Four years after, this prince again laid siege to Edessa, and attacked
it vigorously. But the besieged made a sortie, in which, it is said,
an officer named Arget killed, with his own hand, twenty-seven of
the enemy, and in which Chosroës was repulsed. He then commenced,
out of reach of the city missiles, a platform, with the purpose of
carrying it up to the walls. The sight of this terrible work induced
the inhabitants to have recourse to prayer. The physician Stephen
endeavoured to bend the haughty monarch: “Great lord,” said he,
“humanity marks the character of good kings. Victories and conquests
will procure you other titles, but kindnesses alone will secure you
the name dearest to your own age, and most honourable in the eyes of
posterity. If there is a city in the world which ought to experience
the effects of that kindness, it is that which you now threaten to
destroy. Edessa gave me birth. I restored life to your father; I
preserved and watched over your infancy. Alas! when I advised the
immortal Cavadez to place you on his throne, and to deprive your
brothers of it, I was then preparing the ruin of my own country!
Blind mortals, we are often the artisans of our own misfortunes!
If you remember my services, I ask of you a recompense which will
be not less advantageous to you than to my compatriots. By leaving
them their lives, you spare yourself the reproach of cruelty.” This
well-timed and pathetic discourse produced very little effect upon
Chosroës; he made such hard propositions, that the besieged fell back
upon their courage and their resources. They destroyed the point of
the terrace, by digging a chamber under it, and filling it with the
most combustible wood, steeped in oil of cedar, sulphur, and bitumen;
fire was easily set to this, and the following night, columns of fire
were seen bursting from different parts of the platform. At the same
time, the Romans, the better to deceive the enemy, threw upon it a
number of fire-pots and ignited torches. The Persians, not suspecting
there was any other cause for the fire, came in crowds from their camp
to extinguish it, and were received with showers of missiles from
the walls. Chosroës himself came to the scene of action, and was the
first to discover that the conflagration was in the entrails of his
platform. He ordered the whole army to throw earth upon the top, to
stifle the flames, and water to extinguish them; but all in vain: when
vent was stopped at one place, a hundred more passages were opened in
others, the water thrown upon the sulphur and bitumen augmenting the
violence of the burning. In the midst of the confusion, the garrison
made a happy and vigorous sortie, producing great slaughter among the
Persians. At length the flames burst from all parts, and the work was
abandoned.
Six days after, Chosroës ordered the walls to be scaled, early in the
morning; but, after a severe contest, the Persians were repulsed, and
obliged to abandon their ladders, which were drawn up over the walls by
the besieged, amidst triumphant laughter. On the same day at noon, the
Persians attacked one of the gates; but the garrison, the peasants who
had retired to the city, with the inhabitants, made a sortie from the
gate attacked, and again repulsed their enemies. At length, the king
of Persia, enraged at this noble resistance, resolved upon a general
assault. The citizens crowded to defend their walls; every human being
in Edessa became a soldier; women, children, and old men, were all
eager to share the labours of the combatants, or to furnish them with
arms and refreshments. The Persians gave way; Chosroës forced them back
to the walls with threats and blows; but, notwithstanding his efforts,
they yielded to the brave efforts of the besieged. Foaming with
vexation and rage, Chosroës regained his camp, and soon after returned
to his own states. During this furious attack, an immense elephant,
bearing upon his back a lofty tower, filled with archers, advanced
towards the wall like a terrible machine, from the top of which poured
a continuous shower of darts and arrows. There was great chance of the
wall being escaladed at this spot, when a Roman soldier took it into
his head to suspend a pig by a cord, and dangle it before the elephant.
This animal appeared amazed at the horrible noise made by the suspended
pig; he at first looked at it earnestly, and then, turning his back,
retreated in such haste as to place his master’s troops in danger.