volume one

mSTOET OF THE CRUSADES. 297
they were themselves taken by the infidels. They all died
amidst tortures, and received from Heaven alone, add the
same chronicles, the reward of their generous devotion.
Josselin, escaped from his prison, repaired to Jerusalem,
where he deposited in the chui^ch of the Holy Sepulchre the
chains which he had borne among the Turks, and entreated
prompt assistance for the deliverance of Baldwin, The
mourning kingdom was menaced by the Saracens of Egypt,
who, seeking to talie advantage of the captivity of Baldwin,
had assembled in the plains of Ascalon for the purpose of
driving the Franks from Palestine. In this pressing danger
the Christians of Jerusalem could pay attention to nothing
but the defence of the kingdom. After the example of the
inhabitants of Nineveh, they first sought to mitigate the
anger of Heaven by penitence and prayer. A rigorous fast
was commanded, during which women withheld the milk of
their breasts from their children in the cradle, and the flocks
even were driven to a distance from their pastures and deprived
of their ordinary nourishment. War was proclaimed
by the sound of the great bell of Jerusalem. The Christian
army, which consisted of little more than three thousand
combatants, was commanded by Eustache Glrenier, count of
Sidon, named regent of the kingdom in the absence of Baldwin.
The patriarch of the holy city bore the true cross at
the head of the army ; he was followed, says Robert of the
Mount, by Pontius, abbot of Cluni, carrying the lance with
which the side of the Saviour was pierced, and by the bishop
of Bethlehem, who held in his hands a vase, in which the
Christian priests boasted of having preserved the milk of
the Virgin mother of Grod !*
The Christians met the army of the Saracens on the plains
of Ascalon. The battle immediately began, and the Pranks
were at once surrounded by the Mussulmans, who reckoned
forty thousand men beneath their standards. The defeat of
the Christians appeared certain, when all at once, says the
* The account of this battle, and the preparations for it, are taken from
Robert of the Monnt {Robortus de Monte, Appendice ad Sigebertum).
This author speaks of the fast the troops were ordered to undergo, as had
been done at Nineveh : " Universo pecori pabula negabantur." He also
speaks of the milk of the holy Virgin, carried in a vase:— " Episcopus
Bethleemides ferens in pyxide lac:; sanctte Marise virginis."