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
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
the vast Tracts of Ethiopia and the higher Egypt it divides it self below Grand Caire or Babylon some twenty Leagues from the Sea into two Arms one of which drawing to the Right Hand towards the East and the other to the Left towards the West form that great Triangle which is the lower Egypt and which by reason of its Triangular Figure the Greeks call Delta These two Arms divide themselves again into others which discharging themselves into the Sea make those Mouths of the Nile whose number is very uncertain most Authors make them seven some nine and others will have it that there are eleven but William of Tyre who had most exactly searched the number of them upon the place assures us that there are no more than four All which Differences may be easily reconciled by considering that when this River overflows the Country as it doth every Year about the middle of June till towards the midst of September it then dischargeth it self by other Chanals which remain dry all the rest of the Year and that then it is restrained to those four which are the natural Branches by which its Waters flow regularly and without Interruption to the Sea The greatest of the Western Chanals is called the Peleusiaque from the name of the City Pelusium which since is called Belbeis upon the Nile towards the Coast of Palestine This City is usually confounded with Damaita by a Mistake which certainly cannot be defended for William of Tyre who speaks exactly of these two Cities which he had seen and which were besieged by Amauri King of Jerusalem saith positively that the King who had by Force taken Pelusium anciently called Belbeis which it is well known stood upon the first Branch of the Nile towards the East passed the first Arm of the River year 1218 and marched at two Encampments which is about twenty Miles to besiege Damiata upon the Oriental Coast of the second Branch of the Nile about a Mile from the Sea This City was invironed with a double brick Wall towards the Nile and a trible one on that side toward the Land the second was higher than the first and the third than the second with an infinite number of Towers to defend them and a great Ditch by which there is a Passage into the Nile which compasses it round about and makes it a great Island something longer than it is broad But that which it wants in Breadth is supplied by the fair Suburbs which in Beauty and Riches yield not to the City And it being thither that all the Merchandises which come from Ethiopia and the Indies by the Red Sea were brought to be from thence transported into Europe and Asia the Sultans had caused to be built upon the other side the River a very strong Tower capable of containing three hundred Soldiers to defend it from whence there was drawn a huge Chain to one of the Towers of the City so that there was no comming in or going out of the Harbor without the Permission of the Sultan who drew from them what Tribute he pleased for the Exportation of all the Merchandises and Spiceries which were not to be had but from Egypt So soon as the rest of the Army which was for some time stayed by contrary Winds was come up the Soldiers being marvellously animated by an Eclipse of the Moon which they took for a certain Presage of Victory and the Ruine of the Sultan a Resolution was taken to attack the Tower upon the Nile in regard that without that it was impossible to batter the City on the River side which was the thing in design that being the weakest part For this purpose the Duke of Austria and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem caused the great Ladders in form of Draw-Bridges to be fastned to their Masts such as had been made use of to be let down with Pullies at the Siege of Constantinople The Germans and Frisons under the Conduct of Count Adolphus du Mont made a kind of a Fort upon a great Ship which below the Round Top of the Main Mast was like a little Castle from whence they might commodiously shoot against those who defended the Tower and the Templers raised upon one of the ablest of the Ships another Machin in form of a Cavalier to batter the Enemy at the same time from another Quarter but these Engines had not the happy Success which they had promised from them the main Mast which supported the Bridge of the Knights of St. John breaking in the middle in the Fall drew along with it the Bridge that also of the Duke of Austria was overturned and broaken under the Feet of the Soldiers who thronged upon it and pushed one another forward with Precipitation every one striving to be foremost to sight with the Sarasins who expected them upon the top of the Tower So that these valiant Men who marched with so much Heat with their Swords in their Hands against the Enemy falling with their Bucklers and Swords one upon another being intangled in the Cordage tumbled one upon another and wounded themselves sorely with their own Arms before they fell from the Bridge into the River where they were miserably plunged in the deep Waters and being armed and such a number of Men Planks and great pieces of broaken Timber that hindred their Swiming they could not possibly save themselves The Christian Army which saw this lamentable Accident without being able to remedy it was infinitely troubled at it but the Infidels who from the Towers and Walls saw this agreeable Spectacle sent forth Shouts of Joy mingled with horrible Noises Insultings and Blasphemies which were so far from discouraging the Christians that they were thereby animated more than before to revenge these horrible Affronts Impieties For this Reason therefore after they had drawn off the other two Machins of the Templers and the Germans which were for no purpose but to favor the other two which were ruined it was resolved that the Gallies and lighter Ships should pass by the Chanal of the Nile which was between the Tower and the other Bank that so they might make themselves Masters of the higher part of the River and break the Bridge of Boats which made the Communication between the Town and the Tower of the Nile This Design was as happily Executed as could be wished for in despight of the horrible storm of Darts Arrows and Stones which were poured upon them from the great Tower to defend the Passage which the Besieged did not believe they would be so mad as to attempt year 1218 the Ships passed up the River and lay so that no Ship could come down to relieve the Town then they fell upon those who defended the Bridge with so much Fury that they broak it in divers places so that the Tower could now no longer be succoured from the City In the mean time a very able Engineer invented a new sort of Machin which at last had that
for some Turkish Officer who was come to relieve the Garrison as also by a mutual Mistake Baldwin discovering Tancred's Forces with Sword in Hand marching up towards him concluded him to be the Governor of the Garrison of Tarsus who was come out to oppose his Passage but discovering their Error they Embraced each other as if they had been very well satisfied but within a few Moments Baldwin being unable to indure that his Rival should have the Glory to have prevented him in the easy Conquest of so fair a City and finding himself stronger in Number he would needs have recourse to Arms to oblige Tancred to yield to him half the Conquest Tancred who was every whit as Brave and as Valiant as Baldwin and without doubt far more Moderate dissembling this Affront for the present generously resigned it intirely to him and being unwilling to be reduced to the miserable Necessity of drawing his Sword against Christians and Confederates he thought of seeking new Conquests and among other places he went to attacque Mamistra year 1097 one of the most considerable and strongest Towns in the whole Province But the Virtue of this great Man who had so gloriously overcome himself found it self very feeble some time after when he came to incounter the most formidable Enemies and Men of Courage who reproached him sufficiently for performing so meanly when it was in his Power to have acted bravely Prince Baldwin happened by an odd Adventure to be reinforced by a Fleet of Dutch and Flemish Pyrats Commanded by a Bullener one Vinomare who had been a Domestick formerly to his Father Count Eustace This Captain by pure Accident was come to an Anchor before Tarsus at the same time when Baldwin had taken the Town and being Ravished to