volume one

HISTORY OF THE CEITSADES. 291
fighting men, and penetrated tlirougli the mountains of
Libanus into Galilee. During more than three months the
banks of the Jordan and of the Lake of Genesarethwere devastated
by the horrors of war. The king of Jerusalem placed
himself at the head of his knights to encounter this redoubtable
enemy, and was defeated by the Saracens on the
plains near Mount Tabor. Roger of Sicily, who had been
governor of Antioch since the death of Tancred, and the
counts of Tripoli and Edessa, came with their troops to the
assistance of Baldwin. The Christian army, although it
then mustered under its banners eleven thousand combatants,
took up its encampment on the mountains, and did not
dare to risk a battle. The Christians, intrenched upon the
heights, beheld their fields ravaged and their cities burnt.
All the banks of the Jordan seemed to be in flames ; for a
vast number of Saracens from Ascalon, T}Te, and other
Mussulman cities, had taken advantage of the reverses of
the Christians to lay waste many of the provinces of Palestine.
The country of Sechem was invaded, and the city of
JSTaplouse delivered up to pillage. Jerusalem, which was
without defenders, shut its gates, and was in momentary
fear of falling again into the power of the infidels.
The Turks, however, dreading the arrival of fresh pilgrims
from the West, abandoned Galilee, and returned to Damascus
and Mossoul. But other calamities soon followed those
of war. Clouds of locusts from Arabia finished the devas-
tation of the fields of Palestine. A horrible famine prevailed
in the county of Edessa, the principality of Antioch,
and all the Christian states. An earthquake was felt from
Mount Taurus to the deserts of Idumea, by which several
cities of Cilicia were reduced to heaps of ruins. At Samosata,
an Armenian prince was swallowed up in his own
palace ; thirteen towers of the walls of Edessa, and the
citadel of Aleppo, fell down with a fearfid crash ; the towers
of the highest fortresses covered the earth with their remains,
and the commanders, whether Mussulmans or Christians,
fled with their soldiers to seek safety in deserts and forests.
Antioch suffered more from the earthquake than any other
city. The tower of the uorthern gate, many public edifices,
and several churches were completely destroyed.
Gr^at troubles always inspired the Christians with feelings
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