CHAP. quivers full, Soliman maintained the advantage of the day; L.VIII. and four thousand Chriftians were pierced by the Turkish arrows. In the evening fwiftnefs yielded to ftrength; on either fide, 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 laft divifion of Raymond and his provincials was led, perhaps without defign, on the, rearof an exhaufted enemy; and the long conteft was determined. Befides a nameless and unaccounted multitude, three thousand Pagan knights were flain in the battle and purfuit; the camp of Soliman was pillaged; and in the variety of precious fpoil, the curiofity of the Latins was amufed with foreign arms and apparel, and the new afpect of dromedaries and camels. The importance of the victory was proved by the hafty retreat of the fultan: referving ten thousand guards of the relics of his army, Soliman evacuated the kingdom of Roum, and haftened to implore the aid, and kindle the refentment, of his Eaftern brethren. In a march of five hundred miles, the cruMarch faders traverfed the Leffer Afia, through a wasted land through the Leffer Añia, and deferted towns, without finding either a friend or an July-Sep- enemy. The geographer (87) may trace the pofition of Dorylæum, Antioch of Pifidia, Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare thofe claffic appellations with the modern names of Eskishehr the old city, Akfhehr the white city, Cogni, Erekli, and Marafh. As the pilgrims paffed over a defert, where a draught of water is exchanged for filver, they were tormented by intolerable. thirit; and on the banks of the first rivulet, their hafte and intemperance were still more pernicious to the diforderly throng. They climbed with toil and danger the steep and flippery fides of mount Taurus: many of the foldiers cait away their arms to fecure their footsteps: and had not terror preceded their van, the long and trembling file might have been driven down the precipice by an handful of refolute enemies. Two of their moft refpectable chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholoufe, were

tember.

carried

($7) The curious reader may compare the claffic learning of Cellarius, and the geographical fcience of d'Anvilie. William of Tyre is the only hiftorian of the crufades who has any knowledge of antiquity; and M. Otter trod almost in the footsteps of the Franks from Conftantinople to An Bach Voyage en Turquie et en Perfe, tam. i. p. 35-38)

LVIII.

carried in litters: Raymond was raifed, as it is faid by CHAP. miracle, from an hopeless malady; and Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as he pursued that rough and perilous chace in the mountains of Pifidia.

of Edeffa,

To improve the general confternation, the coufin of Baldwin Bohemond and the brother of Godfrey were detached founds the from the main army with their respective squadrons of principality five, and of seven, hundred knights. They over-ran in A. D. a rapid career the hills and fea-coaft of Cilicia, from Cogni 1097-1151. to the Syrian gates: the Norman ftandard was first planted on the walls of Tarfus and Malmiftra; but the proud injuftice of Baldwin at length provoked the patient and generous Italian; and they turned their confecrated fwords against each other in a private and profane quarrel. Honour was the motive, and fame the reward, of Tancred; but fortune fimiled on the more selfish enterprise of his rival (88). He was called to the affiftance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who had been fuffered under the Turkish yoke to reign over the Chriftians of Edeffa. Baldwin accepted the character of his fon and champion; but no fooner was he introduced into the city, than he inHamed the people to the maffacre of his father, occupied the throne and treasure, extended his conquefts over the hills of Armenia and the plain of Mefopotamia, and founded the first principality of the Franks or Latins, which fubfifted fifty-four years beyond the Euphrates (89).

A. D. 109%

Before the Franks could enter Syria, the fummer, and Siege of even the autumn, were completely wafted: the fiege of Antioch, Antioch, or the feparation and repofe of the army during oar. 21the winter feason, was ftrongly debated in their council: A. D. 1098, the love of arms and the holy fepulchre urged them to June 3 advance; and reafon perhaps was on the fide of refolution, fince every hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the refources of defenfive war. The capital of Syria was protected by the river Orontes; and the iron bridge, of nine arches, derives its name from

the

(88) This detached conqueft of Edeffa is beft reprefented by Fulcherius Carnotenfis, or of Chartres (in the collections of Bongarfius, Duchefne, and Martenne), the valiant chaplain of count Baldwin (Efprit des Croifades, tom. i. p. 13, 14). In the difputes of that prince with Tancred, his partiality is encountered by the partiality of Radulphus Cadomenfis, the foldier and hiftorian of the gallant marquis.

(89) See de Guignes Hit, des Huns, tonī. i. p. 456.

СНАР
LVIII.

the maffy gates of the two towers which are constructed ag either end. They were opened by the fword of the duke of Normandy: his victory gave entrance to three hundred thousand crufaders, an account which may allow fome fcope for loffes and defertion, but which clearly detects much exaggeration in the review of Nice. In the defcription of Antioch (90), it is not eafy to define a middle term between her ancient magnificence, under the fucceffors of Alexander and Auguftus, and the modern afpect of Turkish defolation. The Tetrapolis, or four cities, if they retained their name and pofition, muft have left a large vacuity in a circumference of twelve miles; and that measure, as well as the number of four hundred towers, are not perfectly confiftent with the five gates, fo often mentioned in the history of the fiege. Yet Antioch must have Atill flourished as a great and populous capital. At the head of the Turkish emirs, Baghifian, a veteran chief, commanded in the place: his garrifon was compofed of fix or feven thousand horfe, and fifteen or twenty thousand foot: one hundred thousand Moflems are faid to have fallen by the fword; and their numbers were probably inferior to the Greeks, Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteen years the flaves of the house of Seljuk, From the remains of a folid and ftately wall, it appears to have arisen to the height of threefcore feet in the vallies; and wherever lefs art and labour had been applied, the ground was fuppofed to be defended by the river, the morals, and the mountains. Notwithstanding these fortifications, the city had been repeatedly taken by the Perfians, the Arabs, the Greeks, and the Turks; fo large a circuit must have yielded many previous points of attack; and in a fiege that was formed about the middle of October, the vigour of the execution could alone juftify the boldness of the attempt. Whatever ftrength and valour could perform in the field was abundantly discharged by the champions of the cross in the frequent occafions of fallies, of forage, of the attack and defence of convoys, they were often victorious;

