Yet this attack, when they were within the view and reach of

their glorious prize, was suspended above ten months after the

defeat of Kerboga. The zeal and courage of the crusaders were

chilled in the moment of victory; and instead of marching to

improve the consternation, they hastily dispersed to enjoy the

luxury, of Syria. The causes of this strange delay may be found

in the want of strength and subordination. In the painful and

various service of Antioch, the cavalry was annihilated; many

thousands of every rank had been lost by famine, sickness, and

desertion: the same abuse of plenty had been productive of a

third famine; and the alternative of intemperance and distress

had generated a pestilence, which swept away above fifty thousand

of the pilgrims. Few were able to command, and none were willing

to obey; the domestic feuds, which had been stifled by common

fear, were again renewed in acts, or at least in sentiments, of

hostility; the fortune of Baldwin and Bohemond excited the envy

of their companions; the bravest knights were enlisted for the

defence of their new principalities; and Count Raymond exhausted

his troops and treasures in an idle expedition into the heart of

Syria. 1031 The winter was consumed in discord and disorder; a

sense of honor and religion was rekindled in the spring; and the

private soldiers, less susceptible of ambition and jealousy,

awakened with angry clamors the indolence of their chiefs. In the

month of May, the relics of this mighty host proceeded from

Antioch to Laodicea: about forty thousand Latins, of whom no more

than fifteen hundred horse, and twenty thousand foot, were

capable of immediate service. Their easy march was continued

between Mount Libanus and the sea-shore: their wants were

liberally supplied by the coasting traders of Genoa and Pisa; and

they drew large contributions from the emirs of Tripoli, Tyre,

Sidon, Acre, and Caesarea, who granted a free passage, and

promised to follow the example of Jerusalem. From Caesarea they

advanced into the midland country; their clerks recognized the

sacred geography of Lydda, Ramla, Emmaus, and Bethlem, 1032 and

as soon as they descried the holy city, the crusaders forgot

their toils and claimed their reward. 104

1031 (return) [ This is not quite correct: he took Marra on his

road. His excursions were partly to obtain provisions for the

army and fodder for the horses Wilken, vol. i. p. 226.—M.]

1032 (return) [ Scarcely of Bethlehem, to the south of

Jerusalem.— M.]

104 (return) [ The greatest part of the march of the Franks is

traced, and most accurately traced, in Maundrell’s Journey from

Aleppo to Jerusalem, (p. 11-67;) un des meilleurs morceaux, sans

contredit qu’on ait dans ce genre, (D’Anville, Memoire sur

Jerusalem, p. 27.)]

Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade.—Part V.

Jerusalem has derived some reputation from the number and

importance of her memorable sieges. It was not till after a long

and obstinate contest that Babylon and Rome could prevail against

the obstinacy of the people, the craggy ground that might

supersede the necessity of fortifications, and the walls and

towers that would have fortified the most accessible plain. 105

These obstacles were diminished in the age of the crusades. The

bulwarks had been completely destroyed and imperfectly restored:

the Jews, their nation, and worship, were forever banished; but

nature is less changeable than man, and the site of Jerusalem,

though somewhat softened and somewhat removed, was still strong

against the assaults of an enemy. By the experience of a recent

siege, and a three years’ possession, the Saracens of Egypt had

been taught to discern, and in some degree to remedy, the defects

of a place, which religion as well as honor forbade them to

resign. Aladin, or Iftikhar, the caliph’s lieutenant, was

intrusted with the defence: his policy strove to restrain the

native Christians by the dread of their own ruin and that of the

holy sepulchre; to animate the Moslems by the assurance of

temporal and eternal rewards. His garrison is said to have

consisted of forty thousand Turks and Arabians; and if he could

muster twenty thousand of the inhabitants, it must be confessed

that the besieged were more numerous than the besieging army. 106

Had the diminished strength and numbers of the Latins allowed

them to grasp the whole circumference of four thousand yards,

(about two English miles and a half, 107 to what useful purpose

should they have descended into the valley of Ben Hinnom and

torrent of Cedron, 108 or approach the precipices of the south

and east, from whence they had nothing either to hope or fear?

Their siege was more reasonably directed against the northern and

western sides of the city. Godfrey of Bouillon erected his

standard on the first swell of Mount Calvary: to the left, as far

as St. Stephen’s gate, the line of attack was continued by

Tancred and the two Roberts; and Count Raymond established his

quarters from the citadel to the foot of Mount Sion, which was no

longer included within the precincts of the city. On the fifth

day, the crusaders made a general assault, in the fanatic hope of

battering down the walls without engines, and of scaling them

without ladders. By the dint of brutal force, they burst the

first barrier; but they were driven back with shame and slaughter

to the camp: the influence of vision and prophecy was deadened by

the too frequent abuse of those pious stratagems; and time and

labor were found to be the only means of victory. The time of the

siege was indeed fulfilled in forty days, but they were forty

days of calamity and anguish. A repetition of the old complaint

of famine may be imputed in some degree to the voracious or

disorderly appetite of the Franks; but the stony soil of

Jerusalem is almost destitute of water; the scanty springs and

hasty torrents were dry in the summer season; nor was the thirst

of the besiegers relieved, as in the city, by the artificial

supply of cisterns and aqueducts. The circumjacent country is

equally destitute of trees for the uses of shade or building, but

some large beams were discovered in a cave by the crusaders: a

wood near Sichem, the enchanted grove of Tasso, 109 was cut down:

the necessary timber was transported to the camp by the vigor and

dexterity of Tancred; and the engines were framed by some Genoese

artists, who had fortunately landed in the harbor of Jaffa. Two

movable turrets were constructed at the expense, and in the

stations, of the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, and

rolled forwards with devout labor, not to the most accessible,

but to the most neglected, parts of the fortification. Raymond’s

Tower was reduced to ashes by the fire of the besieged, but his

colleague was more vigilant and successful; 1091 the enemies were

driven by his archers from the rampart; the draw-bridge was let

down; and on a Friday, at three in the afternoon, the day and

hour of the passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stood victorious on the

walls of Jerusalem. His example was followed on every side by the

emulation of valor; and about four hundred and sixty years after

the conquest of Omar, the holy city was rescued from the

Mahometan yoke. In the pillage of public and private wealth, the

adventurers had agreed to respect the exclusive property of the

first occupant; and the spoils of the great mosque, seventy lamps

and massy vases of gold and silver, rewarded the diligence, and

displayed the generosity, of Tancred. A bloody sacrifice was

offered by his mistaken votaries to the God of the Christians:

resistance might provoke but neither age nor sex could mollify,

their implacable rage: they indulged themselves three days in a

promiscuous massacre; 110 and the infection of the dead bodies

produced an epidemical disease. After seventy thousand Moslems

had been put to the sword, and the harmless Jews had been burnt

in their synagogue, they could still reserve a multitude of

captives, whom interest or lassitude persuaded them to spare. Of

these savage heroes of the cross, Tancred alone betrayed some

sentiments of compassion; yet we may praise the more selfish

lenity of Raymond, who granted a capitulation and safe-conduct to

the garrison of the citadel. 111 The holy sepulchre was now free;

and the bloody victors prepared to accomplish their vow.

Bareheaded and barefoot, with contrite hearts, and in an humble

posture, they ascended the hill of Calvary, amidst the loud

anthems of the clergy; kissed the stone which had covered the

Savior of the world; and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence

the monument of their redemption. This union of the fiercest and

most tender passions has been variously considered by two

philosophers; by the one, 112 as easy and natural; by the other,

113 as absurd and incredible. Perhaps it is too rigorously

applied to the same persons and the same hour; the example of the

virtuous Godfrey awakened the piety of his companions; while they

cleansed their bodies, they purified their minds; nor shall I

believe that the most ardent in slaughter and rapine were the

foremost in the procession to the holy sepulchre.

105 (return) [ See the masterly description of Tacitus, (Hist. v.

11, 12, 13,) who supposes that the Jewish lawgivers had provided

for a perpetual state of hostility against the rest of mankind. *

Note: This is an exaggerated inference from the words of Tacitus,

who speaks of the founders of the city, not the lawgivers.

Praeviderant conditores, ex diversitate morum, crebra bella; inde

cuncta quamvis adversus loagum obsidium.—M.]

106 (return) [ The lively scepticism of Voltaire is balanced with

sense and erudition by the French author of the Esprit des

Croisades, (tom. iv. p. 386-388,) who observes, that, according

to the Arabians, the inhabitants of Jerusalem must have exceeded

200,000; that in the siege of Titus, Josephus collects 1,300,000

Jews; that they are stated by Tacitus himself at 600,000; and

that the largest defalcation, that his accepimus can justify,

will still leave them more numerous than the Roman army.]

107 (return) [ Maundrell, who diligently perambulated the walls,

found a circuit of 4630 paces, or 4167 English yards, (p. 109,

110: ) from an authentic plan, D’Anville concludes a measure

nearly similar, of 1960 French toises, (p. 23-29,) in his scarce

and valuable tract. For the topography of Jerusalem, see Reland,

(Palestina, tom. ii. p. 832-860.)]

108 (return) [ Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent of

Kedron, dry in summer, and of the little spring or brook of

Siloe, (Reland, tom. i. p. 294, 300.) Both strangers and natives

complain of the want of water, which, in time of war, was

studiously aggravated. Within the city, Tacitus mentions a

perennial fountain, an aqueduct and cisterns for rain water. The

aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekos or Etham, which is

likewise mentioned by Bohadin, (in Vit. Saludio p. 238.)]

109 (return) [ Gierusalomme Liberata, canto xiii. It is pleasant

enough to observe how Tasso has copied and embellished the

minutest details of the siege.]

1091 (return) [ This does not appear by Wilken’s account, (p.

294.) They fought in vair the whole of the Thursday.—M.]

110 (return) [ Besides the Latins, who are not ashamed of the

massacre, see Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 363,) Abulpharagius,

(Dynast. p. 243,) and M. De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 99, from

Aboulmahasen.]

111 (return) [ The old tower Psephina, in the middle ages

Neblosa, was named Castellum Pisanum, from the patriarch

Daimbert. It is still the citadel, the residence of the Turkish

aga, and commands a prospect of the Dead Sea, Judea, and Arabia,

(D’Anville, p. 19-23.) It was likewise called the Tower of

David.]

112 (return) [ Hume, in his History of England, vol. i. p. 311,

312, octavo edition.]

113 (return) [ Voltaire, in his Essai sur l’Histoire Generale,

tom ii. c. 54, p 345, 346]

Eight days after this memorable event, which Pope Urban did not

live to hear, the Latin chiefs proceeded to the election of a

king, to guard and govern their conquests in Palestine. Hugh the

Great, and Stephen of Chartres, had retired with some loss of

reputation, which they strove to regain by a second crusade and

an honorable death. Baldwin was established at Edessa, and

Bohemond at Antioch; and two Roberts, the duke of Normandy 114

and the count of Flanders, preferred their fair inheritance in

the West to a doubtful competition or a barren sceptre. The

jealousy and ambition of Raymond were condemned by his own

followers, and the free, the just, the unanimous voice of the

army proclaimed Godfrey of Bouillon the first and most worthy of

the champions of Christendom. His magnanimity accepted a trust as

full of danger as of glory; but in a city where his Savior had

been crowned with thorns, the devout pilgrim rejected the name

and ensigns of royalty; and the founder of the kingdom of

Jerusalem contented himself with the modest title of Defender and

Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. His government of a single year, 115

too short for the public happiness, was interrupted in the first

fortnight by a summons to the field, by the approach of the

vizier or sultan of Egypt, who had been too slow to prevent, but

who was impatient to avenge, the loss of Jerusalem. His total

overthrow in the battle of Ascalon sealed the establishment of

the Latins in Syria, and signalized the valor of the French

princes who in this action bade a long farewell to the holy wars.

Some glory might be derived from the prodigious inequality of

numbers, though I shall not count the myriads of horse and foot

1151 on the side of the Fatimites; but, except three thousand

Ethiopians or Blacks, who were armed with flails or scourges of

iron, the Barbarians of the South fled on the first onset, and

afforded a pleasing comparison between the active valor of the

Turks and the sloth and effeminacy of the natives of Egypt. After

suspending before the holy sepulchre the sword and standard of

the sultan, the new king (he deserves the title) embraced his

departing companions, and could retain only with the gallant

Tancred three hundred knights, and two thousand foot-soldiers for

the defence of Palestine. His sovereignty was soon attacked by a

new enemy, the only one against whom Godfrey was a coward.

Adhemar, bishop of Puy, who excelled both in council and action,

had been swept away in the last plague at Antioch: the remaining

ecclesiastics preserved only the pride and avarice of their

character; and their seditious clamors had required that the

choice of a bishop should precede that of a king. The revenue and

jurisdiction of the lawful patriarch were usurped by the Latin

clergy: the exclusion of the Greeks and Syrians was justified by

the reproach of heresy or schism; 116 and, under the iron yoke of

their deliverers, the Oriental Christians regretted the

tolerating government of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert,

archbishop of Pisa, had long been trained in the secret policy of

Rome: he brought a fleet at his countrymen to the succor of the

Holy Land, and was installed, without a competitor, the spiritual

and temporal head of the church. 1161 The new patriarch 117

immediately grasped the sceptre which had been acquired by the

toil and blood of the victorious pilgrims; and both Godfrey and

Bohemond submitted to receive at his hands the investiture of

their feudal possessions. Nor was this sufficient; Daimbert

claimed the immediate property of Jerusalem and Jaffa; instead of

a firm and generous refusal, the hero negotiated with the priest;

a quarter of either city was ceded to the church; and the modest

bishop was satisfied with an eventual reversion of the rest, on

the death of Godfrey without children, or on the future

acquisition of a new seat at Cairo or Damascus.

