The history of the crusades

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THE

HJSTORJ

OF THE CRUSADES

r

BY

JOSEPH FRANCOIS MICHAUD

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

BY W. ROBSON

IN THREE VOLUMES

V O L. I I

REDFIELD,

ItO AND US NA8BAU STREET, NEW TORS.

1 1853.

CONTENTS TO VOL. II.

BOOK IX.— A.D. 1195-1198.
FOrKTH OBUBADE.

Thie empire of Saladin divided among his sncoessors — ^The civil wan
thence arising — Dynasty of the Ayoubites — Extensive empire of Afdhal,
son of Saladin — His civil contests — Alaziz, saltan of Egypt, takes arms
against his brother — ^azr-ADah, vizier of the sultan Afdhal — Malek-
Adel— Civil commotions of Palesline^^Agitated state of the Christian
colonies — Bohemond III. governor of Antioch, taken prisoner — Hospi-
tallers and Templars — Pope Celestine III. instigates the fourth crusade— >
Henry VI., emperor of Germany, engages to assist — Diet of Worms —
Hostilities at Ptolemais — Death of Henry of Champagne — Jaffa captured
by the Mussulmans — Siege and battle of Berytus — Malek-Adel defeated
— Fallandus, the Sicilian historian — Henry VI. of Germany conquers
Naples and Sicily — Progress of his arms in Palestine — The Saracens
defeated — Death of Henry VI. — Massacre of the garrison of Jaffa — St.
Martin — Causes of the failure of this crusade, and its mischievous con-
■equenoei — Cruel character of Henry VI pp. 1-35

BOOK X.— A.D. 1198-120^.
riTTH CRXrSADE.

Rousseau's opinion of the Crusaders — Enthusiasm and valour of the
Christian troops — Causes which led to the fifth crusade — Instigated by
Pope Innocent III. — His quarrel with Philip of France — Death of
Richard I. of England — Preaching of Fouikes in favour of the crusade
^Thibault IV., count of Champagne, engages in the crusade— Louis,
count of Chartres — Preaching of Martin Litz — Villehardouin, marshal
of ChampBgne — Baldwin, count of Flanders — Commercial greatness of
Venice — Dandolo, the doge of Venice — He engage.^ to assist the Cru-
saders— Gauthier de Brienne — Sums advanced by Venice — Death and
character of Thibault— Count de Bar —Death of Eude III.| duke of

iy GOKTEKTB.

Buri^ndy— Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, elected commander of the
crusade — Famine in Egypt and Europe — Death of Foulkes — Fecnniarj
eiactions of Yenice — ReYolt of the dty of Zara — Dandolo's address to
the Venetians in favour of the Crusaders — Isaac, emperor of Constan-
tinople, dethroned— Siege of Zara— Tlie Abbot de Cernay— Quarrels,
between the Venetians and the French Crusaders— Address of Philip of
Swabia to the French barons — Policy of Malek-Adel— Reproaches of
Innocent III. against the Crusaders at Zara— -Character of the emperor
Alexius— Capture of Corfu—Conquests of the younger Alexius, son of
Isaac — Description of Constantinople— Besieged by the Crusaders — ^The
Varangians — Speeches of Rossi and Conon de Bethune — Capture of
Constantinople— Alexius dethroned— Isaac and his son Alexius restored
to the sovereignty — The Crusaders become the allies of the Greeks, and
the protectors of the Greek empire — Their communications with the
pope pp. 36-99.

BOOK XI.— A.D. 1198-1204.

Character of the Greeks — Position of Alexius the younger— His pro-
posals to the Crusaders — Disputes between the Greeks and the Latins on
articles of faith— Contentions with the Bulgarians — Conflagration of
Constantinople — Imbecility and bigotry of the emperor Isaac — Statue of
Minerva destroyed — Innurrectionsry spirit in Constantinople — Famine in
Egypt — Contests between the Greeks and the Latins — Greek fire-
Treachery of Mourzouffle — He murders young Alexius, and ascends the
throne — Character of Alexius— Mouizouffle's contests with the Latins-
Is dethroned — Death of Isaac— >Lascaris chosen emperor — Abandons the
dty — Constantinople taken possession of, and plundered by the Latins^*
Destruction of the works of art— Statues of Belleropbon, Hercules, and
Helen, destroyed — Reverence for relics and images— Fanatidsm of
Martin Litz — Frsgment of the ** true cross" — ^Virtues of Dandolo, the
doge of Venice — Baldwin, count of Flanders, elected emperor of Con-
stantinople— The conquered lands distributed among the Crusaders —
Thomss Morasini elected patrisrch of Constantinople — Correspondence
between Baldwin and the pope— Death of Marguerite of Flanders, wife of
Baldwin — Conquests of Leo Sguerre — Michael Angclus Comnenus gains
the kingdom of Epirus — Lascaris proclaimed emperor at Nice — Mour-
zouffle captured and executed — Column of Theodo»iu8 — Quarrels between
Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, and Baldwin — Boniface invades Greece
— The Greeks rebel against the domination of the Latins — Victories of the
Bulgarians — Defeat and Msssacre of the Latins - Bravery of Henry of
Hainault— Incidents of Baldwin's life— Death of Dandolo — Boniface is
slain— Characters of the Greeks and the Franks— Their different his-
torians— Disputes respecting the sovereignty of Cyprus — Death of
Gauthier de Brienne — Policy of Innocent III. — Knowledge of Greek
diffused in the West — Refinement of the Venetians, and commerdsl great-
ness of Venioe pp. 100-184.

comrEiTTs- ▼

BOOK XII.— A.D. 1200-1215.

SIXTH CBUSia>£.

Famine in Egypt, and its frightful cooseqnenpes^DestnictiTe earth-
quake— Saadi, the Persian poet — Earthquake and famine in Palestine
—Agitated state of Palestine— Death of Amaury, king of Jerusalem-
Death of Bohemond III. — Pope Innocent III. stimulates the western
world to the deliverance of the Holy Land — State of Palestine and
Jerusalem — John of Brienne accepts the young queen of Jerusalem
in marriage— Agitated state of Europe— Malek.Adel renews hostilities
against the Christians — John of Brienne takes possession of Ptolemau —
First dawningfl of the Reformation — ^The Albigeois, the Vaudois, and
other reforming sects— Papal crusade against them — Spain at war with
the Saracens and Moors — Cardinal de Cour^on preaches the crusader-
Philip Augustus king of France, and John king of England, engage in
the crusade — Dominant spirit and political contentions of Pope Inno-
cent III. — Battle of Bourines — ^The pope assembles the council of
Lateran, and stimulates all Europe to the holy war — His death and
character — Censius Savelli chosen pope, under the title of Honorius III.
—He urges the crusade — Andrew 11., king of Hungary, engsges in it-
Paganism of Prussia in the thirteenth century— •Political state of Palestine
— ^The throne of Syria abdicated by Malek-Adel — Melik-Kamel, the
sultan of Cairo — Mount Tabor— Political state of Hungary — Her king
returns from Palestine — ^The tower of Damietta captured by the Cru-
saders— Death and character of Malek-Adel — Decline of the empire
of the Ayouhites — Cardinal Pelagius instigates the prosecution of the
crusade, and proceeds to Egypt — Panic amongst the Mohammedans—
Conspiracy te dethrone the sultan of Cairo — Battle before the walls of
Damietta — Piety of St. Francis-— The Mohammedans propose conditioi^
of peace — ^Damietta captured, and the inhabitants destroyed by famine—
The dty assigned to John of Brienne— His speech against the inTasion of
Egypt — Obstinacy of Cardinal Pelagius — The Mohammedans bum the
fleet of the Crusaders on the Nile, and compel them to capitulate— Melik-
Kamel enters into a treaty of peace, by which Damietta is surrendered to
the Mussulmans — Death of Philip Augustus of France— John of Brienne
rerisits Europe — Oppressions of the Christians of Palestine — The
Georgians — Invasions of the Tartars — Marriage of Frederick II., emperor
of Germany, with the heiress of the king of Jerusalem — Acknowledged
to be king— Persecutions of the Albigeois — Contests with the Moors in
Spain — ViiaT of fSactions in Italy— The Guelphs and Ghibellines — Frederick
of Germany engages in the holy war, sets sail, and returns to Otranto—
Gregory IX. succeeds Pope Honorius — His rage against Frederick of Grer-
many— Frederick arrives at Ptolemais, and concludes a treaty with Melik-
Kamel— ^Deatli of Conraddin, sultan of Damascns-^Frederick acknow-
ledged king of Jerusalem — Hostility of the Christians — He quits Pales-
tine for Europe — His victories in Lombardy— Escommunicated by Gre-
gory IX. — Treaty with his holiness — ^The pope determines on renewing
tiie h(dy war— Tbibanlt V., king of Navarre, and Pierre de Dreux, en-
gage in it— Council of Tours for promoting the cause of the Cmsaden—

Tl COITTElirTS.

Deaths of Peter and of Robert Courtenay — Decline of the Latin empire
in Constantinople— John of Brienne called to the throne — His death —
Baldwin, his son-in-law, driven from the throne— Frederick of Germany
excommunicated — He invades Italy and besieges Rome — Desolating civil
war — Death of Melik-Kamel — Agitated state of Palestine— BatUe of
Gaza— Death of Gregory IX. — Richard, duke of Cornwall, joins the
Crusaders at Ptolemais, but soon returns to Italy — Pope Cele8ttoe.IV. —
Disturbances in the reign of Innocent IV. — Pilgrims buy off their vows
—Wretched state of Palestine — Political pretensions of the popes — State
of Europe — General reflections on the crusades — Songs of the Trouba-
dours— Leprosy in the West— Crusades against Prussia and the Albigeoia
— ^The sanguinary wars in the name of religion pp. 185-^ U.

BOOK XIIL— A.D. 1242-1245.

SEVEKTH CErSADE. ,

The Tartars of the middle ages — Their history and conquests — Gengis-
khan, the Tartar chief— Temugin — Presier John— Khan of the Karaites
—Conquest of China^ Carismia, and other extensive countries in Asia
and Europe, by Gengiskhan — His death — ^^Hctorious career of Octal,
khan of the Tartars — Hungary conquered — ^llie warriors of Carismia
join the sultan of Cairo, and capture Jerusalem — ^The Mohammedans
of Syria defeated by the Carismians, and Damascus captured— The
Carismians rebel against the sultan of Cairo — ^They are defeated and
dispersed — Barbarous hordes of the Comans— Distress of the Christians
— Valeran, bishop of Berytas — Innocent IV., at the council of Lyons -
determines on the seventh crusade, and excommunicates Frederick, em-
peror of Germany — Cardinals first clothed in scarlet— Louis IX., king
of France, recovers from a dangerous malady, and determines on pro-
vecuting the seventh crusade against the infidels — The illustrious names
engaged in it — Blanche, the queen- mother — Agitated state of Germany
and Italy — Frederick of Germany deposed by the pope — Civil contests
thence arising — The nobles of France form a league to resist the exactions
of the pope — Louis makes extensive preparations for the holy war — The
earl of Salisbury, and Haco king of Norway, engage in it — Ameliorated
state of society resulting from the crusades — Louis embarks and arrives
at Cyprus — Pope Innocent IV. takes charge of his kingdom — Mar-
guerite, wife of Louis — Arcbambault de Bourbons — Sieur de Joinville—
Antioch ravaged by the Turcomans — Louis receives an embassy from the
Tartar prince, Ecadthai — Political discord among the Mohammedans —
Family of the Ayoubites — Malek-Salek Negmeddin, sultan of Egypt —
Militsiry and political state of Egypt at the time of the crusade— Louis IX.
and the Christian forces arrive before Damietta — His address to the Cru-
saders — He besieges Damietta— Fakreddin, the Egyptian leader — Louis
attacks and defeats the infidel troops — Damietta captured — Negociations
with Negmeddin — Livre Tournois — Bravery of the Bedouin Arabs —
Sidon captured by the Mohammedans .' pp. 312-392.

COKTBITTS. TU

BOOK XIV.— A.D. 1248-1255.

Alphonio count of Poictiers, and Hugh Lebran count of AngouUme,
engage in the holy war— Opposition of Henry III. of England to hig
barom and the pope— Raymond, count of Thoulouse — Count d'Artois —
Death of Negmeddin — Beauty and genius of Chegger-Eddour, sultana
of Egypt— Scharmesah captured by the Crusaders — Fakreddin takes the
•ommand of the Egyptian forces — ^Treachery of the Mamelukes — Military
operations on the canal of Aschmoum — Terrific effects of the Greek fire
--Fakreddin slain, and the Saracens defeated— Rashness of Count
d'Artois, and his death— Battle of Mansourah— The Crusaders defeated
by the Mamelukes— The earl of Salisbury, Robert de Vair, and other
illustrious warriors slain — Continued contests with the Egyptians, and
serere losses of the Crusaders — Instances of devoted h'eroism and indi-
Tidual bravery — ^The Crusaders exposed to famine and pestilence, and the
Saracens victorious — ^The canal of Mehallah fatal to the Crusaders —
Sufferings and losses of the Christian army — Guy du Chatel, Gaucher de
Chatillon, and other distinguished Crusaders slain— Louis attempts to
regain Damietta — Is defeated, and surrender^ as a prisoner of war — His
entire army annihilated by the Saracens — Sieur de Joinville taken prisoner
— Agonizing situation of Marguerite, queen of Louis — 30,000 Crusaden
masmcred, or taken into slavery — Religious resignation of Louis — Ho
enters into an abject treaty fur his ransom — Revolt of the Mamelukes-
Death of Almoadan — Octai, chief of the Mamelukes— The emirs of
Egypt— Chegger-Eddour elected sultana of Egypt, and Ezz-Eddin
Aybek the governor — Extinction of the Ayoubite dynasty — Damietta
delivef ed up to the Mussulmans— Ransom paid for Louis — Consternation
in France on hearing of his capture— He arrives at Ptolemais — Deli-
berates with his knights as to their future operations — ^The Syrians refuse
to acknowledge the authority of the Mamelukes — Civil commotions in
Egypt — Chegger-Eddour marries Ezz-Eddin, and yields her regal autho-
rity— Death of Frederick II. of Germany — <^onrad, his successor, ex-
communicated— Jacob of Hungary — ** Pastors" — Pope Innocent IV.
nrges the preaching of a fresh crusade— Singular message of the *' Old
Man of tluB Mountain" to Louis — A visit to his court — Cities of Palestine
fortified by Louis— War between the sultans of Cairo and Damascus —
Treaty between them, and hostilftiea resumed against the Christians — The
Turcomans surprise Sidon, and slaughter the inhabitants — Belinas pil-
laged by the Crusaders — Pious devot^ness of Louis — He fortifies Sidon
-^eath of Blanche, queen -regent of France — Louis quits Palestine, and
arrives at Paris— Exoellenee of Joinville's history — On the character and
misfortunes of Louis — Damietta destroyed by the Mussulmans, and the
mouth of the Nile filled with stones — Rise and fall of the Mamelukes —
Hospital of Quinze-Vingts — The Tartars and Moguls — '^ Assizes of
Jerusalem"— Characters of Frederick II. of Germany and Pope Inno-
cent IV. — Papal crusade against Eccelino de Romano .... pp. 393-493.

HISTORY

or

THE CRUSADES.

BOOK IX.

F0T7ETH CEITSADB.
A.D. 1195—1198.

Whsit we cast a retrospectiye glance over the periods we
liare described, we congratulate ounelyes upon not having
lired in those times of war and trouble ; but when we look
around us, and reflect upon the age of which we form a part,
we fear we have little reason to boast over the epochs com-
monly termed barbarous. During twenty-five years a revo-
lution, bom of opinions unknown to past ages, has pervaded
cities, agitated nations, and shaken thrones. This revolution
has for auxiliaries war and victory ; it strengthens itself with
all the obstacles that are opposed to it ; it is for ever bom
again from itself, and when we believe we can perceive the
end of its ravages, it re-appears more terrible and menacing
than ever. At the moment in which I resume the account
of the Crusades,* the spirit of sedition and revolt, the
fanaticism of modem doctrines, which seemed to slumber,

* The author wrote the history of the fourth, fifth, and siith crusades
during the last usurpation of Buonaparte. [How easily an observant
reader may tell when a book was published — the above note wma, doubt-
less, written after Buonaparte's failure. — ^TaAN«.]

1*

2 HISTOBT 07 THE CBirSAJ)ES.

all at once awake, and again threaten the world with uni*
Tersal disorder ; nations which tremble for their liberty and
their laws, are aroused, and spring up in arms ; a coalition
of all kings and of all nations, a general crusade is formed,
not to defend the tomb of Christ, but to preserve that which
Europe possesses of its ancient civilization. It is amidst
the rumoiu's of a new revolution, of a formidable war, that
I am about to describe the revolutions and wars that dis-
turbed the East and the "West in the middle ages. May I,
w^hilst deploring the calamities of my country, profit by the
events of which I am a witness, and by the frightful spec-
tacle which is before my eyes, to paint with greater truth
the passions and the troubles of a remote age, and revive
in the hearts of my contemporaries a love of concord and
peace.

The death of Saladin was followed by that which almost
always is to be observed in the dynasties of the East, — a reign
of agitation and trouble succeeding a reign of strength and
absolute power. In these dynasties, which have no other
support but victory, and the all-powerful vrill of a single
man, as long as the sovereign, surrounded by his soldiers,
commands, he is tremblingly obeyed ; but as soon as he has
closed his eyes, his people precipitate themselves towards
license with the same ardour that they had yielded to ser-
"vitude ; and passions, long restrained by the presence of the
despot, only blaze forth with the greater violence when there
remains nothing of him but a vain remembrance.

Saladin gave no directions respecting the order of succes-
sion, and by this want of foresight prepared the ruin of his
empire. One of his sons, Alaziz,* who commanded in
Egypt, caused himself to be proclaimed sultan of Cairo;
another t took possession of the sovereignly of Aleppo, and
a third of the principality of Amath.J Malek-Adel, the
brother of Saladin, assumed the throne of Mesopotamia,
and the countries in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates.

* Alm^k-Alazoz, Emad-eddin OUman. We have given the names
of the Mussulman princes as the greater part of our historiahs write
them ; we shall take care to point out in notes how they arc pronounced
by Arabian authors.

t Alem^lek Almansour, Nassir-eddin Mohammed.

X Alm^k Aladd Seif-eddin Abcn-beer Mohammed.

HMTOBY OP THE CRUSADES. 8

The principal emirs, and all the princes of the race of the
Ayoubites, made themselves masters of the cities and
provinces of which they held the command.*

Afdhal,t eldest son of Saladin, was proclaimed sultan of
Damascus. Master of S3rria, and of the capital of a vast empire,
sovereign of Jerusalem and Palestine^ he appeared to have
preserved something of the power of his father ; but all fell
into disorder and confusion. The emirs, the old companions
of the victories of Saladin, endured with reluctance the
authority of the young sultan. Several refused to take
the oath of obedience, § drawn up by the cadis of Damascus ;

* Aboalfeda and some other Arabian historians point out safficiently
raoeinctly the division that the Ayonbite princes made of the vast provinces
that formed the empire of Saladin. This empire included Syria, Egypt,
almost all Mesopotamia, and even a great portion of Arabia.

Aziz, as we have said, established himself in Egypt ; Afdhal and Thaher
shared Syria between them, one reigning at Damascus, and the other at
Aleppo. Adel retained, as his part, the cities, situated beyond the
Euphrates, which composed the eatiem provinces t that is, Mesopotamia
proper. To these three great divisions were attached several feudatory
princes, who governed as Aefs various cities of the empire. Hamah,
Ss'alamiak, Moanah, and Mambedj belonged to Mansour ; it was from this
branch that issued the celebrated Aboulfeda : the family of Chirkouh was
established at Emessa ; Thaher, son of Saladin, enjoyed Bosra; Amdjed,
great-grandson of Ayoub, was prince of Balbek ; Cheizer, Abou Cobai's,
Sahyonn, TelLBacher, Kaubeb, Adjlonn, Barin, Kafar-Tab, and Famieh
were possessed by various emirs who had served in the armies of Saladin.

As to Yemen, a province of Arabia, in which Touran-chah established
himself, the family of the Ayoubites reigned there till 1239.

t Alm^lek Alafdhal, Nour-eddin AH.

t At the death of Saladin Jerusalem came into the possession of
Afdhal, his son. who gave it in fief to the emir Azz-eddin Djerdik. Aziz
becoming master of Damascus, the holy city fell into the hands of another
emir, Ilm-eddin Caxsser ; to him succeeded Aboul^iedj, the favourite of
Adel ; for in the division that this prince and his nephew Aziz made of
Egypt and Syria, Palestine remained in the power of Adel. Aboul-H^j
was in his turn replaced by the famous emir Aksankar-el-K^bir, and he
by Meimoun, 1197. When the empire became re-unitied under the
dominion of Adel, his son Moaddhem had Damascus, of which Palestine
and Jerusalem were dependencies.

$ This is the text of tlie oath, as it has been preserved by an histo-
. nan : — '• I, such a one, devote myself entirely from this moment to the
serfice of the sultan Elraelek Alnaser Salak-eddin, as long as he shall
live. I swear to consecrate my life, my property, my sword, and my
powers to the defence of his empire, and to be always obedient to his
orders. I swear to observe the same engagements after him to his son

4 HI8T0BY OP THE 0BUBAJ>X8.

others consented to take it, but on condition that their fie&
should be secured to them, or that new ones should be
bestowed upon them. Ear from labouring to reduce the,
power of this haughty soldiery, Afdhal neglected the duties
of his throne for the pleasures of debauchery, to which he
gave himself up entirely, abandoning the welfare of his
empire to a vizier,* who rendered him odious to the
Mussulmans. The army demanded the dismissal of the
vizier, whom they accused of having usurped the authority of
the prince: the vizier, on his park, advised his master to
banish the seditious emirs. The weak sultan, who only saw
with the eyes of his minister, annoyed bv the presence and
complaints of a discontented army, dismissed from his ser-
vice a great number of soldiers and emirs, who went among
all the neighbouring princes, complaining of his ingratitude,
and accusing hijn ot forgetting, in the bosom of idleness
and effeminacy, the holy laws of the prophet and the glory
of Saladin.

The greater number of them, who went ruto Egypt,
exhorted Alaziz to take anns against his brother. The
sultan of Cairo gave ear to their advice, and under the pre-
tence of avenging the glory of his father, conceived the
project of possessing himself of Damascus. He assembled

and heir Alm^lek Alafdhal. I swear to submit myself to him* to fight for
htfl empire and states with my life, my wealth, my sword, and my troops.
I swear to obey him in everything ; I devote myself to him inwardly and
outwardly, and I take God for a witness of this engagement.''

* This vizier was named Nasr-allah, and bore the surname of Dhia-
eddin, ' the splendour of religion ;' he was brother of the celebrated his-
torian Ibn-Elatzir, author of the Tarikh Kamelt and himself cultivated
letters with success. The study of most of the sciences occupied his
youth, and his memofy was adorned with the most beautiful passages of
the ancient and modem poetry of his nation. Saladin had given him as
vizier to his son, and Nasr-allah proved by his conduct that he was worthy
of the honour. If he committed faults as a minister, he at least honoured
his character by remaining faithful to his master, sharing his misfortunes,
and following him into exile. After remaining some time at Samosata,
whither Afdhal was banished, he came to Aleppo, and entered into the
service of Thaher, who reigned there ; and becoming dissatisfied with his
conduct, he quitted the court, and retired to Mossoul, where he took up
his residence. He died at Bagdad in 1239, whilst fulfilling a diplomatic
mission with which the prince of Mossoul had charged him. Nasr-allah
left several literary works, the nomenclature of which is contained in the
biography of Ibn-Khilcan.

HI8T0BT OT TEB OB178iJ>E8. 5

hifl forces, and marclied into Syria at the head of an ann j.
At the approach of danger, Amhal invoked assistance from
the princes that reigned over the countries of Amath and
Aleppo. Soon a formidable war blazed forth, into which
was dragged the whole of the family of the Ajoubites.
Alaziz laid siee^e to Damascus. The hopes of an easy con-
quest animated his emirs, and made them believe that thej
were fighting in a just cause ; but as they at first had but
little success, and as victory seemed every day to fly further
from their banners, the war began to appear to them unjust.
At first they murmured ; then they revolted from Alaziz,
and at length rejoined the troops of Syria. Ilie sultan of
Cairo, upon being thus abandoned, was obliged to raise the
siege disgracefully, and return into Eg3rpt. The sultans of
Damascus and Aleppo pursued him across the desert, with
the design of attacicmg him in his capital. Afdhal, at the
head of a victorious army, soon carried terror to the banks of
the Nile. Alaziz was about to be dethroned, and Egypt to be
conquered by the Sjrrians, if the brother of Saladm, guided
by a policy, whose motive might be easily divined, had not
opposed the authority of his counsels to the arms of the
conqueror, and re-established peace in the family of the
Ayoubites. ^

The princes and emirs respected the experience of Malek-
Adel, and allowed him to be the arbitrator of their differ-
ences. The warriors of Syria and Egypt, accustomed to
see him in camps, looked upon him as their leader, and
followed him witli joy to battle ; whilst nations, that he had
often astonished by his exploits, invoked his name in their
reverses and dangers. The Mussulmans now perceived
with surprise that he had been in ^a manner exiled in
Mesopotamia, and that an empire, founded by his valour,
was abandoned to young princes who bore no name among
warriors : he himself grew secretly indignant at not having
received due recompense for his labours, and was aware of
all that the old soldiers, he had so often led to victory, might
one day do to further his ambitious views. It was important
to his designs that too much of the empire should not be in
the same hands, and that the provinces should remain for
some time longer shared by two rival powers. The peace
which he had brought about could npt be of long duration.

6 HIBTOBY OF THS CSrSABES.

and the discord ei^er on tHe point of breaMng out among
his nephews, must soon offer him an opportunity of reaping
the ri^ harvest of the vast heritage of Saladin.

Afdhal, warned by the dangers he had run, resolved to
change his conduct. Hitherto he had scandalized all faith-
ful Mussulmans by his intemperance in the use of wine.
Aboulfeda, who was descended from the family of Saladin,*
says, in his history, that the sultan of Damascus, during the
early years of his reign, passed his life amidst banquets and
indulgence, taking delight in nothing but listening to songs .
and composing verses. On his return from Egypt, Afdhal
exhibited an entire alteration in his manners ; but he only
fell from one excess into another ; he was now constantly at
prayers, or employed in the most minute practices of the
Mussulman religion ; but, in his excessive devotion, as in
his dissipated life, he was perfectly inattentive to the duties
of a monarch, and submitted himself, without reserve, to
the counsels of the same vizier who had already nearly cost
him his dominions. " Then,'* says Aboulfeda, " complaints
against him were heard from all quarters, and tongues that
had been loud in his praise became silent."

Alaziz thought this opportunity favourable for again
taking up arms against his brother ; and Malek-Adel, per-
suaded that war was most likely to minister to his ambition,
no longer advocated peace, but placed himself at the head of
the army of Eg^-pt. Having intimidated by his threats, or
won by his presents, the principal emirs of Afdhal, he at
once took possession of Damascus in the name of Alaziz,
and soon governed as sovereign the richest provinces of
Syria.

Every day fresh quarrels broke out among the emirs and
princes ; all those who had fought with Saladin, thought the
moment was come at which to put forth and establish their
pretensions ; and the princes who still remained of the family
of Noureddin began to entertain hopes of regaining tlie
provinces wrested from the unfortunate Attabeks by the son
of Ayoub. All the East was in a state of fermentation.

* M. Am. Jourdain has published a curious nccount of Aboulfeda and
his family, the materials for which were supplied by the works themselves
of this historian : it is printed in the fourteenth volume of Le$ A finales
des Voyages f &c. of M. Malte Bran.

HI8TOBT 07 THB CBVBADX8.

Bloodj divisions desolated Persia, a prey to the various
claims of the feeble remains of the race of the Scljoucides.
The empire of the Carismians, which conquest was every
day extending, threatened at the same time the capital of
Corosan and the city of Bagdad, in which the pontiff' of the
Mussulman religion lived in perpetual fear. For a long
time the caliphs had been unable to take any active part in
the events that changed the face of Syria ; and the only
authority they possessed was exercised in consecrating the
victories of the triumphant party, whoever that might be.
Afdhal, driven from Damascus, called in vain upon the
caliph of Bagdad for protection ; all that shswiow of power
could, afford him was a recommendation to exercise patience,
and an assurance '^ thai his enemies would have to render an
account to Ood of what they had done.^*

Among the rivalries that convulsed the Mussulman states,
Malek-Adel met with no obstruction to his projects ; the
troubles and disorders which his usurpation gave birth to,
even the wars undertaken against him, all contributed to the
consolidation and extension of his unjustly-obtained power.
It became evident that he must soon unite under his sway
the greater part of the provinces conquered bv Saladin.
Thus was verified, for the second time within a few years,
the observation of an Arabian historian, who expressed
himself in the following words when speaking of the suc-
cession of Noureddin : " The greater part of the founders
of empires have not been able to leave them to their posteritu.^^
This instability of power is not a thing to be wondered at
in countries where success renders everything legitimate,
where the caprices of fortune are frequently laws, and
where the most formidable enemies of an empire founded
by arms, are the very men whose bravery has assisted in
raising it. The historian we have quoted, deplores the revo-
lutions of military' despotism, without duly searching for the
natural causes of them ; and can explain so many changes
only by referring to the justice of God, always ready to
punish, at least in their children, all who have employed vio-
lence or shed the blood of man to attain empire.

Such were the revolutions which, during many years,
ag tated the Mussulman states of Syria and Egypt. The
fourth crusade, which we are about to describe, ani in which

8 HI8T0BT OP TH3B OBHSADBS.

the Christijins might haye greatly profited by the troubles
of the East, only served to reunite the scattered members
of the empire of Saladin. Malek- Adel owed the progress of
his power not only to the divisions of the Mussulmans, but
to the spirit of discord that reigned among the ChristiaiiB.

After the departure of the king of England, as was
always the case at the temunation of every crusade, the
Christian colonies, surrounded by perils, advanced more
rapidly to their fall. Henry of Champagne, charged with
the government of Palestine, disdained the title of king, as
he was impatient to return to Europe, and looked upon his
kingdom as a place of exile. The three military orders,
detained in Asia by their vows, constituted the principal
strength of a state which but lately had had all the warriors
of Europe for its defenders. Guy of Lusignan retired to
Cyprus, took no more interest in the fate of Jerusalem, and
had full occupation in keeping himself on his new throne,
shaken by the continual revolts of the Greeks and threatened
by the emperors of Constantiaople.

Bohemond III., grandson of Kaymond of Poictiers, and
descended, in the female line, from the celebrated Bohemond,
one of the heroes of the first crusade, governed the prin-
cipality of Antioch and the county of Tripoli. Amidst the
misfortunes that a£Q[icted the Christian colonies, the sole aim
of this prince was the extension of his dominions, and eyery
means appeared to him good and just that could forward his
designs. Bohemond pretended to have claims to the prin-
cipality of Armenia; and employed by turns force and
stratagem to get possession of it. After several useless
attempts, he succeeded in decoying into his capital Eupin
of the Moimtain, one of the princes of Armenia, and detained
him prisoner. Livon, the brother of Eupin, determined to
take signal vengeance for such an outrage ; and, under the
pretence of treating for peace, invited Bohemond to repair
to the frontiers of Armenia. The two princes engaged by
oath to come without escort or train to the place of confer-
ence ; but each formed a secret design of laying a snare for
his aidversary. The Armenian prince, better seconded by
either his genius or fortime, remained conqueror in this dis-
graceful contest. Bohemond was surprised, loaded with
chains, and carried away to a fortress of Lesser Armenia.

HI9T0BT OF THS CBUSABES. 9

The war was instanilj renewed with fuiy ; the people of
both Ajmcnia and Antioch rushed to arms, and the coun-
tries and cities of the two principalities were speedily bj
turns invaded and ravaged. At length peace became desir-
able, and afler some disputes upon the conditions, the prince
of Antioch was sent back to his states, and Bupin of the
Mountain was restored to the nations of Armenia. By an
agreement entered into by the two princes, Alice, the daugh-
ter of Bupin, married the eldest son of Bohemond. This
union promised to be the pledge of a durable peace ; but
the germ of so many divisions still subsisted ; the two par-
ties retained a strong feeling of the outrage they had re-
ceived ; and every treaty of peace becoming a fresh subject
of discussion, war was always ready to be rekindled.

In another direction, ambition and jealousy set at variance
tbe orders of the Temple and St. John. At the period of
the third crusade, the Hospitallers and the Templars were as
powerM as sovereign prmces ; they possessed in Asia and
Europe tillages, cities, and even provmces.* The two orders,
rivalbng each other in power and glory, attended far less to
the defence of the holy places than to the augmentation of
their own renown and nches. Every one of their immense
possessions, every one of their prerogatives, the renown of
the knights, the credit of the leaders, ul, even to the trophies
of their valour, were for them subjects of rivalry, and, at
length, this spirit of discord and jealousy produced an open
war. A French gentleman, established, m Palestine, pos-
sessed, as a vassal of the Hospitallenf, the castle of Margat,
situated towards the frontiers of Arabia. The TempIarB
pretended that this castle belonged to them, and took pos-
session of it by main force. Bobert, — that was the name of
the gentleman, — carried his complaints to the Hospitallers,
who immediately flew to arms and drove the Templars from

* The Hospitallere then possessed within the limits of Christendom
nineteen thouiand manortg the Templars had only nine thousand. Mat-
thew Paris expresses himself thus : — Habent insnper Templarii in Chris-
tianitate noTem millia maneriorom ; Hospitalii vero novem decern, pneter
emolamenta et varios proventos ex fraternitadbns et pnedicationibna pro-
▼enientes, et per privilegia sua accrescentes. — Maith. Parity ad annum
1244, in Henry III., lib. xi. p. ^15. A manor in die middle ages woe
the Mom qfemphugh*

10 HI8T0BX 07 THE CSVSAD28.

the castie. From that time the kniglits of the two orders
never met without provoking each other to tlie combat;
most of the Franks and Christians always taking a part in
the qnarrcl, some for the order of St. John, others for that
of the Temple. The king of Jerusalem and the most pru-
dent of the barons made many useless attempts to restore
peace ; and several Christian princes endeavoured in vain to
reconcile the two rival orders. The pope himself had much
difficulty in getting his sacred mediation to be accepted ; and
it was only after long debates that the Holy See, sometimes
armed with evangelical thunders, sometimes employing the
paternal language of the head of the Church, terminated, by
its wisdom and supreme ascendancy, a contest which the
knights themselves would have preferred deciding with
sword and lance.

During these fatal divisions none thought of defending
themselves against the general enemy, the Saracens. One
of the mpst melancholy consequences of the spirit of faction
IB, that it always leads to a lamentable indifference for the
common cause. The more violently the parties attacked
each other, the less perception they seemed to have of the
dangers that threatened the Christian colonies ; neither the
knights of the Temple or of St. John, nor the Christians of
Antioch or PtolemaJis, ever thought of asking for succour
against the infidels ; and history does not say that one per-
son was sent from the East to make Europe aware of the
griefs of Sion.

The situation of the Christians in Palestine was besides so
uncertain and perilous, that the wisest could form no idea of
coming events, or dare to adopt a resolution. If they
appealed afresh to the warriors of the West, they broke the
truce, made with Saladua, and exposed themselves to all the
resentment of the infidels ; if they respected treaties, the
truce might be broken by the Mussulmans, ever ready to
profit by the calamities which fell upon the Christians. In
this state of things, it appeared difficult to foresee a new
crusade, which was neither called for by the wishes of the
Christians of Asia, nor promoted by the mterests of Europe.
In fact, when we cast our eyes over the Christian colomes
of the East, as they are described to us in these unhappy
times, and see the spirit of ambition and diacord diaplamng

HIBTOBT OT THS CBUSAJ>EB. 11

in all hearts the holy spirit of the G-ospel, >ye cannot wonder
that Christendom took so little interest in their fate. Again,
when contemporary history represents to ns these colonies a
prey to license and division, and destitute of everything that
cordd render them flourishing, we can scarcely believe that
the West was again likely to lavish its wealth and its blood
to support ^d defend them. But the great name of Jeru-
salem still produced a powerful effect upon the minds of all ;
the rememorance of the first crusade still aroused the enthu-
siasm of Christians ; and the veneration for the holy places,
which appeared to grow weaker in the kingdom of Christ
itself, was yet cherished beyond the seas and in the principal
countries of the West.

Celestine III. had, by his exhortations, encouraged the
warriors of the third crusade ; and, at the age of ninety,
pursued with zeal all the projects of his predecessors;
ardently wishing that the last days of his ponl^cate should
be illustrated by the conquest of Jerusalem. After the
return of Bichard, the news of the death of Saladin had
spread joy throughout the West, and revived the hopes of
the Christians. Celestine wrote to all the faithful to inform
them that the most formidable enemy of Christendom had
ceased to live ; and, without regarding the truce made by
Bichard Coeur de Lion, he ordered his bishops and arch-
bishops to preach a new crusade in their dioceses.* The
sovereign pontiff promised all who would take the cross the
same privileges and the same advantages as in the preceding
crusades. The profanation of the holy places ; the oppression
under which the faithful of the East groaned ; the ever-
increasing ^insolence and audacity of the Saracens — such were
the motives by which he supported his holy exhortations.
He addressed nimself particularly to the bishops of England,
and commanded them to use every persuasion to induce
Bichard again to take up arms against the infidels.

Bichard, although returned, had never laid aside the cross,

* We poBsess two letters written by Celeitine to Hubert, archbishop of
Canterbury, to engage him to preach the crusade. The pope commands
the archbishop to employ ecclesiastical censures against those who, after
taking the cross, delayed their departure for the Holy Land ; and to re-
quire such as oould not possibly set out, to send, at their own expense,
oat Mr two men to fight against the infidels.

12 ' HI8TOBY OF THB 0BU8ADEB.

the Bymbol of pilgrimage ; and it might be Enipposed he still
intended to repair again to the Holy Land ; out, Bcarcely
escaped from an unjust captiYity, taught by his own expen-
ence how great were the difficulties and perils of a distant
enterprise, his thoughts and time were engrossed by his
endeavours to remedy his losses, to defend or aggrandize his
states, and to be on his guard against the insidious attempts
of Philip Augustus. His knights and barons, whom ne
himself exhorted to resume the cross, professed, as he did, a
warm devotion for the cause of Jerusalem ; but they could
not make up their minds to return to a country which had
been to them a place of suffering and exile.

Although the appearance of ttie preachers of the crusade
eveiywhere inspired respect, they had no better success in
France, where, only a few years before, a hundred thousand
warriors had been roused by the summons to defend the holy
places. If the fear of the enterprises of Philip was sufficient
to detain Bichard in the West, the dread of the vindictive
and jealous disposition of Eichard exercised the same influ-
ence over Philip. The greater number of his knights and
nobles followed his example, and contented themselves with
shedding tears over the fate of Jerusalem. The enthusiasm
for the crusade was commimicated to only a small number of
warriors, amongst whom history names the count de Mont-
fort, who afterwards conducted the cruel war against the
Albigeois.

Prom the commencement of the crusades, Germany had
never ceased to send its warriors to the defiance of the Holy
Land. It deplored the recent loss of its armies, destroyed
or dispersed in Asia Minor, and the death of the Emperor
Frederick, who had gained nothing but a grave in the plains
pf the East ; but the remembrance of so great a disaster did
not extinguish in all hearts the zeal for the cause of Jeru-
salem/ Henry VI., who occupied the imperial throne, had
not partaken, as the kings of France and England had, the
perils and reverses of the last expedition. Unpleasant
remembrances or fears of his enemies in Europe could have
no effect in preventing him from joining in a new enterprise,
or deter him from a holy pilgrimage which so many illus-
trious .examples seemed to point out as a sacred dut^.

Although this prince had been ezcommunicatea by the

HISTOBT OT THX CBXTSADES. 18

Holy See, onlj the preceding jear, the Pope sent an embaflsy
to him, charged with the duty of recalling to his mind the
example of his father Frederick, and urging him to assume
the cross. Heniy, who sought every occasion to conciliate
the head of the Church, and who likewise entertained yast
projects in which a new crusade might be very serviceable,
received the envoy of Celestine with great honours.

Of all the princes of the middle ages, no one evinced more
ambition than Henry YI. ; his imagination, say historians,
was Med with the glory of the CsBsars, and he wished to be
able to say with Alexander, all that my desires can emhrace
belongs to me. Tancred, a natural son of William II., king
of Sicily, chosen by the Sicilian nobility to succeed his
&ther, was recently deceased ; and the emperor, who had
espoused Constance, the heiress of a throne founded by
Norman Crusaders, and desirous of establishing his claims,
judged that the time was come to carry out his designs and
achieve his conquests. The expedition of which the Holy
See desired him to be the leader, was exceedingly favourable
to his ambitious projects ; when, promising to defend Jeru-
salem, he only thought of the conquest of Sicily ; and the
conquest of Sicily had no value in his estimation but as
opening the road to Greece and Constantinople.* At the
same time that he professed entire submission to the will of
the head of the Church, he endeavoured to form an alliance
with the republics of Genoa and Venice, promising them the
spoils of the conquered ; but in his mind he nourished the
hope that he should one day overthrow the Italian republics
ana lower the authority of the Holy See, and upon their
remains revive, for himself and his family, the empire of
Augustus and Constantine.

Such was the prince to whom Celestine sent an embassy,
and whom he wished to persuade into a holy war. Ailer
having announced his intention of taking the cross, Henry
convoked a general diet at Worms, in which he himself
exhorted the faithful to take up arms for the defence of
the holy places. Since Louis VII., king of France, who

* This reminds ns of the plans of conquest laid down by Pyrrhus,
king of Epirus, — and of the traveller, who intended to perambulate the
globe, — that he might, at the end of his wanderings, plant cabbagm in
Hanover, — ^Trans.

14 HISTOBT OF THE CBITSAHXS,

harangued His subjects to induce them to join in the crusade,
Honry was the only monarch that had mingled his voice
with that of the preachers of the holy war, to make his sub-
jects acquainted with the sufferings and complaints of the
Church of Jerusalem. His eloquence, celebrated by the
historians of his time, but above allj the spectacle presented
of a great emperor himself preaching a holy war against the
infidels, made a profound impression upon the multitude of
his auditors.* After this solemn address, the most illus-
trious of the prelates assembled at Worms ascended the
evangelical pulpit to keep up the rapidly increasing en-
thusiasm of the faithful ; during eight hours nothing was
heard but the groans of Sion and the city of Otod. Henry,
surrounded by bis court, assiuned the symbol of'the Cru-
saders; a great number of German nobles followed his
example, some to please God, and others to please the em*
peror. Among those who took the oath to combat the
Saracens, history names Henry duke of Saxony ; Otho mar-
quis of Brandenburgh ; Henry count palatine of the Ehme ;
Herman landgrave of Thuringia ; Henry duke of Brabant ;
Albert count of Apsburg; Adolphus count of Schwemburg ;
Henry count of Pappenhein, marshal of the empire ; the duke
of Bavaria; Frederick, son of Leopold, duke of Austria;
Conrad marquis of Moravia; Valeran de Limboiu'g; and
the bishops of Wurtzburg, Bremen, Verdun, Habbastadt,
Passau, and Eatisbon.f

The crusade was preached in all the provinces of Ger^
many, and the letters of the emperor and the pope kindled
the zeal of the Christian warriors everywhere ; never had an
enterprise against the infidels Been undertaken under more
favourable auspices. As Germany undertook the crusade
abnost singly, the glory of the German nations seemed as
much interested in this war as religion itself. Henry was

* All the facts relative to the preaching of this crusade are to be found
in Roger dc Hoveden, Matthew Paris, Godfrey Moine, William of New-
bridge, Oth5 of St. Blaise, and Arnold of Lubeck. The latter gives the
most details ; he does not fail to tell us that forty burgesses of Lubeck
took the cross on this occasion.

t The long lists of the names and titles of the Crusaders may at first
appear tiresome to the reader ; but as each name represents a territory or
an estate, the lists are, in fact, the best means of becoming thoroughly
acquainted with the extent of this astonishing mania«-^T&ANS.

BIBTOBT OF THB CBUBADES. 15

to eommandi the holy expedition ; and the Crusaders, full of
confidence and hope, were preparing to follow him to the
East. But Henry entertained other yiews ; several nobles
of his court, some who penetrated his secret designs, and
others who believed they oflTered him prudent advice, con-
jured him to remain in the West, and direct the crusade
j&om the bosom of his dominions ; and Henry, after a slight
resistance, yielded to their prayers, and gave his whole
attention to the hastening of the departure of the Gru-
Baders.

The emperor of Germany placed himself at the head of
forty thousand men and took the route for Italy, where
everything was prepared for the conquest of Sicily; the
remainder of the Crusaders were divided into two armies,
which, proceeding by different roads, were to meet in Syria.
The first, commanded by the duke of Saxony and the duko
of Brabant, embarked at ports of the German Ocean and
the Baltic ; the second crossed the Danube, and directed its
march towarda Constantinople, whence the fleet of the
Greek emperor Isaac was to transport it to Ptolemais. To
this army, commanded by the archbishop of Mayence and
Valeran de Limbourg, were joined the Himgarians, who
accompanied their queen Margaret, sister to Philip Augustus.
The queen of Hungary, after having lost Bela her husband,
had made a vow to live only for Christ, and to end her days
in the Holy Land.

The Crusaders under the command of the archbishop of
Mayence and Valeran de Limbourg, were the first to arrive
in Palestine. Scarcely were they landed when they ex-
pressed their desire and resolution to begin the war agaipst
the infidels. The Christians, who were then at peace with
the Saracens, hesitated to break the truce signed by Eichard,
and were, further, unwiUing to give the signal for hostilities
before they could open the campaign with some hopes of
success. Henry of Champagne and the barons* of Palestine
represented to the German Crusaders the danger to which
an imprudent rupture would expose the Christians of the
East, and conjured them to wait for the army of the dukes
of Saxony and Brabant. But the Germans, full of con-
fidence in their own strength, were indignant at having
obstadea thrown in the way of their valour by vain scruples

16 HISTOBT 0? TIDS CB1TSABS8.

and chimerical alarms ; they were astonished that the' Chris-
tians of Palestine should thus refuse the assistance sent to
them hy Providence itself, and added, in a tone of anger and
contempt, that warriors' of the West were not accustomed
to defer the hour of battle, and that the pope had not in-
duced them to take up arms and the cross to remain in a
state of shameful inactivity. The barons and knights of the
Holy Land could not listen to such injurious speeches with-
out indifi^nation, and replied to the German Crusaders that
they had neither solicited nor wished for their arrival ; that
they were better acquainted than the northern warriors of
Europe with what was advantageous to the kingdom of
Jerusalem; that they had without any foreign succour
braved the greatest perils, and that when the proper mo-
ment should arrive they knew how to prove their valour
otherwise than by words. Amidst such warm debates the
minds of both parties became daily more exasperated, and
the most cruel discord thus prevailed among the Christians
before war was declared against the infidels.

All at once the German Crusaders marched out in arms
from Ptolemais, and commenced hostilities by ravaging the
lands of the Saracens. At the first signal of war the Mus-
sulmans gathered together their forces ; and the danger that
threatened them putting an end to their discord, from the
banks of the Nile and from the remotest parts of Syria
crowded hosts of warriors but lately armed against each
other, but who now, assembled under the same banners,
acknowledged no other enemies but the Christians.

Malek-Adel, towards whom all Mussulmans turned their
eyes when the defence of Islamism was the question, marched
from Damascus at the head of an army and repaired to Jeru-
salem, where all the emirs of the adjoining provinces came
to take his orders. The Mussulman army, after dispersing
the Christians who had advanced towards the mountains of
NM)louse, laid siege to Jafia.

In the third crusade much importance had been attached
to the conservation of this city. Eichard Coeur de Lion had
fortified it at great expense, and when that prince returned
to Europe he left a numerous garrison in it. Of all the
maritime places, Jaffa was nearest to the city which was
the object of the wishes of the faithful ; if it remained in

HIBTOBT OV THfl OBtTSABXfl. 17

the bandfl of the CliriBtiaiis, a road was always open for them
to Jerusalem, and the means of laying siege to that phice
were rendered more easy ; but if it fell into the power of the
Mussulmans, it gave them proportionate advantages for the
defence of the holy city.

When it was known at Ptolemais that the city of Jaffa
was threatened, Henry of Champagne, with his barons and
knights, immediately took arms to defend it, and joined the
German Crusaders, giving all their energies to the prosecu-
tion of a war which they foimd could now no longer be
deferred or avoided. The three military orders, with the
troops of the kingdom, were about to set forward on their
march, when a tragical accident once more plunged the
Christians in grief, and retarded the effects of the happy
harmonywhich had been re-established at the approach of
peril. Henry of Champagne, leaning against a window of
nis palace, at which he nad placed himself to see his army
defile from the city, the window all at once gave way, and
in its fall precipitated him with it.* The unfortunate prince
expired in sigut of his soldiers, who, instead of following
him to battle, accompanied him to his grave, and lost sevenu
days in celebrating his funeral obsequies. The Christians of
Ptolemaos were still weeping the death of their king, when
the misfortune they dreaded increased their grief and con-
sternation ; the garrison of Jaffa having attempted a sortie,
had fallen into an ambuscade, and all the warriors that com-
posed it were either killed or taken prisoners. The Mus-
sulmans entered the city almost without resistance, and
twenty thousand Christiains were put to the sword.

These disasters had been foreseen by all who had dreaded
the breaking of the truce ; but the barons and knights of
Palestine lost no time in vain regrets, or in the utterance of
useless complaints, and looked with eager impatience for the
arrival of the Crusaders who had set out from the ports of
the Ocean and the Baltic. These troops had stopped on the

* Roger de Hoveden givei this account of the death of Henry of
Champagne. Arnold of Labeck says that this prince had placed himself
at a window to take the air. The same Arnold adds that many thought
that God had punished Henry for the regret he had erinoed on the arrival
of the Germans, whom he envied the glory of delivering the kingdom o#
Christ.

Vol. II.— 2

18 HIBTOBT OF THE GBVSiJ>BB.

coast of Portugal, where they bad defeated the Moors, and
taken from them the city of Silves. Proud of their triumph
over the infidels, they landed at Ptolemais at the moment
the people were lamenting the loss of Jafia and crowding to
the churches to implore the mercy of Heaven.

The arrival of the new Orusaaers restored hope and joy
to the Christians, and they resolved to lose no time, but to
march at once against the infidels. The army left Ptolemais
and advanced towards the coast of Syria, whilst a nume-
rous fleet kept along shore, loaded with provisions and
warlike stores. The Crusaders, without seeKing the army
of Malek-Adel, laid siege to Berytus.

The city of Beiytus, at an equal distance between Jeru-
salem and Tripoli, by the commodiousness of its port, its
large population, and its commerce, had become the rival of
Ptolemais and Tyre. The Mussulman provinces of Syria
acknowledged it as their capital, and it was in Berytus that
the emirs, who contended for the lordship of the neighbour-
inff cities, came to display the pomp of their coronations.
AKer the taking of Jerusalem, Saladin was here saluted
sovereign of the city of Qod, and crowned sultan of Da-
mascus and Cairo. The pirates, who infested the seas,
brought to this city all the spoils of the Christians ; the
Mussulman warriors there deposited the riches acquired by
conquest or brigandage ; and the Frank captives, made in
late w^ars, were crowded together in the prisons of Berytus ;
so that the Christians had powerful motives for endeavouring
to get possession of this place, and the Mussulmans had no
less urgent ones for defending it.

Malek-Adel, after having destroved the fortifications of
Jaffa, advanced with his army as far as the mountains of
Anti-Libanus, on the route to Damascus ; but on hearing
of the march and determinatioi^of the Crusaders, he crossed
the mountains on his left, and drew near to the coast : the
two armies met on the plain watered by the river Eleuthera,
between Tyre and Sidon. The trumpets soon sounded to
battle ; the army of the Saracens, which covered an immense
space, endeavoured at first to surround the Franks, and
then to get between them and the coast ; their cavalry pre-
cipiteted itself by turns on the flanks, the van, and the rear
of the Christians. The Christians closed their battaLionB^

HIBTOBT OF THX CBUBiDSB. 19

and on all sides presented impenetrable ranks. Whilst their
enemies showered arrows ana darts upon them, their lances
and swords were bathed in the blood of the Saracens. They
fought with different arms, but with the same brarerj and
fury. The victory remained for a long time uncertain ; the
Christians were several times on the point of losing the
battle ; but their obstinate valour at length triumphed over
all the resistance of the Mussulmans, and the sesrcoast, the
banks of the river Eleuthera, and the declivities of the
mountains were covered with dead. The Saracens lost a
ereat many of their emirs. Malek-Adel, who displayed,
during the whole of this day, the skill of a great captain,
was wounded on the field of battle, and only owed his safety
to flight. All his army was dispersed ; some fled towarcb
Jerusalem, whilst others hurried along the road to Da-
mascus, n^hither the news of this bloody defeat carried
consternation and despair.*

In consequence of this victoiy, all the cities on the coast
of Syria, which still belonged to the Mussulmans, fell into
the power of the Christians ; the Saracens abandoned Sidon,
Laodicea, and Giblet. When the Christian fleet and army
appeared before Beijtus, the ^;arrison was surprised, and
dia not venture to oner any resistance. This city contained,
say historians, more provisions than would have sufficed
for the inhabitants during three years; two large vessels,
add the same chronicles, could not have contained the bows'
arrows, and machines of war that were found in the city of
Berytus. In this conquest immense riches fell into the
hands of the victors, but the most precious reward of their
triumph doubtless was the deliverance of nine thousand
captives, impatient to resume their arms, and avenge the
outrages of their long captivity. The prince of Antioch,
who had joined the Christian army, sent a dovef to his

* We possess a yeiy predous monumeot apoD the battle of Sidon ; it
it a letter from the duke of Saxony, written to the archbishop of Cologne.
The duke was present at the battle.

t Arnold, who gives an account of this message of the dove, appears
to fear that it will not be beliered. This is the manner in which he ex*
presses himself in the third chapter :->Hic qaiddam dicturus sam non
ridicnlum, sed ridicol^ i^ gentibns tractnmi qui quoniam sapientiores liliis
tads in generstione su& sunt, multa ezcogitant, qtm nostrates non novo-
nmty nisi forti ab eia didioerinL Solent enim ezeontps ad qwsUbet

iO HISTOBT OV THB 0BU8AJIBS.'

oftpital to annoimoe to all the inliabitaiits of the principalitj
the miiaculoufl victory giuned by the soldiers of the cross.
In all the Christian cities thanks were offered np to the
Grod of armies. The historians, who have transmitted to vm
the account of these glorious events, in order to paint the
transports of the Christian people, content themselves with
repeating these words of holy writ : " Then Sum leaped wUh
joy, and the children ofJudah v)ere filled with delight,*^

Whilst the Crusaders were thus pursuing their triumphs
in Syria, the emperor Henry YI. took advantage of all the
means and all the powers that the crusade had placed in his
hands, to achieve the conquest of the kingdoms of Naples and
Sicily. Although, in the course of his victories, he unceasingly
invoked religion, humanity, and justice, he only listened to
the dictates of his ambition ; and, tormented by the sentiment
of an implacable revenge, he was neither touched by the
misery of the conquered, nor the submission of his enemies.
All who had shown any respect or any fidelity for the family
of Tancred, were cast by his orders into dungeons, or
perished in horrible tortures, which he himself had invented.
The army he led but too well seconded his gloomy and
savage policy ; the peace which the conquerors boasted of
having restored to the people of SicOy, caused, them more
evils, and made more victims than war itself. Falcandus^
who died some years before this expedition, had deplored
beforehand, in his history, the misfortunes that were about
to desolate his country. He already saw the most flourish-
ing cities and the rich country of Sicily laid waste by the
irruption of the barbarians. " Oh ! unfortunate Sicilians,"
cried he, '' it would be less frightful for you still to endure
the tyrants of old Syracuse, than to live under the empiro
of this savage nation, which advances to invade your terri-
tory, and plunge you into all the horrors of misery and
slavery." •

negotia secmn ezportare columbu, qn» domi ant ote aut pvlloa noviter
habent creatos, et si in vi& forte accelerare ▼olont nundnm, scriptas literas
rab umbilico coluinbtt rabtiliter ponnnt, et earn avolare permittmnt.
Que cum ad snoa foetna propenit, oeleriter amicis desideFatiim nanciuiii
apportat. *

* Tbe picture of Faleandns ia perfectly prophetic, and describes events
exactly like those which came after him. We will onote the most cnriooa
:-«>lB^aeri mihi jam fideor tnibiilentM bailMronun aciea* eo t^

BXftrOST 07 tXX OB178ADX8. 21

Nerertiielefla, tliese pitileas soldien wore the erosaes of
pilgnniB; and their emperor, although not yet relieved
fpom hia excommunication, arrogated to himself glory as the
first of the soldiers of Christ. Henry YI. was considered
aa the head of the crusade, and supreme arbiter of the
affiiirs of the East. The king of Cyprus offered to become
his vassal ; Liyon, prince of Armenia^ begged the title of
king of him. The emperor of Germany haying no more
enemies to dread in the West, gave his whole attention
to the war against the Saracens, and, in a letter addressed
to all the nobles, magistrates, and bishops of his empire,
exhorted them to hasten the departure of the Crusaoers.
The emperor undertook to keep up an army of fi%- thou-
sand men for one year, and promised to pay thirty oimces of
gold to every one that should remain under his banners till
the end of the holy war. A great number of warriors,
seduced by this promise, entered into an engagement to
cross the sea, and fight against the infidels. Henry had no
further need of them for his own conquests, and therefore
pressed their departure for the East. Conrad, bishop of

fernntur impetu irruentes, mitates opulentas et loca diutiirn& pace ilorentU
metu concutere, csde vastare, rapinia atterere, et foedare loxuria. Ingerit
se mihi, et lachrymas a nolente fatnne species calamitatia eztorquet.
Oecumint hinc ctves ant raiatendo gladiis intercepti, ant se dedendo
miaer& aerritnte depreiai. lUinc Tirginea in ipsia parentum oonapectibua
oooatupratB : matronae poat varia et preciosa capitis, colli, et pectom
omamenta direpta, ludibrio habitse et defizia in terra oculis inconsola-
biliter deplorantes, venerabile foedus conjugii foedissimie gentis libidine
▼iolari. Nee enim ant rationis ordine regi, ant miseratione deflect!, ant
reUgione terreri Thentonica novit inaanta, qnam et innatna fnror exagitat,
et rapadtaa stimulat, et libido pnecipitat. Hec antem in Apulii Yid-
nisque provinciis geri, licet horrendum ac trute ait facinna, et mnlto cum
moerore deflendum, ntcnnqae tamen tolerabile pntaretur, ai in cispbarinia
tantum partibaa barbarornm immanitaa desieyiret. Servire barbaria
jam cogetnr antiqna ilia Corinthioram nobilitaa qui patriis olim relictia
aedibns, in Siciliam transnentea, et urbi construendse locum idoneum
perquirentes, tandem in optimft et palcberrimfi parte Sicilise inter in-
sqnalea portas moenia sua loco tutiasimo const ruxerant. Quid tibi nunc
prodest philosophorum quondam floruisse doctrinis, et poetamm ora
▼atifici fontia nectare proluisse ? satius tibi quidem esset ac tutiib, Sicu-
lomm adhnc tyrannornm sse-vitiam pati, quam barbane foedseque gentia
tyrannidem experiri. Vie tibi fons Celebris et pneclari nominis Arethusa,
qns ad banc deroluta est miaeriam, ut quie poetarum solebas carmina
modulari, nunc Thetftonicorum ebrietatem midges, et eorum serviaa
ibeditati.— See HiHoria SiculOf ap. Mnratori, toI. yii.

22 HISTOBT OF THS OBUBASES.

Hildesheim, chancellor of the empire, whose coonselB in the
wars of Sicily had but too well aided the ambition and bar-
barous policy of his master, was charged with the task of
leading the third army of the Crusaders into Syria.

The arrival of so powerful a reinforcement in Palestine
rekindled the zeal and enthusiasm of the Christians, and it
might be expected that they would signalize their arms by
some great enterprise. The victory they had recently gained
in the plains of Tyre, the taking of Berytus, Sidon, and
Giblet, had struck the Mussulmans with terror. Some of
the leaders of the Christian army proposed to march against
Jerusalem. "That city," said tney, "cannot resist our
victorious arms ; her governor is tf nephew of Saladin, who
endures with impatience the authority' of the sultan of
Damascus, and has often appeared disposed to listen to the
propositions* of the Christians." Most of the barons did
not, however, partake in this hope, and placed no confidence
in the words of the Mussulmans. It was well known that
the infidels, after the departure of Sjchard Coeur de Lion,
had very considerably anniented the fortifications of Jeru-
salem ;t that a triple walT, and ditches of great depth, must
render this conquest more perilous, and particularly more
difficult, than in the time of Ghodfrey of Bouillon. Winter
was approaching ; the Christian army might be overtaken by
the rainy season, and forced to raise the siege in face of the
army of the Saracens. These- considerations determined the
Crusaders to put off the attack of the holy city to the
following year.

It is not impertinent to remark here, that in the Chris-
tian armies they were constantly talking about Jerusalem^

* Roger de Hoveden says tliat the Mussulman prince of Jerusalem
had offered to deliver the city up to the Franks, and even to become a
Christian. If the Mussulman prince had really made such a proposition,
we cannot easily guess why the Christians should not have accepted it.
But Roger is the only historian that mentions this perfectly incredible
circumstance : Oriental historians are silent.

t Otho of St. Blaise says, that after the first crusade the Saracens had
fortified Jerusalem : — Pagani summ& industrifi civitates et castella quae
obtinuerunti muniverunt, et pnecipu^ Hyerusalem, duplici muro ante-
murali opposito, et fossatis profundissimis dngentes, inexpugnabilem
reddiderunt, dato Christianis securissimo oonductu yisendi sepulcrum
Dominicum, qusestiU gratis. — See OM. de Si. Blaite, ap. Urtii collect

HI8T0BT OF THS CBUBADBS. 23

bat that the leaders as constantly directed their efforts and
their arms to the acquisition of other conquests. The holy-
city, situated far from the sea, contained within its walls no
other treasures but religious relics and moniunents. The
maritime cities of Asia could boast of more worldly wealth,
and held out far greater advantages to the conquerors ; they
afforded, likewise, more easy communication with Europe ;
and if the conquest of Jerusalem sometimes tempted the
piety and devotion of the pilgrims, that of cities bordering
upon the sea, constantly kept awake the ambition of the
maritime and warlike nations of the West.

