volume one

370 HISTOEY or THE CEVSADES.
Crusaders, found on the field of battle the death he
desired, and was honoured as a saint hj the people of
Damascus.
If we mav believe the Arabian historians, the Christian
ecclesiastics who followed the army nes^lected no means of
rekindling the enthusiasm of the soldiers of the cross.
Dui-iug a conflict under the walls of the city, a grey-headed
Christian priest, mounted on a mule, and carrying a cross in
his hands, advanced between the two armies, exhorting the
Crusaders to redouble their braver}' and ardour, and promising
them, in the name of Jesus Christ, the conquest of
Damascus. The Mussulmans directed all their arrows at
him ; the Christians pressed around to defend him ; the
combat became fierce and bloody ; the priest fell at length
pierced with many wounds, upon a heap of slain, and the
Crusaders abandoned the field of battle.
The greater part of both Arabian and Latin authors*
describe the siege of Damascus in a contradictory manner,
DO
but all aojree in attributino: the retreat of the Christians to
treachery. A Mussulman historian asserts that the king of
Jerusalem received considerable sums from the inhabitants
of Damascus, and that he was deceived by the besieged,
who gave him pieces of lead covered with a thin coating of
gold.f Some Latin authors attribute the shameful raising
of the siege to the covetousness of the Templars ; others to
^Raymond of Antioch, who burned to revenge himself on the
king of France, ^"illiam of Tvre, whose opinion ought to
* Abulfeda, Abulfarage, and some other Arabian historians speak of
tlie siege of Damascus ; but it is difficiilt to reconcile their account with
that of the Latins. We have taken some few circumstances from them
that appeared the most probable. The Chronicle of Ibuferat is that which
gives the most circumstantial details.
f The Chronicle of Geuvais attributes the retreat of the Christians to
the pertidy of the Templars :—Cum civitas Christianis reddenda esset,
accesserunt Templarii. dicentes se primam habituros pugnam, ut omnes
deinde in communi victoriam obtinerent, statuerunt itaque tentoria sua
inter civitatera et exercitum Christianorum, et cum his qui erant in civitate
paganis proditionis pactum inierunt. Cives igitur eorum agnoscentes
cupiditafem, promi^erunt eis tres cados plenos hisantis aureis, si eos ab
obsidione liberarent. Delusi itaque Christiani per milites Temph, Damasco
recesserunt. Post modicum vero cum Templarii promissos a viribua
recipissent cados, in eisdem non nummos aureos, sed cunreos invenerant,
miraculoque quae ascripserunt.