114 (return) [ The English ascribe to Robert of Normandy, and the

Provincials to Raymond of Tholouse, the glory of refusing the

crown; but the honest voice of tradition has preserved the memory

of the ambition and revenge (Villehardouin, No. 136) of the count

of St. Giles. He died at the siege of Tripoli, which was

possessed by his descendants.]

115 (return) [ See the election, the battle of Ascalon, &c., in

William of Tyre l. ix. c. 1-12, and in the conclusion of the

Latin historians of the first crusade.]

1151 (return) [ 20,000 Franks, 300,000 Mussulmen, according to

Wilken, (vol. ii. p. 9)—M.]

116 (return) [ Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 479.]

1161 (return) [ Arnulf was first chosen, but illegitimately, and

degraded. He was ever after the secret enemy of Daimbert or

Dagobert. Wilken, vol. i. p. 306, vol. ii. p. 52.—M]

117 (return) [ See the claims of the patriarch Daimbert, in

William of Tyre (l. ix. c. 15-18, x. 4, 7, 9,) who asserts with

marvellous candor the independence of the conquerors and kings of

Jerusalem.]

Without this indulgence, the conqueror would have almost been

stripped of his infant kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem

and Jaffa, with about twenty villages and towns of the adjacent

country. 118 Within this narrow verge, the Mahometans were still

lodged in some impregnable castles: and the husbandman, the

trader, and the pilgrim, were exposed to daily and domestic

hostility. By the arms of Godfrey himself, and of the two

Baldwins, his brother and cousin, who succeeded to the throne,

the Latins breathed with more ease and safety; and at length they

equalled, in the extent of their dominions, though not in the

millions of their subjects, the ancient princes of Judah and

Israel. 119 After the reduction of the maritime cities of

Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and Ascalon, 120 which were powerfully

assisted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, and even of

Flanders and Norway, 121 the range of sea-coast from Scanderoon

to the borders of Egypt was possessed by the Christian pilgrims.

If the prince of Antioch disclaimed his supremacy, the counts of

Edessa and Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of the king of

Jerusalem: the Latins reigned beyond the Euphrates; and the four

cities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus, and Aleppo, were the only relics

of the Mahometan conquests in Syria. 122 The laws and language,

the manners and titles, of the French nation and Latin church,

were introduced into these transmarine colonies. According to the

feudal jurisprudence, the principal states and subordinate

baronies descended in the line of male and female succession: 123

but the children of the first conquerors, 124 a motley and

degenerate race, were dissolved by the luxury of the climate; the

arrival of new crusaders from Europe was a doubtful hope and a

casual event. The service of the feudal tenures 125 was performed

by six hundred and sixty-six knights, who might expect the aid of

two hundred more under the banner of the count of Tripoli; and

each knight was attended to the field by four squires or archers

on horseback. 126 Five thousand and seventy sergeants, most

probably foot-soldiers, were supplied by the churches and cities;

and the whole legal militia of the kingdom could not exceed

eleven thousand men, a slender defence against the surrounding

myriads of Saracens and Turks. 127 But the firmest bulwark of

Jerusalem was founded on the knights of the Hospital of St. John,

128 and of the temple of Solomon; 129 on the strange association

of a monastic and military life, which fanaticism might suggest,

but which policy must approve. The flower of the nobility of

Europe aspired to wear the cross, and to profess the vows, of

these respectable orders; their spirit and discipline were

immortal; and the speedy donation of twenty-eight thousand farms,

or manors, 130 enabled them to support a regular force of cavalry

and infantry for the defence of Palestine. The austerity of the

convent soon evaporated in the exercise of arms; the world was

scandalized by the pride, avarice, and corruption of these

Christian soldiers; their claims of immunity and jurisdiction

disturbed the harmony of the church and state; and the public

peace was endangered by their jealous emulation. But in their

most dissolute period, the knights of their hospital and temple

maintained their fearless and fanatic character: they neglected

to live, but they were prepared to die, in the service of Christ;

and the spirit of chivalry, the parent and offspring of the

crusades, has been transplanted by this institution from the holy

sepulchre to the Isle of Malta. 131

118 (return) [ Willerm. Tyr. l. x. 19. The Historia

Hierosolimitana of Jacobus a Vitriaco (l. i. c. 21-50) and the

Secreta Fidelium Crucis of Marinus Sanutus (l. iii. p. 1)

describe the state and conquests of the Latin kingdom of

Jerusalem.]

119 (return) [ An actual muster, not including the tribes of Levi

and Benjamin, gave David an army of 1,300,000 or 1,574,000

fighting men; which, with the addition of women, children, and

slaves, may imply a population of thirteen millions, in a country

sixty leagues in length, and thirty broad. The honest and

rational Le Clerc (Comment on 2d Samuel xxiv. and 1st Chronicles,

xxi.) aestuat angusto in limite, and mutters his suspicion of a

false transcript; a dangerous suspicion! * Note: David determined

to take a census of his vast dominions, which extended from

Lebanon to the frontiers of Egypt, from the Euphrates to the

Mediterranean. The numbers (in 2 Sam. xxiv. 9, and 1 Chron. xxi.

5) differ; but the lowest gives 800,000 men fit to bear arms in

Israel, 500,000 in Judah. Hist. of Jews, vol. i. p. 248. Gibbon

has taken the highest census in his estimate of the population,

and confined the dominions of David to Jordandic Palestine.—M.]

120 (return) [ These sieges are related, each in its proper

place, in the great history of William of Tyre, from the ixth to

the xviiith book, and more briefly told by Bernardus

Thesaurarius, (de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, c. 89-98, p.

732-740.) Some domestic facts are celebrated in the Chronicles of

Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, in the vith, ixth, and xiith tomes of

Muratori.]

121 (return) [ Quidam populus de insulis occidentis egressus, et

maxime de ea parte quae Norvegia dicitur. William of Tyre (l. xi.

c. 14, p. 804) marks their course per Britannicum Mare et Calpen

to the siege of Sidon.]

122 (return) [ Benelathir, apud De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom.

ii. part ii. p. 150, 151, A.D. 1127. He must speak of the inland

country.]

123 (return) [ Sanut very sensibly descants on the mischiefs of

female succession, in a land hostibus circumdata, ubi cuncta

virilia et virtuosa esse deberent. Yet, at the summons, and with

the approbation, of her feudal lord, a noble damsel was obliged

to choose a husband and champion, (Assises de Jerusalem, c. 242,

&c.) See in M. De Guignes (tom. i. p. 441-471) the accurate and

useful tables of these dynasties, which are chiefly drawn from

the Lignages d’Outremer.]

124 (return) [ They were called by derision Poullains, Pallani,

and their name is never pronounced without contempt, (Ducange,

Gloss. Latin. tom. v. p. 535; and Observations sur Joinville, p.

84, 85; Jacob. a Vitriaco Hist. Hierosol. i. c. 67, 72; and

Sanut, l. iii. p. viii. c. 2, p. 182.) Illustrium virorum, qui ad

Terrae Sanctae.... liberationem in ipsa manserunt, degeneres

filii.... in deliciis enutriti, molles et effoe minati, &c.]

125 (return) [ This authentic detail is extracted from the

Assises de Jerusalem (c. 324, 326-331.) Sanut (l. iii. p. viii.

c. 1, p. 174) reckons only 518 knights, and 5775 followers.]

126 (return) [ The sum total, and the division, ascertain the

service of the three great baronies at 100 knights each; and the

text of the Assises, which extends the number to 500, can only be

justified by this supposition.]

127 (return) [ Yet on great emergencies (says Sanut) the barons

brought a voluntary aid; decentem comitivam militum juxta statum

suum.]

128 (return) [ William of Tyre (l. xviii. c. 3, 4, 5) relates the

ignoble origin and early insolence of the Hospitallers, who soon

deserted their humble patron, St. John the Eleemosynary, for the

more august character of St. John the Baptist, (see the

ineffectual struggles of Pagi, Critica, A. D 1099, No. 14-18.)

They assumed the profession of arms about the year 1120; the

Hospital was mater; the Temple filia; the Teutonic order was

founded A.D. 1190, at the siege of Acre, (Mosheim Institut p.

389, 390.)]

129 (return) [ See St. Bernard de Laude Novae Militiae Templi,

composed A.D. 1132-1136, in Opp. tom. i. p. ii. p. 547-563, edit.

Mabillon, Venet. 1750. Such an encomium, which is thrown away on

the dead Templars, would be highly valued by the historians of

Malta.]

130 (return) [ Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 544. He assigns to

the Hospitallers 19,000, to the Templars 9,000 maneria, word of

much higher import (as Ducange has rightly observed) in the

English than in the French idiom. Manor is a lordship, manoir a

dwelling.]

131 (return) [ In the three first books of the Histoire de

Chevaliers de Malthe par l’Abbe de Vertot, the reader may amuse

himself with a fair, and sometimes flattering, picture of the

order, while it was employed for the defence of Palestine. The

subsequent books pursue their emigration to Rhodes and Malta.]

The spirit of freedom, which pervades the feudal institutions,

was felt in its strongest energy by the volunteers of the cross,

who elected for their chief the most deserving of his peers.

Amidst the slaves of Asia, unconscious of the lesson or example,

a model of political liberty was introduced; and the laws of the

French kingdom are derived from the purest source of equality and

justice. Of such laws, the first and indispensable condition is

the assent of those whose obedience they require, and for whose

benefit they are designed. No sooner had Godfrey of Bouillon

accepted the office of supreme magistrate, than he solicited the

public and private advice of the Latin pilgrims, who were the

best skilled in the statutes and customs of Europe. From these

materials, with the counsel and approbation of the patriarch and

barons, of the clergy and laity, Godfrey composed the Assise of

Jerusalem, 132 a precious monument of feudal jurisprudence. The

new code, attested by the seals of the king, the patriarch, and

the viscount of Jerusalem, was deposited in the holy sepulchre,

enriched with the improvements of succeeding times, and

respectfully consulted as often as any doubtful question arose in

the tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom and city all was

lost: 133 the fragments of the written law were preserved by

jealous tradition 134 and variable practice till the middle of

the thirteenth century: the code was restored by the pen of John

d’Ibelin, count of Jaffa, one of the principal feudatories; 135

and the final revision was accomplished in the year thirteen

hundred and sixty-nine, for the use of the Latin kingdom of

Cyprus. 136

132 (return) [ The Assises de Jerusalem, in old law French, were

printed with Beaumanoir’s Coutumes de Beauvoisis, (Bourges and

Paris, 1690, in folio,) and illustrated by Gaspard Thaumas de la

Thaumassiere, with a comment and glossary. An Italian version had

been published in 1534, at Venice, for the use of the kingdom of

Cyprus. * Note: See Wilken, vol. i. p. 17, &c.,—M.]

133 (return) [ A la terre perdue, tout fut perdu, is the vigorous

expression of the Assise, (c. 281.) Yet Jerusalem capitulated

with Saladin; the queen and the principal Christians departed in

peace; and a code so precious and so portable could not provoke

the avarice of the conquerors. I have sometimes suspected the

existence of this original copy of the Holy Sepulchre, which

might be invented to sanctify and authenticate the traditionary

customs of the French in Palestine.]

134 (return) [ A noble lawyer, Raoul de Tabarie, denied the

prayer of King Amauri, (A.D. 1195-1205,) that he would commit his

knowledged to writing, and frankly declared, que de ce qu’il

savoit ne feroit-il ja nul borjois son pareill, ne null sage

homme lettre, (c. 281.)]

135 (return) [ The compiler of this work, Jean d’Ibelin, was

count of Jaffa and Ascalon, lord of Baruth (Berytus) and Rames,

and died A.D. 1266, (Sanut, l. iii. p. ii. c. 5, 8.) The family

of Ibelin, which descended from a younger brother of a count of

Chartres in France, long flourished in Palestine and Cyprus, (see

the Lignages de deca Mer, or d’Outremer, c. 6, at the end of the

Assises de Jerusalem, an original book, which records the

pedigrees of the French adventurers.)]

136 (return) [ By sixteen commissioners chosen in the states of

the island: the work was finished the 3d of November, 1369,

sealed with four seals and deposited in the cathedral of Nicosia,

(see the preface to the Assises.)]

