Albert of Aix: HISTORIA HIEROSOLYMITANAE EXPEDITIONIS

CHAPTER 1. - The prince of Antioch, hearing of the Christians’ victory, inquires what ought to be done about the matter by his own faithful men. [0479A]

Tandem a duce Godefrido, populoque fidelium, triumphatis et obtutis in gurgitis flumine adversariis Christianae plebis, et praesidio firmato nemine obsistente, quidam nuntius ex Turcis festinus ad turrim et palatium Darsiani, regnatoris Antiochiae, quod est in montanis, transvolat, quanta sint damna suorum indicans, et nisi diligenter et sollici e provideat, Antiochiam caeterasque finitimas oras illius in brevi eum amissurum. Rex Darsianus, homo grandaevus, audiens praesidium firmatum suorumque ruinam irrecuperabilem, hactenus in omni conflictu et eventu diversarum rerum securus, inque solio dormiens, [0479B] nunc primum suspirio angustiatur, et filium suum Sansadoniam cunctosque sibi subditos primores ad suum invitat consilium.

At length, with Duke Godfrey and the people of the faithful having triumphed and the enemies of the Christian populace having been cast into the gulfs of the river, and with the garrison having been strengthened and no one opposing, a certain messenger from the Turks hastens and flies to the tower and palace of Darsianus, ruler of Antioch, which is in the mountains, reporting how great the losses of his men are, and that unless he provides carefully and solicitously, he will shortly lose Antioch and its other neighboring shores. King Darsianus, a very aged man, hearing that his garrison was reinforced and that the ruin of his men was irrecoverable, hitherto secure in every conflict and in the outcome of diverse affairs, and sleeping on his throne, [0479B] is now for the first time distressed with a sigh, and summons his son Sansadonias and all the chief men subject to him to his council.

CAP. II. - Innotatio nuntiorum Darsiani, et qui sint quos ad auxilium invitat.

CHAPTER 2. - Notification of the news of Darsianus, and who those are whom he invites to assistance.

Aderat in conspectu ejusdem sceptrigeri Solymanus, de Nicaea urbe expulsus et Romaniae finibus, quem praefatus Darsianus compellans, nuntium suae legationis fieri obnixe petit, sciens eum virum facundum, et omnibus regnis gentilium notissimum, dicens ad eum: «Tu generis mei proximus cum duodecim legatis meis, et filio meo Sansadonia, Corrozan, in terram et regnum nativitatis nostrae profecturus es. Compatrix et Odorsonius, duo ex principibus meis fidelissimi, in hac legatione tecum [0479C] erunt ad faciendam querimoniam injuriarum nostrarum. Vos vero transeuntes, Brodeam de civitate Alapia, confratrem et amicum, ad auxilium nostrum commonete. Pulait, cujus milites et arma sunt copiosa, ad opem nobis conferendam similiter admonete, eo quod nobis sit semper foedere conjunctus.

Present in the sight of the same scepter-bearer was Solyman, driven out from the city of Nicaea and from the bounds of Romania, whom the aforesaid Darsianus, addressing him, earnestly begged to be made an envoy of his legation, knowing him to be a eloquent man and well-known throughout all the kingdoms of the gentiles, saying to him: «You, nearest of my kin, together with my twelve legates and my son Sansadonia, Corrozan, will proceed into the land and kingdom of our birth. Compatrix and Odorsonius, two of my princes most faithful, will be with you in this legation [0479C] to make complaint of our injuries. And you, passing, admonish Brodea of the city Alapia, my brother and friend, to our aid. Admonish likewise Pulait, whose soldiers and arms are numerous, to bring help to us, because he is always joined to us by treaty.»

Sceptrigero autem de Corrozan Soldano, qui caput et princeps est Turcorum, adversitates et calamitates nostras exponite; Corbahanque familiari ejusdem sceptrigeri suggerite ut mihi familiares opes exhibeat et copias. Vocetur ergo nobis scriptor et notarius meus, ut sigillum meum et litteras vobiscum deferatis, quatenus confidentius credant necessitates nostras. Plurimi enim dies transierunt, ex quo in [0479D] initio obsidionis hujus urbis filius meus Buldagis, Corrozan vos praecessit, ut adventum Christianae gentis confratribus et principibus nostris notum faceret, et adversus eam ut nobis subveniant universos commoneret.»

To the scepter-bearing Soldan of Corrozan, who is head and prince of the Turks, set forth our adversities and calamities; and propose to Corbahan, a familiar of the same scepter-bearer, that he furnish to me household resources and troops. Let therefore my scribe and notary be called, so that you may carry my seal and letters with you, in order that they may more confidently believe our necessities. For many days have passed since, at the beginning of this city’s siege [0479D], my son Buldagis preceded you to Corrozan, to make known the coming of the Christian people to our confratres and princes, and to admonish all to come to our aid against it.

CAP. III. - Allegatio causae apud regem Corrozan.

CHAPTER 3. - Allegation of the case before King Corrozan.

Hac regis audita voluntate et imperio, ipsiusque acceptis cum sigillo litteris, ex urbe et palatio regis procedentes, in terram Corrozan profecti sunt. Venerunt [0480A] siquidem in apparatu et sumptu nimio et in gloria magna ad civitatem magnam Samnarcham, quae erat de regno Corrozan: in qua ipsum principem magnum et sceptrigerum Soldanum super omnes reges et principes orientalis plagae, Corbahanque principem, et secundum a rege, in gloria magna repererunt. Quem Solymanus, quia aetate erat prior et industria nominatissimus ac facundia, salutavit.

At the king’s hearing and command, and having received his letters with the seal, they, departing from the city and the king’s palace, set forth into the land of Corrozan. They indeed came [0480A] in excessive pomp and expense and in great glory to the great city Samnarcha, which was of the realm of Corrozan: in which they found the great prince himself, the scepter-bearing Soldan, above all the kings and princes of the eastern region, and Corbahan the prince, and next to the king, in great glory. Whom Solymanus, because he was senior in age and most renowned for diligence and eloquence, greeted.

Salutato autem rege, antequam legationem aperiret, sicut mos est Turcorum, de infortunio et injuriis conquerentium, in conspectu ejusdem magni ac potentissimi regis et praesentia suorum, pileos a capite humi jacientes, barbas unguibus saevissimis discerpunt et in magnis lamentationibus suspiria trahunt. Rex Corrozan, his Turcorum discissionibus visis, in [0480B] superbia magna sic respondit: «Solymane, amice et frater noster, quid vobis contigerit expone, et vobis illatas injurias aperi: vivere nequaquam poterit a facie nostra, quicunque est ille, qui vos conturbare praesumpserit.» Solymanus gavisus et confidens in responsis tam potentissimi regis et in virtute illius, amaritudinem, quam graviter in corde tenebat, et omnem rem ex ordine retulit, quodque viva voce non poterat, litterarum assertione memorabat: «Nicaeam, inquit, quam nosti nominatissimam, et terram, quam dicunt Romaniam, de regno Graecorum, quam auxilio tuisque viribus ex tuo dono et gratia nobis collatam acquisivimus, quaedam gens superveniens, quam dicunt Christianos, de regno Franciae, in manu forti et exercitu vehementi nobis [0480C] abstulerunt, et captam cum uxore et duobus filiis meis imperatori Constantinopolis tradiderunt, me autem in fortitudine sua attritum et fugatum, ad urbem Antiochiam, in qua sperabam remanere, insecuti sunt: ubi non solum me meosque, sed etiam regem Darsianum de genere nostro virum nobilissimum, tibi subjectum et amicum, tuoque munere urbem et terras tenentem, armata manu obsederunt. Misit ergo nos ad te idem princeps et tibi subjectus Darsianus, major et consanguineus noster, ut sibi auxiliari digneris in virtute multa, qua potes: nimium enim, et supra quam credimus, necessitas exposcit.

After the king was greeted, before he opened the embassy, as is the custom of the Turks, those lamenting their misfortune and injuries, in the sight of that great and most powerful king and in the presence of his own, cast their caps from their heads to the ground, rend their beards with the most fierce nails, and utter sighs in great lamentations. The king of Corrozan, seeing these Turkish rendings, answered thus in great pride: «Solyman, our friend and brother, declare what has befallen you, and open up the injuries done to you: no one whoever he be who shall have presumed to disturb you will be able to live in our sight.» Solyman, rejoicing and confident in the answers of so mighty a king and in his power, recounted in order the bitterness which he held grievously in his heart, and everything, and what he could not by living voice he related by the testimony of letters: «Nicaea,» he said, «which you so famously know, and the land which they call Romania, from the kingdom of the Greeks, which by your aid and your forces out of your gift and favor we acquired, a certain people arriving, whom they call Christians, from the kingdom of France, with a strong hand and a vehement army carried them off from us and delivered the captured with my wife and my two sons to the emperor at Constantinople, and they pursued me, crushed and put to flight by their strength, to the city of Antioch, where I hoped to remain: there they besieged with armed hand not only me and mine, but also King Darsian of our stock, a most noble man, subject to you and a friend, holding the city and lands by your gift. Therefore that same prince and your subject Darsian, our elder and kinsman, sent us to you that you would deign to aid him with as much force as you can: for necessity demands more than we believe and beyond what we thought.

Populus et exercitus noster attritus est; terra et regio nostra dissipata est; nostra vita et [0480D] omnia nostra nunc in manu tua; spem aliam sicut in te, non habemus.»

Our people and our army have been worn away; our land and region have been laid waste; our life and [0480D] all our things are now in your hand; we have no other hope than in you.

CAP. IV. - Qualiter ipse rex accepit verba nuntiorum.

CHAPTER 4. - How the king himself received the words of the messengers.

In risu et deliramento verba et querimonias hujus rex Corrozan accepit, leviter in aures misit; minime has calamitates ab ulla mundi plaga posse Turcis inferri se credere fatetur; virtutem Solymani hactenus nominatissimam, militiaeque illius audaciam pro parvo reputans, audiente suorum coetu. [0481A] Solymanus, sicut is, qui nuper expertus erat virtutem Christianorum, non levi animo sententiam regis accepit. Unde quia nequiverat omnia viva voce explicare, litteras cum sigillo Darsiani aperit, in quibus nomina regnorum et nomina principum universorum Christianorum Turcos expugnantium, intitulata erant, et quanti eorum sint exercitus et vires.

With laughter and derision King Corrozan received the words and complaints of this man, and lightly cast them into his ears; he admits that he does not believe these calamities can in any way be brought upon the Turks by any scourge of the world; esteeming Solyman’s hitherto most-renowned virtue and the audacity of his military force as of little account, while the assembly of his men listened. [0481A] Solyman, since he had recently experienced the virtue of the Christians, did not take the king’s judgment with a light heart. And because he could not explain everything aloud, he opens the letters bearing Darsian’s seal, in which were inscribed the names of the kingdoms and the names of the princes of all the Christians plotting to expel the Turks, and how great their armies and forces are.

Rex vero et omnis primatus gentilium, qui secum erant, agnitis litteris et rebus viribusque Gallorum, consternati sunt animo; et vultu in terram dimisso, non ultra super querimoniis Solymani frustra mirati sunt. Ad haec sine intermissione in universas terras regni sui missa legatione, omnes primates et ammiraldos suos in unum jubet convenire, die determinata, quae tunc aptior videbatur. [0481B] Jam die adveniente, unanimiter ex decreto et jussu regis convenerunt, quibus rex verba et querimonias Solymani, et calumnias a Christianis illatas aperuit, dicens: «Universi, qui convenistis, pensate ut pensandum est; quia Christiani, qui supervenerunt, sicut fecerunt caeteris civitatibus et amicis et confratribus nostris, sic nobis facient, ni reprimantur.»

The king moreover and all the primates of the Gentiles who were with him, having been made aware of the letters and the matters and the forces of the Franks, were struck down in spirit; and with their faces cast to the ground, they no longer in vain marvelled over Solyman’s complaints. Moreover, without pause, by a legation sent throughout all the lands of his kingdom, he ordered all the primates and his admirals to assemble together on a set day, which then seemed most fitting. [0481B] Now when the day came, they met unanimously by the decree and command of the king, to whom he laid open Solyman’s words and complaints, and the calumnies brought by the Christians, saying: “All you who have met, weigh as must be weighed; for the Christians who have arrived, as they have done to other cities and to our friends and brethren, so will they do to us, unless they are restrained.”

CAP. V. - Insultatio Corbahan contra populum Dei in conspectu vocatorum regis.

CHAPTER 5. - The insult of Corbahan against the people of God in the sight of those summoned by the king.

Corbahan vero familiaris, et primus in aula regis et secundus a rege in regno Corrozan, vir contumax et plenus superba feritate, virtutes Christianorum parvipendens, in haec verba spiritu superbiae erupit: [0481C] «Miror verba et querelam Solymani, Sansadoniae et Buldagis, filiorum regis Darsiani, super infestatione Christianorum, quorum obsidione Solymanus terras et urbes suas amisit, de quibus non facilius possent defendi, quam si a tot miseris et brutis animalibus fuissent obsessi. Olim centum millia Christianorum stravi, amputatis capitibus, juxta Civitot, ubi montana terminantur, in auxilium Solymani accitus contra imperatorem Graecorum, dissipato illius exercitu et fugato ab obsidione urbis Nicaeae. Post haec Petri Eremitae agmina innumerabilia satellites mei, in auxilium Solymani missi, attriverunt, quorum cadavere et ossibus campi regionis nunquam poterunt vacuari.»

Corbahan, however, a courtier, and the first in the king’s hall and second by the king in the realm of Corrozan, a stubborn man and full of proud ferocity, esteeming the virtues of Christians little, burst forth in these words with the spirit of arrogance: [0481C] «I marvel at the words and complaint of Solyman, Sansadonia and Buldagi, sons of King Darsian, concerning the harassment by Christians, by whose siege Solyman lost his lands and cities, which could not be more hardly defended than if they had been besieged by so many miserable and brutish animals. Once I laid low one hundred thousand Christians, their heads cut off, near Civitot, where the mountains end, having been summoned to the aid of Solyman against the emperor of the Greeks, his army scattered and driven off from the siege of the city of Nicaea. After this, the innumerable host of Peter the Hermit, my satellites sent to the aid of Solyman, perished, whose corpses and bones the fields of the region will never be able to be emptied of.»

CAP. VI. - Expugnatae Nicaeae princeps virtutem praedicat Christiani exercitus. [0481D]

CHAPTER 6. - The prince of captured Nicaea proclaims the virtue of the Christian army. [0481D]

Solymanus, qui erat vir mirae et magnae industriae, audita illius superbia, et verborum jactantia, aequo animo haec illi respondit: «O frater et amice noster Corbahan, quare sic nos parvipendis, et parum audentes astruis, nosque tuo auxilio vicisse, et imperatorem Constantinopolis et Petri Eremitae inaudita millia attrivisse? Imperatoris exercitus, gens Graecorum mollis et effeminata, bellorumque exercitiis raro vexata, facile in virtute robustorum potuit superari, superata decollari. Petri similiter Eremitae agmina, pusillam manum et mendicam, et iners vulgus feminarum, pedites omnes longa via fatigatos, quingentosque solummodo equites revera [0482A] comprobavi: quos levi incursu et caede consumere nobis non multum erat difficile.

Solyman, who was a man of remarkable and great industry, having heard that haughtiness of his and the vaunting of his words, calmly answered him thus: "O brother and our friend Corbahan, why do you so despise and construct us as of little account and insufficiently daring, and claim that by your aid we have prevailed, and have worn down the emperor of Constantinople and Peter the Hermit's unheard-of thousands? The emperor's army, the Greek people soft and effeminate, and seldom exercised in the arts of war, could easily be overcome by the valour of the hardy, and when overcome be beheaded. Similarly Peter the Hermit's bands, a puny and beggarly hand, and an idle throng of women, all footmen wearied by a long march, and truly I proved only five hundred horsemen [0482A]: whom it was not very difficult for us to consume by a light onset and slaughter.

Hos vero, quorum nomina et virtutes et bella et industrias litterarum notitia didicistis, et adversum quos difficile est bellum committere, scitote viros fortissimos, miro equorum volumine doctos, in praelio non morte, non aliquo genere armorum posse absterreri. Horum ferreae vestes, clypei auro et gemmis inserti, variisque coloribus depicti. Galeae, in capitibus eorum splendentes super solis splendorem, coruscant.

But these men, whose names and virtues and wars and labors of letters you have learned, and against whom it is difficult to undertake war, know them to be very brave men, learned in a wondrous multitude of horses; in battle they cannot be deterred by death, nor by any sort of arms. Their iron vests, shields inlaid with gold and gems, and painted in various colors. Helmets, gleaming on their heads above the brightness of the sun, glitter.

Hastae fraxineae, in manibus eorum ferro acutissimo praefixae, sunt quasi grandes perticae. Equi eorum cursu et bello doctissimi. Vexilla in hastis eorum nodis aureis et fimbriis argenteis montes in circuitu nimio lucis decore coruscare faciunt.

Spears of ash, their shafts tipped with very sharp iron, are as it were great poles. Their horses most expert in running and in war. The standards on their spears, at the knots, with golden nodes and silver fringes, make the mountains round about glitter with an excessive ornament of light.

Audaciam [0482B] eorum tantam scitote quod nulle equites illorum, si ad pugnam processerint, non dubitent viginti millia nostrorum adire, sicut leones et apri mortiferis ictibus armorum fulminantes. Ego autem vires illorum pro minimo duxi, nec stare adversum me eos aestimavi, congregata fortitudine meorum, sed sic virtutem illorum conterere speravi ut paulo ante Petri Eremitae exercituin delevi. Sperabam etiam eos ab urbe Nicaea me posse absterrere in virtute meorum, uxorem meam filiosque meos, milites et principes meos, qui infra urbis moenia erant, liberare; denuo cum his bellum commisi, sed frustra consumpto labore, vix per juga montium manus illorum evasi, non paucos meos occisos reliqui.

Know that their audacity [0482B] is so great that none of their equites, if they advance to fight, would hesitate to attack 20,000 of our men, like lions and boars striking with death-dealing blows of arms. I, however, judged their forces as of little account, and did not reckon them able to stand against me, my men’s fortitude having been gathered, but I hoped to crush their virtue so that a little before I destroyed the army of Peter the Hermit. I also hoped from the city of Nicaea to be able to deter them by my strength, and to liberate my wife and my sons, my soldiers and my chiefs who were within the city’s walls; again I undertook war with them, but in vain — after labor expended, I barely escaped their hands over the ridges of the mountains, and left behind not a few of my men killed.

Illi, meis attritis, et caedem suorum non aeque ferentes, [0482C] Nicaeam redeunt, obsidionem iterant firmius et tutius quam antea, quousque meos victos cum uxore et filiis meis in deditione tenentes, cum clavibus urbem imperatori Constantinopolis reddiderunt. Praeterea oppida et castella Romaniae, quae meae ditionis erant, devicta et subjugata eidem imperatori restituentes, plurimas munitiones nostras invaserunt. Non amplius de omnibus terris et civitatibus et praesidiis, quae tenui, mihi relictum est, quam Foloraca arx, quae est juxta mare et confinia regni Russiae.

They, with my forces worn down, and not bearing equally the slaughter of their own, [0482C] returned to Nicaea, renewed the siege more firmly and more safely than before, until, keeping my people conquered with my wife and my sons in surrender, they delivered the city with its keys to the emperor at Constantinople. Moreover, restoring to that same emperor the towns and castles of Romaniae which were of my dominion, having been conquered and subjugated, they invaded very many of our fortifications. No more of all the lands and cities and garrisons that I held was left to me than the fortress Foloraca, which is beside the sea and the borders of the kingdom of Russia.

Ad haec hi Christiani milites, quos tu credis invalidos, Tursolt, Azaram et Mamistram, civitates Romaniae, cum plurimis praesidiis expugnatas obtinent. Civitates vero Armeniae et castella Dandronuch et Harimnu et Turbaysel et montana [0482D] Constantini, Armeniae principis, et Pancratii, terramque ducis Corrovassilii, ferro et viribus coacta sibi subdiderunt. Civitatem vero Rohas, moenibus et murali aedificio munitissimam, fertilitate quidem famosissimam, obtinent.

These Christian soldiers, whom you deem infirm, Tursolt, Azaram and Mamistram, hold the cities of Romania, taken with very many garrisons. The cities of Armenia and the castles Dandronuch and Harimnu and Turbaysel and the mountain-strongholds of Constantinus, prince of Armenia, and of Pancratius, and the territory of Duke Corrovassilius, by iron and by force were compelled to submit to them. They also hold the city of Rohas, most strongly fortified with ramparts and wall-buildings, and indeed most renowned for its fertility.

Sed et princeps quidam Baldewinus, caput et ductor hujus Christiani populi, filiam principis terrae uxorem duxit, et vice ducis exstincti a civibus promotus, terram totam et regionem sibi tributariam fecit, et sic usque ad Malatinam omnia loca et regna iidem Christiani invaserunt. Nunc Antiochiam, his a dextris et sinistris subjugatis, obsident. Gentes hae miri laboris sunt et exercitii, non curant corpora ulla mora aut requie, sed inimicos sibique contrarios de die in diem [0483A] requirunt, quos inventos et expugnatos mittunt in perditionem.»

But also a certain prince, Baldwin, head and leader of this Christian people, took the daughter of the prince of the land as his wife, and, promoted by the citizens in the stead of the duke who had been slain, made the whole land and region tributary to himself; and thus the same Christians invaded all places and kingdoms as far as Malatinam. Now they besiege Antioch, these having been subjugated on their right and left. These peoples are of marvelous toil and training; they care not for their bodies any delay or rest, but from day to day they seek enemies and those opposed to them [0483A], whom, when found and taken, they send to perdition.»

CAP. VII. - Corbahan in superbia magna minatur se in brevi Christianam fortitudinem experturum.

CHAPTER 7. - Corbahan, in great pride, threatens that he will soon put Christian fortitude to the test.

Corbahan superbus, hac Solymani audita narratione, amplius in clationem et jactantiam os suum aperuit, dicens: «Si, inquit, vita sospes fuero, non sex mensium pertransibunt dies, et hos Christianos experiar, utrum sic fortes sint ut asseris, quos (in deo meo juro) sic delebo, ut omnis hoc eorum posteritas doleat.»

Corbahan, proud, having heard this narrative of Solyman, opened his mouth further in clamor and boast, saying: “If, he said, I shall be alive and safe, not six months’ time will pass, and I will test these Christians, whether they are as brave as you assert, whom (in my god I swear) thus I will destroy, so that all their posterity may grieve.”

CAP. VIII. - Rex Corrozan de belli eventu magos consulit, et Turcorum principes ex nomine vocantur.

CHAPTER 8. - King Corrozan consults magicians about the outcome of the war, and the princes of the Turks are called by name.

[0483B] Rex autem Corrozan in verbis horum ad invicem contendentium, Corbahan et Solymani, magos, ariolos, aruspices deorum suorum invitat, de victoria futura requirit. Qui omnia prospere succedere, Christianos triumphare, facili bello superare regem promiserunt. Hoc audito Corbahan responso divinorum suorum, in quo cor et consilium regis intendebat, multiplici legatione diffusa per universum regnum Corrozan, ex magnifica regis jussione omnes primores et nobilissimos invitat, quatenus in armis et sagittis vehiculisque cibariorum expeditionem maturarent.

[0483B] King Corrozan, however, upon hearing the words of these two contending with one another, Corbahan and Solymani, summoned the magi, arioli, and haruspices of his gods and asked about the forthcoming victory. They promised that all things would succeed prosperously, that the Christians would be routed, and that the king would be overcome by an easy war. When this response of his diviners was heard by Corbahan — into which the king’s heart and counsel were intent — Corrozan, having sent out multiple legations throughout the whole kingdom, by the magnificent command of the king summoned all the chiefs and most noble men so that they might ready the expedition with arms, arrows, and vehicles of provisions.

Fabros, qui in omni regione commorabantur, catenas et vincula fabricare constituit, in quibus vincti et captivati peregrini in barbaras terras abducerentur. Pulait, qui erat unus [0483C] Turcorum potentissimus, qui juxta flumen Euphratem habitabat, Brodoam de Alapia civitate praeclara, qui et ipse abundabat satellitio, in ultionem Turcorum et injuriarum quae a Christianis illatae erant Solymano Darsianoque regi Antiochiae, amicis et cognatis Turcorum, unanimes regis Corrozam invitat legatio, res explicat, et instantes denuntiat necessitates. Damascenorum quoque principem eadem fama et legatio pulsat et admonet, qui et ipse terram Syriae magna ex parte subjugaverat, et potens erat ubertate glebae et equitum robore.

