them shamefully turned their Backs leaving the Field intirely to those few Germans Nor did they after this find any thing that appeared like Body of an Army After which having taken some strong Places which were defended by the Alains whom Saladin had sent to aid the Greeks they were all for a Terror to the rest put to the Sword So that seizing upon Nicopolis Adrianople and all the Cities which are between the Egean and the Euxine Seas they inlarged their Conquests on both sides year 1189 to the very Gates of Constantinople Then it was that the perfidious Isaacius finding himself reduced to the last Extremities set the Ambassadors of Frederick at Liberty and in all suppliant and humble manner desired a Peace He offered all the Shipping that was necessary for his Passage into Asia intreating that this Passage might be as quick as could be and that he might have Hostages for his Security But Frederick who was resolved to pull down the foolish Pride of this feeble but presumptuous Prince who before would not treat with him but as King of the Germans made him now very sensible that he was the Emperor of the Romans and therefore like a Caesar he answered the Ambassadors That it was the Right of the Conquerors to give Laws to the Vanquished That it appertained to him who had conquered Thracia to dispose of it as he thought convenient That therefore the Year being so far advanced he was resolved to winter in Thracia with his whole Army to punish their Master for having so long retarded his Voyage by his foolish Perfidiousness and giving him the trouble to beat him and to take his Towns where he had now no longer any Right But if he expected any Favour from him that he must take Care against Easter in the Year ensueing to provide him so much Shipping as was necessary for the Transportation of his whole Army into Asia by the
of those Ideas might upon this Occasion frame to themselves the like Apparitions Be it as it will this is certain that a Cavaleer of Reputation and in no sort to be thought an idle or dreaming Visionary whose Name was Lewis de Helfenstein affirmed it positively before the Emperor and protested to him before the whole Army upon his Oath and upon the Faith of a vowed Pilgrim of the Holy Sepulchre and of a Crusade that he had more than once seen St. George at the Head of the Squadrons putting the Enemies to Flight This was also afterwards confirmed by the Turks themselves who related that they saw year 1190 at the Head of the Christian Army certain Troops in white Arms which were no where to be found among them I must needs acknowledge that one is not at all obliged to give Credit to these kind of Visions which for the most part are the Effects of great Illusions but I also know very well that an Historian hath no manner of Right by the Warrant of his own Authority to reject such as are supported by Testimonies so remarkable as this is and that if he be left at his own Liberty to disbelieve them as he shall please yet he cannot pretend to the Liberty by suppressing them to take from his Readers the Right which they have after the reading them to judge of them as they think fit Now as these Barbarians did again with the same ease as they had fled rally themselves Melich having quickly re-assembled them before Iconium sent to let the Emperor know from the Sultan his Father that he was ready to permit him free Passage and to furnish him with all manner of Provisions in Plenty provided that he would for Form sake only pay thirty thousand Crowns and oblige the Armenian Christians to yield to the Sultan those Places which they held in Cilicia which the Historians of that time do for this Reason so often confound with Armenia To this Frederick instantly answered sweetly and calmly according to his manner but magnificently and always like Caesar That a Roman Emperor especially at the Head of an Army of Crusades going to deliver the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ was not acquainted with the way of Merchandising for his Passage with Silver when he knew so readily how to open it more nobly with the harder Metal of the glittering Steel which he wore by his Side and which the Sultan should ere long find was a Key that would not only let him out of his Country but open to him the Gates and give him Entrance into his Capital City of Iconium And the following day without staying for any other Answer he removed his Camp which was already within View of Iconium and advanced towards the City to attack it Iconium which at this time is called Cogny the Capital City of Lycaonia and of all the Dominions of this Sultan which besides this Province extended into Pisidia Cappadocia Pamphilia and Isauria which not long after was called Caramania was afore this time a very good City and well Fortified where the Pacha Governour of the Province made his Residence But it was at this time much Greater more Rich and Populous environed with good Walls and fortified with a many fair Towers of a wonderful Thickness and extraordinary Height and besides it had in the fashion of a Citadel a very great Castle scituate upon a Mountain which commanded the Town and in the Opinion of a certain Writer who was present at that War the City was no way less than Cologne which is one of the biggest and most considerable Cities of Germany It was also very Beautiful without the Walls there being on the West side a great Park inclosed with stone Walls in which the Sultans had built two magnificent Palaces for their Diversion during the Heats of the Summer there were also round about it abundance of Gardins which made the coming to it on that part very pleasing but withal very difficult by reason that there was Convenience for the placing a great number of Souldiers who might from those Covertures discharge in great Security their Arrows against those who approached The Emperor nevertheless having commanded every Horseman to take a Footman behind him that so upon their lighting they might the better attack those who defended these Inclosures easily made himself Master of them and there lodged all the Army with a Resolution the next Morning being the twenty eighth of May to Assault the City though it was defended by a great part of the Enemies Army whilest the other part which was re-inforced to the number of two hundred thousand Men was in the Field ready to charge upon the Backs of the Christians in case they attempted any thing against the Town So soon therefore as the Day appeared the Emperor without deferring upon the Propositions of Peace which the Sultan made only to amuse him divided the Army into two Bodies He gave the Command of the first to the Duke of Suabia his Son accompanied with Florent Earl of Holland with Order to attack the City And the other he commanded himself to oppose the Enemies if they should attempt to fall upon them behind during the Attack year 1190 Never was there any Enterprise that appeared more unadvisable nor never any that did more happily succeed For the Sultan who was issued out to repulse the Assailants scarcely saw the foremost Squadrons who ran upon him with their Lances conched but that being seized with the Cowardly Apprehension of Death which he believed without flying was inevitable he ignominiously shewed them his Back and by his timerous Example drew all his Troops after him who fled with such a Pannick Fear that the Germans pursued them so briskly as not to give them liberty to shut the Gates before they also were entred with them into the City And no sooner were they gotten in but they put all to the Sword whom they met in the Streets and Market-places without distinction thereby to oblige them to retire into their Houses and leave the Streets free The Sultan with great difficulty saved himself in the Castle with his Children and that which was most considerable in the Court being hotly pursued by the Duke of Suabia who chased them with the Sword at their Backs killing and slaying all that opposed him or stood in his way to the very Gates of the Fortress Thus this great City was taken by the fearful Disorder occasioned by the Cowardly Timerousness of one Man And the Victors made themselves Masters of it without almost any Loss rather owing it to the fear of the Vanquished than to their own Valour since they found no Enemy that would give them occasion to exercise it in the Execution of a generous Enterprise All this time the Emperor who knew nothing of the Success of those who attacked the City was at hard Blows with the great Army of his Enemies for they knowing that he had only a Moyety of the Army
charged him with more Resolution than was customary to them upon the hopes which they had that they should easily surround such a little Army which could not possibly resist two hundred thousand Men who assailed him on all sides at the same time And in truth they assailed him in such good Order and with so much Vigour drawing down upon him on every side all together with fearful Cries and an infinite number of Darts Arrows and Stones which they discharged from their Bows and Slings Insomuch that the Christians who were so small a number in Comparison and so harrassed with the Fatigues of their March and the Combats of the foregoing Days and almost spoiled with the horrible Rain which had fallen all the Night before began to despair not only of the Victory but of their Lives The Bishops themselves and the Priests habited in their Rochets Surplices and Stoles who expected nothing the Stroak of Death and to offer to God their Lives as a Sacrifice however exhorted the Soldiers with great Cries to do the same and expose theirs freely after their Example But the Emperor ready as he was to die for the Love of Jesus Christ was yet resolved if it were possible to live and live a Conqueror for the Love of Glory and therefore galloping amongst the Ranks he animated them by his Voice and Gesture and posted to put himself at the Head of the foremost Squadrons where regarding his People with Eyes which shot Fire into the very Bottom of the most frozen Courage he communicated to them the same Ardour with which his noble Heart was animated What do you stand for said he my generous Fellow-Soldiers Let us go Let us go under the conquering Ensign of the Death of Christ Jesus who calls us to the Victory It is not in expecting Death from them but in carrying it among our Enemies that we must be Victors And thereupon setting Spurs to his Horse he threw himself into the thickest Squadrons of the Turks all covered with Sweat and Blood as he was and his Courage furnishing him with new Forces he laid about him cutting overturning and killing with mighty Blows of his Sword on both sides of him all those that durst oppose his Fury All his Soldiers animated by his Example and by seeing the danger to which their Prince exposed himself for their sakes became as it were new Men and as if they had but just freshly begun the Combat they followed him with so much Heat Impetuosity and Fury that those Squadrons unable to sustain the terrible Shock being overthrown upon those who followed them the Terrour spread it self so among the rest of the Army that they presently fell into Disorder and in a Moment after year 1190 into a downright Flight and according to the custom of these Barbarians saved themselves in the Mountains leaving ten thousand slain upon the place After this Execution the Emperor who was not willing to amuse himself by pursuing the Fugitives lead his victorious Soldiers to the City of the Taking whereof he was by this time advertised where he was received as it were in Triumph by his Son He gave the Plunder of it to his Army which there found Riches even surpassing Imagination and a prodigious quantity of all kind of Provisions to refresh them after so many Travels Toyls and Hazards The Emperor had among other things for his share more than one hundred thousand Marks in Gold and Silver which was found in the Palace of Melich and which was the Money which Saladin had given him as a Portion with his Daughter The next Day the Emperor caused Prayers to be publickly sung in Iconium and Thanks to be given for a Victory so great and memorable The Sultan then seeing himself besieged in the Castle from whence he could not escape humbly demanded Peace of the Emperor upon such Conditions as he should please And Frederick whose great design was to advance as fast as possible towards Syria to combat with Saladin after having publickly reproached this miserable Sultan with his base Perfidiousness did him the favour to promise him that he would restore the City to him in the Condition wherein it was provided only that he should furnish him with Provisions for all the time he marched through his Dominions and that for a Warranty of the Performance of his Word he should put into his hands as Hostages twenty of the greatest Persons of his Court whom the Emperor should chuse and that after the Repose of seven days wherein his Army was to be Quartered partly in the Town and partly in the Sultan's Park he would take his March and quit the City as he also did on the 30th Day of May arriving at Laranda upon the Frontier of Cilicia at the Foot of Mount Taurus from whence nevertheless he did not release the Hostages in regard that his Subjects had again molested the Army upon their March The Mountain Taurus is the greatest and the highest of all those of Asia and which taking different Names in the several Provinces through which it passeth or which it divides from one another as well on this as the further side of Euphrates retains particularly the Name of Taurus in Cilicia which it separates from Isauria Lycaonia Cappadocia and the lesser Armenia by a long Chain of Mountains and Rocks extream broken and frightful where it lifts up it self upon the Sea-Coast towards the Consines of Isauria in which place it bends it self in the form of a Crescent and after having formed this great Demicircle it comes to a Butt upon the same Sea upon the East near the City of Issus so celebrated for the Battle which Alexander the Great gained against Darius in the Straits of these Mountains They are for the most part by reason of their excessive heighth covered with Snow that there is no passing of them but in Summer and then so broken with Precipices so steep and ragged that they are wholly inaccessible except by three Passes which are extream narrow and difficult of Access So that they are called by the Greeks Piles or Ports by one of which there is a necessity of passing to enter into Cilicia It was by that of these three which leads towards Cappadocia and Lycaonia that the Emperor after having reposed some time at Laranda began to engage himself in the Passage of these Mountains which could not be performed in many days and with a great deal of difficulty He received during this troublesom Passage with abundance of Joy Livon Prince of Armenia the Brother of Rupin de la Montagne who with the principal Persons of that Country came to wait upon him and pay him their Respects offering all that they had at his Service for his Accommodation After they had taken their leave of him leaving six of them to accompany him he at last accomplished this difficult Passage the 10th of June and dis-incumbring himself of these tiresom Rocks he descended into the Valley which is
property of this Fire not only to burn till it came to the Water but to burn in the Water which seemed to increase its Force and Violence and by a Prodigy quite contrary to the nature of these two Elements which are Enemies one to the other it seemed to make use of it for its Food and Nourishment It had also a Movement wholly contrary to that of common Fire which always raiseth it self and with its pointed Head aspires upward as it were tending to its Sphere But this joyning to its extream Quickness the property of heavy and Terrestrial Bodies burnt downwards and all along to the Right and Left with an Impetuosity proportionable to the Impression which it received from those who had the Art to manage it for they might either throw it a great distance by the Machines which were made for that purpose after the same manner as they threw Darts and great Stones or they might blow it by long Trunks and Pipes of Copper through which they discharged this liquid Fire with Impetuosity like Water out of a Syringe either against Men or any thing which they intended to set on fire and where it once laid hold it would stick so fast that there was no way to extinguish it but with Vinegar mingled with Urine and Sand or which is more wonderful Oyl which is the proper Nourishment of other Fire and which makes it more quick and violent would extinguish this Thus Art whose Perfection we commonly say consists in the Imitation of Nature is never more admirable than when in its Operations it is so far from imitating her that it bestows upon them Properties wholly different and even contrary to those of Nature For the main this wondrous Fire was composed of Brimstone Naphta Pitch the Gums of certain Trees and Bitumen tempered with the Water of a Fountain which had this particular Quality and some other Ingredients which served to produce this marvellous Effect But this Invention is now quite lost year 1203 particularly since that of Powder was found out with which we make all our Artificial Fires and which produces by our Cannons Bombes and Mines Effects incomparably more wonderful and terrible than those of this Grecian Fire with its Engines Blasts and Pipes The Greeks having in this manner prepared their seventeen great Fire-Ships and charged them with the Wild-fire one Night when the Wind blew for their purpose a good stiff Gale at West they sent them adrift towards the middle of the Venetian Fleet which lay to the Leeward at the Entrance of the Haven All these Ships having a Stern Wind and all their Sails filled with it appeared in an instant all on fire like so many glowing Furnaces driven before the Wind with mighty Violence upon the Venetian Fleet and advancing still with their whirling Flames towards them seemed ready to set them on fire there appearing to the distant Spectators almost no possibility of avoiding the threatning danger All the City ran to the Port and to the Towers and Walls to have the pleasure of the burning of the Navy every one impatiently expecting the agreeable Show which they believed was ready to appear and all of them together as upon an Amphitheatre clapping their Hands and making great Shouts of Joy with a most horrible Noise as if all had been their own But this Joy was quickly changed into Shame and Grief when they saw all these artificial Fires from which they stood gaping for such Miracles vanish into Smoak by the Skill and Dexterity of the Venetians who so soon as they saw them leap'd into their Skiffs and Long-Boats and with an incredible diligence having run the Fire-Ships one upon another in despight of all the Showers of Darts and Arrows which were discharged upon them by the force of mighty Hooks and Grappling Irons they drew them out of the Port into the Chanal where leaving them to the Wind and Current they were carried into the Propontis where at length they spent themselves in unprofitable Flames So that the Venetians lost not so much as one Skiff nor was there more than one single Merchant-man of Pisa which being unluckily in their Way could not so suddenly avoid them but that she was quite burnt down year 1204 This Accident gave Murtzuphle a fair Opportunity of finishing the Ruin of the poor Alexis by the blackest and most detestable Treason that the wickedest of Mankind could be capable of For as he had a most absolute power over the Soul of this miserable Prince who acted wholly by his Counsels and esteemed him as an Oracle he told him that to secure himself from the danger wherein he was of falling like his Uncle under the hands of the Latins it was necessary that he should endeavour to amuse them by sending secretly to them and protesting that whatever he had done against them was purely the Effect of Constraint and that for his own part he was readily disposed to do more than he had promised provided that they would assist him against his Subjects who took from him the liberty and the power of keeping his Word and that if they would assist him to become Master of Constantinople as he ought to be he should then be in a Condition most faithfully to perform as he most earnestly desired all the Articles of the Treaty Poor Alexis immediately fell into the Snare which was so artfully placed for him for he instantly dispatched Envoys charged with this Commission to the Princes when at the same time the Traytor having by his Emissaries blazed it all about the City he that very Day being the 25th of January raised such a furious and general Insurrection throughout the Town that believing themselves betrayed after having with the greatest Insolence charged the Emperor with a thousand Imprecations calling him a Slave to the Latins and a Traytor to the Empire they ran tumultuously to the Church of Sancta Sophia there presently to make Choice of a new Emperor The Historian Nicetas who was at that time Lord Chancellor although he does with Passion enough declare himself an Enemy to the Latins yet upon this Occasion did whatever lay in his Power to oppose this Resolution remonstrating to the People that they were in no manner of Condition to defend the Emperor whom they should chuse against the Army of the Crusades But the Populace which after it is once heated is no longer capable of Reason or of following any other Conduct but that of their blind and impetuous Passions year 1204 cried out terribly that they would never stir from thence till they had a new Emperor and in the Heat of the Tumult seizing upon the most Eniment Persons of the City they endeavoured to constrain them even with Menaces and the Ponyard at their Throats to accept of the Imperial Crown At last seeing that all the Ancient Senators to whom they addressed themselves as most capable of governing excused themselves upon divers pretences they took a young man
some of which lost their Lives by divers kinds of Torments and others by a lingring Martyrdom changing their Freedom into a most cruel Slavery The lot of the French from whom the other Nations had separated themselves was not much more Fortunate they were Incamped near Helenopolis and Cybotus which our Writers call Civitot which are two Villages situate in the Gulph of Nicomedia and nearest to the City of Nice from whence they sent out great Parties to destroy the Forrage about that City But the Disorders among them were still as great or greater than before so that Peter himself unable longer to indure their Insolence abandoned them leaving the whole Command to Gautier and retiring to Constantinople under pretence of procuring Provision for the Army Soliman who was a great Captain and kept good Intelligence and who knew how to use his Victory resolved now to attempt a second by attacking these People who had neither Discipline Order nor Head whom therefore he purposed to surprize in their Camp But by a strange Adventure it happened that these who had just now received the sad News of the Defeat of their Companions forced their Captains contrary to their Inclinations to draw out and March towards Nice with a Resolution to fall unexpectedly upon Soliman and surprize him whilest he was injoying the Pleasures of his last Victory they therefore decamped with twenty five thousand Men divided into six Batallions under so many Standards and with about five hundred Curiassiers on Horseback There lay between the French Camp and the City of Nice several high Mountains covered with Woods from whence there is a Descent into a fair Plain where this great Town is situated As the French passed these Mountains and Forrests in Disorder according to their Custome making a mighty Noise Soliman who was advanced so far on his way from Nice with a design to attack them little imagining they were coming to meet him being thereof informed by his Scouts who without being discovered by the French gave him this Advertisement he immediately retreated into the Plain where he drew up his Army in Battalia The French who were strangely disappointed to find those so near them and in so good Order whom they thought to have surprized nevertheless stood not to consider whether they should fight or not but gave a furious Charge with two of their Batallions and their little body of Cavalry upon the main Body of the Turks but they who were far more in number than the French extending their Wings to the right and left encompassed them and cutting off the Reserves which were to follow they poured in a shower of Arrows from all parts upon them and charged them with so much Fury that not being able to rally they were in conclusion cut all in pieces The brave Gautier Hievelittle who combated that day like a man who since he could not hope to conquer was resolved to fall nobly being shot through with seven Arrows dyed Renaud of Breis and Foucher of Orleans also perished with all the Cavalry selling their lives to the Infidels at an excessive rate Gautier of Breteuil and Godfrey Burel Colonel of Foot who was the Person that contrary to the Opinion of the wiser Captains drew the Army into this misfortune saved themselves among the Rocks and Bushes retiring to those who were not yet drawn out from the Woods but they seeing all lost dreamt of nothing but how to save themselves But the Turks who followed them close at the Heels pursued them with so much heat that they entred their Camp with the Fugitives where they made a most horrible slaughter among the Women Children Sick People Old Men Priests and Monks which were lest there with a very slender Guard of Soldiers and were generally either asleep or which was worse making debauches those who were able to save themselves from such a wosul Massacre retired some of them into the Mountains where they miscrably perished others to Civitot where the Town being presently after taken by the Turks they were all made slaves Insomuch that of this innumerable Multitude of Crusades of so many different Nations which Peter had led as far as the Bosphorus there did not remain above three thousand men who saved themselves in a little Ruinous Village upon the Propontis which they defended for several days by meer desperation and from whence they were at length drawn off and brought to Constantinople by the Emperors Fleet disarmed and almost naked the Emperour being scarce able to dissemble his malicious joy for this defeat of the Christians This was the Event of the Expedition of the Hermit who after he had done such notable things when he acted in his own Sphere as a Hermit a Priest and a Preacher of the Cross to excite-men to this Holy War came off so poorly when he acted contrary to his Profession and exchanged his Pilgrims Staff for a Sword appearing at the head of an Army with a Helmet upon his gray head and under that the Monks Cowl which did so ill accord with the Equipage and the Quality of a General This may inform us in a Lesson which cannot be too often repeated That as the natural frame of the Universe is conserved by the Different actions of the Elements which whilst they act in their proper places produces the most admirable Concord but ruin and confound all when once they depart from those regular Movements so neither can the civil World subsist longer than whilest the different functions of men retain a conformity suitable to their Condition and that generally all is spoiled when these are confounded But the unfortunate beginning of this Holy War was but only a kind discharge of those corrupted Humors which otherwise might have indangered the sounder Body of the whole Christian Army and which enabled it to act after a far different manner than it could possibly have done with the Conjunction of those irregular People For in the same time whilest these matters passed in this manner in Asia in the Months of August September and October Godfrey of Bullen began his March the fifteenth day of August with a puissant Army of ten thousand Horse and seventy thousand foot well appointed and for the most part chosen out of the Noble Families of France year 1196 rain and Germany who seemed transported with joy to sight under the Conduct of such a noble General He had also in his Company his Brother Baldwin and among other Princes and Lords of the first Quality Baldwin de Bourg his Cousin Earl of Retel the Counts Hugh de St. Paul with his Son Engelram Renald de Toul with Peter his Brother Baldwin de Mons Cousin to the Earl of Flanders Garnier de Grezi Kinsman to Duke Godfrey Conon de Mountaigu Dudon de Conty Henry and Godfrey de Hasche all which were sollowed by the Choicest Gentlemen and the brave Spirits of their Estates When this Army was arrived in Austria in the Month of September
it was obliged to halt upon the Frontier of Hungary to treat with King Carloman concerning their passage For in Truth he had sufficient reason to be distrustful of this Army of the Crusades after the horrible injuries which he had received from those of Peter Godescalc and Emico The Treaty was however quickly concluded by the open and plain dealing between the King and the Duke who had an Interview upon a certain Bridge The King demanded as Hostages Prince Baldwin and the Princess his Lady and coasting all along with the Army of Godfrey ordered the Magazines to furnish them with Provisions at a reasonable price till such time as the greatest part of the Troops were passed over the Savus where he returned the Hostages with a thousand Protestations of Amity to the Duke whose Conduct and Fidelity he had in extraordinary admiration With the same order Godfrey caused his Army to pass over the vast Countries of Bulgaria and the Territories of the Greek Emperour according as he had promised his Embassadors who were sent to him by Alexis whilest he was upon his March until at length he arrived at Philipopolis in Thracia where he received Intelligence of the detention of Hugh the Great This young Prince who was Brother to Philip the first King of France had not to speak Truth either so much Experience or so much Ability as the other Princes of the Crusade who were possessed of very fair Estates but however he was a person admirably well composed full of Honour Vertue and Goodness extream Brave and of an Humour sweet and indearing the advantage which he had by his Illustrious Birth above the rest gave him a title to a greater Respect and he was therefore treated with so much Honour and Duty by all that though diverse others had in reality a greater Command and Interest in the Army yet nevertheless his Name was more Celebrated among strangers and especially the Greeks The Princes which accompanied him in this Voyage were Robert Duke of Normandy Son to William the Conquerer with the Noble Troops of English Normans and Brittains Stephen Earl of Chartres and Blois whose power was so great that it was commonly said that he was owner of more Places and Castles then there were days in the year Prince Eustace of Bullen Brother to Duke Godfrey and Robert Earl of Flanders who following the example of the Duke of Lorrain sold his Estate to furnish the Charges of this War These Princes who together composed a most puissant and numerous Army having stated their measures and conferred a long time at Paris with Hugh the great in the presence of the King his Brother put themselves upon their Way in the Month of September and having traversed France and Italy and received the Benediction of the Pope whom they found at Leuca and also having visited Rome and the Holy Places to implore the Divine Assistance the Winter being too far advanced for them commodiously to pass into Epirus they were obliged to distribute their Army about Bari Brindes and Otranto there to attend the coming of the Spring and the conveniency of imbarquing their Forces But Hugh suffering himself to be transported by the heat of his Conrage and the Impatience natural to Young Persons and above all others those of the French Nation was not able to support this delay but exposed himself too rashly to the Faith of the Greeks imbarking at Bari to pass to Duras as he did very slenderly accompanied and in a condition in no sort suitable to his Quality and the Majestick Name of France which he was to sustain during this War But the Governour of that place whether it were that he had secret Orders to secure such of the Crusade as he could surprize or that he believed he should do his Master the Emperor a considerable Service by putting into his hands so great a Prince who might serve for a Hostage to secure him against the Latins immediately upon his arrival seized him and sent him under a strong Guard through By-ways to Constantinople where the Emperor detained him Prisoner Godfrey who presently after this adventure arrived at Philipopolis where he received an account of it sent immediately to the Emperour to demand the Liberty of this Prince and those who accompanied him and in the mean time advanced with his Army as far as Adrianople But perceiving by the Answer which he received from Alexis what he was to Expect he acted like an open Enemy and for eight days wasting the Country all along as he went he marched directly to Constantinople where he raised such a consternation that Alexis sent to him to his Camp to desire a Peace making him all the Promises of receiving a just satisfaction In short Godfrey still advancing encamped two days before Christmass within view of this great City when with joy he received Hugh the Great to whom the Emperor had now given his Liberty and who came to pay his thanks to his Deliverer and Benefactor accompanied with Drogon de Neele Clerembaud de Vendeuïle and William Viscount of Melun commonly called the Carpenter either because he was so notable an Artist in framing of Engines of War or that according to the mode of Expression in those times he used so terribly to hack and hew his Enemies that neither Cask Shield nor Curiass was able to resist the Force of his blows But this Peace by reason of the perfidiousness of Alexis lasted not long for perceiving that after he had given orders privately to prohibit the furnishing them with provisions the Army began to live at Discretion he had recourse to Artifice and desired Godfrey to take up his Quarters in the fair Houses Palaces Hamblets and Villages which lay all along the Bosphorus to the Euxine Sea pretending the Rigor of the season was too extream to permit them to continue in their Camp but the truth is with a design to lock up this great Army in the little space which is between the Strait and the River which discharges it self into the Port that there he might more easily destroy them He had also a design to surprize the Duke inviting him to come to the Palace to confer with him about the War but finding that the Duke would not be decoyed and that he did with good reason distrust him he endeavoured again to famish the Army prohibiting the furnishing them with any kind of provisions he also attacked them both by Sea and Land for he commanded out his Cavalry against those who were sent to forrage and caused many Vessels manned with Archers to fall down the River who incessantly discharged upon such of the Soldiers as appeared But his Enterprize prospered accordingly for Godfrey with ease defeating the Greek Cavalry made himself Master of the Bridge of Blakerness in despite of all that the Emperors People endeavoured to do to oppose him and having without danger repassed the Main of his Army who set sire at their parting to the Houses and
his League with the Princes of the Crusade The Ambassadours of Alexis slighted The advantagious composition with the Emir of Tripolis The March of the Christian Army to Jerusalem Lidda Rama Nicopolis and Bethlehem taken by the Christians The extraordinary expressions of their Devotion upon the first discovery of the Holy City AFter the Arrival of these Princes at Constantinople Duke Godfrey and Tancred being advanced as far as Nicomedia and having levelled the ways over the Mountains from that Town to the City of Nice they invested that place the sixteenth day of May. They staid some time for the coming of the other Princes and of Peter the Hermit who was gone into Asia to recollect some of those unfortunate Reliques of his Forces which had saved themselves in the Woods And then it was resolved without staying for the Troops of Raymond Earl of Tholose and those of the Duke of Normandy and the Earl of Blois which were not yet come up that they should begin to form the Siege of Nice Nice the Capital City of Bythinia and which is famous to this day for the first and seventh Oecumenical Councils which were held there against the Heresies of the Arians and the Iconoclasts was at this time a fair and spaious City liyng about fifteen or sixteen Leagues from Nicomedia in the middle of a most fertile and pleasant Valley on all sides encompassed with high Mountains except on the Western Quarter where the great Lake of Ascanius which by small Vessels furnisheth it plentifully with all the Commodities of the Country serves instead of a natural Fortification rendring it wholly inaccessible on that side It was encompassed with double Walls of an extraordinary thickness and flanked with very fair and lofty Towers strongly built and placed at convenient distance to defend each other and that part of the Curtain which was between them It was also strengthened without the Counterscarp with a great retrenchment admirably Palisadoed and which was extream difficult of access by reason of the great number of Springs and Rivulets which falling from the Mountains and being stopped by the Fortifications drowned all the adjacent fields to what degrees the defendants pleased Old Soliman who after the Turks had entred the lesser Asia pushed his Conquests by a continual succession of Victories as far as the Propontis had taken extraordinary pains in the fortifying of this City where he established the Seat of his Empire that he might be so much the nearer Constantinople and upon occasion one day pass over more commodiously into Europe The young Soliman who about ten years after succeeded him usually kept a very strong Garrison there but upon the noise which the Enterprize of the Christians of the West were about to make he reinforced it with the choicest of his Troops for he did not doubt but in order to their opening a passage to Jerusalem this place would be the first that would be attacked He himself was gone into Persia year 1097 to request the assistance of all the Princes of his Nation and returning just in the nick of time to succour the City he posted himself in the Mountains at the same time when the Christian Army not suspecting that such a terrible Enemy was so near began the Siege However the Christians applyed themselves to a formal Siege distributing their several Quarters in his open view their Army being far more numerous then his and consisting in above four hundred thousand Combatants Bohemond after he had taken care for Provisions for the Army in a very plentiful manner returning to the Camp posted himself on the Northwest quarter of the City with his Nephew Tancred who extended his quarter on the right hand even to the Lake Godfrey of Bullen with Baldwin took the Right Hand over against the Principal Gate of the City taking up all that space between the North and the East upon that side where the City was most strongly fortified After them upon the South East quarter encamped Hugh the Great in the same place where after their arrival the Duke of Normandy and Count Stephen were to make their attack so soon as they should come up All the South side was reserved for Count Raymond who was upon his way in Bythinia and not far distant from the Camp That part towards the West South-West which lay upon the Lake could not be blocked up so close but that the Enemies had that way the convenience of furnishing themselves with Provisions The Town being in this manner begirt quite round the besiegers began briskly with a General Assault which upon the fourteenth day of May was given at the same time upon all the several Quarters with all kind of military Engines The Combat was maintained all that day till the darkness of the Night obliged them to discontinue it and was again renewed in the Morning with extraordinary fury though without Effect For the besieged were not only gallant men but every minute in expectation of being relieved by Soliman to whom they had dispatched an Express both to inform him of their Condition and to advertise him that he might easily do it by forcing the Christian Camp on that part which lay to the Southward which was but as yet very slenderly guarded but it so fell out that the Letters of the Sultan were intercepted that very day as they were going to the Town to assure the besieged that he would not fail the next morning according to their advice to attack that part of the Camp Notice thereupon was immediately given to Prince Raymond who was not far off who marched with such diligence that by good Fortune the next morning very early he arrived in the Camp He was no sooner begun to make his Lodgement but the Turks descended from the Mountain and divided themselves into two great Bodies to attack the Christian Camp in two quarters One party of them marched to the right towards the South believing according to the advice which they had received from the besieged that the passage there was free whilest the other advanced to the Quarter of Duke Godfrey which lay next the Earl to prevent his sending any succours from that part and thereby to be the better able to put his designed relief into the City year 1097 But the gallant Raymond whom the Turks little expected to have found there received them in so good a posture and charged their Troops who looked for nothing less than such opposition with so much fury that he presently put them into disorder and having routed them and cut the best part of them in pieces the rest were forced to betake themselves to a hasty slight pursuing them to the very foot of the Mountains whilst Godfrey in his quarter dealt in the same manner with those who made the false attack upon his Post Nevertheless the besieged failed not at all in their Courage but made a very obstinate defence under the Protection of their Walls whose strength was so great as
rest of Cilicia even to Alexandretta whilest Baldwin having made a great Progress in Armenia whither he was gone to joyn the gross of the Army was called to the Principality of Edessa where he established himself by that Adventure which I am now about to relate Edessa an ancient and famous City of Mesopotamia known in the sacred History by the Name of Rages which it afterwards changed into that of Rohais and which at this day is called Orfa was in times past under the Power of the ancient Greeks who governed it under the Emperor of Constantinople and after that the Turks had taken from him this Province yet it was still maintained as a little Principality paying a certain Tribute to these Infidels who nevertheless ceased not to Tyrannize over this poor City now hopeless of all Succours The Inhabitants who were all Christians having heard of the famous Actions of Prince Baldwin who pushed on his Conquests as far as Euphrates defeating the Turks in all Encounters obliged their Prince to send to him to desire his Assistance and to offer him the honorable Terms of being his adopted Son and declared Successor Baldwin did not refuse so fair an Occasion which his good Fortune seemed to offer him by possessing him of so considerable an Estate in Asia He adventured therefore to pass the Euphrates being followed by not above one hundred Horse which were all he could spare from the keeping such important Places which he had Conquered nevertheless with this little Troop he bassled the Turks who either openly opposed his Passage or laid Ambuscades in his Way to surprize him and entring Edessa he was received with such extraordinary Acclamations and Honors that the good old Man who had adopted him conceived such a Jealousy of him that repenting of what he had done he resolved in short to get quit of him and send him back at any rate But Baldwin after he had in two or three Rencounters with the Turks who possessed all the Country about Edessa given a Tast of his Courage and Conduct the whole Populace who were ripe for such a Revolution and wanted only an Occasion to revenge themselves of a thousand Evils which they had suffered under the Government of this Covetous old Man ran immediately to their Arms and besieged the Castle and notwithstanding all the Prayers and Opposition which Baldwin made against their Intentions they cut this miserable Man in pieces whilest he endeavoured to escape by throwing himself from a Window opposite to that Quarter which was assaulted After which notwithstanding all the Repugnance which Baldwin either had or feigned to have thereby to shew that he had no share in so horrid an Action he was constrained the next Morning to permit himself to be solemnly proclaimed Prince of Edessa and to be put in Possession of the Treasure of the deceased Prince which according to the Destiny of Covetous Men he had scraped together for another who knew how to employ it better than himself For with one part of it he bought the strong Town of Samosata upon the Euphrates he who held it thinking it better Husbandry prudently to sell it at a good Rate than to expose himself to the danger of losing it for nothing and with another part he levied good Troops with which he took all the places which were capable of incommoding Edessa and in short in a small time he established a most powerful Estate extending it on both sides both towards the South from Euphrates as far as Selencia upon the Tygris and towards the North as far as the strong places upon Mount Taurus He had also the dexterity and good Fortune to unite to his Principality a great part of Armenia by an alliance with one of his Princes whose Neice he married after the death of the generous Gundechilda his Lady who having followed him died at Maresia during the March of the Army of the Confederate Princes Whilst Prince Baldwin made such a marvellous Progress on this side of the Euphrates the Christian Army having reduced all the lesser Armenia took the Road through Comagena towards Syria and drew within fifteen miles of Antioch after having taken the City of Artesia the Inhabitants whereof having cut the throats of the Turkish Garrison had opened their Gates to the Earl of Flanders who was advanced with a thousand choice horse to receive it He there made a defence for divers days with a great deal of Courage and glory against twenty thousand Turks who came from Antioch to retake it and who after a terrible Assault which they maintained for one whole day were constrained to retire upon the Approach of the Christian Army to defend the pass of a Bridge upon the Orontes about two or three Leagues from Antioch year 1097 After the repose of a few dayes during which Tancred and the rest of the Lords except Count Baldwin came to rejoyn the Army it was resolved notwithstanding the Season was now far advanced to besiege this great City in regard the Reputation of the Christian Arms and the happy Success of their great design seemed absolutely to depend upon the taking of Antioch which covered the Country of Palestine This resolution was no sooner taken but it was put in immediate Execution for the next morning Robert Duke of Normandy who led the Vanguard of the Army fell smartly upon the Bridge which the Turks who never behaved themselves better than upon this occasion as vigorously maintained but the Bishop of Pavia coming up to reinforce them did so animate the Normans and the English that some of them having forced the Barricadoes and the two Towers which commanded the Bridge whilst others passing over the Shallows and some throwing themselves into the River swam over they put the Turks to slight and opened the passage for the whole Army That Night they encamped near the River and the next day which was Wednesday the twenty first of October putting themselves in order of Battle and adorning themselves in their fairest Arms with Trumpets founding and Colours flying the whole Army marched as it were in a terrible Triumph and encamped within a mile of Antioch Antioch so renowned in the Greek and Latin Histories and which at present consists only of some part of the beautiful Ruines where sometime that noble City stood was at that time one of the fairest and largest Cities in the World giving place to none for the strength which both Art and Nature had bestowed upon it It was situated in a most fertile and delicious Plain between the Mountains Amanus and Orontes upon the River of that name whose Stream flowed along by the Walls on the Western side being within four or five leagues of its mouth The Town was in length from the East to the West above a league without comprehending the Suburbs which were very large There were two Mountains between the South and East separated by a narrow Valley through which a little River slid along into the
