LVIIL unfriendly, and the Chriftians of every fect fled CHAP. before the voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire neceffity of famine, they fometimes roasted and devoured the flesh of their infant or adult captives. Among the Turks and Saracens, the idolators of Europe were rendered more odious by the name and reputation of cannibals: the spies who introduced themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond, were fhewn several human bodies turning on the fpit; and the artful Norman encouraged a report, which encreased at the fame time the abhorrence and the terror of the infidels 79. Nice, I have expatiated with pleasure on the firft Siege of steps of the crufaders, as they paint the manners A. D. and character of Europe: but I fhall abridge M1974May the tedious and uniform narrative of their blind June 20. atchievements, which were performed by ftrength and are described by ignorance. From their first station in the neighbourhood of Nicomedia, they advanced in fucceffive divifions; paffed the contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened a road through the hills, and commenced, by the fiege of his capital, their pious warfare against the Turkish fultan. His kingdom of Roum extended from the Hellefpont to the confines of Syria, and barred the pilgrimage of Jerufa 79 This cannibal hunger, fometimes real, more frequently an artifice or a lye, may be found in Anna Comnena (Alexias, 1. x. p. 288.), Guibert (p. 546.), Radulph. Cadom. (c. 97.). The ftratagem is related by the author of the Gefta Francorum, the monk Robert Baldric, and Raymond des Agiles, in the fiege and famine of Antioch, lem: 1 LVIII. 80 CHAP. lem: his name was Kilidge-Arffan, or Soliman ? of the race of Seljuk, and son of the first conqueror; and in the defence of a land which the Turks confidered as their own, he deferved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known to pofterity. Yielding to the first impulfe of the torrent, he depofited his family and treasure in Nice; retired to the mountains with fifty thoufand horfe; and twice defcended to affault the camps or quarters of the Christian befiegers, which formed an imperfect circle of above fix miles. The lofty and folid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by three hundred and feventy towers; and on the verge of Christendom, the Moflems were trained in arms and inflamed by religion. Before this city, the French princes occupied their stations, and profecuted their attacks without correfpondence or fubordination: emulation prompted their valour; but their valour was fullied by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into envy and civil difcord. In the fiege of Nice, the arts and engines of antiquity were employed by the Latins; the mine and the battering-ram, the tortoife, and the belfrey or moveable turret, artificial fire, and the catapult and balift, the fling, and the cross-bow for 80 His Mufulman appellation of Soliman is ufed by the Latins, and his character is highly embellished by Taffo. His Turkish name of Kilidge-Arflan (A. H. 485-500. A. D. 1192-1206. See de Guignes's Tables, tom. i. p. 245.) is employed by the Orientals, and with fome corruption by the Greeks: but little more than his name can be found in the Mahometan writers, who are dry and fulky on the subject of the firft crufade (de Guignes, tom, iii. p. ii. p. 10-30.). the 82 LVIII. the cafting of stones and darts ". In the fpace of CHAP. feven weeks, much labour and blood were expended, and fome progrefs, especially by count Raymond, was made on the fide of the befiegers. But the Turks could protract their resistance and fecure their escape, as long as they were masters of the lake ** Afcanius, which stretches several miles to the weftward of the city. The means of conqueft were fupplied by the prudence and induftry of Alexius; a great number of boats was transported on fledges from the fea to the lake; they were filled with the moft dextrous of his archers; the flight of the fultana was intercepted; Nice was invested by land and water; and a Greek emiffary perfuaded the inhabitants to accept his master's protection, and to fave themselves, by a timely furrender, from the rage of the favages 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 ftreamed from the citadel; and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance this important conqueft. The murmurs of the chiefs were ftifled by honour or interest; and after an halt of nine days, they directed their march towards Phrygia under the guidance of a Greek general, whom they 81 On the fortifications, engines, and fieges of the middle ages, fee Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiæ, tom. ii. differt. xxvi. p. 452-524.). The belfredus, from whence our belfrey, was the moveable tower of the ancients (Ducange, tom. i. p. 608.). 82. I cannot forbear remarking the refemblance between the Hege and lake of Nice, with the operations of Hernan Cortez before Mexico. See Dr. Robertfon, Hift, of America, 1. v. fuf CHAP. fufpected of fecret connivance with the fultan. LVIII. The confort and the principal fervants of Soli Battle of Doryla man had been honourably restored without ran- tian cause. Soliman was rather provoked than dismayed um, A. D. by the lofs of his capital: he admonished his 1097, July fubjects and allies of this strange invasion of the western Barbarians; the Turkish emirs obeyed the call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hords encamped round his ftandard; and his whole force is loosely stated by the Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and fixty, thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they had left behind them the fea and the Greek frontier; and hovering on the flanks, observed their careless and confident progrefs in two columns beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reach Dorylæum in Phrygia, the left, and least numerous, divifion was surprised, and attacked, and almost oppreffed, by the Turkish cavalry 4. The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and the barbarous onfet, overwhelmed 84 83 Mecreant, a word invented by the French crufaders, and confined in that language to its primitive sense. It fhould feem, that the zeal of our ancestors boiled higher, and that they branded every unbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice ftill lurks in the minds of many who think themselves Chriftians. 84 Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to his brother Roger (A. D. 1098, No 15.). The enemies confifted of Medes, Perfians, Chaldæans: be it fo. The firft attack was cum noftro incommodo; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon and Hugh brothers? Tancred is ftyled filius; of whom? certainly not of Roger, nor of Bohemond, the LVIII. the crufaders; they loft their order and confi- CHAP. dence, and the fainting fight was fuftained by the personal valour, rather than by the military conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, aud Robert of Normandy. They were revived by the welcome banners of duke Godfrey, who flew to their fuccours with the count of Vermandois, aud fixty thousand horse; and was followed by Raymond of Tholoufe, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the facred army. Without a moment's pause, they formed in new order, and advanced to a fecond battle. They were received with equal refolution; and, in their common difdain for the unwarlike people of Greece and Afia, it was confeffed on both fides, that the Turks and the Franks were the only nations entitled to the appellation of foldiers". Their encounter was varied and balanced by the contrast of arms and difcipline; of the direct charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched lance, and the brandished javelin; of a weighty broad-fword, and a crooked fabre; of cumbrous armour, and thin flowing robes; and of the long Tartar bow, and the arbalift or crofs-bow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown to the Orientals 86. As long as the $5 Veruntamen dicunt fe effe de Francorum generatione; et quia nullus homo naturaliter debet effe miles nifi Franci et Turci (Gefta Francorum, p. 7.). The fame community of blood and valour is attefted by archbishop Baldric (p. 99.). 86 Balifa, Balefira, Arbalegre. See Muratori, Antiq. tom. ii. P. 517-524. Ducange, Gloff. Latin. tom. i. p. 531, 532. In the time of Anna Comnena, this weapon, which she défcribes under the name of tzangra, was unknown in the East (1. x. p. 291.). By an humane inconfiftency, the pope ftrove to prohibit it in Chriftian wars. horfes |