volume one

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228 nisTOHY OF the chusades.
The few Crusaders ayIio had preserved any feelings of
humanity had not the power to check tlie fury of an army
who thought they Avere avenging outraged rehgion. Three
hundred Saracens, who had taken refuge on the platform of
the mosque of Omar, were immolated on the day after the
conquest, in spite of the prayers of Tancred, who had sent
tliem his standard as a safeguard, and was indignant to find
t]iat so little respect was paid to the laws of honour and
chivalry.* The Saracens who had retreated to the fortress
of David were almost the only persons that escaped death.
Eaymond accepted their capitulation, and had the good
fortune and the glory to have it executed ; but this act of
humanity appeared so strange to the greater part of the
Crusaders, that they expressed less admiration for the
generosity of the count de St. Gilles than contempt for his
avarice.t
The carnage did not cease until the end of a week. Such
of the Saracens as had been able to elude pursuit during
this period were reserved for the service of the army. The
Oriental and Latin historians agree in stating the number
of the Mussulmans slaiu in Jerusalem to have been more
than seventy thousand. The Jews met vdth no more mercy
than the Saracens. The soldiers set fire to the synagogue
in which they had taken refuge, and all perished in the
flames.
But it began to be feared that the bodies heaped up in
the public places, and the blood which had flooded the
mosques and the streets might give rise to pestilential
diseases, and the leaders gave orders that the streets should
be cleansed, and that a spectacle wliich, now fury and fanaticism
were satisfied, must have been odious to them, should
be removed from before their eyes. Some Mussulman prisoners,
who had only escaped the sword of the conquerors
sagittati, de turribus saltare cogebantur ; alii vero diutissime torti et
ignibus adusti flammeriebantur (sic). Tidebantur per vicos et plateas
civitatis aggeres capitum et manuum atque pedum.
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Raym. de Ag.
p. 178.
* Tankredus miles gloriosus super hac sibi illata injuria, vehementi
ira succensus est. Alb. Aq. lib. vi. cap. 29.
t Comes Raymundus, avaritia corruptus, Sarracenos milites quos in
turrim David elapsos obsederat, accepta ingenti pecunia, illaesos abii'e
permisit. Aid. Aq. lib. vi. cap. 28