volume one

282 niSTOEY OF TUE CCUSADrS.
sade. Stephen, count of Chartres and Blois, and Stephen,
dulve of Burgundy, who had arrived in Palestine ^vith the
remains of an army dispersed by the Turks in Asia Minor,
were killed imder the walls of Eamla. As the Grreeks were
accused of having prepared the ruin of the armies sent to
the assistance of the Latins, murmurs arose in all the Chris-
tian colonies against the emperor Alexius. This prince, constantly
in dread of the powers of the "West, sent to congratulate
the king of Jerusalem on his victories, and exerted
himself to procure the liberty of the Christians Avho had
fallen into the hands of the Egyptians and Turks. After
haring delivered or ransomed some Christian knights, he re-
ceived them at Constantinople, loaded them with presents,
and sent them back to their own country.
But whilst thus breaking the chains of a few captives, he
was equipping fleets and raising amiies to attack Antioch,
and obtain possession of the cities on the coast of Syria
which belonged to the Latins. He offered to pay the ransom
of Bohemond, still a prisoner among the Tiu-ks, not for
the purpose of setting him at liberty, but to have him
brought to Constantinople, where he hoped to obtain from
him the renunciation of his principality. Bohemond, who
saw through the projects of Alexius, gained the good-will
of the emir who detained him prisoner, promised him his
alliance and support, and persiuided him to accept for his
ransom, half the sum offered by the emperor of the Greeks.
After a captirity of four years, he returned to Antioch,
where he employed himself in repulsing the aggi'essions of
Alexius. The fleets of the Pisans and the Grenoese came to
his relief, and several battles, both bv sea and land, were
fought with various success ; the Latins and the Greeks, by
turns, obtaining the advantage.
T\nbilst this war was being carried on between Alexius and
Bohemond, the Franks neglected no opportunity of coming
into collision witli the infidels. Bohemond, Baldwin du
Bourg, count of Edessa, and his cousin Josselin de Courtenay,*
master of several cities on the banks of the Euphrates,
united their forces to attack Charan, a flourishing cit>^ of
Mesopotamia. The Christians, after a siege of several days,
* See Gibbon for the interesting memoir of this noble family, whose
name so frequently occurs in our own history, and is, I believe, still
extant, in the Courtenays, earls of Devon. Trans.
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