counts; but a French baron (he is supposed to be Robert of Paris )
presumed to ascend the throne, and to place himself by the side of
Alexius. The sage reproof of Baldwin provoked him to exclaim, in his
barbarous idiom, "Who is this rustic, that keeps his seat, while so many
valiant captains are standing round him?" The emperor maintained his
silence, dissembled his indignation, and questioned his interpreter
concerning the meaning of the words, which he partly suspected from the
universal language of gesture and countenance. Before the departure
of the pilgrims, he endeavored to learn the name and condition of the
audacious baron. "I am a Frenchman," replied Robert, "of the purest and
most ancient nobility of my country. All that I know is, that there is
a church in my neighborhood, the resort of those who are desirous of
approving their valor in single combat. Till an enemy appears, they
address their prayers to God and his saints. That church I have
frequently visited. But never have I found an antagonist who dared to
accept my defiance." Alexius dismissed the challenger with some prudent
advice for his conduct in the Turkish warfare; and history repeats with
pleasure this lively example of the manners of his age and country.
The conquest of Asia was undertaken and achieved by Alexander, with
thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks; and his best hope was in
the strength and discipline of his phalanx of infantry. The principal
force of the crusaders consisted in their cavalry; and when that force
was mustered in the plains of Bithynia, the knights and their martial
attendants on horseback amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men,
completely armed with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of these
soldiers deserved a strict and authentic account; and the flower of
European chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this formidable body
of heavy horse. A part of the infantry might be enrolled for the service
of scouts, pioneers, and archers; but the promiscuous crowd were lost in
their own disorder; and we depend not on the eyes and knowledge, but on
the belief and fancy, of a chaplain of Count Baldwin, in the estimate of
six hundred thousand pilgrims able to bear arms, besides the priests and
monks, the women and children of the Latin camp. The reader starts;
and before he is recovered from his surprise, I shall add, on the same
testimony, that if all who took the cross had accomplished their vow,
above six millions would have migrated from Europe to Asia. Under this
oppression of faith, I derive some relief from a more sagacious and
thinking writer, who, after the same review of the cavalry, accuses
the credulity of the priest of Chartres, and even doubts whether the
_Cisalpine_ regions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were sufficient
to produce and pour forth such incredible multitudes. The coolest
scepticism will remember, that of these religious volunteers great
numbers never beheld Constantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm the
influence is irregular and transient: many were detained at home by
reason or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many were repulsed by
the obstacles of the way, the more insuperable as they were unforeseen,
to these ignorant fanatics. The savage countries of Hungary and Bulgaria
were whitened with their bones: their vanguard was cut in pieces by the
Turkish sultan; and the loss of the first adventure, by the sword, or
climate, or fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred thousand
men. Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that pressed forwards
on the holy pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment to themselves
and to the Greeks. The copious energy of her language sinks under the
efforts of the princess Anne: the images of locusts, of leaves and
flowers, of the sands of the sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly
represent what she had seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius
exclaims, that Europe was loosened from its foundations, and hurled
against Asia. The ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labor under the
same doubt of a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to
believe, that a larger number has never been contained within the lines
of a single camp, than at the siege of Nice, the first operation of the
Latin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their arms, have
been already displayed. Of their troops the most numerous portion
were natives of France: the Low Countries, the banks of the Rhine, and
Apulia, sent a powerful reÎnforcement: some bands of adventurers were
drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and England; and from the distant bogs and
mountains of Ireland or Scotland issued some naked and savage fanatics,
ferocious at home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition condemned
the sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest Christian
of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with mouths but
without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek empire, till their
companions had opened and secured the way of the Lord. A small remnant
of the pilgrims, who passed the Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the
holy sepulchre. Their northern constitution was scorched by the rays,
and infected by the vapors, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with
heedless prodigality, their stores of water and provision: their numbers
exhausted the inland country: the sea was remote, the Greeks were
unfriendly, and the Christians of every sect fled before the voracious
and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire necessity of famine,
they sometimes roasted and devoured the flesh of their infant or adult
captives. Among the Turks and Saracens, the idolaters of Europe were
rendered more odious by the name and reputation of Cannibals; the spies,
who introduced themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond, were shown
several human bodies turning on the spit: and the artful Norman
encouraged a report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence and
the terror of the infidels.
Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.--Part IV.
I have expiated with pleasure on the first steps of the crusaders, as
they paint the manners and character of Europe: but I shall abridge the
tedious and uniform narrative of their blind achievements, which were
performed by strength and are described by ignorance. From their first
station in the neighborhood of Nicomedia, they advanced in successive
divisions; passed the contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened a
road through the hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital,
their pious warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum
extended from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred the
pilgrimage of Jerusalem, his name was Kilidge-Arslan, or Soliman, of the
race of Seljuk, and son of the first conqueror; and in the defence of a
land which the Turks considered as their own, he deserved the praise
of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to posterity. Yielding to the
first impulse of the torrent, he deposited his family and treasure in
Nice; retired to the mountains with fifty thousand horse; and twice
descended to assault the camps or quarters of the Christian besiegers,
which formed an imperfect circle of above six miles. The lofty and solid
walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by three hundred
and seventy towers; and on the verge of Christendom, the Moslems were
trained in arms, and inflamed by religion. Before this city, the French
princes occupied their stations, and prosecuted their attacks without
correspondence or subordination: emulation prompted their valor; but
their valor was sullied by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into
envy and civil discord. In the siege of Nice, the arts and engines of
antiquity were employed by the Latins; the mine and the battering-ram,
the tortoise, and the belfrey or movable turret, artificial fire, and
the _catapult_ and _balist_, the sling, and the crossbow for the casting
of stones and darts. In the space of seven weeks much labor and blood
were expended, and some progress, especially by Count Raymond, was
made on the side of the besiegers. But the Turks could protract their
resistance and secure their escape, as long as they were masters of
the Lake Ascanius, which stretches several miles to the westward of the
city. The means of conquest were supplied by the prudence and industry
of Alexius; a great number of boats was transported on sledges from
the sea to the lake; they were filled with the most dexterous of his
archers; the flight of the sultana was intercepted; Nice was invested by
land and water; and a Greek emissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept
his master's protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender,
from the rage of the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or at
least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder, were awed
by the Imperial banner that streamed from the citadel; and Alexius
guarded with jealous vigilance this important conquest. The murmurs of
the chiefs were stifled by honor or interest; and after a halt of nine
days, they directed their march towards Phrygia under the guidance of
a Greek general, whom they suspected of a secret connivance with the
sultan. The consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been
honorably restored without ransom; and the emperor's generosity to the
_miscreants_ was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause.
Soliman was rather provoked than dismayed by the loss of his capital:
he admonished his subjects and allies of this strange invasion of the
Western Barbarians; the Turkish emirs obeyed the call of loyalty or
religion; the Turkman hordes encamped round his standard; and his whole
force is loosely stated by the Christians at two hundred, or even three
hundred and sixty thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they had
left behind them the sea and the Greek frontier; and hovering on the
flanks, observed their careless and confident progress in two columns
beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reach
DorylÊum in Phrygia, the left, and least numerous, division was
surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish cavalry.
The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and the barbarous onset,
overwhelmed the crusaders; they lost their order and confidence, and the
fainting fight was sustained by the personal valor, rather than by the
military conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They
were revived by the welcome banners of Duke Godfrey, who flew to their
succor, with the count of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse; and was
followed by Raymond of Tholouse, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of
the sacred army. Without a moment's pause, they formed in new order, and
advanced to a second battle. They were received with equal resolution;
and, in their common disdain for the unwarlike people of Greece and
Asia, it was confessed on both sides, that the Turks and the Franks
were the only nations entitled to the appellation of soldiers.
