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charitable illusion; and seldom does the history of profanet 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 dicts were alike fruitless against those scandalous disorders, ot less pernicious to military discipline, than repugnant to Evangelic 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 compan ion of want, was envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer heats, un wholesome food, and the close imprisonment of multitudes. The 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 Puke Godfrey to borrow a horse. Sixty thousand horse had been reviewed in the camp: before the end of the siège 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 honor and religion was subdued by the desire of life." Among the chiefs, three

95 See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon of royal birth who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an orchard, playing at dice with a Syrian concubine.

96 The value of an ox rose from five solidi, (fifteen shillings,) at Christmas 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.

97 Alli multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia, deleta de libre vitæ, præsenti operi non sunt inserenda (Will. Tyr. l. vi. c. 5, p. 715.)

heroes may be found without fear or reproach: Godfrey of Bouillon was supported by his magnanimous piety; Bohe mond 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 Pal estine. But the count of Tholouse and Provence was sus pected 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 dropped in the night from the walls of Antioch. The emperor Alexius," who seemed to advance to the succor of the Latins, was dismayed by the assurance of their hopeless condition. They expected their fate in silent despair; oaths and punishments were tried without effect; and to rouse the soldiers to the defence of the walls, it was found necessary to set fire to their quarters.

For their salvation and victory, they were indebted to the same fanaticism which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such a cause, and in such an army, visions, prophecies, and miracles, were frequent and familiar. In the distress of Antioch, they were repeated with unusual energy and success: St. Ambrose had assured a pious ecclesiastic, that twc years of trial must precede the season of deliverance and

Guibert (p. 518, 523) attempts to excuse Hugh the Great, and even Stephen of Chartres.

See the progress of the crusade, the retreat of Alexius, the vic bory of Antioch, and the conquest of Jerusalem, in the Alexiad, 1. xi. p.17--327. Anna was so prone to exaggeration, that she magnifies the exploits of the Latins.

Peter fell during the siege: he went afterwards on ar embassy to Ken boga Wilken. vol. i. p. 217.-M

grace; the deserters were stopped by the presence and re proaches of Christ himself; the dead had promised to arise and combat with their brethren; the Virgin had obtained the pardon of their sins; and their confidence was revived by a visible sign, the seasonable and splendid discovery of the HOLY LANCE. The policy of their chiefs has on this occasion been admired, and might surely be excused; but a pious haud is seldom produced by the cool conspiracy of many persons, and a voluntary impostor might depend on the support of the wise and the credulity of the people. Of the diocese of Marseilles, there was a priest of low cunning and loose manners, and his name was Peter Bartholemy. He presented himself at the door of the council-chamber, to disclose an apparition of St. Andrew, which had been thrice reiterated in his sleep with a dreadful menace, if he presumed to suppress the commands of Heaven. "At Antioch," said the apostle, "in the church of my brother St. Peter, near the high altar, is concealed the steel head of the lance that pierced the side of our Redeemer. I three days that instrument of eternal, and now of temporal, salvation, will be manifested to his disciples. Search, and ye shall find: bear it aloft in battle; and that mystic weapon shall penetrate the souls of the miscreants." The pope's legate, the bishop of Puy, affected to listen with coldness and distrust; but the revelation was eagerly accepted by Count Raymond, whom his faithful subject, in the name of the apostle, had chosen for the guardian of the holy lance. The experiment was resolved; and on the third day after a due preparation of prayer and fasting, the priest of Marseilles introduced twelve trusty spectators, among whom were the count and his chaplain; and the church doors were barred against the impetuous multitude. The ground was opened in the appointed place; but the workmen, who relieved each other, dug to the depth of twelve feet without discovering the object of their search. In the evening, when Count Raymond had withdrawn to his post, and the weary assistants began to murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt, and without his shoes, boldly descended into the pit; the darkness of the hour and of the place enabled him

secrete and deposit the head of a Saracen lance; and the first sound, the first gleam, of the steel was saluted with a devout rapture. The holy lance was drawn from its recess, wrapped in a veil of silk and gold, and exposed to the veneration of the crusaders; their anxious suspense ourst forth in