other Thoughts about his Heart and that it was his Fear of the Christian Army which drew this Perjury from his Lips For as the Army quitting Ptolemaïs pursued their Way by Caiphas and the Passage of the Strait which lies between the Sea and Mount Carmel and was about to Encamp near the Lake of Cesarea a Pigeon which was escaped from the Talons of a Bird of Prey who astonished at the Noise of the Army had quitted her fell down half dead at the feet of the Soldiers being taken up there was found fastned to her a little Roll of Paper in which the Emir of Ptolemais had written to him of Cesarea that he should do all the Mischief that he could to this Army of Doggs who were about to pass his Territories for that he might more easily Incommode their Passage than he could and also that he should not fail by the same way to give the same Advertisement to the other Cities This Accident occasioned a wonderful Joy in the whole Army for from hence they concluded that God took a particular Care of their Interests since he was pleased in so uncommon a manner to discover to them the Secrets of their Malicious Enemies For this very reason the Princes staid in that place that they might with greaten Devotion celebrate the Holy Feast of Whit-Sunday which was the nine and twentieth day of May. After which leaving the Sea upon their right Hand as also the Cities of Joppa and Antipatris they took the Right-hand-way which leads through the pleasant Vallies which lie at the Foot of Mount Ephraim to Lidda or Diospolis a famous City of Judea and at that time particularly Famous for the magnificent Church which the Emperor Justinian had caused to be built in Honor of St. George in the place where that generous Soldier finished his Martyrdome but the Saracens despairing to maintain the Town had before ruined this noble Structure burning the prodigious Beams which sustained the Roof for fear the Christians should make use of them for Engines of War At the same time the Princes seized upon Ramatha by some called Arimathea Rama and Ramula a City which the Birth the Dwelling and the Sepulchre of the Prophet Samuel have rendred remarkable in the Holy Writings The Saracens had also abandoned that place in so great hast that they left behind them so much Provision as sufficed for three days to refresh the whole Army And because Rama was near unto Lidda it was thought fit to give the Fee-simple of those two Towns together with the Tithes of the Booty to a learned and virtuous Priest one Robert of the Diocess of Rouen who was setled the Bishop of that place to the intent that he should not only take Care of the Christians of Lidda but also of such Pilgrims who resolved to pass the remainder of their Lives in the Holy Land and with which Rama was to be peopled This being done the Army marched very early the next Morning Eastward and the same Evening arrived at Emmaus some sixty Furlongs which is about two Leagues and a half from Jerusalem This City which had in the time of the Machabees been a considerable Place was in our Saviour's time only a little Burrough having been ruined by Varus the Governor of Syria but it was rebuilt by the Romans after the end of the Jewish War and in memory of their Victories they called it Nicopolis as it was at that time called when the Christians seized it At that instant there arrived Deputies from Bethlehem who addressed themselves to Duke Godfrey to request him to send them present Succours year 1099 least the Saracens as they had just ground to apprehend who from all Parts ran to put themselves into Jerusalem should in their Passage fire that City Immediately Tancred who was particularly united in his Interests was dispatched thither and who after he had given all the necessary Orders for the Security of that Place and had planted his Ensign upon the Church rejoyned the other Princes the day following which was Tuesday the sixth of June a day after three years from the first Enterprise of the Voyage so long expected and so ardently desired a day wherein after infinite Pains and Travels they came with incredible Joy to see the Conclusion of their Vows For so soon as the Army was gâ—â— to the top of the Heights which are on the further side of Emaus from whence there was a fair Prospect of the lofty Towers of the Holy City the Princes the Officers the Soldiers and the whole Troop of Pilgrims which followed the Army broak out all together as it were by Consent into Cries of Joy Blessing and Praises to Almighty God which being reverberated and multiplied by the Ecchoes of the Rocks and Mountains with which the City is Invironed repeated in a few Moments a million of times It is the Will of God It is the Will of God And immediately they found their Hearts so lively touched and pierced with the extraordinary Sentiments of Piety Tenderness and Love of God upon the sight of those Holy Places Consecrated by the venerable Mysteries of the Redemption of Mankind that they threw themselves upon the Ground shedding abundance of devout Tears and kissing with unconceivable Pleasure that Soil which had been honored with the Footsteps of the Incarnate Word of God Thus do present Objects without any other Assistance make the most violent Impressions upon the Minds of Men and such as far surpass the most profound Meditations the most powerful Reasonings and the most elaborate Discourses of the most eloquent Orators or Preachers and the single View of them is more capable of softning the hardest Hearts than the finest Discourses at a distance which cannot possibly represent things with that Life and Efficacy which by the Eyes passes in a moment to the Soul Thus the Presence of those glorious Monuments of the Victories of the Son of God after these first motions of Piety inspired in the Hearts of the Crusades such an extraordinary Ardor to Conquer that they cried out to be instantly lead to the Siege of Jerusalem not as Jewish the Enemy and Murdress of the Saviour of the World to destroy it but as Christian and Captive to deliver it from the Tyranny of the Barbarians who hindred the whole World from the Liberty of rendring those Honors due to the Sepulcher of Jesus Christ The Princes therefore judging that they ought to make use of this admirable Disposition of their Soldiers instantly fell upon forming the Siege of this illustrious City of which before I proceed further it will be necessary to represent the Situation the Strength and the Condition wherein they found it at that time THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land BOOK III. The CONTENTS of the Third Book The Present State of Jerusalem when the Christian Princes Besieged it The Distribution of their Quarters The ill
the manner of the Ancient Romans covering themselveslike Tortoises with their Bucklers whilst others were extended in long siles and followed them at a just distance year 1099 to have convenient Room to make use of their Bows their Slings and Cross-Bows to drive the Enemy from the Walls with great Stones Darts and Arrows which they showered continually upon them whilest in the mean time the first endeavoured in Despite of pieces of Rock and Beams which they threw down from the Walls to crush them to come at the Wall and with Pick-Axes Mattocks Levers and such sort of Iron Instruments wanting Rams they tried to make a Breach or Passage through the Wall and they acted with so much Force and Courage that they overthrew the Out-Wall and made a Passage to the very Foot of the Inward-Wall but that being too strong to receive any Damage by such pittiful Tools there was no Hope but to force the Place by a Scalade and so little Care had been taken to make Provision relying upon the Promise of the Hermit who told them if they had no more than one Ladder of Osiers they should nevertheless take the City that when they came to make Use of them there was no more than one sound Ladder that was long enough to reach the Walls notwithstanding which these Braves transported with mad Courage being prepossessed with the Belief that they should carry the Town planted that Ladder and mounted with so much Resolution that pushing one another upwards many of them got up to the Top and threw themselves over the Wall where they desperately fought hand to hand against the Saracens who were amazed at this more than Heroick Boldness and there is no doubt but if they had had more Ladders Jerusalem had been that day taken for the Enemies who did not in the least expect such an irregular and brisk Attempt had not brought any of their Engines to the Walls But seeing there could but by one Ladder mount a very few men who must needs be exposed to a Multitude of Enemies without Hope of Succour a Retreat was sounded after having lost in that rash Attempt a great many brave men who yet sold their Lives at so dear a Rate that twice their Number of the Saracens paid theirs in lieu of them Duke Godfrey who was ashamed of the Fault he had committed by preferring the idle Visions of a simple Hermit before the just Rules of Military Art remonstrated to the Princes that if they resolved to carry the Town by Force it was necessary to attack it with good Engines of War since they were to sight with men who having once would not a second time be surprised in their Defence against a Scalade This Advice was approved by all but the difficulty was to know where they should be furnished with Materials to frame them there being never a Forrest in all the Country For as for the famous Enchanted Woods of Ismena Clormea Renaud and Armida and a hundred other such like Inventions of Tasso they are nothing but the agreeable Visions of a Poetical Fancy which takes a great deal of Delight in pleasing others with making new Creations which never were except in his own or the Imaginations of his Readers but which must as the Amusements of Fables and Chimera's be rejected by Historians who are to entertain their Readers with nothing but solid Truth But this is most certain that while they were in this Trouble a Christian of the Country informed the Princes that about three or four Leagues off in the Way that leads to Arabia there was a Valley quite out of any Road where in a great Cavern there was a good Quantity of large Beams of Cedar and Cypress and that there was thereabout some Trees of which they might make very good Use although they were of no considerable Height The Duke of Normandy and the Earl of Flanders went thither with some Troops being Conducted by this Guide where they really found such Wood which they caused to be carried to the Camp They also carried thither all the Planks Joists and Beams of the Houses near the City which they could sind and for a whole Month they wrought all sorts of Engines which are made use of in Sieges as also some of a new Invention according as they were designed by Duke Godfrey and Gaston de Foix Prince of Bearne who took care of the Management of these Works but that which mightily advanced them was that nine great Ships being arrived at Joppa with Provisions from Pisa and Genoa for the Army and despairing to defend themselves in that little Fleet against that of the Saracens which was coming to attack them they broke up the Ships and setting Fire to what they could not carry to the Camp the Seamen applied themselves most industriously to the building of these Engines year 1099 All this time the Army was ready to perish with the excessive Thirst which it indured for the Brook Cedron which divides the Valley of Jehosaphat hath very little Water except in the Winter and the Fountain of Siloe which is at the Foot of Mount Sion toward the South afforded but a very little Water so that there was scarce any to be had but what was to be found two Leagues off and that with great Hazard of falling into the Hands of the Saracens who lay continually in Ambuscades to surprize such whose Thirst constrained them to straggle abroad to seek for Water and besides what was to be had was so little and there were so many People besides the Beasts that were to drink that it became presently pudled and stinking In this Extremity there could be no other Resolution but so soon as ever the Engines which were preparing were sinished to give a General Assault with a sirm Determination either to carry the Place or perish in the Attempt And therefore before the Execution of so dangerous an Enterprize and whilest the Preparations were making it was thought fit that publick Prayers should be made by the whole Army to implore the Mercy of Almighty God and to crave his Blessing and Assistance For this Purpose after a Fast of three days upon Fryday the eighth of July there was a solemn Procession where the Bishops and Clergy barefooted followed by the Princes and Soldiers in their Arms surrounded the City setting out at the Church of Sion and passing by the Oratory of St. Stephen through the Valley of Jehosaphat and so by the Mountain of Olives to the Place from whence Christ Jesus ascended into Heaven Here it was that Peter the Hermit and Arnold the Chaplain to the Duke of Normandy made such Powerful Exhortations to reunite the Hearts of the Army that all the Chiefs and the Soldiers and particularly Tancred and Count Raymond who had had the greatest Differences embraced each other in Token of a mutual Reconciliation and Exhorted one another to revenge those Injuries and Outrages which were offered to Jesus Christ by the Saracens
Few there were who saved themselves by Flight year 1187 except the Perfidious Raymond and his Complices whom the Turks permitted to escape The King seeing that all was lost thought to have saved himself by flying but Tokedin the Nephew of Saladin pursued him so quick that he took him Prisoner as also the true Cross which Rufin the Bishop of Ptolemais according to the Custom carried that Day in the Battle That Bishop was armed with a Curiass contrary to the manner of all the other Prelates who before him had carried that Holy Wood unarmed not so much as one of them having even been wounded whereas he notwithstanding his Armour was shot quite through the Body with an Arrow wherewith he lost both his life and the Cross which he carried Tokedin who took it when he brought the King a Prisoner before his Uncle presented that also to him as the most Glorious Trophy of his Victory There never was any Victory more sad and deplorable to the Vanquished or more complete and advantageous to the Vanquishers a Victory which made the Conquerors Masters of all the rich Equipage of so many Princes and great Lords as were either Slain or taken in that Battle And as Saladin had a mortal Hatred to the Knights of the two Orders of the Temple and the Hospital of Jerusalem he caused the Heads of all of them who were found among the Prisoners to be cut off in his Presence excepting only the great Master of the Temple so that he almost extinguished the whole Orders of them that were in Palestine for not one of these Valiant men had once offered to fly and the greatest part of them perished Nobly with their Swords in their Hands during the Combat He also with his own hand slew the Brave Renaud de Chattillon who after having a long time governed the Principality of Antioch the Heiress whereof the Princess Constantia he had married was since that Governour of the Countries beyond Jordan where he had so often arrested the Course and of Saladin's Victories This Prince who otherwise was a Person of great Humanity when his Anger did not transport him beyond his Reason yet could not bear with this Valiant man who being by him briskly and with a little insulting over his Misfortunes demanded some Questions answered him with an Air as Fierce and Haughty as the other spoke to him insomuch that the Liberty which he ought to have admired in a man whose Courage neither his Misfortune nor his Chains could abate provoked him to that Degree that forgetting himself he cut of his Head with a Blow of his Cimiter dishonouring his Victory by that Brutal Action which was so altogether unworthy of so great a man as he otherwise was And thus by this unmanly Action he made it appear that it was more difficult to vanquish himself than to overcome his Enemies As for the rest whether it were that he repented of so shameful and cruel a Transport or that his Avarice opposed his Cruelty the Fear that he had to lose so many great Ransoms which he might expect from such considerable Prisoners made him treat them with extraordinary Civility especially the King the Great Master of the Temple and the old Marquis of Montferrat the Father-in-Law of Queen Sybilla who being come a little before to Visit the Holy Places would needs make one in that unfortunate Battle But this was the smallest Fruit which Saladin drew from the gaining of this Memorable Day for being a great Captain as able dexterous and diligent in making the best of a Victory as he was Valiant and happy in gaining it and that he knew that the greatest part of the Cities were in a manner destitute of Garrisons and without Defence he therefore immediately marched and presented his Victorious Army before Ptolemais a fair and flourishing City whose Haven was Necessary to receive the Fleet which was to come to him from Egypt There were no Soldiers in the City all those which had been in Garrison having been drawn out to recruit the Army where they perished in that fatal Battle and after so great a Loss there was no Expectation of any Succour for them so that though it was a mighty strong Place yet it was surrendred to him in two days upon the Assurance which he gave to the Native Inhabitants that he would treat them most favourably and that the Latins should have Liberty to retire whither they pleased and that there should not be the least Injury offered either to their Persons or Goods which they might carry away with them He did most exactly keep his Word with them and the Reputation which he had gained of being a just merciful and Generous Prince year 1187 together with the Inability which the other Cities found to defend themselves all the Forces of the Kingdom being so imprudently exposed upon one single Hazzard where they all perished was the Reason that in less than three Months all the other Cities except Tyre Ascalon and Jerusalem yielded and submitted themselves to the Will of the Conqueror He made some little Offer to besiege Ascalon but seeing that Place which was as the Bulwork of the Realm against Egypt was extraordinary strong and well defended he was in the Opinion that if he must imploy his Forces against these three Cities which remainded yet untaken it was much better to begin with the Capital City For he well hoped that after the taking of that the two others seeing themselves separated from one another at the two Extremities of the Kingdom would quickly follow the Fortune of Jerusalem It was then about the middle of September that Saladin came to encamp before Jerusalem with the most powerful and numerous Army that he had ever before had sierce with his Victories and rich with the Spoils of the Vanquished and despising the pitiful Remainders of those who were shut up in the Capital City which he looked upon as the End of his Labours and the Subject of his Future Triumph There was in the City the Queen Sybilla the patriarch Heraclius and Renaud Lord of Sidon or Sajetta who escaped from the Battle and was suspected to be a Accomplice in the Treason of Count Raymond And that which without doubt was a very unlucky Presage to this poor City was that besides the frighted Citizens who trembled to see such a formidable Enemy at their Gates there were but a very inconsiderable Number of Soldiers who had escaped the Defeat and the Inhabitants of the little Villages and Neighbouring Burroughs who were come thither for Refuge Saladin immediately caused the Besieged to be summoned to surrender the City proposing to them Examples of others who had experienced his Clemency Equity and that inviolable Fidelity with which he always kept his Word and Promise He promised them also that besides those advantageous Conditions which he had granted to others and which he offered to them he would confer greater Favours upon them he would maintain the
Priviledges the Honours and the Dignities which they injoyed under their Kings These were honourable Terms and though the Defendants had not overmuch Courage yet they had some Shame left to prevent their yielding so soon So that an Answer was given like men of Bravery that they were resolved to defend the Place to the last Extremities But this Courage was not lasting being but counterfeit For Saladin having for ten days together made continual false Attacks upon the West to draw thither the greatest Number of the Defendants did at the same time batter the Walls where they were weakest and almost ruinous upon the North Part of the City So that having made a large Breach and that they saw he was now preparing for a General Assault the Besieged sent out to him to capitulate upon the Fourteenth day of the Siege Saladin who was determined to take not to ruin the City admitted the Treaty and at last it was finished though with Conditions much less favourable and advantageous then those which they were offered before For now he was resolved that every own should redeem his Liberty by paying a certain Imposition or Poll-Money according to the difference of Ages and Conditions That all the Franks and Latins with such as were descended from them should depart the City and not be suffered to carry away any more of their Goods then what they could bear upon their Backs And that no Christians except Greeks Syrians Armenians and Jacobites should for the Future be permitted to inhabit there There never was a Spectacle more moving or more lamentable then to see so many People of all sorts of Conditions constrained to quit the Holy City which their Fathers had so gloriously conquered and for which they never before had that Tenderness and Passion as now that they must leave it But this is the usual Folly of Mankind that they rarely perfectly know the Good things which they possess with Ease till they are upon the Point of relinquishing them for ever During the whole Night which was to usher in that Gloomy day of parting nothing was to be heard but the Groans the Lamentations and the Howlings of Despair year 1187 the piteous Cries of the Women and Children the men the Youths and the Aged who deplored the Misfortune of the Holy City which was now to be delivered into the Hands of the Infidels and their one Exile which in those sad Moments they could not but look upon as the greatest of their Punishments Above all it was the Greatest Difficulty for them to leave the Holy Sepulchre which they bedewed with their Tears and gave it those last Kisses which were to bid it eternally farewel Then was to be seen the weeping Mothers loaden with their little Infants who must now march out before they could go the Husbands supporting them with one Hand and with the other leading those which were but just able to go the stronger carrying on their Backs those whom either Age or Weakness had made impotent and the Remainder every one carrying the Money and the most portable of their best Moveables which they had in this Order marched out of the City every one loaden with something which either Nature or Piety Necessity or Charity obliged them to take Care of In this time Saladin who would not make his Entry into the City till all the Franks and Latins were departed obliged them by his Presence to make the more hast for such was the Vanity of this Proud and insulting Conqueror that he would himself assist at this deplorable Spectacle which he considered as one of the fairest Flowers in his Triumphant Gerland The Patriarch with all the Clergy of Jerusalem marched first in a Condition far different from that wherein he was accustomed to appear upon the solemn days with the sacred Wood of the true Cross which the Emperor Heraclius had formerly recovered from the Infidels and which was now unhappily newly fallen into their Hands again under this unfortunate Prelate Heraclius according to the Remark which was pubickly made by one upon him who justly reproached him with the Disorders of his Life so little conformable to the Sanctity of his Character After him came the Queen Sybilla accompanied with the two little Princesses her Daughters and all the People of Quality Saladin who was Civil and Courteous much above what could be expected from one of his Nation who generally were not guilty of being over polished in their Manners descended from his Throne and receiving her with abundance of Honour and Respect gave her all the Consolation she was capable of in her great Misfortune by the Hopes which he made her entertain of the Liberty of her Husband upon a reasonable Composition He also according to his Promise gave her a good Convoy to conduct her and her whole Retinue to Ascalon whither she resolved to retire After this he saw the Common People pass bye whose sad Equipage and miserable Condition and above all the Woful Cries of some Women touched him so nearly that the Generous Compassion which he had made him in this Rencounter do an Action which the Roman Historians would have judged worthy of the Vertue of the Heroes of Ancient Rome For as in this general Grief and Sorrow which sadly appeared through the whole Company of these poor afflicted Exiles he observed that the Women and the young Ladies of Quality as well as the rest who had nothing of the noble Air beheld him after a manner infinitely touching whilest with piteous Cryes and their Hands stretched out towards his Throne they seemed in that posture of Suppliants to beg some Favor from him whereupon he commanded all the Company to stop and sent to know of these Ladies what it was which they desired of him They returned in Answer that besides the Subject of their Sadness and Affliction which was common to them with the rest of their Nation who were turned out of their Habitations and this beloved City they had something which was more particular having lost in the Battle of Tiberias some their Husbands others their Fathers or near Relations who possibly might be in the number of the Captives They therefore most humbly Requested of his Majesty that he would not deprive them of that last Refuge which they had after the loss of their Estates in the Persons of those who were so dear unto them and so necessary to them in that Extremity of Misery and Poverty to which they now found themselves reduced Whereupon that generous Prince who had nothing Barbarous except his Birth when his Choler to which he was too much a Subject permitted him to be himself was so nearly touched with the Words and the Tears of these poor afflicted Ladies year 1187 that he instantly commanded that diligent Search should be made among the Prisoners and that such as they named if they were found there should be imediately set at Liberty and bestowed upon their Intercessions and their charming Tears and
to the Camp which with the Forces of the Levant and other Succours come from Europe made more than three hundred thousand men that they were reduced into a worse Condition than before by this fatal Discord which divided all the Christian Lords and armed them one against the other The Knights of the Temple the Duke of Burgundy all the Party of the Marquis Conrade and the Germans declared themselves for Philip. Richard had of his Party besides his own Subjects the Hospitallers the Pisans and those among the Levantine Princes who favoured Guy de Lusignan the Flemings who were for the Young Baldwin the Nephew of their deceased Earl and who some twelve Years after obtained the Empire of Constantinople as also some French men among others Henry Earl of Champagne whom Richard had gained by his excessive Liberalities so that the Camp seemed more dangerously besieged than the City being attacked from without by the Army of Saladin and more miserably within by this fearful Division which had ruined all unless God who was resolved to crown the Zeal of these two great Princes notwithstanding all the disorders of their Passions had appeased this Tempest and unexpectedly brought a Calm among them by the undertaking of some of the Wisest and most prudent Persons of both Armies who made a Composure of all Differences between the two Kings on this manner It was ordained That they should confirm their former Treaty and most inviolable and exactly keep it on one side and the other That they should devide between them whatsoever they should take from the Infidels That when one of the two Kings should give an Assault to the City the other should oppose Saladin in defending the Lines and for the difference between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis de Montferrat it should be referred to the Determination of certain Judges equally chosen on both sides And not long after a solemn Judgement was rendred thereupon by which it was decreed That Guy de Lusignan should for the remainder of his Life continue King of Jerusalem but that his Children if he should marry again should have no sort of Pretentions to that Crown the Reversion and Succession whereof should remain to the Marquis and those Children he should have by the Princess Isabella his Lady Sister to the late Queen Sybilla That in the Interim he should have the Moity of the Revenues of the Realm together with the Principalities of Tyre of Sydon and Baruth by holding them of the Crown and that Geoffry de Lusignan should upon the same Conditions hold the Counties of Jaffa and Caesarea This being done and the Peace in this manner confirmed at least in Appearance between the two Kings nothing was now thought upon but how to press forward the Siege and it was done with so much Vigor by continual battering the Walls both Night and Day and redoubling the Attacks that the Besieged Sarasins now dispairing to be able long to defend the Place against so great Forces as were now become unanimous offered to surrender provided they might be assured of their Lives and Liberty to retire whither they pleased without carrying any thing away with them more than their wearing Apparel The Kings who were assured they could carry the Place thought to make a considerable Advantage of that dispair to which so many Brave men were reduced whom they believed Saladin would not suffer to perish and therefore would hearken to no Terms unless Saladin would restore the true Cross Jerusalem and all the Cities which he had taken after the Battle of Tyberias Saladin who was obliged to turn his Arms against the Son of Noradin who attempted to take from him Mesopotamia was willing to consent to these very Terms provided that the Kings should assist him against his Enemies in Person with thirty thousand Men nay he was contented that it should be done by their Lieutenants and with fewer Troops to which he would join his provided they would serve him one Year But whether the two Kings judged it unworthy of their Majesty which they thought must suffer an Abasement in serving an Infidel or that the Son of Noradin on the other side solliciting them to joyn with him against Saladin They believed that by such a favourable diversion they should be able with Ease to take from him all those Cities they absolutely refused these Conditions And therefore they began now more furiously than ever to attack the City in one of which Assaults Alberic Clement Mareschal of France after he had already gained the Walls was slain in the City year 1191 That which was of mighty Service to the Besiegers was that a disguised Christian who was in the Town and who was one of the Council gave them frequent Advertisement by Letters which he threw into the Camp of all the Resolutions which were taken by the Sarasins so that all their Enterprises being discovered were rendred ineffectual but this Important Service was never recompensed in regard the Intelligencer could never be known after the taking of the City which was at last constrained to surrender For on the one hand Saladin who was obliged to retire had sent to them to make the best Terms they could on the other there was no more Expectation of Succour for them by the Sea where the Christians were absolute Masters and the French who by prodigious Labour had drawn their Mines to the very Foundations of the Wicked Tower and the eleventh of July had overthrown all the Walls and were just now ready to set Fire to the Wooden Pillars which supported it therefore the sive Admirals or Emirs who commanded the Garrisons Caracos Mesiock Helsedin Limathos and Jordic hung out a Flag of Parley and after having treated with the Commissioners of the two Kings the next morning the Agreement was perfected in these Articles That they should immediately surrender the place with all the Gold Silver and Moveables the Ammunition Arms and Provisions which were in it without retaining any thing to themselves more than their wearing Apparel That they should procure from Saladin the true Cross together with all the Christians which he detained Captives and that he should pay to the two Kings one hundred thousand of those pieces of Gold which were called Besans from the Name of Constantinople otherwise called Bysance where they were minted with the Effigies of the Greek Emperor that in Expectation of the Performance of the Treaty they with the whole Garrison should remain Prisoners at War and that if Saladin did not in forty days accomplish these Articles they should be wholly at the Discretion of the two Kings who should dispose of their Lives and Liberties as they should judge convenient Thus was the City of Ptolemais or Acre taken at the last by the Christians after one of the longest and most memorable Sieges which have been ever seen and with the loss of as many brave men as might have conquered all Asia for besides an Infinite Number of
with all the Forces of his Realm joyned to the Troops of Valeran and those which in such hast he could raise at Acre But by a most sad Misfortune as he looked out of a Window of the Palace to see the Troops march bye and thrust himself out of the Casement to give Orders to some of the Officers the Frame of the Window upon which he leaned brake and with its Fall drew him along so falling headlong upon the Pavement he broke his Neck the accident being so sudden Violent and Surprizing that neither those about him above or those beneath could once think to lay hold on him or indeavour to break his Fall this deplorable Accident gave a stop to the intended Succors so that they could not make that hast in their March which the Occasion required And as it usually happens that one Misfortune follows another the Garrison of the besieged City making an unfortunate Sally Saphadin counterfeiting a Flight drew them so far that with his Horse he cut off their Retreat and then turning head upon them he attacked them so furiously on all sides that they were all cut in Pieces After which forcing the City without much Resistance he put all the Christians in it to the Sword and to deliver himself at once from the Fears of this dangerous Post which might so much incommode Jerusalem he caused the City to be intirely ruined from the very Foundations Whilest these Matters were transacting the Dukes of Saxony and Brabant with the other Princes of the Crusade being arrived at Ptolemais a Councel of War was held where it was determined to march immediately against Saphadin in regard that his Army being at present Master of the Field after his Victory and that he had equipped a powerful Navy in Egypt consequently if they did not indeavour presently to remove him by giving him Battle he must of necessity hinder all manner of Passage of Provisions both by Sea and Land whereby they should be reduced to great Extremities at Acre They were not long searching for an Opportunity for Saphadin understanding that the Christians to draw to him to a Combat advanced towards the City of Baruth which he was obliged to relieve being extreme brave and his Army since the taking of Jaffa very much augmented he took the same Resolution of fighting them and to meet them half way he descended from the Mountains of Antilchanon to the Plain by the Sea there to oppose them in their Passage So that the two Armies happening to Rencounter between Tyre and Sidon the Battle was fought in the plain Field with an incredible Courage on the one side and the other and with far more Obstinacy on the part of the Sarasins than had ever been known in any of the preceding Wars For as they were grown very Martial having for so long time been accustomed to Wars without any Interruption either against the Christians or against those of their own Nation since the Death of Saladin and their civil Broils so they were mightily animated by the happy Success which they had met with in the Siege of Jaffa and Saphadin who commanded them forgot nothing upon this Occasion that could be expected from a compleat General and one of the gallantest Men in the World So that their Efforts were wholly extraordinary whilest they indeavoured to follow the Example of so great a Captain and to preserve the Glory and Advantage which they had already gained On the other side the Germans who were no less Brave and much better armed than these Barbarians and who had at the Head of them so many great Princes who animated them not only with their Voice and Gesture but by the gallant Actions which they saw them perform combated so generously and so briskly pursued their Point continually pressing upon the Enemy without so much as recoiling a single Step or making the least Halt as determining either to overcome or perish that in Conclusion the Sarasins who were never before known for so long time to maintain a standing Fight against the Christians of Europe were put into Disorder and in a few Moments after to an intire Rout and downright Flight leaving all the Field covered with the Bodies of the Slain among whom were two Sons of Saladin year 1196 and more than threescore Emirs Saphadin himself being also supposed to be slain nor was it without great Difficulty that he escaped being grievously wounded after he had that day done all that became a great Captain and a gallant Soldier This glorious Victory was followed by the Reduction of the greatest part of the Cities which the Sarasins had seized Sidon Laodicea in Syria Giblet and several other Places of lesser Importance either surrendred themselves or were taken without much Difficulty So that they had Time and Covenience to repair the Ruines of Jaffa year 1197 where a strong Garrison was placed thereby to make sure of a Post so advantageous and necessary for the Conquest of Palestine At the same time one of the Sons of Saladin who was Master of Jerusalem sent to the Princes to offer his Alliance making a shew as if he intended to renounce his Sect and become a Christian but whether with an intention only by this Artifice to amuse them and to divert the furious Tempest of their Arms which he feared was ready to be poured upon his Head or that in reallity his Intention was to joyn with the Christians to revenge himself of his Uncle Saphadin who before had made War upon him and indeavoured his Ruin is uncertain There also happened at the same time another unexpected piece of good Fortune to the Christians for as in prosecution of their first Intention they came within view of Baruth which they designed to Besiege they saw appear the Christian Fleet commanded by the Archbishop of Mayence which returned from the Isle of Cyprus whither they had sailed to Crown and bring along to Palestine Emeri who had succeeded to Guy de Lusignan his Brother who was lately deceased without any Children Upon the sight of these two mighty Armies which at the same time appeared before the City the Sarasins altho they had there a very strong Garrison were so dismaid that they suffered the Castle to be taken by the Christian Captives who in that Consternation found means to knock off their Irons and in Conclusion the Infidels dispairing to be able to Defend the Place made hast to save themselves by abandoning the Town to the Conquerors who there found an inestimable Booty There the Princes to give a Chieftain to the Realm of Jerusalem and a Successor to Count Henry without much Trouble persuaded Queen Isabella to Marry Emri de Lusignan who was her fourth Husband and who joyned the Crown of Cyprus to that of Jerusalem Hitherto all things succeeded most admirably to the Army of the Princes of the Crusade and if after this happy beginning they had marched straight to Jerusalem it is almost certain that in
those two which were commanded by the Marquis Boniface and Matthew de Montmorency were placed in Battalia between the City and the Camp as well to guard it from Surprise as to sustain those who made the Attack The four others commanded by the Earl of Flanders and Prince Henry his Brother the Counts of Blois and St. Paul gave a furious Assault to the out Wall which was vigorously defended by the stranger Soldiers whose Courage was quite different from that of the Greeks the Combat was long and obstinately maintained on both Sides the Engines all this time playing with horrible Fury and one of the Towers which was half overthrown by Mining and a part of the Wall was gained fifteen brave Knights with two stout Soldiers being the first that mounted them presently planting their Ensigns there they fought for some time with their Swords and Battle-Axes against those who in great Numbers came to dislodge them but not receiving timely Succors being oppressed by Multitude they were at last forced to leap from the Walls leaving two of their Company Prisoners with the Enemies who immediately carried them to the Emperor as a mighty Pawn of an assured Victory But the News which was at the same time brought of the good Success of the Venetians on their side gave so much Joy and so inflamed the Hearts of the French with Courage and Emulation that they renewed the Attack with more Fury than before till such time as a terrible Cloud of Dust which advanced towards them from the West and the sound of the Trumpets the neighing of Horses and the noise of an infinite number of People which they heard but could not well descern obliged them to quit the Assault and put themselves in a posture of Defence It was the Emperor Alexis who compelled by the Cries and the Murmurs of the People and Soldiers who openly reproached him with his Cowardice and by the Fear which he had lest they should fall upon him and pull him in pieces was at last sallied out of Constantinople with above sixty great Battalions sustained by all his Cavalry to charge the Army in the Rere if they should continue the Assault or to give them Battle in the open Field if they should dare to expect it not doubting in the least but that he should be able to surround them and cut them in pieces it being very improbable that six Battalions wearied with a desperate Assault should be able to resist sixty of fresh Men the least of which was incomparably greater than the biggest of the other For this reason the Princes that they might not be attacked but in Front ranged their Troops before the Barriers and Palisado's of their Camp at the Foot of the Hill of Blaquerness resolving there firmly to expect and receive their Enemies without being the least astonished at their Numbers which by Experience they knew consisted in a great many Men but a few Soldiers In the Front stood the Archers and Cross-bows who were sustained by a seventh Battalion composed of two hundred Knights who were Dismounted The other six Bodies followed according to their Order which they had always observed since their Passage over the Bosphorus there were some Companies left in the Camp to prevent its being surprized during the Combat As they were thus drawing up their Troops the Army received with incredible Joy the Reinforcement which the generous Henry Dandolo brought to their Assistance for having understood that the Emperor had made this Sally he caused himself to be immediately Conducted to the Camp which was at no great Distance from his Post with all the Force which he could rally drawing what could be spared from the Towers which he had taken and protesting that he would live and die with his Brethren and brave Companions in Armes That which was still more favourable to the Confederate Army was that the Greeks had no other General but this miserable cowardly Alexis for by a little Frieque of Jealousy and Glory and by a sottish Vanity he would not suffer his Son-in-Law Theodore Lascaris to make one in the Sally for had he Commanded being both a Soldier and a Captain he would with Advantage against so few Enemies have made use of that infinite Number of Hands which remained wholly Unprofitable that Day by reason that their Commander had neither Courage nor Skill enough to manage them to the best Advantage And in reallity year 1203 as he came only with the Hope that he should be able to Oppress the Confederates with Multitude by surrounding them on all Sides being advanced within the Distance of the Darts and Arrows which began already to fly from one side to the other so soon as he saw that they would not ingage in the open Field or be drawn from their Retrenchments he never durst take the Courage once to Attack them but with a shameful Cowardice caused the Retreat to be sounded and towards Evening took the Way towards the City with his great Army that little Handful of Men having the Confidence to follow him for some time in good Order discharging continually upon his Rere he never once turning Head to give them Battle as he might have done in the open Field However to hide his Shame and shelter himself from the Reproaches of the People for this cowardly Action he told them as he entred the City that he had deferred the Combat by reason it was so late and that the next Morning he was resolved to attack the Enemies in their Camp if they had the Courage to expect him But at last as when once Fear and Dispair have once seized upon the Heart of a Man especially an ill Man and that he hath the War which his Guilt hath raised in his Soul though he were surrounded with all the Forces of the Earth and though he have no other Enemy to Combat besides himself and his own Fear yet will he think of nothing but flying and how to save himself Thus this unworthy Prince pursued by his own Conscience instead of preparing for the Encounter the next Morning secretly embarked himself at the Port of the great Palace with a few of his Domesticks all the Gold Silver and the Imperial Ornaments and fled by the Bosphorus and the Euxin Sea to Zagora antiently called Debeltus a City of Thracia at the Foot of Mount Hemus where by reason of his Guilt his Cowardice and the Contempt into which he was fallen having reason to fear some great Revolution in his Fortune he had beforehand assured himself of a Retreat Before Day this Flight was discovered and the People detesting this infamous Cowardice and fearing moreover lest the Army of the Latins making Advantage of this Disorder and such a favourable Conjuncture should by a second Assault take the City by Force ran by Shoals to the Prison where the Tyrant after the Escape of the young Alexis had caused Isaac to be detained and seizing upon the Empress Euphrosine and her Children