He ordered smiths, who dwelt throughout the region, to make chains and fetters in which bound and captive foreigners would be carried off into barbarian lands. Pulait, who was one of the most powerful of the Turci and who lived beside the river Euphrates, and Brodoam of the renowned city Alapia, who likewise abounded in retainers, in revenge for the Turci and for the injuries that had been inflicted by Christians on Suleiman and Darsianus, king of Antioch, friends and kinsmen of the Turci, by a unanimous legation invite King Corrozan, set forth the matter, and proclaimed the pressing necessities [0483C]. The prince of the Damascenes is likewise struck and admonished by the same report and legation; he himself had subdued a great part of the land of Syria, and was powerful in the fertility of his soil and in the strength of his cavalry.

Amasam etiam de Niz regione, sita in latere Corrozan, qui nimium divulgabatur fama militiae et audaciae, regis pariter sollicitabat legatio, eo quod ipse in fronte acici semper in quocunque periculo [0483D] signifer haberetur. Ejusdem Amasae hasta et sagitta omnium Turcorum sagittis incomparabilis erat, arcu omnes praeibat in sagittando; ad omnem expeditionem non minus centum equis, cursu velocissimis, munitus erat, ut uno sagitta percusso, aut aliquo adverso casu pereunte, alii sufficerent in belli assiduitate, quo semper praevolans et infestus hostibus ferebatur. Boesas ex eadem secta Turcorum, et non dispar apparatu et armis, invitatur.

Amasam also, from the region of Niz, situated on the flank of Corrozan, who was much famed for military skill and audacity, was likewise pressed by the king’s legation, because he himself was always borne at the front as signifer in whatever danger [0483D]. The spear and arrow of this same Amasa were incomparable to the arrows of all the Turks, and in archery he outstripped all; for every expedition he was provided with no fewer than a hundred horses, very swift in course, so that if one were struck by an arrow, or perished by some adverse chance, others would suffice in the continuity of war, whereby he was always borne forward and hostile to the enemies. Boesas, of the same sect of the Turks, and not unlike in equipment and arms, is invited.

Amasa alter de Curzh terra amplissima et ditissima, virisque sagittariis abundans, similiter ex regis mandato adesse commonetur. Badas de praesidio Amacha et Sororgia civitate, Balduc de Samusart, Turci dolosi, milites vero armis et bello famosi, [0484A] Karageth de Karan, civitate moenibus et muris firmissima ad eamdem expeditionis diem adesse commonentur. Hi in regno Corrozan ex regia admonitione, aut aliis in regnis quicunque dispersi praeerant, ad hanc expeditionem sunt convocati, ab initio obsidionis Antiochiae, et a die qua secunda legatio regis Darsiani per Solymanum facta est.

Amasa the other, from Curzh, a very wide and very rich land, abounding in bowmen, is likewise summoned by the king’s command to be present. Badas of the garrison of Amacha and the city of Sororgia, Balduc of Samusart, treacherous Turks, soldiers indeed renowned in arms and war, [0484A] Karageth of Karan, whose city is most strong in ramparts and walls, are ordered to be present on the same day of the expedition. These, in the kingdom of Corrozan, by royal admonition, or wherever dispersed in other kingdoms they were set over, are assembled for this expedition from the beginning of the siege of Antioch, and from the day on which the second embassy of King Darsian was made by Solyman.

Et in Corrozan rebus necessariis operam dabant, milites armabant, et in omni apparatu bellico sine intermissione intenti fervebant.

And in Corrozan they applied themselves to necessary affairs, armed soldiers, and in every warlike apparatus, intent without intermission, they were fervent.

CAP. IX. - De munificentia Baldewini in principes, et de tentorio duci transmisso.

CHAPTER 9. - On Baldwin's munificence toward the princes, and on the tent transferred to the duke.

Exercitus Christianorum et universi principes, qui in obsidione et labore erant circa Antiochiam, prorsus de hac re ignorabant expeditionem, sed de [0484B] die in diem non solum escarum, sed equorum armorumque defectione arctabantur, et ante omnes curas gravis inopia universos reddebat sollicitos. Dum haec longo tempore indigentia magis ac magis accresceret, et plurimi prae imminutione necessariarum rerum desperarent, Baldewinus, qui Edessam civitatem vel Rohas dux promotus subjugaverat, plurima talenta auri et argenti fratri suo, duci Godefrido, Roberto Flandrensi, Roberto Northmannorum comiti, Reymundo, caeterisque praepotentibus, per Gerardum, nimium sibi familiarem, misit, ad instaurandam defectionem, quam tales et tam nobiles principes comperit tolerare. Equos etiam cursu laudabiles et praestantis corporis cum ornatu sellarum et frenorum honorifico, eidem fratri misit et [0484C] caeteris principibus.

The army of the Christians and all the princes who were besieging and laboring around Antioch were entirely ignorant of this expedition, but day by day they were not only straitened for provisions [0484B], but also for horses and arms, and above all a heavy want made everyone anxious. While this scarcity increased more and more for a long time, and very many despaired at the diminution of necessary things, Baldwin, who, having advanced the city of Edessa or taken the lordship of Rohas, had subdued it, sent very many talents of gold and silver to his brother, to Duke Godfrey, to Robert of Flanders, to Robert the count of the Normans, to Raymond, and to the other mighty men, through Gerard, a man overly familiar to him, to restore the deficiency which such and so noble princes were found to endure. He also sent to the same brother and to the other princes horses notable for speed and excellent of body, with the pompous equipment of saddles and bridles.

Misit etiam arma miri honoris et decoris. Deinde post aliquot dies Nicusus, princeps Armenius, de regione Turbaysel, tentorium miri operis et decoris Godefrido duci misit, ut gratiam et amicitiam illius inveniret. Sed a Pancratio insidiis positis, pueris ipsius Nicusi tentorium ablatum est, et ex ejus dono Boemundo transmissum.

He also sent arms of wondrous honour and adornment. Then, after several days, Nicusus, an Armenian prince, from the region Turbaysel, sent to Duke Godefrid a tentorium of wondrous workmanship and ornament, that he might find his favour and friendship. But by ambushes laid by Pancratius the tentorium was taken from Nicusus’s own boys, and, from his gift, was transmitted to Boemund.

Quod dum Godefridus dux et Robertus Flandrensis, qui ad invicem dilectissimi amici et consocii foederati erant, ex verbis Nicusi sibi allatum intellexissent, Boemundum, ut redderet quod injuste acceperat, verbis pacificis admonuerunt. Qui omnino admonitioni eorum contradixit et petitioni. Indignati ergo principes praedicti, rursus ex consilio majorum, ablatum requirunt tentorium.

Which, when Godfrey the duke and Robert of Flanders, who were to one another most beloved friends and allied associates, had understood from the words brought them by Nicusus, they admonished Bohemond with peaceful words to restore what he had unjustly received. He wholly contradicted their admonition and petition. Therefore the aforesaid princes, indignant, again by the counsel of the elders demanded back the taken tent.

Qui nequaquam se [0484D] reddere asserit, sed gravi responsione animos praedictorum principum adversus se concitavit. Concitati vero Boemundum, convocata manu suorum, aggredi in castris statuerunt, nisi quod injuste acceperat cito remitteret. Tandem Boemundus, ex consilio primorum exercitus, ne dissidium fieret in populo, tentorium duci restituit, et pace composita, rursus ad invicem amici facti sunt.

Who in no wise asserted that he would restore himself [0484D], but by a harsh reply stirred up the minds of the aforesaid princes against him. The princes, indeed incited, resolved, with a band of their men having been summoned, to attack Boemund in the camp, unless he quickly restored what he had unjustly taken. Finally Boemund, by the counsel of the chiefs of the army, so that a schism might not occur among the people, returned the tent to the duke, and with peace made, they were again made friends with one another.

Dehinc inedia invalescente, et copia escarum deficiente circa regionem Antiochiae, Baldewinus duci et fratri suo uterino Godefrido omnes reditus Turbaysel constituit in frumento, vino, hordeo et oleo, in auro solum singulis annis quinquaginta millia Byzantiorum.

Then, with famine growing and a scarcity of provisions throughout the region of Antioch, Baldwin assigned all the revenues of Turbaysel to the duke and to his uterine brother Godefrid in grain, wine, barley, and oil, and in gold alone fifty thousand Byzantines each year.

CAP. X. - De conventu nationum, ad obsidionem Christianorum festinantium, et de accusatione Baldewini. [0485A]

CHAPTER 10. - On the assembly of the nations, concerning the siege of the hastening Christians, and on the accusation of Baldwin. [0485A]

Jam dies determinata expeditionis regis de Corrozan, a longo tempore indictae et procuratae, propinquavit. Et ecce universae nationes regni illius, et principes praedicti, per regionem Armeniae, Syriae, Romaniae, dispersi, in armis et copioso apparatu ad castrum Sooch convenerunt, habentes ducenta millia equitum bellatorum absque exiguo vulgo et femineo sexu, absque jumentis et camelis, et caeteris animalibus, quae nullo numero poterant conputari. Adfuit et Corbahan, princeps et caput militiae, qui in vehiculis cibariorum, qui in copiis et armis militum, qui in tentoriis et nimio apparatu [0485B] super omnes affluebat; quem universi principes et nationes, quae convenerant, tanquam dominum venerabantur, et in omnibus magistrum ac praeceptorem audiebant.

Already the appointed day of the king of Corrozan’s expedition, long since proclaimed and prepared, drew near. And behold, all the nations of that kingdom, and the aforesaid princes, scattered through the regions of Armenia, Syria, Romania, assembled in arms and with abundant array at the camp of Sooch, having 200,000 warrior horsemen, besides the ordinary populace and the female sex, without pack-animals and camels, and other beasts that could not be counted in number. Corbahan was also present, prince and head of the soldiery, who surpassed all in the wagons of provisions, in the stores and arms of the troops, in the tents and excessive display [0485B]; whom all the princes and nations that had come worshipped as lord, and in all things listened to as master and commander.

Hic suo in unum collecto exercitu, viam juxta onera curruum et sarcinas jumentorum et camelorum diebus multis morabatur, donec terram et civitatem Rohas ingressus est, ubi per aliquot dies remoratus, pernoctavit. Hanc per regionem descendens, dum iter per dies prae nimia pressura gentis et jumentorum abbreviaret, plurimi de diversis locis accurrerunt, plurimaque de exercitu et obsidione Antiochiae retulerunt. Inter haec et alia Baldewinus apud eum est accusatus eo quod, Turcis attritis et exstinctis, non solum civitatem Rohas, sed et omnia in circuitu praesidia suo subjugasset [0485C] dominio.

He, having gathered his army into one, delayed for many days along the road beside the burdens of the wagons and the packs of the beasts of burden and camels, until he entered the land and city of Rohas, where, having remained for several days, he spent the night. Descending through this region, while he shortened the journey day by day because of the excessive pressure of the people and of the beasts of burden, very many ran together from diverse places, and reported very many things about the army and the siege of Antioch. Among these and other things Baldwin was accused before him on the ground that, with the Turks having been worn down and destroyed, he had subjected not only the city of Rohas but also all the garrisons in the surrounding region to his own dominion [0485C].

CAP. XI. - Profanis Rohas obsidere parantibus Baldewinus obviat, dimicat et triumphat.

CHAPTER 11. - Baldwin meets the profane ones preparing to besiege Rohas, fights and triumphs.

Hoc audito, Corbahan et comprimores sui exercitus ad invicem consuluerunt, ut civitatem Rohas obsidentes et expugnantes, Baldewinum et suos conchristianos captivarent atque punirent, et civitatem ac regionem Turcorum restituerent ditioni. Sed Baldewinus, quem nec minae, nec aliqui terrores poterant movere, comperto adventu Corbahan et consilio ejus adversum se et civitatem Rohas, convocata et armata universa manu suorum, in equis, cursu valentibus, occurrit militibus Corbahan, praemissis ab obsidionem Rohas. Quos fortiter assiliens, et cum eis in arcu Armeniorum et lancea Gallorum [0485D] dimicans, usque ad castra Corbahan in fugam remisit, spolia, nempe camelos et jumenta cum rebus necessariis praemissa, in civitatem Rohas adducens.

Upon hearing this, Corbahan and the leading members of his army consulted with one another that, besieging and storming the city of Rohas, they should take and punish Baldewin and his fellow-Christians, and restore the city and region of the Turks to their dominion. But Baldewin, whom neither threats nor any terrors could move, having learned of Corbahan’s coming and his counsel against him and the city of Rohas, having summoned and armed the whole band of his men, on horses, swift of pace, met the soldiers of Corbahan, who had been sent forward from the siege of Rohas. Attacking them fiercely, and fighting with them with the Armenian bow and the lance of the Gallorum [0485D], he put them to flight as far as Corbahan’s camp, and bringing into the city of Rohas the spoils — namely camels and pack-beasts with necessary goods sent ahead.

Corbahan vero Baldewinum hoc adversum se praesumpsisse, cum praesens fuerit, ne dum absens, vehementer admiratur. Et indignatus super ejus audacia, obsidionem circa Rohas nunquam se praetermittere in deo suo jurat, sed, admonito exercitu suo, hanc in momento irrumpere, et Baldewinum captivum abducere.

Corbahan, however, is vehemently astonished that Baldewin should have presumed this against him while he was present, and not merely when absent. And, indignant at his audacity, he swears by his god that he will never let the siege about Rohas pass unpursued, but, having warned his army, will burst in at the moment and carry Baldewin off as a captive.

CAP. XII. - Corbahan triduo Rohas frustra obsidet; Baldewinus recedentem bellicose insequitur.

CHAPTER 12. - Corbahan besieges Rohas in vain for three days; Baldewinus bellicosely pursues him as he withdraws.

Vix Corbahan, princeps et homo metuendus, socios admonuit, et ecce universi exsurgentes civitatem [0486A] Rohas obsederunt in tubarum et cornicinum stridore et tumultu, plurimam vim et assultus triduo circa urbis moenia et portas inferentes. Sed et a defensoribus et custodibus civitatis videntes sibi valide repugnari, nec se in momento vel brevi spatio posse proficere, quia urbs muris et turribus esset inexpugnabilis, Corbahan consilium dederunt, ut nunc castra ab obsidione moveret, viam quam decreverat ad Antiochiam maturaret, Antiochia vero devicta reditum faciens, ad obsidionem circa Rohas reiteraret, donec Baldewinum suosque tanquam oves in ovili trucidaret. Corbahan hujus rei consiliariis acquiescens, iter suum versus Antiochiam continuans, propter montium difficultates, exercitus inaudita millia divisit in partes.

Hardly had Corbahan, a prince and a man to be feared, warned his allies, when behold all rising up besieged the city [0486A] Rohas with the shrilling and tumult of trumpets and horns, bringing very great force and assaults for three days round the city's walls and gates. But, seeing that they were bravely resisted by the defenders and warders of the city, and that they could not make headway in the moment or in a short space, because the city was impregnable with walls and towers, they counselled Corbahan to lift the camp now from the siege, to hasten the road he had resolved on to Antioch, and having conquered Antioch to return and renew the siege about Rohas, until he should butcher Baldwin and his men like sheep in a fold. Corbahan, assenting to the councillors in this matter, continued his march toward Antioch, and, on account of the difficulties of the mountains, divided his army of unprecedented thousands into separate parts.

Et quia navigio longum [0486B] erat tot millia flumen magnum Euphratem transmeare, Baldewini et eorum, qui cum eo erant in civitate, non immutati sunt vultus prae angustia tantae multitudinis, sed Corbahan recedente a statione urbis, equos ascendentes, postremos exercitus insecuti sunt, si forte aliqua pars tardaret, cui possent adversari. Sed dum parum eis succederet propter providentiam et custodiam Turcorum, Rohas reversi sunt, Dominum coeli exorantes, ut ducis Godefridi, Roberti, Reymundi, Boemundi, et omnium Christianorum misereatur, et de manu inimicorum, in tanta fortitudine supervenientium, defendat et sua gratia tueatur. Nec mora, a delatoribus Syris et Armeniis coepit crebrescere fama adventus Corbahan suorumque militum per aures Christiani exercitus.

And because by vessel it was a long passage of so many miles to cross the great river Euphrates [0486B], Baldwin and those who were with him in the city were not changed in countenance by the distress of so great a multitude; but Corbahan, withdrawing from the city's station, mounting horses, pursued the rear of the army, in case any part should lag to which they could oppose themselves. But while little succeeded for them because of the providence and watchfulness of the Turks, they returned to Rohas, imploring the Lord of heaven that he show mercy to the leaders Godefrid, Robert, Raymond, Bohemund, and all Christians, and defend them from the hand of the enemies, in so great a force of those coming against them, and protect them by his grace. Nor was there delay: from Syrian and Armenian informers the report of the coming of Corbahan and his soldiers began to grow frequent in the ears of the Christian army.

[0486C] Sed alii credere renuebant, alii credentes ducem ad providendam rem sollicitabant.

[0486C] But some refused to believe, others, believing, urged the leader to provide for the matter.

CAP. XIII. - Christiani exercitus quidam castris se subtrahunt, et viri industrii in occursum gentilium exploratum pergunt.

CHAPTER 13. - Some of the Christian army withdraw themselves from the camp, and industrious men go forward to reconnoitre to meet the gentiles.

Inter has diversas opiniones, nescio qua de causa, Stephanus Blesensis infirmitate occupari se plurimum testatus est, nec se posse ultra moram facere in obsidione, fratresque commendans, et ab eis recedens, hac infirmitatis occasione versus maritima ad Alexandriam minorem profectus est. Eo itaque recedente, quatuor millia virorum belligerorum eum secuti sunt, qui de ejus fuerant comitatu. Godefridus dux, Boemundus, Robertus, Reymundus, capitanei [0486D] exercitus, magis ac magis fama gentilium supervenientium attoniti, unanimiter decreverunt viros industrios de exercitu eligere et ad explorandam rei veritatem per montana et loca difficilia, unde tutius specularentur, praemittere.

Among these diverse opinions, for some unknown cause, Stephanus Blesensis testified that he was greatly seized by infirmity, and that he could not make further delay in the siege; commending the brothers, and withdrawing from them, on this occasion of infirmity he set out toward the maritime region to Alexandria Minor. Therefore, when he had withdrawn, four thousand warlike men who had been of his retinue followed him. Godefridus the duke, Boemundus, Robert, Reymund, captains [0486D] of the army, increasingly astonished by the rumor of the approaching gentiles, unanimously resolved to choose industrious men from the army and to send them forward to reconnoiter the truth of the matter through the mountains and difficult places, from which they might more safely keep watch.

Praemissi sunt ergo Drogo de Nahella, Clareboldus de Vinduil, Ivo de regno Francorum, Reinardus de Tul, viri clarissimi: ut si quae de adventu gentilium pro vero comperta in aures eorum sonuissent, aut oculis eorum deprehendissent, absque mora ad exercitum referrent, ut provisi principes minus jacula infestantium timerent. Praemissi milites et rei exploratores, quidam ad Arthesiam, quidam versus Rossam, quidam versus viam Romaniae sunt diffusi ad intelligendam rei veritatem; qui exercitum undique ebullire a montanis [0487A] et diversis viis ut arenam maris perspexerunt, infinita millia eorum admirantes, et minime dinumerare valentes.

Therefore Drogo of Nahella, Clareboldus of Vinduil, Ivo of the kingdom of the Franks, Reinardus of Tul, very renowned men, were sent forward: that if any things concerning the coming of the gentiles, having been truly learned, should ring into their ears or be caught by their eyes, they would, without delay, report them to the army, so that the provided princes might fear less the spears of those attacking. The soldiers and scouts sent forward were dispersed, some to Archesia, some toward Rossia, some toward the road to Romania, to learn the truth of the matter; who, seeing the army surge up everywhere from the mountains [0487A] and from diverse roads like the sand of the sea, admired their countless thousands, and were scarcely able to reckon them.

CAP. XIV. - Percepto nationum apparatu, quod principes inierint consilium.

CHAPTER 14. - On learning of the muster of the nations, and that the princes had entered into counsel.

Visis autem tot millibus et armatura Corbahan incomparabili, et gloria rerum suarum, sub omni festinatione Antiochiam reversi sunt, diebus septem priusquam Corbahan et suae acies terminos et campos regionis Antiochiae attingerent. Reversi denique, sicut didicerant, et oculis viderant, adventum et omnem apparatum Corbahan, et omnem militiam quam eduxerat, duci et caeteris principibus clam retulerunt, ne populus exterritus, eo quod longa obsidione et gravi penuria affectus esset, desperaret [0487B] minusque resisteret, ac diffugium, tenebris ingruentibus, praepararent. Dux Godefridus, Robertus, Reymundus, Boemundus, Eustachius, Tankradus, omnisque primatus proxima die, postquam reversi sunt praemissi milites ad explorandum exercitum Corbahan, in unum convocati convenerunt, quid melius agerent, quod sanius consilium inirent discusserunt, ne subito praeoccupati, ab irruentibus millibus inimicorum in gladio et arcu consumerentur.

Having seen so many thousands and the incomparable armament of Corbahan, and the glory of their affairs, they returned to Antioch with all haste, seven days before Corbahan and his battle-lines would have touched the borders and fields of the region of Antioch. Having returned finally, as they had learned and had seen with their own eyes, they secretly reported to the duke and the other princes the arrival and every array of Corbahan, and all the soldiery that he had led, so that the people, struck with terror because they had been long besieged and stricken by severe scarcity, might not despair and resist less, and prepare a flight as the darkness pressed in. The leaders Godefridus, Robert, Reymund, Boemund, Eustace, Tancred, and the whole princedom the next day, after the scouts sent forth to reconnoiter Corbahan’s army returned, were gathered together in one place and debated what better course to take, what sounder counsel to enter upon, lest suddenly taken by surprise they be cut down by the thousands of the assailants with sword and bow.

Godefridus dux, Robertus et alii multi contendebant, ut exsurgentes in loricis, in galeis et clypcis, in signis erectis, in aciebus ordinatis occurrerent Corbahan in millibus supervenienti; et in Domino Jesu omnem spem suam ponentes, cum eis bella committerent, et in Dei nomine illic martyrio [0487C] vitam finirent. Alii consilium dabant, quatenus pars in obsidione remaneret, ne Turci ab urbe ad auxilium Corbahan erumperent, et fortior pars, juxta consilium ducis et Roberti Flandrensis, non longius quam trans duo milliaria obviam hostibus irent.

Godefridus the duke, Robert and many others urged that, rising up in loricas, in helmets and shields, with standards raised and battle-lines formed, they should go to meet Corbahan, who was coming with thousands; and, placing all their hope in the Lord Jesus, that they should wage war with him, and in the name of God there finish their life by martyrdom [0487C]. Others gave counsel that a part should remain in the siege, lest the Turks sally forth from the city to aid Corbahan, and that the stronger part, according to the counsel of the duke and Robert of Flanders, should go to meet the enemies no farther than across two miles.

CAP. XV. - Mysterium arcani consilii Boemundi de traditione Antiochiae.

CHAPTER 15. - The mystery of Boemund's secret counsel concerning the surrender of Antioch.

His in consiliis dum quilibet suam proferret sententiam, Boemundus, vir apprime prudens et astutus, Godefridum, Robertum Flandrensem et Reymundum seorsim a conventu sociorum abduxit in loco secreto, quibus omnia, quae habebat in corde suo, in hunc modum loquens, professus est: «Domini et fratres mei dilectissimi, secretum habeo quod nunc vestrae fidei aperiam, in quo, Deo annuente et opitulante, [0487D] omnis exercitus et principes nostri liberari et salvari poterunt. Civitas Antiochia, ex quo mihi promissum est quod in manum meam tradatur, jam septem transierunt menses. Et sic firmata inter me et traditorem haec est conventio sub fidei illius alligatione, quod nequaquam solvi aut mutari possit, sed in quacunque hora monuero, una ex turribus, quae ducit in civitatem et in qua idem traditor habitat, in manum meam reddatur.