Their encounter was varied, and balanced by the contrast of arms and
discipline; of the direct charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the
couched lance, and the brandished javelin; of a weighty broadsword, and
a crooked sabre; of cumbrous armor, and thin flowing robes; and of the
long Tartar bow, and the _arbalist_ or crossbow, a deadly weapon, yet
unknown to the Orientals. As long as the horses were fresh, and the
quivers full, Soliman maintained the advantage of the day; and four
thousand Christians were pierced by the Turkish arrows. In the evening,
swiftness yielded to strength: on either side, the numbers were equal
or at least as great as any ground could hold, or any generals could
manage; but in turning the hills, the last division of Raymond and
his _provincials_ was led, perhaps without design on the rear of an
exhausted enemy; and the long contest was determined. Besides a nameless
and unaccounted multitude, three thousand _Pagan_ knights were slain
in the battle and pursuit; the camp of Soliman was pillaged; and in the
variety of precious spoil, the curiosity of the Latins was amused with
foreign arms and apparel, and the new aspect of dromedaries and camels.
The importance of the victory was proved by the hasty retreat of the
sultan: reserving ten thousand guards of the relics of his army, Soliman
evacuated the kingdom of Roum, and hastened to implore the aid, and
kindle the resentment, of his Eastern brethren. In a march of five
hundred miles, the crusaders traversed the Lesser Asia, through a wasted
land and deserted towns, without finding either a friend or an enemy.
The geographer may trace the position of DorylÊum, Antioch of Pisidia,
Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare those classic
appellations with the modern names of Eskishehr the old city, Akshehr
the white city, Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As the pilgrims passed over
a desert, where a draught of water is exchanged for silver, they were
tormented by intolerable thirst; and on the banks of the first
rivulet, their haste and intemperance were still more pernicious to
the disorderly throng. They climbed with toil and danger the steep and
slippery sides of Mount Taurus; many of the soldiers cast away their
arms to secure their footsteps; and had not terror preceded their van,
the long and trembling file might have been driven down the precipice by
a handful of resolute enemies. Two of their most respectable chiefs,
the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, were carried in litters:
Raymond was raised, as it is said by miracle, from a hopeless malady;
and Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as he pursued that rough and
perilous chase in the mountains of Pisidia.
To improve the general consternation, the cousin of Bohemond and
the brother of Godfrey were detached from the main army with their
respective squadrons of five, and of seven, hundred knights. They
overran in a rapid career the hills and sea-coast of Cilicia, from Cogni
to the Syrian gates: the Norman standard was first planted on the walls
of Tarsus and Malmistra; but the proud injustice of Baldwin at length
provoked the patient and generous Italian; and they turned their
consecrated swords against each other in a private and profane quarrel.
Honor was the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortune
smiled on the more selfish enterprise of his rival. He was called to the
assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been suffered under
the Turkish yoke to reign over the Christians of Edessa. Baldwin
accepted the character of his son and champion: but no sooner was he
introduced into the city, than he inflamed the people to the massacre
of his father, occupied the throne and treasure, extended his conquests
over the hills of Armenia and the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the
first principality of the Franks or Latins, which subsisted fifty-four
years beyond the Euphrates.