Sail for Ptolemais by the Straits of Gibraltar The King of Hungary arrived first at Cyprus about the Feast of the Nativity of our Lady and those who imbarked at the Ports of Brindes Messina and Genoa coming up within a few days he parted from thence accompanied with Hugh de Lusignan King of Cyprus and the Archbishop of Nicosia who had taken upon them the Cross and all together came happily to an Anchor in the Port of Acre After the Army had for some time refreshed themselves about the City where the Bavarians by an ill Beginning and an unlucky Presage of this War committed fearful Disorders upon the Lands of the Christians whom they treated most inhumanely King John de Brienne joyned himself with the Kings of Hungary and Cyprus with those few Troops which he had accompanied with the Knights of the Temple the Hospital and the Teutonick Order And the Truce which had been made with the Sarasins being expired they went and incamped in a convenient Place near the Brook Kison there to take a general Review of their Troops and then to march directly to find out Coradin who had already passed the River Jordan with a powerful Army and made a shew as if he would give the Christians Battle The Patriarch of Jerusalem whose Residence was now in the City of Acre believing that upon this Occasion he ought to imitate his Predecessors who were used to carry the sacred Cross in their Wars before the Kings therefore in the beginning of November being followed by all the Clergy in Procession went to the Camp carrying a part of that sacred Wood which the Christians had preserved For James de Vitri who was afterwards a Cardinal and who before had been Curate of Argentucil near Paris and then of Ogniez in the Diocess of Liege where he was made Canon Regular and at this time was Bishop of Acre and accompanied the Kings in this War assures us that he had heard it of some antient People in Palestine that before the Battle of Tiberias where they fought so unfortunately against Saladin they being according to custom year 1217 to carry the Cross before King Guy de Lusignan he was advised by a certain Presage of the future Loss to cause the sacred Wood to be cut and one part of it to be kept that such a precious Treasure in case it should be taken in the Battle as it happened might not be wholly lost Upon the Approach of the Patriarch the Kings and Princes came out of the Camp and walked barefooted to meet him to receive that sacred Pledge the Instrument whereupon our Salvation was wrought with a marvellous Devotion and perfect Confidence in Jesus Christ who they hoped would in that Sign give them Power to overcome all the Enemies of his holy Name as he had upon it overcome all the Enemies of our Salvation The next Morning the Army being drawn up in Battalia passed the Torrent marching Eastward towards the great Valley of Esdrelon anciently called Megiddo now called the Plain of Faba and that Day advanced as far as the Fountain of Tubany in old time called Jesreel near the City of that Name There the Couriers who were sent to discover the Enemy brought word that they had seen great Clouds of Dust so that it was believed Coradin was advancing to give them Battle That was then the thing which the Army most desired so that very early the next Morning the Army marched to meet the Enemy and entred into the great Valley of Jesreel having the Mountains of Gilboa on the right Hand and the Mount Hermon upon the left with a great Morass at the Foot of it This was a very commodious Post where they might advantageously make the Field of Battle but no Enemy appearing they advanced as far as Bethshan otherwise called Sythopolis a great City lying in a Plain very convenient for the giving Battle between the Mountain of Gilboa and the River Jordan Coradin had been there and incamped in the Plain boasting that there he would fight the Christian Army but when he understood that the Kings were there in Person and that their Army was stronger than his he durst not tempt Fortune by a decisive Blow and therefore following the Orders and the Example of his Father Saphadin who kept himself at Babylon expecting till the Christians should have weakned themselves he was already retired beyond the River the Day before which was the Occasion of the Dust which the Scouts had discovered and thought he had been therefore approaching to meet the Christians But it was the quite contrary for he was then retreating leaving the Country to the Kings who after they had with the whole Army with great Devotion washed themselves in the Waters of Jordan and coasted along the Sea of Tiberias or the great Lake of Genasareth to visit the Places consecrated by the Presence and the Miracles of Jesus Christ they returned about the end of the Month to Ptolemais with a very rich Booty and abundance of Prisoners which they had taken in the Country of the Sarasins But this not being what was expected from so great an Army and there appearing no Enemy to combat with in the Field they resolved to besiege the Fortress which Coradin had built upon the top of Mount Tabor which did extremely inconvenience the City of Acre This Tabor which is so famous in both the old and new Testament is one of the fairest and most pleasant Mountains of the World It raiseth its lofty Head in the middle of a fair Plain in Galilee about some thirty Furlongs in height which is near a League and half of our Measure so that like a Pharus or watch Tower it may be seen at a great Distance by those who sail upon the Sea and also from the top of this Mountain one may discover a great part of the Holy Land especially all the Champion of Galilee the main Ocean the Sea of Tiberias and the Course of the River Jordan All this Prospect lay so exactly round about it that Nature seemed to have pleased herself in forming this pleasant round Circle from the Base whereof Mount Tabor raiseth it self by small Degrees lessening the new Circles with an equal Roundness to the very Top which by reason of its Height looks like a mighty Pyramid to those who are at the Bottom of it It is on all sides very steep and on the North side wholly inaccessible and there is no coming up to it on the other sides but by very strait and difficult Passages And tho it be thus steep and high yet receiving continually the most pure Due of Heaven which falls sweetly from its Top and expands it self downwards it is cloathed particularly towards the West and South with abundance of Trees which are continually Green year 1217 loaden with pleasant Fruits and where the Birds who inhabit in these agreeable Thickets sill the Air with their melodious Songs the Earth which at the Foot of
in a Valley so deeply Sandy and loose that both the men and Horses who were soundly harrassed by the nights march had much difficulty to dragg their Legs out of this deep Sand. The Governour of Gaza who had by his Spies been advertised hereof laid himself in Ambush behind some little Hills and all of a suddain appeared upon the top of them with some of his Squadrons but without advancing as first resolving to observe the Countenance of the Christians And accordingly seeing that they made a Halt and shewed some surprize to find those People in order of Battle whom they had thought to have found asleep in their Beds he commanded some Squadrons to descend and charge them at full Speed and the light Arabian Horses running as freely upon these Sands as if they had been upon firm ground they made a furious discharge of their Arrows and then retreated to their main Body in a little time returning again in greater numbers shooting always without coming nearer than the distance of their Arrows and without danger of being pursued by the Christians who did not without difficulty advance over the heavy Sands so that wheeling and running round about the Army all day they harassed them till Night a Night that was to be spent in Arms without repose and repast and without the Possibility of advancing or retreating and in nothing but miserable trouble and waking dispair in which they were overwhelmed And indeed their Fortune was much more deplorable the next morning when the whole Army of the Sultan being joined to the Garrison of Gaza encompassed them on all sides and without fear attacking the poor Soldiers already half dead and almost unable to carry their Arms they came to charge them with the Sword and Lance. The Christians indeed performed in despight of their Fortune all that could be expected from men of Courage and infinitely above their Strength but there was a necessity that they must yield to multitude with which they were oppressed most of them being either slain or taken that miserable day Henry Count de Bar one of the most Valiant Princes of his time Simon Count de Clermont the Lords John de Barres Robert Malet Richard de Beaumont and many others of the Bravest and most remarkable men remained dead upon the place The Constable Amauri and seventy other great French Lords after having fought most courageously and by their long resistance given an opportunity to the Duke of Burgundy to make his escape were taken Prisoners and carried in Chains to Grand Caire Thus ended this unhappy Jealousie Ambition and Vain Glory which were governed by rashness and Imprudence in this fatal Encounter of our Ancient Worthies whose misfortune may teach all the Gallant men of our times that they can never be truely Brave unless their Courage be regulated by Prudence in the Commanders and Obediences in the Inferior Officers and Soldiers This unfortunate news did so astonish all the rest of the Army which was at Ascalon in no very good understanding among themselves that they presently returned to Ptolemais where the divisions which continued still among them as well as between the Sultans of Egypt and Damascus compleated the loss of all by two most Shameful Treaties with the Infidels For the Templers who had one part of the Army on their side made a Truce with Nazer Sultan of Damascus year 1240 upon condition that he should surrender to them the Castles of Beaufort and Saphet with all the Territory of Jerusalem and that they should assist him with all their Forces against Melech-Salah Sultan of Egypt who had dethroned his Brother Edel to possess himself thereof and the Hospitallers supported by the King of Navarr the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretany and the other part of the Army made a truce quite opposite to this with the Sultan of Egypt against the Sultan of Damascus After which the King of Navarr the Duke of Bretany and the greatest part of the Cusades embarking in the Port of Acre returned into their own Country almost at the same time that Richard Earl of Cornwall Brother to King Henry the third of England arrived in Palestine with good Troops of English Crusades This Prince who following the Example of his Uncle Richard Coeur de Lyon had taken the Cross with a great Party of the Nobility and Gentry of England embarked at Dover about Whitsontide and landing in France passed to Paris where he was magnificently received by St. Lewis who lodged him in his Palace and caused him to be royally treated and conducted to Lyons from whence passing by Roan to Arles where he was to be received by Count Raymond de Provence he came to Marseilles and about the middle of September he imbarked upon the Fleet which he had sent through the Straits and upon the eleventh of October in fifteen days after the departure of the King of Navarr he came to Anchor in the Road of Ptolemais The Sarasins had a strange fear upon them for this Prince whose very name was formidable to them renewing the memory of the famous Richard King of England who by his marvellous Feats of Arms was so terrible to these Infidels that the Women were wont to quiet their Children when they cried with threatning them with King Richard and the Horsemen to make a Skewish boggling Horse go forward would commonly say to him in clapping their Spurrs to him What dost think it is King Richard And certainly his Nephew wanted neither Spirit nor Courage neither Money nor Conduct to support a name so great and so terribly to the Sarasins He did all that could be expected from a very great Prince to put things into a Condition so that it might be hoped the War against the Infidels might be happily prosecuted for within three days after his arrival he caused it to be proclaimed by the sound of Trumpet through the whole City That if any one of those who remained in the Holy Land stood in need of Money he would furnish them during all the time of their Service But he quickly learnt that in the deplorable condition to which matters were reduced by the division which still continued among the principal Officers and above all the Templers and Hospitallers there was no appearance of succeeding by the way of Arms. And therefore seeing that it was impossible to bring them to any agreement and that the Sultan of Damascus did not at all observe the truce whereas he of Egypt offered to continue it with new advantages to the Christians he resolved at last by the advice of the Duke of Burgundy the great Master of the Hospital and the greatest part of the Crusades to accept of it upon these conditions That all the Prisoners an each side and especially those who were taken at the Battle of Gaza should be set at liberty and that the Christians should enjoy certain Lands which the Sultan possessed in Palestine Mean time the Earl whilest he staid for the
of Royal Majesty mingled with true Sanctity of Christianity without Illusion without Weakness and without Defaults And I cannot tell whether one can find another of whom may be said with so much Justice what I have said of this Christian Hero to finish in one word his Character and his Elogy That he Was the greatest King of a Saint and the greatest Saint of a King that ever any age hath known The Army of France was under an extreme consternation for the death of the Holy King and for the Indisposition of Philip his Successor and their was great probability that they should in that very moment abandon this unlucky Enterprise if the King of Sicily who was in a great measure by his long delay the Cause of this ill Success had not by a strange adventure arrived with a fair Fleet at the very same time that his Brother the King breathed out his last As he was a great Captain and that his Army which was composed of Neapolitans Sicilians and Provencals was very fresh and he having still in his head his first design to assure himself of the Kingdom of Tunis in at least making the Sarasin King become his Tributary he easily persuaded the French that it was for their Honour to finish the War which they had begun with so much Courage and which they might bring to a happy period being strengthened by the Conjunction of such a Potent Army as desired nothing so much as to be led to the Combat against the Sarasins Hereupon the Army advanced towards Tunis to block it up more closely and for three Months there were every day some little Encounters with the Moors who always went off with disadvantage And it is also reported that they were once overthrown in a set Battle that their Camp was taken and plundered and that such of them as fled thinking to save themselves in the City blindly precipitated themselves into those trenches which they had digged in the Fields with a design to have the Christians fall into them but in regard those of our Historians who writ in those times say nothing of any such matters I dare not be confident of the truth of them year 1268 That which is very certain is That the King of Tunis seeing that the Christians daily gained upon him and that he was always beaten fearing that in conclusion he should lose his Kingdom he sent to desire a Peace or at least a Truce offering to submit to such conditions as the two Kings themselves should judge to be fair and reasonable This matter was long debated in the Council of War in which many were of opinion that the Siege ought to be vigorously pressed on without hearkning at all to the Proposition of the Sarasin King who they said after the losses which he had sustained was in no Condition for any long time to defend the City But the King of Sicily remonstrated to them That if they should take the Town of which they were not to be too confident yet it was impossible for them to keep it in regard That though the whole Army might be commodiously quartered there it being now very near Winter they could not receive either from Italy or Sicily so much provision as was necessary for the subsistence of the Troops and that if they left there only a Garrison it would not be able to defend it against all the Forces of Africa which would most certainly attack it And therefore he concluded that the way for them to come off with Honor and safety in this Affair was rather to treat with the King of Tunis in an honourable and advantageous manner and like Conquerors rather to give him Law than to put themselves into the manifest danger of losing all Thus in regard that King Philip was also very willing to go as soon as he could to take possession of his Kingdom a Truce of ten years was concluded with this Insidel Prince upon these following Conditions That he should presently pay a round sum of Money upon which they were agreed to defray the Charges of the War That he should deliver all the Christian Slaves which were in his whole Realm That he should permit the Religious of the Orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis to preach the Gospel and to build Monasteries there and to all his Subjects Liberty to receive Baptism And that he should yearly pay to King Charles a Tribute of forty thousand Crowns which was the sum that the King paid to the Pope for the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily See what were the aims of Charles for his private Interest and what it was which made many honest People murmur against him as beleiving that he had no mind to take Tunis because he could not hope to dispose of it as he pleased and that he had not advised this War but for his own Ends to make this Sarasin King his Tributary Prince Edward of England also who arrived before Tunis with his Fleet at the same time that this Treaty was concluded could not hinder himself from making the extreme displeasure which he had at it appear publickly especially when he saw that the Fleets of France and Sicily without thinking any further of their principal design which was the Holy War were upon the point of returning home And indeed so soon as the King of Tunis who was very desirous to quit himself of these People who had put him into the fear of losing his Capital City and his Kingdom had delivered the Captives and paid the Money which was agreed upon by the Treaty the two Kings imbarked Philip with the Bones of his Father which according to the Custom of those times were separated from the Flesh and Charles with the Flesh and Entrals of that Holy King which he caused afterwards to be magnificently interred in the Church of the Abby of Montreal near Palermo And certainly it was very advantageous to these two Kings that they carried with them in their Ships the Sacred Remains of that Saint which preserved them from that Lamentable Wreck which the greatest part of the others suffered in View of the Port of Trepano in Sicily eighteen of the biggest men of War and a great number of smaller Vessels with all the Money which was received of the King of Tunis and above four thousand men were cast away in this Tempest and it was not without great difficulty that the Kings were able to make the Port of Trepano where Thibald King of Navarr who was sick before when he came from Tunis in a few days after his landing died Queen Isabella his Wife the Daughter of St. Lewis did not survive him long for about four Months after she died at Yeres in Provence And for King Philip having taken his way by Land as far as Messina he passed over into Italy and so crossing quite through it and France he came to St. Dennis year 1270 whither he brought the Relicks of the King St. Lewis his Father
of Theodorick the Valiant the Son of Gerard of Alsatia and Duke of high Lorrain And from him in a lineal Descent to this present time are derived all the Princes of that fair Dutchy which not long after his time lost its ancient Name of the Mosellane retaining only that of Lorrain as it doth to this day But whether Godfrey Duke Bossu having no Children adopted his Nephew who was of his own Name and made him his Heir giving him the Earldom of Bullen which belonged formerly to the House of Ardenna or that it came by Ida upon her Marriage with the Earl of Bullen it is most certain the Surname of Bullen which was given to this young Prince hath by him and his Heroick Actions been rendered one of the most Celebrated in the World It is this Glorious Name which in the last Age was so happily Reunited with that of the Tour of Avergne which by a Marriage hath received that of Bullen to restore it to its ancient Lustre as we have seen it by the Virtues the Dignities the great Employments and fair Actions of the Princes of that Noble House As for Prince Godfrey it was impossible for Nature to bestow a more happy Inclination to all sorts of Virtues than which she had given him nor was any thing wanting in his Education which might Contribute to the improvement of that Stock such was the exact Care of his Father who was a most Wise and Virtuous Prince and more especially of his Mother a Lady of a most extraordinary Merit and an Excellent Spirit year 1096 which she had Cultivated also by a Diligence very uncommon to her Sex which she had employed in the Study of all curious Learning and in truth she was a Princess of most admirable Virtue and of a Piety so resplendent that after her death she obtained the glorious Title of a Saint It is said also that by the Assistance of Divine Illumination she did predict the future Greatness of her three Sons Eustace Godfrey and Baldwin For one Day as the Earl her Husband demanded of her what she had hid in her Lap she being playing with the Children she very seriously answered that she had there three great Princes one Duke one King and one Earl which was afterwards Verisied in the admirable Fortunes of these three Princes For Godfrey was Duke of Lorrain and King of Jerusalem Baldwin was King of the same Realm and Prince of Edessa and Eustace whom some will have to be the eldest Brother was Earl of Bullen after the Death of his Father It is also added that she had a strange Dream before the Birth of Prince Godfrey for the Sun seemed to descend from his Heavenly Orb and to fall into her Lap and that she saw her little Son Enthroned in the midst of that Glorious Luminary but it is the Humor of some Writers to render the Nativities of great Men more Illustrious at least as they think by Prodigies and Revelations which after wards the Noble Actions of these Hero's make easily to pass for real Truths especially with Persons who love to divert themselves with matters very Extraordinary and Surprizing But this is most certain which the Countess herself with a great deal of Pleasure was used to relate after the glorious Success which her Sons had in the Holy War that long before there was the least Discourse of the Crusade Prince Godfrey was used to say that he would one day take a Voyage to Jerusalem but not as the poor Pilgrims did only to satisfy his Devotion but as a Captain and a Conqueror at the head of a Puissant Army to Chase the wicked Insidels from that Holy Place Which must needs proceed singly from the impetuosity of his Courage and which considering the Condition of his Fortune very unfit to execute so great a Design may very well pass for a Prophetick Motion and looks like a Presage of that Glory and good Fortune which God had allotted for him and in order to which he seemed beforehand to prepare him by a thousand Beautiful Actions wherein he acquired a most Illustrious Reputation throughout all Europe After the Death of the Duke his Unckle the Emperor Henry the Fourth who pretended that the Dutchy of the Lower Lorrain for want of Heirs Male of the House of Ardenna was devolved to him conferred it upon his Son Conrade leaving nothing to Godfrey besides the Marquisate of Antwerp And on the other side Albert Earl of Namur his Kinsman and Thiery the Bishop of Verdun attempted to take from him Bullen and Verdun So that this Prince who was not yet Seventeen years of Age was compelled to have recourse to an early Valour for the Recovery of one part and the Defence of the other part of his Inheritance And therefore putting himself into the Castle of Bullen which Albert assisted by the Forces of the Bishop of Verdun had besieged he so vigorously repulsed his Enemies in all their attacks that he forced them to a dishonourable Retreat after they had lost the better part of their Army and in the same quarrel he undertook a single Combat against the said Earl in the presence of the Emperor and his whole Court during the Combat he had the Misfortune in making a notable Blow at the Head of his Enemy to break his Sword short within half a foot of the Hilt but notwithstanding this Disaster it was impossible to perswade him to determine the difference upon such terms of accommodation as upon this occasion were tendred to him but pursuing his point he fought with redoubled Ardor till at length having tumbled down his Enemy with a mighty Blow which he gave him with the Pommel of his Sword upon his head being now a Conquerer he accepted that Agreement which before he had generously refused whilest being disarmed he ran the utmost hazzard of being Vanquished And afterwards surmounting those just resentments which he might well have entertained against the Emperour who had so Injuriously deprived him of his Dutchy he nevertheless followed him in those Wars which he made in Germany and Italy whereupon all occasions he rendred him very signal Services and it is reported that he himself took the Imperial Eagle in the Famous Battle against the Saxons who had declared for Emperor Rodolph of Suabia when Victory beginning to declare herself for that Prince he ravished it from him together with his Life by giving him a mortal Wound with the very Cornet which he had newly taken And afterwards when the Emperor took the City of Rome from Pope Gregory the Seventh he was the first man that possessed himself of the breach and thereby Entred the Town They further add that after this falling into a most violent distemper which reduced him to the utmost Extremity of Danger he made a Vow to undertake an Expedition to the Holy Land as not long after did many Princes and Bishops according to the Devotion so much in Vogue at that time and
of General of all his Forces He was a Prince who was dexterously Cunning and a witty Dissembler Covetous and Cruel and one who easily made the Laws of Honour Conscience and Justice comply with humane Policy and whatever seemed to be his present Interest And therefore it is most probable in my Judgment that he having so earnestly requested of the Pope to procure him the Assistance of the Latins against the Turks who were now become Masters of the lesser Asia and threatned the Imperial City that it was his real Design to receive the Crusades and to joyn his Forces with them to Defeat those incroaching and dangerous Neighbours and to recover those Provinces which his Predecessors had lost and that for this Reason he advised Peter by no means to pass into Asia with those raw and undisciplined Men. But in making my Observations out of some of our own Authors I find there were two things which made him change this Opinion and take Measures quite different from his former Resolution The first was that great and indeed prodigious Number of the Crusades and those valiant Men who were expected under the Conduct of the Princes of France of whose Courage and Ambition he was not too well assured For in truth the Pope believing it would be joyful and welcome News to him had given him an account by Letters some time after the Council of Clermont that in a small time he should have on Foot an Army of three hundred thousand Crusades under the Command of those brave Princes whose Names and Qualities he therein recounted to him and that by the Noise which this Design made throughout all the West he believed the Number would be augmented every day But that which gave him the greatest Disturbance of all was that some time after he received Intelligence that the famous Bohemond Prince of Tarentum the Son of Robert Guischard who even in Greece had made War with him so much to his Glory and Advantage was to make one of the Party then immediately the Devil of State-Jealousy entred into and possessed his Soul that this brave Norman Prince might possibly have preingaged all those other Princes and formed such a powerful League amongst them under the Colour of a War against the Infidels to turn all those Arms against himself and following the Traces of his Fathers Design indeavour to deprive him of the Constantinopolitan Empire The second was the insupportable Insolence of this Army of Peasants and Vagabonds which Peter the Hermite and Gautier after a miserable Fashion seemed to Command who indeed were under no manner of Obedience the Emperor Alexis had given them Liberty to Encamp without the Suburbs of Constantinople and to Traffique with his People for all kind of Necessaries at the Price Currant but these Brutes who laughed at the Orders of their Superiors took what Liberty they thought fit and committed the very same Disorders which had been so fatal to them before in Hungary for in five days space they made such a Desolation in the Suburbs of that City and the places adjacent that even the Turks and Saracens themselves could not have done more they Plundered all the beautiful Houses of Pleasure and the magnificent Palaces which were without the City and afterwards burnt them they Sacrilegiously Robbed the Churches stripping them even of the very Coverings of the Lead which they sold to the Greeks These fearful and excessive Brutalities did so fortify the Jealousies of Alexis and so exasperated him against the Latins that without considering that these were only the Scum and Sink of the common People as he very well understood himself he resolved to do all that possibly he could utterly to destroy them and yet so far to dissemble with the Princes as to draw to himself all the Advantages he could from their Conquests And therefore whereas formerly he had Counselled the Hermite to expect the coming up of the rest of the Forces and not to expose himself with those pitiful Troops he was now for having him immediately to pass forwards to the Straits through Bithynia This they did all the way commiting the same Disorder till they came to Nicomedia Plundering Ravaging and Desolating the Lands Houses and the Churches of the Christians against whom these Libertines seemed to make that War which they had vowed to make against the Infidels neither the Fear of God nor the Authority of their Hermite General being in the least available to stop the Torrent of their Fury But God Almighty to vindicate the Honor of his Justice in a little time took Vengeance on them and punished their innumerable Crimes making to perish by the Hands of the Turks those who had so unworthily profaned the Cross which they had undertaken against them For as Peace and Unity cannot long be preserved among wicked Men who are always restless so here it happened For the Spirit of Division falling upon this unruly Army the Italians and Germans separated themselves from the French whose Humor they were not able to support and who in reality treated them with more Arrogance and Contempt and as our own Historians affirm in terms far worse than I relate it therefore abandoning Peter the Hermite they chose for their Captain one Renaud as appeared by his future Conduct one of the loosest and most Wicked of the whole Crew He being imployed in the mountainous Country near Nice took there first a small Village and presently after seized on another large Town which he found forsaken of all its Inhabitants but replenished with abundance of all sorts of Provisions And whilest he there amused himself and his whole Army with Feasting and Jollity the young Soliman Sultan of Nice who upon the Alarm of the coming of the Western Christians had raised a formidable Army composed of the most valiant Turks of all Asia came to Invest him the better part of his Army being before defeated upon Michaelmas day whilest going out under his ill Conduct to surprize the Sultan by an Ambuscade they themselves fell into an Ambuscade of the Turks by whom they were surprized After this the Siege was of no long continuance for the Leud and Cowardly Renaud unable to indure the Extremity of Thirst to which Soliman had reduced the Place by cutting off their Water pretending to go out upon a Parly went and rendered himself with his Followers to the Enemies and turned Turk after which the others were forced to Surrender themselves upon Discretion And that which is the most deplorable and remarkable piece of Divine Vengeance is that those Persons who had by their enormous Crimes rendred themselves unworthy of the Grace of God generally imitating their wicked Captain renounced their Faith to save their Lives There were divers nevertheless upon whom God had so much Compassion who abhorring that detestable Apostacy chose to obliterate the shame of their former wicked Lives by a glorious Death to which they generously offered themselves for the sake of Christ Jesus
Geoffrey of Aigremont and the most valiant William of Paris The Infidels left there upon the place besides a prodigious number of the Arabs and their other ordinary Soldiers above three thousand of the principal persons of Quality among the Turks being those who of all the Infidels fought the most valiantly in that Battle The Victorious Army after having refreshed themselves two days in this Valley year 1097 now famous for this glorious Victory put themselves upon their March advancing towards Syria all the way following the Track of the flying Sultan and this Prince having after the Battle met with ten thousand fresh Arabians which came to Reinforce him and upon the Road having called the scattered Fugitives he applied himself to lay all the Country wast through which the Christian Army was to march this reduced them to extream Want especially in their Passage over the Mountains and the Deserts so that the defect of Provisions and the Thirst occasioned by the excessive Heats reduced them to those Extremities that five hundred Persons died in one day and almost all the Horses perished But at last having gotten out of those Straits they arrived about Antioch in Pisidia which surrendered to them without Resistance as did most of the other Cities in their Passage through Lycaonia Cappadocia and Armenia For the generality of the Inhabitants being Christians and the Turks not daring to appear in the Field being baffled in all the Rencounters upon the Way and therefore unable to protect them those places sent to the Princes to render themselves to their Protection they received the Princes with all sort of Submission and by a thousand Testimonies of Rejoycing made it appear with what infinite Pleasure they saw themselves delivered from the insupportable Yoak of Slavery which had been imposed upon them by the Infidels And therefore seizing upon Iconium Cesaria in Cappadocia sometimes a famous City though now almost wholy Ruinous Heraclia upon the Frontier of Cilicia the Princes placed Governors in them retaining them under their own Jurisdiction For they thought themselves wholy disengaged from the Oath which they had made to the perfidious Alexis who had not observed in any sort the Agreement which he had sworn to them Thus it must happen to such cowardly Princes who not believing themselves obliged to submit to the Laws which they themselves have made and to which they have given their most solemn Faith they gain nothing in conclusion by their Dissimulation but the Disappointment of their Expectations and the unprofitable Shame by breaking their Word of being esteemed dishonest and unworthy Men. Whilest the Army refreshed themselves in Pisidia after such Toyls and Hardships Prince Godfrey had like to have been lost by a strange Accident which however redounded in conclusion much to the Honour of this Prince advancing his Reputation Courage and Nobleness which appeared even to Admiration upon this dangerous Occasion For one day entring alone upon Horseback into a Wood where he hoped to have the Pleasure of entertaining himself some Moments in Solitude he heard the Voice of a Man who cried out for Help with all his Power and advancing to the place from whence the Noise came he presently understood the Cause for he perceived it was a poor Soldier who coming to cut Wood was running quite almost out of Breath round about a great Tree to save himself from the merciless Jaws of a monstrous and furious Bear year 1097 which was just ready to seize upon him Godfrey did not long deliberate what he was to do but transported with his Courage and his Charity to see the Danger of one of his Soldiers he spur'd on his Horse with his Sword in his hand towards the cruel Beast who abandoning her first Prey with her Eyes inflamed and her gaping Jaws and the terrible Claws of her two fore Paws advanced towards him and raising herself upon her hinder Feet to throw herself upon the Horse but being affrighted with the glittering Sword to avoid the Blow she fell sidelong yet so that Horse and Man came over her she catched hold of the Dukes Coat to draw him towards her but Godfrey nimbly recovering his Fall and seizing upon her left Paw which she had thrust out to lay hold upon him he plunged his Sword up to the very Hilt in the Belly of this monstrous Enemy when at the same time one of his Gentlemen named Husequin who was following the Hounds came running in at the horrible Cries of the Bear and the Soldier and put an end to the Life of the Beast already overthrown by the terrible Blow which she had received but the Duke having in drawing his Sword after his Fall from between his Leggs given himself a cruel Wound in his Thigh which during the heat of the Combat he never perceived he had lost so much Blood that after the heat of his Spirits which kept him up began to remit he immediately sunk down in a Swoon This Accident tho in consequence not Dangerous yet spread a mighty Consternation throughout the Army as if all had been lost For altho he had not the absolute Command of a General there being so many Princes and the Sons of two Kings so that all things were done by Consent and an equality of Power yet nevertheless he had so much Authority and so much Deference was given to his Judgment that one shall not need to make any Scruple in saying he was the Chief especially since the Battle of the Gorgonian Valley where by his Valour he not only faved the Army of Bohemond but gained the Christians a most glorious Victory by snatching it out of the hands of the Infidels when they were just upon the point of consummating it But not long after it so happened that Ambition Jealousie and the desire of Revenge three Passions far more dangerous than the most furious Beasts produced Effects more deplorable to the Christian Army than what had like to have befallen them by this monstrous Bear who failed in his Attempt against the Duke who was the Soul and Spirit of the Army For while they lay in Pisidia refreshing themselves waiting the Recovery of the Duke his Brother Baldwin and Tancred two young Princes whom the love of Glory had already rendred Rivals entred into Cilicia by two different Ways with two little Armies to make themselves Masters of such Places as they could Conquer which by the Consent of the other Princes they were to hold and establish there their little Principalities Tancred who took the more easy way all along the Sea Coast came first before Tarsus the Capital City of that Province and having beaten the Turkish Garrison who came out to sight him the Inhabitants who were for the most part Christians submitted to him and planted his Ensigns upon one of the principal Towers of the City Baldwin who followed by the long and difficult way of the Mountains came in just as these matters had passed and was taken by Tancred
Orontes all the way of its passage watring the inward part of the City for these two mountains and two other lesser Hills were all within the Circumference of the Walls which were of an extraordinary height and thickness and defended by above four hundred fair Towers a mighty deep Ditch and a Counter-Scarp well fortified with Palisado's and invironed with a Morass and Pools of water in those parts where by reason of their lying upon the plain the Avenues to the City lay more easie of access And besides all this there was a powerful Army of Turks within the place for its defence as also two Castles upon the Mountain in one of which was the Palace of Sultan Accien who reigned in Antioch fourteen years after the Turks had taken it from the Sarasens and as he had a long time to foresee that the Army of the Christians must come upon him in their passage into Palestine he had used all imaginable diligence to furnish himself which all things necessary to sustain a long Siege hoping in that time to receive great succours from the Turkish Princes and especially the Sultan of Persia who had promised not to fail him and whom Soliman was gone to solicit in the common Cause year 1097 And that which rendred this attempt most extream difficult was not only the Greatness but the Situation of the City which would not admit of being wholly invironed but that there was free Egress and Regress for Succours to come to the besieged The Christian Army consisted not now in above three hundred thousand men the Sieges the Battles the Diseases and Disertions and other losses which they had sustained in their Passage over the Mountains and Deserts together with the Garrisons which they were obliged to put in the conquered Places had reduced them to one half but nevertheless the Princes according to the resolution which they had taken did not cease to form the Siege in this following manner All the South side was left open by reason that it was impossible to attack the City on that side in regard of the Rock and Mountains which rendred the Passage inaccessible So that they were contented to environ it on the side of the Plain beginning at the foot of the Mountain on the East and so drawing by the North towards the West between the Town and the River which in that part for about a mile came so near the Western part that it served for a Ditch upon that Quarter Prince Bohemond and Tancred took their Post over against the Eastern Gate called St. Paul's Gate through which they go to the famous and delightful Suburb of Daphne sometimes so celebrated for the Temple and Oracle of Apollo and afterwards much more for the Tomb of that illustrious Martyr Babylas who silenced the Devil for ever giving any more doubtful Answers to the foolish Inquirers Hugh the Great the Duke of Normandy the Earl of Blois and the Earl of Flanders were posted at the Right drawing more towards the North to the Port commonly called the Dogs Gate The Earl of Tholose with the Bishop of Pavia were encamped before that Gate and possessed all the space between that and the third Gate which afterwards was called the Dukes Gate by reason that Duke Godfrey with his Lorrainers and Germans was posted there his Quarters being extended to that place where the Orontes beginning to turn from the North to the West slides down by the Walls of Antioch so that the greatest part of the Army was encamped between the Town and the River which was there passed by a large stone Bridge just over against the fourth Gate of the Town which was therefore called the Bridge Gate This Gate was also open to the besieged as well as that of St. Georges upon the West by reason that the River was between these two Gates and the Besiegers who by an Error not easily to be excused did not at first raise good Forts against these two Gates as afterwards something with the latest they were constrained to do But this Failure was nothing in comparison of another far greater and which cost the whole Army very dear For the besieged making no manner of Sallies to hinder their Approaches and seeming to be buried in a profound Quiet not so much as bringing one Engine to the Walls for their Defence they in appearance looked as if they had lost all their Courage and their Hope so that it was the Common Imagination that the Christians could not fail presently to make themselves Masters of the Town So that hereupon they took the Liberty to ramble up and down the Country year 1097 and to straggle all over the Villages round about to make merry and without any necessity to wast that mighty plenty of provisions with which that fertile Soil abounded and in short they neither kept Order nor Discipline in the Camp partly by reason of the false opinion which possessed them that this contemptible Enemy would surrender the Town without a Blow but principally by the misfortune that both Duke Godfrey and Prince Raymond were fallen sick which had like to have intirely ruined their Affairs year 1097 The Enemies quickly advertised by their Spies of this disorder failed not to make advantage of it they began at last after so long a silence to make a mighty noise with their Engines and afterwards instantly to assail the Camp upon all Quarters so that the besiegers seemed now to be besieged Their Cavalry fallying at the Bridge-Gate over-ran that Quarter which was beyond the River cutting in pieces all those whom they found dispersed and without Arms as if it had been in a time of perfect Peace Nor was it possible for their Companions to succour them in regard that they must either by swimming or fording come to their Assistance neither of which could quickly be performed Others of them made Sallies either openly and in good Order assaulting the Quarters which were negligently guarded or by surprize creeping along the River side and the Marish among the Reeds they fell upon such as were idly walking or diverting themselves in the Gardens and Orchards as if they had not been in an Enemies Country In this manner the unfortunate Alberon Archdeacon of Mets a young Prince of the Blood Imperial miserably perished for as he was walking with a Lady of great Quality in one of these Gardens he was surprized by the Infidels who cut off his head and carried the Lady Prisoner into the City where after the barbarous Villains had committed all the Outrages imaginable against her Honor they cut off her head also and threw them into Godfrey's Camp After which the Besiegers ashamed to be so affronted by the mistake of the Courage of their Enemies began now to act after new Measures and recalling their Ancient Vertue to think of taking the City in good Earnest They therefore began to attack it by main Force with all sorts of Engines and gave a general Assault with all the