While in these counsels each was bringing forward his own opinion, Boemund, a man most prudent and crafty, led Godefrid, Robert the Fleming and Raymond apart from the assembly of the companions into a secret place, to whom, speaking all things which he had in his heart in this manner, he declared: «Lords and my most beloved brothers, I have a secret which I now will open to your faith, in which, God consenting and assisting, [0487D] the whole army and our princes will be able to be freed and saved. The city of Antioch, since it was promised to me that it should be delivered into my hand, seven months have now passed. And thus made firm between me and the traditor this is the covenant under the binding of that faith, that it can in no way be loosed or changed, but at whatever hour I shall give warning, one of the towers which leads into the city and in which the same traditor dwells shall be given into my hand.»

Multum enim pro hac re laboravi, videns urbem humanis viribus insuperabilem. Multam et innumerabilem pecuniam pactus sum illi dare; et non minus illum exaltare et ditare, inter amicos meos, quam Tankradum, filium sororis meae, sub fidei firmatione spopondi. [0488A] Hujus secretae conventionis et traditionis Boemundus aequivocus meus, vir de genere Turcorum, actor factus est a principio Christianitatis suae.

For I labored greatly for this matter, seeing the city unconquerable by human strength. I contracted to give him much and innumerable money; and I promised to exalt and enrich him among my friends no less than Tancred, my sister’s son, under the confirmation of faith. [0488A] To this secret convention and handing-over Boemund, my namesake, a man of the race of the Turks, was made the agent from the beginning of his Christianity.

Et nunc eo processit ratio ut nequaquam de omnibus, quae traditor pollicitus est, fallat, et in eo quod spopondi magnum illi praemium conferre me paratum inveniat. Unde quia non parvum talentum debeo illi dare, et hujus rei totum pondus sustineo, unum vobis secreto aperio, qui estis columnae et capitanei exercitus, videlicet ut si vestrae fuerit voluntatis et caeterorum, ubi civitas capta fuerit, in manu mea reddatur. Hanc conventionem et consilium ad finem pertraham, et quod pactus sum traditori, ex meo sine dilatione conferre paratus sum.» Haec audientes principes, magno gaudio gavisi sunt, et ex omni [0488B] benevolentia Boemundo civitatem annuerunt, caeterosque comprimores pariter ejusdem doni et concessionis voluntarios reddiderunt.

And now the plan progressed so that in no way I might be deceived about all that the traitor promised, and so that he might find me ready to confer upon him the great reward I had pledged. Therefore, since I must give him not a small talent, and I bear the whole weight of this affair, I reveal one thing to you in secret, who are the pillars and captains of the army, namely that if it shall be your will and that of the others, when the city has been taken it be delivered into my hand. I will carry this convention and design through to the end, and what I have promised to the traitor I am prepared to confer from myself without delay. Hearing these things the princes rejoiced with great gladness, and with all goodwill they assented to Boemund for the city, and the other peers likewise rendered themselves volunteers of the same gift and concession. [0488B]

CAP. XVI. - Quam prudenter ipsum consilium inter primates ventilatum sit caeteris ignorantibus.

CHAPTER 16. - How prudently the very counsel was debated among the princes, the others remaining ignorant.

Factis omnibus capitaneis voluntariis, sub admonitione summae fidei ad invicem datis dextris indictum est ne istud verbum palam fieret, sed suppressum silentio nulli pateret. Aiunt etiam quidam quod in conflictu et assultu hinc et abhinc dimicantium adolescens filius ejusdem Turci captus in manum Boemundi pervenerit, cujus redemptionis causa, pater pueri Boemundi coepit privatus fieri. Et ad ultimum malens vitam filii, quam omnium inhabitantium salutem, perfidiam adversus Darsianum [0488C] regem assumpsit, et fidem in restitutione filii cum Boemundo iniit, et sic in civitatem fideles Christi milites intromisit.

With all the volunteer captains appointed, and with the right hands given to one another under the admonition of highest fidelity, it was enjoined that this matter be not made public, but kept suppressed in silence and revealed to no one. Some also say that in the clash and assault of those fighting here and there the adolescent son of that same Turk was seized and came into the hand of Boemund; for the ransom of whom the boy’s father began to be dispossessed by Boemund. And at last, preferring the life of his son to the safety of all the inhabitants, he undertook a treachery against King Darsianus [0488C], entered into a pledge with Boemund for the restoration of the son, and thus admitted into the city soldiers faithful to Christ.

* Boemundo, si caperetur, civitas concessa est. Unde vespere jam terras operiente, ex ipsius consilio decretum est ut Godefridus et Robertus Flandrensis septingentos milites illustres de exercitu assumerent, et, Turcis per moenia diffusis nuncque domesticae curae intentis, in umbra noctis versus montana iter insisterent, quasi ad insidias profecturi aliquorum de exercitu Corbahan ad urbem praecedentium. His vero septingentis in obscuro noctis jam versus montana gradientibus per loca invia et vix commeabilia, per angustas fauces, conductu Boemundi, nuper facti Christiani, Godefridus [0488D] dux universis haec firmiter injunxit, dicens: «Viri fratres et peregrini, Deo devoti, Turcis et hostilibus aliis, nobis prope hospitatis, decrevimus in occursum ire, et cum illis confligere, si forte aliquis eventus victoriae nobis detur.

* To Boemund, if he were captured, the city was conceded. Wherefore, in the evening, with the lands already cloaked, by his own counsel it was decreed that Godefridus and Robert of Flanders should take up seven hundred distinguished soldiers from the army, and, the Turks being spread through the walls and now intent on domestic concerns, they should set their march in the shadow of night toward the mountains, as if about to lie in ambush for some of the army of Corbahan who were preceding toward the city. To these seven hundred, indeed, now marching in the darkness of night toward the mountains through pathless and scarcely passable places, through narrow passes, under the guidance of Boemund, newly made a Christian, Godefridus [0488D] the duke firmly enjoined these things upon all, saying: "Men, brothers, and pilgrims, devoted to God, to the Turks and other hostile men, near to us by hospitality, we have resolved to go forth to meet them, and to join battle with them, if perchance any outcome of victory be granted to us.

Tumultum vero et strepitum aliquem in nobis fieri sub indicio vitae prohibemus.» Sed aliud erat ei in mente quam quod cum populo loquebatur. Nam in montanis cum sociis solummodo rei consciis contendens, hanc scilicet in partem qua urbs et praesidium Darsiani in summo situm est cacumine, valles et abrupta montium superat, ac longo in recessu ab urbe, et secreto, in valle consistens una cum Roberto Flandrensi, cuncta ordinat quae caute de urbis traditione agenda erant et sollicite.

He forbade that any tumult and any clamor be raised among us under the pretext of life. But he had in mind something other than what he spoke to the people. For hurrying into the mountains with only his companions privy to the matter, namely toward that region where the city and the garrison of Darsianus stand on the summit, which overlooks the valleys and the mountain’s precipices, and being long in retreat from the city, and secretly, standing in the valley together with Robert of Flanders, he arranged all things which were to be carried out cautiously and solicitously concerning the surrender of the city.

CAP. XVII. - Quam caute sibi convenerint fidelium interpres et traditor civitatis. [0489A]

CHAPTER 17. - How cautiously the interpreter of the faithful and the city's traitor agreed among themselves. [0489A]

Ordinatis itaque universis cauto consilio, quemdam interpretem linguarum, genere Longobardum, de domesticis Boemundi praemiserunt ad turrim, quam traditor tuebatur, quatenus de conventione intromissionis Christianorum ex parte Boemundi eum admoneret, et super hoc ejus responsa audiens, principibus renuntiaret. Qui ad muros perveniens, traditorem, qui in ipsa nocte constituta in turris fenestra Gallos praestolabatur pervigil, Graeco sermone appellat; si solus sit, requirit ut fiducialius cum eo sermonem de legatione Boemundi haberet. Qui verbis et signis certissimis Boemundi recognitis, per annulum videlicet, quem Boemundus ab eo [0489B] susceptum nunc in signum illi remiserat, verba interpretis abhinc credula non refutavit, sed si Boemundus aut sui adessent, diligenter percontatus est.

Having therefore arranged everything with a cautious plan, they sent ahead to the tower which the traitor guarded a certain interpreter of languages, a Lombard by birth, from Boemund’s household, so that he might admonish him concerning the convention for the admission of the Christians on Boemund’s part, and, hearing his answers about this, report them to the princes. He, upon reaching the walls, addresses the traitor — who that very night, stationed at the tower’s window, was keeping watch for the Franks — in the Greek tongue; if he were alone, he requested that he might more confidentially hold speech with him about Boemund’s legation. The traitor, Boemund having been identified by the most certain words and signs, namely by the ring which Boemund had received from him [0489B] and had now sent back to him as a token, no longer rejected the interpreter’s words as incredulous, but diligently questioned whether Boemund or his men were present.

Interpres vero audiens quod traditor non in dolo sibi loquebatur, Boemundi milites non longe abesse profitetur, et ad omnia paratos, quae ex ejus consilio inire deberent. Qui eos appropinquare sine dubio aut metu commonet, murosque secure ascendere, nec aliqua mora hoc differre propter breve spatium noctis et lucem diei appropinquantis. Sollicitabat etiam eos hac maxime de causa, ne custos murorum, suae vicis in ordine, faculam in manu ferens, moenia urbis muros et turres perlustrans ad providendum, ascendentes propalaret, sicque in periculo vitae suae, expergefactis hostibus, haberentur.

The interpreter, however, hearing that the traditor did not speak to him in deceit, declared that Boemund’s soldiers were not far off, and ready for all things which by his counsel ought to be undertaken. He admonished them to approach without doubt or fear, and to climb the walls securely, nor to defer this by any delay on account of the shortness of the night and the light of the approaching day. He also urged them especially for this reason, lest the guardian of the walls, in his turn of duty, bearing a torch in his hand and traversing the city’s ramparts and towers to make provision, should betray the climbers, and thus, with the enemies roused, they be kept in peril of their lives.

CAP. XVIII. - Godefridus et Robertus electos in hoc bellones, ne primum murorum ascensum horreant, adhortantur. [0489C]

CHAPTER 18. Godefridus and Robert, chosen as leaders in this war, are exhorted not to dread the first scaling of the walls. [0489C]

Interpres, audito hoc consilio traditoris, ad principes in montanis relictos celeri gressu tendit, omnia quae audierat referens, et vehementer eos sollicitans ut quos velint audaciores eligant, qui sine intermissione muros ascendentes civitati immittantur. Continuo viri electi sunt ad ascensionem murorum; sed metu et dubietate corda eorum concussa sunt, singulique haesitantes de prima ingressione et ascensione murorum plurimum renitebantur. Godefridus vero dux et Robertus, viros sic videntes expavescere, nec qui praecederent invenientes, eo quod diffidebant de promissione Turci, [0489D] haec machinamenta dolum arbitrantes, nimium spiritu infremuerunt, sic universos solamine reficientes: «Mementote in cujus nomine a terra et cognatione vestra exiistis, et quomodo terrenae vitae abrenuntiastis, nulla pericula mortis pro Christo inire metuentes.

The interpreter, having heard this counsel of the traitor, hastens with swift step to the leaders left on the mountains, reporting all that he had heard, and urging them vehemently to choose the bolder men they wished, who, without delay, ascending the walls should be let into the city. Immediately men were chosen for the ascent of the walls; but with fear and doubt their hearts were shaken, and each, hesitating about the first entrance and ascent of the walls, resisted greatly. Godefridus the leader and Robert, seeing the men thus struck with terror, and finding none to go before them because they distrusted the promise of the Turk, [0489D] considering these machinations a deceit, were excessively inflamed in spirit, and thus, restoring all with consolation, said: “Remember in whose name you went forth from your land and kin, and how you renounced earthly life, fearing to undertake no dangers of death for Christ.

Nec mora, credere debetis scilicet feliciter cum Christo vivere, ideoque ejus gratia et amore, quaecunque occurrerint in via hac, aequo et libenti animo suscipere. Eia, dilectissimi Christi milites, non pro terrena remuneratione hoc periculum incurritis, sed illius meritum exspectatis, qui post mortem praesentem aeternae vitae praemia suis conferre novit. Mori enim habemus quocunque modo.

No delay: ye ought surely to believe that ye live happily with Christ, and therefore, for his grace and love, to receive with equal and willing heart whatever may befall on this road. Come, most beloved soldiers of Christ, you incur this danger not for earthly remuneration, but you await the reward of him who, after present death, knows how to grant to his own the prizes of eternal life. For we must die in any case.

Jam quidem lux matutina diei manifestat [0490A] consilium nostrum; jam si cives et Turci nos persenserint, non unus saltem ex nobis vivus evadet. Ite, et ascendentes vitam vestram Deo offerte, charitatem Dei scientes vitam pro amicis ponere.»

Now indeed the morning light of day reveals our plan [0490A]; now if the citizens and the Turks have perceived us, not even one of us will escape alive. Go, and ascending offer your lives to God, knowing the charity of God to lay down life for friends.

CAP. XIX. - Viri cordati qualiter per coriaceam scalam intromissi sint.

CHAPTER 19. - How prudent men were introduced through a leathern ladder.

Ad haec tam magnanimorum principum verba et solatia, plurimorum mentium dubietas detersa est. Et scala assumpta, quae ex corio erat taurino, ad id negotium aptissima, paulatim muro appropinquant cum interprete suo, ubi ad moenia traditor viros adventantes operiebatur. Ut ergo praemissi aliqui adfuerunt, alii ex domesticis ducis, alii ex comitatu Roberti; quidam ex familia Boemundi, Turcum eos ad moenia praestolantem interpres compellat ut [0490B] funem a moenibus jaciat, qua scala innodata in moenia sublevetur, per quam milites ascendentes intromittantur.

To these words and consolations of such magnanimous princes, the doubt of very many minds was wiped away. And the ladder taken up, which was of bull’s leather, most suitable for that business, they gradually approached the wall with their interpreter, where a traitor was covering the men approaching the walls. So when some of those sent ahead were present, others from the leader’s household, others from Robert’s retinue; some from Bohemund’s family, the interpreter compelled the Turk who was watching at the walls to cast down a rope from the walls, by which the ladder, knotted to it, would be raised onto the walls, through which the soldiers ascending would be let in. [0490B]

Turcus, sicut devoverat, scalam fune sublevat, circa moenia fortiter alligat, et submissa voce viros confortans, monet ut indubitanter ascendant. Nec mora, lorica et galea induti, gladio accincti, hastis innitentes, et manu se trahentes, scalam ascenderunt viri audaces, quos alii subsequentes in dubia spe vivendi, jam ad viginti quinque immissi sunt. His immissis, et nimio silentio conquiescentibus, confratres juxta muros existentes, et eventum rei exspectantes, sed neminem audientes, viros immissos jugulatos et in fide falsa subito suffocatos existimabant: unde ascendere et subsequi retardabant.

Turcus, as he had sworn, lifts the ladder by a rope, fastens it strongly about the walls, and with a low voice, encouraging the men, bids them to climb without hesitation. No delay: clad in lorica and galea, girded with sword, leaning on spears and hauling themselves up with their hands, the daring men climbed the ladder, and others following, in a doubtful hope of living, were now sent in to the number of 25. Those having been sent, and with excessive silence resting, the confratres standing beside the walls, awaiting the event of the affair, but hearing no one, supposed that the men sent in had been slaughtered and suddenly choked in false security; whence they hesitated to mount and to follow.

CAP. XX. - Scala dirupta nonnulli perierunt; sed denuo reparata fiducialiter ascendunt. [0490C]

CHAPTER 20. - The ladder having been broken, some perished; but, repaired anew, they confidently climbed up. [0490C]

Milites vero immissi, intelligentes quod socios Christianos adeo timor invaserat, ut se subtrahendo a scala abirent, trans moenia a muro se inclinantes, submissa voce socios ascendere hortabantur, asserentes se nihil illic periculi passuros. Hi fratrum voce audita adhuc viventium, certabant vehementi studio scalam ascendere et urbem intrare, donec prae nimia pressura et pondere, moenia antiqua et inveterata, dissolutis saxis cum caemento, scissa sunt et diruta, sicque scala, retinaculo carens, prorsus humi corruit cum viris adhuc in ea consistentibus. Erant autem juxta muros lancearum hastae positae et erectae, in quibus confixi qui [0490D] corruerant, alii a saxis de muro cadentibus oppressi et semineces facti, aliqui mortui sunt.

But the soldiers sent in, perceiving that the allied Christians were so seized by fear that, withdrawing, they abandoned the ladder, leaning over the ramparts from the wall, with subdued voice urged their comrades to ascend, asserting that they would suffer no danger there. Those, hearing the brothers’ voice of the still living, strove with vehement eagerness to mount the ladder and enter the city, until by excessive pressure and weight the ancient and long‑standing walls, with stones and mortar loosened, were split and torn down, and so the ladder, lacking its fastening, wholly collapsed to the ground with men still standing on it. Near the walls were placed and raised the spear‑shafts of lances, on which were fixed those who [0490D] had fallen, others crushed and half‑dead by stones falling from the wall, and some were dead.

Quod multum populus Dei inhorruit, existimans omnia haec in dolo a Turcis contigisse, et nunc universos immissos pulso dubio iniqua morte deperiisse. Non sonus, non fragor aliquis, licet a corruentibus et infixis maximus exstiterit, in urbe aut in moenibus est auditus. Dominus enim Deus ventum valide spirantem hac suscitavit nocte.

Which greatly made the people of God shudder, thinking that all these things had happened by the treachery of the Turks, and that now all those sent in, driven off, had doubtless perished by an unjust death. No sound, no crash at all — although a very great one arose from the collapsing and from those impaled — was heard in the city or on the walls. For the Lord God raised up a wind blowing strongly here that night.

Turcus fidem, quam Boemundo in urbis traditione devoverat, servans, funem iterato ad relevandam scalam dimittit. Qua rursus moenia fortiora in eodem loco circumdans, desolatos et perterritos per interpretem revocat, ascensumque repetere universos fideliter admonet. [0491A] Non ultra viri haesitantes, sed ex interpretis verbis roborati, et confratrum agnita salute, rursus scalam ascendunt, et moenibus inferuntur, donec ferme sexaginta super muros invecti constiterunt.

Turk, keeping the faith which he had vowed to Bohemond in the surrender of the city, lets down the rope again to raise the ladder. With which, having again encompassed the stronger walls in the same place, he calls back the desolate and terrified through the interpreter, and faithfully exhorts all to essay the ascent anew. [0491A] The men no longer hesitated, but strengthened by the interpreter’s words, and the safety of their brethren having been perceived, they climb the ladder again and are carried onto the battlements, until almost sixty, having been conveyed over the walls, stood firm.

CAP. XXI. - Immissi stragem custodum operantur; gentiles alii somno expergefacti Christianos impugnant.

CHAPTER 21. Having been sent in, they perpetrate a slaughter of the guards; other gentiles, roused from sleep, attack the Christians.

Interea custos murorum in gyro civitatis, perlustratis moenibus, ad visitandos vigiles Turcorum et commonendos, faculam manu ferens, viris immissis occurrit. Sed in momento ictu gladii capite illius amputato, transeuntes turrim vicinam ingressi sunt. In qua universos reperientes, adhuc sopore gravatos, in ore gladii percusserunt, ac in eodem impetu in alias turres irruentes, stragem plurimam operati sunt, donec fere decem turrium custodes, [0491B] in ea parte urbis gravi somno immersos, sine ulla vociferatione peremerunt.

Meanwhile the keeper of the walls, making the circuit of the city and having inspected the ramparts, to visit and admonish the watches of the Turks, bearing a torch in his hand, went out to meet the men who had been admitted. But at the instant, with the blow of a sword his head being cut off, the assailants entered a neighboring tower. There, finding everyone, still weighed down by sleep, they struck them with the blade, and in the same onrush, rushing into other towers, wrought a very great slaughter, until they slew nearly ten keepers of the towers, [0491B] in that part of the city plunged in deep sleep, without any outcry.

His ita in gladio prostratis, per posticum quoddam, quod in montanis erat juxta eumdem locum quo ascenderant, subito fractis seris plurima manus ex septingentis immissa est, cornibusque fortiter intonantes, Godefridum, Robertum et caeteros comprimores advocant, quatenus ad auxilium intromissis quantocius properantes urbem penetrent. Hi cornibus auditis, et pro signo dato recognitis, quia secretorum omnium consocii erant, in manu robusta advolant, ad portam, quae sursum in montanis proeminebat, contendentes ut intrarent. A magistra autem arce Darsiani, quae huic portae proxima erat, Turci exsurgentes audito [0491C] tumultu, lapidum jactu Gallos abegerunt, sociosque eorum qui immissi erant minime ad portam pervenire, ut hanc aperirent, passi sunt.

With these having been laid low by the sword, through a certain postern gate that was in the hills near the same place where they had climbed, suddenly, the bolts being broken, very many hands were let in; and sounding their horns loudly, they summoned Godfrey, Robert, and the other associates, so that, the men having been let in, they should hasten as quickly as possible to penetrate the city to give aid. These, the horns being heard and the signal given and recognizing that they were comrades of the secret men, rushed to the strong force, pressing toward the gate that jutted up on the hills in order to enter. But the Turks of the Darsiani citadel, which was nearest that gate, rising up when they heard the tumult [0491C], by the hurling of stones drove off the Franks and prevented the comrades who had been sent in from reaching the gate to open it.

Unde ad posticum praedictum revertentes milites, qui scala urbem intraverant, penetrale hujus postici ferro acutissimo, ingeniis Turcorum parato, fractis muris ampliaverunt, et sic principes ac socii eorum equo et pedibus spatiose intromissi sunt.

Whereupon returning to the aforesaid postern, the soldiers who had entered the city by the ladder enlarged the recess of this postern by breaking the walls with very sharp iron, with the Turks' engines prepared, and thus their chiefs and companions were widely admitted, on horse and on foot.

CAP. XXII. - Tumultuantibus hinc inde partibus, principes primum traditam esse civitatem multitudini indicant.

CHAPTER 22. - With commotions here and there, the princes first announce that the city has been surrendered to the multitude.

Turci itaque, hac subita vociferatione et tumultu buccinarum cornuumque stridore expergefacti, ad arma festinant, arcus et sagittas arripiunt, turres defensant, utrinque ad invicem gravia certamina a sursum et deorsum conserentes. In hac clamosa hinc [0491D] et hinc contentione milites Darsiani, qui in montis cacumine et eminentiore arce erant, cornibus fortiter insonuerunt, quatenus Turci qui in civitate erant et turrium praesidiis, et adhuc in summo diluculo stertebant, evigilantes, ad auxilium sociis exsurgerent, sicque immissis Christianis resistere valerent. Quod exercitus magnus, qui adhuc extra muros altera in parte spatiosae urbis consederat, de adventu et ingressione Corbahan hos in montanis et in arce voces exaltare, cornibus strepere et congredi arbitrati sunt, penitus ignorantes quomodo urbs tradita et capta in manu Gallorum sit.

The Turks therefore, aroused by this sudden shouting and the tumult and the shrill blasts of trumpets and horns, hasten to arms, seize bows and arrows, defend the towers, engaging on both sides with each other in fierce combats, fighting from above and below. In this clamor, on the one hand [0491D] and on the other by this contention the Darsian soldiers, who were on the summit of the mountain and the higher citadel, sounded their horns boldly, so that the Turks who were in the city and in the tower garrisons, and who had still been snoring at early dawn, waking, might rise to aid their comrades, and thus, with Christians having been sent in, be able to resist. But the great army, which still sat outside the walls on the other side of the spacious city, thinking that the shouts, the horn-blowing, and the assembling on the mountains and in the citadel announced the coming and entrance of Corbahan, being completely ignorant how the city had been delivered and seized by the Franks, imagined they were mustering to engage.

Boemundus, Reymundus et Tankradus, quibus res tota innotuit, quique in obsidione remanserant, loricas [0492A] induti, armis accincti, vexillis elatis ad urbem exterius impugnandam advolant, ignaros actae rei plurimum confortantes in urbis assultum et omnem illis rem enucleantes.

Boemundus, Reymundus et Tankradus, to whom the whole affair had become known and who had remained in the siege, clad in loricas [0492A], girded with arms, with banners raised, hastened to the outside of the city to attack it, greatly heartening those ignorant of the deed to the assault of the city and fully laying open the whole matter to them.