meet there the Son of his old Master and so fair an Occasion to change his Employ by taking up Arms among so many famous Christian Princes in so glorious a Cause he immediately joyned Prince Baldwin who placed one part of his Men in Garrison at Tarsus and desired him to stay with the remainder in the Road there till he should send him further Orders After which this Prince having assured his new Conquest marched to make others and came one Evening to Encamp before Mamistra where Tancred who had just taken the Place was busie in giving the necessary Orders for the Fortification of it to render it stronger than before There is nothing more easy than to revive the remembrance and sense of an Injury in a Heart already grieved to have received it and ashamed not to have revenged it especially being excited thereunto by the appearance of new Affronts and Outrages Richard Earl of Salernum his Cousin thinking that this Action of Bohemond was a second Injury which he came to offer blew up the Flames of Dissention between them accosting Tancred in these Terms Ha! what now Tancred said he where is thy Honor Thou has formerly been taken for Valor it self wilt thou now disabuse the World and reverse that fair Opinion by making it evident that thou art the greatest Coward of Mankind What! Canst thou suffer Baldwin after having constrained thee in the most fierce and insolent manner in the World to quit thy Pretensions to Tarsus to come and Reproach thee with the Injury he hath done thee and which thou hast tamely born and it may be to command thee to relinquish Manistra too whilest he assures himself thereof by that which thou art pleased to call Moderation but he believes to be pure Cowardice Go go then if thou hast not quite lost thy Heart but go as thou oughtest at the head of so many brave Men who are resolved to perish rather than not be revenged of the insufferable Affront which is done not only to Tancred but to all the generous Normans who have not conquered Calabria Pavia and Sicily Vanquished the Grecian Emperor and followed the Invincible Bohemond through all Asia there to become Slaves to one Bullener This did not fail to raise the Courage of Tancred and to rouse up that Anger which he had not been able without extreme Violence to smother at Tarsus and Shame having removed all the Obstacles which Virtue opposed his Choller breaking out like a River swollen with a mighty Inundation was now become furious and amidst the Noise which this turbulent Passion raised in his Soul he was no longer in a condition to give Attention either to Conscience Reason or the Interest of Jesus Christ for whose only Sake he had taken Arms but that he hastily snatched them up to employ them against his Brethren so that taking five hundred chosen Horse and two hundred Archers he put himself at the head of them and advanced to attack Prince Baldwin and he seeing them coming in this manner put himself immediately into a posture to receive them The Combat was rough and bloody in regard that both the one and the other fought rather by the Dictates of Fury than the Rules of Art and that the Combatants were all in the rank of the most valiant Men of the World It happened however in conclusion that Tancred quitted the Field and retired before Baldwin who outnumbred him in Cavalry Baldwin pursued his Advantage briskly till they came to the passage of a little Bridge where Richard Prince of Salernum and Robert de Anse were taken Prisoners Gilbert of Clermont who was engaged too eagerly in the Pursuit had the same Fortune to be taken by Tancred and many gallant Men lost their Lives on both sides in this unfortunate Day But it happened that the two Captains year 1097 without a possibility of communicating their Thoughts to each other having in the Night considered in their cooler Thoughts that their unhappy Dissention which already had done too much Mischief might occasion the Division of the whole Army and in the end impeach the Progress of their Victorious Arms and the accomplishment of their Vow they therefore repented them of their rash Folly by an extraordinary Effect of Gods immediate Power in whose Hands are the Hearts of Princes to turn them as he pleaseth So that the next morning sending reciprocally and in the same Instant their Ambassadors to each other they both desired that Peace which was therefore in a moment concluded the Prisoners being on both sides restored to Liberty and the Princes imbracing each other with a thousand Protestations of a future Amity So it is when Peace is made between Princes with Sincerity and by the Mediation of God Almighty it is easily accorded and of long continuance but when it is only the Work of Politick Men who cannot give it it is not concluded without long Debates and Contests which look like a little kind of War and when it is concluded it continues no longer than while they take Breath and can make better Preparations to break it After this happy Peace Tancred having joyned to his Troops the remainder of the Forces of the Pyrates easily conquered the
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
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
of Tiberias That it was to lose all to lose their Honour by suffering the Princess his Wife who so bravely defended it to perish whilst they stood cowardly looking on And that all the other Cities despairing after such an Example to be relieved would instantly surrender to the Conquerors and follow the Fortune of Tiberias if it should be taken And for any thing else in drawing out the Garrisons from the Cities they should thereby have so good an Army and so numerous that there could not be any room for Fear but that they should beat that Enemy whom they had so often vanquished with far less Forces The four Sons also of the Princess Eschina which she had by her first Husband made a mighty Noise and with repeated Instances demanded Relief to be sent to their Mother The Queen Sybilla also employed for this purpose all the Power which she had over the Spirit of the King her Husband who was indeed her Creature So that in conclusion the greatest part of the Lords inclining to this Opinion some out of Complaisance to the Queen others out of Service to the four Princes of Tiberias and divers out of the design which Count Raymond had secretly communicated to them it was resolved that they should march directly against the Enemies with all the Forces which they could draw out of the Garrisons where none were to be lest but such as were incapable of bearing Arms. And thus with these Troops which were composed of a great many Men and a few Soldiers the Army consisting in twelve thousand Horse and twenty thousand Foot besides the Citizens who were compelled by Force to serve in the War they advanced towards Tiberias Now as Raymond who in Right of the Princess his Lady was Prince of Galilee was better acquainted with the Country than the rest and that he was not only esteemed a great Soldier but that he seemed also to have the greatest Interest in the Victory which was to deliver the Person which ought to be the dearest to him the Conduct of the Army was unanimously committed to him That perfidious Traytor who gave secret Advertisement of all things to the Enemies unfortunately or rather maliciously engaged them in a rude and steril Country among the Straits of the Rocks and Mountains where there was neither Water nor Forrage The Enemies who only waited for this lucky Minute failed not to encompass them with their Troops which were far more numerous after the same manner that the Romans had some time been inclosed in the Furcae Caudinae year 1187 which were not more Famous by the Shameful Ignomony into which the ignorance and the Temerity of their Captains there precipitated their Soldiers then these Straits for the deplorable Overthrow of the Christian Army which was betrayed into the Hands of the Infidels by the baseness of their Perfidious Conductor It was now high Summer in the beginning of July when the Heats of that Burning Climate are most insupportable and there was not one Drop of Water to be found among those Rocks so that the Men and Horses died with Thirst and were able to do no more there was therefore a Necessity of resolving immediately to sight the Enemy For though the Disadvantage was very great by reason that it was impossible to draw up the Army in Battalia in a Post which was so uneven and so strait and broken with Rocks that they could not attack the Enemy but by filing off