Albert of Aix: HISTORIA HIEROSOLYMITANAE EXPEDITIONIS

Postquam cives Assur, vulgariter Arsid, ex consilio invidorum, urbem et reditus, quos pepigerant [0568D] duci Godefrido singulis annis conferre, concussi timore victoriae quam acceperat juxta Ascalonem, prorsus negaverunt, obsides illius pro pacto amicitiae datos, inique retinentes, et suis gaudentes receptis, [0569A] qui in fide male servata ducis evaserant custodiam, ultra se a facie ducis forti muniere tutela. Quapropter rex ira motus, caeterique nobiles et ignobiles, qui secum remanserant, nempe Willhelmus de Montpelir, Wernerus de Greiz, Geldemarus Carpent., Wickerus Alemanus, universi equites et pedites Christiani cum tribus millibus urbem cinxerunt, in circuitu ejus tabernacula sua extendentes. Collocatis ergo undique tentoriis, aptaverunt machinas et instrumenta mangenarum, spatio septem hebdomadarum summo studio ea fabricantes.

After the citizens of Assur, commonly Arsid, by the counsel of the envious, shaken by fear of the victory which he had received near Ascalon, flatly refused the city and the revenues which they had agreed [0568D] to confer each year upon Duke Godfrey, unjustly retaining his hostages given for a pact of amity, and rejoicing in their own men recovered, [0569A] who, with the duke’s faith ill kept, had escaped his custody, they further secured themselves from the duke’s presence by strong defense. Wherefore the king, moved to wrath, and the other nobles and ignobles who had remained with him—namely William of Montpellier, Werner of Greiz, Galdemar the Carpenter, Wicker the German—and all the Christian knights and footmen, with three thousand, surrounded the city, spreading their tents around it. Therefore, the tents having been set on all sides, they fitted machines and the apparatus of mangonels, over the space of seven weeks fashioning them with the utmost zeal.

CAP. II. - Lacrymosa narratio de Gerhardo milite.

CHAPTER 2. - Lachrymose narration about Gerard the knight.

Applicitis tandem muro ingeniis, fortiter cives oppugnabant. Illi vero non segnius pro vita resistebant a turrita arce et moenibus. Sed frustra videntes [0569B] se in defensione desudare, malum navalem procerae altitudinis, qui in media urbe jacebat, funibus et catenis astrictum levaverunt in altum, in quo unum de obsidibus ducis, Gerhardum praedictum, ortum de genere Hamaicorum de praesidio Avennis, militem egregium, affixerunt in modum crucifixi, manus et pedes illius extendentes funibus, quem jamdiu poenis consumptum a carnificibus arbitrabantur Christiani.

With the engines at last applied to the wall, the citizens were bravely assailing. But they, no less briskly, were resisting for life from the turreted citadel and the walls. Yet, seeing in vain [0569B] that they were sweating in defense, they raised on high a ship-mast of towering height, which was lying in the middle of the city, bound fast with ropes and chains; upon it they affixed, in the manner of a crucified man, one of the duke’s hostages, the aforesaid Gerhard, sprung from the stock of the Hamaics, from the garrison of Avennis, an outstanding soldier, stretching out his hands and feet with ropes—whom the Christians supposed had long since been consumed by torments by the executioners.

Sed erectus et affixus in culmine mali idem Gerhardus, in hanc miserabilem vocem cum lacrymis erupit, ac ducem alloquitur: O dux illustrissime, nunc reminiscere quomodo tuo praecepto huc obses et exsul inter barbaras nationes et viros impios transmissus sum. Ideoque peto, ut aliqua misericordia vel humanitate super me movearis, et [0569C] tam gravi et saevo martyrio me perire non patiaris. Cui dux: Nequaquam, o Gerharde, miles acerrime, tui misereri possum, et tot homines avertere a vindicta civitatis hujus.

But raised up and affixed on the summit of the mast, that same Gerhard burst forth with tears into this miserable utterance, and addresses the duke: O most illustrious duke, now remember how by your precept I was sent hither as a hostage and an exile among barbarian nations and impious men. Therefore I ask that by some mercy or humanity you be moved on my behalf, and [0569C] do not allow me to perish by so heavy and savage martyrdom. To whom the duke: By no means, O Gerhard, most keen soldier, can I have pity on you, and turn away so many men from the vengeance of this city.

Et ideo, si frater meus uterinus esses, ut Eustachius, hac conditione liberari non posses, ut urbs illaesa permaneat. Mori siquidem habes, et utilius est, ut solus moriaris, quam decretum et jusjurandum nostrorum violetur, et urbs haec semper peregrinis habeatur infesta. Si enim praesenti vita moriaris, vivere habes cum Christo in coelestibus.

And therefore, even if you were my uterine brother, like Eustace, you could not be freed on this condition—that the city remain unscathed. Indeed you must die, and it is more expedient that you alone should die than that the decree and the oath of our men be violated, and that this city be ever held as hostile to pilgrims. For if you die to the present life, you will live with Christ in the heavenly places.

Haec Gerhardus intelligens, et nulla se lacrymarum prece videns proficere, summopere ducem exorat ut equum et arma sua sancto praesentaret sepulcro, quae illic Deo famulantibus pro remedio animae suae targiatur. Ad haec dux et universa multitudo Christianorum [0569D] fortiter assiliunt urbem, in confratre Gerhardo totius pietatis et misericordiae obliti, urbis defensores in sagittis et fundibulis et mangenellis circumquaque impugnantes. Et jam inter plurimas sagittas incaute remissas, decem sagittis ejusdem Gerhardi corpus confixum et vulneratum est.

Understanding these things, and seeing that by no prayer of tears he was profiting, Gerhard most earnestly entreats the duke to present his horse and his arms to the Holy Sepulchre, that there they may be assigned to those serving God for the remedy of his soul. To this the duke and the entire multitude of Christians [0569D] boldly assail the city, forgetful of all piety and mercy toward their fellow-brother Gerhard, attacking the city’s defenders on all sides with arrows and slings and mangonels. And already, amid the many arrows heedlessly loosed, the body of that same Gerhard was pierced and wounded by ten arrows.

CAP. III. - Ubi, ducis machina procumbente, plurimi Christianorum pariter conflagrarunt.

CHAPTER 3. - Where, with the duke’s machine toppling, very many of the Christians were likewise conflagrated.

Gentiles autem cernentes quia vir strenuus, omni pietate a cordibus suorum exclusa, vulneraretur, sic duci et omni populo Christiano magnis blasphemiis improperabant, dicentes: Gens impia et crudelis, qui minime fratri et conchristiano vestro parcere curastis, sed acrius, illo viso et ejus perditione, urbem atque cives [0570A] oppugnastis! Hoc dicto, ab intus mangenellis, balistis et sagittis viriliter resistentes, urbem in machina expugnantes ducis milites nitebantur repellere. Palos enim ferreos et acutos, oleo, stuppis, pice, ignis fomite involutos, et omnino aqua inexstinguibiles creberrima jaculatione a moenibus intorquebant machinae trans taurina cornua, quibus vimineae crates opertae erant ad excutiendos injectos ignes.

The pagans, however, seeing that the vigorous man, with all pity shut out from the hearts of his own, was being wounded, thus reproached the leader and all the Christian people with great blasphemies, saying: You impious and cruel race, who did not at all care to spare your brother and your fellow-Christian, but more fiercely, at the sight of him and at his ruin, you assaulted the city and the citizens [0570A]! With this said, from within, resisting manfully with mangonels, ballistas, and arrows, they were striving to drive back the leader’s soldiers who were storming the city with the engine. For they were hurling from the walls at the engine, in a very frequent volley, iron and sharp stakes, wrapped in oil, tow, pitch, the tinder of fire, and altogether inextinguishable by water, across the bull-horns, over which wicker hurdles had been laid, to shake off the fires that were thrown.

Sed tandem paulatim flamma suscitata, et vires undique in arida materia rapiente, tota machina combusta humi procumbens corruit cum tribus coenaculis: in quibus viri bellatores amplius quam quinquaginta, a duce et caeteris primoribus constituti, nunc undique flammarum invasione occupati, cum ipsa machina ruinam perpessi sunt. Alii fractis [0570B] cervicibus et collo, alii semiputatis cruribus eorum aut brachiis, quidam ruptis visceribus ab intolerabili massa lignorum, nec ulla ope liberandi, una cum lignis in favillam et cineres redacti sunt. In quibus Franco de Mechela villa, quae est super Mosam fluvium, miles imperterritus, ab ardentissima trabe occupatus, eodem igne inexstinguibili incendio concremari ab omnibus visus est.

But at length, as the flame was gradually roused, and, seizing strength on every side from the dry material, the whole engine, consumed, toppled to the ground, collapsing with its three stories: in which more than fifty fighting men, appointed by the duke and the other chiefs, now seized on all sides by the invasion of the flames, suffered a ruin together with the machine itself. Others, with their necks [0570B] and nape broken, others with their legs or arms half-lopped, certain men with their entrails ruptured by the intolerable mass of timbers, and with no aid for deliverance, were reduced together with the wood into embers and ashes. Among them, Franco of the village Mechela, which is upon the river Meuse, a fearless miles, seized by a most ardent beam, was seen by all to be cremated by that same inextinguishable conflagration.

CAP. IV. - Exhortatio ducis ad milites.

CHAPTER 4. - Exhortation of the duke to the soldiers.

Continuo sine mora Rotholdns, miles acerrimus, videns quia ars et flamma Sarracenorum invaluit, machinaque cum inhabitatoribus suis humi procubuit, a moenibus urbis, in quae a machina descenderat ante incendium una cum Petro Longobardo, [0570C] milite praeclaro, celeri pede desiliit, quod nullum eis auxilium ferebatur, et in vallo juxta muros constiterunt illaesi. Sarraceni autem videntes eos juxta muros corruisse, ferratis sudibus et immensa mole lapidum viros opprimere certabant; sed Deo protegente, et galea fortissima crebros ictus sustinente, vivi et incolumes ad societatem Christianorum reversi sunt. Dux itaque cernens sic suos audacissimos milites gravi interitu et ruina corruisse, alios exstinctos et combustos, alios enervatos, et omne opus machinae celeri strage et edaci flamma consumptum, ac plurimos Christianae societatis animo deficere fugamque meditari, moestus et dolens, universos desperatos revocare coepit ad assultum urbis, ad interitum adversariorum, ad firmandam obsidionem, [0570D] dicens: Ah! miseri et inutiles, ad quid de terra et cognatione vestra exiistis, nisi ut animas vestras usque ad mortem pro nomine Jesu daretis, et redemptione sanctae Ecclesiae et liberatione confratrum vestrorum?

Immediately without delay Rotholdns, a most keen soldier, seeing that the skill and flame of the Saracens prevailed, and that the engine with its inhabitants had fallen to the ground, from the walls of the city, into which from the machine he had descended before the fire together with Peter the Lombard, [0570C] a most illustrious soldier, leapt down with swift foot, because no help was being brought to them, and they stood on the rampart next to the walls unhurt. But the Saracens, seeing them to have fallen near the walls, strove to crush the men with iron-shod stakes and an immense mass of stones; but with God protecting, and with a very strong helmet sustaining the frequent blows, they returned alive and unharmed to the fellowship of the Christians. The duke therefore, seeing his most daring soldiers thus collapse with grievous death and ruin, others extinguished and burned, others enervated, and the whole work of the engine consumed by swift slaughter and edacious flame, and very many of the Christian fellowship lose heart and contemplate flight, sad and grieving, began to call back all the despairing to the assault of the city, to the destruction of the adversaries, to the strengthening of the siege, [0570D] saying: Ah! wretched and useless men, for what did you go out from your land and your kin, if not that you might give your souls even unto death for the name of Jesus, and for the redemption of Holy Church and the liberation of your brothers?

Ecce civitas haec, et universae nationes in circuitu, Jerusalem urbi inimicantur, et insidiantur saluti nostrae; quarum haec una est, quam obsedistis. Videte ne deficiatis a proposito vestro, et tam viliter effeminati, hanc urbem insuperatam relinquatis. Agite ergo poenitentiam luxuriae vestrae faedissimae, quam in hac via sancta incesti exercuistis, et omnium iniquitatum vestrarum, quibus gratiam Dei offendistis; et sic Dominum coeli, apud quem non est iniquitas, venia et confessione delictorum vestrorum [0571A] purgati, facite vobis placabilem; quia sine illo nihil potestis facere.

Behold, this city, and all the nations round about, are inimical to the city Jerusalem, and lie in ambush against our salvation; of which this is one, which you have besieged. See that you do not fail from your purpose, and, so basely effeminated, leave this city unconquered. Do therefore penance for your most foul luxury, which on this holy way you have exercised in incest, and for all your iniquities, by which you have offended the grace of God; and thus the Lord of heaven, with whom there is no iniquity, by pardon and confession of your offenses [0571A] purified, make propitious to yourselves; because without him you can do nothing.

CAP. V. - Populo poenitentia indicitur, sed concremata simili machina, iterum plectitur.

CHAPTER 5. - Penance is enjoined upon the people, but, burned up by a similar machine, it is punished again.

Ad hanc ducis vocem et admonitionem universi fugae intenti et timore concussi, tunc solatio roborati, obsidionem circa Assur amplius et validius quam antea firmaverunt, donec et altera machina iterato fabricata muris applicaretur, per quam civitas capta redderetur. In hac tandem repertis omnibus, crastina luce primum exorta, Arnolfus cancellarius sepulcri Dominici, clericus illustris et Deo devotus, ipsam ducem et universos magnos et parvos coepit redarguere de perfidia et duritia cordis qua in fratres suos, Gerhardum et Lambertum, malo [0571B] affixos et apud Assyrios obsides derelictos, peccaverunt. Idcirco omnes de hac impietate cunctorumque foeditate delictorum ad confessionem et correctionem paterne cohortatus est.

At this word and admonition of the duke, all, intent on flight and shaken by fear, then strengthened by consolation, made the siege around Assur more ample and more forceful than before, until another machine, fabricated anew, should be applied to the walls, through which the city would be rendered as taken. In this one at length, with everything found and prepared, when the next day’s light had first arisen, Arnulf, chancellor of the Lord’s Sepulcher, a distinguished cleric and devoted to God, began to rebuke the duke herself and all, great and small, for the perfidy and hardness of heart with which they sinned against his brothers, Gerhard and Lambert, fastened to a stake [0571B] and left among the Assyrians as hostages. Therefore he in a fatherly way exhorted all, on account of this impiety and the foulness of everyone’s offenses, to confession and correction.

Sic itaque eo adhortante ad compunctionem cordis, et veniam culparum suarum, lacrymis profusis in unam eriguntur voluntatem ad urbis obsidionem, rursumque componentes machinam et tormenta lapidum, longa tempora circa muros expleverunt. Ad instar vero magnitudine prioris machinae altera haec machina facta et composita, muris civitatis in virtute loricatorum ac multitudine virorum et mulierum trans vallum applicata est, et in ejus coenaculis viri fortissimi et audaces ad pugnam civibus inferendam constituti sunt. Haec autem machina dum sic trans vallum [0571C] traheretur, ut muros civitatis plurimum sublimitate superaret, virique ex ea areu, jaculis ac lanceis moenia oppugnarent, cives etiam in moenibus consistentes graviter vexarent, simili jaculatione palorum ignitorum, ut priorem machinam, Sarraceni eam infixerunt, quousque flamma suscitata invalescens crates, postes, trabes invasit ac combussit.

Thus therefore, with him so exhorting to compunction of heart and to pardon of their faults, with tears poured forth they are lifted up into one will for the besieging of the city, and again, putting together the machine and the stone-throwing engines, they spent long times around the walls. But a second machine, made and composed to the likeness in magnitude of the former machine, was applied to the walls of the city, across the rampart, by the valor of the armored men and by a multitude of men and women; and in its upper rooms very brave and bold men were stationed for bringing battle upon the citizens. Now while this machine was thus drawn across the rampart [0571C], so that it surpassed the walls of the city very much in height, and the men from it were assaulting the walls with the bow, javelins, and lances, and were grievously harassing the citizens standing upon the ramparts, by a similar hurling of ignited stakes, as the former machine, the Saracens fastened into it, until the flame, having been aroused and increasing in strength, invaded and consumed the lattices, posts, and beams.

Mox ad exstinguendam machinam de omni exercitu et tentoriis concurrunt viri ac mulieres, aquam singuli in singulis vasis afferentes. Sed minime profecit tanta aquarum suffusio. Nam hujus ignis genus aqua erat inexstinguibile, et flamma magna et insuperabilis, ideoque machina nequaquam potuit exstingui, donec penitus combusta ruinam magnam faciens, quamplurimos virorum ac mulierum [0571D] circumstantium diversis plagis attrivit.

Soon, to extinguish the machine, men and women from the whole army and the tents converged, each bringing water in individual vessels. But so great a suffusion of waters availed nothing at all. For this kind of fire was inextinguishable by water, and the flame was great and insuperable; and therefore the machine could by no means be quenched, until, utterly burned, making a great collapse, it battered very many of the men and women [0571D] standing around with various wounds.

Alii ibidem mortui, alii membrorum laesione enervati jacebant, quidam semineces quassatis visceribus purpureum sanguinem vomebant; alii flammis suffocati, a nemine liberari valentes, misere periclitabantur. Unus erat dolor pereuntium, nulla quies.

Others lay dead on the spot; others, enervated by injury of their limbs, lay prostrate; certain men, half-dead, with their vitals shaken, were vomiting purple blood; others, suffocated by the flames, unable to be freed by anyone, were miserably in peril. One was the sorrow of the perishing, no rest.

CAP. VI. - Soluta obsidione Assur, Boemundus et Baldewinus sanctam civitatem ingrediuntur.

CHAPTER 6. - With the siege of Assur lifted, Bohemond and Baldwin enter the Holy City.

Nihil his ingeniis duce proficiente, consilio suorum accepto, eo quod civitas Assur, hoc tempore gravissimae hiemis inchoante, prae frigore et nive insuperabilis haberetur, Jerusalem Decembri mense mediato rediit; sed centum equites cum ducentis peditibus Rames vel Ramae attitulavit, qui assidue [0572A] cives Assur impugnarent, ac bello lacesserent. Cives vero praecaventes, ne aliquis impetus aut insidiae illorum ex improviso nocerent, nequaquam longe a muris procedebant. Unde milites ducis sata et vineta illorum per singulos dies depraedabantur.

With the leader making no progress by these stratagems, having taken counsel of his own men, because the city of Assur, with the most grievous winter beginning at this time, was held to be insuperable on account of cold and snow, he returned to Jerusalem in mid-December; but he stationed one hundred horsemen with two hundred foot-soldiers at Rames or Rama, who should assiduously [0572A] attack the citizens of Assur and provoke them to war. The citizens, however, taking precautions lest any assault or ambush of theirs should harm them unexpectedly, by no means advanced far from the walls. Whence the leader’s soldiers depredated their sown fields and vineyards every single day.

Tandem iidem milites Christiani videntes quia nihil insidiis aut assultu proficerent, Jerusalem et ipsi reversi, per spatium duorum mensium se ab omni impetu et infestatione continuerunt. Sic securi facti viri Assur et adversitatis nihil ultra aestimantes, in negotiis suis paulatim ab urbe procedebant incaute, et vites agrosque excolebant. Boemundus secus civitatem Antiochiae audita Christianorum victoria, et Godefridi ducis gloria et exaltatione in Jerusalem, ex verbis et relatione Roberti Flandrensis, Roberti [0572B] Northmannorum principis et caeterorum redeuntium, Baldewino ejusdem ducis fratre admonito per legatos, viam Jerusalem insistere decrevit ad visitandum locum Domini sepulcri.

At length the same Christian soldiers, seeing that they were making no progress by ambushes or by assault, they too returned to Jerusalem, and for the span of two months kept themselves from every attack and infestation. Thus the men of Assur, made secure and reckoning nothing further of adversity, were gradually going out from the city incautiously about their business, and were cultivating the vines and fields. Bohemond, near the city of Antioch, upon hearing of the Christians’ victory, and of Duke Godfrey’s glory and exaltation in Jerusalem, from the words and relation of Robert of Flanders, Robert, prince of the Northmen [0572B], and the others returning, Baldwin, the same duke’s brother, having been admonished by legates, resolved to take up the road to Jerusalem to visit the place of the Lord’s sepulcher.

Quibus Dagobertus Pisanus episcopus cum omni comitatu suo longo tempore (trium mensium) in regione commoratus Laodiceae, nunc in via hac adjunctus est; datisque muneribus, cum utrisque pactus est amicitiam de die in diem in omni sermone et actione simulatae religionis, cunctis nimium acceptus. Natali autem Domini in proximo facto, praefati principes cum ingenti honore et comitatu Christianorum Jerusalem sunt ingressi, duce Godefrido gloriose eis occurrente, et prae gaudio nimioque desiderio eos videndi, pia eis oscula faciente.

To whom Dagobert, the Pisan bishop, having tarried with all his retinue for a long time (three months) in the region at Laodicea, is now joined on this journey; and, gifts having been given, with both parties he made a pact of friendship from day to day in every discourse and action of feigned religion, being exceedingly well-received by all. But with the Nativity of the Lord close at hand, the aforesaid princes entered Jerusalem with immense honor and a retinue of Christians, Duke Godfrey gloriously going out to meet them and, for joy and an excessive desire to see them, bestowing pious kisses upon them.

CAP. VII. - De ambitione patriarchatus Pisani episcopi.

CHAPTER 7. - On the ambition of the patriarchate of the Pisan bishop.

Aliquot deinde diebus transactis, episcopus Pisanus, multum fautoribus Baldewino et Boemundo sibi conquisitis, duci adeo gratus et dilectus fieri coepit, quousque ad patriarchatus dignitatem provehi meruit, collatione potius pecuniae quam dilectione novae ecclesiae. Idem vero Dagobertus, cum adhuc Pisanus esset episcopus, ab Urbano Romanorum summo pontifice in Hispaniam directus in legationem Christiani cultus et religionis, honorifice ab rege, Alfonso nomine, susceptus est, et ab omnibus episcopis et archiepiscopis regni illius in obedientia et charitate quin et muneribus pretiosis ac magnificis, tam in auro quam in argento et ostro ab [0572D] ipso rege cunctisque primoribus ditatus et honoratus est. Innotuit etiam plurimis quomodo arietem aureum miri decoris et operis idem rex illustris per manum ejusdem Dagoberti domino apostolico charitatis causa dono miserit: quem ille cum caetera undecunque collecta pecunia inardescens avaritia, celando retinuit.

After several days had then passed, the Pisan bishop, having procured many supporters for himself in Baldwin and Bohemond, began to become so pleasing and beloved to the duke, until he merited to be advanced to the dignity of the patriarchate, by the collation rather of money than by the love of the new church. That same Dagobert, while he was still bishop of Pisa, was sent into Spain by Urban, the supreme pontiff of the Romans, on a legation of Christian cult and religion, and was honorably received by the king, Alfonso by name, and by all the bishops and archbishops of that realm in obedience and charity, and indeed even with precious and magnificent gifts; both in gold and in silver and in purple, by [0572D] the king himself and all the chief men he was enriched and honored. It also became known to many how that same illustrious king, through the hand of that same Dagobert, had sent to the apostolic lord, for the sake of charity, a golden ram of wondrous adornment and workmanship as a gift: which he, inflamed with avarice, together with the other money collected from wherever, retained by concealing it.

Et, ut pro vero aiunt, quibus res patuit, hanc massam grandis talenti et arietis aurei, mortuo Urbano pontifice, Jerusalem detulit ac Boemundum Baldewinumque corrumpens, Godofrido duci arietem et caetera munera contulit: sicque patriarchatus honore sublimatus est.

And, as those to whom the matter was evident say, in truth, he brought to Jerusalem this mass of a great talent and the golden ram; and, corrupting Bohemond and Baldwin, he conferred upon Duke Godfrey the ram and the other gifts: and thus he was exalted to the honor of the patriarchate.

CAP. VIII. - Principes cum duce Jordanem adierunt.

CHAPTER 8. - The princes went to the Jordan with the duke.

Jam Dagoberto in cathedra Hierosolymitanorum sedis patriarcha constituto, et consecrato a Roberto [0573A] episcopo civitatis Rama, quam vulgariter nominant Rames, et Natali Domini in omni jucunditate et laetitia a viris catholicis et principibus celebrato, Boemundus, Baldewinus et ipse patriarcha a duce impetraverunt ut sic iter moderarentur, quatenus ad Jordanis flumen in vigilia Epiphaniae Domini convenirent, ubi Dominus Jesus a Joanne baptizari dignatus est. Qui voluntati et desiderio eorum satisfaciens, in omni apparatu et virtute peditum et equitum cum eis ad ipsum flumen descendit: in quo prae gaudio loti sunt et delectati. Post haec Baldewinus et Boemundus in omni hilaritate et mutua gratia cum duce laetati, illic in regione Jordanis, dato cum lacrymis osculo, ad invicem dissociati sunt: Godefridus cum patriarcha reversus Jerusalem, [0573B] Boemundus vero et Baldewinus Antiochiam et Rohas reversi sunt.

Now with Dagobert established on the chair of the see of the Jerusalemites as patriarch, and consecrated by Robert [0573A] bishop of the city of Rama, which in the vernacular they call Rames, and with the Nativity of the Lord celebrated in all pleasantness and gladness by catholic men and princes, Bohemund, Baldwin, and the patriarch himself obtained from the duke that they should so regulate the journey that they might meet at the river Jordan on the vigil of the Epiphany of the Lord, where the Lord Jesus deigned to be baptized by John. He, satisfying their will and desire, descended with them to that river with every equipment and force of foot-soldiers and horsemen; in which, for joy, they bathed and made merry. After this Baldwin and Bohemund, in all cheerfulness and mutual favor rejoicing with the duke, there in the region of the Jordan, a kiss being given with tears, were separated from one another: Godfrey with the patriarch returned to Jerusalem, [0573B] but Bohemund and Baldwin returned to Antioch and Rohas.

CAP. IX. - Ubi cives Assur gravi membrorum abscissione multantur.

CHAPTER 9. - Where the citizens of Assur are punished with grievous amputation of limbs.

Dehinc mense Februario mediante, cives Assur, dum secure de die in diem in omnibus negotiis studerent et pacifice ad excolendas vineas et agros procederent, quidam Sarracenus ex civibus urbis Assur, ut gratiam inveniret in oculis ducis, omnia propalavit, quam securi et nullius mortis respectum habentes, ab urbe cives exirent ad omnia quae eis erant necessaria. Dux autem, Sarraceno audito, benigne illi in omnibus aurem adhibuit, et curam ejus egit ut sic magis viro blandiretur: unde ab illo [0573C] traditore dies designata est qua illos in vineis agrisque laborantes alios occidere, alios posset comprehendere. Eadem itaque die illucescente, Godefridus dux quadraginta milites armatos juxta Rames in insidiis constituit.