The justice and freedom of the constitution were maintained by

two tribunals of unequal dignity, which were instituted by

Godfrey of Bouillon after the conquest of Jerusalem. The king, in

person, presided in the upper court, the court of the barons. Of

these the four most conspicuous were the prince of Galilee, the

lord of Sidon and Caesarea, and the counts of Jaffa and Tripoli,

who, perhaps with the constable and marshal, 137 were in a

special manner the compeers and judges of each other. But all the

nobles, who held their lands immediately of the crown, were

entitled and bound to attend the king’s court; and each baron

exercised a similar jurisdiction on the subordinate assemblies of

his own feudatories. The connection of lord and vassal was

honorable and voluntary: reverence was due to the benefactor,

protection to the dependant; but they mutually pledged their

faith to each other; and the obligation on either side might be

suspended by neglect or dissolved by injury. The cognizance of

marriages and testaments was blended with religion, and usurped

by the clergy: but the civil and criminal causes of the nobles,

the inheritance and tenure of their fiefs, formed the proper

occupation of the supreme court. Each member was the judge and

guardian both of public and private rights. It was his duty to

assert with his tongue and sword the lawful claims of the lord;

but if an unjust superior presumed to violate the freedom or

property of a vassal, the confederate peers stood forth to

maintain his quarrel by word and deed. They boldly affirmed his

innocence and his wrongs; demanded the restitution of his liberty

or his lands; suspended, after a fruitless demand, their own

service; rescued their brother from prison; and employed every

weapon in his defence, without offering direct violence to the

person of their lord, which was ever sacred in their eyes. 138 In

their pleadings, replies, and rejoinders, the advocates of the

court were subtle and copious; but the use of argument and

evidence was often superseded by judicial combat; and the Assise

of Jerusalem admits in many cases this barbarous institution,

which has been slowly abolished by the laws and manners of

Europe.

137 (return) [ The cautious John D’Ibelin argues, rather than

affirms, that Tripoli is the fourth barony, and expresses some

doubt concerning the right or pretension of the constable and

marshal, (c. 323.)]

138 (return) [ Entre seignor et homme ne n’a que la foi;.... mais

tant que l’homme doit a son seignor reverence en toutes choses,

(c. 206.) Tous les hommes dudit royaume sont par ladite Assise

tenus les uns as autres.... et en celle maniere que le seignor

mette main ou face mettre au cors ou au fie d’aucun d’yaus sans

esgard et sans connoissans de court, que tous les autres doivent

venir devant le seignor, &c., (212.) The form of their

remonstrances is conceived with the noble simplicity of freedom.]

The trial by battle was established in all criminal cases which

affected the life, or limb, or honor, of any person; and in all

civil transactions, of or above the value of one mark of silver.

It appears that in criminal cases the combat was the privilege of

the accuser, who, except in a charge of treason, avenged his

personal injury, or the death of those persons whom he had a

right to represent; but wherever, from the nature of the charge,

testimony could be obtained, it was necessary for him to produce

witnesses of the fact. In civil cases, the combat was not allowed

as the means of establishing the claim of the demandant; but he

was obliged to produce witnesses who had, or assumed to have,

knowledge of the fact. The combat was then the privilege of the

defendant; because he charged the witness with an attempt by

perjury to take away his right. He came therefore to be in the

same situation as the appellant in criminal cases. It was not

then as a mode of proof that the combat was received, nor as

making negative evidence, (according to the supposition of

Montesquieu; 139 but in every case the right to offer battle was

founded on the right to pursue by arms the redress of an injury;

and the judicial combat was fought on the same principle, and

with the same spirit, as a private duel. Champions were only

allowed to women, and to men maimed or past the age of sixty. The

consequence of a defeat was death to the person accused, or to

the champion or witness, as well as to the accuser himself: but

in civil cases, the demandant was punished with infamy and the

loss of his suit, while his witness and champion suffered

ignominious death. In many cases it was in the option of the

judge to award or to refuse the combat: but two are specified, in

which it was the inevitable result of the challenge; if a

faithful vassal gave the lie to his compeer, who unjustly claimed

any portion of their lord’s demesnes; or if an unsuccessful

suitor presumed to impeach the judgment and veracity of the

court. He might impeach them, but the terms were severe and

perilous: in the same day he successively fought all the members

of the tribunal, even those who had been absent; a single defeat

was followed by death and infamy; and where none could hope for

victory, it is highly probable that none would adventure the

trial. In the Assise of Jerusalem, the legal subtlety of the

count of Jaffa is more laudably employed to elude, than to

facilitate, the judicial combat, which he derives from a

principle of honor rather than of superstition. 140

139 (return) [ See l’Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. In the forty

years since its publication, no work has been more read and

criticized; and the spirit of inquiry which it has excited is not

the least of our obligations to the author.]

140 (return) [ For the intelligence of this obscure and obsolete

jurisprudence (c. 80-111) I am deeply indebted to the friendship

of a learned lord, who, with an accurate and discerning eye, has

surveyed the philosophic history of law. By his studies,

posterity might be enriched: the merit of the orator and the

judge can be felt only by his contemporaries.]

Among the causes which enfranchised the plebeians from the yoke

of feudal tyranny, the institution of cities and corporations is

one of the most powerful; and if those of Palestine are coeval

with the first crusade, they may be ranked with the most ancient

of the Latin world. Many of the pilgrims had escaped from their

lords under the banner of the cross; and it was the policy of the

French princes to tempt their stay by the assurance of the rights

and privileges of freemen. It is expressly declared in the Assise

of Jerusalem, that after instituting, for his knights and barons,

the court of peers, in which he presided himself, Godfrey of

Bouillon established a second tribunal, in which his person was

represented by his viscount. The jurisdiction of this inferior

court extended over the burgesses of the kingdom; and it was

composed of a select number of the most discreet and worthy

citizens, who were sworn to judge, according to the laws of the

actions and fortunes of their equals. 141 In the conquest and

settlement of new cities, the example of Jerusalem was imitated

by the kings and their great vassals; and above thirty similar

corporations were founded before the loss of the Holy Land.

Another class of subjects, the Syrians, 142 or Oriental

Christians, were oppressed by the zeal of the clergy, and

protected by the toleration of the state. Godfrey listened to

their reasonable prayer, that they might be judged by their own

national laws. A third court was instituted for their use, of

limited and domestic jurisdiction: the sworn members were

Syrians, in blood, language, and religion; but the office of the

president (in Arabic, of the rais) was sometimes exercised by the

viscount of the city. At an immeasurable distance below the

nobles, the burgesses, and the strangers, the Assise of Jerusalem

condescends to mention the villains and slaves, the peasants of

the land and the captives of war, who were almost equally

considered as the objects of property. The relief or protection

of these unhappy men was not esteemed worthy of the care of the

legislator; but he diligently provides for the recovery, though

not indeed for the punishment, of the fugitives. Like hounds, or

hawks, who had strayed from the lawful owner, they might be lost

and claimed: the slave and falcon were of the same value; but

three slaves, or twelve oxen, were accumulated to equal the price

of the war-horse; and a sum of three hundred pieces of gold was

fixed, in the age of chivalry, as the equivalent of the more

noble animal. 143

141 (return) [ Louis le Gros, who is considered as the father of

this institution in France, did not begin his reign till nine

years (A.D. 1108) after Godfrey of Bouillon, (Assises, c. 2,

324.) For its origin and effects, see the judicious remarks of

Dr. Robertson, (History of Charles V. vol. i. p. 30-36, 251-265,

quarto edition.)]

142 (return) [ Every reader conversant with the historians of the

crusades will understand by the peuple des Suriens, the Oriental

Christians, Melchites, Jacobites, or Nestorians, who had all

adopted the use of the Arabic language, (vol. iv. p. 593.)]

143 (return) [ See the Assises de Jerusalem, (310, 311, 312.)

These laws were enacted as late as the year 1350, in the kingdom

of Cyprus. In the same century, in the reign of Edward I., I

understand, from a late publication, (of his Book of Account,)

that the price of a war-horse was not less exorbitant in

England.]

VOLUME SIX

Chapter LIX: The Crusades.—Part I.

Preservation Of The Greek Empire.—Numbers, Passage, And Event, Of

The Second And Third Crusades.—St. Bernard.— Reign Of Saladin In

Egypt And Syria.—His Conquest Of Jerusalem.—Naval

Crusades.—Richard The First Of England.— Pope Innocent The Third;

And The Fourth And Fifth Crusades.— The Emperor Frederic The

Second.—Louis The Ninth Of France; And The Two Last

Crusades.—Expulsion Of The Latins Or Franks By The Mamelukes.

In a style less grave than that of history, I should perhaps

compare the emperor Alexius 1 to the jackal, who is said to

follow the steps, and to devour the leavings, of the lion.

Whatever had been his fears and toils in the passage of the first

crusade, they were amply recompensed by the subsequent benefits

which he derived from the exploits of the Franks. His dexterity

and vigilance secured their first conquest of Nice; and from this

threatening station the Turks were compelled to evacuate the

neighborhood of Constantinople. While the crusaders, with blind

valor, advanced into the midland countries of Asia, the crafty

Greek improved the favorable occasion when the emirs of the

sea-coast were recalled to the standard of the sultan. The Turks

were driven from the Isles of Rhodes and Chios: the cities of

Ephesus and Smyrna, of Sardes, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were

restored to the empire, which Alexius enlarged from the

Hellespont to the banks of the Mæander, and the rocky shores of

Pamphylia. The churches resumed their splendor: the towns were

rebuilt and fortified; and the desert country was peopled with

colonies of Christians, who were gently removed from the more

distant and dangerous frontier. In these paternal cares, we may

forgive Alexius, if he forgot the deliverance of the holy

sepulchre; but, by the Latins, he was stigmatized with the foul

reproach of treason and desertion. They had sworn fidelity and

obedience to his throne; but _he_ had promised to assist their

enterprise in person, or, at least, with his troops and

treasures: his base retreat dissolved their obligations; and the

sword, which had been the instrument of their victory, was the

pledge and title of their just independence. It does not appear

that the emperor attempted to revive his obsolete claims over the

kingdom of Jerusalem; 2 but the borders of Cilicia and Syria were

more recent in his possession, and more accessible to his arms.

The great army of the crusaders was annihilated or dispersed; the

principality of Antioch was left without a head, by the surprise

and captivity of Bohemond; his ransom had oppressed him with a

heavy debt; and his Norman followers were insufficient to repel

the hostilities of the Greeks and Turks. In this distress,

Bohemond embraced a magnanimous resolution, of leaving the

defence of Antioch to his kinsman, the faithful Tancred; of

arming the West against the Byzantine empire; and of executing

the design which he inherited from the lessons and example of his

father Guiscard. His embarkation was clandestine: and, if we may

credit a tale of the princess Anne, he passed the hostile sea

closely secreted in a coffin. 3 But his reception in France was

dignified by the public applause, and his marriage with the

king’s daughter: his return was glorious, since the bravest

spirits of the age enlisted under his veteran command; and he

repassed the Adriatic at the head of five thousand horse and

forty thousand foot, assembled from the most remote climates of

Europe. 4 The strength of Durazzo, and prudence of Alexius, the

progress of famine and approach of winter, eluded his ambitious

hopes; and the venal confederates were seduced from his standard.

A treaty of peace 5 suspended the fears of the Greeks; and they

were finally delivered by the death of an adversary, whom neither

oaths could bind, nor dangers could appal, nor prosperity could

satiate. His children succeeded to the principality of Antioch;

but the boundaries were strictly defined, the homage was clearly

stipulated, and the cities of Tarsus and Malmistra were restored

to the Byzantine emperors. Of the coast of Anatolia, they

possessed the entire circuit from Trebizond to the Syrian gates.

The Seljukian dynasty of Roum 6 was separated on all sides from

the sea and their Mussulman brethren; the power of the sultan was

shaken by the victories and even the defeats of the Franks; and

after the loss of Nice, they removed their throne to Cogni or

Iconium, an obscure and in land town above three hundred miles

from Constantinople. 7 Instead of trembling for their capital,

the Comnenian princes waged an offensive war against the Turks,

and the first crusade prevented the fall of the declining empire.

1 (return) [ Anna Comnena relates her father’s conquests in Asia

Minor Alexiad, l. xi. p. 321—325, l. xiv. p. 419; his Cilician

war against Tancred and Bohemond, p. 328—324; the war of Epirus,

with tedious prolixity, l. xii. xiii. p. 345—406; the death of

Bohemond, l. xiv. p. 419.]

2 (return) [ The kings of Jerusalem submitted, however, to a

nominal dependence, and in the dates of their inscriptions, (one

is still legible in the church of Bethlem,) they respectfully

placed before their own the name of the reigning emperor,

(Ducange, Dissertations sur Joinville xxvii. p. 319.)]

3 (return) [ Anna Comnena adds, that, to complete the imitation,

he was shut up with a dead cock; and condescends to wonder how

the Barbarian could endure the confinement and putrefaction. This

absurd tale is unknown to the Latins. * Note: The Greek writers,

in general, Zonaras, p. 2, 303, and Glycas, p. 334 agree in this

story with the princess Anne, except in the absurd addition of

the dead cock. Ducange has already quoted some instances where a

similar stratagem had been adopted by _Norman_ princes. On this

authority Wilken inclines to believe the fact. Appendix to vol.

ii. p. 14.—M.]

4 (return) [ Ἀπὸ Θύλης, in the Byzantine geography, must mean

England; yet we are more credibly informed, that our Henry I.

would not suffer him to levy any troops in his kingdom, (Ducange,

Not. ad Alexiad. p. 41.)]

5 (return) [ The copy of the treaty (Alexiad. l. xiii. p.

406—416) is an original and curious piece, which would require,

and might afford, a good map of the principality of Antioch.]

6 (return) [ See, in the learned work of M. De Guignes, (tom. ii.

part ii.,) the history of the Seljukians of Iconium, Aleppo, and

Damascus, as far as it may be collected from the Greeks, Latins,

and Arabians. The last are ignorant or regardless of the affairs

of _Roum_.]