All the sea-coast from Antioch to Ascalon belonged to the
Christians ; the Mussulmans having only been able to keep
possession of Thoron. The garrison of this fortress fre-
quently made incursions into the neighbouring coimtrics,
and by continual hostilities, intercepted the communication
between the Christian cities. The Crusaders resolved that
before they set out for Jerusalem, they would lay siege to
the castle of Thoron. This fortress, built by Hugh de Saint-
Omer, in the reign of Baldwin H., was situated at some
leagues from Tyre, on the summit of a mountain, between
the chain of Libanus and the sea. It was only accessible
across steep rocks, and by a narrow way bordered by preci-

i)ices. The .Christian army had no machines sufficiently
ofty to reach the heights oi the walls, and arrows or stones
hurled from the foot of the mountain, could not injure the
besieged ; whilst beams and fragments of rock precijjitated
from the ramparts, made dreadful havoc among the besiegers.
In the early attacks, the Saracens ridiculed the vain efforts
of their enemies, and witnessed, almost without danger to
themselves, prodigies of valour, and the most murderous in-
ventions .of the art of sieges, exercised ineffectually against
their walls. But the almost insurmountable difficulties that
might have been supposed likely to arrest the progress of
the Christians, only redoubled their ardour and courage.*
They every day made fresh attacks, each day seeming to in-
crease their efiorts, and their obstinate bravery was seconded
by newly-invented machines of war. "With incredible labour,

* Arnold of Lubec enters most folly into the details of this siege : this
historian is almost oar only guide in this part of our narrative. We have
found some useM documents in the continuator of Tabary.

Z4 EISTOBT 07 THX CBITSADBS.

theey dug out the earth, and made themselyes a way acroM
the rocks ; whilst some Saxons, who hod worked in the mines
of Eammesherg, were employed in opening the flank of the
mountain. The Crusaders at length reached the bottom of
the ramparts of the fortress ; the walls, the foimdations of
which they demolished, be^n to shake in various parts,
without being struck by me ram, and their fall, which
seemed delayed by a miracle, filled the besieged with dread.

The Mussulmans now losing all hope of defending them-
selyes, proposed to capitulate ; but such was the disorder of
the Christian army, with its multitude of leaders, that not
one of them durst take upon himself to listen to the pro-
posals of the infidels. Henry, palatine of the Bhine, and
the dukes of Saxony and Brabant, who enjoyed great con-
sideration among the Germans, could enforce obedience from
none but their own soldiers. Conrad, chancellor of the em-
pire, who represented the emperor of Germany, might have
been able to exercise beneficial power; but, weakened by
disease, without experience in war, always shut up in his
tent, he awaited the issue of the contest, and did not even
deign to be present at the councils of the princes and
barons. When the besieged had come to the determination
to capitulate, they remained several days without knowing
to which prince it would be most proper to address them-
selves, and when their deputies came to the Christian camp,
their propositions were heard in a general assembly, in which
the spirit of rivalry, short-sighted zeal, and blind enthusiasm
held much greater empire than reason and prudence.

The Saracens, in their speech, confined themselves to im-
ploring the clemency of their conquerors ; they promised to
abandon the fort with all their wealth, and only asked life
and liberty as the price of their submission. The suppliant
attitude of the Saracens must have touched the pride of the
Christian warriors ; religion and policy united to procure a
favourable answer to the proposals that were made to them,
and the greater part of the leaders were disposed to sign the
capitulation. But some of the most ardent could not see
without indignation that it was wished to obtain by treaty
that which they must soon gain by force of arms. " It is
necessary/* said they, *' that all our enemies should be struck

HIBTOBT OY THS CBVftADB«. 2f

viih tenor; and if the garriaon of this place periah by the
aword, the affrighted Saracens will not dare to wait for ua
either in Jeroaalem or the other cities still in their pos-
session."

As their advice was not adopted, these ardent and incon-
siderate soldiers resolved to employ eveiy means to interrupt
the negotiation, and whilst re-conducting the deputies to
the fortress, said to them : '' Defend your$elve$, far if you
surrender to the ChrUtiatu, you vnll all perish in tortures.^^
In addition to this, they addressed the Christian soldiers,
and informed them, with accents of anger and erief, that a
disgraceful peace was about to be concluded with the
enemies of Christ. At the same time, such of the leaders
as inclined towards peace, spread themselves through the
camp, and represented to the armj that it was useless, and
perhaps dangerous, to purchase bj new contests that which
fortune, or rather Providence itself, offered to the Crusaders.
Amon^ the Christian warriors, some yielded to the counsels '
of moderation, others were unwilling to trust to anything
but the sword ; such as preferred victory to peace, ran to
arms, and thev who accepted the capitulation, retired to
their tents. The camp, in which some remained in inaction
and repose, whi^t others prepared for battle, presented, at
the same time, an image of peace and war : but in this
diversity of opinions, amidst so strange a spectacle as the army
then presented, it was easy to foresee that they would very
soon be unable either to ti^at with enemies or fi^ht them.

The capitulation was, notwithstanding, ratified by the
principal chiefs and by the chancellor of the empire. The
hostages the Saracens were to send were looked for in the
camp, and the Crusaders fancied they could see the gates of
the castle of Thoron thrown open to them ; but despair had
all at once changed the resolutions of the Saracens. When
the deputies to the Christian camp reported to their com-
panions in arms what they had seen and what they had
heard ; when they told them of the menaces that had been
made to them, and of the divisions that existed among the
enemies, the besieged forgot that their walls were in ruins,
that they wanted both arms and provisions ; that they had to
defend themselves against a victorious army ; and they swore

2*

26 filSTOST OT THE CBUSADBB,

rather to die than treat with the Crusaders. Instead of
sending hostages, they appeared in arms upon the ramparts,
and provoked the besiegers to renew the contest. The
Christians resumed the labours of the siege, and recom-
menced their attacks ; but their courage grew weaker ereiy
day, whilst, in the same proportion, despair seemed to in-
crease the bravery of the Mussulmans. The besieged
laboured without intermission in repairing their machines
and rebuilding their walls ; sometimes the Christians were
attacked in the subterranean passages they had dug, and
perished, buried under masses of loosened earth; whilst
arrows and stones were constantly showered upon them
from the ramparts. Frequently the Saracens succeeded in
surprising some of their enemies, whom they carried alive
into the place, and then slaughtered without mercy; the
heads of these unfortunate prisoners were exposed upon the
walls, and afterwards hurled by the n^hines into the camp
of the Christians. The Crusaders appeared to have sunk
into a sort of dejection or apathv; some still fought and
remembered their oaths; but others remained indifferent
spectators of the dangers and death of their brethren.
Many added the scandal of the most depraved morals to
their indifference for the cause of God. There might be
seen, says an historian, men who had quitted their wives to
follow Christ, forgetting all at once the most sacred duties,
and attaching themselves to vile prostitutes ; in fact, the vices
and disorders of the Crusaders were so disgraceful, that the
authors of the old chronicles blush whilst they retrace the
picture of them. Arnold of Lubec, after havmg described
the corruption that reigned in the camp of the Christians,
appears to ask pardon of his reader ; and, that he may not
be accused of writing a satire, he takes care to add that he
does not recall such odious remembrances to confound the
pride of men, but to warn sinners, and touch, if possible,
the hearts of his brothers in Christ.*

Fame soon brought to the ears of the Christians that the
kingdoms of Aleppo and Damascus were in arms, that Egypt
had assembled an army, and that Malek-Adel, followed by a

* After describing tlie oorrnptioii of the CroMden, Arnold adds :~-
Yeniam non peto, non enim at qnempiam confimdam, hiec acribo, aed
dilectoa in Chiiato moneo.

HIBTOBY 07 THX CB1TSADX8. 27

nmnberlesB multitude of warriors, was advancing by forced
marches, impatient to avenge his late defeat.*

At this news, the leaders of the crusade resolved to raise
the siege of Thoron ; and to conceal their retreat from the
enemy, they did not blush to deceive their own soldiers. On
the day of the Purification of the Virgin, whilst the Chris-
tians were engaged in the offices of devotion, the camp was
informed, by sound of trumpet, that it was intended to make
a general assault on the morrow. The whole army passed
the night in preparations for the fight; but, at break of
day, they learnt that Conrad and most of the leaders had
quitted the army and taken the road to Tyre. The men
assembled in groups round their tents to ascertain the truth,
and made inquiries of each other with the greatest inquietude.
The blackest forebodings took possession of the minds of the
Crusaders ; as if they had been conquered in a great battle,
their only thought was flight. Nothing had been prepared
for the retreat^ no order had been given ; no man saw any-
thing but his own danger, or listened to any advice but that
suggested by his fear ; some loaded themselves with every-
thing valuable they possessed, whilst others abandoned even
their arms. The sick and wounded dragged themselves
along with pain in the steps of their companions ; such as
could not walk were abandoned in the camp. The confusion
was general ; the soldiers marched pele^mele with the bag-
gage; they knew not what route to take, and m&ny lost

* Oriental historiana say little of the liege of Thoron ; the continaator
of Tabory expresses himself thna : — ''The Franks attacked Tebnyn
(Thoron), and made breaches on Tarious sides. When Malek-Adel learnt
this, he wrote to Melic-Alaziz, sultan of Egypt, to desire him to come In
person ; * for if you do not come,' said he, ' we shall not be able to protect
the frontier country.' Abziz then came with his troops. As to the Mus-
sulmans who were in the castle, when they saw the breaches made in their
walls, and they had no hope but defending themselves at the point of the
tword, many among them surrendered to the Franks, and demanded a
safeguard for themselves and their property, offering to deliver up the
CBstle. The command was given to the priest Kandelard (Conrad), a
German ; but a Frank of the Sahel (coast of Syria) said to the Mussul-
mans, ' If you give up the fortress, these men will make you prisoners,
and will kill you : preserve your own days then.' The Mussulmans left
them as if to give up tlie fortress $ but when they had re-ascended, they
persisted in defending themselves, and fought in despair, so that they kept
the castle till the arrival of Melic-Alaziz at Ascalon."

28 HIBTOBY OT THS CBUSADSfl.

themfielves in the monntaiiui ; nothing was heard hut cries
and groans, and, as if Heaven wished to denote its anger at
this disorder, a frightful tempest came on ; fierce lightning
rent the clouds, the thunder rolled in awful pe^s, and
torrents of rain inundated the country.* In their tumul-
tuous flight, not one of the Crusaders Tentured to turn his
eyes to that fortress which, but a few days before, had offered
to surrender to their arms : their terror was not abated till
th^ beheld the walls of Tyre.

The army being at last re-assembled, it became a general
inquiry, "What was the cause of the disorder they had
experienced ?" Then a new delirium took possession of the
Christians; mistrust and mutual hatred succeeded to the
panic terror of which they had been the victims ; the most
grave sufipicions were attached to actions the most simple,
and gave an odious meaning to words perfectly innocent. The
Crusaders reproached each other, as with wrongs and proofs
of treachery, with all the evils they had suffered or reared
to suffer. The measures that an improvident zeal had coun-
selled, as well as those that had been dictated by necessity
and prudence, were the work of perfidy without example.
The holy places, which so lately the Crusaders had contem-
plated witn apparent indifference, now occupied their every
thought; and the most fervent reproached the leaders with
introducing none but profane views into a holy war ; with
having sacrificed the cause of G-od to their own ambition,
and with having abandoned the soldiers of Christ to the
fury of the Saracens. The same Crusaders proclaimed
loudly, that .Gk)d had been imfavourable to the Christians,
because those whom he had appointed to lead the defenders
of the cross, disdained the conquest of Jerusalem. Our
readers may remember that after the siege of Damascus, in
the second crusade, some Templars and Germans were
accused of avarice, and of having sacrificed the zeal and
bravery of the Christian warriors. Accusations quite as
BeriouB were renewed on this occasion, and with equal
bitterness. If we are to believe the old chronicles, Malek-
Adel had promised several leaders of the Christian army a

* Nee inter iata-deftiit spiritiu prooellK, tonitruis et conucationibas, et
pluviarnm inandationibiui etgrandine de ooelo fugientet infettandft.—
Amotd Lub, cap. 5.

HIBTOBT OF THB CB178AJDSB. S0

great niunber of pieces of gold to enga^ tbem to raifle the
siege of Thoron ; and the same chronicles add, that when
the Mussulman prince paid them the sum a£;reed, he save
them nothing but false gold, — a worthy price of their cupidity
and treachery.* The Arabian historians give no sanction to
tliese odious accusations ; but such was the spirit of animosity
which then reined among the Christian warriors, that they
were judged with more severity by their brethren and com-
panions in .arms than by their enemies.

At length the rage of discord was carried so far that the
Germans and the Syrian Christians would not remain under
the same colours ; t^e former retired to the city of Jaffa, the
ramparts of which they restored, and the latter returned to
Ptolemaas. Malek- Adel, willing to profit by these dirisions,
marched towards Jaffa, and offered uie Germans battle. A
severe conflict took place at a short distance from the city.
The duke of Saxony and the duke of Brabant both perished
in the mSlee.f The Crusaders lost a great number of their
bravest warriors ; but the victory was in their favour. After
a triumph which was due to their arms alone, the pride of
the Germans knew no bounds ; and they treated the Chris-
tians of Palestine with the greatest contempt. ** We have,"
said they, " crossed the seas to defend their country ; and, far
from taking any part in our labours, these warriors, without
either gratitude or courage, abandoned us in the hour of
peril." The Christians of Palestine, on their side, re-
proached the Germans with having come into the East, not

* Otlio de St. Blaise appears con?inced that the Templars had received
money to betray the cause of the Christians. He eipresses himself as
follows : — Nam sicnt fertur, quidam de militibus Templi, ^ paganis oor-
mpti pecania, animam Conradi cancellarii, qal in hlU: ipsft obsidione pne-
cipu^ clarebat, cum qaibusdam aliis inflezemnt, eisque auri maximo
pondere collocato, obsidionem solvere persaasenint ; sioqne vendito
Christo tradito paganis per castellam, sicut olim Jadseis, reoessemnt.
Nee tamen de pretio taliter acquisito aliquod emoliunentum, sicat nee
Jndas de triginta argenteis, oonsecuti sant. Si qnidem pretio cormpti,
cormptam a pnganis aurum metallo sophistico, auro in soperfide oolorato
receperunt ; sicque in opprobrinm sempitemum cam notA infamise merits
consecttti sont. — See 0th, de St. Blaite, in the collection of Urtius.

t We are astonished to find so little concerning this crusade in the
continoator of WilUam of Tyre. He speaks of this battle and of the
division among the Christians, but irithoat any ctrcamstanoe worthy of
being oommunioafed to our readers.

80 HISTOBT OF THS CBUBJlDES.

to figHt but to command; not to assist their brethren, but
to impose a yoke upon them more insupportable than that
of the Saracens. " The Crusaders," added they, " only
quitted the West to make a pleasurable military progress
into Syria ; they there found peace, but they left war behind
them ; like those birds of passage tliat announce the season
of storms and tempests."

In these &tal divisions nobody had sufficient credit and
power to restrain angry spirits, or reconcile discordant
opinions. The sceptre of Jerusalem was in the hands of a
woman ; the throne of God&ey, so often shaken, was desti-
tute of support ; the empire of religion and law was every
day fading away, and violence alone possessed the privilege
of making itself respected. Necessity and force were the
onlv powers that commanded obedience ; whilst the license
and corruption that prevailed among the people, still called
the people of Ood, made such frightful progress, that we are
tempted to accuse contemporary authors and ocular wit-
nesses of employing great exaggeration in their recitals.

In this state of decline, amidst such shameful disorders,
the most wise and prudent of the prelates and barons
thought the best step they could adopt would be to give an
able and worthy leader to the Christian colonies, and they
entreated Isabella, the widow of Henry of Champagne, to take
a new husband, who might consent to be their sovereign.
Isabella, by three marriages, had already given Palestine
three kings. They proposed to her Amaury, who had
recently succeeded. Guy de Lusignan in the kingdom of
Cyprus. An Arabian historian says that Amaury was a wise
and prudent man, who loved God and respected humanity.
He did not fear to reign, amidst war, troubles, .and factions,
over the poor remains of the unfortunate kingdom of Jeru-
salem, and came to share with Isabella the vain honours of
royalty. Their marriage was celebrated at Ptolemais, with
more pomp, say historians, than the posture of affairs
warranted. Although this marriage might not remedy all
the evils under which the Christians laooured, it at least
afforded them the consolatory hope that their discords would
be appeased, and that the colonies of the Franks, when
better governed, might gather some firuit from so many
victories gained over the infidels. But news which arrived

HI8T0XT or 9HX CBUBABBS. 81

from the West, soon spread freeh grief through the kingdom,
and put an end to the barren exploits of the holy war.
Amidst the festivities which followed the marriage and
coronation of Amaury, the death of the emperor Henry VI.
was announced.* The election of a new head of the empire
would most probably produce a Tiolent contest in Germany ;
and every one of the German princes or nobles then in
Palestine, naturally turned his attention to that which he
had to hope pr fear in the events preparing in Europe : they
determined to return immediately into the West.

The count de Montforfc and several other !French knights
had but recently arrived in the Holy Land, and earnestly
entreated the German princes to defer their return. The
pope likewise, on receiving intelligence of the death of
Henry VI., wrote to the leaders of the Crusaders, to im-
plore them to finish their good work, and not to abandon
the cause of Christ ; but neither the nrayers of the count
de Montfort nor the exhortations of the pope could detain
the Grermans, impatient to return to their country. Of so
many princes who had left the West to secure a triumph to
the cause of God, the ^ueen of Hungary alone was faithful
to her vows, and remained with her knights in Palestine.f
On quitting Syria, the Germans contented themselves vrith
leaving a garrison in Jaffa. A short time after their depar-
ture, whilst celebrating the feast of St. Martin with every
excess of drunkenness and debauchery, this garrison was
surprised and massacred by the Saracens.l Winter was

* Arnold of Lnbec sayi that the news of the death of the emperor of
Germany arriTed before the siege of Thoron ; bat it is not probable that
the CraradeiB, who were suddenly so anxious to return to the West on
account of the troubles that threatened Germany, should have under-
taken the siege of Thoron after hearing of a death which must give rise
to great events in Europe. Henry died in the month of September,
1196 ; the siege of Thoron was begun nearly at the same time; thus the
Crusaders could not be informed at that period of a circumstance which
made them so suddenly renounce the holy war.

t Le P^re Maimbourg bestows the greatest praise upon the widow of
Bela. ** This example," says be, '* makes apparent that which has often
been seen in other princesses, that heroic virtue is not at all dependent on
sex, and that it is possible to make up for weakness of temperament and
body by greatness of soul and strength of mind/'

X Fuller, an English historian, speaks of this disaster at great length.
As hif work is scarce, I will translate the passage from it rdative to tbii

82 HI8T0BT 01* THB 0BU8ASX8.

approaching ; neither partTy' conld keep the field ; discord
reigned eqiudl^ among Christians and MusBulmans ; and both
sides were desirous of peace, because they were incapable of
carrjing on the war. The count de Montfort concluded
with the Saracens a truce for three years. Thus terminated
this crusade, which only lasted a few months, and was really
nothing but a pilgrimage for the warriors of the West. The
yictories of the Crusaders rendered the Christians masters
of all the coasts of Syria ; but their precipitate departure
destroyed the fruits of their conquests. The cities they had
obtained were left without defenders, and almost without
inhabitants.

This fourth crusade, in which all the powers of the West
miscarried in an attempt upon a little fortress of Syria, and
which presents us with the strange spectacle of a holy war
directed by an excommunicated monarch, furnishes the his-
torian with fewer great events and a smaller number of
great misfortunes than the preceding expeditions. The
Christian armies, which made but a transient visit to the
East, experienced neither the &mine nor the diseases that
had proved so fatal to the former enterprises. The foresight
and attention of the emperor of Ghermany, who had become
master of Sicily, provided for all the wants of the Crusaders,
whose exploits were intended to assist his ambitious projects,
and whom he considered as his own soldiers.

crnsadet in which the impartial reader will find the groaa miarepieacnta-
tions of a violent enemy of the CmBaden. ** In this war/' Bays he, ** we
may contemplate an episcopal army which might have senred for a synod ;
cnr, more truly, it offers ns a picture of the Church' milUatU, Many
captains returned home secretly, and when the soldiers wanted to fight,
the officers went away : what remained of this army fortified themselves
in Jaffa. The feast of St. Martin, that great saint of Germany, fell at
this time. This holy man, a German by birth, and bishop of Tours in
France, distinguished himself eminently by his charity. The Germans
changed his charity for the poor into excess for themselves, observing the
11th of November in such a manner that it ought no longer to be osUed
a saint's day, but a day of festivity. Drunkenness reduced th^m to such
a state, that the Turks, falling upon them, killed more than twenty thou-
sand of them. This day, which the Germans write in red letters in their
calendars, takes its colour from their own blood, and as their camp was a
slaughter-house, the Turks were their butchers. We may compare them
to the oxen of St. Martin, which differ little from droves of drunkards.''
— Nieol. FuUeTy b. ii. chap. xvi. p. 133. [I really cannot see that old
FsJler it aovery widely wrong.— Trana.]

XI8TOBT OV THX CBrBiJ>SS. W

The Oennan wamon that composed the Christian anniet
had not the requisite Qualities to secure the advantages of
victory.* Always reaay to throw themselves blindly into
danger ; quite ignorant that it is possible to ally prudence
with courage ; Hstening to nothing but the violence of their
own passions, and recognising no law but their own will ;
obedient to leaders of their own nation, and despising all
others ; full of an indomitable pride, which made them dis-
dain the help of their allies and the lessons of experience^
such men could neither make peace nor war.

When we compare these new Crusaders witb the com-
panions of Eicharid or GK>dfrey, we find in them the same
ardour for fight, the same indifi<&rence for danger ; but we
find them very deficient in that enthusiasm which animated
the first soldiers of the cross at the sight of the holv places.
Jerusalem, which had never ceased to be open to the devo-
tion of the faithful, no longer beheld witlun its walls that
crowd of pilgrims which, at the commencement of the holy
wars, repau^d thither from all parts of the West. The pope
and the leaders of the Christian army forbade Crusaders to
enter the holy city without having conquered it ; and they,
who did not alws^s prove so docile, obeyed the prohibition
without pain. More than a hundred thousand warriors that
had lefl Europe for the purpose of delivering Jerusalem,
returned to their homes without having entertamed perhaps
one thought of visiting the tomb of Christ, for which they
had taken up arms. The thirty ounces of gold promised by
the emperor to all who should cross the sea to fight the
infidels, veiy much increased the number of the Crusaders ;
this was not the case in former expeditions, in which the
crowd of soldiers of the cross was influenced principally by
religious motives. More religion than politics had entered
into the other holy wars ; in this crusade, although it had
been directly promoted by the head of the Church, and was
to a consideraole extent directed by bishops, we may safely
say there was more of politics than religion. Pride, ambi-

* TkU is the pictnre of the Germans in the chronicle of Usperg :-^
BelUcosi, cradeles, expensanim prodigi, rationis expertes, TolaDtatem
pro jure hahentes, ensibos inTicti ; in nvUis, nisi hominibns suae gentts
oonfidentes ; dadbas tuis fideliastmi, et qmbna vitam dtiiks qnam fidem,
peases toicm.

84 9I8T0BT OF THE CBITBADIB.

tion, jealousy, tbe most disgraceful passions of the human
heart, did not make an effort, as in the preceding expedi-
tions, to cover themselves with a religious veil. The arch-
bishop of Mayence, the bishop of Hildesheim, with most of
the other ecclesiastics who took the cross, attracted no ad-
miration for either their wisdom or piety, or distinguished
themselves by any personal quality. Conrad, the chancellor
of the empire, on his retiun to Europe, was followed by
the suspicions which had been attached to his conduct
during the holy war ; and when, a long time after, he was
slain by several gentlemen of Wurtzburg, who conspired
against him, the people considered his tragical death as a
pimishment from Heaven.*

Henry VI., who had preached the crusade, only viewed
this distant expedition as a means and an opportunity for
increasing his power and extending his empire ; whilst the
West put up prayers for the success of a holy war, of
which ho was the life and soul, he prosecuted an impious
war, desolated a Christian people for the purpose of subject-
ing them to his laws, and threatened the empire of Greece.*
The son of Tancred was deprived of his sight, and cast into
prison, and the daughters of the king of Sicily were carried
away into captivitv. Henry's barbarities were so excessive,
that he irritated his neighbours, and created enemies in his
own family. When he died, a report prevailed in Europe
that he had been, poisoned ; the nations that he had ren<>
dered miserable could not believe that so manv cruelties
could remain unpunished, and they asserted that Provi-
dence had employed the wife of the emperor to be his
executioner, and to avenge all the calamities he had inflicted
upon the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. At the approach
of death, Henry remembered that he had persecuted Eichard;
that he had detained a prince of the Crusaders in chains,
in spite of the solicitations of the father of the faithfid ;
and he hastened to send ambassadors to the king of

* The littin and Greek chronicles hoth describe the cmeltieB of
Henry YI. in Sicily. Nicetas, in his history, makes a long ennmeration
of the panishments invented by the emperor of Germany, and says that
Greece was on the eye of seeing all the evils that afiUcted Sicily fall upon
her territory, when Henry YI. was removed, as if by an extraordinary
inteiposition of Providence.

HISTOBY OF THZ CBVSADSB. 85

England, cliaiged with the task of making him a solemn
reparation for so great an outrage. Afler hia death, as he
had been excommunicated, it was thought necessary to
address the sovereign pontiff to obtain permission to burj
him in the Holj I^d; and the pope coolly replied, that
they were at liberty to bury him among Christians, out before
they did so, they must offer up many prayers to mitigate the
anger of God.

In taking possession of the beautiful and rich territories
of Italy by perfidy and violence, Henry prepared for that
unfortunate country a series of revolutions, to be renewed
from age to age. The odious war he had made against the
family of Tancred, naturally gave birth to other wars
injurious to his own family.* In removing so far from
Grermany with his armies, Henry afforded opijortunity for
the formation of powerful parties, which, at nis death, dis-
puted the imperial ace^tre with some success, and at length
^ave rise to a war in which the principal states of Europe were
involved. Thus, whilst the other holy wars had contributed
to maintain or establish public peace in Europe, this fourth
crusade produced divisions among the states of Chrisfendom,
without at all diminishing the power of the Saracens, and
only served to introduce double and confusion into many
kingdoms of the West.

♦ "We shall see in the end that Sicfly cott Frederick II., but particnlarly
young Conrad, the last prince of the family of Swabta, much embavaas-
ment and many miafortanas.

BOOK X,

FIFTH CEUSADB.
A.D. 1198—1204.

** Christian troops/* says J. J. Bonsseau, in his '' Contrat
Social," ^^are, as they say, excellent; I deny it; show me
such ; fir my part, I Know no Christian troops.^* The events
we have just related, and those we are about to make known,
will, there is no doubt, suffice to refute this strange paradox
of J. J. Bousseau. The author of the " Social Contract "
does not dissemble, it is true, the objections that may be
made to him from the history of the crusades ; but, ever
faithful to his system, and taking no account of historical
truths, he answers, that " the Crusaders, fir from heing Chris-
Hans, were citizens of the Church ; that they fiuyht fir their
spiritual country, which the Church had rendered temporal
nobody knows how^ Strange abuse of reasoning, which con-
foundb the sense of words, and refuses the title of Christians
to those who fought in the name of Christ ! In representing
the Crusaders as citizens of the Church, Eousseau doubt-
less, meant to say that the popes were the origin of the
crusades, and that the soldiers of the cross defended the
temporal power of the popes. We at once reply that the
crusades owed their birtli and growth to the religious and
warlike enthusiasm that animated the nations of the West
in the twelfth century, and that without this enthusiasm,
which was not the work of the heads of the Church, the
preachings of the Holy See would not have been able to
collect a single army under the banners of the cross. We
may further add that, during the holy wars, the sovereign
pontiffs were frequently driven from Kome and despoiled of
their states, and that they did not summon the Crusaders

HI0TOBT OF 9HB CSUflADSI. ST

to tlie defence of tbe power or temporal country of the
Church. Not onlj were the CruaaderB not alwajs liie blind
instruments of the Holy See, but they sometimes resisted
the will of the popes, and yet in their camps were no less
models of valour united with Christian piety. No doubt,
the leaders were oftep seduced by ambition, the love of
glory, and a passion for war ; but religion, well or ill under-
stood, acted upon the greater number; the Christian reli-
gion which they defended, or believed they defended, by
inspiring them with a desire for the blessings of heaven and
a contempt for life, elevated them above all perils, and
enabled them to brave death on every occasion. Here is
the whole truth ; but this truth is too simple for such as
disdain common routes, and cannot form a judgment upon
human affairs without displaying all the pande of a proud
and austere philosophy. I'or ourselves, wno are persuaded
that true philosophy consists in studying the human
heart and the spirit of societies, not in vain theories, but in
the £uthful history of past ages ; we will not refute bril-
liant sophisms by long arguments ; but to show in all ifcs
splendour the vuour of Christian soldiers, we will content
ourselves with pursuing our recital, and making known with
impartiality the labours, the reverses, and the victories of
the soldiers of the cross.*

The departure of the G^erman Crusaders plunged the
eastern Christians into grief and consternation ; the colonies,
when left to their own resources, were only protected by
the truce concluded between the count de Montfort and
Malek-Adel. The infidels had too great a superiority over

* Our ezoellent author has conoeiTed a kind of parental affection for
the crusades, which makes him hlind to their delects. If we speak of the
spirU of Christianity, certainly the philosopher of Geneva has the advan-
tage of him, as his own pages show. Divested of their mundane motives,
the crusades were little else than *' a savage fanaticism." There was, at
least, as much religious merit in the Mussulmans, who fought to defend
their ftith. A pmlosopher may deduce beaefidal results from the era-
sades, particnlarly to Europe ; but he will be much pnuled to prove that
that which we now consider a truly Christian spirit, influenced many of
the warriors that carried them out, or the churchmen that promoted them.
The Inquisition and the crusade against the Albigeois were of the same
age, and the principal agents in them equally pmtitiited the nans of
leBgkm in thoir horrors.— Tkams.

88 HISTOBT OV THl CBVSJlDBS.

their enemies to respect, for anj length of time, a treaty
which they considered as an obstacle to the progress of
their power. The Christians, threatened by new perils, again
turned their eyes to the West. The bishop of Ptolemais,
accompanied by several knights, embarked for Europe, in
order to solicit the aid of the faithful. The vessel in which
he embarked had scarcely quitted the port, when it was
swallowed up by the waves, and the bishop and every person
of his suite perished. Other ships, that set sail a short time
afterwards, were surprised by the tempest, and forced to
return to the port of Tripoli; so tha€ the prayers and
complaints of the Christians of Palestine could not reach
the ears of their brethren of the "West. Nevertheless, the
afflicting news of the situation of the feeble kingdom of
Jerusalem soon became generally known; some pilgrims,
escaping from the perils of the sea, described, on their
return, the triumphs and threats of the Saracens ; but in
the state of Europe at that moment, nothing could be more
difficult thah to induce nations to undertake a new crusade.
The death of the Emperor Henry VI. divided the princes
and prehites of Ghsrmany, and Phdip Augustus was still at
war with Bichard of SSugland. One of the sons of Bela,
king of Hungary, who pretended to take the cross, only
assembled an army to agitate the kingdom, and get posses-
sion of the crown. Amidst the fierce contentions that
disturbed Europe, the Christian people seemed to have
forgotten the tomb of Christ: a smgle man was touched
with the misfortunes of the Mthful of the East, and was not
without hope of alleviating them.

Innocent III., at the age of thirty-three, had recently
gained the suffira^ges of the conclave.* At a period of hie
in which the paasions are generally masters, devoted to the
most austere retirement, constantly occupied with the study
of holy books, and ready at all times to confound new here-
sies by the force of reason, the successor of St. Peter shed
tears on being informed of his elevation ; but when seated
on the pontifical throne. Innocent all at once exhibited a
new character : the same man, who had appeared to dread

* We have & life of Innocent III. which extends to the thirteenth year
of his pontificate. TbiM Ufe» Gaia Innoemtii, is the more Talaable from
bdng written by a contemporary.

HI0TOBT OV THB CBUBABSS. 89

the Bplendour of a lofly position, became most eager, by any
means, to increase his power, and dispWed all the amoition
and inflexible obstinacy of Gregory VIL His youth, which
promised him a long reign ; his ardour in the defence of jus-
tice and truth ; his eloquence, his knowledge, his virtues,
which drew upon him the respect of the faitmul, all united
to giye birth to the hope that he would assure the triumph
of religion ; and that he would one day accomplish the pro-
jects of his predecessors.

As the power of the pope was founded upon the promss
of the faith and the noly enthusiasm of the Christians,
Innocent gave his first attention to the suppression of the
dangerous innovations and imprudent doctrines that began
to corrupt his age and menace the sanctuary; he parti-
cularly endeavoured to re-animate the ardour for the cru-
sades : and, to master the minds of kings and nations, to
rally all Christians, and make them concur in the triumph
of the Church, he spoke to them of the captivity of Jeru-
salem ; he pointed to the tomb of Christ, and the holy
places pro&ned by the presence and the domination of
infidels.

In a letter* addressed to the bishops, the clergy, the
nobles, and people of France, England, Hungary, and Sicily,
the sovereign pontiff made known the will, the menaces, and
the promises of God. " Since the lamentable loss of Jeru-
salem," said he, "the Holy See has never ceased to cry
towards Heaven, and to exhort the faithful to avenge the
injury done to Christ, thus banished from his heritage.
Formerly Uriah would not enter into his house, or see his
wife, whilst the ark of the Lord was in the camp ; but now
our princes, in this public calamity, abandon themselves to
illegitimate amours ; immerse themselves in voluptuousness ;
abuse the blessings that God has given them ; and pursue
each other with implacable hatred ; only thinking of re-
venging their own personal injuries, they never consider
that our enemies insult us, saying : * Where is your Qody
ioko cannot deliver himself out of our hands ? We have prO'
faned your sanctuary^ and the places in which you pretend

* We may consult, for the preachings of this cmsade, the letters of
Innocent III. Some details will be foond in Roger de Uoveden,
Matthew Paris, &e. &c.

40 HlflTOBT OV THB OBlTflADM.

your tu^^sUtion had its hirth; toe have crushed the arme cf
the 'Frenchy the English, the Germans, and subdued a second
time the proud Spaniards : what remains then for us to dot
to drive out those you have left in Syria, and to penetrate into
the West to efface for ever both your name and your memory.' "
Assuming then a more paternal tone : " Prove," cried Inno-
cent, " that you have not lost your courage ; he prodigal, in
the cause of God, of all you have received from him ; if, on
an occasion so pressing, you refuse to serve Christ, what
excuse will you he ahle to offer at his terrihle tribunal ? If
. God died for man, shall man fear to die for his God P Will
he refuse to give up his transitoiy life and the perishable
goods of this world for him who lays before us the treasures
of eternity?"

Prelates were at the same time sent through all the coun-
tries of Europe, to preach peace among princes, and exhort
them to unite against the common enemies of God. These
prelates, clothed in the fvJl confidence of the Holy See, were
to engage cities and nobles to equip, at their own expense,
for the Holy Land, a certain number of warriors, to serve
there during two years at least. They promised remission
of sins,* and the special protection of the Church t to all
that would take up the cross and arms, or would contribute
to the equipment and support of the soldiers of Christ. To
receive the pious tribute of the faithful, boxes were placed
in all the churches. At the tribunal of penitence, the
priests were ordered to command all sinners to concur in
the holy enterprise ; no error could find grace before God,
without the smcere will of participating in the crusade;
zeal for the deliverance of the holy places appeared to be at
that time the only virtue the pope required of Christians,
and even chauitv itself lost some of its value, if not exercised
in promoting the crusades. As the Church of £ome was
reproached with imposing upon the people burdens to which

. * Villeluurdoniii expresses bimself thus when speaking of the indul-
genoes of the pope : — For ce cU pardon fut issi grand, si s'en emenrent
malt U cuers dcs gens, et mult s'en croisiirent, poroe que li pardon ne si
grand. (The pardon was so great that the hearts of people were moved,
and many took the cross because the pardon waa so great, or complete.)
t Gretser baa spoken at great length of the indulgences gtaoted to uia
~ I.— l>e(>«e»,voLiii.b.iLe.3.

HI8T0AT OF THIS CBVSADXS. 41

0he only appUed the tip of her ovm finger, the pope exhorted
the heads of the clergy, and the clergy themselyes, to set an
example of devotedness and sacrifices. Innocent ordered
Ills gold and silver plate to be melted to defray the expensea
of the holy war, and would allow none but vessels of wood
and clay to be seen on his table whilst the crusade lasted.

The sovereign pontiff was so satisfied of the zeal and
piety of the Christians, that he wrote to the patriarch and
king of Jerusalem, to announce to them the coming suc-
cours from the West. He neglected nothing that could
augment the numbers of the soldiers of Christ ; he addressed
himself to the emperor of Constantinople, and reproached
him with indifference for the deliverance of the holy places.
The emperor Alexius endeavoured, in his answer, to show
his zeal for the cause of religion ; but he added that the
time of deliverance was not yet arrived, and that he feared to
oppose himself to the will of God, irritated by the sins of
the Christians. The Greek prince adroitly remmded him of
the ravages committed in tne territories of the empire by
the soldiers of Frederick, and conjured the pope to direct
his reproofs against those who, feigning to labour for Jesua
Christ, acted against the will of Heaven. In his corre-
spondence with Alexius, Innocent Jll. did not at all conceal
his pretensions to universal empu^e, and spoke in the cHSi-
racter of sovereign arbiter of the kings of the East and
"West. He applied to himself these words addressed to
Jeremiah : " I have placed thee over the nations and over
the kingdoms, to pull up and scatter, to edify and to plant."
When speaking of the power of the popes and that of
princes, he compared the one to the sun, which lights the
universe during the day, and the other to the moon, which
lights the earth during the night.

The pretensions that Innocent put forth, and the haugh-
tiness with which he sought to establish them, were, no
doubt, injurious to the effect of his exhortations, and must
have weakened the zeal of the Christian princes whom he
wished to persuade to undertake the crusade. The prinCea
and bishops of Germany were divided between Otho of
Saxony and Philip of Swabia ; the sovereign pontiff pro-
nounced strongly for Otho, and threatened with the thun-
ders of the Church all who assisted the opposite party. In

Vol. II.— 3

42 HISTOBT OF TH£ CBTJSADXS.

the dissensions occasioned^bj this momentoufl affair, some
availed themselves of the opportunity to gain the favour of
the pope, and others to secure themselves Jrom the effects of
his anger ; but all Germany being engaged in the quarrel,
nobody took the cross.

One- of the pope's legates, Peter of Capua, succeeded in
re-establishing peace between Bichard Coeur de Lion and
Philip Augustus. Bichard, who was desirous of conciliating
the good- will of the Holy See, constantly promised to equip
a fleet and collect an army to go and make war against the
infidels. He proclaimed & tournament in his capital, in the
midst of which he called upon the barons and knights to
follow him into the East ; but all these demonstrations, the
sincerity of which was very suspicious, remained unproduc-
tive. It was not long before war again broke out tetween
Prance and England; and Eichard, who on all occasions
repeated his vow of combating the infidels, was killed in a
petty quarrel with Christians.

Phihp Augustus repudiated Ingeburge, daughter of the
king of Denmark, to marry Agnes de Meranie. The sove-
reign pontiff", in a letter addressed to the faithful, strongly
censured princes who gave themselves up to illegitimate
amours ; he ordered Philip Au^stus to take back Inge-
burge, and as Philip refusecl to obey, the kingdom of France
was placed under an interdict. During several months all
religious ceremonies were suspended ; the pulpits of the
Gospel ceased to give forth the holy word ; churcn bells and
the voice of prayer were silenced; Christian burial was
refused to the dead; the sanctuary was closed agaiast the
faithful ; a long mourning veil seemed to hang over cities
and plains, from which the Christian religion was banished,
and which might almost be fancied to be invaded by the
Saracens. Although such as took the cross were exempt
from the interdict, the spectacle which France presented
discouraged and saddened its inhabitants. Philip Augustus,
irritated against the pope, showed very little disposition to
revive their zeal ; and the clergy, whose influence might have
had a powerful effect, had less reason to deplore the captivity
of Jerusalem than the unhappy state of the kingdom.

At length acur6 of Neuilly-sur-Maine began to fill France
with' the mme of his eloquence and his miracles. Foulques

HISTOBT Of THE OBITSADXB. 48

had at first led a verj dissipated^o, but, touched with sin-
cere repentance, he was not satisfied with expiating his
irregukrities by penitence, but became desirous of bringing
back all dinners to the paths of salvation, and trayelled
through the provinces enoeavouring to awaken in the people
a contempt for the things of this life. Gk)d, to try him,
permitted that, in his early sermons, Foulques should be
exposed to the ridicule of his auditors ; but the truths he
uttered soon obtained a marvellous ascendancy over all that
came to hear him. Bishops invited him to preach in their
dioceses ; he received everywhere extraordinary honours, and
both people and clergy flocked out to meet him, as if he had
been an envoy of God. Foulques, sa^'s the chronicle of
St. Victor, had nothing remarkable in his vestments or man-
ner of living ; he travelled on horseback, and ate that which
was gioen to him. He preached sometimes in churches, at
others in public places, and not unfrcquently amidst the
excitement of tournaments. His eloquence was simple and
natural; safe, by his ignorance, from the bad taste of his
age, he neither astonished his auditors by the vain subtleties
of the schools, nor by an absurd mixture of passages from
the Scriptures and profane quotations from antiquity. His
words, from being unadorned by the erudition then so much
admired, were the more persuasive, and found their way more
• directly to the heart.* The most learned preachers ranked
themselves among his disciples, and declared that the Holy-
Ghost spoke by his mouth. Animated by that faith which
performs prodigies, he enchained at his pleasure the passions
of the multitude, and caused to resound, even in the palaces
of princes, the thunders of evangelical denunciations.^ At his
voice, all that had enriched themselves by fraud, brigandage,
or usury, hastened to restore that which they had unjustly

* The Chnmiele of St Victor speaks thus of Foulques de Neuilly :—
£t verba ejus quasi sa^ttae potentis acutce, hominum prava cords
consnetudine obdurata penetrarent et ad lacrymas et poenitentiam amo-
lirent.

t If we may believe contemporary chronicleB, Foulques addressed
Ridiard Coeur de Lion, and said to him, — ** You have three daughterii to
dispose of in marriage, Avarice, Pride, and Luxury." ** Well," replied
Richard, " I give my pride to the Templars, my avarice to the monks of
Citeanx, and my luxury to the bisbops." This anecdote is quoted by
Rigord.

4/k HISTOBY 01* TCLB CBUfiADSB.

acquired ; libertines confessed tbeir sins, and devoted tbem-
selves to the austerities of penitence ;• prostitutes, following
the example of Madeline, deplored the scandal of their lives,
cut off their hair, exchanged their gaudy apparel for hair-
cloth and mean garments, and made vows to sleep upon
ashes and die in retirement. In short, the eloquence of
Eoulques of Neuillj effected such miracles, that contempo-
raries speak of him as of another St. Paul, sent for the con-
version of his age. One of them even goes so far as to saj
that he dares not relate all he knows of him, fearing the in-
credulity of men.t

Innocent III. cast his eyes upon Foulqucs of Neuilly, and
confided to him the mission that, fifty years before, had been
8:iven to St. Bernard. The new preacher of the crusade
himself assumed the cross at a general chapter of the order
of Citeaux. At the sound of his voice, the zeal for the
holy war, which had appeared extinct, blazed out again in all
paits. In every city he passed through, the people crowded
to listen to him ; and all who were in a condition to bear
arms, took the oath to combat the infidels.

Several holy orators were associated with Poulques of
Neuilly; Martin Litz, of the order of Citeaux, in the
diocese of B41e, and on the banks of the Bhine ; Herloin, a
monk of St. Denis, took his cause through the still wild
countries of Bretagne and the lower Foitou ; and Eustace,
abbot of Flay, crossed the sea twice, to awaken the enthu-
siasm and holy ardour of the provinces of England.

These pious orators were not all endowed with the same
eloquence ; but all were animated by the most ardent zeal.
The profanation of the holy places, the evils suffered by the
Eastern Christians, and the remembrance of Jerusalem,
imparted the most lively interest to their discourses, and

* The Latin history of the dioceae of Paris thus designates the pros-
titutes— Multse mnliercttlse quse oorpore qiuestum faciebant.

t Alberic, Rigord, Otbo of St. Blaise, James of Vitri, the manuscript
chronicle Auiore Radui/o Coggehalenai^ the Chronicle of Brompton, and
Marin Sanul, haTe left particulars of the life of Foulques. The EceU"
tioMHeal History of Fleury, vol. zvi., has collected all the materials scat*
tered about in the old chronicles. The Abb^ Lebeuf, in his History qf
PariM^ quotes a L\fe of Foulques, 1 vol. in 12mo. Paris, 1620, which we
have in Yam endeayonred to procure.

HIBTOBT OF THE CBT7SADSS. 45

touched all hearts.* Such was the spirit spread through
Europe, that simply to mention the name of Christ, or to
speak of the city of GK>d, held in captivity by the infidels,
melted auditors to tears, and gave birth to transports of
enthusiasm. The people everywhere evinced the same piety
and the same feelings ; but the cause of Christ still wanted
the example and courage of princes and nobles. As a cele-
brated tournament had been proclaimed in Champagne, at
which the boldest warriors of Prance, Germany, and Flan-
ders were expected to be present, Foulques repaired to the
castle of Ecry-8ur-Ai8ne,t which was the rendezvous of the
knights. His eloquence procured attention to the complaints
of Sion, even amidst the profane and violent amusements of
chivah-y ; when Foulques spoke of Jerusalem, knights and
barons neglected their jousts, the shivering of lances, or
high feats of arms ; they became insensible of the presence
of dameM and demoiselles, who accorded the prizes to valour ;
and turned a deaf ear to the gay minstrels who celebrated
la prouesse achefee et vendue au fer et a Vacier. All took
the oath to fight against the infidels ; and it must have been
surprising to see numerous defenders of the cross come
forth from these warlike festivals that were so severely re-
prehended by the Church.

Among the princes and lords who enrolled themselves in
the crusade, the most conspicuous were Thibault IV., count of
Champagne, and Louis, count of Chartres and Blois, both
relations of the kings of France and England. The father
of Thibault had followed Louis VII. to the second cruBade,
and his elder brother had been king of Jerusalem. Two
thousand five hundred knights owed him homage and military
service, and the nobility of Champagne excelled in all the

* The monk Gunther gives some account of this sermon in the history
he has left ns of the conquest of Constantinople. The monk Gunther
bestows the warmest praise upon Martin Idtz, who was his abbot, and
gives curious details of the sermons of the latter. He puts into the mouth
of the preacher of the crusade a discourse in which we find the same
reasons, and almost the same words, as in all the discourses of those who
had previously preached holy wars ; it is probable that the people were
more affected by the spirit that reigned in Europe than by the eloquence
of the orators. — See Gunther, in the Collection of Canisius.

t The castle of Eery was situated on the river Aisne, not fiff from
Chateau Porcien.

46 HISTOBT or THE CBU8ABE8.

noble exercises of arms.* The marriage of Thibault with
the heiress of Navarre brought to his standard a great
number of warriors from the countries bordering, on the
Pyrenees. Loids, count of Chartres and Blois, reckoned
among his ancestors one of the most illustrious chiefs of the
iBrst crusade, and was master of a province abounding in
warriors of name. After the example of these two princes,
the following distinguished leaders took the cross : — The
count of St. Paul, the counts GJauthier and Jean de Brienne,
Manasses de Tlsle, Benard do Dampierre, Mathieu de
Montmorency, Hugh and Eobert de Boves, d* Amiens,
Benaud de Boulogne, Geofirey de Perche, Bcnaud de Mont-
mirail, Simon de Montfort, who had just signed a treaty
with the Saracens, but was no less ready on that account to
take an oath to fight against them ; and Geofirey de Ville-
hardouin,t marshal of Champagne, who has left us an account
of this crusade in the unadorned language of his time.

Among the ecclesiastics, history names Nivelon de Ch6-
risi, bishop of Soissons ; Gamier, bishop ^f Langres ; the
abbot of Looz, and the abbot of Veaux-de-Cernai. The
bishop of Langres, who had been the object of the censures
of the pope, expected to find in the pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, an opportunity of reconciling nimself with the Holy
See. The abbot of Looz and the abbot of Veaux-de-Cemai
were both remarkable for their piety and learning ; the former
full of wisdom and moderation, the latter animated by a holy
enthusiasm and an ardent zeal, which afterwards he but too
strongly displayed against the Albigeois and the partisans of
the count of Thoulouse.

When the knights and barons returned to their homes,
bearing a red cross upon their baldrics and their coats of

• The aatfaor of a History of Jerusalem, who wrote in the twelfth
century, says, when speaking of the Champenois: — Et qusedam pars
Franciae, quae Campania dicitur, et cum regio tota studiis armornm
floreat, haec qnodam militise privilegio singularius exceliit et pnecellit ;
hinc martia puhes potcnter egressa, vires qaae in tyrociniis exercitaverat,
in hostem ardentius exerit, et imaginaria bellorum prolusione proposita,
pugnans animos aJ verum martem intendit.

t The name of Villehardoain took its origin from a village or castle of
the diocese of Troye, between Bar and Arcy ; the elder branch, to which
the historian belonged, only subsisted to 1400 ; the younger, which ac-
quired the principality of Achaia, merged in the family of Savoy. Dacange
has left a very long historical notice of the genealogy of this family.

niBTOST OF THS CRUSADES. 47

mail,* they aroused by their presence the enthusinam of
their yasszQs and brdthers in arms. The nobility of Flanders,
after the example of those of Champagne, were anxious to
prove their zeal for the recovery of the holy places. Baldwin,
who had taken the part of Eichard against Philip Augustus,
sought beneath the standard of the cross an asylum against
the anger of the king of France, and swore, in the church of
St. Donatien of Bruges, to go into Asia to combat the
Saracens. Mary, countess of Flanders, sister of Thibault,
count of Champagne, would not live separated from her
husband ; and although she was still in the flower of her
youth, and was several months advanced in her pregnancy,
took an oath to follow the Crusaders beyond the seas, and to
quit a home she was doomed never to see again. The
example of Baldwin was followed by his two brothers,t
Eustace and Henrv, count of Sarbuck ; by Canon de Bethune,
whose piety and eloquence were held in high estimation, and
by Jacques d* Avesnes, son of him who, under the same name,
had made himself so famous in the third crusade. Most of
the knights and barons of Flanders and Hainault also took
the oath to share the labours and perils of the holy war.

The principal leaders first met at Soissons, and afterwards
at Compiegne. In their assembly, they gave the command
of 'the expedition to Thibault, count of Champagne. It was
decided also that the Crusaders should repair to the East by
sea ; and, in consequence of this determination, six deputies
were sent to Venice, J in order to obtain from the republic
the vessels required to transport the men and horses.

The Venetians were at that period in the highest state of
their greatness and prosperity. Amidst the convulsions that

* Complures tanta pontificii indalgentisAimi gratii illecti, et Fulconis
penuasionibus excitati, rnbram crucem amiculo, quo dexter hnmerus
tegitur, certatim consuere. — RhamnMivt de Bell. Constant, lib. i.

t Rhamnusins gives a very minute list of the knights and barons that
took the cross. Le Pere d'Outreman likewise gives a very extensive list.
In the notes that accompany the history of Villehardouin, Ducange has
left us many curious particulars upon the knights and barons of Flanders
and Champagne who took {^art in this crusade.

% Villehardouin has preserved the names of the six deputies. The
Count Thibault named two : Geoffrey of Villehardouin, Miles of Brabant.
Baldwin of Flanders, two others : Canon de Betbune, and Alard de
Maqaeriaux ; and the count of Blois, two : Jean de Friaise and Gauthier
de Goudonville.

48 niSTOBT OT TH£ OBUSADES.

had .preceded and followed the fall of the Bomon power, these
industrious people had taken refuge in the islands that
border the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf; and, placed upon
the waves, had directed all their views to the empire of the
sea,* of which the barbarians took no heed. Venice was at
first under the dominion of the emperors of Constantinople ;
but, in proportion with the decline of the Greek empire, the
republic acquired territory, strength, and splendour, which
necessarily produced independence. Erom the tenth century,
palaces oi marble had replaced the humble huts of fishermen,
scattered over the island of the Eialto. The cities of Istria
and Dalmatia obeyed the sovereigns of the Adriatic Sea.
The republic, become formidable to the most powerful
monarch, was able, at the least signal, to arm a fleet of a
hundred galleys, which it employed successively against the
Greeks, the Saracens, and the Normans. The power of
Venice was respected by all the nations of the W est ; and
the republics ot Genoa and Pisa in vain contended with her
for the domination of the seas. The Venetians remembered
with pride these words of Pope Alexander III., when the
republic had protested against the emperor of Germany,
who presented a ring to the doge, saying, " Espottse the sea
with this ring, that posterity may know that the Venetians
have acquired tJie empire of the waves, and that th^ sea has
been subjected to them as a woman is to her husband,*'

The fleets of the Venetians constantly visited the ports of
Greece and Asia ; they transported pilgrims to Palestine,
and returned laden with the rich merchandise of the East.
The Venetians entered into the crusades with less eagerness
and enthusiasm than other Christian nations, but knew well
how to profit by them for their own interests ; whilst the
warriors of Christendom were fighting for glorj% for king-
doms, or for the tomb of Christ, the merchants of Venice
fought for coimting-houses, stores, and commercial privi-
leges ; and avarice often made them undertake that which
other nations could not have been able to effect but bv an
excess of religious zeal. The republic, which owed all its
prosperity to its commercial relations, sought without scruple

* Innocent III. said of the republic of Venice : Quse non agricultnris
ihserrit, sed navigiis potius et merdmoniia estintenta. — See the first book
of the Collection qf the Leltere o/JtmocefU,

H18T0BT 01* THZ CBI7BiJ>£8. 40

the friendship and protection of the Mussulman powers of
Syria and Egypt; and often, even when all Europe was
arming against the infidels, the Venetians were accused of
supplying the enemies of the Christian nations with both
arms and provisions.

When the deputies of the Crusaders arrived at Venice, the
republic had for doge Dandolo, so celebrated in its annals.
Dandolo had for a length of time served his country in
important nussions, and in the command of its fleets and
armies ; now, placed at the head of its government, he watched
over its liberties and the operations of its laws. His
labours in war and peace, his useful regulations of the money
currency, with his administration of justice and public
security, deservedly procured him the esteem and gratitude
of 'his fellow-citizens. He had acquired the power of mas-
tering, by words, the passions of the multituae, even in the
stormy msputes of a republic.

Nobody. was more skilful in seizing a favourable opportu-
nity, or in taking advantage of the least circumstance lor the
furtherance of his designs. At the age of ninety, the doge
of Venice exhibited no symptoms of senility but virtue and
experience.* Everything that could save his country aroused
his activity and inflamed his courage; with the spirit of
calculation and economy which distinguished his compatriots,
Dandolo mingled passions the most generous, and threw an
air of grandeur over all the enterprises of a trading people.
His patriotism, always sustained by the love of glory, ap-
peared to possess something of that sentiment of honour, and
that chivaLriic greatness of soul which formed the predominant
characteristic of his age.

Dandolot praised with warmth an enterprise that appeared

* Nicetai says in his history, that Dandolo was styled ** The Prudent of
the Prudent."

t ScTcral historians say that Dandolo was hlind, and that the emperor
Manuel Comnenus had deprived bim of sight during an ahode he made at
Constantinople. One of his descendants, Andr^ Dandolo, says merely
in his history that his ancestor was shortsighted (tfuu debiUr). The part
of the story connected with Manuel Comnenus appears to he a fable.
Historians differ as to the age of Dandolo : Ducange, at the period of the
cru9ade, gives him ninety-four years. Gibbon does not doubt of his
blindness, though he has no &ith in its having beea caused by Manuel ;
but he^mtainly assigns to him actions that oonld scarcely be performed

3»

60 HISTOEY or THE CBUSAJ)ES.

glorious to him, and in which the interests of his country-
were not opposed to those of reKgion. The deputies re-
quired vessels to transport four thousand five hundred
knights and twenty thousand foot, with provisions for the

. Chnstian army for nine months. Dandolo promised, in the
name of the repuhlic, to furnish the necessary provisions and
vessels, on condition that the Crusaders should engage to
pay the Venetians the sum of eighty-five thousand silver
marks.* As he was not willing that the people of Venice
should he unconnected with the expedition of the French
Crusaders, Dandolo proposed to the deputies to arm, at the
expense of the repuhlic, fifly galleys, and demanded for his
country half of the conquests that might be made in the
East.

The deputies accepted without hesitation the more in-
terested than generous proposals of the doge. The condi-
tions of the treaty were first examined in the doge's coun-
cil,t composed of six patricians ; it was afterwards ratified in
two other councils, { and at last presented for the sanction
of the people, who then exercised supreme power. §

A general assembly was convoked in the church of St.
Mark, and when the mass of the Holy Ghost had been cele-

' brated, the marshal of Champagne, accompanied by the other
deputies, arose, and addressing the people of Venice, pro-
nounced a discourse, the simple and unaffected expressions
of which paint, better than we possibly can, the spirit and
feelings of the heroic periods of our history.|| " The lords

by a blind man. He does not believe the accounts of his Tery advanced
age, saying, — *' It is scarcely possible that the powers of mind and body
should support themselves at such an sge."—- Trans.

* Weight of Cologne or Geneva. See the terms of the treaty.

t The Venetians undertook, in the treaty, to distribute to each indi-
yidual of the army of the Crusaders, six setiers of bread, com, wheat, or
vei^etables, and half a pitcher (demi-eruche) of wine ; for each horse three
bushels, Venetian measure, and water in sufficient quantities. We are
not able to value the six setiers of com, or the half-pitcher of wine, having
no means of ascertaining the Venetian measures.

X The original treaty may be seen in the CAroniele of Andrew Dandolo,
pages 325, 328 of vol. xii. of Mnratori.

§ From the thirteenth century the aristocracy began at Venice to get
the better of the democracy. — See Hittory of Veniee, by lAngier.

[| Several authors have thought that Villehardouin could not write ; and
they found their opinion upon what he himself aays, — ** J, who tUetated

HI8T0BY 07 THE CBVSACES. 51

and barons of Prance, the most high and the most powerful,
have sent ns to jou to pray you, in the name of GK>d, to
take pity on Jerusalem, which the Turks hold in bondage ;
they cry to you for mercy, and supplicate you to accompany
them to avenge the disgrace of Jesus Christ. They nave
made choice ot you, because they know that no people that
be upon the sea have so great power as your nation. They
have commanded us to throw ourselves at your feet, and not
to rise until you shall have granted our request, until you
shall have had pity on the Holy Land beyond the seas." At
these words the deputies were moved to tears,* and feeling
it no degradation to humble themselves in the cause of
Christ,t they fell upon their knees and held up their hands
in a supplicating manner towards the assembly of the people.
The strong emotion of the barons and knights' communicated
itself to the Venetians, and ten thousand voices replied as
one, " We grant vour request.** The doge, ascendmg the
tribunal, praised highly the earnestness and loyalty of the
French barons, and spoke with enthusiasm of the honour
God conferred upon the people of Venice in choosing them
from amongst all other nations, J to partake in the glory of
the most noble of enterprises, and associate them with the
most valiant of warriors. He then read the treaty entered
into with the Crusaders, and conjured his assembled fellow-
citizens to give their consent to it in the forms ordained by

this work.** Hower* that may be, the bistorj of Villehardomii has been
pronoanced by learned men to be a model of the language that has
ceased to be French. In the sixteenth century the language of the
marshal of Champagne was already not understood ; his history was
turned into modem French by Blaise de Vigenere towards the end of the
sixteenth century ; this translation has itself become so old as to be now
scarcely intelligible. The new version that Ducange made of it in the
seventeenth century still bears an impression of antiquity, which preserves
something of the naivete uf the original. We shall often have occasion
to quote Viilehardouin ; but we shall only quote the ancient versions, and
sometimes from a translation we have ourselves made, always endeavouring
to preserve as far as possible the simplicity of the old language.

* Gibbon says, "A reader of Viilehardouin must observe the frequent
tears of the marshal and his brother knights ; they weep on every occasion
of grief, joy, or devotion." — Trans.

t Maintenant li six messagers s'agenenillent k la pies mull plorant.—
Viilehardouin^ lib. i.

t Persuasum omnes habent,solo8 Venetos maii, Galloa terri pnepo*
tentes esse. — RAamn, lib. i.

52 HISTOHY O? THX CBUSADS8.

tbe laws of the republic. Then the people arose, and cried
with an unanimous shout, " We consent to it^ All the in-
habitants of Venice were present at this meeting ; an im-
mense multitude covered the place of St. Mark and filled the
neighbouring streets. Eeligious enthusiasm, love of coun-
try, surprise and joy were manifested by acclamations so
loud and general, that it might be said, according to the ex-
pression of the marshal of Champagne, *' that the world toas
about to engage in one common conflict. ^^

On the morrow of this memorable day, the deputies of the
barons repaired to the palace of St. Mark, and swore on
their swords and the Gospel, to fvHQi all the engagements
they had made. The preamble of the treaty recaSed the
faults and the misfortunes of the princes who had to that
time undertaken the deliverance of the Holy Land, and
praised the wisdom and prudence of the French lords and
knights, who neglected nothing to assure the success of an
enterprise lull of difficulties and perils. The deputies were
charged to endeavour to cause the conditions they had
sworn to to be adopted by their brothers in arms the barons
and knightSjby the tchole of (heir nation, and if possible, by
their sovereign lord the king of France. The treaty was
written on parchment and sent immediately to Eome, to
receive the approbation of the pope ; and, full of confidence
in the future, as well as in the alliance they had contracted,
the French knights and the patricians o^ Venice exchanged
the most touching protestations of friendship.* The dog©
lent the barons the sum of ten thousand silver marks, and
the latter swore never to forget the services the republic
had rendered to Jesus Christ. " There were then shed,"
says Villehardouin, "many tears of tenderness and joy."