(90) For Antioch, fee Pocock (Defcription of the Eaft, vol. ii. p. i. p. 188-193), Otter (Voyage en Turquie, &c tom. i. p. 81, &c.), the Tur kifh geographer (in Otter's notes), the Index Geographicus of Schultens (ad calcem Bohadin. Vit. Saladin.), and Abulfeda (Tabula Syriæ, p. 115, 116. verf. Reilke).

victorious; and we can only complain, that their exploits CHA P. are fometimes enlarged beyond the fcale of probability and LVIII. truth. The fword of Godfrey (91) divided a Turk from the fhoulder to the haunch; and one half of the infidel fell to the ground, while the other was tranfported by his horse to the city gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against his antagonist, "I devote thy head," he piously exclaimed," to the dæmons of hell;" and that head was inftantly cloven to the breaft by the refiftlefs ftroke of his defcending faulchion. But the reality or the report of fuch gigantic prowess (92) must have taught the Moslems to keep within their walls; and against those walls of earth or ftone, the fword and the lance were unavailing weapons. In the flow and fucceffive labours of a fiege, the crufaders were fupine and ignorant, without skill to contrive, or money to purchase, or induftry to ufe, the artificial engines and implements of affault. In the conqueft of Nice they had been powerfully affifted by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek emperor: his abfence was poorly supplied by fome Genoefe and Pisan veffels, that were attracted by religion or trade to the coast of Syria: the stores were fcanty, the return precarious, and the communication difficult and dangerous. Indolence or weakness had prevented the Franks from invefting the entire circuit; and the perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the wants and recruited the garrison of the city. At the end of feven months, after the ruin of their cavalry, and an enormous lofs by famine, desertion and fatigue, the progress of the crufaders was imperceptible, and their fuccefs remote, if the Latin Ulyffes, the artful and ambitious Bohemond, had not employed the arms of cunning and deceit. The Chriftians of Antioch were numerous and difcontented: Phirouz, a Sy

rian

(91) Enfem elevat, eumque a finiftrâ parte fcapularum, tanta virtute inforfit, ut quod pectus medium disjunxit fpinam et vitalia interrupit, et fic lubricus enfis fuper crus dextrum integer exivit; ficque caput integrum cum dextrâ parte corporis immerfit gurgite, partemque quæ equo præfidebat remifit civitati (Robert. Mon. p. 50). Cujus enfe trajectus, turcus duo factus eft turci; ut inferior alter in urbem equitaret, alter arcitenens in flumine nataret (Radulph. Cadom. c. 53. P. 304). Yet he justifies the deed by the ftupendis viribus of Godfrey; and William of Tyre covers it by obftupuit populus facti novitate mirabilis (1. v. c. 6. p. 701). Yet it must not have appeared incredible to the knights of that age.

....

(92) See the exploits of Robert, Raymond, and the modeft Tancred, who impofed filence on his fquire (Radulph, Cadom. c. 53).

LVIII.

CHAP rian renegado, had acquired the favour of the emir and the command of three towers; and the merit of his repentance difguifed to the Latins, and perhaps to himself, the foul defign of perfidy and treafon. A fecret correfpondence, for their mutual interest, was foon established between Phirouz and the prince of Tarento: and Bohemond declared in the council of the chiefs, that he could deliver the city into their hands. But he claimed the fovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his fervice; and the propofal which had been rejected by the envy, was at length exworted from the diftrefs of his equals. The nocturnal furprife was executed by the French and Norman princes, who afcended in perfon the fcaling ladders that were thrown from the walls: their new profelyte, after the murder of his too fcrupulous brother, embraced and introduced the fervants of Chrift; the army rushed through the gates; and the Moflems foon found, that although mercy was hopeless, refiftance was impotent. But the citadel still refused to furrender; and the victors themselves were speediby encompaffed and befieged by the innumerable forces of Kerboga, prince of Moful, who, with twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced to the deliverance of Antioch. Five-andtwenty days the Chriftians spent on the verge of deftruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and the fultan Victory of left them only the choice of fervitude or death (9). In the cruía- this extremity they collected the relics of their strength, fallied from the town, and in a fingle memorable day anniA.D. 1098. hilated or difperfed the hoft of Turks and Arabians, which June 28. they might fafely report to have confifted of fix hundred thousand men (94). Their supernatural allies I fhall proceed to confider: the human caufes of the victory of Antioch were the fearless defpair of the Franks; and the furprise,

ders,

(93) After mentioning the distress and humble petition of the Franks, Abulpharagius adds the haughty reply of Codbuka, or Kerboga; non evafuri eftis nifi per gladium (Dynaft. p. 242).

(94) In defcribing the hoft of Kerboga, most of the Latin historians, the author of the Gesta (p. 17.), Robert Monachus (p. 56.), Baldric (p. 111.), Fulcherius Carnotenfis (p. 392.), Guibert (p. 512.), William of Tyre (1. vi. c. 3. p. 714.), Bernard Thefaurarius (c. 39. p. 695.) are content with the vague expreffions of infinita multitudo, immenfum agmen, innumeræ copia or gentes, which correfpond with the μετα αναρίθμητων χιλιάδων of Anna Comnena (Alexias, 1. xi. p. 318-320). The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Albert Aquenfis at 200,000 (1. iv. c. 10. p. 242.), and by Radulphus Cadomenfis at 400,000 horse (c. 72. p. 309).