yet it was impossible to avoid that Choice the Army was divided into a great many Bodies commanded by the Principal Lords who were to follow one another who were to sustain there Companions and who were reciprocally to be sustained by those which followed them The Enemies expected them in good Order to cut them off as they marched in these long Files before they should have Leisure to form themselves into Squadrons upon the Plain to give them Battle The great Master of the Temple who chose to have the Van with his Noble Knights advanced first and charged so furiously upon those Enemies which opposed him that overturning them upon those who followed them he put them into Disorder insomuch that these Gallant men who fought most Valiantly after the Example of their Captain killing overturning or putting to flight all that durst oppose their first Fury had they been sustained by the other Bodies who had Order to follow them the whole Army might with little Difficulty have been drawn from that disadvantageous Post and have had the Liberty of sighting in the Plain Field where they would doubtless have been able to have hoped or however disputed for the Victory but here it was that the detestable Treason of the Perfidious Earl of Tripolis made it self most infamously Visible For he had so ordered the Matter that he himself commanded that Body which was to follow the Templers and he had also disposed the other Troops in such manner that all the Lords who were of his Party were to follow him Now these Traytors would not advance alledging that this was to lead their Souldiers to a perfect Butchery to quit their advantageous Post and to march them thus in Files into the Plain which was all covered with the Battalions and squadrons of the Enemies who must needs cut them all in Pieces taking them thus without Trouble one after another So that these brave Knights infamously abandoned by their Reserves and on every side surrounded by an innumerable Multitude of Sarasins were all either slain upon the Place or taken Prisoners not so much as one of them escaping After this Defeat Saladin seeing that no more durst advance to the Combat approached to the Camp of the Christians which yet he would not adventure to attack but that he might complete their Dispair by taking from them all Appearance of a Possibility to draw themselves out of that wicked Strait he caused Fires to be made in the Woods which invironed the greatest Parts of those Rocks and set strong Guards upon all the other Avenues that so he might sight them with greater Advantage if they should endeavour to Retreat But six Fugitives who run to his Army and to gain Credence with him offered to become Sarasins as they presently did having assured him that the Christian Soldiers were half dead with Hunger and Thirst and under the greatest Consternation so oppressed with their Misfortune Weariness and Despair that they were scarce able to stand or go upon this Advice he instantly resolved to Charge them which he did with that Success that his Army powering in upon them by the Straits which the Christians had abandoned they fell upon these miserable People who were crouded together and who had neither Courage to defend themselves nor Power to fly cross the Flames and the Rocks that it was no longer a Combat but a Horrible Butchery and Slaughter So that almost all the Captains and Christian Soldiers either perished in this miserable Day or were taken Prisoners
Riches and for the famous Seige which was enterprized against it by Alexander the Great who from an Island which it was before made it a Peninsula joyning it by a prodigious Bank of Earth to the firm Land of the Continent was now under the utmost Consternation finding it self without Defendants and just upon the Point to run the same Fortune with Ptolemaïs The brave Marquis who landed in the Critical Moment and who had abundance of Courage Resolution and Conduct failed not to lay hold upon so fair an Occasion to purchase not only Glory but so considerable a Fortune in Phoenicia by saving this renowned City He therefore offered to defend them against all the Forces of the Sarasins with those which he had brought provided they would Obey him and as a Recompence for preserving of the City which was so visibly exposed to the extreme danger of falling under the Power of the Infidels that they would receive him for their Master and their Lord. All this was imediately consented unto and therefore to secure the City the next day he caused diverse of the Earl of Tripolis his Complices who were discovered to have a Design to seize upon the Fortress to be hanged for their Treason And in short he laboured with so much Diligence in repairing the Fortifications by the help of the Inhabitants and those who were retired thither from Ptolemaïs and furnished it with all things necessary to sustain a Siege that he saw himself in a Condition to resist all the Forces of Saladin And that crafty Prince fearing to receive an Affront before a City so well fortified offered Conrade to give Liberty to the old Marquis his Father and if he would put the Place into his Power to recompense him with so great a Sum of Money as should exceed all that he could reasonably hope But when he saw the Marquis so firm that neither Pity nor Interest were able to work upon him he then resolved to carry the Place by Force and therefore attacked it by Land with all manner of Engines and blocked it up by Sea with a mighty Fleet to prevent the landing of any Supplies by the Shipping of Genoua and Sicily But all his Attempts became fruitless by the Valour and good Fortune and strong Resolution of the Marquis who by two or three stout Sallies which he made with great Success obliged the Turks to remove to a greater Distance He also fitted out all the Shipping in the Port and joyning with the Fleet of Margaritus Admiral of the Royal Navy of Sicily he attacked the Fleet of Saladin ad defeated it so intirely that scarce a Ship escaped but either taken burnt sunk or constrained to avoid being taken to run ashoar in the View of Saladin himself who saw but could not prevent the Misfortune and now began to despair of Success since it was no longer possible for him to hinder the Succours which came from Europe to enter at Pleasure into Tyre And there entred such considerable Numbers of them who expected the arrival of the Army of the Crusades that Conrade had thereby the Means not only to establish his Dominions but also to carry the War among his Enemies and to meet with the good Fortune in one Encounter among many others to take one Prisoner of great Quality who was exchanged for the old Marquis his Father to whom he restored his Liberty by his Valour much more honourably than he could have done by a foolish Pity of his Captivity But Saladin who had a great Soul and who was not much astonished with an Accident which he had in some measure foreseen nor surprised with this little Reverse of his Fortune to which the Prudence and the Success of the greatest Captains must sometimes submit quickly repaired this Loss by throwing himself into the Principality of Antioch which he totally reduced in less than three Months under his Power For he took more than twenty Places and constrained the Capital City to come to Terms by which they promised to surrender to him if in a certain time they were not relieved by an Army of the Princes of Europe more potent than his Thus of all the Conquests which the Franks had made with so much Glory to the Christian Name in Syria Palestine and Mesopotamia there remained nothing but these three Cities Amioch year 1188 which was not theirs neither but upon a Condition which might fail Tripolis where the King who had nothing more left of his Kingdom was retired after his Deliverance and Tyre which the Marquis Conrade had so unexpectedly preserved And that which was yet more Deplorable was the Division which happened between the King and the Marquis who pretended to retain Tyre as having justly acquired it all the Men of Spirit were upon this divided into these two Parties so that it was of great Advantage to Saladin that he had delivered this unhappy King who by this new Disturbance was the cause of the Loss of all the rest Strange Revolution of Fortune which in so small a time made such a prodigious Change in the Condition of the Christians and the Insidels which though it may give one some Astonishment yet to me it doth not seem mighty Difficult to assign the Causes which therefore for a