Tyre is most conspicuously associated with great names; next to having
had the glory of checking the career of Alexander for seven months, it
may reckon that of having successfully resisted the greatest Saracen
general that, perhaps, ever lived.
Whilst a new crusade was being earnestly preached in Europe, Saladin
was following up the course of his victories in Palestine. The battle
of Tiberias and the capture of Jerusalem had spread so great a terror,
that the inhabitants of the Holy Land were persuaded the army of the
Saracens could not be resisted. Amidst general consternation, a single
city, that of Tyre, defied all the united forces of the East. Saladin
had twice gathered together his fleets and his armies to attack a place
of which he so ardently desired the conquest. But all the inhabitants
had sworn rather to die than surrender to the Mussulmans; which
generous determination was the work of Conrad, who had just arrived in
that place, and whom Heaven seemed to have sent to save it.
Conrad, son of the marquis of Montferrat, bore a name celebrated in the
West, and the fame of his exploits had preceded him into Asia. In his
early youth he had distinguished himself in the war of the Holy See
against the emperor of Germany. A passion for glory and a thirst for
adventures afterwards led him to Constantinople, where he quelled a
sedition which threatened the imperial throne, and, with his own hand,
killed the leader of the rebels on the field of battle. The sister of
Izaac Angelus and the title of Cæsar were the rewards of his courage
and his services; but his restless character would not allow him to
enjoy his good fortune in quiet. Amidst peaceful grandeur, roused all
at once by the fame of the holy war, he stole away from the tenderness
of a bride and the gratitude of an emperor, to fly into Palestine.
Conrad landed on the shores of Phœnicia a few days after the battle
of Tiberias. Before his arrival, the city of Tyre had named deputies
to demand a capitulation of Saladin; his presence revived the general
courage, and changed the aspect of affairs. He caused himself to be
appointed commander of the city, he widened the ditches, repaired the
fortifications; and the inhabitants of Tyre, attacked by sea and land,
become all at once invincible warriors, learnt, under his orders, how
to repel the fleets and armies of the Saracens.
The old marquis of Montferrat, the father of Conrad, who, for the sake
of visiting the Holy Land, had left his peaceful states, was at the
battle of Tiberias. Made prisoner by the Mussulmans, he awaited, in the
prisons of Damascus, the time when his children would deliver him or
purchase his liberty.
Saladin sent for him to his army, and promised the brave Conrad to
restore his father to him, and give him rich possessions in Syria,
if he would open the gates of Tyre. He at the same time threatened
to place the old marquis de Montferrat in the front of the ranks of
the Saracens, and expose him to the arrows of the besieged. Conrad
replied with haughtiness, that he despised the presents of infidels,
and that the life of his father was less dear to him than the cause of
the Christians. He added that nothing should impede his endeavours,
and that if the Saracens were barbarous enough to put to death an old
man who had surrendered on his parole of honour, he should think it
a glory to be descended from a martyr. After this reply the Saracens
recommenced their assaults, and the Tyrians defended themselves with
firmness and courage. The Hospitallers, the Templars, and most of
the bravest warriors left in Palestine, hastened within the walls
of Tyre, to share in the honour of so great a defence. Among the
Franks who distinguished themselves by their valour, was a Spanish
gentleman, known in history by the name of “_The Green Knight_,” from
the colour of his armour. He alone, say the old chroniclers, repulsed
and dispersed whole battalions; he fought several single combats,
overthrowing the most intrepid of the Mussulmans, and made the Saracens
wonder at and admire his bravery and skill in arms.
There was not a citizen in the place who would not fight; the children,
even, were so many soldiers; the women animated the men by their
presence and by their words. Upon the waters, at the foot of the
ramparts, fresh combats were continually taking place. In all parts the
Saracens met with the same Christian heroes who had so often made them
tremble.
Despairing of taking the city of Tyre, Saladin resolved to raise the
siege, in order to attack Tripoli, and was not more fortunate in that
expedition. William, king of Sicily, being informed of the misfortunes
of Palestine, had sent succours to the Christians. The great Admiral
Margarit, whose talents and victories had obtained for him the name of
the King of the Sea and the New Neptune, arrived on the coast of Syria
with sixty galleys, three hundred horse and five hundred foot-soldiers.
The Sicilian warriors flew to the defence of Tripoli, and, led on by
the Green Knight, who had so distinguished himself at Tyre, forced
Saladin to abandon his enterprise.
Thus was Saladin foiled; but the fate of Tyre was only deferred:
towards the end of the Crusades, which European passions and interests
had made abortive, the Sultan Chalil, after taking and destroying
Ptolemaïs, sent one of his emirs with a body of troops to take
possession of Tyre; and that city, seized with terror, opened its gates
without resistance. The conquerors likewise possessed themselves of
Berytus, Sidon, and all the other Christian cities along the coast.
These cities, which had not afforded the least succour to Ptolemaïs
in the last great struggle, and which believed themselves protected
by a truce, beheld their population massacred, dispersed, or led into
slavery; the fury of the Mussulmans extended even to the stones; they
seemed to wish to destroy the very earth which the Christians had trod
upon; their houses, their temples, the monuments of their piety, their
valour, their industry,--everything was condemned to perish with them
by the sword or by fire.
Such was the character of the wars miscalled Holy; and the impartial
student of history is forced to confess, that in all that degrades
humanity, such as cruelty, cupidity, ambition, and false glory, the
Crusaders at least kept pace with the Mahometans; in bad faith, with
regard to treaties, truces, and pledged honour, the Christians by far
exceeded the Mussulmans.