volume one

niSTOJlT OF THE CP.rSADES. 801
soldiers tlireatened to remain as motionless under their tents.
*as the A^enetians did in their ships. To prevent the effect
of their complaints, the doge of Venice came into the camp
of the Christians, with his sailors armed with their oars, and
declared that he was ready to mount the breach. From that
time a generous emulation animated equally the zeal and
courao;e of the land and sea forces. The Mussulmans, beinfi:
without hope of succonr, after a siege of five months and a
half, were oblis^ed to surrender. The standards of the kinir
of .Jerusalem and the doge of Venice waved over the walls of
Tyre ; the Christians made their triumphal entry into the
city, whilst the inhabitants, according to the terms of the
capitulation, Avent out with their wives and children.*
The day on which they received at Jerusalem the news of
the conquest of Tyre, was a festival for the population of the
holy city. To the sound of the bells the Te JDeum was sung
on bended knees ; Hags were hoisted on the towers and the
ramparts of the city ; branches of olive, and garlands of
flowers were suspended in the streets and public places, and
rich stuffs were hung upon the outsides of the houses, and
upon the doors of the churches. Old men reminded their
neighboiu-s of the splendour of the kingdom of Judah, and
young Airgins repeated in chorus the psalms in which the
prophets had celebrated the city of T>Te.
The doge of Venice, on his return to the holy city, was
saluted by the acclamations of the people and the clergy.
The barons and the principal inhabitants did all in their
power to detain him in Palestine ; they even went so far as
to offer him the crown of Baldwin ;
some believing that that
* Albert d'Aix finishes his history in the first year of the reign of
Baldwin II., and Foulcher de Chartres terminates his after the siege of
Tyre. We may consult for this reign many passages of Baroniu!^, Robert
of the Mount, Sanuti, and particularly William of Tyre and Bernardus
Thesaurius. We are in possession of the second part of a History of
Jerusalem, the anonymous author of which speaks of the reigns of the
two first Baldwins.
. It will be said perhaps that I have borrowed from these different historians
too many details ; but I could not resist the desire I had to impart
to my read'ers things that have never hitherto been related in the
French language. It is surprising that, notwithstanding Jerusalem was
almost always governed and defended by the Franks, no writer of our
nation has spoken of it.