The government of Venice was a new spectacle for the
French nobles ; deliberations of the people were perfectly
■ unknown to them, and must have struck them with asto-
nishment. On the other side, the embassy of the knights
and barons could not fail to flatter the pride of the Vene-
tians ^ the latter felicitated themselves upon being thus ac-
knowledged as the greatest maritime nation, and, never

* Vigen^re, the translator of Villefaardoain, informs us that in Ms
time the treaty between the Venetians and the French, concluded in the
month of April, 1201, was still preserved in the Chanceiy of Venioe.

HI8T0BT or THE CBUSADSS. 58

Bepanting tbeir glory firom their commercild interests, re-
joiced at having made so advantageous a bargain. The
knights, on the contraiT, only thought of honour and the
cause of Christ ; and although the treaty was ruinous to the
Crusaders, they bore back the news to their companions in
arms with the greatest joy and satisfaction.*

The preference given to the Venetians by the Crusaders
naturally excited the jealousy of the other maritime powers
of Italy ; thus the French deputies, upon going to Fisa and
Ghenoa to solicit the aid of the two republics in the name of
Jesus Christ, met with a cold reception and a perfect indif-
ference for the deliverance of the holy places.

The account of what had^ taken place at Venice, and the
presence of the barons, did not fail, however, to arouse the
enthusiasm of the inhabitants of Lombardy and Piedmont ;
a great number of them took the cross and arms, and pro-
mised to follow BonifiEice, marquis of Montferrat, to the Holy
Land.

The marshal of Champagne, whilst crossing Mount Cenis,
met Gauthier de Briexme, who had taken the cross at the
castle of Eery, and was on his way to Apulia. He had mar-
ried one of the daughters of Tancred, last king of Sicily.
Pollowed by sixty knights of Champagne, he was going to
endeavour to make good the claims of his wife, and conquer
the kingdom founded by the Norman knights. The marshal
Villehardouin and Gtiuthier de Brienne congratulated each
other upon the brilliant prospects of their expeditions, and
promised to meet again in tne plains of Egypt end S^a.
Thus the future presented notlnng to the knights of the

* The author of the History of the Republics 0/ Italy recapitulates thus
fbe sum that waa due to the Venetians by the Crusaders :^

For four thousand fire hundred horses, at four\ |q ^^^v

marks per horse / ^^'^^

For the knights, at two marks per knight 9,000

For twenty thousand foot-soldiers, at two marks \ ^q ^r^

per soldier j 4U,uuu

For two squires per horse, nine thousand squires. . 18,000

Total marks 85,000

Eigl ty-five thousand marks of silver are equal to four millions two
htrndred and fifty thousand fnncs.

M HISTOKT 07 THE CBVSADE8.

cross but victories and trophies ; and the hope of conquering
distant kingdoms redoubled their ardour.

When the deputies arrived in Champagne, they found
Thibault dangerously ill. The prince was so delighted at
learning the success of their embassy, that, heedless of the
disease that had confined him to his bed, he insisted upon
putting on his armour and mounting on horseback ; but "this
was great pity and misfortune," says Villehardotdn ; " for the
malady increased, and slathered such strength, that he declared
his will, took leave of his friends, and got no more on horse-
back." Thibault, the model and hope of the Christian knights,
died in the flower of his age, deeply regretted by his vassals
and companions in arms. Hejleplored before the barons
the rigorous destiny that condemned him thus to die without
glory, at the moment that he was about to gather the palms
of victory or of martyrdom in the plains of the East ; he
.exhorted them to perform the vow he had made to God to
deliver Jerusalem, and left them all his treasures to be em-
ployed in this holy enterprise. An epitaph in Latin verse,
which still exists, celebrates the virtues and pious zeal of
Count Thibault, recalls the preparations for his pilgrimage,*
and terminates by saying, that this young prince found the
heavenly Jerusalemy when about to seek the earthly Jerusalem,

After the death of the count of Champagne, the barons
and knights who had taken the cross, assembled to choose
another leader, and their election fell upon the count de Bar
and the duke of Burgundy. The count de Bar refused to
take the command of the Christian army. Eudes III., duke
of Biurgundy, stUl mourned the death of his father, who had
died in Palestine after the third crusade, and could not be
induced to quit his duchv to undertake the pOgrimage to the
East. The refusal of these two princes was a subject of
scandal for the soldiers of the cross ; and contemporary his-
tory informs us that they afterwards repented oi the indif-
ference they had evinced for the cause of Christ.f The duke

* Thibault was buried in the church of St. Stephen of Troyes ; hia
epitaph finishes with these verses : —

Terrenam quaerens, coelestem repperit nrbem ;
Dum procul hcc potitur, obviat ille domt.

t The History qf Burgundy by Court^pde and B^oilkt hat here oom-

HISTOBT Of THB CBTJSADES. 55

of Burgundy, who died within a few years, was desirous of
tailing the cross on his bed of death, and, to expiate his
fault, sent several of his warriors into Palestine.

Tlie knights and barons then offered the command to
Boniface, marquis of Montferrat.* Boniface belouged to a
£imilj of Christian heroes ; his brother Conrad had rendered
himself famous by the defence of Tyre, and he himself had
already fought many times against the infidels : he did not
hesitate in complying with the wishes of the Crusaders. He
came to Soissons, where he received the cross from the
hands of the cure of NeuiUy, and was proclaimed leader of
the crusade in the church of Notre Dame, in the presence
of the clergy and the people.

Two years had passed away since theteovereign pontiff
had ordered the bishops to preach the crusade in their
dioceses. The situation of the Christians of the East be-
came every day more deplorable ; the kings of Jerusalem
and Armenia, the patriarchs of Antioch and the holy city,
and the grand masters of the military orders, addressed day
after day their complaints and lamentations to the Holy See.
Touched by their prayers, Innocent again exhorted the faith-
ful, and conjured the Crusaders to hasten their departure ;
warmly censiuing the indifference of those who, after having
taken the cross, appeared to be forgetful of their vow. The
Christian father, above all, reproached the ecclesiastics with
their tardiness in paying the fortieth part of their revenues,
destined to the expenses of the holy war : " and you and we,"
said he, " and all persons supported by the goods of the
Church, ought we not all to fear that the inhabitants of
Nineveh should appear against us at the day of judgment,
and pronounce our condemnation ? for they were made peni-
tent by the preaching of Jonas ; and you, not only you nave
not rent your hearts, you have not even opened your hands
to succour Christ in his poverty, and repulse the opprobrium
with which the infidels load him," The epoch of a holy war

mitted a great error in making Eudes IIT. set out on the crusade, and
take a part in the capture of Constantinople.

* Villehardouin makes thus the eulogy of Boniface, marquis of Mont-
ferrat :— '* The marquis Boniface is, as every one knows, a very valorous
prince, and most esteemed for knowledge of war and feats of arms of any
one at the present day living.'*

%6 HI8I0BT 07 THS CBV8ABE8.

beinff for Christiaiis a season of penitence, the sovereign
pontiff proscribed, in his letters, sumptuousness in living,
splendour in dress, and public amusements ; and although
the new crusade had been first preached at the tournament
of Eery, tournaments were in the niunber of diversions and
spectacles forbidden to all Christians by the holy father
dnring the space of five years.

To reanimate the courage and confidence of those who
had taken the cross, Innocent told them of the new divisions
that had sprung up among the Mussulman princes, and of
the scourges with which God had recently afflicted Egypt.
" God," cried the pontiff, "has struck the country of Babylon
with the rod of his power ; the Nile,* that river of Paradise,
which fertilizes the land of the Eg}^tians, has not had its
accustomed coiurse. This chastisement has given them up
to death, and prepared the triumph of their enemies." The
letters of the pope had the desired effect. The marquis of
Montferrat went into France, towards the autumn of the
year 1201, and the whole winter was devoted to preparations
for the holy war. These preparations were unaccompanied
by disorder, and the princes and barons refused to receive
under their banners any but disciplined soldiers and men
accustomed to the use of the lance and the sword. Some
voices were raised against the Jews, whom they desired to
force to contribute to the expenses of the holy war ;t but the
pope took them under his protection, and threatened all who
made attempts upon their lives or liberty with excommuni-
cation.

* At the same time that Egypt experienced all the horrors of famine,
Richard of St. Germain and the Chronicle of Fossa-Nova (see Mvratori)
say that a great dearth was felt in Italy and Spain ; one of them adds that
this year, 1202^ was known under the name of ** annas famis/' Mdzerai
speaks of this famine, which was felt in France, and attributes it to the war
then carried on between Philip and Richard. " The two kings," says he,
*' pillaged the lands, palled up their vines, cat down the trees, cat the
harvest whilst unripe, and destroyed more cities and towns in one day '
than had been built in ages. Famine followed these horrible ravages,
says an 'author; so that many of the richest were reduced to beg their
bread, and finding none to give it to them, ate gnu and burrowed in the
earth for roots.''

t The pope was satufied with liberating the Crusaders from the
usurious debts which they owed to the Jews. At tha period all interest
upon money lent was considered usury.

HI8T0BT or THB CBUSADXS. 57

Before tbej left their homes, the Crusaders had to deplore
the loss of the holy orator who had awakened their zeal and
animated their courage. Poulques fell sick, and died in his
parish of Neuillj. Some time hefore, loud murmurs had
been heard respecting his conduct, and his words had ceased
to exercise their accustomed power over the minds of his
auditors. Foulques had received considerable sums of money
destined for the expenses of the hol^ war, and as he was
accused of appropriating these to his own use, the more
money he amassed, says James of Yitri,* the more con-
sideration and credit he lost. The suspicions attached to
his conduct were not, however, generally credited. The
marshal of Champagne informs us, in his histoi^, that the
knights and barons were deeply affected by the death of the
Gur^ of Neuilly. Foulques was buried in the church of his
parish with great pomp ; his tomb, a monument of the piety
of his contemporaries, attracted, even in the last century,
the respect and veneration of the faithful.f

With the earliest days of spring the Crusaders prepared
to quit their homes, " and knew," says Yillehardouin, " that
many tears were shed at their parting, and at taking leave

* Jacques of Yitri, when Bpeakiog of the Baspicions and murmars that
aroae against Foulques of Neuilly, expresses himself thus :— £t crescente
pecunidf timer et reverentia decrescebant.

t The Kbh6 Lcbeuf, in his History of the Diocete qf ParUf toI. vi.
p. 20, gives us a description of the tomb of Foulques of Neuilly, which
was still standing in the last century. '* The tomb of Foulques, the
famous cut6 of this place about the year 1200, is in the nave, before the
entrance to the choir, built of stone a foot and a half high. It is the
work of the age in which this pious personage died. Foulques is repre-
sented in relief upon the monument, clothed as a priest, his head bare,
haying the tonsure on the top, and the hair so short that the whole of his
ears is visible. A book is laid upon his breast, which he does not hold,
as his hands are crossed above, the right placed upon the left. His
chasuble and his manipule represent the vestments of his times. He has
under him a kind of footstool, cut in the stone, and two angels in relief
incense his head, which is placed towards the west ; for, after the ancient
manner, his feet are pointed to the east, or the altar. It is not true, as
has been said, that this tomb is incensed, nor has it any arms. He is
called in the country Sir Foulques, and sometimes Saint Sire Foulques.
There is a tradition that the canons of St. Maur formerly endeavoured to
carry it away ; but the immobility of the car with which this story is
adorned, tells us what degree of faith may be attached to it." M. TAbb^
Chastelain names his death, in his Univeraal Mariyrologjff as having
taken place on the 2nd of March, 1201, and qualifies him as veneradh.

58 HI8T0BT OF TH£ GBUSABSS.

of their relations and friends." The count of Elanders, the
counts of Blois and St. Paul, followed by a great number of
Flemish warriors and their vassals ; the marshal of Cham-
pagne, accompanied by several Champenois knights, ad-
vanced across Burgundy, and passed the Alps to repair to
Venice. The Marquis Boniface soon jtfined them, brmging
with him the Crusaders of Lombardy, Piedmont, Savoy, and
the countries situated between the Alps and the Ehone.
Venice also received within its walls the warriors from t*he
banks of the Ehine, some under the command of the bishop
of Halberstadt, and others under that of Martin-Litz, who
had persuaded them to take arms, and still continued to
animate them by the example of his virtues and piety.

When the Crusaders reached Venice,* the fleet that waa
to transport them into Asia, was ready to set sail : they were
at first received with every demonstration of joy ; but amidst
the festivities that followed their arrival,t the Venetians
called upon the barons to redeem their word, and pay the
sum agreed upon for transporting the Christian army ; and
then it was that, with deep grief; the barons became aware
of the absence of a great number of their companions in
arms. Jean de Nedle, chatelain of Bruges, and Thierri, son
of Philip, count of Flanders, had promised Baldwin to brinff
to him,-at Venice, Marguerite, his wife, and a chosen band
of Flemish warriors : they did not keep their appointment,
for having embarked upon the ocean, they had directed their
course to Palestine. Kenaud de Dampierre, to w^hom Thi-
bault, count of Champagne, had left all his treasures to be
employed in the voyage to the Iloly Land, had embarked with
a great number of Champenois knights at the port of Bari.
The bishop of Autun, Gilles, count of Ferez, and several
other leaders, after having sworn upon the Gospel to join
the other Crusaders, had set out from Marseilles, and others
from Genoa. Thus half the Crusaders did not come to

* Viilehardoain says, whea speaking of the arrival of the Crasaders at
Venice, " No nobler people were ever seen, nor better appointed, nor
more disposed to do something good for the honour of God and the
seirice of Cbristendom.'^

t Upon the sojourn of the Crusaders at Venice, Ge$ta Tnnoeentii^
Villehardouin and Ducange, Sanuti, Herold, D'Outreman, Fleurr, HU-
toire EceUtiOMiique, vol. zviii., TAbb^ Langier, &c. &c., may be con-
Bolted.

HISTOBT 07 THE CBtTSADEB. 59

Yenice, wliich had been agreed upon as tbe general rendez-
vous of the Christian army : " by which,'* says Villehardouin,
" they received great shame, and many misadventures after-
wards befell them in consequence of it."

This breach of faith might prove very injurious to the
enterprise ; but what most grieved the princes and barons
assembled at Venice, was the impossibility of fulfilling their
engagements with the republic without the concurrence of
their unfaithful companions. They sent messengers into all
parts to warn the Crusaders that had set out, and to implore
them to join the main army ; but whether most of the pil-
grims were dissatisfied with the agreement entered into with
the Venetians, or whether it appeared to them more con-
venient and safe to embark at ports in their own vicinity, a
very small number of them could be prevailed upon to repair
to Venice. Those who were already in that city, were neither
sufficiently numerous nor sufficiently rich to pay the pro-
mised amount, or fulfil the engagements made in their names.
Although the Venetians were more interested in the crusade
than the French knights, as thev possessed a part of the cities
of Tyre and Ptolemais, which they were going to defend, they
were unwilling to make any sacrifice, and the barons, on
their side, were too proud to ask any favour, or to solicit the
Venetians to change or moderate the conditions of the
treaty. Each of the Crusaders was required to pay the
price of his passage. The rich paid for the poor ; soldiers
as well as knights being eager to give all the money they
possessed, persuaded, they said, that Gk)d was powerfm
enough to return it to them a hundred-fold, when it should
please him. The count of Flanders, the counts of Blois
and St. Paul, the marquis of Montferrat, and several other
leaders despoiled themselves of their plate, their jewels, and
everything they had that was most valuable,* and only re-
tained their horses and arms. Notwithstanding this noble
sacrifice, the Crusaders still were indebted to the republic; a
sum of fifty thousand silver marks. The doge then assembled
the people, and represented to them that it was not honour-
able to employ too much rigour ; and proposed to demand

* Then might be seen so many beautifiil and rich vessels of gold and
■Qver heaped np here and there, and carried to the hotel of the duke as
part of their payment. — VilUAardoum.

60 HISTOBY OP THE CBTTSADES.

of the Crusaders the assistaDce of their army for the republic,
until they could discharge their debt.

The city of Zara had been for a length of time under the
dominion of the Venetians ; but thinkmg the government of
a king 'less insupportable than that of a republic, it had
given itself up to the king of Hungary, and, under the pro-
tection of a new master, braved the authority and menaces
of Venice. After having obtained the approbation of the
people, Dandolo proposed to the Crusaders to assist the re-
public in subduing a revolted city, and promised to put off
the entire execution of the treaty until God, by their
common conquests, should have given them the means of
fulfilling their promises. This proposition was received with
much joy by the greater part of the Crusaders, who could
not support the idea of being unable to keep their word ; the
barons and knights deemed it prudent to conciliate the Vene-
tians, who were so serviceable to them in carrying out their
enterprise, and thought they did but little to pay their debts
by an affair in which they should expend nothing but their
blood.

Some murmurs, however, arose in the Christian army;
many of the Crusaders recollected the oath they had tskmBi
to fight the infidels, and could not make up their minds to
turn their arms against a Christian people. The pope had
sent the Cardinal Peter of Capua to Venice, to deter the
pilgrims from an enterprise which he termed sacrilegious.
" The king of Hungary had taken the cross, and by doing so
had placed himself under the especial protection of the
Church ; and to attack a city belonging to him was to declare
themselves enemies of the Church itself." Henry Dandolo
braved menaces and reproaches that he deemed to be unjust.
" The privileges of the Crusaders,'* said he, " could not
screen the guilty from the severity of laws divine and human.
Crusades were not undertaken to promote the ambition of
kings or protect rebellious nations.* The pope had not the
power to enchain the authority of sovereigns, or turn the

* The Venetians might have said, and no doubt did say on this ooca*
rion, that the king of Hungary had taken the cross many years before,
and had done nothing yet towards the fdlAlment of his yow. Andrew did
not set out for Palestine till many years after the taking of Constan-
tinople.

niSTOBT OF THE CnU8AJ>SB« 61

Crusaders aside from a legitimate enterprise ; from a war
made against revolted subjects, against pirates whose bri-
gandage perilled the freedom of the seas, and jeopardized the
safety of pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land."

To complete his conquest oyer all scruples, and dissipate
all fears, the doge resolved to associate himself with the
perils and labours of the crusade, and to engage his fellow-
citizens to declare themselves the companions in arms of the
Crusaders. The people being solemnly convoked, Dandolo
ascended the pulpit of St. Mark, and demanded of the assem-
bled Venetians permission to take the cross. " Seigneurs,**
said he to them, ^* you have made an engagement to concur
in the most glorious of enterprises ; the warriors with whom
you have contracted a holy alliance, surpass all other men in
piety and valour. For myself, you see that I am laden with
years, and have need of repose ; but the glory that is pro-
mised to us restores me courage and strength to brave all the
perils, to support all the labours of war. I feel by the
ardour that lesuls me on, by the zeal which animates me, that
nobody will merit your confidence, nobody will conduct you
so well as the man you have chosen as head of your republic.
I^ou will pennit me to fight for Jesus Christ, and allow my
son to perform the duties you have confided to me, I will go
and live or die with you and the pilgrims."

At this discourse, his whole auditory was much aflected,
and the people loudly applauded the resolution of the doge.
Dandolo descended from the tribunal, and was led in triumph
to the foot of the altar, where the cross was attached to his
ducal cap. A great number of Venetians followed his
example, and swore to die for the deliverance of the holy
places. By this skilful policy, the doge completely won the
Crusaders, and placed himself, in a manner, at the head of
the crusade. He soon found himself sufficiently powerftil to
deny the authority of the cardinal of Capua, who spoke in
the name of the pope, and pretended to have a right to direct
the holy war, in his character of legate of the Holy See.
Dandolo told the envoy of Innocent, that the Christian army
stood in no need of leaders to conduct it, and that the legates
of the sovereign pontifi* ought to content themselves with
edifying the Crusaders by their examples and discourses.

Ijiis bold« free language very much astomahed the French

62 HI8T0BT or THE CEUSADXS.

barons, aocustomed to respect the will of the Holy See ; bul
the doge, hj taking the cross, had inspired them with a con-
fidence nothing could shake. The cross of the pilgrims was,
for the Venetians and French, a pledge of alliance, a sacred
tie, which united all their interests, and made of them, in a
manner, but one same nation. From that time no one
listened to those who spoke in the name of the Holy See,*
or persisted in raising scruples in the minds of the Cru-
saders. The barons and knights showed the same zeal and
ardour for the expedition against Zara as the Venetians
themselves. The army of the Crusaders was ready to
embark, when there happened, says Villehardouin, " a great
wonder, an unhoped-for curcumstance, the strangest that ever
was heard of "t

Isaac, emperor of Constantinople, had been dethroned by
his brother Alexius. Abandonea by all his friends, deprived
of sight, and loaded with irons, this unhappy prince lan-
guished in a dungeon. The son of Isaac, namea also Alexius,
who shared the captivity of his father, having deceived the
vigilance of his guards and broken his chains, had fled into
the West, in the hope that the princes and kings would one
day undertake his defence, and declare war against i^
usurper of the imperial throne. Philip of Swabia, who had
married Irene, the daughter of Isaac,:|: received the young
prince kindly ; but he was not then in a position to under-
take anything in his favour, being fully engaged in defending
himself against the arms of Otho and the menaces of the
Holy See. Young Alexius next in vain threw himself at the
feet o^ the pope, to implore his assistance. Whether the
pontiff saw m the son of Isaac only the brother-in-law of

* The monk Guntfaer does not at all spare the YenetiaDS, and re-
proaches them bitterly with having diverted the Crusaders from their holy
enterprise. The pioas resolution of the leaders of the cmsade, says he,
was subverted by the perfidy and wicked artifices of these masters of the
Adriatic, — fraude et nequitiiVenetorum.

t With the true spirit of an antiquary, M. Michaud delights in throwing
a character of the "olden time'' into the language of Villehardouin,
which is in a degree effective in the French, but is with much difficulty
conveyed into English. — Tbans.

X Irene, the daughter of Isaac, had been affianced to William, son of
Tancred, king of Sicily ; being taken into Germany, with the rest of the
&mily of Tancred, she had married Philip of Swabia.

UISIOBY Of THE CBUBADSB. 63

Philip of Swabia, then considered an enemj to the court of
Borne, or whether all his attention was directed towards the
East, he gave no ear to the complaints of Alexius, and seemed
to dread countenancing a war against Greece. The fugitive
prince had in vain solicited most of the Christian monarchs,
when he was advised to address himself to the Crusaders, the
noblest warriors of the West. The arrival of his ambassadors
created a lively sensation at Venice ; the knights and barons
were impressed with generous pity by the account of his
misfortunes ; they had never defended a* more glorious cause.
To avenge injured innocence, to remedy a great calamity,
stirred the spirit of Dandolo; and the proud republicans,
whose head he was, feelingly deplored the fate, of a fugitive
emperor. They had not forgotten that the usurper preferred
to an alliance with them one with the Genoese and Pisans ;
it appeared to them that the cause of Alexius was their own,
and that their vessels ought to bear him back to the ports of
Greece and Byzantium.

Nevertheless, as everything was prepared for the conquest
of Zara, the decision of this business was deferred to a more
favourable opportunity ; and the fleet, with the Crusaders on
tef d, set sail amidst the sounds of martial music and the
aSlamation of the whole population of Venice. Never had
a fleet so numerous or so magnificently equipped been seen
in the Adriatic Gulf. The sea was covered with four
hundred and eighty ships ; the number of the combatants,
horse and foot, amounted to forty thousand men. After
having subdued Trieste and some other maritime cities of
Istria that had shaken ofl* the yoke of Venice, the Crusaders
arrived before Zara on the 10th day of November, 1202, the
eve of St. Martin; Zara,* situated on the eastern side of the
Adriatic Gulf, sixty leagues from Venice, and five leagues
north of Jadera, an ancient Soman colony, was a rich and
populous city, fortified by high walls, and surrounded by a

* ViUehardouin and Gantlier give very circamstantial details of the
siege of Zara, and of the debates that followed it. (See also, on the
subject of these debates, the letters of Innocent.) The Abb^ Flenrf , in
the sixteenth volnme of his EccletiasHcal HUioryt displays sufficiently the
spirit that then actuated the Crusaders. M. Lebeau, in the twentieth
volume of the HUtory f^f the Lower Empire^ and the Abb^ Laugier, in
the second volnme of his History qf Venice, say a great deal concerning
the siege of Zara.

64 HIBTOBY OF THE OBUBADXB.

sea studded with rocks. The kin^ of Hungaiy had sent
troops to defend it, and the inhabitants had sworn to bury
themselves beneath the ruins of the place rather than
surrender to the Venetians. At the sight of the ramparts of
the city, the Crusaders perceived all the difficulty of the
enterprise, and the party opposed to this war again ventured
to mxirmur. The leaders, however, gave the signal for the
assault. As soon as the chains of the port were broken, and
the machines began to make the walls shake, the inhabitants
forgot the resolution they had formed of dying in defence of
their ramparts, and, filled with dread, sent deputies to the
doge, who promised to pardon them on account of their
repentance. But the deputies charged with the petition for
peace, met with several Crusaders among the besiegers, who
said to them, " Why did you surrender P you have nothing
to fear fix)m the French ?** These imprudent words rekindled
the war ; the deputies, on their return, announced to the
inhabitants that all the Crusaders were not their enemies,
and that Zara would preserve its liberty if the people and
soldiers were willing to defend it. The party of the mal-
contents, whose object was to divide the- army, seized this
opj^ortunity for reviving their complaints ; the most ard^^
amongst them, insinuating themselves into the tents of the
soldiers, and endeavouring to disgust them with a war which
they termed impious.

6uy, abbot of Vaux do Ceniai, of the order of Citeaui,
made himself conspicuous by his endeavours to secure the
failure of the enterprise against Zaro ; everj'-thing that coiild
divert the march of the Crusaders from the route to the holy
places,* was, in his eyes, an attack upon religion. The most
brilliant exploits, if not performed m the cause of Christ,
could command neither his esteem nor his approbation. The
abbot of Cemai was deficient in neither subtlety nor elo-
quence, and knew how to employ both prayers and menaces
efiectively ; he had that influence over the pilgrims that an

* Katona, in his HUtoire Criitque de^Rois deHongrie, expresses him-
self with bitterness against the Crusaders, and relates facts very little
fevonrable to the Venetians and French who laid siege to Zara. Arch-
deacon Thomas, one of the historians of Hungary, does not spare the
Venetians, whom he accuses of tyranny, and who made, he says, their
maritime power detested by all the excesses of violence and injustioe.

HI0IOBI OF THS OBUBABSB. 65

inflexible mind and an ardent, obstinate character always
obtains oyer the multitude. In a council, he arose, and
forbade the Crusaders to draw their swords against Chris-
tians, and was about to read a letter from the pope, when he
was interrupted hj threats and cries.

Amidst tne tumult which followed in the council and the
army, the abbot of Cemai would hare been in danger of his
life, if the count de Montfort, who partook his sentiments,
had not drawn his sword in his de&nce. The barons and
knights could not, however, forget the promise they had
made to fight for the republic of Venice ; nor cotdd they
think of laying down their arms in presence of an enemy
that had promised to surrender, aud who now defied their
attacks. The greater the efibrts of the coimt de Montfort
and the abbot of Cemai to interrupt the war, the more they
conceived their honour and gloir to be engaged to continue
the siege they had begun. Whilst the malcontents were
giving vent to their scruples and complaints, the bravest of
the army proceeded to the assault. The besieged, whose
hopes were built upon the divisions amone their enemies,
placed crosses upon the wfdls, persuaded that this revered
j^gn would protect them more effectually than their machines
of war ; but they were not lon^ in finding that there was no
safety for them except in submission. On the 5th day of the
sie^, without having offered their enemies any serious
resistance, they opened their gates, and only obtained from
the conqueror liberty and life. The city was given up to
pillage, and the booty divided between the Venetians and
the French.

One of the results of this conquest was a fresh quarrel in
the victorious army, in which more blood flowed than had
been shed during the siege. The season being too far
advanced to allow the fleet to put to sea, the doge proposed
to the Crusaders to winter at i^ra. The two nations occu«
pied different quarters of the city ; but as the Venetians
had chosen the handsomest and moat commodious houses,
the French loudly proclaimed their dissatisfaction. After a
few complaints and many threats, they had recourse to
arms, and every street became the theatre of a conflict ; the
inhabitants of Zara beheld with delight the sanguinary dis-
putes of flKnr conquerors. The partisans of the abbot of
Vol. 11.-4

66 HIBTOBX OJS THE OBVSADEB.

Cemai applauded in secret tbe deplorable conseguenoes of
a war they had condemned ; whilst the doge of Venice and
the barons employed every effort to separate the com-
batants. Their praters and threats at first had no effect in
appeasing this homble tumult, which was prolonged to the
middle of the night. On the morrow, all the passions that
divided the army were near breaking out with increased
fury. Whilst iaterring their dead, the Prench and Vene-
tians renewed their disputes and menaces. The leaders
were, for more than a week, in despair of being able to
calm the irritated spirits of their followers, and reunite the
soldiers of the two nations. Scarcely was order re-esta-
blished when a letter was received from the pope, who
disapproved of the capture of Zara, ordered the Crusaders
to renounce the booty they had made in a Christian city,
and to engage themselves, by a solemn vow, to repair the
injuries they had inflicted. Innocent reproached the Vene-
tians bitterly with having seduced the soldiers of Christ
into this impious and sacrilegious war. This letter from
the pope was received with respect by the French, with
disdun by the Crusaders of Venice. The latter openly
refused to bow to the decisions of the Holy See ; and td^
secure the fruits of their victory, began to demolish the
ramparts of Zara. The French barons could not endure the
idea of having incurred the anger of the pope, and sent
deputies to Bome to endeavour to mitigate the displeasure
of his holiness, and solicit their pardon, alleging that they
had only obeyed the law of necessit3^ The greater part of
them, though fully determined to retain all they had ob-
tained, promised the pope to restore their spoils : they
undertook, by a solemn act, addressed to all Christians, to
repair the wrongs they had done, and to merit by their
conduct pardon for past errors.* Their submission, far
more than their promises, disarmed the anger of the pope,

* We feel bound to present the text of this oath : — B. Fland. et Hain.,
L. Blesen ct Clar. et H. S. P. comites, Oddo de Chanliet, ct W. frater
eJQ8, omnibas ad quos littene istte pervenerint, salatem in Domino.
Notum fieri volamus, quod super eo quod apud Jaderam incunrimus ex-
communicationem apostolicam, Tel incurrisse nos timemus, tarn nos quam
auccessores nostros sedi apostolioe obligamtis, quod ad mandatum ejus
satisfactionem curabimus exfaibere. Dat. apud Jaderam, anno Domini
1203, mense ApriUs.

HI8T0BY 07 TUB GBUSAPXS. 67

who replied to them with mildneBS, and commanded the
leaders to salute the knights and pilgrims, giving them
ahsolution and his henediction, as to his children. He
exhorted them, in his letter, to set out for Syria, without
turning to the right or the Ifft ; and permittbg them to
cross the sea with the Venetians, whom he had just excom-
municated,* hv;t only from necesnty, and with oiiterness of
heart. If the Venetians persisted in their disobedience, the
sovereign pontiff advised the barons, when they arrived in
Palestine, to separate themselves from a people reproved of
God, iot fear of bringing a malediction upon the Christian
army, as formerly Achan had brought down the divine
wrath upon the Israelites. Innocent promised the Cru-
saders to protect them in their expedition, and to watch
over their wants during the perils of the holy war. " In
order that you may not want provisions,'* said he to them,
" we will write to the emperor of Constantinople to furnish
you with them, as he has promised ; if that be refused to
you which is refused to none, it will not be unjust, if,
after the example of many holy persons, you take provisions
wherever you may find them ; for it will be known that you

B devoted to the cause of Christ, to whom all the world
ongs."t These counsels and these promises, which so
completely reveal to us the spirit of the thirteenth century
and the policy of the Holy See, were received by the knights
and barons as evidence of the paternal goodness of the
sovereign pontiff: but the face of things was about again to
change ; and fortune, which sported with the decisions of
the pope as well as those of the pilgrims, was not long in

* The pope adds, whilst speaking of the Venetians : " Excommaoicated
as they are, they still remained tied by their promises ; and you are not
the leas auliiorized to require the performance of them ; it is further a
maxim of right, that in passing over the land of a heretic or an excom-
manicated person, you may buy or receive necessary things from him.
MoreoTer, excommunication denounced against the father of a family,
does not prevent his household from communicating with him."

t This permission to Hve by pillage, even in a friendly country, ii
remarkable, particularly as the pope pretends to authorize it by examples
from Scripture. — Fleury, Hist. Eecl. book Ixxv.

Innocent, in giving the Crusaders permission to take provisions wherever
they may find them, adds, ^* Provided it be with the fear of God, without
doing injury to any person, and with a resolation to make reatitntiOD."

68. UISTOBT OF THB CBUSJLDIfiS.

giving an entirely new direction to the events of the
cnuaSe.

Ambassadors from Philip of Swabia, brother-in-law of
^roirng Alexius, arrived at Zara, and addressed the council
of the lords and barons, assembled in the palace of the doge
of Venice. " Seigneurs," said they, " the puissant king of
the Eomans sends us to recommend to you the young
prince Alexius, and to place him in your hands, under the
safeguard of God. We do not come for the purpose of
turning you aside from your holy enterprise, but to offer
you an easy and a certain means of accompHshiiig your
noble designs. We know that you have only taken up
arms for the love of Christ and of justice ; we come, there-
fore, to propose to you to assist those who are oppressed by
unjust tyranny, and to secure at once the triumph of the
laws of religion and humanity : we propose to you to turn
your victorious arms towards the capital of Greece, which
groans under the rod of an usurper, and to assure yourselves
for ever of the conquest of Jerusalem br that of Constanti-
nople. You know, as well as we do, tow many evils, our
fathers, the companions of Gx)dfrey, Conrad, and Louis the
Young, suffered from having left behind them a powerfii^
empire, the conquest and submission of which would have
become a ^urce of victories to their arms. What have you
not now to dread fi^m this Alexius, n^ore cruel and more
perfidious than his predecessors, who has gained a throne by
parricide, who has, at once, betrayed the laws of religion and
nature, and whose only means of escaping from the punish-
ment due to his crime is by allying hunself with the Sara-
cens ? We will not tell you how easy a matter it woiild be
to wrest the empire from the hands of a tyrant hated by his
subjects, for your valour loves obstacles and delights in
dangers ; nor will we spread before your eyes the riches of
Byzantium and Greece, for your generous souls aim at
nothing in this conquest, but the glory, of your arms and
the cause of Jesus Const.

" If you overturn the power of the usurper in order that
the legitimate sovereign may reign, the son of Isaac pro-
mises, under the faith of oaths the most inviolable, to main-
tain, during a year, both your fleet and your army,, and to
pay you two hundred thousand silver marks towaanls the

HISTOET OF THE-CfitJ8iJ)ES. 6D

expenses of the war. He will accompany you in person in
the eonquest of Syria qr Egypt ; and if you think proper,
will furnish ten thousand men, as his portion of the arma-
ment ; and, moreover, will maintain, during the whole of his
life, five hundred knights in the Holy Land. But that
which must weigh above all other considerations, with
warriors and Christian heroes, is that Alexius is willing to
swear, on the holy Gospel, to put an end to the heresy
which now defiles the empire of the East, and to subject the
Gkreek Church to the Church of Eome. So many advantages
bemg attached to the enterprise proposed to you, we feel
confident you wiU listen to our prayers. We see in Holy
Writ that God sometimes employed men the most simple
and the most obscure to make known his will to his chosen
people ; on this occasion, it is a young prince he has ap-
pointed the instrument of his designs ; it is Alexius that
Frovidence has commissioned to lead you in the way of the
Lord, and to point out to you the road you must follow
to render certain the triiunph of the armies of Jesus
Christ."

This discoiu'se made a strong impression upon a great
'taiunber of the knights and barons, but it did not command
the suffrages of the whole assembly. The doge and the
lords dismissed the ambassadors, telling them they would
deliberate upon the proposals of Alexius. Warm debates
then ensued in the council ; those that had been averse to
the siege of Zara, among whom the abbot of Vaux de Cemai
was sttfl conspicuous, opposed the expedition to Constanti-
nople with great vehemence ; they were indignant that the
interests of Gtod should be placed in the balance against
those of Alexius ; they addea thaf this Isaac, whose cause
they were called upon to defend, was hjmself an usurper,
elevated by a revolution to the throne of the Comnenas ;
that he had been, during the third crusade, the most cruel
enemy of the Christians, the most faithful ally of the Turks ;
as for the rest, the nations of Greece, accustomed to the
change of masters, supported the usurpation of Alexius
without murmuring, and the Latins had not quitted their
homes to avenge the injuries of a people that really did not
call upon them for aid.

The same orators further said, that Philip of Swabis

70 HISTOBY OF THE CSITSjLDES.

exhorted the Crusaders to assist Alexius, but was content
liimself with making speeches and sending ambassadors;
thej warned the Christians not to trust to the promises of a
young prince, who engaged to furnish armies, and had not a
SLUgle soldier ; who offered treasures, and possessed nothing ;
who, besides, had been brought up amongst the Greeks, and
would, most likely, some day turn his arms against his
benefactors. " If you are so sensible to misfortune," added
they, " and impatient to defend the cause of justice and
humanity, listen to the groans of our brethren in Palestine,
who are menaced by the Saracens, and who have no earthly
hope but in your courage." They moreover told the Cru-
saaers, that if they wished for easy victories and brilliant
conquests, they had but to turn their eyes towards Egypt,
the population of which was at that moment devoured by a
hombie famine, and which the seven plagues of Scripture
yielded up to the arms of the Christians almost without
defence.

The Venetians, who had cause of complaint against the
emperor of Constantinople, were not at all affected by these
arguments, and appeared much more inclined to make war
upon the Greeks than the infidels; they were anxious to
destroy the warchouses of their rivals the Fisans, now estab-
lished in Greece, and to see their ships crossing the straits
of the Bosphorus in triumph. Their doge nourished a keen
resentment on account of some personal offence; and to
inflame the minds of his compatriots, he magnified all the
wrongs inflicted by the Greeks on his own country and tho
Christians of the West.

K ancient chronicles may be believed, Dandolo was im-
pelled by another motive, which he did not avow before
the Crusaders. The sultan of Damascus, made aware of a
Christian army being^ assembled at Venice, and terrified at
the crusade that was preparing, had sent a considerable
treasure to the republic, to engage it to divert the Crusaders
from an expedition inta the Last. Whether we yield faith
to this account, or whetlier we consider it as a fable invented
by hatred and party spirit, such assertions, collected by
contemporaries, at least prove that violent suspicions were
then entertained against the Venetians by the dissatisfied
Crusaders, and particularly by the Christians of Syria, justly

HI8T0BT 07 THE CBU8ADES. " 71

irritated at not being assisted by the soldiers of the cross *
Nerertheless, we feel bound to add that the majority of the
Erench Crusaders stood in no need of being stimulated by
the example or speeches of the doge, to undertake a war
against the Gk-eet empire. Even those who opposed the
new expedition the most strongly, as well as all the other
Crusaders, entertained an inveterate hatred and a sovereign
contempt for the Greeks ; and the discussions had only the
more inflamed the general mind against a nation considered
inimical to the Christians.

Several ecclesiastics, having at their head the abbot of
Looz, a personage remarkable for his piety and the purity
of his manners, did not accord in opinion with the abbot of
Yaux de Cemai, and maintained that there was much dan-
ger in leading an army into a country devastated by famine;
that Greece presented much greater advantages to the Cru-
saders than Egypt, and that there could be no doubt that
the conquest ot Constantinople was the most certain means
of securmg to the Christians the possession of Jerusalem.

* We find in the coatinuator of William of Tyre the following circum-
stance :~Malek-Adel being informed that the Crusaders were assembling
at Venice, conceived great uneasiness regarding their ulterior designs.
He called together the heads of the Christian clergy at Cairo, and an-
nounced to them that a new expedition was preparing in Europe, and that
they must provide themselves with horses, arms, and provisions, llie
bishops, to whom he addressed himself to obtain the succour of which he
stood in need, replied that their sacred ministry did not allow them to
fight. ** Well," answered Malek-Adel, ** since you cannot fight your-
selves, you must provide me with men to fight in your place." He then
demanded of them an account of the lands they possessed, and ordered
that these lands should be sold ; and the money produced by this confis-
cation was sent to Venice, to corrupt the leaders of that republic, and to
engage them to divert the Crusaders from an expedition into Egypt or
Syria. Malek-Adel at the same time promised the Venetians all sorts of
privileges for their trade in the port of Alexandria. This singular cir-
cumstance, related at first, as we have said, by the continuator of William
of Tyre, is to be found also in Bernard T^etaurariuM, and in the Chronicle
of St. Victor. Marin. Sanut, it lb true, parses it by in silence, and con-
tents himself with saying that Malek-Adel went into Egypt and there
collected a treasure. But it may be observed that Marin. Sanut was a
Venetian, and had a good reason not to report all the details of a fact
which was noi to the glory of his country. Bernard when relating it, adds :
-^-Qualiter autem hujus rei efTectus fuerit in opinione paten ti multorum
est, si legantnr quse Veneti cum baronibns ipsis peregerunt, detruhendo
eos ad obsidionem Jadrsi et deinde Constantinopolim.

72 HISTOBY OF THE CBV8ADES.

These ecclesiastics were particularlj fascinated by the hope
of one day seeing the Greek Church united to that of Some,
and they constantly announced in their discourses the ap-
proaching period of concord and peace among all Christiaa
people.

Many knights contemplated with satisfaction the prospect
of the union of the two churches, likely to be brought about
by their arms ; but they yielded further to motives not less
powerful over their minds ; they had sworn to defend inno-
cence and the rights of the oppressed, and tKey believed
they performed their duty in embracing the cause of Alexius.
Some of them, without doubt, who had heard of the vast
wealth of Byzantium, might believe that they should not
return from such a brUliant undertaking emptj handed ^ but
such was the spirit of the lords and knights, that by far the
greater number were attracted by the mere prospect of the
perils, and still more by the wonders of the enterprise.
After a long deliberation, it was decided in the council
of the Crusaders that the proposals of Alexius should be
accepted, and that the Christian army should embark for
Constantinople at the commencement of spring.

Before the siege of Zara, the report of the armament of
the Crusaders, and of an expedition against Greece had
reached the court of Byzantium. The usurper of the
throne of Isaac immediately sought for means to avert the
storm about to fall upon his states, and hastened to send
ambassadors to the pope, whom he considered the arbiter of
peace and war in the "West. These ambassadors were
ordered to declare to the sovereign pontiff that the prince
who reigned at Constantinople was the only legitimate
emperor ; that the son of Isaac had no right to the empire ;
that an expedition against Greece would be an unjust enter-
prise, dangerous, and adverse to the great designs of the
crusade. The pope, in his reply, did not at all seek to calm
the fears of the usurper, but told his envoys that young
Alexius had numerous partisans among the Crusaders,
because he had made- a promise to succour the Holy Land
• in person, and to put an end to the rebellion of the Greek
Church. The pope did not approve of the expedition
against Constantmople ; but, by speaking in the way he did,
he thought that the sovereign who then reigned over Greece

HI8T0BT 07 THS CBUSADEB. 73

mijght be induced to make the same promiBeB as the fugiiiye
prince, and would be more able to fulfil them ; he conceived
a hope that thej might treat adrantageoufilj, without having
recourse to the sword, and that the debates concerning the
empire of the East would be referred to his supreme tribu-
nal. But the elder Alexius, whether hb was persuaded that
he had suffidentlj interested the pope in his cause, or whe-
ther he deemed it most prudent not to appear alarmed, or,
in short, whether the prospect of a distant danger could not
remove his habitual mdolence, sent no more ambassadors,
and made not the least exertion to prepare against the inva-
sion of the waniors of the West.

In another direction, the king of Jerusalem and the
Christians of Palestine never ceased to give vent to their
complaints, and to implore the assistance that the head of
the Church had promised them. The pope, much affected
bj theiir prayers, and always zealous for the crusade he had
preached, renewed his efforts to direct the arms of the Cru-
saders against the Saracens. He sent the cardinals, Peter
of Capua, and Siffired, into Palestine, as legates of the Holy
See, to revive the courage of the Christians, and announce
to them the approaching departure of the army of Crusa-
ders ; but when he learnt that the leaders had determined
upon attacking the empire of Constantinople, he poured
upon them the most bitter reprimands, and reproached them
with looking behind them, as Lot's wife had done. " Let
none among you," said he, " flatter himself that he may be
allowed to invade or plunder the lands of the Greeks, under
the pretence that the empire is not sufficiently submissive,
or that the emperor has usurped the throne of his brother ;
whatever crime he may have committed, it is not for you to
constitute yoiurself the judge of it : you did not assume the
cross to avenge the injuries of princes, but that of Grod.*'

Innocent finished his letter without bestowing his bene-
diction upon the Crusaders ; and, to frighten them from
their new enterprise, threatened them with the maledictions
of Heaven. The barons and knights received the rem on*
strances of the sovereign pontiff with respect ; but did not
at all waver in the resolution they had formed.

Then the opponents of the expedition to Constantinople
renewed their complaints, and employed no sort of modera-

4*

74 HISTOKT OH THE CBU8AJ)£S.

tion in their discourses. The abbot of Yaux de Cemai, the
abbot Martin Litz, one of the preachers of the crusade, the
count de Montfort, and a great number of knights employed
every effort to shake the determination of the army ; and
when they found they could not succeed, retolved to leave
them, some to return to their homes, and others to take the
route to Palestine. Those who abandoned their colours, and
those who remained in the camp, mutually accused each
other with betraying the cause of Christ.* Five hundred
soldiers having thrown themselves on board a vessel, were
shipwrecked and all swallowed up by the waves; many
others, in crossing Illyria, were massacred by the savage in-
habitants of that country. These perished cursing the am-
bition and errors which had turned the Christian army aside
from the true object of the crusade; whilst those who
remaiued faithful to their standards, deplored the tragical
death of their companions, saying among themselves : *' The
mercy of the Lord has remained with us ; evU he to them who
stray from the way of the ZordJ**

The knights and barons regretted in secret that they had
not been able to obtain the approbation of the pope, but
were persuaded that, by means of victories, they should jus-
tify their conduct in the eyes of the Holy See ; and that the
father of the faithful would recognise in their conquests
the expression of the will of Heaven.

The Crusaders were upon the point of embarking, when
young Alexius himself arrived at Zara. His presence
created a fresh enthusiasm for his cause ; he was received
amidst the sounds of trumpets and clarions, and presented
to the army by the marquia of Montferrat,t whose elder
brothers had been connected by marriage and the dignity of
Ca)sar, with the imperial family of Constantinople. The
barons hailed young Alexius as emperor, with the greater
joy, that they hoped his future grandeur would be the work

* The marshal of Champagne lets no opportunity escape for blaming
^ith bitterness those who abandoned the army of the Crusaders.

t A double alliance and the dignity of Caesar had connected the two
elder brothers of Boniface with the imperial family. Reinier of Mont-
ferrat had married Mary, daughter of the emperor Manuel Comnenus ;
Conrad, who haj^efended Tyre before the third crusade, was married to
Theodora Angela, sister of the emperors Isaac and Alexins.

HI8T0BT OF THE CBXISABES. 75

of their hands. Alexius took arms to break the chains of
his father, and they admired in him a most touching model
of Christian piety : he was about to combat usurpation, to
punish injustice, and stifle heresy, and thej looked upon him
as an envoy of Providence. The misfortimes of princes
destined to reign affect us more sensibly than those of other
men ; in the camp of the Crusaders, the soldiers talked over
the story of Alexius among themselves, and they pitied his
youth, and deplored his exile and the captivity of Isaac.
Alexius, accompanied by the princes and barons, went con-
stantly among the soldiery, and replied by demonstrations
of the warmest gratitude to the generous interest the Cru-
saders evinced in his favour.

Animated by sentiments which misfortune inspires, and
which not unfrequently terminate with it, the young prince
was . lavish of vows and protestations, and promisea even
more thim he had done bynis envoys, without thinking that
he placed himself under the necessity of failing in his word,
and drawing upon himself, one day, the reproaches of his
liberators.

The Crusaders, however, renewed every day their vow to
place youne Alexius on the throne of Constiuitinople ; and
Italy and the whole West rung with the fame of their pre-
parations. The emperor of Byzantium appeared to be the
only person ignorant of the war declared agamst his usurped
power, and slept upon a throne ready to crumble from under
him.

The emperor Alexius, like the greater part of his prede-
cessors, was a prince without virtues or character ; when he
deposed his brother, he allowed the crime to be committed
by his courtiers, and when he was upon the throne he aban-
doned to them the charge of his authority. He was lavish
of the treasures of the state, to secure pardon and oblivion
for his usurpation ; and, to repair his finances, he sold jus-
tice, ruined his subjects, and plundered the merchant snips
that traded between Eamisa and Constantinople. The
usurper scattered dienities and honours with such profusion,
that no one thought himself honoured by them, and there r^
mained in his hands no true reward for merit. Alexius had
associated his wife Euphrosyne with himself in the sovereign
authority, and she filled the empire with her intrigues, and

76 HISTOBT OF THE CBU8AD£8.

scandalized the court by tbe laxity of her morals. Under
his reign the empire had been several times menaced by the
Bulgarians and the Turks ; Alexius occasionallj visited the
army, but he never faced the enemy. Whilst the Bulga-
rians were ravaging his frontiers, he employed himself in
levelling hills, and tracing gardens on the shores of the
Propontis. Abandoned to a shameful effeminacy, he dis-
banded a part of his army ; and fearing to be disturbed in
his pleasures by the din of arms, he sold the sacred vases,
and plundered the tombs of the Greek emperors, to purchase
peace of the emperor of Germany, who had become master
of Sicily. The empire had no navy left ; the ministers had
sold the rigging and equipments of the vessels, and the
woods that might have furnished timber for new ships, were
reserved for ihe pleasures of the prince, and guarded as
strictly, says Nicetas, as those formerly consecrated to the
gods.*

Such numbers of conspiracies never were heard of; under
a prince who was rarely visible, the government appeared to
be in a state of interregnum ; the imperial throne was as an
empty seat, which every ambitious man aspired to occupy.
Devotedness, probity, bravery, were no longer held in esteem
by courtiers or citizens. Jfothing was deemed worthy of
public approbation or reward but the invention of a new
pleasure or the fabrication of a fresh impost. Amidst this
general depravity, the provinces knew nothing of the em-
peror but by the exaction of taxes ;t and the army, without

* The army w&s no longer to be dreaded by the emperors as it had
been in the early days of the empire ; but it was no more an object of fear
to its enemies than to its master. A modem historian, M. Sismondi,
finds in the government of the Greek empire a complete and incon-
testable evidence of the natural and necessary effects of the worst of
governments. The ancients were acquainted with scarcely any medium
between liberty and despotism. The government of Constantinople had
retained, up to the middle of the middle ages, all which characterized the
despotism of the ancients, although we must allow that this despotism was
sometimes tempered by religion and the influence of the patriarchs of
l^zantium.

t Lebeau, in his History t describes at length the decline of the Greek
empire and the vices of the emperors. Gibbon, a much more enlightened
obwerver, sometimes neglects important details connected with this period,
and in his latter volumes, too often forgets the Greeks to speak of the

HISTOBT 07 THB CEUSADXI. 77

diBciDline snd without pay, bad no leaden capable of com-
manaing it. Everytbing announced an approaching revolu-
tion in the empire ; and the peril was the greater from no
one haying the courage to foresee it. The subjects of Alexius
never dr^unt of obtruding truth upon the imperial ear ;
birds, taught to repeat satires^ alone interrupted the silence
of the people, and published from the roofs of houses, and
in the high streets, the scandals of the court and the dis-
grace of wie empire.

The Ghreeks, at the same time superstitious and corrupt,
still preserved some remembrances of ancient Greece and
old Eome ; but these remembrances, instead of creating a
noble, emulative pride, only nourished in their hearts a puerile
vanity, and their history, of which they were so vain, only
served to render more striking their own degradation and
their empire's too evident decay. The voice of patriotism
was never heard, and no influence was obeyed but that of
the monks placed at the head of affairs of all kinds, who
attracted and preserved the confidence of both people and
prince by frivolous predictions and senseless visions. The
Greeks wasted their time in vain disputes, which enervated
their character, increased their ignorance, and stifled their
patriotism. At the moment the fleet of the Crusaders was
about to set sail, Constantinople was in a state of ferment
with discussing the question whether the body of Jesus
Christ, in the Eucharist, is corruptible or incorruptible;
each opinion had its partisans, whose defeats or triumphs
were, by turns, loudly proclaimed — and the threatened em-
pire remained without defenders.

The Yenetians and Erench lefl Zara, and the isle of Corfu
was appointed as the place of meeting for the whole fleet.*
When they landed on the shores of Macedon, the inhabitants
of Duras brought young Alexius the keys of the city, and
acknowledged him as their master. The people of Corfu

barbarous nations of the East and West tbat had shared the wrecks of the
Roman empire.

* We may consult, for an account of this expedition, the marshal of
Champagne, Gunther, and some passages of Nicetas. Rhamnosius has
only made a pompous paraphrase of Villehardouin. Lebeau and the
Abbe Laugier say a great deal of the events we are relating. This expe-
dition of the Crusaders has been splendidly desoribed by the historian
Gibbon.

78 HIBTOBT OF THJS CBU8ia)£8.

vere not tardj in following this example, and received the
CruBadera as liberators: the acclamations of the Greek
people, in the passage of tlic Latins, was a happy auguiy
for the success of their expedition.

The island of Corfu, the country of the Phoenicians, so
celebrated by the shipwreck of Ulysses and by the gardens
of Alcinoiis, afforded the Crusaders pasturage and abundance
of provisions. The fertility of the island induced the leaders
to remain there several weeks ; but so long a repose did not
fail to produce evil consequences in an army supported by
enthusuism, to which no time for reflection should nave been
allowed, and, amidst indulgence and idleness, the complaints
and murmurs of the siege of Zara broke out again.

They learnt that Gauthier de Brienne had conquered
Apulia and the kingdom of Naples. This conquest,
effected in a few months, by sixty knights, inflamed the
imagination of the Crusaders, and furnished the malcon-
tents with a fresh opportunity for blaming the expedition to
Constantinople, the preparations for which were immense,
the perils evident, and tne success uncertain. " Whilst we
are going," said they, "to exhaust the resources of the "West
in a useless enterprise, in a distant war, Gauthier de Brienne
has made himself master of a rich kingdom, and is preparing
to fiilfil the promises he has entered into with us to aeliver
the Holy Land ; why should we not demand vessels of him ?
why should we not set out for Palestine with him ?" These
speeches prevailed over a great number of the knights, who
were ready to separate themselves from the army.

The chief malcontents had already assembled in a secluded
valley to deliberate upon the means of executing their pro-
ject, when the leaders of the army were warned of tlieir
plot, and immediately united all their efforts to prevent the
latal consequences of it. The doge of Venice, the count of
Planders, the counts of Blois and St. Paul, the marquis of
Montferrat, and several bishops clothed in mourning habits,
with crosses borne before them, repaired to the valley in
which the malcontents were met. As soon as they, from a
distance, perceived their unfaithfiil companions, who were
deliberating on horseback, they alighted, and advanced to-
waards the place of assembly in a suppliant manner. Tlio
instigators of the desertion, seeing the leaders and prelates

HI8T0AT OF THE CBU8ADE8* 79

of the army coming thus towards them, suspended their
deliberations, and themselves dismounted from their horses.
The parties approached each other ; the princes, counts, and
bishops threw themselves at the feet of the malcontents,
and, bursting into tears, swore to remain thus prostrated till
the warriors who wished to abandon them, haa renewed the
oath to follow the armj of the Christians, and to remain
faithful to the standard of the holy war. " When the others
saw," says Villehardouin, an ocular witness, " when they saw
their liege lords, their dearest relations and friends thus
cast themselves at their feet, and, so to say, cry to them for
mercy, they were moved with great pity, and their hearts
were so softened, they could not refrain frx)m weeping, and
they told them that they would consider of it together,
{QuHU 9^ en aviseraient par ensemble) ." After having retired
for a moment to deliberate, thev came back to their leaders,
and promised to remain with the army until the beginning
of autumn, on condition that the barons and lords would
swear upon the Gospel to furnish them at that period with
vessels to convey them to Syria. The two parties engaged
themselves by oath to perform the conditions of the treaty,
and returned together to the camp, where nothing now was
spoken of but the expedition to Constantinople.

The fleet of the Crusaders quitted the island of Corfu
under the most happy auspices; the historians who have
described its progress through that archipelago, so full of
remembrances of antiquity, have not been able to refrain
from employing the language of poetry. The wind was
favourable, and the sky pure and serene ; a profound calm
reigned over the waves ; three hundred vessels of all sizes,
with their colours floating from their stems, covered an im-
mense space ; the helmets and cuirasses of thirty thousand
warriors reflected the rays of the sun ; now were heard
Bounding over the waters the hymns of the priests, invoking
the blessings of Heaven ; and then the voices of the soldiers,
soothing the leisure of the voyage wdth warlike songs ; and
the braying of trumpets and neighing of horses, mingled
with the dashing of oars, resounded from the coasts of the
Peloponnesus, which presented themselves to the eyes of the
pilgrims. The Crusaders doubled Cape Matapan, known
formerly as Tenara, and passed before the heights of Malea,

80 HISTOBT OV THB OBUaABSB.

without dread of the rocks so much feared by ancient navi-
eators. Near Gape Malea thej met two vessels returning
&om Palestine, in which were many Flemish pilgrims. At
sight of the Venetian fleet, a soldier on board one of the
two ships, slipped down a rope, and bade adieu to his com-
panions, saying : ** I leave you all I lume on hoard, for I am
^na with people who intend to conquer kin^doms,*^*

The Crusackrs landed at several islands they fell in with
on their passage ; the inhabitants of Andros and Negro-
pont came out to meet Alexius, and acknowledged him as
their emperor. It was the period of harvest, and the land
presented, everywhere, a spectacle of the richest abundance.
The enjoyment of a beautiful climate, the satisfaction at the
submission of the Greeks, so many riches, so many wonders,
80 many unknown regions, all daily increased the enthusiasm
of the Crusaders. At length the fleet arrived at the entrance
of the Bosphorus, and cast anchor in the port of St. Stephen,
three leagues from the capital of the Q-reek empire.

Then the city of Constantinople, of which they were
about to effect the conquest, broke full upon the view of
the Crusaders ;t bathed on the south by the waves of the
Fropontis, on the east by the Bosphorus, and on the north
by the gulf that serves as its port, it presented a spectacle
at once magnificent and formidable. A double enclosure of
walls surroimded it in a circumference of more than seven
leagues ; a vast number of splendid buildings, whose roofs
towered above the ramparts, appeared to proclaim the queen
of cities. The shores of the Bosphorus to the Euxine and

* ViUebardouin.

t It would be diflBcult to giye a very exact idea of the city of Constan-
tinople as it was at the period of this crusade. Among the trayellers who
have described this capital at a time nearer than onr own to the middle
ages, we onght to remark Peter Gilles and Grelot, who saw Constanti-
nople, the one in the reign of Francis I., and the other in the reign of
Louis XIV. Their description has furnished those who came after ihcm
with many documents. Revolutions, wars, the Turks, and fires change
every day the aspect of this city, which was already much altered in the
times of the travellers we have named. Ducange, in his Christiana Con'
BtanitnopoUat and Banduri, in his Trnperium Orieniale, have collected all
the information of the old travellers and the Greek historians. Among
modem travellers Constantinople, Ancient and Modern^ by the English-
man Dallaway, and Le Voyage de la ProponOde, by M. Lechavalier, may
bo ooDsolted with advantage.

HI8TOBT OT THB CRUSADES. 81

to the HeUespont, resembled an immense faubourg, or one
continued line of gardens. The cities of Chalcedon and
Scutari, built on the Asiatic shore, and Galata, placed at
the extremity of the gulf, appeared in the distance, and
crowned the immense and magnificent picture which lay
before the warlike hosts of the Crusaders.

Constantinople, situated between Europe and Asia, be-
tween the Archipelago and the Black Sea, joins together the
two seas and the two continents. In the times of its splendour,
it held at its pleasure the gates of commerce open or shut ;
its port, which received the vessels of all the nations of the
world, deserved to be termed by the Greeks, the golden ham,
or the ham of abundance. Like ancient Eome, Constantinople
extended over seven ascents, and, like the citv of Eomulus,
it sometimes bore the name of the city of the seven hills ;
in the times of the crusades, its walls and its towers were
compared to those of Babylon ; its deep ditches were con-
verted at will into a large and rapid lake, and the city could,
at the least signal, be surrounded by waters, and separated
from the continent.

The monarch who founded it reigned over all the known
nations of the world, and in the execution of his designs he
had the advantage of making the arts and sciences of Greece
concur with the genius and power of the Bomans. Not
content with employing the beautiful marbles of the isles of
the Archipelago, he caused materials to be transported from
the extremities of Europe and Asia; all the cities of the
Boman empire, Athens, and Borne itself, were spoiled of
their ornaments to embellish the new citv of the Caesars.
Several of the successors of Constantine had repaired the
edifices that were crumbling into ruins, and had erected
iresh monuments in Constfmtinople, which in its temples,
upon its public places, and around the walls, everywhere re-
called the memory of twenty glorious reigns. The city was
divided into fourteen quarters ; it had thirty-two gates ; it
contained within its bosom circuses of immense extent, five
hundred churches, among which St. Sophia claimed atten-
tion as one of the wonders of the world ; and five palaces,
which themselves looked like cities in the midst of the great
city. More fortunate than its rival Bome, the city of Con-
stantinu had never beheld tho barbarians within its walls ; it

82 HISTOBT OF THE CBU8AJ)SB.

preserved with its language' the depository of the master-
pieces of antiquity, and the accumulated nches of the East
and the West.