Then, with February at its midpoint, the citizens of Assur, while they were busily applying themselves day by day to all their affairs and proceeding peaceably to cultivate vineyards and fields, a certain Saracen from among the citizens of the city of Assur, that he might find favor in the eyes of the duke, divulged everything: how securely, and with no regard for death, the citizens would go out from the city for all the things that were necessary to them. The duke, upon hearing the Saracen, kindly lent him an ear in all things, and looked after his concern so as thereby to flatter the man the more; whereupon by that [0573C] traitor a day was appointed, on which he might be able to kill some of those working in the vineyards and fields, and seize others. Therefore, at daybreak on the same day, Duke Godfrey posted forty armed soldiers in ambush near Rames.

Qui Sarracenos ad mille egressos repentino impetu equorum agressi sunt, et eos saevo vulnere interimentes, supra quingentos naribus amputatis et manibus aut pedibus in campo semivivos reliquerunt, ipsi vero victores cum captivis uxoribus eorum et pueris Jerusalem reversi sunt. Cognita hac strage gravissima, tota civitas Assur dolore et lamentis commota est et universi in ea habitantes: qui sine dilatione regi Babyloniae tam crudelis famae et damni nuntios miserunt.

They attacked the Saracens, about a thousand who had gone out, with a sudden charge of horses, and, dispatching them with a savage wound, they left more than 500, with their nostrils cut off and their hands or feet cut off, half-alive in the field; but the victors themselves returned to Jerusalem with their prisoners—their wives and children. Once this most grievous slaughter was known, the whole city of Assur was stirred with grief and laments, and all who dwelt in it: who without delay sent to the king of Babylonia messengers of so cruel a report and loss.

CAP. X. - Milites decem Christiani triginta equites gentilium fugant et necant. [0573D]

CHAPTER 10. - Ten Christian soldiers put to flight and slay thirty horsemen of the gentiles. [0573D]

Audito quidem tam crudeli nuntio Meravis, qui post regem secundus imperat, et cujus voci omnes cives et universae civitates de regno Babyloniae obediunt, turbatus est vehementer statimque centum equites Arabes et ducentos Azopart mittere se promisit ad subveniendum civibus urbemque tuendam: non enim passus est ad aures domini regis Babyloniae Ammirabilis tam gravem legationem pervenire, ne cor ejus nimium gravaretur. Intellecto hoc solamine, quod promiserat Meravis, multum gavisi sunt cives Assur, et ab illo die portis apertis, ipsi et omnia armenta secure in agros procedebant, sed non tamen longe ab urbe. Deinde octo diebus transactis [0574A] auxilium et vires regis Babyloniae illis adfuerunt, centum equites Arabes et ducenti Azopart: quorum jussione et consolatione longius quam solebant ab urbe et porta procedere praesumebant.

Having heard indeed such a cruel message, Meravis, who commands second after the king, and to whose voice all the citizens and all the cities of the kingdom of Babylon obey, was greatly troubled, and straightway promised to send 100 Arab horsemen and 200 Azoparts to succor the citizens and to defend the city: for he did not allow so grave a legation to come to the ears of the lord king of Babylon, the Admiral, lest his heart be overburdened. With this solace understood, which Meravis had promised, the citizens of Assur rejoiced greatly, and from that day, with the gates open, they themselves and all the herds were going forth safely into the fields, yet not, however, far from the city. Then, 8 days having passed [0574A] the aid and forces of the king of Babylon were present to them, 100 Arab horsemen and 200 Azoparts: at whose bidding and consolation they presumed to go forth farther than they were accustomed from the city and the gate.

Audito tandem in Jerusalem adventu illorum, surrexerunt clam duce decem milites Christianorum, et in termino Rametis constiterunt ad explorandam rei veritatem, utrum milites Babyloniae adfuissent in auxilium urbis Assur. Qui protinus quinque armigeros direxerunt ante moenia urbis ad lacessendos et producendos viros, quorum fama erat; ipsi vero decem in campestria Assur descenderunt. Armigeris autem discurrentibus in equis ante moenia urbis ex decreto decem militum, triginta equites Arabum ab urbe subito exierunt armati, eosque graviter insecuti [0574B] sunt, post tergum relictis insidiis.

Having at last heard of their arrival in Jerusalem, ten soldiers of the Christians rose up secretly from the commander, and took their stand at the boundary of Rametis to explore the truth of the matter, whether the soldiers of Babylonia had been present to aid the city of Assur. They straightway sent five armigers before the walls of the city to provoke and draw out the men whose fame was abroad; but the ten themselves descended into the plains of Assur. And as the armigers were galloping about on horseback before the city walls by the decree of the ten soldiers, thirty Arab horsemen, armed, suddenly came out from the city, and heavily pursued them [0574B], with an ambush left behind their backs.

Armigeri vero quantocius equorum velocitate ad decem equites Christianorum fugam inierunt. Quibus ad subveniendum decem domini sui illico in equis et armis adfuerunt; et triginta Arabes in fugam remittentes, usque ad portas et moenia Assur eos persecuti sunt, tres illorum in momento perimentes; quorum capita ab armigeris amputata, cum equis et spoliis eorum afferentes, Jerusalem cum gaudio reversi sunt.

But the squires, as quickly as possible by the speed of their horses, entered upon flight to the ten Christian knights. For their ten lords, to bring them succor, were immediately present on horseback and in arms; and sending the thirty Arabs into flight, they pursued them up to the gates and walls of Assur, slaying three of them in a moment; and, their heads having been cut off by the squires, bringing their horses and spoils, they returned to Jerusalem with joy.

CAP. XI. - Apud Assur iterum Babylonici a ducis militibus detruncantur.

CHAPTER 11. - At Assur again the Babylonians are hewn down by the duke’s soldiers.

Comperta hac victoria, et tam laudabili audacia decem equitum, dux et universi sui laetati sunt. Unde centum et quadraginta equites convocans, in [0574C] insidiis versus Rames conductu Werneri de Greis, ac Roberti probi militis de Apulia, ituros constituit, ut Arabes milites aliqua arte lacessitos, et ab urbe Assur productos circumvenientes, aliquid insigne cum eis molirentur. Manserunt itaque hi milites Christiani ducis juxta Rames in insidiis duobus diebus donec cives Assur tertia die egressi fiducia suorum militum per agros cum gregibus suis, ignari totius infestationis, vagari secure coeperunt.

With this victory discovered, and with such laudable audacity of the ten knights, the duke and all his men rejoiced. Whence, convening one hundred and forty knights, in [0574C] ambushes toward Rames, under the conduct of Werner of Greis and of Robert, a knight of probity from Apulia, he appointed them to go, so that, the Arab soldiers having been provoked by some art and drawn out from the city of Assur, by surrounding them they might contrive something notable against them. Accordingly these Christian soldiers of the duke remained near Rames in ambush for two days, until on the third day the citizens of Assur, going out in confidence of their own soldiers, through the fields with their flocks, ignorant of the whole infestation, began to wander securely.

Illis vero sine respectu periculi vagantibus, viginti milites continuo ab insidiis et societate Christianorum egressi, praedam undique contraxerunt, vi etiam abducentes; sed mox a militibus Assur excussa est. Ad haec tota manus Christianorum consurgens ab insidiis fortiter assilierunt; milites quoque Arabum [0574D] et Azopart omnesque pedites illorum idem fecerunt et utrinque grave commissum est praelium. Tandem Christiani praevalentes, plurimam partem illorum occiderunt praedamque retinentes cum plurimis equis et captis ibidem militibus in gloria et jucunditate Jerusalem reversi sunt.

But as they, wandering without regard to danger, twenty soldiers, straightway coming out from the ambush and company of the Christians, gathered booty from every side, carrying it off even by force; but soon it was wrested away by the soldiers of Assur. At this the whole band of Christians, rising from the ambush, bravely assailed; the soldiers also of the Arabs [0574D] and of Azopart, and all their foot-soldiers, did the same, and on both sides a grievous battle was joined. At length the Christians prevailing, they killed a very great part of them, and, retaining the booty, with very many horses and soldiers captured there, returned to Jerusalem in glory and jocundity.

Residui autem Sarraceni, qui pauci vix evaserant, cum fama luctuosa Babyloniam reversi sunt, et regis iram Babyloniorumque metum adauxisse nulli dubium habeatur. Dux denique Godefridus de prospero eventu suorum non ad modicum laetatus est.

The remaining Saracens, who, few, had scarcely escaped, returned to Babylonia with lugubrious tidings, and let it be held without doubt that they augmented the ire of the king and the fear of the Babylonians. Finally, Duke Godfrey, at the prosperous event of his men, rejoiced not a little.

CAP. XII. - Assur civitas facta est tributaria, et Joppe instauratur.

CHAPTER 12. - Assur the city has been made tributary, and Joppe is restored.

Sic tandem civitas Assur taedio affecta, nec regis [0575A] sui auxilio videns se posse resistere, pacem composuit, claves portarum et turrium duci obtulit, facta ei tributaria. Cujus tributa Roberto, militi praeclaro de Apulia, pro conventione solidorum a duce concessa sunt. Post haec dux volens adhuc amplius urgere et subjugare civitatem Ascalonem, et caeteras urbes sub regno Babyloniae deprimere et debellare Joppen, quae vulgariter Japhet dicitur, antiquo ex termino dirutam reaedificari murisque muniri constituit, quatenus illic portus navium fieret, et ab hac caeteris gentilium civitatibus locus esset resistendi ac nocendi.

Thus at length the city Assur, affected by weariness, and seeing that it could not resist with the aid of its own king [0575A], made peace, offered the keys of the gates and towers to the duke, having been made tributary to him. Its tributes were granted to Robert, a most distinguished soldier from Apulia, for a convention of solidi, by the duke. After these things the duke, wishing still further to press and subjugate the city Ascalon, and to depress the other cities under the kingdom of Babylon and to bring Joppe to an end by war, which is vulgarly called Japhet, determined that it, torn down from ancient time to its foundations, should be rebuilt and fortified with walls, so that there a harbor of ships might be made, and from this there might be for the other gentile cities a place of resisting and of harming.

Firmata ac munita civitate Japhet, ab omnibus regnis et insulis Christianorum mercatores vitae necessaria afferentes ad ejus portum accedebant; peregrini quoque adventantes usquequaque secure [0575B] illuc descendebant, corpora sua hospitio et quiete curantes.

With the city of Japhet made firm and fortified, merchants from all the kingdoms and islands of the Christians, bringing the necessities of life, approached its port; pilgrims also, arriving from everywhere, securely [0575B] went down thither, tending their bodies with lodging and rest.

CAP. XIII. - Principes circumjacentium civitatum munerarios se duci sponte offerunt.

CHAPTER 13. - The princes of the surrounding cities of their own accord offer themselves to the duke as tribute-payers.

Sarraceni autem dolentes et tristes facti sunt, eo quod ab hac civitate reaedificata et instaurata universae civitates gentilium in circuitu subjugandae, debellandae ac devastandae essent, Christianorumque vires per mare adventantes de die in diem augerentur. Quid adversus hoc facerent, gentiles nihil melius senserunt in omni consilio, nisi ut legatio ab Ascalone, Caesarea et Ptolemaide vel Accaron ad salutandum ducem maturaretur ex parte ammiraldorum praedictarum urbium. Nec mora, legatio ad aures ducis et omnium primatum suorum Jerusalem [0575C] in hunc modum delata est: Ammiraldus Ascalonis, ammiraldus Caesareae, similiter ammiraldus Ptolemaidis, duci Godefrido in omnibus salutem.

But the Saracens were made grieving and sad, because from this city having been rebuilt and restored all the cities of the gentiles around were to be subjugated, conquered, and devastated, and the forces of the Christians arriving by sea were increasing from day to day. What they should do against this, the gentiles in all their counsel perceived nothing better, except that an embassy should be hastened from Ascalon, Caesarea, and Ptolemais or Accaron to greet the duke, on behalf of the admirals of the aforesaid cities. Without delay, the embassy was conveyed to the ears of the duke and of all his chiefs at Jerusalem [0575C] in this manner: The Admiral of Ascalon, the Admiral of Caesarea, likewise the Admiral of Ptolemais, to Duke Godfrey, greeting in all things.

Exoramus te, ducem gloriosissimum ac magnificum, quatenus gratia et concessu tuo cives nostri securi et pacifice ad negotia sua procedant. Et decem valentes equos mulosque tres, corpore elegantes, tibi mittemus; ac singulis mensibus quinque millia byzantiorum in ratione tributorum reddituri sumus. Hoc pacto nimium pax facta et firmata est, quin abhinc amicitia fieri coepit de die in diem, precipue inter ducem et ammiraldum civitatis Ascalonis, et donorum copiae duci accrescebant in frumento, vino, hordeo et oleo plus quam dici et memorari possit.

We beseech you, most glorious and magnificent duke, that by your grace and grant our citizens may proceed safely and peaceably to their business. And we will send to you ten strong horses and three mules, elegant of body; and each month we shall render five thousand bezants by way of tribute. By this pact, peace was made and confirmed to an exceeding degree; indeed from then on friendship began to grow from day to day, especially between the duke and the admiral of the city of Ascalon, and the abundance of gifts to the duke increased in grain, wine, barley, and oil beyond what can be said and recalled.

Similiter Caesarea et Accaron, datis muneribus auri et argenti, pacem et [0575D] securitatem obtinebant. Incubuit enim timor Christianissimi ducis universas terras et regiones gentium.

Similarly Caesarea and Accaron, with gifts of gold and silver given, were obtaining peace and [0575D] security. For the fear of the most Christian duke lay upon all the lands and regions of the nations.

CAP. XIV. - De eodem, et quod dux pacem statuerit per terram.

CHAPTER 14. - Of the same, and that the duke established peace throughout the land.

Principes dehinc Arabiae famam ducis tam gloriosissimam intelligentes, pacem et ipsi pariter et amicitiam cum eo componebant, sub hac conditione, ut pacifice Jerusalem et Joppen sui mercatores, omnia corpori necessaria afferentes, sine interdictione cum Christianis pretio mutuarent. Quod sic actum est: et allata sunt abundanter universa tam Joppen quam Jerusalem in armentis, bobus, ovibus et equis, vestibus et annona, et omnia aequo pretio cum Christianis [0576A] mutuabant: et sic laetitia magna in populo facta est. Omnem vero commutationem et egressionem per mare omnibus gentilibus interdixit.

Then the princes of Arabia, understanding the most glorious renown of the duke, likewise themselves composed peace and friendship with him, under this condition: that their merchants might peacefully to Jerusalem and to Joppa bring all things necessary for the body, and without interdiction exchange them with the Christians for a price. Which was so done: and all things were brought in abundance both to Joppa and to Jerusalem—in herds, oxen, sheep and horses, garments and provisions—and they exchanged everything at an equal price with the Christians [0576A]: and so great joy was made among the people. But every commutation and egression by sea he interdicted to all the Gentiles.

Erant enim custodes et insidiae diffusae per mare, ne quidquam gentiles navigio suis civitatibus inferrent unde civitates, necessariis opibus abundantes et confisae factae, rebelles superbirent, et foedere neglecto, quod cum duce pepigerant, exaltatae resisterent. Si qui vero ab Alexandria, Damiata vel Africa navigio veniebant, cum opibus suis a militibus ducis capti detruncabantur. Similiter Sarraceni Christianis nullam in mari pacem servabant; solummodo pacem et foedus utrinque statuerunt super terram.

For there were guards and ambushes spread over the sea, lest the Gentiles bring by ship to their cities anything whence the cities, abounding in necessary resources and made confident, would grow proudly rebellious and, the foedus they had struck with the leader neglected, being exalted, would resist. But if any were coming by ship from Alexandria, Damietta, or Africa, captured by the leader’s soldiers together with their goods, they were cut down. Likewise the Saracens kept no peace with the Christians on the sea; only on land did they mutually establish peace and a pact.

Haec pax nimium adeo inter ducem et ammiraldum Ascalonis esse coepit, ut cives illius pacifice cum [0576B] rebus venalibus penetrarent, et viri Christiani similiter Ascalonem sine impedimento proficiscerentur.

This peace began to be so exceedingly between the duke and the admiral of Ascalon, that the citizens of that place would enter peacefully with [0576B] wares for sale, and Christian men likewise would set out to Ascalon without impediment.

CAP. XV. - Supra dictus Gerhardus incolumis remissus beneficiis honoratur.

CHAPTER 15. - The aforesaid Gerhard, sent back safe and sound, is honored with benefices.

Cum haec pax tantum cresceret, et amicitiae magis ac magis jungerentur, quadam die idem praeses et ammiraldus Ascalonis Gerhardum de praesidio Avennis, ab omni plaga curatum, honorifice vestibus indutum et equo optimo impositum, duci Christianissimo Jerusalem dono remisit: quem multis jam diebus in Assur obiisse dux et universi Christiani existimabant, nescientes quod a malo depositus, ab Assur eidem ammiraldo missus fuisset. Dux itaque, viso et incolumi recepto Gerhardo, dilecto milite [0576C] suo et egregio adolescente, gavisus est vehementer. Cui statim in remunerationem sui magni laboris maxima terrae beneficia centum marcarum cum castello, quod dicitur ad S. Abraham, in praesentia omnium fidelium qui aderant, largitus est.

As this peace grew so much, and friendships were more and more joined, on a certain day the same prefect and admiral of Ascalon sent back Gerhard from the garrison of Avennis, healed of every wound, honorably clothed in garments and set upon an excellent horse, as a gift to the most Christian duke of Jerusalem: whom for many days now the duke and all the Christians supposed to have died in Assur, not knowing that, taken down from the gallows, he had been sent from Assur to the same admiral. Therefore the duke, when he saw and received Gerhard safe and sound, his beloved soldier [0576C] and outstanding adolescent, rejoiced exceedingly. To whom at once, in remuneration for his great labor, he bestowed very great landed benefices of one hundred marks, together with the castle which is called at St. Abraham, in the presence of all the faithful who were present.

Coepit denique ab ea die super terram magis ac magis pax hinc et hinc multiplicari, donec taedio facta est militibus Galliae pugnacibus.

At length from that day peace upon the earth began more and more to be multiplied on this side and that, until it became a tedium to the pugnacious soldiers of Gaul.

CAP. XVI. - De pertinacia Grossi Rustici.

CHAPTER 16. - Concerning the pertinacity of Grossus Rusticus.

Post haec non multa mora Tankradus duci Jerusalem occurrit in adventu Natalis Domini a praesidio Tabariae, quod dux idem vallo et insuperabili munitione in montis arduo reaedificaverat, et Tankradus dono ducis ad tuendum susceperat: valde tunc conquestus et auxilium petens, eo quod terra et civitas [0576D] Grossi Rustici, regno Aegypti adjacentes, sibi rebellarent et redditus reddere dedignarentur. Hoc dux audito et moleste accepto, post dies octo precibus Tankradi satisfaciens, ducentis equitibus et mille peditibus terram regionesque Grossi Rustici ingressus est, et praeda innumerabili undique contracta, homines gentiles alios trucidari, alios jussit captivari, caetera vero omnia in flammas et caedes usquequaque redegit. Moram itaque in regione hac duce per dies octo strage et incendio faciente, Grossus Rusticus, princeps regionis, legationem direxit propter auxilium Turcorum, si forte viribus illorum fretus, duci occurrens, resistere posset.

After these things, with not much delay, Tancred met the Duke of Jerusalem at the approach of the Nativity of the Lord, from the garrison of Tabaria, which the same duke had rebuilt with a rampart and an insuperable fortification on the steep of the mountain, and which Tancred, as the duke’s gift, had received to guard: then greatly complaining and seeking help, because the land and city [0576D] of Grossus Rusticus, adjacent to the kingdom of Egypt, were rebelling against him and disdained to render revenues. The duke, having heard this and taken it ill, after eight days, satisfying the prayers of Tancred, with two hundred horsemen and one thousand foot-soldiers entered the land and regions of Grossus Rusticus, and, with booty innumerable gathered from every side, he ordered some of the gentile men to be slaughtered, others to be taken captive, but he reduced all the rest everywhere to flames and slaughters. Therefore, with the duke making a stay in this region for eight days, dealing out carnage and conflagration, Grossus Rusticus, the prince of the region, sent a legation for the help of the Turks, if perchance, relying on their forces, by meeting the duke he might be able to resist.

Hic princeps appellatus est a Gallis Grossus Rusticus prae nimia [0577A] pinguique corpulentia vilique persona in qua totus rusticus esse videbatur. Princeps vero Turcorum et rex Damascenorum illius audita legatione, quingentos Turcos sine mora illi misit in auxilium. Jam Christiani milites post diutinam et nimiam stragem de terra Rustici exierunt, duce semper cum praeda gregis et vestium caeterarumque rerum in fronte gradiente; Tankrado vero a longe post tergum cum centum equitibus custodiam faciente.

This prince was called by the Gauls “Grossus Rusticus” on account of his excessive and greasy corpulence and his cheap persona, in which he seemed to be wholly rustic. But the prince of the Turks and the king of the Damascenes, his embassy having been heard, sent 500 Turks to him without delay for aid. By now the Christian soldiers, after a long-continued and excessive slaughter, had gone out from the land of Rusticus, the duke always marching at the front with booty of flocks and of garments and of other things; but Tancred, at a distance in the rear with 100 horsemen, was keeping guard.

Et ecce post paulum Turcorum milites cum festinatione visi sunt adesse. Quibus Tankradus non segniter occurrens, cum illis praelium commisit. Utrinque hac die bello gravati sunt, alii occisi, alii vulnerati; Tankradus vix elapsus est.

And behold, after a little while the soldiers of the Turks were seen to be at hand with haste. To meet them Tancred, not sluggishly, went out and engaged in battle with them. On both sides that day they were hard pressed in war, some killed, others wounded; Tancred scarcely escaped.

Vespere autem facto, dux et tota manus illius per campestria, positis armis, pernoctans [0577B] et ignorans quomodo Tankradus cum Turcis commiserat bellum, totus adhuc de eventu illius erat incertus, quousque ea nocte media incolumis ereptus est cum suis sodalibus, quorum aliqui sagittis gravati sunt. Dux vero ut intellexit quomodo Turci Tankradum a Damasco persecuti fuerint et cum eo bellum commiserint, jussit summo mane diei sequentis acies fieri, et Turcis eorum persecutoribus occurrere. Sed nec unus in regione hac repertus est.

But when evening had come, the duke and his whole band, through the plains, with arms set aside, spending the night [0577B] and not knowing how Tancred had engaged in battle with the Turks, was still wholly uncertain about the outcome of that, until at midnight of that night he was brought off safe with his comrades, some of whom were laden with arrows. But when the duke understood how the Turks had pursued Tancred from Damascus and had joined battle with him, he ordered at the break of dawn on the following day that the battle-lines be formed, and to go to meet the Turks, their pursuers. But not even one was found in this region.

Nam egregii ducis praesentiam nimium vicinam persentientes, per totam noctem in sua reversi sunt, ultra ab insecutione Tankradi cessantes. Post haec dux in Jerusalem rediit. Tankradus Tabariam cum suis pariter regressus, sexaginta milites secum habens, illic moram fecit, singulis diebus Damascum [0577C] et municipia Turcorum expugnans, et praedas a terra et regione eorum abducens.

For, keenly perceiving the presence of the distinguished duke as too near, throughout the whole night they returned to their own, ceasing further from the pursuit of Tancred. After these things the duke returned to Jerusalem. Tancred, having likewise gone back to Tiberias with his men, having sixty soldiers with him, made a stay there, each day storming Damascus [0577C] and the municipalities of the Turks, and carrying off spoils from their land and region.

Arx autem haec Tabaria sita est juxta locum, quem appellant mare Tiberiadis, duo milliaria habens in longitudine et duo in latitudine. Hanc a duce Christianissimo subjugatam cum praesidio restructo Tankradus obtinuit in beneficio, eo quod gratiam in oculis ipsius invenerit, in officio militari probus, et quia adversariis Christianorum indeficiens ad resistendum videretur.

Now this citadel, Tiberias, is situated next to the place which they call the Sea of Tiberias, having 2 miles in length and 2 in breadth. This, subjugated by the most Christian duke, with the garrison rebuilt, Tancred held in benefice, inasmuch as he had found favor in his eyes, being proven in military office, and because he seemed unfailing in resisting the adversaries of the Christians.

CAP. XVII. - Tankradi nuntios princeps Damascenus perdidit; terram ejus dux invadens, Grossum Rusticum ad foedus coegit.

CHAPTER 17. - The Damascene prince lost Tancred’s envoys; the duke, invading his land, compelled Grosso Rustico to a treaty.

Turci vero Tankradum de die in diem videntes invalescere, ducisque Godefridi vires illi semper [0577D] adesse, per aliquod tempus pacem cum eo decreverunt componere sub hac conditione, ut post hujus pacis terminum, communi consilio inito, aut sibi vellent subesse, aut omnino foedus cum illo refutarent subire. Tankradus super his cum duce sumpto consilio, acquievit Turcorum precibus, et plurima munera byzantiorum, auri et argenti et ostri ab eis et Grosso Rustico suscipiens, terram minime post hac bello commovit. Deinde transactis aliquantis diebus, Tankradus sex milites, viros disertos et peritissimos, direxit ad principem Turcorum Damasci, quatenus urbem sibi redderet et Christianitatis professionem assumeret, si tamen ejus dono vel consensu in aliqua parte regionis illius habitare [0578A] vel vivere vellet; alioquin propter aurum vel argentum vel caetera dona se illi amicitiam servare non posse.

But the Turks, seeing Tancred from day to day grow strong, and that the forces of Duke Godfrey were always [0577D] at hand for him, resolved for some time to compose peace with him under this condition: that, after the term of this peace, common counsel having been entered upon, they should either wish to be subject to him, or altogether refuse to undergo a pact with him. Tancred, having taken counsel with the duke on these matters, acceded to the prayers of the Turks, and, receiving many Byzantine gifts—of gold and silver and purple—from them and from Grossus Rusticus, he did not thereafter stir the land by war. Then, after some days had passed, Tancred sent six knights—eloquent and most expert men—to the prince of the Turks of Damascus, to the end that he should surrender the city to him and assume the profession of Christianity, if indeed by his grant or consent he would wish to dwell [0578A] or live in some part of that region; otherwise, that he could not keep friendship toward him on account of gold or silver or the other gifts.