little we will indeavour to find For first The Crusades who founded the Realm of Jerusalem and those who after them atchieved those glorious Conquests altho they had their Passions and their Failings and were as other Men subject to humane Infirmities yet for the most they were good in the main Men who had a great Fond of Honour any Honesty solidly Devout and strongly inclined to the good of Religion fearing God and above all most zealous for his Glory Whereas whether the Manners of their Successors were by little and little corrupted by the contagious Commerce which they had with the Insidel Nations with which they were Surrounded or that great Numbers of wicked People who passed into the Holy to save themselves from the Pursuit of Justice carried thither and left by their pernicious Examples those Crimes to their Posterity which they had escaped the just Punishment of Most certain it is that some small time before the Fall of that Kingdom the Lives of the Christians of the East and even of the Clergy themselves were so horribly Desolute that it is impossible without Horror to represent the frightful Picture which the Writers of those Times and those who have Copied after them have drawn of their Crimes And I wish with all my Soul that it were possible to efface and abolish the Memory of them rather than with a kind of Scandal to expose them to the View of such honest People whose Modesty may recoil at the reading of them For this Reason as God punished the Offences of the Israelites whom himself had conducted by so many Miracles into this same Holy Land and that the Punishment which they had so justly merited was the depriving them of
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
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
arrived at the same time with the other Fleet. So that Saladin perceiving he had two powerful Armies in the Head of him whose landing he could not oppose without exposing himself to be attacked by those who were incamped on the Hill drew off into another Eminence opposite to that of Turon and there retrenched himself in Expectation of Reinforcements which were marching towards him from all Quarters But the Captains of the Christian Army in a few days having also received fresh Supplies of Crusades French and Italians and seeing they had more Forces then the Christians had ever before had since their coming into Palestine as also that it would be difficult to force the Town in the View of such a Potent Army as was that of Saladin they resolved at last to oblige him to a Battle to which that Prince was already sufficiently inclined There was between the two Camps a fair and large Plain where the two Armies might with case range themselves in Battle and from the Hills they both descended as if it had been by concert at break of day the fourteenth of October The Christian Army consisted in forty thousand Horse and a hundred thousand Foot which were divided into four Bodies drawn up in three Lines the first which made the right Wing wherein the King would command was composed of his own Troops with those of France and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem The Second which was the left was commanded by the Marquis of Montferrat who besides his own Troops which were the best in all the East had also those which Eudes Archbishop of Ravenna the Venetians and Lombards who were of his Party had brought to him The Body of the Battle which was the third was formed partly of the Germans under the Lantgrave the Danes and English with the Pisans under their ArchBishop who were of the King's Party And the fourth which was the Body of Reserve was conducted by Gerrard de Bibesford Great Master of the Temple accompanied with his Knights and the Germans under the Duke of Guelderland as also of the Catalonians who had joyned the French at Marseilles Geoffry de Lusignan and James de Avesnes with their Troops remained to guard the Camp and to defend it against those of the City who might fally out to attack it during the Battle The Cavalry was ranged in the Intervals of the Battallions of the Second Line and the Light-Horse being all Archers were in the Front followed by the men at Armes who were all of the Nobility who had acquired great Experience in the Wars of Europe and in whom consisted the Principal Strength of the Army On the other Side Saladin whose Army was by much more Numerous consisting in an Hundred thousand Horse and more Foot divided this great Army into seven Bodies he put six into two Lines which he opposed to those of the Christians and the seventh was for a Reserve besides the Troops which he left for the Guard of the Camp Never was there seen greater Ardour or Chearfulness in any Christian Army than appeared upon this Day there was not so much as one Soldier who made the least doubt of a certain Victory and who did not look upon the Turks as a Booty abandoned to them to inrich themselves with their Spoils and there was one among the Captains who seeing the Resolution of so many brave men as composed this flourishing Army the like whereof had never been seen in the Holy Land cried out by a horrible Trusport of his Indignation and a Presumption too justly to be blamed as Criminala is tthere hen any Power in all Asia which can be capable of resisting us in the Condition wherein we are It is impossible for me not to despise this Multitude of Enemies which face us and if God Almighty will but stand Neuter without aiding the one or the other Part we are most assured of the Victory since we have nothing else to do but to march to it over the Bellies of all this Army which opposes us Insupportable Vanity of the Spirit of Mankind which so easily loseth it self in the Foolish Ideas which its frames of its own Strength which in reallity without his Help is nothing but miserable Weakness as too plainly appeared in the Issue of this Battle The two Armies being drawn up stood facing one the other without attempting any thing till nine of the Clock in the Morning and then the first Battallions of the Christians suddainly opened upon the signal given the Cavalry advanced from between the Intervals and began the Combat year 1190 The Light-Horse after having discharged their Arrows covering themselves with their Bucklers sell with Sword in Hand upon the first Squadrons of the Enemies to whom they scarce gave time to make their first Discharge Whereupon the Men at Armes who followed them close entred at the Breaches they had made overturning and killing with the mighty Force of the Lance whatever they met with that opposed them and at the same time the Batallions of Foot who followed at a great Pace after the Cavalry threw themselves upon those People already disordered by the first Shock and charged in upon them with Sword and Pikes and in the first Heat fought with so much Fury that they found him to recoil and in a Moment after pressing vigorously upon them they threw them upon the Second Line which instead of sustaining them were so struck with a pannick Fear that they fell into a Rout and betook themselves to a manifest Flight leaving the Field quite naked that so according to their Custom they might themselves fly with the foremost The Christians now believing themselves with the Place of Battle intirely possessed of the Victory sent forth mighty Shouts of Joy which still the more terrified their Enemies who fled at loose Rein so that Saladin himself unable to stop them in this horrible Disorder was also carried along with the Croud of the Fugitives But this Joy did not last long by reason of a suddain Change of Fortune which happened from three or four Causes which altogether concurred in the disaster which attended the Christian Army For first the Soldiers who ought to have pursued their Point and have given Chace to the Enemies to hinder their rallying immediately fell upon the Camp which Fear had caused those who guarded it to abandon and fell to plundering especially the Tents of Saladin which were replenished with Infinite Riches nor was it in the Power of the Captains to prevent this disorder so much did the Sight of those magnificent Pavilions all shining with Silk and Gold inflame the Covetousness of the Soldiers who gave ear to nothing but the Dictates of their Greedy Avarice Now Saladin who was a great Captain and perceived this Disorder failed not to make his Advantage of it and therefore according to the Custom of these Barbarians so conformable to their Predecessors the Ancient Parthians they were as quickly rallied as they had