CAP. XXIII. - Fideles portas urbis aperiunt: vexillum Boemundi in arce praeeminet: prima luce geritur bellicosissimus Mars.

CHAPTER 23. - The faithful open the gates of the city: Boemund’s vexillum excels on the citadel: at first light the most bellicose Mars is borne.

Interea dum sic interiore et exteriore pugna Turci nimium arctarentur, Graeci, Syri, Armenii cives, et viri Christianae professionis, ad portas aperiendas et seras scindendas laetanter concurrunt, per quas Boemundus et universus exercitus intromissus est. Signum nempe Boemundi, quod sanguinei erat coloris, primo diei crepusculo ea in parte qua urbis facta est traditio, super muros in montanis rutilabat, ut pateret omnibus quod Dei gratia et [0492B] opitulatione urbs, ab homine insuperabilis, in manus Boemundi et omnium fidelium Christi tradita et capta sit. Sic seris avulsis et undique portis patefactis, universi admirati et gavisi quomodo consilium istud non omnibus patebat, expergefacti celeriter arma rapiunt, alius alium admonet, et rapido cursu omnes armati urbem et portas intrare contendunt.

Meanwhile, while the Turks were thus too closely pressed in the inner and outer fighting, the Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, citizens and men of Christian profession gladly ran together to open the gates and rend the bolts, through which Boemund and the whole army were let in. The standard of Boemund, indeed, which was of a blood-red color, at the first twilight of day in that part where the betrayal of the city was effected, gleamed upon the walls on the mounts, so that it was plain to all that by God's grace and [0492B] assistance the city, unconquerable by man, had been delivered into the hands of Boemund and all the faithful of Christ and taken. Thus, the bolts having been torn away and the gates opened on every side, all, amazed and rejoicing that this plan was not revealed to everyone, roused themselves, quickly seized arms, one admonishing another, and at a swift run all armed strove to enter the city and its gates.

Milliare quispiam transcurrere poterat, priusquam universa multitudo Christianorum intromissa est. Mox intrantium tot millium fragore vehemente et strepitu, tubarumque sonitu horribili, et plurima vexillorum elevatione, armatorum ingenti clamore, equorum hinnitibus Turci stupefacti, alii adhuc in strato suo quiescentes improvisi et inermes [0492C] evigilant. Quorum pars subito spe defensionis adunatur, arcus et arma arripientes, alii in turribus et praesidiis persistentes, plurimos incautos Christianos inertis vulgi, viros et mulieres, sagittis feriunt.

One could cross a mile-stone before the whole multitude of Christians had been let in. Soon, by the vehement crash and din of so many thousands entering, and by the horrible sound of trumpets, and by the great raising of banners, by the mighty shout of the armed, and by the neighing of horses, the Turks were stupefied; others, still resting on their couches, unprepared and unarmed [0492C], awake. A part of them is suddenly gathered together in hope of defence, seizing bows and weapons; others, remaining in towers and garrisons, smite with arrows very many unsuspecting Christians of the inert crowd, men and women.

Concursus et diversi conflictus inter se fiunt et caeco marte aguntur. Christiani, quorum virtus et copiae magis ac magis affluebant, invalescentes, per domos, et plateas et vicos civitatis Turcos diffusos et errantes in ore gladii percutiebant, nulli aetati parcebant aut sexui de genere gentilium, donec terra sanguine et cadaveribus occisorum operta est, pluribus etiam caesis exanimis Christianorum corporibus tam Gallorum quam Graecorum, Syrorum, Armeniorum admistis. Nec mirum, cum vix luce agnita adhuc super terram essent tenebrae, et [0492D] quibus parcerent et quos ferirent penitus ignorarent.

A convergence and various clashes occur among them and are fought with blind warfare. The Christians, whose virtue and troops were flowing more and more, growing powerful, through the houses and the streets and alleys of the city struck at the Turks scattered and roaming with the edge of the sword, sparing no age or sex of the pagan stock, until the ground was covered with the blood and the corpses of the slain, and many lifeless bodies of Christians — of Franks as well as of Greeks, of Syrians, of Armenians — were likewise mingled. Nor is it wonder, since scarcely with the light recognized and darkness still lay upon the earth, and [0492D] they utterly ignorant were of whom they should spare and whom they should strike.

Nam voce et signo Christianae professionis Turci et Sarraceni timore mortis acclamantes, plurimi peregrinos fallebant, et ideo communi strage vitam amittebant. Decem millia fuere occisorum, quorum corpora per vicos et plateas civitatis caesa et ferro a Gallis exstincta sunt.

For with word and token of the Christian profession the Turks and Saracens, crying out in fear of death, deceived many pilgrims, and therefore by a common slaughter lost their lives. Ten thousand were slain, whose bodies through the streets and squares of the city were cut down and destroyed by the Franks with sword and iron.

CAP. XXIV. - Pagani, quo quisque poterat, fugam ineunt: aliqui de altissimis rupibus cadentes elisi sunt et exstincti.

CHAPTER 24. - Pagans, each as he could, put themselves to flight: some, falling from the very highest crags, were dashed to pieces and destroyed.

Plurimi Turcorum videntes caedem gravissimam quae fiebat, et quia tota urbs armis et viribus Gallorum redundabat, vitae diffidentes, e turribus et praesidiis civitatis fugientes, ad montana contendunt, notitia viarum perplexarum, ubi praesidium magistrae [0493A] arcis intrantes, arma insequentium Gallorum evaserunt. Haec autem arx et palatium in montanis situm, nulla arte, nulla vi superari potest; nullus in ea manentibus adversari aut nocere potest. Alii, circiter mille, a longinquis partibus acciti auxilio et immissi, tubarum ac cornuum stridore exterriti, nimiaque suorum occisione desperati, quos prorsus notitia viarum et fugae latebat, pariter et ipsi ad montana, superiusque praesidium festinantes, ut Christianorum manum evaderent, in angustam et incognitam semitam caeco errore inciderunt.

The majority of the Turks, seeing the very grievous slaughter that was taking place, and because the whole city overflowed with the arms and forces of the Franks, distrusting for their lives, fleeing from the towers and garrisons of the city, made for the mountains, the knowledge of the bewildering ways by which, entering the garrison of the mistress [0493A] of the citadel, they escaped the arms of the pursuing Franks. This citadel and palace, however, seated in the mountains, cannot be overcome by any art or force; no one can oppose or harm those who remain in it. Others, about a thousand, summoned and sent from distant parts for aid, terrified by the shrilling of trumpets and horns, and despairing at the excessive slaughter of their own, whom utterly the knowledge of the roads and of flight was hiding, likewise themselves hastening to the mountains and to the garrison above, in order to escape the hand of the Christians, fell into a narrow and unknown path by blind error.

Ubi prorsus via deficiente, in sublimi colle nequaquam ultra revertendi facultas esse poterat, sed a sursum per declivia et scopulos arctissimos et incommeabiles cum equis et mulis corruentes, fractis collis, [0493B] cruribus, et brachiis universisque membris, inaestimabili et admirando casu universi perierunt.

Where, the road utterly failing, on the lofty hill there could by no means be any further power of returning, but from above down very steep and unpassable slopes and crags, falling with horses and mules, with necks broken, [0493B] legs and arms, and all the limbs, they altogether perished by an inestimable and admirable chance.

CAP. XXV. - De opibus inventis in civitate, et qua die capta sit urbs.

CHAPTER 25. - On the riches found in the city, and on what day the city was taken.

Populus autem Dei vivi reversus a caede et insecucutione gentilium in praesidium et montana fugientium, sole jam altius radiante et die plurima adulta, urbem perlustrant, victus quaeritant, sed paucos repererunt. Ostrea tantum diversi generis et coloris, piper quoque et pigmenta plurima, vestes, et papiliones gentilium, tesseras et aleas, quin et pecuniam, sed non multam invenerunt. Nec mirum, quia diuturna obsidione novem mensium vallata, tot gentilium millia illic congregata totum consumpserunt.

But the people of the living God, having returned from the slaughter and pursuit of the Gentiles to the refuge and the mountains to flee, with the sun already shining higher and the day grown far advanced, scour the city, seeking victuals, but found few. Shells of various kinds and colours, pepper likewise and very many pigments, garments, and fans of the Gentiles, tesserae and dice, even money too, but not much, they found. Nor is it wondrous, since by a prolonged siege, fortified for nine months, so many thousands of Gentiles collected there consumed everything.

Feria quinta erat dies serenissima, [0493C] quando tertio Non. Junii mensis tradita et capta est civitas Antiochia in manu Christianorum, Turcis prostratis et effugatis.

Feria quinta erat dies serenissima, [0493C] when on the third Nones of the month of June the city Antioch was delivered and taken into the hand of the Christians, the Turks being prostrated and put to flight.

CAP. XXVI. - De fuga et nece regis Antiochiae.

CHAPTER 26. - On the flight and death of the king of Antioch.

Darsianus autem rex Antiochiae, intelligens fugam suorum et totum jam praesidium et arcem fugitivis repletam, timens ne Gallorum manus, capta urbe, praesidium vallans expugnaret, mulo ascenso egressus est ut lateret in deviis montium, dum finem et eventum rei plenius cognosceret et an arx a facie Galiorum a suis retineri posset. Hic dum solus per devia montium diffugio erraret, quidam de Syria, Christianae professionis, qui causa rerum necessariarum ite: per montana carpebant, ipsum principem a longe intuentes et agnoscentes, plurimum [0493D] admirati sunt cur solus ab arcis praesidio per devia declinaverit. Unde ad invicem locuti sunt: «Ecce dominus et rex noster Darsianus, non sine causa, per haec deserta loca montium iter facit: forsitan urbs capta est, sui occisi, ipse nimirum fugae intentus est.

Darsianus, however, king of Antioch, perceiving the flight of his men and that the whole garrison and citadel were now filled with fugitives, fearing that the Gauls’ bands, the city having been taken, might invest and storm the garrison, mounted a mule and departed to lie hidden in the mountain byways, that he might learn more fully the end and outcome of the matter and whether the citadel could be held by his own men against the Gallic front. While he wandered alone through the mountain defiles in flight, a certain man of Syria, of the Christian profession, who were making their way through the mountains for the sake of necessary provisions, seeing and recognizing the prince from afar, marvelled greatly [0493D] why he had turned aside alone from the citadel’s defence into the mountain wastes. Whereupon they spoke among themselves: “Behold our lord and king Darsianus, doubtless for a reason, is making a journey through these desert mountain places: perhaps the city has been taken, his people killed, and he himself plainly intent on flight.

Qui ne manus nostras effugiat videamus a quo tot damna, injurias et calumnias pertulimus.» Hoc modo fidem tres Syri de morte illius tractantes, sed omnia dissimulantes, submissis cervicibus illi falsam reverentiam exhibentes, et in dolo salutantes, quominus ad eum accedebant donec, ipsius gladio accepto et educto, eum a mulo praecipitaverunt, caput illius amputantes, et in sacculo suo reponentes. Quod mox in urbem Antiochiam in conspectu [0494A] omnium Christianorum et principum attulerunt. Caput vero mirae grossitudinis erat, aures latissimae et pilosae, capilli cani cum barba, quae a mento usque ad umbilicum ejus profluebat.

“Let us see that his hands do not escape us, from whom we have endured so many damages, injuries, and calumnies.” Thus the three Syrians, treating of his death but concealing all, with bowed necks showing him false reverence, and greeting him in deceit, approached him until, his own sword having been seized and drawn, they cast him from the mule, severing his head, and placing it in their little sack. Which they soon brought into the city of Antioch in the sight of [0494A] all the Christians and princes. The head, moreover, was of wondrous thickness, the ears very broad and hairy, the hair white with a beard which flowed from his chin down to his navel.

CAP. XXVII. - De Rotgero, qui gentiles, exercitum praecedentes, bellator excipiens, insperata morte praeventus est.

CHAPTER 27. - Of Rotgero, who, leading the Gentiles and preceding the army, while receiving a warrior, was forestalled by an unexpected death.

Comperto deinde jam proximo adventu Corbahan et suorum quia in Antiochia pauca alimenta reperta sunt, ad portum Simeonis eremitae festinato mittentes, pecunia escas navigio allatas mutuaverunt, singuli prout sua erat possibilitas, quas Antiochiae vesperi mane sequenti intulerunt. His ita expletis et Turcis partim occisis, partim in praesidium fugatis, et Gallis circumquaque in turribus, domibus, palatiis [0494B] moenibusque diffusis, sequenti die, quae est sexta feria, trecenti equites Turcorum de gente Corbahan armati arcu, pharetra et sagitta, insignes ostreis, totum gentilium praecesserunt exercitum ad aliquorum fidelium repentinum interitum, si quoslibet improvisos extra muros reperirent. Ex his vero trecentis, triginta praecedentes, viri belli peritissimi, et equo agillimi, ad muros et portas civitatis frena laxant, post terga sociis in valle quadam relictis ad insidias et incursus fidelium, si forte praemissos triginta usque in vallem insequerentur, et in impetu irruerent super latentes viros.

When it was found out that Corbahan and his men were now near, and because few provisions were to be found in Antioch, they hastily sent to the port of the hermit Simeon and, with money, borrowed the victuals brought by ship, each according to his own means, which they carried into Antioch at evening and the following morning. These things thus completed, and the Turks partly slain, partly driven into the garrison, and the Franks dispersed everywhere into towers, houses, palaces [0494B] and walls, on the following day, which was Friday, three hundred horsemen of the Turks of the Corbahan people, armed with bow, quiver and arrow, conspicuous by ostrich-plumes, went before the whole heathen army toward the sudden destruction of certain faithful, if they should find any unawares outside the walls. Of those three hundred, thirty at the front, men most experienced in war and very nimble on horse, loosened their reins at the walls and gates of the city, leaving their comrades behind in a certain valley for ambushes and incursions upon the faithful, should perchance those thirty sent forward be chased even into the valley and in the onset rush upon the lying-in-wait men.

His itaque triginta muro civitatis appropinquantibus, et in arcu fideles Christi per moenia diffusos, acriter lacessentibus, Rotgerus de Barnavilla, cum quindecim [0494C] probatissimis sociis equo residens, armis et lorica indutus, in occursum ab urbe properat, ut aliquid insigne cum eis ageret. Sed sine mora in fugam equos triginta praemissi Turci rejiciunt, et ad insidias contendunt, Rotgerum rapido eos cursu prementem usque ad insidiarum locum perducentes. Insidiis ergo a valle exsurgentibus, Rotgerus frena rejicit, ad urbem cum sociis viam velociter relegit.

As therefore those thirty were approaching the city's wall, and the faithful of Christ, scattered along the rampart in the arch, were sharply provoking them, Rotgerus of Barnavilla, sitting on his horse with fifteen [0494C] most proven companions, clad in arms and lorica, hastened forth from the city to meet them, that he might do some notable deed with them. But without delay the thirty Turks sent forward put the horses to flight and made for the ambushes, leading them on while Rotgerus, pressing them with a swift charge, drove them up to the place of the ambush. Therefore, the ambushers rising from the valley, Rotgerus casts off the reins and swiftly rides back to the city with his companions.

Turci non parcius equorum cursibus urgent fugientem, quousque muro civitatis appropians cum suis fere trans vada Farfar elapsus est. Sed, adversante fortuna, in conspectu omnium in moenibus astantium, nobilissimus athleta cursu velocioris equi a Turco milite superatus est, cujus tergo sagitta infixa jecur et pulmonem ejus penetravit, et sic ab equo labens [0494D] mortuus exspiravit. Mortuo itaque tam egregio viro, et suorum auxilio destituto, Turci crudelissimi carnifices, ab equis descendentes, caput illius amputantes a collo, et ad Corbahan et ejus exercitum repedantes, caput hastae praefixum in ostensione recentis et nunc primae victoriae detulerunt.

The Turks pressed the fleeing man hard with their horses’ runs, until, approaching the city wall, he with his men had slipped almost across the shallows of Farfar. But, fortune opposing, in the sight of all standing on the ramparts, the most noble champion was overcome by a Turkish soldier in the course of the swifter horse: a shaft fixed in his back pierced his liver and lung, and thus, slipping from the horse [0494D], he breathed his last. Therefore, that so outstanding a man being dead and deprived of his followers’ aid, the most cruel Turkish executioners, dismounting from their horses, cut off his head at the neck, and returning to Corbahan and his army, brought the head fixed upon a spear in display of the recent and now first victory.

Hoc denique prospero successu gloriantes, multum legiones gentilium ex hoc confortabant quod juxta muros sic audacter egissent, et neminem ex peregrinis ad opem Rotgeri occisi et decollati ab urbe egredi, aut audere vidissent.

Finally, exulting in this prosperous success, the legions of the gentiles were greatly bolstered by the fact that they had thus acted so boldly beside the walls, and that they had seen none of the foreigners who, having been killed and decapitated while coming to Rotger’s aid, leave the city or dare to do so.

CAP. XXVIII. - Excusatio fratrum, quare non subvenerint coram se pereunti.

CHAPTER 28. - Excusation of the brothers, why they did not succor him before him as he was dying.

Non mirum alicui videatur, nec quisquam Gallos [0495A] hebetudine mentis, aut timore supervenientis multitudinis concussos mollescere arbitretur, et ideo tardatos ad opem et vindictam confratris ante omnium ora percussi et decollati, cum nulla plaga mundi ante Galliam audaciores et in bello promptiores nutriat. Verum equorum defectione eos fuisse retardatos procul dubio credat, quos aliquando pestilentia, aut diuturna fame, aut interdum fallaci Turcorum sagitta amiserunt. Vix enim Gallis centum quinquaginta equi remanserant, et ipsi attenuati fame pabulorum; Turcis vero pingues et non fatigati erant: quapropter celeri cursu evadere, et Galli eos nequaquam praevertere potuerunt.

It is no wonder to anyone, nor should anyone judge the Gauls [0495A] to have grown soft through dulness of mind or to have been shaken by fear of the coming multitude, and therefore delayed to the aid and vengeance of their brother and struck down and beheaded before all eyes, since no nation in the world nourishes braver men or ones readier in war than the Gauls. But let him believe, beyond doubt, that they were delayed by the defection of horses, which at times were lost to pestilence, or long famine, or sometimes by the treacherous arrow of the Turks. For scarcely a hundred and fifty horses remained to the Gauls, and they themselves were weakened by lack of fodder; the Turks, however, were fat and not fatigued: therefore by swift course they escaped, and the Gauls could by no means overtake them.

Quadringenti tantum equi Turcorum in Antiochia reperti et capti sunt, quos minime adhuc suo more ad equitandum [0495B] domuerant, aut in persecutione hostium flectere, et calcaribus urgere didicerant. Dehinc post Turcorum discessionem, peregrini tristes et dolentes exstinctum corpus Rotgeri urbi intulerunt, cum ejulatu magno et fletu, ingemiscentes quomodo unus fortiorum de populo cecidisset, qui semper erat pervigil in insidiis et strage gentilium, cujusque facta insignia ampliora fuere quam noster stylus queat explicare. Fama quidem ejus apud Turcos omnes antecessit, et libenter eum videre et audire solebant in omni negotio quod cum Christianis agebant, aut in restitutione utrinque captivorum, aut cum aliquando pacem inter se componebant.

Only four hundred horses of the Turks were found and captured in Antioch, which they had by no means yet tamed to riding in their custom [0495B], nor learned to wheel in pursuit of enemies and to urge with spurs. Then, after the departure of the Turks, the sad and sorrowing pilgrims bore the slain body of Rotger into the city, with great wailing and weeping, groaning over how one of the bravest of the people had fallen, who had always been ever-watchful against ambush and the slaughter of the gentiles, and whose distinguished deeds were more ample than our stylus can unfold. His fame indeed went before him among all the Turks, and they were wont gladly to see and hear him in every business which they handled with the Christians, whether in the mutual restitution of captives, or when they at times made peace among themselves.

Sepultus est autem in Antiochia idem miles fortissimus in vestibulo basilicae B. Petri apostoli a principibus [0495C] Christianorum, et a Domino episcopo Podiensi, et ab omni clero catholico qui aderat, animaque commendata Christo Domino orationum victimis et psalmorum hymnis, cujus amore et honore exsul factus, mori non dubitavit.

That same very brave soldier was buried in Antioch in the vestibule of the basilica of B. Peter the Apostle by the princes [0495C] of the Christians, and by the Lord bishop of Podiensis, and by all the Catholic clergy who were present, his soul commended to Christ the Lord with sacrificial prayers and hymns of psalms; he, made an exile by love and honour, did not hesitate to die.

CAP. XXIX. - Obsidio nationum circa Antiochiam.

CHAPTER 29. - The siege of the nations around Antioch.

Vix inclyti militis expletae sunt exsequiae, et ecce in ipso mane Sabbati, quod illuxit tertia die postquam urbs capta est, adsunt universae barbarae nationes et legiones gentilium in apparatu copioso, quas Corbahan ex universis regnis, terris et locis orientalis plagae contraxerat, in campis et planitie tentoriis locatis, obsidionem faciens circa spatiosae urbis muros et moenia. Tertia dehinc die postquam fideles Christi obsedit longe a muris residens, inito [0495D] consilio, ut propius civitati hospitaretur, sustulit castra, et in multitudine virtutis suae in montana in circuitu magistrae arcis, et in ea parte qua urbs capta est, in excelso rupium sedem posuit, ut Sensadoniae et Buldagi, filiis Darsiani, caeteris in praesidio manentibus, esset solatio, utque locum videret per quem urbs tradita et Christiani immissi sunt. Similiter ex iisdem montanis alii ex populo Corbahan in dextro latere praesidii, quo dux Godefridus turrim et portam hanc infra tuebatur, qua Boemundus ante urbis captionem extra consederat, tentoria vi locaverunt per devexa montium, ne aliqua licentia et opportunitas exeundi Christianis ulla parte concederetur.

Scarcely were the funeral rites of the illustrious soldier completed, and behold, on that very Sabbath morning — which dawned the third day after the city was taken — all the barbarian nations and legions of the gentiles were present in ample array, which Corbahan had gathered from all the kingdoms, lands and places of the eastern region, encamping on the fields and plains with tents set up, making a blockade around the walls and ramparts of the spacious city. On the third day thereafter, after the faithful of Christ, remaining far from the walls, had besieged, having taken counsel [0495D] so that they might lodge nearer the city, they broke camp, and in the multitude of their valour they pitched tents on the surrounding heights of the chief citadel, and on that side where the city had been captured they placed a seat on a lofty rocky eminence, as a consolation to Sensadonia and Buldagi, sons of Darsianus, and to the others remaining in the garrison, and that they might see the place by which the city was delivered and the Christians admitted. Likewise, from those same mountains others of Corbahan’s people on the right flank of the garrison, where the leader Godefridus guarded this tower and this gate below, by which Boemund had before the city’s capture sat without, forcibly stationed tents along the mountain slopes, so that no liberty or opportunity of exit might be granted to the Christians in any quarter.

CAP. XXX. - Dux Godefridus bellans in fugam vertitur, et plurimi comitum ejus diversis mortibus profugantur. [0496A]

CHAPTER 30. - Duke Godefridus, fighting, is turned into flight, and very many of his comites are put to flight by diverse deaths. [0496A]

Dux autem Godefridus virtutem et constantiam illorum nimium adversus se videns excrevisse, statim cum ingenti manu suorum per portam processit adversus hostes, ut tentoria, quae a foris extra muros locata erant, invaderet ac terreret, Turcosque inde expugnatos arceret. Sed ecce Turci exsurgunt in occursum ducis ad defendenda tentoria. Ubi diu praelio utrinque commisso, gravissimus labor incubuit, dum dux et sui, viribus exhausti belloque fessi, in fugam conversi, vix per portam, qua exierant, revertentes evaserunt.

But Duke Godefridus, seeing that the virtue and constancy of those men had grown too great against him, straightaway with a large band of his men went forth through the gate against the enemies, to attack and rout the tents which were pitched outside the walls, and to keep the Turks, driven from there, at bay. But behold the Turks rise up to meet the duke to defend the tents. Where, after a long fight engaged on both sides, a most grievous toil fell upon them, while the duke and his men, exhausted in strength and worn out by battle, turned to flight, and with difficulty escaped back through the gate by which they had gone out.