7 (return) [ Iconium is mentioned as a station by Xenophon, and

by Strabo, with an ambiguous title of Κωμόπολις, (Cellarius, tom.

ii. p. 121.) Yet St. Paul found in that place a multitude

(πλῆθος) of Jews and Gentiles. under the corrupt name of

_Kunijah_, it is described as a great city, with a river and

garden, three leagues from the mountains, and decorated (I know

not why) with Plato’s tomb, (Abulfeda, tabul. xvii. p. 303 vers.

Reiske; and the Index Geographicus of Schultens from Ibn Said.)]

In the twelfth century, three great emigrations marched by land

from the West for the relief of Palestine. The soldiers and

pilgrims of Lombardy, France, and Germany were excited by the

example and success of the first crusade. 8 Forty-eight years

after the deliverance of the holy sepulchre, the emperor, and the

French king, Conrad the Third and Louis the Seventh, undertook

the second crusade to support the falling fortunes of the Latins.

9 A grand division of the third crusade was led by the emperor

Frederic Barbarossa, 10 who sympathized with his brothers of

France and England in the common loss of Jerusalem. These three

expeditions may be compared in their resemblance of the greatness

of numbers, their passage through the Greek empire, and the

nature and event of their Turkish warfare, and a brief parallel

may save the repetition of a tedious narrative. However splendid

it may seem, a regular story of the crusades would exhibit the

perpetual return of the same causes and effects; and the frequent

attempts for the defence or recovery of the Holy Land would

appear so many faint and unsuccessful copies of the original.

8 (return) [ For this supplement to the first crusade, see Anna

Comnena, (Alexias, l. xi. p. 331, &c., and the viiith book of

Albert Aquensis.)]

9 (return) [ For the second crusade, of Conrad III. and Louis

VII., see William of Tyre, (l. xvi. c. 18—19,) Otho of Frisingen,

(l. i. c. 34—45 59, 60,) Matthew Paris, (Hist. Major. p. 68,)

Struvius, (Corpus Hist Germanicæ, p. 372, 373,) Scriptores Rerum

Francicarum à Duchesne tom. iv.: Nicetas, in Vit. Manuel, l. i.

c. 4, 5, 6, p. 41—48, Cinnamus l. ii. p. 41—49.]

10 (return) [ For the third crusade, of Frederic Barbarossa, see

Nicetas in Isaac Angel. l. ii. c. 3—8, p. 257—266. Struv.

(Corpus. Hist. Germ. p. 414,) and two historians, who probably

were spectators, Tagino, (in Scriptor. Freher. tom. i. p.

406—416, edit Struv.,) and the Anonymus de Expeditione Asiaticâ

Fred. I. (in Canisii Antiq. Lection. tom. iii. p. ii. p. 498—526,

edit. Basnage.)]

I. Of the swarms that so closely trod in the footsteps of the

first pilgrims, the chiefs were equal in rank, though unequal in

fame and merit, to Godfrey of Bouillon and his

fellow-adventurers. At their head were displayed the banners of

the dukes of Burgundy, Bavaria, and Aquitain; the first a

descendant of Hugh Capet, the second, a father of the Brunswick

line: the archbishop of Milan, a temporal prince, transported,

for the benefit of the Turks, the treasures and ornaments of his

church and palace; and the veteran crusaders, Hugh the Great and

Stephen of Chartres, returned to consummate their unfinished vow.

The huge and disorderly bodies of their followers moved forward

in two columns; and if the first consisted of two hundred and

sixty thousand persons, the second might possibly amount to sixty

thousand horse and one hundred thousand foot. 11 111 The armies

of the second crusade might have claimed the conquest of Asia;

the nobles of France and Germany were animated by the presence of

their sovereigns; and both the rank and personal character of

Conrad and Louis gave a dignity to their cause, and a discipline

to their force, which might be vainly expected from the feudatory

chiefs. The cavalry of the emperor, and that of the king, was

each composed of seventy thousand knights, and their immediate

attendants in the field; 12 and if the light-armed troops, the

peasant infantry, the women and children, the priests and monks,

be rigorously excluded, the full account will scarcely be

satisfied with four hundred thousand souls. The West, from Rome

to Britain, was called into action; the kings of Poland and

Bohemia obeyed the summons of Conrad; and it is affirmed by the

Greeks and Latins, that, in the passage of a strait or river, the

Byzantine agents, after a tale of nine hundred thousand, desisted

from the endless and formidable computation. 13 In the third

crusade, as the French and English preferred the navigation of

the Mediterranean, the host of Frederic Barbarossa was less

numerous. Fifteen thousand knights, and as many squires, were the

flower of the German chivalry: sixty thousand horse, and one

hundred thousand foot, were mustered by the emperor in the plains

of Hungary; and after such repetitions, we shall no longer be

startled at the six hundred thousand pilgrims, which credulity

has ascribed to this last emigration. 14 Such extravagant

reckonings prove only the astonishment of contemporaries; but

their astonishment most strongly bears testimony to the existence

of an enormous, though indefinite, multitude. The Greeks might

applaud their superior knowledge of the arts and stratagems of

war, but they confessed the strength and courage of the French

cavalry, and the infantry of the Germans; 15 and the strangers

are described as an iron race, of gigantic stature, who darted

fire from their eyes, and spilt blood like water on the ground.

Under the banners of Conrad, a troop of females rode in the

attitude and armor of men; and the chief of these Amazons, from

her gilt spurs and buskins, obtained the epithet of the

Golden-footed Dame.

11 (return) [ Anne, who states these later swarms at 40,000 horse

and 100,000 foot, calls them Normans, and places at their head

two brothers of Flanders. The Greeks were strangely ignorant of

the names, families, and possessions of the Latin princes.]

111 (return) [ It was this army of pilgrims, the first body of

which was headed by the archbishop of Milan and Count Albert of

Blandras, which set forth on the wild, yet, with a more

disciplined army, not impolitic, enterprise of striking at the

heart of the Mahometan power, by attacking the sultan in Bagdad.

For their adventures and fate, see Wilken, vol. ii. p. 120, &c.,

Michaud, book iv.—M.]

12 (return) [ William of Tyre, and Matthew Paris, reckon 70,000

loricati in each of the armies.]

13 (return) [ The imperfect enumeration is mentioned by Cinnamus,

(ennenhkonta muriadeV,) and confirmed by Odo de Diogilo apud

Ducange ad Cinnamum, with the more precise sum of 900,556. Why

must therefore the version and comment suppose the modest and

insufficient reckoning of 90,000? Does not Godfrey of Viterbo

(Pantheon, p. xix. in Muratori, tom. vii. p. 462) exclaim?

——Numerum si poscere quæras, Millia millena militis agmen erat.]

14 (return) [ This extravagant account is given by Albert of

Stade, (apud Struvium, p. 414;) my calculation is borrowed from

Godfrey of Viterbo, Arnold of Lubeck, apud eundem, and Bernard

Thesaur. (c. 169, p. 804.) The original writers are silent. The

Mahometans gave him 200,000, or 260,000, men, (Bohadin, in Vit.

Saladin, p. 110.)]

15 (return) [ I must observe, that, in the second and third

crusades, the subjects of Conrad and Frederic are styled by the

Greeks and Orientals _Alamanni_. The Lechi and Tzechi of Cinnamus

are the Poles and Bohemians; and it is for the French that he

reserves the ancient appellation of Germans. He likewise names

the Brittioi, or Britannoi. * Note: * He names both—Brittioi te

kai Britanoi.—M.]

II. The number and character of the strangers was an object of

terror to the effeminate Greeks, and the sentiment of fear is

nearly allied to that of hatred. This aversion was suspended or

softened by the apprehension of the Turkish power; and the

invectives of the Latins will not bias our more candid belief,

that the emperor Alexius dissembled their insolence, eluded their

hostilities, counselled their rashness, and opened to their ardor

the road of pilgrimage and conquest. But when the Turks had been

driven from Nice and the sea-coast, when the Byzantine princes no

longer dreaded the distant sultans of Cogni, they felt with purer

indignation the free and frequent passage of the western

Barbarians, who violated the majesty, and endangered the safety,

of the empire. The second and third crusades were undertaken

under the reign of Manuel Comnenus and Isaac Angelus. Of the

former, the passions were always impetuous, and often malevolent;

and the natural union of a cowardly and a mischievous temper was

exemplified in the latter, who, without merit or mercy, could

punish a tyrant, and occupy his throne. It was secretly, and

perhaps tacitly, resolved by the prince and people to destroy, or

at least to discourage, the pilgrims, by every species of injury

and oppression; and their want of prudence and discipline

continually afforded the pretence or the opportunity. The Western

monarchs had stipulated a safe passage and fair market in the

country of their Christian brethren; the treaty had been ratified

by oaths and hostages; and the poorest soldier of Frederic’s army

was furnished with three marks of silver to defray his expenses

on the road. But every engagement was violated by treachery and

injustice; and the complaints of the Latins are attested by the

honest confession of a Greek historian, who has dared to prefer

truth to his country. 16 Instead of a hospitable reception, the

gates of the cities, both in Europe and Asia, were closely barred

against the crusaders; and the scanty pittance of food was let

down in baskets from the walls. Experience or foresight might

excuse this timid jealousy; but the common duties of humanity

prohibited the mixture of chalk, or other poisonous ingredients,

in the bread; and should Manuel be acquitted of any foul

connivance, he is guilty of coining base money for the purpose of

trading with the pilgrims. In every step of their march they were

stopped or misled: the governors had private orders to fortify

the passes and break down the bridges against them: the

stragglers were pillaged and murdered: the soldiers and horses

were pierced in the woods by arrows from an invisible hand; the

sick were burnt in their beds; and the dead bodies were hung on

gibbets along the highways. These injuries exasperated the

champions of the cross, who were not endowed with evangelical

patience; and the Byzantine princes, who had provoked the unequal

conflict, promoted the embarkation and march of these formidable

guests. On the verge of the Turkish frontier Barbarossa spared

the guilty Philadelphia, 17 rewarded the hospitable Laodicea, and

deplored the hard necessity that had stained his sword with any

drops of Christian blood. In their intercourse with the monarchs

of Germany and France, the pride of the Greeks was exposed to an

anxious trial. They might boast that on the first interview the

seat of Louis was a low stool, beside the throne of Manuel; 18

but no sooner had the French king transported his army beyond the

Bosphorus, than he refused the offer of a second conference,

unless his brother would meet him on equal terms, either on the

sea or land. With Conrad and Frederic, the ceremonial was still

nicer and more difficult: like the successors of Constantine,

they styled themselves emperors of the Romans; 19 and firmly

maintained the purity of their title and dignity. The first of

these representatives of Charlemagne would only converse with

Manuel on horseback in the open field; the second, by passing the

Hellespont rather than the Bosphorus, declined the view of

Constantinople and its sovereign. An emperor, who had been

crowned at Rome, was reduced in the Greek epistles to the humble

appellation of _Rex_, or prince, of the Alemanni; and the vain

and feeble Angelus affected to be ignorant of the name of one of

the greatest men and monarchs of the age. While they viewed with

hatred and suspicion the Latin pilgrims the Greek emperors

maintained a strict, though secret, alliance with the Turks and

Saracens. Isaac Angelus complained, that by his friendship for

the great Saladin he had incurred the enmity of the Franks; and a

mosque was founded at Constantinople for the public exercise of

the religion of Mahomet. 20

16 (return) [ Nicetas was a child at the second crusade, but in

the third he commanded against the Franks the important post of

Philippopolis. Cinnamus is infected with national prejudice and

pride.]

17 (return) [ The conduct of the Philadelphians is blamed by

Nicetas, while the anonymous German accuses the rudeness of his

countrymen, (culpâ nostrâ.) History would be pleasant, if we were

embarrassed only by _such_ contradictions. It is likewise from

Nicetas, that we learn the pious and humane sorrow of Frederic.]

18 (return) [ Cqamalh edra, which Cinnamus translates into Latin

by the word Sellion. Ducange works very hard to save his king and

country from such ignominy, (sur Joinville, dissertat. xxvii. p.

317—320.) Louis afterwards insisted on a meeting in mari ex æquo,

not ex equo, according to the laughable readings of some MSS.]

19 (return) [ Ego Romanorum imperator sum, ille Romaniorum,

(Anonym Canis. p. 512.) The public and historical style of the

Greeks was Ριξ... _princeps_. Yet Cinnamus owns, that Ἰμπεράτορ

is synonymous to Βασιλεὺς.]

20 (return) [ In the Epistles of Innocent III., (xiii. p. 184,)

and the History of Bohadin, (p. 129, 130,) see the views of a

pope and a cadhi on this _singular_toleration.]

