volume one

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 293
avoid a decisive engagement, in whicli tliey dreaded tlie
triumpli of their auxiliaries as much as that of their foes.
After having ravaged the territory of Aleppo, and the banks
of the Euphrates and the Orontes, the warriors of Bagdad
returned to their own country "udthout trying their strength
with their formidable adversaries. The Christians in this
campaign did not illustrate their arms by any very brilliant
exploits, but they kept up the division among the Saracens,
and the discord of their enemies was more serviceable to
them than a great \"ictory.
The king of Jerusalem, no longer ha"sdng the Turks of
Bagdad or the Turks established in Syria to contend with,
turned his attention towards Egypt, whose armies he had so
frequently dispersed.* He collected his chosen warriors,
traversed the desert, carried the terror of his arms to the
banks of the Nile, and surprised and pillaged the city of
Pharamia, situated three days' journey from Cairo. The
success of this expedition gave him room to hope that he
should one day render himself master of a great kingdom,
and he was returning triumphant, and loaded with booty, to
Jerusalem, when he fell sick at El-Arrich, on the confines of
the desert which separates Egypt from Palestine. His life
was soon despaired of, and the companions of his victories,
assembled around him, could not conceal their deep sorrow.
Baldwin endeavoured to console them by his discourses
"My dear companions," said he to them, "you who have
suffered so many evils and braved so many perils, why do
you allow yourselves to be overcome by grief? Remember
that you are still in the territories of the Saracens, and that
you stand in need of all your customary courage. Consider
that you only lose in me a single man, and that you have
among you several warriors who surpass me in skill. Think
of nothing but of returning victorious to Jerusalem, and of
defending the heritage of Christ. If I have fought a long
time with you, and my many labours give me the right of
addressing a prayer to you, I conjure you not to leave my
bones in a foreign land, but to bury them near to the tomb
of my brother Godfrey."
The king of Jerusalem then caused his servants to be
* Tabari and Aboul-Feda.
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