Bridge-Gate And meeting with these disorderly Souldiers in the Plain loaden with Provisions and without other Arms than their Swords they fell in among them and notwithstanding all the Valour of Count Raimond and the Prince of Tarrentum they could not stop the Rout but that the Souldiers fled towards the Mountains leaving all their Provisions and a thousand of their Companions dead upon the place year 1098 Godfrey who was immediately advertized of this Disaster by some who fled with the first took a Party resolving immediately to charge the Turks whom he doubted not with the Joy of their Victory and the Greediness of the Booty to find in sufficient Disorder drawing out therefore four Batalions sustained with all the Cavalry at the head of whom were Hugh the Great the Duke of Normandy and the Earls of Flanders and Bullen he passed the Bridge of Boats and marched directly towards the Enemies with all the Marks of Hope and Courage in the way he joyned the two Princes whom he had given over for lost and who after they had unprofitably used their utmost Efforts to rally their Fugitives had disingaged themselves very fortunately from the Turks In the mean time Accien who had an account of this Victory and who from one of the Towers of his Castle observed this great Movement of the Crusades began to be in pain for the return of his Men he therefore commanded the greatest part of his Army to sally out to their Relief He conducted them himself to the Gate and giving order to have it shut after them he thus addressed himself to the Souldiers That after the advantages which their Companions had had against their Enemies it would be a shame to them to think of Precautions or to assure themselves of a Retreat that this was the time that they must think of nothing but Victory or Death and that they should never see this Gate opened to them but after an intire Conquest of their Enemies On the other side Godfrey who marched but slowly at the Head of his Troops having understood by the hasty return of his Scouts that the Conquerors who had joyned the Succours from the Town drew near loaden with their Booty drawing his Sword and turning to his Men after he had cast a fierce and menacing look towards the Enemy he cryed Follow me It is the Will of God Giving them to understand by this action that upon this occasion they should trust to their Swords only without using either Lances or Arrows Whereupon all the Souldiers in an instant drawing their Swords and making a kind of Penthouse of their Bucklers against the Arrows of the Infidels who running hither and thither incessantly discharged upon them they marched gravely neither with Precipitation nor Heaviness till they came up to the Enemies at Swords point thereby rendring their Bows and Arrows useless The Barbarians terrified with this confident March which put them out of their way of sighting and took away the Service of their Bows they presently recoiled upon their Reserves who were come to relieve them and being incumbred with the Spoils they had taken were in no condition to resist the Swords of the Christians against whom they did not much delight to combat but at a distance so that the Fight was not very long for after the first Squadrons of the Enemy were repulsed the Christians fell into the middle of them with their Infantry and on all hands made a most horrible Slaughter of these miserable Wretches with the mighty Blows of the Sword so that they were totally routed some flying to the Mountains others towards the City not dreaming that the Gate was shut against them Here it was that Despair and the fatal Necessity of vanquishing or dying which Accien had denounced against them made them renew the Combat in the view of the whole Town which ran to the Walls and stood there as in an Amphitheatre to be Spectators and Witnesses either of their shame in being vanquished or of their Glory in being Victors For Godfrey after he was pretty well assured of the Victory had disingaged himself from the Combat with a Design to prevent the Runaways getting into the Town by cutting off their Retreat and therefore being got to a rising Ground near the Bridge he flew like Lightning among his Enemies who fled at full Speed thinking he had been at their Heels who was at their Head to stop their Cariere Never was there seen any thing comparable to the Effects of that extraordinary and prodigious Force which Nature had bestowed upon this Prince there was not one Blow of his terrible Sword which did not carry a dreadful Death along with it here he made a Head with the Cask that was on it roll off from the Shoulders there a whole Arm with the Cimiter which it yet grasped some he cleft down to the very Shoulders others he cut asunder in the Middle filling all with Horror Blood and Terror year 1098 which way soever he turned himself and at the same time the other Princes who pursued the Fugitives with their Swords at their Backs finding them stopped by the Squadron of Godfrey made a most dreadful Slaughter among them or whilest they indeavoured to save their Lives made them lose them in a manner as dreadful for they constrained them blindly to precipitate themselves into the Orontes where the Soldiers dispatched them with their Pikes which the poor Wretches could no way escape but by Swimming The Places adjacent resounded with the lamentable Cries and the Tumult of the Barbarians dying either in the Field or in the River which began to be discoloured with the Blood of the Slain and the Noise was Ecchoed by those who from the Walls saw the woeful Slaughter of their Companions so that in conclusion Accien was obliged to open the Gate to help those who could to make their Escape by the Bridge into the Town It was upon this Occasion that Godfrey performed an Action of which the whole Earth talks as of a Prodigy of Strength and Valour and which I should not have adventured to have given a place to in this History if it were not attested both by all the Writers of that Age and by the Testimony of so many Eye-Witnesses of its Truth One of the principal Captains of the Enemies of a Stature much exceeding the common transported with Fury to observe that Godfrey kill'd all that came within the reach of his terrible Sword at the entry of the Bridge where he had posted himself to obstruct the Passage and that the Turks to avoid his dreadful Blows threw one another headlong into the River he ran up to him foaming with Rage with his Sword advanced in the Air and with all his force discharged so terrible a Blow upon the Duke that he split his Shield in two pieces which he had opposed to it to ward it off his Head when Godfrey raising himself upon his Stirrups gave him such a furious Reverse that his
Pretensions to Antioch did not in the least oppose this Resolution by reason that he was well assured that all this Ceremony would produce nothing to his disadvantage And in Truth there never was any Ambassage that proved more unfortunate The Earl of Henault perished in the Way and it was never precisely known what happened to him nor what was become of him though there was a currant Report that he was either taken Prisoner or murdered by the Greek Soldiers of the Garrison of Nice Hugh the Great after he had treated with the Emperor deserted the Crusades and whether he had taken some particular Disgust against some of the Princes or that the Divisions which he foresaw Ambition would produce among them made him despair of any good Success of the Voyage or that some particular reason of Importance obliged him to return to France it is certain that he returned from Constantinople in so abrupt a manner that it hath given occasion to some of the Writers of that Time to speak not very favourably of his departure And for the Emperor Alexis as he knew very well that the Princes who had not at all flattered him in their Ambassage were in no sort satisfied of his Honesty or good Conduct he was far enough from going to Antioch for he was too cunning and politick not to govern himself by that Maxime That one ought alway to distrust those whom they have abused especially when they have discovered the Abuse which hath been put upon them Now after all this the Joy of having thus gloriously triumphed over the whole Force of the Sultan of Persia was mightily damped by the loss of that great and good Prelate Aymar de Monteil Bishop of Pavia who shortly after falling sick with his great Fatigues died the first of August to the infinite Trouble and Sorrow of all sort of People to whom he was for his incomparable Qualities deservedly dear and indeed never were there seen greater Marks of Esteem Tenderness and Grief than those which the Princes Soldiers and People gave upon this mournful Occasion Nor was it long before it appeared by the Divisions which happened among the Princes to the hazzarding the loss of all that he was the very Soul of this great Body who by his Wisdom and Presence kept the different and jarring Humours in an equal Poise and Temperament For no sooner were the Princes who had separated during the Summer reassembled in November at Antioch according to Agreement to march together to the Conquest of Jerusalem but that Bohemond protested openly that he would not move one step except the Earl of Tholose put the Bridge-Gate Fortress into his Hands and one of the Palaces of Accien which he also kept The Earl doubtless little to the Purpose alledged the Promise made to the Emperor and added that for his part he was also resolved not to stir till Bohemond surrendred to him the Castle which he had in Antioch There was a great deal of Trouble at the last to gain so far upon them as to condescend that lest it might retard the Voyage they should remit their Differences to the Determination of the Princes after the taking of Jerusalem But this forced Accord indured not long for these two Princes who were advanced with the first with their Troops besieged and took by Assault the great and strong City of Marra some two or three days March distant from Antioch towards Apamia It is impossible to describe the Heat which transported the Soldiers upon this occasion who carried the Town without expecting the Command of the Generals for not being able to support the Insolence the Sacriledges and brutish Impiety of the Barbarians who to despite them did a thousand Indignities to the Cross which they had planted upon their Walls the Soldiers ran of their own accord to the Assault with so much Heat Courage and indeed Fury that undermining the Walls and Towers plying the Engines and clapping up scaling Ladders on all Parts at the same time they vanquished the Infidels notwithstanding their obstinate Resistance and made themselves Masters of the Town year 1098 The first man that mounted the Walls with his Sword in his hand was Geoffry dela Tour a Gentleman of Limousin Who had acquired the Reputation throughout the whole Army of being a most undaunted and Valiant man as was in the World as he had made evident in a thousand fair Occasions and principally in one which this History cannot omit without doing injustice to the Merit of so brave a man and without robbing it self of one of its fairest Ornaments One day going out upon a Party as he frequently did he heard the dreadful roaring of a Lyon which seemed rather to be a crying out by reason of some Mishap that he was fallen into than in following his Prey to devour it the Bold Geoffry who by the Movement of his natural Generosity always went without a Moments Deliberation the Way that Danger led him not withstanding the Opposition of his Companions who would have staid him broak away towards the next Wood and ran directly to the Place where he heard the Roaring there he saw a horrible Serpent of prodigious Magnitude who having wound himself about the Legs of a Lyon had put him out of the Condition of defending himself and that he darted redoubled Blows with his Tongue to kill him with his Poyson He was touched with the Danger of the Lyon and without thinking that in delivering him he must give him the Liberty to fall upon himself he struck the Serpent such a Blow with his Sword that he killed him without hurting the Lyon and after that cut the Wreaths of the Serpent with which he was entangled so soon as the poor Animal saw himself at Liberty he came to acknowledge the Kindness and in the most expressive manner and with the greatest Submission to render Thanks to his Deliverer for he couched himself down and licked his Feet and after that binding himself to him as to his generous Defender to whom he owed his Life he never would forsake him but constantly followed him like as a Faithful Dog will do his Master without offending any Person except his Enemies upon whom he gave him a Sign to fall For the Lyon went ever with him to the Combat and the Chase and never failed to provide his Master of Venison But that which is most admirable is that the Master of the Vessel upon which Geoffry returned into France after the Crusade refusing to take his Equipage aboard and amongst them the Lyon who followed his Master the poor Beast unable to support the Separation from his Benefactor taking the Sea so long as his Strength lasted swam after the Ship till at last he was drowned A marvellous Instruction of Nature and Reproach to Mankind whilest it shews them that Lyons have done more than once that for their Masters by the Instinct of natural Gratitude than men can be perswaded to by all the Force of
Heaven look there and see the Brightness and the Beauty of that Palace it is from thence that I have what you so much Admire in me And further added he seeing him transported with the Admiration of that Beautiful Palace I am to acquaint you that there is one far more Glorious preparing for you Adieu till to Morrow And thereupon he presently disappeared Early the next Morning Anselm having made his Servants send for the Priests he received the Sacraments and very pleasantly said to his Friends that they should not be surprized at what he was to tell them but that though now they saw him in perfect Health yet assuredly he should die that day and thereupon he related to them what he had seen the Night preceding before he went to sleep And the Event verified his Prediction for the Enemy making a furious Sally Anselm who never failed upon such an Occasion ran thither with his Sword in his Hand when a Stone which was discharged from an Engine hitting him upon the Head sent him instantly to that Beautiful Palace which Engelram told him was preparing for him in the Heavens Now in Regard that he who recounts this extraordinary Accident affirms upon his Salvation that he faithfully writ what he saw himself and that besides one cannot reasonably accuse so brave a Man as this famous Earl of Bouchain and Ribemont as guilty of so much Weakness as to make him pass for a Visionary Extravagant I cannot believe there is the least Place for calling in Question the Truth of this Relation And from hence our Brave Men may draw an Excellent Instruction and learn that in making a Christian War whether it be against Infidels or Hereticks or whether it be in Obedience to their own Prince who is only responsible to God for the Justice of his Arms which the Subjects have no Authority to examine there is such an Insinite Glory in Heaven to be acquired by their Courage on Earth that they ought to expose their Lives with all imaginable Frankness to all sorts of Dangers and Death it self After this all the Advantage that was gotten during this Siege before the Arrival of the other Princes was that Raymond Viscount of Turenne having with him the Viscount de Castellane the Lord Albret and ten or twelve other principal Gascons and Bearnois with about one hundred Horse and two hundred Foot took Torlosa in old Time called Antaradus a fair and great Town upon the Coast over against the Isle of Aradus six or seven Leagues from Arcas towards Antioch He thought to have taken it by Surprize but that Design did not thrive by reason he had so small a Number of Men wherefore in the Night at the side of a Wood which was in View of the City he caused such abundance of Fires to be made that the Inhabitants taking his Party to have been the Van of the Army and that all the rest was now come up to assault them the next day they fled away that Night so that the Viscount entred it the next Morning without Resistance and there found so rich a Booty as rejoyced the whole Army This Valiant Viscount was the Chief of that Illustrious House of Turenne which in Conclusion about two hundred years since happily fell into that de la Tour d' Avergne which by taking up the Name hath restored it not only to its first Splendor but hath also advanced it by an other Viscount Turenne to the highest pitch of Honor to which it could aspire This is he who after having done so many fair Actions in commanding the French Armies in Italy in Germany and Flanders as beyond Contradiction have given him the Reputation of a most accomplished Captain came to add to the Heap of his Glories the Execution of his Kings Commands in this last Campagne and who may well be celebrated as the chief Engineer of the Military Art year 1099 and Master of all those great Qualities which are requisite in the Character of the most compleat General of an Army all which are so conspicuous in him as justly render him one of the most admired able brave and eminent Generals even in the Opinion of the Confederates his Enemies And certainly it will be difficult to find any thing more admirable than the War of this Campagne of more than ten Months Continuance wherein he by his sole Presence and the terror of his Name not only stopped the Course of the greatest Army of his Enemies and hindred them from entring into the Provinces whilest in the mean time the King finished his Conquests but also in Conclusion won two Battles one on this the other on the further side of the Rhine constraining them in Disorder to retire as far as the River of Mein and after that terrible Inundation of sixty thousand Germans had thrown themselves over the Bridge of Strasbourg into Alsatia he there gave them the Diversion of weakening themselves by Famine and Sickness after which in the very Heart of Winter he marched against them over the Mountains and the mighty Snows and there either cut in pieces and dispersed or made Prisoners their forwardest Troops in three Combats and in Conclusion obliged the rest which he had reduced to one half of what passed the Bridge to repass it with so much Precipitation and Shame that to save themselves in their own Country they would not give him the Opportunity to Attacque them Thus it was that he sustained the Glory of that illustrious Name and rendred that of Turenne far more glorious than it was in the first Crusade after that Viscount Raymond alone took so great a City In the mean time the Duke Godfrey Earl Eustace and Robert Earl of Flanders who Marched in the month of March with their Armies in very good Condition Besieged Giblet otherwise called Gabala a Town upon the Sea between Tortosa and Laodicea but being requested by the Earl of Tholose to come to his Assistance upon the Rumor which he had cunningly raised that a great Army of Saracens were advancing to Assail him they accepted the Terms which the Governor offered them to obtain a Peace and came instantly before Arcas where they found no other Enemies to Combat with but those who were within the Town who made a very brave Defence But the two Ambassages which the Princes received shortly after determined the Siege which had been maintained so long For during the Siege of Antioch they had sent their Ambassadors to Babylon with those of the Sultan of Egypt to conclude with him that Alliance which he had desired and which was condescended unto upon Condition that he should joyn his Arms with those of the Christians That Jerusalem with all its Dependancies should be put into the Hands of the Christians That he should have such other Places as should be regained from the Turks who had usurped them from him and that the rest should be divided among them But the great Overthrow of Corbagath which that
turns the greatest Sinners into the greatest Saints Thus was Jerusalem recovered from the Infidels by the Army of the Crusades in the fourth Year of their Expedition the fifteenth day of July upon a Friday and which is most Remarkable at the very precise Hour wherein the Saviour of the World rendred his Blessed Soul into the Hands of Almighty God his Father as if the Divine Providence had determined so to manage the Movements of this great Affair that the Christians should recover his Inheritance exposing their Lives for his Glory at the same time wherein he had assured them of Immortality and Glory in Heaven by dying upon the Cross to purchase it for them Eight days after this happy Conquest during which time News was brought of the Death of the Patriarch Simeon who was Deceased in the Isle of Cyprus the Princes and Lords who followed them Assembled to Reestablish the ancient Kingdom of Jerusalem by giving it a King as David and Solomon and the other Princes their Successors had been till the Babylonish Captivity Count Raymond of Tholose was then proposed but whether he thought himself in the Age to which he was advanced too weak to sustain so weighty a Charge or feared that this Civility which was offered him would not succeed in regard his own People who had already twice forsaken him acted secretly against his Pretensions he excused himself by reason of his Age and would by no means suffer it to proceed to an Election The same Honor was also offered to Robert Duke of Normandy but this Prince having a great Desire to return as soon as he could had no other design but to get his Chaplain to be chosen Patriarch and it is with great probability of Appearance that it was he who made the Speech which one of the Writers of that time hath transmitted to us which proposed that double Election after this manner My Lords Since it is full time after having Accomplished so happily our Vow in this Glorious Expedition that we should now begin to think of Returning into Europe to Govern in our Persons those Estates which God hath there been pleased to give us and since you have also thought it expedient with all convenient Dispatch to take care for the Government of this Place which we came to reconquer from the Infidels Now my Lords this Capital and Holy City of Jerusalem being both a Royalty and a Patriarchate it is necessary that it should have both a King and a Patriarchate the Royalty and the Priesthood are so nearly linked together and accord so well that the one cannot be without the other for that hath need of the Priesthood to procure the Blessings of Heaven and this stands in need of the Royalty to support it and strengthen that Spiritual Authority which God hath Invested it withal It is our Duty to give our Assistance to the Clergy in the Choice of a Pastor for this Church who may be a Man of Wisdom Probity Spirit and Eloquence capable of so great an Office and all this we have Experienced in Arnold de Rohes who is without Contradiction the most Knowing and Able Man of all the Ecclesiasticks who have followed the Army and therefore I am of Opinion that we who are to take Care as much as possibly we can of this Church ought to Recommend him to their Election for a Patriarch As for that which concerns a King which is wholy in our own Power I can see nothing that should Oblige us to defer the Election for one Moment for it is most evident that we ought to Chuse without any sort of Hesitation that Person whose Piety Modesty Prudence sweet Temper Clemency Justice Integrity Liberality Experience in War Generosity Valour Successfulness Reputation and the Glory which he hath acquired in a thousand noble Occasions whose strength of Age of Body of Spirit whose Nobleness admirable Composure and very Air of Greatness and Majesty worthy of an Empire and a hundred other Perfections conspire to rank him among the greatest Kings that ever were My Lords All these extraordinary Qualities which render themselves so Conspicuous in the Person that possesses them make it appear wholy unnecessary for me to name him and must needs have prevented me in that Design nor is it what I can say but it comes from an Authority far Superior to mine God himself in giving him these surpassing Advantages above the rest of Mankind hath himself named the Person whom he hath chosen like a second David to be the King of Jerusalem It is the Illustrious Godfrey of Bullen Duke of Lorrain and that year 1099 The Prince could not sinish the rest for so soon as he had pronounced the Name of Godfrey all the whole Assembly Interrupted him crying out with the same Mind and Voice Godfrey Godfrey long Live Godfrey the most puissant and pious King of Jerusalem And notwithstanding all the Resistance which the Modesty of that excellent Prince brought to oppose it he was obliged instantly to consent to the Election which by so suddain and universal Consent manifested it self to have the Divine Will and Approbation The very same day he was Conducted to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and there Proclaimed King amidst the Acclamations of the whole Army and all the Christians of the Country who came flocking in to Inhabit the City of Jerusalem He was there presented with a Crown of Gold which he absolutely refused protesting that he would never wear a Crown of Gold in a City where the King of Kings had for the Sake of Mankind worn a Crown of Thorns And tho he would not take upon himself the Title of King yet it was constantly given him as all the Historians of that time and Posterity have ever since done to this very Day and certainly never any King better deserved to wear that glorious Title which he adorned with so many Royal Actions the first was of Piety for he Founded two Chapters of Canons in the Churches of the Temple and the Holy Sepulchre as also a Monastery in the Valley of Jehosaphat The second was of his Power and Authority in Obliging Count Raymond to put into his Hands the strong Fortress of the Tower of David which he pretended to keep in his Possession at least till his Return into France though he was generally Condemned by the whole Army for it and even by his own Gascons and Provencalls The third was an Action of incomparable Valour and Conduct manifested in that memorable Victory which he obtained over the Sultan of Egypt for the Sultan coming too late to Succour his People Advanced with a formidable Army to Besiege Jerusalem but King Godfrey eased him of that Trouble For so soon as he received that News he sent to recal Tancred and Earl Eustace who were Marched to take the Fortress of Napolis otherwise called Sichem and Sichar formerly the place where Samaria had stood And as these two Princes who were Advanced as far as
Rama where they took some of the Enemies Scouts had Advertised him that the Sultan was Incamped at Ascalon a City upon the Sea-Coast two good days Journeys from Jerusalem towards Egypt he resolved to go to meet him and notwithstanding the prodigious Inequality of their Forces to give him Battle For this Purpose having first Implored the Help of Heaven by publick Prayers at which he assisted with marvellous Devotion he parted from Jerusalem upon Tuesday the eleventh day of August with the Earl of Flanders and that Arnold de Rohes who by an Intrigue which is no part of my History to relate was now chosen Patriarch of Jerusalem with the Consent of the Pope This new Patriarch who for very many Reasons was not so very agreeable to the generality of the People thought to acquire Reputation by shewing his extraordinary Zeal upon this Occasion He therefore left Peter the Hermite to take Care that Prayers might be made to God Almighty for the happy Success of the Arms of the King whom he would follow carrying with him to Encourage the Soldiers a part of the Wood of the true Cross which an honest Christian had hid during the Siege lest the Sarasins should profane it The same day the King joyned Tancred and Count Eustace waiting the coming up of the Duke of Normandy and Earl Raymond who met him at Ibelin which was Anciently the City of Gath one of the five Cities of the Lords of the Philistins some few Miles from Lidda and Ramula The next day they advanced together to the Brook Soreck which was not above two or three Leagues from the Enemies Camp There they found a prodigious Number of Horses Oxen Camels Asses Sheep and Goats which were guarded by some Arabians who were easily Routed some of them being taken Prisoners by whom they gained Intelligence of the Posture of the Enemies so that they easily Seized upon these Flocks and Herds of Cattle but there being reason to fear that this was but a Snare which the Sultan had laid for the Christian Army to fall upon them whilest they were busie in dividing the Prey the King expresly Prohibited all Persons to meddle with the Booty and not to think of taking any thing from the Enemy till they had gained the Battle which they were going to give them year 1099 In short the next Morning being Friday and the Eve of the Assumption of our Lady the Army at break of day passed without any Trouble the Torrent which at that dry Season of the Summer had but very little Water in it and the Sultan who could never perswade himself that the Christians would dare to be so hardy as to Advance to him had given no Order to hinder their Passage or to Dispute it with them Never was there seen a greater Ardor than appeared in the Countenances of the Soldiers upon this Occasion so much Joy and so much Assurance of Victory appeared amongst them tho they were but a handful of Men in comparison of the infinite Multitude of their Enemies for those who speak with the least assure us that there were a hundred thousand Horse and above three hundred thousand Foot in their Army for the Sultan who had set his Resolution either to Preserve or Recover Jerusalem had Amassed all the Soldiers that possibly he could out of Egypt Lybia Affrica Ethiopia Arabia and the Towns which were yet Possessed by the Turks who joyned with him against the Christians as their common Enemies And the Historians who speak the most of the Christians will not allow them to be above twenty thousand among which about five thousand Horse they being not in a Condition to Re-mount the Cavalry since the Taking of Jerusalem But that which gave this Confidence to the Christians besides the Contempt which they had of these Numbers of Sarasins which they made no account of was the Zeal which they had for the Glory of Christ Jesus and the eager Desire which boyled in their Hearts to Revenge the horrible Blasphemy of the Sultan For they had learned from the Prisoners that this impious Miscreant had haughtily threatned to Extirpate all the Christians and their Religion out of the East that he would rase the very Foundations of the Holy Sepulchre and utterly Ruine all the Monuments of Christian Religion and thereby spoil the Longing of those of the West to make any more such Voyages to Jerusalem They passed then over the Torrent with Trumpets Sounding and great Shouts of Joy as if it had been in Triumph and that they intended with their small Army to Affront the mighty Number of their Despised Enemies But it happened by a very surprizing Accident that the Mistake of their Enemies supplied the Defect of their Number by making them appear to be far more than in Reality they were which mistake produced all the Effect that could have been hoped or wished had they been really so many as they appeared to be for that mighty number of Cattle which had been taken the day before and which the King had forbidden the Soldiers to meddle with followed the Army as they passed the Rivulet and without being in the least Conducted by any Ranged themselves in the order of Troops upon their March as if it had been the Rere-guard of an Army extending themselves to the left Hand to the very Foot of the Mountains which border upon the East covering all that large Campain which from the Brook extends it self even to Ascalon which lies on the right Hand upon the Sea Coast and as these Animals filled all the Plain even to the Mountains and that the Horses Excited by the Noise of the Trumpets fell to Neighing according to their couragious Nature in such a manner that they might be heard afar off so these great Herds of other Cattle in Marching raised such mighty Clouds of Dust between them and the Sarasins that not being able to distinguish clearly they took them for part of the Christian Army and particularly for Squadrons of Cavalry and consequently their Fear also multiplying them in their amazed Imaginations they conjectured that their Number was not at all inferior to theirs whereupon they were Seised with a general Consternation and not being able to disabuse their troubled imaginations they stood as if they had been stupid thinking they were to deal with a million of Christians who since the taking of Jerusalem were Arrived from the West In the mean time the Armies being thus near there was a necessity of Fighting that of the Christians was divided into three Bodies Count Raymond Commanded the Right Point which was extended to the Sea that so they might not be Surrounded on that side The King took the Left that so he might be opposite to the Right of the Enemy where their Principal Squadrons were ranged The Duke of Normandy the Earl of Flanders Tancred year 1099 and Gaston de Foix were in the middle with the main Body of the Battle These three Bodies were ranged
had before-hand complotted their Destruction there perished a hundred thousand men besides an infinite Number of Women who were led into miserable Captivity The Earl of Poitiers having lost all was reduced to the deplorable Necessity to make his Voyage on Foot Hugh the Great could not finish his but died by the way at Tarsus in Cilicia The Earl of Tholose making Use of the small Remainder of the Pilgrims to regain Tortosa from the Saracens who had seized it abandoned his Benefactors and fortified himself in his Conquest following the Design which he had always cherished to acquire some little Principality in the East The rest after having visited the Holy Places conducted by their ill Destiny compleated their Misfortunes by joyning with the King in this unhappy Battle only the Earl of Poitiers escaped having taken Shipping at Jaffa in order to his return into France the rest who stayed were either slain upon the Place as were the Earls of Blois and Burgogne or taken Prisoners as were the Earl of Bourges and many other brave though unfortunate Persons The King nevertheless escaped to Rama and in a few days having drawn together the Troops of Antipatris Tiberias Jerusalem and Jaffa into which Place he had put himself he made a Sally to so good purpose upon his Enemies who prepared to besiege him that in the End he constrained them to take their Flight leaving to him all the Marks of an absolute Victory the Field of Battle the Bodies of the Slain all their Engines and their Baggage After which he took Ptoelmais by the Help of the Genoese who besieged it by Sea with seventy Ships he a second time defeated the Saracens of Egypt in the Plain of Rama he took the City of Tripolis year 1105 which under the Denomination of an Earldom and the Condition of Homage he conferred upon Bertrand the Son of the Earl of Tholose year 1109 who was dead about four years before he made himself Master of Sidon Beritus and all the Sea-Coast Towns excepting Tyre which he kept blocked up by the Fortress of Scandalion which he caused to be built upon the Coast some five Miles from that City in the same place where Alexander the Great had formerly formed his Camp when he besieged that City In the End after having also built upon the further side of Jordan the Castle of Mont-Real to bridle the Incursions of the Arabians and having carried his Victorious Arms even into Egypt year 1118 he died of the Flux and was interred near his Brother Godfrey at the Foot of Mount Calvary in a Chappel adjoyning to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre He left the Christians in Possession of four large Soveraignties which they had conquered in the East the first was the Earldom of Edessa which extended it self from the further side of Euphrates to the River Tygris the second was the Principality of Antioch in which was comprized all the Country which is between Tarsus of Cilicia towards the West and the City of Maraclea on the East upon the Coast of the Phenician Sea as far as Tortosa It was afterwards governed by Roger the Cousin of Tancred after the Death of that brave Prince who had governed it till after the Deliverance of his Uncle and then returning into France he married Constance the Daughter of King Philip the first and after having made War in Epirus and in Dalmatia with the Greek Emperor he died in Italy leaving behind him a Son of his own Name The third was the Earldom of Tripolis which extends it self along the Sea-Coast of Phenicia beyond Maraclea as far as the River Adonis which runs between Biblis and Baruth The fourth was the Kingdom of Jerusalem which beginning at the same River stretches it self almost to the Castle of Daron upon the Frontier of Idumea near unto Egypt In this flourishing Estate stood the Affairs of the Christians in the East at the death of Baldwin the second His Brother Eustace Earl of Bullen who ought to have succeeded him was at that time in France and in Regard there was a Necessity that they should have a King who should be actually within the Kingdom year 1118 to maintain things in that Condition wherein they stood against so many Potent Enemies which they had upon all hands therefore the Earl of Edessa his Cousin Baldwin de Bourg who was at that time at Jerusalem was called to the Succession of the Kingdom which he took upon him leaving the Earldom of Edessa to Josselin Earl of Courtenay who was his Kinsman Now in Regard that it was in the Beginning of his Reign that the Order of the Knights Templers were first founded in his Palace and that it is requisite something should be said of these Knights as also of the other Order which was called Hospitallers I think it will not be amiss in a few Words to inform the Reader of the Original the Intention the manner of Living and the Employ of these Military Orders which were established in Palestine under the first Kings of Jerusalem It is certain that before the Christian Princes had conquered the Holy Land there were Hospitallers at Jerusalem whereof some received and Entertained the Pilgrims which came from all Parts of Christendom to visit the Holy Places and others of them had the Charge of the Poor Sick and Diseased People and particularly of the Lepers of which there were great Numbers in those times Those who were called the Hospitallers of St. Lazarus are far more Ancient than the first of these as appears by the great Number of Hospitals and Insirmaries of the Name of St. Lazarus which were wholly intended and principally in the East for such as were afflicted with the Leprosie St. Gregory Nazianzen assures us that St. Basil built one at Cesarea dedicated to the same Saint the supposed Protector of the Lepers and that he gave Rules to these Charitable Hospitallers who devoted themselves to the Service of those diseased People As for the others who made Profession to serve the Pilgrims of the Holy Land they were not in being till a long time after that the Merchants of Amalphi in Italy who trafficked into Syria obtained Permission of one of the Caliphs to build a Monastery near the Holy Sepulchre to which they added a Hospital and an Oratory dedicated to St. John the Eleemosynary there to receive the poor Pilgrims as well as the sick and diseased For after they were embodied into a Community as formerly they took Care only of the Infirm and Leprous so now there were others who were particularly appointed to attend the Pilgrims and both the one and the other were indifferently called Hospitallers they lived a long time in this peaceable Exercise of Charity under one Superior who was called the Master of the Hospital until that after tho Conquest of Palestine by the Princes of the Crusade they took up Arms not only for the Desence of the poor Pilgrims but also to serve the Kings of
met with them in their Return to Egypt year 1124 William de Bures Lord of Tiberias Succeeded in the Regency to Eustace who died some few days after his Victory and he knew so well how to make good Use of it that taking this Occasion to Besiege the City of Tyre by Land with his Army and by Sea with the Venetian Fleet he became Master of the Place before the Sultan of Egypt was in a Condition to Relieve it by a new Fleet. The Earl Josselin also Escaping out of Prison had gotten into Antioch and Fought so successfully with his little Army year 1125 during the Siege against the same Balac who had taken him Prisoner that the Barbarian lost both the Battle and his Life whereby the King also recovered his Liberty paying his Ransom to the Princess the Widdow of Balac The Deliverance of the King was succeeded by other happy Successes He overthrew in Battle Borsequin another potent Turkish Prince who had entred in Arms into the Principality of Antioch He Defeated the Egyptians and Ascalonites who were ready to make an Irruption into his Kingdom and had very great Advantages over Dodequin the Sultan of Damascus whom he went to Attaque in the very Heart of his Dominions He took the strong Place of Raphana near to Arcas for the Earl of Tripolis and by his Actions made it appear to the whole World that he was as a most Virtuous Prince so also a very great Captain year 1126 He put the whole Principality of Antioch into the Hands of the Young Bohemond whom he also made his Son-in-Law giving him in Marriage the Princess Alice his second Daughter for he had before given his Eldest Daughter the Princess Melisentha to Fowk Earl of Anjou to whom he gave the two Cities of Tyre and Ptolemais he being also in right of his Lady to Succeed him in the Realm of Jerusalem But his good Fortune was not constant to him till his Death for having Besieged Damascus with a Puissant Army where were joyned with him the Earls of Edessa and Tripolis the Prince of Antioch and Fowk Earl of Anjou he was obliged for want of Provisions and by the Incommodiousness of the Season to raise his Siege and not long after his Son-in-Law the young Bohemon being Surprized by the Turks was Slain in Cilicia After which having given the necessary Orders for Securing the Principality of Antioch to the Princess Constantia the Daughter of Bohemond whom her own Mother would most unnaturally have Excluded from that Right he died most Religiously at Jerusalem year 1131 in the third Year of his Reign and was Interred at the Foot of Mount Calvary near the two Kings his Predecessors and his Cousins Earl Fowk who Succeeded him did also Inherit his Virtues and above all his Integrity and high Generosity For after having Defended the Principality of Antioch against the Designs of his Sister-in-Law the Princess Dowager of young Bohemond and against a mighty Army of the Turks whom he cut in pieces near Antioch he gave the Principality thereof to Raymond the Son of the Earl of Poitiers giving him in Marriage the young Princess Constantia the Daughter of Bohemond the lawful Heiress of those Territories He also maintained him in it against all the Forces of John the Constantinopolitan Emperor who made two fruitless Expeditions with huge Armies for the re-gaining of Antioch year 1131 which he pretended appertained to him of Right by the Treaty which his Father Alexis had Concluded with the Princes of the first Crusade when they passed by Constantinople into Asia He gloriously preserved both his own Kingdom and the States of Christian Princes his Neighbours against all the Forces of Sanguin Sultan of Alepo the most potent among all the Infidel Princes against whom he entred into Confederacy with the Sultan of Damascus He took from the Turks the City of Paneas or Cesarea Philippi otherwise in Ancient times called Dan near the two Heads from whence arises the River Jordan he re-built and fortified Beersheba at the other Extremity of his Kingdom as it was in the times of the Ancient Kings and as it is frequently said in the Holy Scripture he extended his Dominion from Dan to Beersheba But some time after he happened to have an unfortunate Fall from his Horse year 1142 as he was Hunting the Hare in the Plain of Ptolemais of which he died in the eleventh Year of his Reign leaving for his Successor his eldest Son Baldwin of the Age of three Years under the Regency of his Mother Queen Melesintha and it was in the time of this young King that the second Crusade was Published upon the Occasion which I am now going to relate It was about eleven Years after that Josselin de Courtenay Earl of Edessa dying had left for his Successor a Son of his own Name but one who did neither resemble his Father in Virtue nor in Courage as too plainly appeared by the Dishonorable beginning of the Son and the glorious ending of the Father That valiant Prince who was retired half dead and almost crushed in Pieces by the Ruins of a Fortress which he had Attacqued near Alepo lay Languishing in his Bed expecting every Moment his approaching Death when News was brought him that the Sultan of Iconium thinking to take the Advantage of his Malady had laid Siege to one of his Towns called Croisson At this News he gave order to the young Josselin who was now arrived at the Age fit to Command to go instantly with what Troops he could draw together about Edessa to oppose the Enemy But the Cowardly Youth far from laying hold upon such an Opportunity to gain Glory and Reputation by a Victory which should shew that he Merited that Crown which by Birthright and the expected Death of his Father was shortly to devolve upon him coldly answered his Father That he did not think it consisted with his Prudence to offer to Encounter an Enemy so much Superior to him in Strength and Numbers whereupon the Generous old Prince seeing to what an unworthy Successor he was about to leave so fair a Principality was resolved once more to shew him even as he was dying by his Example what his Honor obliged him to do in Defence thereof and therefore having instantly Assembled his Troops he caused himself to be carried at the Head of them in a Horse-Litter being only able to act with his Noble Mind which still retained all its Vigor and Force in despite of the extream Weakness and Languishment to which his bruised Body was reduced as he Marched in this Condition still Advancing towards the Enemy Word was brought him that the Sultan having been Informed that he who he thought Dead was coming against him with a Resolution to give him Battle had raised his Siege and was Retreated into his own Territories Whereupon the brave Earl ravished with Joy at the same time that he felt himself most cruelly Oppressed with his Pains and the Approaches