It would be difficult to paint the enthusiasm, the fear, the
surprise that took possession of the minds of the Crusaders
at the aspect of Constantinople.* The leaders landed, and
passed one night in the abbey of St. Stephen. This night
was employed in anxious deliberation upon what they had to
do ; at one time they resolved to land upon the isles ; then
they determined to make a descent upon the continent. In
the very same instant thev drew back in terror and gave
themselves up to a wild joy; they could not come to any
fixed determmation, but changed their plans and their pro-
jects a thousand times. At daybreak Dandolo, Bonitace,
JBaldwin, and the count de Blois ordered all the standards
of the army to be unfurled ; the escutcheons and coats of
arms of the counts and knights were ranged along the ves-
sels,t to display the military pomp of the West and recall to
the warriors the valour of their ancestors. The sifi;nal was
given to the fleet, which entered into the canal, and, driven
on by a favourable wind, passed close to the walls of Con-
stantinople. An immense population,J who only the day
before were ignorant of the arrival of the Latins, crowded
the ramparts and covered the shore. The warriors of the
West, clad in complete armour,§ stood erect upon the decks

* Haling cast anchor, sncli as had never been there before began to
contemplate this beantiful and magnificent city, the equal to which they
thought could not be found in the whole world. When they perceived
those high walls and large towers so near to each other, with which it was
furnished all round, and those rich and superb palaces and churches rising
above all, and in such great number, that they could not easily believe
they saw them with their eyes ; together with the fine situation of the
city, in its length and breadth, which of all other cities was the sove*
reign, &c. — Villehardouin.

t Ducange, in his observations upon Villehardouin, gives a very
learned note upon the arms and escutcheons which the warriors of the
middle ages caused to be ranged on board their vessels, and which served
them as battlements to shelter them from all the arrows of the enemy.

X The Greek historian Nicetas says, that the navigation of the Cru-
saders had been so favourable and so rapid, ** that they arrived in the
port of St. Stephen without being perceived by anybody."

% Nioetas, speaking of the Crusaders, says they were almost all as tall
as their spears.

HI8T0BT OY TBM GAUSADXS. 88

of their Teasels ;* some stones and arrows were launched from
the towers and fell upon the ships : *' there was no heart/'
says Yillehardouin, " so bold as not to be moved ; for never
was so great an affair undertaken/' Every warrior turned his
eye towards his sword, thinking the time was come in which
to make use of it. The Crusaders fimcied that in the crowd of
spectators they beheld the defenders of Constantinople ; but
the capital of the empire was only defended by the memory
of its past glory, and oy the respect of the nations ignorant
of its wealmess. Of true soldiers the imperial arzny only
mustered two thousand Fisans, who despised the Greeks,
and the troop of Varangians, mercenary soldiers from the
northern parts of Europe, with whose origin and country the
Greeks themselves were scarcely acquainted.t

The Crusaders made a descent upon the Asiatic shore of
tlie Bosphorus, pillaged the city of Chalcedon, and esta-
blished themselves in the palace and gardens in which the
emperor Alexius had so long forgotten his own dangers and
those of his empire. At the approach of the Venetian fleet,
this prince had retreated to Constantinople, where, like the

* Nioetas says, among the Venetian yeaaela there was one so Urge that
it was caUed the World.

t The Varangians, who were in the serTioe of the Greek emperors,
have given rise to many discussions among the learned. Villehardouin
says that the Varangians were English and Danes. The count de St.
Pol, in a letter written from Constantinople, calls them English, Livo-
nians, Dacians. Other historians call them Celts, Germans. The word
Varaogians appears to be taken from an English word warinfft* which
means wsrrior ; this word is met with in the Danish, and several other
tongues of the north of Eorope. Ducange thinks the Varangians came
from Danish England, a small province of Denmark, between Jutland
and Holstein. M. Malte Bnin, in the notes that accompany the History
qfRutna, by L^vesqne, thinks the Varangians drew their recruits from
Scandinavia ; that some came from Sweden by Norvogorod and Kiow,
others from Norway and Denmark by the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
We still possess a dissertation upon the Varangians by M. de Villoison,
in which we find more learning than criticism . The most probable opinion
is that of Ducange and M. Malte Brun. We have but one observation
to make, which is, that it is probable the Varangians were not members of
the Roman church ; if they followed the Greek religion, may we not
believe that they belonged to the nations of the North, among whom it
had been introduced ?

■ An Englishman is rather at a loss to tell where our author finds this
word. Jolmson derives war from irerre— old Dutch. — ^T&ans.

84 niStCOST OT the CSViJlDES.

last king of Babylon, he continued to live amidst pleasures
and festiyities, without reflecting that he had been judged,
and that his hour was nearly come. His courtiers, in the
intoxication of the banquet, celebrated his power and pro-
claimed him invincible ; amidst the pomp that surrounded
him, and which appeared to him a rampart against the
attacks of his enemies, he, in his speeches, insulted the sim-
plicity of the Latins, and believed he had conquered them
because he had called them barbarians.

AVhen he saw the Crusaders masters of his palace and gar-
dens, he began to entertain some degree of fear, and sent an
Italian named Eossi, with orders to salute the lords and
barons. "The emperor my master," said the envoy of
Alexius, " knows that you are the most puissant and most
noble princes among those who do not wear crowns ; but he
is astonished that you should have come to bring war into a
Christian empire. Rumour proclaims that your design is to
deliver the Holy Land from the yoke of the Saracens ; the
emperor applauds your zeal, and solicits the honour of being
associated with your enterprise ; he is ready to assist you
with all his power. But it* you do not quit his states, he
shall feel obliged to direct against you the forces he would
willingly have employed in your cause and in that of Christ.
Accept, then, the generous offers that he makes to you by
me ; out do not believe that this pacific language is dictated
by fear. The emperor Alexius reigns over Greece by the
love of his people as well as by the will of God ; with one
single word he could gather around him innumerable armies,
disperse your fleet and your battalions, and close against
you for ever the routes to. the East."

The envoy of the emperor thus terminated his speech
without naming either Isaac or young Alexius. Conon de
B6thune,* who answered for the leaders of the army, was
astonished that the brother of Isaac should dare to speak as
master of the empire, and that he had not thought fit to
attempt to justify a parricide which had roused the in-
dignation of all Christian nations. " Go and tell your

* Le Pere d*Outreman ipeaks thiu of Conon de B^thnne: Vir domi
militiseque nobilis et foecandus inpaucts.— Onv/an/m. Belg, lib. iii. Yille-
hardooin says that Conon de Jwchnna ** was a wiae knigiit nad well-
ipoken."

HUTOBT or THE CBUtADXa. 85

master,*' said the orator of the CruBaden, addreflsing the
emperor's eiiTOj, *' go and tell him, that the earth we tread
upon does not belong to him, but that it is the heritage of
the prinoe you see seated amongst us. If he be desirous of
knowing the motire that brings us hither, let him ask his
own conscience, and remember the crimes he has committed.
A usurper is the enemy of all princes ; a tyrant is the enemy
of the whole human race. He who sent you has but one
means of escaping the justice of HeaTen and of men ; that
is, to restore to his brother and his nephew the throne ho
has wrested from them, and implead the pity of those same
princes towards whom he has been so merciless. In that
case we promise to add our prayers to his supplications, and
to procuro for him, with his pardon, the means of passing
his life in a repose far preferable to the splendour of an
usurped soyereignty ; but if he is not willing to act justly, if
he is inaccessible to repentance, tell him we disdain his
threats as we do his promises, and that we hare no time to
waste in listening to ambasoEidors." This yehement reply
was an actual declaration of war, and left the emperor no
hope of either seducing or intimidating the Crusaders. The
lonis and barons were, however, astonished that the Greeks
took no notice of young Alexius, and that the cause they
came to promote found no partisans in .the city of Constan-
tinople. They resolved to ascertain the inclinations of the
people. A galley, on board of which was the son of Isaac,
was brought close to the walls of the capital ;* Boniface and
Pandolo lield up the young prince, whilst a herald-at-arms
repeated in a loud voice these words : — " Behold the heir of
the throne; acknowledge your sovereign ; have pity on him and
on yourgelves.'^ The Qreeks assembled on the ramparts
remained motionless ; some answered by insulting language,
others maintained a sullen silence. Whilst the Crusaders
wero thus making a last attempt to preserve peace, the
most horrible tumult roigned in the mterior or the city.
The proaence of the Latins irritated the multitude ; they
assembled in the public places ; they excited each other to

* Thus went they Bailing along by the side of the walls, where they
showed Alexins to the Greeks, who from all parts flocked to the mole :
Sieurs Greeks, behold your natural lord, of that there is no doubt, &c &c.
-^VUlekmrdeyim, book iii

86 HIBTOBT OF THE CBVSADSS.

vengeance; the people ran to the quarter of the Franks,
demoliBhed several houses, and gave the rest up to pillage.
A great number of ^Latins, threatened with loss of iSe,
immediately sought an asylum in the camp of the Crusaders.
Their presence, tbeir accounts, their complaints, fired the
easily kindled indignation of the knights and barons. Prom
that moment the leaders saw no hopes but in the chance of
war and in the protection of the Heaven that had confided
to their hands the cause of innocence and misfortune.

Eighty knights succeeded in putting to flight a numerous
body of troops that the emperor had sent across the Bos-
phorus. " The Greek commanders," says Nicetas, " were
more timid than deer, and did not dare to resist men whom
they called exterminating angels, statties of bronze, which
spread around terror and death." The Crusaders, however,
had great cause to fear that the Greeks, recovered from their
first panic, might become aware of the small number of
their enemies, and succeed in overwhelming them by their
multitudes ; they resolved, therefore, to take advantage of
the fear they had inspired, and gave their whole attention to
forward the preparations for attacking enemies that had
provided nothmg for their defence.

The Christian army assembled at Chrisopolis (Scutari*),
and beheld full in front of them the capitol of the Greek
empire. After having put to flight some troops sent out to
follow their march or skirmish with them, .the leaders
mounted on horseback and deliberated in full assembly, on
the plan of action best to be piu^sued. They decided that the
army should cross the canal of the Bo^horus, and encamp
under the walls of Constantinople. " Then," says Villehar-
douin, " the bishops and the clergy addressed their remon-
strances to all those of the camp, exhorting them to confess
themselves, and make their testaments, for they did not
know the hour at which it might please God to call them,
and do his will by them ; which they did very willingly, and
with great zeal and devotion." When all was ready, and the
Crusaders had invoked the protection of Heaven by their
prayers, the signal for departure was given ; the war-horses,
saddled and covered witn their long caparisons, were em-

* It was nearly at this period that the city of Chrisopolis began to be
called Scutari. The name of Scutari is employed by VillehardoaiB.

HI8T0BT OF THX CBU8ADE8. 87

"barked in the flat-bottomed boats ; the knights stood erect
near their horses, helm on head and lance in hand; the
remamder of the troops went on board the large ships, each
of which was towed by a galley. The army of the Greeks,
commanded by the emperor in person, was drawn up in
battle array on the opposite shore, and appeared disposed to
dispute th epassage of the Crusaders. AU at once the vessels
heaved their anchors to the sounds of trumpets and clarions.
Every Soldier, with his eyes fixed on Constantinople, swore
to conquer or die. On approaching the shore, the barons
and knights cast themselves into the sea, fully armed, and
contended for the honour of first gaining the strand occupied
by the Greeks. The archers and foot-soldiers followed the
example of the knights ; in less than an hour the whole army
was on the other side of the Bosphorus, and looked about
in vain for an enemy over a plain they had so recently seen
covered with arms and warriors. The army of Alexius took
to flight ; and, if we may believe a letter of the count de
St. Pol, the swifbest arrows of the Latins could scarcely
overtake a few of the fugitives. The Crusaders, following up
their advantage, found the camp of the Greeks abandji.ea,
and plundered the tents of the emperor, without meeting
with one of his soldiers.

Night surprised them in the midst of their bloodless
victory ; and on the morrow they resolved to attack the
fortress of Galata, which, erected upon a hill, commanded
the port of Constantinople. From break of day the Greeks
rushed in crowds to anticipate and surprise the Latins. At
the first shock, Jacques d Avesnes was wounded grievouslv,
and placed hors de combat ; the sight of his wound highly
incensed the Flemish warriors, who precipitated themselves
with fury into the melSe, The Greeks were not able to
withstand the impetuous attack of their enemies, and took
t^o flight in ^eat disorder ; some, hoping to find an asylum
in the ships m the port, perished in the waves, whilst others
fled bewildered to the citadel, into which the conquerors
entered with the conquered. Whilst the French thus got
possession of Ghdata, the Venetian fleet, which was drawn up
in line of battle before Scutari, turned its prows towards the

Sort of Constantinople. The entrance of the gulf was
efended by an enormous chain of iron, and by twenty

88 HI8T0BT OF THS CBUfliJDES.

galleys, which constituted the whole navy of the empire.
The resistance of the Grreeks was obstinate ; but a vessel of
extraordinary size, assisted by a favourable wind, struck the
extended chain violently in its passage, and divided it with
enormous shears of steel, whicn opened and shut by the
operation of a machine.* The galleys of the Greeks were
soon taken, or dispersed in fragments on the face of the
waters, and the whole of the Venetian fleet rode in triumph
4nto the port : it was then the Greeks were able to per-
ceive what they had to dread from the invincible courage of
these barbarians, who had till that period been the object of
their contempt.

The French, masters of Galata, divided their army into
six great battles or divisions. Baldwin, who had under his
orders a great number of archers and crossbow-men, led the
van. The rear was composed of Lombards, Germans, and
Franks, from countries near the Alps, commanded by the
marquis of Montferrat. The other rour divisions, in which
were ranged the crusaders from Champagne, Burgundy, and
the banks of the Seine and the Loire, had at their head
Henry, brother of Baldwin, the counts of St. Pol and Blois,
and Matthew de Montmorend.

This army advancedf towards the west of the city, without
meeting with a single foe in its passage, and encamped
between the gate of Blachemss and the tower of Bohe*
mond.

The Greeks, in a single battle, had lost the empire of the
sea, and had no longer the power to defend the approach to
their capital. The Venetian fleet cast anchor near the
mouth of the river Barbysses.^ The Venetians, masters of

* The breaking of the chain of the port, according to the acooant of
Nicetas, spread the greatest consternation among the Greeks ; and mis-
fortone, says the historian of Byzantioxn, assumed so many different
forms, and prodaced so surprising a number of afflicting images, that no
mind is able to conoeif e them.

t For the first siege we may profitably consult the Letter qfiKe Ob-
taderM to the Popes the Hittory of Villehardouin ; Nicetas, Reign of
Alexius s the Chronicle of Daudolo; the War qf Conetaniinoplet by
D*Outreman ; Rhamnusius de Bell, Conttantinop. &c. &c.

% The name of Barbysses is at present unknown to the Turks, who
call this river Kiathana ; the Greeks call it Kartnricos, names which, in
both languages, remind us of the paper-mills that are al ita mouth.

HISTOUT or TUJE CBUSADES. 80

the port, were secure from all surprise, and had no cause to
fear being overpowered by numbers. If the whole army had
been united on board the fleet, there is very little doubt it
would have more easily triumphed over the efforts and
multitudes of the Greeks, and it was the advice of the doge
that such should be the plan ; but the knights and barons
could not be prevailed upon to fight on an element with
which they were unacquainted ; and they answered (we quote
Villehardouin), that they could not act so well upon the sea
as they could upon the land, where they could have their
horses and their arms. Their army, which did not muster
twenty thousand men under its banners, attacked without
fear a city, which, according to the account of some his-
torians, contained a million of inhabitants, and more than
two himdred thousand men able to bear arms.

Before they began the assault, the Crusaders deemed it
proper once more to invite the Greeks to make peace, by
receiving the son of Isaac as emperor ; and several barons
drew near to the walls, crying with a loud voice that there
was still time to listen to justice. Young Alexius was
surrounded by the Latin leaaers, and his presence among
them explained sufficiently clearly the meanmg of the words
addressed to the inhabitants of Constantinople. Their only
reply was hurling stones and javelins at the Crusaders ; the
people of Byzantium had been persuaded that young Alexius
came for the purpose of changing the manners, religion, and
laws of Greece.

History ought to add here, that sinco the intrigues of
ambition and the caprices of fortune had enjoyed the privi-
lege of bestowing masters upon them, the Greeks beheld
with indifference the successions of power or the changes of
their princes ; the Greek nations had not forgotten that it
was a revolution that lifted the family of Isaac to the impe-
rial throne. With the impressions this family had left in
their minds, the misfortunes and prayers of Alexius did not
move them sufficiently to declare in his favour, or take
arms to support his cause; since they were obliged to
choose between two new princes, he who was reigning
amongst them appeared preferable to him who implored their
aid.

From that time the attention and efforts of the Crusaders

Vol. II.— 5

90 HISTOBX or TH£ CB17SAJ)£S.

were solely directed to tbe prosecution of their perilous
enterprise. Their camp, placed between the gate of Bla-
chemao, and the castle of Bohemond, occupied but a very
small space before walls many leagues in extent. Every day
the Greeks made sorties ; the country round was covered
with the soldiers of the enemy ; the army of the besiegers
appeared to be themselves besieged by troops that were
imceasingly renewed. Day and night the Crusaders were
imder arms, and had neither time to take their food nor
refresh themselves by sleep. They liad only provisions for
three weeks, and could look for safety to nothing but a
speedy victory ; nevertheless, they continued to fill up the
ditches, and make their approaches to the ramparts. Ba-
listas, catapultas, rams, everything that could carry destruc-
tion and death into the city, were employed to second the
bravery and indefatigable ardour of the besiegers ; without
cessation, enormous masses fell with fearful crash, from the
tops of the walls ; and such was the surprising power of the
machines of war then in use, that the houses and palaces of
Constantinople were often shaken to their foundations by
stones launched from the camp of the Latins.*

After ten days of labour and fighting, the Crusaders deter-
mined to storm the city. Ou the morning of the 17th of
July, 1203, the trumpets and clarions sounded the signal ;
the coimt of Tlanders, who commanded the attack, passed
through the ranks, and directed the attention of his knights
to the ramparts of Constantinople, as the road which would
conduct them to an eternal glory. The army was immedi-
ately in motion, and every machme was directed against the
walls. One tower, which had fallen in with a great crash,
appeared to offer a passage to the troops of Baldwin.
Ladders were planted, and the most intrepid contended for
the honour of entering first into the city ; but, this time,
numbers prevailed over valour. A host of Greeks, encou-
raged by the presence of the Varangians and Pisans, hastened
to the rampart, and overturned the ladders. Fifteen Frank

* Nevertheless the superh palaces were ruined by the stones of an
extraordinary size that the besiegers Iaun(;hf>d with their machines, and
they were themselves terrified by the heavy masses that the Romans
rolled upon them from the walls. — Nicetatf Hist, qf Alexitu Comnema,
book iii.

HtSTOBY Of Xni: CHUSiLDES. 91

warriors, braving stones, beams, and torrents of Greek fire,
alone were able to maintain themselves on the walls, and
yielded only after fighting with desperate valour. Two of
these intrepid warriors were led to the emperor, who
watched the fight from the windows of the palace of Bla-
chemffi. Alexius had ceased to despise the Latms ; and, in hia
fright, he had such an idea of their courage, that the sight of
the two prisoners appeared to him a vieto^5^

At the same time the Venetians attacked the city by sea.
Dandolo ranged his fleet in two lines ; the galleys were in
the first rank, manned by archers, and laden with machines
of war ; behind the galleys advanced the large vessels, upon
which were constructed towers exceeding the loftiest of the
walls of Constantinople in height. At daybreak the con-
test began between the city and the fleet ; the Greeks,
armed with the Greek fire, the "Venetians, covered with their
armour, the ramparts and the vessels charged with a thou-
sand destructive instruments, cast from one to the other, by
turns, terror, fire, and death. The incessant dashing of the
oars, the shocks of the vessels against each other, the cries
of the sailors and combatants, the hissing of the stones,
javelins, and arrows, the Greek fire darting along the sea,
seizing on the ships and boiling upon the waves, presented'
altogether a spectacle a thousand times more fearful than
that of a tempest. Amidst this horrible tumult, Henry
Dandolo was heard : standing erect in his galley, he excited
his troops, and, with a terrible voice, threatened to hang
every man that did not land. The orders of the intrepid
doge were soon executed. The men of his galley took him
in their anns and bore him swiftly to the shore, the standard
of St. Mark floating over him. At sight of this, the efibrts
of the crew^s of the other galleys were redoubled, dl struck
the shore, and the soldiers rushed forward to follow their
venerable leader. The vessels, which had hitherto remained
motionless, now advanced and placed themselves between
the galleys, so that the whole fleet was extended in a single
line before the walls of Constantinople, and presented to the
terrified Greeks a formidable rampart raised upon the
waters. The floating towers lowered their draw-bridges
upon the ramparts of the city, and whilst, at the foot of the
walls, ten thousand arms planted ladders and battered with

92 maxoBT or the cbucudxs.

rams, on the Bummit a fearful conflict was maintained with
Bword and lance.

All at once the standard of St. Mark appeared upon one
of the towers, planted hj an invisible hand ; upon seeing
this the Venetians uttered a loud shout of joy, persuaded
that their patron saint fought at their head ; then* courage
proportionately increased with the . terror and despair of
their enemies ; the most intrepid cast themselves on to the
walls, and soon twenty-five towers were in their possession.
They pursued the Greeks into the city ; hut fearing to faU
into some ambush or be overwhelmed by the people, crowds
of whom filled the streets and covered the public places,
they set fire to the houses as they came to them on their
passage. The conflagration extended rapidly,* and drove
Defore it the terrified and trembling multitude. Whilst the
flames, preceding the conquerors, spread devastation on
their path, and nie greatest disorder prevailed in Constan-
tinople, Alexius, pressed by the cries of the people, mounted
on horseback, and ordered a sortie of the troops, by three
different gates, to attack the French, who were less fortunate
in this day's fight than the Venetians.

The army conducted by the emperor was composed of
sixty battalions ; clothed in all the marks of imperial dignity,
Alexius rode along the ranks, animated his soldiers, and
promised them victory. At his approach, the Crusaders
abandoned the rampiui^s, and drew up in line of battle
before their camp.f Villehardouin admits that the bravest
knights were, for a moment, seized with fear. Dandolo,
who saw the danger in which the French were placed, aban-
doned his victory, and flew to their aid. But all the Cru-
saders united, could not have resisted the imperial army, if
the Greeks, but more particularly their leaders, had shown
a spark of courage. The troops of Alexius would not ad-

* The historian of Byzantium says, with regard to this fire, that so
lamentable a spectacle was capable of producing floods of tears sufficiently
abundant to have extinguished the conflagration.

t The marshal of Champagne describes to us the order of battle of the
liatins, as it was drawn up according to the tactics of the middle ages.
The Crusaders issued from their camp divided into six bodies ; they ranged
themselves before their palisades. The knights were on horseback, their
sergeants and esquires were behind them close to the quarters of their
hones ; the crossbow-men and archers were in finmt.

HI8T0BY or THE CBU8ADE8. 93

vance nearer than within bow-shot, and contented themselves
with showering a multitude of arrows from a safe distance.
The son-in-law of the emperor, Loscaris, of whose courage
the Greeks and even the Latins boast, demanded with loud
cries that the Crusaders should be attacked in their intrench*
menta ; but he could not prevail upon Alexius, surrounded
by base coiurtiers who endeavoured to communicate their
own alarms to him, and assured him that he had done enough
for his glory in showing himself to his enemies. The em-
peror, without having fought, ordered a retreat to be sounded,
and his numerous troops, who still bore the name of Bomans,
and before whom the eagles of Eome were carried, returned
i^ith him into Constantinople.

Every quarter of the capital resounded with lamentations
and groans ; the Greeks were more terrified at the cowardice
of their defenders, than by the bravery of their enemies ;
the people accused the army, and the army accused Alexius.
The emperor mistrusting the Greeks and dreading the Latins,
now only thought of saving his own life : he abandoned his
funily, his friends, his capital ; he embarked secretly in the
darkness of night, and fled to seek a retreat in some obscure
comer of his empire.

When daylight informed the Greeks that they had no
longer an emperor, the disorder and excitement of the city
became excessive ; the people assembled in the streets, and
fi*eely discussed the errors and deficiencies of their leaders,
the infamy of the favourites, and their own misfortunes.
JN'ow Alexius had abandoned his power, they remembered
the crime of his usurpation, and a thousand voices were
raised to invoke the anger of Heaven upon his head.
Amidst the confusion and tumult, the wisest were at a loss
what part to take, when the courtiers rushed to the prisbn
in which Isaac languished, broke his chains, and led him in
triumph to the palace of Blachemse. Althoujgh blind, he
was placed upon the throne, and, whilst he believed himself
to be still in the hands of his executioners, his ears were
saluted ^ith the unexpected accents of flattery ; on seeing
him again clothed in the imperial purple, the courtiers for
the first time became affected by misfortunes he no longer
endiu^d. All denied having been partisans of Alexius, and
rcliited what vows they had put up for his cause. They next

d'i UlSTOBT 07 THE CRUSADES.

sought out the wife of Isaac, whom they had forgotten, and
who had lived in a retreat to which no one knew or had
inquired the road during the preceding reign.

Eu|>hrosyne, the wife of the fugitive emperor, was accused
of having endeavoured to take advantage of the troubles of
Constantinople, to clothe one of her favourites "vsdth the
puiple. She was cast into a dungeon, and reproached with
all the evils that had fallen on her country, but most par-
ticularly with the lengthened miseries of Isaac. Such as
had been loaded with favours by this princess, were con-
spicuous among her accusers, and pretended to make a merit
of their ingratitude.

In political troubles, evenr change is, in the eyes of the
people, a means of safety ; they felicitated themselves upon
this new revolution in Constantinople ; hope revived in all
hearts, and Isaac was saluted by the multitude with cries of
joy and congratidation. Eumour soon carried to the camp
all that had taken place in the city. At this news the
coimcil of the barons and knights was assembled in the tent
of the marquis of Montferrat, and they returned thanks to
Providence, which in delivering Constantinople, had, at the
sahie time, delivered them from the greatest dangers. But
when they recollected having seen only on the preceding
day the emperor Alexius surrounded by an innumerable
army, they could scarcely give faith to the miracle of his
flight.

ITie camp was, however, soon crowded with a multitude
of Greeks, wlio came to relate the wonders of which they
had been witnesses. Many of the courtiers who had not
been able to attract the attention of Isaac, flocked to young
Alexius, in the hope of securing his first favours ; they
returned warm thanks to Heaven for having listened to the
ardent vows they had put up for his return, and conjured
him, in the name of his country and the empire, to come
and share the honours and the power of his father. But all
thfse testimonies could not persuade the Latins, so accus-
tomed were they to mistrust the Grreeks. The barons kept
their army in the strictest order, and always prepared lor
battle, and then sent Matthew of Montmorenci, Geofirey
de A^illehardouin, and two Venetian nobles to Constantinople
to ascertain the truth.

HISTORY OF THE CBTJSiJ)Ea. 95

The deputies vere directed to congratulate Isaac, if he
had recovered his throne, and to require of him the ratifica-
tion of the treaty made with his son. On arriving in Con-
stantinople, they were conducted to the palace of BlachemsB
hetween two ranks of soldiers, who, tne day before, had
formed the body-guard of Alexius, and who had just taken
the oath to defend Isaac. The emperor received the depu-
ties on a throne sparkling with gold and precious stones,
and, surrounded by all the splendour of Eastern courts.
" This is the manner," said Villehardouin, addressing Isaac,
" in which the Crusaders have fulfilled their promises ; it
now remains withyou to perform those that have been made
in your name. Tour son, who is with the lords and barons,
implores you to ratify the treaty he haa concluded, and com-
mands us to say that he will not return to your palace until
you have sworn to perform aU he has promised us." Alexius
had engaged to pay the Crusaders two hundred thousand
silver marks, to furnish their army with provisions for a
year, to take an active part in the perils and labours of tlie
holy war, and to reduce the Greek Church to submission to
that of Home. "When Isaac heard the conditions of the
treaty, he could not forbear from expressing his surprise,
and pointing out to the deputies how difficult it must do to
perform such promises ; but he could deny nothing to his
liberators, and thanked the Crusaders for not requiring
more :* " You have served us so welly'* added he, " that if we
were even to give you the whole empire, you would have
merited it.'* The deputies praised the frankness and good
faith of Isaac, and carried back to the camp the imperial
patents, to which was affixed the seal of gold that conhrmed
the treaty made with Alexius.

The lords and barons immediatelv mounted on horseback,
and conducted young Alexius into Constantinople. The son
of Isaac rode between the count of Flanders and the dogo
of Venice, followed by all the knights, clad in complete
armour. The people, who so lately had preserved a sullen

* Certes, voUa une capitalation bien Strange, repondit I'empereur, et
ne Toy pas comme elle se puisse accomplir, tant die est grande et execs-
rive. Nompourtant vous avez tout fait pour lui et pour rooy, que si Ton
Tous donnerait tout cet empire entierement, si I'avez vous bien desuivi. —
Vili€hardoum, book iv.

96 HISTORY OF THE CBU8AD£S.

silence on beholding him, now crowded around him on his
passage, and saluted him with loud acclamations ; the Latin
clergy accompanied the son of Isaac, and those of the Greek
Chiirch sent out their magnificent cortege to meet him. The
entrance of the young prince into the capital was a day of
festivity for both the Greeks and the Latins; in all the
churches thanks were offered up to Heaven ; hymns of
public rejoicing resounded everywhere; but it was par-
ticularly in the palace of Blachemce, so long the abode of
mourning and fear, that the greatest transports of joy were
manifested. A father, blind, and immured during eight
years in a dungeon, claspinfi; in his arms a son to whom he
owed the restoration of his liberty and crown, presented a
new spectacle that must have penetrated every heart with
lively emotions. The crowd of spectators recalled to their
minds the long calamities of these two princes ; and the
remembrance of so many evils past, appeared to them a
pledge for the blessings that Heaven had m store for the
empu«.

The emneror, reunited to his son, again thanked the
Crusaders for the services they had rendered him, and con-
jured the leaders to establish themselves with their army on
the other side of the Gulf of Chrysoceras. He feared that
their abode in the city might give birth to some quarrel
between the Greeks and the Latins, too long divided. The
barons vielded to the prayer of Isaac and Alexius, and the
army of the Crusaders took up their quarters in the faubourg
of Galata ; where, in abundance and repose, they forgot the
labours, perils, and fatigues of the war. The Pisans, who had
defended Constantinople against the Crusaders, made peace
with the Venetians; all discords were appeased, and no
spirit of jealousy or rivalry divided the Franks. The Greeks
came constantly to the camp of the Latins, bringing provi-
sions and merchandise of all kinds. The warriors of the
West often visited the capital, and were never tired ot
contemplating the palaces of the emperors, the numerous
edifices, the master-pieces of art, the monuments consecrated
to religion, and, above all, the relics of saints, which, accord-
ing to the marshal of Champagne, were in greater abundance
in Constantinople than in any other place in the world.

HISTOBT OF THE CEUSAJ)ES. 97

A few days after his entrance into Constantinople, Alexius
was crowned in the church of St. Sophia, and admitted to a
partition of the sovereign power with his father. The harons
assisted at his coronation, and offered up sincere wishes for
the happiness of his reign. Alexius hastened to discharge a
part 01 the sum promised to the Crusaders. The greatest har-
mony prevailed between the people of Byzantium and the
warriors of the West ; the Greeks appeared to have forgotten
their defeats, the Latins their victories. The subjects of Isaac
and Alexius mingled with the Latins without mistrust, and
the simplicity of the Franks was no longer the subject of their
raillery. The Crusaders, on their side, confided in the good
faith of the Greeks. Peace reigned in the capital, and
seemed to be the work of their himds. They respected the
two princes they had placed upon the throne, and the em-
perors retained an affectionate gratitude for tlieir liberators.

The Crusaders, having become the allies of the Greeks,
an4 the protectors of a great empire, had now no other
enemies to contend with but the Saracens ; and they turned
their minds to the fulfilment of the oath they had made on
taking the cross ; but, ever faithful to the hiws of chivalry,
the barons and knights deemed it right to declare war
before beginning it. Heralds-at-arms were sent to the
sultan of Cairo and Damascus, to announce to him, in the
name of Jesus Christ, in the name of the emperor of Con-
stantinople, and in the names of the princes and nobles of
the West, that he would soon experience the valour of the
Christian nations, if he persisted in holding under his laws
the Holy Land and the places consecrated by the presence
of the Saviour.

The leaders of the crusade announced the wonderful suc-
cess of their enterprise to all the princes and nations of
Christendom. Whilst addressing the emperor of Germany,*
they conjured him to take part in the crusade, and come
and place himself at the head of the Christian knights. The
account of their exploits excited the enthusiasm of the

* The Crasaders addressed Otho, and not Philip of Swahia, which is
▼cry strange, as Philip was the brother-in-law of Alexius ; but it is to be
observed that at this period the pope had declared in favonr of Otho, and
threatened Philip with the thunders of the Church.

5«

98 UISIOUZ OF TUS CBUSADES.

fiuthful ; the news, when carried into Syria^ spread terror
among the Saracens, and revived the hopes or the king of
Jerusalem and the defenders of the Holy Land : so much
glorious success ought to have satisfied the pride and valour
of the Crusaders; but, whilst the world resounded with
their glory, and trembled at the fame of their arms, the
knights and barons believed they had achieved nothing for
their own renown, or for the cause of God, until they had
obtained the approbation of the Holy See. The marquis of
Montferrat, the count of Flanders, the count of St. Pol,
and the principal leaders of the army, when writing to the
pope, represented to him that the success of their enterprise
was not the work of men, but the work of God. These
warriors, filled with haughty pride, who had just conquered
an empire; who, according to Nicetas, boasted oi fearing
nothing hut the falling of the heavens, thus bent their vie*
torious brows before the tribunal of the sovereign pontifi^,
and protested at the feet of Innocent, that no mundane
view nad directed their arms, and that he must only contem-
plate in them the instruments FroWdence had employed in
accomplishing its designs.

Young Alexius, in concert with the leaders of the crusaaes,
wrote at the same time to the pope, to justify his conduct
and that of his liberators. " We avow," said he, " that the
principal cause that induced the pilgrims to assist us, was
that we had promised, with an oath, to recognise the Eoman
pontiff as our ecclesiastical head, and the successor of St.
Feter." Innocent III. in replying to the new emperor of
Constantinople, praised his mtentions and his zeal, and
pressed him to accomplish his promises ; but the excuses of
the Crusaders were not able to appease the resentment
which the pope retained on account of their disobedience to
the counsels and commands of the Holy See. In his answer,
he did not salute them with his usual benediction, fearing
that they were again fallen under excommunication, bv
attacking the Greek emperor in spite of his prohibition, ff
the emperor of Constantinople, said he to them, does not
make haste to do that which he has promised, it will appear
that neither his intentions nor yours have been sincere, and
that you have added this second sin to that you have already

HI8T0BT OV THI CBUSADSS. 99

committed. The pope gave the CrusaderB fresh advice ; but
neither his counsels nor his threats produced any better
effect than they had done at the siege of Zara : Providence
was preparing in secret, events that exceeded the foresight
of the Crosaders, or even that of the Holy See, and which
would once again change the aim and object of the holy
war.

BOOK XI.

A.D. 1198—1204.

Whek war and revolutions have shaken an empire to its
foundation, evils arise against which no human wisdom can
provide. It is then that princes, called to the throne, are
more to be pitied than their subjects, and that their power
is more likely to excite commiseration than to awaken the
ambition or hatred of other men. The people, in the
extreme of misery, know not what bounds to put to their
hopes, and alwavs demand of the future more than the
future can possibly bring. When they continue to suffer
irreparable misfortunes, they blame their leaders, by whose
influence they expected all sorts of prosperity ; the murmurs
of unjust hatred soon succeed to the acclamations of an irre-
flcctive enthusiasm, and, not unfrequently, virtue itself is
accused of having caused evils which are the effects of revolt,
war, or bad fortune.

Nations themselves, when they have succumbed, and have
for ever lost their political existence, are not judged with
less severity or injustice than princes or monarchs: after
the fall of an empire, the terrible axiom va victis, receives
its application even in the judgment of posterity. Gene-
rations, quite equally with contemporaries, allow them-
selves to be dazzled by victory, and entertain nothing but
contempt for conquered nations. We shall endeavour,
whilst speaking of the Greeks and their princes, to guard
against the prejudices that history has transmitted to us,
and when we shall pronoimce a severe judgment upon the
character and people of Greece, our opinion will be always
founded upon authentic traditions and the testimony of the
historians of Byzantium.

Whilst young Alexius had nothing to do but make pro-
mises and give hopes, he was gratified by the flattering

HI8T0BT or THE CBTTSAVES. 101

benedictions of both Greeks and Crusaders ; but when the
time arrived for him to perfoiin all he had promised, he met
with nothing but enemies and obstacles. In the position in
which his return had placed him, it was extremely difficult
for him to preserve at the same time the confidence of his
liberatore and the love of his subjects. If, in order to
fulfil his engagements, the young emperor undertook to
unite the Greek Church with the Church of Eome ; if, to
pay that which he owed to the Crusaders, he oppressed his
people with taxes, he must expect to hear violent murmurs
arise throughout his empire. If, on the contrary, he re-
spected the religion of Greece, if he lightened the excessive
weight of the imposts, the treaties would remain unexecuted,
and the throne he had so recently ascended, might be over-
turned bv the arms of the Latins.

Dreadmg every day to see the fires of either revolt or
war kindled, obliged to choose between two perils, after
having long and earnestly deliberated, he did not dare to
confide his destiny to the equivocal valour of the Greeks,
and conjured the barons to become a second time his libe-
rators. He repaired to the tent of the count of Manders,
and spoke as follows to the assembled leaders of the
crusade.* " You have restored to me life, honour, and
empire, and I have only one thing to desire : that is, to be
able to perform all the promises 1 have made you. But if
you abandon me now, in order to go into Syria, it will be
impossible for me to find the money, the troops, or the
vessels I have undertaken to furnish. The people of Con-
stantinople have received me with joy ; but the frequency of
revolutions has caused them to lose the habits of submission
and obedience. The laws of their country, the majesty of
the throne, no longer inspire them with respect ; a spirit of
faction reigns in the capital, and throughout the too-long
agitated provinces. I conjure you then, in the name of
your own glory, in the name of your own interests, to finish
vour work, and render firm the power you have reestablished,
winter is approaching, the navigation is perilous, and the
rains wDl not permit you to commence the war in Syria ;
wait then till the spring, when the sea will present fewer

* This ipeecb is given in its entirety by Villebardouin.

109 HISTOBT OF THB CBUBADSS.

dangers, and war greater success and glory ; 70a will then
have all Greece as auxiliaries in your enterprises ; I shall
myself be able to keep the oaths that chain me to your
cause, and accompany you with an army worthy of an
emperor.*' At the conclusion of his speech, Alexius pro-
mised to furnish all that the army would require, and to
make such suitable arrangements with the doge, that the
Venetian fleet might remain at the disposal of the Crusaders
during their abode at Constantinople, and to the end of their
expedition.

A coimcil was called to deliberate upon the proposals of
the young emperor : those who had been desirous of sepa-
rating themselves &om the army at Zara and Corfu, repre-
sented to the assembly that they had, until that time, fought
for the glory and profane interests of princes of the earth,
but that the time was now come for them to fight for
religion and for Jesus Christ. They were indignant at new
obstacles being raised to retard the holy enterprise. This
opinion was warmly combated by the doge of Venice and
the barons who had embarked their glory in the expedition
against Constantinople, and could not make up their minds
to lose the fruit of all their labours. ^' Shall we," said they,
" allow a yoimg prince, whose cause we have brought to a
triumphant issue, to be delivered over to his enemies, who
are as ours, and an enterprise so gloriously begun, become
for us a source of shame and repentance P Shall we allow
the heresy that our arms have stifled in humbled Greece,
to reconstruct its impure altars, and be again a subject of
scandal for the Christian church? Sh^ we leave the
Greeks the dangerous faculty of declaring against us, and
allying themselves with the Saracens, to war with the soldiers
of Christ?" To these weighty motives the princes and
lords did not disdain to add supplication and prayers; at
length their opinion triumphed over an obstinate opposition^
and the council decided that the departure of the army
should be deferred until the festival of the Piaster of the
following year.

Alexius, in concert with Isaac, thanked the Crusaders for
their favourable determination, and ne^ected nothing that
could prove his gratitude to them. For the purpose of
paying the sums h& had promised, ha exhausted hiatnsasury,

HI8T0BT 07 THB CBUBADBB. 1Q3

increased the imposts, and even melted the images of the
saints and the sacred vases. Upon seeing the churches
despoiled of the sacred images, the people of Constantinople
were struck with surprise and terror, and yet had not the
courage to utter their complaints aloud. Nicetas reproaches
his compatriots hitterly with having remained quiet specta-
tors of such sacrilege, and accuses them of havmg, bj their
cowardly indifference, drawn upon the empire the anger of
Heaven. The most fervent of the Greeks deplored, as
Nicetas did, the violation of their holy places ; but scenes
much more grievous were soon to be brought before their
eyes.

The leaders of the army, influenced by the coimsels of
the Latin clei^ and by the fear of the pontiff of Eome,
required that the patriarch, the priests, and the monks of
Constantinople should abjure the errors that separated them
from the Eomish church ; and neither the dergy, nor the
people, nor the emperor, attempted to resist this demand,
although it alarmed every conscience and alienated all hearts.
The patriarch, from the pulpit of St. Sophia, declared, in his
own name, and in the name of the emperor and the Chris-
tian people of the East, that he acknowledged Innocent, third
of that name, as the successor of St. Feter, first vicar of
Jesus Christ upon earth, pastor of the faithful flock. The
Greeks who were present at this ceremony believed they
beheld the abomination of desolation in the holy place, and
if they afterwards pardoned the patriarch the commission of
such a scandal, it was from the strange persuasion in which
they were, that the head of their church was deceiving the
Latins, and that the imposture of his words redeemed in
some sort the crime of blasphemy and the shame of perjury.

GThe Greeks persisted in believing that the Holy Ghost
does not proceed from the Son, and quoted in support of their
belief, the Creed of Nice ; the discipline of their church
differed in some points from that of the Church of Borne ;
in the early, days of the schism it might have been easy to
effect a reunion, but now the disputes of theologians had
too much exasperated men's minds.* The hatred of the

* The Greeks and Latina were diyided on three principal points ; first,
the addition made by the Latin Church to the creed of Constantinople, to
declare that the Holy Ghoat proceeds from tfao Father { 2nd the refetsl

104 HISTOBT OF THE CBUSADE8.

Greeks and the Latins appeared but too likely to separate
the two creeds for ever. The law that was imposed upon
the Greeks only served to promote the growth of their in-
vincible resistance. Such among them as scarcely knew
what the subject was of the long debates that had sprung
up between Byzantium and Borne, showed no less fanaticism
and opposition than all the others ; whilst such as had no
religion at all adopted with warmth the opinions of the
theologians, and appeared all at once disposed to die for a
cause which tiU that time had inspired them with nothing
but indifference. The Greek people, in a word, who believed
themselves to be superior to all either nations of the earth,
repulsed with contempt all knowledge that came from the
west, and could not consent to recognise the superiority of
the Latins. The Crusaders, who had changed the emperors
and conquered the empire, were astonished at not being able
to change men's hearts likewise ; but, persuaded that every-
thing must in the end yield to their arms, they employed, m
subduing minds and opmions, a rigour which only augmented
the hatred of the vanquished, and prepared the fall of the
emperors whom victory had replaced upon the throne.

In the mean time, the usurper Alexius, on flying from
Constantinople, had found a retreat in the province of
Thrace ; several cities opened their gates to him, and a few
partisans assembled unaer his banner. The son of Isaac
resolved to seek the rebels and give them battle. Henry of
Hainault, the count of St. Pol, and many knights, accom-
panied him in this expedition. At their approach, the
usurper, shut up in Adnanople, quickly abandoned the city,
and fled away towards Mount Hemus. All the rebels who
had the courage to await them, were cither conquered or
dispersed. But young Alexius and the Crusaders had a
much more formidable enemy to contend with : this was the
nation of the Bulgarians. These wild and ferocious people,

on the part of the Greeks to acknowledge the primacy of the pope ; Srdly,
the pretension of the Greeks that it is not possible to consecrate in the
Eucharist with unleavened bread. Photius began the schism ; the patriarch
Cerularius established it ; this latter wished to be acknowledged as the
head of the universal Church instead of the pope. L'Abb^ Pleury, in his
Huioire Eceietiattique, thinks that the schism of the Greeks only really
began at the period the Latins were masten of Constantinople.

HIBTOBT OF VHl CBVSADIB. 106

obedient to the laws of Constantinople at the time of the
first crusade, had taken advantage of the troubles of the
empire to shake off the yoke of its rulers.* The leader of the
Bulgarians, Joaunices, an implacable enemy of the Greeks,
had embraced the faith of the Church of Borne, and declared
himself a vassal of the sovereign pontiff, to obtain £rom him
the title of king. He concealed under the veil of a new
religion the most vindictive hatred and aspiring ambition,
and employed the support and credit of the court of Bome
to make war against the masters of Byzantium. Joannicea
made frequent incursions into the countries adjoining his
own territories, and threatened the richest provinces of the
empire with invasion. K young Alexius had been guided
by prudent counsels, he would have taken advantage of the
presence of the Crusaders to intimidate the Bulgarians, and
compel them to remain on the other side of Mount Hemus :
this expedition might have deservedly obtained him the con-
fidence and esteem of the Greeks, and assured the repose of
several provinces ; but whether he was not seconded by the
Crusaders, or that he did not perceive the advantages of such
on enterprise, he contented himself with threatening Joan-
nices ; and, without having made either peace or war, after
recei\dng the oaths of the cities of Thrace, his sole wish was
to return to Constantinople.

The capital of the empire, which had already undergone
so many evils, had just experienced a fresh calamity. Some
Plemish soldiers, encouraged by the Latins established in
Constantinople, had provoked and insulted the Jews in their
synagogue, and the people had taken up the defence of the
latter against the aggressors. Both sides had recourse to
arms, and in the tumult of fight, chance, or malevolence,
set fire to some neighbouring houses. The conflagration
extended on all sides, during the night and the following
day, with a rapidity and violence that nothing could stop or
confine ; the names meeting from several points, rolled on
with the swiftness of a torrent, consuming, as if of straw,
galleries, columns, temples, and palaces. From the bosom
of this frightful mass of fire issued fragments of burning

* The Bulgarians had shaken off the yoke under the first reign of Isaac.
They had for leaders two brothers, Peter and Asan, who had for sucoossoi
a third brother, Joannices.

106 niSXOBT OF THE CBU8ADES.

matter, wkicb, falling upon distant houses, reduced them to
ashes. The flames, at first impelled by a north wind, were
afterwards driven back, by a strong change, from the south,
and poured upon places that had appeared secure from
danger. The conflagration began at the synagogue, near
the sea, on the ef^tem side of the city, and extended its
ravages as far as the church of St. Sophia, on the western
side, traversing a space of two leagues, and in its course
including the port, where many ships were consumed upon
the waters.*

During eight days the fearful element continued the de-
struction; the crash of houses and towers falling on all
sides, and the roaring of the winds and flames mingling with
the cries of a ruined and distracted multitude. The crowds
of inhabitants rushed over and against each other in the
streets, flying before the closely-pursuing fire, some bearing
their goods and most valuable effects, others dragging along
the sick and the aged. Such as perished in the conflagration
were the least unfortunate, for multitudes of others, weeping
the death of their relations and friends, and the loss of their
whole worldly property, many of them wounded, some half-
burnt, wandered about bewildered among the ruins, or were
huddled together in the pubUc places, without any means ot
subsistence, or the hope of finding an asylum.

The Crusader sviewed the progress of this horrible dis-
aster from the heights of Galata, and deplored the calamities
of Constantinople. A great number of knights lent their
most earnest endeavour to subdue the raging element, and
lamented that they had to contend with an enemy against
which valour was powerless. The princes and barons sent a
deputation to the emperor Isaac, to assure him how sincerely
they participated in his sorrow, and to declare that they
would punish the authors of the conflagration with the
utmost severity, if they should prove to be among their sol-
diers. The protestations and assistance which they promptly
and earnestly offered to the victims, could neither console
nor appease the Greeks, who, whilst contemplating the ruins

* Nicctas devotes an entire chapter to the description of this fire.
Villehardooin, in the fourth volume of his Hutoryf speaks thus of it :
De quoi les p^lerins Fran^ais furent mult dolent, ec mult en eurent
grand piti6.

HI8TOBT 07 THK CBVSADXS. 107

aad misfortunes of their capital, accused the two emperors,
and threw out horrible imprecations against the Latins.

The families of the Franks established at Constantinople,
who, in spite of persecutions, had remained in the city,
became again subject to the ill-treatment of the people ; and,
forced to seek an asylum without the walls, they took refuge
in the faubourg of Gklata. Their groans and complaints
revived all the animosity of the Crusaders against the
Greeks. Thus everything contributed to inflame the hatred
of two nations, whom such great misfortunes ought to have
more closely imited, and to rekindle discords that were
doomed to bring in their train new and incurable calamities.

When Alexius re-entered Constantinople in triumph, the
people received him with moody silence ; the Crusaders alone
applauded victories he had gained over Greeks; and his
triumph, whioli contrasted so keenly with the public cala-
mities, and his laurels, gathered in a civil war, only served
to render him more odious to the inhabitants of his capital.
He was obliged, more than ever, to throw himself into the
arms of the Latins ; he passed his days and nights in their
camp ; he took part in their warlike games, and associated
himself with their gross orgies. Amidst the intoxication of
banquets, the Frank warriors treated Alexius with insolent
familiarit}', and more than once they pulled off his jewelled
diadem to place on his head the woollen cap worn by Venetian
sailors. * The Greeks, who took great pride in the magni-
ficence of their sovereigns, only conceived the stronger
contempt for a prince, who, after abjuring his religion, de-
graded the imperial dignity, and did not blush to adopt the
manners of nations tliat were only known at Constantinople
under the name of barbarians.

Nicetas, whose opinions are not wanting in moderation,
never speaks of this prince but with a sort of anger and vio-
lence. According to the historian of Byzantium, "Alexius
had a countenance resembling that of the exterminating
angel ; he was a true incendiarj' ; and far from being aflBicted
by the burning of his capital, he would have wished to see
the whole city reduced to ashes.*' Isaac himself accused
his son of having pernicious inclinations, and of corrupting
himself daily by an intercourse with the wicked ; he was in-
dignant that the name of Alexius should be proclaimed at

108 niBTOBT OF TUB CBVSADSS.

court and in public ceremonies, whilst that of Isaac was
rarely mentioned. In his blind anger, he loaded the young
emperor with imprecations ; but, governed by a vain jedousy,
much more than by any proper sentiment of dignity, whilst
he applauded the hatred of the people for Alexius, he evaded
the duties of a sovereign, and did nothing to merit the
esteem of men of worth. Isaac lived retired in his palace,
surrounded by monks and astrologers, who, whilst kissing his
hands still scarred with the irons of his captivity, celebrated
his power, made him believe that he would deliver Jerusalem,
that he would plant his throne upon Mount Libanus, and
would reign over the whole universe. Pull of confidence in
an image of the Virgin which he always carried with him,
and boasting of being ac(}uainted, by means of astrology,
with all the secrets of policy, he could yet imagine, to pre-
vent sedition, nothing more effective than to have tiuns-
ported from the hippodrome to his palace, the statue of the
wild boar of Calyaon, which was considered the symbol of
revolt and the image of an infuriated people.

The people of Constantinople, no less superstitious than
Isaac, whilst deploring the evils of their country, laid the
blame upon both mari)le and brass. A statue of IVIinerva
which decorated the Square of Constantine, had its eyes and
arms turned towards the West ; it was believed that she had
called in the barbarians, and the statue was torn down and
dashed to pieces by an exasperated mob :• "cruel blindness ^f
the Greeks," cries an historical hel etprit,f "who took arms
against themselves, and could not endure in their city
the image of a goddess who presides over prudence and
valour ! *'

Whilst the capital of the empire was thus agitated by
popular commotions, the ministers of Alexius and Isaac
were busied in levying taxes for the payment of the sums
promised to the litins. Extravagance, abuses of power,

* Nioetas gives a sufficiently long description of this statneof Pallas.—
See the Hieiwy qflwae Anpelut, chap. iii. This statue was thirty feet
high ; its eyes, says the Greek historian, were turned towards the south,
so that those who were ignorant of the science of angles considered she
was looking towards the West, and that she invited the nations from the
north of Europe to come to the shores of the Bosphortis.

t NioetM.

HISTOBT 07 rni CBtTSABES. 109

and numerous instances of injustice, added still fiirtber to
the public calamities ; loud complaints were proclaimed by
ererj class of the citizens. It was at first intended to laj
the principal burden of the imposts upon the people ; but the
people, says Nicetas, arose like a sea agitatea by the winds.
Extraordinary taxes were then, by necessity, laid upon the
richer citizens, and the churches continued to be plundered
of their gold and silver ornaments. All the treasures they
could cofiect were not sufficient to satisfy the insatiable
desires of the Latins, who began to ravage the country, and
pillage the houses and monasteries of the Propontis.

The hostilities and violence of the Crusaders excited the
indignation of the people to a greater degree than they
moved that of the patricians and the great. In the course of
so many revolutions, it is astonishing to find that the spirit
of patriotism so frequently revives amongst the multitude,
when it is extinct in the more elevated classes. In a cor-
rupt nation, so long as revolutions have not broken forth,
and the day of peril and destruction is not arrived, the
riches of the citizens is a sure pledge of their devotedness
and patriotism ; but this pledge is no longer the same at the
height of danger, when society finds itself in antagonism
with all the enemies of its existence and its repose ; a for-
tune, the loss of which is dreaded, is often tbe cause of
shameful transactions with the party of the conquerors ; it
enervates more than it fortifies moral courage. Amidst the
greatest penis, the multitude, who have nothing to lose,
sometimes preserve generous passions that skilful policy
may direct with advantage. Unfortunately, the same mul-
titude scarcely ever obey anything but a blind instinct ; and
in moments of crisis, oecome a dangerous instrument in
the hands of the ambitious, who abuse the names of liberty
and patriotism. It is then that a nation has no less to com-
plain of those who are not willing to save her, than of those
who do not dare defend her ; and that she perishes, the vic-
tim at once of culpable indifference and senseless ardour.

The people of Constantinople, irritated against the ene-
mies of the empire, and urged on by a spirit of faction,
complained at first of their leaders ; and, soon passing from
complaint to revolt, they rushed in a crowd to the paLice of
the emperors, reproaol^ them with having alMmdoAed tbe

110 HI8T0BT OF TH£ CBU8ADI8*

cause of God and the cause of their country, and demanded,
with loud cries, avengers and arms.

Among those who encouraged the multitude, a youag
prince of the illustrious family of Ducas was conspicuous.
He bore the name of Alexius, a name which must always be
associated with the history of the misfortunes of the empire :
in addition, he had obtained the surname of Mourzoi^e^ a
Greek word, signifying that his two eyebrows met together.
!Mourzoullo* concealed a subtle spirit beneath that severe
and stem air that the vulgar never fail to take for an indica-
tion of frankness. The words patriotism and liberty, which
always seduce the people; the words glory and religion,
which recall noble sentiments, were for ever in his mouth,
and only served to veil the machinations of his ambition.
Amidst a timid and pusillanimous court, surrounded by
princes, who, according to the expression of Nicetas, had
greater fear of making war against the Crusaders, than stags
would have in attacking a lion, Mourzoufle was not deficient
in bravery, and his reputation for courage was quite sufficient
to draw upon him the eyes of the whole capital. As he
possessed a strong voice, a haughty look, and an imperious
tone, he was pronounced fit to command. The more vehe-
mently he declaimed against tyranny, the more ardent were
the wishes of the multitude that he should be clothed ^sith
great power. The hatred that he affected to entertain for
foreigners, gave birth to the hope that he would one day
defend the empire, and caused him to be considered the
future liberator of Constantinople.

Skilful in seizing every available chance, and in following
all parties, after having rendered criminal services to the
usurper, Mourzoufle gathered the reward of them under the
reign that followed the usurpation ; and he who was every-
where accused of having been the gaoler and executioner of
lsaac,t became the favourite of young Alexius. He neg-
lected no means of pleasing the multitude, in order to ren-
der himself necessary to the prince; and knew how to
brave, on fit occasions, the hatred of the courtiers, to aug-

* The continuator of William gives the Greek prince the name of
Marofle.

t Lebeaa, Hittoire du Sas-Empire, says that Mourzoufle bad been
employed to pat out the eyes of Isaac. — See ffisi. du BM^Emp, Uv. zdv.

HI8T0BY OF TH2 C&USADZS. Ill

ment his credit among the people. He was not tardy in
taking advantage of this aouole influence to sow the
seeds of new troubles, and bring about the triumph of his
ambition.

His counsels persuaded young Alexius, that it was neces-
sary for him to break with the Latins, and prove himself
ungrateful to his liberators, to obtain the confidence of the
Greeks ; he inflamed the minds of the people, and to make
a rupture' certain, he himself took up arms. His friends
and some men of the people followed his example, and, led
by Mourzoufle, a numerous troop rushed from the city, in
the hope of surprising the Latins ; but the multitude, always
ready to declaim against the wai-riors of the West, did not
dare to face them. Mourzoufle, abandoned on the field of
battle, had nearly fallen into the hands of the Crusaders.
This imprudent action, that might have been expected to
ruin him, only tended to increase his power and influence ;
he might be accused of having risked the safety of the em-
pire by provoking a war without the means of sustaining it;
but the people boasted of the heroism of a young prince,
who had dared to brave the warlike hosts of the Franks ;
and even they who had deserted him in the fight, celebrated
his valour, and swore, as he did, to exterminate the enemies
of their country.

The frenzy of the Greeks was at its height ; and, on their
side, the Latins loudly expressed their dissatisfaction. In
the faubourg of Galata, inhabited by the French and Vene-
tians, as well as within the walls of Constantinople, nothing
was heard but cries for war, and nobody durst speak of
peace. At this period a deputation from the Christians of
Palestine arrived in the camp of the Crusaders. The depu-
ties, the principal of whom was Martin Litz, were clothed
in mourning vestments, which, with the sadness of their
aspect, made it sufficiently plain that they came to announce
fresh misfortunes. Their accounts drew tears from all the
pilgrims.

In the year that preceded the expedition to Constantinople
the Flemish and Champenois Crusaders, who had embarked
at the ports of Bruges and Marseilles, landed at Ptolemais.
At the same time came many English warriors, commanded
by the eai-ls of Northumberland, Norwich, and Salisbury ;

112 HI8T0BT OF THX CBtTBABSfl.

and a great number of pilgrims from Lower Brittany, who
had chosen for leader the monk H61ain, one of the preacheni
of the crusade. These Crusaders, when united with those
who had quitted the Christian army after the siege of Zara,
became impatient to attack the Saracens, and as the king of
Jerusalem was averse to breaking the truce made with the
infidels, the greater part of them left Palestine, to fight
under the banners or the prince of Antioch, who was at
war with the prince of Armenia. Having refused to take
guides, they were surprised and dispersed by a body of
Saracens, sent against them by the sultan of Aleppo ;• the
few that escaped from the carnage, among whom history
names two seigneurs de Neuilly, Bernard de Montmirail, and
Eenard de Dampierre, remained in the chains of the infidels.
H^lain, the monk, had the grief to see the bravest of the
Breton Crusaders perish on the field of battle, and returned
almost alone to Ptolemais, to announce the bloody defeat of
the soldiers of the cross. A horrible famine had, during
two years, desolated Egypt, and extended its ravages into
Syria. Contagious diseases followed the famine ; the plague
swept away the inhabitants of the Holy Land ; more than
two thousand Christians had received the rights of sepulture
in the city of Ptolemais, in one single day !

The deputies from the Holy Land, after rendering their
melancholy account, invoked by tears and groans the prompt
assistance of the army of ihe Crusaders ; but the oarona
and knights could not abandon the enterprise they had
begun ; they promised the envoys from Palestine that they
would turn their arms towards Syria, as soon as they had
subdued the Q-reeks ; and, pointing towards the walls of
Constantinople, said : ^ This is the road to salvation ; this is
the way to Jerusalem^^

Alexius was bound to pay the Latins the sums he had
promised ; if he was faithrul to his word, he had to appre-
hend a revolt of the G-reeks ; if he did not fulfil his engage-
ments, he dreaded the arms of the Crusaders. Terrified by
the general agitation that prevailed, and restrained by a

* Jaoquet de Vitii, Alberio, and the oontinuator of William of Tyre
speak of this battle fought between Antioch and Tripoli ; Yillehardouin
likewise makes mentioa of it, and names manj knights that were Idlled or

HI8T0BT OV THI OBrSASSfl. 118

double fear, the two emperora remained mactlve in their
palace, without daring to seek for peace, or prepare for war.

The Crusaders, disaatisfied with the conduct of Alexius,*
deputed aeveral barons and kniffhts to demand of him
peremptorily whether he would oe their &iend or their
enemy. Tne deputies, on entering Constantinople, heard
nothing throughout their passage but the insults and threats
of an irritated populace. Eeceived in the palace of Bl»>
chemsB, amidst the pomp of the throne and the court,t thej
addressed the emperor Alexius, and expressed the complaints
of their companions in arms in these terms : *' We are sent
by the French barons and the dofi;e of Venice to recall to
your mind the treaty that you and your father have sworn
po upon the 6k>spel, and to require you to fulfil your pro-
mises as we have fulfilled ours. If you do us justice, we
shall only haye to forget the past, and giye due praise to
your ffood faith; if you are not true to your oaths, the
Crusaders will no longer remember they naye been your
friends and allies, they will haye recourse to no more prayers,
but to their own good swords. They have felt it their dutjr
to lay their comphdnts before you, and to warn you of their
intentions, for the warriors of'^the West hold treachery in
horror, and neyer make war without having declared it ; we
ofier you our fiiendship, which has placed you upon the
throne, or our hatred, wnich is able to remoye you from it ;
we brin^ you war with all its calamities, or peace with all
its blessmgs : it is for you to choose, and to deliberate upon
the part you haye to take."

