volume one

124 HISTORY or TUE CfiUSADES.
factious repented of ha-ving allowed a prince whom they had
so cruellv outraged, to live. Xew accusations were brought
against him. It was said that he had only signed the peace
Avith perfidious intentions. The furv of the people soon
rose above all bounds, and a thousand voices demanded the
death of Theodore. They penetrated, tumultuously, into the
citadel, seized the aged governor in the midst of his family,
and precipitated him from the heights of the ramparts.
His bleeding^ body was dragged thi'ough the streets by the
multitude, who prided themselves upon ha^-ing murdered an
old man as much as if they had gained a -^-ictory over the
infidels.
Bald^vin, who may, at least, be accused of not having
defended his adoptive father, was soon surrounded by all the
people of Edessa, who ofiered hun the government of the
cit}-. He refused it at fii'st, "but in the end," says an old
historian, " they combated his objections with so many
reasons, that they forced him to consent, and estabhshed him
instead of the other." BaldAvin was proclaimed hberator
and master of Edessa. Seated on a blood-^^^tained throne,
and in constant di-ead of the fickle nature of the people, he
soon inspired his subjects with as much fear as his enemies.
"Wliilst the seditious trembled before hun, he extended the
limits of his territories. He puiThased the city of Samosata
with the treasures of his predecessor, and obtaiQed possession
of several other cities by force of arms. As fortune
favoured him ia everything, the loss even, which he had
lately experienced, of his wife, Gundechilde, promoted his
projects of aggi-andizement. He espoused the niece of an
Ai-menian prince, and by that new alliance he extended his
possessions as far as ]\Iount Taurus. All Mesopotamia, with
both shores of the Euphrates, acknowledged his authority,
and Asia then beheld a French knight reigning without dispute
over the richest provinces of the ancient kingdom of
Assyria.
Baldwin thought no more of the dehverance of Jerusalem,
but gave all his attention to the defence and aggrandizement
of his states.* 3Iany knights, dazzled by such a rapid for-
* In the first book of the Jerusalem Delivered, when the Eternai
turns his eyes on the Crusaders, he sees in Edessa the ambitious Baldwin,
who only aspires to human grandeurs, with which he is solely occupied.