Dom Roderigo de Bivar so well known in the World under the Glorious Name of Cid After the Death of Ferdinand he linked himself to Dom Alphonso King of Leon and rendred him such Important Services in both his Fortunes that that Prince after the Death of his two Brothers Dom Sancho and Dom Garchia succeding to all the Estates of his Father Ferdinand he gave him in Marriage his Daughter Theresa whom he had by his first Wife Chimena de Gusman He himself also marrying the Princess Constantia the Daughter of the Duke of Burgundy and Aunt to Prince Henry to whom he also gave the City of Porto and sometime after all the Estate which he held in Portugal year 1147 which in his Favor he Erected into the Dignity and Title of an Earldom It is said also that he sent him with the Princes of the first Crusade to the Conquest of the Holy Land whereupon all Occasions he Signalized his Courage and his Conduct But in regard we find no Traces of this Voyage in the Authors his Contemporaries who have written very exactly of that War I think I ought not to Incur any Displeasure if I give little Credit to some of the Historians of Portugal who upon very weak Conjectures have been pleased to Rank among the Heroes of that famous Crusade the Illustrious Head of the House of Portugal though he had such a sufficient Stock of true Glory as not to stand in need of searching for that which may with so much Justice be disputed That which he hath which is most certain is that this admirable Earl after having Defeated the Moors in seventeen pitched Battles and Conquered from them the greatest part of Portugal which he added to that which his Father-in-Law had given him in absolute Soveraignty he dying left this new Earldom to his Son Alphonso who gloriously changed it into a Kingdom For he was Solemnly proclaimed King in the Field of Battle at the memorable Day of Ourique where he defeated the Army of five Moorish Kings who had Assembled against him all their Forces which consisted in more than four hundred thousand Men. The five Kings lay upon the Place Buried in the Heaps of the dead Bodies of their Soldiers who were piled one upon another in Memory whereof the new King who believed that during the Battle he had seen Jesus Christ upon the Cross who promised him the Victory changed the Cross Azure in the Field Argent which his Father had taken for his Coat Armor into five Escoucheons Azure every one charged with five Besants Argent in Saltire to which afterwards was added a Border Gules charged with seven Castles Or. This is that valiant King Descended from a Prince of the most August House of France from whom in a direct Line Male Issued the other sixteen Kings who Reigned till the time of Cardinal Henry for six Hundred Years in Portugal whose Dominions Extended afterwards into three other Parts of the World Affrica Asia and America where the Heroick Piety and Courage of the Portugese by finding a new Passage to the Indies have Established the Empire of Jesus Christ as well as that of their own Nation and as one of their Rivers having for some time hid it self under the Earth afterwards appears again and runs much greater than before so doth the Illustrious Blood of our Kings which hath so long run in the Royal Channel of Portugal at length after having for more than sixty Years ceased to appear in its natural Place the Throne of Portugal which it ought to fill begin in our days to Recover it self with the Applause of all the World in the Person of King John the Fourth the Head of the Royal House of Braganza who besides that he Possesses all the Title of the Infanta Catharina is also Descended in the direct Masculin Line as also from that of John the First from whom are Issued the last Kings unto Sebastian But it was this great Alphonso the Son of Earl Henry and first King of Portugal who after he had taken Santaren and all the places about Lisbon Besieged that great City which was Defended by above two hundred thousand Men. After he had unprofitably spent a whole Month in the Siege having but a few Troops in comparison of such a Number of Defendants he began to despair of his Enterprise when he discovered this great Fleet at Sea which he imagined to be that of the Affrican Kings but he presently after perceived by the Cross which they bore in their Flags that it was a Christian Fleet. He sent immediately to be satisfied what they were and upon what Design and being informed that it was a Party of Crusades who were going against the Infidels he went Aboard the Admiral and proposed to the Captains the Conquest of one of the fairest Cities in the World from those Enemies which they were going to Search for in Syria He Remonstrated to them That God had presented to them a fair Occasion for the present Accomplishment of their Vow in Combating for the Glory of Christ Jesus against his Enemies and that without exposing themselves by the Hazard of the Sea to the Danger of never Combating them at all That they would acquire more Honor by taking Lisbon with the Assistance of those few Portugeses who Besieged it than they could possibly hope for year 1147 by joyning in Syria with two such Puissant Armies as were those of the Emperor and King of France to which they would be Esteemed as nothing and besides that the Recompence which they might expect would be incomparably greater giving them the Word of a King that they should share the Conquest with him There was no necessity for him to say more to persuade People who sought nothing but Occasion to Fight against the Sarasins they with Joy accepted the Offer of the King and presently gave Order for the Disimbarking of their Troops and went to take their Post upon the West Quarter the King with his Army being already Incamped on the East Side of the City in the place where now stands the Monastery of St. Vincent If the Attacque was Hot Furious and often repeated by the Portuguese and the Crusades the Resistance was no ways less on the part of the Moors who far surpassed the Christians in Number This made the Siege last four Months till the twenty fifth day of October when the City was in the End taken by Assault all the romainder of the Sarasins being put to the Sword thereby to Extinguish that accursed Race of Men. Thus this new Kingdom of Portugal which was Founded by a French Prince was owing for the glorious Conquest of its Capital City principally to the Valour of the French Men they being the greatest Number of this Naval Army for tho there were English and other Nations among them yet anciently the Title which the Portuguese gave indifferently to all Strangers was that of French Men. The King also Imployed them in the taking
promising to furnish the King with three or four Greek Noblemen who had Skill to conduct his Army by good Ways and that he would furnish Magazines of Provisions for them during their March The French Lords who were ready to dye with the desire they had to make haste to have their share in the good Fortune and the Glory which they believed the German Army were now reaping made no sort of difficulty to make that Oath to the Emperor saying That they did the same every day in France to the Lords of Fieffs without any prejudice to the Sovereignty of the King But the Count de Dreux the King's Brother believing that he should dishonour the Blood of France if he should acknowledge for his Lord any one except the King his Brother took occasion to give them the slip taking along with him some of the most Generous as also the Princess his Cousin whom Manuel desired for a Wife for one of his Nephews And while they were hotly disputing about these two Articles which the Bishop of Langress ever most vigorously opposed he had Leisure enough to get as far as Nicomedia At the same time the King of Sicily who made War with Manuel with Success enough did whatever he was able by his Ambassadors to oblige the King to joyn with him in a League against that Emperor and to attack him both by Sea and Land in Europe and in Asia But the Scruple which the King had still in his Mind which made him fearful of violating his Vow if he should make never so little a Sally from this Holy War made him refuse all these fair Offers contrary to the Advice of the wise Bishop of Langress who clearly fore-saw and to no purpose fore-told the Misfortunes which would befall him and the Army by the Perfidiousness of the Grecian Emperor Thus the Treaty being concluded and the Emperor after an Interview with the King upon the Banks of the Propontis having sent over all the French that yet remained at Constantinople the whole Army marched in the beginning of November towards Nicomedia a City which at that time was in a manner wholly ruinous And now the Baseness and Treachery of the perfidious Manuel began plainly to appear for the Guides and Officers which he promised to send to conduct the Army through a good Country and to give Orders for Provisions were not to be found and in the Road wherein they now were there was very little Subsistence for the Army so that it was resolved to change it and quitting the lest Hand where the Provinces were very barren and desolate year 1147 to take the Right Hand way towards the South and to incamp upon the Lake of Ascanius near unto Nice There it was that in the Heat of those Desires which possessed the Army to advance and joyn as soon as possible with the Germans who were supposed to be so victorious they were extremely surprized with hearing of their Defeat At first the news came but by some whispering Rumors but it was in a little time confirmed by Frederick Duke of Suabia the Emperors Nephew whom that unfortunate Prince who with great difficulty had recovered Nice with the pittiful Remainder of his ruined Army who in their Extremity were very ill treated also by the Greeks had sent to the King to advertise him of his overthrow and to request of him that he might see him to the End that from his disaster he might give him Notice of some things of great Importance in this unhappy Conjuncture The King who certainly was a Prince the most Civil and Obliging in the World and had a Soul of the best Temper of any man of his time resolved instantly to prevent the Emperor in his Design of seeing him and to endeavour to sweeten his ill Fortune by all manner of Honors and good Offices which he was capable to do him he therefore immediately mounted to Horse accompanied with all the great Lords and Officers of his Army and went to find the Emperor in the Place where he was encamped expecting the Return of his Nephew Frederick Never was there any thing seen more Tender and Moving than this Enterview for no sooner did these two great Princes see each other but they ran into mutual Embraces wherein they held one the other for a long time without being able to speak any other Language but those Tears which the Joy the Grief and Compassion which moved so diversly in their Hearts drew at last into their Eyes The King was the first who broke the Silence and endeavouring to force a Joy into his Lips in Despite of the Sorrow which surrounded his Heart he said all that it was possible in the most Christian and obliging manner to comfort the Afflicted Emperor for his Loss he offered him all that he had his Forces and his Fortune and protested that he always would esteem it as great an Honor to be his Faithful Companion in this War as he should have done were he still at the Head of an Army as numerous and flourishing as that which he commanded before this Disaster The Emperor also on his part said all that was most capable to touch the Heart of a Christian Prince he acknowledged with great Humility the Heavy hand of God to be justly laid upon him for the Sins of his Army and for his own too great Presumption in relying so much upon the Strength of his own Arms to the Prejudice of that Confidence which he ought to have reposed in God alone in whose Almighty Hands is the Disposal of the Fortunes of Kings Nevertheless he said since God had been pleased still to give him the same Ardent Desire to accomplish his Vow and that he had in his Extremity found out for him such a Generous Protector he hoped that his Divine Majesty would be pleased yet to make use of him to combat the Infidels among the Arms of France which he hoped would be happier than his and that he was resolved never to part from them After which the two Princes having held a great Councel with the Principal Lords of the one and the other Nation it was resolved that the two Armies should march together following the Road which the King had already taken in drawing toward the lesser Asia between the Sea and Phrygia But this Resolution of the Emperor did not continue long for the German Lords some or other of them every day demanding of him leave to depart under Pretext that they had lost their Equipage when they were arrived at the City of Ephesus after having suffered much by the mischievous Greeks this poor Prince found himself so slenderly accompanied that he was ashamed of himself and believing that it was putting an Affront upon his own Character and the Empire which he governed to have it said that an Emperor of Germany without an Army should seem to serve under a King of France he therefore Excused himself in the best manner that he could to
Guy Cardinal of Florence the Pope's Legat in his Army and the Bishops of Langres and Lizieux The Count de Dreux his Brother Thierry Earl of Flanders Henry Earl of Troyes the Son of Thibald Earl of Champagne Ives de Nele and many other Lords of the first Quality who came with him from Attalia The young King Baldwin with his Mother Queen Melesintha also assisted at it together with the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Arch-Bishops of Cesarea and Nazareth the Bishops of Ptolemais Sidon Beritus Paneas and Bethlehem the Earls of Napolis Tiberias Sidon Cesaria Beritus as also the Constable Manasses and the great Masters of the Temple of the Hospitallers It was a long time under Debate what was most advantageous to be undertaken for the common Interest and in conclusion they determined to besiege Damascus Which being as it were in the Centre and Midst of the four Principalities which the Christians held in the East might be equally dangerous to them all Upon this all the Troops were appointed to rendezvous the five and twentieth Day of May at Tiberias where a general Review being made of the Army they advanced to Paneas near the Head of Jordan the Patriarch carrying the true Cross or at least that which was believed to be so before them The Measures which were taken for the Siege were according to the Opinion of the Lords of that Country who were best acquainted with the Strength and Weakness of the place After which crossing the celebrated Mount Lebanon they descended into the fair Champain of Damascus and encamped at Daria a little Village about two Leagues from Damascus from the most elevated place whereof the Towers of that stately City were easily to be discerned Damascus one of the most ancient and sometimes one of the fairest and greatest Cities of Asia is situate in a large Plain at the Foot of Mount Lebanon which is watered with two Rivers and a great number of little Springs and Fountains which notwithstanding its natural Inclination to Sterility it being a hungry sandy Soil render it very fruitful and delightful These two Rivers take their Rise upon the East at no very great distance from the Foot of the Mountain Amana which is a part of Mount Lebanon the lesser is called Abana and slows all along by the Walls of the City upon the West the greater which is Pharpar and which some have confounded with the Orontes and for the beauty of its Streams is called Chryorrhoas or Golden Stream after having passed through the City and wandred through the Fields and the Valleys of the neighbouring Country loseth it self under the Earth either because being divided into a multitude of Canals which are drawn to render the Earth more fruitful that it is so diminished that at last it ends in them or that by some unknown Subterranean Passages it dischargeth it self into the Phenician Sea It was the great Conveniency of making these Canals year 1148 which made all that part of the City towards the North and a great part of the West be inclosed with a prodigious number of Gardens and Orchards where were planted an infinite of Trees producing all manner of Fruits the most delicious of all the East These Gardens were divided one from the other by little narrow Passages which cutting one another and turning and winding several ways without any regular Art or Figure formed a kind of undesigned Labyrinth where it was easie for those who were unacquainted with them to lose themselves in those delightful places Every Garden had its House and its little Tower according to the Mode of the Orientals for the Convenience and the Lodging of its Master So that the City being very populous the number of Gardens which covered those sides was very great and extended themselves almost two Leagues so that viewing it upon that side it represented to the Sight a large Forest which seemed to extend it self to the very Walls But on the contrary the other side which lay to the East and South had not so much as a Tree a Hedge or a Bush but shewed a bald Champaign from whence it was easie to discern the whole City which was defended with high Walls which were fortified with great Towers whereof four which listed up their proud Heads above the rest were of an extraordinary heighth and strength and above all it was defended by a Fortress which was esteemed the fairest and most regular of all Asia This City had been taken from the Sarasins by the Turks whose Sultan Dodequin made a most cruel War against the Christians between the time of the first and the second Crusade After his death his Successors seeing themselves attacked by Sanguin the redoubted Sultan of Alepo and Ninevch who endeavoured the Conquest of all Syria joyned themselves with the Christian Princes to make War against this common Enemy They assisted them according to the Treaty in the Taking of Paneas which they had taken from the Christians before and Sanguin from them again But there being little Faith to be expected from Infidels they soon brake the Peace and declared themselves as before the mortal Enemies of the Christians For this reason it was that the Resolution was sixed to attack them and above all things to carry this City which was in a Condition to give the Check-mate to the four Christian Principalities of the East Hereupon it was also resolved in the Council to attack the Town on the Garden-sides that so the Army might have the Convenience of the River the Fruits and Forrage which were there to be had in abundance The next Morning therefore the Army being divided into three Bodies marched in good Order towards Damascus drawing from the West towards the North to the Garden-Quarter of the City The young King of Jerusalem Baldwin the Third commanded in Person the first Body composed of his own Troops and those of the Princes of Syria who had the same Interest with him in the Siege The French made the second having at their Head King Lewis to support the first which they followed at a little distance to be always ready to afford them Succour The Emperor with his Germans had the Rere to oppose the Enemy's Cavalry if they should attempt to fall upon them as they made their Approaches Baldwin who thirsted mightily after Glory and was transported with Joy to meet with so fair an Opportunity to display his Courage in the View of the French and Germans did instantly press to make the first Attack which was easily granted him in regard he alledged that his People were better acquainted than the rest with the nature of the place and the Turnings of the Gardens He was a Prince who was now advanced to the Flower of his Youth being between eight and nine and twenty Years of Age he was of Stature something less than the Middle but of a Proportion so just and regular in all the parts of his Body that his want of Heighth did not lessen
another dreadful Blow as that of the great Godfrey of Bullen which finished the Victory already inclining upon his first Charge for a puissant Turk armed with a Curiass having attacked him he discharged with all his force such a furious Blow upon the place where the Shoulder joyns to the Neck that the Sword passing through the Neck to the right Shoulder took that and part of the Breast clear off the Head and that Arm and Shoulder falling to the Ground whilst the other remained a Spectacle of Horrour for some time upon the Horse The Turks amazed at this frightful Blow immediately fled and saved themselves in the Town leaving all the Fields and the Rivers free to the Christians who immediately encamped upon the Banks and in the Gardens with mighty convenience both for the Men and Horses This Victory brought such a Despair among the Turks and the Inhabitants of Damascus that knowing well that they were in danger of losing the place upon the first Assault which should be given there being on that side no other Defence beside the Gardens which were now lost they began to think of nothing but how to save themselves by retreating For this purpose they barricadoed all the Streets which opened that way to the end that while their Enemies were busie in breaking the Barricadoes and removing the great Beams which they had laid cross the Streets they might have the more time to save themselves and their Families by the opposite Gates and so retreat with more Security to such neighbouring Towns as were in the Hands of their Friends Thus had Damascus most assuredly fallen into the Power of the Christians if Covetousness Hatred and Envy three furious Passions which at this time wrought more deplorable Effects than the Arms of the Infidels had not suddainly precipitated their Affairs by a most infamous Treason from a certain Hope and a flourishing Condition into the very Gulph of Misfortune and Confusion from whence they were never able to recover again Those of Damascus seeing themselves thus just upon the Eve of their Ruin after they had barricadoed the Streets they advised themselves again of another Means to save themselves which did not fail of the wished Effect After that the French had conquered the Holy Land many Persons of both Sexes not only of the Common People but also of the Nobility were married in Palestine and Syria with the Ladies of that Country and many of the great Lords who were in Baldwin's Army were such as were born of those Marriages and consequently Syrians by Birth year 1148 and by Original either by Father or Mother And as these kind of Mungrels usually degenerate from the fair Qualities of the more noble Nations and participate of the Imperfections of the other so many of these half French half Syrian Lords retained the Vices of the Country and particularly Greediness of Riches and Avarice which to this day is the domineering Vice and Passion of the Orientals The Turks and principal Men of the City who being of the same Country very well knew their Feeble secretly sent some of the most dexterous and cunning of their Citizens to these Motley Lords and Barons whom they knew to be of the most covetous Dispositions and consequently most capable of being brought into Treason To these they gave all imaginable Assurances that they could desire that they should have certain Payment made of most considerable Sums of Money provided they could induce the Besiegers only to change their Attack and remove the Siege to the other side of the City Now he to whom they principally trusted the Management of this Affair found amongst those to whom he addressed himself Inclinations favourable as he could desire to entertain his Propositions Prince Raymond who mortally hated King Lewis the Seventh after the Affair of Antioch had as it is said beforehand corrupted some of his People and obliged them underhand to do all that possibly they could against him that so he might not acquire any Glory from this War There were others who could not with Patience think of permitting the Earl of Flanders as they understood it was concluded between the Emperor and the two Kings to enjoy the Principality of Damascus and they had rather that it should continue in the Possession of the Turks than fall to the share of a Man whom they looked upon as a Stranger in regard he was not born in Syria Thus the Envy of some and the Hatred which Raymond had inspired into others being joyned with the Avarice which reigned equally in both the one and the other produced the most infamous and most cowardly Treason that it was possible for Lords of great Quality not to say Christians to be capable of For counterfeiting a marvellous Zeal for the publick Good they remonstrated to the Council That hitherto they had taken very false Measures That they had too long permitted themselves to be deceived with vain Appearances of a commodious Encampment upon the Banks of the River among the Gardens and Orchards not considering that this was the main Obstacle which had hitherto hindred the Taking of the City for that the River one part whereof served for the Ditch upon that Quarter rendred the Access more difficult and the Attack most dangerous That the Gardens hindred the disposing of the Machins to such convenient Distances as were requisite for the Battery and that the Siege being spun out to a greater length than had been promised to the Soldiers there was great danger that being disgusted and the great Heats beginning now to become insupportable they would quit the Siege That for this Reason they were in the Opinion that they ought to remove the Camp to the other side of the City between the South and East in regard that there being no Gardens nor Rivers nor Ditches full of Water which could hinder them from descending to the very Foot of the Walls which were low weak and without Terrasses on that side and where the Besieged having not expected to be attacked had made no Retrenohments there was all the Appearance imaginable that they should carry the Town at the first Assault without so much as making use of any Engines against it There is a great deal of Room for Wonder and Astonishment to consider the Conduct of these three great Frinces upon this Occasion who at other times wanted neither Spirit nor Judgment nor Experience in Martial Affairs in which it commonly happens That no Man fails twice the first Fault that is committed being for the most part irreparable But whether it was the Eagerness of their Desire to become Masters of the Town in a little time which blinded them or that they believed that it was impossible to act more prudently or more safely than by the Counsels of those who who had the greatest Interest in the Taking of the Place and who being Natives of the Country must needs be much better acquainted than any others with the Strength or
had put it self into the Hands of the Prince of Antioch he went and laid Siege to the famous City of Tyre which by the Vertue and good Fortune of one Person happened to be preserved in the manner which I am about to relate The most illustrious House of the Ancient Marquisses of Montferrat which was descended from the Dukes of Saxony was at that time one of the greatest in Europe and the strongest in Italy William the Third surnamed the Old who was the Head of it held the most considerable Rank among the greatest Princes of his time for his Vertue for his Estate his Alliances with the Emperour and the King of France but above all for the extraordinary Merit of four Princes his Sons which he had by the Marchioness his Lady who was the Sister of the Emperour Conrade His eldest Son Boniface received the Crown of Thessaly as the Reward of those famous Actions which he did after the taking of Constantinople William Longsword his second Son was designed to be the King of Jerusalem by Baldwin the Fourth who married his Sister the Princess Sybilla to him but he died about five Months after his Marriage leaving her with Child of the little King Baldwin who soon after died Reynier which was his third Son made also a Voyage to the Holy Land where he died two or three Years before the loss of Jerusalem And the last who was after the Name of the Emperour his Uncle called Conrade was he of all the Brothers who gained the greatest Reputation by the Glory of his Arms. This young Prince in whose Person Nature had joyned with a marvellous Beauty a most extraordinary Strength both of Body and of Mind and who with the heroick Courage incredible Heat and ready Resolution of undaunted Youth had also acquired the Address and Prudence of an old and experienced Captain and most perfect Understanding in the Military Art insomuch that the old Marquis his Father year 1188 had made no Difficulty notwithstanding his want of a Maturity of Age to give him the Command of an Army which he had raised for the Interests of the Pope against the Emperour Frederick his Kinsman at the Sollicitation of Manuel who extremely as well as the Pope feared the growing Power of that Emperour The young Conrade so well managed this War that in Conclusion he vanquished the German Army which was commanded by the Archbishop of Mayence whom he there took Prisoner and this high Reputation which he so well merited was the occasion that about seven or eight Years afterwards Isaac Angelus being come to the Constantinopolitan Empire gave him his Sister Theodora in Marriage together with the Dignity of Caesar and the Hopes that he should succeed him in the Empire And truly he made it appear by a most illustrious Action that he well deserved it For Branas the General of the Imperial Army having caused himself to be proclaimed Emperour Isaac who had not expected any thing less and who had neither Men nor Money wherewith to raise them and being also of a cowardly Spirit believed that all was lost and therefore instead of runing to his Arms he as his last Remedy had Recourse to the Prayers of the Monks whom he assembled at the Palace to implore the Succour and Assistance of God But the young Caesar drawing him from among the Religious whom he sent to pray to God in their Monasteries remonstrated to him so powerfully that he ought to joyn other Arms to those of his Prayers to combat and oppose his Enemies that by little and little he raised up his Spirits till at last he brought him to the Resolution of acting and dying however at the worst like an Emperour Thereupon he made him engage all that he had his rich Furniture of Gold and Silver that so he might have wherewith to levy Men and therein the young Conrade acted with so much Diligence and Readiness that in a few days he raised in Constantinople a very considerable number of Troops composed of Greeks and all manner of Asiatique Strangers Latins and even Turks and Sarasins who happened to have Business there These being joyned with those that belonged to the Court and the City Militia made up a very good Army with which he lead the Emperour against Branas who was advanced within View of Constantinople on the side of Blaquerness and in the Plain which is on the other side of that Suburb it was that he gave Battle to the Rebels with so much Vigour and such admirable Conduct that he intirely defeated them and having slain Branas with his own Hand he cut off his Head and presented it to the Emperor But he presently after perceived that this Prince according to the Custom of great Men who rarely love those Persons sincerely to whom they stand extremely obliged was so far from rewarding his Services that now he despised him and that he would give him no other Portion with his Sister but the vain Title of Caesar and the Honour of wearing purple Shoes Being therefore of a good fierce Temper and besides not over delicate as to matter of Conscience he resolved to take hold of the first Occasion to abandon him which he also did but in a manner which certainly neither became him as a gallant Man nor as a Christian He had taken the Cross for the Holy War when he came to Constantinople and there he understood the great Progress which the Arms of Saladin made in Palestine Now the Emperour who was advanced with a few Troops towards the Danubius to begin the War against the Wallachians had left him at Constantinople to gather up the rest of the Army and pressed him according to his Promise to make hast to joyn him with them But he resolving to delude the Emperour in his turn as he had been deluded by him instead of going to joyn with him he went aboard certain Ships which he had caused upon some other Pretext to be rigged out with all those Troops in whom he consided making no Scruple either to forsake the Emperour or the Princess his Lady but as if his Marriage had been null and void he left her and weighed Anchor for Palestine without knowing any thing of the defeat of the Christian Army or the Captivity of his Father As he approached to Ptolemais a few days after it was Surrendered to Saladin he was something surprized that he did not hear the Bells which were accustomed to be rung out when any Christian Vessels were ready to enter the Port year 1188 but in a moment after he was more astonished when in the place of the Cross he perceived upon the Towers all the Ensigns of the Sarasins by which he knew that the Town was reduced under the Dominion of the Insidels This made him take a sudden Resolution to sail to Tyre which was not distant above eight Miles from thence to the Northward This City so flourishing and so celebrated for its Antiquity for its
Hellespont and to give him sufficient Security for his Promises of which he knew he would be liberal but which he had no manner of Reason to repose any sort of Confidence in That he was resolved to have in Hostage four and twenty of the principal Officers and Lords of his Court and eight hundred others of inferior Quality whom he must forthwith send to him together with the Ambassadors of the Sultan of Iconium whom he restrained at Constantinople contrary to the Law of Nations That upon these Conditions he would give him the Assurance of his Oath that he had no designs upon his Empire as he had vainly imagined or at least made a shew of believing that so he might have some Pretext though a very ill one for the violation of his Faith There is certainly nothing so Insolent as a proud Coward in Prosperity when he finds himself extraordinarily advanced by his good Fortune nor is there any thing so Low Mean and Croaching when once his Haughtiness is tamed and brought down by the reverse of Adversity This Isaacius who a little before boasted with insufferable Insolence that he was the only Emperor and next to God the Lord and Master of other Kings now thought himself very happy to be offered a Treaty which gave him liberty to accept even of these dishonourable Conditions which were sufficiently humbling for him He therefore without Delay sent the Ratification with the Ambassadors the Hostages and great Presents to the Emperor who passed the Winter at Adrianople till Easter approaching he went to Callipolis where he was resolved to pass the Hellespont There he did not fail to find far more Shipping than Isaacius had promised him for there were of Barkes Brigantines Galliots and Gallies near upon five hundred so much hast did that poor Prince make to deliver himself from these dangerous and troublesome Guests who had perfectly recruited themselves of all their Fatigues and very well inriched themselves at his Expence in so good a winter Quarter Thus the Army to which diverse new Crusades had come to joyn themselves and which was in a Condition as good or better than when it first marched out of Germany year 1190 began to pass the Sea upon Good Friday the twenty third day of March and in seven days were all transported over the Hellespont They had so good a Passage that not one Man was lost such Care did the Emperor take who was continually jealous and watchful over the Greeks and fearing least when the first were passed over they might set upon the last he was resolved to embarque with the last himself as he did upon the seventh Day and happily joyned the rest of his Army in Asia near the City of Lampsacus The next Morning he began his March and quitting the left hand Way which he had found was so difficult and dangerous when he accompanied his Uncle the Emperor Conrade he took to the Right by the Sea Coast crossing over Mysia Troas Phrygia and Lydia by the Cities of Thyatira and Philadelphia to the Meander which he passed near Laodicea where the Army reposed for a few days The Inhabitants of this City furnished them with all manner of Refreshments year 1190 with an incredible Chearfulness which was a pleasing Surprise to the Emperor who now believed that the Sultan of Iconium whose Government extended as far as that side of the Meander would inviolably keep his Promise which he had given him and which he daily repeated by his Ambassadors who followed the Camp But he was no sooner arrived at that dangerous Mountain which is near the Head of the Meander and which the defeat of the Rereguard of the French Army under Lewis the Young had made so Memorable but he found the Enemies in the Head of him and presently understood that this perfidious Infidel Prince had not made him all those fair Promises but to draw him into the Snare which he had artfully had by his infamous Treachery Which should instruct Christian Princes that they ought to take all imaginable Precaution and extraordinary Security when the necessity of their Affairs obliges them to treat with those People who wanting that true Faith which they owe to God usually take no care of preserving it towards Men. This Sultan was Caïscosroës who about ten years before had been dispoiled of his Dominions by his Brother Rucratin and was afterwards re-established by the Greeks This Prince had a little before concluded an Alliance with Saladin who had given his Daughter in Marriage to his Son Melich who succeeded him He had also a secret Intelligence with Isaacius who corresponded with both these Sultans against the Latins whom he mortally hated as do all the Greeks but more especially in those times So that all the Ambassadors which this perfidious Infidel had sent to Frederick and whom Isaacius had apparently by Force detained at Constantinople were sent for no other Purpose but to abuse the Emperor with greater ease and to draw him from Laodicea into those desert Countries from whence he had caused all the Provisions to be withdrawn that so he might destroy that Army by Famine and by the infinite multitude of Troops which he had gathered out of all Asia continually to molest the Army in their March and to attack them at all the difficult Passes In short they found that the Straits of the Mountain were possessed by the Turks but nevertheless they were such miserable Cowards that would not abide more than the first Shock of the Germans who there made a great Carnage among them and put the rest to flight However they rallied the next Morning and came again in far greater Numbers but rather like Thieves than Souldiers vexing the Army on all Sides with slinging great Stones and discharging their Arrows after which they would save themselves according to their Custom by retireing at full Speed and then presently return again after the same manner without giving the Germans who were heavily armed the possibility of coming to Blows with them and having thus combated with them all the Day they in the Night seized upon the Avenues of another Mountain which were extraordinary strait and through which they knew the Christian Army must necessarily pass the following Day But Frederick who disposed all things with an incredible presence of Mind thought of a pretty Stratagem which succeeded perfectly to his Wish He divided his Army into two Bodies leaving the smallest Party in the Camp which was at the Foot of the Mountain after which seeming to be afraid of the Turks and to dispair of forcing the Pass he marched in the Morning with the greatest Party quite another way as if he designed to find some other Passage He was not distanced far from the Camp when the Turks really believing that his Fear was the occasion of his Flight and the hast which he made to draw himself out of such a dangerous Place had made him abandon his Camp but that the desire they
his Army than either all the Want they had endured or all the Combats they had undergone since their parting from Constantinople for the Soldiers passing suddenly from one Extream into another there followed so much Sickness such a Mortality and at last the Plague among them in such a furious manner that of a numerous and flourishing Army which it was when it entred into Asia there remained not more than seven thousand Foot and five or six hundred Horse with which notwithstanding the valiant Frederick marched over the Bellies of all that durst oppose him and happily arrived at the City of Tyre There it was that he payed the last Duties to his Father whom he caused to be interred in the great Church with all the Magnificence and Ceremonies of a Funeral Pomp worthy of so great an Emperor the Archbishop of Tyre from whom he received the Cross making his Elegy in a most admirable Funeral Oration After which Duke Frederick went to joyn the Christian Army which for two years had undertaken and pursued the famous Siege of Ptolemais in the manner which I am about to relate When Saladin after a Years Imprisonment at Damascus gave Liberty to King Guy of Lusignan he exacted from him among other hard Conditions that he should renounce all manner of Claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and to engage himself by a soremn Oath to repass the Sea as soon as it was possible But after he was at liberty the Bishops declared that this Oath was in no sort obliging in regard it was forced from him by Compulsion and in his Restraint and also because Saladin himself had first violated his Faith in not delivering his Prisoner so soon as Ascalon was rendred to him as he had promised And for this Reason the King who was retired to Tripolis began to renew the War after he had assembled a considerable number of Troops of those of his own Realm who before durst not appear but flocked in to him upon the Arrival of the Crusades who seeing the French and English engaged in War came along with Geoffrey de Lusignan his Brother Having gained some Advantages of the Turks in the beginning he after went and presented himself before Tyre where the Marquis of Montferrat who pretended he had justly acquired the Principality of that City refusing him Entrance he was so enraged that although he had not half Forces enough for such an Enterprise yet he encamped before the place and put himself into a posture of besieging it year 1190 But the Patriarch Heraclius and the great Master of the Templers wisely representing to him that it was impossible for him to attempt a matter of this nature without absolutely ruining not only himself but all the Hopes that yet remained to the Christians in Palestine he desisted from it and thereupon desperate to see that he had not one place left to him in all his Kingdom for Tripolis appertained of Right to Raymond Prince of Antioch he took Counsel of his Dispair and turning short to the Left Hand he lead his little Army directly to Ptolemais in hopes to take it either by Assault or by Surprise Ptolemais by some called Accon or Acre derives its Name from one of the Kings of Egypt who was its Restorer and was at that time a fair and large City lying upon the Coast of the Phoenician Sea It was of a Triangular Figure the Base of it being towards the East the two Sides towards the North and South and the Point ended in a Rock which advanced it self a good space into the Sea upon the West where the Town becoming the narrowest abutted upon a great high and strong Tower which was called the Fly-Tower because that formerly in that place stood a Temple dedicated to Beelzebub which signifies the God of Flies It also served for a Watch-Tower or Light-House to discover the Entry of the Haven which lay towards the South in a certain Bay which the Sea made in that place which was very commodious and capable of receiving great numbers of Ships It was incompassed with very strong Walls and Barbicans or Out-Walls with large and deep Ditches and Graffs as also with very good Towers placed at convenient distances to defend each other The principal of these which served as a Castle and Fortress to the City was called the Wicked Tower by reason that the People by an old sottish Fable which according to Custom was held for an Authentick Tradition among them had a Belief that it was built with those thirty Pieces of Money for which Judas sold our Saviour The Country adjacent was very pleasant being a fair and rich Champaign which upon the North was bounded by Mount Saron distant about two Leagues from the City and upon Mount Carmel on the South much about the same distance towards the East it was extended to the Mountains of Galilee from whence there arose two small Rivers one whereof passing through the City emptied it self into the Sea at the Haven The other called Belus flows about two hundred and fifty Paces from the City Southwards and is famous for having been the occasion of the Invention of Glass by furnishing the Materials of which it was first made For about the middle of its Course it forms a kind of a Lake or Marish which Pliny calls the Lake of Cyndevia of a round Figure which may be some hundred Cubits in Compass the Bottom whereof is full of a certain Sand which by the Winds is driven into it from the Tops of the adjacent Hills where it obtains a Disposition which inclines it easily to be turned into Glass for being boiled and purisied in a Furnace it turns into a transparent Mass white and clear almost like Crystal And that which is most wondrous any small piece of this Crystal being thrown upon the Banks of this Lake in little time regains its former Nature and is converted into the same common Sand which it was before it was blown by the Winds into this Lake But though this Champaign about Ptolemais be very equal and level towards the Foot of the Mountains which inviron it yet there are two Hills near the Town the one of which is called Turon which some have confounded with the famous Castle of Thoron situate some three or four Leagues from thence upon the Extremity of the Mountains of Tyre which extend themselves to the upper Galilee The other is called the Hill of the Mosquee on the other side the River Belus upon which besides that Mosquee of the Sarasins is to be seen an ancient Sepulchre which they say is that of Memnon though without giving us precisely any Foundation whereupon to establish that Belief This was the nature of this place which proved the Theatre of so many brave Actions as were performed at this Siege of Ptolemais which one may well say was one of the most memorable which is related in any History year 1190 This City was taken from the Christians about the
desired Tancred to send for him to Messina that from him he might be informed of the Success of this War which he was about to undertake to re-conquer Jerusalem from the Hands of the Infidels This is commonly the nature of Men especially of Great Men to have a longing desire to penetrate into the inscrutable Secrets of the time to come year 1190 by a dangerous and vain Curiosity which usurping upon the peculiar Prerogative of God Almighty who hath reserved this Knowledge incommunicably to himself he does not fail to punish that bold Presumption by some Misfortune either agreeable or contrary to the Prediction which is made But that which gave Richard the greater desire to consult this famous Abbot was the sad News of the deplorable Accident which had befallen the Emperor taking him out of the World in the middle of his victorious Course and which it was confidently reported had been predicted to him most clearly by the Abbot who positively affirmed that he should have no good Success This gave a mighty Confirmation to all those People who had conceived this Opinion of him that he had the Gift of Prophecy Come he did then and according to his custom taking upon him the Tone of a Prophet he presently told the two Kings with a serious Air and without a Moments Hesitation That it was to no manner of purpose that they were going to Jerusalem to deliver the Holy Land in regard that the Time appointed for its Deliverance was not yet come Philip the August who had a most solid Mind and who took no further care but to give good Order for the present thereby to assure the future in which consists the best Art of Prediction was in no pain for this Discourse of the Abbot to which he gave but little Credit But Richard who had a certain Weakness for those kind of Prophecies had a Curiosity to be further satisfied demanded of him upon what kind of Knowledge he founded this Prediction that he pronounced with such Assurance Whereupon this Visionary whose Head was full of nothing but the Chimera's of his own Dreams which he made upon the Apocalyps of which he thought he had as perfect an Understanding as St. John who writ these Revelations fell to interpreting the Visions contained in that Book and especially that of the horrible Dragon with seven Heads which would have devoured the Man-child which was to be born of the Woman cloathed with the Sun The sixth Head of this Monster he said was Saladin who had taken Jerusalem who should certainly be destroyed by the Christians who should regain this holy City but that according to the Mystery of the Numbers denoted in the Vision it should not be till seven Years from the Taking of it were accomplished If it be so briskly replied Richard interrupting him What have we done to come so far to no purpose Your Voyage answered the Abbot was necessary for your own Glory for that by doing this God will make you triumph over all your Enemies and will elevate you above all other Princes of the Earth The Events plainly shewed that these two first Predictions were most false since Jerusalem was not taken in that time and that the Voyage was in conclusion very unfortunate for King Richard who fell into the Hands of his Enemies and was very ill treated by them But his Illusion or rather his Extravagance and Folly appeared much more when pursuing the Interpretation of this Mystery according to the disorderly Capricioes of his own Imagination he added that the seventh Head of this Dragon was Antichrist who should be born in Rome and should be Pope for this dangerous Devote had the Confidence to publish this Folly and boldly to affirm that this Enemy of Jesus Christ was at that time in his youthful Age. That in the Year 1199. the sixth Seal of the fatal Book should be opened and that thereupon should ensue the Kingdom Persecution and the Death of Antichrist and that the Gospel should before that be preached in all the World But he might very well himself before his own Death see the falseness of his Prediction And from that time that he undertook with so much Confidence to maintain that Opinion he was most powerfully confuted and convinced of the little probability of his Prophecies by the Archbishops of Ousch and Roan the Bishops of Bayonne and D'Eureux and other learned Ecclesiasticks who were present at this Conference and shewed him by Scripture which plainly tells us that the Time which he undertook to limit was wholly unknown that his Conceptions were not only false but rash and vain Imaginations of his own Fancy which he endeavoured to obtrude upon the World for Truths Insomuch that King Richard himself who now undertook to be able to confute him made no more Account of him than King Philip had done and no further amused himself about him See what manner of Man this Abbot Joachim was and what Belief he gained upon the Minds of the English and French year 1190 who were not altogether so credulous as the Italians many of which though did not believe him but only among the Common People his Fictions passed Currant as if they had been Heavenly Oracles But it is observable that this hath constantly been the Destiny of those who would undertake to prophesie or to explain future Events by accommodating them to the Mysteries of the Apocalyps to lose the greatest part of their Reason and Understanding by dashing against that Rock which hath split so many Spirits as by their foolish Curiosity have at last only gained the infamous Reputation of being Visionary Extravagants The two Kings therefore without being retarded by the Predictions of this Man whom they sent back to his Solitude of Haute-Pierre in Calabria to write upon the Prophets and the Apocalyps resolved to pursue their Voyage so soon as the Season would permit Philip who always pressed the King of England not to delay the time parted the first in the Month of March with all his Fleet and arrived fortunately in two and twenty days upon Easter-Eve before Acre where he was received by the Crusades with incredible Transports of Pleasure as if an Angel from Heaven was come to the Relief of the Christian Army which had now besieged this important Place very near three Years So soon as he was arrived he visited the Works and took his Quarters so near the Walls that his Lodgment was within less than a Discharge of the Darts and Arrows of his Enemies He then began to plant his Slings for great Stones his Rams and other Engines which played to so good purpose and so furiously upon the place that in few days he had made a reasonable fair Breach At which time the French presented themselves before it in order to an Assault resolved to perish or to carry the Place and all the Honour of the Siege And no doubt can be made but the City had certainly that day been