III. The swarms that followed the first crusade were destroyed in

Anatolia by famine, pestilence, and the Turkish arrows; and the

princes only escaped with some squadrons of horse to accomplish

their lamentable pilgrimage. A just opinion may be formed of

their knowledge and humanity; of their knowledge, from the design

of subduing Persia and Chorasan in their way to Jerusalem; 201 of

their humanity, from the massacre of the Christian people, a

friendly city, who came out to meet them with palms and crosses

in their hands. The arms of Conrad and Louis were less cruel and

imprudent; but the event of the second crusade was still more

ruinous to Christendom; and the Greek Manuel is accused by his

own subjects of giving seasonable intelligence to the sultan, and

treacherous guides to the Latin princes. Instead of crushing the

common foe, by a double attack at the same time but on different

sides, the Germans were urged by emulation, and the French were

retarded by jealousy. Louis had scarcely passed the Bosphorus

when he was met by the returning emperor, who had lost the

greater part of his army in glorious, but unsuccessful, actions

on the banks of the Mæander. The contrast of the pomp of his

rival hastened the retreat of Conrad: 202 the desertion of his

independent vassals reduced him to his hereditary troops; and he

borrowed some Greek vessels to execute by sea the pilgrimage of

Palestine. Without studying the lessons of experience, or the

nature of the war, the king of France advanced through the same

country to a similar fate. The vanguard, which bore the royal

banner and the oriflamme of St. Denys, 21 had doubled their march

with rash and inconsiderate speed; and the rear, which the king

commanded in person, no longer found their companions in the

evening camp. In darkness and disorder, they were encompassed,

assaulted, and overwhelmed, by the innumerable host of Turks,

who, in the art of war, were superior to the Christians of the

twelfth century. 211 Louis, who climbed a tree in the general

discomfiture, was saved by his own valor and the ignorance of his

adversaries; and with the dawn of day he escaped alive, but

almost alone, to the camp of the vanguard. But instead of

pursuing his expedition by land, he was rejoiced to shelter the

relics of his army in the friendly seaport of Satalia. From

thence he embarked for Antioch; but so penurious was the supply

of Greek vessels, that they could only afford room for his

knights and nobles; and the plebeian crowd of infantry was left

to perish at the foot of the Pamphylian hills. The emperor and

the king embraced and wept at Jerusalem; their martial trains,

the remnant of mighty armies, were joined to the Christian powers

of Syria, and a fruitless siege of Damascus was the final effort

of the second crusade. Conrad and Louis embarked for Europe with

the personal fame of piety and courage; but the Orientals had

braved these potent monarchs of the Franks, with whose names and

military forces they had been so often threatened. 22 Perhaps

they had still more to fear from the veteran genius of Frederic

the First, who in his youth had served in Asia under his uncle

Conrad. Forty campaigns in Germany and Italy had taught

Barbarossa to command; and his soldiers, even the princes of the

empire, were accustomed under his reign to obey. As soon as he

lost sight of Philadelphia and Laodicea, the last cities of the

Greek frontier, he plunged into the salt and barren desert, a

land (says the historian) of horror and tribulation. 23 During

twenty days, every step of his fainting and sickly march was

besieged by the innumerable hordes of Turkmans, 24 whose numbers

and fury seemed after each defeat to multiply and inflame. The

emperor continued to struggle and to suffer; and such was the

measure of his calamities, that when he reached the gates of

Iconium, no more than one thousand knights were able to serve on

horseback. By a sudden and resolute assault he defeated the

guards, and stormed the capital of the sultan, 25 who humbly sued

for pardon and peace. The road was now open, and Frederic

advanced in a career of triumph, till he was unfortunately

drowned in a petty torrent of Cilicia. 26 The remainder of his

Germans was consumed by sickness and desertion: and the emperor’s

son expired with the greatest part of his Swabian vassals at the

siege of Acre. Among the Latin heroes, Godfrey of Bouillon and

Frederic Barbarossa could alone achieve the passage of the Lesser

Asia; yet even their success was a warning; and in the last and

most experienced age of the crusades, every nation preferred the

sea to the toils and perils of an inland expedition. 27

201 (return) [ This was the design of the pilgrims under the

archbishop of Milan. See note, p. 102.—M.]

202 (return) [ Conrad had advanced with part of his army along a

central road, between that on the coast and that which led to

Iconium. He had been betrayed by the Greeks, his army destroyed

without a battle. Wilken, vol. iii. p. 165. Michaud, vol. ii. p.

156. Conrad advanced again with Louis as far as Ephesus, and from

thence, at the invitation of Manuel, returned to Constantinople.

It was Louis who, at the passage of the Mæander, was engaged in a

“glorious action.” Wilken, vol. iii. p. 179. Michaud vol. ii. p.

160. Gibbon followed Nicetas.—M.]

21 (return) [ As counts of Vexin, the kings of France were the

vassals and advocates of the monastery of St. Denys. The saint’s

peculiar banner, which they received from the abbot, was of a

square form, and a red or _flaming_ color. The _oriflamme_

appeared at the head of the French armies from the xiith to the

xvth century, (Ducange sur Joinville, Dissert. xviii. p.

244—253.)]

211 (return) [ They descended the heights to a beautiful valley

which by beneath them. The Turks seized the heights which

separated the two divisions of the army. The modern historians

represent differently the act to which Louis owed his safety,

which Gibbon has described by the undignified phrase, “he climbed

a tree.” According to Michaud, vol. ii. p. 164, the king got upon

a rock, with his back against a tree; according to Wilken, vol.

iii., he dragged himself up to the top of the rock by the roots

of a tree, and continued to defend himself till nightfall.—M.]

22 (return) [ The original French histories of the second crusade

are the Gesta Ludovici VII. published in the ivth volume of

Duchesne’s collection. The same volume contains many original

letters of the king, of Suger his minister, &c., the best

documents of authentic history.]

23 (return) [ Terram horroris et salsuginis, terram siccam

sterilem, inamnam. Anonym. Canis. p. 517. The emphatic language

of a sufferer.]

24 (return) [ Gens innumera, sylvestris, indomita, prædones sine

ductore. The sultan of Cogni might sincerely rejoice in their

defeat. Anonym. Canis. p. 517, 518.]

25 (return) [ See, in the anonymous writer in the Collection of

Canisius, Tagino and Bohadin, (Vit. Saladin. p. 119, 120,) the

ambiguous conduct of Kilidge Arslan, sultan of Cogni, who hated

and feared both Saladin and Frederic.]

26 (return) [ The desire of comparing two great men has tempted

many writers to drown Frederic in the River Cydnus, in which

Alexander so imprudently bathed, (Q. Cœurt. l. iii c. 4, 5.) But,

from the march of the emperor, I rather judge, that his Saleph is

the Calycadnus, a stream of less fame, but of a longer course. *

Note: * It is now called the Girama: its course is described in

M’Donald Kinneir’s Travels.—M.]

27 (return) [ Marinus Sanutus, A.D. 1321, lays it down as a

precept, Quod stolus ecclesiæ per terram nullatenus est ducenda.

He resolves, by the divine aid, the objection, or rather

exception, of the first crusade, (Secreta Fidelium Crucis, l. ii.

pars ii. c. i. p. 37.)]

The enthusiasm of the first crusade is a natural and simple

event, while hope was fresh, danger untried, and enterprise

congenial to the spirit of the times. But the obstinate

perseverance of Europe may indeed excite our pity and admiration;

that no instruction should have been drawn from constant and

adverse experience; that the same confidence should have

repeatedly grown from the same failures; that six succeeding

generations should have rushed headlong down the precipice that

was open before them; and that men of every condition should have

staked their public and private fortunes on the desperate

adventure of possessing or recovering a tombstone two thousand

miles from their country. In a period of two centuries after the

council of Clermont, each spring and summer produced a new

emigration of pilgrim warriors for the defence of the Holy Land;

but the seven great armaments or crusades were excited by some

impending or recent calamity: the nations were moved by the

authority of their pontiffs, and the example of their kings:

their zeal was kindled, and their reason was silenced, by the

voice of their holy orators; and among these, Bernard, 28 the

monk, or the saint, may claim the most honorable place. 281 About

eight years before the first conquest of Jerusalem, he was born

of a noble family in Burgundy; at the age of three-and-twenty he

buried himself in the monastery of Citeaux, then in the primitive

fervor of the institution; at the end of two years he led forth

her third colony, or daughter, to the valley of Clairvaux 29 in

Champagne; and was content, till the hour of his death, with the

humble station of abbot of his own community. A philosophic age

has abolished, with too liberal and indiscriminate disdain, the

honors of these spiritual heroes. The meanest among them are

distinguished by some energies of the mind; they were at least

superior to their votaries and disciples; and, in the race of

superstition, they attained the prize for which such numbers

contended. In speech, in writing, in action, Bernard stood high

above his rivals and contemporaries; his compositions are not

devoid of wit and eloquence; and he seems to have preserved as

much reason and humanity as may be reconciled with the character

of a saint. In a secular life, he would have shared the seventh

part of a private inheritance; by a vow of poverty and penance,

by closing his eyes against the visible world, 30 by the refusal

of all ecclesiastical dignities, the abbot of Clairvaux became

the oracle of Europe, and the founder of one hundred and sixty

convents. Princes and pontiffs trembled at the freedom of his

apostolical censures: France, England, and Milan, consulted and

obeyed his judgment in a schism of the church: the debt was

repaid by the gratitude of Innocent the Second; and his

successor, Eugenius the Third, was the friend and disciple of the

holy Bernard. It was in the proclamation of the second crusade

that he shone as the missionary and prophet of God, who called

the nations to the defence of his holy sepulchre. 31 At the

parliament of Vezelay he spoke before the king; and Louis the

Seventh, with his nobles, received their crosses from his hand.

The abbot of Clairvaux then marched to the less easy conquest of

the emperor Conrad: 311 a phlegmatic people, ignorant of his

language, was transported by the pathetic vehemence of his tone

and gestures; and his progress, from Constance to Cologne, was

the triumph of eloquence and zeal. Bernard applauds his own

success in the depopulation of Europe; affirms that cities and

castles were emptied of their inhabitants; and computes, that

only one man was left behind for the consolation of seven widows.

32 The blind fanatics were desirous of electing him for their

general; but the example of the hermit Peter was before his eyes;

and while he assured the crusaders of the divine favor, he

prudently declined a military command, in which failure and

victory would have been almost equally disgraceful to his

character. 33 Yet, after the calamitous event, the abbot of

Clairvaux was loudly accused as a false prophet, the author of

the public and private mourning; his enemies exulted, his friends

blushed, and his apology was slow and unsatisfactory. He

justifies his obedience to the commands of the pope; expatiates

on the mysterious ways of Providence; imputes the misfortunes of

the pilgrims to their own sins; and modestly insinuates, that his

mission had been approved by signs and wonders. 34 Had the fact

been certain, the argument would be decisive; and his faithful

disciples, who enumerate twenty or thirty miracles in a day,

appeal to the public assemblies of France and Germany, in which

they were performed. 35 At the present hour, such prodigies will

not obtain credit beyond the precincts of Clairvaux; but in the

preternatural cures of the blind, the lame, and the sick, who

were presented to the man of God, it is impossible for us to

ascertain the separate shares of accident, of fancy, of

imposture, and of fiction.

28 (return) [ The most authentic information of St. Bernard must

be drawn from his own writings, published in a correct edition by

Père Mabillon, and reprinted at Venice, 1750, in six volumes in

folio. Whatever friendship could recollect, or superstition could

add, is contained in the two lives, by his disciples, in the vith

volume: whatever learning and criticism could ascertain, may be

found in the prefaces of the Benedictine editor.]

281 (return) [ Gibbon, whose account of the crusades is perhaps

the least accurate and satisfactory chapter in his History, has

here failed in that lucid arrangement, which in general gives

perspicuity to his most condensed and crowded narratives. He has

unaccountably, and to the great perplexity of the reader, placed

the preaching of St Bernard after the second crusade to which i

led.—M.]

29 (return) [ Clairvaux, surnamed the valley of Absynth, is

situate among the woods near Bar sur Aube in Champagne. St.

Bernard would blush at the pomp of the church and monastery; he

would ask for the library, and I know not whether he would be

much edified by a tun of 800 muids, (914 1-7 hogsheads,) which

almost rivals that of Heidelberg, (Mélanges tirés d’une Grande

Bibliothèque, tom. xlvi. p. 15—20.)]

30 (return) [ The disciples of the saint (Vit. ima, l. iii. c. 2,

p. 1232. Vit. iida, c. 16, No. 45, p. 1383) record a marvellous

example of his pious apathy. Juxta lacum etiam Lausannensem

totius diei itinere pergens, penitus non attendit aut se videre

non vidit. Cum enim vespere facto de eodem lacû socii

colloquerentur, interrogabat eos ubi lacus ille esset, et mirati

sunt universi. To admire or despise St. Bernard as he ought, the

reader, like myself, should have before the windows of his

library the beauties of that incomparable landscape.]

31 (return) [ Otho Frising. l. i. c. 4. Bernard. Epist. 363, ad

Francos Orientales Opp. tom. i. p. 328. Vit. ima, l. iii. c. 4,

tom. vi. p. 1235.]

311 (return) [ Bernard had a nobler object in his expedition into

Germany—to arrest the fierce and merciless persecution of the

Jews, which was preparing, under the monk Radulph, to renew the

frightful scenes which had preceded the first crusade, in the

flourishing cities on the banks of the Rhine. The Jews

acknowledge the Christian intervention of St. Bernard. See the

curious extract from the History of Joseph ben Meir. Wilken, vol.

iii. p. 1. and p. 63.—M.]

32 (return) [ Mandastis et obedivi.... multiplicati sunt super

numerum; vacuantur urbes et castella; et _pene_ jam non inveniunt

quem apprehendant septem mulieres unum virum; adeo ubique viduæ

vivis remanent viris. Bernard. Epist. p. 247. We must be careful

not to construe _pene_ as a substantive.]

33 (return) [ Quis ego sum ut disponam acies, ut egrediar ante

facies armatorum, aut quid tam remotum a professione meâ, si

vires, si peritia, &c. Epist. 256, tom. i. p. 259. He speaks with

contempt of the hermit Peter, vir quidam, Epist. 363.]

