distant bogs and mountains of Ireland or Scotland' issued some naked and savage fanatics, ferocious at home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition condemned the sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with mouths but without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek empire, till their companions had opened and secured the way of the Lord. A small remnant of the pilgrims, who passed the Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the holy sepulchre. Their northern constitution was scorched by the rays, and infected by the vapours, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with heedless prodigality, their stores of water and provision: their numbers exhausted the inland country the sea was remote, the Greeks were unfriendly, and the christians of every sect fled before the voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire necessity of famine, they sometimes roasted and devoured the flesh of their infant or adult captives. Among the Turks and Saracens, the idolaters of Europe were rendered more odious by the name and reputation of cannibals: the spies who introduced themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond were shown several human bodies turning on the spit: and the artful Norman encouraged a report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence and the terror of the infidels.*

Siege of Nice,
A. D. 1097.

May 14-
June 20.

I have expatiated with pleasure on the first steps of the crusaders, as they paint the manners and character of Europe: but I shall abridge the tedious and uniform narrative of their blind achievements, which were performed by strength and are described by ignorance. From their first station in the neighbourhood of Nicomedia, they advanced in successive divisions; passed the contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened a road through the hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital, their pious warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum extended from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred the pilgrimage of Jerusalem: his name was Killidge-Arslan, or Soliman,' of the race of Seljuk, and the son of the first conqueror; and in the defence of a land which the Turks considered as their own, he deserved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to posterity. Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he deposited his family and treasure in Nice; retired to the mountains with fifty thousand horse; and twice descended to assault the camps or quarters of the christian besiegers, which formed an imperfect circle of above

i Videres Scotorum apud se ferocium alias imbellium cuneos, (Gui. bert, p. 471.) the crus intectum, and hispida chlamys, may suit the Highlanders; but the finibus uliginosis, may rather apply to the Irish bogs. William of Malmsbury expressly mentions the Welch and Scots, &c. (l. iv. p. 133.) who quitted, the former venationem saltuum, the latter familiaritatem pulicum.

k This cannibal hunger, sometimes real, more frequently an artifice or a lie, may be found in Anna Comnena, (Alexias, 1. x. p. 288.) Guibert, (p. 546.) Radulph. Cadom. (c. 97.) The stratagem is related by the author of Gesta Francorum, the monk Robert Baldric, and Raymond des Agiles, in the siege and famine of Antioch.

1 His mussulman appellation of Soliman is used by the Latins, and his character is highly embellished by Tasso. His Turkish name of Killidge-Arslan (A. H. 485-500. A. D. 1192-1206. See De Guignes's Tables, tom. i. p. 245.) is employed by the orientals, and with some

| six miles. The lofty and solid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by three hundred and seventy towers; and on the verge of christendom, the Moslems were trained in arms, and inflamed by religion. Before this city, the French princes occupied their stations, and prosecuted their attacks without correspondence or subordination: emulation prompted their valour; but their valour was sullied by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into envy and civil discord. In the siege of Nice, the arts and engines of antiquity were employed by the Latins; the mine and the battering-ram, the tortoise, and the belfry or movable turret, artificial fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and the cross-bow for the casting of stones and darts. In the space of seven weeks, much labour and blood were expended, and some progress, especially by count Raymond, was made on the side of the besiegers. But the Turks could protract their resistance and secure their escape, as long as they were masters of the lake" Ascanius, which stretches several miles to the westward of the city. The means of conquest were supplied by the prudence and industry of Alexius; a great number of boats were transported on sledges from the sea to the lake: they were filled with the most dexterous of his archers; the flight of the sultana was intercepted; Nice was invested by land and water; and a Greek emissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept his master's protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender, from the rage of the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or at least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder, were awed by the imperial banner that streamed from the citadel; and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance this important conquest. The murmurs of the chiefs were stifled by honour or interest; and after a halt of nine days, they directed their march towards Phrygia under the guidance of a Greek general, whom they suspected of a secret connivance with the sultan. The consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been honourably restored without ransom ; and the emperor's generosity to the miscreants was interpreted as treason to the christian cause.