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
this Tower were so terrified with this Heroick Confidence of these two men and much more by the dreadful Blows which they bestowed making Heads Arms and Legs fly off where ever they sell that losing their Courage and Judgement they made all the hast they could to get out of their reach and with Precipitation abandoned the Tower to these two Heroes and those who thronged up after them with desire to pertake of the Honor of the Action Those who sought ashoar and those who were upon the Gallies to support them seeing that those who were aboard these two Ships had planted their Ensigns upon this Tower and the Greeks already took the Fright were so ashamed to see themselves behind hand that some of them with Precipitation throwing themselves ashoar whilest others planted the Ladders against the Walls the one and the other mounting in Shoals pushing overthrowing with their Bucklers and with huge Blows killing all those who in this horrible disorder into which Fear and Dispair had driven the Greeks made any resistance and continually pursuing their Point with a Courage extremely heightned by the Hopes of Victory they quickly made themselves Masters of four other Towers and there planted their Victorious Ensigns At the same time they who fought upon the Key and they who descended from the Gallies and Ships where they were employed continually to shoot against the Curtain inraged to think that they should be the last in the taking of Constantinople ran to the Gates and with their Rams broak three of them open they also who were already gotten into the Town over the Walls having opened the others which were between the Towers which they had taken the whole Army entred year 1204 and drew up in order between the Walls and the Heads of the Streets which abutted upon the Haven that so they might not be surprized indisorder but be in a Condition regularly to attack any that should be commanded to oppose them For they saw the Emperor advantageously posted before them upon his Hill and who had put his Troops in Battalia before his Tents upon the rising Grounds which lay on each Hand of him so that he seemed either resolved to charge the Confederate Army to drive them again out of the City or at least firmly to expect them in his advantageous Post if they should venture to attack him and however to prevent them from proceeding further But by the Cowardice of his men or possibly his own and the fear he was in to fall into the hands of the Princes wanting the Resolution of a Valiant man to conquer or to die nobly with his Sword in his Hand he did neither the one nor the other for the Greeks did no sooner see the Knights in their glittering Armour mount their charging Horses with the Visors of their Helmets down and the Lance in the rest begin to move to run against them having at the Head of them a brave Lord of great Stature whom their fear made them magnifie into a Giant but they instantly disbanded and with all the hast they could began to run and save themselves some out of the City by the Dorean Gate others in the Palace and in the Churches which they Barricadoed to defend themselves The Emperor at full Speed threw himself into the great Palace which had one Gate upon the Propontis and the greatest part of the Lords and Officers retrenched themselves in that Quarter and in the Palace of Blaquerness All the rest following that Example ran in a dreadful disorder through the Streets to gain their Houses the Victors still being at their Heels who in this first fury which was not easie to be stopped in the taking of a City by Assault overthrew and killed all that they could reach making a most horrible Slaughter among these miserable People and above all the Latins who had inhabited Constantinople made the most cruel carnage to revenge themselves for having been banished out of it upon the great Conflagration of that unfortunate City The Night which now came on apace favourably for the Greeks stopped the Current of this Fury a retreat was sounded and the Princes having rallied their men in an open Place distributed them into three Quarters and ordered them to fortifie themselves there not doubting but that they must have more fighting work to gain the rest of the City and that the Greeks would not fail to retrench themselves in so many advantageous Posts which they might very easily be able to defend as in our time we have known the People of Naples and the Spaniards retrench one against the other in divers Quarters of the Streets and in the Monasteries and to fight for several Months in one City as if it had been a great Province in which one is obliged to take several Cities and Forts to make a Conquest of the whole Thus the whole Army was posted near the Towers and the Wall which they had taken and which they were able to defend the Duke of Venice encamped close by the Walls to be near his Ships if any Attempt should in the Night be made against them The Earl of Flanders by a happy Presage lodged himself in the Imperial Tents which Murtzuphle had lest ready for him upon the Hill where he was posted during the Assault Prince Henry and the Earl of Blois his men lay upon his right and retrenched themselves before the Palace of Blaquerness and Marquis Boniface took his Lodgement to the left in a quarter lying more to the East where certain Soldiers fearing to be surprized by the Greeks set sire to some Houses that as they thought lay too near them and so occasioned a third sire which reduced the greatest part of that quarter of the City into Ashes As for the Earl of Blois he was not at the taking of the City being extremely ill that day with a sit of a terrible Quartane Ague which kept him in his Bed and hindred him from being at the Attack which was no small Affliction to him who was as desirous of being present there as he was stout and courageous being esteemed as he really was one of the most Brave and Valiant men of his time But all these Precautions of the Confederates were unnecessary for early the next morning being drawn up in Battalia and expecting to be incountred with at least a hundred thousand Enemies they were met with nothing but Processions which from all Quarters came before them bearing the Crosses year 1204 the Banners and Images of Saints to implore the Clemency of the Victors For while the Princes were in this manner retrenching themselves in their several Ports Murtzuphle who had ordered all things ready for his concealed Design issuing out of the Palace ran about the Streets and the Market Places animating the People to defend their Liberty against this Handful of Desperado's as he termed them who had now shut themselves into a Place from whence it was impossible for them to escape provided
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
Effect which they had in vain expected from the others This Man was called Master Olivier who had been the Scholemaster of the Church of Cologne a most famous Preacher and who after he had preached the Crusade by the Pope's Order in Germany Frieseland and Flanders resolved also to go along with them and afterwards came to be Bishop of Paderborn and Cardinal by the Title of St. Sabine It is to him that we are obliged for the Relation of this Siege beginning after the taking of the Tower of the Nile in which by his Invention he had so great a Share but withal so much Modesty as not to make any the least mention of it This Person then who was a man of a great Soul and mightily beloved especially by the Soldiers which came from Cologne with whom he took up the Cross caused this new Machin to be made with the Charity-money which he had collected for the Crusade He caused two great Ships to be tied together with strong Cables and Hawsers and that they might be the stronger he caused strong Piles of Timber which joyned the Ships together at the Heads and Sterns to be fastned with strong Clasps and Bolts of Iron and all along between the two Ships were laid strong Planks from the Hatches of one Ship to the other upon which the Men might pass conveniently and these also were strongly fastned to the Ship at each End which kept them close from moving one from another Upon these two Ships thus joyned firmly together four of the strongest Masts that could be found were planted and joyned together in a Square by four of the largest Yards which were fastned to the Masts almost at the top upon these Yards there lay Joysts fastned and