volume one

HISTORY OF THE CEUSAI>ES. 483
soner of war. In these warlike festivities, wliicli brought the
two nations together, the Franks often danced to the sound
of Arabian instruments, and their minstrels afterwards
played or sang to the dancing of the Saracens.
Most of the Mussulman emirs, after the example of
Saladin, affected an austere simplicity in their vestments and
manners. An Arabian author compares the sultan, in his
court, surrounded by his sons and brothers, to the star ot
night, which sheds a sombre light amidst the other stars.
The principal leaders of the crusade did not entertain the
same love of simplicity, but endeavoured to excel each other
in splendour and magnificence. As in the first crusade, the
princes and barons were followed into Asia by their hunting
and fishing appointments, and the luxuries of their palaces
and castles. When Philip Augustus arrived before Ptolemais,
all eyes were for a moment turned upon the falcons he
had brought with him. One of these having escaped from
the hands of his keeper, perched upon the ramparts of the
city, and the whole Christian army was excited by endeavours
to recapture the fugitive bird. As it was caught by the
Mussulmans, and carried to Saladin, Philip sent an ambassador
to the sultan to recover it, ofiering a sum of gold that
would have been quite snfficient for the ransom of many
Christian warriors.
The misery which so often visited the Crusaders, did not
at all prevent a great number of them from indulging in
excesses of license and debauchery. All the vices of Europe
and Asia were met together on one spot. If an Arabian
author may be believed, at the very moment in which the
Franks were a prey to famine and contagious diseases,
a troop of three hundred women from Cyprus and the neighbouring
islands arrived in the camp. These three hundred
women, whose presence in the Christian army was a scandal
in the eyes of the Saracens, prostituted themselves among
the soldiers of the cross, and stood in no need of employing
the enchantments of the Armida of Tasso to corrupt them.
Nevertheless, the clergy were uni-emitting in their exhor-
tations to the pilgrims to lead them back to the morals of
the Gospel. Churches, suj^mounted by wooden steeples,
were erected in the camp, in which the faithful were every
day called together. Not unfrequently the Saracens took
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