general shout of joy and hope, and the desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm of valor. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the sentiments of the chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate revolu tion by every aid that discipline and devotion could afford. The soldiers were dismissed to their quarters with an injuneion to fortify their minds and bodies for the approaching conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance on themselves and their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day the signal of victory. On the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of Antioch were thrown open: a martial psalm, "Let the Lord arise, and let his enemies be scattered!" was chanted by a procession of priests and monks; the battle array was marshalled in twelve divisions, in honor of the twelve apostles; and the holy lance, in the absence of Raymond, was intrusted to the hands of his chaplain. The influence of his relic or trophy, was felt by the servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ ;" and its potent energy was neightened by an accident, a stratagem, or a rumor, of a iraculous complexion. Three knights, in white garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue, from the hills the voice of Adhemar, the pope's legate, proclared them as the martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St. Maurice the tumult of battle allowed no time for doubt or scrutiny; and the welcome apparition dazzled the eyes or the imagination of a fanatic army. In the season of danger and triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles was unanimously asserted; but as soon as the temporary service was accomplished, the personal dignity and liberal arms which the count of Tholouse derived from the custody of the holy lance, provoked the envy, and awakened the reason, of his rivals. A Norman clerk presumed to sift, with a philosophic spirit, the truth of the legend, the circumstances of the discovery, and the character of the prophet; and the pious Bohemond ascribed their deliverance to the merits and

"The Mahometan Aboulmahasen (apud De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii p. 95) is more correct in his account of the holy lance than the Chris tians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius: the Greek princess con found it with the nail of the cross, (1. xi. p. 326;) the Jacob.te primate with St. Peter's staff, p. 242.)

The real cause of this victory appears to have been the feud in Kerboga ʼn rmy Wilken, vol. ii. v. 40.-M.

ntercession of Christ alone. For a while, the Provincial defended their national palladium with clamors and arms. and new visions condemned to death and hell the profane sceptics who presumed to scrutinize the truth and merit of the discovery. The prevalence of incredulity compelled the author to submit his life and veracity to the judgment of God. A pile of dry fagots, four feet high and fourteen long, was erected in the midst of the camp; the flames burnt fiercely to the elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrow path of twelve inches was left for the perilous trial. The unfortunate priest of Marseilles traversed the fire with dexterity and speed; but the thighs and belly were scorched by the intense heat; he expired the next day; and the logic of believing minds will pay some regard to his dying protestations of innocence and truth. Some efforts were made by the Provincials to substitute a cross, a ring, or a tabernacle, in the place of the holy lance, which soon vanished in contempt and oblivion.100 Yet the revelation of Antioch is gravely as serted by succeeding historians: and such is the progress of credulity, that miracles most doubtful on the spot, and at the moment, will be received with implicit faith at a convenient distance of time and space.

101

The prudence or fortune of the Franks had delayed their invasion till the decline of the Turkish empire. Under the manly government of the three first sultans, the kingdoms of Asia were united in peace and justice; and the innumerable armies which they led in person were equal in courage, and superior in discipline, to the Barbarians of the West. the time of the crusade, the inheritance of Malek Shaw was disputed by his four sons; their private ambition was insen

But at

100 The two antagonists who express the most intimate knowledge and the strongest conviction of the miracle, and of the fraud, are Raymond des Agiles, and Radulphus Cadomensis, the one attached to the count of Tholouse, the other to the Norman prince. Fulcherius Car notensis presumes to say, Audite fraudem et non fraudem! and afterwards, Invenit lanceam, fallaciter occultatam forsitan. The rest of the berd are loud and strenuous.

10: See M. De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 223, &c.; and the articles of Barkurok, Mohammed, Sangiar, in D'Herbelot.

The twelfth day after. He was much injured, and his flesh torn of, from the ardor of pious congratulation with which he was assailed by the who witnessed his escape, unhurt. as it was first supposed. Willen, mý ¿ p. 263-M.

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