His igitur auditis, princeps Damascenorum vehemente ira motus est, apprehensosque viros quinque decollari jussit; sextum autem quia Turcorum sectam arripuit, vitae reservari praecepit. Istorum tam egregiorum legatorum caede cruentissima ducis ad aures perlata, vehementer una cum Tankrado et omni Ecclesia turbatus est. Qui continuo accitis undique viribus equitum et peditum, in terram Damascenorum adversus interfectores fratrum descendit, per dies quindecim terram et regiones depopulatus, nemine sibi resistente.

Therefore, on hearing these things, the prince of the Damascenes was stirred with vehement wrath, and ordered the five apprehended men to be beheaded; but the sixth, because he had taken up the sect of the Turks, he commanded to be reserved to life. When the report of the most blood-stained slaughter of these most distinguished legates reached the ears of the duke, he was greatly disturbed, together with Tankradus and the whole Church. He, immediately, having summoned from every side forces of horse and foot, descended into the land of the Damascenes against the slayers of the brethren, and for fifteen days he laid waste the land and the regions, with no one resisting him.

Videns ergo princeps regionis, Grossus Rusticus, quia a facie Christianorum nil sibi nil Turcis intactum remanebat, [0578B] nolens volens foedus cum duce et Tankrado per cussit; Turcos vero renuit, quorum auxilio stare ante faciem Christianissimi ducis prorsus non valebat.

Therefore seeing the prince of the region, Grossus Rusticus, that from the face of the Christians nothing for himself, nothing for the Turks remained untouched, [0578B] willy-nilly he struck a treaty with the duke and with Tancred; but he refused the Turks, by whose aid he was by no means able to stand before the face of the most Christian duke.

CAP. XVIII. - Ubi dux gloriosus coepit aegrotare.

CHAPTER 18. - Where the glorious duke began to fall ill.

Hoc foedere cum principe praedicto confirmato sub ratione tributorum, dux per Ptolemaidem, Caesaream et Caiphas regredi disposuit: cui ammiraldus Caesareae in occursum veniens benigne prandium obtulit. Sed ille cibum contradicens, tantum de pomo cedri gustans cum omni mansuetudine et gratiarum actione, post modicum gravi infirmitate correptus est, divertensque Joppen episcopum et ducem Venetorum in apparatu copioso et armorum multitudine reperit. Cognito autem quod conchristiani essent et non [0578C] hostilis collectio, secreto hospitium, quod sibi novum construxerat, cum paucis subintravit.

With this pact with the aforesaid prince confirmed under the terms of tributes, the duke resolved to return by way of Ptolemais, Caesarea, and Caiphas; and the admiral of Caesarea, coming to meet him, kindly offered a luncheon. But he, refusing food, tasting only of a cedar-apple (citron), with all gentleness and thanksgiving, after a little while was seized by a grave infirmity; and turning aside to Joppa he found the bishop and the duke of the Venetians with lavish equipment and a multitude of arms. But when it was learned that they were fellow-Christians and not [0578C] a hostile gathering, he privately entered, with a few, the lodging which he had newly built for himself.

Nam molestia corporis accrescente premebatur. Cui quatuor ex suis collateralibus assistentes, alii pedes illius in gremio accipiebant, alii capiti ejus ad reclinandum pectus suum supponebant; quidam vero super ejus dolore nimium ac dolenter flebant, eo quod tanto principe destitui in hoc longo exsilio pertimescebant.

For, as the corporeal distress increased, he was pressed down. Four of his collaterals stood by him: some received his feet into their lap, others put their own breast beneath his head for him to recline; indeed certain ones wept exceedingly and dolorously over his pain, because they were greatly afraid to be left destitute of so great a prince in this long exile.

CAP. XIX. - Venetorum muneribus dux honoratur, ac deinde vehementius aegritudine premitur.

CHAPTER 19. - The duke is honored by the gifts of the Venetians, and thereafter is pressed more vehemently by illness.

Audientes ergo Christiani peregrini quomodo tantus princeps aegrotaret, gravi moerore et luctu concussi sunt, crebro visitandi gratia ad eum venientes: [0578D] inter quos ipse dux et episcopus Venetiarum, et eorum primates, introducti sunt ad salutandum ipsum ducem, videndum et colloquendum. Intromissi ergo, in vasis aureis et argenteis, ostro et veste pretiosa, mira et insolita dona duci obtulerunt ac dederunt, propter dilectionem et desiderium quod videndi eum semper habebant. Dux quidem Godefridus summa cum charitate ea quae obtulerant suscepit, et benigne eos allocutus, navali hospitio remisit, asserens se aliquantulum infirmitate detentum; sed in crastino, si ei quidquam remissius fuerit, in aspectu omnium se praesentare qui eum videre et cognoscere cupiebant, et tunc libenter velle perfrui eorum communi affabilitate.

Hearing, therefore, that so great a prince was ill, the Christian pilgrims were struck with grievous sorrow and mourning, coming frequently to him for the sake of visiting: [0578D] among whom the duke himself and the bishop of the Venetians, and their primates, were introduced to salute the duke himself, to see and to converse. Having been admitted, therefore, in golden and silver vessels, with purple and a precious garment, they presented and gave to the duke wondrous and unusual gifts, because of the affection and desire which they always had of seeing him. Duke Godfrey, indeed, with the highest charity received what they had offered, and, having addressed them kindly, sent them back to their naval lodging, asserting that he was detained somewhat by infirmity; but on the morrow, if anything should be eased for him, he would present himself in the sight of all who were longing to see and to know him, and then he would gladly wish to enjoy their common affability.

Nocte denique eadem, dolore ac languore corporis illius invalescente, [0579A] a suis, propter nimietatem tumultus navalis exercitas, Jerusalem se deferri jussit; quoniam hoc tempore, sicut pollicitus fuerat, peregrinis Venetiarum nulla affabilitate potuit communicare.

Finally, on that same night, as the dolor and languor of his body intensified, [0579A] he ordered himself to be borne by his own to Jerusalem, because of the excessiveness of the naval tumult in operation; since at this time he could not, as he had promised, communicate any affability to the pilgrims of Venice.

CAP. XX. - Consilio ducis castelli Caiphas obsidio praeparatur.

CHAPTER 20. - By the counsel of the duke the siege of the castle of Caiphas is prepared.

Cognita hac ducis valida aegritudine, dux et principes Venetorum Wernerum de Greis et Tankradum aggressi sunt, videlicet ut duci loquerentur quid acturi sint: seu an civitatem aliquam in littore maris obsidentes debellarent priusquam Jerusalem descendant, seu exspectarent quousque, Deo donante, dux sanitatem reciperet? Ascenderat autem tunc festinanter Tankradus Tabaria in Japhet, vehemente [0579B] ducis comperta infirmitate. Dehinc ducem ambo principes super his quae a Venetis audierant convenerunt; et consilio cum eo facto, licet aegrotante, et caeteris primoribus, decretum est ut castellum, Caiphas dictum, peregrini Veneti navali obsidione circumdarent; Tankradus vero vice ducis cum Wernero obsidionem in sicco locarent, videlicet ut ab utroque latere maris et terrae urbs obsessa et oppressa caperetur.

When this strong illness of the duke was known, the duke and the princes of the Venetians addressed Werner of Greis and Tancred, namely to speak with the duke about what they should do: whether they should, besieging some city on the shore of the sea, subdue it before they go down to Jerusalem, or wait until, God granting, the duke should recover health? Meanwhile Tancred had then hastened up from Tiberias into Jaffa, the duke’s severe [0579B] infirmity having been discovered. Thereafter both princes met the duke concerning these things which they had heard from the Venetians; and, counsel having been taken with him—though he was sick—and with the other foremost men, it was decreed that the Venetian pilgrims should surround with a naval siege the castle called Caiphas; but Tancred, in the duke’s stead, together with Werner, should place the siege on dry land, namely that from both sides, sea and land, the city, beset and oppressed, might be taken.

Aptatis siquidem ingeniis, quibus Caiphas vinceretur in terra et in mari, fama luctuosa allata est in Joppen ducem Godefridum summum principem jam obiisse. Quapropter conturbati universi tam Veneti quam Galli, relicto omni apparatu obsidionis, festinato Jerusalem venerunt, ducemque sic occupatum infirmitate et aggravatum [0579C] invenerunt ut vix verbum reddere valeret Sed tamen quantulumcunque primores consolatus, se ab hac infirmitate fatebatur convalescere. Ad hanc ducis consolationem, adorato a Venetis sepulcro Dominico et locis sanctis visitatis, Tankradus et Wernerus una cum patriarcha Dagoberto in Joppen reversi sunt, apparatum suum sine otio ad unguem iterantes.

With the engines duly fitted, by which Caiphas would be conquered on land and on sea, a mournful report was brought into Joppa that Duke Godfrey, the highest prince, had already died. Wherefore all were disturbed, both Venetians and Gauls; leaving behind all the apparatus of the siege, they came in haste to Jerusalem, and found the duke so occupied by infirmity and weighed down [0579C] that he could scarcely return a word But yet, having, in some small measure, consoled the chiefs, he professed that he was recovering from this infirmity. To this consolation of the duke, with the Lord’s Sepulcher adored by the Venetians and the holy places visited, Tancred and Werner, together with Patriarch Dagobert, returned to Joppa, going over their apparatus without idleness to a nicety.

Et post dies quindecim cum omni opere machinarum et balistarum profecti, mari et terra Caiphas applicuerunt. Sed Wernerus Japhet remansit, eo quod subito infirmitate fuerit correptus, et abhinc in gestario Jerusalem advectus est.

And after fifteen days, having set out with all the apparatus of machines and ballistae, they arrived at Caiphas by sea and by land. But Werner remained at Japhet, because he had been suddenly seized by infirmity, and from there he was conveyed to Jerusalem in a litter.

CAP. XXI. - Obitus gloriosi ducis et Werneri militis.

CHAPTER 21. - The death of the glorious duke and of the knight Werner.

[0579D] Post quatuor dies, allato Wernero in Jerusalem, dux vehementius infirmitate coepit laborare. Qui confessione delictorum suorum in vera cordis compunctione et lacrymis peracta, Dominici quoque corporis et sanguinis communione percepta, sic spirituali scuto munitus et protectus, ab hac luce subtractus est. Mortuo igitur tam egregio duce et nobilissimo Christi athleta, maxima lamenta et nimius ploratus omnibus illic Christianis, Gallis, Italicis, Syris, Armeniis, Graecis et gentilibus plerisque, Arabibus, Sarracenis, Turcis fuere per dies quinque.

[0579D] After four days, with Werner brought to Jerusalem, the duke began to labor more vehemently under infirmity. He, his confession of his faults accomplished in true compunction of heart and with tears, and the communion, too, of the Lord’s body and blood received, thus fortified and protected with a spiritual shield, was withdrawn from this light. Therefore, with so distinguished a duke and most noble athlete of Christ dead, there were the greatest laments and excessive weeping for five days among all the Christians there—Gauls, Italians, Syrians, Armenians, Greeks—and most of the gentiles, Arabs, Saracens, and Turks.

Wernerus deinde, cognatus ducis et miles illustris, pariter obiit, et in valle Josaphat in porticu basilicae S. Mariae Virginis et matris Domini nostri [0580A] Jesu Christi honorifice et catholice humatus est, octava die obitus nobilissimi ducis et principis sanctae civitatis Jerusalem.

Werner then, kinsman of the duke and an illustrious knight, likewise died, and in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, in the portico of the basilica of St. Mary the Virgin and mother of our Lord [0580A] Jesus Christ, he was honorably and catholically interred, on the eighth day after the death of the most noble duke and prince of the holy city Jerusalem.

CAP. XXII. - Obsidio castetli Caiphas.

CHAPTER 22. - The siege of the castle of Caiphas.

Gloriosissimo duce infirmitate curriculo quinque hebdomadarum Jerusalem laborante, sicut decretum erat ante ejus obitum, patriarcha, Tankradus et omnis apparatus Venetorum cum duce et episcopo illorum ab Joppe profecti sunt per mare et aridam ad civitatem quae dicitur Caiphas. Quam a mari et sicco obsederunt in machina mirae et procerae altitudinis et in tormentis lapidum septem, quae vocant mangenas, ad expugnandos urbis defensores ejusque habitatores. Applicitis itaque muro ingeniis cum ingenti machina, et undique gravi assultu eam viris [0580B] Galliae oppugnantibus, cives, qui ex genere Judaeorum inhabitabant dono et consensu regis Babyloniae in redditione tributorum, in moenibus urbis exsurgentes, multum in defensione urbis obstiterunt, quousque Christiani variis plagis gravati, per dies quindecim prorsus diffisi, manus suas ab omni impetu continuerunt. Nec mirum; Tankradus enim non ut solebat viriliter auxilium cum suis ferebat fidele, prae invidia quae praecordia illius mordebat, eo quod dux Godefridus dum adhuc viveret et grabato aeger cubaret, Geldemaro, cognomine Carpenel, egregio militi et nobili, urbem in beneficio concesserit, si forte caperetur

While the most glorious duke was suffering in Jerusalem from an infirmity for the course of five weeks, as had been decreed before his death, the patriarch, Tancred, and the whole apparatus of the Venetians, with their duke and their bishop, set out from Joppe by sea and by dry land to the city which is called Caiphas. This they besieged from sea and shore with a machine of wondrous and towering height and with seven stone-hurling engines, which they call mangonels, to storm the defenders of the city and its inhabitants. Therefore, with the engines applied to the wall together with the huge machine, and on every side with a heavy assault, the men of Gaul attacking it, the citizens, who of the race of the Jews were inhabiting it by the grant and consent of the king of Babylonia in the rendering of tributes, rising up upon the city’s walls, offered much resistance in the defense of the city, until the Christians, weighed down by various wounds, utterly despondent for fifteen days, held back their hands from every assault. Nor is it a wonder; for Tancred was not, as he was accustomed, manfully bringing faithful aid with his men, because of the envy which was gnawing at his vitals, forasmuch as Duke Godfrey, while he was still living and lying sick upon a cot, had granted the city in benefice to Geldemar, surnamed Carpenel, an outstanding and noble soldier, if perchance it should be captured [0580B] by the men of Gaul.

CAP. XXIII. - Tankradi hortatu obsidio lentata paululum reparatur.

CHAPTER 23. - By Tancred’s hortation the siege, having been slackened, is repaired a little.

[0580C] Patriarcha vero cognita illius invidia et animi amaritudine, omni instinctu et suasione, qua poterat, ipsum Tankradum aggressus est, quem demulcere coepit et iram ejus lenire, quatenus civitas, quae fortiter defensa a Judaeis habebatur, non tam viriliter in statu suo permaneret ad confusionem Christianorum quorum non modica pars attrita erat. Hanc etiam conditionem patriarcha interserebat, ut si, Deo annuente, urbs caperetur, consilio fidelium ei, qui plus in ejus strage laboraverit, traderetur. Dicebat enim: Vides, o frater charissime Tankrade, quomodo dux Venetorum cum tota manu sua bello victus et fatigatus abscessit, nec ultra vires adhibet; sui quoque perterriti, jam classem usque in [0580D] medium maris procul a civitate reduxerunt.

[0580C] The patriarch, however, having learned of his envy and bitterness of mind, with every instigation and suasion he could, set upon Tancred himself, whom he began to soothe and to lenify his anger, lest the city, which was being stoutly defended by the Jews, should remain so manfully in its condition to the confusion of the Christians, of whom no small part had been worn down. The patriarch also inserted this condition: that if, God assenting, the city were taken, by the counsel of the faithful it should be handed over to him who should have labored the more in its overthrow. For he said: You see, O dearest brother Tancred, how the duke of the Venetians, with his whole band, conquered in war and wearied, has withdrawn, nor does he any further apply his forces; his own men also, terrified, have now drawn back the fleet even into the [0580D] middle of the sea, far from the city.

Tankradus autem audiens haec verba patriarchae et ejus bonam exhortationem in Christi nomine, omni deposita amaritudine, respondit: «Non ultra se aliqua occasione ab urbis assultu et invasione abstinere; licet alius donum ejusdem civitatis susceperit, cum nondum obsessa vel capta fuerit, et cum Geldemari Carpenel virtus et manus sibi aequiparari non possit.» Hoc dicto, festinanter cornua sonuit, militesque hoc signo dato admonuit quatenus assultum circa urbem intermissum repeterent, et Judaeorum virtutem expugnarent qui fortiter urbem defensabant.

But Tankradus, hearing these words of the patriarch and his good exhortation in the name of Christ, all bitterness laid aside, replied: «That he would no longer, on any pretext, abstain from the city’s assault and invasion; although another has received the gift of that same city, since it has not yet been besieged or captured, and since the valor and hand of Geldemar of Carpenel cannot be equated to his.» With this said, he hastily sounded the horns, and with this sign given he admonished the soldiers to repeat the assault around the city which had been intermitted, and to storm down the prowess of the Jews who were stoutly defending the city.

CAP. XXIV. - Quanta pertulerint illic fortissimi milites.

CHAPTER 24. - How much the very brave soldiers endured there.

Audito itaque signo Tankradi, universa manus [0581A] militum qui aderant, tam ducis quam Tankradi, ad arma contendunt, armati confluunt, machinam sine mora ascendentes. Ascendit autem Winricus, pincerna ducis, miles egregius, Wickerus Alemanus, in ictu gladii et Turci lectione laudabilis, et Milo de Claro monte, milites ducis. Sed de omnibus Venetis militibus neminem praeter unum in machina repererunt, quem nulla mortis pericula ab ejus potuerunt absterrere custodia.

Therefore, the signal of Tankrad having been heard, the whole band [0581A] of the soldiers who were present, both of the duke and of Tankrad, hasten to arms; armed, they flock together, ascending the machine without delay. And Winricus, the duke’s cup-bearer, an outstanding miles, ascended; Wickerus the German, praiseworthy in the stroke of the sword and in the Turkish language; and Milo of Claro Monte, soldiers of the duke. But of all the Venetian soldiers they found no one upon the machine except one, whom no dangers of death could deter from its custody.

Videns vero idem Venetus tiro sibi illos in auxilium concurrisse, in nimio gaudio ab imminenti angustia respiravit, in hanc vocem prorumpens: Recesserunt a me omnes viri nostratium, et solus ex omnibus remansi; sed non ultra, Deo annuente, a vobis dissociabor, quousque nostri assultus et rei eventum aut in urbis aut in nostri ruina [0581B] agnoscam. Stemus igitur in nomine Domini nunc conjuncti, etsi pauci, virtus Dei magna ad omnia, qui pro ejus gratia parati sumus instare et sustinere pericula. Nec mora, his quatuor conjunctis et conspiratis in Christi nomine ex admonitione Veneti ad omnem assultum urbis, viginti milites Tankradi in momento eis adjuncti sunt, unanimiter sic conspirati, ut ex machina hac compositam turrim urbis penetrare, aut certe ante eamdem turrim in eodem loco vellent deperire.

Seeing, in truth, that the same Venetian tyro had those men run together to his aid, he caught his breath from the imminent strait in excessive joy, bursting out into this utterance: “All the men of our own people have withdrawn from me, and I alone of all have remained; but no longer, God assenting, shall I be dissociated from you, until I recognize the issue of our assault and of the affair either in the city’s, or in our, ruin [0581B]. Let us therefore stand in the name of the Lord, now joined, even if few; the power of God is great unto all things, we who for His grace are prepared to press on and to sustain dangers.” Without delay, these four, joined and conspired in the name of Christ at the admonition of the Venetian for every assault upon the city, had twenty soldiers of Tancred added to them in a moment, thus unanimously conspired that from this machine they would penetrate the city’s constructed tower, or at least would wish to perish before that same tower in that same place.

Et subito arreptis bipennibus, securibus et ferreis ligonibus, oppositam turrim fortiter cavantes infregerunt. Quibus Judaei cives, commistis Sarracenorum turmis, sine dilatione viriliter resistentes, a turri oleum, picem ferventem, ignem et stuppas opposuerunt: grande videlicet [0581C] incendium, per quod Christiani milites fumo et calore in machina exstinguerentur, et urbs ejusque turris invicta cum incolis suis remaneret. Christiani tandem milites, pro Christo mori non diffidentes, imperterriti stabant, omnem angustiam sufferentes per diem et noctem, donec scuta eorum flammis concremata, fundibulis conquassata, ferreis sudibus perforata, grandi laesura pervideri potuerunt.

And suddenly, having snatched up bipennate axes, axes, and iron mattocks, hollowing into the opposing tower they broke it in by force. Against these the Jewish citizens, with bands of Saracens mingled in, without delay resisting manfully, from the tower hurled oil, boiling pitch, fire, and tow: namely a great conflagration [0581C], whereby the Christian soldiers might be extinguished by smoke and heat in the machine, and the city and its tower remain unconquered with their inhabitants. The Christian soldiers at length, not distrusting to die for Christ, stood undaunted, enduring every strait by day and night, until their shields—charred by the flames, shattered by slings, pierced by iron stakes—could be seen with grievous damage.

CAP. XXV. - Oppidum Caiphas expugnatur.

CHAPTER 25. - The town of Caiphas is taken by storm.

Dehinc die altera radiante, et Domino Jesu suorum miserante, Judaei et Sarraceni videntes Christianos insuperabiles, nec suis flammis aut armis posse reprimi a turri et ejus assultu, ipsam turrim mox relinquentes, nec eam amplius retinere valentes, [0581D] fugam iniierunt: post quos universa civitas pariter in fugam conversa est. Ad haec milites Christiani cives hostiles per mediam urbem insecuti, et eos crudeliter perimentes, victoresque facti, portas civitatis aperientes, totum Christianum exercitum intromiserunt. Qui universa in ea reperta, nempe pecuniam innumerabilem tam in auro quam in argento, cum vestibus, equis et mulis, hordeo, oleo et frumento, illic depraedati sunt.

Then, with the next day shining, and the Lord Jesus having pity on his own, the Jews and Saracens, seeing the Christians insuperable, and that they could not be checked by their flames or their arms, by the tower and its assault, soon abandoning the tower itself, being no longer able to hold it, [0581D] took to flight: after whom the whole city likewise was turned to flight. Thereupon the Christian soldiers, pursuing the hostile citizens through the middle of the city and killing them cruelly, and having become victors, opening the gates of the city, let in the whole Christian army. They there plundered everything found in it, namely money innumerable both in gold and in silver, together with garments, horses and mules, barley, oil, and grain.

Veneti autem adhuc in mari flexis anchoris consistentes, nunc Gallorum cognita victoria et urbis invasione, festinanter levatis anchoris adfuerunt, aliquos gentilium occidentes, sed nihil pecuniae illic deprehenderunt.

But the Venetians, still riding at sea with their anchors bent, now that the victory of the Gauls and the invasion of the city were known, hastily, with anchors raised, were present, killing some of the gentiles, but they found no money there.

CAP. XXVI. - Gelmarus expulsus, et Tankradus castellum Caiphas obtinuit. [0582A]

CHAPTER 26. - Gelmarus was expelled, and Tankradus obtained the castle Caiphas. [0582A]

Capta autem civitate Caiphas, Geldemarus Carpenel, quia eamdem, si caperetur, dono ducis susceperat, quem obiisse nondum sciebat, milites et pedites suos convocat ad civitatem retinendam ac muniendam. Sed copiae Tankradi ampliores et validiores urbis moenia et ejus turres obtinentes, Carpenel et ejus gentem ex urbe expulerunt. Carpenel quid ageret non melius hac hora sensit, quam ut a civitate cum omnibus suis migraret, et ad castellum validissimum ac ditissimum, quod dicitur ad S. Abraham, versus montana et civitates Sodomae ac Gomorrhae hoc tempore declinaret.

Now with the city of Caiphas taken, Geldemarus Carpenel—because he had received that same city, if it should be captured, as a gift from the duke, whom he did not yet know had died—summons his knights and footmen to retain and fortify the city. But the forces of Tancred, larger and stronger, seizing the walls of the city and its towers, drove Carpenel and his clan out of the city. Carpenel perceived nothing better to do at this hour than to migrate from the city with all his own, and to turn aside at this time toward the highlands and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, to the most strong and most rich castle which is called at St. Abraham.

Hoc equidem castellum dux non longo assultu effugatis gentilibus [0582B] subjugavit, quod ab Jerusalem sex milliaribus remotum, quondam primus patriarcha Abraham aedificasse et inhabitasse, ibidemque sepultus fuisse perhibetur. Hoc praesidium Turci et caeteri gentiles et Judaei nimia devotione honorantes venerabantur, nec minore celebritate a catholicis cultoribus observatur et colitur.

This castle indeed the duke, with no long assault, the gentiles put to flight [0582B], subjugated; it is reported to be 6 miles distant from Jerusalem, and that once the first patriarch Abraham built and inhabited it, and in the same place was buried. This stronghold the Turks and the other gentiles and the Jews, honoring it with excessive devotion, venerated; nor with less solemnity is it observed and revered by catholic worshippers.

CAP. XXVII. - Consilio majorum Boemundus ad regnandum in Jerusalem vocatur, sed in itinere capitur.

CHAPTER 27. - By the counsel of the elders Bohemund is called to rule in Jerusalem, but on the journey he is captured.

Patriarcha autem Dagobertus et Tankradus ibidem mortem ducis audientes, in unum conspiraverunt, nihil de civitate Caiphas Geldemaro Carpenel se daturos, sed de ea ad velle acturos; de Jerusalem quoque, regno Godefridi ducis, similiter per [0582C] omnia pro velle deinceps licenter consulere ac disponere. Unde consilium inierunt in civitate Caiphas, quatenus avunculo Trankradi Boemundo legationem Antiochiam mitterent, ut in terram Jerusalem proficisceretur cum omni apparatu suo, regnumque illic obtineret, priusquam aliquis haeres Godefredi ducis thronum ejus praeoccuparet. Legatio haec denique patriarchae et Tankradi sine mora directa est.

But Patriarch Dagobert and Tancred, hearing there of the death of the duke, conspired as one, that they would give nothing of the city of Caiphas to Geldemar Carpenel, but would act concerning it at their will; and concerning Jerusalem also, the kingdom of Duke Godfrey, similarly in [0582C] all things thereafter freely to consult and to dispose according to their will. Whence they entered into counsel in the city of Caiphas, to wit that they should send a legation to Antioch to Bohemond, the uncle of Tancred, that he should set out into the land of Jerusalem with all his apparatus, and there obtain the kingdom, before some heir of Duke Godfrey should preoccupy his throne. This legation of the patriarch and of Tancred, finally, was sent forth without delay.

