_Pestilence in Antioch--Death of the Bishop of Puy--The Chiefs
separate--Siege of Marrah--Cannibalism--Disputes between the Count of
Toulouse and Boemond--The Count marches towards Jerusalem--Siege of
Archas--Godfrey of Bouillon marches--Siege of Ghibel--Treachery of
Raimond--Fraud of the Holy Lance investigated--Ordeal of Fire--Decisive
Conduct of the Crusaders towards the Deputies of Alexius, and the Calif of
Egypt--Conduct of the Crusaders towards the Emir of Tripoli--First Sight
of Jerusalem--Siege and taking of the City--Fanatical Massacres._
The crusaders[413] in Antioch had reason to regret they had not at once
marched onward. A pestilence began to spread in the city, and multitudes
were buried every day. Among the first was the venerable Bishop of
Puy,[414] whose high qualities of mind and excellent character as a priest
had given much dignity and strength to the enterprise. Many celebrated
knights also fell victims to this plague; and all the dissensions[415] and
crimes that indolence acting on semi-barbarians can produce, begin to
spring up within the walls of Antioch. To effect some change, the chiefs
agreed to separate, and to canton their men in the countries round about.
Boemond proceeded to reduce all Cilicia to obedience, and carried on a
desultory but successful warfare against the Turks. Godfrey[416] led his
men to the assistance of the emir of Hezas, who solicited his aid against
the sultaun of Aleppo. Being joined by Baldwin, and by some auxiliary
forces from Antioch, Godfrey succeeded in delivering the emir, who was
besieged in his fortress by the sultaun. Hezas was then placed by the
prince under the protection of his new allies, whom he found somewhat
exacting in their friendship. The plague still raging in Antioch, Godfrey
turned his steps towards Edessa, the principality of his brother Baldwin,
to whom he was now fully reconciled. After a short repose at
Turbessel,[417] he engaged in the wars which his brother was carrying on
against the Turks, whose dominions surrounded Edessa, and also punished
Pancrates for the rapine which he had for some time exercised with
impunity against all parties. The other princes in various bodies carried
on the same separate hostilities against the Saracens, and many towns were
added to the Christian dominions.
The time fixed for the march of the general army at length arrived; but,
whether from a taste for the desultory sort of warfare to which they had
now habituated themselves, or from the hope of still receiving some aid
from Europe, the crusaders tarried on their way, and laid siege to
Marrah.[418] The Moslems made a brave resistance, and the Latins having,
with their wonted improvidence, begun the siege without any supplies
whatever, were soon again reduced to famine and the most horrible
cannibalism.[419] At length Marrah was taken by storm on the arrival of
Boemond and his forces. The slaughter was terrible, and a repetition of
all the scenes on the taking of Antioch was here enacted with many
circumstances of aggravation. New disputes now arose between Boemond and
the Count of Toulouse, upon the possession of Marrah; the Prince of
Tarentum refusing to give up the portion of the city he had conquered,
till Raimond should yield the towers which he still held in Antioch.[420]
Days and weeks passed in these unworthy contests, other chiefs attempting
in vain to reconcile the two ambitious princes. At length the people,
indignant at the conduct of their leaders, broke out into revolt, and
destroyed the fortifications of Marrah, in spite of all that could be done
to prevent them,[421] vowing that it, at least, should not be a new cause
of delay. They declared also that they would choose a chief for
themselves, who should conduct them to Jerusalem. This, of course,
compelled the leaders of the army to begin their march, but it in no
degree produced a reconciliation, and Raimond of Toulouse,[422] with
Robert of Normandy and Tancred, proceeded on their way to Jerusalem,
leaving the rest of the princes to follow as they might. Town after town
submitted to Raimond; but Archas proved a stumblingblock to his glory, and
resisted the efforts of all the force he could bring against it. The
Saracen emirs of the neighbouring country, however, whether from fear of
the Christians, or from misunderstandings among themselves, no longer
pursued the firm and destructive plan formerly adopted of desolating the
land before the steps of the invaders. The army of the Cross found
provisions in plenty, and many of the towns which it approached bought
immunity from attack, at the price of large presents to the
crusaders.[423]
Soon after the departure of Raimond, Godfrey of Bouillon, Robert of
Flanders, Boemond, and the other leaders marched out of Antioch, and
directed their course towards Laodicea, where Boemond[424] again quitted
them, and returned to his new principality, leaving a great part of his
troops to aid his brethren. As some compensation for this desertion, the
host of the crusade was joined by a considerable body of English who had
sailed round Spain; and, entering the Mediterranean by Gibraltar, had
touched first at St. Simeon, and then proceeded to Laodicea--a wonderful
undertaking, indeed, as Raimond d'Agiles observes, considering the state
of the art of navigation in that day. From Laodicea, Godfrey, marching
along the coast, turned his arms against Ghibel, or Gabala, whither he was
accompanied by the ships of the band of pirates whom we have seen serving
under Baldwin; and who, having fallen into the hands of the Greeks of
Laodicea, had been kept in strict imprisonment till the arrival of the
crusaders. The emir of Ghibel attempted, by the offer of large bribes, to