These complaints of the Crusaders were expressed with
80 little respect, that they must haye been highly offensiyd

* Vigenere, when traiuUtmg VUlehardouin, renden thiu the panan
in which the marshal of Champagne ezpreaaes the diaaatufaction of iM
Cniaaden, and the ill-conduct of Alexiua towards them : — ^Alezis lea
menatt de d^lai en d^lai, de reapit en reapit, le bee daua Teaa, qoant aa
principal, et ponr le regard de oertainea menctes partiea, qn'il leur fonr-
niaaait conune i leache doigt, formait tant de petitea dilBcnltA et chioa-
neriea, que lea buona commenc^rent i s'ennayer.

t ViUehardouin, after having deacribed the oonrt of Alezwa, in thia
ceremony neiTcly adda : Tout oela ae aentait bien aa conr d'nn ai puiaaant
et riche prince. The title of puuioni acarceif auited a prince who waa
hearing war declared agaioat him in his own palace ; and the epithet riek
waa hardly more applicable to him, since he could not pay what he had
promiaed, ai^d thereby redeem hia empire from the fivataat danger.

Vol. 11—6

114 HISTOBT Olf TfiS CBUSJLDS8.

to the ears of tlie emperors. In tliis palace, which con-
stantlj resounded with the acclamations of a servile courts
the sovereigns of Byzantium had never listened to language
so insolent and haughty. The emperor Alexius, to whom
this menacing tone appeared to reveal his own helplessness
and the unhappy state of his empire, could not restrain his
indignation ; the courtiers fully partook of the anger of
their masters, and were desirous of punishing the insolent
orator of the Latins on the spot ;* hut the deputies left the
palace of Blachemie, and hastened to regain the camp of the
Crusaders.

The council of Isaac and Alexius breathed nothing but
vengeance ; and, on the return of the deputies, war was de-
cided on in the council of the barons. The Latins deter-
mined to attack Constantinople ; nothing could equal the
hatred and fury of the Greeks; but fuiy and hatred
cannot supply the place of courage : not daring to meet
their ei^pmy in the open field, they resolved to bum the fleet
of the Venetians. The Greeks, on this occasion, had again
recourse to that Greek fire, which had, more than once,
served them instead of courage, and saved their capital.
This terrible fire, skilfully hurled or directed, devoured
vessels, soldiers, and their arms ; like the bolt of Heaven,
nothing could prevent its explosion, or' arrest its ravages ;
the waves of the sea, so far from extinguishing it, redoubled
its activity. Seventeen ships, charged with the Greek fire
and combustible matter, were carried by a favourable wind
towards the port in which the Venetian vessels lay at anchor.
To assure the success of this attempt, the Greeks took
advantage of the darkness of night; and the port, the
gulf^ and the faubourg of Galata were, all at once, illumined
by a threatening and sinister Hght. At the aspect of the
danger, the trumpets soimded the alarm in the camp of the
Latins ; the Prench flew to arms and prepared for the fight,
whilst the Venetians cast themselves mto their barks, and

* La-desseas bruit le lera fort grand an palais ; et les messagers s'en
retoamuerent aox portes, oiii ils monterent habilement k cheral ; n'y ayant
celui, qnand ila furent hon, qui ne se sentit tr^s heareox et content en
•on esprit, voire estonn^, d'etre reschapp^ ii ri bon marche d'nn si mani-
feste danger ; car il ne tint presqne 4 rien qa*ils Tk*j demenrassent tons
Boortf ou prifl. — VUlekardouinf liv. vL

HI8T0BT 07 THS CBTTSADSS. 115

went out to meet yessels bearing within their sides destruc-
tion and fire.

The crowd of Qreeka assembled on the shore, applauded
the spectacle, and enjoyed the terror of the Crusaders.
Manj of them embarked in small boats, and rowed out
upon the sea, darting arrows and endeavouring to cany dis-
order among the Venetians. The Crusaders encouraged
each other ; they rushed in crowds to encounter the danger,
some raising plaintiye and piercing cries towards Heaven,
and others uttering horrible imprecations against the Greeks:
on the walls of Constantinople, clapping of hands and cries
of joy resounded, and were redoubled as the vessels covered
with flames drew nearer. Yillehardouin, an ocular witness,
says that amidst this firightful tumult, nature appeared to be
in confusion, and the sea about to swallow up the earth.
Nevertheless, the Venetians, by the means of strong arms
and numberless oars, succeeded in turning the course of the
fire-ships wide of the port, and they were carried by the
current beyond the canal. The Crusaders, in battle array,
standing on their vessels or dispersed among the barks, ren-
dered -thanks to God for having preserved them from so
great a disaster ; whilst the Greeks beheld with terror their
fire-ships consuming away upon the waters of the Fropontis,
without having effected the least injury.

The irritated Latins could not pardon the perfidy and in-
gratitude of the emperor Alexius : " It was not enough for
him to have failed in his engagements and broken his oaths,
he endeavoured to bum the fleet that had borne him trium-
phantly to the heart of his empire : the time was now come
to repress the enterprises of traitors by the sword, and to
punish base enemies, who were acquainted with no other
arms but treachery and deceit ; and, like the vilest brigands,
only ventured to deal their blows in the darkness and silence
of night.'* Alexius, terrified at these threats, could think
of no other resource than that of imploring the clemency of
the Crusaders. He offered them fresh oaths and fresh pro-
mises, and threw the blame of the hostilities upon the fury
of the people, which he had not the power to restrain. He
conjured his friends, his allies, his liberators, to come and
defend a throne ready to fall to pieces beneath hun, and pro-
posed to give up hia own palace to them.

116 HI8T0BT OF THB 0BVS4J>S8.

Monrzoufle was directed to convey to the LatinB tlie cap-
plicationB and offers of the emperor, and, seizing the oppor-
tunity to augment the alarms and discontent of the multitude,
he caused the report to be spread that he was going to d^
liver Constantinople up to the barbarians of the W^. On
leuming this, the p^ple assembled tumultuously in the
streets and public places ; the report became general that
the enemies were already in the citv, and all joined in the
cry that to prevent the greatest calamities, not a moment
was to be lost ; the empire required a master who was able
to defend and protect it.

Whilst the young prince, seized with terror, shut himself
up in his palace, the crowd of insurgents flocked to the
dnurch of St. Sophia to choose a new emperor.

Since the imperial dynasties had become the playthings
of the caprice of the multitude, and of the ambition of
conspirators, the Greeks made the changing of their sove-
reigns quite a sport, without reflecting that one revolution
produces other revolutions ; and, to avoid present calamities,
rushed headlong into new ones. The most prudent of the
clergy and the patrieians presented themselves at the church
of St. Sophia, and earnestly endeavoured to prevent tha
evils with which the country was threatened. But it was in
vain they explained to their excited auditory that by change
ing their master thev were sure to overthrow both the throne
aira the empire. " 'When they asked my opinion," says the
historian Nicetas, '' I was careful not to consent to the de»
position of Isaac and Alexius, because I felt assured that
the man they would elect in their place would not be the
most able. But the people," adds the same historian,
" whose only motive of action is passion, — ^the people, who
twenty years before had killed Andronicus and crowned
Isaac, could not endure their own work and live under
princes whom they themselves had chosen." The multitude
reproached their sovereign with their misery, which was the
bitter fruit of the war ; and with the weakness of their
government, which was but the result of general corruption.
The victories of the Latins, the inefficiency of the laws, the
caprices of fortune, the very will of Heaven, all were
gathered into one great accusation to be brought against
those who governs the empire. The distoacted oteowi

HISTOBT OF THIS CBTTBABSS. 117

looked to a reyolutioii for eTerythixig ; a change of emperors
ajppeared to them the only remedj for the ills under which
they groaned. They pressed, they solicited the patriciaoB
and senators, — they scarcely knew the names or the men
they wished to choose as masters ; but any other than Isaac,
any other than Alexius, must merit the esteem and love of
the Greeks. To be the wearer of a purple robe, was quite
enough to entitle a man to ascend the throne of Constantino.
Some excused themselves on account of age, others from
alleged incapacity. The people, sword in hand, required
them to accept the sovereign authority. At length, after
three days of stormy debate, an imprudent young man,
named Canabus, allowed himself to be prevailed upon by
the prayers and threats of the people. A phantom of an
emperor was crowned in the church of St. Sophia, and pro-
claimed in Constantinople. Mourzoufle was no stranger to
this popular revolution. Several historians have thought
that he promoted the election of an obscure man, to test
the peril in some sort, and to become acquainted with the
power and will of the people, in order, one day, to profit by
it himself.

Alexius, made aware of this revolution, trembled in the
recesses of his deserted palace ; he had no hope but in the
Latins ; he solicited, by messages, the support of the barons ;
he implored the pity of the marquis of Montferrat; who,
touched by his prayers, entered Constantinople bv night,
and came, at the head of a chosen troop, to deWd the
throne and the lives of the emperors. Mourzoufle, who
dreaded the presence of the Latins, flew to Alexius, to con-
vince him that they were the most dangerous enemies he
had, and told him that all would inevitably be lost if the
Franks once appeared in arms in the palace.

When Boniface presented himself before the palace of
Blachemse, he found all the doors closed ; Alexius caused
him to be informed that he was no longer at liberty to
receive him, and conjured him to leave Constantinople with
his soldiers. The sight of the warriors of the West had
spread terror throughout the city ; their retreat revived both
the courage and fury of the people. A thousand different
rumours prevailed at once ; the public places resounded with
eomplaints and imprecations ; &om moment to moment the

118 HI8T0BT OT THS CBUSADX8.

crowd became more numerous and the tumult increofied.
Amidst all this confusion and disorder, Mourzoufle never
lost sight of the prosecution of his designs ; by promises
and caresses he won over the imperial guard, whilst hia
friends pervaded the capital, exciting the fury and rage of
the multitude by their speeches and insinuations. An im-
mense crowd soon assembled before the palace of Blachemse,
uttering seditious cries. Mourzoufle then presented him-
self before Alexius : he employed every means to aggravate
the alarm of the young prince, and, under the pretext of
providing for his safety, orew him into a secluded apart-
ment, where his creatures, under his direction, loaded him
with irons and cast him into a dungeon. Coming forth, he
boldly informed the people what he had done for the salvar
tion of the empire ; and the throne, from which he had
dragged his master, benefactor, and friend, appeared but a
just recompense for the devotedness of his services : he was
carried in triumph to the church of St. Sophia, and crowned
emperor amidst the acclamations of the people. Scarcely
was Mourzoufle clothed with the imperial piuple, than he
resolved to possess the finiit of his crime in security ; dread-
ing the caprice of both fortune and the people, he repaired
to the prison of Alexius, forced him to swallow an empoi*
soned draught, and because death did not keep pace with his
impatience, strangled him with his own hands.

Thus perished, after a reign of six months and a few days,
the emperor Alexius, whom one revolution had placed upon
a throne, and who disappeared amidst the storms of another,
without having tasted any of the sweets of supreme rank,
and without an opportunity of proving whether he was
worthy of it. This young prince, placed in a most difficult
situation, had not the power, and perhaps not the will, to
rouse the Greeks to oppose the Crusadei'S. On the other
side, he had not the tact to employ the support of the Latins
80 as to keep the Greeks within the bounds of obedience ;
directed by perfidious counsels, ever vacillating between
patriotism and gratitude, fearing by turns to s^enate his
unhappy subjects, or to irritate his formidable allies, he
perished, the victim of his own weakness and irresolution.
Isaac Angelus, on learning the tragical end of his son, died
of terror and despair; thus sparing Mourzoufle another par-

HISTOBT 07 THB CBrBADXfl. 119

ricide, of wUcli he was not the less suspected to be guilty.
History makes no more mention of Canabus ; the conj^ision.
was so great that the Greeks were ignorant of the fate of a
man whom but a few days before they had elevated to the
rank of their sovereign ; four emperors had been dragged
violently from the throne since the arrival of the Latins, and
fortune reserved the same fate for Mourzoufle.

In order to profit by the crime that had ministered to his
ambitious views, the murderer of Alexius formed the project
of committing another, and to bring about by treachery the
deajih of all the principal leaders of the army of the Cru-
saders. An officer, sent to the camp of the Latins, was
directed to say that he came on the part of the emperor
Alexius, of whose death they were ignorant, to engage the
doge of Venice and the French nobles to come to the palace
of BlachemsB, where all the sums promised by the treaties,
should be placed in their hands. The barons at first agreed
to accept tne invitation of the emperor, and prepared to set
out witn great joy ; but Dandolo, who, accorcung to Nicetas,
deservedly obtained the name of the Frudent of the PrU'
dent, awakened their mistrust, and pointed out strong rea-
sons for fearing a fresh perfidy of the Greeks. It was not
long before they were fuQy informed of the death of Isaac,
the murder of Alexius, and all the crimes of Mourzoufle.
At this news the indignation of the Crusaders was strong
and general ; knights had difiiculty in crediting such base-
ness ; every fresh account made them tremble with horror ;
they forgot the wrongs of Alexius towards themselves, de-
plored his imfortunate end, and swore to avenge him. In
the council, the leaders loudly exclaimed that an implacable
war must be made against Mourzoufie, and that the nation
that had crowned treacheiy and parricide should be punished.
The prelates and ecclesiastics, more animated than all the
others, invoked at once the thunders of religion and earthly
war against the usurper of the imperial throne, and against
the Greeks, untrue to their sovereign, untrue to God him-
self. Above all, they could not pardon the subjects of
Mourzoufie, for willingly remaining plunged in the (krkness
of heresy, and escaping, by an impious revolt, from the
domination of the Holy See. They promised all the indul-
gences of the sovereign pontiff ana all the riches of Greece

120 EIBTOBT 07 THS CBtTBiJDES.

to the warriors called upon to avenge the cause of God and
men.

Whilst the Crusaders thus breathed nothing but war
agunst the emperor and people of Constantinople, Mour-
Koufle was preparing to repel their attacks ; he earnestly
endeayoured to attach the inhabitants of the capital to his
cause ; he reproached the great with their indifference and
effeminacy, and laid before them the example of the multi-
tude ; to mcrease his popularity and fill his treasury, he per-
secuted the courtiers oi Alexius and Isaac, and confiscated
the property of all those who had enriched themselves in
pubhc offices.* The usurper at the same time set about
reestablishing discipline among the troops, and augmenting
the fortifications of the city ; he no longer indulged in plea-
sures or allowed himself repose ; as he was accused of the
^atest crimes, he had not only to contend for empire, but
for impunity ; remorse doubled his activity, excited his bra-
very, and proved to him that he could have no safety but in
victory. He was constantly seen parading the streets, vrith
his sword by his side, and an iron club in his hand, animat-
ingthe courage of the people and the soldiers.
^The Greeks, however, contented themselves with declaim-
ing against the Crusaders. After having made another
attempt to bum the fleet of the Venetians, they shut them-
selves up within their walls, and supported with patience
the insults and menaces of the Latina.f The Crusaders ap-
peared to .have nothing to fear but famine ; as they beean to
feel the want of provisions, Henry of Hainault, brother of
the count of Flanders, undertook, in order to obtain sup-
plies for the army, an expedition to the shores of the Euxine
Sea ; and, followed by several knights, laid siege to Philea.
The city of Philea was the ancient Philopolis, celebrated in
the heroic ages of antiquity for the palace in which were

* MonROQfle depriTcd Nioetas of the place of Logothete, to give it to
his brother-iD-law Philocales. Nicetas treats Mounonfle wiUi mach
fleverity, and among the reproaches he addresses to him, we may remark
one which suffices to paint the court of Byzantium. The greatest crime
of the usurper was not that of having obtained soTereignty by parridde^
but pot^ning the distribution of his faroun.

t The two attempts to bum the Venetian fleet are described in a letter
of Baldwin to the pope. — See Getta Imnoeent. The marshal of Cham^
pagne only mentioni the first attempt of the Greeks.

BIBTOBT OF THB CBITSAJDES. 121

received Jason and the Argonauts, who, like tlie French
knights, had left their country, to seek distant adventures
«nd perils. Henrj of Hainault, after a short resistance
from the inhabitants, made himself nAister of the city, in
"which he met with a considerable booty, and found provi-
sions in abundance ; the latter he transported by sea to the
army.

Mourzonfle, being iDformed of this excursion, marched
out, W night, with a numerous body of troops, and placed
himself in ambush on the route which Henry of Hamault
would take on his return to the camp. The Greeks attacked
the Crusaders unexpectedly, in the liill persuasion that their
victory would be an easy one; but the Frank warriors,
without displaying the least alarm, closed in their ranks, and
made so finn and good a resistance, that the ambuscaders
themselves were very quickly obliged to fly. Mourzoufle
was upon the point of falling into the hands of his enemies,
and only owea his safety to the swiftness of his horse ; ha
left behmd on the field of battle, his buckler, his arms, and
the standard of the Yirfi;in, which the emperors were accus-
tomed to have borne before them in all great perils. The
loss of this ancient and revered banner was a source of
great regret to the Greeks. The Latins, on their part,
when they saw the standard and image of the patroness of
Byzantium floating amongst their victorious ranks, were
persuaded that the mother of God had abandoned the
Greeks, and declared herself favourable to their cause.

After this defeat, the Greeks became convinced that
there existed no other means of safety for them but the
fortification of their capital ; it was much more ^asy for
them to find workmen than soldiers, and a hundred thou-
sand men laboured day and night at the reparation of the
wfdls. The subjects oi Mourzoufle appeared satisfied that
their ramparts would defend them, and handled the imple-
ments of masonry without repugnance, in the hope that
they would prevent the necessity for their wieldmg the
sword or lance.

Mourzoufle had learnt to dread the courage of his ene-
mies, and as strongly doubted the valour of his subjects ;
therefore, before risking any firesh warlike attempts, he
determined to sue for peace, and demanded an interview

6*

122 HISTOBT OF THE CBUSABES.

•mth the leaders of the Crusaders. The lords and barons
refused with horror to have an interview with the usurper
of the throne, the murderer, the executioner of Alexius ; but
the love of peace, and the cause of humanity, induced the
doge of Venice to consent to listen to the proposals of
Mourzoufle. Henry Dandolo repaired in his galley to the
point of the gulf, and the usurper, mounted on horseback,
approached Inm as near as possible. The conference was
long and animated. The doge required Mourzoufle to pay
immediately five thousand pounds' weight of gold, to aid the
Crusaders m their expedition to Syria, and again, to swear
obedience to the Eomish church. After a long altercation,
.Mourzoufle promised to give the Latins the money and
assistance they demanded; but he could not consent to
submit to the yoke of the Church of Eome.* The doge,
astonished that, after having outraged^all the laws of Heaven
and nature, he should attach so much importance to reli-
gious opinions, casting a glance of contempt at Mourzoufle,
asked him, if the Grreek religion excused treachery and
parricide ?t The usurper, although much irritated, dissem-
bled his anger, and was endeavouring to justify his con-
duct, when the conference was interrupted by some Latin
horsemen.

Mourzoufle, on his return to Constantinople, convinced
that he must prepare for war, set earnestly aoout his task,
and determined to die with arms in his hand. By his
orders, the walls and towers that defended the city on the
side of the port, were elevated many feet. He constructed
upon the waUs galleries of several stages, from which the
soldiers might launch arrows and javelins, and employ
balistas and other machines of war ; at the top of each
tower was placed a drawbridge, which, when lowered upon
the vessels, might aflbrd the besieged a means of pursuing
their enemies, even to their own fleet.

* Dandolo demanded of Mourzoufle fifty centenaries of gold, which
have been valued at 50,000 pounds' weight of gold, or 48,000,000 of
francs (about ^^2,000,000 sterling.— TaANg.). Nicetag alone speaks of
this interview, of which Villehardouin and other historians make no
mention.

t The whole of this interview militates very strongly, as indeed do all
the scenes in which the doge is an actor, against the story of his blindness.

HI8T0BY 07 THE CBTJBADXS. 123

The Crosadera, although supported hj their natural
braveiy, could not view all these preparations with indifTer-
ence.* The most intrepid could not help feeling some
inquietude on comparing the small number of the Franks
with the imperial army and the population of Constanti-
nople ; all the resources thej had till that time found in
their alliance with the emperors were about to fail them,
without their having any hope of supplying their place but
by some miraculous victory: for they hid no succour to
look for from the West. Every day war became more
dangerous, and peace more difficult ; the time was gone by
for retreat. In this situation, such were the spirit and
character of the heroes of this crusade, that they drew fresh
strength from the very circumstances that would appear
likely to have depressed them, and filled them with dread ;
the greater the danger, the more courage and firmness they
displayed ; menaced on all sides, expecting to meet with no
asylum on either sea or land, there remained no other part
to take but that of besieging a city from which they could
not retire with saftty : thus nothing could overcome their
invincible bravery .f

On viewing the towers that the Greeks considered as a
certain means of safety, the leaders assembled in their
camp, and shared amon|;st them the spoils of the empire
and the capital, of which they entertained no doubt of
achieving the conquest. It was decided in the council of the
princes, barons, and knights, that a new emperor should be
nominated instead of Mourzoufle, and that this emperor
should be chosen from the victorious army of the Latins.
The chief of the new empire should possess by right a
fourth of the conquest, with the two palaces of J^lachemss
and Bucoleon. The cities and lands of the empire, as well
as the booty they should obtain in the capital, were to be
distributed among the Franks and Venetians, with the

* The monuments we have consulted for the second siege of Constan-
tinople are the Hitiory of Villebardooin, the reign of Monrzonfle in
Nicetas, the account of Gunther, and the second letter of Baldwin to the
soTereign pontifT, which is found in the Life of Innocent {Oetta Innocent,).

t Eidem civitati de qail fagere non audebant, obsidionem ponebant. —
Gunlher, The same Gunther describes the Crusaders as trembling and
distracted : De Tictorii tantee multitudinis obtinend&, sive expngnatione
urbis nulla els spet poterat arridere.

124 HIBTOBT OP TH£ CB178iJ>X0.

eondition of rendering homage to the emperor. In tho same
council regulations were made to assign the proportions of
the Latin clergy, and of the lords and barons. They rega*
lated, according to the feudal laws, the rights and duties of
the emperors and subjects, of the great and small yassals.*
Thus Constantinople, under the dominion of the Greeks,
beheld before its walls a small band of warriors, who, helm
on head, and sword in hand, abolished in her walls the
legislation of Greece, and imposed upon her beforehand the
laws of the West. By this act of legislation, which they
derived from Europe, the knights and barons appeared to
take possession of the empire; and, whilst making war
against the inhabitants of Constantinople, might imagine
that they were already fighting for the .safety and glory of
their own country.

In the first siege of Byzantium, the French had been
desirous of attacking the city by land, but experience had
taught them to appreciate properly the wiser counsels of
the Venetians. They determined, with an unanimous voice,
to direct all their efforts to an attack by sea. They con-
veyed into the vessels the arms, provisions, and appoint-
ments of all kinds; and the whole army embarked on
Thursday, the 8th day of April, 1204. On the morrow,
with the first rays of the sun, the fleet which bore the
knights and their horses, the pilgrims and all they possessed,
the touts, the machines of the Crusaders, and the destinies
of a great empire, heaved anchor, and crossed the breadth of
the gulf. The ships and galleys, arranged in line, covered
the sea for the space of half a league. The si^ht of the
towers and ramparts, bristling with arms and soldiers, and
covered with murderous machmes and long tubes of brass,
from which poured the Greek fire, did not in the least
intimidate the warriors of the West. The Greeks had
trembled with fright at seeing the fleet of the Crusaders in
motion ; but as they could look for no safely but in resist-
ance, they appeared disposed to brave all penis in defence of
their property and their families.

Mourzoufle had pitohed his tents in the part of the city
ravaged by the fire ; his army was encamped amidst ruins,

* Tbli treaty, made nnder the waUt of Constantinople, is still pn*
Mr?ed, and is to be found in Mmniori, voL zii.

HI0TOBT OW THX CBITSASBfl. 125

tad Yob soldiers bad notlimg beneath their eyes but melan-
choly pictures, the sight of which he thought must neces-
sarily excite them to yengeance. From the summit of one
of the seyen hills, the emperor was able to view the contest,
to send succours where he saw they were wanted, and to re-
animate at every moment the courage of those who defended
ihe walls and towers.

At the first signal, the Greeks put all their machines in
full operation, and endeavoured to defend the approach to
the ramparts ; but several ships soon gained the shore ; the
ladders are planted, and the walls shake beneath the con-
tinuous blows of the rams. The attack and defence proceed
with equal fury. The Greeks fight with advantage from
the tops of their elevated towers ; the Crusaders, everywhere
overpowered by numbers, cannot open themselves a pas-
sage, and find death at the foot of the ramparts they bum
to surmount. The ardour for fight, itself, produced dis-
order among the assailants, and confusion m their fleet.
The Latins faced all perils, and sustained the impetuous
shock of the Greeks till the third hour of the evening : " It
was then," says the marshal of Champagne, " that fortune and
our sins decreed that we should be repulsed." The leaders,
dreading the destruction of their fleet and army, ordered
the retreat to be sounded. When the Greeks saw the
Crusaders drawing oif, they believed that their capital was
saved ; the people of Byzantium flocked to the churches to
return thanks to Heaven for so great a victory, and, by the
excess of their transports, proved how great the fear had
been with which the Latins had inspired them.

On the evening of the same day, the doge and barons
assembled in a church near the sea, to deliberate upon their
future proceedings ; they spoke with deep grief of the check
they had sustained, and expatiated strongly upon the neces-
sity of promptly retrieving their defeat.* " The Crusaders
were stUl the same men that had already surmounted the
ramparts of Byzantium; the Greeks were still the same
frivolous, pusillanimous nation, that could oppose no other
arms but those of cunning to those of valour. The soldiers

* Et Ik, il eot maintes choses all^gn^es le troavant en grand emoy
ceiut de Voit, pour lenr %tit ainri pris ee jour }k,-^VUl€hardmtm,
liv. ▼.

126 HISTOBT Ot THE CBtTSADES.

of Mourzoufle had been able to resist for one da/f ; but th^
would soon remember that the Latins had conquered them
many times ; the recollections of the past were sufficient to
revive the confidence of the one party, and to fill the others
with terror. Besides, it was well mown that the Qreeks
only contended for the triumph of usurpation and parricide ;
whilst the Crusaders fought for the triumph of numanity
and justice. Gk>d would recognise his true servants, and
would protect his own cause.'*

These discourses could not reassure all the Crusaders,
and many proposed to change the point of attack, and make
a new assault on the side of the Propontis. The Venetians
did not agree with this opinion, and dreaded lest the fleet
should be drawn away by the currents of the sea. Some of
the leaders despaired of the success of the enterprise ; and,
in their despair, would have been very willing, says an eye-
witness, "that thewinds and the waves should carry them away
beyond the Archipelago.*'* The ad\ice of the Venetians was,
however, adopted ; and the council decided that the attack
upon Constantinople should be renewed on the same side,
and at the same point at which the army had been repulsed.
Two days were employed in repairing the vessels and
machines; and on the third day, the 12th of April, the
trumpets once more sounded the signal for battle. The
fleet got into motion, and advanced in good order towards
the ramparts of Constantinople. The Greeks, who wero
still rejoicing over their first advantage, could scarcely
believe the approach of the Latins to be reality, and their
surprise was oy no means free from terror. On the other
side, the Crusaders, who had met with a resistance they had
not at all expected,, advanced with precaution towarcb the
ramparts, at the foot of which they had fought in vain. To
inflame the ardour and emulation of the soldiers, the leaders
of the Latins had proclaimed, by a herald-at-arms, that he
that should plant the first banner of the cross upon a tower
of the city, snould receive a hundred and fifty silver marks.

The combat soon commenced, and was as quickly general ;

* £t sachez qa'il y en avait qui eussent volontiers desir^, qae la vague
et le vent les eussent ravis jusqa'aa dela de Tarchipel ; car k tela ne
cbaillait ainon qae de parter de Ik, et aller leur voie droite en lean
maifons. — Idem,

HISTOBT OF THE CBITSADXH. 127

the defence was no less Tigorous than the attack : beams,
stones, javelins were hurled from one side to the other,
crossed or met in mid-air, and fell with a loud noise on the
ramparts and the ships ; the whole shore resounded with the
cries of the combatants and the clashing of swords and
lances. In the fleet, the vessels were joined together, and
proceeded two by two, in order that upon each point of
attack, the number of the assailants might correnpond with
that of the besieged; The drawbridges are soon let down,
and are covered with intrepid warriors, who threaten the in-
vasion of the most lofty towers. The soldiers mount in file,
and eain the battlements ; the opponents seek, attack, and
repulse each other in a thousand different places. Some, on '
the point of seizing victory, are overthrown by a mass of
stone : others are consumed by the Qreek fire ; but they who
are repulsed, again return to the charge, and the leaders
everywhere set an example by mounting to the . assault like
common soldiers.

The sun had run half his course, and prodigies of valour
had not been able to triumph over the resistance of the be*
sieged, when a strong breeze from the north arose, and
brought two ships that fought together close under the walls.
The bishop of Troie and the bishop of Soissons were on
board of these two vessels, called the Filgrim and the
Paradise, Scarcely were the drawbridges lowered, than
two Frank warriors were seen upon one of the towers of
the city. These two warriors, one of whom was a French-
man, named D'Urboise, and the other a Venetian, Pietro
Alberti, drew after them a crowd of their companions, and
the Greeks were massacred or took to flight. In the con-
fusion of the melee^ the bhive Alberti was slain by a French-
man, who mistook him for a Greek, and who, on discovering
his mistake, attempted to kill himself in despair. The Cru-
saders, excited by the fight, scarcely perceived this sad and
tragical scene, but pursued the flying, disordered enemy.

The banners of the bishops of Troie and Soissons were
planted on the top of the towers, and attracted the eager
eyes of the whole army. This sight inflames those who are
still on board the vessels ; on all sides they press, they rush
forward, they fly to the escalade. The Franks obtain
possession of four towers : terror prevails among the Greeks,

128 ansTOBT ot thb cbvbadxb.

and the few who resist are slaughtered at every point tliey
endeayour to' defend ; three of the gates of the city fiiU to
pieces beneath the strokes of the rams ; the horsemen issue
from the ships with their horses, and the whole army of the
Crusaders precipitates itself at once into the city.* A
horseman (Pierre Bacheux), who preceded his fellows, ad-
vanced almost alone to the hOl upon which Mourzouile was
encamped, and the Greeks, in their fright, took him for a
giant. Nicetas himself says that his helmet appeared as
krge as a tower; the soldiers of the emperor could not
stand against the appearance of a single Frank horseman.
Mourzoufle, abandoned by his troops, fled: the Crusaders
took possession of the imperial tents, continued their vic-
torious course into the city, and put to the sword every
Greek they met with. " It was a horrible spectacle^^^ says
y illehardouin, " to see women and young children running
distraeiedlg here and there, trembling and half dead with
fright, lamenting piteouslg, and begging for mercg^

The Crusaders set fire to the quarter they had invaded,t
and the flames, driven by the wind, announced to the other
extremities of the city the presence of an irritated conqueror.
Terror and despair nrevaded in every street of Constan-
tinople, ^ome Greek soldiers retired to the palace, whilst
others, to escape recognition, threw away both their clothes
and their arms. The people and the clergy took refuge
in the churches, and tne more wealthy inhabitants, in dl
parts, endeavoured to conceal their most valuable property
Dy burying it in the earth. Many rushed out of the city,
without at all knowing whither to direct their steps. :{

* According to Gonther, the taking of Constantinople was more won-
derful than all that has been related by Homer and the poets of antiquity.

t Oanther says it was a German count that set fire to the city, — comes
Ttuionicui; he did it to prerent the Greeks from rallying :— Comes
Teutonicus juasit urbem in qu&dam parte suocendi, ut Grcci duplid
laborantes incommodo, belli scilicet atque incendiit facilius vincerentur ;
qnod et factum est, et hoc illi consilio victi penitiU in fugam conversi
sunt.

X The crowd of Greeks fled principally by the Golden Gate. M. le
Chevalier, in his Voyags de la FropontidSt infonns us that vestiges of
the Golden Gate are still to- be seen within the inolosure of the seven
towers. This gate was a triumphal arch erected by Theodosius, after hit
vieboiy ovor Msidmus I It was suiDountad by a ttatue «f Victory fa hroBM^

HIBTOBT OP THB CB178ADE8. 129

"Wlnlflt an were flying before them, the Crusaders were
in a state of astoniBnmcAit at their own victory. At the
approach of night, they dreaded an ambuscade, and did not
venture to pursue the conquered enemy further ; the Vene-
tians encamped within sigkit of their vessels ; the count of
Planders, by a happy augury, occupied the imperial tents,
and the marquis of Montferrat advanced towards the palace
of Blachem^. The Latins entertained no idea that the
conflict was ended, and kept careful watch under the ram-
parts they had invaded and won.

Mourzoufle went through many quarters of the city, en-
deavouring to rally the soldiers : he spoke to them of glory,
he invoked the name of their country, he promised rich re-
wards for valour : but the voice of patriotism was no longer
listened to, and neither the love of glory nor the hopes of
reward could aflect men whose whole thoughts were engaged
in the means of saving their lives. Mourzoufle no longer
inspired either respect or confidence, and the people, in
reply to his exhortations, reproached him with his parricide,
and attributed to him all the calamities of the war. When
he found himself without hope, it became necessary to en-
deavour to escape both the pursuit of the conquerors and
the resentment of the conquered, and he embarked secretly
on the Propontis, with the purpose of seeking an army, or
rather an asylum, in the mountains of Thrace. When his
flight became known in Constantinople, his name was loaded
with maledictions, and, as if it wps necessary that an em-
peror should be present at the fall of the empire, a distracted
crowd flocked to the church of St. Sophia, to choose a new
master.

Theodore Ducas and Theodore Lascaris solicited the
suflrages of the assembly, and contended for a throne that

and onumented profq«eIj with gold. Od the remains of this gate maj
itill be read these Latin Tersea :^

Theodosi jnsais, gemino nee mense peracto,
Constantinus ovana hnc moenia firaia locavit ;
Tarn dtb tam stabilem Pallas vix conderet arcem.

Raou] de Dicetto, quoted by Dncange, says that these words were upon
the Golden Gate :— Quando veniet rex flavua occidentalis, ego per meipaam
aperiar. Raonl de Dicetto wrote thirteen years before the taking of
Constantinople.

IdO HISTOBY 07 THE CRTrSASSSL

no longer existed. Lascaris was chosen emperor, but he did
not dare to assume the imperial crown. This prince pos-
sessed both firmness and spirit; the Greeks even boasted
of his skill in war, and he undertook to reanimate their
courage and arouse their patriotism. '^ The Latins," said
he, " are few, and advance with trembling caution into a city
that has still numberless defenders ; the Crusaders are a&aid
to leave their ships at any distance, as they know they are
their only refuge m case of defeat : pressed by the approach
of danger, they have called in the assistance of fire as their
faithful auxiliary, and conceal their fears behind a rampart
of flames and a heap of ruins. The warriors of the West
neither fight for rehgion, nor their country, nor their pro-
perty, nor the honour of their families. The Greeks, on
the contrary, defend all they hold most dear, and must carry
to the contest every sentiment that can increase the courage
and inflame the zeal of citizens. If you are still Eomans,"
added Lascaris, " the victory is easy ; twenty thousand bar^
barians have shut themselves up "Within your walls ; fortune
has given them up to our arms." The new emperor then
addressed the soldiers and the imperial guards ; he repre-
sented to them that their safety was inseparably connected
with that of Constantiaople, that the enemy would never
pardon being driven back by them several times from the
ramparts of the capital ; that in victory they would find all
the advantages of fortune, all the pleasures* of life : whilst
in flight, neither land nor sea could aflbrd them an asylmn,
and that shame, miseiy, and death itself would follow their
footsteps everywhere. Lascaris did not neglect to flatter
the priae, and endeavour to kindle the zeal of the patricians.
He reminded them of the heroes of ancient Home, and pre-
sented to their valour the great examples of history. " It
was to their arms Providence had confided the safety of the
imperial city ; if, contrary to aU hopes, the country should
be subdued, they could have but few regrets in abandoning
life, and would find perhaps some glory in dying on the
same day on which the old empire of the Csesars should be
doomed to fall."

The soldiers only replied to his speech by demanding their
pay ; the people listened to Lascans with more surprise than

HT8T0BY 01 IKE CBtTSiLDSS. 181

confidence, and the patricians preserved a gloomy sileiice,
sensible to no other feeling but a profound despair. The
trumpets of the Crusaders were^ soon heard, and at this
signal, terror seized even the bravest ; there was no longer
any idea of disputing the victory with the Latins. Lascarisy
leu alone, was himself obliged to abandon a city which he
could find no one to assist him in defending. Thus Con-
stantinople, that had beheld two emperors in one night, was
once again without a master, and presented the image of a
vessel without a rudder, dashed about by the winds, and
ready to perish amidst the howling of the tempest. The
conflagration begun by the Latins, extended to several other
quarters, and consumed, by the admission of the barons,
more houses than three ox the greatest cities of either
France or Germany contained. The fire continued its
ravages during the whole night, and before day the Cru-
saders prepared, by the light of its flames, to follow up their
victory. Kanged in order of battle, they were advancing
with precaution and mistrust, when their ears were saluted
with supplicating voices that filled the air with lamentations
and prayers. Women, children, and old men, preceded by
the clergy, bearing crosses and images of saints, came in
procession, to throw themselves at the feet of the conquerors.
The leaders allowed their hearts to be touched by the cries
and entreaties of this weeping crowd, and a henud-at-arms
was ordered to pass through the ranks, and proclaim the
laws of clemency ; the soldiers were commanded to spare
the lives of the inhabitants, and to respect the honour of
women and maidens. The Latin clergy joined their exhor-
tations with those of the leaders of the army, and threatened
with the vengeance of the Church all who should abuse vic-
tory by outraging humanity.

In the mean time the Crusaders advanced amidst the
braying of trumpets and the noise of clarions, and their
banners were soon planted in the principal quarters of the
city. When Boniface entered the palace of Bucoleon,
wmch was supposed to be occupied by the imperial guard,
he was surprised to find a great number of women, of the
first families of the empire, whose only defence was their
groans and tears. Marguerite, daughter of the king of

I8fi HIBTOUT OV THE CBTTSABES.

Hungary, and wife of Isaac, and Agnes, daughter of a king
of France,* the wife of two emperors, threw themselves at
the feet of the harons,,and implored their mercy. The
marquis of Montferrat respected their misfortunes, and
placed them under the protection of a guard. Whilst
Boniface occupied the palace of Bucoleon, Henry of Hai-
nault took possession of that of Blachemie; these two
palaces, filled with immense riches, were preserved from
pillage, and were exempted from the lamentahle scenes
which, during several days, desolated the city of Constan-
tinople.t

The Crusaders, impatient to gather the treasures they
had shared heforehand, spread themselves through all the
quarters of the capital, and carried off, without pity or con-
sideration, eveiytning that offered itself to their avidity.
The houses of the poorest citizens were no more respected
than the mansions of the rich. The Ghreeks, plundered of
their property, ill-treated hy the conquerors, and turned out
of their homes, implored the humanity of the counts and
barons, and pressed around the marquis of Montferrat, cry-
ing, ** Holy kin^ marquU, havepitv upon us!*^ Boniface was
touched by theur prayers, and endeavoured to recall the Cru-
saders to some sentiments of moderation ; but the license of
the soldiers increased with the sight of booty ; the most disso-
lute and most undisciplined gave the signal, and marched at

* Agnes, daughter of Lonii VII. , had been at the age of eigbt years,
given in marriage to Alexiiis Comnenns, the son of Mannel, in 1179.
After the death of Alezina, bis murderer Andronicns usurped the empire
and married Agnes, but had no children by her. Agnes remained a
widow at Constantinople to the time of its being taken, when she married
Branas, who was attached to the party of the latins.

t Nicetas speaks of the carnage which followed the taking of Conatan-
titiople. We have quoted the words even of Villehardouin, who does not
materially contradict Nicetas. The pope in his letters warmly reproached
the Crusaders on this subject. Guntheronly carries the number of slain,
on the entrance of the Crusaders into Jerusalem, to two thousand persons,
and attributes this »Iaughter to the Latins established at Constantinople,
who bad great canse of complaint against the Greeks. The same historian
informs us that the ecclesiastics that followed the army contributed, by
their discourses, to put an end to the mavsacre. He does not omit this
occasion to praise the piety and humanity of Martin Litx, who went
through the ranks of the victorious army, preaching moderation to' lfa«
conquerors.

BZ8T0BT OP TSB CMT$iJ>S9« 18S

tbeir heiid, and tbeir example led on all the rest : the in*
toxkation of yictorv had no longer anj restraint, — it waa
sensible to neither iear nor pity.*

When the Cruaaders discontinued the slaughter, thej had
recourse to every kind of outrage and violence to plunder
the conquered; no spot in Constantinc^le was free from
brutal search. In spite of the frequently»repeated prohibi-
tions of their leaders and priests, they respected neither the
modesty of women nor the sanctity of churches. Some
soldiers and followers of the army plundered the tombs and
coffins of the emperors ; the body of Justinian, which ages
had spared, and which presented itself to their eyes in a
fresh and undecayed state, could not repel their sacnlegious
hands, or make them respect the peace of the grave; in
every temple where a rag of silk shone, or a particle of gold
glittered, their greedy fmgera were stretched out to clutch
them. The altar of the Virgin, which decorated the church of
St. Sophia, and which was admired as a masterpiece of art, was
beaten to pieces, and the veil of the sanctuary was tern to
rags. The conquerors played at dice upon the marble tables
which represented the apostles, and got drunk oat of the
cups reserved for divine service. Horses and mules led inte
the sanctuary, bent beneath the weight of the spoils, and,
pierced by sword-^ints, stained with their blood and their
ordure the vestibule of St. Sophia. A prostitute girl, whom
Nicetas calls the follower of demons, the priestess of furies,
mounted the patriarchal puloit, sang an immodest song, and
danced in the church, amiost a crowd of soldiers, as if to
insult the ceremonies of religion.

The Greeks could not behold these impious scenes without
troubling with horror. Nicetas, whilst deploring the mis*
fortunes of the empire and the Greek Church, dedaima
with vehemence agamst the barbarous race of the Franks.
" Here," says he, " is what was promised by that golden
gor^, that haughty bearing, those elevated eyebrows, that
ckMwly shaven beard, that hand so ready te shed blood, tiiiose

* There was nothiog so difficult, sajs Nioetas, as to softon the fiercf
temper, appease the anger, or gain the a ectioDS of these harbarians,
Thdr bile was so heated, that it wf^j nqvure a word to set it in a blase ;
H waa a ndinloiif frndritalwng to muia^n to laote thsm tiMtaUa, a
foUy to apeak reason to them.

184 HISTOBT 07 THE 0BX7BABBS.

noetrilfl breatliing anger, tliat proud eye, tliat cruel disposi-
tion, that prompt and hurried utterance." * The historian
of Byzantium reproaches the Crusaders with having sur-
passed the Saracens in barbarity, and reminds them of the
example of the soldiers of SalacQn, who, when masters of
Jerusalem, neither violated the modesty of matrons and
virgins, nor filled the sepulchre of the Saviour with bloody
carcasses, nor subjected Christians to fire, sword, hunger, or
nakedness.

The country on the shores of the Bosphorus offered a no
less deplorable spectacle than the capital. Villages, churches,
country-houses were all devastated and given over to pillage.
A distracted crowd covered the roads, and wandered about
at hazard, pursued by fear, bending under fatigue, and
uttering cries -of despair. Senators, patricians, the offspring
of a family of emperors, strayed homeless about, covered
with rags, seeking for any miserable asylum. When the
church of St. Sophia was pillaged, the patriarch fled away,
imploring the charity of passengers ; all the rich fell into
inmgence, and inspired nothing but contempt; the most
illustrious nobility, the highest dirties, the splendour of
talents or virtues, possessed nothmg to create respect or
attract admiration. Misery, like inevitable death, effaced
all distinctions, and confounded all ranks ; the dregs of the
people completed the spoliation of the fugitives, at the same
time insulting their misfortunes. A senseless multitude
rejoiced at the public evils, applauded the degradation of the
noble and the nch, and callea these disastrous days, days of
justice and equality.

Nicetas describes his misfortune and his own deplorable
adventures ; the house he had inhabited under the reign of
the emperors was consumed by the flames of the second
conflagration: having retired with his family to another
house, built near the church of St. Sophia, he soon found
himself in danger in this last asylum, and only owed his
safetv to devoted friendship and gratitude. A Venetian
merchant, whom he had saved irom the fury of the Greeks
before the flight of Alexius, was desirous, in his turn, of

* This is a yeiy remarkable passage; it describes the hero of the
crasades with the pencil of the painter af well as with the pen of the
historian.— -Trans.

HIBTOBT OV THE CBUBADSS. 135

saving bis benefactor ; be armed bimself with a sword and a
lance, assumed the dress of a soldier of the cross, and as bo

rke the languages of tbe "West, be defended tbe entrance
tbe bouse of Nicetas, saying it was bis, tbe price of bis
blood, sbed in figbt. Tbis vigilant sentinel at first repulsed
all aggressors, and braved a thousand perils; a model of
fidelity and virtue, amidst tbe borrid disorders tbat desolated
Constantinople.

Tbe turbulent crowd of soldiers tbat filled tbe streets and
penetrated everywhere, became indignant that a single bouse
should be thus exempt from their brutal searches. The
despairing Venetian at length came to Nicetas, imd told him
that it was totally out of bis power to defend him any longer.
" If you remain here,'* said be, " to-morrow, perhaps, you
will be loaded with chains, and your family become a prey
to all the violences of the conquerors. Follow me, and I
will conduct you out of the gates of Constantinople."
Nicetas, with bis wife and children, followed the faithful
Venetian : their liberator, in armour, marched at their head,
and led them as if they were prisoners.

This unfortunate family proceeded, filled with fear, meeting
at every step soldiers greedy of pillage, who ill-treated the
Greeks they plundered, ana threatened every woman with
insult. Nicetas, and some of his friends who bad come to
join him, carried their children in their arms, the only wealth
that Heaven had left them ; and defended alone by the pity
which their despair and misery inspired. They walked
together, placing their wives and daughters in the centre,
after having advised the youngest to blacken their faces
with earth. In spite of this precaution, the beauty of one
young girl attracted the attention of a soldier, and she was
borne away from the arms of her father, weighed down by
age and infirmities, Nicetas, touched by the tears of the
old man, flew after the ravisher, and addressing himself to
all the warriors be met, he implored their pity, and conjured
them, in the name of Heaven, the protector of virtue, in the
name of their own families, to snatch a daughter from dis-
honour, to save a father from despair. The Frank warriors
were affected by his prayer, and the unfortunate father
soon saw bis daughter restored to him, the only hope of
his exile, the last consolation of bis grey hairs. Nicetas

136 HX8T0BT QT THE CRVHAS^JtB.

and hifl companions in trouble encountered still further dan«
gers, but at length got safely out of Constantinople by the
Golden Gate, happy at being able to quit a country so latelj
the object of all their affections. The generous Venetian
received their blessings, and in return prayed Heaven to
protect them in their exile.

Nicetas, with tears, embraced his liberator, whom he never
had the ^ood fortune to see a^ain ; then casting a look upon
Constantinople, upon his unnappy country, he addressed
to it these touching complaints, which express, the griefs of
his exile, and which he himself haa transmitted to us :• —
" 0 Queen of Cities, what power haa been able to separate
us from thee ! What consolation shall we find on issuing
from thy walls, as naked as we issued from the bosom of our
mothers ! Become the sport of strangers, the companions
of wild animals that inhabit the forests, we shall never again
visit thy august domes, and can only fly with terror around
thee, like sparrows round the spot where their nest haa been
destroyed.'^

Kicetas arrived with his family at Cylindria, and after-
wards retired to Nice, where he employed himself in retracing
the history of the misfortunes of his country.

Constantinople did not cease to be the theatre of the
frightful deeds of violence that war brings in its train.
Amidst the sanguinary sports of victory, the Latins, to
insxdt the effeminate manners of the Greeks, clothed them-
selves in long flowing robes, painted of various colours ; thej
fastened to the heads of their horses linen hoods with their
silken cords, in which the Orientals dress themselves ; whilst
others paraded the streets carrying in their hands, instead of
a sword, some paper and an ink-horn ; thus ridiculing the
conquered, whom they termed scribes and copyers.

The Greeks had on all occasions insulted tne ignorance of
the Latins; the knights, vnthout seeking to retort upon
their enemies for their afironts, esteemed nothing but the
trophies of valour and the labours of war, and held in conr
tempt the quiet occupations of peace. With these disposi-

* Hie lamentetioiu of Nieetaa are not alwaji natanl ; wfailtt deploring
liie hta of Byiaotiiam he say<, " I complained to the walla, that they alone
sbpold be ij^qensible to oaUuiiitias, and thtomid remain ctandiAg, inatead of
VUfH^ ^way Jn tqus.'*

AI8T0BT 07 THl CBUSADIS. 187

tions it was not likely they Bhould spare the monuments tbit
decorated the public places, the palaces, or the edifices of
Byzantium. Constantinople, which to this period had
stood erect amidst the ruins of several empires, had col-
lected within its walls the scattered relics of the arts, and
was proud to exhibit the masterpieces that had been saved
from the destruction of barbarous a^es. The bronze, in
n^hich breathed the genius of antiquity, was cast into the
furnace, and converted into money, to satisfy the greedy
soldiers. The heroes and gods of the Nile, those of ancient
G-reece and of ancient Borne, the masterpieces of Praxiteles,
Phidias, and the most celebrated artists, fell beneath the
strokes of the conquerors.

Nicetas, who deplores the loss of these monuments, has
left us a description, from which the history of art may derive
some advantage.* The historian of Byzantium informs us
that in the Place of Constantino stood, before the siege, the
statue of Juno, and that of Paris offering to Venus the
prize of beauty, or the apple of discord. The statue of Juno,
which had formerly adorned the temple of the goddess at
Samos, was of so colossal a size, that when it was destroyed
by the Crusaders, eight harnessed oxen were required to
drag the gigantic head to the palace of Bucoleon. In the
same place was erected an obelisk of a square form, which
astonished the spectator by the multitude and variety of the
objects it presented to his view. On the sides of this obelisk
the artist had represented, in basso-relievo, aU sorts of birds
saluting the return of the sun, villagers employed in their
rustic labours, shepherds playing on their pipes, sheep
bleating, lambs bounding on the grass ; further on, a tran-
quil sea and fishes of a thousand sorts, some taken alive,
others breaking the nets and regaining their deep retreats ;
at the back of the landscape, naked cupids playing and
throwing apples at each other ; at the top of the obelisk,

* The elflyenth and twelfth ▼olames of the Memoirt (ifiAe Royal Soeieiy
qf Gotiingen contain a beautiful work of the illuBtrious Heyne, upon the
monuments of «rt that have existed at Constantinople. In the first
memoir he gives the nomenclature of the ancient monuments, — Priwa
ArttM Opera. In the second those that were erected under tbe'Cmperors
of Bynntium. In two other memoirs, the same learned author deacribea
the loss of these itfme monuments : De Inieriiu Operum cum aniiqwt tarn
terioris miaf%9.

Vol. it.— .7

138 HI6T0BT Of THE CBTTSASISa.

whicli terminated in a pyramidal form, was the figure of a
woman that turned with the least breath of air, which waa
called the attendant of the winds.

An equestrian statue* ornamented the place of Mount
Taurus ; the horse appeared to throw up the dust 'with his
feet, and outspoed the winds in his course. As the horse-
man had his arm extended towards the sun, some supposed
it to represent Joshua, commanding the star of day to stand
still, on the plains of Gabaon; others believed the artist
meant to describe Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus.t

A colossal statue of Hercules,J attributed to Lysippua,
was one of the ornaments of the Hippodrome ; the demigod
had neither his bow nor his club ; he was seated on a bed of
osier ;§ his left knee bent, sustained his elbow ; his head
reclining on his left hand ; his pensive looks and air ex-

^ The Bellerophon. This atatue is that of Theododos, showing a
trophy placed upon a neighbouring column ; it was thus the Pacificator
was represented : fuit a Deo paeijfcatoris habiiu$. Nicetas says that in
his left hand he held a globe. The statues of the other emperors of Con-
stantinople present a similar sign, to which a cross is attached. The
people believed that under the hoof of the left fore foot, was the figure of
a Venetian or a Bulgarian, or of a man of some other country which had
no intercourse with the Romans. The statue being destroyed by the
Latins, it was said that the figure of a Bulgarian was found concealed in
the hoof, crossed by a nail and incrusted in lead. This statue came from
Antioch in Syria. At the quadrilateral base was a basso 'relievo, in which
the populace, ever superstitious, fancied they beheld the prediction of the
fall of the empire. They even said that the Russians there represented
would accomplish the prediction.

f One of the French translators of Gibbon, of a single statue has made
two ; he speaks of a statue of Joshua and of another of Bellerophon. It
is true that this gross error is only met with in one French translation ;
the English original says that in the opinion of the vulgar, this statud
passed for that of Joshua, but that a more classical tradition recognised
in it that of Bellerophon and Pegasus ; the free and spirited attitu49 of the
courser indicating that he trod on air rather than on the earth.

X Heyne attributes it to Lysippus^ he thinks it is the same as the
colossal Hercules of Tarentum, which was brought to Rome and placed in
the Capitol. From this city it went to Constantinople, with ten other
statues, under the consulate of Julian and the reign of Constantino, that
is to say, about 322 ; but it was not till after being exhibited in the Basilio
that it was placed in the Hippodrome.

§ Gibbon calls this an oner ba»ket; Michaud says, vn lit d*o»ier,
which I have preferred. I can imagine Hercules sitting upon a bed or
mattress of osier, but not upon a basket. — Trans.

HI8T0BT OF THE CBtJSiLBSS. 189

preesing the vexation and Borrow caused bv the jealonsj of
Eurystheus. The shoulders and chest of Hercules were
broad, his hair was curled, and his limbs were large and
muscular ; hiS leg alone exceeded in height the stature of an
ordinary man. The skin of the Nemean lion, exhibited over
the shoulders of the son of Alcmena, the erected mane and
the head of the animal, which might be fancied still to roar
and terrify the passers by, who stopped to contemplate the
statue.

Not far from the terrible Hercules, was a group of an ass
and its driver, which Augustus placed in his colony of Nico-
polis, to perpetuate the remembnmce of a singular circum-
stance that had foretold the victory of Actium to him.
Near this were the hyena or she-wolf that suckled Komulua
and Bemus, a monument from the old nations of the "West ;•
the sphinx, with the face of a woman, dragging frightful
animals behind her ; the crocodile, an inhabitant of the Nile,
with his tail covered with horrible scales ; a man fighting
with a lion ; an elephant with his supple trunk ; and the
antique Scylla, showmg before, the features of a woman, with
large breasts and a deformed figure; and behind, such
monsters as those that pursued Ulysses and his companions.
In the same place was an eagle clutching a serpent in his
talons, and bearing it away towards the azure vault ; the
bronze beautifully exhibited the pain of the reptile, and the
haughty fierceness of the bird of Jupiter. When the sun
shone on the horizon, the extended wmgs of the king of the
air denoted, by Hnes skilfully traced, the twelve hours of the
day.

All who, in that gross age, preserved anv taste for the
arts, admired the figure of a young woman, her hair plaited
on her brow, and gathered into a knot behind, placed upon
a column of the Circus ; this young woman, as if oy enchant-
ment, bore in her right hand a horseman, whose horse she

* The learned Harris, in his historical Essay upon the literature and
arts of the middle ages, thinks that the monument which represented the
wolf suckling Romulus, was the same as that to which Virgil makes
allusion when describing the buckler of ^neas : —

lUam tereti cervice reflezam
Mulcere altemos, et corpora fingerb lingua.

JBwsid, b. im.

140 HI8T0BT OT THX CBirBADEB.

held by one foot ; the horseman corered with his coirass, and
the spirited, neighing steed, seemed listening to the warlike
trumpet, and to breathe nothing but eagerness for the fight.
Near the eastern boundary of the Circus were represented in
bronze, the charioteers who had gained prizes, and whose
triumphs, in times gone by, had often divided the empire
into two factions ; they appeared standing in their chariots,
running in the lists, pulling and loosening by turns the reins
of their coursers, and encouraging them by gesture and voice.
Not far from this, upon a basis of stone, were several
Egyptian animals, the aspic, the basilisk, and the crocodile,
all engaged in mortal combat, — an image of the war made by
the wicked on each other; the hideous forms of these
animals, the rage and pain expressed throughout their bodies,
the livid poison which seemed to exhale with their bites,
altogether inspired a feeling of disgust and terror. Another
masterpiece, made to chann the sight, ought, at least, to
have touched and disarmed the conquerors. Among the
statues described by Nicetas, none is more conspicuous than
a Helen with her charming smile and her voluptuous atti-
tude ; a Helen, with perfect regularity of features, her hair
floating at tlie pleasure of the winds, her eyes full of languor,
her lips, which even in the bronze were rosy ; her arms, of
which even the same bronze showed the whiteness ; Helen,
in short, with all her beauty, and such as she appeared before
the old men of Ilium, who were ravished at her presence.

Constantinople contained many other splendid objects
of art, which preceding ages had admired ; almost all such
as were of bronze were condemned to perish, the Crusaders
seeing in these monuments nothing but the metal of which
they were composed. " That which antiquity had judged,"
says Nicetas, " of inestimable value, became, all at once, a
common matter ; and that which had cost immense sums,
was changed by the Latins into pieces of coin of very little
value !'* The statues of marble held out less temptation for
the cupidity of the conquerors, and received no other injuries
than such as were inseparable from the tumult and disorders
of war.

The Greeks, who appeared so proud of their knowledge,
themselves nep;lected the fine arts. The sciences of Greece,
the profiane wisdom of the Academy and the Lyceum, had

HISTOBT OF THB CBrSAOES. 141

giyen place among them to the debates of Bcholastic theology;
they passed by the Hippodrome with indifiference, and held
nothing in reverence but relics and images of saints. These
religious treasures, preserved Tnth care in the churches and
palaces of Byzantium, had, during several ages, attracted the
attention of the Christian world ; in the days that followed
the conquest, they tempted the pious cupidity of the Cru-
saders. Whilst the greater part of the warriors bore away
the gold, the jewels, the carpeU, and the rich stuffs of the
East, the more devout of the pilgrims, particxdarly the
ecclesiastics, coUected a boo^ much more innocent and
appropriate to the soldiers of Christ. Many braved the
prohibitions of their leaders and their superiors, and did not
disdain to employ by turns supplications and menaces,
stratagem or violence, to procure relics that were the objects
of their respect and veneration. Contemporary history
relates several examples of this, which serve to make us
acquainted with the spirit of the pilgrim conquerors of
Byzantium. Martin Litz, abbot of Paris, in the diocese of
BMe, entered into a church that had been given up to pillage,
and penetrated, without being observed, into a retired place,
where numerous relics were deposited, under the guardian-
ship of a Greek monk.* This Greek monk was~then at
prayers, with his hands raised supplicatingly towards
heaven. His old age, his white hairs, his fervent piety, and
the grief impressed upon his brow, were calculated to inspire
both respect and pitv ; but Martin, approaching the vene-
rable guardian oi tfie treasures li^ith an angry manner,
exclaimed in a threatening tone, " Miserable old man, if thou
dost not instantly conduct me to the place where thy relics
are hidden, prepare to die on the spot ! " The monk, terrified
by this menace, immediately and tremblingly arose, and
pointed to a large iron coiFer, into which the pious abbot
eagerly plunged both his hands, and seized everything

* Cum ergo yictores Tictam, quam jure belli tuam fecerant, alacriter
spoliarent, ccepit Martinu:) abbas de sua etiam pned& cogitare, et ne ipse
vacuus remaneret, proposuit et ipse sacratas manus suas ad rapiuam
extendere. — Gunther,

The same Gunther relates how Martin committed violence upon a
Greek priest to obtain relics from him. When speaking of Martin Lits,
Gunther employs these singular ezpressions— j9r<e<2o tanciua.

142 HISTOBT OF TKE CBXTSADSB.

precious that he could grasp. Delighted with this conquesty
he ran to conceal his treasures on board a vessel, ana con-
trived, by. a holy fraud, to keep them for several days from
the knowledge of the leaders and prelates of the army, who
had strictly ordered the pilgrims to bring to an appointed
place all the relics that feU into their han£.

Martin Litz, at first, returned to the Christians of Pales-
tine, who had sent him to Constantinople ; and, a short time
after, came back to Europe, loaded with spoils obtained from
the clergy of Byzantium. Among the relics he exhibited on
his return, were, a piece of the true cross, the bones of
St. John the Baptist, and an arm of St. James. The mira-
culous translation of this treasure is celebrated with much
pomp by the monk Gunther, in whom it created more
• surprise and joy than the conquest of a great empire. If we
may credit the account of the German monk, angels- de-
scended from heaven to watch over the relics of Martin
Litz. On the route of the holy abbot, the tempests of the
ocean were silent, pirates were struck motionless, and
robbers, those pests of travellers, stopped short, seized with
respect and fear. At length Martin Litz was received in
triumph at Bale, and the treasures he had preserved through
so many perils, were distributed among the principal
churches ot the diocese.

Another priest, named Galon de Dampierre, of the diocese
of Langres, less adroit or less fortunate than Martin Litz,
had not been able to obtain any share of the spoils of the
churches ; he went and threw himself at the leet of the
pope's legate, and implored him, with tears in his eyes, to
permit him to carry back to his country the head of St. Mames.
A third ecclesiastic of Picardy, having found the head of
St. George, and the head of St. John the Baptist, concealed
among the ruins, hastened to quit Constantinople, and, laden
with such a rich prize, presented to the cathedral of Amiens,
his country, the inestimable relics of which Providence had
made him the possessor.

The princes and barons did not despise these holy spoils.
Dandolo, receiving as his share* a piece of the true cross,

* We have spoken in the early part of the work of the trne cross which
the kings of Jerusalem caased to be borne before them in battle, and
which was taken by Saladin at the battle of Tiberias ; Saladin refused to

HI8T0BT OF TH£ CBITSADES. 148

which the emperor Constantine was accustomed to have
borne before him to battle, made a present of it to the
republic of Venice. Baldwin kept for himself the crown of
thorns of Christ, and several other relics found in the palace
of Bucoleon. He sent Philip Augustus, king of France, a
portion of the true cross, a foot in length ; some of the hair
of Jesus Christ, when an infant ; and the linen in which the
Man- God was enveloped in the stable in which he was
bom.

The Greek priests and monks, thus plundered by the con-
querors, parted with tears from the remains of the saints
tnat had been confided to their keeping, and which every
day cured the sick, made the lame to walk, restored sight to
the blind, and strength to the paralytic. These holy spoils,
that the devotion of the faithful had gathered together from
all the countries of the East, went to illustrate the churches
of France and Italy, and were received by the Christiana of
the West as the most glorious trophies of the victories
God had enabled the Crusaders to obtain.