Verum ejusdem legationis portitor, Morellus nomine, secretarius patriarchae, quia in dolo missus est, et contra jusjurandum quod idem patriarcha cum Tankrado duci fecerat, si forte obiret, nulli regnum Jerusalem se redditurum nisi fratribus suis, aut uni de sanguine ejus, ira Dei adversante, Laodiceae in manus Reymundi comitis irruit: et [0582D] sic tota legatio litterarum irrita fuit, et perfidia ubique patefacta Boemundus siquidem eo tempore, divino judicio, in mense Augusto adunatis trecentis equitibus, versus Malatinam urbem descenderat, invitatus ad auxilium Christianorum ex litteris et legatione Gaveras, Armeniae ducis, principis et domini ejusdem civitatis, eo quod Donimanus, princeps Turcorum, urbem hanc in manu gravi angustiatam obsedisset. Hic itaque audito adventu Boemundi et ejus copiarum, nec illum longe ab urbis obsidione abesse, quingentibus militibus ab exercitu suo assumptis, illi in planitie regionis occurrit; praelium cum eo commisit intolerabili grandine sagittarum, donec Boemundi virtus attrita, et universa [0583A] societas succubuit interempta, aut fugitiva facta ac dispersa. Ex hac alii subito sunt detruncati, alii vivi capti et retenti una cum principe suo Boemundo, et in exsilium in Nixandria civitate ejusdem Turci abducti, et ferreis vinculis alligati sunt.

But the bearer of that same legation, Morellus by name, the secretary of the patriarch, because he was sent in deceit, and against the oath which the same patriarch had made with Duke Tancred—that, if he should perchance die, he would surrender the kingdom of Jerusalem to no one except his brothers, or to one of his blood—with the wrath of God opposing, at Laodicea fell into the hands of Count Raymond: and [0582D] thus the whole legation of letters was null, and the perfidy was everywhere laid open. Bohemond, indeed, at that time, by divine judgment, in the month of August, with 300 horsemen gathered, had descended toward the city of Malatina, invited to the aid of the Christians by the letters and legation of Gaveras, duke of Armenia, prince and lord of that same city, because Donimanus, prince of the Turks, had besieged this city, straitened in a heavy grip. He, therefore, having heard of the arrival of Bohemond and his forces, and that he was not far from the siege of the city, with 500 soldiers taken from his army, met him on the plain of the region; he joined battle with him with an intolerable hail of arrows, until Bohemond’s valor was worn down, and the entire [0583A] company succumbed—either slain, or made fugitive and scattered. Of these, some were suddenly hewn down, others were taken alive and detained together with their prince Bohemond, and were led into exile to Nixandria, a city of that same Turk, and were bound with iron chains.

CAP. XXVIII. - Donimanus, princeps Turcorum, obsessis Malatinae Christianis contemnitur.

CHAPTER 28. - Donimanus, prince of the Turks, is contemned by the besieged Christians of Malatina.

Capto itaque Boemundo, ejusque propinquo Richardo, et caeteris majoribus domus suae, Donimanus ad urbem Malatinam cum spoliis eorum et capitibus decollatorum in magna gloria regressus, ad Gaveras legationem praemisit, quatenus civitatem in manu ejus redderet, sciens quia Boemundum captivum tenuerit, et omnem equitatum illius attriverit, [0583B] in quo omnis Christianorum spes et summa fiducia pendebat: alioqui non posse eum vivere a facie Turcorum. Gaveras vero jactantiam Donimani intelligens, nequaquam his minis civitatem se illi aperire fatetur, ne ullis ejus obedire mandatis, dum adhuc vitam Baldewini principis Edessae vel Rohas incolumem sciret, nec aliquod adhuc infortunium illius narraretur. Donimamus, magnificus princeps Turcorum, haec audiens, in superbia magna locutus, haec viro responsa dedit: Noli modo nimiam in eo habere spem aut fiduciam.

Therefore, with Bohemund captured, and his kinsman Richard, and the other greater men of his house, Donimanus returned to the city of Malatina with their spoils and the heads of the decollated, in great glory, and he sent ahead a legation to Gaveras, to the end that he might render the city into his hand, knowing that he held Bohemund captive and had worn down all his cavalry, [0583B] on which all the hope of the Christians and their highest confidence depended: otherwise that he could not live before the face of the Turks. But Gaveras, understanding the boastfulness of Donimanus, declares that by no means at these threats would he open the city to him, nor obey any of his mandates, so long as he knew the life of Baldwin, prince of Edessa or Rohas, to be unharmed, and no misfortune of his was yet reported. Donimamus, the magnificent prince of the Turks, hearing these things, having spoken in great pride, gave to the man these answers: Do not now have excessive hope or confidence in him.

Nam ipsum Baldewinum sicut Boemundum post paululum temporis spero me habiturum.

For I hope to have Baldwin himself, just as Bohemond, after a little time.

CAP. XXIX. - Baldewinus liberare volens Boemundum, nihil proficit. [0583C]

CHAPTER 29. - Baldwin, wishing to liberate Bohemond, profits nothing. [0583C]

Inter haec nuntia, Boemundus, totius vitae et salutis diffisus, particulam capillorum capitis sui, signum captivitatis suae et doloris, clam per Syrum cuempiam Baldewino misit, omnibus hoc Turcis ignorantibus, quatenus sine dilatione sibi subveniens, a manibus Turcorum eum eriperet, priusquam ad ignotas et barbaras nationes illorum perveniret. Baldewinus, jam tertia luce captivitatis Boemundi transacta, assumptis centum et quadraginta loricatis equitibus, descendit in campos Malatinae civitatis ad excutiendum Boemundum, confratrem in Christo si, prosperante Deo, aliquo nisu in loco opportuno cum Turcis committere valeret. Sed Donimanus Baldewini adventantis audacia et plurima virtute [0583D] illius militari territus, sine mora ab obsidione castra movit, et versus mare Russiae in terram suam fugiendo cum omni equitatu suo divertit, gaudens se Boemundum, tam nominatissimum principem et caput Christianorum, arripuisse, ac metuens ne viribus aut arte Christianorum illum amitteret.

Meanwhile, amid these tidings, Bohemond, despairing of all life and safety, sent to Baldwin, secretly through a certain Syrian, a small portion of the hair of his head, as a sign of his captivity and grief, all the Turks being ignorant of this, to the end that, coming to his assistance without delay, he might snatch him from the hands of the Turks before he should be brought to their unknown and barbarous nations. Baldwin, with the third day of Bohemond’s captivity now elapsed, having taken one hundred and forty mail‑clad horsemen, descended into the plains of the city of Melitene to extricate Bohemond, his fellow‑brother in Christ, if, God prospering, by some exertion he might be able to engage with the Turks in an opportune place. But Donimanus, terrified by the audacity of the approaching Baldwin and by his very great military virtue [0583D], without delay moved camp from the siege, and, fleeing with all his cavalry, turned aside toward the sea of Russia into his own land, rejoicing that he had seized Bohemond, so most‑renowned a prince and head of the Christians, and fearing lest by the forces or art of the Christians he might lose him.

Baldewinus vero fugam ejus intelligens, persecutus est spatio trium dierum: quem tamen longius persequi dubitans propter dolos falsorum Christianorum, aut insidias hostium, et quia non multos habebat milites, Malatinam reversus est. Gaveras itaque princeps civitatis, benigne eum suscipiens et in fide, in manu et tutamine illius urbem reddidit, ac universum thesaurum civitatis cum [0584A] plurima veste pretiosa illi praesentans, ut de his remuneraretur, exoravit; sed de omnibus sibi praesentatis, nihil suscipiens, retinuit. Cognita itaque Baldewinus illius benevolentia et fidei constantia, quinquaginta milites in urbe cum illo constituit manere, ad tuenda et retinenda moenia civitatis; ipse vero cum caeteris Rohas regressus est.

But Baldwin, indeed, understanding his flight, pursued for the space of three days: yet, hesitating to pursue him farther on account of the wiles of false Christians or the ambushes of enemies, and because he did not have many soldiers, he returned to Malatina. Gaveras, therefore, the prince of the city, kindly receiving him, gave back the city into his faith, into his hand and protection, and, presenting to him the entire treasury of the city together with [0584A] much precious clothing, he entreated that he might be remunerated from these; but, accepting nothing of all that was presented to him, he retained nothing. Baldwin, therefore, his benevolence and constancy of faith being recognized, appointed fifty soldiers in the city to remain with him, for guarding and holding the walls of the city; but he himself returned to Rohas with the rest.

Post haec Donimanus, comperto tam metuendi principis ac militis recessu, readunatis viribus, iterato urbem Malatinam obsedit diebus multis. Sed viriliter a quinquaginta praedictis tironibus, a Baldewino ibidem constitutis, urbs defensa ab hostibus, et intacta atque invicta remansit; dum tandem Donimanus bello fatigatus, et longae obsidionis laedio affectus, Christianorum territus auxilio, urbem [0584B] deseruit, et sic deinceps ab obsidione illius quievit.

After these things, Donimanus, having learned of the withdrawal of so fearsome a prince and soldier, with his forces re-gathered, again besieged the city of Malatina for many days. But the city, manfully defended by the fifty aforesaid tyros, stationed there by Baldwin, remained untouched and unconquered by the enemies; until at last Donimanus, wearied by war and afflicted by the weariness of a long siege, and terrified by the aid of the Christians, deserted the city [0584B] and thus thereafter ceased from besieging it.

CAP. XXX. - Baldewinus per legatos convenitur ut fratris loco regnum Hierosolymitanum suscipiat.

CHAPTER 30. - Baldwin is approached by legates to assume the Kingdom of Jerusalem in his brother’s place.

Interea Baldewino Rohas a Malatina regresso, crudelis legatio ad eum facta est, scilicet quia frater ejus uterinus, Godefridus princeps magnificus, in Jerusalem obierit, et omne regnum terrae illius morte tam pii dominatoris in populo Christiano jam desolatum fuerit. Hac tristi legatione audita, in nimios ploratus et lamenta cor Baldewini defluxit; sed tamen, ut vir mirae abstinentiae, longe aliter simulavit ex charissimi fratris occasu, quam in ejus corde esset. Robertus episcopus Rames vel Ramae, et Robertus miles, Gunterus similiter, hujus legationis fuere nuntii, missi a Geldemaro Carpenel, [0584C] Roberto filio Gerhardi, Rudolpho de Mozon, Josfrido camerario ducis, Winrico Flandrense.

Meanwhile, with Baldwin returned to Rohas from Malatina, a cruel embassy was made to him, namely that his uterine brother, Godfrey, a magnificent prince, had died in Jerusalem, and that the whole kingdom of that land, by the death of so pious a ruler, had now been desolated among the Christian people. On hearing this sad embassy, Baldwin’s heart poured forth into excessive weepings and laments; but yet, as a man of wondrous self-restraint, he dissembled far otherwise at the death of his dearest brother than was in his heart. Robert, bishop of Rames or Ramah, and Robert the knight, and likewise Gunter, were the messengers of this embassy, sent by Geldemar Carpenel, [0584C] Robert son of Gerard, Rudolph of Mozon, Josfrid the chamberlain of the duke, and Winric the Fleming.

Matthaeo dapifero illius, Wickero Alemano, et Arnolfo, praelato templi Domini in hunc modum nuntia deferentes; Milites et principes regni Jerusalem, hactenus sub Christianissimo duce servientes, salutant te in nomine Jesu Christi, Filii Dei vivi, quorum decreto et consilio huc directi sumus, ut tibi notum sit quod frater tuus Godefridus dux et princeps Jerusalem, ab hac luce subtractus est. Quapropter te unanimiter invitant ut festinato venias, et loco fratris regnum suscipias, et in throno ejus sedeas. Conspiraverunt enim se non alium recipere, nisi fratrem aut unum de sanguine, et propter inaestimabilem ejus bonitatem et nimiam largitatem, et propter jusjurandum quo firmaverunt [0584D] se nunquam pati alienigenum regnare, aut sedere in throno Jerusalem.

bringing messages in this manner to Matthew his steward, Wicker the German, and Arnulf, the prelate of the Temple of the Lord; The knights and princes of the kingdom of Jerusalem, hitherto serving under a most Christian leader, greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; by whose decree and counsel we have been sent here, that it may be known to you that your brother Godfrey, duke and prince of Jerusalem, has been withdrawn from this light. Wherefore they unanimously invite you to come with all speed, and in your brother’s place to assume the kingdom, and to sit upon his throne. For they have conspired that they will receive no other, unless a brother or one of the blood, both on account of his inestimable goodness and excessive largesse, and on account of the oath by which they have confirmed [0584D] that they will never suffer an alien-born to reign, or to sit upon the throne of Jerusalem.

Baldewinus benigne legationi et verbis eorum aurem adhibuit, promittens se post non multum temporis, rebus suis ordinatis, Jerusalem velle descendere et, Deo prosperante, regnum consilio eorum suscipere atque disponere.

Baldwin benignly lent an ear to the legation and to their words, promising that after not much time, his affairs having been set in order, he wished to go down to Jerusalem and, with God prospering, to assume the kingdom by their counsel and to dispose it.

CAP. XXXI. - Baldewinus Jerusalem profecturus, aequivocum suum civitati Rohas praefecit.

CHAPTER 31. - Baldwin, about to set out for Jerusalem, appointed his namesake over the city of Rohas.

Legatis dehinc in omni amoris dulcedine commendatis, et Jerusalem repedantibus, Baldewinus, dux civitatis Rohas, in brevi omnium fidelium suorum conventum habuit, cujusque voluntatem eundi Jerusalem singulatim requirens, cujusque etiam remanendi [0585A] in regione Rohas. Similiter Baldewino de Burg, viro nobili generis sui, filio comitis Hugonis de Rorstet castello, litteras direxit, quatenus ab Antiochia et conventione solidorum sequestratus, descendat ad terram Rohas, et civitatem hanc in beneficio accipiat, loco ejus dominaretur et hostes debellaret. Omnem vero rem aperuit ei de obitu fratris sui Godefridi clarissimi principis, et qualiter a praepotentibus Jerusalem sit invitatus ad possidendum regnum, et quomodo illuc postmodum iturus sit.

With the legates then commended in all the sweetness of love, and as they made their way back to Jerusalem, Baldwin, duke of the city of Rohas, shortly held an assembly of all his faithful, asking each one individually his will of going to Jerusalem, and likewise of remaining [0585A] in the region of Rohas. Likewise he sent letters to Baldwin of Bourcq, a noble man of his own lineage, the son of Count Hugh of the castellum Rorstet, that, withdrawn from Antioch and from the convention of the solidi, he should come down to the land of Rohas and receive this city in benefice, so that he might rule in his place and debellate the enemies. He disclosed to him the whole matter concerning the decease of his brother Godfrey, a most illustrious prince, and how he has been invited by the very-powerful of Jerusalem to possess the kingdom, and how afterward he is going to go thither.

Remansit enim idem Baldewinus, ab Jerusalem et Ascalone cum caeteris profectus ad Boemundum, in Antiochia usque ad diem hanc in obsequio militari et solidorum conventione. His ita dispositis, ac Baldewino de Burg statuto tempore [0585B] ab Antiochia recepto, jamque in throno et majestate civitatis Rohas collocato, Baldewinus primus et magnificus frater ducis Godefridi, quadringentis equitibus egregiis contractis cum mille peditibus, regia via Antiochiam primum profectus est: cui milites universi civitatisque custodes ad salutandum occurentes, urbem ei obtulerunt, si princeps aut dominus illius fieri voluisset. Illic quidem per tres dies in gloria et laetitia requiescens, universos cives et custodes benigne super omnibus audivit, et sapienter respondit, plurimumque eos desperatos ex amissione Boemundi consolatus, ex toto civitatem vice illius suscipere contradixit.

For that same Baldwin, having set out from Jerusalem and Ascalon with the others to Bohemond, remained in Antioch up to this day in military service and under a convention of solidi. With these things thus arranged, and Baldwin of Bourcq at the appointed time [0585B] received from Antioch, and now seated upon the throne and majesty of the city of Rohas, Baldwin, the first and magnificent brother of Duke Godfrey, after assembling four hundred select horsemen with a thousand foot-soldiers, set out first by the royal road to Antioch: to meet him all the soldiers and the guardians of the city ran forth to greet him, and they offered him the city, if he were willing to become its prince or lord. There indeed, resting for three days in glory and joy, he kindly heard all the citizens and guards concerning everything, and answered wisely, and greatly consoled them, despairing because of the loss of Bohemond; but he wholly refused to assume the city in his stead.

CAP. XXXII. - Baldewinus, diro imminentis praelii nuntio pulsatus, cum paucis obviam pergit.

CHAPTER 32. - Baldwin, struck by the dire announcement of an imminent battle, goes forth to meet it with a few companions.

[0585C] Quarta vero die ab Antiochia procedens in omni jucunditate, Laodiceam pacifice cum omni apparatu suo descendit, ubi biduo requie fruens, retardati et subsequentis populi praestolabatur adventum. Adunata siquidem universa virtute suorum, fama ad aures ipsius perlata est, quomodo copiosa gentilitas tam Turcorum quam Sarracenorum e diversis locis et terris congregata ad resistendum illi in facie adfutura esset, et quomodo illi viam ulterius procedendi prohibere decrevisset. Ex sola enim Damascenorum civitate, viginti millia Turcorum illuc in armis convenisse ferebantur; caeterorum vero gentilium numerus nequaquam investigari potuit prae illorum multitudine inaestimabili.

[0585C] On the fourth day indeed, setting out from Antioch with all cheerfulness, he went down peaceably to Laodicea with all his apparatus, where, enjoying rest for two days, he awaited the arrival of the delayed and following people. For when the entire strength of his men had been gathered together, news was borne to his ears how a copious host of gentiles, both of Turks and of Saracens, gathered from diverse places and lands, would be present before him to resist him, and how they had resolved to forbid his way of proceeding further. For from the city of the Damascenes alone, 20,000 Turks were said to have assembled there in arms; but the number of the other gentiles could by no means be investigated, on account of their inestimable multitude.

Quapropter pars [0585D] exercitus Baldewini formidine concussa vitaeque diffisa, in silentio noctis fugam iniit, alii simulata infirmitate, minime se abhinc sequi posse asserebant. Mane autem facto, Baldewinus intelligens suum defluxisse exercitum, dolore nimio motus, nihil tamen expavescens, universos quos voti sui compotes reperit sic adhortatur, dicens: Video, quomodo prae timore mortis, et novi rumoris, populus noster imminutus ac dilapsus est. Sed nihil congregatas nationes metuens, iter inceptum continuare non dubito; ideoque eos, qui remanserunt, in fide Christi admoneo, ut mecum ituri Jerusalem, nullo mortis absterreantur periculo; verum constanti proficiscantur animo, totam spem suam ponentes mecum in Domino Deo.

Wherefore a part [0585D] of Baldwin’s army, shaken with dread and despairing of life, in the silence of the night took to flight, while others, with feigned infirmity, asserted that they could by no means from now on follow. But when morning had come, Baldwin, understanding that his army had ebbed away, moved with excessive grief yet fearing nothing, thus exhorts all whom he found to be sharers of his vow, saying: I see how, because of fear of death and of the new rumor, our people has been diminished and has melted away. But, fearing nothing of the congregated nations, I do not hesitate to continue the journey begun; and therefore I admonish those who have remained, in the faith of Christ, that, going with me to Jerusalem, they be deterred by no peril of death; rather let them set out with a constant spirit, placing all their hope with me in the Lord God.

Qui vero dubitant, et formidolosi sunt, de [0586A] loco mecum pedem non moventes, quo tutum illis videtur, revertantur. Hoc dicto, et universis de via inquisitis, unanimes et viae concordes omnes qui aderant invenit. Sed, cum ad Gybel descenderet ibique pernoctaret, de quadringentis equitibus et mille peditibus vix centum et quadraginta equites et quingenti pedites cum eo remanserunt; caeteri vero omnes prae angustia auditi adventus Turcorum ab eo dilapsi sunt et dispersi.

But those who truly hesitate and are timorous, not moving a foot with me from the [0586A] place, let them return to where it seems safe to them. This said, and all being questioned about the road, he found all who were present unanimous and concordant as to the way. But, when he descended to Gybel and passed the night there, out of four hundred horsemen and one thousand footmen, scarcely one hundred and forty horsemen and five hundred footmen remained with him; but all the rest, under the anguish of the heard-of arrival of the Turks, slipped away from him and were scattered.

Nihil tamen formidinis habens Baldewinus, a campis et regione Gybel pacifice processit, eo quod honorifice et cum mansuetudine a civibus sit susceptus in omni copia rerum necessariarum.

Nevertheless, Baldwin, having no fear, proceeded peacefully from the fields and the region of Gybel, because he had been received honorably and with mildness by the citizens, with every abundance of necessary supplies.

CAP. XXXIII. - De eodem.

CHAPTER 33. - On the same.

Dehinc Tortosam civitatem praeteriens, Tripolin [0586B] pervenit: quem princeps urbis fideliter et jucunde suscepit in omni administratione ciborum, quibus indigebat exercitus. Illic innotuit ei quomodo Damascenorum rex et Geneadoil Sarracenorum princeps de regione amplissima, quam a camelis vocant Camollam, cui idem praeerat Geneadoil, et de universis civitatibus quae in littore maris Palaestini erant, et a montanis diversisque locis convenissent ad resistendum sibi in angustis faucibus et asperrimis scopulis civitatis Baruth vel Baurim. Baldewinus, his nimis et tam saevo rumore imperterritus, omnia in Christi nomine se tolerare profitetur, et nunquam pro tot nationum millibus in unum collectis iter suum in Jerusalem velle differre, sed usque ad sanguinem et mortem cum illis dimicare.

Thence, passing by the city of Tortosa, he reached Tripoli [0586B]: whom the prince of the city faithfully and pleasantly received, with every administration of victuals of which the army stood in need. There it became known to him how the king of the Damascenes and Geneadoil, prince of the Saracens, from the very ample region which from the camels they call Camolla, over which the same Geneadoil presided, and from all the cities which were on the shore of the Palestinian sea, and from the mountaineers and diverse places, had assembled to resist him in the narrow passes and most rugged crags of the city of Baruth or Baurim. Baldwin, undaunted by these excessive and so savage tidings, professes that he will endure all things in the name of Christ, and never, on account of so many thousands of nations gathered into one, to wish to defer his journey to Jerusalem, but to fight with them even unto blood and death.

Hoc dicto [0586C] viam per diem insistens, nocte imminente ad radicem difficilium montium hospitandi gratia pernoctavit: ubi nuntiatum est illi, omnes procul dubio illic convenisse adversarios ad prohibendum transitum, et in crastino ad committendum praelium. Quapropter aliquantum cor ejus immutatum est, et renes ejus dissoluti, eo quod pauci viri secum remansissent. Attamen crastina luce exorta, dux Baldewinus in Domino Jesu confortatus, iter inceptum pergit, quousque ad locum multitudinis adversariorum perventum est, ubi omnes vires illorum, sicut audierat, in occursum sibi paratae erant.

With this said [0586C], keeping to the road through the day, with night impending he spent the night at the foot of the difficult mountains for the sake of lodging: where it was announced to him that, without doubt, the adversaries had gathered there to prohibit the passage, and on the morrow to join battle. Wherefore his heart was somewhat altered, and his loins were loosened, because few men had remained with him. Nevertheless, with the light of the next day arisen, Duke Baldwin, strengthened in the Lord Jesus, proceeds with the journey begun, until the place of the adversaries’ multitude was reached, where all their forces, as he had heard, were prepared to meet him.

Has inter proficiscendum comperiens non procul abesse, media die flagrante, armis, loricis, galeis induuntur; lanceis [0586D] vero strictis et vexillis erectis, obviam per angustas fauces gentilibus turmis contendunt, diu cum illis praelia conserentes in locis arctissimis. Tandem virtute Turcorum intolerabili et Sarracenorum invalescente, Christianos cum principe suo Baldewino a faucibus in arcu et jaculis abegerunt. Post hanc diutinam contentionem, quoniam nox incumbebat, utrinque manus a praelio continuerunt.

Learning amid the setting out that these were not far off, with midday blazing, they are clad with arms, corslets, helmets; but with lances [0586D] drawn and vexilla erected, they press forward to meet the gentile troops through the narrow throats, long joining battle with them in the most straitened places. At length, with the intolerable prowess of the Turks and the strength of the Saracens increasing, they drove the Christians with their prince Baldwin from the passes by bow and javelins. After this long contention, since night was impending, on both sides the hands were restrained from the fray.

Eadem nocte Baldewinus a radice montis aliquantulum remotus, paucis fixis tentoriis pernoctavit, ac parce illic epulatus, suis inibi dedit consilium ne aliqui eorum ullo modo a se dividerentur, donec omnis subsequentium peregrinorum manus conveniret; sicque crastina die solerti providentia quodque periculum tutius inirent, ac pro nomine Jesu martyrium [0587A] recipientes, nihil tolerare dubitarent adversi.

That same night Baldwin, a little removed from the foot of the mountain, passed the night after a few tents had been pitched, and there, having feasted sparingly, he gave counsel to his men that none of them in any way be separated from him until the whole band of the pilgrims coming after should assemble; and thus on the next day, by sagacious providence, they might enter upon each peril more safely, and, for the name of Jesus, accepting martyrdom [0587A], they would not hesitate to endure anything adverse.

CAP. XXXIV. - Ipse fugam simulans, reversus gloriosam adeptus est victoriam.

CHAPTER 34. - He himself, simulating flight, having turned back, attained a glorious victory.

His ita decretis, et populo Christiano juxta verbum Baldewini consentiente, in ipsa nocte per montana mille ignes Turci et Sarraceni suscitaverunt, multo, scilicet plures quam eorum indigeret exercitus, ad exterrendos Christianorum populos. Geneadoil, princeps de Camolla, post suscitatos ignes, intelligens a relatoribus exiguas vires Baldewini, convenit ducem Damascenorum, quatenus in castris fessos et somno occupatos, invaderet. Sed displicuit caeteris principibus econtra referentibus.

With these things thus decreed, and the Christian people consenting according to the word of Baldwin, on that very night through the mountains the Turks and Saracens kindled a thousand fires—many, namely more than their army required—to terrify the peoples of the Christians. Geneadoil, prince of Camolla, after the fires were raised, learning from informants the slender forces of Baldwin, met with the duke of the Damascenes, to the end that he might assail them in their camp, weary and occupied with sleep. But it displeased the other princes, who reported to the contrary.

Non [0587B] est utile et salubre consilium nobis Turcis, ut in umbra noctis praelium conseramus, ne a Sarracenis, qui nos semper odio habuerunt, subito circumventi occidamur, et tam spolia Francorum quam nostrorum auferantur. Sed si placet, dum aurora diei orta fuerit, differamus, qua nobis providere usquequaque possimus. Et sic consilium Geneadoil dissipatum est.

