volume one

102 HISTOKY or THE CRUSJJDES.
prisoners ; four thousand Mussulmans fell on the field of
battle ; the heads of a thousand were sent to Alexius ; and
the rest, by the aid of machines, were cast into the city, to
inform the garrison of this fresh defeat of the Turks.
Kilidge-Arslan, despairing to save Nice, retired with the
wreck of his army, and hastened to gather together in the
provinces new forces, with which to oppose the Christians.
The Crusaders, ha^-ing no longer to dread the neighbourhood
of an enemy's army, pushed on the siege with Tigour.
Sometimes they made approaches by galleries covered by a
sometimes thev dra2:s:ed
double roof of boards and hurdles ;
towards the walls towers mounted on a number of wheels,
constructed with several stages, and loaded ^vith arms and
soldiers. Here the rams beat against the walls with redoubled
shocks ; at a short distance balistas vomited, without
ceasing, beams of wood and showers of arrows ; and catapultas
cast into the air combustible matters and enormous
stones, which fell with a crash into the citv.
The Christians employed in this siege all the machines*
known to the Eomans. The Greeks were better acquainted
with the construction of them than the Latins, and directed
their operations. It is likewise probable that the Greeks
who were in Xice, and subject to the power of the Mussulmans,
instructed the latter in the means of defending the
place.
The Christians allowed the besieged no respite, and they
defended themselves with obstinate ftiry. All the inhabitants
of Xice had taken arms. Their ramparts were covered
with formidable machines, which hurled destruction among
the assailants. Fiery darts, beams, enormous pieces of stone,
launched from the height of the walls, destroyed, day after
day, the labours of the Crusaders. ^WTien the Christians
had made a breach in the ramparts, another wall arose from
the bosom of the ruins, and presented a new barrier to the
besiegers.
As the Crusaders attacked without order or precaution,
their imprudence and their rashness were often very fatal to
* The Pisans, the Genoese, and the greater part of the nations of Italy,
after the Greeks, showed themselves most skilful in the construction of
machines for war.