War is always a great Fault in a Prince or Captain And certainly he ought not to have made any Scruple of Taking the City as he might easily have done without King Richard whom he unprofitably staid for so long time while that King more cunning and less scrupulous and who had not for others such tender Concerns did without him take a whole Kingdom For in short the missing of this Opportunity gave Rise to many Accidents which had like to have entirely ruined the Enterprise For the Besieged made great advantage of that long Repose and the leisure which was given them by a kind of Truce of which they knew not the Cause however they employed it to the repairing of the Breaches and were so strengthned by little Succours which frequently slip'd into them that they found themselves in a Condition often to repulse the great Assaults which were given against them at unseasonable times the Opportunity being lost before Besides the King of France first and after some time the King of England fell sick of that dangerous Malady which made them lose their Hair Nails and Skin by its subtil and Corrosive Malignity which consumes all that Matter which is necessary for the Defence or the Ornament of the Body But the most dangerous Evil of all and which endangered the common Ruin was the Division which broke out more furiously than ever between the two Kings The ancient English Historians of that time lay all the Blame upon Philip whilst the French who writ at the same time accuse King Richard and lay all the Fault at his Door and the reason is plain that both the one and the other living at the same time and writing what was done in their own time either their Fear or their Hope their Love or Hate took from them the power and the liberty of writing the Truth sincerely and without Partiality For my own particular who besides the natural Love I have for it have always made Profession to speak and write when there is occasion with that frank and honest liberty which can never be taken from a good Man year 1191 and who am under no manner of Temptations from any of these Passions which may hinder me from speaking concerning these Kings what I believe to be true it cannot be supposed I should do otherwise since I have nothing either to hope or fear from them and that there is no danger four hundred Years after their Death any Person should so warmly espouse the Interests of their Ashes I say then that after having strictly examined whatever is written upon one side and the other concerning this great difference I find that Richard did not use King Philip with that Respect which was due to him as his Liege Lord for so many great and fair Provinces as he held of him in France For as he had amassed prodigious Sums of Money in England in Sicily and in Cyprus he spared no Cost to allure the bravest Men to his Party and to draw them to his Service by excessive Profusions and the extraordinary Advantages which he made them insomuch that understanding that Philip gave three Crowns in Gold by the Month to every Horse-man he promised four to such as would quit that Service and take Pay under him So that he seemed to endeavour to exhalt himself above his Master and to render him contemptible But then on the other side Philip who had a great Heart and who bore it very impatiently to be in this manner insulted over by his Vassal shewed so much displeasure that he gave those whom the Profusions of Richard had gained especially the Levantines who were most charmed with them occasion to believe that he was not able to support his Greatness and his Merit to be thus topped and overshaded Moreover as Philip before the Arrival of the English had so far advanced the Works and so beaten down the Walls and ruined the Defences that he might easily have taken the place if he had not been too scrupulous of taking all the Glory to himself whereas Richard to whom he had given the opportunity of taking his share by a strange Effect of Jealousie and Ambition would by no means have the City taken whilst Philip was there insomuch that when the French assaulted the Town this jealous Prince prohibited the English either to sustain them or to assault it on their side as had before been resolved upon at the Council of War This brought on Reproaches Quarrels and Hatred which daily increased and grew more violent between the two Nations than that of the War which had begun to break out before under King Henry there being besides naturally not too much Sympathy between them That which augmented this Division was also the Difference between Guy de Lusignan and the Marquis Conrade de Montferrat for the Realm of Jerusalem which the one pretended to keep and the other to have when as Saladin was yet possessed of it For King Philip carried himself openly for the Marquis in the Right of his Wife and for that being a great Warrier who had by his good Conduct preserved the small Remainder of that poor Realm it seemed much better that he should have it rather than his Rival who had lost it so unfortunately for want of Courage and sufficient Conduct On the contrary the King of England for that very reason opposed his Pretensions being unwilling it should fall into the hands of so brave a Man and therefore with all his Power he supported Guy of Lusignan by reason that that unfortunate Prince having much Weakness and little Merit Richard was in hopes of disposing of the Realm according to his own Will And in short the new Conquest which the King of England had made of the Island of Cyprus which he was resolved to keep did not at all please Philip who demanded the half of that Realm in virtue of the Treaty by which they were obliged to divide equally between them whatsoever should be gained by that Voyage But Richard maintained either that this Division was to be restrained to such Conquests as were made upon the Infidels or otherwise that by the same reason he ought to divide the Succession to the Earldom of Flanders with the King since by the Death of the Earl Philip pretended to have acquired a Right unto And by reason of this Division their Spirits were so exasperated that while nothing was done against the common Enemy both sides reproached each other with holding a secret Intelligence and Correspondency with the Infidels both the one Party and the other receiving Presents from Saladin And in truth this brave Sarasin Prince who was naturally generous and made War like a noble Enemy was used from time to time to send the most excellent Fruits of Damascus to the two Kings who in Return sent him some of the pretty Rarities of Europe year 1191 Thus matters were so far from being advantaged by the coming of these two mighty Armies
the Christians but a very few private Soldiers and not one Man of Condition except the valiant James d' Avesne who was slain at the beginning of the Battle of the Vanguard But it must be said that if King Richard knew how to vanquish in this famous Day with all the Glory which can be gained upon a like Occasion he had Hanibal's Misfortune not to have the Art to make Advantage of his Victory For if instead of amusing himself with Rebuilding the Maritim Towns which Saladin had ruined which might have been more commodiously done at another Season he had marched straight to Jerusalem most assuredly he might have taken it without Resistance by reason that Saladin was fled among the Mountains and those who were left there for the Defence of the Place not being able to hope to be Relieved and fearing to meet with the same Measure which those who had so obstinately defended Acre would scarcely have had the Courage to defend it against him But whether it were his Prosperity and the excessive Joy with which so great a Victory had disturbed his Mind which made him incline to tast the Pleasure of being so great a Conqueror or whether it were that after having done very well one naturally loves to take the more easy part and not to hazard that Glory which one hath already acquired certain it is that this is a Fault with which almost in all Ages one hath occasion to reproach the greatest Captains and it is observable that most frequently they have lost the Opportunity of finishing a War by attacking after great Success the Enemy and following the fortunate Blow which they had given Thus King Richard after so fair a Victory lost the rest of the Year in re-building and re-peopling the Maritim Towns and especially Jaffa whither he caused the two Queens to come and where in that time he ran a far greater Danger than he he had done in besieging of Jerusalem One Day as he was hunting he with five or six of his Gentlemen fell into a great Ambuscade of the Sarasins where he had been infalibly taken and lead Captive to Saladin if one of the Lords who accompanied him whose Name was William de Pourcellets a Gentleman of Provence who was wholly devoted to his Service had not done an Action which History ought to recommend to Posterity as a most illustrious Example of that inviolable Fidelity which Servants owe to their Masters and much more Subjects to their Soveraigns though to the hazard of their Lives For seeing the King who valiantly defended himself with mighty Blows of his Sword in danger to be taken or slain as already four of the Company were who lay extended upon the Grass at their Masters Feet he cried out in the Language of the Sarasins I am the King Whereupon all of them desirous to have a share in the taking of so great a King ran to him and gave King Richard the liberty to save himself whilest without regarding any others they all fell with Precipitation upon him whom they took for the King Saladin who had nothing of the Barbarian in his Conduct acting like a generous Prince treated his Prisoner according to the merit of so brave an Action And King Richard for his part failed not to recompence him with Honours proportionable to his Deserts for he gave in Exchange for him ten of the greatest and richest Noblemen among his Prisoners to manifest the Esteem which he had for this brave Man whom alone he valued at the rate of ten Princes for whose Ransoms he might have expected very great Riches and Treasures This was the Glory which by his Virtue this gallant Man acquired for himself whilest living and which dying he bequeathed to his illustrious House which to this day preserves its Lustre and maintains its Rank among the most Ancient and the most Noble of Provence All this time Saladin ceased not to lay all the Country Wast and thereby to take away all manner of Subsistence from the Christians as also to ruine all the Cities of Palestine except Jerusalem and two or three strong Fortresses whilest Richard unprofitably wasted his time in rebuilding those Places which being demolished could give no trouble to his principal Design He also suffered himself to be amused by a Treaty of Peace extremely Advantageous to him which Saphadin the Brother of Saladin pretended to negotiate between them year 1191 by which he proposed to the King to relinquish to him all the Country on this side Jordan to the Sea provided that Ascalon which was to be demolished should appertain to neither Party These Offers seemed so Advantageous to Richard who was already imbroiled with the French under the Duke of Burgundy that he was very much disposed to conclude with Saphadin But at length he perceived that he was deluded and that the Barbarian more cunning than honest had not begun this Negotiation but to gain time and to throw him upon the Winter He thereupon fell into an extreme Rage and as Rage is one of the worst of Councellors which puts Men upon acting without any certain Rules or Measures to satisfy this inpetuous Passion he blindly followed its Conduct and at that unseasonable time of the Year undertook the Siege of Jerusalem which if he had consulted Reason he ought to have done and might happily have effected it three or four Months before year 1192 He went therefore with Precipitation enough in the Month of January with the whole Army already much diminished by the departure of many of the Crusades who were displeased with his Delays of Peopling Planting and Rebuilding in which he consumed the Summer and passing by Rama which Saphadin in his Retreat had demolished he advanced within three or four Leagues of Jerusalem All the Souldiers witnessed an excessive Joy to find themselves within View of that City where they hoped shortly to worship before the Sacred Sepulchre of Jesus Christ so great an Assurance had they of the Victory But when the Counsel was assembled the Passion of King Richard being something cooled and the Matter debated in cold Blood the greatest part of the Captains adjudged that the Enterprise was too rash to hope that it should Prosper There it was remonstrated That the Town was very Strong and well provided that Saladin was there in Person with the choicest of his Troops not at all doubting but that there he was in a Condition of Security as Affairs then stood the Season being such that an Army could not possibly undertake a Siege without putting themselves against all the Rules of Art and War into a most manifest Danger of being Ruined That in effect the Country being intirely ruined by the Wast which Saladin had made there was not Subsistence to be found for one single day for the Army and that it being in the deep of Winter there was no probability of getting Provision by the Sea And for that extraordinary Ardor which the Soldiers shewed it ought
her self in this Holy War with the Resolution of a true Heroine and having joyned her Troops with the Army of the Princes of the Crusade she under went the Voyage with them with as great Zeal and Ardour as any of them and with far more Constancy and firmness of Resolution For being ashamed of the precipitate Return of the others who unworthily abandoned the Interests of Jesus Christ in the East in the very Heat of the War she only remained unmoveable in her first Resolution and passed all the Remainder of her Days at Ptolemais that so she might be always ready upon all Occasions which offered either to attack the Infidels or defend the Christians An Example which confirms what hath been frequently seen in other Princesses that Heroick Vertue does not at all depend upon the Quality of the Sex but that the weakness of Temper and Body may be supplied by the greatness of the Soul and the Vigour of the Spirit During this time the Letters of the Pope with those of the Emperor which were sent all over Germany produced such Effects upon the Minds of Men already filled and prepossessed with the haughty Idea's which they had conceived of a Crusade wherein the Empire only should be concerned so that every City willing to signalize themselves upon this Occasion furnished out a considerable number of Crusades Insomuch that the Emperor found wherewithal abundantly to satisfie not only the great Desire which he seemed to have to undertake the Holy War but also that which in reallity he had which was under this pretext to lead a potent Army into Italy to exterminate the Remainder of the Normans who had caused a Revolt in the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily And that he might play his Game with greater Success by covering his principal Intendment under this specious Appearance of a mighty Zeal he presented himself to take the Cross from the hand of the Legate protesting that for the Accomplishment of his Promise and to animate others by his Example he was resolved to march at the Head of his Army and in Person to combat against the Infidels But whether it were that they discovered his Artifice and saw that it would be an acceptable Service to him year 1195 to stop him in this Design or that they really believed that after the deplorable Accidents which happened to his Father and his Brother in the other Crusade it was not at all expedient that he should engage himself in Person to undertake this Voyage it is certain that all the Princes humbly intreated him to continue in the Empire remonstrating to him that thereby he would render greater Service to God by constantly taking care and providing the Necessaries for Subsistence and Recruits for the Armies which he should send into the East So that after some small Struggling and faint Oppositions he submitted to the Request of the Assembly and in conclusion resolved to set on foot three great Armies that so he might make profitable use of that infinite multitude of Soldiers who had taken upon them the Cross throughout all the Provinces of Germany The first of these Armies under the Conduct of Conrade Archbishop of Mayence accompanied by the Dukes of Saxony and Brabant and the greatest part of the Princes of the Crusade took its Way by Land to Constantinople where being imbarked upon the Fleet of the Greek Emperor whose Daughter Irene Philip Duke of Suabia Brother to the Emperor Henry had married they arrived happily at Antioch from whence they marched to Tyre and a few days after to Ptolemais The second Army passed by Sea and after having coasted along the Low Countries England France and Spain in their Passage they took the City of Sylves which the Sarasins had regained from the Portuguese and fearing lest the Infidels should again seize upon that important place which had been so ill defended by Dom Sancho the Crusades demolished it from the very Foundation After which they prosperously held on their Course and came to an Anchor in the Port of Acre where they joyned the first Army And for the third Army which was the strongest and composed of the best Troops drawn particularly out of the Dutchies of Suabia Bavaria and Franconia consisting in sixty thousand Combatants the Emperor in Person conducted it into Italy where in Execution of the Design which he had so artfully concealed under the specious pretext of the Holy War he surprized the Norman Princes and Lords who were confederated against him and without any trouble made himself Master of all the places which they yet held against him in the Realms of Naples and Sicily year 1196 putting those brave Unfortunates to death by all the ways of Rage and Cruelty Insomuch that the Empress Constantia unable to endure this horrible Butchery which was made of those of her Nation whom this cruel fierce and vindicative Prince resolved utterly to exterminate she conspired against him both to take away his Life and Empire And that her wicked Enterprise might prove successful she covered it and her Resentment for the present with a deep Dissimulation Henry who believed that he had now no more Enemies who were in a Condition to enterprize any thing against him caused the greatest part of his Army to be imbarked upon the Fleet which Conrade Bishop of Wirtzbourg his Chancellor and Lieutenant General in Italy had rigged the Year before who conducted them with a prosperous Voyage in a few days to the Port of Acre where they arrived very opportunely to reinforce the German Troops who for some time before had had all the Forces of the Insidels upon their hands For Valeran de Limbourg who with his Brigade having marched with the first was arrived in Palestine before the rest having broken the Truce which was made with the Sarasins they who before thought of nothing but how to ruin one another began immediately to re-unite under Saphadin against the common Enemy as they esteemed the Christians This Prince who was a great Soldier having presently raised a potent Army of his own Troops and those of his Nephews who upon this Occasion owned him as their General made a great Slaughter of all the Christians who fell into his Power thereby to revenge himself of Valeran who by an Action very little Christian and of most dangerous Consequence had in like manner treated the Sarasins whom he surprized upon his breaking the Truce After which by a wonderful Diligence preventing the Army of the Crusades he laid Siege before their Arrival to Jaffa into which the King of England had put a strong Garrison before he quitted Palestine year 1196 The young Henry Count de Champagne who had all the Authority of a Soveraign after his Marriage with Queen Isabella saw very well of what Importance it was to save that Place without which it was almost impossible to undertake the Siege of Jerusalem and therefore he resolved to march to relieve it with all the Expedition possible and
the Condition wherein the City then was without all manner of Hopes of being relieved and under a Prince who already seemed to Capitulate it must either have been surrendred upon Composition or carried by Force But there is no time wherein it is not easy to observe that those who have known very well how to Vanquish their Enemies have not yet been so Fortunate as to know how to make the best Use of their Victories and that they have lost all the Fruit of their gallant Actions for want of taking Time and their Enemies by the Head after such considerable Defeats For the Crusades whereas they ought immediately to have lead the conquering Army to Jerusalem and to take all the Advantage they could of the Disorder of the Sarasins before they could be able to recover the Consternation of the Blow and to re-settle their Affairs they very unadvisedly undertook the Siege of Thoron which was the most impregnable of all the Places which the Sarasins yet held in Palestine and the most able to stop the Course of a Victorious Army to no purpose This place was rather a great Castle than a Town which Hugh de St. Omer Lord of Tiberias had beforetime caused to be built in the Reign of Baldwin the I. about seven or eight Leagues from Tyre towards the East to oppose the Excursions of the Sarasins who at that time were Masters of that great City It was situate upon the top of a high Mountain which was invironed round with broaken Rocks which rendred it wholly inaccessible to an Army for there was no coming to it but by one way which was very Narrow and on each hand whereof lay most dreadful Precipices so that a few Defendants might easily maintain it against all the Forces of the Earth only by rolling down great Stones in this narrow Way where not above two Men could march abreast The Lords of Thoron had also taken great Care year 1197 to add all that Art could do towards the Fortification of it as far as the Invention of those Times would admit to render the Place impregnable The Army coming to incamp before it in the beginning of the Winter it was quickly perceivable that the way of Force would be to no purpose against a place of that Nature for there were no kind of Engines which could be elevated proportionably to the height of the Walls and Towers to batter them the Darts Arrows and Stones which were thrown from below upwards lost all their Force of doing any Execution before they could come at the Besieged who laughed at the vain Efforts which were used against them whereas at the same time their Engines discharging from above showred down a furious Tempest of Darts Stones and Arrows upon the Camp which had much to do to cover it self from the dreadful Storm They indeavoured however by mining to find a Way under the Earth after the Example of the Dictator Camillus who by that means entred the City of Veiae scituate like Thoron upon the top of a Mountain But the German Engineers who began the Work found the Rock so very hard that they dispaired of Success year 1198 and were at last obliged to give it over so that after three Months spent unprofitably in the Siege they found themselves no nearer taking the Place than when they first sate down before it In the mean time Saphadin who was cured of his Wound had time to levy Men and raise an Army more numerous than before with which he intended to besiege the Christians in their Camp Nevertheless Thoron which began to be in great want of Provisions and which had already desired to Capitulate had undoubtedly fallen into the hands of the Christians if the Avarice and infamous Treason of those whose principal Interest it was to have it taken had not saved it For the Templers who served in the Army and whose Manners were already abominably degenerated suffered themselves to be corrupted by the Gold of Saphadin who promised them vast Summs if they would find out some way to cause the Siege to be raised they therefore gained by the same way Conrade Bishop of Wirtzbourg the Emperor's Chancellor who either out of Jealousie and Envy of the Glory of the Archbishop of Mayence and the Dukes of Saxony and Brabant who commanded the whole Army or blinded with the Lustre of the prodigious quantity of Gold which was offered him no longer regarded either his Conscience his Honour his Truth or Fidelity Vertues which in all Ages have been the Glory of the German Nation but that he joyned with the wicked Templers to betray the Interests of Jesus Christ For having persuaded the greatest part of the Italian Captains who came along with him into Palestine to enter into the same Sentiments with himself these joyned with the Templers made the major part of the Councel And first therefore he opposed the receiving the Besieged to Conditions alledging that it was impossible but they must presently come and submit themselves with Halters about their Necks and after that having spread a Report that Saphadin who had received a most powerful Reinforcement by his Fleet from Egypt was about to attack Baruth at the same time that he would also besiege them in their Camp he therefore protested that there was an absolute Necessity that they should march the next day to relieve that City And accordingly marching out of his Quarter with those of his Party to take that Way he obliged the rest of the Army instantly to raise the Siege and follow them least Saphadin coming upon them thus divided with his whole Strength they might fall into a worse Disaster Thus was Jesus Christ in his Interest and the Reputation of his Religion sold to the Sarasins by these Traitors as he had formerly been in his Person to the Jews by Judas But as that Infamous received little Benefit by that ill gotten Money and afterwards came to a deserved End so these perfidious Men gained little by their detestable Bargain more than the Vexation and Shame to find that the Besances with which the crafty Saphadin had in such profusion paid them were nothing but counterfeit Gold which so blinded were they at the receiving as not to discover And for the traiterous Bishop of Wirtzbourg returning some time after to his Bishoprick he was unluckily assassinated by some Officers of his Chapiter with whom he had made a cruel War Thus it is year 1198 that by the most just Judgments of God Treason never fails to fall upon the Heads of those who act it to the end that if the Infamy of such a black and cowardly Crime be not sufficient to deter those from it who by an extreme debasedness of Soul are tempted to commit it they may at least be restrained by the Fear of Divine Vengeance and the Justice of Almighty God which never fails where that of Men either is too short or too slow in punishing it After this Misfortune a mighty
was made with this Condition that after the Taking of Zara the Venetians should joyn their Forces with them in order to the attacking of Egypt the Conquest whereof they hoped would not be difficult which by reason of the Famine and the Pestilence had been extreamly desolated for five Years in which it had wanted the Inundation of the River Nilus Dandolo ravished with Joy to have obtained what he so earnestly desired upon this Occasion did an Action which was wholly unexpected from him and by which he most justly acquired immortal Fame For notwithstanding his extream Old Age and the Weakness and in a manner entire Loss of his Sight which might well have dispensed him from going to the Wars yet one Day in a great Assembly of the Senate the Lords of the Crusade and the People being in the Church of St. Mark he unexpectedly mounted the Tribunal and earnestly intreated the Republick to give him permission to take upon him the Cross and in Person to conduct the Venetian Army and that leaving his Son to supply his place after the Taking of Zara he might accompany the brave and generous Princes of France either to partake with them in the Glory of delivering the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ or to die with them in the pursuit of such a glorious Enterprise These Words were received both by the Crusades and Venetians with mighty Applause and with such great Acclamations mingled with Tears and Cries of Joy that the venerable old Prince more encouraged by the general Consent and the glorious Testimonies which were rendred to his Vertue descending instantly from the Tribunal made himself be conducted to the Foot of the Altar where prostrating himself to offer his Life as a Sacrifice to Almighty God to whose Service he now dâ—â—oted the Remainder of his Days he caused the Cross to be affixed to his Ducaâ— Bonnet that so it might be the more conspicuous and visible to all the Beholders An Example so illustrious was presently followed by several of the principal Persons of the Republick And that which augmented the Joy was that at the same time there was seen to arrive a noble Troop of brave German Lords and Brabamers who had taken upon them the Cross with Conrade Bishop of Halberstad and Berthold Count de Catzenelbogen So that by the favour of these Reinforcements the Army found it self compleat and being all imbarked in the Month of October they parted from the Port of Venice upon the gallantest Fleet which had ever spread Canvas upon those Seas and which consisted in three hundred Vessels charged with all manner of Warlike Engines and Munitions Upon the Eve of St. Martin they came within view of Zara and though considering the heighth and thickness of the Walls and the strength of its Towers which were defended by a strong Garrison many of those who beheld it at a distance judged it impregnable yet the next Day they attacked the Port with so much Fury that having dispersed those who defended it with the mighty force of Stones and Darts from the Engines and having broken the Chain which defended it they gained it by main Force and landed on the other Shoar year 1202 there to attack the City so soon as they had made their Lodgments and taken up their several Posts This vigorous Attempt did so terrify the Besieged that the next Day they sent out Deputies to make Offers of Surrendring the City upon Condition of only having their Lives saved And they had most infallibly done it if those of the Cabal who before had indeavoured to break up the Army had not by a most base Perfidiousness altered their Resolution by assuring them that they had none to deal with but the Venetians for that the French in Obedience to the Pope were resolved to undertake nothing against them At the same time Guy Abbot du Val de Sernay the same Person who had done such great Things against the Albigenses and who was afterwards Bishop of Carcassone went to speak with the Doge and the rest of the Princes and by a Zeal which had like to have caused great Disorders certainly a Zeal which made him act very unseasonably by unnecessarily exposing to Contempt the Authority of the Holy See he forbad them in behalf of the Pope to proceed any further or to enterprise any thing against Zara declaring those who should disobey this Order to be Excommunicate by Virtue of the Apostolical Letters which he there presented to them An Action so Surprizing did so Exasperate the Venetians that they had certainly cut this indiscreet Abbot in a thousand Pieces if Simon Earl of Montfort who was of his Party had not stoutly opposed it declaring himself his Protector and protesting that he would obey the Holy See and never employ those Arms against Christians which in taking upon him the Cross he had taken up to make War against the Infidels But the Princes and other French Lords to let the Venetians see that they did not only condemn this Action but that they were resolved like Men of Honor and in despite of all those who opposed it to perform what they had not promised but that notwithstanding their Vow they might well both in point of Conscience and for very considerable Reasons do gave such a furious Assault to the City both by Sea and Land without Intermission for five days successively that the Besieged were compelled to Surrender upon Discretion their Lives only saved After this the Season of the Year being too far declined to think of making War in Egypt it was resolved to pass the Winter at Zara where the Marquis Boniface came about fifteen days after the Reduction of the Place for he would not imbark with the rest upon pretence of giving some necessary Orders concerning the pressing Affairs of his Marquisate but in reallity that he might dexterously avoid appearing at the Siege of Zara and prevent the Displeasure of the Pope tho not long after the Pope received the Excuses which the French made him by their Deputies and granted them the Pardon which they demanded for the greater Satisfaction of their Consciences He also permitted them for the removing of all Scruples the Liberty of Treating at all times with the Venetians who could not be persuaded to believe themselves obliged to desire from him the Absolution from those Censures which they thought they had not at all deserved for which Reason some time after he denounced them Excommunicated by a Decree which the Princes thought convenient to suppress fearing that otherwise it might give occasion intirely to ruine the Enterprise of the Holy War as undoubtedly it would have done It was for this Reason that this sage Pope to whom the French Princes gave an account of their Proceedings by Letters respectful but very resolute after having throughly weighed the Matter approved the Prudence of their Conduct and some time after their Spirits being sweetned by a more propitious Conjuncture a Reconciliation easily ensued
Squadrons the first wherein was the Prince Alexis with the Marquis Boniface and Count Baldwin sailed to the Isle of Andros where the Inhabitants immediately yielded themselves to their Prince The second sailed to rights to the Straits of the Hellespont where they made a Descent at the City of Abydus year 1202 which is in the Entrance of the Strait on the Coast of Asia the inhabitants immediately presenting them with the Keys of their City So that all the Fleet had the Opportunity to assemble as it did in eight Days after and then passed the Chanal which seemed all covered between Europe and Asia with Ships and Gallies which composed the gallantest Fleet that the Christians had ever seen upon those Seas they came to an Anchor at the Port of the Abby of St. Stephen upon the Bank of the Propontis on the Thracian Coast about five or six miles from Heptapyrgium which is the famous Castle of seven Towers From thence as they resolved to go to the Islands of those Seas to secure themselves of Provisions before they attempted to form a Siege by Land against so great and strong a City the Wind and the Current carried the Fleet from the West to the East along by the Coast of the City which is situate upon the Propontis so near the Walls which were all crouded with Greek Soldiers that with their Darts they might reach the Ships The Ships also came so near as to be able to strike a Terror into the Hearts of the most undaunted who might at one View discover three hundred Vessels in order of Battle which made the fairest and yet one of the most terrible Sights in the World the Standards flying upon the Poops the Ensigns displaid the Flags and Pendants flying in the Wind the Machines mounted upon the Decks and the Shields of the Knights painted with their Arms glittering with Gold and Silver ranged all along the Hatches seemed to represent the Battlements of some glorious City It was in this Condition that this Gallant and formidable Navy bearing with full Sails before the Wind was carried to the Port of Chalcedon where the Army made an immediate Descent Chalcedon sometimes so famous for the fourth Universal Council which was there held under the Emperor Martian in the Papacy of St. Leo in the magnificent Church of St. Euphemia was at this time an indifferent fair City situate in a Peninsula which advancing it self into the Sea at the Entrance of the Bosphorus over against Constantinople forms upon its two sides two Ports whereof that which is upon the East was very large and capable of receiving a great number of ships that which rendred it more considerable was the proud Palace which the Emperors had caused to be built near that City there to enjoy the Beauty of the Place and the Sweetness of the Country Air which hath the Reputation of being very healthful But since the Turks are become Masters of the Empire they have in such manner ruined this poor City and all the Country thereabout That there remain scarcely any Footsteps either of Palaces or so much as of any Walls nor is it any thing but a wretched Village composed of the Cabins of a few pitiful Fishermen The Port for want of use and care being also now so grown up with Sand that it admits of no other Vessels but those poor Fisher Boots There it was that upon St. John Baptist's Day the whole Army landed and lodged themselves most commodiously partly in the City partly in the Palace and the remainder in the Country Houses of Pleasure thereabouts where they found abundance of Wealth which they put into the Ships which had now only the Mariners aboard them Two days after this fair Fleet was conducted to the Port of Scutari formerly known by the name of Chrysopolis over against the Promontory of Bosphorus or that of Acropolis now the Seraglio which is seperated by the Strait not above a good mile At the same time the whole Army took its March by Land in order of Battle along the Bosphorus having Constantinople upon their left hand which they fiercely beheld as their approaching Conquest and the Subject of their future glory and went and encamped below Scutari upon the Bank of the Strait fully resolved to pass it in the Sight of their Enemies as they did in the manner which I shall relate so soon as I shall have given an Account of the Condition wherein the City of Constantinople then was to resist such resolute Enemies as came generously to attack it and fully determined to carry it or to perish year 1203 THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART III. BOOK II. The CONTENTS of the Second Book The Condition wherein the City of Constantinople was when it was besieged by the French and Venetian Crusades The Defeat of the Vsurpers Brother-in-Law by a small Party of the French The Passage and the Battle of the Bosphorus The taking of the Castle of Galatha The Venetians force the Entry of the Port. An Assault given both by Sea and Land to Constantinople The Venetians take five and twenty Towers A Sally made by the Emperor Alexis with a prodigious Army and his Infamous Cowardice His Flight and the Reduction of Constantinople The Establishment of Isaac and the young Alexis A Prolongation of the Treaty for a Tear between that Emperor and the Confederate Princes Their Exploits in Thracia A dreadful Fire at Constantinople The History of the horrible Treason of Murrzuphle The young Alexis suffers himself to be surprized by the Artifices of that Traytor and breaks with the Confederates The Speech of Conon de Bethune to the Emperors to oblige them to accomplish their Treaty War declared against them upon their Refusal The Greeks attempt in Vain to burn the Venetian Fleet. The Discription of that wild Fire year 2103 The consequent Treasons of Murtzuphle The Election of Cannabus The double Treason of Murtzuphle who makes himself be proclaimed Emperor The Death of Isaac and of the young Alexis whom Murtzuphle strangles with his own Hands The Confederates make War against the Tyrant His Defeat by Henry the Brother of Count Baldwin The first Assault given upon the Port side of Constantinople wherein the Confederates are repulsed The Second Assault by which the City is taken by plain Force The Flight of Murtzuphle The Greeks lay down their Arms. The City plundered and the Booty there gained The Reliques from thence transported to several Churches of Europe Baldwin Earl of Flanders chosen Emperor The Policy of the Venetians in the Election of that Prince His Elogy and Character The Election of a Patriarch The Destribution of the Provinces of the Empire The happy beginning of the Emperor who reduceth all Thracia Murtzuphle surprized and betrayed by the Old Alexis who puts out his Eyes The Flight of Alexis and the taking of Murtzuphle He is brought back to
Constantinople where for the Punishment of his Crimes he is thrown headlong from a high Columne Old Alexis taken His End The Glorious Success of this Crusade THE Imperial City of Constantinople of which I have given the Survey and exact Description in the Second Book of the History of the Iconclastes conformable to the Condition wherein it was under the Empire of Constantinus Copronymus was neither so strong so fair nor so well peopled at that time as it was now when the French and Venetians undertook to make themselves Masters of it by plain Force as for the Multitude of Inhabitants the Turks having now overrun and conquered the greatest part of Natolia except some Maritime places upon the Bosphorus the Propomis and the Aegean Sea the Asiatick Greeks came generally to inhabit at Constantinople to secure themselves from the Tyranny of the Infidels And for its Beauty it was so far from having lost any that it was mightily augmented by the great number of Palaces publick Buildings and magnificent Churches which since that time had been built which were so increased that one might count above five hundred of them which rearing their lofty Spires and stately Towers above the rest of the City shewed at once a most pleasing and Majestick Prospect to the Beholders so that when the Crusades first discovered this great and Illustrious City from the highest places of the Port of the Abby of St. Stephen they were so pleasingly surprized that they were forced to avow that they had never seen any thing comparable to it in the whole World And lastly for its Strength it had all that Nature could contribute to it by its incomparable Situation between three Seas which invironed it in the Nature of a Peninsula of a Triangular Figure the Propontis on the South the Bosphorus on the East and the Gulph which makes the Port upon the North. Nor was there any thing wanting which Art could add either towards the Sea or Land to render it impregnable and though the Avarice and Negligence of some of the later Emperors had suffered it to be much weakned in the Fortifications yet was it in such a Condition that the greatest Captains among the Crusades believed they had never seen any thing more difficult to be undertaken than to besiege it For to the Landward it was encompassed with double Walls of hewn Stone mingled with Brick with a Ditch of five and twenty paces breadth which was filled with a Spring which never suffered it to be dry the two Walls were eighteen Foot distance from each other and extending from the Angle of the Propontis on the South to the seven Towers and from thence to the Gulph upon the North joyning the Palace and the Gate of Blaquerness The inward Wall was one hundred Foot high year 1203 and about twenty broad having at just distances eighty six Towers to defend it The outward Wall was not above half so high but in like manner fortified with the same Number of strong Towers and reached from the one Sea to the other upon the Thracian side being near two Leagues in length The Walls which were next the Sea were much lower but very thick being above a good mile in length upon that side which is washed by the Propontis to the point of the Bosphorus and defended by one hundred eighty and eight Towers that side of the Gulph which stretches it self towards the North and makes the Port of Constantinople in the form of a Crescent being above two Leagues reacheth as far as Blaquerness and is defended by one hundred and ten Towers so that admitting there were men enough to guard so many Towers which mutually defend one another it must needs be a very difficult attempt to take the City by Assault Besides the Port was not only defended by these Towers and Walls by the Acropolis or Fortress which was upon the Point of the Promontory of the Bosphorus but also by the strong Town of Galatha situate on the other side of the Gulph but above all by the Tower or Castle there from whence a vast Chain supported by great Timbers in the Sea was drawn to the Acropolis and locked up the Entrance into the Haven And for the Multitude of those who were to defend the City it was innumerable for there were then at Constantinople above a hundred thousand men sit to serve on Horseback and more than three times that number of Foot well armed besides the Soldiers of the Imperial Guard which was very strong and composed principally of the English-Danes whom the Greeks call Barranges which being banished from England by Edward who was descended from the Ancient English Saxon Kings had betaken themselves to the Greek Emperors who had used these People for above a hundred and fifty Years as their Ordinary Guards This was the Condition wherein Constantinople then stood to the Strength of which Alexis Commenius too much trusted believing it impossible for the Power of the whole Earth if it were assembled together to be able to force it This Prince had acquired the Reputation of a valiant man and a great Captain before he came to the Empire and that was one great reason that he met with no greater Opposition in his Usurpation for it was generally believed that he was another kind of man for War and Business than his Brother Isaac Angelus and that therefore he would by his Arms better support the Majesty of the Empire and its Dominions against the Barbarians who frequently attacked them with great advantage But it is too often seen that the Change of Fortune and a happy State produce also a Change in the manners and the Conduct of men and those Vices which before it was necessary to conceal by the appearance of Vertue appear barefaced when they come to have Liberty fortified by Power and are from under the Curb and Discipline of Fear So this Alexis was no sooner an Emperor but that he became the most cowardly and dissolute Person in the World never thinking of any thing but how to drown himself in Pleasures and abandoning the Care of the publick Affairs to those who either wholly neglected them or at least regarded them only to search for opportunities of inriching themselves out of the Spoils of the publick And indeed he was certainly now become most stupid for though it was the Town Discourse at Constantinople what great Preparations the French and Venetians were making and that they had undertaken to resettle the Young Alexis in the Throne yet did he not make the least Preparations for a War only some times in the Jollity of his Entertainments and the Heat of his Wine in which he plunged himself day after day when his Head was warm he would tell those who were the Companions of his Debauches that he would send out a Party of his Guards who should bring this handful of Hairbrain Fellows bound in Irons who being weary of their Lives were come so far to search for Death