It is not [0587B] a useful and salutary counsel for us Turks to join battle in the shadow of night, lest, suddenly surrounded by the Saracens, who have always held us in hatred, we be slain, and the spoils both of the Franks and of our own be carried off. But if it pleases, when the dawn of day shall have arisen, let us defer it, whereby we may be able to provide for ourselves in every way. And so Geneadoil’s counsel was dissipated.

Altera autem die orta, Baldewinus sollicitus ac pervigil, intelligens Turcos jam matutinos adesse, in quamdam planitiem post tergum relictam totum fidelium reduxit exercitum, ac si fugam iniisset. Quod gentiles universi videntes, et eum fugientem ac tremefactum aestimantes, graviter eos equis secuti sunt cum quingentis praemissis equitibus et quindecim [0587C] millibus peditum. At Baldewinus semper miles imperterritus, cernens hostes se graviter insequi, et jam per totam planitiem plurimum exercitus descendisse, sine mora cum universis catholicis militibus in freno equis reductis, Turcos velociter incurrit, duroque certamine commisso, circiter quadringenti Turcorum illic in gladio, lancea et sagitta occisi sunt.

But when the next day had risen, Baldwin, anxious and very wakeful, understanding that the Turks were already present at daybreak, led back the whole army of the faithful into a certain plain left to the rear, as if he had taken to flight. Which thing all the Gentiles seeing, and estimating him to be fleeing and panic-struck, pressed them hard on horseback, with 500 horsemen sent ahead and 15[0587C] thousand foot. But Baldwin, ever an undaunted soldier, seeing that the enemies were pressing him hard, and that already through the whole plain a very great part of the army had descended, without delay, with all the catholic soldiers, the horses reined in, swiftly charged the Turks; and, a hard combat having been joined, about 400 of the Turks there were slain by sword, lance, and arrow.

Caetera multitudo, quae adhuc in faucibus subsequebatur, nec auxilio suis prodesse poterat prae angustia semitarum, nunc vitae diffisa, in fugam conversa est. Baldewinus sic victoriam, Dei gratia, adeptus, quadraginta octo ex majoribus Turcorum in eodem captivavit praelio, nihil praedae praeterquam equos probatissimos contrahens, quod in altero latere angustarum faucium omnia armenta [0587D] cum spoliis et tentoriis gentilium remansissent. Finito autem hora nona tam gravi praelio, Baldewinus in praedicta planitie remanens, tentoria fixit, eo quod fons aquae dulcis illic esset mellitique saporis calamelli quibus refocillati sunt.

The rest of the multitude, which was still following in the defiles, and could not profit its own by aid because of the narrowness of the footpaths, now, despairing of life, was turned to flight. Baldewinus thus, by the grace of God, having obtained victory, captured forty-eight of the principal Turks in the same battle, gathering nothing of booty except the most excellent horses, because on the other side of the narrow defiles all the herds [0587D] with the spoils and tents of the gentiles had remained. But the very heavy battle having ended at the ninth hour, Baldewinus, remaining on the aforesaid plain, pitched tents, for there was a spring of sweet water there and honey-sweet little reeds by which they were refreshed.

Non amplius quam duo milites, Walterus Tauns et Baldewinus Tauns, illic cecidisse reperti sunt, pauci vero vulnerati. Itidem in tentoriis captivi constituti, ac in custodiam missi sunt. Vespere autem facto, Baldewinus cum suis recreatus, in medio captivorum resedit ad inquisitionem de qua origine aut parentibus essent: inter quos princeps et tetrarcha Damascenorum repertus est, qui plurimum thesaurum pro vitae redemptione perhibetur obtulisse.

No more than two soldiers, Walterus Tauns and Baldewinus Tauns, were found to have fallen there, and indeed a few were wounded. Likewise, those taken in the tents were set as captives and sent into custody. But when evening had come, Baldwin, refreshed with his men, sat down in the midst of the captives to inquire of what origin or parentage they were: among them a prince and tetrarch of the Damascenes was found, who is reported to have offered a very great treasure for the redemption of his life.

CAP. XXXV. - Quam sagaciter Baldewinus versutiam Tankradi praevenit. [0588A]

CHAPTER 35. - How sagaciously Baldwin forestalled Tancred’s craftiness. [0588A]

Rex vero Damascenorum, Geneadoil, et universi principes gentilium, audita suorum contritione, plurimorumque captione et Baldewini glorificatione, tota nocte diffugium fecerunt, metuentes ne mane facto, altero in latere montis reperti, et a Christianis audaci incursu impetiti, capitali sententia punirentur, aut superati a Sarracenis regionis pro nihilo computati decollarentur. Est enim mos Sarracenorum gentis, ut quoslibet novos victores timeant et obediant eis, victos parvipendant et persequantur. Baldewinus igitur fugam universorum intelligens, orto sole cum praeda equorum, cum captivis Turcis et spoliis, castra movit ad Sidonem civitatem et Gibeloth: [0588B] quo pertransiens sine obstaculo et periculo, Sur, quae est Tyrus, declinavit, ubi commode hospitio et alimonia cum suis refectus est.

But the king of the Damascenes, Geneadoil, and all the chiefs of the gentiles, when they heard of the crushing of their own men, the capture of very many, and the glorification of Baldwin, took to flight in all directions through the whole night, fearing lest, when morning came, if found on the other side of the mountain and assailed by a bold incursion of the Christians, they be punished with a capital sentence, or, if overcome, by the Saracens of the region, counted as nothing, they be beheaded. For it is the custom of the Saracen race to fear any new victors and obey them, and to make little of the vanquished and persecute them. Baldwin therefore, understanding the flight of all, with the sun risen, with the booty of horses, with Turkish captives and spoils, moved camp to the city of Sidon and to Gibeloth: [0588B] and passing through there without obstacle and danger, he turned aside to Sur, which is Tyre, where he was comfortably refreshed, together with his men, with hospitality and nourishment.

Post haec Ptolemaidem, quae est Acra vel Accaron, praeteriens, nihil contradictionis aut adversitatis ab ea vel ab urbibus illis pertulit propter victoriam et famum, quam de illo audierant. Sic pacifice Caiphas perveniens, in ea diebus aliquot moratus est.

After these things, passing by Ptolemais, which is Acre or Accaron, he suffered no contradiction or adversity from it or from those cities, on account of the victory and fame which they had heard about him. Thus, arriving peacefully at Caiphas, he stayed in it for several days.

CAP. XXXVI. - Tankrado solo adventu Baldewini perterrito, Baldewinus sanctam ingressus est civitatem.

CHAPTER 36. - Tancred, being terrified by Baldwin’s mere arrival, Baldwin entered the holy city.

Nescius quippe doli totius, Tankradum ibi reperire et alloqui fervebat, ejusque consilio de rebus [0588C] suis ubique agere. Sed Tankradus omnia ignorans de adventu Baldewini, Jerusalem profectus fuerat ad corrumpendos principes et custodes turris David, quatenus avunculus ejus Boemundus aut ipse regnum obtineret; omnia autem instinctu, auxilio et consensu patriarchae faciebat. Audito itaque ibidem, in urbe Caiphas, dolo et versutia Tankradi, quae fiebat consensu Dagoberti patriarchae, Baldewinus vir illustris et providus, Hugonem de Falckenberg, et Robertum episcopum civitatis Rames vel Rama, super his compellat, eosque ex consilio suorum Jerusalem sine dilatione direxit, ut praevenirent universum dolum, metuens ne turrim David et regnum Jerusalem aliqua perfidia seu promissione pecuniae amitteret.

Unknowing indeed of the whole dolus, he burned to find Tancred there and address him, and by his counsel to manage his affairs [0588C] everywhere. But Tancred, ignorant of Baldwin’s advent, had set out to Jerusalem to corrupt the princes and the keepers of the Tower of David, in order that his uncle Bohemond, or he himself, might obtain the kingdom; and he was doing everything at the instigation, with the aid, and with the consent of the patriarch. Therefore, on hearing there, in the city of Caiphas, of Tancred’s dol and versutia, which was being done with the consent of Dagobert the patriarch, Baldwin, an illustrious and provident man, presses Hugh of Falckenberg and Robert, bishop of the city of Rames or Rama, on these matters, and by the counsel of his men directed them to Jerusalem without delay, that they might preempt the whole deceit, fearing lest he lose the Tower of David and the kingdom of Jerusalem by some perfidy or by a promise of money.

[0588D] His itaque perfectis, quidam probi milites de domo ducis Godefridi, Rudolfus, Geldemarus, Wickerus Alemannus, Rudolfus de Montpizon, in via civitatis Caesareae, qua Sarracenos persequebantur, adventum Baldewini penitus ignorantes, tunc primum a praemissis fratribus rem cognoverunt, quomodo scilicet Baldewinus loco fratris sui Jerusalem obtinere advenisset, atque Caiphas adhuc hospitio moraretur. Nec mora, audito tam egregii principis adventu, et digno haerede Jerusalem, gavisi sunt universi, commistisque sociis et armis, Japhet, quae est Joppe, contenderunt. Ubi Tankradum ab Jerusalem in ira reversum, quia urbem intrare non potuit, in obsidione reperientes, nuntiaverunt ei Baldewinum [0589A] adesse, et regnum Jerusalem velle obtinere.

[0588D] These things thus completed, certain worthy knights of the household of Duke Godfrey—Rudolf, Geldemar, Wicker the German, Rudolf of Montpizon—on the road of the city Caesarea, along which they were pursuing the Saracens, being utterly ignorant of the advent of Baldwin, then for the first time learned the matter from the aforesaid brothers: namely, how Baldwin had come to obtain Jerusalem in the place of his brother, and was still staying as a guest at Caiphas. Without delay, upon hearing of the advent of so outstanding a prince, and the worthy heir of Jerusalem, they all rejoiced, and, having joined comrades and arms, they hastened to Japhet, which is Joppe. There, finding Tancred returned from Jerusalem in anger, because he could not enter the city, and in a siege, they announced to him that Baldwin [0589A] was present, and wished to obtain the kingdom of Jerusalem.

Tankradus audito tam proximo adventu Baldewini, statim ab obsidione Joppe surrexit; per aliam viam Caiphas reversus, nolens recto itinere Baldewino a Caiphas revertenti occurrere. Baldewinus vero a Caipha procedens, praedictos milites de domo ducis Godefridi in occursum habuit, qui omnia sibi de Tankrado retulerunt; et post haec cum eo Joppen accelerantes, duobus diebus continuis illic remorati sunt. Deinde ordinatis rebus in Joppe, cum omni clientela et praeda, quam abduxit de Baruth, quae est Baurim, cum quadraginta quinque captivis militibus Turcorum Jerusalem descendit, quos in praesidio turris David repositos caute jussit custodiri.

Tancred, on hearing of the very near advent of Baldwin, immediately rose from the siege of Joppe; by another road he returned to Caiphas, not wishing to meet Baldwin, returning from Caiphas, on the straight route. But Baldwin, proceeding from Caipha, had the aforesaid knights of the house of Duke Godfrey come into his encounter, who reported to him everything about Tancred; and after this, accelerating with him to Joppe, they lingered there for two continuous days. Then, the matters in Joppe being set in order, with all the clientele and the prey which he had led away from Baruth, which is Baurim, with forty-five captive soldiers of the Turks, he went down to Jerusalem, whom, placed in the garrison of the Tower of David, he ordered to be guarded cautiously.

CAP. XXXVII. - Perquisitis rebus defuncti fratris, a viris fortibus tentare fortia suadetur. [0589B]

CHAPTER 37. - The matters of the deceased brother having been searched out, valiant men recommend attempting valiant things. [0589B]

Quarta denique die postquam ascendit Jerusalem, congregatis universis, magnis et parvis, de universo coetu Christianorum, requisivit de suppellectile fratris sui Godefridi, de armatura ejus, de pecunia, de beneficiis cujusque militis ac praepotentis. Qui nihil de rebus fratris ejus se habere testati sunt, sed eas in eleemosynas pauperum et solvendis debitis esse dispersas; beneficia vero, prout unicuique statuta erant de reditibus civitatum, protulerunt. Ipse autem omnia responsa illorum patienter accipiens, de rebus et armis aliquibus discussis, sed excusatis, obticuit singulis singula reddens beneficia.

Finally, on the fourth day after he ascended to Jerusalem, with all, great and small, having been gathered, from the entire assembly of the Christians, he inquired concerning the equipment of his brother Godfrey, concerning his armament, concerning the money, concerning the benefices of each knight and potentate. They testified that they had nothing of his brother’s goods, but that these had been dispersed in alms for the poor and for the paying of debts; the benefices, however, they produced, according as they had been appointed to each from the revenues of the cities. But he, patiently receiving all their answers, with certain goods and arms having been discussed, yet excused, kept silence, rendering to individuals their several benefices.

Unde ab omnibus jurejurando firmatus, in throno Jerusalem potenter exaltatus gloriose resedit. Erat tempus [0589C] mensis Novembris circa festum B. Martini Turonici pontificis, quando Baldewinus Jerusalem veniens, ab omnibus parvis et magnis rex et dominus est constitutus. Sic collocato Baldewino gloriose in throno Jerusalem, universi principes et milites de domo ducis Godefridi convenientes in praesentiam ejus, hoc modo ei locuti sunt: Frater ducis Godefridi es, principis gloriosissimi ac nominatissimi, et ideo universae nationes gentilium in circuitu famam de te comperientes, adventu tuo tremefactae sunt; quia te magnum, bellisque famosissimum intellexerunt.

Whence, confirmed by oath by all, he, powerfully exalted, sat gloriously on the throne of Jerusalem. It was the time [0589C] of the month of November, around the feast of Blessed Martin, the pontiff of Tours, when Baldwin, coming to Jerusalem, was by all, small and great, constituted king and lord. Thus, Baldwin having been gloriously placed on the throne of Jerusalem, all the princes and soldiers of the house of Duke Godfrey, coming together into his presence, spoke to him in this way: You are the brother of Duke Godfrey, a most glorious and most renowned prince, and therefore all the nations of the Gentiles round about, learning the fame about you, were shaken with trembling at your advent; because they understood you to be great, and most famous in wars.

Quapropter te decet insigne facere, quo stupescant gentilium terrae, et admirari eis non sufficiat: sicque nomen fratris tui, principis Jerusalem, in te reviviscet, [0589D] ac magnificabitur.

Wherefore it befits you to perform a distinguished deed, at which the lands of the Gentiles may be astonished, and for them it not suffice merely to admire; and thus the name of your brother, the prince of Jerusalem, will revive in you, [0589D] and will be magnified.

CAP. XXXVIII. - Urbem Ascalonem obsidens, post aliquot dies infecto negotio obsidionem solvit.

CHAPTER 38. - Besieging the city of Ascalon, after several days, with the matter unfinished, he raised the siege.

Consiliis suorum auditis, Baldewinus terram Jerusalem et civitatis in circuitu muniens custodia fideli, centum et quinquaginta militibus et quingentis peditibus assumptis, ab urbe Jerusalem processit nona hora diei; et vespere facto, hospitatus est juxta fontem recentis aquae, ubi montana terminantur. Post haec quinta die abhinc exsurgens, ad urbem Ascalonem cum omni virtute suorum descendit: in qua mille equites Arabes a Babylonia missi habitabant ad tuenda moenia ejus, ne novi principis virtus subito irrumperet improvisam. Ibi milites Baldewini in tentoriis ante urbis moenia fixis duobus diebus sine [0590A] assultu consederunt.

With the counsels of his men heard, Baldwin, fortifying the land of Jerusalem and the city’s circuit with faithful guard, having taken 150 knights and 500 footmen, set out from the city of Jerusalem at the ninth hour of the day; and when evening had come, he lodged near the spring of fresh water, where the mountains end. After this, rising on the fifth day from then, he descended with all the prowess of his men to the city of Ascalon: in which 1,000 Arab horsemen, sent from Babylonia, were dwelling to guard its walls, lest the virtue of the new prince should suddenly burst in upon it unprepared. There Baldwin’s soldiers, their tents pitched before the city’s walls, for two days sat down without [0590A] assault.

At die tertia milites Arabes cum civibus erumpentes, crebra cum eis praelia conseruerunt, donec tandem utrinque non modicam contritionem suorum pertulerunt. Post duos dehinc dies, et plurimam stragem Sarracenorum, gravemque vulnerationem Gallorum, rex Baldewinus ab urbis obsidione prudenti consilio sic suos revocavit, dicens: Hi adversarii nostri in murorum protectione confisi, et plurima manu civium, facile, adversante fortuna, creberrimis suorum auxiliis possunt praevalere; nostrates vero incauli sagittis perire; ideo utile est consilium, ut ab hac civitate castra moveamus.

But on the third day the Arab soldiers, sallying forth with the citizens, engaged in frequent battles with them, until at length on both sides they endured no small loss of their own. Two days later, and after a very great slaughter of the Saracens and a grievous wounding of the Gauls, king Baldwin, by prudent counsel, thus called back his men from the siege of the city, saying: These adversaries of ours, relying on the protection of the walls and on a very large band of citizens, can easily, fortune being adverse, prevail by the very frequent auxiliaries of their own; but our countrymen, exposed, are perishing by arrows; therefore the counsel is expedient that we move camp away from this city.

CAP. XXXIX. - Quam ingeniose vicerit gentem Azopart sub terra latentem.

CHAPTER 39. - How ingeniously he conquered the Azopart people lying hidden beneath the earth.

Cum haec consilia inter se fierent, innotuit Baldewino, [0590B] quomodo inter deserta Ascalonis et Babyloniae in caveis subterraneis Azopart, gens foedissima latens accubuisset ad disturbandos et perimendos peregrinos, qui Hierosolymam proficisci desiderabant. Qui mox hac gentis impietate cognita, castra movit ab Ascalone, et cava suo exercitu obsedit: quibus flamma immissa experiri voluit utrum prae nimia angustia fumi et caloris prodiret a tetris et inauditis antris. Sed de omnibus nulli egressi sunt praeter duos, qui et coram eo steterunt, si forte misericordiam et vitam invenirent.

While these counsels were being taken among themselves, it became known to Baldwin, [0590B] how between the deserts of Ascalon and Babylonia, in subterranean caves, Azopart, a most foul nation, lying hidden, had lain in wait to disturb and destroy the pilgrims who desired to set out to Jerusalem. Who, as soon as this impiety of the tribe was recognized, moved camp from Ascalon, and besieged the caverns with his army: into which, fire having been sent, he wished to test whether, because of the excessive stifling of smoke and heat, they would come forth from the foul and unheard-of caverns. But of all of them none went out except two, who also stood before him, if perchance they might find mercy and life.

Baldewinus hos intuens viros horridos et squalidos, amica affabilitate eos compellat super omnibus quae de eis audierat, et vestibus pretiosis eos adornans de gente et cognatione eorum requirit. Qui, secundum quod interrogati [0590C] fuerant, universa sibi aperientes, et misericordem eum sibi arbitrantes, obnixe deprecantur ut alter eorum cum Baldewino maneret, alter ad cava et nota loca rediret, quatenus socios de perplexa domo, mirabili arce, ac investigabili fossa inclusos, produceret in conspectum principis, si forte et ipsi gratiam in conspectu ejus invenirent. Ingressusque foveam, vestes et munera regis ostendens et de ejus benigna susceptione loquens, illico decem de consociis eduxit in praesentiam regis et ejus optimatum.

Baldwin, gazing upon these men, rough and squalid, addresses them with friendly affability concerning all that he had heard about them, and, adorning them with precious garments, inquires about their nation and kinship. They, according as they had been questioned [0590C], disclosing everything to him and judging him merciful toward them, earnestly beseech that one of them remain with Baldwin, the other return to the caves and the well-known places, so that he might bring their comrades—shut up in an intricate house, a marvelous citadel, and an uninvestigable fosse—forth into the sight of the prince, if perchance they too might find favor in his sight. And having entered the pit, displaying the garments and gifts of the king and speaking of his kindly reception, he immediately led out ten of his associates into the presence of the king and his magnates.

Interea is, qui cum Baldewino remanserat, dum in foveam rediit alter, decollatus est a pueris regis. Similiter socius, qui vana spe et promissione honestarum vestium decem produxerat ex cavernis [0590D] clanculum amotus, in momento decollatus est cum novem. Decimus vitae reservatur, quem tota strages sodalium latebat.

Meanwhile he who had remained with Baldwin, while the other returned into the pit, was beheaded by the king’s pages. Likewise the companion who, by vain hope and the promise of honorable garments, had led out ten from the caverns [0590D]—being secretly removed—was in a moment beheaded with nine. The tenth was reserved alive, to whom the whole slaughter of his comrades was hidden.

Hunc Baldewinus seorsum tollens, et honorificis ac mollibus indumentis opertum suo sermone demulcens, protinus illexit eum, quatenus rediens ad subterraneos sodales, eos prodire hortaretur, asserens se illos benigne tractare, et donis magnificis honorare; quin omnia loca regionis illis in beneficiis concedere, et eorum consiliis universa agere velle. His promissionibus miser seductus et illectus, ad cava reversus cum veste pretiosa, omnia complicibus suis retulit de principis affabilitate ac largitate, et ampliora quam audisset, credens socios amotos et decollatos vivere, et missos ad tuendas ipsius Baldewini civitates.

Baldwin, taking this man aside and covering him with honorific and soft garments, soothing him with his own speech, straightway enticed him, to the end that, returning to his subterranean comrades, he might exhort them to come forth, asserting that he would treat them benignly and honor them with magnificent gifts; nay, that he would grant to them all the places of the region in benefices, and wish to do everything by their counsels. By these promises the wretch, seduced and lured, returned to the caverns with the precious garment, and reported to his accomplices all about the prince’s affability and largesse, and even greater things than he had heard, believing the comrades who had been removed and beheaded to be alive, and sent to guard Baldwin’s own cities.

CAP. XL. - De eadem re. [0591A]

CHAPTER 40. - On the same matter. [0591A]

Azopart inaestimabili et investigabili cavatione subterrati, bonam promissionem socii audientes, minas quoque, deinde promissa magnifica, ad triginta processerunt. Qui coram ipso principe assistentes, benigne ex ore ejus suscepti sunt; statimque a conspectu illius abducti, quasi munera accepturi, omnes capitalem subiere sententiam, praeter unum, qui solus cum Baldewino ex omnibus triginta remansit. Hunc solum mirifico honore tractavit, nescium caedis complicum, quem etiam ad antra praedicta remisit, quatenus honores et munera ipsius subterratis viris referret, eosque ipse captus a suo praesidio exire hortaretur.

Azopart, buried underground by an inestimable and unsearchable excavation, hearing the good promise of their associate, the threats also, and then the magnificent promises, to the number of thirty came forth. These, standing before the prince himself, were benignly received from his mouth; and straightway, removed from his presence as though to receive gifts, they all underwent a capital sentence, save one, who alone out of all the thirty remained with Baldwin. Him alone he treated with wondrous honor, unaware of the slaughter of his accomplices; and he even sent him back to the aforesaid caverns, so that he might report the honors and gifts of himself to the subterranean men, and might urge them, he himself with his guard removed, to come out from their stronghold.

Sic et sic illusi vanis spebus, ducenti et triginta processerunt, [0591B] omnes sine dilatione jussu principis decollati, eo quod maxima mala peregrinis, Hierosolymam transeuntibus, intulissent, alios exspoliantes, alios trucidantes: tantumque scelus semper inultum remansisset, eo quod nullus de specu hoc eos antea vi, seu qualibet arte potuisset ejicere. His ducentis et triginta decollatis, ac nequitia sua in capita eorum reddita ingenio Christianissimi principis in ultionem peregrinorum; solummodo feminae et pueri eorum in caveis eorum remanserunt cum spoliis plurimorum. Qui necem eorum intelligentes, quoniam nullus ad eos ultra rediret, minime exire ausi sunt.

Thus and thus deluded by vain hopes, two hundred and thirty proceeded, [0591B] all beheaded without delay by the order of the prince, because they had inflicted the greatest evils upon pilgrims passing to Jerusalem, despoiling some, massacring others; and so great a wickedness would always have remained unavenged, because no one could previously have cast them out of this cavern by force or by any art. With these two hundred and thirty beheaded, and their nequity returned upon their heads by the ingenuity of the most Christian prince, in vengeance for the pilgrims, only their women and children remained in their caves with the spoils of very many. Who, understanding their slaying, since none would return to them any more, did not at all dare to go out.

Quapropter Baldewinus vehementer adversus eos indignatus, ligna, stipulas ac stuppas ante os cujusque specus comportari jussit et [0591C] incendi, quousque calore et fumo cogerentur exire. Tandem hac fumi et caloris nimietate unanimiter oppressae matres cum pueris, quibus virorum solamen defecerat, licet inviti, processerunt, ac statim militibus in praedam dati sunt et divisi: quorum cum matribus alii pretio redempti, alii vero pariter de collati sunt.

Wherefore Baldwin, vehemently indignant against them, ordered wood, stubble, and tow to be brought together before the mouth of each cavern and [0591C] to be set on fire, until by the heat and smoke they were forced to come out. At length, by this nimiety of smoke and heat, the mothers together with the children, overwhelmed all together, for whom the solace of the men had failed, though unwilling, came forth, and straightway were given over to the soldiers as booty and divided: of whom, together with their mothers, some were redeemed for a price, but others likewise were beheaded.

CAP. XLI. - Cum per difficilia loca militem agit, plures frigore exstinguuntur.

CHAPTER 41. - When he drives the soldiery through difficult places, many are extinguished by cold.

Baldewinus post ista profectus ad castellum quod dicitur ad S. Abraham, juxta flumina fetentia Sodomae et Gomorrhae hospitio remansit, in cibo et equorum pabulo magnam illic sustinens indigentiam. Ibidem dum montana perlustrarent ad investiganda [0591D] necessaria, intimatum est eis a quibusdam incolis, quomodo, si paulo procederent ad locum qui dicitur Palmarum, plurimas opes et copias ciborum reperirent, quibus cum equis suis recreari possent. Quod juvenes quidam audientes, circiter quadraginta ab exercitu clam subtracti praecurrerunt ut pecuniam et praedas contraherent.

Baldwin, after these things, set out to the castle which is called at St. Abraham, and near the stinking rivers of Sodom and Gomorrah he remained in lodging, there sustaining great indigence in food and in horse-fodder. In the same place, while they were traversing the mountains to investigate the [0591D] necessaries, it was intimated to them by certain inhabitants that, if they should proceed a little to the place which is called of the Palms, they would find very many riches and supplies of foods, by which they could be refreshed with their horses. Which, certain youths hearing, about forty, stealthily withdrawn from the army, ran on ahead to gather money and booty.