Alii vero multi, circiter ducenti, quibus porta angusta negata est, aut mortui, [0496B] aut vulnerati aut capti sunt. Sic duce fugato et retruso, plurimisque suis in porta attritis, Turci a praesidio et a porta praesidii erumpentes, eo quod adversus ducem praevaluissent, per semitas notas et vallem perplexam accedentes in moenia, subita vociferatione Christianos vagantes incurrebant, sagitta in impetu laedentes, et sine mora ad arcem et montana recurrentes. Dum sic mane, meridie et vespere a montanis et valle exsilientes, Christianos impeterent, Boemundus et Reymundus ira moti, sine dilatione vallo immenso, quod dicitur fossatum, montanis et civitati deorsum interposito et praesidio quodam murali aedificio desuper firmato, tutelam suis sic fieri constituerunt, ne subito a montanis adversarii erumpentes, peregrinos milites, incaute [0496C] per urbis spatia vagantes, armis et sagittis invadendo detruncarent.

Many others, however, about two hundred, to whom the narrow gate was denied, were either dead, [0496B] or wounded or taken captive. Thus, with their leader put to flight and pushed back, and with very many of his men worn down at the gate, the Turks, bursting forth from the garrison and from the gate of the garrison — because they had prevailed against the leader — approaching the walls by familiar paths and a tangled valley, ran upon the wandering Christians with sudden shouting, wounding them in the onset with arrows, and without delay returning to the citadel and the heights. While thus in the morning, at midday and in the evening they leapt forth from the mountains and the valley to assail the Christians, Boemund and Reymund, moved by anger, without delay established the protection of their men by an immense rampart, which is called the fossatum, with the mountains and the city below interposed, and secured from above by a certain mural defensive structure, so that suddenly, if the adversaries should burst forth from the mountains, they would not, attacking the pilgrim soldiers who wandered incautiously through the city spaces, cut them down with arms and arrows. [0496C]

Turci vero, qui in montanis praesidium adhuc obtinebant, saepius ad id novum praesidium erumpebant, assultus faciebant, multum et graviter custodes ac defensores novi praesidii sagittarum grandine et armorum virtute vexantes et perimentes. Christiani vero milites Walbricus, Ivo, Rudolphus de Fontanis, Everhardus de Poisat, Reiboldus Creton, Petrus filius Gisiae, custodes et magistri novi praesidii, non minus Turcis in lancea et omni armatura cum suis resistebant, viam vallis eis contradicebant, interdum hinc et hinc gravi strage et vulnere pereuntes.

The Turks, however, who still held the garrison in the mountains, more often burst forth against that new garrison, making assaults, greatly and grievously harrying and destroying the guards and defenders of the new garrison with a hail of arrows and by the force of arms. The Christian soldiers Walbricus, Ivo, Rudolphus de Fontanis, Everhardus de Poisat, Reiboldus Creton, Petrus son of Gisia, guards and commanders of the new garrison, resisted the Turks no less with lance and full armour with their men, they opposed to them the valley’s way, sometimes from here and there perishing by severe slaughter and wound.

CAP. XXXI. - Boemundus acriter impugnatur; sed auxilio fratrum superior efficitur: et qua necessitate profani remotius castra locarint. [0496D]

CHAPTER 31. - Boemund is fiercely assaulted; but by the aid of the elder brethren he is made secure: and for what necessity the profane have placed their camp further off. [0496D]

Dum hi creberrimi assultus a Turcis adversus novum praesidium fierent, et Turci acriter a Gallis reprimerentur, milites Corbahan pedestri agmine facto per portam insuperabilem praesidii ingredientes, et montana ac devia deserentes, Boemundum compertum habentes in novo praesidio esse, fortiter eum assiliunt. Ubi gravis belli contentio exorta est, et plurimorum occisio facta. Et fere Boemundus victus ac sui fuissent, nisi ab omni urbe Christianis confluentibus, comes Robertus Flandrensis duxque Godefridus, licet primo assultu victus, et Robertus Northmannorum princeps, caeterique magnifici proceres vires et opes contulissent, et Turcos in virtute [0497A] loricatorum ab urbe et novo praesidio retrusissent.

While these very frequent assaults by the Turks against the new garrison were being made, and the Turks were fiercely repulsed by the Franks, the soldiers of Corbahan, having formed a pedestrian column and entering by the impregnable gate of the garrison, abandoning the mountain-paths and byways, having learned that Boemund was in the new garrison, fell upon him stoutly. Whereupon a severe struggle of war arose, and the slaughter of very many was made. And Boemund and his men would almost have been overcome, if, Christians pouring together from the whole city — Count Robert of Flanders and Duke Godefridus, although overcome at the first assault, and Robert prince of the Normans, and the other magnificent nobles — had not brought strength and resources, and had driven the Turks, by the force of the loricati, back from the city and the new garrison. [0497A]

Turci ergo retrusi cum principe suo Corbahan, moram extra portam et muros abhinc per duos dies in montanis constituerunt, arbitrantes adhuc Christianis nocere. Sed pabulo herbarum in collibus minime reperto quod equis eorum sufficeret, castra amoverunt, et vadum fluminis Farfar transeuntes, longe ab urbe, spatio semimilliaris tentoriis positis consederunt. Altero vero die Corbahan, ex sententia suorum, exercitum suum copiosum sic in multis millibus in gyro civitatis ad obsidionem omnium portarum divisit, ut ex omni parte inclusis peregrinis nec a dextris, nec a sinistris ullus introitus pateret, aut exitus aliquis daretur.

The Turks therefore, having been driven back with their prince Corbahan, made a halt outside the gate and walls and for two days encamped in the mountains, thinking still to injure the Christians. But finding scarcely any pasture of herbs on the hills sufficient for their horses, they broke camp, and crossing the ford of the river Farfar, far from the city—tents pitched at a half-mile’s distance—they settled. On the next day, however, Corbahan, by the counsel of his men, so divided his numerous army into many thousands in a ring about the city for the siege of all the gates, that with the pilgrims enclosed on every side neither on the right nor on the left was any entrance open, nor was any exit allowed.

CAP. XXXII. - Ubi Corbahan hos et illos per singulas portas distribuit, et Tankradus moenia oppugnantes aggreditur. [0497B]

CHAPTER 32. - Where Corbahan distributed these and those through the several gates, and Tancred attacks those assaulting the walls. [0497B]

Sic ex omni parte locata obsidione, et paucis diebus transactis, quadam luce clarissima aliqui Turcorum milites e castris procedentes, et ad moenia Antiochiae equo advolantes, sagitta et arcu corneo Gallos provocant, sperantes pari successu praevalere, quo antea in Rotgeri decollatione gloriati sunt, et insigni fama in castris Corbahan praeire. Quapropter amplius et validius in assultu moenium desudantes, ab equis descenderunt, ut liberius et sine laesione equorum in muro stantes expugnarent, et nunc pedites facti, facilius peregrinis jacula intorquerent. Tankradus autem miles acerrimus, et nunquam Turcorum sanguine satiatus, sed semper [0497C] caedi eorum inhians, comperta illorum insania, fremitu et audacia, artus ferro assuetos lorica vestivit, assumptisque consociis equo et lancea doctissimis, et a porta quam Boemundus, cum adhuc fieret obsidio, tuebatur, inter muros et antemurale, quod vulgo Barbicanas vocant, clam egrediens, Turcos pugnae intentos ex improviso inclamans, fortiter assilit, incautos atterit et perforat.

Thus, having invested it with siege on every side, and a few days having passed, at a certain very bright dawn some soldiers of the Turks, issuing from the camp and galloping on horseback to the walls of Antioch, with arrow and horn challenge the Gauls, hoping to prevail with the same success with which they before boasted in the decollation of Roger, and with notable fame to go before Corbahan in the camp. Wherefore, sweating more and more mightily in the assault of the walls, they dismounted from their horses, that more freely and without harm to their horses they might stand on the wall and storm, and now made foot-soldiers, more easily hurl foreign javelins. Tankred, however, a most fierce soldier, and never sated with the blood of the Turks, but always eager to have them cut down, seeing their madness, with a shout and audacity, clad himself in a cuirass accustomed to iron for his limbs, took up comrades, a horse, and the most skillful lance, and, stealthily issuing from the gate which Boemund, while the siege was yet being made, was guarding, between the walls and the outer-works which are commonly called the Barbicans, suddenly crying out upon the Turks intent on battle, he leapt on them bravely, bruising and piercing the unwary.

Illis vero, viso mortis periculo, non prius ad equos recurrendi ulla fuit facultas, quam sex percussi in ultionem capitis Rotgeri, ante muros decollati, sua capita gladio amiserunt. Tankradus in gloria magna et laetitia in urbem ad confratres regressus est, qui Turcorum capita secum in testimonium victoriae detulit.

They, however, seeing the danger of death, had no opportunity to return to their horses before six of them, struck down in vengeance for the head of Rotger, beheaded before the walls, lost their own heads by the sword. Tankrad, in great glory and joy, returned into the city to his brethren, who he brought with him the heads of the Turks as testimony of the victory.

CAP. XXXIII. - Christiani praesidium se retinere posse desperantes demoliuntur incendio. [0497D]

CHAPTER 33. - Christians, despairing that they can retain their garrison, demolish it by fire. [0497D]

Alio deinde die, post castra Corbahan locata et ordinata suae cujusque congregationis, post obsessos undique viarum exitus et introitus, decretum est communi consilio gentilium, ut Turcorum milites ad duo millia eligantur ad expugnandum et prosternendum praesidium, quod Godefridus dux caeterique comprimores firmaverant in victoria et virtute magna, quam audistis, quando attriti Turci, in unda Fernae fluminis submersi sunt sub ipso ponte qui trans fluvium ab urbe dirigitur, et in quo firmato praesidio Reymundus egit custodiam, quousque a Christianis capta est. Nunc vero quia neglectum et vacuum erat, comes Robertus Flandrensis, accitis [0498A] quingentis viris belligeris, adventu gentilium audito, ipsum praesidium ingressus, tueri disposuit, ne virtus Turcorum illud subito occupans, peregrinis pontem et aquam transire volentibus magno esset impedimento. Praefata itaque duo millia Turcorum, destinata ad ruinam praesidii, in virtute magna et armorum tumultu confluxerunt ad locum praesidii, undique irruentes et impugnantes jaculis et arcu.

On another day, after the camp of Corbahan had been pitched and each company set in order, after the exits and entrances of the roads were blocked all round, it was decreed by the common council of the gentiles that two thousand Turcop soldiers be chosen to storm and overthrow the garrison which Duke Godefridus and the other chief men had established in great victory and valour, as you heard, when the routed Turks were submerged in the wave of the Ferna river beneath the very bridge that leads across the river from the city, and in which, with the garrison strengthened, Reymundus kept guard until it was seized by the Christians. Now, however, because it was neglected and empty, Count Robert of Flanders, having summoned [0498A] five hundred men-at-arms, on hearing of the gentiles’ approach entered the garrison itself and set it in defence, lest the force of the Turks, suddenly taking it, should be a great hindrance to strangers wishing to cross the bridge and the water. Wherefore the aforesaid two thousand Turks, destined for the ruin of the garrison, rallied in great strength and tumult of arms at the place of the garrison, rushing in from all sides and assaulting with javelins and bow.

Qui tandem pedites facti, trans vallum moliebantur currere, in ingenti turbarum stridore, et solita vociferatione rugientes, a mane usque ad inclinatam diem defensores praesidii graviter vexantes. Sed Robertus suique consodales, videntes sibi angustias imminere ab hostibus, et scientes se crudelibus modis consumi, si victi eorum ditioni subderentur, [0498B] viriliter pro anima inimicis resistebant, lanceis et balistis, hostes fortiter impetentes, et VI a vallo arcentes, qui graviter ea die hinc et hinc vulnerati fuisse referuntur. Turci vero videntes se nihil proficere, sed omnem laborem suum incassum consumi, hos in praesidio vix defensos deserentes, ad Corbahan principem multitudinis regressi sunt, vires sibi hominum augeri adhuc poscentes, et sic in crastinum praesidium ejusque tutores deleri posse astruentes.

Finally, those made footsoldiers strove to run over the rampart, in a huge roar of the throng, and roaring with their customary shouting, from morning until the decline of the day grievously vexing the defenders of the garrison. But Robert and his comrades, seeing distress impending upon them from the enemies, and knowing that they would be consumed by cruel means if, having been conquered, they yielded to their dominion, [0498B] manfully resisted the enemies for their lives with lances and balistae, the enemy pressing a bold assault, and six men blazing from the wall, who are reported to have been grievously wounded on that day on both sides. The Turks, however, seeing that they were accomplishing nothing, but that all their toil was spent in vain, abandoning those scarcely defended in the garrison, returned to Corbahan, the leader of the multitude, still demanding that their numbers be increased for them, and so devising that on the next day his garrison and its guardians might be destroyed.

Robertus autem et qui cum eo erant, videntes Turcos recessisse, recordati sunt quod propter majus auxilium socios adissent. Quare consilio inito, in noctis caligine exierunt a munimine praesidii, eo quod invalidum contra tot militum vires videretur, et ideo praesidium totum igne succenderunt, [0498C] vallumque illius diruentes, in urbem Antiochiam a confratribus recepti sunt.

Robert and those who were with him, seeing that the Turks had withdrawn, remembered that they had come for the greater aid of their allies. Therefore, the council having been held, in the darkness of night they departed from the fortification of the garrison, because it seemed weak against the forces of so many soldiers, and therefore they set the whole garrison on fire, [0498C] and, pulling down its rampart, were received into the city of Antioch by their brethren.

CAP. XXXIV. - De magnitudine famis in populo Dei, et quam care vendebantur vilissima.

CHAPTER 34. - On the magnitude of the famine in the people of God, and how the very vilest things were sold dearly.

Crastino deinde sole orto, duo millia gentilium, jussu Corbahan duobus praedictis millibus addita, praesidium in manu robusta, in tubis et cornibus adierunt, sperantes illud repentino aggressu prosternere, inclusosque hesterna die in defensione fatigatos celeri interitu consumere. Sed vallum dirutum et munimen praesidii combustum reperientes, delusi et frustrati ad tentoria sua repedaverunt. Sic undique urbe vallata, et de die in diem gentilium copiis accrescentibus, et omni parte exitum prohibentibus, tanta inter Christianos invaluit fames, ut [0498D] pane deficiente non solum camelos, asinos, equos et mulos comedere non abborrerent, sed etiam coria, quae indurata et putrefacta per tres et sex annos in domibus erant reperta, nunc calidis aquis madefacta et mollificata, tum ea quae recenter ab armentis avulsa, pipere, cumino aut quolibet pigmento condita, manducabant: tam gravi fame arctabantur!

On the next day, after the sun had risen, two thousand gentiles, by Corbahan’s order with the two aforesaid thousands added, approached the garrison with a strong hand, with trumpets and horns, hoping by a sudden assault to overthrow it, and to consume by swift slaughter those shut up and, worn out from the previous day’s defence. But finding the rampart torn down and the fort’s defences burned, they were tricked and baffled and retreated to their tents. Thus, the city being walled in on every side, and with the gentile forces growing day by day and barring exit on every side, so great a famine seized the Christians that, bread failing, they not only did not shrink from eating camels, asses, horses and mules, but even hides, which, hardened and putrefied for three and six years in houses were found, now soaked in hot water and softened, and also those things lately torn from the herds, seasoned with pepper, cumin or any condiment, they ate: so severe a hunger pressed them! [0498D]

Scio quod horrescunt aures mala et tormenta inauditae famis auscultantes, quibus populus Dei inclusus opprimebatur. Pro uno namque ovo gallinae, si inveniri poterat, sex denarii Lucensis monetae numerabantur; pro decem fabis, denarius; pro capite unius asini, equi, bovis, cameli, byzantius unus dabatur; pro pede vel aure, sex denarii; pro visceribus [0499A] cujuslibet horum animalium, quinque solidi accipiebantur mutuo. Iners denique et modicum vulgus calceos suos ex corio, prae famis angustia devorare cogebatur, plures vero radicibus urticarum ac quarumlibet silvestrium herbarum, igne coctis et mollitis miserum ventrem impleverunt, et sic infirmati, quotidie moriendo minuebantur.

I know that ears shudder at hearing of the evils and torments of unheard-of famine, by which the people of God were besieged and crushed. For one hen’s egg, if it could be found, six denarii of Lucca currency were counted; for ten beans, one denarius; for the head of a donkey, horse, ox, or camel, one byzantius was given; for a foot or an ear, six denarii; for the entrails [0499A] of any of these animals, five solidi were taken in exchange. Finally, the idle and humble rabble were compelled, by the pressure of hunger, to devour their shoes of leather; moreover many filled their miserable bellies with roots of nettles and any wild herbs, boiled and softened by fire, and thus weakened, daily dying, they were diminished.

Dux vero Godefridus, ut aiunt qui adfuerunt, quindecim marcas argenti pro carnibus vilissimi cameli expendit; pro capra procul dubio dapifer ejus Baldricus tres marcas venditori dedisse perhibetur.

But the leader Godfrey, as those who were present say, spent fifteen marks of silver for the meat of a very cheap camel; for a goat, beyond doubt his dapifer Baldricus is reported to have given three marks to the seller.

CAP. XXXV. - Turci urbem latenter recuperare volentes, dejecti sunt: qui post diutinam colluctationem muro depulsi, misere perierunt.

CHAPTER 35. - The Turks, wishing to recover the city secretly, were repulsed: those who, after a long struggle, were driven from the wall, perished miserably.

Post aliquot dies, postquam Corbahan firmavit [0499B] obsidionem in circuitu Antiochiae, et omnem exitum ac introitum urbis clauserat, populumque Dei diversis assultibus vexaverat, cibosque inferri omni parte interdixerat, clade longaque abstinentia et bellico labore Christiani afflicti et fessi, minus vigiles esse coeperunt in tuitione urbis et moenium. Ergo turris quaedam incustodita remansit versus montana, eo videlicet in loco quo munitio ex bitumine fragilis luti fundata est ad reprimendos hostes, ab obsessa porta egredientes per montana, et peregrinos diffusos persequentes, et ubi a Provincialibus ille juvenis captus est, in cujus redemptionem turri quadam requisita, sed a cognatis et amicis ejus denegata, idem capitali sententia peremptus est. Hanc itaque turrim praedictam vacuam ab inhabitatoribus quidam [0499C] audacissimi milites ex Turcis praesentientes, scalas et ingenia sua latenter muro applicuerunt, sperantes in silentio noctis per eam aliquot gentiles inducere, et sic urbem amissam recuperare.

After several days, after Corbahan had strengthened the siege around Antioch [0499B], and had shut off every egress and ingress of the city, and had harassed the people of God with various assaults, and had forbidden supplies to be brought in from every side, the Christians, afflicted by slaughter and long abstinence and by warlike toil, becoming weary, began to be less vigilant in the guarding of the city and its walls. Therefore a certain tower remained unguarded toward the mountains, namely at that place where the fortification, founded of bitumen and brittle clay, was set to hold back enemies coming out from the besieged gate and pursuing scattered travelers; and where that youth was seized by the Provincials, for whose ransom a certain tower was demanded but refused by his kinsmen and friends, and he himself was put to death by capital sentence. Wherefore some most audacious soldiers from the Turks presenting themselves as inhabitants found this aforesaid tower empty [0499C], and secretly set their ladders and engines against the wall, hoping in the silence of night to introduce by it some pagans, and so to recover the lost city.

Interea quidam, qui urbem lustrabat ob negotia sibi necessaria, elevans oculos, contemplatur Turcos in medio cacumine ejusdem turris incaute deambulantes: nec mora, alta vociferatione perstrepens, socios qui in vicina turri commorabantur sollicitat, Turcos urbem invasisse asserit, et sic commotionem magnam in populo suscitavit. Ad haec Henricus de Ascha castello, miles sua in terra nominatissimus, filius Fridelonis, unus de collateralibus ducis Godefridi, audito clamore et strepitu, scutum et gladium arripiens, velociter ad arcem turris properat, duobus [0499D] sibi adjunctis probis tironibus, Francone scilicet et Sigemaro carnaliter cognatis, incolis villae quae dicitur Mechela super Mosam fluvium, ut inimicos immissos a turri repellerent, existimantes se cum urbe ab aliquibus fratribus auro vel argento corruptis, venditos fuisse. Turci vero cognoscentes se detectos, nec aliquo ingenio a manibus peregrinorum posse liberari, in sola spe defensionis in limine turris occurrunt, et atroci ictu gladiorum resistunt.

Meanwhile a certain man, who was traversing the city on errands necessary to him, lifting his eyes, observes Turks carelessly walking on the very summit of that same tower: nor with delay, shouting loudly and clamorously, he alarmed his comrades who were dwelling in a neighboring tower, asserting that the Turks had entered the city, and thus he aroused a great commotion among the people. To these things Henry of Ascha of the castle, a knight most renowned in his land, son of Fridelon, one of the duke Godfrey’s collateral kinsmen, having heard the cry and tumult, seizing shield and sword, hastened swiftly to the citadel of the tower, with two worthy young followers attached to him [0499D], namely Francon and Sigemar, kinsmen by the flesh, inhabitants of the vill called Mechela above the river Meuse, thinking to repel the enemies sent into the tower, believing that they and the city had been sold by some brothers corrupted with gold or silver. The Turks, however, perceiving themselves exposed, and seeing that by no stratagem could they free themselves from the hands of the foreigners, met them on the very threshold of the tower in sole hope of defense, and resisted with fierce blows of their swords.

Nam Franconem, multam vim inferentem, in cerebro percusserunt vulnere gravi et vix sanabili; Sigemarum vero cognato suo subvenire volentem, ense per alvum transfixerunt, capulo tenus, miroque et inaudito conamine fideles Christi a limine [0500A] arcebant. Tandem fidelium circumquaque crescente auxilio, et additis viribus, Turci, fessi et spiritu exhausti prae nimio labore, coeperunt in defensione deficere, arma et brachia remittere: quorum quatuor in gladio ceciderunt; alii ab altitudine depulsi, cervicibus, cruribus et brachiis fractis mortui sunt.

For Francon, dealing great force, they struck him in the head with a grievous and hardly curable wound; Sigemar, however, wishing to succor his kinsman, they transfixed with a sword through the belly to the hilt, and with marvelous and unheard-of exertion the faithful of Christ kept them off the threshold [0500A]. At last, with the aid of the faithful increasing all around, and with added strength, the Turks, weary and exhausted in spirit from excessive toil, began to fail in their defense, to slacken their arms and their hands: four of whom fell by the sword; others, driven from the height, died with necks, legs, and arms broken.

CAP. XXXVI. - De quibusdam Christianis victum extra muros quaerentibus, et de nece nautarum obsessis alimenta vendentium.

CHAPTER 36. - Concerning certain Christians seeking victuals outside the walls, and concerning the slaughter of sailors besieging those selling provisions.

Post haec peregrinis famis angustia, prout audivistis et multo * amplius, coactis, nec aditum aliquem reperientibus ad inferendos vel acquirendos cibos, prae obsidione undique constituta, quidam de humili vulgo vitam periculo destinantes, in magna ambiguitate et formidine clam procedebant ab urbe [0500B] in umbra noctis, ad portum Simeonis, quondam illic in montanis eremitae, descendentes et dato pretio a nautis et mercatoribus victum accipientes, per vepres et fruteta in tenebris ante lucem repedare solebant. Qui vero frumentum attulerant, octavam partem Laodicensis monetae, tribus marcis vendebant; caseum Flandrensem, quinque solidis; pauxillum vini vel olei, vel quodlibet vitae sustentaculum quantulumcunque, gravi et inaudita comparatione auri vel argenti mutuabant. Ex his aliqui, die quadam plus solito retardati, et quia nox erat brevis, in luce velocissimae diei manifestati, a Turcis trucidati et exspoliati fuisse referuntur: pauci dumis et frutetis latentes, vix liberati urbi restituti sunt.

After this, the scarcity of food for foreigners, as you have heard and much * more, forced upon them, and finding no access by which to bring in or obtain provisions, because of the siege set up everywhere, some of the humble populace, assigning their lives to danger, would secretly depart from the city [0500B] in the shadow of night, in great uncertainty and fear, to the port of Simeon — once there hermits in the mountains — descending and, payment being given to sailors and merchants, receiving victuals, and they were wont before dawn to return through brambles and thickets in the darkness. But those who had brought grain sold it for an eighth part of the Laodicean coin, for three marks; Flemish cheese for five solidi; a little wine or oil, or any small sustenance of life, they bartered for heavy and unheard-of amounts of gold or silver. From these some, one day delayed beyond the usual time, and because the night was short, were discovered at the first light of day and are reported to have been slaughtered and stripped by the Turks: a few, hiding in brambles and bushes, were scarcely freed and restored to the city.

