volume one

72 HISTOEY OF THE CEUSADES.
Leytha, a river wliicli floAvs into tlie Danube, was defended
by marshes. The Crusaders crossed the river, cut down a
forest, and formed a causeway, which conducted them close
under the walls of the place. After some preparation the
signal was given, the ladders were raised against the ramparts,
and the general assault was begun. The besieged
opposed a spirited resistance, and showered upon their
enemies a tempest of darts and arrows, with torrents
of boiling oil. The besiegers, encoiu'aging each other,
redoubled their efforts. Victory appeared to be about to
declare for them, when suddenl^y several ladders pelded to
the weight of the assailants, and dragged down with them
in their fall the parapets and the fragments of the towers
that the rams had shaken. The cries of the wounded, and
the rattling of the falling ruins, spread a panic among the
Crusaders. They abandoned the half-destroyed ramparts,
behind which their enemies trembled, and retired in the
greatest disorder.
" Grod him.self," says William of Tyre, " spread terror
through their ranks, to piuiish their crimes, and to accom-
plish that word of the wise man :
' The impious man flies
without being pursued.' " The inhabitants of Mersbourg,
astonished at their victory, at length quitted the shelter of
their ramparts, and found the plain covered with the fliers,
who had cast away their arms. A vast number of these
furious bemgs, whom, recently, nothing could resist, allowed
themselves to be slaughtered without resistance. Many
perished, swallowed up in the marshes. The waters of the
Danube and the Leytha were reddened A^ith their blood, and
covered with their bodies.
The vanguard of this army met with the same fate among
the Bulgarians, whose territories they had gained. In the
cities and the plains, these unworthy Crusaders found everywhere
men as ferocious and implacable as themselves, who
appeared—to employ the words of the historians of the times
but that of Altenburgh, which has succeeded it, and which signifies old
city, indicates sufficiently clearly a more ancient name ; and the name of
Moiswn, whicli other historians of the crusades give to the same place, is
still found in the Latin and Hungarian name of the county of Wieselbourg,
upon which this city depends ; Mesony wanmgye, Mesoniensis
Comitatus.