Sed nihil praeter alimenta et plurimam venationem invenerunt, quibus ventrem impleverunt; nihil vero vini aut alicujus poculi praeter fontes aquarum dulcium biberunt. Illic quidem in loco Palmarum refocillati, exsurgentes ad montana Arabiae pervenerunt. Quibus superatis, inter duos apices montium hospitati sunt, ubi nocte necessariis cibis, quos vehiculis mulorum, camelorum, asinorum attulerant, sufficienter recreati sunt, [0592A] nihil prorsus reperientes illic praeter aquas recentes.

But they found nothing except provisions and a very great abundance of game, with which they filled their bellies; nor indeed did they drink any wine or any other draught, except the springs of fresh waters. There indeed, in the Place of Palms, refreshed, rising up they reached the highlands of Arabia. These having been surmounted, they lodged between two peaks of the mountains, where by night they were sufficiently restored by the necessary foods which they had brought on the conveyances of mules, camels, and asses, [0592A] finding absolutely nothing there except fresh waters.

Haec montana, eorumque difficiles scopulos arctasque fauces, spatio quinque dierum superaverunt gravi et inaestimabili labore. Sexta vero die montanis permensis, in extremo illorum cacumine maxima pertulerunt pericula in grandine horribili, in glacie terribili, in pluvia et nive inaudita, quorum immanitate et horrore ingruente, ad triginta homines pedites prae frigore mortui sunt.

These mountains, and their difficult crags and narrow defiles, they overcame over the space of five days with heavy and inestimable labor. But on the sixth day, the mountain-lands having been traversed, on their farthest summit they endured very great perils: in horrible hail, in terrible ice, in unheard-of rain and snow; as the enormity and horror of these pressed on, as many as thirty footmen died from the cold.

CAP. XLII. - Civitas Susumus igne deletur.

CHAPTER 42. - The city Susumus is destroyed by fire.

Post montium ac scopulorum difficilia pericula in vallem descendentes, per diem continuum in equis residentes, planitiem pertransierunt, et vespere in villa quadam opulentissima castrametati, cum principe suo Baldewino hospitio rebusque necessariis [0592B] refecti sunt. Ibi quidam exploratores de Sarracenis ad promerendam gratiam tanti et tam magni principis, et vitam impetrandam, adfuerunt, qui civitatem juxta sitam, Susumus nomine, rebus nimium locupletem ipsi propalaverunt principi, et hanc facile occupari posse et expugnari. Baldewinus, his intellectis, quinta die a villa praedicta exiens, ad civitatem Susumus vespere descendit.

After the difficult perils of mountains and crags, descending into a valley, they traversed the plain, sitting on their horses for a whole day, and in the evening they encamped in a certain most opulent villa, and, together with their prince Baldwin, were refreshed with hospitality and the necessary things [0592B]. There certain scouts from the Saracens, to merit the favor of so great and so mighty a prince and to obtain their lives, appeared, who disclosed to the prince himself a city situated nearby, by the name Susumus, exceedingly opulent in goods, and that this could easily be occupied and taken by storm. Baldwin, these things understood, on the fifth day, going out from the aforesaid villa, descended to the city Susumus in the evening.

Sed domos et omnia loca civitatis vacua reperiens, ibidem potenter hospitio quievit. Audito namque adventu illius, universi gentiles a regione et civitate hac fugerunt, eo quod sine muro haec civitas infirma haberetur. In hac siquidem per octo dies sine impedimento et aliquo incursu inimicorum secura quiete corpora sua curaverunt, singulis diebus gentiles in circuitu [0592C] persequentes.

Sed, finding the houses and all the places of the city empty, there he took quarters in force and rested under lodging. For when his arrival was heard, all the gentiles fled from this region and city, because this city, being without a wall, was held as weak. In this one, indeed, for eight days, without impediment and any incursion of enemies, in secure quiet they cared for their bodies, each day pursuing the gentiles in the circuit [0592C] round about.

et plurimos repertos trucidantes. Nona denique die clarescente, ex praecepto Baldewini urbs Susumus attrita est et combusta. Spolia vero civitatis in armentis et caeteris rebus ubique, diripientes, per aliam regionem quae est in montanis divertentes, loca propalata Sarracenorum depopulati sunt, praedas ab universis locis contrahentes.

and cutting down very many whom they found. Finally, on the ninth day as it was growing light, by Baldwin’s precept the city of Susumus was battered and burned. As for the spoil of the city, seizing herds and other goods everywhere, and turning aside through another region which is in the mountains, they laid waste the places of the Saracens that had been disclosed, gathering booty from all the places.

Tandem post dies octo, diversis angustiis et difficultate locorum, interdum etiam fame gravati, ad praefata fetentia flumina reditum paraverunt. Et ad villam Palmarum venientes, nihil alimoniae praeter fructum dactylorum repererunt, quibus corpora fessa et escis jejuna recreaverunt.

At length, after 8 days, burdened by various straits and the difficulty of the locales, at times even weighed down with hunger, they prepared a return to the aforesaid fetid rivers. And coming to the Villa of the Palms, they found no nourishment except the fruit of dates, with which they refreshed their weary bodies, fasting from food.

CAP. XLIII. - In natali Domini apud Bethlehem Baldewinus unctus est in regem.

CHAPTER 43. - On the Nativity of the Lord at Bethlehem Baldwin was anointed as king.

[0592D] Dehinc per castellum, quod dicitur ad S. Abraham, repedantes via qua venerant Jerusalem reversi sunt tertia die ante Natalem Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Illic cum patriarcha et cunctis optimatibus suis habito consilio, Bethlehem Natalem Domini celebrare decrevit. Ubi eadem die sancta et solemni consecratus et in regem Jerusalem unctus, in glorie magna coronatus est.

[0592D] Thence, retracing their steps through the castellum which is called at St. Abraham, by the road by which they had come they returned to Jerusalem on the third day before the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. There, counsel having been held with the patriarch and all his nobles, he decreed to celebrate the Nativity of the Lord at Bethlehem. Where, on the same holy and solemn day, he was consecrated and anointed as king of Jerusalem, and was crowned in great glory.

Noluit enim, nec praesumpsit in urbe Jerusalem diademate, auro vel gemmis pretiosis exaltari, adornari et in regem promoveri, ubi Dominus Jesus, Rex regum et Dominus dominantium humiliatus et obediens usque ad mortem, pro mundi redemptione spinis horridis et acutis coronatus est. Proxima autem die a Bethlehem migrans, Jerusalem [0593A] reversus, curiam ac consilium suum cum omni primatu suo in palatio regis Salomonis tribus diebus ejusdem solemnitatis tenuit, honorifice quindecim diebus illic in civitate regia moram faciendo. In his itaque diebus potenter sedit rex in throno suo, ut faceret judicium et justitiam inter Christianos confratres, si cui illata fuisset injuria, vel si qua accrevisset discordia, volens omnia cum aequitate tractare et non ficta pace componere.

For he did not wish, nor did he presume, in the city of Jerusalem to be exalted with a diadem, with gold or with precious gems, to be adorned and advanced into a king, where the Lord Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, humbled and obedient unto death, was crowned with horrid and sharp thorns for the redemption of the world. But on the next day, departing from Bethlehem, having returned to Jerusalem [0593A], he held his curia and his council with all his primacy in the palace of King Solomon for three days of the same solemnity, making, with honor, a stay for fifteen days there in the royal city. In these days, therefore, the king sat mightily upon his throne, so that he might do judgment and justice among his Christian brothers, if any injury had been inflicted upon anyone, or if any discord had increased, being willing to handle all things with equity and to compose them with a not-feigned peace.

CAP. XLIV. - Prima sessione regis, Tankradus accusatur, vocatur et adesse dedignatur.

CHAPTER 44. - At the first session of the king, Tancred is accused, is summoned, and disdains to be present.

Geldemarus ergo videns dominum regem consedisse ad justitiam, assistensque coram eo, graviter conquestus est super injuriis de civitate, quae sibi a Tankrado inferebantur, quam dono et ex manu ducis [0593B] Godefridi suscepit, ac militari obsequio promeruit, si caperetur, quamque nunc Tankradus, audita ducis morte, vi et injuste retinebat. Hac itaque Geldemari accepta querimonia, rex ex consilio suorum primum Tankrado legationem direxit, quatenus Hierosolymam ascendens, responsionem super querimoniis Geldemari et injuriis ei illatis faceret. Tankradus autem, nullam se de his responsionem coram illo habiturum, respondit eo quod nesciret eum regem civitatis et judicem regni Jerusalem.

Geldemar, therefore, seeing the lord king seated for justice, and standing before him, complained gravely about the injuries concerning the city which were being inflicted on him by Tankradus—the city which he had received as a gift and from the hand of Duke [0593B] Godfrey, and had earned by military obsequy, if it should be taken—and which Tankradus, upon hearing of the duke’s death, was now retaining by force and unjustly. Therefore, with Geldemar’s complaint received, the king, by the counsel of his own, first directed a legation to Tankradus, that, ascending to Jerusalem, he should make a response concerning the complaints of Geldemar and the injuries done to him. But Tankradus replied that he would have no response about these matters before him, for the reason that he did not acknowledge him as king of the city and judge of the kingdom of Jerusalem.

Rex autem iterato consilio suorum illi secundo ac tertio legationem direxit, quatenus justitiam non devitaret, ne post hac aliquis incusaret regem, nec fateretur aliter quam juste et patienter regem adversus confratrem et unum de principibus Christianorum fecisse. Tandem [0593C] Tankradus anxius quid ex tertia admonitione faceret, consilium cum suis iniit, qualiter inter Japhet et Assur altera ex ripa fluminis, quod has duas civitates dividit, regi responderet ac loqueretur, si ei gratum foret; quoniam Jerusalem venire metuebat. Rex autem responsum ac petitionem Tankradi intelligens, consilio majorum suorum voluntati illius acquievit; et die statuto ad eumdem locum fluminis inter Japhet et Assur ad colloquium profectus est.

The king, however, by the renewed counsel of his men, sent to him a second and a third embassy, to the end that he should not evade justice, lest hereafter anyone accuse the king, and so that it would be acknowledged only that the king had acted justly and patiently against his fellow-brother and one of the princes of the Christians. At length [0593C] Tankradus, anxious what he should do in view of the third admonition, took counsel with his own as to how, between Japhet and Assur, from the other bank of the river which divides these two cities, he might answer and speak to the king, if it should be pleasing to him; for he feared to come to Jerusalem. The king, however, understanding Tankradus’s answer and request, by the counsel of his elders acceded to his wish; and on the appointed day he set out to that same place of the river between Japhet and Assur for a colloquy.

Illic diversis inter se consiliis habitis, rursus post quindecim dies Caiphas convenire decreverunt, eo quod nihil hoc tempore potuissent definire: et sic Tankradus cum patriarcha Caiphas, rex Jerusalem reversus est.

There, diverse counsels having been held among themselves, they decreed to meet again at Caiphas after fifteen days, because at that time they had been able to determine nothing: and thus Tankradus, with the patriarch, went to Caiphas, and the king returned to Jerusalem.

CAP. XLV. - Rege cum Tankrado pacificato, Tankradus, dux electus, Antiochiam proficiscitur. [0593D]

CHAPTER 45. - With the king and Tancred pacified, Tancred, the duke-elect, sets out for Antioch. [0593D]

Interea modico intervallo legatio ab Antiochia Tankrado directa est ab optimatibus Boemundi, quatenus ad eos descendens, loco Boemundi quia haeres ejus esset, regnum Antiochiae possideret. Tankradus, super hoc inito consilio, Antiochiam proficisci decrevit; sed tamen diem statutam praestolari disposuit quo cum rege colloquium Caiphas habiturus esset, ne, si ante diem proficisceretur, in opprobrium fugae sibi imputaretur. Itaque die statuto ibidem Caiphas rex et Tankradus ad colloquium convenerunt, ubi ambo concordes et amici facti sunt, omni querimonia exclusa.

Meanwhile, after a small interval, a legation from Antioch was directed to Tankradus by the optimates of Boemund, to the end that, coming down to them, in the place of Boemund, since he was his heir, he might possess the kingdom of Antioch. Tankradus, counsel having been taken on this, resolved to set out for Antioch; yet he determined to await the appointed day on which he was to hold a colloquy with the king at Caiphas, lest, if he set out before the day, it be imputed to him as the opprobrium of flight. And so, on the appointed day, there at Caiphas the king and Tankradus came together for a colloquy, where both were made concordant and friends, every complaint excluded.

Et Tankradus non solum terram et civitatem Caiphas, sed etiam arcem et [0594A] turrim Tabariae, quam dono ducis Godefridi obtinuit, in manu ipsius reddidit, eo quod essent de regno Jerusalem, aperiens ei legationem Antiochiae. Verumtamen haec conditio in omni concordia a Tankrado firmiter indicta est, ut si post annum et menses tres ab Antiochia rediret, in beneficio terras et civitates obtineret; si autem sibi non esset reditus intra praedicti temporis terminum, nequaquam ultra terras et civitates has a rege vellet repetere. His utrinque in magna charitate concessis, rex sub eadem conditione terras et civitates suscipiens, Hugoni de praesidio Falckenberg Tabariam in custodiam et beneficium tradidit, Caiphas Geldemaro Carpenel reddidit: sic tamen fide servata, ut Tankrado post praefatum terminum revertenti omnia in manu ejus [0594B] dono regis redderentur.

And Tankradus not only returned the land and the city of Caiphas, but also the citadel and [0594A] the tower of Tabaria, which he had obtained by the gift of duke Godfrey, into his hand, because they were of the kingdom of Jerusalem, disclosing to him the embassy of Antioch. Nevertheless this condition was firmly laid down by Tankradus in all concord: that if after a year and three months he should return from Antioch, he would hold the lands and cities as a benefice; but if there should be no return for him within the limit of the aforesaid time, by no means thereafter would he wish to demand these lands and cities from the king. These terms on both sides being conceded in great charity, the king, receiving the lands and cities under the same condition, handed over Tabaria into custody and as a benefice to Hugh of the garrison of Falckenberg, he restored Caiphas to Geldemar Carpenel: the faith being thus kept, that to Tankradus, returning after the aforesaid term, all should be restored into his hand [0594B] by the king’s gift.

Post haec decreta et pacem compositam, rex Jerusalem secessit; Tankradus vero cum omni suo equitatu et manu quingentorum peditum per aridam usque in Antiochiam descendit ut eam susciperet.

After these decrees and the peace composed, the king of Jerusalem withdrew; but Tankradus, with all his cavalry and a force of 500 foot-soldiers, descended by the dry land as far as Antioch to receive it.

CAP. XLVI. - Rex contra patriarcham sedem apostolicam appellat.

CHAPTER 46. - The king appeals to the Apostolic See against the patriarch.

Non aliqua dehinc mora, rex Jerusalem patriarcham de perfidia, qua egerat cum Tankrado adversus eum, ne dignus haeres Godefrido succederet, sed Boemundus externi sanguinis regnum possideret, coram omni Ecclesia interpellavit, eo quod de hoc scelere multum a suis optimatibus criminaretur, objiciens ei, jam ipsam fraudem esse detectam in litteris, per Morellum, qui secretarius ipsius erat, [0594C] Boemundo transmissis, sed in via ablatis. Haec contentio et discordia inter regem et patriarcham adeo de die in diem coepit magis ac magis invalescere, ut tandem rex Baldewinus illius feritate et pertinacia indignatus, apostolicum ac Romanum pontificem Paschalem ad judicium et justitiam appellaret, atque ad discussionem tam nefandae traditionis, et suscitandi homicidii ac discordiae, quam deprehensis litteris, inter Christianorum primores et novam teneramque Ecclesiam idem patriarcha fieri modis omnibus elaboraret.

Thereafter no delay at all: the king of Jerusalem interpellated the patriarch before the whole Church for the perfidy which he had transacted with Tancred against him, lest a worthy heir should succeed to Godfrey, but that Bohemond, of foreign blood, should possess the kingdom; because for this crime he was much accused by his own optimates, objecting to him that the very fraud had already been detected in letters sent to Bohemond through Morel, who was his secretary, [0594C] but seized on the way. This contention and discord between the king and the patriarch began from day to day to grow stronger and stronger, so that at length King Baldwin, indignant at his ferocity and pertinacity, appealed to the Apostolic and Roman Pontiff Paschal for judgment and justice, and strove by all means that, for the discussion both of so nefarious a betrayal and of the kindling of homicide and discord, as also of the apprehended letters, that same patriarch be brought to account among the chiefs of the Christians and the new and tender Church.

CAP. XLVII. - Dominus apostolicus cardinalem Mauritium cognitorem Hierosolymam mittit.

CHAPTER 47. - The apostolic lord sends Cardinal Mauritius as judge to Jerusalem.

Paschalis vero pastor S. Romanae Ecclesiae, et in toto orbe terrarum Christianae fidei ac religionis [0594D] examinator, Baldewini precibus et S. Hierosolymitanae Ecclesiae satisfaciens, consilio fidelium fratrem, Mauritium unum de duodecim cardinalibus, legatum S. Romanae Ecclesiae Hierosolymam proficisci destinavit, ut vice domini apostolici ipsum patriarcham, pro merito et culpa discussum aut excusatum, in cathedram episcopalem sanciret, aut victum et juste condemnatum de apostolica sententia deponeret ac feriret. Itaque jussu domini apostolici frater Mauri tius Hierosolymam profectus, Baldewinum regem universamque Ecclesiam in verbo domini apostolici salutavit, benedictionem dedit, et audire in omni justitia et veritate regem et filios sanctae Ecclesiae Deo obedientes se asseruit, et mala omnia in bonum [0595A] apostolica auctoritate velle commutare. Baldewinus et omnis Ecclesia fidelium gratias Deo super his retulerunt, et se in omni justitia et veritate apostolicis mandatis obedire responderunt.

But Paschal, shepherd of the Holy Roman Church, and throughout the whole orb of lands examiner of the Christian faith and religion [0594D], satisfying the prayers of Baldwin and of the Holy Church of Jerusalem, by the counsel of the faithful appointed his brother, Mauritius, one of the twelve cardinals, as legate of the Holy Roman Church to set out to Jerusalem, so that, in the stead of the lord apostolic, he might either sanction that same patriarch, having been examined according to merit and fault or excused, in the episcopal cathedra, or, if overcome and justly condemned, depose and smite him with an apostolic sentence. And so, by command of the lord apostolic, Brother Mauritius, having set out to Jerusalem, greeted King Baldwin and the whole Church in the word of the lord apostolic, gave a benediction, and asserted that he would hear, in all justice and truth, the king and the sons of the holy Church obedient to God, and that he wished by apostolic authority to transmute all evils into good [0595A]. Baldwin and all the Church of the faithful returned thanks to God for these things, and answered that they would obey the apostolic mandates in all justice and truth.

CAP. XLVIII. - Patriarcha multis et gravibus a rege capitulis impetitus, ab officio suspensus est.

CHAPTER 48. - The Patriarch, assailed by many and grave charges by the king, was suspended from office.

Nulla deinceps mora die statuto, et concilio fidelium episcoporum abbatumque collecto, in audientia omnium qui aderant et praesentia legati S. Romanae Ecclesiae, patriarcham assistentem Baldewinus rex reum perjurii, traditionis regni Jerusalem, homicidii, ut a Boemundo occideretur in via, qua a Rohas Hierosolymam ascenderet, deprehensis litteris criminando et imputando astruxit, sub testimonio totius S. Hierosolymitanae Ecclesiae; et ideo non posse [0595B] eum ultra episcopari, nisi valeat ab his expurgari. Qui minime de omnibus sibi illatis calumniis valens excusari, et praecipue de sacrilegio ligni sanctae crucis, de qua partem minuit ac dispersit, suspensus est a divino officio, dataeque sunt ei adhuc induciae, si forte aliquam excusationem posset reperire.

With no delay thereafter, on the appointed day, and a council of faithful bishops and abbots having been gathered, in the hearing of all who were present and in the presence of the legate of the Holy Roman Church, King Baldwin, the patriarch being in attendance, established him, by accusing and imputing, as guilty of perjury, of the betrayal (tradition) of the kingdom of Jerusalem, of homicide—namely, that he should be killed by Bohemond on the road by which he was ascending from Rohas to Jerusalem—letters having been discovered, under the testimony of the whole Holy Church of Jerusalem; and therefore that he could not [0595B] any longer exercise the episcopal office, unless he should be able to be purged of these. He, by no means able to excuse himself of all the calumnies brought against him, and especially of the sacrilege against the wood of the holy cross, of which he diminished and scattered a part, was suspended from divine office, and a further respite was granted to him, in case perchance he might be able to find some excuse.

CAP. XLIX. - In coena Domini dolens patriarcha se eo die officio suo privari, regem donis promissis placat.

CHAPTER 49. - On Maundy Thursday, the patriarch, grieving that he is on that day deprived of his office, placates the king with promised gifts.

Inter haec diversa negotia mensis Martius suo ordine coepit referri, jejunium quadragesimale observari, dies solemnis Paschae propinquare, in quo chrisma et oleum infirmorum necesse est sanctificari. Hac igitur die recordationis et sanctificationis [0595C] olei et chrismatis exorta, qua Dominus Jesus cum discipulis coenavit, cardinalis in montem Oliveti, in quo id sacramentum chrismatis et olei compleri solet, ascendit alba stola et idoneis vestibus ad tam deificum opus peragendum indutus, et in nullo patriarcham adesse consentiens. Verum patriarcha Dagobertus videns se officio suo privari, quo eo die universi patriarchae, sui antecessores in eodem monte Olivarum solito more utebantur, chrisma et oleum consecrantes, humilis et supplex cum lacrymis regem conveniens, instare coepit, ne hac die tam leviter ac viliter ab officio suo expelleretur, et sic in ore omnium peregrinorum haberetur.

Amid these diverse affairs the month of March began in its order to be reckoned, the Lenten fast to be observed, the solemn day of Pasch to draw near, on which it is necessary for the chrism and the oil of the infirm to be sanctified. Therefore, this day of the commemoration and sanctification [0595C] of the oil and chrism having arisen, on which the Lord Jesus supped with his disciples, the cardinal ascended the Mount of Olives, on which that sacrament of the chrism and oil is wont to be completed, clad in a white stole and in fitting vestments to accomplish so deific a work, and in no way consenting that the patriarch be present. But Patriarch Dagobert, seeing himself deprived of his office, which on that day all the patriarchs, his predecessors, were accustomed by established usage to exercise on the same Mount of Olives, consecrating the chrism and oil, humble and suppliant, meeting the king with tears, began to press that he not on this day be so lightly and basely cast out from his office, and thus be in the mouth of all the pilgrims.

Rege autem multum resistente, et plurima illi objiciente quae idem adversus se praesumpserat, sicut anxius ei magis [0595D] ac magis precibus instabat, rememorans qualiter ab eo unctus et in regem consecratus sit. Sed nec sic rege eum audiente, talenta ei trecentorum byzantiorum obtulit in secreto auris suae. Quo corruptus rex, in omnibus deinceps petitioni patriarchae acquievit: et ideo tam grandis pecuniae promissione rex gavisus, quia plurimum defectione angustiatus, hac modo indigebat ad remunerandum suorum militum laborem, illico surrexit, fratrem Mauritium convenit, sic ei in haec verba locutus:

But the king, however, resisting much and objecting to him very many things which that same man had presumed against himself, nevertheless, as he anxiously pressed him more [0595D] and more with prayers, reminding him how by him he had been anointed and consecrated as king. But not even thus the king listening to him, he offered him, in the secrecy of his ear, the sum of three hundred bezants in talents. By which the king, being corrupted, thereafter in all things acquiesced to the patriarch’s petition; and therefore the king rejoiced at the promise of so great a sum of money, because, greatly straitened by deficiency, he in this way needed it to remunerate the labor of his soldiers; straightway he rose, met Brother Mauricius, and thus spoke to him in these words:

CAP. L. - Rex cardinalem alloquitur de restituendo patriarcha.

CHAPTER 50. - The king addresses the cardinal about restoring the patriarch.

Frater Maurici, haec Ecclesia nostra rudis adhuc et tenera habetur. Quapropter nolumus, nec placet prudentioribus nostris, neque in consilio nostro reperimus, [0596A] ut Jerusalem tam subito justitia sua privetur, et patriarcha tam celebri die a suo officio destituatur; sicque discordia paschalibus diebus in confusionem peregrinorum et gloriationem gentilium inter nos oriatur. Idcirco constanter te petimus, ut nos, qui nostro sanguine hanc sanctam Ecclesiam detinuimus, et usque ad mortem pro eo dimicavimus, audire non recuses neque rem de patriarcha a nobis propalatam hoc tempore graviter accipias, donec viderimus, quorsum tendat illius excusatio, vel quem finem accipiat.

Brother Maurice, this our Church is still considered unformed and tender. Wherefore we are unwilling, nor does it please our more prudent men, nor do we find in our council, [0596A] that Jerusalem be so suddenly deprived of its justice, and that the patriarch on so celebrated a day be deposed from his office; and thus that discord during the paschal days arise among us to the confusion of the pilgrims and the vaunting of the gentiles. Therefore we steadfastly beg you, that you do not refuse to hear us—we who with our own blood have maintained this holy Church, and have fought for it even unto death—nor take grievously the matter concerning the patriarch made public by us at this time, until we have seen whither his excuse tends, or what end it takes.

Tempus enim non effugiet, quin satis ad aequitatem judicii de omnibus redeamus. Et hac de causa, quia placet universis fidelibus, rogamus te, quatenus concedas ei, ut hoc tempore officio suo episcopali utatur, chrisma et oleum ipse sanctificet, peregrinis de [0596B] longinquis regionibus huc profectis indulgentiam et reconciliationem ipse faciat juxta ritum S. Hierosolymitanae Ecclesiae. Post solemnitatem vero Paschae, quod in summa charitate et concordia nunc oportet celebrari, tuo consilio decrevimus de illo agere, ita ut aut purgatus in statu suo permaneat, aut convictus episcopali dignitate privetur.

For the time will not slip away without our returning sufficiently to the equity of judgment in all matters. And for this cause, because it pleases all the faithful, we ask you to grant him, that at this time he may use his episcopal office, let him himself sanctify the chrism and the oil, let him himself grant to pilgrims who have set out hither from [0596B] distant regions indulgence and reconciliation according to the rite of the Holy Jerusalem Church. But after the solemnity of Easter, which now ought to be celebrated in highest charity and concord, by your counsel we have decreed to deal with him, so that either, having been purged, he remain in his status, or, having been convicted, he be deprived of episcopal dignity.

CAP. LI. - De amicitia inter cardinalem et patriarcham, et regis concordia et de conventione gentilium cum rege.

CHAPTER 51. - On the amity between the cardinal and the patriarch, and the king's concord and on the convention of the gentiles with the king.

