volume one

1S8 HisroKY or the ckusades.
Archas * In order to inflame the courage of his soldiers,
and associate them with him in his project, he promised
them as a reward for their labours, the pillage of the city
and the deliverance of two hundred Christian prisoners
confined in the citadel.
In the mean time Grodfrey, Eustace, and Eobert, count of
Flanders, had not yet set out from Antioch. They did not
begin their march* before the early days of spring. Bohemond
accompanied them as far as Laodicea,t and then
returned to his capital, after ha\-ing promised his companions
to rejoin them before Jerusalem. At Laodicea the
Crusaders liberated the llemish pirates who had taken the
cross at Tarsus, and who, for more than a year, had been
detained prisoners by the Greeks, the masters of that city.
At the same place the Christian army received a reinforcement
of new Crusaders from the ports of Holland and
Flanders, and the British isles. Among these new defenders
of the cross was Edgar Athelmg, who, after the
death of Harold, had disputed the crown of England with
William the Conqueror. He came to endeavour to forget
the misfortunes of his country under the banners of the
holy war, and at the same time to seek a refuge from the
tvranny of the conqueror. The English and the new Crusaders
from other countries were received with great joy
into the ranks of the Christian army, which, however,
pursued its march towards Palestine very slowly.
It grieved the greater part of the leaders to be obhged
to traverse such rich provinces without establishing their
domination in them. There was not a city in their route
upon the walls of which one of them had not a strong
secret inclination to plant his standard. These pretensions
gave birth to rivalries which weakened the army, and prevented
it from making useful conquests. Baymond still
* Archas is mentioned by Strabo, Ptolemy, Josephus, and the Itinerary
of Antonine, \shich latter places this city at sixteen miles from
Tripoli. Pococke (torn. ii. p. 299) and Maundrell (vol. i. p. 41) speak of
a river which still bears this name. Abulfeda speaks of it under the name
of Aarkat. The Itinerary fiom Bordeaux to Jerusalem also mentions
Archas.
t Laodicea still exists under the name of Lakikieh. It has been long
famous for its trade in tobacco.