Cujus rei occasione assumpta, Turci, ad duo millia conglobati, [0500C] et ad portum praedictum profecti, universos illic nautas repertos repentino aggressu disturbaverunt, sagittis eos confodientes, navesque injecto igne comburentes, escas et omnia allata navigio vi rapientes, asportaverunt. Sicque deinceps vendentes et ementes a portu absterruerunt, ne ultra a Christianis aliqua escarum sustentatio illic reperiri posset. Haec itaque, ubi fama crudelissima in aures Christianorum inauditae famis gravitate laborantium pertulit, jam illis diversae Turcorum infestationes oneri esse coeperunt, multorumque animi in diversa fluxerunt qualiter ab hac obsidione et ab imminentibus periculis evadere possent.

On that occasion being seized, the Turks, mustering to 2,000, [0500C] and having set out for the aforesaid port, attacked all the sailors found there with a sudden assault, transfixing them with arrows, and burning the ships by casting on fire, and by force carried off the food and all things brought by the vessel. And so thereafter, by selling and buying, they deterred others from the port, so that no further sustenance of food could be found there for Christians. These things, therefore, when that most cruel report reached the ears of the Christians laboring under the weight of unheard-of famine, now became various Turkish infestations that lay as a burden upon them, and the minds of many flowed into different considerations how they might escape from this siege and from the imminent dangers.

Sic denique plurimi, quocunque conamine vel occasione exitum quaerentes, ab exercitu se nocte subtraxerunt.

Thus at last very many, seeking an exit by any conation or occasion, withdrew themselves from the army by night.

CAP. XXXVII. - Quomodo primorum quidam desperatione vivendi de civitate clam fugerint. [0500D]

CHAPTER 37. - How some of the foremost, by desperation of living, secretly fled from the city. [0500D]

Talis formido vivendique desperatio, dum abundantius invalesceret, atque cogitationes in corda multorum ascenderent prae pondere quotidianae tribulationis, quidam principales viri de exercitu, Willhelmus Carpentarius, Willhelmusque alter, quondam familiaris et domesticus imperatoris Constantinopolitani, qui et sororem Boemundi, principis Siciliae, uxorem duxerat, adeo magnis concussi sunt terroribus ut in silentio noctis concordi consilio clam subtracti a sociis, versus montana convenirent, et a moenibus et muro in funium depositione laxarentur. Laxati vero per devia montium, propter Turcorum [0501A] insidias, iter sine requie habuerunt, quousque in Alexandriam minorem profecti sunt, ubi Stephanus Blesensis, ab obsidione Antiochiae sequestratus causa infirmitatis, morabatur, eventum rei et finem sociorum illic auditurus. In eodem siquidem loco idem Stephanus, intelligens ab iisdem viris, pericula confratrum de die in diem magis accrevisse nempe famis intolerantiam, Turcorum jactantiam et assultus, virorum et equorum cladem diffisus est vitae, minime se tutum credens in hoc loco, nec siccum iter insistere ausus, navigio reditum suum ac diffugium cum praedictis principibus parat.

Such a fear and despair of living, as it grew stronger and thoughts of many climbed into hearts under the weight of daily tribulation, that some principal men of the army, Willhelmus Carpentarius, and another William, once a familiar and domestic of the emperor of Constantinople, who had also taken the sister of Bohemond, prince of Sicily, as his wife, were so shaken by great terrors that, in the silence of night and by their concordant counsel, they secretly withdrew from their companions and repaired toward the mountains, and loosened themselves from the walls and the fortification by lowering on ropes. Having been thus loosened through the mountain byways, on account of the ambushes of the Turks [0501A] they made a march without rest, until they set out for Lesser Alexandria, where Stephanus of Blesensis, delivered from the siege of Antioch on account of infirmity, was staying, to hear there the outcome of the matter and the end of his comrades. Indeed in that same place the said Stephanus, understanding from those same men that the dangers of the brothers had increased day by day, namely the intolerability of famine, the boasting and assaults of the Turks, and mistrusting the slaughter of men and horses, despaired of life, deeming himself by no means safe in that place, and not daring to continue a dry land journey, prepared his return and flight by ship with the aforesaid princes.

Ventilato deinde rumore per Antiochiam tam egregios proceres ab urbe exisse propter timorem infestantium Turcorum, plurimi pariter fugam meditabantur et [0501B] robustorum pectora metu deficiebant, nec sic prompti erant in defensione, ut solebant, praesidiumque novum, quod in medio urbis adversus arcem, quae est in montanis, firmaverant, lentius defendebant, desperati et fugae intendentes.

Then, the rumor being blown through Antioch that so illustrious nobles had left the city because of fear of the attacking Turks, very many likewise were contemplating flight, and the breasts of the robust failed for fear, nor were they as ready in defence as they were wont to be, and they defended more slowly the new garrison, which they had fixed in the middle of the city opposite the citadel that is on the mountains, desperate and intent on flight. [0501B]

CAP. XXXVIII. - Verba consolatoria clerici cujusdam ad populum.

CHAPTER 38. - Consolatory words of a certain cleric to the people.

Ad haec quidam frater fidelissimus, genere Longobardus, vita et ordine clericus, juxta praefatum novum praesidium consistens, desolatis Christi militibus omnibus, qui illic aderant clericis, laicis, nobilibus et ignobilibus, magnum exhibuit solatium, quo dubia corda cunctorum metuque fluxa relevavit, dicens: «Fratres universi, qui laboratis fame et [0501C] pestilentia, qui Turcorum et gentilium turbis vallati mortem temporalem speratis incurrere, non hunc gratis sufferre vos credatis laborem, sed audite et pensate praemium quod Dominus Jesus omnibus his redditurus est qui ejus amore et gratia hac in via morituri sunt. In initio enim hujus viae quidam sacerdos vir boni testimonii et eximiae conversationis, in Italiae partibus manens, mihi a pueritia notus, quadam die more solito missam celebraturus, ad dioecesim sibi commissam solus carpebat iter trans spatium cujusdam agelli: cui in affabilitatis obsequium quidam peregrinus adfuit, de viae hujus instantia requirens quid super hac audierit, aut quid primum sibi de hoc videatur quod tot regna, tot principes et universum genus Christianorum sub una intentione et [0501D] desiderio ad sepulcrum Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ad sanctam confluxerint civitatem Jerusalem.» Qui respondit: «Diversi diversa super hac sentiunt via. Alii dicunt a Deo et Domino nostro Jesu Christo hanc in omnibus peregrinis suscitatam fuisse voluntatem; alii pro levitate animi hanc Francigenas primores plurimumque vulgus insistere, et ob hoc in regno Hungariae et aliis regnis tot peregrinis occurrisse impedimenta; nec ideo intentionem illorum ad effectum posse pertingere putant.

To this a certain most faithful brother, of Lombard stock, a cleric by life and order, standing beside the aforesaid new garrison, offered great consolation to all the desolate soldiers of Christ who were there, clerics, laics, nobles and ignoble, by which he relieved the doubtful hearts of all, weakened by fear, saying: «Brothers all, you who toil from famine and [0501C] pestilence, who, besieged by the throngs of Turks and pagans, hope to meet temporal death, do not believe that you endure this toil for nothing, but hear and weigh the reward which the Lord Jesus will render to all those who, by his love and grace, are about to die on this road. For at the beginning of this way a certain priest, a man of good testimony and excellent conversation, dwelling in parts of Italy, known to me from childhood, one day, as was his custom about to celebrate Mass, was making his way alone to the diocese committed to him across the space of a certain little field: to whom, in courtesy, a certain pilgrim was present, asking about the urgency of this journey, what he had heard of it, or what first seemed to him about the fact that so many kingdoms, so many princes and the whole race of Christians had gathered under one intention and [0501D] desire to the sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the holy city Jerusalem.» Who answered: «Different people form different opinions about this way. Some say that this will has been stirred up in all these pilgrims by God and our Lord Jesus Christ; others, from levity of spirit, say that the Frankish leaders and very much the common people press this, and on account of this in the kingdom of Hungary and other realms many impediments have met so many pilgrims; nor therefore do they think that their intention can reach fulfillment.»

Unde meus adhuc haesitat animus, alioqui diu hujus viae desiderio tactus et totus in ipsa intentione occupatus.» Cui protinus praedictus peregrinus ait: «Non levitate aut gratis hujus viae credatis fuisse exordium, [0502A] sed a Deo, cui nihil impossibile est, dispositum; et procul dubio inter martyres Christi in aula coeli noveris esse computatos, ascriptos et feliciter coronatos quicunque in hac via morte praeoccupati fuerint, qui in nomine Jesu exsules facti, puro et integro corde in dilectione Dei perseveraverint, et sine avaritia, furto, adulterio, fornicatione se continuerint.» Presbyter vero, admirans in verbis et promissione peregrini, quis fuerit aut de qua ortus regione perquirit, vel unde hoc certum didicerit quod gloria coelesti cum beatis sint coronandi qui in hac expeditione vita decesserint. Protinus sciscitanti sacerdoti totius rei veritatem in hunc modum detexuit, dicens: «Ego sum Ambrosius, Mediolanensium episcopus, servus Christi. Et hoc tibi sit signum, et [0502B] universis populis catholicis, viam hanc insistentibus, quia non fallo de omnibus quae de ore meo audisti.

«Wherefore my mind still hesitates, otherwise long touched with desire for this way and wholly occupied in that very intention.» To which immediately the aforesaid pilgrim said: «Do not believe that the beginning of this way was from levity or for nothing, [0502A] but ordained by God, for whom nothing is impossible; and beyond doubt know that whoever on this way were preoccupied by death are counted among the martyrs of Christ in the hall of heaven, enrolled and happily crowned—those who, made exiles in the name of Jesus, persevered with a pure and intact heart in the love of God, and kept themselves free from avarice, theft, adultery, fornication.» The priest, however, marveling at the words and promise of the pilgrim, asked who he was or of what region he was sprung, or whence he had learned this certainty that those who die on this expedition are to be crowned with heavenly glory among the blessed. Immediately, to the questioning priest, he disclosed the truth of the whole matter in this manner, saying: «I am Ambrose, bishop of the Milanese, servant of Christ. And let this be a sign to you, and [0502B] to all Catholic peoples pressing upon this way, that I do not lie about all that you have heard from my mouth.»

Ab hodierno tribus annis evolutis scias Christianos, qui superfuerint, post multos labores civitatem sanctam Jerusalem, et victoriam de cunctis nationibus barbaris feliciter obtinere.» His dictis sine mora evanuit, nec ultra post haec visus est. Haec se vidisse et audisse a sancto Dei episcopo idem egregius presbyter cum veritate summa asseruit et nunc, ex quo visio et promissio illa facta est, duo completi sunt anni; tertium adhuc restare omnibus certum est. Posthaec, sicut praedixit B. Ambrosius, episcopus Mediolanensium, in tertio anno Christi milites peregrini et eorum principes obtinuerunt Jerusalem et mundaverunt illic sancta, Sarracenis fugatis et [0502C] attritis.

From today, three years having run their course, know that the Christians who survive, after many labors, will happily obtain the holy city Jerusalem and victory over all the barbarian nations.» Having spoken these things he immediately vanished, nor was he seen again thereafter. This same eminent presbyter most truly asserted that he had seen and heard these things from the holy bishop of God, and now, since that vision and promise were made, two years have been completed; the third still remains certain to all. After this, as Blessed Ambrosius, bishop of the Milanese, foretold, in the third year the pilgrim soldiers of Christ and their princes obtained Jerusalem and cleansed the holy places there, the Saracens being put to flight and [0502C] crushed.

CAP. XXXIX. - Item exhortatio principalium virorum, et fugitivi principes quomodo Constantinopolim navigare coeperint.

CHAPTER 39. - Also the exhortation of the principal men, and how the fugitive princes began to sail to Constantinople.

Audita hac visione et promissione ex veraci fratris relatione, universi timore amittendae praesentis vitae hactenus haesitantes, ac fugitivorum principum amissione turbati, spe et desiderio vitae coelestis accensi, animo fiunt stabiles nec ultra aliquo metu mortis a confratribus et urbe se recedere fatentur, sed cum eis vivere et mori, et omnia pro Christo sufferre. Godefridus dux pariter et Robertus Flandrensis fere universos principes, tanta formidine concussos, ut jam fugam conspirassent, humili vulgo nesciente, miro revocaverunt solamine, et constantes [0502D] ad omne reddiderunt periculum, in hunc modum loquentes: «Cur desperatis, de Dei auxilio diffidentes in tot adversis quae superveniunt, et confratres, humile et pedestre scilicet vulgus, fide vestra deficiente, deserere aut fugam inire disposuistis? State, et virili animo vobis adversantia pro Christi nomine sufferte, fratresque vestros nequaquam in tribulatione deseratis, nec Dei iram incurratis, cujus gratia et misericordia non deficiet in se confidentibus.» Haec dum cum lacrymis magnisque suspiriis ad comprimores desolatos loquerentur, universorum revixit spiritus, et deinceps stabiles cum eis in omni angustia permanserunt nullam abhinc fugam meditantes.

Having heard this vision and promise from the truthful brother’s account, all, hitherto hesitating through fear of losing their present life and troubled by the loss of the fugitive princes, kindled by hope and desire for the heavenly life, became steadfast in spirit and no longer, by any fear of death, confessed that they would withdraw from their confrères and the city, but rather that they would live and die with them and suffer all things for Christ. Godefridus the duke and Robert of Flanders likewise recalled almost all the princes, so shaken by such dread that they had already conspired to flee, and, to the wonderous consolation of the simple populace ignorant of it, restored them to firmness and to every peril, speaking thus: “Why do you despair, mistrusting the aid of God in so many adversities that come upon you, and have you resolved, your faith failing, to abandon your confrères, the humble and common multitude, or to take flight? Stand firm, and with manly courage endure adversities for the name of Christ, and by no means desert your brothers in tribulation, nor incur the wrath of God, whose grace and mercy will not fail those trusting in him.” While they spoke these things to their desolate fellow-combatants with tears and great sighs, the spirit of all revived, and thereafter they remained steadfast with them in every distress, meditating no further flight. [0502D]

Willhelmus et itidem Willhelmus, [0503A] Stephanus et eorum consocii formidolosi et profugi aptant naves, remos et vela alto mari inferuntur, Constantinopolim remeare disponentes, relictis fratribus in obsidione, quos nunquam a manibus Corbahan liberari posse existimabant.

William and likewise William, [0503A] Stephen and their fearful and fugitive associates fit out ships, oars and sails are put to the deep sea, arranging to return to Constantinople, leaving their brothers in siege, whom they thought could never be freed from the hands of Corbahan.

CAP. XL. - Quomodo praedicti viri Graecum imperatorem ab auxilio fratrum revocaverint.

CHAPTER 40. - How the aforesaid men recalled the Greek emperor from the aid of the brothers.

Aliquanto autem tempore cum navigassent, in quibusdam insulis de regno Graecorum pernoctantes, vel propter motum maris commorantes, intellexerunt Christianum imperatorem Graecorum ad urbem Finiminis pervenisse, in comitatu magno et apparatu copioso, ad succurrendum peregrinis, sicut fide promiserat, quando sacramento et foedere percusso juncti sunt illi in amicitiam. Is Turcopolos, Pincenarios, [0503B] Comanitas, Bulgaros, arcu doctos et sagitta, Danaosque bipennium armatura dimicare peritissimos, Gallos exsules, exercitum simul conductitium, populum diversi generis a desertis locis et montanis et a maritimis insulis, ab omni scilicet regno suo spatiosissimo, ad quadraginta millia contraxit. Hunc praedicti principes in hac fortitudine armatorum virorum, equorum atque in copiis cibariorum, tentoriorum, mulorum ac camelorum invenerunt et cum eo novum exercitum Gallorum, circiter quadraginta millia, per longam hiemem congregatum, Tatinum quoque truncatae naris, qui similiter timore attonitus, in falsa fide a sociis recesserat ad ipsum imperatorem, propter promissum auxilium legationem laturus, quam minime fideliter peregit, non ultra [0503C] Antiochiam reversus.

After they had sailed for some considerable time, lodging for the night on certain islands of the Greek kingdom, or remaining because of the motion of the sea, they learned that the Christian emperor of the Greeks had reached the city of Finiminis with a great retinue and abundant apparatus, to succor the pilgrims as he had promised by faith, when, having been struck by sacrament and treaty, they were joined to him in friendship. He gathered together Turcopoles, Pincenarios, [0503B] Comanitas, Bulgars, men skilled with bow and arrow, and Danes most expert in fighting with two‑handed axe‑armour, exiled Franks, a mercenary army hired en masse, peoples of diverse kinds from deserted places and mountains and from maritime islands, indeed from his whole very extensive realm, up to forty thousand. The aforesaid princes found him in this fortitude of armed men, horses, and in stores of victuals, tents, mules and camels, and with him a new army of Franks, about forty thousand, gathered over the long winter; and also Tatinus of the truncated nose, who likewise, struck with fear, had withdrawn in false faith from his companions to the emperor himself to bear a legation for the promised aid, which he performed very unfaithfully, not returning beyond Antioch.

Imperator ingressos ad se principes recognoscens, miratur valde quomodo a sociis divis habeantur, ac percontatur de statu fidelium Christi commilitonum, de salute ducis Godefridi, Reymundi comitis et episcopi Podiensis, utrum in prospero vel adverso eorum res sita sit. Respondent eos minime in prosperitate et salute esse, sed sic obsessos a Corbahan, principe Corrozan, et a nationibus gentilium, ut ne unus quidem patescat aditus vel exitus a tam spatiosa urbe, et quod nunquam manus illorum, nisi furtim aliqui possint evadere. Deferebant autem quanta fame arctarentur, quomodo mercatores et naves odio illorum Turci attrivissent.

Recognising the princes who had entered to him, the emperor marvels greatly how they are kept divided from their socii, and questions them about the state of the faithful comrades of Christ, about the safety of Duke Godefrid, Count Reymund and the bishop of Podiensis, whether their affairs stand in prosperity or adversity. They answer that they are by no means in prosperity and safety, but so besieged by Corbahan, prince of Corrozan, and by the nations of the gentiles, that not even one approach or exit is open from so spacious a city, and that never do their hands sally forth, unless some can escape furtively. They further report how severely they are pressed by famine, and how merchants and ships have been worn down by hatred of those Turks.

Nullum vero ex omnibus vivere posse fatebantur a facie tantae multitudinis, seipsos vix in astutia [0503D] sua liberatos, suggerentes imperatori ut rediret, nec frustra suum exercitum vexaret ad tantas hostium copias.

They confessed, however, that none of them could live before the face of so great a multitudinis, themselves scarcely freed by their own astuteness [0503D], urging the emperor to withdraw, lest he vainly expose his army to so many hostium copias of the enemies.

CAP. XLI. - Alii quidam principes fugam meditantes bonorum virorum exhortationibus retinentur.

CHAPTER 41. - Some other princes, contemplating flight, are restrained by the exhortations of good men.

Imperator his Christianorum auditis periculis, et gentilium copiis compertis, cum primatibus suis habito consilio, tremens ac stupefactus, protinus totum redire praecepit exercitum. Quin terram Romaniae, quondam injuste a Solymano sibi ablatam, sed nunc peregrinorum viribus restitutam, incendio et praeda vastavit, urbes et praesidia universa subvertit, ne forte a Solymano recuperata illi servitio prodessent. Tantus ergo rumor imperatoris regressi, et sui exercitus [0504A] dispersi, moenia Antiochiae transvolans, peregrinorum corda magno dolore infixit, et multum andaciae ab eorum excussit animis.

The emperor, having heard of these dangers to the Christians and having learned of the forces of the gentiles, after holding council with his leading men, trembling and stupefied, at once ordered the whole army to return. Moreover he laid waste by fire and plunder the land of Romania, once unjustly taken from him by Solyman but now restored by the forces of the peregrini, overturned all its towns and garrisons, lest perchance, recovered by Solyman, they should be of service to him. Such a report, then, of the emperor’s return and of his army dispersed [0504A], flying over the walls of Antioch, sank into the hearts of the peregrini with great grief, and shook much presumption from their minds.

Ideo saepius principes exercitus Christi consilium conferebant, quatenus si aliqua arte valerent, clam ab urbe recedentes, humile vulgus illic in periculo relinquerent. Quod dux Godefridus, Robertus Flandrensis et episcopus Podiensis intelligentes, iterum eos confortare coeperunt, sic ad universos loquentes: «Non turbemini, neque formidet cor vestrum in hac imperatoris vulgata reversione. Potens est Deus de manu inimicorum nos liberare.

Therefore the princes of the army of Christ more often took counsel, that if by any artifice they could, secretly withdrawing from the city, they might leave the lowly folk there in danger. Which thing Godefrid the leader, Robert of Flanders, and the bishop of Podiensis, perceiving, began again to encourage them, thus speaking to all: «Do not be disturbed, nor let your heart fear in this common rumour of the emperor’s return. God is able to deliver us from the hand of our enemies.»

Tantum stabiles estote in amore Christi, et nunquam fraudem hanc in fratres vestros faciatis, ut fugam, clam ab eis subtracti, ineatis. Procul dubio enim si fugam inieritis prae timore inimicorum, [0504B] Corbahan et omnis multitudo illius vos persequentur; et nequaquam manus illorum effug etis, cum primum fama vestrae fugae ad aures eorum pervenerit. Stemus igitur, et in proposito vitae nostrae in nomine Domini moriamur.» Ad haec verba universi stabiles facti sunt, et cum fratribus mori et vivere statuerunt.

Be only steadfast in the love of Christ, and never do this fraud against your brothers, that, having secretly withdrawn yourselves from them, you fall into flight. For without doubt if you take to flight through fear of the enemies, [0504B] Corbahan and all that multitude will pursue you; and by no means will you escape their hands, once the rumor of your flight has reached their ears. Let us therefore stand firm, and in the purpose of our life die in the name of the Lord.» To these words all became steadfast, and they resolved to live and die with their brethren.

CAP. XLII. - De milite Christiano, cujus equus cum fugiente cecidit.

CHAPTER 42. - Concerning the Christian soldier, whose horse fell while fleeing.

Corbanan et omnes legiones gentilium, audito imperatoris recessu, amplius assultu invalescebant, et in globis suis e castris procedentes, insidiabantur, si quis ab urbe procederet, quem solito more detruncare possent. Quadam igitur die quosdam Turcos, [0504C] sub eadem intentione in giobo quadraginta militum ab hospitio tabernaculorum egressos, Christiani a moenibus urbis speculantur. Quibus, licet tristes et exterriti de adversis sibi rebus, protinus trans vada Fernae aliqui armati occurrerunt, sed extemplo ab ipsis Turcis repressi, trans vadum fugientes, alio steterunt in littore, videntes se famelicorum equorum cursibus non posse contendere.

Corbanan and all the legions of the gentiles, the emperor’s withdrawal having been heard, grew stronger in assault, and coming forth from their camp in their bands they lay in ambush for anyone who might go out from the city, whom they could, after their custom, behead. Wherefore on a certain day some Turks, [0504C] under the same intent, having gone forth from the inn of the tents in a giobo of forty soldiers, were watched by the Christians from the walls of the city. To whom, although sad and terrified at the adverse events, some armed men immediately ran across the shallows of Ferna to meet them, but straightaway checked by the Turks themselves, fleeing across the ford they halted elsewhere on the shore, seeing that they could not vie with the courses of the famished horses.

Tandem post plurimam sagittarum grandinem, Turcos procul ab amne remeantes quidam robusti pectoris miles, adhuc sui equi fidens virtute, et sociorum vires post tergum sequi existimans, immoderato cursu persequitur: sed nemine sociorum ad auxilium sequi praesumente, duo atrocissimi equites ex globo in faciem peregrini equos laxis frenis rejiciunt, et in fugam reditum veloci [0504D] equorum urgent levitate, remensis eadem via ad socios novalibus: cui in impetu et offensione pedis equus humi totus corruit, et sic fere in extremo vitae suae constitutus est. Lapso itaque et auxilio penitus destituto, cum jam prope ad feriendum adfuissent carnifices, sic equi eorum immobiles perstiterunt, calcaria obliti, ac si in fronte percussi, retro ire compellerentur, donec peregrinus miles equum in pedibus resurgentem ascenderet, et Deo ac Domino Jesu Christo donante, fugam ad sociorum stationem iteraret. Universi in littore et moenibus ad spectacula stantes prae gaudio lacrymati sunt, sic incolumi fratre recepto, in cujus liberatione manifeste digitum Dei adfuisse experti sunt.