Cardinalis his et his flexus blanditiis, in omnibus voluntatis regis optimatumque cessit. Et exutus officiali indumento, patriarcham permisit consecrare oleum et chrisma, ac solemne Pascha in omni divino celebrare officio. Ab illo siquidem die cardinalis et [0596C] patriarcha in summa amicitia conjuncti sunt, facientes sibi cumulos ex oblationibus fidelium, ciborum vinique ac potus plenitudine nocte ac die in locis remotis perfruentes, omnia tamen haec rege ignorante.

The cardinal, bent by these and these blandishments, yielded in all things to the will of the king and of the optimates. And, divested of his official vestment, he permitted the patriarch to consecrate oil and chrism, and to celebrate the solemn Pasch in every divine office. From that very day the cardinal and [0596C] the patriarch were joined in highest friendship, making for themselves heaps from the oblations of the faithful, enjoying the plenitude of foods and of wine and of drink night and day in remote places, yet all these things with the king unaware.

Interea haec concordia in eodem mense Martio inter regem et patriarcham dum fieret, et terra silvaeque, amota hieme, reviviscerent, dies prolongari inciperent, serenitas aeris magis ac magis in dies claresceret, ecce nuntia universarum civitatum gentilium in palatio regis adfuere, quaedam in dolo, quaedam in puritate, regem salutantia in donis ac tributis, pacem cum eo quaerentes componere, quatenus sine respectu periculi et metus in negotia sua secure terram perambularent, et agros ac vineas sine formidine excolerent. Rex sicut novus qui advenerat, [0596D] et multis indigebat thesauris in conventione solidorum militum suorum, omnia quae sibi offerebantur a civitatibus gentilium, Ascalone, Caesarea, Ptolemaide, Sur, quae est Tyrus, suscipere consensit; sed Assur ejusque munera refutavit. Caeteris usque post terminum sanctae Pentecostes pacem et securitatem a se suisque largitus est.

Meanwhile, as this concord in the same month of March was being made between the king and the patriarch, and the land and the woods, with winter removed, were reviving, the days began to be prolonged, the serenity of the air to grow clearer more and more by the day—behold, messengers of all the cities of the gentiles were present in the king’s palace, some in deceit, some in purity, greeting the king with gifts and tributes, seeking to compose peace with him, so that, without regard to danger and fear, they might safely traverse the land about their business, and cultivate fields and vineyards without dread. The king, as one newly arrived, [0596D] and in need of many treasures for the pay in solidi of his soldiers, consented to accept all that was being offered to him by the cities of the gentiles—Ascalon, Caesarea, Ptolemais, Sur, which is Tyre; but Assur and its gifts he refused. To the rest he bestowed peace and security from himself and his men until after the term of Holy Pentecost.

CAP. LII. - De mutuis legationibus gentilium.

CHAPTER 52. - On the mutual legations of the gentiles.

Vix termino pacis hujus mediato, praedictae civitates regi Babyloniorum haec nuntia detulerunt, quod nisi in brevi eis subveniret, Francosque de regno Jerusalem ejiceret, se in manu regis illorum ex summa necessitate reddi debere, eo quod ultra Christianis resistere non possent. Rex vero Babyloniorum [0597A] summa necessitate urbium suarum intellecta, universis civibus et ammiraldis hanc legationem solatiumque remisit, quod sine mora aliqua collectis armorum copiis, universis civitatibus subveniret. Haec autem nuntia et consilia omnia Baldewinum regem latebant, et universos fideles qui in regno Jerusalem habitabant.

Hardly had the term of this peace been mediated, when the aforesaid cities brought these tidings to the king of the Babylonians: that unless he should come to their aid shortly and should eject the Franks from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, they, from extreme necessity, must be rendered into the hand of their king, in that they could no longer resist the Christians. But the king of the Babylonians [0597A], the utmost necessity of his cities understood, sent back to all the citizens and admirals this embassy and solace: that without any delay, with forces of arms gathered, he would succor all the cities. Yet these tidings and all these counsels lay hidden from King Baldwin and from all the faithful who were dwelling in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

CAP. LIII. - De redemptione Turcorum.

CHAPTER 53. - On the redemption of the Turks.

Interea a Damasco frequens legatio Turcorum Jerusalem ad regem venit, pro redemptione captivorum suorum, quos in arctissimis faucibus Baurim superatos captivavit, et Jerusalem abductos reclusit in custodia turris David. Qui consilium iniit cum optimatibus suis, ut pro captivis pretium susciperet, eo quod in terra aliena, nova et ignota, plurima indigeret [0597B] pecunia in conventione solidorum. Sicque universis quadraginta quinque captivis, quibus amputare colla decreverat, nunc pepercit, et pecuniam inauditam supra quinquaginta millia bysantiorum auri suscipiens, omnes vivos et incolumes a manicis et catenis solutos, ac de turri David ejectos, pacifice in terram Damascenorum remisit.

Meanwhile from Damascus a frequent embassy of the Turks came to Jerusalem to the king, for the redemption of their captives, whom he had captured, having overthrown them in the very narrow passes of Baurim, and had led to Jerusalem and shut up in the custody of the Tower of David. He entered into counsel with his optimates, to receive a price for the captives, because in an alien, new, and unknown land he was in great need of [0597B] money in the convention of solidi. And so he now spared all the forty-five captives, whose necks he had decreed to cut off, and, receiving an unheard-of sum of money, above 50,000 bezants of gold, he sent them all back alive and unharmed, released from manacles and chains, and cast out from the Tower of David, peacefully into the land of the Damascenes.

CAP. LIV. - Quomodo civitas Assur subjugatur.

CHAPTER 54. - How the city Assur is subjugated.

Eodem tempore mensis Martii classes Gennensium ac Pisanorum navigio appulsae Joppen, anchoras fixerunt, et illic Pascha Domini opperientes, tandem Jerusalem venerunt ad celebrandam ipsam diem Resurrectionis Dominicae. Qua cum omni devotione celebrata regem adierunt summopere deprecantes, ut quam vellet civitatem gentilium occupare et expugnare [0597C] eis liceret. Rex igitur desiderium illorum intelligens, Assur obsidere per mare et aridam constituit.

At that same time in the month of March, the fleets of the Genoese and the Pisans, having reached Joppa by ship, cast anchor, and, awaiting there the Lord’s Pascha (Easter), at length came to Jerusalem to celebrate that very Day of the Lord’s Resurrection. Which, when it had been celebrated with all devotion, they approached the king, beseeching most earnestly that it might be permitted them to occupy and storm whatever city of the Gentiles he should wish. The king therefore, understanding their desire, determined to besiege Assur by sea and by land. [0597C]

Ipse vero et omnis virtus ejus ab Jerusalem movens, in sicco urbem et moenia ejus cinxit; Pisani et Genuenses in littore maris navigio exitum illorum observabant. Vix tertia die obsidionis expleta, cives Assur pacem cum rege quaerebant componere, quatenus salva vita sanisque membris, cum rebus suis ab urbe eis liceret exire; civitatem vero in manu regis reddere ac relinquere. Rex quidem consilio suorum pepercit viris, pacifice eos prodire promittens cum omnibus quae collo deferre possent et usque in Ascalonem conductum eis sine respectu mortis largitus est.

But he himself and all his force, setting out from Jerusalem, encircled the city and its walls on dry land; the Pisans and Genoese on the sea-shore, with the fleet, were observing their egress. Scarcely had the third day of the siege been completed, when the citizens of Assur were seeking to establish peace with the king, to wit, that with life safe and limbs sound, it might be permitted them to go out from the city with their goods; and the city they would hand back and leave in the king’s hand. The king indeed, by the counsel of his men, spared the males, promising that they might go forth peaceably with all the things which they could carry on the neck, and he bestowed upon them a conduct as far as Ascalon, without regard to death.

Ipse vero civitatem ingressus cum universa multitudine equitum et peditum, per dies [0597D] octo illic requievit, et consilia de reliquis civitatibus cum domino patriarcha et optimatibus regni sui egit.

He himself, moreover, having entered the city with the whole multitude of cavalry and infantry, for days [0597D] eight he rested there, and he held counsels about the remaining cities with the lord Patriarch and the optimates of his kingdom.

CAP. LV. - Caesarea civitas obsidetur.

CHAPTER 55. - The city of Caesarea is besieged.

Placuit tandem cunctis ut Caesaream mitteretur legatio regis ammiraldo et primis civitatis, ut regi redderetur urbs, alioquin obsidere eam certum haberent, ut si vi caperetur, universos in ea repertos in ore gladii occidi debere. Ammiraldus cunctique habitatores civitatis responderunt in haec verba: Absit a nobis, ut nos et civitatem nostram in manu regis Christianorum tradamus, cum in manu regis Babylonioram in brevi liberandi simus, et non diu sit, ex quo litteras ejus susceperimus. Rex autem illorum jactantiam comperiens, in ira magna una cum domino [0598A] patriarcha ab Assur egressus, relictis in ea custodibus, Caesaream occupavit, undique circa eam suorum viribus collocatis.

It pleased all at length that a legation be sent to Caesarea, to the king’s admiral and the first men of the city, that the city be returned to the king; otherwise they should hold it as certain that they would besiege it, so that, if it were taken by force, all found in it ought to be killed at the edge of the sword. The admiral and all the inhabitants of the city answered in these words: Far be it from us that we should hand over ourselves and our city into the hand of the king of the Christians, since in the hand of the king of the Babylonians we are shortly to be freed, and it is not long since we received his letters. But the king, learning of their vaunting, in great wrath, together with the lord patriarch, set out from Assur, leaving guards in it; he invested Caesarea, with his forces posted around it on all sides.

Erant illic inaudita pomaria in circuitu murorum, ac si silva densissima omni decore et fructuum abundantia inaestimabilia: quae rex in securi jussit exstirpari, ne inter densitates frondium aliquae insidiae Sarracenorum exercitui, sagittis in occulto emissis, nocere valerent. His exstirpatis, in circuitu murorum firmavit obsidionem per dies quindecim, machinam componens qua urbem expugnare et cives absterrere valeret. Ad unguem tandem machina perducta et ab exercitu super muros erecta, in sublime porrecta est, ac fortissimi pugnatores in ea constituti ad expugnanda moenia urbisque defensores.

There were there unheard-of orchards in the circuit of the walls, as if a most dense forest, inestimable in every decor and in the abundance of fruits; which the king ordered to be extirpated with the axe, lest amid the densities of the foliage any ambushes of the Saracens, arrows launched from concealment, should be able to harm the army. These extirpated, he strengthened the siege around the circuit of the walls for fifteen days, composing a machine by which he might be able to storm the city and frighten off the citizens. The machine at length brought to perfection and by the army raised up over the walls, it was stretched aloft, and the bravest fighters were stationed in it to expugn the walls and the city’s defenders.

Deinde jussu regis omnibus indictum [0598B] est ut summo mane coram patriarcha et rege convenirent e cunctis locis et tabernaculis, ejusque caperent admonitionem ad assiliendam urbem et implerent. Mane autem facto, ecce adsunt ex mandato regis universi Christianorum equites et pedites coram patriarcha et rege: qui delictorum suorum confessione facta, indulgentia accepta, et Dominici corporis communione, urbem fortiter assiliunt in mari et in terra cum Pisanis et Genuensibus. Hi Laodiceae tota hieme otio torpentes, tempore Martii, ut supra relatum est, ad sacrum et solemne Pascha celebrandum Jerusalem ascenderant, viduati suo episcopo Pisano, cum clam ab eis subtractus, cum Boemundo ac Baldewino, post captionem Jerusalem, in eam descendit, et a Godefrido duce in cathedram [0598C] patriarchatus est constitutus.

Then by order of the king it was proclaimed to all [0598B] that at first light they should convene before the patriarch and the king from all places and tents, and that they should take his admonition for assailing the city and fulfill it. But when morning came, behold, by the king’s command all the Christians’ horsemen and footmen are present before the patriarch and the king: who, their sins confessed, indulgence received, and the communion of the Lord’s body taken, stoutly assail the city by sea and by land with the Pisans and the Genoese. These men, languishing in idleness at Laodicea all winter, in the time of March, as was related above, had gone up to Jerusalem to celebrate the sacred and solemn Pasch, bereft of their own Pisan bishop, since, having been secretly removed from them, he went down into it with Bohemond and Baldwin after the capture of Jerusalem, and by Duke Godfrey he was established upon the chair [0598C] of the patriarchate.

CAP. LVI. - Tandem civitas Caesarea superatur.

CHAPTER 56. - At length the city of Caesarea is overcome.

Eodem die dominus patriarcha crucem Dominicam praetulerat ad protectionem et defensionem gentis catholicae, stola sancta et candida pro thorace indutus, quem usque ad muros tota manus pugnatorum sequi non dubitavit. Qui duro et gravi assultu cives disturbatos a moenibus repulerunt, ac sic subito scalis muro applicitis, urbi mediae vi intromissi sunt. Sarraceni vero per urbem Gallos diffusos intuentes, nec eis resistere valentes, ad aliud munimen urbis quod muro spatiosissimo ac robustissimo civitatem dividebat introrsum versus mare conglobati fugam inierunt.

On the same day the lord patriarch had borne before him the Lord’s Cross for the protection and defense of the Catholic people, clothed with a holy and white stole in place of a breastplate, whom the whole band of fighters did not hesitate to follow up to the walls. They, with a hard and heavy assault, drove back the citizens, dislodged from the ramparts; and thus, ladders having been suddenly applied to the wall, they were by force let into the middle city. But the Saracens, beholding the Gauls spread through the city and not able to resist them, massed together and made for another fortification of the city, which by a very spacious and most robust wall divided the city inward toward the sea, and took to flight.

Illic aliquantulum in moenibus resistentes, ad defensionem constiterunt, frustra sagittis, palis [0598D] igneis et fundibulis consumentes diem. Nona tandem hora diei facta, gravati cives crebris et nunquam intermissis assultibus, ac tam mangenellis quam sagittarum grandine fessi et victi, per vicos et diversa loca civitatis tremebundi fugerunt. Quos Galli insequentes et hos muros scalis similiter transcendentes, grave illorum exterminium fecerunt, alios trucidantes, alios captivantes, tum undique spolia plurima auri, argenti et ostri pretiosi rapientes.

There, resisting for a little while upon the walls, they stood for defense, wasting the day in vain with arrows, fiery stakes [0598D] and slings. Finally, when the ninth hour of the day had come, the citizens, weighed down by frequent and never-intermitted assaults, and wearied and conquered both by the mangonels and by the hail of arrows, fled trembling through the streets and various places of the city. The Gauls, pursuing them and likewise overpassing those walls with ladders, wrought a grievous extermination of them, slaughtering some, taking others captive, and then on every side snatching up very many spoils of gold, silver, and precious purple (ostrum).

Sacerdos quoque civitatis homo grandaevus ibidem captus est, et Azopart quingenti decollati, illuc missi a rege Babyloniorum in conventione solidorum. Sacerdos itaque praedictus regi praesentatus, jussu ipsius in nervo religatus est; mulieres quoque ejus [0599A] captae, et in compedibus positae, ad discutiendum talentum innumerabilis argenti, quod idem sacerdos propter metum Christianorum subterraverat. Hac civitate attrita et expugnata, rex a diebus Pentecostes usque in Natali S. Joannis Baptistae in omni plenitudine necessariorum requievit in ea. In his diebus sacerdotem praedictum a civibus urbis Ptolemaidis, quae est Acra, mille byzantiis redemptum, sine laesione membrorum dimisit.

The priest also of the city, a very aged man, was captured there, and the Azoparts, five hundred, were beheaded, sent thither by the king of the Babylonians under a compact for solidi. The aforesaid priest, therefore, being presented to the king, at his command was bound in the stocks; his women also [0599A] captured, and placed in shackles, to shake out the talent of uncountable silver which the same priest had buried underground for fear of the Christians. With this city worn down and taken by storm, the king from the days of Pentecost until the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, with every fullness of necessaries, rested in it. In these days he released the aforesaid priest, redeemed by the citizens of the city of Ptolemais, which is Acre, for a thousand bezants, without injury to his limbs.

CAP. LVII. - Quomodo rex audita fama Babyloniorum, eorum praestolatur adventum.

CHAPTER 57. - How the king, having heard the report of the Babylonians, awaits their advent.

Post haec rex Joppen in magna gloria secessit, Arpinum de Bodvordis civitate, principem magnificum, ad custodiendos muros et portas civitatis relinquens. Joppe itaque regi commoranti, legatio et [0599B] fama Meravis a Babylonia innotuit, quatenus Babylonii omnes arma confluxissent, et post octo dies cum eo bellum committere decrevissent. Haec rex audiens, universo coetu suorum in unum convocato, ex consilio illorum exivit a Joppe, atque inter Ascalonem et Rames, tribus hebdomadibus evolutis, in planitie amplissima resedit una cum patriarcha et omni apparatu suo, ac universa domo fratris sui ducis Godefridi.

After these things the king withdrew to Joppe in great glory, leaving Arpinus of the city of Bodvordis, a magnificent prince, to guard the walls and gates of the city. Therefore, as the king was staying at Joppe, an embassy and the report [0599B] of Meravis from Babylonia became known, to the effect that all the Babylonians had flocked to arms, and had resolved to join battle with him after 8 days. Hearing this, the king, having summoned into one the whole assembly of his men, by their counsel departed from Joppe, and, between Ascalon and Rames, with three weeks having elapsed, settled on a very broad plain together with the patriarch and all his apparatus, and the entire household of his brother, Duke Godfrey.

Hoc vero in loco dum diu praestolarentur adventum inimicorum, nec quisquam illorum adhuc in jactantia sua descendisset, rex quemque suorum in sua remisit; ipse vero civitates in circuitu sitas, tam Caiphas quam Assur et caeteras, pacifice perlustravit.

In this place indeed, while they long awaited the advent of the enemies, and not yet had any of them come down from their vaunting, the king remitted each of his men to his own; but he himself peacefully surveyed the cities situate round about, both Caiphas and Assur and the others.

CAP. LVIII. - Quomodo rex putriarcham convenerit, ut vel ipse milites procuret, vel ad procurandum eos, sibi aliquid pecuniae impertiret. [0599C]

CHAPTER 58. - How the king met with the patriarch, that either he himself might procure soldiers, or, for procuring them, he might impart to him some money. [0599C]

Nec longo post haec intervallo rex a militibus suis in urbe Japhet pro pecunia angustiatus est, quam illis debebat pro conventione solidorum, qui etiam fratri ejus Godefrido, principi Jerusalem multum obsequii impenderant, et nunc ejus causa et honore non minore studio militare laborabant. Quapropter Hierosolymam profectus, patriarcham compellat, quatenus sibi aliquid pecuniae de oblatione fidelium impertiret, quam militibus dividens, voluntarios eos sibi redderet, ac secum teneret; alioqui eos in terminis Jerusalem non velle remanere et Sancta sanctorum defensare. Patriarcha regis audita petitione, induciis per noctem susceptis, in crastino [0599D] reversus ducentas marcas argenti se ad usus fratrum inibi Deo famulantium, habuisse et non amplius, profitetur, et easdem benigne in ejus mandato distribuere concessit.

And not long after these things, the king was hard-pressed by his soldiers in the city of Japhet for money which he owed them by the convention of solidi, they who also had expended much service for his brother Godfrey, prince of Jerusalem, and now for his sake and honor were toiling with no less zeal to soldier. Wherefore, having set out to Jerusalem, he presses the patriarch, that he would impart to him something of the oblation of the faithful, which, dividing among the soldiers, he might render them voluntary to himself and keep them with him; otherwise that they were unwilling to remain within the borders of Jerusalem and to defend the Holy of holies. The patriarch, the king’s petition having been heard, a respite being taken for the night, on the morrow [0599D] returning declares that he had had two hundred marks of silver for the uses of the brethren there serving God, and no more, and he kindly granted to distribute the same at his command.

Credidit rex in verbis quae a Patriarcha referebantur, et oblatum argentum suscepit. Sed Arnolfus, sancti sepulcri cancellarius, et caeteri complures, quibus tota massa innotuit, et oblatio Dominici sepulcri, nequaquam verum patriarcham profiteri asserebant, sed inaestimabilem pecuniam clanculum suis locellis reposuisse eum. Hac Arnolfi assertione et populi opinione super thesauro abscondito, rex nimium iratus vehementer patriarcham urgere coepit, ut ex oblationibus fidelium milites procuraret ac retineret in conventione [0600A] solidorum, qui paganorum viribus resistentes, peregrinos et universam Ecclesiam ab eorum insidiis et assultibus protegerent ac defenderent.

The king believed the words which were reported by the Patriarch, and received the silver that was offered. But Arnulf, chancellor of the Holy Sepulcher, and many others besides, to whom the whole mass and the oblation of the Lord’s Sepulcher had become known, asserted that by no means was the patriarch professing the truth, but that he had secretly stowed away inestimable money in his little coffers. At this assertion of Arnulf and the people’s opinion about the hidden treasure, the king, exceedingly angered, began vehemently to press the patriarch, that from the oblations of the faithful he should provide for the soldiers and retain them on the agreement of solidi, who, resisting the forces of the pagans, might protect and defend the pilgrims and the universal Church from their ambushes and assaults.

CAP. LIX. - Qualiter orta sit contentio inter regem et patriarcham.

CHAPTER 59. - How a contention arose between the king and the patriarch.

Patriarcha vero vinculo privatae dilectionis fratri Mauritio S. Romanae Ecclesiae legato innodatus, ita ut simul affluenter de bonis terrae epulantes, in suo conclavi oblationem sancti sepulcri pro velle dividerent, prorsus audire Baldewinum regem parvipendit, spem et fiduciam in promissis cardinalis apostolici pretio corrupti habens et in eo quod levi precatu aurique munere, regem corrumpere potuit et placare. Rege itaque patriarcham saepius admonente ut milites quadraginta procuraret, atque dato [0600B] ei argento benevolos in opus belli redderet, patriarcha vero in nullo eum super his audiret: die quadam factum est, ut idem patriarcha cum fratre Mauritio solito more in domo sua accumberet, variisque cibis splendide epularetur, vinum quoque non modice biberet, ac secure in comessationibus diem duceret. Nuntiatum est tandem regi Baldewino quod hujuscemodi luxu singulis diebus convivantes fidelium vota vorarent sine modo et numero, et hoc ipsum regem non solum auditu, sed etiam facile visu posse experiri.

The patriarch, however, being knotted by the bond of private affection to Brother Maurice, legate of the Holy Roman Church, so that, feasting together affluently on the goods of the land, they would, in his chamber, divide the oblation of the Holy Sepulchre as they pleased, altogether made light of listening to King Baldwin, having hope and confidence in the promises of the apostolic cardinal, corrupted by a price, and in this: that with a light entreaty and a gift of gold he could corrupt and appease the king. Therefore, with the king repeatedly admonishing the patriarch to procure forty soldiers, and, silver having been given to him, to render them benevolent for the work of war, while the patriarch on his part would in no way heed him in these matters: on a certain day it happened that that same patriarch, with Brother Maurice, according to his accustomed manner, reclined at table in his house, and banqueted splendidly on various foods, and drank wine not moderately, and passed the day securely in carousals. At last it was reported to King Baldwin that, feasting with such luxury every day, they were devouring the vows (offerings) of the faithful without measure and number, and that the king could experience this very thing not only by hearing, but also easily by sight; and with [0600B] this.

CAP. LX. - Contentio inter regem et patriarcham praesente cardinale Mauritio.

CHAPTER 60. - A contention between the king and the patriarch, Cardinal Maurice being present.

Nec mora, dum in eodem comessationis studio ad mensam discubuissent, rex cum quibusdam de optimatibus [0600C] suis pulsato ostio intromissus adfuit, et hos patres dure arguens, in haec verba aspera prorupit: Vos in comessationibus, nos in tribulationibus die ac nocte pro confratrum nostrorum salute et periculis versamur. Vos gratis vota fidelium in deliciis vestris applicatis, angustiam et penuriam nostram ignoratis. Sic vivit Dominus, amodo de omni oblatione fidelium non contingetis, nec de hac ventrem vestrum ultra tam delicate implebitis, nisi milites in conventione solidorum susceperitis.

Nor was there delay; while in the same zeal for carousing they had reclined at table, the king, with certain of his nobles [0600C], after the door had been knocked and he had been admitted, appeared, and, harshly accusing these fathers, burst forth into these bitter words: You in carousals, we in tribulations are engaged day and night for the safety of our fellow-brethren and amid dangers. You gratuitously apply the vows of the faithful to your own delights; you are ignorant of our straits and penury. As the Lord lives, henceforth you shall not touch from any oblation of the faithful, nor from this shall you any longer so delicately fill your belly, unless you shall have taken on soldiers under a covenant of solidi.

Unde enim vobis, ut oblationes et munera fidelium tam libere et potenter a Dominico sepulcro tollatis, in cibos delicatos componatis, et minime fidelium necessitati subveniatis? Nos Jerusalem, civitatem sanctam et locum desiderati sepulcri sanguine nostro redemimus, et assidue pro [0600D] sanctorum defensione pondera laborum et bellorum portamus; vos oblationis fidelium nos exsortes facietis? Absit, ut tale facinus patiar, et ultra manus vestra de his repleatur.

Whence indeed to you, that you so freely and so powerfully take away the oblations and gifts of the faithful from the Lord’s Sepulcher, compose them into delicate foods, and in no way come to the aid of the necessity of the faithful? We have redeemed Jerusalem, the holy city and the place of the longed-for sepulcher, with our own blood, and assiduously for [0600D] the defense of the saints we carry the weights of labors and of wars; will you make us without a share in the oblation of the faithful? Far be it that I should suffer such a crime, and that any further your hand be repleted from these.

Certe aut vos calicem, quem bibituri sumus, et bibimus hoc tempore angustiarum, nobiscum bibetis, aut videte, ne quidquam de rebus Ecclesiae ultra suscipiatis. Hoc dicto, patriarcha non minus in verba iracundiae erupit, dicens: Non recte consultus fecisti, ut tam temere nos argue res et res Ecclesiae interdiceres, cum nostrae sit justitiae, ut qui altari serviunt, de altari vivant. An tributariam et ancillariam facere sanctam praesumis Ecclesiam?

Certainly, either you will drink the chalice, which we are about to drink and are drinking in this time of distresses, together with us; or see to it that you henceforth receive nothing of the goods of the Church. At this word, the patriarch no less burst forth into words of anger, saying: Not rightly counseled have you acted, that you so rashly would accuse us and interdict the things of the Church, since it is our right that those who serve the altar should live from the altar. Do you presume to make the holy Church tributary and ancillary?

quam Dominus Jesus Dei Filius, suo sanguine liberam ex ancilla faciens custodiae commisit [0601A] et reliquit. Vide ne ultra praesumas de his loqui aut agere, cum ad te minime pertineat, et Domini apostolici maledictionibus de talibus ausibus judicio possis incurrere. Frater Mauritius ad invicem contendentes solummodo auscultabat; sed de pace et concordia illos admonebat.

which the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, making free from a handmaid by his own blood, committed to custody [0601A] and left. See that you do not presume further to speak or to act about these matters, since it in no wise pertains to you, and lest for such audacities you might incur by judgment the Lord Apostolic’s maledictions. Brother Mauritius only listened to those contending with one another; but he admonished them concerning peace and concord.

