volume one

300 HISTOET OF THE CRTJSADES.
A'irgii; after having spoken of the king, Hyram, and the
tomb of Origen, he does not disdain to celebrate the
memory of Cadmus, and the country of Dido. The good
archbishop boasts above all of the industry and the commerce
of Tyre ; of the fertility of its territory, its dyes so
celebrated in all antiquity, that sand which is changed into
transparent vases, and those sugar-canes which, from that
time, were souo^ht for bv every reHon of the universe. Tvre,
in the time of Baldwin, was no longer that sumptuous city,
whose rich merchants, according to Isaiah, were princes
but it was yet considered as the most populous and the most
commercial of all the cities of Sj^ia. It was built upon a
deliffhtfal beach, which mountains sheltered from the blasts
of the north ;
it had two large moles, which, like two arms,
stretched out into the waves, to form a port to which no
tempest could find access. Tyre, which had kept the victo-
rious Alexander seven months and a half before its walls,
was defended on one side by a stormy sea and steep rocks,
and on the other by a triple wall surmounted by high
towers.
The doge of A^enice, with his fleet, entered the port and
closed up all issue on the side of the sea. The patriarch of
Jerusalem, the regent of the kingdom, and Pontius, count
of Tripoli, commanded the army by land. In the early days
of the siege, the Christians and the Mussulmans fought with
obstinate ardour, and with equal success ; but the divisions
among the infidels soon came in to second the efforts of the
Franks. The caliph of Egypt had yielded half of the place
to the sultan of Damascus, to induce him to defend it
against the Christians. The Turks and the Eg;s^tians were
divided among themselves, and would not fight together.
The Eranks profited by these divisions, and every day gained
great advantages. After a siege of some months, the walla
crumbled away before the machines of the Christians ; pro-
\dsions began to be short in the citv, and the infidels were
ready to capitidate, when discord arose to disunite the
Christians in their turn, and was on the point of rendering
useless the prodigies of valour, and the labours of the long
siege.
The land army complained aloud of being obliged to support
alone, both fighting and fatigue ; the knights and their
;