Constantinople fell into the power of the Latins on the
10th of April, towards the end of Lent. The marshal of
Champagne, after relating some of the scenes we have
described, says with great simplicity, "Thus passed the
splendid festivities of Easter." The clergy called the Cru-
saders to penitence ; the voice of religion made itself heard
in hearts hardened by victory; the soldiers crowded to the
churches they had devastated, and celebrated the sufferings
and death of Christ upon the wrecks of his own altars.

This solemn epoch without doubt inspired some generous
sentiments ; all the Latins were not deaf to the language of
the charity of the Gospel. We feel bound here to admit
that the greater part of the knights and ecclesiastics pro-
tected the liberty and lives of. the citizens, and the honour
of matrons and virgins ; but such was the spirit that then

deliTer it up to Richard, as many of the Crusaders must have known.
How then could the true cross be found at Constantinople ? The Greeks,
howcTer, were not very nice with respect to the authenticity of their
relics, and the Christians of the West on this point yielded very easy
Ikith to thezn. [I cannot bat think our author a little out in hifi criticism
here : they were but fragments or portions of the cross, at Constantinople ;
the Saracens still held the main body of the true cross— t/'/riw U teas, —
Trans.]

144 HISTOBT OF THE CBITSABXS.

possessed the warriors, that all the Crusadew allowed them-
selves to be overcome by the thirst for bootv; and the
leaders, equally with the soldiers, exercised, without hesita-
tion or scruple, the right which their victory had given
them of plundering the conquered. It was agreed that
all the spoils should be deposited in three churches,
selected for the purpose ; and the leaders commanded the
Crusaders to bring, in common, the whole of the booty, and
threatened with death and excommunication all who should
abstract anything from the prize of the valour, and the
recompense due to the labours of the whole army. Many
soldiers, and even some knights, allowed themselVes to be
led away by avarice, and retained valuable objects that fell
into their hands. " "Which," says the marshal of Cham-
pagne, " made the Lord to begin to love them less." The
justice of the counts and barons was inflexible towards the
guilty ; the count of St. Pol ordered one of his knights, who
had withheld something from the common stock of booty, to
be himg, with his escutcheon suspended from his neck.*
Thus the G-reeks, plundered by violence, might be present
at the punishment of some of the ravishers of their pro-
perty, and might contemplate with surprise the regulations
of sterli equity mingled with the disorders of victory and
pillage. After the festival of Easter, the Crusaders shared
the captured riches ; the fourth part of the spoil was set
aside for him who should be chosen emperor, and the rest
was divided among the French and the Venetians. The
French Crusaders, who had conquered Zara, to the sole
advantage of the Venetians, were not the less called upon
to pay the fifty thousand silver marks they owed to tho
republic; the amount was deducted beforehand from the
portion of the booty that belonged to them. In the division
that was made among the warriors of Lombardy, Grermany,
and France, each knight had a part equal to that of two
horsemen, and every horseman one equal to that of two
foot-soldiers. All the plunder of the Greeks only yielded t

* Villehardonin, when speaking of the rigorous jastioe exercised upon
all who endeavoured to conceal any part of the plunder, says : Et en y eut
tout plein de pendus.

t Que edition of Villehardouin makes the plunder pf Constantinople
amount to five hundred thousand silver marks, equivalent to twenty-four

HISTOSY 07 THIS CBVSADXB. 145

four hundred thousand silver marks ; but although this sum
far exceeded the revenues of all the kingdoms of the West,
it did not by any means represent the value of the riches
accumulated in Byzantium. If the princes and barons, upon
making themselves masters of the city, had been satisfied with
imposing a tribute upon the inhabitants, they might have
received a much larger sum; but this pacific manner of
obtaining wealth agreed neither with their character nor the
humour they were in. History asserts that the Venetians,
in this circumstance, offered them some very prudent advice,
and made propositions that were rejected with scorn. The
Prank warriors could not condescend to submit the advan-

X>f victory to commercial calculations ; the produce of
was always, in their eyes, the most worthy firuit of
conquest, and the most noble reward of valour.

When they had thus shared the rich plunder of the
Eastern empire, the Crusaders gave way to the most extra-
vagant jov, without perceiving that they had committed a
CTeat fault in exhausting a country which was about to
become their own ; they (ud not reflect that the ruin of the
conquered might one day bring on that of the conquerors,
and that they might become as poor as the Ghreeks they had
just despoiled. W ithout regrets, as without foresight, hoping
everything from their own good swords, they set about elect-
ing a leader who should reign over a people in mourning and
a desolated city. The imperial purple had still the same
splendour in their e;^es, and the throne, though shaken by
tneir arms, was still the object of their ambition. Six
electors were chosen from among the Venetian nobles, and
six others from among the French ecclesiastics, to give a

millions ; if we add to this sum the fifty thousand marks due to the Yene-
tians, and deducted before the diyiaion, and the part which they had in the
division itself, we shall find the total amount of booty fifty nyllions four
hundred thousand francs (about ;^ ^00,000. — Tbans.). As much, says
the modem historian who supplies us with this note, perhaps, was appro-
priated secretly by individuals. The three fires which had consumed more
than half the city had destroyed at least as much of its riches, and in the
profusion that followed the pillage, the most precious effects had lost so
much of their value, that the advantage of the Latins probably was not
equivalent to a quarter of what they had cost the Greeks. Thus we may
suppose that Constantinople, before the attack, contained 600,000,000 of
wealth (£25,000,000). (What would the plunder of London amount to
la 1852 ?— Taans.)

146 HISTOBT 01* THB CBI78AJDS8.

nuister to Constantinople ; the twelve electors assembled in
the palace of Bucoleon, and swore, upon the Gbspel, to
crown only merit and virtue.

Three of the principal leaders of the crusade had equal
claims to the suffrages of thg electors. If the purple was to
be the reward of experience, of ability in council, and of
services rendered to the cause of the Latins, Henrj Dandolo,
who had been the moving spirit, the very soul of the enter-
prise, certainly had the first claim to it. The marquis of
Montferrat, bke^Hise, had titles worthy of great considera-
tion ; the Latins had chosen him for their leader, and the
Greeks already acknowledged him as their master. His
bravery, proved in a thousand fights, promised a firm and
generous support to a throne that must rise from amidst
ruins. His prudence and moderation might give the Latins
and the people of Greece reason to hope that, when once
raised to empire, he would repair the evils of war. The
claims of Baldwin to the imperial crown were not less
cogent than those of his concurrents. The count of Flan-
ders was related to the most powerful monarchs of the West,
and was descended, in the female line, from Charlemagne.
He was much beloyed by his soldiers, whose dangers he was
always ready to share; he had deservedly obtained the
esteem of the Greeks, who, even amidst the disorders of
conquest, celebrated him as the champion of chastity and
honour. Baldwin was the protector of the weak, the friend
of the poor ; he loved justice, and had no dread of truth.
His youth, which he had already illustrated by brilliant cx-

Eloits and solid virtues, gave the subjects of the new empire
opes of a long and happy reign ; the rank he held among
the warriors, his niety, his intelligence, his love of studv and
learned men, renaered him worthy of ascending the throne
of Augustus and Constantine.

The electors at first turned their attention towards the
venerable Dandolo ; but the republicans of Venice trembled
at the idea of seeing an emperor among their fellow-citizens :
" What shall we not have to dread," said they, " from a
Venetian, become master of Greece, and of part of the
East P Shall we be subject to his laws, or will he remain
subject to the laws of our country ? Under his reign, and
unaer that of his successors, who will assure ub that Venice,

PISTOBY Of THE CBrSiJDXS. 147

the Queen of the Seas, will not become oneof the cities of this
empire ?" The Venetians, whilst speaking thus, bestowed
just eulogiums upon the virtue and character of Dandolo ;
thej added, that their doge, who was approaching the end
of a life filled with great actions, had nothing lefi him but
to finish his days with gloiy, and that he himself would find
it more glorious to be the nead of a victorious republic, than
the sovereign of a conquered nation. " What Eoman,"
cried they, " would have been willing to lay down the title
of citizen of Borne, to become king of Carthage ?"

On terminating their speeches, the Venetians conjured
the assembly to elect an emperor from among the other
leaders of the army. After this, the choice of the electors
could only be directed towards the count of Flanders and
the marquis of Montferrat ; the most wise dreading that
the one of the two concurrents who should not obtam the
empire, would be sure to give vent to his dissatisfaction,
and would desire the fall of the throne occupied by his
rival. They still remembered the violent debates which, in
the first crusade, had followed the election of Godfrey of
Bouillon ; and the troubles excited in the young kingdom of
Jerusalem, by the jealous ambition of Raymond de St,
Gilles. To prevent the eff*ects of such a fatal discord, it was
judged best to decree, at once, that the prince that should
gain the sufirages for the imperial throne, should yield to
the other, under the condition of fealty and homage, the
property of the island of Candia, and all the lands of the
empire situated on the other side of the Bosphorus. After
this decision, the assembly turned their whole attention to
the election of an emperor. Their choice was for a long
time uncertain. The marquis of Montferrat at first appeared
to have the majority of the suffrages ; but the Venetians
were fearful of seeing upon the throner of Constantinople a
prince who had any possessions in the neighbourhood of
their territories, and represented to the assembly that the
election of Baldwin would be much more advantageous to
the Crusaders, particularly as it would interest the warlike
nations of the Flemings and French in the glory and support
of the new empire. The interests and jealousies of policy,
and, without doubt, also wisdom and equity, at length
united all voices in favour of the count of Flanders,

148 HISTORY OV THB OBrSADSS.

The Crusaders, assembled before the palace of Bucoleon,
awaited with impatience the decision of the electors. At
the hour of midnight, the bishop of Soissons came forward
under the vestibule, and pronounced, in a loud voice, these
words : " This hour of the night, which witnessed the birth
of a Saviour of the world, gives birth to a new empire,
under the protection of the Omnipotent. Tou have for
emperor, Baldwin, count of Flanders and Hainault." Loud
cries of joy arose from among the Venetians and the
French. The people of Constantinople, who had so often
changed masters, received, without repugnance, the new one
just given to them, and mingled their acclamations with
those of the Latins. Baldwin was elevated upon a buckler,
and borne in triumph to the church of St. Sophia. The
marquis of Montferrat followed in the train of his rival ; the
generous submission, of which he presented an example, was
much admired by his companions in arms, and his presence
drew scarcely less attention than the warlike pomp that
surrounded the new emperor.

The ceremony of the coronation was postponed till the
/ourth Sunday after Easter. Li the mean time the marriage
of the marquis of Montferrat with Margaret of Hungary,
the widow of Isaac, was celebrated with much splendour.
Constantinople beheld within its walls the festivities and
spectacles of the West, and, for the first time, the Greeks
heard in their churches the prayers and hymns of the
Latins. On the day appointed for the coronation of the
emperor, Baldwin repaired to St. Sophia, accompanied by
the barons and the clergy. "Whilst divine service was beins
performed, the emperor ascended a throne of gold, and
received the purple from the hands of the pope's legate,
who performed the functions of patriarch. Two knights
carried before him the laticlavici tunica of the Eoman con-
suls, and the imperial sword, once again in the hands of
warriors and heroes. The head of the clergy, standing
before the altar, pronounced, in the Oreek language, these
words : "JHi? w worthy of reigning ;'^ and all persons present
repeated in chorus, "Ac w worthy! he is worthy!^* The
Crusaders shouting their boisterous acclamations, the knights
clad in armour, the crowd of miserable Greeks, the sanctuary
despoiled of its ancient ornaments, and decked with foreign

HIBTOBT OF THS CSXJSADXS. 149

pomp, presented altogether a spectacle solemn and melan-
choly— ail the evils of war amidst the trophies of victory.
Surrounded by the ruins of an empire, reflective spectators
could not fail to remark among the ceremonies of this day,
that in which, according to the custom of the G-reeks, were
presented to Baldwin a little vase filled with dust and
bones, and a lock of lighted flax,* as symbols of the short-
ness of life and the .nothingness of human grandeur.

Before the ceremony of his coronation, the new emperor
distributed the principal dirties of the empire among his
companions in arms. Yillehardouin, marshal of Champagne,
obtamed the title of marshal of Eomania ; the count de
St. Pol, the dignity of constable ; the charges of master of
the wardrobe, great cupbearer and butler, were given to
Canon de Bethune,Macaire de St. M6n6hoult, and Miles de
Brabant. The doge of Venice, created despot or prince of
Bomania, had the right of wearing purple buskins, a privi-
lege, among the Greeks, reserved for niembers of the unpe-
riS family. Henry Dandolo represented the republic of
Venice at Constantinople ; half the city was under his
dominion and recognisea his laws ; he ndsed himself, by the*
dignity of his character as well as by his exploits, above all
the princes and all the nobles of the court of Baldwin ; he
alone was exempt from paying fealty and homage to tho
emperor for the lands he was to possess.

The barons began t6 be impatient to share the cities and
provinces of the empire. In a council composed of twelve
of the patricians of Venice and twelve French knights, all
the conquered lands were divided between the two nations.
Bithynia, Eomania or Thrace, Thessalonica, all Greece from
Thermopylae to Cape Sunium, with the larger isles of the
Archipelago, fell to the share and under the dominion of the
rrench. The Venetians obtained the Cyclades and the Spo-
rades, in the Archipelago ; the isles and the oriental coast of
the Adriatic Gulf; the coasts of the Propontis and the Euxine
Sea; thebanks of theHebrus and the Vardas; the citiesof Cyp-
sedes, Didymatica, and Adrianople ; the maritime countries of
Thessalonica, &c. &c. Such was at first the distribution of the

* The ceremony of the lighted flax itill takes place at the exaltation of
the popes; thete words are addraned to them : Sie irmHi ghria mmnJtt.

150 BIBTOBT OF THB CBUSADES,

territories of the empire. But circumstances that could not
be foreseen, the diversity of interests, the rivahries of ambi-
tion, all the chances of fortune and of war, soon produced
grea«t changes in this division of dominions. History would
in vain endeavour to follow the conquerors into the provinces
allotted to them ; it would be more easy to mark tlie banks
of an overflowing torrent, or to trace the path of the storm,
than to fix the state of the uncertain and transitory posses-
sions of the conquerors of Byzantium.

The lands situated beyond the Bosphorus were erected
into a kingdom, and, with the island of Candia, given to the
manjuis of Montferrat. Boniface exchanged them for the
province of Thessalonica, and sold the island of Candia to
the republic of Venice for thirty pounds weight of gold.
The provinces of Asia were abandoned to the count of Blois,
who assumed the title of duke of Nice and Bithynia. In
the distribution of the cities and lands of the' empire, every
one of the lords and barons had obtained domidns propor-
tioiuite with the rank and services of the new possessor.
When they heard speak of so many countries of which they
•scarcely knew the names, the warriors of the West were
astonisned at their conquests, and believed that the greater
part of the universe was promised to their ambition. In the
intoxication of their joy, they declared themselves masters
of all the provinces that had formed the empire of Constan-
tine. They cast lots for the countries of the Medes and
Parthians,4ind the kingdoms that were under the domina-
tion of the Turks and Saracens ;* several barons expressed
a great desire to reis:n at Alexandria ; others disputed for
the palace of the sultans of Iconium ; some knights ex-
changed that which had been assigned to them for new
possessions, whilst others complained of their share, and
demanded an augmentation of territory. With the money

* Nicetas relates all the circumstances of the sharing of the lands of the
empire. We find in Muratori the treatj for the division which was made
before the siege ; we do not offer it to our readers, because it is unintel-
ligible in several places, and cannot shed any light over geography. The
names of the cities and provinces of the empire are given in a very
unfaithful and imperfect manner. The Venetians withdut.doubt famished
tlie necessary information for the drawing up of the treaty, but this in-
formation was very incomplete.

HISTOBX Oir THE CBUBAJ}£8. 151

which arose fix>m the plunder of the capital, the conquerors
purchased the provinces of the empire; they sold, thej
played at dice, for whole cities and their inhabitants. Con-
stantinople was dunug several days a market, in which seas
and their islands, nations and their wealth, were trafficked
foj* ; in which the Eoman world was put up to sale, and
found purchasers among the obscure crowd of the Crusaders.

Whust the barons were thus distributing cities and
kingdoms, the ambition of the Latin clergy was by no
means idle, but was busy in invading the property of the
Greek Church. All the churches of Constantinople were
divided between the French and the Venetians ; they named
priests of the two nations, to minister in the temples torn
from the conquered ; and no other religious ceremonies were
celebrated within the walls of the city but those of the West.
The leaders of the crusade had agreed among themselves,
that if the emperor of Constantinople should be chosen
from the French, the patriarch should be a Venetian. Ac-
cording to this convention, which had preceded the conquest,
Thomas Morosini* was elevated to the chair of St. Sophia ;
priests and Latin bishc^ were, at the same time, sent into
the other conquered cities, and took possession of the wealth
and the privileges of the Greek clergy. Thus the Bomish
worship associated itself with the victories of the Crusaders,
and made its empire acknowledged wherever the banners of
the conquerors floated.

Nothing now opposed the arms of the Cru«aders ; all
trembled before them ; fame wafted everywhere the accounts
of their exploits and their power ; but, on casting a glance
into the future the leaders had great reason to fear that the
retreat or death of their warriors woidd leave the empire
they had founded destitute of defenders. The population,
weakened and 'dispersed, were not sufficient for either the
cultivation of .the lands or the work of the cities. In this
conjuncture, the counts and barons, who always expected
with fear the judgments of the head of the Church, re-

* The pope would not at first recognise this election, which appeared
to him a usurpation of the rights of the Holy See ; but as Morosini was an
ecclesiastic of great merit, Innocent was not willing to choose another.
Morosini waa sent to ConstantiooplA not aa if elected by the Cnuaden,
but as if appointed by the pope.

162 HIBTOBT O; THX CBTJBADE8.

doubled their submission to the soyereign pontiff, and sought
his support, in the hope that the Holy See would bring the
"West to pronounce in their favour, and that at the voice of
the father of the faithful, a great number of French, Italians,
and Ghermans would come to people and defend the new
empire.

After his coronation, Baldwin wrote to the pope, to an-
nounce to him the extraordinary victories bj which it had
? leased God to crown the zeal of the soldiers of the cross,
'he new emperor, who assumed the title of knight of the
Holy See, recalled to the mind of the sovereign pontiff the
perfidies and the long revolt of the Greeks. " "We have
Drought under your Laws," said he, "that city, which, in
hatred for the Holy See, would scarcely hear the name of
the prince of the apostles, and did not afford a single
church to him who received from the Lord the supremacy
over all churches.'* Baldwin, in his letter, invited the vicar
of Jesus Christ to imitate the example of his predecessors,
John, Agapetus, and Leo, who visited in person the Church
of Byzantium. To complete the justification of the pil-
grims who had made themselves masters of the Greek em-
pire, the emperor invoked the testimony of all the Christians
of the East. " When we entered into this capital," added
he, " many inhabitants of the Holy Land, who were there,
expressed greater joy than any others, and asserted aloud
that we had rendered God a more agreeable service than if
we had retaken Jerusalem."

The marquis of Montferrat at the same time addressed
a letter to the sovereiffn pontiff, in which he protested his
humble obedience to all the decisions of the Holy See. "As
for me," said the king of Thessalonica, " who only took up
the cross for the expiation of my sins, and not to obtain an
opportunity of sinning with more license under the pretext
of religion, I submit myself blindly to your will. If you
judge that my presence in Bomauia may be useful, I will die
there, contending against your enemies and those of Christ :
if you think, on the contrary, I ought to abandon these rich
countries, pay no regard to the wealth or dignities I possess
there, I am ready to return to the West ; for I am not will-
ing to do anything that will draw upon me the anger of the
sovereign judge."

HIBTOBT OF THS CBUBAPES. 158

The doge of Venice, who till that time had brayed with
BO much haughtiness the threats and thunders of the Church,
acknowledged the sovereign authority of the pope, and
joined his protestations with those of Baldwin and Boni&ce.
To disarm the anger of Innocent, they represented to him
that the conquest of Constantinople had prepared the deli*
verance of Jerusalem, and boasted of the wealth of a coun-
try which the Crusaders had at length brought under the
laws of the Holy See. In all their letters to the pope or
the faithful of the West, the conquerors of Byzantium
spoke of the Greek empire as of a new land of promise,
which awaited the servants of Gk>d and the soldiers of Christ.

Innocent had been for a long time irritated by the dis-
obedience of the Cruqaders; in his reply, he reproached
with bitterness the victorious army of the Latins for having
preferred the riches of the earth to those of heaven ;• he
reprimanded the leaders for having exposed to the outrages
of the soldiers and followers of the army, the honour of ma-
trons and maidens, and virgins consecrated to the Lord ; for
having ruined Constantinople, plundered both great and
Mially violated the sanctuary, and put forth a sacrilegious
hand upon the treasures oi the churches. Nevertheless,
the father of the faithful would not take upon him to fathom
the judgments of God ; he was satisfied to believe that the
Greeks had been justly punished for their faults, and that
the Crusaders were recompensed as the instruments of Pro-
vidence, as the avengers of divine justice. " Dread," said
he, " the anger of the Lord ; hope with fear that he will
pardon the past, if you govern the nations with equity ; if
you are faithful to the Holy See, and, above everything, if
you entertain a firm resolution to accomplish your vow for
the deliverance of the Holy Land."

* Innocent, when speaking of the sack of Constantinople, expresses
himself thus in bis letter : — Qaidam nee religioni, nee Ktati, nee sexui
pepercerunt ; sed fomicationes, adulteria, et incestns in ocalis omnium
exercenteSf^non solum meretricnlas et yiduas, sed et matronas et virgines
Deoqne dicatas exposuerunt spurcitiis garcionom. The pope is more
severe towards the Crusaders than Nicetas himself ; the indignation that
the disobedience of the Crusaders had created, led him to exaggerate their
ftiults. The word ineettut, applied to warriors who had no family relations
with the Greeks, alone serves to prove that there is more bitterness than
truth in the letter of Innooent.

154 HISTOSr Of THE 0BVSAJ)I8.

JN'otwithfltanding this outward show of anger, the sove-
reign pontiff was gratified to the depths of his heart bj the
prayers and submission of the heroes and princes whose ex-
ploits made the Eastern world tremble. Cardinal Peter of
Capua had given absolution to the Venetians excommuni-
cated after the siege of Zara. Innocent at first blamed the
indulgence of his legate, but finished hy confirming the par-
don granted to Dandolo and his compatriots. The pope
approved the election of Baldwin, who took the title of knight
of the Holy See, and consented to recognise an empire to winch
he was to give laws. The more submissive the Crusaders
showed themselves to his authority, the more plainly it ap-
peared to him that their conquests must concern the glory
of Gtod and i;hat of the vicar of Christ upon earth. H!e
wrote to the bishops of France, that God had been willing
to console the Church by the conversion of heretics ; that
Providence had humbled the Greeks, an impious, proud, and
rebellious people ; and again placed the empire in the hands
of the Latms, a pious, humble, and submissive nation. The
sovereign pontiff* invited, in the name of the emperor Bald-
win, the French of both sexes and all conditions, to repair
to Greece to receive lauds and riches proportioned to tneir
merit and their quality. He promised the indulgences of
the crusade to all the faithful, who, sharing the glory of the
Crusaders, should go to defend and promote the prosperity
of the new empire of the East.

The pope did not, however, lose sight of the Syrian expe-
dition, and appeared persuaded that succours sent to Con-
stantinople must contribute to the deliverance of the holy
places. The king of Jerusalem implored more earnestly
than ever, both by letters and ambassadors, the efiective'
protection of the Holy See, as well as that of the princes of
the East.

The new emperor of Bjrzantium did not renounce the
hope of assisting the Christian colonies of Syria; and to
raise the courage of his brethren of the Holy Land, he sent
to Ptolemais the chain of the port and the gates of Constan-
tinople. When these trophies reached Palestine, scarcity,
famine, and all the evils of an unfortunate war ravaged both
cities and plains. At the news of approaching aid, the people
of Ptolemais passed at once firom excessive grief and de-

HISTOBT OP THS CBVSABXB. 155

Bpondencj to all the transports of joj. Pame, whilst pub-
hshuag the miraculous conquests of the companions of
Baldwin and Boniface, carried the hope of safety into all the
Christian cities of Syria, and spread terror among the Mus-
sulmans. The sultan of Damascus had recently concluded
a truce with the Christians, and trembled lest it should be
broken, when, all at once, he owed liis safety to the very
event that had caused his alarms.

The greater part of the defenders of the Holy Land, who
had experienced nothing but the evils of war, became de-
sirous of partaking of the glory and the good fortune of the
French and Venetians. They even who had quitted the
victorious army at Zara, who had so severely blamed the
expedition to Constantinople, believed that the will of God
called them to the shores of the Bosphorus, and they aban-
doned the Holy Land. The legate of the pope, Peter of
Capua, was drawn away by the example of the other Cru-
saders, and went to animate with his presence the zeal of
the Latin clergy, who were labouring for the conversion of
the Greeks ; the knights of St. Jolm and the Temple also
directed their course towards Greece, where glory and rich
domains were the reward of valour ; and the king of Jeru-
salem was lefl almost alone at Ptolemais, without means of
making the truce he had entered into with the infidels
respected.

Baldwin warmly welcomed the defenders of the Holy
Land ; but the joy he experienced at their arrival was much
troubled by the intelligence of the death of his wife, Mar-
guerite of Flanders. This princess had embarked in the
fleet of John de Nesle, in the belief that she should meet
her husband in Palestine ; sinking under the fatigue of a
long voyage, and perhaps the pains of disappointment, she
'fell sick at Ptolemais, and diea at the moment she learnt
that Baldwin had been crowned emperor of Constantinople.
The vessel destined to convey the new empress to the shores
of the Bosphorus only brought back her mortal remains.
Baldwin, amidst bi^ knights, wept for the loss of a princess
he had loved tenderly, and who, by her virtues and the
graces of her youth, he had hoped would be the ornament
and example of the court of Byzantium. He caused her to be
buried with great pomp in the same church in which, but a few

156 HI8T0BT OF THE CSUSADES.

days before, he had received the imperial crown. Thus the
people of Constantinople witnessed, almost at the same time,
the coronation of an emperor and the funeral of an empress ;
— days of joy and triimiph mingled with days of mourning.
This contrast of the pageantry of death and the pomps of
victory and of a throne, appeared to offer a fjEuthnil image
of the glory of conquerors, and the future destiny of the
empire.

The emperor and his barons, with all the succours they
had received from the East, had scarcely twenty thousand
men to defend their conquests and restrain the people of the
capital and the provinces. The sultan of Icomum and the
king of the Bulgarians had long threatened to invade the
lands contiguous to their states, and they thought that the
dissensions and subsequent fall of the Greek empire pre-
sented a favourable opportunity for the outbreak of their
jealousy and ambition. The nations of Greece were con-
quered without being subdued. As in the disorder which
accompanied the conquest of Byzantium, no other right had
been acknowledged but that of force and the sword, all the
Greeks, who had still arms in their hands, were desirous of
forming a principality or a kingdom. On all sides new
states and empires sprang up from the bosom of the ruins,
and already toreatened that which the Crusaders had so
recently established.

A ^andson of Andronicus founded in a Greek province
of Asia Minor the principality of Trebizonde ; Leo Sgurre,
master of the little city of Napoli, had extended his do-
minions by injustice and violence, and, to employ a com-
parison oftered by Nicetas, he had grown greater, like the
torrent that swells in the storm and is enlarged by the
waters of the tempest. A barbarous conqueror, a fierce and
cruel tyrant, he reigned, or rather he spread terror, over
Argos and the isthmus of Corinth. Michael- Angel us Com-
nenus, employing the arms of treachery, gained the kingdom
of Epirus, and subdued to his laws a wild and warlike people.
Theodore Lascaris, who, like ^neas, had fled from his
burning country, collected some troops in Bithynia, and
caused himself to be proclaimed emperor at Nice, whence
his family was destined at a future day to return in triumph
to Constantinople.

HISTOaX OF THS CBUBAJ)ES. 157

If despair liad imparted any degree of courage to the two
fugitive emperors, thej might have obtained a share of their
own spoils, and preserved a remnant of power ; but they had
not profited by the lessons of misfortime. Mourzoufle, who
had completed all the crimes begun by Alexius, did not
hesitate to place himself in the power of his unfortunate
riyal, whose daughter he had married : the wicked sometimes
take upon themselves the duty of punishing one another.
Alexius, after having loaded mourzoufle with caresses, in-
veigled him into his house, and caused his eyes to be put
out. In this condition, Mourzoufle, abandoned by his fol-
lowers, for whom he was now nothing but an object of disgust,
went to conceal his existence and his misery in Asia ; but on
his road fell into the hands of the Latins. Being led to
Constantinople, and condemned to expiate his crimes by an
ignominious death, he was precipitated from the top of a
column raised by the emperor Theodosius in the Fmce of
Taurus. The multitude of Greeks that had offered the
purple to Mourzoufle were present at his tragical end, and
appeared terrified at a punishment that was much more new
to them than the crimes for which it was inflicted. After
the execution, the crowd contemplated with surprise a basso-
relievo on the column of Theodosius,* which represented a
king falling from a very elevated place, and a city stormed
by sea. In these times of troubles and calamities, presages
were discovered everywhere. Everything, even to marble
and stone, appeared to have told of the misfortunes of Con-
stantinople. Nicetas was astonished that such great mis-
fortunes had not been announced by a shower of blood, or
some sinister prodigies ; the most enlightened Greeks ex-
plained the fall of the empire of Constantine by the verses
of poets and sibyls, or by the prophecies of the Scriptures ;
the common people read the death of tyrants and their own
miseries in the looks of statues, and upon the colunms that
remained standing in the capital.

* Some modern writers have asserted that the colomn from which
Monnoufle was precipitated is still to be seen at Constantinople ; but
there existed two columns in that dty ; one of Theodosius and the other of
ArcadioB. The first was destroyed bj fiajazet, and nothing remains of
the other bat the pedestal, which is in the Avret Baras (the women-
market). See the Voyage to ike PropofUU, by M. le Chovalier, who has
deared iq> thia iSwt on the spot.

158 HIBTOBT .0? THB OB17SADZ8.

The perfidy and cruelty of Alexius did not remain long
unpunished ; the usurper was obliged to wander from city to
city, and, not unfrequently, to conceal the imperial purple
under the garb of a mendicant, i'or a considerable tune he
only owed his safety to the contempt in which he was held
by the conquerors. After having long strayed ^about in a
state of destitution, he was given up to the marquis of
Montferrat, who sent him a prisoner into Italy ; escaping
thence, he again passed into Asia, and found an asylum with
the sultan of Iconium. Alexius could not be satisfied to
live in peace in his retreat, but joined the Turks in an attack
upon his son-in-law Lascaris, whom ho could not pardon for
having saved a wreck of the empire, and reigning over
Bithynia. As the Turks were beaten, the fugitive prince
fell at length into the hands of the emperor of Nice, who
compeUed him to retire to a monastery, where he died,
forgotten by both Greeks and Latins. .

Thus four emperors were immolated to ambition and
vengeance: — a deplorable spectacle, and most worthy of
pity ! Amidst the convulsions and fall of an empire, we
behold princes of the same £a.mily quarrelling for a phantom
of authority, snatch from each other by turns both the
sceptre and life, surpass the populace in fury, and leave
them no crime, no parricide, to commit.

If we could believe Nicetas, Alexius was a model of
mildness and moderation ; he never made a woman put on
mourning for her husband, he never caused a citizen to weep
for the loss of his fortune. This eulogy of Nicetaa throws
a far greater li^ht upon the nature of the government than
upon the qualities of the monarch. If it be true that we
ought to be thankful to despotism for every ill that it haa
not committed, we must not forget that ^exius only ob-
tained the throne by infamous means ; that he did not redeem
his parricide by any public virtue ; and that the crime of his
usurpation gave birth to a thousand other crimes, brought
about a horrible revolution, ^nd caused the ruin of a nation.
Kicetas treats Mourzoufle with much more severity ; but
some modem historians, dazzled by a few actions of braveiy,
have imdertaken to justify a prince who sacrificed everything
to his ambition. They have not hesitated to point out to
us in a cruel, unscrupulous tyrant, a model and a martyr of

HIBTOBT OF THB CBITBASZS* 159

the patriotic virtues, as if love of country was the same
thing as a boundless love of power, and could possibly ally
itself with treachery and pamcide.

Whilst the Greek princes were thus making war against
each other, and quarrelling for the wrecks of the empire,
the French counts and barons quitted the capital to go and
take possession of the cities and provinces that had fallen to
their share. Many of them were obliged to conquer, sword
in hand, the lands that had been assigned to tnem. The
marquis of Montferrat set out on his march to visit the
kingdom of Thessalonica, and receive the homage of his new
subjects. The emperor Baldwin, followed by his brother
Henry of Hainault, and a great number of knights, made a
progress through Thrace and Bomania, and everywhere on
his passage, was saluted by the noisy acclamations of a people
alwavs more skilful in flattering their conquerors than in
comBating their enemies. When he arrived at Adrianople,
where he was received in triumph, the new emperor an-
nounced his intention of pursumg his march as far as
Thessalonica. This unexpected resolution surprised the
marquis of Montferrat, who entertained the desfre of going
alone to his own kingdom. Boniface promised to be faithfm
to the emperor, to be always ready to employ his forces
against the enemies of the empire ; but he feared the pre-
sence of Baldwin's army in his cities, already exhausted by
war. A serious quarrel broke out between the two princes.
The marquis of Montferrat accused the emperor of wishing
to get possession of his states ; Baldwin fancied he coidd

Serceive in the resistance of Boniface the secret desi^ of
enying the sovereignty of the head of the empire. Both
loved justice, and were not wanting in moderation ; but now
one had become king of Thessalomca, and the other emperor
of Constantinople, they had courtiers, who endeavoured to
exasperate their quarrel and inflame their animosity. Some
told Boniface that Baldwin was entirely in the wrong, and that
he abused a power that ought to have been the reward of
virtues very different from hia. Others reproached the
emperor with being too generous to his enemies, and, in the
excess of their flattery, said he was guilty of only one fault,
and that was of having too long spared an unfaithful vassal.
In spite of all the representations of the marquis of Mont-

160 HIBTOBT OF THJB 0SUBADX8.

ferrat, Baldwin led his army into the kingdom of Theflsa-
lonica. Boniface conaidered this obstinacy of the emperor
as a flagrant outrage, and swore to take vengeance with his
sword. Impelled by passion, he departed suddenly with
several knights who had declared in his favour, and got
possession of Didymatica, a city belonging to the emperor.

The marquis of Montferrat took with him his wife, IVfary of
Hungary, the widow of Isaac ; and the presence of this prin-
cess, with the hopes of keeping up the division among the
Latins, drew manv Greeks to the banner of Boniface. He
declared to them that he fought for their cause, and clothed in
the imperial purple a young prince, the son of Isaac and Mary
of Hungary. Dragging in his train this phantom of an
emperor, around whom the principal inhabitants from all
parts of Bomania rallied, heresumeathe road to Adiianople,
and made preparations for besieging that city. Boniface,
daily becommg more irritated, would listen to neither the
counsels nor the prayers of his companions in arms ; and
discord was about to cause the blood of the Latins to flow, if
the doge of Venice, the count of Blois, and the barons that
remained ^ Constantinople, had not earnestly employed
their authority and credit to prevent the miafortimes with
which the new empire was threatened. Deeply aflSiicted by
what they learnt, they sent deputies to the emperor and the
marquis of Montferrat. The marshal of Champagne, the
envoy to Boniface, reproached him, in plain terms, with
having forgotten the glory and honour of the Crusaders, of
whom he had been the leader ; with compromising, to gratify
a vain pride, the cause of Christ and the safety of the empire,
and preparing days of triumph and joy for the Greeks, the
Bulgarians, and the Saracens. The marquis of Montferrat
was touched by the reproaches of Villehardouin, who was
his friend, and who spoke in the name of all the Crusaders.
He promised to put an end to the war, and to submit his
quarrel with Baldwin to the judgment of the counts and
barons.

In the meanwhile Baldwin had taken possession of Thessa-
lonica. As soon as he heard of the hostilities of the marquis
of Montferrat, he hastily marched back to Adrianople. He
was brooding over projects of vengeance, and threatening to
repel force by force, and oppose war to war, when he met the

BI8T0BT OF THB CBtTSADSB. 161

deputies, who came in the name of the leaders of the
crusade, to speak to him of peace^ and recoil to his heart the
sentiments of justice and humanity. A knight of the train
of the count of Blois addressed a speech to the emperor,
that Yillehardouin has preserved, in which our readers will
be pleased, without doubt, to meet with a picture of the
noble frankness of the conquerors of Byzantium. " Sire,"
said he, " the doge of Venice, the Count Louis of Blois, my
very honoured lord, and all the barons who are at Constan-
tinople, salute you as their sovereign, and make complaint
to God and you against those who, by their evil counsels,
have created fatal discords. You did, certes, very wrong to
lend an ear to these perfidious counsellors, for they are ovu
enemies and yours. Ton know that the Marquis Boniface
has submitted his quarrel to the judgment of the barons ; the
lords and princes hope that you will do as he has done, and
that you will not hold out against justice. They have
sworn, and we are charged to declare so in their name, not
to suffer any longer the scandal of a war kindled between
Crusaders."

Baldwin did not at first answer this speech, and appeared
BOirprised at such language ; but they spoke to him thus in
the name of the doge of Venice, whose old age he respected,
and whom he loved tenderly ; in the name of the counts and
barons, without whose help he could not hope to preserve
his empire, and, at length, ne listened to the united voices
of reason and friendship. He promised to lay down his
arms, and repair to Constantinople, to adjust the qiiarrel
between him and the marquis of Montferrat. On his arrival,
the counts and barons spared neither complaints nor
prayers, and they found him docile to all their counsels.
The marquis of Montferrat, who very shortly followed him,
entered the capital with a degree of mistrust; he was
accompanied by a hundred knights, with their men-at-arms ;
but the welcome he received from Baldwin and the other
leaders completely appeased oil his resentments, and dissi-
pated all his misgivings. From that time the re-establish-
ment of harmony and peace became the sincere object of the
Crusaders. The doge of Venice, the counts and barons,
wit^ the most respected of the knights, who reminded the
masters of the new empire of the redoubtable institution of
Vol. II.— 8

162 HISTORY 07 TUB CBUSADES.

the FXBB8 of the West, gave judgment in the quarrel that
was submitted to them, and pronounced, without appeal,
between the king of Thessalonica and the emperor ol Con-
stantinople. The two princes swore never to listen again
to perfidious counsels, and embraced in presence of the
army, who rejoiced at the return of concord, as they would
have done at a great victory obtained over the enemies of
the empire. " Great evil might they have done," says
Villehardouin, " who excited this discord ; for if God had not
taken pity on the Crusaders, they were in danger of losing
their conquests, and Christianity might have perished."

As soon as peace was re-established, the knights and
barons again quitted the capital to pass through the pro-
vinces, and subdue such as were refractory. The count of
Bjois, who had obtained Bithynia, sent his knights across
the Bosphoru:s ; the troops of the Crusaders gained several
advantages over those of Lascaris. Penamenia, Lopada,
Kicomedia, and some other cities, opened their spates to the
conquerors, after a feeble resistance. The Latms brought
under their dominion all the coasts of the Propontis and the
Bosphorus, as far as the ancient Eolis. Henry of Hainault
was not idle in this new war ; whilst the warriors of the
count of Blois were pushing their conquests towards Nice,
he led his men-at-arms into Phrygia, unfurled his triumphant
banners in the plains where Troy once stood, fought at the
same time both Greeks and Tiurks, in the fields which had
been trod by the armies of Xerxes and Alexander, and took
possession of all the country that extends from the Helles-
pont to Mount Ida.

At the same time the marquis of Montferrat, now the
peaceable master of Thessalonica, undertook the conquest of
Greece.* He advanced into Thessaly, passed the chain of
mountains of Olympus and Ossa, and took possession of
Larissa. Boniface and his knights, without fear and without
danger, passed through the narrow straits of Thermopylae,
and penetrated into Beeotia and Attica. They put to flight

* Claudian has made in his panegyrics of Stilicho, a picture of the in-
Tasion of the Gottis in the provinces of Greece. These beautiful countries
had not been invaded since the third century. The Franks scarcely knew
how to guard their conquests better than the barbarians that had pre«
coded them.

HISTORY OF TU£ CBT78ABE8. 168

Leo Sgurre, who was the Bcourge of a vast promce ; and
their exploits might have reminded the Greeks of those
heroes of the early ages who travelled ahout the world
fighting monsters and subduing tyrants. As all the Greeks,
for so long a time oppressed. Sighed for a change, the heroes
of the crusades were everywhere received as liberators.
Whilst Boniface was becoming possessed of the beautiful
countries of Greece, Q^oflBrey de YiUehardouin, nephew of
the marshal of Champagne, established the authority of the
Latins in the Peloponnesus. After having driven the troops
of Michael Comnenus to the mountains of Epirus, he occu-
pied, without fighting, Corpnea and Fatras, and met with no
resistance except in the canton of Lacediemonia. The
conquered lands and cities were given to the barons, who
rendered fealty and homage to the king of Thessalonica and
the emperor of Constantinople.* Greece then beheld lords
of Argos and Corinth, grand sieurs of Thebes, dukes of
Athens, and princes of Achaia. French knights dictated
laws in the city of Agamemnon, in the city of Minerva,t in
the country o£ Lycurgus, and in that of Epaminondas.
Strange destiny of the warriors of this crusade, who had
quitted the West to conquer the city and lands of Jesus
Christ, and whom fortune had conducted into places filled
with the remembrances of the gods of Homer and the glory
of profane antiquity !

The Crusaders were not allowed to felicitate themselves
long upon their conquests. Possessors of an empire much
more difficult to be preserved than invaded, they had not the
ability to master fortune, who soon took fromf them all that
victory had bestowed. They exercised their power with
violence, and conciliated neither their subjects nor their
neighbours. Joannice, king of the Bulgarians, had sent an
ambassador to Baldwin, with offers of friendship ; Baldwin

* There is in the king's library a manuscript in modem Greek, bearing
the number 2,898 ; the first part of this manascript is a romance in verse,
entitled ** Les Amours de Th^s^ et des Amazones.'' The second part
of the manuscript is a poem on the crusades ; all the tenth canto describes
in detail the conquests of the Franks in Greece. M. Khazis, professor
of modem Greek, had made a short analysis of this poem. ^

t The letters of Innocent speak of the city of Athens, which was no
longer dedicated to Minerva, but to the holy Tirgin. — See b. zx. epis. W.

164 HISTOBX or THE CBUBADXS.

replied with much hauffhtinesfi, and threatened to compel
Joannice to descend from his usurped throne. When
despoiling the Greeks of their propertj, the Crusaders shut
out from themselves every source of prosperity, and reduced
men to whom thev lefl nothing but life, to despair. To fill
up the measure of their imprudence, they received into their
armies the Greeks, whom they loaded with contempt, and
who became their implacable enemies. Not content with
reigning over cities, they were desirous of subjugating
hearts to their will, and awakened fanaticism. Unjust perse*
cutions exasperated the minds of the Greek priests, who
declaimed with vehemence against tyranny, and who, re-
duced to misery, were listened to as oracles and revered aa
martyrs.

The new empire of the Latins, into which the feudal laws
had been introduced, was divided into a thousand principali*
ties or lordships, and was nothing but a species of repuDlic,
governed with ^at difficulty. The Venetians had their
particular jurisdiction, and the greater part of the cities were
regulated by turns by the legislation of Venice and the code
of feudalism. The lords and barons had among themselves
opposite interests and rivalries, which, every day, were likely
to bring on discord and civil war. The Latin ecclesiastics,
who had shared the spoils of the Greek Church, did not at all
conciliate peace by their example, but carried the scandals
of their dissensions even into the sanctuary. It was their
constant wish and endeavour to exalt the laws and authority
of the court of Bome over those of the emperors. Many of
them had usurped the fiefs of the barons, and as the fiefs
they possessed were exempted from military service, the
empire thus became weakened in its natural defences.

The delicious climate Mud the riches of Grreece, with the
long sojourn at Constantinople, enervated the courage of
the conquerors, and fostered corruption among the soldiers
of the cross. The nations in the end ceased to respect the

Sower and the laws of those whose morals and manners they
espised. As the Latins had separated, some to go into
Greece, and others into Asia Minor, the Greeks, who no
longer beheld gr^t armies, and who had sometimes resisted
their enemies with advantage, began to fancy that the
warriors of the West were not invincible.

HIBTOBT OF THE OStTSASEB. 165

In their despair, the conquered people resolved to have
recourse to arms ; and, looking around them to find enemies
for the Crusaders, thej implored the alliance and protection
of the king oflbhe Bulgarians. There was formed a widelj-
extended conspiracy, into which all entered to whom slavery
was no longer tolerable. All at once the storm burst forth
by the massacre of the Latins ; a war-cry arose from Mount
Hemus to the Hellespont ; the Crusaders, dispersed in the
various cities and countries, were siuprised by a iurious and
pitiless enemy. The Venetians and French, who gpiarded
Adrianople and Didymatica, were not able to resist the
multitude of the Greeks ; some were slaughtered in the
streets; others retired in disorder, and, in their flight,
beheld with grief their banners torn down fi?om the towers,
and replaced by the standards of the Bulgarians. The roads
were covered with fugitive warriors, who found no asylum
in a countiy which ktely trembled at the fame of their
arms.

Every city besiesed by the Greeks was ignorant of the
fate of the other cities confided to the defence of the Latins ;
communications were interrupted ; sinister rumours prevailed
in the provinces, which represented the capital in flames, all
the cities given up to pillage, and all the armies of the
Pranks dispersed or annihilated. The old chronicles, whilst
speaking of the barbarity of the Greeks, also describe the
terror that took possession of some of the barons and knights.
The sense of danger appears to have stifled in their hearts
every other feeling. In the hour of peril, crusaders aban-
doned their companions in arms, brothers abandoned
brothers. An old knight, Eobert de Trils, who, in spite of
his grey hairs, had insisted upon following his son to the
crusade, was besieged by the Greeks in Philippolis ; the city
was surroimded by enemies, and Bobert had but slender
hopes of safety. Even in such circumstances, his prayers
and tears could not prevail upon either his son or his son-
in-law to remain with him. Villehardouin informs us that
these recreant warriors were slain in their flight ; for God
would not save those who had refused to succour their own
father.

When the report of these disasters reached Constantinople,
Baldwin assembled the counts and barons; it was deter-

166 1II8T0BT OF THE 0BT7BADEB.

mined to apply the promptest remedy to so many evils, and
to put into action all the energies of the empire to stop the
progress of the revolt. The Crusaders who were, engaged
in warlike expeditions on the other side of the Bosphorus,
received orders to ahandon their conquests, and to return
immediately to the standards of the main army. Baldwin
waited for them several days, but as he was impatient to
begin the war, and wished to astonish the enemy by the
promptitude of his proceedings, he set out at the head of
the knights that remained in the capital, and, five days after
his departure, appeared before the walls of Adrianople.

The leaders of the crusade, accustomed to brave all
obstacles, were never checked or restrained by the small
number of their own soldiers, or the multitude of their
enemies.^ The capital of Thrace, surrounded by impreg-
nable ramparts, was defended by a hundred thousand
Greeks, in whom thirst of vengeance supplied the want of
courage. Baldwin mustered scarcely eight thousand men
around his banners. The doge of Venice soon arrived with
eight thousand Venetians. The Latin fugitives came from
all parts to join this small army. The Crusaders pitched
their tents, and prepared to lay siege to the city. Their
preparations proceeded but slowly, and provisions were
beginning to mil them, when the report reached them of the
march of the king of the Bulgarians. Joannice, the leader
of a barbaipuB people, himself more barbarous than his sub-
jects, was advancing with a formidable army. He concealed
nis ambitious projects and his desire for vengeance under an
appearance of religious zeal, and caused a standard of St.
Peter, which he had received from the pope, to be borne
before him. This new ally of the Greeks boasted of being
a leader of a holy enterprise, and threatened to exterminate
the Franks, whom he accused of having assumed the cross
for the purpose of ravaging the provinces and pillaging the
cities of Christians.

The king of the Bulgarians was preceded in his march by
a numerous troop of Tartars and Comans, whom the hopes
of pillage had djsawn from the mountains and forests near
the banks of the Danube and the Borysthenes. The Comans,
more ferocious than the nations of Mount Hemus, drank, it
was said, the blood of their captives, and sacrificed Chris-

HISTOST OF THE CBUSAJ)£S 167

tiflns on the altars of their idols. Like the warriors of
Scythia, accustomed to fight whilst flying, the Tartar horse-
men received orders from Joannice to provoke the enemy,
even in their camp, and to endeavour to draw the heavy
cavalry of the Franks into an ambuscade. The barons were
aware of this danger, and forbade the Crusaders to quit
their tents, or go beyond their intrenchments. But such
was the character of the French warriors, that prudence, in
their eyes, deprived valour of all its lustre, and it appeared
disgraceful to shun the fight in the presence and amidst the
scoffs of an enemy.

Scarcely had the Tartars appeared near the camp, when
the sight of them made even the leaders themselves forget .
the orders they had issued only the night before. The em-
peror and the count of Blois flew to meet the enemy, put
them to flight, and pursued them with ardour for the space
of two leagues. But all at once the Tartars rallied, and in
their turn charged the Christians. The latter, who believed
they had gained a victory, were obliged to defend them-
selves in a country with which they were unacquainted.
Their squadrons, exhausted by fatigue, were surpnsed and
surrounded by the army of Joannice ; pressed on all sides,
they made useless eflbrts to recover their line of battle, but
had no power either to fly, or resist the barbarians.

The count of Blois endeavoured to retrieve his fatal im-

Erudence by prodigies of valour ; when seriously wounded
e was thrown from his horse amidst the enemy's ranks, one
of his knights raised him up, and wished to draw him out of
the miUe : " No," cried this brave prince, " leave me to fight
and die. God forbid I should ever be reproached with
having* fled from battle." As he finished these words, the
count of Blois fell, covered with wounds, and his faithful
squire died by his side.

The emperor Baldwin still disputed the victory; the
bravest of his knights and barons followed him into the
melee, and a horrible carnage marked their progress through
the ranks of the barbarians. Peter bishop of Bethlehem,
Stephen count of Perche, Eenaud de Montmirail, Mathieu
de V alencourt, Eobert de Eon9ai, and a crowd of lords and
valiant warriors lost their lives in defending their sovereign.
Baldwin remained almost alone on the field of battle, and

168 BIBTOBT or THE OBTTSADXS;

still continued fighting bravely ; but at lengtb, OTerpowered
by numbers, he fell into the bands of the Bulgarians, who
loaded him with chains. The wreck of the army retired in
the greatest disorder, and only owed their safety to the
prudent bravery of the doge of Venice and the marshal of
Champagne, who had been left to guard the camp.

In the night that followed the battle, the Crusaders raised
the siege of Adrianople, and retook the route to the capital,
amidst a thousand dangers. The Bulgarians and the Comans,
proud of their victory, pursued without intermission the
army they had conquered ; this army, which had lost half of
its numbers, was in great want of provisions, and had great
difficulty in dragging along the wounded and the baggage.
The Crusaders were plunged in a melancholy silence, their
despair was evident in their actions and on their coun-
' tenances. At Bodosto they met Henry of Hainault, and
several other knights, who were on their way from the pro-
vinces of Asia, to join the army of Adrianople. The retreat-
ing leaders related with tears their defeat and the captivity
of Baldwin. All these warriors, who knew not what it was
to be conquered, expressed at once their astonishment and
their grief; they mingled their lamentations and tears, and
raised their hands and eyes towards heaven, to implore the
divine mercy. The Crusaders who returned from the shores
of the Bosphorus, addressed the marshal of Eomania, and
weeping, said to him : " Order us where the greatest danger
exists, for we no longer wish to live : are we not sufficiently
unfortunate in not having come in time to succour our em-
peror ?'* Thus the knights of the cross, though pursued by
a victorious enemy, were still strangers to fear ; the grief
caused by the remembrance of their defeat scarcely allowed
them to be sensible of the perils by which they were
threatened.

All the Crusaders, however, did not exhibit this noble
degree of courage ; many Imights* whom Villehardouin is

* It is here that for the last time we quote the History of Villehar-
douin ; we shall perhaps be reproached with haxing quoted it too often,
and by that means given too much monotony to our account. We will
answer, that the natural relation and expressions of such an historian, who
relates what he has seen and that which he has experienced, have appeared
to OS above all that talent or the art of writing could substitute in their

HIBTOBT OF TH£ CKIT8ADSS. 169

not willing to name, that he may not dishonour their
memory, abandoned the banners of the army and fled to
Constantinople ; they related the disasters of the Crusaders,
and, to excuse their desertion, drew a lamentable picture of
the misfortunes that threatened the empire. All the Franks
were seized with grief and terror, on teaming they had no
longer an emperor. The Greeks that inhabited the capital,
applauded in secret the triumph of the Bulgarians, and their
ill-concealed joy still further increased the alanns of the
I^itins. A great number of knights, overcome by so many
reverses, saw no safety but in flight, and embarked hastily
on board some Yenetuin vessels. In vain the legate of the
pope and several leaders of the army endeavoured to detain
them, threatening them with the anger of Gk>d and the con-
tempt of men : they renounced their own glory ; they aban-
doned an empire founded by their arms, and went to announce
the captivi^ of Baldwin in the cities of the West, where the
rejoidngs for the first victories of the Crusaders were still
being celebrated.

In the mean time, Joannice continued his pursuit of the
conquered army. The Greeks, united with the Bulgarians,
took possession of all the provinces, and left the Latins no
repose. Among the disasters of which contemporary history
has left us a deplorable account, we must not forget the
massacre of twenty thousand Armenians. This numerous
colony had left the banks of the Euphrates, and established
themselves in the province of Natofia. After the conquest
of Constantinople, they declared for the Latins, and when
the latter experienced their reverses, finding themselves
menaced and pursued by the Greeks, they crossed the Bos-
phorus, and followed Henry of Hainault, who was marching
towards Adrianople. The Armenians took with them their
flocks and their families : they drew, in carriages, aU that they
possessed that was most valuable, and had great difficulty,
on their march across the mountains of Thrace, in keep-
ing up with the army of the Crusaders. These unfortunate
people were surprised by the Tartars, and, to a man, perished
Deneath the swords of a pitiless conqueror. The Franks

place. We are pleased at believing, that if our recital has been able
to intereat our readerii we owe a great part of this interest to the muU
tiplied quotatioBi from ViUehardonin and other oontemponxy historians.

8*

170 HISTORY OF THE CBUSADES.

wept at the defeat and destruction of the Armenians,
without being able to avenge them : they had nothing but
enemies throughout the vast provinces of the empire.
Beyond the Bosphorus, they only preserved the castle of
Peges : on the European side, only Bodosto and Selembria.
Their conquests in ancient Greece were not yet threatened
by the Bulgarians ; but these distant possessions only served
to divide their forces. Henry of Hainault, who took the
title of regent, performed prodigies of valour in endeavour-
ing to retake some of the cities of Thraoe ; and lost, in
various combats, a great number of the warriors that re-
mained under his banners.

The bishop of Soissons and some other Crusaders, in-
vested with the confidence of their unfortunate companions
in arms, were sent into Italy, France, and the county of
Flanders, to solicit the assistance of the knights and barons;
but the succoiur they hoped for could only arrive slowly, and
the enemy continued to make rapid progress. The army of
the Bulgarians, like a violent tempest, advanced on all sides ;
it desolated the shores of the Hellespont, extended its
ravages into the kingdom of Thessalonica, repassed Mount
Hcmus, and retuined, more numerous and more formidable
than ever, to the banks of the Hebrus. The Latin empire
had no other defenders but a few warriors divided among
the various cities and fortresses, and every day war and de-
sertion diminished the numbers and strength of the unfor-
tunate conquerors of Byzantium. Five hundred knights,
picked warriors of the army of the Crusaders, were attacked
before the walls of Eusium, and cut to pieces by a countless
multitude of Bulgarians and Comans. This defeat was not
less fatal than the battle of Adrianople; the hordes of
Mount Hemus and the Borysthenes carried terror every-
where. On their passage, the country was in flames, and
the cities afibrded neither refuge nor means of defence.
The land was covered with soldiers, who slaughtered all who
came in their way ; the sea was covered with pirates^ who
threatened every coast with their brigandage. Constan-
tinople expected every day to see the standards of the vic-
torious Joannice beneath its walls, and onlv owed its safety
to the excess of evils that desolated all the provinces
of the empire.

^HTSTOBT OF TUE CBUSAD1C8. 171

The king of the Bulgarians did not spare his aUies any
more than his enemies; he burnt and demolished all the
cities that fell into his hands. He ruined the inhabitants,
dragged them in his train like captiyes, and made them
iin&rgo, in addition to the calamities of war, all the out-
rages of a jealous and barbarous tymmy. The Greeks, who
had solicited his assistance, were at last reduced to implore
the aid of the Latins against the implacable fury of their
allies. The Crusaders accepted with joy the alliance with
the Greeks, whom. they never ought to have repulsed, and
re-entered into Adrianople. Didymatica, and most of the
cities of Eomania, shook off the intolerable yoke of the
Bulgarians, and submitted to the Latins. The Greeks,
whom Joannice had urged on to despair, showed some bravery,
and became useful auxiliaries to the Latins ; and the new
empire might have hoped for a return of days of prosperity
and glory, if so many calamities could possibly have been
repaired by a few transient successes. But all the provinces
were strewed with ruins, and the cities and countries were
without inhabitants. The hordes of Mount Hemus, whether
victorious or conquered, still continued their predatory
habits. They easily recovered from their losses ; the losses
of the Franks became every day more irreparable. The
leader of the Bulgarians sought out everywhere the foes of
the new empire ; and, being abandoned by the Greeks of
Bomania, he formed an alliance with Lascans, the implacable
enemy of the Latins.

The pope in vain exhorted the nations of France and
Italy to take up arms for the assistance of the conquerors
of Byzantium ; ne could not awaken their enthusiasm for a
cause that presented to its defenders nothing but certain
evils, and dangers without glory.

Amidst the perils that continued to multiply, the Crusaders
remained perfectly ignorant of the fate oi Baldwin ; some-
times it was said that he had broken his bonds, and had
been seen wandering in the forests of Servia ;* sometimes

* Among the romantic accounts that were circuUted concerning Bald-
win, we muat not omit the following: — ^The emperor was kept close
prisoner at Terenova, where the wife of Joannice became desperately in
love with him, and proposed to him to escape with her. Baldwin re-
jected this proposal, and the wife of Joannice, irritated by his disdain and

172 HISTOBT OF THE OBXTSADES.

that he had died of grief in prison ; sometimes that he had
been massacred in the midst of a banquet by the king of
the Bulgarians ; that his mutihited members had been cast
out upon the rocks, and that his skull, enchased in gold,
served as a cup for his barbarous conqueror. Several mes-
sengers, sent by Henry of Hainault, travelled through the
cities of Bulgaria to learn the fate of Baldwin ; but returned
to Constantmople, without having been able to ascertain
anything. A year after the battle of Adrianople, the pope,
at the solicitation of the Crusaders, conjured Joannice to
restore to the Latins of Byzantium the head of their new
empire. The king of the Bulgarians contented himself
with replying, that Baldwin had paid the tribute of nature,
and that his deliverance was no longer in the power of mor-
tals. This answer destroyed all hopes of again seeing the
imprisoned monarch, and the Latins no longer entertained a
doubt of the death of their emperor. Henry of Hainault
received the deplorable heritage of his brother with tears
and deep regret, and succeeded to the empire amidst general
mourning and sorrow. To complete their misfortunes, the
Latins had to weep for the loss of Dandolo, who finished his
glorious career at Constantinople, and whose last looks
must have perceived the rapid decline of an empire he had
founded.* The greater part of the Crusaders had either

refusal, accused him to her husband of haying entertained an adulterous
passion. The barbarous Joannice caused his unfortunate captive to be
massacred at a banquet, and his body was cast on to the rocks, a prey to
vultures and wild beasts.

But people could not be convinced that he was dead. A hermit had
retired to the forest of Glanfon, on the Hainault side, and the people of
the neighbourhood became persuaded that this hermit was Count Bald^t-in.
The solitary at first answered with frankness, and refused the homage
they wished to render him. They persisted, and at length he was induced
to play a part, and gave himself out for Baldwin. At first he had a great
many partisans ; but the king of France, Louis Till., having invited him
to his court, he was confounded by the questions that were put to him :
he took to flight, and was arrested in Burgundy by Erard de Chastenai, a
Bvrgundian gentleman, whose family still exists. Jane countess of
Flanders caused the impostor to be hung in the great square of Lisle. —
See Duconge, Hist, de Conttani. book iii.

* Dandolo was magnificently buried in the church of St. Sophia, and
his mausoleum existed till the destruction of the Greek empire. Mahomet
TL caused it to be demolished, when he changed the church of St. Sophia
Into a mosque. A Venetian painter, who worked during several years ia

HISTOBT OV THS CBU8iJ)B8. 178

perished in battle, or returned to the West. Boniface, in
an expedition against the Bulgarians of Bhodope, received a
mortiu wound, and his head was carried in triumph to the
fierce Joannice, who had akeady immolated a monarch to
his ambition and vengeance. The succession of Boniface

fave birth to serious disputes among the Crusaders ; and the
ingdom of Thessalonica, which had exhibited some splen-
dour during its short existence, disappeared amidst the
confusion' and the storms of a civil ana a foreign war. In
the brother and successor of Baldwin were united the civil
and military virtues ; but he could scarcely hope to restore
a power so shaken on all sides.

