volume one

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HISTORY OF TRE CRUSADES. 225
the horses.* To paint the terrible spectacle which was presented
at two periods in the same place, it will suffice to
saj, borrowing the words of the historian Josephus, that the
number of the slain by far surpassed that of the soldiers
who immolated them to their vengeance, and that the mountains
near the Jordan in moans reechoed the frightful sounds
that issued from the temple.
The imagination turns with disgust from these horrible
pictures, and can scarcely, amidst the carnage, contemplate
the touching image of the Christians of Jerusalem, whose
chains the Crusaders had broken. They flocked from all
parts to meet the conquerors ; they shared with them aU
the provisions they had been able to steal from the Saracens;
and with them oft'ered up thanks to God for having granted
such a triumph to the arms of the Christians. Peter the
Hermit, who, five years before, had promised to arm the West
for the deliverance of the Christians of Jerusalem, must have
profoundly enjoyed the spectacle of their gratitude and
exultation. Amidst all the Crusaders, they appeared only
to see him ; they recalled his words and his promises ; it was
to him they addi-essed their songs of praise; it was him they
proclaimed their liberator. They related to him the evils
they had suffered during his absence ; they could scarcely
* We shall content ourselves with repeating here the words of Raymond
d'Agiles, Foulcher de Chartres, and Robert the Monk :—In eodem
templo decern millia decollati sunt ; pedites nostri usque ad bases cruore
peremptorum tingebantur ; nee foeminis nee parvulis pepercerunt.
Ful. Caen. ap. Bong. p. 398. Tantum enim ibi huraani sanguinis
effusum est, ut caesorum corpora, unda sanguinis impellente, volverentur
per pavimentum, et brachia give trnncatce manus super cruorem fluitabant.
Rob. Mon. lib. 9. In templo et porticu Solomonis equitabatur
in sanguine usque ad genua et usque ad frsenos equorum.— Raym. d'Ap.
Bong. p. 179. These words of Raymond d'Agiles are evidently an
hyperbole, and prove that the Latin historians exaggerated things they
ought to have extenuated or concealed In a letter written to the
pope, the bishops, and the faithful, by Daimbert, archbishop of Pisa,
Godfrey of Bouillon, and Raymond de St. Gilles, is this remarkable
passage: " If you desire to know," say they, "what became of the
enemies we found in Jerusalem, know that in the portico of Solomon and
in the temple, our soldiers had the vile blood of the Saracens up to the
knees of their horses."— Si scire desideratis quid de hostibus ibi
repertis factum fuerit, scitote quia in porticu Salomonis, et in templo
nostri equitabant in sanguine fcedo Sarracenorum usque ad genua
equorum.—See Noims Thesaurus Anecdotorum , torn. i. p. 282.
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