July 4.

Soliman was rather provoked than Battle of Dorylædismayed by the loss of his capital: um, A. D. 1097. he admonished his subjects and allies of this strange invasion of the western barbarians; the Turkish emirs obeyed the call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hordes encamped round his standard; and his whole force is loosely stated by

corruption by the Greeks: but little more than his name can be found in the Mahometan writers, who are dry and sulky on the subject of the first crusade. (De Guignes, tom. iii. p. ii. p. 10-30.)

In On the fortifications, engines, and sieges of the middle ages, see Muratori. (Antiquitat. Italiæ, tom. ii. dissert. xxvi. p. 452-524.) The belfredus, from whence our belfry, was the movable tower of the an cients. (Ducange, tom. i. p. 608.)

n I cannot forbear remarking the resemblance between the siege and lake of Nice, with the operations of Hernan Cortez before Mexico. See Dr. Robertson's Hist. of America, l. v.

o Mecreant, a word invented by the French crusaders, and confined in that language to its primitive sense. It should seem, that the zeal of our ancestors boiled higher, and that they branded every unbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice still lurks in the minds of many who think themselves christians.

the christians at two hundred, or even three hun- | dred and sixty, thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they had left behind them the sea and the Greek frontier; and hovering on the flanks, observed their careless and confident progress in two columns beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reach Dorylæum in Phrygia, the left, and less numerous, division was surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish cavalry. The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and the barbarous onset, overwhelmed the crusaders; they lost their order and confidence, and the fainting fight was sustained by the personal valour, rather than by the military conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They were revived by the welcome banners of duke Godfrey, who flew to their succour, with the count of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse; and was followed by Raymond of Thoulouse, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the sacred army. With out a moment's pause, they formed in new order, and advanced to a second battle. They were received with equal resolution; and, in their common disdain for the unwarlike people of Greece and Asia, it was confessed on both sides, that the Turks | and the Franks were the only nations entitled to the appellation of soldiers." Their encounter was varied and balanced by the contrast of arms and discipline; of the direct charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched lance, and the brandished javelin; of a weighty broad-sword, and a crooked sabre; of cumbrous armour, and thin flowing robes; and of the long Tartar bow, and the arbalist or cross-bow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown to the orientals. As long as the horses were fresh, and the quivers full, Soliman maintained the advantage of the day; and four thousand christians were pierced by the Turkish arrows. In the evening, swiftness yielded to strength; on either side the numbers were equal, or at least as great as any ground could hold, or any generals could manage; but in turning the hills, the last division of Raymond and his provincials was led, perhaps without design, on the rear of an exhausted enemy; and the long contest was determined. Besides a nameless and unaccountable multitude, three thousand pagan knights were slain in the battle and pursuit; the camp of Soliman was pillaged; and in the variety of precious spoil, the curiosity of the Latins was amused with foreign arms and apparel, and the new aspect of dromedaries and camels. The importance of the victory was proved by the hasty retreat of the sultan: reserving ten thousand guards

p Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to his brother Roger. (A. D. 1098. No. 15.) The enemies consisted of Medes, Persians, Chaldeans: be it so. The first attack was cum nostro incommodo; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon and Hugh brothers? Tancred is styled filius; of whom? certainly not of Roger, nor of Bobemond.

q Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione; et quia nullus homo naturaliter debet esse miles nisi Franci et Turci. (Gesta Francorum, p. 7.) The same community of blood and valour is attested by Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99.)