the Greeks to defend their Liberty with a stern and menacing tone reproaching the Great men of the Empire with their Effeminate and Voluptuous way of living and obliged them more by the fear of his Savage Humour than by the hopes of Victory or his Example to betake themselves to their Arms. And as he imagined that the Latins intended to storm the City he forgot nothing that might contribute to its Defence he fortified the Walls and Towers he raised them where they were low with Parapets made of strong Timber and floored with boards two or three Stories high that so his men might under Shelter discharge upon the Assailants All the Curtain and the Platforms of the Towers were stored with such a great number of all kinds of Engines that one could scarcely believe there was in the whole World a City so well fortified and provided or which could be more difficult to be taken But the Princes who were not much concerned at these Preparations knowing they signified nothing unless they were defended by men of Courage after they had laboured in making all things ready till Thursday the Week after mid-lent upon that day being the eighth of April they caused all the Army to be imbarked upon the Ships which were ranged into two Lines extending half a League in their Front The Great Ships were in the first with their long Ladders in manner of a Draw-Bridge which were fastned to the Masts and the Wooden Towers of an extraordinary Height The Gallies and Flat Bottoms were in the Second and were to advance through the Intervals which were left between Ship and Ship Early in the next Morning all the Fleet weighed and with the Help of Sails and Oars crossing the Gulph in good Order they presented themselves before the Walls They had all the Success they could have hoped for in Despight of the Discharge of the Enemies Engines and the Infinite number of Darts and Arrows which were powered upon them from the Curtain and the Towers those who were aboard the Gallies and the flat Bottoms observing their order of passing between the great Ships got safely ashoar and planting their Engines all along the Key they clapt their Ladders to the Walls and then the great Ships coming up close the Venetians throwing out their Bridges made of Masts and Yards placed them against the Towers and both the one and the other mounting Courageously went to the Assault with their Swords in their Hands The Combat was maintained on both sides with an Incredible Fury the Assaillants animated by the Ardent Desire which they had and the certain hope they entertained that they should that day take the richest City in the World And the Defendants forced by the Necessity whereto they were reduced either to Vanquish or lose all But in Conclusion the number of these Desperate Defendants being Infinite in Comparison of the Assailants and the Emperor who had pitched his Tents in a spacious place upon a rising Ground in the City near the Walls continually sending fresh Supplies to refresh those who were weary and the Towers which he had raised upon the Walls surpassing those Wooden ones to which they had applyed the scaling Ladders so that the Greeks fought with all manner of Advantage in discharging their Darts Arrows and stones from the higher place the Assailants were every where repulsed and about three of the Clock in the Afternoon they were forced to retreat with the loss of many Soldiers and a great many Engines of Battery This ill success did a little trouble the Princes but it was so far from abating their Courage that it raised it much higher by inflaming it with a generous Despight to find themselves obliged to yield to those whom they had so often beaten And the same Night they held a Councel of War where it was resolved that all things should be disposed within two days to give a second Assault upon the same side and not on that of the Propontis as the French proposed in regard that part of the City was not so well fortified for the Venetians who better understood the Sea made them apprehend that if they once went out of the Port the Current would undoutedly carry them into the Chanal of the Bosphorus year 1204 and that it was impossible to stem the Course of the Sea or to bring the Ships near to the Walls They therefore only added to the order which had been formerly observed in the Assault that there should not now be one Ship alotted to each Tower but two tied together that thereby they might be able to attack the great numbers which defended the Towers with greater Force than could be expected from the Soldiers of one single Ship It was also resolved that the French should be intermixed with the Venetians both by Sea and Land that so the two Nations might not lay the Blame of a Miscarriage if any should happen upon one another Upon Munday therefore the twelth of April they came to the Assault with greater Vigor resolution and sierceness than before notwithstanding that they saw all the Towers and the Walls covered with an Infinite of Soldiers This consident Approach struck a Terror into the Greeks who believed they should have terrified the Assailants with that number or men and little expected the Latins would so suddainly make another Attempt of which they so assured themselves that they had spent the two days with great rejoycings and abundance of Bonsires for the Joy of the Victory The Assault was extremely furious and continued a long time without the French and Venetians advancing any thing more than in the first Assault or giving it over for the obstinate resistance with which they met they sought on both sides every where with an equal desire and resolution of being the Victors and the advantage seemed till noon to continue with the Greeks but then a Gale arising from the Norward proved mighty favourable to the Assailants by driving the Ships close up to the very Walls Whereupon two great Ships one called the Pilgrim the other the Paradise being tied together by a good Omen for the Crusades having on board of them among other French Lords the Bishops of Soissons and Troyes were carried so near to a Tower adjoyning to the Hill where the Tyrant was posted that they applied their Bridges and Ladders without any difficulty immediately then two of the most Valiant Knights one a French man whose name was Andrew d' Vrboise a Domestick of the Bishop of Soissons the other a Venetian who was called Peter Alberti mounted courageously well covered with their Shields and with their Scimiters in their Hands they both leaped down together into the Tower and were upon a signal immediately followed by John de Choisy and all the brave men which were aboard those two Ships It some times happens in War that there is but one single Moment and one brave Action of some Valiant man to decide a day those who defended
they could find Courage enough to oppose them and telling them it was the easiest matter in the World to surround them and take them alive and make them all Slaves this he spoak with so much assurance and protested that he would march at the head of those who had the Courage to follow him to a most undoubted Victory that a great many of the People and all the Soldiers resolved the next morning under his Conduct to attack the French in their Quarters But this Infamous Coward was so far from the Intention of executing what he pretended that retiring to the great palace as he said a little to repose himself he followed the Example of his usurping Predecessor old Alexis and in the night made his escape upon a Ship which he had caused to be made ready for him He took along with him the Empress Euphrosine Wife to Alexis and her Daughter the Princess Eudoxia of whom he was so desperately Amorous that he chose rather to lose his Honor and his Empire than to expose himself to the Danger of missing the Satisfaction of his Passion which cost what it would he was resolved to gratifie as he did by abandoning his Lawful Wife to espouse that foolish Princess So blind and Tyrannous is irregular Love in a Heart which yields it self up to its Usurpation where when once those Gross and Earthy Flames prevail they extinguish all the Lights of Reason and Vertue and even those more common Principles of good sense and Nature So soon as this Shameful Flight of Murtzuphle was known the People ran thundring to the Church of Sancta Sophia to make a new Emperor and in the Tumult Theodore Lascaris who was just returned to Constantinople was instantly chosen and compelled to take the Helm of this Ship of the Government which was now agitated by such a Furious Tempest But in a few Moments after this new Prince perceiving that this Ardor of the People began to slag and that instead of following him to oppose the Enemy every man began to think of saving one he also took the same Measures and before day made his Escape in the best manner that he could Upon this the whole City threw down their Arms and fell to their Prayers and Processions to implore the Mercy and Compassion of the Conquerors addressing themselves principally to the Marquis of Montferrat who was known among them and to whom the flattering Greeks already gave the Title of Emperor believing that he ought to be the man Thus by the most astonishing and prodigious Event which hath nothing comparable to it in all History the greatest City of the World the richest and according to the manner of those times the best fortified and defended by above four hundred thousand men was taken by Assault and peaceably possessed by the Confederates whose Army did not consist in above twenty thousand Combatants Which may inform the Christians That this very same City which at this day is neither so strong so well furnished nor peopled by far as it was then and upon the taking whereof the Conquest of the Eastern Empire would most certainly depend could never be able to resist one of those great Armies which their Divisions so fatal to the Interest of Christian Religion oblige them so often to bring into the Field for their mutual Destruction But this is an Evil which for a long time we have deplored and must still lament unless it shall please Almighty God in whose hands are the Hearts of Princes to give a firm and solid Peace among them and inspire the Heart of some generous Hero with Courage equal to this of these Brave French Princes who with so few Forces accomplished this glorious Enterprise which would not be so great an Impossibility even for their Descendants to undertake if they were in a Condition of Assurance from the Hatred the Ambition and the Jealousie of their Neighbours The Princes pleasingly surprized to find that they had nothing but Suppliants where they expected Enemies immediately with the Generosity which always accompanies true Valour year 1204 promised them their Lives their Honour their Liberty and one part of their Estates which they knew by the Laws of War all appertained to the Conquerors They therefore commanded them to retire into their Houses and then gave the Soldiers the Plunder of the City for that day but with strict Command to shed no blood and to preserve the Honor of the Women above all other things they also commanded that all the Spoils should be brought into Common Repositories to the End that a just Distribution might be made with Equality according to the Merit and Quality of every Person This being done the Marquis of Montferrat went to the great Palâ—ce of the Emperors where were the two Empresses Agnes the Sister of Philip the August the Widow of the two Emperors Alexis the Son of Manuel and Andronicus and Margaret the Widow of the Emperor Isaac and most of the Ladies of the first Quality who were retired thither The Marquis treated them with all imaginable Honor and Civility due to their Character and not long after married the Empress Margaret At the same time Prince Henry having presented himself before the Palace of Blaquerness whither the greatest part of the Nobility and men of Condition were retired they rendred themselves to him as Prisoners of War their Lives only saved There were found in these two Palaces most Inestimable Riches which the two Princes caused to be most carefully guarded from Spoil and Imbezlement As for the Soldiers who dispersed themselves all over the City as they pleased no man daring to resist them the Historian Nicetas who was present affirms that they committed all the most horrible Excesses that can be imagined by all sorts of Violence Cruelty Avarice Lust and Impiety not sparing so much as the Churches the Shrines the Images the Reliques the Holy Vessels the very Boxes where the consecrated Host was kept nor the most Sacred Mysteries of Religion but profaned them with a thousand such abominable Sacriledges as the very thought of them is sufficient to raise in devout Minds the greatest Horror and detestation but on the contrary those of our Historians who have with the greatest Exactness given us the Relation of all the Circumstances of the taking and plundring of Constantinople say nothing at all of this disorder although they were more likely to know the Truth than Nicetas who during the first Tumult together with the Patriarch John Camaterus saved himself with his Family at Selyvrea They only assure us that the Soldiers made there the greatest Booty in Gold Silver Vessels Pearls precious Stones Cloth of Gold Silks Rich Furs and in all sorts of precious Moveables that ever was made at the taking of any City since the Creation of the World as the Mareshal de Ville Hardouin after his manner ingeniously expresseth himself But to speak without Dissimulation I believe after the matter is throughly considered
that so he might be nearer his Brother-in-Law the King of Hungary The Venetians had the Isles of the Archipelagus and a great part of Peloponnesus or Morea with many Cities upon the Coasts of the Hellespont and Phrygia together with the Isle of Candia which they purchased of the Marquis of Montferrat to whom it had been given by the young Alexis Bithynia under the Title of a Dutchy fell to the Share of the Count de Blois William de Champlite of Champagne had the Principality of Achaia and Peloponnesus which he Conquered and at his Death left to Geoffry de Ville Hardouin Nephew to the Mareshal of Champagne who had also for his Share the Province of Romania There were also several other Principalities Lands and great Cities both in Europe and Asia conferred upon the most considerable Persons in the Army After this the Emperor taking the Field before the Winter reduced all the Cities of Thracia under his Obeysance and to compleat his good Fortune the old Alexis and the persidious Murtzuphle who still carried themselves as Emperors in that Province fell alive into his victorious Hands and received Justice according to their Demerits Murtzuphle after his Flight was retired into a City of Thracia about four days March from Constantinople and having rallied some Troops he with them seized upon Tzurulum at this day called Chiorli between the imperial City and Adrianople But when he perceived that all Places surrendred themselves to Prince Henry year 1204 whom the Emperor had sent before with the Men at Armes he quitted that open Country and retreated to Messinople anciently and truly called Maximinianopolis in the Province of Rhodope where the old Alexis had made himself be acknowledged as Emperor during the Siege of Constantinople Murtzuphle sent to him to offer him his Troops and his Service against the common Enemy and intreated him to do him the Honor to consider him and receive him as his Son-in-Law who could have no other Interests but his But Alexis whether it were that he hated him because he was more wicked than himself or that he distrusted him or that he was resolved to revenge the Affront and Dishonor that had been done by him to his Daughter or possibly that wholly Miserable as he was himself yet he could not indure that another should call himself Emperor he resolved to destroy him and to punish his Perfidy by another Treason For as the Devils in the other World are the Executioners of God's Decrees upon the Damned so the Crimes of wicked Men in this Life serve his Justice in the punishing of those Offences which other wicked Men have committed This dissembling and treacherous old Man therefore made shew of receiving these Offers of his Son-in-Law with all the Marks of Tenderness and Affection which he could have wished he went in Person to Confer with him they imbraced they kissed and reciprocally gave to each other their Faith protesting that they would hereafter never have any other but the same Interest and the same Heart After which Murtzuphle made no difficulty intirely to trust his Father-in-Law and went confidently to an Entertainment to which he was invited by him but as he was conducted into a Chamber where the Trap was set for him the People of Alexis who were in Readiness for that Purpose fell upon him and overthrowing him they immediately pulled his Eyes out of his Head Thus divine Justice the wise Disposer of all things ordered it that one Tyrant should execute upon another the same Cruelty which he himself had about nine Years before advised him to act upon his own Brother the Emperor Isaac Not long after Alexis understanding that Baldwin to whom all Thracia submitted was coming against him he fled into Macedon with so much Precipitation and Disorder that some of the Friends of Murtzuphle all whose Troops were disbanded found the Means to procure his Escape But after he had for some time wandred in Disguise with a small Attendance intending to pass the Strait of the Hellespont to save himself in Asia he was surprized by Thierri de Los who had got notice of him and carried Prisoner to Constantinople where the Emperor would have him proceeded against in due course of Law He was therefore accused before the Princes of an infinite number of Crimes and above all of being guilty of the most detestable Parricide upon the Person of the young Emperor Alexis who he had strangled with his own Hands The Fact was publickly notorious nor could he deny it but yet he had the audacious Confidence to indeavour to justify himself by maintaining that he had done nothing but what was most Just and what was approved by the Greeks and even the Relations of Alexis who had lost his Right to the Empire and deserved Death for having betraied his Country in selling it to Strangers But as his insolent Answers were so far from diminishing his Crime that they rendred him more Odious so he was condemned to a Death which might strike a Terror into all those who were the Accomplices or Approvers of his Parricide For this Purpose he was led into the great Square called that of the Bull in the middle of which the great Theodosius had erected a marble Column of extraordinary Height which being hollow had a Staircase within by which they might go to the Top upon which that Emperor had caused his Statue in Brass upon Horseback to be placed but that happening to be thrown down by an Earthquake in the Reign of Zeno Anastatius his Successor caused his to be set up in the Room of it and that having also the same Fate there was nothing after set up but it remained as a little Lodge which was inhabited by a new Stylite who by the means of that Retreat injoyed a Solitude in the midst of the greatest and most populous City in the World It was to the Top of this high Column that the Unfortunate Murtzuphle was carried and in the view of the whole City which might easily see it from all parts this Square of the Bull being one of the most eminent of the seven Hills upon which Constantinople stands year 1204 he was thrown down headlong and dashed in pieces Just it was that he should thus die by this fearful manner of Death that from thence Posterity may learn that if Ambition sometimes mounts wicked Men to the Eminency of Fortune by Treasons Poisonings Murders Parricides and all manner of Crimes which she never spares to prompt her Followers to when she judges them for her Purpose Yet does she at the last bring them when at the top of this Height to the most horrible Precipice from whence their Fall is so much the more Fatal by how much they fall from the greater Height That which is most strange in this terrible Execution is that among other Figures which were carved round about this Column there was to be seen that of an Emperor thrown down in that very manner
the whole Realm the Germans not daring to appear in the Field But after so many Victories as he besieged their General Diepold in a certain Castle to which he had driven him the Contempt which he had of his Enemies was the occasion of his falling into their Hands for in the Night the General surprized him in his Tent and carried him Prisoner to the Castle all covered in Blood where he shortly after died more of Grief than of his Wounds so much nearer than their Swords had done did the Trouble and Affliction go to his heart to see himself in the power of those whom he had so despised complaining that he had so ill guarded himself against the Cowardly Germans who he said by Day-light though in compleat Armour durst not venture to attack the French stark naked and unarmed Thus by his Presumption he lost that in a Moment which by his Valour and great Abilities he had acquired by abundance of gallant Actions which he had performed in four Years before As for his Brother John de Brienne who among all the great Lords of France was chosen by King Philip the August to marry the young Queen of Jerusalem he received that Honour with all the marks of a profound Acknowledgment and promised the Ambassadors before their Parting that he would with all the Forces he could raise come for Palestine before the Expiration of the Truce Now Saphadin who apprehended there would be a new Crusade to accompany this King who was sent for from France offered the Christians to prolong the Truce but the Templers rejecting his Proposition the War was broke out afresh when John de Brienne arrived there which was the 3d of September in the Year 1210. year 1210 And whereas Saphadin believed that this new King would bring a great Army with him he found that he had only brought a few Troops together with about three hundred Knights who had imbarked with him at Marseilles to serve at their own Charges against the Infidels For the Troubles of Germany and Italy by occasion of the new Schism in the Empire and the War which was breaking out between Philip the August year 1210 and the Emperor Otho who was excommunicated by the Pope together with the famous Crusade which then began to be set on foot in France against the Albigenses hindred the raising of one to accompany King John de Brienne into the Holy Land So that he was able to raise no greater Fond of Mony than forty thousand Livres which he had from the French King and as many more which the Pope procured him from the Romans upon his Estate the Earldom of Brienne which he was forced to mortgage for it He did not however fail with his small Power to do all that could be expected from a Prince equally wise and valiant for presently after his Coronation which was celebrated at Tyre he took the Field and entring upon the Territories of the Infidels he took divers places from them and returned without Loss bringing a considerable Booty from them to Ptolemais But so soon as the Sarasins understood what a small number of Men he had brought with him out of Europe they joyned all their Forces and came to encamp about that City with a mighty Army commanded by Coradin so that the Christians durst not stir out but were in a manner besieged especially after the Sultan had seized upon all the neighbouring Places principally the Mountain of Thabor upon which he built a Fortress from whence they made continual Incursions year 1211 even to the very Gates of Ptolemais Hereupon the Knights and Persons of Quality who came along with the King seeing they were too weak to sally and sight their Enemies in the plain Field and being unable to suffer themselves to be lock'd in the City without doing any thing they returned before the Winter into France so that this poor Prince remained almost all alone in danger to have taken Possession of a Kingdom only to have the Displeasure and the Shame to see himself driven out of it unless he received some seasonable Assistance year 1212 This News gave a mighty trouble to the Pope who now began to apprehend that his principal Design which was the Relief of the Holy Land would be wholly ruined by being so long delayed he resolved therefore after the Example of Pope Vrban II. the first Author of the Crusades to employ his utmost power to procure one by calling a General Council that thereby he might engage all the Christian States and Kingdoms in it But in regard that considering the present posture of Affairs in Europe year 1213 this great Assembly could not be so soon held and that besides the pressing Evil required a more speedy Remedy he writ his Circular Letters to all faithful People to excite them to march with all possible haste to the Relief of their oppressed Brethren in Palestine And after having renewed the Prohibitions which he had so often made before That upon pain of Excommunication none should presume to sell any Merchandise more especially any Arms to the Sarasins he commanded certain Prayers with Fasting and Alms to be used in the Church for the imploring the Mercy and Pity of God and his Blessing upon the Council which was to be held for the taking care of the Necessities of the Church and above all other things the Relief of the Holy Land He also resolved to try other Ways since he saw those which had before been made use of did not prosper and addressed himself to Saphadin Sultan of Babylon and Damascus who was now become almost as potent as his Brother the great Saladin had been who took Jerusalem He writ to him to exhort him to restore that holy City to the Christians which besides that of it self it brought no considerable Advantage to him put him to vast Expences to be always in a Condition to resist the whole Powers of Christendom who would eternally arm themselves to take it from him He remonstrated to him That it was much better for him as a wise Politician freely and by Reason to do that which he must one day be constrained to do whether he would or not with the loss of his Honour and possibly all that he might upon the Surrender of that City quietly and peaceably be permitted to possess in the East That it was impossible but he must at last fall under those Arms whose invincible Force he was sufficiently sensible of already and whose Courage and Valour were above all fear of Danger That they esteemed it not only a point of Honour but of Religion to re-conquer that holy City which their Ancestors had taken by Force with not above twenty thousand Men from forty thousand Defendants and in the very sight of an Army incomparably greater than theirs That in restoring to the Christians that City which he could not long defend against them he would thereby assure himself of the rest of his Dominions by the
in the Morning the eleventh Day of September with an incredible Heat on both Sides the Christians trusting in the Aid of Heaven which the Cross they had seen seemed to promise them and the Sarasins in their Multitude and besides being ranged in Battalia towards the East they had the Sun upon their Backs and the Christians full in their Eyes Thus the Combat was very obstinate on both sides Victory continuing in Suspence for a long time to which side she would incline till at last the Sarasins struck with a pannick Fear as if new Enemies had fallen upon them began to stagger and recoil and in a short time to throw down their Arms and betake themselves to Flight with all the Hast the desire of Safety could lend them It is said that in the heat of the Battle there appeared new Squadrons of Cavaleers in white Armor who advanced at the Head of the Christians and charged upon the Sarasins with an infinite Storm of Darts and Lances and that the brightness of their glittering Arms and Shields so dazled the Infidels that they were not able to indure the shining Beams or the furious Shock they gave them but that they instantly threw away their Arms and fled However it happened it is most certain that their whole Army was intirely defeated and that there remained above fourteen thousand Sarasins dead upon the Place with two of their Kings that they pursued the Fugitives for three Leagues gleaning up abundance of Straglers who all fell by the Daughter of the Sword They lost all their Tents and Baggage together with a number of Prisoners who all inquired who those white Horsemen were who with the Lustre of their Bucklers had so blinded them and put them into Disorder And it is said that Pope Honorius seemed by one of his Letters to give credit to this miraculous Event For my own particular as I do not pretend to give all these sorts of Apparitions for Truths which I find in some credulous Authors which is a great though too frequent Weakness So I think myself obliged to take care not to suppress such as have any probability of Establishment upon Truth and are related by such credible Authors to whom a Man of Sense and Prudence may give some Faith After this great Victory the Crusades returned to the Siege of Alcazar which defended it self still for a Month longer but at last it was constrained to surrender upon Descretion upon the one and twentieth Day of October There were made above two thousand Slaves of the Sarasins which remained in the Garrison and the Place was put into the Hands of the Knights of Palmela to whom it belonged the great Master of which Order had signalised his Courage in an extraordinary manner both in the Battle and the Siege They also gave Liberty to the Sarasin Governor of the Place and a hundred of his Officers and several of his Soldiers who with him received holy Baptism and renounced the Superstition of Mahomet The Pope to whom the Earl of Holland and the Portuguese sent the Relation of this great Success caused publick Thanks to be given to God in all Places exhorting all faithful Christians to imitate this glorious Example and to take Arms to fight against the Sarasins who Possessed the Holy Land But he would never consent that the Hollanders and those of Cologne who had gained this important Victory should thereby be dispensed with from their Vow as the Portuguese desired that so these brave Men might finish what they had so happily begun in Spain by chasing the Moors from thence For this Reason therefore William Earl of Holland General of the Crusades who had assured the Pope that he would inviolably observe his Orders after he had passed the Winter at Lisbon set Sail in the beginning of April Having passed the Straits of Gibraltar he was surprized by a Tempest which lasted for three days which so dispersed his Fleet that without being able to unite again some of them were forced into Barcelona others into Marseilles Genoa Pisa and Messina from whence they continued their Voyage to Ptolemais where they arrived one after another year 1218 Those who arrived first were the Frisons who had wintred in Italy The Hollanders and those of Cologne came up presently after and whilest they expected the rest it was resolved by King John de Brienne the Duke of Austria the Bishops and great Masters of the Orders for the future to change the manner of the War and instead of amusing themselves about Palestine as they had done hitherto to fall directly upon Egypt and indeavour to take away the Cause and cut up the Root of the War It was remonstrated That from thence came all the great Armies which the Sultans sent to the Holy Land to oppose those of the Crusade and that therefore if they could once make themselves Masters of the Source from whence those terrible Inundations of Barbarians came which did so often deluge Palestine there would be nothing then capable of resisting the Forces of the Christians That the Sarasins being in no manner of Apprehensions of Danger on that side would be without difficulty surprized That there was nothing in all Egypt considerably fortified except Damiata and that after the Taking of that City which might easily be stormed by such a potent Army which would daily be re-inforced by the Arrival of other Crusades which were expected they might without difficulty march and attack the Sultan in Babylon which was in no condition to resist them having no Fortifications and being only crouded with People incapable to defend it And in short That this was the Opinion of Pope Innocent in the Council of Lateran and seemed as if he had a Divine Inspiration and that therefore it was to be hoped that God would assist them in the happy Execution of the great Design which himself had inspired This Resolution being taken all the Fleet rendezvouzed at the Pilgrims Castle from whence the Frisons and Cologners who were the first that were in readiness having chosen the Count de Sarpont to command them set Sail and with the favour of a Stern-Wind which blew a lusty Gale from the Northward they came in three Days upon the 30th of May before Damiata and by a lucky beginning of the War made their Descent without Resistance and retrenched themselves before the City expecting the coming up of the rest of the Christian Army Damiata was at that time one of the fairest and richest Cities of Egypt and without dispute the strongest as being the Key of the Kingdom situate upon the Nile about a Mile from one of its Mouths This great River whose Spring was for so long time unknown is now discovered to rise from five or six Fountains at the Foot of the Mountains of the Moon in thirteen or fourteen Degrees of Southern Latitude and so to cross the great Lake of Zembr and after having wandred from the South to the North quite through
the Shoar near the City seeing after they had fought most valiantly for a long time that it was impossible to resist the infinite number of the Sarasins who having on all sides surrounded them and making themselves Masters of the Vessel threw themselves in Shoals upon her they imitated Samson and resolved to bury themselves together with their Enemies for boreing Holes in the Ship they let in the Water so fast that during the Combat she sunk in a Moment to the Bottom nothing but the top of the main Mast appearing above the Water And certainly all had been lost if God in Mercy had not been intreated by the incessant Prayers and Tears of the Bishops who continued Night and Day in Prayers to implore his Pity and Compassion and that upon the third day he was pleased to cause the Tempest to cease so that the River returned to its Chanal and the Waters again came to their old Course to run within their Banks As soon as the Tempest was over the Army which had saved themselves by getting upon the higher Grounds returned to their Camp and some time after ten Soldiers Friselanders and Germans performed an Action so Heroick as astonished both the Sarasins and Christians who were equally the Spectators and Admirers of it For the Enemy having repaired their Bridge of Boats which hindred the Ships from passing up the River to the Place where the Army was resolved to pass the Nile these ten brave resolute Men having put themselves into two Shallops undertook to gain it and break the Bridge They set upon it then in open day and mounting it chased those who defended it with dreadful Blows of the Sword from their Posts and having made themselves Masters of it whilest some of them fought at the Entrance of the Bridge to defend it against all the Forces of the City year 1218 as sometimes the famous Horatius Cocles had done at Rome opposing the whole Army of Porsenna upon a Bridge of the Tiber others of them broak this Bridge of Boats and in despight of the fearful Tempest of Stones Darts and Wildfire which were showred upon them from the Ramparts and Towers of the City they brought off diverse of the Boats which composed the Bridge as it were in Triumph to their Companions who with the loud noise of Drums Trumpets and Acclamations celebrated the Praises of their Victory and an Action which well deserves to be consecrated to their eternal Glory and the Knowledge of Posterity by immortal History So that this Obstacle being removed all the Ships sailed up above the City year 1219 and the Engines being sitted for the Combat the Resolution was taken to pass to the other side of the River and Land in the sight of the Sultan who had fortified all the Bank with good Retrenchments behind which his Army was drawn up in Battalia in the great Lines which being ranged upon a rising Ground like a kind of Amphitheatre gave them the Opportunity of discharging all their Arrows and Darts together upon the Enemy without being in danger of hurting one another And in truth it did not only seem a most temerarious Action to attempt a Passage so well defended but wholly impossible to succeed But God was pleased in an instant to open it against all Appearance by one of the most extraordinary Events imaginable and which could not reasonably be attributed to any thing besides that Providence which he hath for those whom he hath taken into his Protection For the same Night which was the fourth or fifth of February and that all things were disposed to adventure the Passage the Morrow of the following Day the Sultan Meledin with his Emirs and the principal Commanders of the Army leaving in his Camp the most resolute of his Troops to receive the Enemy not doubting but they would be able to do it he posted with full speed towards Caire as if he had been pursued by a victorious Army after a mighty Overthrow nor could there ever be assigned any Reason for this precipitate Flight but that sort of Terror which God sometimes fills the Hearts of those withal whom he will punish and of which we find frequent Examples in the Holy Scriptures A Christian Renegade who had for a long time served the Sultan and who was big with the Desire of being the first Discoverer of a thing so astonishing came running to the Bank of the Nile and called aloud in French that they should pass over immediately for that the Sultan had forsaken his Men and was fled desiring them presently to send a Skiff as they did to take him in that so they might be the better assured of what he told them In this time the Army of the Sarasins seeing themselves abandoned by the Sultan believing themselves betrayed they disbanded and presently fled after him in the greatest Fear and Disorder So that the Christians ravished to see such a visible Effect of the divine Protection passed the River without Resistance but not altogether without Difficulty in regard that the Banks of the Nile were so Muddy and Slimy on that side that the Horses whom they led by the Bridles being up to the Saddle Skirts in the Quick-Sands and Quagmires did not gain the Bank without extreme Trouble which made it clearly appear that if there had been but a few Defendants it had been almost impossible to have forced it As soon as all the Army was passed over they entred into the Camp of the Sarasins which they plundred and then they took up their Quarters about the City which was invironed with good Lines and a great Ditch which was drawn from one Part to the other to the River Nile upon which they built a Bridge of Boats that so they might have a Communication with those who were incamped on the other side the River to guard the Ships upon which the Attack was to be made upon the side next the Water There was necessity however of making use of all manner of Precautions for as the City was extreme strong so there were in it fourty thousand Men who were resolved to make a brave Defence it was also Winter and many Diseases especially the Scurvy raged among the Soldiers and many died of them The Siege was like to prove long so that the Enemies had leisure to come to the Relief of the Besieged with potent Armies The first that appeared was Coradin who after he had gathered all the Troops that he possibly could in Syria year 1219 to which he joined all that could be drawn of the dismantled Garrisons he marched directly to Jerusalem and before he passed further he set on all hands to work to demolish that Holy City which then was held to be Impregnable he â—ased the Walls and all the Towers to the very Foundations the Tower of David only excepted which could not defend it self singly and in short reduced that strong and famous City to the condition of a miserably Village either that
thereby he might strengthen his Army by the Troops which otherwise he must be obliged to leave for the defence of so strong a Garrison or possibly that he feared that the Christian Army after they had taken Damiata would enter victorious into Palestine and take that City which he knew to be the end of their Enterprise and the occasion of all the Crusades which had been made in Europe This being done he marched directly to Damiata and as his Army was far more numerous than that of the Christians which wasted every day and also that he had seized upon certain very advantageous Posts by the negligence of those who ought to have defended them the besiegers found themselves in a manner as straitly besieged by his Army as Damiata was by theirs and that they were more easily and dangerously to be attacked themselves than they could attack the City their retrenchments being nothing so terrible or strong as the Treble Wall with which the City was surrounded And in truth Coradin who was a brave and a great Captain attempted the lines three several times with all the Vigour imaginable and particularly upon Palm Sunday having made himself Master of the Bridge which joined the two Camps he had forced them on that side if the brave Duke of Austria who with the Germans and Templers came rushing in upon him had not chocked his Success and at last repulsed him after a most obstinate Combat maintained from morning till it was high noon This was the last of those fair actions which that gallant Duke performed in this Crusade for having on one side accomplished his vow having staid in the Levant above six Months longer than the time of Service which he had only vowed for a year and on the other side his own Affairs recalling him into his Dominions he took Sea in the Spring and this example was quickly followed by a great number of Crusades who wearied with the length and the inconveniences of the Siege returned into Europe So that the Army being extremely weakned by this retreat and the diseases ran the Fortune of being at last forced in their retrenchments if the great Succours of new Crusades of all Nations whom the Pope pressed continually to part from all the Ports of Italy had not come most seasonable in the very nick of time with great plenty of all manner of refreshments in abundance of which the besiegers stood in great want And certainly the arrival of these recruits was no more than necessary for shortly after Meledin having recovered his courage out of the Swound into which it had fallen raised an Army more numerous than the first and marched to join his Brother Coradin that so with their joint forces they might make one great attempt for all upon the Camp of the Christians which they believed was then in no condition of resisting them so soon therefore as the necessary time to make all the Preparations for so great an Action was over these two great Armies of Sarasins having ranged themselves in Battalia early in the morning upon the last day of July presented themselves in good order before the Lines and made four or five several attacks thereby to divide the forces of the Christians which notwithstanding their recruits were not by far so numerous as theirs It was fought with incredible heat and Fury on the one side and the other the Sarasins animated by the presence of their Sultans and the certain hope they had conceived that they should that day deliver the besieged City the Christians by the fatal necessity to which they were reduced either to repulse the Enemy or to be all cut in pieces their camp being shut up between two mighty Armies an Enemies City and a great River over which it was impossible for them to escape In this time those who attacked the quarter of the Knights Templers made such a vigorous impression and returned so often to the Assault that they forced the Lines on that side entered the Camp charged furiously upon the Infantry whom the Knights had posted for the defence of that place and pressed so stoutly upon them that at length they put them to slight and pursued their point so briskly being followed by their reserves who came crouding after them into the lines that the intire ruin of the Army seemed inevitable when the French and English arriving in good time with their Swords in their hands year 1219 made these fierce Enemies stop short in their carreer and again turned the Face of the Combat For being all Fresh men and desirous above all things to signalize their Courage by some gallant action they charged the Enemy according to their manner with so much fury that they forced them to recoil and beat them back again to the Lines where the Sarasins finding themselves sustained by those without who continually mounted over the Works they also took their turn and as they had been themselves beaten back so now they made the French retreat But in a minute after the shame and madness which they had to be thus bassed redoubling their Courage and their Strength they came up to the Charge again and three several times fell upon the Enemy with such irresistable Valour that being unable to sustain their Fury they tumbled over the Lines and into the ditch when at the same time those of the City making a notably Sally by setting fire to the Machins which put the Christians into great fear and disorder gave them the opportunity of regaining their advantage Thereupon the great Master of the Temple and the other of the Knights of the Teutonick Order who hasted to their relief observing that the Sarasins who believed themselves assured of the Victory advanced with precipitation and disorder shouting for Joy as they ran to the Charge they marched to charge them in the Flanks on both sides whilest the French who now took new Courage by the sight of these Succours attacked them in the Front so that being beset on three sides by so many Valiant men whom the danger of losing all had rendred furious they were almost all cut in pieces and those who followed them were chased over the Lines and the Ditch which was almost filled up with the heaps of the slain After which the Army falling upon those of the Town who had made the Sally they were presently repulsed with a most dreadful Slaughter though notwithstanding they had first destroyed a great number of Machins by setting them on fire which could not in that great Confusion be suddainly quenched Thus ended this great Battle which lasted from morning until night On the other side the Venetians the Pisans and Genoese who were wholly managed by the Legate were not much more fortunate in their Enterprise and though they had assured him the Success was infallible yet they happened to be mistaken for all the new Machins which they had built upon four great Ships were in several Assaults which they gave to little