34 (return) [ Sic dicunt forsitan isti, unde scimus quòd a Domino

sermo egressus sit? Quæ signa tu facis ut credamus tibi? Non est

quod ad ista ipse respondeam; parcendum verecundiæ meæ, responde

tu pro me, et pro te ipso, secundum quæ vidisti et audisti, et

secundum quod te inspiraverit Deus. Consolat. l. ii. c. 1. Opp.

tom. ii. p. 421—423.]

35 (return) [ See the testimonies in Vita ima, l. iv. c. 5, 6.

Opp. tom. vi. p. 1258—1261, l. vi. c. 1—17, p. 1286—1314.]

Omnipotence itself cannot escape the murmurs of its discordant

votaries; since the same dispensation which was applauded as a

deliverance in Europe, was deplored, and perhaps arraigned, as a

calamity in Asia. After the loss of Jerusalem, the Syrian

fugitives diffused their consternation and sorrow; Bagdad mourned

in the dust; the cadhi Zeineddin of Damascus tore his beard in

the caliph’s presence; and the whole divan shed tears at his

melancholy tale. 36 But the commanders of the faithful could only

weep; they were themselves captives in the hands of the Turks:

some temporal power was restored to the last age of the

Abbassides; but their humble ambition was confined to Bagdad and

the adjacent province. Their tyrants, the Seljukian sultans, had

followed the common law of the Asiatic dynasties, the unceasing

round of valor, greatness, discord, degeneracy, and decay; their

spirit and power were unequal to the defence of religion; and, in

his distant realm of Persia, the Christians were strangers to the

name and the arms of Sangiar, the last hero of his race. 37 While

the sultans were involved in the silken web of the harem, the

pious task was undertaken by their slaves, the Atabeks, 38 a

Turkish name, which, like the Byzantine patricians, may be

translated by Father of the Prince. Ascansar, a valiant Turk, had

been the favorite of Malek Shaw, from whom he received the

privilege of standing on the right hand of the throne; but, in

the civil wars that ensued on the monarch’s death, he lost his

head and the government of Aleppo. His domestic emirs persevered

in their attachment to his son Zenghi, who proved his first arms

against the Franks in the defeat of Antioch: thirty campaigns in

the service of the caliph and sultan established his military

fame; and he was invested with the command of Mosul, as the only

champion that could avenge the cause of the prophet. The public

hope was not disappointed: after a siege of twenty-five days, he

stormed the city of Edessa, and recovered from the Franks their

conquests beyond the Euphrates: 39 the martial tribes of

Cœurdistan were subdued by the independent sovereign of Mosul and

Aleppo: his soldiers were taught to behold the camp as their only

country; they trusted to his liberality for their rewards; and

their absent families were protected by the vigilance of Zenghi.

At the head of these veterans, his son Noureddin gradually united

the Mahometan powers; 391 added the kingdom of Damascus to that

of Aleppo, and waged a long and successful war against the

Christians of Syria; he spread his ample reign from the Tigris to

the Nile, and the Abbassides rewarded their faithful servant with

all the titles and prerogatives of royalty. The Latins themselves

were compelled to own the wisdom and courage, and even the

justice and piety, of this implacable adversary. 40 In his life

and government the holy warrior revived the zeal and simplicity

of the first caliphs. Gold and silk were banished from his

palace; the use of wine from his dominions; the public revenue

was scrupulously applied to the public service; and the frugal

household of Noureddin was maintained from his legitimate share

of the spoil which he vested in the purchase of a private estate.

His favorite sultana sighed for some female object of expense.

“Alas,” replied the king, “I fear God, and am no more than the

treasurer of the Moslems. Their property I cannot alienate; but I

still possess three shops in the city of Hems: these you may

take; and these alone can I bestow.” His chamber of justice was

the terror of the great and the refuge of the poor. Some years

after the sultan’s death, an oppressed subject called aloud in

the streets of Damascus, “O Noureddin, Noureddin, where art thou

now? Arise, arise, to pity and protect us!” A tumult was

apprehended, and a living tyrant blushed or trembled at the name

of a departed monarch.

36 (return) [ Abulmahasen apud de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom.

ii. p. ii. p. 99.]

37 (return) [ See his _article_ in the Bibliothèque Orientale of

D’Herbelot, and De Guignes, tom. ii. p. i. p. 230—261. Such was

his valor, that he was styled the second Alexander; and such the

extravagant love of his subjects, that they prayed for the sultan

a year after his decease. Yet Sangiar might have been made

prisoner by the Franks, as well as by the Uzes. He reigned near

fifty years, (A.D. 1103—1152,) and was a munificent patron of

Persian poetry.]

38 (return) [ See the Chronology of the Atabeks of Irak and

Syria, in De Guignes, tom. i. p. 254; and the reigns of Zenghi

and Noureddin in the same writer, (tom. ii. p. ii. p. 147—221,)

who uses the Arabic text of Benelathir, Ben Schouna and Abulfeda;

the Bibliothèque Orientale, under the articles _Atabeks_ and

_Noureddin_, and the Dynasties of Abulpharagius, p. 250—267,

vers. Pocock.]

39 (return) [ William of Tyre (l. xvi. c. 4, 5, 7) describes the

loss of Edessa, and the death of Zenghi. The corruption of his

name into _Sanguin_, afforded the Latins a comfortable allusion

to his _sanguinary_ character and end, fit sanguine

sanguinolentus.]

391 (return) [ On Noureddin’s conquest of Damascus, see extracts

from Arabian writers prefixed to the second part of the third

volume of Wilken.—M.]

40 (return) [ Noradinus (says William of Tyre, l. xx. 33) maximus

nominis et fidei Christianæ persecutor; princeps tamen justus,

vafer, providus’ et secundum gentis suæ traditiones religiosus.

To this Catholic witness we may add the primate of the Jacobites,

(Abulpharag. p. 267,) quo non alter erat inter reges vitæ ratione

magis laudabili, aut quæ pluribus justitiæ experimentis

abundaret. The true praise of kings is after their death, and

from the mouth of their enemies.]

Chapter LIX: The Crusades.—Part II.

By the arms of the Turks and Franks, the Fatimites had been

deprived of Syria. In Egypt the decay of their character and

influence was still more essential. Yet they were still revered

as the descendants and successors of the prophet; they maintained

their invisible state in the palace of Cairo; and their person

was seldom violated by the profane eyes of subjects or strangers.

The Latin ambassadors 41 have described their own introduction,

through a series of gloomy passages, and glittering porticos: the

scene was enlivened by the warbling of birds and the murmur of

fountains: it was enriched by a display of rich furniture and

rare animals; of the Imperial treasures, something was shown, and

much was supposed; and the long order of unfolding doors was

guarded by black soldiers and domestic eunuchs. The sanctuary of

the presence chamber was veiled with a curtain; and the vizier,

who conducted the ambassadors, laid aside the cimeter, and

prostrated himself three times on the ground; the veil was then

removed; and they beheld the commander of the faithful, who

signified his pleasure to the first slave of the throne. But this

slave was his master: the viziers or sultans had usurped the

supreme administration of Egypt; the claims of the rival

candidates were decided by arms; and the name of the most worthy,

of the strongest, was inserted in the royal patent of command.

The factions of Dargham and Shawer alternately expelled each

other from the capital and country; and the weaker side implored

the dangerous protection of the sultan of Damascus, or the king

of Jerusalem, the perpetual enemies of the sect and monarchy of

the Fatimites. By his arms and religion the Turk was most

formidable; but the Frank, in an easy, direct march, could

advance from Gaza to the Nile; while the intermediate situation

of his realm compelled the troops of Noureddin to wheel round the

skirts of Arabia, a long and painful circuit, which exposed them

to thirst, fatigue, and the burning winds of the desert. The

secret zeal and ambition of the Turkish prince aspired to reign

in Egypt under the name of the Abbassides; but the restoration of

the suppliant Shawer was the ostensible motive of the first

expedition; and the success was intrusted to the emir Shiracouh,

a valiant and veteran commander. Dargham was oppressed and slain;

but the ingratitude, the jealousy, the just apprehensions, of his

more fortunate rival, soon provoked him to invite the king of

Jerusalem to deliver Egypt from his insolent benefactors. To this

union the forces of Shiracouh were unequal: he relinquished the

premature conquest; and the evacuation of Belbeis or Pelusium was

the condition of his safe retreat. As the Turks defiled before

the enemy, and their general closed the rear, with a vigilant

eye, and a battle axe in his hand, a Frank presumed to ask him if

he were not afraid of an attack. “It is doubtless in your power

to begin the attack,” replied the intrepid emir; “but rest

assured, that not one of my soldiers will go to paradise till he

has sent an infidel to hell.” His report of the riches of the

land, the effeminacy of the natives, and the disorders of the

government, revived the hopes of Noureddin; the caliph of Bagdad

applauded the pious design; and Shiracouh descended into Egypt a

second time with twelve thousand Turks and eleven thousand Arabs.

Yet his forces were still inferior to the confederate armies of

the Franks and Saracens; and I can discern an unusual degree of

military art, in his passage of the Nile, his retreat into

Thebais, his masterly evolutions in the battle of Babain, the

surprise of Alexandria, and his marches and countermarches in the

flats and valley of Egypt, from the tropic to the sea. His

conduct was seconded by the courage of his troops, and on the eve

of action a Mamaluke 42 exclaimed, “If we cannot wrest Egypt from

the Christian dogs, why do we not renounce the honors and rewards

of the sultan, and retire to labor with the peasants, or to spin

with the females of the harem?” Yet, after all his efforts in the

field, 43 after the obstinate defence of Alexandria 44 by his

nephew Saladin, an honorable capitulation and retreat 441

concluded the second enterprise of Shiracouh; and Noureddin

reserved his abilities for a third and more propitious occasion.

It was soon offered by the ambition and avarice of Amalric or

Amaury, king of Jerusalem, who had imbibed the pernicious maxim,

that no faith should be kept with the enemies of God. 442 A

religious warrior, the great master of the hospital, encouraged

him to proceed; the emperor of Constantinople either gave, or

promised, a fleet to act with the armies of Syria; and the

perfidious Christian, unsatisfied with spoil and subsidy, aspired

to the conquest of Egypt. In this emergency, the Moslems turned

their eyes towards the sultan of Damascus; the vizier, whom

danger encompassed on all sides, yielded to their unanimous

wishes, and Noureddin seemed to be tempted by the fair offer of

one third of the revenue of the kingdom. The Franks were already

at the gates of Cairo; but the suburbs, the old city, were burnt

on their approach; they were deceived by an insidious

negotiation, and their vessels were unable to surmount the

barriers of the Nile. They prudently declined a contest with the

Turks in the midst of a hostile country; and Amaury retired into

Palestine with the shame and reproach that always adhere to

unsuccessful injustice. After this deliverance, Shiracouh was

invested with a robe of honor, which he soon stained with the

blood of the unfortunate Shawer. For a while, the Turkish emirs

condescended to hold the office of vizier; but this foreign

conquest precipitated the fall of the Fatimites themselves; and

the bloodless change was accomplished by a message and a word.

The caliphs had been degraded by their own weakness and the

tyranny of the viziers: their subjects blushed, when the

descendant and successor of the prophet presented his naked hand

to the rude gripe of a Latin ambassador; they wept when he sent

the hair of his women, a sad emblem of their grief and terror, to

excite the pity of the sultan of Damascus. By the command of

Noureddin, and the sentence of the doctors, the holy names of

Abubeker, Omar, and Othman, were solemnly restored: the caliph

Mosthadi, of Bagdad, was acknowledged in the public prayers as

the true commander of the faithful; and the green livery of the

sons of Ali was exchanged for the black color of the Abbassides.

The last of his race, the caliph Adhed, who survived only ten

days, expired in happy ignorance of his fate; his treasures

secured the loyalty of the soldiers, and silenced the murmurs of

the sectaries; and in all subsequent revolutions, Egypt has never

departed from the orthodox tradition of the Moslems. 45

41 (return) [ From the ambassador, William of Tyre (l. xix. c.

17, 18,) describes the palace of Cairo. In the caliph’s treasure

were found a pearl as large as a pigeon’s egg, a ruby weighing

seventeen Egyptian drams, an emerald a palm and a half in length,

and many vases of crystal and porcelain of China, (Renaudot, p.

536.)]

42 (return) [ _Mamluc_, plur. _Mamalic_, is defined by Pocock,

(Prolegom. ad Abulpharag. p. 7,) and D’Herbelot, (p. 545,) servum

emptitium, seu qui pretio numerato in domini possessionem cedit.

They frequently occur in the wars of Saladin, (Bohadin, p. 236,

&c.;) and it was only the _Bahartie_ Mamalukes that were first

introduced into Egypt by his descendants.]

43 (return) [ Jacobus à Vitriaco (p. 1116) gives the king of

Jerusalem no more than 374 knights. Both the Franks and the

Moslems report the superior numbers of the enemy; a difference

which may be solved by counting or omitting the unwarlike

Egyptians.]

44 (return) [ It was the Alexandria of the Arabs, a middle term

in extent and riches between the period of the Greeks and Romans,

and that of the Turks, (Savary, Lettres sur l’Egypte, tom. i. p.

25, 26.)]

441 (return) [ The treaty stipulated that both the Christians and

the Arabs should withdraw from Egypt. Wilken, vol. iii. part ii.

p. 113.—M.]

442 (return) [ The Knights Templars, abhorring the perfidious

breach of treaty partly, perhaps, out of jealousy of the

Hospitallers, refused to join in this enterprise. Will. Tyre c.

xx. p. 5. Wilken, vol. iii. part ii. p. 117.—M.]