Balista, Balestra, Arbalestre. See Muratori, Antiq. tom. ii. p. 517-524. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. i. p. 531, 532. In the time of Anna Coronena, this weapon, which she describes under the name of

of the relics of his army, Soliman evacuated the kingdom of Roum, and hastened to implore the aid, and kindle the resentment, of his Eastern brethren. In a march of five hundred miles, March through the crusaders traversed the Lesser the Lesser Asia, July-SeptemAsia, through a wasted land and de- ber. serted towns, without either finding a friend or an enemy. The geographers may trace the position of Dorylæum, Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare those classic appellations with the modern names of Eskishehr the old city, Akshehr the white city, Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As the pilgrims passed over a desert, where a draught of water is exchanged for silver, they were tormented by intolerable thirst; and on the banks of the first rivulet, their haste and intemperance were still more pernicious to the disorderly throng. They climbed with toil and danger the steep and slippery sides of mount Taurus: many of the soldiers cast away their arms to secure their footsteps; and had not terror preceded their van, the long and trembling file might have been driven down the precipice by a handful of resolute enemies. Two of their most respectable chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the count of Thoulouse, were carried in litters: Raymond was raised, as it is said by miracle, from a hopeless malady; and Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as he pursued that rough and perilous chace in the mountains of Pisidia.

of Edessa,

To improve the general consterna- Baldwin founds tion, the cousin of Bohemond and the the principality brother of Godfrey were detached A. D. 1097—1151. from the main army with their respective squadrons of five, and of seven, hundred knights. They overran in a rapid career the hills and sea-coast of Cilicia, from Cogni to the Cyrian gates: the Norman standard was first planted on the walls of Tarsus and Malmistra; but the proud injustice of Baldwin at length provoked the patient and generous Italian; and they turned their consecrated swords against each other in a private and profane quarrel. Honour was the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortune smiled on the more selfish enterprise of his rival. He was called to the assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been suffered under the Turkish yoke to reign over the christians of Edessa. Baldwin accepted the character of his son and champion; but no sooner was he introduced into the city, than he inflamed the people to the massacre of his father, occupied the throne and treasure, extended his conquests over the hills of Armenia and the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the first principality of the

tzangra, was unknown in the east, (1. x. p. 291.) By a humane inconsistency, the pope strove to prohibit it in christian wars.

The curious reader may compare the classic learning of Cellarius, and the geographical science of D'Anville. William of Tyre is the only historian of the crusades who has any knowledge of antiquity, and M. Otter trod almost in the footsteps of the Franks from Constantinople to Antioch. (Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, 'tom. i. p. 35-88.)

This detached conquest of Edessa is best represented by Fulcherius Carnotensis, or of Chartres, (in the collections of Bongarsius, Duchesne, and Martenne.) the valiant chaplain of count Baldwin, (Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13, 14.) In the disputes of that prince with Tancred, his partiality is encountered by the partiality of Radulphus Cadomensis, the soldier and historian of the gallant marquis.

A. D. 1098.

embraced and introduced the servants of Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and the Moslems soon found, that, although mercy was hopeless, resistance was impotent. But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victors themselves were speedily encompassed and besieged by the innumerable forces of Kerboga, prince of Mosul, who, with twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced to the deliverance of Antioch. Five and twenty days the christians spent on the verge of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and the sultan left them only the choice of servitude or death. Victory of the In this extremity they collected the crusaders, relics of their strength, sallied from June 28. the town, and in a single memorable day annihilated or dispersed the host of Turks and Arabians, which they might safely report to have consisted of six hundred thousand men. Their supernatural allies I shall proceed to consider: the human causes of the victory of Antioch were the fearless despair of the Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps the errors, of their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle is described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may observe the tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace, enriched with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above two thousand persons; we may distinguish his three thousand guards, who were cased, the horses as well as the men, in complete steel.