CAP. LXI. - Patriarcha ratione victus, milites se procurare promisit, quod tamen implere contempsit.

CHAPTER 61. - The Patriarch, vanquished by reason, promised to procure soldiers, which, however, he scorned to fulfill.

Verum rex non ultra patriarchae responsionem et asperitatem ferens, et ipse dure et impatienter locutus fuisse perhibetur. Videte, ne facile hanc mihi saepius objiciatis occasionem, ut qui altari serviunt de altari vivant, cum summa necessitas exigat ut de altari potius Christiani milites pascantur, [0601B] quam Sarraceni vi de sepulcro munera fidelium asportent et dividant, et non miles noster vel sacerdos contingat. Vivit Dominus: non solum oblationes fidelium comedam, militibusque nostris dividam; sed etiam aurum de sepulcro Domini et altari evellam, quo milites et defensores Christianae plebis regnique Jerusalem sustentari possent.

But the king, no longer bearing the patriarch’s response and asperity, is said to have himself spoken harshly and impatiently: See to it that you do not easily and again and again throw this pretext in my face, that those who serve the altar should live from the altar, when utmost necessity requires that rather from the altar Christian soldiers be fed, [0601B] than that the Saracens by force carry off and divide from the Sepulcher the gifts of the faithful, and neither our soldier nor priest touch it. As the Lord lives: I will not only eat the offerings of the faithful, and divide them to our soldiers; but I will even tear the gold from the Lord’s Sepulcher and from the altar, so that the soldiers and defenders of the Christian people and of the kingdom of Jerusalem might be sustained.

Post haec cum Domino Deo placuerit, et superbia seu minae de regno Babyloniae cessaverint, et terra siluerit, cuncta restaurabimus; ecclesiam etiam ejusdem sepulcri, sicut dignum est, thesaurizare nos non pigebit, et auro ditiore, gemmis vel opere exaltare. His dictis, tandem patriarcha rege a viro litteris erudito convictus, ex consilio fratris Mauritii triginta milites in conventione solidorum se procurare [0601C] promisit. Sed in brevi eorum taedio affectus talentum inaestimabilis pecuniae sustulit, milites vacuos et immunes reliquit.

After these things, when it shall have pleased the Lord God, and the pride or threats from the kingdom of Babylon shall have ceased, and the land shall have fallen silent, we will restore all things; we will not be loath, moreover, to thesaurize the church of that same sepulcher, as is worthy, and to exalt it with richer gold, with gems, or with workmanship. These things having been said, at length the patriarch, the king having been refuted by a man learned in letters, at the advice of brother Mauritius promised to procure thirty soldiers under an agreement for solidi, [0601C] but shortly, being affected with weariness of them, he carried off a talent of inestimable money, and left the soldiers empty-handed and released from service.

Rex autem hypocrisim illius de die in diem cognoscens, vehementius eum urgebat, et de militari officio sollicitabat. Ille e contrario aures surdas ad omnia faciebat; ita animo obstinatus erat.

The king, however, recognizing his hypocrisy from day to day, pressed him more vehemently, and was soliciting him concerning the military office. He, on the contrary, turned a deaf ear to everything; so obstinate was he in mind.

CAP. LXII. - Patriarcha potestate et oblatione sepulcri Domini privatur.

CHAPTER 62. - The Patriarch is deprived of authority and of the oblation of the Lord’s sepulcher.

Pecunia patriarchae regi aperitur.

The patriarch’s money is revealed to the king.

Igitur patriarcha dolens et tristis secessit Japhet, ubi ex consensu regis, quia sacerdotii gradum obtinebat, pacifice autumni et hiemis tempus adimplevit. Deinde mense Martio inchoante, anno primo [0601D] regni ipsius Baldewini Antiochiam ad Tankradum navigio profectus est. Camerarii autem illius capti et retenti, minis verberumque terroribus coacti, pecuniam patriarchae subterratam professi sunt ad viginti millia Byzantiorum auri; argenti autem tantum esse referebant, quod adhuc pondere et numero cunctos lateret.

Accordingly the patriarch, grieving and sad, withdrew to Jaffa, where, by the king’s consent—since he held the grade of the priesthood—he peacefully fulfilled the time of autumn and winter. Then, with March beginning, in the first year [0601D] of the reign of Baldwin himself, he set out by ship to Antioch to Tancred. But his chamberlains, having been seized and detained, compelled by threats and the terrors of beatings, confessed that the patriarch’s money had been buried underground to the amount of twenty thousand Byzantine gold coins; and as for the silver, they reported that there was so great an amount as still to be hidden from all in respect to weight and number.

Fratrem vero Mauritium, quia Romani pontificis legatus erat, in omni quo potuit honore rex secum retinuit, ac diligenter procuratum benigne in omnibus tractavit.

As for Brother Maurice, because he was the legate of the Roman pontiff, the king kept him with himself with every honor he could, and, diligently provided for, treated him kindly in all things.

CAP. LXIII. - Rex pecuniam militibus dividit, crudelis legatio a Babylonia venit.

CHAPTER 63. - The king divides money among the soldiers, a cruel legation comes from Babylonia.

Interea dum rex ex his et aliis diversis rebus ageret, propalatamque pecuniam suis egregiis militibus divideret et cuique pro labore suo rependeret, [0602A] crudelis legatio a Babylonia descendit, scilicet quod Meravis, qui est secundus in regno, cum tota virtute et apparatu regis Babyloniae properaret, bellum in brevi cum eo habiturus. Rex autem Baldewinus tam crudelia nuntia intelligens, non secure, non facile auribus immisit; sed a Jerusalem in Septembri mense in solemni Nativitate matris ac virginis Mariae anno primo regni descendens, urbem Joppen cum omni virtute peditum et equitum introivit, ejusque moenia plurima suorum muniens fiducia, cum trecentis tantum equitibus et mille peditibus in occursum inimicorum festinavit, ut cognosceret, si vera belli legatio sibi innotuisset. Mane ergo dehinc facto, in campestribus Rames consistens, vires, copias et arma intolerabilia Babyloniorum [0602B] vidit per terras et fines Ascalonis occurrere, circiter ducenta millia tam equitum quam peditum.

Meanwhile, while the king was dealing with these and other diverse matters, and was dividing the money that had been made public among his outstanding soldiers and repaying to each for his labor, [0602A] a cruel legation descended from Babylonia—namely, that Meravis, who is second in the kingdom, with all the force and apparatus of the king of Babylonia, was hastening, about shortly to have war with him. But King Baldwin, understanding so cruel a message, did not admit it to his ears securely, nor easily; rather, descending from Jerusalem in the month of September, on the solemn Nativity of the mother and virgin Mary, in the first year of his reign, he entered the city of Joppa with all the force of foot and horse, and its walls he strengthened, placing many of his own there in confidence; then, with only 300 horsemen and 1,000 footmen, he hastened to meet the enemies, to learn whether a true legation of war had been made known to him. Therefore, when morning had come thereafter, standing on the plains of Rames, he saw the forces, the troops, and the intolerable arms of the Babylonians [0602B] advancing through the lands and borders of Ascalon, around 200,000 both horse and foot.

De quibus rex et omnes qui cum eo erant non solum admirati, sed et terrore concussi sunt.

At the sight of these, the king and all who were with him were not only amazed, but also struck with terror.

CAP. LXIV. - Tres regis acies a Babyloniis attritae deficiunt.

CHAPTER 64. - Three of the king’s battle-lines, worn down by the Babylonians, give way.

Verumtamen rex perscipiens se non posse vitare periculum, nec effugere inimicos haud procul absistentes, quinque acies ordinavit tam ex manu militum quam peditum. In prima acie fuit Belvoldus, miles nobilissimus, qui primum praelio commisso, ac gentilibus cum universis suis peremptus est absque solo milite, qui ibidem manu detruncata, vix a periculo mortis elapsus est. Ad haec Geldemarus [0602C] Carpenel, miles ferocissimus, secundam aciem regens, dum per medios hostes erumpens, periclitantibus sociis subvenire moliretur, cum omnibus sequacibus et coadjutoribus suis sub intolerabili manu inimicorum occubuit.

Nevertheless the king, perceiving that he could not avoid the danger, nor escape the enemies standing not far off, arrayed five battle-lines, from the force of knights as well as of foot-soldiers. In the first battle-line was Belvoldus, a most noble knight, who, when the battle was first joined, together with his kinsmen and all his men, was slain, save for a single soldier, who there, with his hand cut off, scarcely escaped the danger of death. To this, Geldemar [0602C] Carpenel, a most ferocious knight, commanding the second battle-line, while, bursting through the midst of the enemies, he was striving to bring help to comrades in peril, fell, with all his followers and helpers, beneath the intolerable hand of the enemies.

Solummodo Willehelmus et Erkenboldus vivi evaserunt. Hugo vero de Tabaria, juvenis bellicosus, in tertia acie constitutus, per medios hostes equo veloci advolans et cum illis diu graviter pugnans, ad extremum certaminis pondere fatigatus et victus, vix e medio turbinis evasit, omnibus de comitatu suo ibidem occisis et attritis. Rex ergo tam grave exterminium suorum fieri videns, vehementer cum duabus aciebus quae secum remanserant timore concussus est.

Only William and Erkenbold escaped alive. But Hugh of Tabaria, a warlike youth, set in the third battle-line, flying through the midst of the enemies on a swift horse and fighting with them long and grievously, at the end, wearied and overcome by the weight of the combat, scarcely escaped from the midst of the whirlwind, with all of his retinue there slain and worn down. Therefore the king, seeing so grave an extermination of his men take place, was vehemently shaken with fear together with the two battle-lines which had remained with him.

Nec mirum. [0602D] Nam idem mortis judicium in momento subire aestimabant.

Nor was it a marvel. [0602D] For they reckoned that they would undergo the same judgment of death in a moment.

CAP. LXV. - Rex a pontificibus admonitus, coram cruce dominica prosternitur.

CHAPTER 65. - The King, admonished by the pontiffs, is prostrated before the Lord’s Cross.

Ad haec duo catholici pontifices, Gerhardus et Baldewinus, quorum alter Gerhardus crucem Dominicam praeferebat ad confusionem et obcaecationem Sarracenorum, et liberationem Christianorum, regi in mansuetudine et correctione sic locuti sunt: Timemus, domine rex, ne ob discordiam, quae inter te et dominum patriarcham orta est, hodie nostris victoriae fiat impedimentum. Ideo monemus te, ut cum illo in concordiam redeas, et sic Domino Deo pacis satisfacias, quatenus a praesenti periculo eruamur. Quibus rex: Recte, inquit, monuistis et haec [0603A] dicens ab equo desiliit, et coram Dominica cruce procidens in terram, adoravit Dominum coeli, et haec pontificibus responsa dedit: Patres et fratres in Christo charissimi, pastores et doctores peritissimi, judicium mortis nobis praesto est; inimici innumerabiles obstant in arcu, in hastis, in gladiis fulmineis, quos penetrare et expugnare pro imperio Romanorum, pro regno Franciae et Angliae, non hodie opponerem, nisi per gratiam Domini nostri Jesu Christi de quorum manibus sic me Dominus Deus eruat, ut non cum illo pacem componam, nisi primum coram apostolico et omni Ecclesia de perfidia quam egit, canonice fuerit expurgatus.

To these things two catholic pontiffs, Gerard and Baldwin, of whom the one, Gerard, was bearing before him the Lord’s Cross for the confusion and blinding of the Saracens and the liberation of the Christians, spoke thus to the king in meekness and correction: We fear, lord king, lest on account of the discord which has arisen between you and the lord patriarch, there become today an impediment to our victory. Therefore we admonish you to return to concord with him, and so make satisfaction to the Lord God of peace, to the end that we may be snatched from the present peril. To whom the king: You have advised rightly, he said, and saying these things [0603A] he leapt down from his horse, and, falling to the ground before the Lord’s Cross, he adored the Lord of heaven, and gave these answers to the pontiffs: Fathers and brethren most dear in Christ, most skilled pastors and doctors, the judgment of death stands ready for us; enemies innumerable stand in the way with bow, with spears, with lightning-like swords—whom to penetrate and storm for the empire of the Romans, for the kingdom of France and of England, I would not this day set myself against, unless by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; from whose hands may the Lord God thus deliver me, that I do not make peace with him, unless first, before the Apostolic and the whole Church, he shall have been canonically purged of the perfidy which he has committed.

CAP. LXVI. - Post confessionem delictorum, episcopo Gerhardo crucem Domini praeferente, rex per medios hostes irrumpit. [0603B]

CHAPTER 66. - After the confession of sins, with Bishop Gerhard bearing the Lord’s Cross before him, the king bursts through the midst of the enemies. [0603B]

Et hoc dicto cum jurejurando, confessionem delictorum suorum coram iisdem episcopis fecit; deinde corporis et sanguinis Dominici percepta communione, decem milites loricatos cum Gerhardo episcopo, lignum sanctae crucis praeferente, reliquit. Ipse vero ascendens equum, qui lingua Sarracenica gazela appellatur, eo quod caeteris equis sit cursu potentior, praemisit quartam aciem quam ordinaverat de militibus Jerusalem, viris bello assuetis ac robustissimis, quatenus cum hostibus in impetu ferirent ac dimicarent. Haec autem quarta acies ex jussu regis fortiter irruens, cum committeret cum adversariis, prae multitudine illorum pondus belli non sustinens, coepit fugiendo declinare.

And this said, with an oath, he made a confession of his offenses before those same bishops; then, having received the communion of the body and blood of the Lord, he left ten cuirassed soldiers with Bishop Gerhard, who was bearing before him the wood of the holy cross. He himself, mounting a horse which in the Saracen tongue is called gazela, because it is more powerful in speed than the other horses, sent forward the fourth battle-line which he had arrayed from the knights of Jerusalem, men accustomed to war and most robust, so that they might strike and contend with the enemy in the onset. Now this fourth line, at the king’s command charging bravely, when it joined battle with the adversaries, not sustaining the weight of the battle by reason of their multitude, began to turn aside in flight.

Sed a rege [0603C] ejus fuga et contritione percepta, magno solamine relevata est. In momento enim cum sua quinta acie adfuit, agens grave praelium cum hostibus ac repetens, caedes et strages non modicas operatus est.

But by the king, [0603C] when its flight and rout had been perceived, it was relieved with great consolation. For in a moment he was present with his fifth battle-line, waging a grave battle with the enemies and renewing the assault, he wrought no small slaughter and carnage.

CAP. LXVII. - Mira Domini Jesu et sanctae crucis ejus victoria

CHAPTER 67. - Wondrous victory of the Lord Jesus and of his holy cross

Cum sic rex per medios hostium globos irrumperet, campos occisorum cadaveribus sterneret, quidam nominatissimus ammiraldus episcopo, crucem ferenti, occurrit in furore vehementi, ut raptim caput ejus detruncaret; sed, divina ultione et percussione praeventus, subitanea morte suffocatus exspiravit. Deinde alter ammiraldus, dum subito ipsum regem Christianorum impeteret, mox equus illius [0603D] trans cervices hasta regis confixus est, quae ipsum etiam ammiraldum eodem ictu et impetu trans pectus et jecur viriliter perforavit; sicque ambo, equus scilicet et sessor ejus a Christiano rege occisi sunt. Mortuis itaque duobus ammiraldis, exercitus Babyloniorum magnis ductoribus, primo divina ultione, altero hastae regis transfixione, rex et universi sui recuperatis vitibus per medias acies Sarracenorum in multitudine densatas irruperunt in virtute Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et sanctae crucis, inauditam illorum occisionem facientes usque ad vesperum, donec hinc et hinc fatigati, utrinque se a bello continuerunt.

As the king thus was breaking through the very clusters of the enemy and was carpeting the fields with the corpses of the slain, a certain most-renowned admiral rushed upon the bishop, who was bearing the cross, in vehement fury, so that he might swiftly lop off his head; but, forestalled by divine vengeance and a stroke, seized by sudden death and suffocated, he expired. Then another admiral, when he suddenly attacked the king of the Christians himself, straightway his horse [0603D] was pierced through the neck by the king’s spear, which also, with the same stroke and impetus, valiantly bored through that admiral across the breast and the liver; and thus both, namely the horse and its rider, were slain by the Christian king. The two admirals, great leaders of the army of the Babylonians—the first by divine vengeance, the other by the transfixion of the king’s spear—being dead, the king and all his men, having recovered their strength, burst through the midst of the battle-lines of the Saracens, massed in multitude, in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the holy Cross, making an unheard-of slaughter of them until evening, until, wearied on this side and that, they on both sides held themselves back from war.

Verum rex et reliquiae fidelium obtinentes camporum planitiem, in castris inimicorum pernoctaverunt. Sarraceni vero desperati in montis cacumine [0604A] ea nocte remanserunt. Patet hic profecto quomodo virtus S. crucis non solum contra invisibilium jacula praevalet inimicorum, sed etiam adversus arma visibilium; quia in prima, secunda, tertia ac quarta acie superbia et fortitudo gentilium vincendo praecessit; in quinta vero acie, in qua lignum sanctae ac venerandae crucis ante regem et ejus socios praeferebatur, tota virtus infidelium coepit infirmari, humiliari et conculcari.

Indeed the king and the remnant of the faithful, holding the level plain of the fields, spent the night in the enemies’ camp. But the Saracens, in despair, remained that night on the summit of the mountain [0604A]. It is plain here indeed how the virtue of the Holy Cross prevails not only against the javelins of invisible enemies, but also against the arms of the visible; for in the first, second, third, and fourth battle-line the pride and fortitude of the gentiles went before by conquering; but in the fifth battle-line, in which the wood of the holy and venerable cross was borne before the king and his companions, all the might of the infidels began to be weakened, humbled, and trampled underfoot.

Sed et principes eorum ferocissimi, Deo gloriam non dantes nec sanctae cruci, sed in eam sibi oppositam audacter et insipienter irruentes, subitanea morte praeoccupati perierunt.

But even their most ferocious princes, not giving glory to God nor to the holy cross, but rushing audaciously and foolishly against it, as opposed to themselves, were overtaken by sudden death and perished.

CAP. LXVIII. - Renovato bello, catholici regis ad suos hortatio.

CHAPTER 68. - With the war renewed, the exhortation of the Catholic king to his own.

Igitur post hanc victoriam Christianorum, quae in [0604B] mense Septembri ipso vespere Nativitatis beatae Dei genitricis Mariae accepta est, crastino sole exorte, quidam Gallorum adhuc viventes et incolumes cum rege suo rursus armari properant, suspicati adhuc bellum a gentilibus ingruere. Sed in omni planitie regionis non sunt reperti aut visi. Revertente autem rege cum quadraginta tantum militibus et peditibus ducentis, qui vix evaserant, viginti millia Sarracenorum qui Japhet obsederant, et vespere hesterno huic praelio non intererant, sed civitatem ex praecepto Meravis nimio assultu vexaverant, in aperto camporum adfuerunt ex improviso.

Therefore, after this victory of the Christians, which in [0604B] the month of September, on the very evening of the Nativity of the blessed Mother of God Mary, was received, with the sun risen on the morrow, certain of the Gauls still living and unharmed, with their king, hasten again to arm themselves, suspecting that war was still threatening from the gentiles. But on the whole plain of the region they were not found or seen. However, as the king was returning with only forty knights and two hundred foot-soldiers, who had scarcely escaped, twenty thousand Saracens who had besieged Japhet, and on yesterday’s evening had not taken part in this battle, but by the command of Meravis had harried the city with excessive assault, appeared unexpectedly in the open fields.

Quibus rex, quia locus divertendi ab eis non erat, resistere disposuit, et universos magna et audaci voce sic consolatur: Ecce inimici nostri obviam nobis integris armis adveniunt: [0604C] nos autem nuper bello fatigati, sero a manibus adversariorum, solo Deo protegente, evasimus superatis hostibus: optimates nostri et equites cuncti praeter nos ceciderunt: quid igitur pauci adversus tot millia adhuc bello intacta acturi sumus? pauci sumus, et sero bello fatigati; locus et possibilitas ab eis divertendi non est: et ideo quid consulam, nescio, nisi, ut in nomine Domini Jesu, et in virtute S. crucis universi stemus adversus incredulos pugnantes. Potens enim est Deus etiam de istorum manibus nos liberare, sicut heri de manu plurimorum et fortiorum liberavit.

To whom the king, because there was no place for turning aside from them, resolved to resist, and he thus heartened all with a great and audacious voice: Behold, our enemies come to meet us with intact arms: [0604C] but we, lately wearied by war, late from the hands of our adversaries, with God alone protecting, have escaped, the enemies being overcome: our optimates (nobles) and all the horsemen have fallen save for us: what then, we few, are we going to do against so many thousands as yet untouched by war? we are few, and late wearied by war; there is no place and possibility of turning aside from them: and therefore what I should advise, I know not, except that, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the virtue of the Holy Cross, let us all stand against the unbelievers, fighting. For God is powerful even to free us from the hands of these, just as yesterday He freed us from the hand of many and stronger.

Si autem mortiet contritioni destinati sumus, fiduciam et spem habeamus, quia, si corpus nostrum pro nomine Jesu et sanctis Jerusalem nunc in praesenti [0604D] saeculo occidi permiserimus, in futuro animas nostras in vitam aeternam una cum fratribus nostris, hesterno praelio pro Christo jugulatis et attritis, conservare poterimus.

If, however, we are destined to die and to be crushed, let us have confidence and hope; because, if we allow our body to be killed for the name of Jesus and for the holy places of Jerusalem now in the present [0604D] age, in the future we shall be able to conserve our souls into eternal life together with our brothers, slain and ground down in yesterday’s battle for Christ.

CAP. LXIX. - De gloriosa regis victoria et reditu in Jerusalem.

CHAPTER 69. - On the glorious victory of the king and the return to Jerusalem.

Hac regis exhortatione milites omnes et pedites roborati in spe vitae aeternae, inimicorum turmas operientes visas a longe, armis propere induuntur, lignumque Dominicum semper ante faciem suam habentes, grave praelium cum hostibus commiserunt. Obcaecati itaque et infirmati Sarraceni, in obstaculo tam venerabilis ligni timore illis immisso, non diu perseverarunt in bello. Visa quippe Christianorum audacia, et suorum nimia ruina, alii versus Ascalonem [0605A] fugientes, alii versus montana Jerusalem, victi ac dispersi diffugium fecerunt, rege eos in gravi exterminio crudeliter insequente.

By this exhortation of the king, all the soldiers and the foot-soldiers, strengthened in the hope of eternal life, beholding the troops of the enemies seen from afar, quickly donned their arms, and, keeping the Lord’s Wood always before their face, they joined a grave battle with the foes. Accordingly the Saracens, blinded and weakened, with fear instilled into them at the obstacle of so venerable a Wood, did not long persevere in the fight. For, the audacity of the Christians being seen, and the excessive ruin of their own men, some fleeing toward Ascalon [0605A], others toward the mountains of Jerusalem, vanquished and scattered took to flight, the king cruelly pursuing them in grievous extermination.

Rex autem reversus a caede hostium, paucissimis in unum receptis sociis, cum spoliis recentibus auro et argento, equis et mulis opibusque plurimis Japhet declinavit. Ubi lorica ferrea et veste ostrea exutus est, quae revera et procul dubio tota tabe et sanguine hostium inebriata fuisse, ibidem visa est. Noctem illam rex illic in laetitia et hilaritate ciborumque abundantia exegit.

The king, however, having returned from the slaughter of the enemies, with very few comrades gathered together as one, turned aside to Jaffa with fresh spoils—gold and silver, horses and mules, and very many riches. There he was stripped of his iron cuirass and his shellfish-dyed robe, which truly and beyond doubt was seen there to have been wholly drenched with gore and with the blood of the enemies. The king spent that night there in joy and cheerfulness and in an abundance of foods.

Cives vero exsurgentes, et in campis Ascalonis festinantes, tentoria, aurum et argentum et multa pretiosa spolia occisorum gentilium, quae rex suique paucissimi deferre nequiverant, asinorum et camelorum vehiculo in civitatem Joppen attulerunt. Deinde [0605B] crastina luce affulgente, rex in gloria magna Hierosolymam ascendit, ubi de omnibus spoliis et praeda inimicorum decimas hospitali Christique pauperibus erogavit.

But the citizens, rising up and hastening into the plains of Ascalon, brought the tents, gold and silver, and many precious spoils of the slain pagans, which the king and his very few men had been unable to carry off, into the city of Joppa by the conveyance of asses and camels. Then, [0605B] as the next day’s light shone forth, the king ascended to Jerusalem in great glory, where from all the spoils and booty of the enemies he disbursed tithes to the hospital and to Christ’s poor.

CAP. LXX. - De obitu Wickeri, militis Alemanni egregii. [0606A]

CHAPTER 70. - On the death of Wicker, an illustrious German knight. [0606A]

Wickerus autem Alemannus eodem anno paulo ante hoc praelium validis febribus correptus, in mense Augusto obiit, sepultus in civitate Joppe. Qui gladio suo, quo Turcum trans loricam et vestes super pontem Antiochiae medium secuit, non modicam regi opem hic contulisse, nisi morte interveniente vitam finiisset. Hic miles magnificus leonem magnum et horribilem, viros et armenta saepius juxta montana devorantem, in regione Joppe die quadam equum pascentem invadere volentem, munitus clypeo aggressus est: quem facili pede et saltu facie ad faciem sibi occurrentem ejusdem gladii acutissimi [0606B] ictu percussit, ac fortiter cerebro ejus in partes diviso, crudele et intrepidum animal in campestribus mortuum reliquit.

Wicker, however, a German, a little before this battle in the same year, seized by strong fevers, died in the month of August, buried in the city of Joppa. He, with his own sword, with which he cut a Turk clean through hauberk and garments in the middle upon the bridge of Antioch, would have contributed no small aid to the king here, had he not finished his life, death intervening. This magnificent soldier a great and horrible lion, that was often devouring men and herds near the mountains, in the region of Joppa, one day, as it wished to rush upon a horse that was grazing, he, defended with a shield, attacked: which, with light step and a leap, as it ran to meet him face to face, he struck with a blow of that same most sharp sword [0606B], and, its brain bravely cleft into parts, he left the cruel and intrepid animal dead upon the plain.