over them Planks nailed down in the manner of a Platform upon this was erected a wooden Castle higher than the Tower of the Nile and this Castle was covered with raw Hides of Oxen and Camels to defend it from the Enemie's Fire below this Castle upon the Platform was fastned a great Ladder covered with Planks in form of a Draw-bridge which hung by Pullies ready to be let down upon the Walls of the Tower and this was so long that it extended several Yards over the Heads of the Ships below this Machin there were placed certain long Tables very thick and strong which were so fastned to the Prows that by the help of Ropes they might be heaved out to the Walls of the Tower and served as Bridges for the Miners who might be at Work below in Sapping whilest the other attacked them above This Work being finished and approved by the Captains who found it was a most proper and rational Invention for the Execution of such a difficult Design they resolved to make use of it and to make their utmost Effort to carry the Tower And the better to dispose and animate the Soldiers and to obtain the Protection of God for the Army the Patriarch Bishops and all the Clergy followed by the King Princes and Officers went barefoot in Procession to the place where the Cross was kept which according to custom was carried to this War After which Friday the Feast of the Apostle St. Bartholomew was appointed for the Day to begin the Assault and choice was made for that Service of Officers and Soldiers of all the Nations who were to be Conducted by the brave Leopold Duke of Austria and this was done to avoid Jealousies and that they might all be Sharers in the Glory of so great an Action The Day which with so much impatience was expected being come the Attack was made in this manner A great Ship well armed sailed up the Nile which was mightily swelled and went as it were to shew the Way to the great Machin which followed it filled on all Sides below upon the Platform and the Castle with those Valiant Men upon whom the Eyes of the whole Army were fastned as the dear Pawns of their Honor and the Fortune of the rest These proud of the glorious Choice which had been made of them to sustain such an illustrious Enterprise looked upon the Danger and the Tower with a generous Contempt and a certain fierce and menacing Joy which shewed the Resolution they had taken either to Perish or to Conquer standing in the View of the City year 1218 and the Army upon the Machin as upon the Theatre of their Glory The Clergy marched bare-footed in Procession upon the Bank at the Right Hand of the Assailants singing of Psalms and imploring the Aid of the God of Armies in favour of his Champions against the Enemies of his holy Name And the Infidels who were run all to their Towers and their Ramparts answered these Songs of Piety with fearful Howlings and horrible Blasphemies at the same time discharging from their Stone-Bows and Slings a dreadful Shower of Stones to break or stop this Machin which crossing this furious Tempest sailed directly to the North side of the Tower which lies to Seaward not being able by reason of the scantness of the Water to get these heavy Ships into the Western Chanal between the Tower and the Bank that lies against the Town All the which Army was placed partly upon the Decks of the Ships as they lay at Anchor and partly drawn up upon the rising Grounds nearest the Enemy stood there to encourage the Assailants and to be Spectators and Witnesses of the brave Actions which were to be performed in a Combat of so extraordinary a nature So soon as the Anchors were dropt on all sides of the great Machin to keep it immovable in the distance which was necessary for the lower Bridges and the great Ladder which hung upon the Platform to reach to the Walls of the Tower those who were in the Wooden Castle gave a most furious discharge of Darts and Arrows from that high place downward upon the Enemies who defended the Tower at the same time some fastned the Bridges to the Walls whilest others threw themselves upon them with a most Heroick Courage and without thinking of the Dangers which threatned them in such different manners some marched to the foot of the Tower to endeavour a Breach with the Force of Pick-Axes and other Instruments whilest those above ran with their Swords in their hands directly against the Sarasins who defended the Walls whilest at the same time all the Engines of the City played upon the Assailants and threw their Wild-fire by the long brazen Conduits from the Tower against the Castle the Platform and the Bridges which began every where to take sire but there being great Provision made of Sand and Vinegar the Infallible Cure of this evil otherwise irremediable it was soon extinguished in all places except the end of the Draw-Bridge Ladder which had like to have occasioned the loss of all in a Moment For the Soldiers running violently to put out the fire the Bridge had like to have been quite overthown by the Crowd that
was upon it insomuch that by its leaning all upon one side he who carried the Banner of the Duke of Austria was overthrown into the Nile and the Sarasins who were about him as he fell from the end of the Bridge snatched the Colours from him Thereupon the Barbarians gave a mighty Shout as it were to celebrate their Victory which they now held most certain The Patriarch who lay prostrate before the Cross and the Clergy round about it sent forth a greater to implore the Succour of Heaven and the Army which was upon the Hills and perceived this Fall fell upon the Ground humbling themselves before God and joyning their Tears and Prayers to those of the Patriarch and the Bishops they made all resound with their piteous Cries which pierced the Heavens from which they desired Mercy and Help Nor was it long before so many fervent Prayers obtained it the fire was presently extinguished the Bridge which hung all upon one side was set right and sixed and the Assailants without giving the Enemy the Leisure to make a new Attempt upon the Machin pressed up to the Walls and pushing forward with their Bucklers in one hand and charging with the Scimiter in the other they loaded the Sarasins with such heavy Blows with those and the Battle Axes and Iron Maces and pierced them with the Points of the half Pikes and Javelins so that they forced them to recoil then a brave Liegeois who was advanced foremost immediately leaped into the Tower and was at the same time seconded by a young Frieslander who throwing himself into the middle of the Sarasins with a flail the swipple of which was tied to the handle by little Chains and which he handled in such an admirable manner that whisking it round about with mighty Force Swiftness and without ceasing he so thrashed the Infidels breaking Skulls and Arms and in a few moments overthrowing all that came within the reach of his formidable Instrument against which year 1218 according to the Proverb There was no fence that the rest fled to the lower part of the Tower and left the upper part to the Conquerors who presently seized it and planted the Victorious Ensign of the Cross in their Standards upon its Battlements The Sarasins still made some resistance by setting fire to the planchards thereby to stop those who pursued them and the Victory but perceiving that during the Combat those below had opened a breach in the Wall and were now ready to enter at it they called for quarter and yielded themselves to the Duke of Austria who generously gave them their lives Besides those who were slain in this furious Assault which lasted from nine of the Clock in the morning till the next day at noon and those who in the Night endeavoured to make their escape by the Windows whereof some where drowned and others slain by those who in the Ship accompanied the Machin there were about one hundred who were taken in the Tower and made Slaves So soon as the Tower was taken the Christrians unlocked the Chain which shut up the great Chanal and all the Fleet had Liberty to enter and to attack the City upon the side of the Water The news of this loss touched Saphadin so nearly that in a few days after while he was making Preparation to come to the relief of Damiata he died of Grief in his Palace at Caire He was a Prince who yielded nothing to his Brother the great Saladin either in good or ill Qualities For if his ambition had made him usurp the Kingdoms of the East by the Murder of his Nephews as Saladin had seized upon that of Egypt by the Murder of the last