volume one

HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 455
of Gralilee, and flow impetuously into the sea at a short
distance from Ptolemais. The most considerable of these
torrents is the Belus, which discharges itself to the south of
the city. In the rainy season it overflows its banks, and
forms around it marshes covered with rushes and reeds. The
other torrents, whose beds in summer present nothing but
an arid sand, overflow in winter like the Belus. Duriuo-
several months of the year a great part of the plain of
Ptolemais is imder water ; and when summer comes to dry
the long-flooded fields, the exhalations corrupt the air and
spread around the germs of epidemic diseases.
T^evertheless, the plains of Ptolemais were fertile and
smiling : groves and gardens covered the country near the
city ;
some villages arose on the declivities of the mountains,
and houses of pleasure dotted the hills. Religious and
profane traditions had bestowed names upon several spots in
the neighbourhood. A little hill reminded travellers of the
tomb of Memnon ;
and upon Mount Carmel was pointed out
the retreat of Eli and Pythagoras, Such were the places
that were soon to become the theatre of a sanguinary war,
and see
Asia.
assembled and fighting the armies of Europe and
Guy de Lusignan had but nine thousand men when he
laid siege to Ptolemais ;
but the whole West was preparing
to fly to the defence of the Holy Land. The army of the
Christians soon became of sufiicient magnitude to excite
serious alarm among the Saracens. Erench, English, and
Elemish warriors preceded Philip and E-ichard, luider the
command of Jacques d' Avesnes, one of the greatest captains
of his time, and the bishop of Beauvais, brother to the count
of Dreux. The Grenoese, the Venetians, and the Pisans,
with the greater part of the Crusaders from the provinces of
Italy, arrived in Palestine under the orders of the archbishops
of Pisa and Eavenna. The cries of alarm of the
Christians of the East had resounded even to the north of
Europe, where young warriors had taken up arms to combat
the infidels. All the nations of the West furnished Jerusalem
with defenders, and eighty thousand Crusaders attacked the
ramparts of Ptolemais, whilst the powerful monarchs who
had placed themselves at the head of the crusade, were still
engaged in preparations for their departure.