volume one

100 UISTOEY OF TJIE CRUSADES.
crosses, Asiatic trees, and European trees. Several caused
to be represented on their shields the birds of passage which
they had met A^dth on their route, which birds, by changing
their climate annually, presented to the Crusaders a symbol
of their o^tl pilgrimage. These distinctive marks at the
time served to animate their valour in the field of battle, and
were destined, at a future day, to be one of the attributes of
rank among the nations of the West.
In the immense crowd of Crusaders, no count, no prince,
deigned to receive orders from any one.* The Christians
presented the image of a republic under arms. This republic,
in which everything appeared to be in common, recognised
no other law but that of honour, no other tie but that of
religion. So great was their zeal, that chiefs performed the
duties of common m^en, and the latter required no signal to
rush to victory or encounter death. The priests passed
continually amongst the ranks, to recall to the Crusaders
the maxims of scriptural morality. Their discourses were
not thrown away; for, if we may credit contemporary authors,
who seldom spare the champions of the cross, the conduct of
the Christians during the siege of Nice offered nothing but
examples of warlike virtue and subjects of edification.
In the first days of the siege the Christians made several
assaidts, in Avhich they uselessly displayed prodigies of
valoiu*. Kilidge-Arslan, who had placed both his family and
his treasures in Nice, animated the garrison by his letters,
and resolved to spare no efforts to succour the besieged.
He called together the chiefs of his army ; he reminded them
of the advantages they had gained over the Christians, and
predicted still more brilliant trophies to their valour. " The
greatest disorder," he told them, "reigned in the Christian
army, and the numbers of their enemies assured them the
victory. They were going to fight for their wives, their
children, and the country which they owed to the conquests
* Quis tot principes, tot duces, tot equites, tot pedites, sine rege, sine
imperatore dimicante hacteniis audivit, neque siquidem in isto exercitu
alter alteri prsefuit, alius aliis imperavit.—Baldric, ch. 13.
The reader may keep his attention fixed upon this, as the source of
most of their disasters ; and in all the history of the Crusaders there is no
miracle greater than that an army so constituted could achieve anything.