Caliph he had also as much Courage Valour Address and good Fortune to maintain himself in them as had that great Conqueror who made himself Master of them and possessed them till his death He had also this advantage above him that during his life he divided his Empire among six of his Sons nine others which he had satisfying themselves without Jealousie with the Revenues which he assigned them for their subssistance they also rendred him continually a perfect Obedience and a respect approaching even to Adoration for this Prince who was extreme politick and throughly acquainted with the Genius of the Orientals born to Servitude maintained so great a Majesty that unless it were when he went to the Wars and that he appeared at the head of his Army and that in the greatest Pomp imaginable he was never seen in publick but six times in the Year and then with more terror than joy to his Subjects who durst not look upon him but in the Posture of prostration upon their Bellies with their Faces to the Earth He left Egypt and Grand Caire the Capital City of his Empire to Meledin his eldest Son with Soveraign Authority over all his Brothers who held their Dominions of him Coradin the second and he of his five other Sons who most resembled him both in Valour and Ambition Anger and Cruelty had the Realms of Palestine and Damascus and for the other Provinces of the Higher Asia they were divided among the other four of his Sons whom he made his Successors in his Dominions The new Sultan Meledin who was nothing so great a Soldier as his Father and who was of an humour sweet enough and pacifick for a Sarasin nevertheless did not fail with a great deal of Care to make the Preparations which Saphadin had begun for the relief of the besieged Coradin also his Brother the Sultan of Damascus with whom during this War he always acted by concert and who understood it far better than himself prepared on his side a puissant Army and demolished most of the Garrisons in Palestine and among the rest the Fortress of Thabor to reinforce those Garrisons which he still kept there As for the Christians they did not make that use of their Victory which they ought to have done in vigorously pressing the Siege but as if after this great Success they could not fail of Victory they suffered a great deal of time to slip away without enterprizing any new thing against the besieged taking unseasonably that repose which they ought to have deferred till after their Conquest There were also divers who by a base desertion contrary to their Vow reimbarked themselves to return into Europe notwithstanding all the Prohibitions which the Patriarch could make and all the threatnings of the Judgments of God by which he endeavoured tho to little purpose to stay them But they were not without Effect year 1218 and indeed a dismal event it was for them For six thousand of these Deserters who followed Hervey de Leon a Gentleman of the lower Bretany the death of whose Brother made him return into France to seize upon his Estate having been a long time tossed with a furious Tempest near the Coasts of Italy perished by a miserable Shipwrack in View of the very Port of Brindes not
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
an answer so little expected seemed to slight it and therefore presently put himself upon his March but at last when he saw these two great Bodies separated from the rest of the Army and that there was reason to fear that many others might be induced to follow their Example so that he should be in a manner wholly diserted by all except the Germans who always continued their Fidelity to him he made a great attempt upon himself and reserving his Vengeance for another time he consented that his Lieutenants should give out his Orders not in his Name but in the behalf of God and Christendom and thereupon the whole Army being reunited they continued their March to Jaffa where they fell to work upon the Fortifications which nevertheless were presently interrupted by the News which was received from Italy For whilest he did all these things directly contrary to the Pope's prohibitions which he despised and contemned Gregory who had been attacked in that time by his Lieutenants who spoiled the Lands of the Church had with the assistance of his Allies raised two good Armies which under the Conduct of King John de Brienne and the Counts de Celano and Aquila his Lieutenants year 1228 did not only drive the Imperialists out of the Marquisate of Ancona into which they had fallen but also pursued them into the Realm of Naples where after they had taken the strong place of St. German they made themselves Masters of all the others even to Capua And in the mean time the confederate Cities of Lombardy sollicited by the Cardinal of St. Martin who was sent Legate to Milan for that purpose declaring themselves for the Pope made War against the other Cities who were of the Emperor's Party And after this not only the Villages of these Provinces but the Families of the same City being divided into these two furious Factions which by an odd name the Original of which is very uncertain were called the Guelphes and the Gibelins the first of which held for the Pope and the other for the Emperor these two Factions did in all places an infinite of mischief silling the Cities and the Villages with Desolations Ruins Massacres and Fires this implacable hatred which they had entertained one against another arming them to their mutual destruction and to the commission of all the most barbarous Inhumanities and most detestable Crimes Such are generally the miserable Consequences of the differences of Princes in which those who take their part having neither their Intentions Sentiments nor Manners frequently run into those transports and excesses of Fury which bring neither Reputation nor Advantage to the Cause which they support and which those Princes are so far from esteeming acceptable Services that they are the first in condemning such false Zeal and horrible brutality year 1229 This news of the Progress of the Pope's Army was such a surprise to Frederick and affrightned him so much that to expedite his return he was resolved to comply with the Sultan almost at any rate and therefore sending Count Thomas with one of his Secretaries to him they concluded a Truce for ten Years upon these conditions That the Sultan should yield the City of Jerusalem to Frederick together with the Cities of Bethlehem Nazareth Thoron and Sajeta or Sidon and the Villages which are directly upon the Road between Jerusalem and Jaffa That it should be lawful for the Christians to fortifie these places and to rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem of which the Emperor might dispose as he pleased excepting only the Temple with its appendages which was to be reserved to the Sarasins with liberty there to perform all the Exercises of their Law That the City of Tripolis the Principality of Antioch and the other places which did not appertain to the Kingdom of Jerusalem should not be comprised in this Treaty and that the Emperor should not permit the Christians to assist them This Treaty was mutually signed between them in the Month of February and though the Patriarch who did not approve of it nor would have any Commerce with the Emperor did not only refuse to perform the Ceremonies of his Coronation but had also interdicted all the Churches of Jerusalem if he should attempt to go thither yet he did nevertheless make his Publick Entry there as it were in Triumph upon the seventeenth day of March followed by his whole Army all the Prohibitions of the Patriarch being not able to hinder him from visiting the Holy Sepulchre The next day which was the third Sunday in Lent he went cloathed in his Imperial Habit with abundance of Pomp and Majesty to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where after having said his private Devotions there being not found any one who by reason of the interdict durst attempt to celebrate the Divine Mysteries he caused a Crown of Gold to be placed upon the great Altar and without troubling himself about the Ceremonies which the Church is wont to observe in the Coronation of Kings he went himself up to the Altar and taking the Crown he placed it upon his Head and with his own hands crowned himself King of Jerusalem with the mighty Acclamations of the Germans and the Knights of the Teutonick Order who highly approved of this Action as well as the Treaty which the Emperor had made At the same