volume one

140
HISTOET OF THE CEUSADES.
-when the latter obtained a fresh victor}^ over the Turks.
The sultans of Aleppo and Damascus, ^-ith the emirs of
Csesarea, Emessa, and Hieropolis, had raised an army of
twenty thousand horse to succour Antioch ; and this army
was already on its march towards the city, when it was surprised
and' cut to pieces by the prince of Tarentum and the
count de St. Gilles, who had gone out to meet it. The
Turks lost in this battle two thousand men and one thousand
horses ; and the city of Harem, in which they in yain sought
an asylum after their defeat, fell into the hands of the Christians.*
At the moment the ambassadors from Egypt were
about to embark at the port of St. Simeon, the heads and
spoils of two hundred Mussulmans were brought to them
upon four camels. The conquerors cast two hundred other
heads into the cit^' of Antioch, whose garrison was still in
eypectation of succour ; and they stuck a great number upon
pikes round the walls. They exhibited thus these horrible
trophies, to ayenge themselyes of the insults the Saracens
had, on their ramparts, heaped upon an image of the Virgin
which had fallen into their hands.
But the Crusaders were soon to signalize themselyes in a
much more perilous and murderous battle. A fleet of
Genoese and Pisans had entered the port of St. Simeon, and
the news of their arriyal causing the greatest joy in the
army, a great number of soldiers left the camp and hastened
towards the port, some to learn news from Europe, and
others to buy the proyisions of which they stood so much in
need. As they were returning loaded with proyisions, and
for the greater part luiarmed, they were unexpectedly
attacked and dispersed by a body of foiu' thousand Turks,
who laid wait for them on their passage. In yain the prince
of Tarentum, the count de St. Gilles, and Bishop Adhemar,
flew to their aid with their troops ;
the Christians could not
resist the shock of the infidels, and retreated in disorder.
The account of this defeat soon spread alarm among the
Crusaders who had remained before the city. Immediately
Godfrey, to whom danger gaye supreme authority, ordered
the leaders and soldiers to fly to arms.* Accompanied by
* A chronicle printed at Paris in 1517, which bears for title, " Grand
Voyage d'Outre-Mer," places the following speech in the mouth of God-