Their famine and

tioch,

In the eventful period of the siege distress at An- and defence of Antioch, the crusaders were alternately exalted by victory or sunk in despair; either swelled with plenty or emaciated with hunger. A speculative reasoner might suppose, that their faith had a strong and serious influence on their practice; and that the soldiers of the cross, the deliverers of the holy sepulchre, prepared themselves by a sober and virtuous life for the daily contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows away this charitable illusion: and seldom does the history of profane war display such scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were exhibited under the walls of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no longer flourished; but the Syrian air was still impregnated with the same vices; the christians were seduced by every temptation that nature either prompts or reprobates; the authority of the chiefs was despised; and sermons and edicts were alike fruitless against those scandalous disorders, not less pernicious to military discipline, than repugnant to evangelic

a After mentioning the distress and humble petition of the Franks, Abulpharagius adds the haughty reply of Codbuka, or Kerboga; "Non evasuri estis nisi per gladium." (Dynast. p. 242.)

b In describing the host of Kerboga, most of the Latin historians, the author of the Gesta, (p. 17.) Robert Monachus, (p. 56.) Baldric, (p. 111.) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p. 392.) Guibert, (p. 512.) William of Tyre, (1. vi. c. 3. p. 714.) Bernard Thesaurarius, (c, 39. p. 695.) are content with the vague expressions of infinita multitudo, immensum agmen, innumeræ copiæ or gentes, which correspond with the μera arapiuntiv xixadov of Anna Comnena, (Alexias, 1. xi. p. 318-320.) The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Albert Aquensis at 200,000, (1. iv. c. 10. p. 242.) and by Radulphus Cadomensis at 400,000 horse, (c. 72. p. 309.)

See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon of royal birth,

purity. In the first days of the siege and the possession of Antioch, the Franks consumed with wanton and thoughtless prodigality the frugal subsistence of weeks and months: the desolate country no longer yielded a supply; and from that country they were at length excluded by the arms of the besieging Turks. Disease, the faithful companion of want, was envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer heats, unwholesome food, and the close imprisonment of multitudes. The pictures of famine and pestilence are always the same, and always disgustful; and our imagination may suggest the nature of their sufferings and their resources. The remains of treasure or spoil were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilest nourishment; and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, since, after paying three marks of silver for a goat and fifteen for a lean camel, the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner, and duke Godfrey to borrow a horse. Sixty thousand horses had been reviewed in the camp: before the end of the siege they were diminished to two thousand, and scarcely two hundred fit for service could be mustered on the day of battle. Weakness of body and terror of mind extinguished the ardent enthusiasm of the pilgrims; and every motive of honour and religion was subdued by the desire of life. Among the chiefs, three heroes may be found without fear or reproach: Godfrey of Bouillon was supported by his magnanimous piety; Bohemond by ambition and interest; and Tancred declared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that as long as he was at the head of forty knights, he would never relinquish the enterprise of Palestine. But the count of Thoulouse and Provence was suspected of a voluntary indisposition: the duke of Normandy was recalled from the sea-shore by the censures of the church; Hugh the Great, though he led the vanguard of the battle, embraced an ambiguous opportunity of returning to France; and Stephen count of Chartres basely deserted the standard which he bore, and the council in which he presided. The soldiers were discouraged by the flight of William viscount of Melun, surnamed the Carpenter, from the weighty strokes of his axe; and the saints were scandalized by the fall of Peter the Hermit, who, after arming Europe against Asia, attempted to escape from the penance of a necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant warriors, the names (says an historian) are blotted from the book of life; and the opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was applied to the deserters who dropt in the night from the walls of

who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an orchard, playing at dice with a Syrian concubine.

d The value of an ox rose from five solidi (fifteen shillings) at Christ. mas to two marks, (four pounds,) and afterwards much higher: a kid or lamb, from one shilling to eighteen of our present money in the second famine, a loaf of bread, or the head of an animal, sold for a piece of gold. More examples might be produced; but it is the ordinary, not the extraordinary, prices, that deserve the notice of the philosopher.

e Alii multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia, deleta de libro vitæ, præsenti operi non sunt inferenda. (Will. Tyr. 1. vi. c. 5. p. 715.) Guibert (p. 518. 523.) attempts to excuse Hugh the Great, and even Stephen of Chartres.