45 (return) [ For this great revolution of Egypt, see William of

Tyre, (l. xix. 5, 6, 7, 12—31, xx. 5—12,) Bohadin, (in Vit.

Saladin, p. 30—39,) Abulfeda, (in Excerpt. Schultens, p. 1—12,)

D’Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. _Adhed_, _Fathemah_, but very

incorrect,) Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 522—525,

532—537,) Vertot, (Hist. des Chevaliers de Malthe, tom. i. p.

141—163, in 4to.,) and M. de Guignes, (tom. ii. p. 185—215.)]

The hilly country beyond the Tigris is occupied by the pastoral

tribes of the Cœurds; 46 a people hardy, strong, savage impatient

of the yoke, addicted to rapine, and tenacious of the government

of their national chiefs. The resemblance of name, situation, and

manners, seems to identify them with the Carduchians of the

Greeks; 47 and they still defend against the Ottoman Porte the

antique freedom which they asserted against the successors of

Cyrus. Poverty and ambition prompted them to embrace the

profession of mercenary soldiers: the service of his father and

uncle prepared the reign of the great Saladin; 48 and the son of

Job or Ayud, a simple Cœurd, magnanimously smiled at his

pedigree, which flattery deduced from the Arabian caliphs. 49 So

unconscious was Noureddin of the impending ruin of his house,

that he constrained the reluctant youth to follow his uncle

Shiracouh into Egypt: his military character was established by

the defence of Alexandria; and, if we may believe the Latins, he

solicited and obtained from the Christian general the

_profane_honors of knighthood. 50 On the death of Shiracouh, the

office of grand vizier was bestowed on Saladin, as the youngest

and least powerful of the emirs; but with the advice of his

father, whom he invited to Cairo, his genius obtained the

ascendant over his equals, and attached the army to his person

and interest. While Noureddin lived, these ambitious Cœurds were

the most humble of his slaves; and the indiscreet murmurs of the

divan were silenced by the prudent Ayub, who loudly protested

that at the command of the sultan he himself would lead his sons

in chains to the foot of the throne. “Such language,” he added in

private, “was prudent and proper in an assembly of your rivals;

but we are now above fear and obedience; and the threats of

Noureddin shall not extort the tribute of a sugar-cane.” His

seasonable death relieved them from the odious and doubtful

conflict: his son, a minor of eleven years of age, was left for a

while to the emirs of Damascus; and the new lord of Egypt was

decorated by the caliph with every title 51 that could sanctify

his usurpation in the eyes of the people. Nor was Saladin long

content with the possession of Egypt; he despoiled the Christians

of Jerusalem, and the Atabeks of Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir:

Mecca and Medina acknowledged him for their temporal protector:

his brother subdued the distant regions of Yemen, or the happy

Arabia; and at the hour of his death, his empire was spread from

the African Tripoli to the Tigris, and from the Indian Ocean to

the mountains of Armenia. In the judgment of his character, the

reproaches of treason and ingratitude strike forcibly on _our_

minds, impressed, as they are, with the principle and experience

of law and loyalty. But his ambition may in some measure be

excused by the revolutions of Asia, 52 which had erased every

notion of legitimate succession; by the recent example of the

Atabeks themselves; by his reverence to the son of his

benefactor; his humane and generous behavior to the collateral

branches; by _their_ incapacity and _his_ merit; by the

approbation of the caliph, the sole source of all legitimate

power; and, above all, by the wishes and interest of the people,

whose happiness is the first object of government. In _his_

virtues, and in those of his patron, they admired the singular

union of the hero and the saint; for both Noureddin and Saladin

are ranked among the Mahometan saints; and the constant

meditation of the holy war appears to have shed a serious and

sober color over their lives and actions. The youth of the latter

53 was addicted to wine and women: but his aspiring spirit soon

renounced the temptations of pleasure for the graver follies of

fame and dominion: the garment of Saladin was of coarse woollen;

water was his only drink; and, while he emulated the temperance,

he surpassed the chastity, of his Arabian prophet. Both in faith

and practice he was a rigid Mussulman: he ever deplored that the

defence of religion had not allowed him to accomplish the

pilgrimage of Mecca; but at the stated hours, five times each

day, the sultan devoutly prayed with his brethren: the

involuntary omission of fasting was scrupulously repaid; and his

perusal of the Koran, on horseback between the approaching

armies, may be quoted as a proof, however ostentatious, of piety

and courage. 54 The superstitious doctrine of the sect of Shafei

was the only study that he deigned to encourage: the poets were

safe in his contempt; but all profane science was the object of

his aversion; and a philosopher, who had invented some

speculative novelties, was seized and strangled by the command of

the royal saint. The justice of his divan was accessible to the

meanest suppliant against himself and his ministers; and it was

only for a kingdom that Saladin would deviate from the rule of

equity. While the descendants of Seljuk and Zenghi held his

stirrup and smoothed his garments, he was affable and patient

with the meanest of his servants. So boundless was his

liberality, that he distributed twelve thousand horses at the

siege of Acre; and, at the time of his death, no more than

forty-seven drams of silver and one piece of gold coin were found

in the treasury; yet, in a martial reign, the tributes were

diminished, and the wealthy citizens enjoyed, without fear or

danger, the fruits of their industry. Egypt, Syria, and Arabia,

were adorned by the royal foundations of hospitals, colleges, and

mosques; and Cairo was fortified with a wall and citadel; but his

works were consecrated to public use: 55 nor did the sultan

indulge himself in a garden or palace of private luxury. In a

fanatic age, himself a fanatic, the genuine virtues of Saladin

commanded the esteem of the Christians; the emperor of Germany

gloried in his friendship; 56 the Greek emperor solicited his

alliance; 57 and the conquest of Jerusalem diffused, and perhaps

magnified, his fame both in the East and West.

46 (return) [ For the Cœurds, see De Guignes, tom. ii. p. 416,

417, the Index Geographicus of Schultens and Tavernier, Voyages,

p. i. p. 308, 309. The Ayoubites descended from the tribe of the

Rawadiæi, one of the noblest; but as _they_ were infected with

the heresy of the Metempsychosis, the orthodox sultans insinuated

that their descent was only on the mother’s side, and that their

ancestor was a stranger who settled among the Cœurds.]

47 (return) [ See the ivth book of the Anabasis of Xenophon. The

ten thousand suffered more from the arrows of the free

Carduchians, than from the splendid weakness of the great king.]

48 (return) [ We are indebted to the professor Schultens (Lugd.

Bat, 1755, in folio) for the richest and most authentic

materials, a life of Saladin by his friend and minister the Cadhi

Bohadin, and copious extracts from the history of his kinsman the

prince Abulfeda of Hamah. To these we may add, the article of

_Salaheddin_ in the Bibliothèque Orientale, and all that may be

gleaned from the Dynasties of Abulpharagius.]

49 (return) [ Since Abulfeda was himself an Ayoubite, he may

share the praise, for imitating, at least tacitly, the modesty of

the founder.]

50 (return) [ Hist. Hierosol. in the Gesta Dei per Francos, p.

1152. A similar example may be found in Joinville, (p. 42,

edition du Louvre;) but the pious St. Louis refused to dignify

infidels with the order of Christian knighthood, (Ducange,

Observations, p 70.)]

51 (return) [ In these Arabic titles, _religionis_ must always be

understood; _Noureddin_, lumen r.; _Ezzodin_, decus; _Amadoddin_,

columen: our hero’s proper name was Joseph, and he was styled

_Salahoddin_, salus; _Al Malichus_, _Al Nasirus_, rex defensor;

_Abu Modaffer_, pater victoriæ, Schultens, Præfat.]

52 (return) [ Abulfeda, who descended from a brother of Saladin,

observes, from many examples, that the founders of dynasties took

the guilt for themselves, and left the reward to their innocent

collaterals, (Excerpt p. 10.)]

53 (return) [ See his life and character in Renaudot, p.

537—548.]

54 (return) [ His civil and religious virtues are celebrated in

the first chapter of Bohadin, (p. 4—30,) himself an eye-witness,

and an honest bigot.]

55 (return) [ In many works, particularly Joseph’s well in the

castle of Cairo, the Sultan and the Patriarch have been

confounded by the ignorance of natives and travellers.]

56 (return) [ Anonym. Canisii, tom. iii. p. ii. p. 504.]

57 (return) [ Bohadin, p. 129, 130.]

During its short existence, the kingdom of Jerusalem 58 was

supported by the discord of the Turks and Saracens; and both the

Fatimite caliphs and the sultans of Damascus were tempted to

sacrifice the cause of their religion to the meaner

considerations of private and present advantage. But the powers

of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia, were now united by a hero, whom

nature and fortune had armed against the Christians. All without

now bore the most threatening aspect; and all was feeble and

hollow in the internal state of Jerusalem. After the two first

Baldwins, the brother and cousin of Godfrey of Bouillon, the

sceptre devolved by female succession to Melisenda, daughter of

the second Baldwin, and her husband Fulk, count of Anjou, the

father, by a former marriage, of our English Plantagenets. Their

two sons, Baldwin the Third, and Amaury, waged a strenuous, and

not unsuccessful, war against the infidels; but the son of

Amaury, Baldwin the Fourth, was deprived, by the leprosy, a gift

of the crusades, of the faculties both of mind and body. His

sister Sybilla, the mother of Baldwin the Fifth, was his natural

heiress: after the suspicious death of her child, she crowned her

second husband, Guy of Lusignan, a prince of a handsome person,

but of such base renown, that his own brother Jeffrey was heard

to exclaim, “Since they have made _him_ a king, surely they would

have made _me_ a god!” The choice was generally blamed; and the

most powerful vassal, Raymond count of Tripoli, who had been

excluded from the succession and regency, entertained an

implacable hatred against the king, and exposed his honor and

conscience to the temptations of the sultan. Such were the

guardians of the holy city; a leper, a child, a woman, a coward,

and a traitor: yet its fate was delayed twelve years by some

supplies from Europe, by the valor of the military orders, and by

the distant or domestic avocations of their great enemy. At

length, on every side, the sinking state was encircled and

pressed by a hostile line: and the truce was violated by the

Franks, whose existence it protected. A soldier of fortune,

Reginald of Chatillon, had seized a fortress on the edge of the

desert, from whence he pillaged the caravans, insulted Mahomet,

and threatened the cities of Mecca and Medina. Saladin

condescended to complain; rejoiced in the denial of justice, and

at the head of fourscore thousand horse and foot invaded the Holy

Land. The choice of Tiberias for his first siege was suggested by

the count of Tripoli, to whom it belonged; and the king of

Jerusalem was persuaded to drain his garrison, and to arm his

people, for the relief of that important place. 59 By the advice

of the perfidious Raymond, the Christians were betrayed into a

camp destitute of water: he fled on the first onset, with the

curses of both nations: 60 Lusignan was overthrown, with the loss

of thirty thousand men; and the wood of the true cross (a dire

misfortune!) was left in the power of the infidels. 601 The royal

captive was conducted to the tent of Saladin; and as he fainted

with thirst and terror, the generous victor presented him with a

cup of sherbet, cooled in snow, without suffering his companion,

Reginald of Chatillon, to partake of this pledge of hospitality

and pardon. “The person and dignity of a king,” said the sultan,

“are sacred, but this impious robber must instantly acknowledge

the prophet, whom he has blasphemed, or meet the death which he

has so often deserved.” On the proud or conscientious refusal of

the Christian warrior, Saladin struck him on the head with his

cimeter, and Reginald was despatched by the guards. 61 The

trembling Lusignan was sent to Damascus, to an honorable prison

and speedy ransom; but the victory was stained by the execution

of two hundred and thirty knights of the hospital, the intrepid

champions and martyrs of their faith. The kingdom was left

without a head; and of the two grand masters of the military

orders, the one was slain and the other was a prisoner. From all

the cities, both of the sea-coast and the inland country, the

garrisons had been drawn away for this fatal field: Tyre and

Tripoli alone could escape the rapid inroad of Saladin; and three

months after the battle of Tiberias, he appeared in arms before

the gates of Jerusalem. 62

58 (return) [ For the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, see William of

Tyre, from the ixth to the xxiid book. Jacob a Vitriaco, Hist.

Hierosolem l i., and Sanutus Secreta Fidelium Crucis, l. iii. p.

vi. vii. viii. ix.]

59 (return) [ Templarii ut apes bombabant et Hospitalarii ut

venti stridebant, et barones se exitio offerebant, et Turcopuli

(the Christian light troops) semet ipsi in ignem injiciebant,

(Ispahani de Expugnatione Kudsiticâ, p. 18, apud Schultens;) a

specimen of Arabian eloquence, somewhat different from the style

of Xenophon!]

60 (return) [ The Latins affirm, the Arabians insinuate, the

treason of Raymond; but had he really embraced their religion, he

would have been a saint and a hero in the eyes of the latter.]

601 (return) [ Raymond’s advice would have prevented the

abandonment of a secure camp abounding with water near Sepphoris.

The rash and insolent valor of the master of the order of Knights

Templars, which had before exposed the Christians to a fatal

defeat at the brook Kishon, forced the feeble king to annul the

determination of a council of war, and advance to a camp in an

enclosed valley among the mountains, near Hittin, without water.