divert the forces of the Cross from the attack of his city, but his
proposals were met with contempt by Godfrey and the chiefs who accompanied
him; and the infidel commander, in consequence, sent messengers to Raimond
of Toulouse[425] (then besieging Archas), whose disinterestedness was
reported to be of a different quality. Raimond, always fond of gold,
caught at the bait held out, and immediately agreed to draw his
fellow-crusaders from Ghibel by artifice. He lost no time, therefore, in
sending word to Godfrey, that an immense body of Saracens was marching
down against his Provençals under the walls of Archas. This tale of course
caused Godfrey[426] to raise the siege of Ghibel, and hasten to the
assistance of his comrade. On his arrival, however, Tancred, and the other
knights of Raimond's army, undeceived the duke of Loraine, who, indignant
at the treachery of the Count of Toulouse, renounced all
communication[427] with him, and withdrew his men to the distance of two
miles, resolving to give him no aid in the siege of Archas. Tancred, at
the same time, disgusted with the avarice of the count, who withheld from
him the recompense he had promised for his services, retired with the
forty[428] lances that accompanied him, and joined himself to Godfrey. New
disputes of every kind arose among the leaders, and as Raimond of Toulouse
affected a sort of spiritual superiority, as guardian of the holy lance
that had been discovered at Antioch, its virtues and authenticity were
manfully denied. Peter Barthelmy, who had found it, had vision after
vision, till his commerce with heaven drew so heavily on belief, that men,
even the most superstitious, yielded him no further credit. The business
was investigated, and Barthelmy brought before a sort of council of
inquiry, where he maintained his position, supported by the Count of
Toulouse and his chaplain, our worthy chronicler, Raimond d'Agiles, who,
fully convinced of the truth of the miracle, unhappily proposed that his
_protégé_ should prove his virtue by the fiery ordeal.[429] This was
agreed to; fasts and prayers succeeded: Peter walked through the fire with
the lance in his hand, got frightened, stopped in the middle, and was
burned to death.[430] Some still believed; and, declaring that their
martyr had been pressed to death by the crowd,[431] held to their
credulity the more eagerly, because it was unsupported by any thing like
reason.
The fame of the Count of Toulouse suffered as much by the affair of the
lance as by his deceit in respect to Ghibel; and the crusaders, wearied
with the delay before Archas, determined to raise the siege and proceed to
Jerusalem. In the mean while, the emir[432] of Tripoli,[433] finding that
the Christians were about to traverse his country, sent messengers to the
leaders, begging them to spare his towns and fields, and offering abundant
supplies, together with several rich presents. These proffers were so
favourably received that the emir even visited the camp of Godfrey
himself, and concluded a treaty which was inviolably adhered to on both
sides.
At the same time[434] the deputies who had been despatched to the calif of
Egypt returned, with very unfavourable accounts of their entertainment.
The Saracen monarch still offered to join his arms to those of the
Christians, for the purpose of subduing Palestine; but it was evident that
he proposed to enjoy the fruits of victory without participation. His
envoys, and the presents which they bore, were sent back with scorn,[435]
the crusaders declaring that they would conquer Jerusalem with the sword
of Christ, and keep it with the same. Ambassadors from Alexius were
received also under the walls of Archas; and by their lips the perfidious
emperor dared to remonstrate against the cession of Antioch to Boemond,
who by this time had expelled the troops of Raimond of Toulouse,[436] and
was in full possession of the town.
The reply given to these messengers was not less haughty than that which
had been sent to the calif.[437] The emperor, the crusaders said, had
broken his most sacred oaths; he had neglected to succour them when
succour was needful; he had betrayed the cause of Christ, and violated his
covenant with them. They could not, therefore, be bound by an engagement
which he had not found binding on him; and they would neither stay for his
coming, as he desired, nor would they yield him what they had conquered
with their own hands.
These measures of decision having been taken, Godfrey and his companions
set fire to their camp, and quitted the siege of Archas: many of the
Provençals abandoned Raimond, and hastened after the rest; and the count
himself,[438] though unwillingly, was obliged to follow. The noble
sincerity and moderation of the crusaders in their conduct to the emir of
Tripoli has not been dwelt upon sufficiently by those authors who have
lost no opportunity of pointing out their cruelties and excesses. They
entered a rich and beautiful country, where spoil of every kind lay around
them. The inhabitants were infidels, and had been enemies: but the host of
the crusade passed through the whole without the slightest violation of
their treaty.[439] To prevent even casual injury, they encamped at a
distance from the towns, waited for the supplies that had been promised
them, and followed, with confidence and regularity, the guide who was
appointed to conduct them through the land.[440] When at war, the
crusaders waged it with all the barbarity of the age--the slaughter of the
infidel adversary was a virtue praised by historians, and sung by poets,
and mercy would have been held a weakness: but with those to whom they had
bound themselves in peace, we seldom find that, _as a body_, they violated
the most chivalric adherence to their promises.
