volume one

HISTORY or THE CRUSADES. 227
The pious fervour of the Christians only suspended the
scenes of carnage. The policy of some of the leaders might
make them believe that it was necessary to inspire the
Saracens with as much dread as possible ; they thought,
perhaps also, that if they released the men who had defended
Jerusalem, they should have to fight them over again, and
that it was not prudent for them, in a distant country and
surrounded by enemies, to undertake the charge of prisoners
whose number by far surpassed that of their own soldiers.
The approach of the Egyptian army likewise was announced,
and the dread of a new danger closed their hearts against
pity. In their council, a sentence of death was decreed
against all the Mussulmans that remained in the city.*
Eanaticism but too well seconded this barbarous policy.
All the enemies whom humanity or the fatigue of carnage
had at first spared, and even such as had been saved in
hopes of a rich ransom, were slaughtered. They compelled
the Saracens to cast themselves from the tops of the towers
and the houses ; they made them perish in the midst of
flames ; they dragged them from their subterranean concealments
to the public places, and there immolated them
upon heaps of dead. JS^either the tears of women nor the
cries of infants, not even the sight of the very place where
Christ had pardoned his executioners, could soften the
hearts of the angry conquerors. The carnage was so great
that, according to the report of Albert d'Aix, bodies were
seen heaped up, not only in the palaces, the temples, and
the streets, but even in the most retired and solitary places.
Such was the delirium of vengeance and fanaticism, that
these scenes appear not to have been revolting to the eyes
of those wno beheld them. The contemporary historians
describe them without thinking of excusing them, and
amidst recitals of the most disgusting details, never allow
a single expression of horror or pity to escape them.f
* Albert d'Aix gives the sentence which emanated from the council of
the leaders. This sentence is supported by the motives we have pointed
out.
t We have already quoted some of these historians ; others relate
nearly the same details, and with the same sang fvoid . We will quote no
other but Raymond d'Agiles, who expresses himself thus :—Alii namque
Ulorum, QUOD levhts erat, obtruncabantur capitibus ; alii autem