volume one

98 HISTOJBY OS THE Cri.USADES.
the earliest attempts of the Christians would be directed.
This city, the capital of Bithviiia, and celebrated by the
holding of two councils, was the seat of the empire of
Eoum ; and it was there that the Turks, as in an advanced
post, awaited an opportunity to attack Constantinople, and
precipitate themselves upon Eiu'ope. High mountains
defended the approach to it. Towards the west and the
south the Lake of Ascanius bathed its ramparts, and preserved
to the inhabitants an easy communication with the
sea. Large ditches, filled with water, surrounded the place.
Tlu'ee hundred and seventy towers of brick or stone protected
the double enclosure of its walls, which were wide enough
for the passage of a chariot. The chosen of the Turkish
warriors composed its garrison, and the sultan of Eoum,
ready to defend it, was encamped upon the neighbouring
mountains, at the head of an army of a hundred thousand
men.
Pull of just confidence in their own strength, and ignorant
of that which could be opposed to them, the Crusaders
advanced towards Xice. Xever had the plains of Bithynia
presented a more magniiicent or a more terrible spectacle.
The numbers of the Crusaders exceeded the population of
many great cities of the "West, and were sufficient to cover
the largest plains. The Turks, from then* encampments on
the summits of the mountains, must have beheld, "^dth terror,
an army composed of more than a hundred thousand horse
and five hundred thousand foot,* the picked men of the
warlike nations of Europe, who were come to dispute with
them the possession of Asia.f
* The contemporary historians who have spoken of the crusades, and
who have made this enumeration, had doubtless in their minds the numbering
which is found in Scripture, which makes the number of the
soldiers of Israel amount to six hundred and thirty-three thousand five
huudred and fifty. I believe I ought to add some passages from the
historians : Siomries qui de domibus mis egressi votv.m jam iter ceperani,
simul illuc adessent, procid dubio sexagies centum millia bellatorum
adessent.—Foulcher de Chartres. Opinioneyn hominum vincebat numerus,
guamvis cestimarentur sejcagies centum millia itinerantium.—Malmesbury,
book iv.
t Such might be the character of the hundred thousand horse ; but the
five hundred thousand foot by no means merited such a description.
Trans.
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