time he writ to the Pope and to all Christian Kings and Princes Letters by which he invited them in most Pompous and Magnisicent Termes to render solemn thanks unto Almighty God who had in this manner by a miraculous Effect of his Power happily finished this Enterprise without Effusion of Christian Blood and almost without Forces which so many great Princes had not been able to execute with the most potent Armies and after so many cruel Battles which had been fought to oblige the Infidels to restore to the Christians the Holy City year 1229 with the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ for which so many Crusades had been made and in Conclusion he made a Relation of all the Advantages which he pretended were to be drawn from this Treaty But on the other part the Patriarch writ to the Pope and to all Christian People long Letters in which he complains bitterly of Frederick whom he treats in such a manner as at the least one must say is very injurious there he indeavours to lay open the Shame the Dishonour and Illusion of the Treaty by which he maintains that Frederick hath betrayed Christianity First because it is most shameful to have the Sarasins share the Holy City with the Christians Secondly because the Sultan of Damascus having never given his consent to the Agreement the Treaty signified just nothing and in short that all those places which were in shew yielded to the Emperor were in reallity as much the Sarasins as they were before since he returned into Europe without fortifying any one of them And in truth Frederick who took no care now but to reimbark himself and to
return into Italy as soon as was possible to recover the places which the Pope's Army had taken in his Dominions there left all things in Palestine in the same condition wherein he had found them not giving himself the trouble to build either the Walls of Jerusalem or any other of those Cities which were yielded to him by the Treaty insomuch that the Sarasins who were much the stronger in the Country especially after his departure were as much Masters as they had been before the Treaty which Established the Affairs of the Christians in nothing but appearance But the Emperor who believed he had reason to charge the Pope as the Cause of all those Mischiefs which might follow upon his hasty departure was not at all concerned at it but after having treated the Patriarch and the Templers very contemptuously at Acre he commanded all his Soldiers to follow him alledging there was no necessity for their stay in Palestine during the Treaty and therefore upon the first day of May he departed with two Gallies only and in a few dayes arrived in the Kingdom of Naples where in a little time he recovered all the places which had been taken from him during his absence year 1230 and the Year following by the Mediation of Herman de Saltza great Master of the Teutonick Order and divers other Princes and Prelates of Germany he made his peace with the Pope who received him at Anagnia with all manner of Honours and Marks of Affection giving him Absolution and restoring him to all his Rights Thus the differences of Princes the most highly exasperated one against the other may by a Treaty of a few days come to be determined but many Ages ofttimes will not suffice to repair the Evils which they have produced in the World year 1232 In this time Meledin who was come to a Rupture with his Nephew whom he had driven out of Damascus fearing that during the War which he made with him there should be some new Crusade formed in the West sent his Ambassadors to Frederick to renew the Amity which they had contracted and presented him among other precious Rarities of the East a most Magnificent Tent which was valued at above one hundred thousand Crowns in which surpassing all that ever was written of the Magnificence of the Ancient Kings of Persia the Heavens were so perfectly represented that this admirable Pavilion look'd like the true and natural Skie in it were to be seen the shining Globes of the Sun and Moon which by secret Movements turning like those glorious Luminaries by the Skill of Art kept exactly the same measures in their Regular Motions which Nature hath prescribed to those two beautiful Planets insomuch that by this well governed Motion all the Hours of the Day and Night were as well to be known by the Artificial Course of these two Globes within the Tent as by a Dial or Exact Quadrant from the natural Motions of the Sun and Moon It is said also that these Ambassadors addressed themselves to the Pope to desire peace with him but that he dismissed them without an Audience in regard that he would not have any Commerce with Infidels and that he still continued in the Design of pursuing the Crusade year 1233 And indeed as soon as the Troubles of Italy were quieted at least for a time by the fervent Preachings of the Religious of the Orders of St. Dominick and St. Francis whom the Pope sent into all the Cities to compose the Minds of men to peace he called a great Assembly of Prelates to Spoleta year 1234 at which the Emperor himself assisted together with the Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch and Jerusalem whom Gregory had caused to come thither to deliberate with them upon the Affairs of the East There it was resolved That so soon as the Truce was expired the War should be renewed in Palestine and that in the interim Theoderick Archbishop of Ravenna should be sent into Palestine in quality of Legate with Letters from the Pope to all the Prelates and from the Emperor to all his Officers by which they should be injoyned to obey him year 1235 And in short that the Pope should write to all the Princes and should send Preachers to all places to exhort all faithful Christians to take upon them the Cross and to give notice to such as had already taken it to hold themselves ready for the Voyage within four Years which was exactly the time when the Truce expired this did not fail to produce the same Effects which had been seen in the other Crusades for the Devotion of that Holy Voyage being the thing in Vogue in those times there were always a multitude of People of all Ranks and Conditions who either then took the Cross or having taken it before resolved with the first opportunity to accomplish their Vow He who upon this occasion shewed the most Zeal and Fervour and whom all the rest were obliged to look upon as their Chieftain was the King of Navarr This Prince was the famous Theobald the Fifth of the Name Count de Champagne and Brie who renouncing the League which the Princes had made against the Regency of Queen Blanche and discovering the Ambushes which they had laid for the Surprisal of the young King her Son thereby rendred a most signal Service to France and to St. Lewis who reciprocally also defended him against all the Forces of the Princes of the League who had turned their Arms and all their Rage against him for having advertised the King of this Treason which was hatched against him He was the Posthumous Son of that brave Theobald the Fourth who died in his preparations for the Crusade of which he was the Chief and of Blanche de Navarr Sister of Sancho the strong the last of the Male Descendants of Garcias Ximenes who had reigned five Years in Navarr and therefore according to the Custom of the Laws of Spain where in default of Males the Crown descends to the Daughters this Count Theobald was in right of his deceased Mother proclaimed King of Navarr at Pampelona in the Month of May 1224. He was then about the Age of three and thirty Years a goodly Prince of an Excellent Mind and most Noble Inclinations extreamly addicted to the Catholick Religion which he took great care to preserve free from Heresies in his Dominions above all he was liberal and magnificent Vertues which he enjoyed as it were by Succession from the Counts de Campagne his Ancestors who possessed these Royal Vertues in such a degree of perfection as distinguished them from all the other Princes of their time he was besides of an humour sweet and pleasant a Mind extream quick and polite and which he had diligently cultivated and improved by all manner of gentile Learning and particularly Poetry in which he had made himself an able Master as appears by certain Copies of Verses which he made after he had left the Court of France to which
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
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
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