Raymond did not fly till the battle was irretrievably lost, and

then the Saracens seem to have opened their ranks to allow him

free passage. The charge of suggesting the siege of Tiberias

appears ungrounded Raymond, no doubt, played a double part: he

was a man of strong sagacity, who foresaw the desperate nature of

the contest with Saladin, endeavored by every means to maintain

the treaty, and, though he joined both his arms and his still

more valuable counsels to the Christian army, yet kept up a kind

of amicable correspondence with the Mahometans. See Wilken, vol.

iii. part ii. p. 276, et seq. Michaud, vol. ii. p. 278, et seq.

M. Michaud is still more friendly than Wilken to the memory of

Count Raymond, who died suddenly, shortly after the battle of

Hittin. He quotes a letter written in the name of Saladin by the

caliph Alfdel, to show that Raymond was considered by the

Mahometans their most dangerous and detested enemy. “No person of

distinction among the Christians escaped, except the count, (of

Tripoli) whom God curse. God made him die shortly afterwards, and

sent him from the kingdom of death to hell.”—M.]

61 (return) [ Benaud, Reginald, or Arnold de Chatillon, is

celebrated by the Latins in his life and death; but the

circumstances of the latter are more distinctly related by

Bohadin and Abulfeda; and Joinville (Hist. de St. Louis, p. 70)

alludes to the practice of Saladin, of never putting to death a

prisoner who had tasted his bread and salt. Some of the

companions of Arnold had been slaughtered, and almost sacrificed,

in a valley of Mecca, ubi sacrificia mactantur, (Abulfeda, p.

32.)]

62 (return) [ Vertot, who well describes the loss of the kingdom

and city (Hist. des Chevaliers de Malthe, tom. i. l. ii. p.

226—278,) inserts two original epistles of a Knight Templar.]

He might expect that the siege of a city so venerable on earth

and in heaven, so interesting to Europe and Asia, would rekindle

the last sparks of enthusiasm; and that, of sixty thousand

Christians, every man would be a soldier, and every soldier a

candidate for martyrdom. But Queen Sybilla trembled for herself

and her captive husband; and the barons and knights, who had

escaped from the sword and chains of the Turks, displayed the

same factious and selfish spirit in the public ruin. The most

numerous portion of the inhabitants was composed of the Greek and

Oriental Christians, whom experience had taught to prefer the

Mahometan before the Latin yoke; 63 and the holy sepulchre

attracted a base and needy crowd, without arms or courage, who

subsisted only on the charity of the pilgrims. Some feeble and

hasty efforts were made for the defence of Jerusalem: but in the

space of fourteen days, a victorious army drove back the sallies

of the besieged, planted their engines, opened the wall to the

breadth of fifteen cubits, applied their scaling-ladders, and

erected on the breach twelve banners of the prophet and the

sultan. It was in vain that a barefoot procession of the queen,

the women, and the monks, implored the Son of God to save his

tomb and his inheritance from impious violation. Their sole hope

was in the mercy of the conqueror, and to their first suppliant

deputation that mercy was sternly denied. “He had sworn to avenge

the patience and long-suffering of the Moslems; the hour of

forgiveness was elapsed, and the moment was now arrived to

expiate, in blood, the innocent blood which had been spilt by

Godfrey and the first crusaders.” But a desperate and successful

struggle of the Franks admonished the sultan that his triumph was

not yet secure; he listened with reverence to a solemn adjuration

in the name of the common Father of mankind; and a sentiment of

human sympathy mollified the rigor of fanaticism and conquest. He

consented to accept the city, and to spare the inhabitants. The

Greek and Oriental Christians were permitted to live under his

dominion, but it was stipulated, that in forty days all the

Franks and Latins should evacuate Jerusalem, and be safely

conducted to the seaports of Syria and Egypt; that ten pieces of

gold should be paid for each man, five for each woman, and one

for every child; and that those who were unable to purchase their

freedom should be detained in perpetual slavery. Of some writers

it is a favorite and invidious theme to compare the humanity of

Saladin with the massacre of the first crusade. The difference

would be merely personal; but we should not forget that the

Christians had offered to capitulate, and that the Mahometans of

Jerusalem sustained the last extremities of an assault and storm.

Justice is indeed due to the fidelity with which the Turkish

conqueror fulfilled the conditions of the treaty; and he may be

deservedly praised for the glance of pity which he cast on the

misery of the vanquished. Instead of a rigorous exaction of his

debt, he accepted a sum of thirty thousand byzants, for the

ransom of seven thousand poor; two or three thousand more were

dismissed by his gratuitous clemency; and the number of slaves

was reduced to eleven or fourteen thousand persons. In this

interview with the queen, his words, and even his tears suggested

the kindest consolations; his liberal alms were distributed among

those who had been made orphans or widows by the fortune of war;

and while the knights of the hospital were in arms against him,

he allowed their more pious brethren to continue, during the term

of a year, the care and service of the sick. In these acts of

mercy the virtue of Saladin deserves our admiration and love: he

was above the necessity of dissimulation, and his stern

fanaticism would have prompted him to dissemble, rather than to

affect, this profane compassion for the enemies of the Koran.

After Jerusalem had been delivered from the presence of the

strangers, the sultan made his triumphal entry, his banners

waving in the wind, and to the harmony of martial music. The

great mosque of Omar, which had been converted into a church, was

again consecrated to one God and his prophet Mahomet: the walls

and pavement were purified with rose-water; and a pulpit, the

labor of Noureddin, was erected in the sanctuary. But when the

golden cross that glittered on the dome was cast down, and

dragged through the streets, the Christians of every sect uttered

a lamentable groan, which was answered by the joyful shouts of

the Moslems. In four ivory chests the patriarch had collected the

crosses, the images, the vases, and the relics of the holy place;

they were seized by the conqueror, who was desirous of presenting

the caliph with the trophies of Christian idolatry. He was

persuaded, however, to intrust them to the patriarch and prince

of Antioch; and the pious pledge was redeemed by Richard of

England, at the expense of fifty-two thousand byzants of gold. 64

63 (return) [ Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 545.]

64 (return) [ For the conquest of Jerusalem, Bohadin (p. 67—75)

and Abulfeda (p. 40—43) are our Moslem witnesses. Of the

Christian, Bernard Thesaurarius (c. 151—167) is the most copious

and authentic; see likewise Matthew Paris, (p. 120—124.)]

The nations might fear and hope the immediate and final expulsion

of the Latins from Syria; which was yet delayed above a century

after the death of Saladin. 65 In the career of victory, he was

first checked by the resistance of Tyre; the troops and

garrisons, which had capitulated, were imprudently conducted to

the same port: their numbers were adequate to the defence of the

place; and the arrival of Conrad of Montferrat inspired the

disorderly crowd with confidence and union. His father, a

venerable pilgrim, had been made prisoner in the battle of

Tiberias; but that disaster was unknown in Italy and Greece, when

the son was urged by ambition and piety to visit the inheritance

of his royal nephew, the infant Baldwin. The view of the Turkish

banners warned him from the hostile coast of Jaffa; and Conrad

was unanimously hailed as the prince and champion of Tyre, which

was already besieged by the conqueror of Jerusalem. The firmness

of his zeal, and perhaps his knowledge of a generous foe, enabled

him to brave the threats of the sultan, and to declare, that

should his aged parent be exposed before the walls, he himself

would discharge the first arrow, and glory in his descent from a

Christian martyr. 66 The Egyptian fleet was allowed to enter the

harbor of Tyre; but the chain was suddenly drawn, and five

galleys were either sunk or taken: a thousand Turks were slain in

a sally; and Saladin, after burning his engines, concluded a

glorious campaign by a disgraceful retreat to Damascus. He was

soon assailed by a more formidable tempest. The pathetic

narratives, and even the pictures, that represented in lively

colors the servitude and profanation of Jerusalem, awakened the

torpid sensibility of Europe: the emperor Frederic Barbarossa,

and the kings of France and England, assumed the cross; and the

tardy magnitude of their armaments was anticipated by the

maritime states of the Mediterranean and the Ocean. The skilful

and provident Italians first embarked in the ships of Genoa,

Pisa, and Venice. They were speedily followed by the most eager

pilgrims of France, Normandy, and the Western Isles. The powerful

succor of Flanders, Frise, and Denmark, filled near a hundred

vessels: and the Northern warriors were distinguished in the

field by a lofty stature and a ponderous battle-axe. 67 Their

increasing multitudes could no longer be confined within the

walls of Tyre, or remain obedient to the voice of Conrad. They

pitied the misfortunes, and revered the dignity, of Lusignan, who

was released from prison, perhaps, to divide the army of the

Franks. He proposed the recovery of Ptolemais, or Acre, thirty

miles to the south of Tyre; and the place was first invested by

two thousand horse and thirty thousand foot under his nominal

command. I shall not expatiate on the story of this memorable

siege; which lasted near two years, and consumed, in a narrow

space, the forces of Europe and Asia. Never did the flame of

enthusiasm burn with fiercer and more destructive rage; nor could

the true believers, a common appellation, who consecrated their

own martyrs, refuse some applause to the mistaken zeal and

courage of their adversaries. At the sound of the holy trumpet,

the Moslems of Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and the Oriental provinces,

assembled under the servant of the prophet: 68 his camp was

pitched and removed within a few miles of Acre; and he labored,

night and day, for the relief of his brethren and the annoyance

of the Franks. Nine battles, not unworthy of the name, were

fought in the neighborhood of Mount Carmel, with such vicissitude

of fortune, that in one attack, the sultan forced his way into

the city; that in one sally, the Christians penetrated to the

royal tent. By the means of divers and pigeons, a regular

correspondence was maintained with the besieged; and, as often as

the sea was left open, the exhausted garrison was withdrawn, and

a fresh supply was poured into the place. The Latin camp was

thinned by famine, the sword and the climate; but the tents of

the dead were replenished with new pilgrims, who exaggerated the

strength and speed of their approaching countrymen. The vulgar

was astonished by the report, that the pope himself, with an

innumerable crusade, was advanced as far as Constantinople. The

march of the emperor filled the East with more serious alarms:

the obstacles which he encountered in Asia, and perhaps in

Greece, were raised by the policy of Saladin: his joy on the

death of Barbarossa was measured by his esteem; and the

Christians were rather dismayed than encouraged at the sight of

the duke of Swabia and his way-worn remnant of five thousand

Germans. At length, in the spring of the second year, the royal

fleets of France and England cast anchor in the Bay of Acre, and

the siege was more vigorously prosecuted by the youthful

emulation of the two kings, Philip Augustus and Richard

Plantagenet. After every resource had been tried, and every hope

was exhausted, the defenders of Acre submitted to their fate; a

capitulation was granted, but their lives and liberties were

taxed at the hard conditions of a ransom of two hundred thousand

pieces of gold, the deliverance of one hundred nobles, and

fifteen hundred inferior captives, and the restoration of the

wood of the holy cross. Some doubts in the agreement, and some

delay in the execution, rekindled the fury of the Franks, and

three thousand Moslems, almost in the sultan’s view, were

beheaded by the command of the sanguinary Richard. 69 By the

conquest of Acre, the Latin powers acquired a strong town and a

convenient harbor; but the advantage was most dearly purchased.

The minister and historian of Saladin computes, from the report

of the enemy, that their numbers, at different periods, amounted

to five or six hundred thousand; that more than one hundred

thousand Christians were slain; that a far greater number was

lost by disease or shipwreck; and that a small portion of this

mighty host could return in safety to their native countries. 70

65 (return) [ The sieges of Tyre and Acre are most copiously

described by Bernard Thesaurarius, (de Acquisitione Terræ Sanctæ,

c. 167—179,) the author of the Historia Hierosolymitana, (p.

1150—1172, in Bongarsius,) Abulfeda, (p. 43—50,) and Bohadin, (p.

75—179.)]

66 (return) [ I have followed a moderate and probable

representation of the fact; by Vertot, who adopts without

reluctance a romantic tale the old marquis is actually exposed to

the darts of the besieged.]

67 (return) [ Northmanni et Gothi, et cæteri populi insularum quæ

inter occidentem et septentrionem sitæ sunt, gentes bellicosæ,

corporis proceri mortis intrepidæ, bipennibus armatæ, navibus

rotundis, quæ Ysnachiæ dicuntur, advectæ.]

68 (return) [ The historian of Jerusalem (p. 1108) adds the

nations of the East from the Tigris to India, and the swarthy

tribes of Moors and Getulians, so that Asia and Africa fought

against Europe.]

69 (return) [ Bohadin, p. 180; and this massacre is neither

denied nor blamed by the Christian historians. Alacriter jussa

complentes, (the English soldiers,) says Galfridus à Vinesauf,

(l. iv. c. 4, p. 346,) who fixes at 2700 the number of victims;

who are multiplied to 5000 by Roger Hoveden, (p. 697, 698.) The

humanity or avarice of Philip Augustus was persuaded to ransom

his prisoners, (Jacob à Vitriaco, l. i. c. 98, p. 1122.)]

70 (return) [ Bohadin, p. 14. He quotes the judgment of Balianus,

and the prince of Sidon, and adds, ex illo mundo quasi hominum

paucissimi redierunt. Among the Christians who died before St.

John d’Acre, I find the English names of De Ferrers earl of

Derby, (Dugdale, Baronage, part i. p. 260,) Mowbray, (idem, p.

124,) De Mandevil, De Fiennes, St. John, Scrope, Bigot, Talbot,

&c.]

Chapter LIX: The Crusades.—Part III.