volume one

BOOK V.
A.D. 1099—1148.
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I HAVE related the disasters, the labours, and the conquests
of the first Crusaders ; I now direct my attention to
the kingdom which was founded by their victories, the perils
of which several times summoned the nations of the AVest
to arms. If the recital of a war filled with adventures and
prodigies has excited the curiosity and surprise of my readers,
I trust they will not refuse to follow with me tlie progress
of that distant kingdom, which was the fruit of so many
exploits and so much glory, which cost so much blood and
so many tears. After having beheld the countless crowds
of pilgrims setting out for the deliverance of the Holy
Land, who will not be astonished to see two or three hundred
brave knights, the glorious remains of the Christian
armies, suffice for the defence of the pro"\T.nces and cities
conquered by the united powers of the West ? "What
spectacle can create more profound reflection in the minds
of thinking and enlightened men, tlian that of a new
people, cast, as it were by a tempest, on a foreign shore, in
the midst of a country from Avhich the arms, religion, and
customs of numerous nations are unceasingly employed to
expel them ?
The country in which the Crusaders had just established
themselves, and which the monuments of religion and history
rendered so dear to the nations of the AVest, constituted
the kingdoms of Judah and Israel of antiquity. When the
Uomans carried their arms into this country, its new masters
added to the name which the Jews had given it that of
Palestine, or the country of the Palestinians. It was
bounded on the south and east by the deserts of Arabia and
Idumea, on the west by the Mediterranean, and on the north
by the mountains Libanus,
At the period of tlie crusades, as at the present time, a
great part of the soil of Palestine, upon which rise the