Before the Franks could enter Syria, the summer, and even the autumn,
were completely wasted: the siege of Antioch, or the separation and
repose of the army during the winter season, was strongly debated in
their council: the love of arms and the holy sepulchre urged them to
advance; and reason perhaps was on the side of resolution, since every
hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies
the resources of defensive war. The capital of Syria was protected by
the River Orontes; and the _iron bridge_, of nine arches, derives its
name from the massy gates of the two towers which are constructed at
either end. They were opened by the sword of the duke of Normandy: his
victory gave entrance to three hundred thousand crusaders, an account
which may allow some scope for losses and desertion, but which clearly
detects much exaggeration in the review of Nice. In the description
of Antioch, it is not easy to define a middle term between her ancient
magnificence, under the successors of Alexander and Augustus, and the
modern aspect of Turkish desolation. The Tetrapolis, or four cities, if
they retained their name and position, must have left a large vacuity in
a circumference of twelve miles; and that measure, as well as the number
of four hundred towers, are not perfectly consistent with the five
gates, so often mentioned in the history of the siege. Yet Antioch must
have still flourished as a great and populous capital. At the head of
the Turkish emirs, Baghisian, a veteran chief, commanded in the place:
his garrison was composed of six or seven thousand horse, and fifteen
or twenty thousand foot: one hundred thousand Moslems are said to have
fallen by the sword; and their numbers were probably inferior to the
Greeks, Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteen
years the slaves of the house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid and
stately wall, it appears to have arisen to the height of threescore feet
in the valleys; and wherever less art and labor had been applied, the
ground was supposed to be defended by the river, the morass, and the
mountains. Notwithstanding these fortifications, the city had been
repeatedly taken by the Persians, the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Turks;
so large a circuit must have yielded many pervious points of attack; and
in a siege that was formed about the middle of October, the vigor of
the execution could alone justify the boldness of the attempt. Whatever
strength and valor could perform in the field was abundantly discharged
by the champions of the cross: in the frequent occasions of sallies,
of forage, of the attack and defence of convoys, they were often
victorious; and we can only complain, that their exploits are sometimes
enlarged beyond the scale of probability and truth. The sword of Godfrey
divided a Turk from the shoulder to the haunch; and one half of the
infidel fell to the ground, while the other was transported by his horse
to the city gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against his antagonist,
"I devote thy head," he piously exclaimed, "to the dÊmons of hell;" and
that head was instantly cloven to the breast by the resistless stroke of
his descending falchion. But the reality or the report of such gigantic
prowess must have taught the Moslems to keep within their walls: and
against those walls of earth or stone, the sword and the lance were
unavailing weapons. In the slow and successive labors of a siege, the
crusaders were supine and ignorant, without skill to contrive, or money
to purchase, or industry to use, the artificial engines and implements
of assault. In the conquest of Nice, they had been powerfully assisted
by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek emperor: his absence was poorly
supplied by some Genoese and Pisan vessels, that were attracted by
religion or trade to the coast of Syria: the stores were scanty, the
return precarious, and the communication difficult and dangerous.
Indolence or weakness had prevented the Franks from investing the entire
circuit; and the perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the wants and
recruited the garrison of the city. At the end of seven months, after
the ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous loss by famine, desertion
and fatigue, the progress of the crusaders was imperceptible, and their
success remote, if the Latin Ulysses, the artful and ambitious Bohemond,
had not employed the arms of cunning and deceit. The Christians of
Antioch were numerous and discontented: Phirouz, a Syrian renegado, had
acquired the favor of the emir and the command of three towers; and the
merit of his repentance disguised to the Latins, and perhaps to himself,
the foul design of perfidy and treason. A secret correspondence, for
their mutual interest, was soon established between Phirouz and the
prince of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in the council of the chiefs,
that he could deliver the city into their hands. But he claimed the
sovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his service; and the proposal
which had been rejected by the envy, was at length extorted from the
distress, of his equals. The nocturnal surprise was executed by the
French and Norman princes, who ascended in person the scaling-ladders
that were thrown from the walls: their new proselyte, after the murder
of his too scrupulous brother, embraced and introduced the servants of
Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and the Moslems soon found,
that although mercy was hopeless, resistance was impotent. But the
citadel still refused to surrender; and the victims themselves were
speedily encompassed and besieged by the innumerable forces of Kerboga,
prince of Mosul, who, with twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced to the
deliverance of Antioch. Five-and-twenty days the Christians spent on
the verge of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and
the sultan left them only the choice of servitude or death. In this
extremity they collected the relics of their strength, sallied from the
town, and in a single memorable day, annihilated or dispersed the host
of Turks and Arabians, which they might safely report to have consisted
of six hundred thousand men. Their supernatural allies I shall proceed
to consider: the human causes of the victory of Antioch were the
fearless despair of the Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps
the errors, of their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle
is described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may observe
the tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace, enriched with the
luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above two thousand persons; we
may distinguish his three thousand guards, who were cased, the horse as
well as the men, in complete steel.