I have not the courage to pursue this history, and describe
the Latins in the extremes of their abasement and misery.
On commencing my narration, I said: ^* £vil to the con-
quered;** on terminating it, I cannot refrain from saying:
" Evil to the conquerors**

An old empire which moulders away, a new empire ready
to sink into ruins, such are the pictures that this crusade
presents to us ; never did any epoch offer greater exploits
for admiration, or greater troubles for commiseration.
Amidst these glorious and tragical scenes, the imagination
is excited in the most lively manner, and passes, without
ceasing, from surprise to surprise. We are at first asto-
nished at seeing an armv of thirty thousand men embark to
conquer a country whicn might reckon upon many millions
of defenders ; a tempest, an epidemic disease, want of pro-
visions, disunion among the leaders, an indecisive battle, all,
or any of these, might have ruined the arm3r of the Cru-
saders, and brought about the failure of their enterprise.
By an unheard-oi good fortune, nothing that they had to
dread happened to them. They triumphed over all dangers,
and surmounted all obstacles: without having any party
among the Greeks, they obtained possession of their capital
and the provinces ; and, at the moment when they saw their
standards triumphant all around them, it was that their
fortune desertea tliem, and their ruin began.- A great
lesson is this, given to nations by Providence, which some-

the court of Mahomet, on returning to his own country obtftined from
the sultan tlte cuirass, the helmet, the spurs, and the toga of Dandolo,
which h« prMentad to th« family of this great i

174 HISTOBT OF THE CBUSiJ)Ea.

times employs conquerors to chastise both people and
princes, and then, at its pleasure, destroys the instrument
of its justice! There is no doubt that that Providence,
which protects empires, will not permit great states to be
subverted with impunity ; and to deter those who wish to
conquer everything by force of arms, it has decreed that
victory shall sometimes bear none but very bitter fruits.

The Greeks, a degenerate nation, honoured their mis-
fortunes by no virtue ; they had neither sufficient courage
to prevent the reverses of war, nor sufficient resignation to
support them. When reduced to despair, they showed
some little valour; but that valour was imprudent and
blind ; it precipitated them into new calamities, and pro-
cured them masters much more barbarous than those whose
yoke they were so easer to shake off. They had no leader
able to govern or guide them ; no sentiment of patriotism
strong enough to rally them : deplorable example of a nation
left to itself, which has lost its morals, and has no confidence
in its laws or its government!

The Franks had just the same advantages over their
enemies that the barbarians of the north had over tho
Bomans of the Lower Empire. In this terrible conflict,
simplicity of manners, the energy of a new people for civili-
zation, the ardour for pillage, and the pride of victory, were
sure to prevail over the love of luxury, habits formed amidst
corruption, and vanity which attaches importance to the
most frivolous things, and only preserves a gaudy resem-
blance of true grandeur.

The events we have recorded are, doubtless, sufficient to
make us acauainted with the manners and intellectual
faculties of the Greeks and Latins. Two historians, how-
ever, who have served us as guides, may add by their st}'le
even, and the character of their works, to the idea that we
form of the genius of the two races.

The Greek Nicetas makes long lamentations over the
misfortunes of the vanquished ; he deplores with bitterness
the loss of the monuments, the statues, the riches which
ministered to the luxury of his compatriots. His accounts,
full of exaggeration and hyperboles, sprinkled all over with
passages mm the Scriptures and profane authors, depart
almost always from the noble simplicity of history, and only

HISTOBT 07 THX CBTJ8iJ)£8. 175

exhibit a vain affectation of learning. Nicetas, in the excess
of his vanity,* hesitates to pronounce the names even of the
Franks, ana fancies he infficts a punishment upon them bj
preserving silence as -to their exploits; when he describes
the misfortunes of the empire, he can only weep and
lament ; but whilst lamenting, he is still anxious to please,
and appears much more interested about his book than his
country.

The marquis of Champagne does not pique himself upon
his erudition, but even seems proud of his ignorance. It
has been said that he could not write, and he himself con-
fesses that he dictated his history. His narration, void of
all spirit of research, but lively and animated, constantly
recalls the language and the noble frankness of a pretix
chevalier. Yillehardouin particularly excels in the speeches
of his heroes, and delights in praising the bravery of his
companions : if he never names the Grecian warriors, it is
because he did not know them, and did not wish to know
them. The marshal of Champa^o is not affected by the
evils of war, and only elevates his style to paint traits of
heroism ; the enthusiasm of victoir alone can draw tears
from him. When the Latins experienced great reverses, he
cannot weep, he is silent ; and it may be pkinjy seen he has
laid down his book to go and fight.f

There is another contemporary historian, whose character
may likewise assist us in forming a judgment upon the age
in which he lived and the events he has related. Gunther,
a monk of the order of Citeaux, who wrote under the dic-
tation of Martin Litz, expatiates upon the preaching of
the crusade, atd on the virtues of nis abbot, who placed

* Nicetu did not know whether \\^ ought to give a place in )ni History
lo tlie Latins, who were for him nothing but barbarians, but he makes up
his mind to continue — " when God, who confounds the wisdom of human
pohcy, and lowers the pride of the lofty, has struck with confusion those
who bad outraged the Greeks, and delivered them up to people still more
wicked than themselves." — See the history of that which happened after
the taking of Constantinople, chap. i.

t How is it that our author, who is evidently partial to Villehardotiin,
has neje;lected to ppeak of his skilful retreat frgm Adrianople, upon
which Gibbon bestows such high praise ? "His masterly retreat of three
days would have deserved the praise of Xenophon and the ten thousand/'
Gibbon has fine passaget on ViUehardomn. — ^Trans.

176 HIBTOBT OT THS CBVSASXS,

himself at the head of the Cnisadera of the diooeae of B41e.
When the Christian arraj directs its course towards the
capital of the Greek empire, Gunther remembers the orders
of the pope, and becomes silent ; if he affords us a few
words upon the second siege of Constantinople, he cannot
conceal the terror which this rash enterprise creates in him.
In his recital, the ralour of the Crusaders scarcely obtains a
modest eulogy; the imagination of the historian is only
struck by the difficulties and perils of the expedition ; filled
with the most sinister presentiments, he constantly repeats
that there is no hope of success for the Latins. When they
are triumphant, his fear is changed all at once into admira-
tion. The monk Gunther celebrates with enthusiasm the
unhoped-for success of the conquerors of Byzantium, among
whom he never loses si^ht of his abbot, Martin Litz, loaded
with the pious spoils oi Ghreece.

When reading the three histories contemporary with the
expedition to Constantinople, we plainly perceive that the
first belongs to a Greek brought up at the court of Byzan-
tium, the second to a French knight, and the third to a
monk. If the two first historians, oy their manner of writ-
ing and the sentiments they express, give us a just idea of
the Greek ni^ion and the heroes of the West, the last may
also explain to us the opinions and the character of the
greater part of those Crusaders, who were constantly threat-
ening to quit the army after it had left Venice, and who,
perhaps, were only so mindful of the oath they had made to
go to the Holy Land, because the name alone of Constan-
tinople filled them with terror. There were, as may be
plainly seen, but very few of these timid Chisaders in the
Christian army, and even these were governed by the gene-
ral spirit that animated the knights and barons. Other
crusades had been preached in councils, this crusade was

? reclaimed at tournaments ; thus the greater parts of the
Jrusaders proved more faithful to the virtues and laws of
chivalry than to the will of the Holy See. These warriors,
so proud and so brave, were full of respect for the authority
and jtrdgment of the pope ; but, governed by honour, placed
between their first vows and their word given to the Vene-
tians, they often swore to deliver Jerusalem, and were led,
without thinking of it, to the walls of Gonstantinqple.

HIBTOBT or THX CBrSABEB. 177

*

Armed to avenge tbe cause of Christ, thej became subser-
vient to the ambition of Venice, to which republic they
esteemed themselves bound by gratitude, and overturned
the throne of Constantinople to pay a debt of fiffcy thousand
silver marks.

The chivalric spirit, one of the peculiar characteristics of
this war, and of the age in which it was undertaken, kept
up in the hearts of the Crusaders ambition and the love of
glory. In the early days of chivalry, knights declared them-
selves the champions of beauty and innocence ; at first they
were appealed to for justice against injuries and robberies;
but soon princes and princesses, deprived of their rights by
force, came to demand of them the restitution of provinces
and kingdoms. The champions of misfortune and beauty
then became illustrious liberators and true conquerors.

At the same time that a young prince came to implore
the Crusaders to assist him in replacing his father upon the
throne of Constantinople, a ^roung princess, the daughter of
Isaac, king of Cyprus, despoiled by Eichard Coeur de Lion,
repaired to Marseilles, to solicit the support of the Cru-
saders, who were embarking for Palestine. She married a
Flemish knight, and charged him with the task of recovering
her father's kingdom. This Flemish knic^ht, whose name
history does not mention, but who belonged to the family of
Count Baldwin, when he arrived in the East, addressed liim-
self to the king of Jerusalem, and demanded the kingdom
of Cyprus of him ; he was supported in his demand by the
ch4telain of Bruges, and the greater part of his companions
who had taken the cross. Amaury, who had received from
the pope and the emperor of Germany, the title of king of
Cvprus, far from yielding to such pretensions, ordered the
Flemish knight, John of Nesle, and their companions, to
quit his dominions. The knights who had embraced the
cause of the daughter of Isaac, abandoned the idea of re-
taking the kingdom of Cyprus, and without stopping in the
Holy Land, turned their steps towards the banks of the
Euphrates and the Orontes, to seek for other countries to
conquer.

Before there was a question of attacking Constantinople,
we have seen a daughter of Tancred, the last king of Sicily,
espouse a French knight, and tranafer to him the charge of

178 HISTOET OF THE CRUSADES.

avenging her family and establishing her claims to the king- .
dom founded by the Norman knights. Gauthier de Brienne,
afler his marriage, set out for Italy, furnished with a thou-
sand livres toumois, and accompanied by sixty knights.
Having received at Eome the benediction of the pope, he
declared war against the Grermans, then masters of Apulia
and Sicily ; got possession of the principal fortresses,* and
appeared likely to enjoy the fruits of his victories in peace,
when he was surprised in iis tent, and fell, covered with
woiuids, into the hands of his enemies. He was offered his
liberty upon the condition of renouncing his claim to the
crown of^ Sicily ; but he preferred the title of king to free-
dom, and allowed himself to die with hunger rather than
abandon his rights to a kingdom which victory had bestowed
upon him.

This spii*it of conquest, which appeared so general among
the knights, might favour the expedition to Constantinople ;
but it was iinurious to the holy war, by turning the Cru-
saders aside m)m the essential object of the crusade. The
heroes of this war did nothing for the deliverance of Jeru-
salem, of which they constantly spoke in their letters to the
pope. The conquest of Byzantium, very far from being, as
the knights believed, the road to the land of Christ, was but
a new obstacle to the taking of the holy city ; their impru-
dent exploits placed the Christian colonies in greater peril,
and only ended in completely subverting, without replacing
it, a power which might have served as a barrier against the
Saracens.

The Venetians skilfully took advantage of this disposition
of the French knights ; V enice succeeded in stilling the voice
of the sovereign pontiff, who often gave the Crusaders coun-
sels dictated by the spirit of the gospel. The republic had
the greatest influence over the events of this war, and over
the minds of the barons and knights, who allowed themselves
to be governed by turns by the sentiments of honour and

* Innocent, to get rid of the neighbourhood of the emperor, demanded
of Philip Augustus a knight who might marry a daughter of Tancred, and
possibly reconquer Sicily. The adventures and the wars of Gauthier de
Brienne are reUted by Conrad, abbot of Usberg, Robert the Monk,
Alberic, and, as «e h.ive already said, by the aathor of the AcIk ujf
Jnnocent.

HISTOBT OF THX CBUBADEB. 179

by a desire to win rich dominions, and thus exhibited
throughout their conduct an inconsistent mixture of gene-
rosity aud avarice.

The inclination to enrich themselves by victory had, par-
ticularly, no longer any bounds when the Crusaders had
once beheld Constantinople; ambition took the place in
their hearts of every generous sentiment, and lefl nothing
of that enthusiasm which had been the moving principle of
other crusades. No prodigy, no miraculous apparition came
to second or stimulate the valoiir of knights to whom it was
quite sufficient to point out the wealth of Greece . In pre-
ceding crusades, the bishops and ecclesiastics promised the
combatants indulgences of the Church and eternal life ; but
in this war, as the Crusaders had incurred the displeasure of
the head of the faithful, they could not be supported in
their perils by the hope of martyrdom ; and the leaders who
were acquainted with the spirit that animated their followers,
contented themselves with offering a sum of money to
the soldier that should first mount the ramparts of Con-
stantinople. When they had pillaged the citjr, knights,
barons, and soldiers exclaimed, in the intoxication of their
joy, — ii^ever was so rich a booty seen since the creation ^fthe
world !

We have remarked that, in the conquest of the provinces,
every knight wished to obtain a principality ; every count,
every lord, wished for a kingdom; the clergy themselves
were not exempt from this ambition, and oflen complained
to the pope of not having been fEivoured in the division of
the spoils of the Greek empire.

To recapitulate, in a few words, our opinion of the events
and consequences of this crusade, we must say that the
spirit of chivalry and the spirit of conquest at first gave
birth to wonders ; but that they did not suffice to maintain
the Crusaders in their possessions. This conquering spirit,
carried to the most blind excess, did not allow tnem to reflect
that among the greatest triumphs, there is a point at which
victory and force themselves are powerless, if prudence and
wisdom do not come to the assistance of valour.

The Franks, their ancestors, who set out from the North
to invade the richest provinces of the Boman empire, were
better seconded by fortune, but more particularly by their

180 HI8T0BT OT THB CBT7aA3)X8.

•

own genius. Bespecting tbe usages of the countries that
submitted to their arms, thej only beheld in the conquered,
fellow-citizens and supporters of their own power ; they did
not create a foreign nation in the midst of the nations they
bad desolated by their victories. The Crusaders, on the
contrary, evinced a profound contempt for the Greeks, whose
alliance and support they ought to have been anxious to
seek ; they wished to reform manners and alter opinions, —
a much more difficult task than the conquest of an empire, —
and only met with enemies in a country that might have
furnished them with useful allies.

We may add that the policy of the Holy See, which at
first undertook to divert. the Latin warriors from the expe-
dition to Constantinople, became, in the end, one of the
greatest obstacles to the preservation of their conquests.
The counts and barons, who reproached themselves with
having failed in obedience to the sovereign pontiff, at length
followed scrupulously his instructions to procure by their
arms the submission of the Greek Church, the only condition
on which the holy father would pardon a war commenced in
opposition to his commands. To obtain his forgiveness and
approbation, they employed violence against schism and
heresy, and lost their conquest by endeavouring to justify it
in the eyes of the sovereign pontiff. The pope himself did
not obtain that which he so ardently desired. The union
of the Greek and Boman churches could not possibly be
effected amidst the terrors of victory and the evils of war ;
the arms of the conquerors had less power than the anathe-
mas of the Church, to bring back the Greeks to the worship
of the Latins. Violence only served to irritate men's mind^,
and consummated the rupture, instead of putting an end to
it. The remembrance of persecutions ana outrages, a reci-
procal contempt, an implacable hatred arose and became
implanted between the two creeds, and separated them for
ever.

History cannot affirm that this crusade made great pro-
gress in the civilization of Europe. The Greeks had pre-
served the jurisprudence of Justinian ; the empire possessed
wise regulations upon the levying of imposts and the admi-
nistration of the public revenues ; but the Latins disdained

BISTORT or THE CBVBASS8. 181

these montiments of boman wisdom and of the eiperience
of many ages ; they coveted nothing the Greeks possessed
but their territories and their wealth. Most of the knights
took a pride in their ignorance, and amongst the spoib of
Constantinople, attached no yalue to the ingenious produc-
tions of Greece. Amidst the conflagrations that consumed
the mansions and palaces of the capital, they beheld with
indifference large and valuable libraries given up to the
flames. It must be confessed, however, that, in these great
disasters the Muses had not to weep for the loss of any of
the master-pieces they had inspired. If the conquerors
knew not how to appreciate the treasures of genius, this
rich deposit was not to be lost for their descendants. All
the books of antiquity that were known in the time of
Eustathius [A. D. 750, Tbans.], and of which that learned
philosopher made the nomenclature some centuries before
the fifth crusade, enriched France and Italy at the revival of
letters.

We may add that the necessity for both conquerors and
conquered of intercommunication must have contributed to
the spreading of the Latin language among the Greeks, and
that of the Greeks among the Latins.* The people of

* We cannot refrain from offering onf readers a curions passa^ from
an excellent manuscript memoir which M. Jourdain has communicated
to US, entitled Recherche* sur let Anciennee Vernona Latinee d*Aruio(e
employ^ee par lee EccUsiaatiquee du 13m« Steele. "Two circumstances
contributed in the thirteenth century to materially spread the knowledge
of the Greek language in the West. Baldwin, who was placed upon the
imperial throne, wrote to Pope Innocent III. to beg of him to send to
him men distinguished by their piety and knowledge, chosen from the ,
religious orders and the University of Paris, to instruct his new people in
the Catholic religion and Latin letters. The pope wrote to several mo>
nastic orders and to the University of Paris. About the same time Philip
Augustus founded at Paris, near the mountain St. Genevieve, a Constan-
tiaopolitan college, destined to receive the young Greeks of the most djs-
tingttished families of Constantinople. The intention of this prince was
to extinguish in the hearts of these young men the hatred they had im-
bibed against the Latins, by offering to them all sorts of kind treatment,
and perh^>s also to secure hostages against the fickleness and bad faith of
the Greeks. We can conceive that this circumstance contributed power-
fully in diffusing the knowledge of Greek, not only in France but in all
the West, for Paris was then the most celebrated s«diool, and almost all
the men to whom Latb translations from the Greek are attribntad, had

182 HI8T0ST or TUB CBUSADES.

Greece were obliged to learn the idiom of the clergy of
Some in order to make their petitions and complaints known ;
the ecclesiastics charged by the pope to convert the Greeks
could not dispense with the studj of the language of Plato
and Demosthenes, to teach the disciples of Photius the
truths of the Boman Catholic religion.

We have spoken of the destruction of the master-pieces
of sculpture ; we must admit, nevertheless, that some of
them escaped the barbarism of the conquerors. The Vene-
tians, more enlightened than the other Crusaders, and bom
in a city constructed and embellished by the arts, caused
several of the monuments of Byzantium to be transported
into Italy. Four horses of bronze,* which, amidst the revo-
lutions of empires, had passed from Greece to Home, from
Bome to Constantinople, were sent to decorate the place of
St. Mark : many ages after this crusade, the^ were doomed
to be carried away from Venice, in its turn invaded by vic-
torious armies, and again to return to the shores of the
Adriatic, as eternal trophies of war, and &ithful companions
of victory.

The Crusaders likewise profited by several useful inven-
tions, and transmitted them to their compatriots ; and the
fields and gardens of Italy and France were enriched by
some plants till that time unknown in the West. Boniface

studied in that city : we must also assi^ to the same cause the Latin
versions of Aristotle made firom the Greek and published before St. Thomas.
Nevertheless, if the Arabs had not previously spread throughout the West
a taste for the Peripatetic philosophy, it is very doubtful whether the
relations established between the East and the West by the inauguration
of Baldwin, would have produced any desire to obtain it from purer
sources.

* Since their restoration to Venice, the history of these three celebrated
horses has given birth to three dissertations. In one {Narrazione Storica
dei Quairo Qwalii di Bronzo, &c.). Count Cicognara, president of the
Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Venice, pretends that this monument was cast
at Rome in the reign of Nero, in commemoration of the victory over Tiri-
dates. M. ScUegel {Lettera at Signori Oomjniatori della BUiioUea
I(aiiana) rejects this opinion of the count, and thinks that the four bronze
horses are from the hands of a Greek statuary of the time of Alexander. —
Dei Quairo CavalU della Banlica di S, Marco, Andre Mustozidi, a
very learned young Greek, makes this superb group oome from Chios,
which was rich in skilful sculptors, and believes they were transmitted tb
Rome in the time of Verretf and to Constantinople under Theodottot tha
Oraat.

HIBTOBT OJT THX CJIUBABE8. 183

sent into his marqiusate some seeds of maize, which had
never before be^n cultivated in Italy : a public document,
which still exists, attests the gratitude of the people of
Montferrat. The magistrates received the innocent fruits
of victory with great solemnity, and, upon their altars,
caUed down a blessing upon a production of Greece, that
would one day constitute the wealth of the plains of Italy.*

Elanders, Champagne, and most of the provinces of
Prance, which had sent their bravest warriors to the cm*
Bade, fruitlessly lavished their population and their treasures
upon the conquest of Byzantium. We may say that our in-
trepid ancestors gained nothing by this wonderful war, but
the glory of having given, for a moment, masters to Con-
stantinople, and lords to Greece. And yet these distant
conquests, and this new empire, which drew from France its
turbulent and ambitious prmces, must have been favourable
to the French monarchy. Philip Augustus must have been
pleased by the absence of the great vassals of the crown, and
had reason to learn with joy that the coimt of Flanders, a
troublesome neighbour, and a not verv submissive vassal,
had obtained an empire in the East. The French monarchy
thus derived some advantage from this crusade ; but the re-
public of Venice profited much more by it.

This republic, which scarcely possessed a population of
two hundred thousand souls, and had not the power to make
its authority respected on the continent, in the first place,
made use of the arms of the Crusaders, to subdue cities, of
which, without their assistance, she could never have made
herself mistress. By the conquest of Constantinople, she
enlarged her credit and her commerce in the East, and
brought imder her laws some of the richest possessions of
the Greek emperors. She -increased the reputation of her
navy, and raised herself above all the maritime nations of
Europe. The Venetians, though fighting under the banners
of the cross, never neglected the interests or glory of their
own country, whilst the French knights scarcely ever fought
for any object but personal glory and their own ambition.

* We find in the first Tolame of an Italian work entitled Storia d*Incisa
e del gia celebre suo Marchesato^ pablished at Asti, in 1810, a precious
monament ; this is a charter which proves the sending of the seeds of
maise to a city of Montferrat. This is a very mterestiiig document.

1B4 niBTOBT OJF TaiS CAUSAD£S.

The republic of Venice, accuatoined to calculate the advan-
tages and expenses of war, immediately renpimced all con-
quests the preseryation of which might become burdensome ;
and of her new possessions in the East, only retained such
as she judged necessary to the prosperity oi her commerce,
or the maintiBnance of her marme. Three years after the
taking of Constantinople, the senate of Venice published an
edict, by which it permitted any of the citizsens to conquer
the islands of the Archipelago ; yielding to them the pro-
prietorship of all the countries they might subdue. After
this there soon appeared princes of Nazos, dukes of Paros,
and lords of Mycone, as there had been dukes of Athens,
lords of Thebes, and princes of Achaia ; but these dukes and
princes were only vassals of the republic. Thus Venice,
more fortunate than France, made the valour and ambition
of her citizens subservient to her interests.

BOOK XIL

SIXTH CEUSADB.

A.D. 1200—1215.

If the preceding books, the imposing spectacle has passed
before our eyes of the fall of an old empire, and of the rise
and rapid decline of a new one. The imagination of man
loTes to dwell upon ruins, and the most sanguinair cata-
strophes even offer him highly attractive pictures. We have
reason to fear that our narration will create less interest,
awaken less curiosity, when, after the great revolutions we
have described, it will be our duty to turn our attention to
the petty states the Christians founded in Syria, for the
safety of which the nations of the West were constantly
calleci upon to furnish warlike assistance.

At the present day, we have great difficulty in compre*
bending that enthusiasm which animated all classes for the
deliverance of the holy places, or that powerful interest that
directed the thoughts of all to countries almost forgotten by
modern Europe.* During the height of the fervour for
the crusades, the taking of a city or town of Judea caused
more joy than the taking of Byzantium ; and Jerusalem was
more dear to the Christians of the West than their own
country. This enthusiasm, of which our indifference can
scarcely form an idea, renders the task of the historian diffi-
cult, and makes him ofben hesitate in the choice of the
events that history has to record: when opinions have

* It is well worthy of remark that it la very little more than a quarter
of a eantary since this sentence was written ; and, in that short period,
what has noi ^oienae effected ! — the East, of whidi we were then said to
be tio ignorant, eAetter known to Bavopeans than it was at any time
dorinfr the rrnsaaeB. — ^Traks.
Vol. II.— 9

186 HISTOBT or THE CBUBASSS.

changed, everytliing has changed with them: glory itself
has lost its splendour, and that which appeared great in the
eyes of men, seems only fantastical or vnJgar ; the historical
epochs of our annals have become the objects of our most
sovereign contempt ; and when, without due reference to
tlie ages of the holy wars, we wish to submit these extraor-
dinary enterprises to the calculations of reason, we resemble
those modern travellers who have only found a dribbling
rivulet in the place of that famous Scamander, of which the
imagination of the ancients, and still more, the muse of
Homer, had made a majestic river.

But if we have no longer the task of describing the revo-
lutions and falls of empires, the epoch of which we are
about to trace the picture, will still present to us but too
many of those great calamities with which human life sup-
plies history : whilst Greece was a prey to all the ravages
of wAr, the most cruel scourges desolated both Egypt and
Syria.

The !Nllo suspended its accustomed course, and failed to
inundate its banks or render the harvests abundant. The
last year of this century (1200) announced itself, says an
Arabian author, like a monster whose fury threatened to de-
vour everything. "When the famine began to be felt, the
people were compelled to support themselves upon the grass
of the fields and the ordure of animals,* the poor routed up^
cemeteries, and disputed with the worms the spoils of coffins.
When this awful scourge became more general, the popula-
tion of the cities and country, as if pursued by a pitiless
enemy, fled away from their homes in despair, and wandered
about at hazarct from city to city, from village to village,
meeting everywhere with the evil they wished to avoid ; in
no inhabited place could they step a foot without being
struck by the appearance of a putrifying carcass, or some
unhappy wretch on the point of expiring.

The most frightM eflect of this universal calamity was,
that the want of food gave birth to the greatest crimes, and

* The account of this Pamine, and the disasters by which it was followed,
is to be found in its details, in Leg Reiati<mt de VEffffpte, translated from
Abdallatif by M. Letvestre de Lacy. This Arabian anthor was a skilful
phyiiicinn and nn enlightened man ; and his recital, which contains mal^y
extraordinary fact<, bears all the characters of tmth.

HIBTOBT or THE OBT78iJ)X8. 187

rendered ereiy man the enemy of his fellows. At the com-
mencement of the famine much horror was expressed at
some being reduced to feed upon human flesh, but examples
of BO great a scandal increased with such rapidity, that it
was soon spoken of ¥rith indifference. Men conteiiding
with famine, which spared the rich no more than the poor,
were no longer sensible to pity, shame, or remorse, and were
restrained neither by respect for the laws, nor by the fear of'
punishment. They came at last to devour each other like
wild beasts. At Cairo, thirty women, in one day, perished
at the stake, convicted of having killed and eaten their own
children. The historian Abdallatif relates a crowd of bar^
barous and monstrous incidents which make the blood run
cold with horror, and to which we will not give a place in
our history, for fear of being accused of calumniating
human nature.

The plague soon added its ravages to those of famine.
Grod alone, says contemporary history, knows the number of
those that died with famine and disease. The capital of
Egypt, in the space of a few months, witnessed a hundred
and eleven thousand funerals. At length it was found im«
possible to bury the dead, and the terrified survivors were
obliged to be satisfied with casting them over the ramparts.
The same mortality was experienced at Damietta, Kous, and
Alexandria. It was at the period of seed-time that the
plague was at its height ; they who sowed the seed were not
the same that had ploughed the ground, and they who sowed
lived not to reap the harvest. The villages were deserted,
and reminded travellers of those expressions of the Koran :
'' JFie have mown them all doum and exterminated them ; one
cry wcurhe(»rdy and all have perished" The dead bodies that
floated on the Nile were as numerous as the bulbous plants
which, at certain seasons, cover the waters of that river.
One fisherman counted more than four hundred that passed
before his eyes in a single day ; piles of human bones were
met with everywhere ; the roads, to borrow the expression
of Arabian writers, " Were like a field town with dead
hodieSf and the most populous provinces ioere as a banquet"
ing-hallfor the birds of prey, ^^

Egjpt lost more toan a million of its inhabitants ; both
famine and plague were felt as &r as Syria, and the Chris-

18S HISTOBY or THE CBUSABXS.

tian cities sufiered equallj with those of the Mussulmans.
From the shores of the Bed Sea to the banks of the
Euphrates and the Orontes, the whole country- presented
one picture of desolation and mourning. As if the anger of
Heaven was not satisfied, it was not long before a third
calamity, not less terrible, followed in the tx^in of the others.
A violent earthquake laid waste the cities and provinces that
famine and plague had spared ;* the shocks resembled the
motion of a sieve, or that which a bird makes when he raises
and lowers his wings. The rising of the sea, and the agita-
tion of the waves presented a horrible appearance ; ships
were, on a sudden, carried far on to the land, and midtitudes
of fish covered the shore ; the heights of Libanus opened
and sank in many places. The people of Syria and Egypt
believed it to be the earthquake that is to precede the day
of judgment. Many inhabited places totally disappeared ;
a vast number of men perished ; the fortresses of Hamath,
Barin, and Balbec were throwTi down ; the only part of the
city of Naplouse that was lefb standing was the street of the
Samaritans ; in Damascus, all the most superb edifices were
destroyed; in the city of Tyre only a few houses escaped,
and the ramparts of Ptolemais and Tripoli were nothing out
heaps of ruins. The shocks were felt with less violence in
the territory of Jerusalem, and, in the general calamity, both
Christians and Mussulmans returned thanks to Heaven for
having spared in its anger the city of prophets and miracles.
Such awful disasters ought to have caused the treaties made
between the barons and the infidels to be respected. In the
fifth crusade, the sovereign pontiff urged the Christians to
take advantage of these calamitous days to invade the
Mussidman provinces of Syria and Egypt : but if the advice
of the pope had been followed, if the Christian army, on
leaving Venice, had directed its march towards the countries
devastated by pestilence and famine, it is most probable that
the conquerors and the conquered woidd have perished to-
gether. At that period, death, like a formidable sentinel,
guarded all the frontiers of the Christians and Mussulmans.
All the scourges of nature became the terrible guardians of

* The circumstances of this earthquake are related by Abdallatif : the
Latm hutorians scaroely name this great calamity.

HI8T0BT 07 THE OBITBADSS. 189

.proTinoefl, and defended the approaches and entrances of
cities better than the greatest armies could have done.

The Christian colonies, however, began, not to repair their
losses, but to forget the eyils thej had suffered. Amaurj,
king of Jerusalem, set his barons an example of wisdom and
pious resignation. The three military orders, that had ex-
hausted their treasures to support their knights and, soldiers
during the famine, made a strong appeal, by messengers and
letters, to the charity of the faithful of the TVest. The
Christian cities that had been destroyed by the earthquake
were rebuilt, and the sums amassed by Poulque of NeuiUy,
the preacher of the last crusade, were employed in restoring
the walls of Ftolemais. As the Christians wanted labourers,
they set the Mussulman prisoners to work. Among the pri-
soners condemned to this Service, history must not pass by
the celebrated Persian poet Saadi, who had fallen into the
hands of the Pranks, whilst on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.*
The author of '*The Ghirden of Boses," and several other
works, destined at a future day to obtain the admiration of
the East and the "West, was loaded with irons, led to Tripoli,
and confounded with the crowd of captives employed in re-
building the fortifications of that city.

The truce which had been concluded with the infidels
still subsisted ; but either pretensions or quarrels daily
arose that were frequently followed by hostilities. The
Christians were continually kept under arms, and peace was
sometimes as abundant in troubles and dangers as an open
war would have been. There likewise prevailed, at this
time, great confusion among the Christian colonies, and
even among the Mussulman powers. The sultan of Damas-
cus was at peace with the king of Jerusalem, whilst the
count of Tripoli, the prince of Antioch, with the Templars
and Hospitallers, were at war with the princes of Hamath,
Edessa or some emirs of Syria.f Every one, according to his

* M. Langl^ has AirniBhed us with this valaable incident, which he
has taken from the Persian biographer Daulet Chah. The biographer
adds, that a merchant of Aleppo redeemed Saadi, by paying the Christiana
the sum of ten golden crowns, and he likewise gave the poet another
hundred as the dowry of his daughter, whom he gave him in marriage.

t History has great tronble in following the events of this period
through the cloud of anarchy which reigned everywhere ; and that which
( the difficnlty is, that the authors of our old chronicles were only

190 HISTOBT OF THE OBU8ADS8.

humour, took up or laid down hifl arms, without an^ power
being sufficiently strong to enforce respect for treaties.

No great battles were fought, but constant incursions
upon the territories of enemies were made ; cities were sur-
prised, countries were ravaffed, and great booty obtained.
Amidst these disorders, which were called Dtwg of Truee^
the Christians of Palestine had to lament the ^ath of their
king. Amaury, according to the custom of the faithful,
went to Caifa, during holy week, to gather palm ; but fell
sick on his pilgrimage, and returned to Ptolemais to die.
Thus the sceptre of the kingdom of Jerusalem again re-
mained in the hands of Isabella, who had neither the power,
nor the ability necessary to govern the Christian states.
At the same time, one of the sons of Bohemond, prince of
Antioch, fell under the daggers of assassins sent by the Old
Man of the Mountains. Bohemond the Third, at a very
advanced age, was unable to avenge this murder ; and, in
addition, before he died, had the mortification of seeing war
break out between his second son, Baymond, count of
Tripoli, and Livon, prince of Armenia. The order of ths
Templars, as well as that of the Hospitallers, interested
themselves in this quarrel, and were opposed to each other.
The sultan of Aleppo and the Turks from Asia Minor mixed
themselves with the dissensions of the Christians, and took
advantage of their divisions to ravage the territory of An-
tioch.* The Christian states of Syria received no more
succours from the West. The remembrance of the evils
that had ravaged the countries beyond the seas had damped
the zeal and the ardour of pilgrims ; the warriors of Europe,
accustomed to face with coolness all the perils of war, had
not sufficient courage to brave pestilence and famine. A
great number of the barons and knights of Palestine, them-
selves abandoned a land too long laid desolate, some to

acquainted with the kingdom of Jerusalem, and knew nothing of what
waa going on in the interior of the states. The Arah historians, on the
eontrarf, take mach more note of the expeditions of the interior than of
the events that happened at Ptolemais, situated on the seacoast, and in
some sort isolated from the rest of Syria.

* We find few details upon this epodi in the continuator of William of
Tyre, or the other historians of the middle ages who mention the Chriatiaa
colonies.

niSTOBT OF THE CBUSADES. 101

repair to Constantinople, and others to the kingdoms of the
"West.

Innocent, who had up to this time made vain efforts for
the deliverance of the holy places, and who could not over-
come his regret at having seen great Christian armies fruit-
lessly dissipated in the conquest of Greece, still did not
give up his vast designs ; from the beginning of his reign,
the sovereign pontiff had pointed out the Holy Land to the
Christian nations, as the road and the way of salvation.
After the example of his predecessors, he not only called
piety and virtue in to the defence of the Christian colonies,
but remorse and repentance. All who came to him to con-
fess great sins, were allowed but one means of expiating
their crimes, — crossing the sea to fight against the infidels.

Among the sinners condemned to this sort of punishment
history quotes the names of the murderers of Conrad, bishop
of Wurtzburg and chancellor of the empire.* The guilty
having presented themselves before the pope, barefooted,
in drawers, and with halters round their necks, swore in the
presence of the cardinals, to pass their lives in the practice
of the most austere mortifications, and to carry arms during
four years against the Saracens. A knight, named Eol^rt,
scanaalized the whole court of Bome by confessing in a loud
voice, that, being a prisoner in Eg}'pt during the famine, he
had killed his wife and daughter, to feed upon their fleali.
The pope imposed the most rigorous penances upon Bobert,
and ordered him, to complete the expiation of so great a
crime, to pass three years in visiting the holy places.

Innocent endeavoured by such means to keep up the
devotion of pilgrimages, which had given birth to the crusades,

• Thii penitence and that which follows are mentioned by Fleury, in
the sixteenth volume of his History ; the guilty were condemned, in addi>
tion to the pilgrimage, to wear neither vair, grey squirrel fur, ermine, nor
coloured stuffs ; they were never to be present at public games ; after
becoming widowers, were never to marry acain ; to walk barefooted and
be clothed in woollen, and to fast on bread and water on Wednesdays,
Fridays, Ember-week, and Vigils ; to perform three Lent fasts in the courve
of the year, to recite the Pater Noster a hundred times, and make a hundred
genuflexions every day. When they came to a city, they were to go to
the principal church barefooted, in drawers, with halters round their
necks and rods in their hands, and there receive from the canons discipline,
&c. &c.

192 HISTOBT or THX CBUBADE8.

and might again revive the zeal and ardour for holy wars.
According to the opinion which the sovereign pontiff
sought to spread among the faithful, and bv which he him-
self appeared penetrated, this corrupt world had no crimes
for which God would not open the treasures of his mercy
provided the perpetrators would take the voyage to the
East. The people however were persuaded that the sins
and errors of a perverse generation nad irritated the God of
the Christians, and that the glory of conquering the Holy
Land was reserved for another and a better age, to a gene-
ration more worthy of attracting the eyes and the blessings
of Heaven.

This opinion of the nations of the West was very little in
favour of the Christians of Syria, who were daily making
rapid strides towards their fall. Isabella, who only reigned
over depopulated cities, died soon afler her huHoand. A
son that she had had by Amauiy preceded faor to the tomb ;
and the kingdom of Jerusalem became tlAi heritage of a
young princess, a daughter of IsabeUa and Conrad, marquis
of Tyre. ^ The barons and knights that remained in Syria
were more sensible than ever of the necessity of having at
their head a prince able to govern them, and immediately
set about choosing a husband for the young queen of Jeru-
salem.

Their choice might have fallen upon one of themselves ;
but they feared timt jealousy would g;ive birth to fresh dis-
cords, and that the spirit of rivalry ana faction would weaken
the authority of him that should be called upon to govern
the kingdom. The assembly resolved to seek a king in the
"West, and to address themselves to the country of Godfrey
and the Baldwins, — to that nation that had furnished so
manv heroes to the crusades, so many illustrious defenders
of the Holy Land.

This resolution of the barons of Palestine had not only
the advantage of preserving peace in the kingdom of Jeru-
salem, but also tnat of arousing the spirit of chivalry in
Europe, and of interesting it in the cause of the Christians
of the East. Aimar, lord of CsBsarea, and the bishop of
Ftolemais, Crossed the sea, and went, in the name of the
Christians of the Holy Land, to solicit Philip Augustus to
send them a knight or a baron who might savd the little

HI8T0BT OP THE CB178A])£8. 193

tlmt remained of the unforhmate kingdom of Jerasalem.
The hand of a young queen, a crown, and the blessing of
Heaven were the rewards held out to the bravery and de-
votedness of him who was willing to fight for the heritage
of the Son of God. The deputies were received with great
honours at the court of the king of Prance. Although
the crown they offered was nothing but a vain title, it not
the less dazzled the imagination of the Prench knights ;
their valorous ambition was seduced by the hope of acquir-
ing great renown, and restoring the throne that had been
founded by the bravery of Godfrey of Bouillon.

Among the knights of his court, Philip greatly distin-
^ished John of Brienne,* brother of Gauthier,t who died
in Apulia with the reputation of a hero pr ^ the title of
king. In his youth, John of Brienne had been destined for
the ecclesiastical state ; but, brought up in a family of war-
riors, and less sensible to the channs of piety than to those
of glory, he refused to obey the will of his parents ; and as
his father was inclined to employ force to constrain him, he
sought a refuge against paternal anger in the monastery of
Citeauz. John of Brienne was mixed with the crowd of
cenobites, and gave himself up, as they did, to fasting and
mortification. The austerities of the cloister, however,
did not at all assimilate with his growing passion for the
noble occupation of arms ; and of^n, amidst prayers and
religious ceremonies, the images of tournaments and battles
woi^d distract his thoughts and disturb his mind. One of
lus uncles having found him at the door of the monastery
in a state very little suited to a gentleman, had pity on his
tears, took him away with him, and encouraged his natural
inclinations. Prom that time the glory of combats entirely
occupied his thoughts ; and he who had been destined to
the silence of cloisters and the peace of altars, was not long
in creating for himself by his oravery and exploits a great
and widely spread renown.

At the period of the last crusade, John of Brienne accom-
panied his brother in his attempt to obtain the kingdom of

* Son of Erard II., coant of, Brienne in Champagne, and Agnes
Month^iard.

t The continnator of WiUiam of Tyre relates that the barons of Pales-
tine thenuelTes demanded John of Brienne of the king of France.

9»

194 HIBTOBT 07 THS CBTJSJLDSS.

Naples, and saw him perisli whilst fighting for a throne thab
was to be the reward of the victor. He had the same for-
tune to guide his hopes, and the same dangers to encounter,
if he espoused the heir of the kingdom of Jerusalem. He
acceptea with joy the hand of a young queen, for the pos-
session of whose states he must contend with the Saracens ;
he charged the ambassadors to return and announce his
speedy arrival in Palestine, and, fuU of confidence in the
cause he was about to defend, promised to follow them at
the head of an armv.

"When Aymar of Csesarea and the bishop of Ptolemais
returned to the Holy Land, the promises of John of Brienne
raised the depressed courage of the Christians, and, as it
often happens in seasons of misfortune, they passed firom
despair to the most extravagant hopes.

It was given out in Palestine that a crusade was in pre-
paration, commanded by the most powerful monarchs of the
West ; and the report of such an extraordinary armament
produced a momentary terror among the infidels. Malek-
Adel, who, since the death of Al-Aziz, reigned over Syria
and Egypt, dreaded the enterprises of the Christians ; and
as the tNice made with the Franks was on the point of ex-
piring, he proposed to renew it, ofifering to deliver up ten
castles or fortresses as a pledge of his good faith and his
desire for a continuation of peace. This proposal ought to
have been welcomed by the Christians of Palestine ; but the
hopes of assistance firom the West had banished all mode-
ration and foresight from the councils of the barons and
knights. The wiser part of the Christian warriors, among
whom was the grand master of the order of St. John, were
of opinion that the truce should be prolonged. They re-
minded their companions that they had often oeen promised
succour from the West, without this succour ever having
reached the Holy Land ; and that in the very last crusade,
a formidable army, confidently expected in Palestine, had
directed its march towards Constantinople. They added,
that it was not prudeut to risk the chances of war upon the
faith of a vain promise ; and that they ought to wait the
event, before they formed a determination upon which might
depend the safety or the ruin of the Christians of the Ealst.
These di courses were full of wisdom and good Benae, but

HI0TOBT 07TH1E CSUBADSS. 195

M the Hospitallers spoke in &yoiir of the truce, the Tem-
plars, with great warmth, declared for war : such was, like-
wise, the spirit of the Christian warriors, that prudence,
moderation, or, indeed, any of the virtues of peace, inspired
them with a sort of disdain ; for them reason was always
on the side of perils, and only to speak of flying to arms
was quite sufficient to win all their suffirages. The assembly
of barons and knights refused to prolong the truce made
with the Saracens.

This determination became so much the more fatal, frx)m
the situation of France and Europe, which could scarcely
allow John of Brienne to entertain the hope of accomplish-
ing his promise of raisinff an army for the Holy Land.

Germany was still agitated by the rival pretensions of
Otho and Philip of Swabia: John of England laboured
nnder the curse of an excommunication, which interdict
extended to his kingdom. Philip Augustus was busily cm-
ployed in taking advantage of all the troubles that were in
full action around him ; on one side by endeavouring to ex-
tend his influence in Germany, and on the other by constant
efforts to weaken the power of the English, who were mas-
ters of several provinces of his kingdom. John of Brienne
arrived at Ptolemais with the train of a king, but he only
brought with him three hundred knights to defend his king-
dom ; his new subjects, however, still full of hopes, looked
upon him no less as a liberator. His marriage was cele-
brated in the presence of the barons, the princes, and the
bishops of Ptolemais. As the truce was about to expire,
the Saracens resumed their arms, and disturbed the festivi-
ties of the coronation. Malek-Adel entered Palestine at
the head of an army, and the infidels not only laid siege to
Tripoli, but threatened Ptolemais.

The new king, at the head of a small number of faithful
warriors, created great admiration for his valour in the field
of battle; but he was not able to deliver the Christian pro-
vinces from the presence of a formidable enemy, when
the defenders of Palestine compared their scanty ranks
with the multitude of their enemies, they sank at once into
a state of despondency; and even those who so lately
scorned the thoughts of peace with the infidels, could not
muster either strength or courage to oppose to their attacks.

196 HISTOBT OV THS CBIT8ADB8.

Most of the French knights that had accompanied the new
king, quitted the kingdom they had come to succour, and
returned into Europe. The dominions of John of Brienne
consisted of the city of Ptolemais alone, and he had no
army to defend even that ; he then began to perceive he had
undertaken a perilous and difficult task, and that he should
not be able to contend for any length of time against the
united forces of the Saracens. Ambassadors were sent to
Home to inform the pope of the pressing dangers of the
Christian states in Asia, and once more to implore the sup-
port of the princes of Europe, and, above all, of the French
knights.

These jBresh cries of alarm were scarcely heard .by the
nations of the West. The troubles which agitated Europe
at the period of the departure of John of Bnenne for Pales-
tine were far from being allayed, and prevented France
especially from lending any assistance to the Christian colo-
nies. Languedoc and most of the southern provinces of the
kingdom were then desolated by religious wars, which fully
employed the bravery of the French knights and nobles.

A spirit of inquiry and indocility, which had arisen among
the faithful, and with which St. Bernard had reproached his
age, was making alarming progress every day. The most
holy doctors had already many times expressed their grief
at the abasement of the holy word, of which every one con-
stituted himself judge and arbiter, and which was treated,
said Stephen of Toumay in his letters to the pope, with as
little discernment as holy things given to dogi, or pearls cast
at the feet of swine. This spirit of independence and pride,
joined to the love of paradox and novelly ; to the dechne of
sound studies, and the relaxation of ecclesiastical discipline ;
had given birth to heresies which rent the bosom of the
Church.

The most dangerous of all the new sects was that of the
Albigeois,* which took its name from the city of Albi, in
which its first assemblies had been held. These new sec-
tarians being imable to explain the existence of evil under a
just and good Qod, as the Manicheans had done, adopted
two principles. According to their belief, God had first

* Ab Gibbon has done, I have preferred the real name of thia sect to
the Latinized .^/%«}ueff.— Trans.

HI8T0BT OW THE CBVaABBB. 107

created Lucifer and his angelfi; Lucifer haying revolted
from God, was banished from heaven, and produced the
visible world, over which he reigned. God, to re-establish
order, created his second son, Jesus Christ, to be the genius
of good, as Lucifer had been the genius of evil. Several
contemporary writers represent the Albigeois in the most
odious colours, and describe them as given up to all kinds of
error ; but this opinion must not be adopted in all its rigour
by impartial history. For the honour of human nature we
feel bound to say, that never did a religious sect dare to
endeavour to win the approbation of mankind whilst pre-
senting an example of clepravity of morals ; and that in no
age, among no people, has a false doctrine ever been able to
lead astray any number of men, without being supported by
at least an appearance of virtue.

The wisest and most earnest Christians were at that
period desirous of a reform in the clergy. " But there
were," says Bossuet, " vain and proud minds,* ftdl of bitter-
ness, which, struck by the disorders > that reigned in the
Church, and more particularly among its ministers, did not
believe that the promises of its eternal duration could
possibly subsist amongst these abuses. These, become
proud, and thence weak, yielded to the temptation which
leads to a hatred of the Church from a hatred of those who
preside in it ; and as if the malice of man could annihilate
the work of God, the aversion they had conceived for the
teachers, made them hate at the same time both the doctrine
they taught and the authority they had received from God.**

This dusposition of men's minds gave the apostles of error
a most deplorable ascendancy, and multiplied the number of
their disciples. Among the new Bcctarians, the most remark-
able were the Vaudois^ or Poor of Z^ons, who devoted them-
selves to a state of idle poverty, and despised the clergy,
whom they accused of living in luKur^ and voluptuousness \
the Apostoliques, who boasted of bemg the only mystical
body of Jesus Christ ; the JPopelicains, who abnorred the
eucharist, marriages, and the other sacraments ; the Aymer-
iitesy whose teachers announced to the world the mture

* Bossaet, HiHoire deg Variai. toI. ii. L'Abbe Paqaet, in his 2Xe-
tionnaire det H^Aieii and Fleury, in hia RUtwrtBeeJnMtiqm^ expreu
the aame opinion.

196 HIBTOBT OT TSDB CBXTSASM.

eBtablisliinent of a purely spiritual worabip, and denied &b'
existence of a hell or a paradise, persuaded that sin finds in
itself its own punishment, and virtue its own reward.

As the greater part of these heretics exhibited a sovereign
contempt for the authority of the Church, which was then
the first of all Kuthorities, all those who wished to shake off
the yoke of divine laws, and those even to whom their pas-
sions rendered the restraint of human laws intolerable, came
at length to range themselves under the banners of these
innovators, and were welcomed by a sect anxious to increase
and strengthen itself, and always disposed to consider as its
partisans and defenders, men whom society cast from its
bosom, who dreaded justice, and could not endure established
order. Thus the pretended reformers of the thirteenth
century, whilst themselves affecting austerity of manners,
and proclaiming the triumph of virtue and truth, admitted
into their bosom both corruption and licentiousness, de-
stroyed every reffulation of authority, abandoned everything
to the caprice of the passions, and left no bond to society,
no power to morals, no check upon the multitude.

The new heresies had been condemned in several councils ; "
but as violence was sometimes employed in executing the
decisions of the Church, persecution onlv tended to soup
men's minds, instead of brmging them back to truth. Mis-
sionaries and papal legates were sent into Lanraedoc, to
convert the misled wanderers from the flock; but their
preaching produced no fruit, and the voice of falsehood
prevailed over the word of God. The preachers of the faith,
whom the heretics reproached with their luxury, their igno-
rance, and the depravity of their manners, had neither
sufficient resignation nor sufficient humility to support such
outrages, or offer them as a sacrifice to Jesus Christ, whose
apostles they were. Exposed to the scoffs of the sectarians,
and gathering nothing m>m the labours of their missions but
humdiation and contempt, they accustomed themselves to
view the people they were sent to convert as personal ene-
mies ; and a spirit of vengeance and pride, which certainly
came not from heaven, made them beheve it was their duty
to bring into the right rcMid, by force of arms, all who had
denied their power or resisted their eloquence. The sove-
reign pontiff^ whose mind was constantly bent upon the

HtSTOBT 01* THE GBVBADE0. 199

Asiatic war, besitated at ordering a crusade to be preacbed
against tbe Albigeois ; but be was led away bj tbe opinions
of the clergy, perhaps also by that of his age, and at last
promised to all Christians who would take up arms against
the Albigeois the same privileges as those granted to the
Crusaders against tbe Saracens.* Simon de Montfort, the

* Notwithstandiog the partiality I naturally feel for an author whose
work I am translating, and to which task I was led by my admiration of
it, I cannot allow such opinions of the war against the Albigeois to pass
unnoticed. A very sensible French historian says : — '* The inhabitants
of these provinces were industrious, intellectual, and addicted to com-
merce, the arts, and poetry ; their numerous cities flourished, governed
by consuls with forms approaching to republican ; all at once this beauti-
ful region was abandoneid to the 'furies of fanaticism, its cities were ruined,
its arts and its commerce destroyed, and its language cast back into bar-
barism. Tlie preaching of the first religious reform gave birth to the
devastation of these rid^ countries. The clergy were not distinguished
there, as in France or tbe northern provinces, by their ardour to improve
themselves and diffuse knowledge ; they signalized themselves by gross
disorders, and sank daily into greater contempt. The need of reform
bad been long felt among the people of Provence and many reformers
had already appeared. For a length of time associations had existed whose
aim it was to purify tbe morals and the doctrines of the Church ; such
were the Paterins, the Catbarins, and the Poor of Lyons ; and the greater
part of these had obtained the sanction of the popes, who considered them
as so many orders of monks, highly calculated to awaken public devotion.
But the reforms that were operated extended gradually ; dogmas even were
attacked, ^priests were subjected to tbe insults of the people, and the
domains or the Church were invaded. Such was the state of things when
the famous Innocent III., at the age of thirty -nine, ascended the pontifical
throne in 1198. To his great task he brought the talents of an ambitious,
and the energy of a violent and an inflexible character. This pontiff, who
dominated over Europe by indulgences and excommunications, watched
for and punished with severity every free exercise of thought in religioui
matters ; he was the fir^t to feel how serious and threatening for the
Church of Rome that liberty of mind must be that had already degenerated
into revolt. He saw with great inquietude and anger the new tendency
of men's minds in Provence and Languedoc, and'proscribed tbe reformers,
the most numerous of whom, and who gave their name to all the others,
were known under the names of Albigeois and Vaodois. Some among
them were Manicbeans, that is to say, admitted the two principles; bti
the greateit number of them pro/etned doctrines differing but very little
from those whtchi three centuries later ^ were preached by Luther, They
denied transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Eucharist, rejected con-
fession, and tbe sacraments of confirmation and marriage, and taxed tbe
worship of images with idolatry." In this war papacy put forth all its
most dreaded powers; indulgences to its brutal, mercenary soldiers;
heaven for wholesale slaughterers of their fellow-creatures ; heU for all

200 HI8T0BT OT THl OBUSASSS.

duke of Burgundy, and the duke of Nerers obeyed tbe ordeTS
of the Holy See : the hatred which this new sect inspired,
but still more the facility of gaining indulgences from the
sovereign pontiff without quitting Europe, drew a great
number of warriors to the standajSs of this crusade. The
Inquisition owes its birth to this war ; an institution at once
fatal to humanity, religion, and patriotism. Piles and stakes
appeared on all sides , cities were taken by storm, and their
inhabitants put to the sword. The violences and cruelties
which accompanied this unfortunate war have been described
by those even who took a most active part in them ;* their
recitals, which we have great} difficulty in believing, fre-
quently resemble the language of falsehood and exaggera-
tion. In periods of vertigo and fury, when violent passions
come in to mislead both opinions and consciences, it is not
rare to meet with men who exaggerate the excesses to which

who dared to think when they worshipped, or to hreatbe a word against
tbe ▼eriest nonsense of Romish rites : many instances occurred in which
the odious doctrine of no faiih to be observed with heretics ^ was unblush-
iDgly advanced and cruelly acted upon. I will close my notice of this
war against men who ventured to entertain a shade of difference in opinion
from their fellow -Christians and the head of the Church, by a quotation
that vividly stamps its character. *' The Crusaders precipitated them-
•elves in a mass upon the lands of the young viscount de Beziers, took
his castles and burnt all the men, violated the women and massacred the
children they found in them ; then, turning towards Briers, they carried
it by assault. A prodigious number of the inhabitants of tbe circumjacent
country had taken refuge in this city ; the abbot of Citeaux, legate of the
pope, upon being consulted by the knights as to the fate of these unhappy
beings, a part of whom only were heretics, replied by these execrable and
ever-memorable words : * Kill away ! kill away I God will take care ^
hit own I* " The crusade against the Albigeois is one of the blackest
pages in the history of mankind, and ought to be described as sndi by
every historian whose disagreeable duty it is to name it. — Trans.

* The abbot of Vaux-de-Cemai, who signalized himself in the crusade
against the Albigeois, has left us a history of this period, in which he
relates with an air of triumph, facts which passed before his eyes, at whidi
religion as well as humanity ought to blush. When we have read his
account, we are persuaded of two things : the first, that he was sincere in
the excess of his fanatical zeal; the second, that his age thought as he did,
and did not disapprove of the violences and persecutions of which he so
candidly exposes the history. Le P^ Langlois, a Jesuit, has written, in
French, a history of the crusades against the Albigeois. The Hietoire
BeeUtiasHpie of Fleury, and VHiitoire de Us Province de Lanffuedoe,
may be consulted with advantage.

HI0TOBT OW THS CBU8U>X8. 201

they have given themaelTea up, and boast of more eyil tlian
they have committed.

'^OT ourselves, the disastrous war against the Albigeoia
does not enter into the plan of this history, and if we have
spoken of it here, it was only the better to describe the
situation of France at this period, and the obstacles which
then opposed themselves to all enterprises beyond sea.
Amidst these constantly increasing obstacles. Innocent III.
was deeply afflicted at not being able to send succours to
the Christians of Palestine, his regret being the &;reater
from the circumstance that at the very time the Albigeoia
and the count of Thoulouse were subjected to this fri^tful
crusade, the Saracens were becoming more formidable in
Spain. The king of Castile, threatened by an innumerable
army, had just called upon all Erenchmen able to bear arms
to come to his assistance. The pope himself had written to
all the bishops of France, recommending them to exhort the
faithful of their dioceses to assist in a great battle which was
to be fought between the Spaniards and the Moors, about
the octave of Pentecost (1212). Innocent promised the
warriors who would repair to Spain, the usual indulgences of
holy wars ; and a solemn procession was made at Some, to
implore of God the destruction of the Moors and Saracens.
The archbishops of Na]>bonne and Bordeaux, the bishop of
Nantes, and a great number of French nobles, crossed the
Pyrenees, followed by two thousand knights with their
squires and serjeants-at-arms. The Christian army met the
Moors in the plains of Las Navas de Tolosa, and fought a
battle, in which more than two hundred thousand infidels lost
either their lives or their liberty. The conquerors, loaded
with spoils and surrounded by the dead, sang the Te Deum
on the field of battle : the standard of the leader of the
Almoades was sent to Eome as a trophy of the victory
granted to the prayers of the Christian Church.

On learning the issue of the battle of Tolosa, the sovereign
pontiff, amidst the assembled inhabitants of Borne, offered
up thanks to God for having scattered the enemies of his
people ; and at the same time prayed that Heaven in its
mercy would, in the end, deliver the Christians of Syria as
it had just delivered the Christians of Spain.

The head of the Church renewed his exhortations to the

S02 HIBTOST OF TSB CBTTBABBS.

fiuthful for tlie defence of the kingdom of Jesiu Christ ; but
amidst the troubles and civil wars that he himself had ex-
cited, he could gain no attention to the complaints of Jem-
aalem, and shed tears of despair at the indifference of the
nations of the West. About this period such a drcumstanoe
was beheld as had never occurred even in times so abound-
ing in prodigies and extraordinary events. Fifty thousand
children, in France and Germany, braving paternal authority,
gathered together and pervaded both cities and countries,
singing these words : — '' Lord Jesus, restore to us your holy
cross!" When they were asked whither they were going,
or what they intended to do, they replied, ** We are going
to Jerusalem, to deliver the sepulchre of our Saviour."
Some ecclesiastics, blinded by false zeal, had preached this
crusade; most of the fiuthful saw nothing m it but the
inspiration of Heaven, and thought that Jesus Christ, to
show his divine power, and to confound the pride of the
ereatest captains, and of the wise and powerful of the earth,
had placed nis cause in the hands of simple and timid infancy,
]^ny women of bad character, and aishonest men insinu-
ated themselves amongst the crowd of these new soldiers of
the cross, to seduce and plunder them. A great portion of
this juvenile militia crossed the Alps, to embark at the Italian

Sorts ; whilst those who came from the provinces of France,
irected their course to Marseilles. On the fiuth of a
miraculous revelation, they had been made to believe that
this year (1213) the drought would be so great that the
Bim would dissipate all the waters of the sea, and thus an
easy road for pilgrims would be opened across the bed of
the Mediterranean to the coasts of Syria. Many of these
youne Crusaders lost themselves in forests, then so abundant
and krge, and wandering about at hazard, perished with
heat, hunger, thirst, and fatigue ; others returned to their
homes, ashamed of their imprudence, saying, they really did
not know why they had gone. Among those that embarked,
some were shipwrecked, or given up to the Saracens, against
whom they haa set out to fight ; many, say the old chro-
nicles, gathered the palms of martyrdom, and offered the
infidels the edifying spectacle of the firmness and courage
the Christian religion is capable of inspiring at the most
tender age as well as at the more mature.

HIBTOBT OT THB OBtXBADBS. 208

StLcli of these cbildren as reached PtolemfOB must hare
created terror as well as astonishment, by making the Chris-
tians of the East believe that Europe had no longer any
government or laws, no longer any wise or prudent men,
either in the councils of pnnces or those or the Church.
. Nothing more completely demonstrates the spirit of these
times than the indifference with which such oisorders were
witnessed. No authority interfered, either to stop or pre-
vent the madness ; and when it was announced to the pope
that death had swept away the flower of the youth of France
and Germany, he contented himself with saying, — " These
children reproach us with having fallen asleep, whilst they
were flying to the assistance of the Holy Land." •

The sovereign pontiff, in order to accomplish his designs,
and rekindle the enthusiasm of the faithful, found it neces-
sary to strike the imagination of the nations vividly, and to
present a grand spectacle to the Christian world. Innocent
resolved to assemble a general council at Bome, to deli^rate
upon the state of the Church and the fate of the Christians
01 the East. "The necessi^ for succouring the Holy
Land," said he in his letters of convocation, " and the hope
of conquering the Saracens, are greater than ever ; we renew
our cries and our prayers to you, to excite you to this noble
enten)rise. No one can imagine," added Innocent, " that
God has need of your arms to deliver Jerusalem ; but he
offers you an opportunity of showing your penitence, and
proving your love for him. Oh, my brethren, how many
advantages has not the Christian Church already derived
from, the scourges that have desolated her, and desolate her
still ! How many crimes have been expiated by repentance I
How many virtues revive at the fire of charitv f How many
conversions are made among sinners by tne complaining
voice of Jerusalem ! Bless, then, the ingenious mercy, the
generous artifice of Jesus Christ, who seeks to touch your
hearts, to seduce your piety, and is willing to owe to his misled
disciples a victory which he holds in his all-powerful hand."t

* This crusade of the children is related by so great a namber of con-
temporary authors, tliat we cannot entertain any doubt of it. We will
refer to our Appendix the different versions of the ancient chronicles of
this singular event.

t Vetus est hoc artifidnm Jesus Christ!, quod ad suomm lalutem
fideUum diehns istis dignatas est innovare. — Epiit, Innocent.