At last, after a great hail of arrows, certain hardy‑breasted soldier, seeing the Turks retreating far from the river, still trusting in the virtue of his own horse and thinking the strength of his comrades followed behind his back, pursued with excessive speed: but with no one of his comrades daring to follow to his aid, two most ferocious horsemen from the band turned back the stranger’s horses face‑on with loose reins, and, driving the return to flight by the swiftness [0504D] of their horses’ lightness, they returned the same way to their comrades with reinforcements: at whose impact and the breaking of a hoof the horse wholly fell to the ground, and thus was almost brought to an end of his life. The rider therefore having fallen and utterly deserted of help, when the executioners were already near to strike, yet their horses remained immobile, forgetting their spurs, as if struck on the brow, compelled to go backward, until the foreign soldier mounted the horse as it rose to its feet, and, God and the Lord Jesus Christ granting it, retraced his flight to the station of his comrades. All on the shore and on the walls standing to behold wept for joy, so the brother was received unhurt, in whose deliverance they plainly experienced that the finger of God had been present.

CAP. XLIII. - De inventione Dominicae lanceae. [0505A]

CHAPTER 43. - On the discovery of the Lord’s lance. [0505A]

In hac itaque famis afflictione quam audistis, et timore obsidionis, et sollicitudine insidiarum assultuumque quos a foris Turci adhuc assidue inferebant, populoque Dei humiliato ac desperato, clericus quidam de terra Provinciae per visionem sibi lanceam revelatam asseruit, qua Dominus noster Jesus Christus in latere perforatus est. Hic enim clericus episcopo Podiensi, domino Reymero, et Reymundo comiti locum, quo pretiosum thesaurum lancae reperirent, retulit, videlicet in ecclesia B. Petri apostolorum principis, visionem suam sub omni veritate, qua potuit, attestatus. Qui verbis illius credentes, ad locum quem clericus asserebat, communi decreto venerunt.

In this famine-affliction, then, which you have heard of, and in the fear of siege, and in the anxiety of the plots and assaults which the Turks continually brought in from outside, and with the people of God humbled and desperate, a certain cleric from the land of Provence asserted by a vision that a lance had been revealed to him, by which our Lord Jesus Christ was pierced in the side. This cleric reported to the bishop of Podiensis, Lord Reymer, and to Count Reymund the place where they might find the precious treasure of the lance, namely in the church of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, having attested his vision with all the truth he could. They, believing his words, came by common decree to the place which the cleric asserted.

In quo fodientes, lanceam, sicut a clerico [0505B] didicerant, invenerunt; inventam autem in praesentiam omnium Christianorum principum in ipso oratorio protulerunt, plurimum hanc divulgantes et ostro pretioso involventes. In hujus denique inventione spes et laetitia magna facta est in populo Christianorum, qui non modica celebritate et oblatione innumerabilis auri et argenti hanc venerati sunt.

In which, digging, they found the lance, as they had learned from the cleric [0505B]; and having found it they brought it forth into the presence of all the Christian princes in the very oratory, widely proclaiming it and wrapping it in precious purple. In this discovery indeed great hope and joy arose among the Christian people, who with no small ceremony and by offerings of innumerable gold and silver venerated it.

CAP. XLIV. - Ubi Petrus legatione fungitur apud Corbahan, principem obsidionis.

CHAPTER 44. - Where Peter performs a legation at Corbahan, the prince of the siege.

Transactis deinde aliquot diebus, omnis primatus et duces Christiani exercitus adhuc haesitantes et vitae diffidentes in tot adversitatibus, et famis pestilentia, bellumque cum tot nationibus committere metuentes, eo quod viribus hominum et equorum valetudine exhausti essent, consilio inito, decreverunt [0505C] legationem mittere Corbahan magistro et principi exercitus et obsidionis. Sed neminem invenerunt qui tam ferocissimo et superbo loqui auderet, quousque Petrus, qui principium hujus viae exstitit, se iturum indubitanter obtulit, et homini magnifica nuntia dicturum. Sine mora injuncta sibi legatione a duce Godefrido, Boemundo et aliis principibus, Petrus praedictus statura pusillus, sed meritis magnus, ad tentorium Corbahan, in medio gentilium iter praesumens, Deo protegente solus pervenit.

After some days had passed, all the primates and leaders of the Christian host, still hesitating and despairing of life amid so many adversities, and fearing to undertake war with so many nations because the strength of men and horses was exhausted by illness, having formed a council, decreed [0505C] to send an embassy to Corbahan, master and prince of the army and of the siege. But they found no one who dared speak to so fierce and proud a man, until Peter, who was the originator of this enterprise, offered without doubt to go and to announce to the man the magnificent tidings. Without delay, the embassy being entrusted to him by Duke Godefrid, Boemund, and other princes, the aforesaid Peter, small in stature but great in merits, making the journey through the midst of the gentiles and presiding over the march to Corbahan’s tent, with God protecting him, arrived alone.

Cui per interpretes nuntia Christianorum in hunc modum retulit: «Corbahan, princeps clarissime et gloriosissime in tuo regno, nuntius sum Godefridi ducis, Boemundi et principum totius Christianae multitudinis: decreta et consilium eorum, quod porto, ne [0505D] dedigneris accipere. Ductores Christiani exercitus decreverunt, si Christo Domino, qui verus est Deus et Dei Filius, credere concesseris, et gentilium spurcitiis abrenuntiaveris, tui fieri milites, et Antiochiam civitatem in manu tua restituentes, tibi sicut domino et principi servire parati sunt.» Quod audire, ne dum facere, contempsit. Petrum vero Eremitam sacrilegos ritus suos et sectam gentilium edocet, asserens se nunquam ab hac recedere.

To whom, through interpreters, he related the messages of the Christians in this manner: «Corbahan, most illustrious and most glorious prince in your realm, I am a messenger of Duke Godfrey, of Bohemund, and of the princes of the whole Christian multitude: do not disdain to receive the decrees and counsel of those I bear to you [0505D]. The leaders of the Christian host have decreed that, if you grant to believe in Christ the Lord, who is true God and God’s Son, and renounce the filth of the gentiles, they will become your soldiers, and, restoring the city of Antioch into your hand, are ready to serve you as lord and prince.» To hear this, much less to do it, he scorned. Peter the Hermit, however, instructs them in his sacrilegious rites and the sect of the gentiles, asserting that he will never withdraw from this.

CAP. XLV. - Item de eodem, et quam tumide princeps verba legationis acceperit.

CHAPTER 45. - Also concerning the same, and how haughtily the prince received the words of the legation.

Petrus, audito Corbahan, nempe quod in derisum nomen et admonitionem Christianae fidei acciperet, alia ei aperuit nuntia: «Visum est, inquit, adhuc [0506A] Christianis principibus, quandoquidem tam egregios homines tibi subdi recusas, et Christianus fieri renuntias, ut viginti tirones de tua eligas multitudine, quod etiam Christiani facient, et datis utrinque obsidibus, et facto juramento utrinque tu in deo tuo ipsi in Deo suo, singulari certamine in medio confligant. Et si Christianis victoria non contigerit, ipsi in terram suam pacifice et sine damno redeant, Antiochiam tibi reddentes; si vero tui triumphare nequiverint, pacifice tu tuique ab obsidione repedetis, urbem et terram nobis relinquentes, et non patiaris tantum exercitum perire mutuo confligentem. Si autem hoc a Christianis decretum contempseris, certus sis quia crastina luce universi tecum praelia conserent.» Corbahan, his auditis, Petro in superbia [0506B] magna respondit: «Unum, Petre, te scire volo quod Christiani eligant, scilicet ut omnis imberbis juventus ad nos transeant, mihi et domino meo, regi Corrozan, servientes, quos magnis beneficiis et muneribus ditabimus; puellae adhuc intactae similiter ad nos accessum habeant et vivendi licentiam; barbati vero et aliquam canitiem habentes cum mulieribus nuptis decollandi sunt.

Peter, when Corbahan had been heard, namely that he received as a mockery the name and admonition of the Christian faith, revealed other messages to him: "It has seemed," he said, "still to the Christian princes, since you refuse to subject such outstanding men to yourself, and renounce becoming a Christian, that you choose twenty recruits from your multitude, which also the Christians will do, and with hostages given on both sides, and with an oath made on both sides — you on your god, they on their God — they shall fight in single combat in the middle. And if victory does not befall the Christians, they shall return peaceably and without harm to their land, restoring Antioch to you; but if yours cannot triumph, you and yours shall return safely from the siege, leaving the city and land to us, and you shall not suffer only the army to perish fighting one another. But if you despise this decree of the Christians, be certain that at dawn tomorrow all will engage in battle with you." Corbahan, these things heard, answered Peter with great arrogance [0506B]: "One thing, Peter, I wish to know which the Christians will choose, namely that all beardless youth shall pass over to us, serving me and my lord, King Corrozan, whom we will enrich with great favors and gifts; maidens still untouched shall likewise have access to us and license to live; but bearded men and those having some gray hair, with their married wives, are to be decapitated.

Alioqui nulli parcam aetati, sed omnes delebo in ore gladii; quos autem voluero, in catenis et vinculis ferreis abducam.» Hoc dicto ostendit ei omnis generis catenarum et vinculorum copiam innumerabilem et inauditam.

Otherwise I will spare no age, but will destroy all by the edge of the sword; and those whom I will choose I will lead away in chains and iron fetters.» With this said he showed him a supply of chains and bonds of every kind, innumerable and unheard‑of.

CAP. XLVI. - Petrus revertitur, responsio majoribus aperitur, et quid facto opus sit in commune discutitur.

CHAPTER 46. - Peter returns, a reply is opened to the elders, and what must be done jointly about the deed is discussed.

[0506C] Petrus ad haec a Corbahan accepta licentia redeundi, urbem Antiochiam introivit, renuntiaturus jactantiam quam audiverat a Corbahan. Et ecce universi principes in circuitu Petri conglobantur cum caeteris Christianis militibus, quid Corbahan responderit, auscultare desiderantes et scire utrum bellum attulerit, aut aliquod foedus pacis constituendae. Petrus circumfusus fidelium turbis, Corbahan bellum desiderare indicat, nihilque nisi in superbia magna et fiducia multitudinis suae locutum fuisse asserit, et caetera minarum, quae audierat, referre incipit.

[0506C] Peter, having received from Corbahan permission to return, entered the city of Antioch, intending to report the boasting which he had heard from Corbahan. And behold, all the princes gathered in a circle around Peter with the other Christian soldiers, desiring to hear what Corbahan had answered and to know whether he had brought war or some treaty for establishing peace. Peter, surrounded by crowds of the faithful, indicates that Corbahan desires war, and asserts that he had spoken nothing save in great arrogance and in confidence of his multitude, and begins to relate the other threats which he had heard.

Sed eum procedere ulterius dux Godefridus non patitur; sed seorsum ductum monuit, ne quidquam de omnibus quae audierat ulli indicet, ne populus, prae timore et augustia deficiens, a bello subtraheretur. [0506D] Jam trium hebdomadarum et totidem dierum processerat tempus quo populus Christianus obsessus coepit angustiari penuria necessariorum et defectione panis. Unde non ultra sufferre haec valentes, invicem consultum vadunt magni et parvi, dicentes utilius esse mori in bello quam fame tam crudeli perire, et de die in diem populum attenuari et mori.

But Duke Godfrey would not permit him to proceed further; instead he had him led aside and warned him not to disclose anything of all that he had heard to anyone, lest the people, failing through fear and dread, be withdrawn from the war. [0506D] Now the time of three weeks and three days had passed, during which the Christian people, besieged, began to be pressed by a lack of necessities and by the failure of bread. Wherefore those able no longer to suffer these things, great and small, hold a council among themselves, saying that it is better to die in war than to perish by so cruel a hunger, and to be wasted day by day and die.

CAP. XLVII. - Bellum indicitur, omnes quasi morituri in crastinum praeparantur, et distributae acies sub ducibus ordinantur.

CHAPTER 47. - War is proclaimed, all, as if about to die, are prepared for the morrow, and the distributed battle-lines are ordered under their leaders.

Ad hanc vocem conquerentis populi indicitur bellum crastina die futurum: omnibusque jubetur ut in orationibus pernoctent, et delictorum suorum [0507A] confessionibus purgati, Dominici corporis et sanguinis sacramento muniantur, sicque in primo diei diluculo armis accingantur. Mane autem facto, omnes in armis, loricis et galeis, Christiani milites convenerunt quarta Kal. Julii, et acies ordinant adhuc intra urbem commorantes.

To this cry of the complaining people a war is proclaimed to be on the morrow: and all are ordered to spend the night in prayers, and, cleansed by confessions of their sins [0507A], to be fortified by the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood, and so at first daybreak to gird themselves with arms. But when morning had come, all in arms, with loricas and helmets, Christian soldiers assembled on the fourth day before the Kalends of July, and they drew up their battle‑lines still remaining within the city.

Hugonem Magnum, fratrem regis Franciae, praefecerunt primae aciei ductorem, et signiferum constituerunt equitum et peditum. Robertus, comes Flandriae, et Robertus, princeps Northmanorum, duabus praeficiuntur aciebus, et sic juncti hi duo propinqui in uno latere constituuntur. Episcopus vero Podiensis suam per se aciem versus montana dirigebat, erecta in medio illius cuneo lancea, quam repererant, et in manibus cujusdam clerici constituta.

They set Hugonem Magnum, brother of the king of France, over the leader of the first line, and appointed a standard-bearer of the horsemen and footsoldiers. Robert, count of Flanders, and Robert, prince of the Northmen, were placed over two lines, and thus these two kinsmen, joined, were stationed on one flank. The bishop of Poitiers, however, was directing his own line toward the mountains, a lance having been erected in the middle of that wedge which they had found, and placed in the hands of a certain cleric.

Petrus de Stadeneis, [0507B] Reinardus de Tul, frater ejus Wernerus de Greis, Henricus de Ascha, Reinardus de Hemersbach, Walterus de Dromedart, suum cuneum regere disponuntur versus haec montana et viam quae ducit ad portum maris Simeonis praedicti quondam eremitae. Comes Reinboldus de Oringis, Lodewicus de Monzons, Lambertus filius Cunonis de Monte acuto, unius aciei ordini praeesse destinantur. Dux Godefridus cum Teutonicis, Alemanis, Bawaris, Saxonibus, Lotharingis, ex duobus millibus equitum et peditum suam aciem composuit, quorum manus et gladius solet esse saevissimus in cervicibus inimicorum.

Petrus de Stadeneis, [0507B] Reinardus de Tul, his brother Wernerus de Greis, Henricus de Ascha, Reinardus de Hemersbach, Walterus de Dromedart, were disposed to lead their wedge toward these mountains and the way which leads to the port on the sea of Simeon, the aforesaid once-hermit. Count Reinboldus de Oringis, Lodewicus de Monzons, Lambertus son of Cunon of Monte Acuto, were appointed to preside over the order of a single battle-line. Duke Godefridus, with the Teutons, Alemanni, Bavarians, Saxons, Lotharingians, out of two thousand horse and foot, formed his line, whose hand and sword are wont to be most savage upon the necks of enemies.

Tankradus, solus suam aciem ex equitibus et peditibus constituit. Hugo de S. Paulo, et filius ejus [0507C] Engelradus, Thomas de Feria castro, Baldewinus de Burg, Robertus filius Gerhardi, Reymundus de Peleiz, Reinoldus Belvacensis, Walo de Calmont, Everhardus de Poisat, Drogo de Monzei, Rudolfus filius Godefridi, Conans Britannus, Rudolfus similiter Britannus, hi omnes duas acies regere eliguntur. Gastus de Berdeiz, Gerhardus de Rosselon civitate, Willhelmus de Montpelir, acie tantum una contenti sunt.

Tankradus, solus suam aciem ex equitibus et peditibus constituit. Hugo de S. Paulo, et filius ejus [0507C] Engelradus, Thomas de Feria of the castle, Baldewinus de Burg, Robertus filius Gerhardi, Reymundus de Peleiz, Reinoldus Belvacensis, Walo de Calmont, Everhardus de Poisat, Drogo de Monzei, Rudolfus filius Godefridi, Conans Britannus, Rudolfus similiter Britannus, hi omnes duas acies regere eliguntur. Gastus de Berdeiz, Gerhardus of the city of Rosselon, Willhelmus de Montpelir, acie tantum una contenti sunt.

Boemundus de Sicilia in extrema acie, quae erat densissima, equitibus et peditibus ductor attitulatur, ut caeteras acies tueretur, et forte auxilio indigentibus subveniret.

Boemundus of Sicily is appointed leader over the outermost acie, which was most dense, of horsemen and footmen, that he might guard the other acies and, should occasion require, come to the aid of those needing assistance.

CAP. XLVIII. - Relicto in urbe Reymundo comite, fideles portis erumpunt, quibus gentiles a magistra arce signo accepto occurrunt.

CHAPTER 48. - With Count Reymund left in the city, the faithful burst forth at the gates; the gentiles, having received the signal from the magisterial citadel, run out to meet them.

[0507D] Sic omnibus istis ordinatis et dispositis, comitem Reymundum, aliquantulum infirmitate laborantem, ad tuendam urbem propter Turcos, qui erant in eminentiore arce cum Sansadonia, filio Darsiani, reliquerunt cum plurima virtute Christianorum. Hoc expleto, omnes unanimiter, sicut ordinati erant, et principes singuli cum suis aciebus aperta porta qua porrigitur trans Fernam pons lapideus, adversus Barbarorum legiones procedere decreverunt, in vexillis mille variis et decoris, in loricis et galeis. Corbahan similiter et Solymanus in dextro et sinistro cornu, in fronte et a tergo, multiplices statuunt acies, arcus osseos et corneos in manibus ad pugnandum tenentes, celerique pede a castris procedentes, [0508A] Christianis obviam invehuntur, ut primi grandine sagittarum certamen ineant, buccina, tubis et cornibus intolerabili clamore intonantes.

[0507D] Thus with all these things ordered and disposed, they left Count Reymund, somewhat laboring under infirmity, to guard the city because of the Turks, who were in the higher citadel with Sansadonia, son of Darsian, with the very great valor of the Christians. This accomplished, all unanimously, as they had been ordered, and the princes each with their own hosts, by the open gate through which the stone bridge stretches across Fernam, resolved to advance against the legions of the Barbarians, under a thousand varied and splendid standards, in loricas and helmets. Corbahan likewise and Solyman on the right and left horn, in front and at the rear, set up manifold battle-lines, holding bone and horn bows in their hands for fighting, and, coming forth with swift foot from the camps, [0508A] they hurled themselves upon the Christians to meet them, so that they might first begin a contest like a hail of arrows, the trumpet, pipes, and horns sounding with intolerable clamor.

Providerant enim sibi non solum ex legatione Petri, qui bellum in crastino eis praedixerat affuturum; sed quotidie suspecti et solliciti erant ne Christiani ex improviso bellum cum eis committerent. Unde ad arcem Sansadoniae nuntios assidue dirigebant, quatenus si quando persentiret Christianos armari, aut hortari ad pugnam, eis nuntiaret, eo quod ab arce, in supercilio montis sita, spectaculum rerum universarum undique in urbe habuerit: quo et ipsi parati et cuneati occurrere possent, et minus provisis Galli nocerent. Sansadonias nuntia mittere negat sed pannum latissimum nigerrimi et horrendi coloris, [0508B] in summitate hastarum praefixum, in culmine suae arcis erigere pollicetur, deinde horrisona buccina vehementer perstrepere et ita gentiles certos reddere de apparatu belli Christianorum.

For they provided for themselves not only from the legation of Peter, who had foretold that war would be upon them the next day; but they were daily suspicious and anxious lest the Christians should suddenly begin war with them. Wherefore they constantly sent messengers to the citadel of Sansadonia, so that if ever they perceived Christians arming themselves, or urging to fight, they would give them warning, because from the citadel, set on the brow of the mountain, there was a spectacle of all things round about the city: by which they themselves, prepared and formed in wedge, might meet them, and do harm to the less-provided Franks. Sansadonias refuses to send messengers but promises to erect at the summit of his citadel a very broad cloth of the blackest and most horrid colour, [0508B] fixed to the tops of the spears, and then to sound a dreadful trumpet loudly, and so to make the gentiles certain of the Christians’ war-preparations.

Hunc itaque pannum fuscum in signum conserendi Martis erigens in montanis, super ipsam praedictam arcem fixit, eadem hora qua Christianorum apparatus summo diluculo fieri coeperunt, et acies ordinabantur: ut viso hoc signo, etiam gentiles ad resistendum providerent, arma et acies ordinarent. Protinus panni hujus signo et fragore buccinae, horribiliter tonantis, praemoniti, densantur et cuneantur, et Christianis turmis in occursum tendunt, ab equis circiter duo millia descendentes, ad prohibendum pontem ejusque fluvii transitum.

He therefore raised and fixed this dark cloth upon the mountains, on the very aforesaid citadel, as a sign of engaging Mars in battle, at the same hour when the Christians’ array began to be formed at first light, and the ranks were being drawn up: so that, seeing this sign, even the gentiles might provide to resist, and marshal arms and battle-lines. Immediately, warned by the sign of this cloth and by the roar of the trumpet, horribly sounding, they press together and form into wedges, and advance to meet the Christian throngs, some two thousand dismounting from horses, to block the bridge and the crossing of its river.

CAP. XLIX. - Christi populus in prima acie victor gentilium fumo impeditur. [0508C]

CHAPTER 49. - The people of Christ, victorious in the foremost line against the gentiles, are impeded by smoke. [0508C]

Christiani autem principes in eadem porta ordinati et conglobati, suspicantes ac praescientes Turcos in arcu et sagitta sibi in exitu suo adversaturos, omnem manum sagittariorum pedestris vulgi praemiserunt a porta trans pontem et fluvium Farfar. Qui Deo favente pontem anticipantes, in Turcos sagitta infestos irruerunt, scuto tectis pectoribus resistentes, et a loco amoventes, quousque ad stationem equorum ipsorum sagitta Christianorum transvolante, perventum est. Turci itaque, qui ad pontem ab equis descendentes pede praecurrerant, videntes se non posse obsistere, nec viros Christianos a ponte abigere, sed equos suos posse sagittarum [0508D] grandine perire, versi in fugam et ad equos quantocius properantes, ipsos ascenderunt: et sic liberum exitum Christianis, licet inviti, concesserunt.

The Christian leaders, however, drawn up and massed at the same gate, suspecting and foreseeing that the Turks with bow and arrow would oppose them at their exit, sent forward the whole band of archers of the foot-people from the gate across the bridge and the river Farfar. These, God favoring, advancing ahead of the bridge, rushed upon the Turks with arrow-hostility, the latter resisting with shields covering their breasts, and withdrawing from the place, until, with the Christian arrow flying over to the station of their horses, they arrived. The Turks therefore, who, dismounting at the bridge, had run on foot ahead, seeing that they could not stand firm, nor drive the Christian men from the bridge, but that their horses might perish in a hail of arrows [0508D], turned to flight and, hastening as quickly as they could to their horses, mounted them: and thus they granted the Christians a free exit, albeit unwillingly.

Ad haec Anselmus de Riburgis monte, qui erat in prima hac acie constitutus cum Hugone Magno, gaudens prospero successu et prima victoria fidelium, vibrata hasta medio Turcorum involvitur; qui hos dejecit, hos perforat, alios resupinat, et ingenti illorum occisione laborat. Hugo siquidem Magnus, videns quod Anselmus sine aliquo timore mortis hostes represserat, sine mora advolat, simili caede muletans inimicorum catervas. Robertus Flandrensis, Robertus Northmannorum comes, Baldewinus Hamaicorum princeps.

