volume one

278 HISIOKT OF THE CRUSADES.
the sword. The Christians, particularly the Genoese, carried
away by a thirst for pillage, and still more by vengeance
and the fury of battle, stained their victory by horrible
cruelties.* The Mussulmans who escaped from the
massacre of Csesarea, carried terror into the cities of Ptolemais
and Ascalon, and all the countries still under the domination
of the Egyptians.
The cahph of Eg^pt, to revenge the death of his warriors,
assembled an army, which advanced as far as the country
round Eamla. Baldwin got together, in haste, a troop of
three hundred knights and a thousand foot-soldiers, and
marched to meet him. "When he perceived the standards of
the Eg\'ptian army, ten times more numerous than that of
the Christians, he represented to his soldiers that they were
going to fight for the glory of Christianity ; " if they fell,
heaven would be open to them ; if they triumphed, the fame
of their -v-ictory would be spread throughout the Clu-istian
world. There could be no safety in flight ; their home was
beyond the seas ; in the East there was no asyluni for the
conquered." After having thus animated his soldiers, Baldwin
divided his troops into six battalions. The t^'o first, on
chargino; the enemy, were overwhelmed by numbers ; two
others, which followed, shared the same fate. Two bishops,
who were with Bald^^'in, then advised him to implore the
mercv of Heaven : and. at their desire, the kins^ of Jerusalem
ahghted Irom his horse, fell on his knees, confessed, and received
absolution. Springing to his feet, he resumed his
arms, and rushed upon the enemy at the head of his two
remaining battalions. The Christian warriors fought hke
lions, animated by their war-cry " Victo?y or Death !^^
Baldwin had attached a white kerchief to the point of his
lance, and thus pointed out the road to carnage. The \ic-
* "William of Tyre, in his account of the taking of Caesarea, speaks of a
precious vase which fell to the share of the Genries-e. " At this time,"
says he, " was found a vase in the shape of a di^h, of a bright green
colour, which the Genoese, beUeving it to be an emerald, were desirous of
haviiie, at the valuation of a large sum of money, to make an offering of
to their church as an excellent ornament, and which they are accu:«tomed
to exhibit to the great lords who pass through their city." Tnis vase
found at Csesarea. and preserved at Genoa till the end of the last century,
is now in the Cabinet of Antiques in the Innperial Library at Paris.
[Qy. whether restored to the Genoese in 1815 ?
—
Trans.]