volume one

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 319
when they arrived within sight of Bosra, it was announced
to them that the wife of the Armenian commandant
had called the garrison to arms, and that she was prepared
to defend the city which her husband had promised to give
up to the king of Jerusalem. This unexpected news at once
sj)read consternation and discouragement through the Christian
army. The knights and barons, struck with the misfortunes
that threatened the Christian soldiers, pressed the
king to abandon his army, and save his person and the cross
of Christ. Young Baldwin rejected the advice of his faithful
barons, and insisted upon sharing all their perils.
As soon as the order for retreat was given, the Mussulmans,
with loud cries, set out in pursuit of the Christians.
The soldiers of Jerusalem closed their ranks, and marched in
silence, sword in hand, bearing away their wounded and dead.
The Saracens, who could not shake or break through their
enemy, and who, in their pursuit, found no trace of carnage,
believed they were actually JBghting against men of iron.
The region which the Christians were traversing was covered
with heath, thistles, and other plants dried hj the heat of
the summer. The Saracens set fire to these ; the wind bore
the flames and smoke towards the Christian army, and the
Franks marched over a burning plain, with clouds of smoke,
ashes, and dust floating over and aroimd them. William of
Tyre, in his history, compares them to smiths, to such a
degree were their clothes and their faces blackened by the
fire which devoui'ed the plain. The knights, the soldiers,
and the people who followed the army, gathered in a crowd
around the bishop of Nazareth, who bore the wood of the
true cross, and conjured him with tears to put an end by
his prayers to calamities they were no longer able to bear.
The bishop of Nazareth, touched by their despair, raised
the cross, imploring the mercy of Heaven,—and, at the
moment the direction of the wind was changed. The flames
and the smoke which desolated the Christians were immediately
wafted against the Mussulmans. The Eranks pursued
their march, persuaded that God had wrought a miracle
to save them. A knight, whom they had never before seen,
mounted on a white horse, and bearing a red standard,
preceded the Christian army, and conducted it out of
danger. The people and the soldiers took him for an angel