To these things Anselm of Riburgis, from the mountain, who was set in this foremost array with Hugh the Great, rejoicing at the prosperous success and the first victory of the faithful, with his spear brandished is hurled into the midst of the Turks; he throws some down, pierces some, turns others on their backs, and is occupied with a great slaughter of them. Hugh indeed the Great, seeing that Anselm, without any fear of death, had repelled the enemies, forthwith flies to him, devastating the bands of the foe with similar slaughter. Robert of Flanders, Robert, count of the Northmen, Baldwin, prince of the Hamaeans.

Eustachius quoque, audacter [0509A] et fortiter cum hostilibus cuneis luctabantur, quos non modica strage interemerunt. Solymanus vero dux Turcorum, miles saevissimus, et Rossilion consocius ejus, unus ex quatuor capitalibus Antiochiae sub Darsiano rege, cum suis cuneis circiter quindecim millibus a caetera multitudine sequestrati, adversus haec montana et viam, quae respicit ad portum Simeonis, festinato contendunt: ut si Christiani victi forte illuc fugam meditarentur ad maritima, eis occursarent, et incautos attererent. Hoc in proposito avide ferventes, properata via plus solito, super aciem Reinardi comitis, Petri de Stradeneis, Walteri de Dromedart, Henrici de Ascha, Reinardi de Hemersbach, militis illustrissimi, Werneri de Greis casu irruerunt; quibus subito ad impedimentum [0509B] ignem projecerunt ab ollis in faciem terrae, quo eorum transitus erat ad societatem Christianorum.

Eustachius also, boldly [0509A] and bravely grappled with the hostile wedges, whom they put to death with no small slaughter. Solymanus, moreover, leader of the Turks, a most savage soldier, and Rossilion his ally, one of the four principal men of Antioch under King Darsianus, with their wedges, some fifteen thousand, separated from the rest of the host, hastened against these mountains and the road that looks toward the harbor of Simeon: so that if the Christians, having been routed, perhaps contemplated flight to the sea, they might intercept them and fell the unwary. Hotly eager in this design, the road hurried more than usual, they rushed upon the line of Count Reinard, Peter of Stradeneis, Walter of Dromedart, Henry of Ascha, Reinard of Hemersbach, the most illustrious knight, and Werner of Greis by chance; against whom suddenly, to their impediment [0509B], they hurled fire from pots onto the face of the ground, by which their passage to the fellowship of the Christians was blocked.

Ignis itaque ut haesit terrae, arreptis herbis aridis et frondibus siccis veprium, statim vires in altitudine et amplitudine acquisivit, et sic a vento suscitata nebula, fumus concrevit tenebrosus, solummodo oculos fidelium obumbrans, et aspectum impediens.

Therefore, as the fire clung to the earth, having seized dry herbs and withered boughs of brush, it immediately acquired force in height and breadth, and so, as a cloud raised by the wind, the smoke congealed dark, overshadowing only the eyes of the faithful and obstructing their sight.

CAP. L. - Peregrini multifarie dissipantur; acies Boemundi in mortis articulo posita Godefrido duci nuntiatur.

CHAPTER 50. - The pilgrims are dispersed in many ways; Boemond’s battle-line, placed on the brink of death, is reported to Duke Godfrey.

Igitur Turci callide eos post fumi nebulam insequentes, errore caliginis dissociatos alios trucidabant, alios sagittis transfigebant. Solummodo equis insidentes velocitate equorum evaserunt, sed non [0509C] omnino illaesi a sagittis: peditum vero trecenti occisi, et pars in vinculis retenta est. Karieth autem Turcus de civitate Caran, viso Solymani prospero successu in contritione aciei Reinardi, Petri, Werneri et caeterorum, confidentius iter accelerans, in circuitu una cum principe Damascenorum a montanis juxta civitatem et Fernam fluvium descendit, appropinquante simul Brodoan de Alapia civitate Turcorum, ad coronandam aciem Boemundi, quae erat extrema, peditibus et Francigenis plurimum densata: quam incurrentes, sagittis et virtute suorum irrumpere ac dispergere conati sunt.

Therefore the Turks, cunningly pursuing them after the cloud of smoke, were slaughtering some who had been separated by the confusion of the gloom, and transfixing others with arrows. Only those mounted on horses escaped by the swiftness of their steeds, but not [0509C] altogether unscathed by arrows: indeed three hundred infantry were killed, and some were held fast in chains. Karieth the Turk of the city of Caran, having seen Solyman’s prosperous success in the crushing of the line of Reinard, Peter, Werner and the others, and speeding his march with greater confidence, descended in a circuit together with the prince of the Damascenes from the mountains near the city and the Fernam river, Brodoan of Alapia, a Turkish town, approaching at the same time, to crown Bohemond’s line — which was the extreme wing, very densely packed with footsoldiers and Franks — which, rushing upon them, they strove to break into and to scatter with their arrows and by the valour of their men.

Oppressi siquidem viribus Turcorum, et fraude astutorum hominum circumventi, comitatus Boemundi in miserum et anxium globum, quasi oves inter lupos [0509D] periturae, cogebantur, nec ultra reniti valebant, sed in proximo erat, ut morituri undique ab infidelibus turmis involverentur. At Godefridum ducem cum Buldagi, Amasa, Boesa et Balduc atrociter dimicantem, et in nomine Jesu, Filii Dei vivi, triumphantem, nuntius trans spatium viae unius, vocis percurrens, flebili rogatu pulsat et admonet, ut respiciat et cognoscat quam in arcto res Boemundi suaeque societatis sit sita: quibus, ni cito subveniret, omnes in brevia Turcis consumi asserebat.

Oppressed indeed by the forces of the Turks, and surrounded by the guile of crafty men, Boemund’s company was driven into a miserable and anxious mass, like sheep among wolves [0509D] about to perish, and could no longer resist; but it was near that those about to die would on all sides be swept up by bands of infidels. Yet to Duke Godefrid, fighting fiercely with Buldagus, Amasa, Boes and Balduc, and triumphing in the name of Jesus, the Son of the living God, a messenger running the length of a road, his voice flying, with a plaintive entreaty tapped and admonished him to look back and to learn how narrowly the matter of Boemund and his fellowship stood: to whom, unless he quickly came to their aid, he declared that all would shortly be consumed by the Turks.

CAP. LI. - Dux hostes fugat et proterit, fratres a porta mortis educit.

CHAPTER 51. - The leader routs and crushes the enemies, and leads the brothers from the gate of death.

Godefridus dux, ex relatione velocis nuntii Boemundi intellecta invasione suaeque aciei a Turcis [0510A] fere coronatae, elevans oculos, jam intuetur quomodo virtus Boemundi et cohortes illius pondere belli fatigabantur, et vix inimicorum vires sufferebant. Unde festinus in faciem adversariorum cum Alemanis, Bawaris, Saxonibus, Lotharingis, Teutotonicis, et Romanis, qui in sua erant acie, advolat in vexillis ostreis variis et decoris, ut vires gentilium repelleret, et in angustia positis subveniret. Hugo vero Magnus, qui in exitu primae aciei a ponte, qui ab urbe trans Farfar porrigitur, fugatis Turcis et attritis, spatium campi cum Christianorum praemissis sagittariis victor obtinebat, videns quod ducis Godefridi acies et vexilla revertebantur via quae ducit ad fluvium Farfar, una ipse festinus eodem itinere ad aciem ducis cum sua legione ad [0510B] vires et arma augenda refertur, sciens quia hac parte major angustia belli ingruebat.

Godefridus the duke, on the report of a swift messenger having understood that Boemund’s line was being invaded by the Turks and was almost surrounded [0510A], raising his eyes, now sees how Boemund’s valor and his cohorts were wearied by the weight of battle and how scarcely they endured the strength of the enemy. Wherefore he hastens to the face of the adversaries with the Alemanni, Bavarians, Saxons, Lotharingians, Teutonic men, and Romans who were in his line, advancing under banners of various and fair device to repel the forces of the pagans and to give aid to those placed in distress. Hugo moreover the Great, who at the egress of the first line from the bridge that stretches from the city across the river Farfar, with the Turks routed and worn down, was victoriously holding ground of the field with Christian archers sent forward, seeing that the battle‑lines and standards of Duke Godefrid were returning by the road that leads to the river Farfar, himself likewise hastens by that same route to the duke’s line with his legion to bring reinforcements of men and arms [0510B], knowing that on that side a greater pressure of war was impending.

Moderabantur ambo principes cursus suorum equitum, secundum quod pedites appropinquare poterant. Quos ubi Turci indubitanter in se tendere viderunt ad subveniendum Christianis consociis, paulatim ab invasione et assultu coeperunt subtrahi; et dato dorso remensi viam, ad tabernacula sua fugam arripiunt, duce cum Christianis tironibus atrociter insequente et caedente

Both princes were restraining the courses of their horsemen, according as the footsoldiers could approach. When the Turks saw that these were without doubt tending against them to give succour to their allied Christians, they began gradually to withdraw from the invasion and assault; and, having given their backs and retraced their way, they seized flight to their tents, their leader cruelly pursuing and cutting down the Christian tyros.

CAP. LII. - Item de eodem.

CHAPTER 52. - Also concerning the same.

Tandem superato quodam humili et modico torrente, a montanis defluente, paululum Christianis militibus in valle retardatis, Turci in vertice cujusdam montis consistentes, ad defensionem frena rejiciunt, [0510C] et sagittis suis Gallos insequentes absterrere nituntur. Ad hoc peregrini Teutonici, corda intrepida habentes, altis vocibus Christi clementia invocata, obsistentes Turcos indubitanter incurrunt, quos tunc et deinceps sic in fugam continuam mittunt, ut non aliquis eorum stare aut remordere in eodem conflictu praesumeret. Boemundus ergo princeps magnus, et Adam filius Michaelis, visa virtute Godefridi resistentis, et populum alleviantis, et quia caede cum suis inter hostium agmina fulminabat, cum omni acie et fortitudine quam ultimus regebat, abrumpit moras, et in impetu ac vociferatione per medias Turcorum acies infertur.

At last, a certain low and modest torrent, flowing down from the mountains, having been crossed, with the Christian soldiers in the valley held back a little, the Turks, standing on the summit of a certain mountain, cast back their reins for defense, [0510C] and, pursuing the Gauls with their arrows, strive to terrify them. At this the Teutonic pilgrims, having fearless hearts and with the mercy of Christ invoked in loud voices, standing in the way, charge the Turks without hesitation, whom then and thereafter they so send into continuous flight that not one of them would presume to stand or to close back in the same conflict. Bohemund therefore, the great prince, and Adam son of Michael, seeing the valour of Godfrey resisting and relieving the people, and because he was smiting down with his men among the enemy ranks like a thunderbolt, with all the line and strength which he as rear-commander led, breaks through the delays, and with a charge and shouting forces his way through the midst of the Turkish ranks.

Quorum immanissima strage facta sic campi operiebantur corporibus occisorum, quasi grandine hinc et hinc saevissime [0510D] commistis cuneis. Sed, Deo auxiliante, ingravatum est bellum gentibus; totumque praelii pondus versum est illis in contrarium. Corbahan autem superbus, qui ampliores sibi retinuerat vires et copias, et a sinistris Christianorum stationem occupaverat, nequaquam suis fugitivis et attritis sociis ad opem contendere poterat.

By whose most monstrous slaughter thus the fields were covered with the bodies of the slain, as if with hail here and there most fiercely, the wedges having clashed [0510D]. But, God assisting, the war grew sore upon those peoples; and the whole weight of the engagement was turned back upon them. Corbahan, however, proud, who had kept for himself the larger forces and troops, and had taken up the station on the Christians’ left, could in no wise hasten to aid his fleeing and worn allies.

Nam illi Podiensis episcopus cum omni manu Provincialium fortiter in faciem resistebat, eique lanceam Dominicam semper opponebat. Unde colligendum est quod, Deo et Domino nostro Jesu operante, virtus illius, divinitus sibi timore immisso, elanguit, et corda suorum fremuerunt: quia sic immobilis permanebat in obstaculo et visione coelestis armaturae, ac si omnis [0511A] pugnae immemor cum infinito suo satellite haberetur.

For that bishop of Podiensis, with the whole band of Provincials, stoutly resisted to the front, and ever opposed to them the Lord’s lance. Whence it is to be gathered that, God and our Lord Jesus working, his virtue, divinely weakened by fear cast into him, languished, and the hearts of his men trembled: for thus unmoving he remained at the obstacle and in the sight of the heavenly armour, as if all [0511A] unmindful of battle were held with its innumerable retinue.

CAP. LIII. - Corbahan, victis suis, spem vivendi ponit in fuga, quem Podiensis episcopus insectatur.

CHAPTER 53. - Corbahan, his men having been defeated, lays his hope of living in flight, whom the bishop of Podiensis pursues.

Sic, Deo volente, in stupore et exstasi posito quidam adfuit, sinistra illi portans nuntia, et dicens: «Corbahan, princeps illustrissime, quid longius moram protrahis adversus hanc Christianorum aciem? annon vides quomodo tuus, quem eduxisti, exercitus, victus et attritus fuga dilapsus est? ecce in castra tua tuorumque Galli diffusi spolia auferunt, et res universas colligunt, et ecce sine mora ad te perventuri sunt.» Corbahan hac tristi et dura legatione pulsatus, elevatis oculis videns acies suas fuga defluxisse, continuo ipse cum omni comitatu [0511B] suo dorsa vertit in fugam, via qua venerat, ad regnum Corrozan et flumen Euphratem insistens.

Thus, God willing, while stupor and ecstasy were laid aside a certain man was present, bearing ill tidings on his left, and saying: «Corbahan, most illustrious prince, why do you prolong delay any longer against this host of Christians? Do you not see how your army, whom you led forth, defeated and bruised, has slipped away in flight? Behold, in your camp the Gauls, scattered, are carrying off spoils and gathering up the entire property, and behold they will, without delay, come upon you.» Corbahan, struck by this sad and harsh message, having lifted his eyes and seen that his ranks had streamed away in flight, straightaway he himself with all his comitatus [0511B] turned his back in flight, taking the road by which he had come toward the kingdom of Corrozan and the river Euphrates.

Quem sacer episcopus cum omni acie sua persecutus est, non longe tamen, prae defectione equorum et peditum lassitudine. Defecerant enim Christianis equi quos a Gallia eduxerant, prae diversis plagis, ut affirmant ex veritate qui aderant. Nam vix ducenti supererant equi bello apti, in die qua praelium cum tot nationibus gentilium commiserunt.

Whom the sacred bishop pursued with his whole acie, not far however, on account of the failure of horses and the weariness of the footsoldiers. For the Christians’ horses, which they had led forth from Gaul, had failed from diverse wounds, as those who were present affirm from the truth. For scarcely two hundred horses remained fit for war on the day when they engaged in battle with so many nations of the gentiles.

CAP. LIV. - Ubi notantur principes qui prae inopia mendicant.

CHAPTER 54. - Where are noted the princes who, through extreme want, beg.

Plurimi siquidem egregii milites et nobilissimi, quorum latet numerus, equis mortuis et prae famis inopia consumptis, in numero peditum computati, pedites praelia discebant, qui a pueri aevo semper [0511C] equis assueti et invecti certamen inire solebant. Ex his vero egregiis viris, qui mulum aut asinum, vel vile jumentum, vel palefridum tunc acquirere poterat, pro equo utebatur: inter quos fortissimi et ditissimi sua in terra principes asino insidentes certamen inierunt: nec mirum. Nam diu deficiente illis proprio sumptu, egentes mendicaverant, et suis armis venditis propter inopiam, armis Turcorum insuetis et incongruis in bello utebantur.

Very many indeed of the most distinguished soldiers and most noble men, whose number is hidden, with their horses dead and consumed by hunger and want, being reckoned among the number of footsoldiers, the footsoldiers learned to fight, who from boyhood always [0511C] accustomed to and borne on horses were wont to enter combat. Of these truly excellent men, whoever then could procure a mule or an ass, or a cheap beast of burden, or a palfrey, used it in place of a horse: among whom the bravest and wealthiest, their own chiefs on their land, having mounted an ass entered the contest — and no wonder. For, their private funds having long failed them, the needy had begged, and, their arms being sold because of want, they used in war the arms of the Turks, unaccustomed and incongruous.

Horum in numero Hartmanus, dives et nobilissimus, unus de praepotentibus in terra Alemaniae fuisse, asinoque insidens, umbonem Turci et gladium tantum in die illo ad pugnam habuisse perhibetur: nec mirum. Nam rebus omnibus exhaustus, lorica, galea et armis [0511D] venditis, diu mendicaverat, et eo fere pervenerat, quod nec mendicando vivere poterat. Pervenerat una Henricus de Ascha, miles nobilis et laude militari dignus.

Among these Hartman, wealthy and most noble, one of the foremost potentates in the land of Germany, is said to have been riding on an ass, and on that day to have had only a Turkish umbon and a sword for the fight: and no wonder. For exhausted of all things, his cuirass, helmet, and arms [0511D] having been sold, he had long begged, and had come almost to that point that he could not live even by begging. With him came also Henricus of Ascha, a noble knight and worthy of military praise.

Sed dux Godefridus gloriosus, illorum misertus, panem unum cum portione carnis vel piscis ex proprio sumptu Hartmano constituit; Henricum vero, quia miles et homo suus multis sibi servierat annis et bellorum periculis, convivam et mensae suae socium attitulavit.

But the glorious duke Godfrey, pitying them, provided Hartman with one loaf of bread together with a portion of meat or fish at his own expense; and Henry, because he was a soldier and his man who had served him for many years and in the perils of wars, he appointed as a guest and companion of his table.

CAP. LV. - De eadem re, et fuga et caede hostium.

CHAPTER 55. - Of the same matter, and the flight and slaughter of the enemies.

Super his miseriis et attenuationibus nobilium procerum, mirantur solummodo hi qui nunquam huic simile audierunt, nec mala viderunt, quae in tam longo exsilio contigerunt, tam egregiis viris, sed non mirantur qui ipsum ducem Godefridum et [0512A] Robertum, principem Flandriae, ad ultimum egere rebus et equis se vidisse testati sunt. Eguit siquidem dux Godefridus, qui equum, in quo die magni belli sedit, dono comitis Reymundi suscepit, multa prece extortum. Nam defecerat illi pecunia prae angustia memoratae famis, et nimia largitione eleemosynarum et rerum, quas in mendicis et attenuatis militibus expendit.

Over these miseries and the emaciations of the noble chiefs, only those marvel who never heard of the like, nor saw the evils which in so long an exile befell such eminent men; but not those who testified that they themselves had seen Duke Godefrid and [0512A] Robert, prince of Flanders, at last reduced to goods and horses. For indeed Duke Godefrid was in want, who received the horse in which he sat on the day of the great war as a gift from Count Reymund, wrested out of him by many prayers. For money had failed him through the narrowness of the aforesaid famine, and by the excessive distribution of alms and of things which he spent on beggars and on weakened soldiers.

Eguit pariter Robertus, ditissimus et potentissimus princeps pinguis Flandriae quem saepius in exercitu mendicasse asserunt, qui affuerunt et oculis inspexerunt; ipsumque equum quem in die belli ascenderat, mendicando acquisivisse, multorum relatione didicimus. His denique equis, labore acquisitis, nunc tam egregii principes in die belli invicti adversus infidelium acies, considerantes [0512B] Corbahan cum omni comitatu suo terga vertisse, veloci cursu post eum frena dirigunt, caedendoque et sternendo fuga deficientes et fugientes, in spatio trium milliarum sine intermissione insecuti sunt. Tankradus, qui etiam Christianorum aciem dirigebat, ut fugam persensit adversariorum, una cum equestri manu in caede illorum affuit velociter, quos via sex milliarium fugientes insecutus est.

Robert likewise was poor, the very rich and most powerful fat prince of Flanders, whom those who were present and inspected with their eyes often assert to have begged in the army; and we learned by many accounts that he had even acquired the very horse on which he had mounted on the day of battle by begging. With these horses, finally won by toil, now such outstanding princes, on the day of battle undefeated against the ranks of the infidels, reckoning that Corbahan with all his retinue had turned tail, steer their bridles in swift course after him, and, cutting down and laying low those failing in flight and those fleeing, pursued them without intermission for a space of 3 miles. Tankradus, who also directed the Christian line, when he perceived the enemy’s flight, was quickly present with a mounted force in their slaughter, whom he pursued as they fled along a road of 6 miles.

Corbahan, viso suorum diffugio et exercitus sui dispersione, semper intendebat fugae, quousque ad Euphratem, fluvium magnum, perveniens, cum suis navigio elapsus est.

Corbahan, seeing his men’s flight and the dispersion of his army, constantly pressed on in flight until, arriving at the Euphrates, a great river, he slipped away with his men by ship.

CAP. LVI. - De direptione castrorum et diversitate vinculorum.

CHAPTER 56. - On the plundering of the camps and the diversity of bonds.

His praefatis Christianorum principibus avide inimicorum [0512C] caedi et insecutioni intendentibus, societas comitis Reymundi et episcopi Reymeri praedae inhians, et spoliis Turcorum, in loco eodem quo victoria data est, parum persequens, permansit; et grandia spolia auri, bysantiorum, frumenti, vini, vestimentorum et papilionum depraedata est. Alii vero qui pugnae intenti erant, videntes illos spoliis manus inferre, eadem avaritia corrupti, manus similiter praedae injicientes, cum spoliis copiosis et infinitis in laude et laetitia et voce exsultationis Antiochiam reversi sunt: et qui ante inopes erant et famelici, nunc omnibus bonis satiati sunt. Codices vero innumerabiles in iisdem castris gentilium repererunt, in quibus sacrilegi ritus Sarracenorum et Turcorum [0512D] inscripti erant, et nefanda crimina ariolorum et aruspicum cum characteribus exsecrabilibus.

While the aforesaid Christian princes were eagerly intent on the slaughter and pursuit of their enemies [0512C], the band of Count Reymund and Bishop Reymer, ravenous for booty and thirsting for plunder, and pursuing the Turks’ spoils in the same place where victory had been given but little, remained; and great spoils of gold, of the Byzantines, of grain, of wine, of garments and of pavilions were despoiled. But others who had been intent on the fight, seeing those men laying hands on the spoils, corrupted by the same avarice, likewise casting their hands upon the booty, with abundant and countless spoils returned to Antioch in praise and rejoicing and with cries of exultation: and those who before had been poor and famished were now sated with all goods. Countless codices, however, were found in the same camps of the gentiles, in which the sacrilegious rites of the Saracens and Turks [0512D] were written, and the nefarious crimes of diviners and haruspices with execrable characters.

Catenarum, vinculorum, laqueorum ex funibus et ferro coriisque taurinis et equinis diversa genera ibidem in tentoriis reperta sunt ad vinculandos Christianos: quae omnia Antiochiam allata sunt, plurimo numero infinita, cum plurimis rebus et tentoriis, et cum tentorio ipsius Corbahan, quod in modum civitatis turribus et moenibus diversi coloris et pretiosi serici aedificatum erat. Habebat idem mirabile tentorium vicos a se defluentes, in quibus duo hominum millia spatiose habitasse referuntur. Mulieres, pueri teneri et adhuc lactantes, quotquot in castris reperti sunt, alii trucidati, alii equorum pedibus conculcati, misero et lacero cadavere campos impleverunt, [0513A] destituti suorum auxilio gentilium de bello terga vertentium.

Chains, shackles, nooses of ropes and of iron, and various kinds of thongs of bull‑ and horse‑hide were found there in the tents for binding Christians: all of which were brought to Antioch, countless in very great number, together with very many goods and tents, and with the tent of Corbahan itself, which had been built like a city with towers and walls of diverse colour and of precious silk. The same wondrous tent had villages flowing down from it, in which it is reported that two thousand men had resided spaciously. Women, tender boys and still‑nursing infants, as many as were found in the camp, some slaughtered, others trampled under the horses’ feet, filled the fields with miserable and mangled corpses, [0513A] abandoned by the aid of their own kinsmen who had turned their backs in the war.

Caetera quae in hoc bello acta sunt, tam in populo Christiano quam gentili, quae [0514A] etiam in obsidione urbis Antiochiae mira et inaudita gesta sunt, nullius stylo, nullius memoria aestimo retinenda, tot tamque diversa fuisse referuntur.

The other things that took place in this war, both among the Christian and the gentile peoples, which [0514A] were also wrought in the siege of the city of Antioch—marvelous and unheard-of—I judge not fit to be retained in any style or in any memory; they are reported to have been so many and so various.