volume one

IIISTORT OF TilE CRUSADES. 151
added the prince of Tarentmii, " surround us. Time presses ;
to-morrow, perhaps, it will be too late to act ;
by to-morrow
we may have lost the fruits of all our labours and all our
victories ; but no, I cannot think so ; God, who has led us
hitherto by the hand, will not allow that we shall have
fought for his cause in vain. He ivlll save the Christian
army, he ivill conduct us to the tomb of his Son. If you
will accept the proposal I have made to you, to-morrow the
standard of the cross shall float over the walls of Antioch,
and we will march in triumph to Jerusalem."
When he had finished these words, Bohemond showed
the letters of Phirous, who promised to give up the three
towers which he commanded. Phirous said that he
was ready to perform this promise, but he declared he
would have nothing to do with any one but the prince of
Tarentum. He required, as the price of his services, that
Bohemond should remain master of Antioch. The Itahan
prince added that he had already given considerable sums to
Phirous ; that he alone had obtained his confidence, and
that a reciprocal confidence was the surest guarantee of the
success of so difiicult an enterprise. "As for the rest,"
continued he, " if a better means of saving the army can be
found, I am ready to approve of it, and wiUingly renoimce
my share in a conquest upon which the safety of all the
Crusaders depends."
The danger became every day more pressing; it was
shameful to fly, imprudent to fight, and dangerous to temporize,
Fear silenced all interests and all rivalry. The
more opposition the leaders had shown at first to the project
of Bohemond, the more eagerly did they now produce
cogent reasons for adopting it. A divided conquest became no
longer a conquest. To divide or share Antioch might give
birth to a crowd of divisions in the armv, and lead to its
ruin. They only gave that which was really not yet their
own ;
and they gave it to secure the lives of the Christians.
It were better that one man should profit by the labours of
all, than that all should perish for opposing the good fortunes
of that one. Moreover, the taking of Antioch was not the
object of the crusade—they had taken up arms to dehver
Jerusalem. Every delay was opposed to that which religion
looked for from its soldiers, to that which the AVest expected