In the neighbourhood of Tripoli, the Europeans first beheld the
sugar-cane,[441] and learned the method of preparing the valuable juice
which has since been such an article of commerce in Europe.
So great was the reliance between the people of Tripoli and the crusaders,
that they mutually frequented the camp[442] and the city during the stay
of the army. The emir also delivered from the chains in which they had
long remained, three hundred Christian pilgrims; and, according to some
authorities, promised to embrace the faith of his new allies,[443] in case
they were ultimately successful. At the end of three days, the host of the
Cross was once more in motion; and passing by Sidon, Acre, Ramula, and
Emmaus, approached the city of Jerusalem.[444] At Emmaus, deputies arrived
from the Christians of Bethlehem, praying for immediate aid against their
infidel oppressors. Tancred was[445] in consequence sent forward with a
hundred lances; but the tidings of a deputation from Bethlehem spread new
and strange sensations through the bosoms of the crusaders. That word
Bethlehem, repeated through the camp, called up so many ideas connected
with that sweet religion, which, however perverted, was still the
thrilling faith of every heart around. The thoughts of their proximity to
the Saviour's[446] birthplace, banished sleep from every eyelid; and
before midnight was well past, the whole host was on foot towards
Jerusalem. It was a lovely morning, we are told, in the summer time; and
after they had wandered on for some time in the darkness, the sun rushed
into the sky with the glorious suddenness of eastern dawn, and Jerusalem
lay before their eyes.
The remembrance[447] of all that that mighty city had beheld; the
enthusiasm of faith; the memory of dangers, and ills, and fatigues, and
privations, endured and conquered; the fulfilment of hope; the
gratification of long desire; the end of fear and doubt; combined in every
bosom to call up the sublime of joy. The name was echoed by a thousand
tongues--Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Some shouted to the sky;[448] some knelt
and prayed; some wept in silence; and some cast themselves down and kissed
the blessed earth. "All had much ado," says Fuller, with his emphatic
plainness, "to manage so great a gladness."[449]
To rejoicing, at the sight of the Holy City, succeeded wrath, at seeing it
in the hands of the infidels. The army marched forward in haste, drove in
some parties of Saracens, who had vauntingly come forth from the gates;
and Jerusalem was invested on all sides. Some of the people, indeed,
approached barefoot, in deep humiliation, and in remembrance[450] of the
sufferings of Him who had purchased salvation to a world by agony and
death; but the greater part of the soldiers advanced with purposes of
wrath, and took up their various warlike positions round about the town.
The attack was begun almost immediately after the first preparations; and
Godfrey of Bouillon, Tancred, the Duke of Normandy, and Robert of
Flanders, by a vigorous effort, carried the barbicans, and reached the
wall.[451] A portion of this, also, was thrown down with axes and picks;
and several knights, mounting by ladders[452] to the top of the
battlements, under a hail of arrows and Greek fire, fought for some time
hand to hand with the Turks.
At length, after many had fallen on both sides, it became evident to the
leaders that nothing could be effected without the usual machines, and the
assault was suspended.
All the energies of the host were now employed in constructing implements
of war. Timber was procured from Sichon:[453] some Genoese seamen, having
arrived at Jaffa, were pressed by the crusaders into the service of the
Cross, and by their mechanical skill greatly facilitated the construction
of the engines required.
Catapults, mangonels,[454] and large moveable towers were prepared, as in
the siege of Nice; and to these was added a machine called the sow, formed
of wood, and covered with raw hides to protect it from fire, under cover
of which soldiers were employed in undermining the walls.[455] During the
fabrication of these implements, a dreadful drought pervaded the army; and
all the wells in the circumjacent country having been filled up by the
Turks, the only water that reached the camp was brought from far, and paid
for as if each drop had been gold. The soldiers, unable to procure it,
wandered away in the search, or watched[456] the morning dew, and licked
the very stones for moisture. Vice and immorality again grew prevalent,
and superstition was obliged to be called, in aid of virtue.
