LVIII.

were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vileft CHAP. nourishment; and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, fince, after paying three marks of filver for a goat and fifteen for a lean camel, the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner, and duke Godfrey to borrow an horfe. Sixty thousand horses had been reviewed in the camp before the end of the fiege they were diminished to two thousand, and fcarcely two hundred fit for fervice 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 fubdued by the defire 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 intereft; and Tancred declared, in the true fpirit 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 Tholouse and Provence was

fufpected of a voluntary indifpofition: the duke of Normandy was recalled from the fea-shore by

96 The value of an ox rofe from five folidi (fifteen shillings) at Christmas to two marks (four pounds), and afterwards much higher: a kid or lamb, from one fhilling to eighteen of our prefent money in the fecond famine, a loaf of bread, or the head of an animal, fold for a piece of gold. More examples might be produced; but it is the ordinary, not the extraordinary, prices, that deferve the notice of the philofopher.

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

CHAP. the cenfures of the church; Hugh the Great, LVIII. though he led the vanguard of the battle, embraced an ambiguous opportunity of returning to France; and Stephen count of Chartres bafely deferted the ftandard which he bore, and the - council in which he prefided. The foldiers were difcouraged by the flight of William viscount of Melun, furnamed the Carpenter, from the weighty ftrokes of his axe; and the faints were fcandalifed by the fall of Peter the Hermit, who, after arming Europe against Afia, 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 ropedancers was applied to the deferters who dropt in the night from the walls of Antioch. The emperor Alexius 93, who feemed to advance to the fuccour of the Latins, was difmayed by the affurance of their hopele's condition. They expected their fate in filent defpair; oaths and punishments were tried without effect; and to roufe the foldiers to the defence of the walls, it was found neceffary to fet fire to their quarters.

Legend of

the Holy Lance.

ני

For their falvation and victory, they were indebted to the fame fanaticifm which had led them to the brink of ruin. In fuch a caufe, and in fuch an army, vifions, prophefies, and miracles, were frequent and familiar. In the diftrefs of

98 See the progrefs of the crufade, the retreat of Alexius, the victory of Antioch, and the conqueft of Jerufalem, in the Alexiad, 1. xi. p. 317-327. Anna was fo prone to exaggeration, that the magnifies the exploits of the Latins.

Antioch,

СНАР.

Antioch, they were repeated with unusual
unusual energy
and fuccefs: St. Ambrofe had affured a pious
ecclefiaftic, that two years of trial must precede
the feafon of deliverance and grace; the deferters
were ftopped by the prefence and reproaches of
Christ himself; the dead had promised to arise
and combat with their brethren; the Virgin had
obtained the pardon of their fins; and their con-
fidence was revived by a visible fign, the feafon-
able and splendid discovery of the HOLY LANCE.
The policy of their chiefs has on this occafion
been admired, and might surely be excused; but
a pious fraud is feldom produced by the cool
confpiracy of many perfons: and a voluntary im-
poftor might depend on the fupport of the wife
and the credulity of the people. Of the diocefe
of Marseilles, there was a priest of low cunning
and loose manners, and his name was Peter Bar-
tholemy. He prefented himself at the door of
the council-chamber, to disclose an apparition of
St. Andrew, which had been thrice reiterated in
his fleep, with a dreadful menace, if he pre-
fumed to fupprefs the commands of heaven.
"Antioch," faid the apoftle, "in the church of

"At

my brother St. Peter, near the high altar, is "concealed the fteel head of the lance that "pierced the fide of our Redeemer. In three

LVIII.

days, that inftrument of eternal, and now of "temporal, falvation, will be manifefted to his difciples. Search and ye fhall find: bear it "aloft in battle; and that myftic weapon fhall penetrate the fouls of the mifcreants." The pope's legate, the bishop of Puy, affected to liften

CHAP. with coldness and diftruft; but the revelation was

LVIII.

eagerly accepted by count Raymond, whom his
faithful fubject, in the name of the apostle, had
chofen for the guardian of the holy lance. The
experiment was refolved; and on the third day,
after a due preparation of prayer and fafting, the
priest of Marseilles introduced twelve trusty spec-
tators, among whom were the count and his chap-
lain; 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 fearch.
In the evening, when count Raymond had with-
drawn to his poft, and the weary affistants began
to murmur, Bartholemy, in his fhirt, and with-
out his fhoes, boldly defcended into the pit; the
darkness of the hour and of the place enabled
him to fecrete and deposit the head of a Saracen
lance; and the first sound, the first gleam, of the
fteel, was faluted with a devout rapture. The *
holy lance was drawn from its recefs, wrapt in a
veil of filk and gold, and expofed to the vene-
ration of the crufaders; their anxious fufpenfe
burst forth in a general fhout of joy and hope;
and the defponding troops were again inflamed
with the enthusiasm of valour. Whatever had
been the arts, and whatever might be the fenti-
ments of the chiefs, they skilfully improved this
fortunate revolution by every aid that discipline
and devotion could afford. The foldiers were
difmiffed to their quarters with an injunction to
fortify their minds and bodies for the approach-

LVIII.

ing conflict, freely to bestow their laft pittance on CHAP. themselves and their horfes, and to expect with the dawn of day the fignal of victory. On the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of Antioch were thrown open; a martial pfalm, "Let the Lord arife, and let his enemies be scat"tered!" was chaunted by a proceffion of priests and monks; the battle array was marfhalled in twelve divifions, in honour of the twelve apoftles; and the holy lance, in the absence of Raymond, was entrusted to the hands of his chaplain. The influence of this relic or trophy was felt by the servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ "; and its potent energy was heightened by an accident, a ftratagem, or a rumour, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, in white garments Celestial and refplendent arms, either iffued, or feemed to iffue, from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope's legate, proclaimed them as the martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St. Maurice; the tumult of battle allowed no time for doubt or fcrutiny; 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 afferted; but as foon as the temporary fervice was accomplished, the perfonal dignity and liberal alms which the count of Tholoufe derived from

99 The Mahometan Aboulmahafen (apud de Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 95.) is more correct in his account of the holy lance than the Chriftians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius; the Greek princefs confounds it with a nail of the cross (1. xi. p. 326.); the Jacobite primate, with St. Peter's staff (p. 242.).

the

warriors.