volume one

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 303
city of Ascalon. But the garrison of this place, formed of
the wrecks of several conquered armies, still threatened the
territories of the Christians. Although the Egyptians had
lost the cities of Tyre, Tripoli, and Ptolemais, they still continued
masters at sea, and their fleets cruised Mathout obstacle
along the coasts of Syria, when the maritime nations of
Europe did not happen to send succour to the Franks established
in Palestine.
The Turks, accustomed to the military and pastoral life,
did not aspire to the empire of the seas, but they never left
the Christians at rest. They made themselves dreaded, not
so much by their great armies, which were frequently nothmg
but confused and undisciplined multitudes, but by
their continual, harassing incursions. Docile and patient,
they endmed hunger, thirst, and fatigue, better than they
would face an enemy. Their knowledge of the country,
their being accustomed to the climate, and the intelligence
they kept up with the inhabitants, gave them, in all their
warlike expeditions, a decided advantage over the Christians.
Their soldiers surpassed the Franks in the arts of shooting
with the bow, or hurling a javelin, as well as in horsemanship
; and their leaders were practised, and excelled in all
the stratagems of war. Their tactics consisted in wearing
out their enemies, in preparing ambushes for them, or in
drawing them into difiicult positions, where they might
triumph without fighting. The endless discord which pre-
vailed among the Mussulman princes of Syria, and the revolutions
which daily threatened their power, prevented them
from following up, for any length of time, the same plan of
but when in the enjoyment of a transient
defence or attack ;
tranquillity, sometimes excited by a thirst for plunder, or
sometimes animated by the prayers and the counsels of the
caliph of Bagdad, they would burst like a sudden and unexpected
storm over the territories of Antioch, Edessa, Tripoli,
or the kingdom of Jerusalem. If the Mussulmans experienced
a defeat, they retired with the hope of finding a
more favourable opportunity ; if they were conquerors, they
ravaged the cities and the plains, and returned to their country,
loaded with booty, singing these words : " Tlie Koran
o'ejoices, and the Gospel is in tears.''''
The hopes of booty every year attracted new hordes and