From forty to sixty thousand men were all that remained of multitudes; and
it became obvious to the leaders that dissensions could no longer exist
without hazarding their destruction. Tancred,[457] the first in every
noble act, set the example of conciliation, and embraced his foe Raimond
of Toulouse, in the sight of the whole army. An expiatory[458] procession
was made by the chiefs, the soldiers, and the clergy, round the city of
Jerusalem; and prayers were offered up on each holy place in the
neighbourhood for success in this last field. The Turks, on their part,
forgetting the desperate valour which the crusaders had displayed on every
occasion, beheld these ceremonies with contempt; and raising up the image
of the Cross upon the walls, mocked the procession of the Christians, and
threw dirt at the symbol of their faith. The wrath of the crusaders was
raised to the uttermost, and the sacrilegious insult[459] was remembered
to be atoned in blood.
The engines were at last completed, and the attack once more begun. The
towers[460] were rolled on to the walls, the battering-rams were plied
incessantly, the sow was pushed on to the foundations; and while the
Saracens poured forth fire[461] and arrows upon the besiegers, the
crusaders waged the warfare with equal courage from their machines. Thus
passed the whole day in one of the most tremendous fights that the host
of the Cross had ever sustained. Night fell, and the city was not taken.
The walls of the town were much injured, as well as the engines used by
the assailants; but by the next morning both had been repaired, and the
assault recommenced, and was received with equal ardour.[462] The leaders
of the Christian army occupied the higher stages of their moveable towers,
and Godfrey of Bouillon himself,[463] armed with a bow, was seen directing
his shafts against all who appeared upon the walls. Such soldiers as the
machines could not contain were ranged opposite the walls, urging the
battering-rams, plying the mangonels, and, by flights of arrows, covering
the attack from the towers. The enthusiasm was great and general; the old,
the sick, and the feeble lent what weak aid they could, in bringing
forward the missiles and other implements of war, while the women
encouraged the warriors to daring, both by words and their example; and
hurried through the ranks, bearing water to assuage the thirst of toil and
excitement. Still the Saracens resisted with desperate valour. For their
homes and for their hearths they fought; and so courageously, that when
more than half the day was spent, the host of the crusade was still
repulsed in all quarters. At that moment a soldier was suddenly seen on
Mount Olivet, waving on the crusaders to follow.[464] How he had
penetrated does not appear, or whether he was not the mere creature of
fancy. The idea, at all events, instantly raised the fainting hopes of the
Christians. Immense and almost supernatural efforts were made in every
quarter; the tower of Godfrey of Bouillon was rolled up till it touched
the wall; the moveable bridge was let down, and a knight called
Lutold[465] sprang upon the battlements--his brother followed--another
and another came to his support.--Godfrey, Baldwin de Bourg, and Eustace
de Bouillon rushed in; and the banner of the Cross announced to the
anxious eyes of the army that Christians stood upon the battlements of
Jerusalem.[466] Tancred and Robert of Normandy burst open one of the
gates, while Raimond of Toulouse, almost at the same instant,[467] forced
his way into another part of the city by escalade. The Turks fought[468]
for a time in the streets, but then fled to the mosques, and were in every
direction massacred by thousands. It is dreadful to read of the blood
which on that awful day washed the pavements of Jerusalem. The courts of
the mosque of Omar floated in gore, and scarcely the most remote and
obscure corners of the city gave shelter to an infidel head. The
soldiers[469] remembered the impious mockeries with which the Turks had
insulted the Cross, and the leaders believed that they were doing God good
service in exterminating the blasphemous strangers who had polluted the
holy places of Jerusalem, persecuted and butchered the unhappy Christians
of Judea, and desecrated the altars of God. To have spared them or their
accursed race would have been considered impious: and Godfrey himself not
only encouraged the slaughter, but aided with his own hand.
An immense number of Saracens had betaken themselves to the temple of
Soliman, as it was called,[470] and there had prepared to defend
themselves to the last; but the pursuers were too strong to be resisted,
and nearly ten thousand men are said to have fallen in that building.
Those even who had climbed to the roof were sought out the next day,[471]
and several, to avoid the sword, cast themselves down and were dashed to
pieces.
Some authors mention a second massacre,[472] and greatly exaggerate the
butchery that was perpetrated. In regard to this second massacre, there is
much historical evidence to show that no such event took place; and I
would fain believe that it was not the case. It cannot, however, be
denied, that the most humane of the Christian leaders in that age were
taught to look upon all mercy to the infidels as an injury to religion;
and it is beyond doubt, that after the general slaughter committed on the
capture of Jerusalem, Godfrey de Bouillon,[473] with the other leaders and
soldiers, washed away the marks of gore, cast off their armour, assumed
the robe of penitents, and, going to the holy sepulchre, offered up their
prayers to the mild Teacher of our beautiful religion, convinced that they
had accomplished a great and glorious work, and consummated an acceptable
sacrifice in the blood of the infidels.
Such was the doctrine which, in that day, men were taught from their
cradles: such the strange interpretation put upon the Gospel of Peace.