the whole Army was divided and in perpetual contests for several days But the Sultan who made use of that Opportunity to endeavour to put some succour into the place during this discourse of Peace the King's Party which was the least reunited again with the Legate Hereupon the Conferences for Peace were broken and it was resolved to pursue the Siege with all imaginable Vigor But it lasted not long for one of the Towers which lay upon a Corner of the Town being by the force of the Machins so ruined that it was easie to enter by the Breach and there appearing no great number of Defendants to secure the Breach the Legate made choice of a very dark night wherein the Wind blew very loud to cause it to be attacked The Soldiers approached the Tower and the Gate adjoining which they set on sire and passed to the second Wall whilest others clapt up Ladders and scaled the first Wall in diverse places without resistance then the King being immediately advertised of this strange Success led his Troops thither in good order and with the same facility gained the second Wall and the next morning being the fifth of November by break of day they took the third Wall with so little resistance that there was but one man lightly wounded in his Foot Immediately the Christian Standards were planted upon the Towers which the Sultans perceiving they retired with precipitation setting fire to their Camp and Bridge that so they might not be pursued Thus Damiata which had cost so much Blood and labour for eighteen Months was in one night taken by the Christian Army without Noise without Tumult there being none left in this fair and great City in Condition to defend it For the extreme Famine which they had indured and the diseases which followed upon it had made such a horrible ravage that of eighty thousand Soldiers and Citizens which were in it at the Beginning of the Siege there were scarcely lest three thousand alive and of those not above one hundred who were able to bear Arms. All the Streets and houses were filled with dead and dying Persons which the living who with extreme weakness expected the same Fate were not able to bury so that the Army was forced for a long time to encamp without the City before they could get it cleansed There were found in the City infinite Riches in Vessels of Gold Silver Pearls precious Stones Silks and all manner of Indian Drugs and Spices year 1219 But the Sarasins during the Siege having buried most of their Money and notwithstanding that the Legate had denounced the Anathema against those who should conceal any of the Booty which he ordered to be brought together to make a just distribution among the whole Army yet particular persons concealed the greatest part of the Booty so that there could never be got together above four hundred thousand Crowns in Money which was distributed among the Soldiers There were about four hundred among the Prisoners who were the most considerable who were reserved to be exchanged for those who had been taken by the Enemies during the Siege year 1220 The Principal Mosque which was supported by one hundred and fifty Marble Pillars and invironed by five curious Galleries with a noble Cupelo in the middle upon which was a lofty Spire was consecrated to God in honour of the blessed Virgin and upon the Feast of the Purification the Cardinal Legate accompanied by the Patriarch the Bishops and Clergy of Ptolemais followed by the King the Princes the Lords and all the Chief Commanders went in Solemn Procession there to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries of the Christian Religion after which they built a new Bridge which joyned the City and the Fort which they had during the Siege built upon the other bank of the Nile and then Damiata by the consent of the Legate and the whole Army was annexed to the Realm of Jerusalem and to add to the good Fortune some few dayes after a Party of a thousand Soldiers being commanded to go abroad for Forrage and Provisions failing up the second branch of the River Nilus which is called the Tanitique the Egyptians terrified by their comming cowardly abandoned the strongest of their Castles which was built upon the Ruines of the Famous City of Tanis in Ancient Time the Capital City of Egypt and the Residence of the Pharaohs the place where Moses to move the heart of that obdurate Prince wrought all those memorable Prodigies which are recorded in the Holy Story in the Book of Exodus It is also reported that in a place near Damiata the Christians found a Book written in Arabick the Author whereof who assures us that he was neither Jew Christian nor Mahometan predicted the Victories of the great Saladin the taking of Ptolemais by the Kings of England and France that of Damiata nine and twenty Years after and that one day there should come a King from the East whose name should be David and another from the West whom he does not name who joyning together should overthrow the Empire of the Mahometans and recover the City of Jerusalem But as one cannot judge of the Truth of this Prophecy by the former part of the things which it doth predict since they were already come to pass when the Book was found so it must be Posterity who only can be able to make a certain judgment of the truth of the second part when it shall happen to be accomplished which we have not yet seen The End of the Third Part. THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADE OR The Expeditions of the Christian Princes for the Conquest of the Holy Land PART IV. BOOK I. The CONTENTS of the First Book The Condition the manners and the Religion of the People of Georgia who resolve to join with the Princes of the Crusade but are hindred by an irruption of the Tartars into their Country The Emperor Frederick sends a considerable relief to Damiata The return of King John de Brienne to the Army of the Crusades The Legate Pelagius opposeth his advice and makes them resolve upon a Battle against Meledin who once more offers Peace upon most advantageous Terms The Legate occasions the refusal of them The humour and discription of this Legate An account of the miserable adventure of the Christian Army which by the innundation of the Nile is reduced to the Discretion of Meledin The wise Policy of this Sultan who saves the Army by a Treaty which he was willing to make with the Crusades This misfortune is followed by the Rupture of Frederick the Emperor with the Pope The Character of that Emperor The Complaints of Pope Honorius against him His Answers and their Reconciliation A famous Conference for the Holy War King John de Brienne comes to desire assistance throughout Europe The death of Philip the August His Elogy his Will and his Funerals New Endeavours of the Pope and the Emperor for the Holy War The Marriage of Frederick with
of the two hundred thousand Livres which were yet unpaid which the King resolved before he would treat with them in regard that they had broken the Truce by not observing the Conditions of their former Treaty and thereupon as the Admirals gave him all the Satisfaction which he demanded he appointed them a day to meet him at Jaffa where a new Treaty was to be made by which the Admirals obliged themselves to put into his hands all the Places of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to which they should for the Future make no more pretensions and the King reciprocally promised to assist them with all his Forces against the Sultan of Damascus their Enemy So soon as the Sultan who was a man of Courage and Conduct understood that the King had accorded with the Egyptians he sent twenty thousand men to seize upon the Passes between Egypt and Palestine but this did not hinder the King from leading his Army to Jaffa the Castle whereof was very strong though the Town was wholly ruinous and fell to rebuilding and fortifyng of it at great charges and with incredible diligence although the Enemies gave continual Alarms to his Camp and daily made a shew as if they would attack it This made the Mamaluke Admirals who had not yet set their Army on foot and therefore durst not repair to Jaffa request the King to deferr their Interview and to appoint another day when they might be in a condition to attend him and in the mean time the Sultan of Damascus having assembled all his best Troops took a review of them about Gadres which was anciently called Gadara a strong City on the other side the Sea of Galilee and from thence passing over the Jordan he went and joined with thirty thousand Horse which he had sent before him to the Frontier of Egypt into which he entred to revenge upon the Admirals the death of his Cousin And they who had had leisure to prepare for his coming did not fail to give him a welcome like men of Courage year 1251 and who understood War It came presently to a Battle and at first the Sultan had the advantage breaking in upon one of their Wings so vigorously that he put it into disorder and wholly routed it But the Egyptians understanding that their Army was Victorious in the other Wing rallied and came to the charge more furiously than before against their Vanquishers and then those also who had been Victorious on the other side falling upon their Rere cut them in pieces and made the Victory so complete that all the Sultan could do was to save himself and retreat to Gadres sorely wounded with two thousand men which only escaped in that Bloody Battle After this great Victory the Admirals made a suddain turn like able Politicians For now perceiving that they had no more need of the Arms of the King they believed that to preserve to themselves the Kingdom of Jerusalem which by Treaty they were obliged to surrender unto him it was much better for them to make Peace with the Sultan who seing himself abandoned by the King would without doubt be very glad to revenge himself and for fear of having both Armies upon his Hands year 1252 to accomodate matters with them They sent therefore to him to Gadres offering him Peace and at the same time desiring it from him They excused themselves for the death of the Sultan of Egypt his Cousin by the necessity which they had to prevent their own by giving him his and remonstrated to him that it was for their Common Interests rather to unite against the Christians who were their Common Enemies than by their divisions to give them the opportunity to make use of their Arms to the mutual destruction one of another The Sultan who desired nothing so much willingly harkned to the Proposition so that without any difficulty a Peace was presently concluded betwixt them and the King by too long deferring to conclude with the one or the other of them was miserably deceived by them both and lost not only the noblest opportunity of recovering the Kingdom of Jerusalem by an honourable Treaty but on the suddain found he had two puissant Enemies to encounter who would now no more hear either of a Peace or a Truce and who might easily have both been ruined by keeping up the Quarrel between them and uniting with the one against the other as they both desired But though the King was a great Saint we must not believe that Saintships render men infallible especially in Policy and above all not in matters of War which is the remotest thing from Religion whose Principles are those of Love and Peace All the advantage which the King gained by this Rencontre was to quit himself of the two hundred thousand Livres to the Admirals which yet in reality he was no ways obliged to pay after they had so perfidiously broken their first Treaty Sometime after they had made this Peace with the Sultan of Damascus although they saw they had nothing to fear either from this Prince their Allie or from the Christians who were in too weak a condition to attack them yet considering that it was impossible for their Empire to subsist any considerable time without a Head they resolved at last to create one of their own Body to the exclusion of the Arabians Egyptians and all the Descendants of the Great Saladin and Saphadin And being well assured that there were none able to oppose them they accordingly chose for their Sultan one of the Mamaluke Admirals whom they named Azzadin Aibec or Elmahec For there is not one of these Sultans but who have different names in diverse Authors who have writ concerning them This Sultan was a Turcoman by Nation and from thence it is that many Historians call him Turquemin However from this time the Mamalukes held the Empire of Egypt not by Succession but Election till the Year one thousand five hundred and seventeen when Selim the Emperor of the Turks conquered it after he had in a great Battle overthrown and near Grand Caire taken Tomombey their last Sultan Mean time the Sultan of Damascus under the Favour of this Peace having assembled his Army came with thirty thousand men to discharge his Indignation upon the Territories of the Christians He presented himself before Acre and threatned to fire the Suburbs if they would not redeem them from that danger with fifty thousand Bysances of Gold but the Lord of Assur the Constable of the Realm thought fit to pay him in another Metal year 1252 and sent him away loaden with Blows instead of the Money he demanded And from thence therefore having understood that the King who had rebuilded Jaffa was about to repair Sidon or Sajetta had but a few Troops with him by reason that he had sent the greatest part of his Souldiers to seize upon Belinas formerly called Cesarea Philippi he marched with a design to surprize him The King who was advertised
thereof was obliged to retire into the Castle and to quit the Town which was not yet in a condition to be defended The Sarasins therefore having surprized and cut in pieces two thousand of the Servants and Peasants who followed the Camp entred without resistance into Sidon which they once again demolished overthrowing the Walls to the very Foundation But the Sultan being afraid that the other part of the Army which had by force taken Belinas should march and take Damascus he marched away in all haste to defend his Capital City Whilest the Troops which he feared having not been able to take the Castle of Belinas and being drawn from a dangerous Country by the Wise Conduct of Oliver de Termes one of the most hardy and Valiant Knights of the Army marched back again by another way to join the King of Sidon year 1253 It was at this place that this great Saint did that admirable Action of Charity and Humility which to this very day surprizes all mens minds with wonder for that he might oblige both the Officers and Souldiers to render with him the last duty to those poor creatures who had been slain by the Sarasins and lay unburied whose Bodies lay half putrefied above ground near the City he himself took the most infected of them upon his Royal shouldiers carrying those to their interment whose offensive smell was scarcely to be endured without shewing any manner of aversion for his loathsome burden as did those of his retinue and without receiving the least inconvenience from these infected Bodies A rare example even among the greatest Saints but much more among the greatest Princes and which may well make the delicacy of those blush who being so much below such elevated Majesty have such an extreme aversion for the Exercises of Christian Piety when they are never so little contrary to the Inclinations of Nature so that they are only contented to serve God when they can so accomodate his service with their own as that they may do it without losing any thing of either their profit or their pleasure After this the King according to the desires of the Lords of the Country began to repair the ruins of Sidon which he made stronger than ever it had been before He did the same to the City and Castle of Caiphas which was very necessary for covering the City of Acre whose Walls and Towers also he took care to repair and to fortifie the Suburbs in such a manner as to put them in safety against the attempts of the Sarasins This did so much surprize them with wonder that they were not able sufficiently to admire the Power the Riches and the Magnificence of this great King who after he had as they thought by his extreme misfortune lost all in Egypt had still so much treasure as to defray those prodigious expences which it is well known are so necessary for the maintaining of Armies building of Cities and erecting of Fortresses In short during the time that he remained in the Holy Land he fully satisfied his devotion to God as well as his Duty to the Interest of the Country for he visited the Holy Mountain of Tabor and the Sacred Chamber of Nazareth where accompanied with the Legate and all the Lords he celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation with the magnificence of a King thereby to honour God more eminently among the Infidels with the Piety of a Saint and to inflame the devotion of the Christians of the Country who generally were not addicted too much to it or to lead their Lives conformable to the Holiness of those sacred places which they did inhabit Above all he had an extreme desire to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem whose Walls the Sarasins had rebuilded and who would willingly have given him the liberty to enter into it as a Pilgrim But his Council did not think it convenient that one of the greatest Kings of Christendom ought to go thither to worship Jesus Christ before his Holy Sepulchre before he had conquered it from the Infidels for otherwise they said the other Princes who after him should undertake the Voyage to the Holy Land would believe themselves acquitted of their Duty year 1253 when they should have accomplished their Pilgrimage as the King of France had done which might be of great prejudice to the Crusades the end of which was to be the deliverance of Jerusalem year 1254 The King who was resolved that his private Devotion and Piety should never be prejudicial to the Rights of his Royal Majesty which ought to be maintained inviolably yielded his desires to this advice And therefore after having acted for five years so advantageously for the Affairs of the Holy Land by putting all the Maritim places of the Country into a very good condition having received the sad news of the death of Queen Blanche his Mother for whom he had ever had a most Infinite tenderness and Reverence and seeing that thereupon his presence would be absolutely necessary in his Realm he resolved at last to return But for the safety of Palestine he left the Legate there with considerable store of money and a good part of his Army under the Command of the Wise and Valiant Geoffrey de Sergines After which upon the three and twentieth of April he imbarked with the rest of his People upon fourteen Ships in the greatest of which he would have together with the Queen and the Princes his Children Jesus Christ himself present in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar both for the consolation and the security of his Voyage And it was under the Conduct of this Divine Pilot who nevertheless seemed sometimes to sleep during the Tempest that having escaped the most extraordinary dangers which during two months he had run at Sea he at last landed at Yeres from whence coming into France he went directly to St. Dennis to render most humble thanks unto Almighty God for his return which he acknowledged he had obtained by the intercession of the Holy Martyrs the Protectors of France The Queen who in an eniment danger of suffering shipwrack had made a Vow that if she escaped she would send a ship of Silver to St. Nicholas in Lorrain did not fail to accomplish it She caused this Ship to be made wherein is to be seen her Picture from the Life together with that of the King and the three Princes her Children The Steward of Champagne and Joinville who had persuaded her to make this Vow did himself carry this Offering marching barefoot from Joinville to this famous Church of St. Nicholas where it hath pleased God to continue to this day the working of an infinite of Wonders for the Honour of this Holy Bishop the Protector of those who sail upon the Sea year 1255 But whilest France enjoyed the happy Fruits of the Presence of the King who by his wise Government maintained it in a most profound tranquillity Palestine began to feel those misfortunes which
themselves between the two Parties On the other side the Sultan Melech Sais retook the Fortress of Margath and made himself Master of the Castle of Laodicea and that of Crac which was one of the strongest places in Syria year 1287 and as at last he was preparing to lay Siege to Tripolis he abandon'd all upon the news which he had of the Death of his Son and returned into Egypt where Elsis one of his Emirs who was mightily esteemed by the Mamalukes tumbled him from the Throne and was chosen Sultan in his place by the name of Melech-Messor This Sultan who was a great Souldier re-entred presently into Syria where he besieged Tripolis year 1288 and at last took it by Assault Seven thousand Christians were there Slain year 1289 and the rest saved themselves by Sea partly in Cyprus and partly in Ptolemais The Sultan who was as able and dexterous as he was Valiant caused this great City to be demolished that so he might not be forced to keep a whole Army in Garrison there and after having taken several places thereabout he made a very advantageous Truce for two Years thereby to frustrate the Design of the Forces which he foresaw would be sent out of Europe against him And indeed a very considerable assistance which the Pope sent at his own charges into the East upon twenty Venetian Gallies arriving not till after the conclusion of this Truce was constrained to return without doing any thing It happened also that an infinite conflux of People of all Nations without Order and without Leaders coming to Ptolemais and finding no imploy committed so many disorders indifferently upon the Lands of the Christians and the Sarasins that the Sultan who only wanted an occasion to break the Truce to his advantage laid hold of that which he believed very favourable to execute the design which he had upon Ptolemais whilest the Christian Princes whom he knew to be ingaged in Wars one against another in Europe had neither Power nor Will to assist it year 1290 For this purpose as he had always a powerful Army on Foot he entred suddainly in the Month of October in the year following and advanced towards Phoenicia and then when he was upon the point of going to invest Ptolemais the Emir whom he had made his Lieutenant thinking by the favour of the Souldiers to obtain his place gave him Poison whereof he died But this did not prevent the Execution of the Design For the Mamalukes who loved Melech-Messor extremely pull'd the Traitor who had poisoned him in a thousand pieces upon the spot and Proclaimed his Son Ely Sultan by the name of Melech-Seraph This new Prince resolved to pursue the design of his Father who at his Death conjured him not to suffer his Body to be Interred before he had taken the City and driven out the Christians And for this purpose therefore without giving them leisure to make any advantage of this so sudden and great change turning short to the left hand towards the Sea he came and laid Siege before Acre or Ptolemais upon the fifth of April year 1291 in the year one thousand two hundred ninety one with an Army of one hundred and sixty thousand Foot and threescore thousand Horse Ptolemais of whose Situation and Strength I have given an account in the fifth Book of this History was at this time one of the fairest richest and most flourishing Cities of all the East by reason of the great Commerce of all the Merchandises which were brought thither from Egypt and Asia by Land and Sea to be from thence transported into Europe And as it was become the Capital City of the Realm since the taking of Jerusalem and the Sanctuary where all the Christians of Palestine took Refuge after the loss of their Cities so it was also then more Populous than ever it had been and such great Industry had been used in these late times in fortifying it that it was thought to be impregnable above all having at least thirty thousand Men well Armed to defend it besides eighteen thousand Crusades who were arrived there a little before without a Commander But this unfortunate City had within its Walls two kinds of Enemies infinitely more formidable than all the Forces of the Sarasins and which were the cause of its being lost year 1291 The first was the division which occasioned most fearful Disorders in regard that besides that there were two Factions which held one of them for the King of Cyprus and the other for the King of Sicily the Venetians the Genoese the Pisans the Florentines the English the Templers the Hospitallers the Teutonick Knights the Princes of the Country and even the Patriarch and the Legate of the Pope would every one so divide the Government as to be independent upon all others so that it might be said that there were in Ptolemais so many different Cities as there were quarters possessed by these Orders and different People who were not only without a Head whose Supreme Authority and Orders they should all obey but who were for the most part in Arms one against another And that which was yet more deplorable and which doubtless was the principal cause of the Desolation of this unfortunate City was that the Corruption of manners was so great and the irregularities of Peoples Lives or rather the inundation of all manner of Crimes and even of the most Infamous and Scandalous Vices were so excessive and horrible that the Divine Justice was even necessitated to exterminate such an abominable Race of Men who calling themselves Christians by their Actions so Wicked and Impious Blasphemed that and his Sacred Name among the Infidels So that one may say as one of the Authors of that time does who was a long time in the Holy Land and averrs it for a deplorable Truth That of all the People which inhabited Syria and Palestine the Christians were the most notoriously lewd and wicked The Sultan who had such a numerous Army and composed of expert Souldiers and above all his Mamalukes who were extreme brave attacked the City upon the Land side by main Force battering the Walls and the Towers Night and Day making abundance of Mines every where and sapping the Foundations of the Towers particularly those of the Tower called Judasses or the Cursed Tower which was as it were the Fortress of the City The besiged also at first defended themselves vigorously being in continual hopes of relief by the way of the Sea which they had open and being united for their better defence under one Chief whom by common consent they chose among all the Captains which was William Beaujeu Great Master of the Temple a most Valiant Man and perfectly skilful in Martial Affairs But there arrived to their assistance only five hundred Foot and two hundred Horse who were conducted by the King of Cyprus And the Great Master of the Temple being unfortunately slain with a poisoned Arrow they lost their Courage
and finding themselves without a Commander they fell into all their former Quarrels and Disorders insomuch that the Sarasins who had already made themselves Masters of two or three Towers giving a General Assault upon the eighteenth Day of May carried the City first by the Gate of the Cursed Tower and after by all the other passages which those of the City basely abandoned presently after to save themselves upon the Ships But nevertheless there were but a very few that escaped who threw themselves first into the Ships and who with the King of Cyprus and the principal among the Knights and the Officers of the Nations arrived at last in the Isle after having been in great danger of perishing by a dreadful Storm which overtook them in their passage for by a surcharge of Misfortune the Sea ran so high that Day that the greatest part of those who to avoid the Swords of the Sarasins threw themselves into the Water thinking to gain the Ships were Drowned The Patriarch himself who had already boarded a Gally upon which he was just going to imbark desiring out of his Charity to take into his Skiff as many as he could of these miserable People which were in Shoals got into the Water to come to the Ships was sunk to the bottom by the too great Number with which the Boat was loaden and at least at his Death did the Office of the good Shepherd who gives his Life for his Sheep although he could not thereby save theirs by dying for them in this manner All the rest were exposed to the fury of these Barbarous Victors who filled all with Death and Slaughter making Slaves of all those whom the Sword spared after they had by all manner of Disorders and Violence glutted their insatiable Cruelty and Lust There were there always a certain Number of Virgins consecrated to God who nevertheless found out a Marvellous way to preserve their Virginity inviolated even by the assistance of these Enemies of their Honor year 1291 the Barbarous ravishers For the Abbess of the Nunnery which was of the Order of St. Clare seeing that the City was taken and that they could not escape the hands of the Sarasins whose Cruelty was less terrible than their brutish Lust she exhorted her Daughters with a most Heroick Courage and an admirable servor of Spirit to imitate her example if they would preserve that treasure which ought to be a thousand times dearer to them than their Lives And thereupon she cut of her own Nose making her self horribly deformed in the Eyes of Men to be admirably beautiful in the sight of God whom only she desired to please All the others doubtless animated by a like inspiration of the Holy Spirit which had formerly inspired a Holy Abbess in England in the same manner did presently the same Execution upon themselves by their Blood to extinguish the brutish Flames of these Barbarians who finding them in this condition which gave them a horror they instantly Murdered them all and by this obliging Cruelty gave them the means to add the Palm of Martyrdom to that of their Virginity and as the Scripture expresseth it to wash their Robes in the Blood of the Lamb to have the Honor to follow him The Cordeliers who were their spiritual Fathers and had a fair Convent in Ptolemais were also all Slain without Pity and above sixty thousand perished in this fatal loss of the City or were carried Captives into Egypt The next Day which was the nineteenth of the Month the Templers who yet held the principal Tower of the Temple after having cut in pieces three hundred Sarasins who were entred into their quarter and who during a Capitulation had attempted the Honor of the Ladies had a destiny like that of Sampson For they were all overwhelm'd with the fall of their Tower which was overthrown with the Sape and which Buried with them under the same Ruines the Enemies which did Attack them Thus the Famous Ptolemais which had been taken a hundred years before by Philip the August King of France and by Richard Coeur-de-Lyon King of England after having maintained a Siege of three years against more than three hundred thousand Crusades who came thither successively was retaken by the Sultan of Egypt in four and forty Days and with it the Christians lost all their Courage and their Judgment to that degree as to suffer all that remained to them in Syria and the Holy Land to follow the same or rather a more shameful Fortune than that of Ptolemais For those who might very well have defended Tyre a City which was extremely strong forsook it and fled away upon their Ships so soon as they heard the sad news of the loss of Ptolemais so that the next Day the Sarasins entred it without resistance The Templers which were in Sidon and in the Pilgrims Castle did the same upon seeing one of the Lieutenants of Melech-Seraph prepare to besiege them by Sea And those of Baruth trusting to this perfidious Emir who had promised to treat them as Friends if in his passage through their Lands they would repair to him were all either cut in pieces or sent in Chains to suffer a miserable Captivity in Egypt And thus these four Maritime places being all that remained to the Christians in the Holy Land after the taking of Ptolemais were also lost and it was precisely at this time that they were wholly chased from thence a hundred ninety and two years after that Godfrey of Bullen and the other Princes of the Crusade had so gloriously Conquered and founded this Realm which continued for near two hundred years under fifteen or sixteen Kings And this makes it appear that it cannot be absolutely said that the Crusades were unfortunate no more than that by the same reason it can be maintained that the enterprises of the great Cyrus were not prosperous because the Monarchy of the Persians which he founded by his Conquests did not last more than two hundred years under thirteen Kings But such is the fatality of all Earthly things which after their Birth and Establishment increase and continue till a certain Period which Nature or rather Divine Providence hath prefixed to them as the term of their perfection after which they decrease either insensibly as in natural productions or else suddainly by some great Revolution of Fortune by which they cease to be what they had never been but upon that necessary condition of fatality that one Day they are to be no more As for the rest the Victorious Sultan that he might take from the Christians the hopes and the desire to recover what they had lost year 1291 and to hinder them for the future from becoming Masters of the Sea by the taking or any of these Maritime places he demolished burnt and overthrew from the very Foundations all these Cities as well as Ptolemais which having been one of the fairest Cities of the World but also one of the most
happened news was brought him that the Caravan of Egypt guarded with above ten thousand men with all sorts of Munitions for the Relief of Jerusalem was advancing thither and at no great distance whereupon taking five thousand Horse he marched upon the Eve of St. John Baptist to surprize them and charged them so Impetuously that after having slain the greatest part of the Convoy with the loss of not above seventeen or eighteen Horsemen and dissipated the rest he took betwixt four and five thousand Camels and an Infinite Number of other Beasts of Burden charged with Gold Silver and precious Merchandises not only for Necessity but delight such as come from the Indies by the Arabian Gulph to Egypt And this great Booty he destributed liberally among the Army without reserving any thing for himself which was more then ever he had done in all the former Battles which he had gained And in Truth it seemed very resonable that after two such great Victories and the taking of such a rich Convoy the taking of Jerusalem could not be a thing to be doubted but the Joy which possessed the whole Army which with incredible Ardor undertook that Enterprise was presently after changed into an Excessive Grief when the Resolution of returning to Ascalon was declared to them as the Advice of twenty Captains whom Richard had chosen to deliberate concerning the Siege of Jerusalem whilest he marched to attack the Caravan For they all concluded that the Siege was not by any means fit to be undertaken alledging many weak and feeble reasons but concealing the true ones upon which it was grounded which was that the King of England had strongly resolved to return to his own Dominions and that all which he had done was but to amuse the World and to make a shew as if he would besiege Jerusalem For he had received advice two several times after Easter by two Expresses from England that his Brother John having by force displaced and driven out of the Realm the Bishop of Ely his Chancellor year 1192 and the Principal Officers of the Crown manifestly intended to make himself King he was also assured that he was powerfully protected by the King of France who was ready by force to take Vexin because it was refused to be surrendred to him according to the Articles of Messina Richard who was extreme hasty would have immediately imbarked himself leaving to the Count de Champagne with the Places in Palestine three hundred men at Arms and two thousand English Foot together with the Forces of the Country for his Defence But a certain Ecclesiastick a very able man who was near his Person and in whom he reposed very much Confidence perswaded him to deferr his Departure for a little time that so he might save his Honor by making some Movement by which the World might be perswaded that it was not his Fault that Jerusalem was not taken and upon this Account it was that he did all that is before mentioned and that he would have those twenty Captains of whom he was very well assured determine the Affair concerning the Siege of Jerusalem who by no means approved it but urged that it was much better to continue the Fortifications of Ascalon and Gaza which were the two Keys of the Realm towards Egypt and by that means to secure themselves from the Attempts of Saladin before they undertook the Siege of the Capital City So that Richard seemed only to deferr it upon the Opinion of so many knowing men who were chosen from among the Templers and Knights of the Hospital the Lords of the Country and several of those who come from Europe after which he declared publickly that since it was judged inconvenient at that time to attempt the Siege of Jerusalem he would there leave thee Count de Champagne his Nephew to undertake it in due time and that for himself he was obliged to return to defend his Dominions against such as laid hold of this Advantage of his Absence to Enterprize against him and to invade them It is impossible to express the Mischief which this Imprudent Declaration occasioned which he did before he had perfected his Treaty with Saladin which was then a Foot for Saladin seeing the Danger he was in to lose all was contented to have some and to yield the rest to the Christians upon most advantageous Conditions But so soon as he perceived that he had nothing to fear from that quarter and that upon Richard's resolving to depart the whole Army would Instantly disband he held so firm and fierce that a Truce in such a manner as he pleased was all that could be gained from him a Truce unworthy of the Reputation and Courage of a King of England the Army of the Crusades being herewith most furiously inraged and almost mad to see themselves robbed of the Glory of delivering the Holy Sepulchre of Jesus Christ which they had with so much Danger come so far to search after disbanded of its one accord the greatest part of them thinking now of nothing but returning into their own Country bestowing a thousand Curses upon King Richard whom they accused more than ever to have assassinated the Prince of Tyre to have attempted against the Life of Philip the August and sold the Holy Land to Saladin with whom he held a Correspondence Richard by the Grandeur of his Soul and his Natural Courage gave himself no manner of trouble for what was the Effect of Rage and Anger and the Malicious pleasure which men take to speak Evil of those whom Fortune or Merit have elevated above them or what they spoak so outragiously against his Conduct in this War and indeed in a short time after he made it evident by a most glorious Action that this last Accusation was as great a Calumny as the two former For as he arrived at Acre where the Duke of Burgundy with the French were also come to give order for their Return he received advice that Saladin understanding that the Christian Army was broken up had laid Siege to Jaffa Upon this news he rallied all the Troops he could and dividing them into two Bodies he gave one to the Count de Champagne with Orders to march by Land and with the other he himself went by Sea with the choice Lords of the French and Flemings who would follow him upon this great occasion Those who manifested the greatest Ardour and whom among others he chose to be near his Person were Gauchier de Chastillon who had lost his Brother in the Siege of Acre the Counts of Cleves and Limbourg the Baron of Stanford Valeran de Luxenburg Guy de Montfort Bartholomew de Mortemar Raoul de Mauleon William de L' Estang Andrew de Savigni Henry de Nevile Dreux de Mello and William de Barres He was for some time stayed by contrary Winds and did not arrive till precisely the Evening of that day wherein those who had retired into the Castle after the taking
of the City had promised to surrender if they were not before that time relieved The Sarasins seeing him coming had put themselves in Battalia upon the Bank to hinder his Descent and the greatest part looking upon such an Attempt as impossible advised the King to return But this undaunted Prince perceiving that the Castle yet held out causing his Shallop to row close to the Shoar was the first that leapt into the Sea and drew the rest after him rather by the extreme Danger to which they saw him expose himself than by the Force of such a brave Example and after he had routed the Sarasins who fled instantly amazed at his prodigious Boldness he stormed the Town by the same Breaches which they had made and cutting in pieces those who besieged the Castle he constrained Saladin with the remainder of his Troops to retire in great disorder to the Mountains But this was not all for three days after seven thousand chosen men of the most brave of all Saladin's Army thinking to surprize him early in the Morning in his Quarters while he was asleep taking the Alarm he so quickly rallied what Troops of Infantry could be gotten together on the sudden and formed them so well into a square Battalion that they durst never so much as approach him for he had so ranged his men that between every Pike who kneeled with one knee upon the Ground two Cross-Bows were placed one of which charged the Cross-Bows whilest the other let fly the Mortal Arrows among them without ceasing and at last seeing the Enemies disordered by the great Showers of those dreadful forked Arrows and that they did nothing but wheel about his Battalion which had a Front every way he by an excess of Courage or rather Temerity threw himself on Horse-Back into the midst of his Enemies although he had not with him above ten Lords who were mounted as he was the Cheif of which were the Count de Champagne the Earl of Leicester Bartholomew Mortemar Raoul de Mauleon Andrew de Savigni William de L' Estang and Henry de Nevile There he did shew the Prodigies of Valour with those Generous Lords who by his Example combated like so many inraged Lyons He relieved Robert Earl of Leicester who happened to be dismounted he cut off the Arms of those who had seized upon the Lord Mauleon to make him Prisoner his Sword like Lightning flew every way carrying Death and Terror along with it among his Enimies and at last seeing the General who commanded the Sarasins who was animating his men to the Combat and reproached them of Cowardice to suffer such a handful to triumph over them he ran up to him and with a mighty Blow of his Falchion cut off his Head and right Arm close by the Shoulder so that he fell dead among the Horses Feet This dreadful Blow so terrified the Sarasins that they durst not come near him but attacked him at a distance with their Arrows so that at last weary of their Slaughter he returned to his Camp the Caparison of his Horse being bristled with the Enemies Arrows of whom he left seven hundred Extended upon the Earth without having lost any more then two of his Men. In truth such a Noble and Heroick Action made it most apparent that there was no manner of Understanding between him and Saladin against whom if there had certainly he would never have fought with such apparent Hazard of his Person to drive him out of Jaffa after he had taken it But all this did not hinder but that Saladin who saw very well that Richard who was fallen sick after this Combat was not only resolved but necessitated to return into Europe obliged him in Conclusion to accept of a Truce with such Conditions as he was pleased to give as if he had been the Conqueror They were these That the Christians should demolish all the places which they had siezed upon since the taking of Acre and above all Ascalon That all the Coast from Tyre to Jaffa should be in the Power of the Christians that the rest should remain in the Possession of Saladin except Ascalon which upon the Expiration of the Truce should fall to his Share who should then be most potent year 1192 and that Richard should be satisfied from him for the Expences which he had been at in the Fortifications of that Place That during the Truce which was to begin at Easter in the following Year and to continue for three Years three Months three Weeks and three Days the Christians should have liberty in small numbers freely to enter into Jerusalem to make there their Devotions at the Holy Sepulchre Thus this great Crusade wherein all the Forces of Germany France and England were employed under three of the greatest Princes of the Universe against one single Conqueror ended at last in nothing more than the Taking of one poor Town which cost the Lives of an infinite number of brave Men the least part of which if they had been under the Command of one single Captain might with ease have conquered the whole Eastern Empire But it is never to be expected or hoped but that Hatred Envy Ambition Jealousie of State and Diversity of Interests which never fail to happen among plurality of Commanders should ever suffer these kind of Unions to continue firm or long And it would be a kind of Prodigy if they should not according to their nature produce those Divisions and Animosities which alone without the Assistance of other Mischiefs are capable of ruining the greatest Enterprises and the bravest Armies Whereas one single Chief with far less number shall certainly triumph over the greatest Multitude leagued against him provided he hath but Patience to permit Discords to enter into the Camp of the Confederates and will but give them leave to overthrow themselves The Truce being signed Richard who found himself still worse in the unwholsom Air of Jaffa caused himself to be removed to Caiphas where Saladin who had naturally a generous Soul sent to visit him with great Marks of Affection Esteem and Respect He also very obligingly received the Bishop of Salisbury at Jerusalem who with the rest of the Pilgrims went thither to offer the Vows of the King who still continued much indisposed in his Health And after he had most courteously entertained that Prelate he obliged him to demand what Favour lay in his Power and promised he would grant it Whereupon the Bishop requested that not only in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre but those of Nazareth and Bethlehem there might be permitted to remain two Latin Priests and two Deacons with freedom publickly to celebrate Divine Service in those places to which Saladin without any difficulty according to his Word accorded After this the King finding his Health in some measure re-established repaired to Acre where the Duke of Burgundy was dead of the Distemper some eight Days before his Arrival There he caused his Fleet to be rigged