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136 HlSTOltT OF THE CRUSADES. to be credited, all the vices of the infamous Babylon prevailed among the liberators of Sion. Strange and unheard-of spectacle ! Beneath the tents of the Crusaders famine and voluptuousness formed a hideous union; impure love, an unbounded passion for play, with all the excesses of debauch, were mingled with images of death.* In their misfortunes, the greater part of the pilgrims seemed to disdain the consolations that might have been derived from piety and virtue. And yet the bishop of Buy, and the more -virtuous portion of the clergy used every effort to reform the manners of the Crusaders. They caused the voice of religion to hurl its thunders asjainst the excesses of libertinism and licentiousness. They recalled to their minds all the evils that the Christian army had suffered, and attributed them entirely to the vices and debaucheries of the defenders of the cross. An earthquake which was felt at this time, an aurora borealis, which was a new phenomenon to great part of the pilgrim.s, were pointed out to them as an announcement of the anger of Heaven. Fasts and prayers were ordered, to avert tlie celestial indignation. The Crusaders made processions round the camp, and hymns of penitence resounded from all parts: The priests invoked the wrath of the Church against all who should betray the cause of Christ by their sins. To add to the terrors which the threats of religion inspired, a tribunal, composed of the principal leaders of the army and the clergy, was charged with the pursuit and punishment of the guilty. Men surprised in a state of intoxication had their hair cut off; whilst blasphemers, or such as gave them- selves up to a passion for play, were branded with a hot iron. A monk accused of adultery, and convicted by the ordeal of fire, was beaten with rods, and led naked through the camp. As the judges became aware of the guilty, they must have been terrified at their numbers. The severest punishments coidd not entirely stop the prostitution whicli had become almost general. They determined upon shutting up all the women in a separate camp—an extreme and imprudent measure, which confounded vice and virtue, and * Et quis esse poterat aditus voluptatis, ubi erat indesinens suspicio mortis ! — Guib. lib. vi. cap. 15.
HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 137 produced crimes more disgraceful than those they desired to prevent. Among all these calamities, the camp of the Crusaders was filled with Syrian spies, who daily bore into the city accounts of the plans, the distress, and the despair of the besiegers. Bohemond, in order to deliver the army, employed a means of a nature to disgust CA^en barbarians. My pen refuses to trace such pictures, and I leave William of T}Te, or rather his old translator, to speak. " Bohemond," says he, " commanded that several Turks, M'hom he held in close confinement, should be brought before him. These he caused instantly to be executed by the hands of the officers of justice, and then ordering a great fire to be lighted, he had them spitted and roasted, as flesh prepared for the supper of himself and his troops ; at the same time commanding, that if any one made inquiries about what was going on, that they should be answered in this fashion: ' The princes and rulers of the camp have this day decreed in council, that all Turks or spies that shall henceforward he found in their camp, shall he, in this maimer, forced to make meat icith their oivn bodies, as ivell for the princes as the tvhole army.^ " The servants of Bohemond executed exactly the orders and instructions which he had given them. The strangers who were in the camp soon flocked to the quarters of the prince of Tarentum, and when they saw what was going on, adds our ancient author, ivere marvellously terrified, fearing to share the fate of the victims. They made haste to quit the camp of the Christians, and everywhere on their road spread an account of that which they had seen. Their story flew from mouth to mouth, even to tlie most distant countries : the inhabitants of Antioch, and all the Mussulmans of the Syrian cities, were seized with terror, and no more ventured to approach the camp of the Crusaders. " By these means," says the historian we have above quoted, " it ensued from the cunning and conduct of the seigneiir Bohemond, that the pest of spies was banished from the camp, and the enterprises of the Christians were not divulged to the enemy." The bishop of Buy, at the same time, employed a stratagem much more innocent and conformable with the spirit of
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136 HlSTOltT OF THE CRUSADES.<br />
to be credited, all the vices of the infamous Babylon prevailed<br />
among the liberators of Sion. Strange and unheard-of<br />
spectacle !<br />
Beneath the tents of the Crusaders famine and<br />
voluptuousness formed a hideous union; impure love, an<br />
unbounded passion for play, with all the excesses of<br />
debauch, were mingled with images of death.* In their<br />
misfortunes, the greater part of the pilgrims seemed to<br />
disdain the consolations that might have been derived from<br />
piety and virtue.<br />
And yet the bishop of Buy, and the more -virtuous portion<br />
of the clergy used every effort to reform the manners of the<br />
Crusaders. They caused the voice of religion to hurl its<br />
thunders asjainst the excesses of libertinism and licentiousness.<br />
They recalled to their minds all the evils that the<br />
Christian army had suffered, and attributed them entirely to<br />
the vices and debaucheries of the defenders of the cross.<br />
An earthquake which was felt at this time, an aurora borealis,<br />
which was a new phenomenon to great part of the pilgrim.s,<br />
were pointed out to them as an announcement of the anger<br />
of Heaven. Fasts and prayers were ordered, to avert tlie<br />
celestial indignation. The Crusaders made processions<br />
round the camp, and hymns of penitence resounded from all<br />
parts: The priests invoked the wrath of the Church against<br />
all who should betray the cause of Christ by their sins. To<br />
add to the terrors which the threats of religion inspired, a<br />
tribunal, composed of the principal leaders of the army and<br />
the clergy, was charged with the pursuit and punishment of<br />
the guilty. Men surprised in a state of intoxication had<br />
their hair cut off; whilst blasphemers, or such as gave them-<br />
selves up to a passion for play, were branded with a hot iron.<br />
A monk accused of adultery, and convicted by the ordeal<br />
of fire, was beaten with rods, and led naked through the<br />
camp. As the judges became aware of the guilty, they must<br />
have been terrified at their numbers. The severest punishments<br />
coidd not entirely stop the prostitution whicli had<br />
become almost general. They determined upon shutting<br />
up all the women in a separate camp—an extreme and imprudent<br />
measure, which confounded vice and virtue, and<br />
* Et quis esse poterat aditus voluptatis, ubi erat indesinens suspicio<br />
mortis !<br />
—<br />
Guib. lib. vi. cap. 15.
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