volume one

histohy or the crusades. 423
sliorfc time afterwards, lie died of despair, accused by the
Mussulmaus of having violated treaties, and by the Christians
of having betrayed both his religion and his country.
Bohemond, prince of Antioch, Henaud of Sidon, the young
count of Tiberias, and a small number of soldiers accompanied
[Raymond in his flight, and were the only persons
that escaped after this day, so fatal to the kingdom of
Jerusalem.
The Oriental historians whilst describing the victory of the
Saracens, have celebrated the bravery and firmness of the
Frank knights, covered with their cuirasses, made with rings
of steel. These brave warriors at first presented an impenetrable
wall to the strokes of the Saracens ; but when their
horses sunk, exhausted by fatigue, or wounded by lances or
javelins, Saladin met with very little more resistance, and the
battle became a horrible carnage. An Arabian author, a
secretary and companion of Saladin, who was present at this
terrible conflict, has not been able to refrain from pitying
the disasters of the vanquished. " I saw," says he, " the
hills, the plains, the valleys covered with their dead bodies ;
I saw their colours abandoned and soiled with blood and
dust ; I saw their heads struck off*, their members dispersed
and their carcasses piled up Hke stones." After the
battle, the cords of the tents were not sufficient to bind
the prisoners ; the Saracen soldiers drove them in crowds,
like vile herds of cattle. The conquerors divided the cap-
tives amongst them, and the number was so great, that, according
to an historian, a pair of shoes was exchanged for
a Christian knight.
that he gives leave no doubt respecting the sincerity of the intentions of
Raymond. Abulfeda, in the short description which he gives of the day
of Hetin, praises the valour of Raymond, and says that he died of the
grief created by the defeat of the Christians. In a letter written in the
name of Saladin by the Cadi Alfdel to the Iman Nassir-Sedin-Illah-
Aboul-Abbas-Ahmed, are these remarkable words: "Not one of the
Christians was able to escape except the count of Tripoli. May God curse
him ; God caused him afterwards to die, and sent him from the kingdom
of death to hell." This letter of Saladin's, which speaks also of the
taking of Jerusalem, has been preserved by Ebu-Khilcan in his Biography.
M. Jourdain had the intention of giving a translation of it ; but the text
presents so many difficulties, from the use of Oriental figures and bad
copying, that he was obliged to be satisfied with making some extracts
from it.