volume one

HISTOKY or THE CllUSADES. 185
towers and tlie ramparts. As they were overtaken by night
in the midst of their victory, they did not venture to penetrate
into the place ; and when, with the break of day, they
spread themselves through the streets, not a sound was to
be heard,—every part of the city was deserted. The army
pillaged the uninhabited houses, but soon discovered, to
their great surprise, that the whole population of Maarah
had taken refuge in subterranean places. A large quantity
of straw, set on fire at the mouths of the caverns in which
the infidels were concealed, soon forced them to issue from
their retreats, and such was the animosity of the conquerors,
that the bewildered and trembling multitude implored their
pity in vain. All the inhabitants of Maarah were either
put to the sword or led into slavery ; the city was completely
razed to the ground, " which so terrified the neighbouring
cities," says an historian, "that of their own free will, and
without force, they surrendered to the Crusaders."
This conquest became the subject of fresh discord. Bohemond,
who had come to the siege, was desirous of keeping
a portion of the city, wlnlst Raymond pretended to reign
over Maarah as its sovereign. The debate grew warm ; the
camp of the Christians was filled with confusion and factions,
and the Crusaders were very near shedding their own
blood to ascertain who should be master of a city which they
had just entirely deprived of inhabitants, and given up to
pillage. " But God, who was the leader of this great enter-
prise," says le Pere Maimbourg, " repaired by the zeal of
the weak and the lowly that which the passions of the great
and the wise of this world had destroyed." The soldiers
at length became indignant at the thoughts of shedding, for
miserable quarrels, the blood which they had sworn to de-
dicate to a sacred cause. AVhilst they M^ere most loud in
their complaints and murmurs, the report reached them that
Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of the Egyptians : they
had taken advantage of the defeat of the Turks, and of the
unfortunate delay of the Christian army in their invasion of
Palestine. This news redoubled the discontent of the Crusaders,
and they loudly accused Raymond and their other
leaders of having betrayed the cause of Grod. They announced
their intention of choosing fresli leaders, who
should have no other ambition but that of accomplishing