204 HISTOBT 07 THE CBrBAIttS.

The pope afterwards compares Jesus Christ banished from
his henta^, to one of the kings of the earth who might be
driven from his dominions. "Where are the vaasals,"
added he, " who will not risk their fortunes and their lives
Uf restore their sovereign to his kingdom ? Such of the
Bubiects and servants of the monarch as shall have done
nothing for his cause, ought thej not to be ranked with the
rebels, and be subjected to the punishment due to revolt and
treason P It is thus that Jesus Christ will treat those who
remain indifferent to the insults heaped upon him, and refuse
to take up arms to fight against his enemies/'

To raise the hopes and the courage of the Christians, the
holy father terminated his exhortation to the faithful, by
saying, that *' the power of Mahomet drew towards its end ;
for that power was nothing but the beast of the Apocalypse,
which was not to extend beyond the number of six hunitred
years,* and already six centtiries were accomplished." These
last words of the pope were sustained by the popular pre-
dictions which were spread throughout the West, and
created a belief that the destruction of the Saracens was at
hand.t

As in preceding crusades, the sovereign pontiff promised
all w^ho should take arms against the infidels, the remission
of their sins and the especial protection of the Church.
Upon so important an occasion, the head of the Christians
laid open the treasures of divine mercjr to all the fia,ithful, in
proportion to their zeal and their gifts. All prelates and
ecclesiastics, as well as the inhabitauts of cities and coun-
tries, were invited to raise a certain number of warriors, and
support them for three years, according to their means. The
pope exhorted princes and nobles who would not take the
cross, to second the zeal of the Crusaders in every way in
their power; the head of the Church demanded of all the
faithful, prayers ; of the rich, alms and tributes ; of knights,
an example of courage ; of maritime cities, vessels ; he him-
self engaging to make the greatest sacrifices. Processions

♦ The year 1263 answered to the year 602 of the Hegyra.

t Montesquieu foretells the fate of Mahometanism ; not as Innocent
did, hut philosophically. He likewise predicts ** that France will fall hy
the sword ;" but whether the sword will be drawn by foreigners or her
own sons, he does not say. — ^Trans.

mSTOBT OF THE CBUBADX8. 205

were to be made everj month in all panBhes, in order to
obtain the benedictions of Heaven ; all the efforts, all the
TOWS, all the thoughts of Christians were to be directed
towards the object of the holy war. That nothing might
divert the faithiul from the expedition against the Saracens,
the H0I7 See revoked the indulgences granted to those who
abandoned their homes to ffo and fight against theAlbi-
geois in Languedoc, or the Moors on the oQier side of^the
Pyrenees.

It is plain that the sovereign pontiff neglected nothing
that could render the success of the holy enterprise more
certain. A modem historian justly remarks, that he em-
ployed every means, even such as were not likely to suc-
ceed ; for he wrote to the sultan of Damascus and Cairo,
inviting him to replace the holy city in the hands of the
servants of the true God. Innocent said in his letter, that
Qod had chosen the infidels as his instruments of vengeance;
that he had permitted Saladin to get possession of Jerusalem,
in order to punish the sins of the Christians ; but that the
day of deliverance was come, and that the Lord, disarmed
by the prayers of his people, was about to restore the heritage
of Jesus Christ. The sovereign pontiff counselled the sultan
to avoid the efinision of blood, and prevent the desolation of.
his empire.

This was not the first time that the head of the Church
had addressed prayers and warnings to the Mussulman
powers. Two years before he had written to the sultan of
Aleppo, in the hope of bringing him back to the way of
evangelical truth, and making him a faithful auxiliary of the
Christians. All these attempts, which ended in nothing,
clearly prove that the pope was perfectly imacquainted witn
the spint and character of the Mussuhnans. The sovereign
pontiff was not more fortunate when, in his letters, he &-
sired the patriarch of Jerusalem to use his utmost endea-
vours to arrest the progress of corruption and licentiousness
among the Christians of Palestine. The Christians of Syria
made no change in their morals, and aU the passions main-
tained their reign amount them; whilst the Mussulmans
fortified the holy city uiat was demanded of them, and
employed themselves in arming against the attacks of the
enemies of Islamism.

2M HIBTOBT OV TBM CB1T8JJ>BS.

Nothing could exceed the ardour and activity of the BOfve-
leign pontiff. Histoiy can scarcely follow him, whilst seek*
ing in every direction enemies against the Mussulmans;
appealing, by turns, to the patriarchs of Alexandria and An-
tioch, and to all the princes of Armenia and Syria. His
eye took in at one view both East and West. His letters
and ambassadors passed unceasingly throughout Europe.
He sent the convocation for the council and the bull of the
crusade into all the provinces of Christendom; and his
apostolic exhortations resounded from the shores of the
Danube and the Vistula to the banks of the Tigris and the
Thames.*

Commissaries were chosen to make the decisions of the
Holy See known to all Christians : their mission was to
preach the holy war, and reform manners ; to invoke at the
same time the knowledge of the learned and the courage of
warriors. In many provinces, the mission of preaching the
crusade was confided to the bishops ; Cardinal Peter Robert
de Cour9on, who was then in France, as legate of the pope,
received great powers from the Holy See ; and travelled
through the kingdom, exhorting Christians to take up the
cross and arms.

The cardinal de Courcon had been in his youth the dis-
ciple of Foulke of Neuilly, and had gained great celebrity
by his eloquence. The multitude flodced from all parts to
hear so distinguished a preacher of the Word, clothed in all
the splendour of Eomish power. ** The legate," says Fleury,
** had the power of regulating everything that was connected
with tournaments ; and, which will appear more singular,
the faculty of granting a certain indulgence to those who
were present at the sermons in which he preached the cru-

* OSbbon tays : ** Some deep reasonen have aiupected that the whola
eaterpnae. from the first lynod at Placeotia, was contrived and executed
by the policy of Rome. The aospicion is not founded either in matter or
fact. The successors of St. Peter appear to have followtd, rather than
guided the impulse of manners and prejudice." With great respect for
our iUustrious historian, I cannot quite sgree with him ; the popes were in
many instances jthe first to kindle the flame, and were always anxious to
keep it burning! In the part of our history now before us, it is plain it
would have gone out but for the great exertions of Innocent. The
crusades were a powerful engine in the hands of the pop«a | they could
not affoid to let them go to decay.— Taaws.

JUSTOBX OV 7HB CBUBAJ>X0. 807

pade." raithfal to the spirit of the religion of Jems Christ,
the cardioftl de €01119011 gave the cross to all Christiana
vho asked for it, without reflecting that women, children,
old men, the deaf, the blind, the lame, could not make war
against the Saracens ; or that an army could not be formed
as the Gospel composed the feast of the father of the family.
Thus this liberty of entering into the holy bands, accorded
without distinction or choice, onlv disgusted the barons and
knights, and cooled the ardour of the common soldiers.*

Among the orators whom the pope associated with the
cardinal de Courfon, one of the most remarkable was James
of Vitri, whom the Church had already placed in the rank
of its celebrated doctors. Whilst he preached the crusade
in the different provinces of France,t the feme of his virtues
and talents extended even to the East. The canons of
Ptolemais demanded him of the pope as their pastor and
bishop ; and the the wishes of the Christians of Palestine
were immediately granted. James of Vitri, after having
excited the warriors of the West to take arms, became
afterwards a witness of their laboiurs, and related them in a
history which has come down to our times.

The preaching of the holy war awakened everywhere the
eharity of the feithful. thilip Augustus gave up the
fortieth part of his territorial revenues towards the expenses
of the crusade, and a great number of nobles and prelates
followed his example.f As boxes had been placed in all

♦ Tlie cardinal de Couryon wa« an Engliahman by fanfily. He had
atudied at the Uoivcrsity of Paris, and from that was connected with
Lothaire, who became pope under the name of Innocent III. It ista
this friendship that Peter Robert de Cour^on owed his elevation. Ther©
is a very long notice of this person by the late M. du Theil, in Lh Noiien
det ManuteriiM, torn. vi. ,.. ,. ., »i *

t The continuator of WUliam of Tyre expresses himself Uius :— 11 ot

Toyast pour estre ^vesque d'Acre ; et sachiex s'il n'en east le commande-
ment I'apostolle, il ne I'enst mie re9U, mats toutes voies passa-t-il ontre-
»er, et fust ^yesque grand piece, et ^t mult de biens en la terre ; mais
mis lesigna-t-il, et retouma en France, et puis fat il cardinal de Kome«
As M. Michaud has placed this note all in the text, and has only given
t to show the cnrions mode of expression, I have followed his example.
•••TaANs.l
t PhiUp granted this fortieth, without referanoe to Hm foture mb§pie

E

a08 HIBTOBT 07 TUX OSrSADSfl.

churches to receive the alms of the charitable, these almd
brought considerable sums into the hands of the cardinal
de Courcon, who was accused of having appropriated to
himself toe gifts offered to Jesus Christ. These accusations
were the more eagerly received, from the legate having taken
upon him to exercise, in the name of the Holy See, an
authority which was displeasing to both the monarch and
his people. The cardinal, without the approbation of the
king, levied taxes, enrolled warriors, forgave debts, lavished
both rewards and punishments, and, in a word, usurped all
the prerogatives of sovereignly. The exercise of such an
unbounded power was the cause of trouble to all the pro-
vinces.* To prevent disorders, Philip Augustus thought it
necessary to lay down regulations which should lei^cifjr to
the general council, the individual position of the Crusaders,
and the exemptions and privileges they were to enjoy.

Whilst the cardinal de Cour^on continued to preach the
crusade throughout the provinces of France, the archbishop
of Canterbury was earnestly engaged in inciting the people
of England to take up arms against the infidels. Durine a
length of time, the kmgdom of England had been troubled
by the violent contentions of the commons, the barons, and
even the clergy, who had taken advantage of the exoom-
municationsf hiunched by the pope against King John, to

€OUtuHudin€f and upon condition that this volantary gift shonld be
employed wherever the king of England and the barons of the two king*
doms should think best. — See Le Ree. de» Ord, torn. i. p. 31.

* In the royal regulations of Philip Augustus, there is an order relative
to the debts contracted by the Crusaders as members of a commune. We
think our readers will not be displeased by the particulars of this order.
'* As to the Crusaders, members of certain communes, we order/' says the
king, ** that if the commune itself be charged with any levy, whether for
foot or horse soldiers (I'ost et la chevauch^e), the inclosure of the city,
the defence of the city in the event of a siege, or for any debt that is
due, and contracted beifbre they took the cross, tbey shall be held subject
to the payment of their proportion, equally with the other inhabitants who
have not taken the cross ; but as to the debts contracted after the period
at which they shall have taken the cross, the Crusaders shall remain
eiempt, not only until their approaching departure, but until their
return." — See the Recueil det Ordormancei, Dachefy^ and the sath vol.
of the Notiett det Manuteritt, diaertation d» M, du Tkeil wr Robert
de Qnayon,

t In the charter granted by King John, that monardi expraiily atji

HISTOST OF TSI CBVBAOES. 209

obtain a confinnation of tbeir liberties. The English mo-
narch, when subscribing the conditions that had been dictated
to him, had yielded much more to necessity and force, than
to his own inclinations ; he wished earnestly to retract what
he had granted, and in order to place his crown under the
protection of the Church, he took the cross, and swore to go
and fight against the Saracens. The sovereign pontiff placed
faith in the submission and promises of the king of England ;
and after havinc; preached a crusade against this prince,
whom he accused of being an enemy of the Church, ne em-
ployed the whole authority of the Holy See, and all the
thunders of religion in his defence.

King John had no other motive in taking the cross but to
deceive the pope, and obtain the protection of the Church ;
the sign of the Crusaders was assumed by him only as a
means of preserving his power ; a false and deceitful policy,
which was soon unmasked, and, without doubt, assisted
much in diminishing the public enthusiasm for the holy war.
The barons of England, in their turn excommunicated by
the pope, employed themselves in defending their liberties,
and paid no attention to the holy orators who called upon
them to embark for Asia.

The empire of Germany was not less disturbed than the
kingdom of England. Otho of Saxony, after having been,
dunng ten years, the object of all the predilections of the
Holy See, drew upon hinfself all at once the implacable
hatred of Innocent, by putting forth some claims to certain
domains of the Church, and to the kingdom of Naples and
Sicily. Not only was he himself excommunicated, but the
cities even that remained faithful to him were placed under
an interdict. The sovereign pontiff opposed Frederick II.,
son of Henry VI., to Otho, in the same manner as he had
opposed Otho to Philip of Swabia. Germany and Italy
were immediately in a state of agitation and trouble.
Frederick, who was crowned king of the Bomans at Aix la
Chapelle, took the cross, from a sentiment of gratitude, and
with the hope of securing the support of the Holy See in
ascending the imperial throne.

Otho meanwhile neglected no means of preserving the

that he grurts Uqs charter by the advice ef the arohbiflhop of Canterbury,
of leveii bishops, and the pope's nnncio.

Vol. II.— 10

210 HISTOKT 07 THE CBVSADX8.

empire, and resisting the views and undertakings of the
court of Home. He made war against the pope, and allied
himself with all the enemies of Philip Augustus, who had
declared for Prederick. A formidable league, composed of
the king of England and thfe counts of Flanders, Holland,
and Boulogne, threatened France with an invasion. The
capital and provinces of that kingdom were alreadjr shared
among the leaders of this league, when Philip gained the
celebrated battle of Bouvines. This memorable victory*
secured the independence and honour of the French mo-
narchy, and restored peace to Europe. Otho, conquered,
lost his allies, and sunk beneath the thunders of the
Church.

The period was now arrived at which the council sum-
moned by the pone was to meet. From all parts of Europe,
ecclesiastics, nobles, princes, and the ambassadors of princes,
repaired to the capital of the Christian world. The deputies
from Antioch ancf Alexandria, with the patriarchs of Con-
stantinople and Jerusalem, came to Eome to implore the
support of the nations of Christendom ; the ambassadors of
Frederick, Philip Augustus, and the kings of England and
Hungary, in the names of their sovereigns, came to take
their places in the council. This assembly, whi<?h repre-
sented the universal Church, and in whidi were nearly five
hundred bishops and archbishops, and more than a hundred
abbots and prelates from all the provinces of the East and
"West, took place in the church of the Lateran,t and was
presided over by the sovereign pontiff. Innocent opened
the council by a sermon, in which he deplored the errors of
his age and the misfortunes of the Church. After having
exhorted the clergy and the faithful, to sanctify by their
morals, the measures he was about to take against heretics
and the Saracens, he represented Jerusalem as clothed in

* TbU yictoryof BoaTines, which had such happy resolts for the French
monarchy, will be worthily celebrated in the poem of PAiiip Aufftute, by
M. Perceval de Grand-maison : we cannot sufficiently praiM our poets
who take their subjects from the greatest periods of our annals.

t Upon the holding of this council, the Chronicle of Opaberg, tho
monk Godfrey, Matthew Paris, Albert Stadensis, the Chronicle of Fassano,
and particularly the collection of the couocils, may be consulted. Fleury
enters into very copious detaila.^See the sixteenth vol. of the Hiiinrt
Beci^riattique,

UISTOUT Of THE CBUSADS8. 211

mouming, exhibiting the chains of her captivitj, and calling
upon all the prophets to lend their voices to reach the hearts
of the Christians.

" Oh! ye," said Jerusalem by the mouth of the pontiff, "who
pass along the public roads, behold, and see if ye have ever
witnessed grief like mine. Hasten then all, O ye that love
me, to deliver me from the depth of mv miseries ! I, who
was the queen of all nations, am now subjected to a tribute ;
I, who was formerly filled with people, am now left deso-
late and almost alone ! The roads of Sion mourn, because
no one comes to my solemnities. My enemies have crushed
down my head ; all my sacred places are profaned ; the Holy
Sepulchre, once so splendid, is covered with disgrace ; there,
where of late the Son of God was adored, worship is now
offered up to the son of perdition and hell. The children
of the stranger load me with outrages, and, pointing to the
cross of Jesus, say to me. Thou hut placed thy trust in vile
wood ; we shall see whether this wood can save thee in the
hour of danger. ^^*

Innocent after having thus made the mourning Jerusalem
eloquent, conjured the faithful to take pity on her misfor-
tunes, and arm for her deliverance. He terminated his ex-
hortation by these words, which breathe both his grief and
his ardent zeal : — " My beloved brethren, I give myself up
entirely to you ; if you think it best, I promise to go in
person with the kings, princes, and nations ; you shall see if,
by my cries and my prayers, I shall be able to excite them
to fight for the Lord, to avenge the insults of the crucified,
whom our sins have banished from the land wetted with his
blood, and sanctified with the mystery of our redemption."

The discourse of the pontifi' was listened to in religious
silence; but as Innocent spoke of several objects at the
same time, and as his oratory was full of allegoties, he did not
at all succeed in awakening the enthusiasm of the assembly.
The fathers of the council appeared to be not less affected
by the abuses introduced into the Church, than by the re-
verses of the Christians of the East ; in the first place the
assembly employed itself in endeavouring to find means to

* The discourse of the pope is preseired in its entirety in the ooliection
oT the ooaaoUi.— e«e tiia fourth Coaacfl of the Lateraa.

212 HISTOBT or THE. OBTTSABSB.

reform ecclesiastical discipline, and check the progress of
heresy.

In a declaration of faith, the council explained the doc-
trine of Christians, and recalled to their minds the sym-
bol of evangelical belief. They opposed truth to error,
persuasion to violence, and the virtues of the G-ospel to the
passions of sectarians and innovators : happy would it then
have been for the Christian church, if the pope had followed
this example of moderation ; and if, whilst defending the
rights of religion, he had not forgotten the rights of sove-
reigns and humanity. By an apostolic decree, proclaimed
amidst the council, Innocent deposed the count of Thou-
louse, who was considered the protector of heresy, and gave
his states to Simon de Montfort, who had fought again^, or
rather slaughtered the Albigeois.

Innocent could not pardon the count of Thoulouse for
having provoked a war which had agitated Christendom, and
suspended the execution of his designs for the Eastern cru-
sade. The violent policy of the ^sovereign pontiff aimed at
striking terror into all heretics, and encouraging Christians
to arm for the cause of Jesus Christ and that of his vicar
upon earth.

After having condemned the new errors, and pronounced
the anathemas of the Church against all who strayed from
the way of the. faith, the pontiff and the fathers of the
council gave their attention to the Christians of the East,
and the means of promptly succouring the Holy Land. All
the dispositions expressed in the bull of convocation were
confirmed ; it was decreed that all ecclesiastics should pay
the twentieth of their revenues towards the expenses of the
crusade ; that the pope and the cardinals should pay the
tenth of theirs, ana that there should be a truce of four
years among all Christian princes. The council launched
the thunders of excommunication against all princes that
should molest the march of pilgrims, and against all that
should furnish infidels with provisions or arms : the sove-
reign pontiff promised to dii'ect the preparations for the
war, to contribute three thousand silver marks, and to sup-
ply, at his own expense, several vessels for the transport of
the Crusaders.

The decisions of the council and the speeches of the pop^

HIBTOBT OF THE OBVSADEB. 213

made a profound impresBion upon the minds of the western
Christians. All the preachers of the holy war were formally
directed to recall the faithful to a sense of penitence, and
to prohibit dances, tournaments, and public sports ; to re-
form morals and to revive in all hearts the love of religion
and virtue. They were commanded, after the example of
the sovereign pontiff, to make the complaints of Jerusalem
resound in the palaces of princes ; and to earnestly solicit
monarchs and nobles to assume the cross, so that the people
might be induced to do so likewise.

The decrees concerning the holy wars were published in all
the churches of the "West ; in several provinces, particularly
in the north of Europe, the prodigies and miraculous appa-
ritions that had excited enthusiasm at the period of the ^nt
crusades, again became common ; luminous crosses appeared
in the heavens, and made the inhabitants of Cologne and
the cities in the vicinity of the Ehine believe that God
favoured the holy enterprise, and that the divine power pro-
mised the defeat and rum of the infidels to the arms of the
Crusaders.

The orators redoubled their ardour and zeal to engage
the faithful to take a part in the holy war. From the
pulpits imprecations were poured forth against the Saracens,
always accompanied by a repetition of the words of Christ :
" I am come to establish war." The eloquence of prelat^es,
bishops, and pastors had no other aim than summoning all
Christian warriors to arms. The voices of preachers were
not the only trumpet-calls ; poetry herself, who had but re-
cently revived in the southern provinces of France, chose
the holy expeditions as the themes of her songs ; and the
profane muse of the troubadours mingled their notes with
the animated words of the sacred orators. The Pierres
d'Auvergne, the Ponces de Capdeuil, the Folquets de
Eomano, ceased to sing the love of ladies and the courtesy
of knights, to celebrate in their verses, the sufferings of
Clirist and the captivity of Jerusalem. " The times are
come," said they, " in which it will be seen who are the men
worthy of serving the Eternal. God now calls upon the
valiant and chivalrous ; they shall be his soldiers for ever,
who, knowing how to suffer for their faith, and fight for God,
shall prove themselves frank, generous, loyal, and brave ; let

214 UISTOBT OF THB CBITSADSB.

the base lovers of life or seekers for gold remain behind ;
Grod now only calls upon the good and brave. It is his will
that his faithful ^servants should secure salvation bv noble
feats of arms ; and that glory obtained in fight should open
to them the gates of heaven."*

One of the minstrels of the holy war celebrates in his
verses the seal, the prudence, and courage of the head of the
Church; and to induce the faithful to assume the cross,
sings : *' We have a sure and valorous guide, the sovereign
fontiff Innocent^

It then began to be hoped that the father of the Chris-
tians would himself lead the Crusaders, and sanctify the
Asiatic expedition by his presence. The pope, in the coun-
cil of the Lateran, had expressed a desure to assume the
cross, and to go in person to take possession of the heritage
of Christ ; but the state of Europe, the progress of heresy,
and, doubtless, also, the advice of the bishops and cardinals,
prevented the accomplishment of his design.

As germs of dissension still subsisted between several
European states, these discords might be prejudicial to the
success of the holy war ; and the pope sent forth emissaries
to act as angels of peace ; he himself repairing to Tuscany,
to appease the quarrels that had broken out between the
Pisans and Genoese. His words soothed down all angry
passions ; at his voice the most implacable enemies swore to
forget their disputes, and unite to combat against the Sara-
cens. His most ardent wishes appeared about to be fulfilled,
and the whole West, obedient to his sovereign will, was
ready to precipitate itself upon Asia, when he fell suddenly
ill, and died, leaving to his successors the care and honour
of finishing so great an enterprise.

Like all men who have exercised great power amidst poli-
tical tempests, Innocent, after his death, was, by turns,
praised and blamed with all the exaggeration of love and
hatred. Some said he had been summoned to the heavenly
Jerusalem, as God wished to reward his zeal for the deliver-
ance of the holy places ; whilst others had recourse to mira-

* M. Raynourd, who has made profound resrarches into the language
and poetry of the troubadoore, communicated to us this piece of Pierre of
AuTergne, with several others whidi appear to us of great interest, and
which we will insert in our Appendix.

HI8T0BT 07 THE CBUSABES. 316

eulouB apparitions, and made saints speak in condemnation
of his memory ; sometimes he was seen pursued by a dragon,
whose pui*pose was to inflict justice upon him; and at
others he appeared surrounded by the flames of purgatory.
Europe had oeen in a constant state of trou'ble during his
pontificate ; there was scarcely a kingdom upon which the
wrath of the pontiff had not been poured out ; and so many
excesses, so many misfortunes had embittered men^s minds,
that it was natural they should take a pleasure in believing
that the vicar of Christ upon earth was expiating in another
life the crimes of this. Innocent, nevertheless was irre-

§ reachable in his manners ; ^t first he had evinced some
egree of moderation ; he loved truth and justice ; but the
unhappy condition of the Church, the obstacles of all kinds
which ne met with in his spiritual * government, irritated
his character, and drove him to the excesses of a violent
policy ; at length, preserving no propriety or self-command,
he burst forth with the ever-memorable and reprehensible
words : " Swardy stoord, spring from the 9cahhard, and gharpen
ihvself to kiU"f As he had undertaken far too much, he
len; serious embarrassments to those who might assume the
reins of power after him ; and such was the situation in
which his policy had placed the Holy See, that his succes-
sors were obliged to follow up his maxims-, and complete both
the good and the evil he had begun. From this period, the
history of the crusades will be incessantly interrupted by
the quarrels of popes and princes, and we shall follow the
j)ilgnms to the Holy Land amidst the clashing of the thun-
ders launched by the various heads of the Church.

Censius Savelli, cardinal of St. Lucia^ was chosen by the
conclave to succeed Innocent, and governed the Church
under the name of Honorius III. On the day after his

* In a dissertation upon the cardinal de Coar9on, M. du Tbeil has
undertaken to make the apology of Innocent III. We have the greatest
respect for this savant; hut he evinces too strong an inclination to justify
Innocent in all respects; and an application of the common proverhi
** He who proves too much proves nothing^** is quite in place here.

t Innocent pronounced these words against Louis, the son of Philip
Augustus, whom he had induced to make war against tbe king of England ;
and whom he afterwards wished to excommunicate, because this prinoo
persisted in continuing a war begun by the commands and advice of the
Holy See.

216 HI8T0ET 07 THX CBTTSADES.

coronation, the new pope nn^te to the king of Jerusalem, to
announce his elevation, and to revive the hopes of the Chiis-
tians of Syria. " Let not the death of Innocent," said he,
" depress your courage ; although I am far from being his
eaual in merit, I will show the same zeal for the deliverance
of the Holy Land ; and when the season shall arrive, will do
everything in my power to assist you." A pontifical letter,
addressed to all bishops, exhorted them to continue to
preach the crusade.

In order to secure success to the Oriental expedition.
Innocent had first endeavoured to re-establish peace in
Europe; and certainly the 'necessity in which the popes
found themselves at such times, to promote concord among
nations, was one of the greatest benefits of the holy wars.
Honorius followed the example of his predecessor, and was
desirous of calming all discords, even such as owed their
origin to the pretensions of the Eomish see. Louis VIII.,
son of Philip Augustus, at the solicitation of the pontifi[^ had
taken arms against England, and was not willing to renounce
the project of invading a kingdom so long subjected to the
anger of the Church. The pope even stooped to supplica-
tions to disarm the redouotable enemy of the kmg of
England. He hoped that England and France, after having
suspended their hostilities, would unite their efibrts for the
dehverance of the holy places ; but these hopes were never
accomplished. Henry III. ascended the throne of England
after the death of John, and took the cross to secure the
favour of the sovereign pontiff; but he had no idea of
quitting his kingdom. The king of France, constantly
occupied with the war against the Albigeois, and perhaps
also with the secret designs of his ambition, satisfied himself
with expressing the greatest respect for the authority of the
Holy See, but took no part in the crusade.*

* I have observed more than once, that our author ia so absorbed in
the history he has undertaken, that he is somewhat loose in his remarks
upon that of the nations nearest to him . 1 1 was not likely that Henry III.,
a boy of nine years old, should take the cross, or that the prudent Pem-
broke and bis other counsellors would allow the forces of an unsettled
kingdom to be wasted upon such a scheme. The king of France again,
who he says was constantly occupied in the war against the Albigeois,
had absolutely nothing to do with that war. The southern provinces
subjected to this calamity were fiefs of the crown of Axagon, and did not

HIBTOBT OF THS CBITSADES. 217

Most of the bishops and prelates of tbe kingdom, whom
the sovereign pontiff had entreated to present an example of
devotedness, exhibited much greater eagerness and zeal on
this occasion than the barons and knights ; manj of them
took the cross, and prepared to set out for the East. Frede-
rick, who owed the miperial crown to the protection of the
Cliurch, renewed, in two solemn assemblies, his oath to make
war against the Saracens. The example and promises of
the emperor, whatever doubt might be entertained of their
sincerity, had a powerful effect over the princes and people
of Germany. The inhabitants of the banks of the lihine,
those of Fnesland, Bavaria, Saxony, and Norway ^ the dukes
of Austria, Moravia, Brabant, and Lemburg ; the counts of
Juliers, Holland, De Wit, and Loo ; with the archbishop of
Mayence and the bishops of Bamberg, Passau, Strasburg,
. Munster, and Utrecht, emulatively ranged themselves under
the banners of the cross, and prepared to quit the West.

Among the princes who took the oath to fight against the
Mussulmans, was Andrew II., king of Hungary. Bela, the
father of the Hungarian monarch, had made a vow to go to
the Holy Land ; but not having been able to undertake the
pilgrimage, he had, on his death-bed, required his son to
accomplish his oath. Andrew, afler having taken the cross,
was for a lon^ time detained in his states by the troubles to
which his ambition had given birth, and which he had great
difficulty in suppressing. Gertrude, whom he had married
before the fifth crusade, made enemies of the whole court
and nobility by her pride and her intrigues. This imperious
princess* committed such extraordinary insults against the
magnates of the kingdom, and inspired them with so violent
a hatred, that they formed conspiracies against her life, and

belong at that time to France in any way. Whilst these wan were raging,
Philip was pradently extending his dominions to the north and north-east.
— ^Tkans.

• Boniinius, the historian of Hungary, wjb that Gertmde gave np the
wife of Banc, the chancellor of the kingdom, to the criminal desires of
her brother. He adds that Banc killed tbe queen to avenge this injury ;
but this assertion is contradicted by all historians. The same author
■ays that the wife of Andrew was assassinated during his voyage to the
Holy Land ; but this assertion is as false as the first. Gertrude was
assassinated on the 18th of September, 1213.~See Palma, NotUia Rer,
Htmg. U i.

10»

2 IS HISTOBY 07 THS CBUSADSf.

introduced murderers eyen into her palace. Disorders and
misfortunes without number followed these crimes, the
greatest of which, doubtless, was the impunity of the guHtj.

In such circumstances policy would oertainly haye pointed
it out to the king of Hungary, as his duty, to remain in his
oym. states ; but the spectacle of so many unpunished crimes,
without doubt, alarmed his wealcness, and strengthened his
desire of getting at a distance from a court filled with his
enemies. Like his mother, the widow of Bela,* he expected
to find in the places consecrated by the sufferings of Christ,
an asylum agamst the griefs which beset his life ; the Hun-
garian monarch might likewise think that the holy pilgrimage
would make him more respected by his subjects, and that
the Church, ever armed in lavour of royal crusaders, would
defend the rights of his crown better than he himself could.
He resolved at length to perform the vow he had made,
before his dying father, and earnestly set about preparations
for his departure for Syria.

Andrew then reigned over a vast kingdom, — Hungary,
Dalmatia, Croatia, Bosnia, Galicia, and the province of
Lodomira obeyed his laws, and paid him tnbute; and
throug:hout all these provinces, so lately enemies to the
Christians, the crusades were preached. Hordes wandering
amidst forests, listened to the complaints of Sion, and swore
to fight against the infidels. Among the nations of Hun-
gary, who, a century before, had been the terror of the pil-
grim companions of Peter the Hermit, a crowd of warriors
eagerly took the cross, and promised to follow their monarch
to the Holy Land.

Vessels and fleets for the transport of the Crusaders were
equipped in all the ports of the Baltic, the ocean, and the
Mcaiterranean ; and yet, at the very same time, a crusade
was being preached against the inhabitants of Prussia, who
still remained in the darkness of idolatry. Poland, Saxony,
Korway, and Livonia armed their warriors to overthrow the
idols of paganism on the banks of the Oder and the Vistula,
whilst the other nations of the "West were preparing to make
war against the Saracens in the plains of Judroa and Syria.

The still savage people of Prussia, separated by their

* Margaerite, qaeeo of Hangarj, let out for Phlestim after the dmXh
of Bela, her husband. — See the niath book of this History.

HlflTOBT OT THE CBVSADES. 219

religion and their customs from the other inhabitants of
Europe, presented in the centre of Christendom, in the
thirteenth century, a living picture of ancient paganism, and
of the superstitions of the old nations of the North. Their
character and their manners are worthy of iixing the atten-
tion of both the historian and his readers, fatigued, perhaps,
by the constant repetition of the preaching of holy wars,
and the distant expeditions of the Crusaders.

Much discussion has taken place concerning the origin of
the ancient inhabitants of Prussia, and we have nothing on
this head but conjectures and systems. The Prussians were,
in person, like the Gennans;* blue eyes, a spirited and
lively look, ruddy cheeks, a lofly stature, a robust form, and
light hair : this resemblance to the Germans was produced
by climate, and not by the mixture of the nations ; the inha-
bitants of Prussia had more affinity with the Lithuanians,
whose language they spoke, and whom they imitated in their
dress. They lived by the chase, fishing, and the flesh of
their flocks; agriculture was not unknown to them; their
mares furnished them with milk, their sheep with wool, their
bees with honey ; in commercial transactions they had very
little to do with money : to prepare flax and leather, to split
stones, to sharpen their arms, and to fashion yellow amber,
constituted the whole of their industry. They marked time
hj knots tied in thongs, and the hours by the words twilight^
Itffht, daum^ sunrise, evening, the first sleep, &c. The
appearance of the Pleiades durected them in their labours.

The months of the year bore the names of the productions
of the earth, and of the objects presented to their eyes by

* The Chronicle of Peter Darburg, a priest of the Teutonic order, may
be consulted on the manners and religion of the ancient Prnssians. This
chronicle, whoM pai^ose is to describe the conquests of the Teutonio
knights, contains seTeral historical dissertations, which appear to us to
have great merit ; the most curious are, Diuerimiio de Diu Veterum
Pru»9orum ; Dittertatio de Saeerdoiilnu Veterum Prusnorutn ; Dittertatio
de CuiiuDeorum, de Nuptiit^ de Funeributt de Loci* Divino Culiui dicatis,
&c. &c. A Latin dissertation, De Moribug Tartarorum, lAthuanormm,
ei Motehorumt may likewise be consulted. This work contains curiooa
details upon the worship and manners of Lithuania and Samogitia, which
bore a strong resemblance to the worship and manners of the Prussians.
M. Kotzbue, in his history of the Teutonic knights, has thrown great
Ii<$hc upon the origin of the legislation, and the customs and religion "of
I lie ancient inhabitants of Prussia.

220 HISTOBT OF THE GBUBADES.

each season ; they knew the month of crows, the month of
pigeons, that of cuckoos, of the green birch-trees, of the
finden-trees, of cpm, of the departure of the birds, of the
fall of leaves, &c. Wars, the conflagrations of great forests,
hurricanes, and inundations, formed the principal epochs of
their history.

The people dwelt in huts built of earth, the rich in houses
constructed of oak timber ; there was not a city in Prussia.
Some strong castles appeared upon the hills. This nation,
though savage, recogmsed princes and nobles ; he who had
conquered enemies, and he who excelled in taming horses,
attained nobility. The lords held the right of life and death
over their vassals ; the Prussians made no wars for the pur-
pose of conquering an enemy's coimtry, but solely to defend
their homes and their &;ods. Their arms consisted of the
lance and the javelin, which they handled with much skill.
The warriors named their chief, who was blessed by the high
priest ; before going to battle, the Prussians selected one of
their prisoners of war, fastened him to a tree, and transfixed
him "with arrows.* They believed in omens ; the eagle, the
white pigeon, the crow, the stork, the bustard, promised
victory ; the stag, the wolf, the lynx, the mouse, the sight of
a sick person, or even of an old woman, announced defeats
or reverses ; when presenting their hand, they offered peace ;
when swearing to treaties, they placed one hand upon their
breast and the other upon the sacred oak. When victorious,
they tried their prisoners of war, and the most distinguished
among them expired at the stake, — a sacrifice to the gods of
the country.

Amidst all their barbarous customs, the Prussians had
the reputation of respecting the laws of hospitality. The
stranger and the shipwrecked mariner were sure to find an
asylum and succour among them ; intrepid in war, simple
and mild in peace, grateful but vindictive, respecting misror-

* A letter from Pope Honorius to the archbishop of Maience, says that
there is in Prussia a nation of barbarians, of whom it is said that they kill
all the girls but one bom of each mother; that they prostitute their
daughters and wiTes, immolate captives to their gods, and bathe their
•words and lances in the blood of these victims, to bring them success in
battle. — See Raynal, 1218. We refer our readers to our Appendix, for
■ome detaiL^ upon the manners of the Prussians.

HISTOBY 07 TH£ CBUSASES. 221

tunc, tliey had more virtues than vices, and were onlr
comipted bj the excess of their superstition.

The Prussians believed in another life ; thej called hell,
IPeckla ; chains, thick darkness, and fetid waters constituted
the punishment of*the wicked. In the Elysian fields, which
they called Bopu9, beautiful women, banquets, delicious
drink, dances, soft couches, and fine clothes were the rewards
of virtue.

In a place called Remove^ arose a flourishing oak, which
had witnessed the passage of a hundred generations, whose
colossal trunk contained three images of their principal gods ;
the foliage daily dripped with the blood of immolatea victims;
there the high priest had established his abode, and there
administered justice. The priests alone ventured to approach
this holy place ; the guilty slunk from it trembling. Per'
kunas, the god of thunder and fire, was the first among the
deities of the Prussians ; he had the countenance of an
angry man, his beard was curled, and his head was siuroimded
with flames. The people called claps of thunder, the march
or steps of Perkunas. iN'ear the grove of Eemove, on the
banks of a 8ulphiu*eous spring, an eternal fire burned in
honour of the god of thunder.

Near Perkunas, Foirimptu appeared, in the form of a
young man, wearing a crown of wheat-cars ; he was adored
as the god of waters and rivers ; he preserved mankind
from the scourge of war, and presided over the pleasures of
peace. By a strange contradiction, they offered up to this
pacific divinity, the blood of animals, and that of the captives
slaughtered at the foot of the oak ; sometimes children were
sacrificed to him ; the priests consecrated the serpent to him,
as eymbplical of fortime.

Beneath the shade of the sacred tree, was still another
idol, called Fi/collos, the god of the dead ; he bore the form
of an old man, with grey hair, hollow eyes, and a pale coun-
tenance, his head enfolded in a shroud ; his altars were heaps
of human bones ; the infernal deities were obedient to his
laws ; he inspired both grief and terror.

A fourth divinity, Curko, whose image ornamented the
branches of the oak of Eemove, furnished mankind with the
necessaries of life. Every year, at autumnal seed-time, his
image was renewed ; it consisted of a goat-skin, elevated

222 HISTORY OF THE CBVSADSS.

upon a pole eigbt feet high, crowned with blades of com ;
the priest sacrSced upon a stone, honey, milk, and the fruits
of the earth, whilst the youth of both' sexes formed a circle
round the idol.

The Prussians celebrated several other festivals during
ppring and summer, in honour of the same god ; at the
spring festival, which took place on the 22Dd of March,
they addressed Curko in these words : " It is thou who hast
chased away winter, and brought fair and fine days back to
us ; by thee the gardens and the fields rebloom ; by thee
the forests and the woods resume their verdure." The in-
habitants of Prussia had a crowd of other gods, whom they
invoked for their fiocks, their bees, the forests, the waters,
harvest, commerce, the peace of fiunilies, and conjugal hap-
piness ; a divinity with a hundred eyes watched over the
threshold of houses ; one god guarded the yard, another the
stable ; the hunter heard the spirit of the forest howl amidst
the tree-tops ; the mariner recommended himself to the god
of the sea. Laimele was invoked by women in labour, and
spun the fives of mankind. Tutelary divinities arrested the
progress of conflagrations, caused the sap of the birch-trees
to flow, guarded roads, and awakened workmen and labourers
before the dawn of day. The air, the earth, the waters were
peopled bv gnomes or little gods, and with ghosts and
goblins, which they called arvant. It was believed by all
that the oak was a tree dear to the gods, and that its shade
oifered an asylum a^inst the violeuce of men or the assaults
of destiny. In addition to the oak of Bemov^, the Prussians
had several other trees of the same kind, which they con-
sidered the sanctuaries of their divinities. They consecrated
also linden-trees, firs, maples, and even whole forests ; they
held in reverence fountains, lakes, and mountains ; they
adored serpents, owls, storks, and other animals : in short,
in the countries inhabited by the Prussians, all nature was
filled with divinities, and, up to the fourteenth century, it
might be said of a European nation, as Bossuet saioi of
ancient paganism, " Everything there was god^ except God
himselfr

A long time before the crusades, St.. Adalbert had left his
native countiy, Bohemia, to penetrate into the forests of
Prussia, and endeavour to convert the Prussians to Chris-

HiaTOBT OF THS CBU8ADE8. 22$

tianity ; but his eloquence, his moderation, or bis cbarify,
could not disarm the fury of tbe priests of Perkunas.
Adalbert died, pierced with arrows, and received the palm
of martyrdom; other missionaries shared the same fate;
their blood arose against their murderers, and the report of
their death, together with an account of the cruelties of a '
barbarous people, everywhere cried aloud upon the Christians
of the North for vengeance. The neighbouring nations
were constantly entertaining the resolution to take arms
against the idolaters of PrusHia. An abbot of the monastery
of Oliva, more able, and still further, more fortunate than
his predecessors, undertook the conversion of the pagans of
the Oder and the Vistula, and succeeded, with the assistance
of the Holy See, in getting up a crusade against the wor-
shippers of fals6 gods ; a great number of Christians took
the cross, at the summons of the pope, who promised them
eternal life if they fell in fight, and lands and treasures if
they triumphed over the enemies of Christ. The knights of
Christ and the knights of the sword, instituted to subdue
the pagans of Livonia, with the Teutonic knights, who in^
Palestine rivalled in power and glory the two other orders
of the Temple and the Hospital, at the first signal flocked to
the standards of the army assembled to invade Prussia, and
convert its inhabitants : this war lasted more than two cen-
turies. In this sanguinary struggle, if the Christian religion
sometimes inspired its combatants with its virtues, the leaders
of this long crusade were much more frequently influenced
by vengeance, ambition, and avarice. The knights of the
Teutonic order, whose bravery almost always amounted to
heroism, remained masters of the country conquered by their
arms. These victorious monks never edified the people they
subdued, either by their moderation or their charity ; and
were often accused before the tribunal of the head of the
Church, of having converted the Prussians, not to make them
servants of Christ, but to increase the number of their o\N'n
subjects aijd slaves.

We have only spoken of the» people of Prussia, and of the
wars made against them, to exhibit to our readers a nation
and customs almost unknown to modem scholars even ; and
to show how far ambition and a thirst of conquest was able
to abuse the spirit of the crusades : we hasten to return to

224 HISTOBT 07 THB CBVSADSS.

tbe expedition that was being prepared against the
Saracens.

Germany considered Frederick II. as the leader of the
war about to be made in Asia ; but the new emperor, seated
on a throne for a long time shaken by civil wars, dreading
the enterprises of the Italian republics, and perhaps those
of the popes their protectors, thought it prudent to defer
his departure for Palestine.

The zeal of the Crusaders, however, did not abate, and in
their impatience they turned their eyes towards the king of
Hungary to take the command in the holy war. Andrew,
accompanied by the duke of Bavaria, the duke of Austria^
and the Grerman nobles who had taken the cross, set out for
the East, at the head of a numerous army, and repaired to
Spalatro, where Vessels from Venice, Zara, Ahcona, and other
cities of the Adriatic, awaited the Crusaders, to transport
them into Palestine.

In all the countries through which he marched, the king
of Hungary was followed hj the benedictions of the people.
When he approached the city of Spalatro, the inhabitants
and the clergy came out in procession to meet him, and con-
ducted him to their principal church, where all the faithful
were assembled to call down the mercy of Heaven upon the
Christian warriors. A few days after, the fleet of the Cru-
saders left the port* of Spalatro, and set sail for the island
of Cyprus, at which place were met the deputies of the king
and the patriarch of Jerusalem, of the orders of the Temple
$ and St. John, and of the Teutonic knights.

A crowd of Crusaders, who had embarked at Brindisi, at
Cknoa, and at Marseilles, preceded the king of Hungary and
his army. Lusignan, king of Cyprus, and the greater part
of his barons, influenced by the example of so many illus-
trious princes, took the cross, and promised to follow them
into the Holy Land. All the Crusaders embarked together
at the port of Lemisso, and landed in triumph at Ptolemais.

* Le Pere Maimbourg and most historians make the king of Hangary
embark at Venice ^ but they are Mnacquainted with the Chronicle of
Thomas, deacon of Spalatro, who furnishes the fullest details of the passage
of Andrew II. into the Holy Land, and his return to his dominions. This
Chronicle, it is true, contains many doubtful things concerning the crusade,
and the kingdom of Hungary on the return of Andrew ; but it is quite
wt-rthy of confidence in all that passed at Spalatro.

niBTOBT OF THE CSir8iJ>£8. 225

An Arabian historian says, that since the time of Saladin
the Christians had never had so numerous an army in Syria.*
Thanks to Heaven were offered up in all the churches, for
the powerful aid it had sent to the Holy Land ; but the joy
of the Christians of Palestine was auickly troubled by the
serious difficulty in which they founa themselves to procure
provisions for such a multitude of pilgrims.

This year (1217) had been barren throughout the richest
countries of Syria ;t and the vessels from the West had
only been laden with machines of war, arms, and baggage.
Deficiency of food was soon felt among the Crusaders, and
led the soldiers to license and robbery ; the Bavarians com-
mitted the greatest disorders; pillaging houses and monas-
teries, and devastating the neighoounng country ; the leaders
had no other means of reestablishing order and peace in the
arm/, but by giving the signal for war against the Saracens ;
and, to save the lands and dwellings of the Christians, they
proposed to their soldiers to ravage the cities and territories
of the infidels.

The whole army, con^manded by the kinss of Jerusalem,
Cyprus, and Hungaij, encamped on the banks of the torrent
of Cison. The patriarch of the holy city, in order to strike
the imagination of the Crusaders, and prevent their for-
getting the object of their enterprise, repaired to the camp,
bringing with him a portion of the wood of the true cross,
which he pretended to have been saved at the battle of
Tiberias. The kings and princes came out, barefooted, to
meet him, and received with respect the sign of redemption.
This ceremony rekindled the zeal and enthusiasm of the
Crusaders, whose ardent desire now was to fight for Christ.

* '*Tfai^ year/' 614 of the Hegyra, says the continnatorof Tabary, ** the
Franks received sacooun by sea from Rome the great, and other countries
of the Franks, bQth west and north. It was the chief of Rome, a prelate
much revered among the Christians, who directed them ; he sent troops
from his own country under various commanders, and he ordered the other
Frank kings either to march in person or send their troops."

t A letter from the master of the soldiers of the Temple, addressed to
Honorius III., enters into several details respecting the situation of the
Holy Land at this period. This letter speaks of the scarcity experienced
in Syria ; the master of the Templars adds, that they could procure no
horses. *' ForXhis reason,*' said he to the pope, "exhort all who have
taken the cross, or intend to take it, to ramish themselves with such
things as they cannot procure here."

236 HISTOBY OF THE OBtJaABXS.

The army crossed the torrent, and advanced towards the
valley of Jesrael, between Mount Hermon and Mount
Qelboe, without meeting an enemy. The leaders and sol-
diers bathed in the Jordan, and passed over the plain of
Jericho, and along the shores of the great lake of G«nesareth. '
The Christian army marched singing spiritual songs ; religion
and its remembrances had restored discipline and peace
among them. Every obje€t and place they beheld around
them filled them with a pious veneration for the Holy Land.
In this campaign, which was a true pilgrimage, they made a
great number of prisoners without fighting a battle, and re-
turned to Ptolemais loaded with booty.

At the period of this crusade, Malek-Adel no longer
reigned over either Syria or Egypt. After having mounted
the throne of Saladin by injustice and violence, he had de-
scended from it voluntarily ; the conqueror of all obstacles,
and having no longer a wish to form, he became sensible of
the emptiness of human grandeur, and gave up the reins of
an empire that nobody had the power to dispute with him.
Melik Elamel, the eldest of his sons, was sultan of Cairo ;
and Corradin* was sultan of Damascus. His other sons
had received, as their shares of the empire, the principalities
of Bosra, Baalbec, Mesopotamia, &c. Malek-Adel, relieved
from the cares of government, visited his children by turns,
and preserved peace among them. All he had reserved of
his past power was the ascendancy of a great renown, and
of a glory acquired by numberless heroic exploits ; but this
ascendancy held princes, people, and army in subjection. In
moments of peril, his counsels became laws : the soldiers
still considered him as their leader ; his sons as their sove-
reign arbiter; and all Mussulmans as their defender and
support.

The new crusade had spread terror among the infidels,
but Malek-Adel calmed their fears by assuring them that the
Christians would soon be divided amongst themselves, and
by telling them that this formidnble expedition resembled
the storms which howl over Mount Libanus, and which dis-
perse of themselves : neither the armies of Egypt, nor the
armies of Syria, made their appearance in Judtea ; and the

* This prince was named Cheref-Eddin Melik Moaddhan.

HI8T0BT OP THE GBVBADBfl. S27

Crosaden assembled at PtolemaSs were astonished at meet-
ing no enemy to contend with. The leaders of the Christian
army had resolved to direct their march towards the banks
of the ^ile ; but winter, which was about to commence,
would not permit them to imdertake so distant an enter*
prise. , To employ the soldiers, whom idleness always seduced
into license, it was determined to make an attack upon
Mount Tabor, where the Mussulmans had fortified them-
selves.

Mount Tabor, so celebrated in the Old and New Testa-
ment, arises like a superb dome amidst the vast plain of
Galilee. The declivity of the mountain is covered with
floM'ers and odoriferous plants ; from the summit of Tabor,
which forms a level of a league in extent, may be seen, tra-
vellers say, all the banks of the Jordan, the Lake of Tiberias,
the Sea of Syria, and most of the places in which Christ
performed his miracles.

A church, the erection of which was due to the piety of
St. Helena, stood on the very spot where the transfiguration
of Christ took' place in presence of his disciples, and for a
length of time attracted crowds of pilgrims. Two monas-
teries, built at the summit of Tabor, recalled for centuries
the memory of Moses and Elias, whose names they bore ; but,
from the reign of Saladin, the standard of Mahomet had
floated over this holy mountain ; the church of St. Helena
and the monasteries of Moses and Elias had been demolished,
and upon their ruins was raised a fortress, from which
the Mussulmans constantly threatened the territories of
Ptolemais.

It was impossible to ascend Mount Tabor without en-
countering a thousand dangers ; but nothing intimidated
the Christian warriors: the pahiarch of Jerusalem, who
marched at their head, showed them the true cross, and
animated them by his example and his eloquent words.
Enormous stones rolled from the heights occupied by the
infidels, who poured down an endless shower of javelins and
arrows upon all the roads which led to the top of the moun-
tain. The valour of the soldiers of the cross braved all the
efforts of the Saracens ; the king of Jerusalem distinguished
himself by prodigies of bravery, and killed two emirs with
his own liand. G^ie summit of the mountain being attained.

HISTOBY OF THE CBUSASBS.

the Crusaders dispersed the Mussulmans, and pursued them
to the gates of their fortress: nothing could resist their
arms. But all at once several of tfie leaders began to enter-
tain suspicions regarding the intentions of the sultan of
Damascus; and the fear of a surprise acted the more
strongly on their minds &om no one having foreseen it.
"Whilst the Mussulmans retired filled with terror behind
their ramparts, a sudden panic seized the conquerors : the
Crusaders renounced the attack of the fortress, and the
whole Christian army retreated without effecting anvthmg;
as if it had only ascended Mount Tabor to contemplate the
spot rendered sacred by the transfiguration of the Saviour.

We could scarcely yield faith to the account of this pre-
cipitate flight, without the evidence of contemporary histo-
rians;* the ancient chronicles, according to their custom,
do not fail to attribute to treachery an event they cannot
comprehend ; it appears to us, however, much more natural
to suppose that the retreat of the Crusaders was produced
by the discord and want of foresight which prevailed in all
their undertakings. t

This retreat had most fatal results ; whilst the leaders re-
proached each other with the disgrace of the army and the
egregious error they had committed, the knights and sol-
diers sank into a state of discouragement. The patriarch
of Jerusalem refused from that time to bear the wood of the
true cross in the van of the Crusaders, as he found the sight
of it tsould neither revive their piety nor reanimate their
courage. The kings and princes who directed the crusade,
wishing to retrieve so shameful a reverse before they returned
to Palestine, led the army towards Phoenicia. In this new

* It is oar duty to quote here what is met with in the continuator of
Tabary, or the false Tabary, relative to this expedition of the Christians :
*' They undertook to besiege the castle of Thour (Tabor), and reached
the top of the mountain and the foot of the walls. They were very near
becoming masters of it ; but one of their princes being dead, they retired,
after having remained seventeen days before the fort." This account is
quite contrary to that of the western historians, and otherwise bears no
mark of probability. It is true that the king of Cyprus died daring this
campaign of the Crusadrrs ; but he died at Tripoli, and more than a month
after the expedition of Mount Tabor.

t According to the chronicles of the times, and the report of travellers,
there' is no water on Mount Tabor. It is probable that the want of water
prevented the Cnuaders from undertaking the siege of the fbrtren.

HI8T0BT OP THE CBU8ABE8. 229

campaign no exploit signalized their arms ; being winter, a
great number of the soldiers, overcome by cold, remained
abandoned on the roads, whilst others fell into the hands of
the Bedouin Arabs. On Christmas eve, the Crusaders, who
were encamped between Tyre and Sarphat, were surprised
by a violent tempest ; wind, rain, hail, whirlwinds, incessant
peals of thunder killed their horses, carried away their tents,
and scattered their baggage. This disaster completed their
despondency, and created a belief that Heaven refused them
its support.

As tney were in serious want of provisions, and the whole
army could not subsist in one place, they resolved to divide
themselves into four diiferent bodies till the end of winter.
This separation, which was made amidst mutual complaints,
appeared to be the work of discord much more than of
necessity. The king of Jerusalem, the duke of Austria, and
the grand master of St. John encamped in the plains of
Csesarea ; the king of Hungary, the king of Cyprus, and
Baymond, son of tne prince of Antioch, retired to Tripoli ;•
the grand masters of the Templars and the Teutonic knights,
and Andrew d'Avesnes, with the Flemish Crusaders, went
to fortify a castle built at the foot of Mount Carmel ; the
other Crusaders retired to Ptolemais with the intention of
going back to Europe.

The king of Cyprus fell ill and died just as he was upon
the point of embarking for his own kingdom. The king of
Hungary was discouraged, and began to despair of the suc-
cess of a war so unfortunatelv commencedf. This prince,
after a sojourn of three months in Palestine, thought his
vow accomplished, and resolved, all at once, to return to his
dominions.

The West had doubtless been surprised to see Andrew
abandon his kingdom, torn by factions, to repair to Syria ;
and the Eastern Christians were not less astonished at see-
ing this prince leave Palestine without having done any-
thmg for the deliverance of the holy places. The patriarch
of Jerusalem reproached him with inconstancy, and employed
his utmost efforts to retain him beneath the banners of the

* Tbo animportaot accounts of this period are to be found in the con-
ttnnator of William of Tyre and in James of Vitri, who was then bishop
of Ptolemais.

280 HISTOBT OP THB CBtT8ADX0.

cross ; but finding Andrew would not yield to bis prayei ,
be had recourse to threats, and displayed the formidab.^
train of the weapons of the Church. Nothing, however,
could shake the resolution of the king of Hungary, who
satisfied himself with not appearing to desert the cause of
Christ by leaving half bis troops under the command of the
kmg of Jerusalem.

After having quitted Palestine, Andrew remained for a
lon^ time in Armenia, appearing to forget his own enemies,
as he had forgotten those of Christ. He came back into
Europe through Asia Minor, and beheld, whilst passing Con-
stantinople, the wreck of the Latin empire, which ought to
have roused him from bis pious indolence, and have reminded
him of his own dangers. The Hungarian monarch, who had
left his army in Syria, took back with him a number of relics ;
such as the head of St. Peter, the right hand of the apostle
Thomas, and one of the seven vases in which Clirist changed
water into iR-ine at the marriage in Cana : his confidence in
these revered objects made him negligent of the means of
human prudence ; and, if we may believe a contemporary
chronicle,* when he returned into Hungary, the relics
which he brought from the Holy Land sufficed for the sup-
pression of all the troubles of his states, and caused peace,
the laws, and justice, to flourisb throughout his provinces.
The greater part of the Hungarian historians, however, hold
quite another language,t and reproach their monarch ^itb
having dissipated nis treasures and his armies in an impru-
dent and an unfortunate expedition ; the nobility and people
took advantage of his long absence to impose laws upon
him, and obtain liberties and privileges which weakened the
royal power, and scattered the germs of a rapid decay in the
kingdom of Hungary.

* The archdeacon Thomas describes with great simplicity the miracles
effected by the relics of the king of Hnngaiy.

t One of these bistprians, Palma, expresses himself thus: — Hno
eadem expeditio Hierosolymitana adeo neiros omnes monarchite Hnn-
garics absttmpdt, at unins propemodum seculi spatio ad pristinam opa-
lentiam viresque redire neqaiverit. Another historian adds, that the
long absence of Andrew, and the imbecility of his son, so completely
alienated the minds of his subjects, that his return created no joy, and
that Benedict, the chancellor of Queen Yollande, had difficulty in p«r-
toading a few prelates to go out and meet him.

HI8T0BT OF THS CBrSADSB. 331

After the departure of the king of Hungary, a mat
number of Crusaders arrired from the ports of HoUand,
Ji-ance, and Italjr. The CruBaders from Friesland, Cologne,
and the banks of the Khine had stopped on the coast of
FortugaljTchere they had conquered the Moors in several great
battles, killed two Saracen princes, and mounted the ban-
ners of the cross upon the walls of Alcazar. They described
the miracles by which Heaven had seconded their valour,
and the apparition oF angels, clothed in resplendent armour,
who had fought on the banks of the Tagus, in the ranks of
the soldiers of Christ * The arrival of these warriors, with
the account of their victories, revived the courage of the
Crusaders who had remained in Palestine under the com-
mand of Leopold, duke of Austria; with such a powerful
reinforcement, nothing was talked of but renewing the war
against the Mussulmans.

The project of conquering the banks of the Nile often
occupied the thoughts of the Christians ; since the idea of a
war m Egypt had been put forth bv the pope himself amidst
the council of the Lateran, it had been considered as an in-
spiration &om Heaven ; they only thought of the advantages
of a rich conquest, and the perils of so difficult an enterprise
appeared of no importance m the eyes of the soldiers of the
eross.

The Christian army, commanded by the king of Jerusa-
lem, the duke of Austria, and William, count of Holland,
embarked at the port of Ptolemais, and landed within sight
of Damietta, on the northern bank of the second mouth of
the Nile. The city of Damietta,t situated at the distance

* The register of HonorioB in Rioaldi, and particularly the letter written
by William of Holland to the pope, may be consulted for the details of
this campiign against the Moon. William asks permission of the sove-
reign pontiff to remain in Portugal a year ; but this permission was refused
him by the Holy See, at that time only interested in the crusade beyond
the sea. Some details concerning the expedition of the Crusaders in
Portugal may be found in James of Yitri, and in the monk Godfrey.

t Savary has rectified an error committed bj several learned modems^
who have confounded the dty of Damietta, which existed in the times of
the crusades, and which is called TAamiatU by Stephen of Bysantium,
with the city of that name which exists at present. Abonlfeda informs us
that the ancient Damietta was set fire to and demolished in the year 648
of the Uegyra, after the cruaadeof St. Louis, and that aiMitbar dty, voder

282 HI8T0BT OF THB CEV8AJ>£8.

of a mile from the sea, had a double rampart on the river
side, and a triple wall on the land side ; a tower arose in the
middle of the Nile, and an iron chain, which reached from
the city to the tower, prevented the passage of vessels. The
citv contained a numerous garrison, with provisions and
munitions of war for a long siege. Damietta had already
several times resisted formidable attacks of the Christians.
Eoger, king of Sicily, had made himself master of it in the
. preceding centur>% out he was not able to retain and defend
it, against the umted forces of the Mussulmans.

The Crusaders arrived before Damietta early in April ;
having pitched their tents in a vast plain, they had beoind
them lakes and pools abounding in fish of all kmds ;* before
them the Nile, covered with their vessels ; a thousand canals,
crowned with evergreen papyrus and reeds, intersected the
lands, and spread treshness and fertility around them. In
the fields which had so lately been the theatre of sanguinary
contests, no traces of war were to be seen ; harvests of rice
covered the plains in which Christian armies had perished
by famine ; groves of oranges and citrons loaded with flowers
and fruit ; woods of palms and sycamores, thickets of jas-
mines and odoriferous shrubs, with a crowd of plants and
wonders, unknown to the pilgrims, created the image of an
earthly paradise, and made them fancy that Damietta must
have been the first dwelling of man in his state of innocence.
The aspect of a beautiful sky and a rich climate intoxicated
them with joy, kept hope alive in their hearts, and held out
to them the accomplishment of all the divine promises. In
their religious and warlike enthusiasm, they believed they
saw Providence prodigal of its miracles for the success of
their arms ; scarcely had they established their camp on the
bank of the Nile, when an eclipse of the moon covered the
horizon vrith darkness ; and even this phenomenon inflamed
their courage, as it appeared to them a presage of the greatest
victories.

the same name, was constnicted at two leagues from the sea. The asser-
tion of Aboulfeda agrees in this point with the description of Macnzi.

* James of Yitri gives a sufficientljpartiealar description of Egypt and
its productions ; this portion of his history is not unworthy of the pemsal
of the learned, and may give a jnst idea of the knowledge of geogtaphy
and datnral history of the thirteenth oentary.

HTBTOBT OF THE CRUSADES. 233

The first attacks* were directed against tHe tower built in
the middle of the Nile ; vessels, in which were placed towers,
ladders, and drawbridges, approached the walls. The soldiers
who manned them, braving the arrows and murderous
machines of the Mussulmans, made several assaults ; but
prodigies of strength, courage, and skill were useless. The
most intrepid of the Crusaders, victims of their own rasb
bravery and devotedness, perished, swallowed up by the
waves, without being able to be succoured or avenged by
their companions. In all the attacks, nothing could equal
the impetuous valour of the Western warriors; but this
valour was not seconded by either the prudence of the com-
manders or the discipline of the soldiers ; each nation had
its leader, its machines of war, its days for fighting • no order
governed either attack or retreat ; the soldiers on board the ^
vessels wished to manoeuvre them, the sailors would fight.

The frequent checks they experienced, at length, however,
taught them prudence : the ligntest of their vessels ascended
the Nile, and returning to cast anchor above the tower built
in the middle of the nver, attacked and broke asunder the
bridge of boats which united the \ower with the city. In-
dustry likewise lent its assi^ance to the bravery of the
Crusaders ; machines of war were invented, of which no
models had previouslv existed. A^ enormous wooden castle,
built upon two vesselsjt joined together by beams and joists,
was admired as a miraculous invention, and considered as a
certain pledge of victory. Upon this floating castle was a
drawbridge, which could be lowered upon the tower of the
Saracens, and galleries destined to receive the soldiers who
were to attack the walls. A poor priest of the church of
Cologne, J who had preached the crusade on the banks of the

* For particulars of tba siege of Damietta, James of Vitri, the con-
tinuator of William of Tyre, Marin Sanut, Matthew Paris, the corre-
spondence of Honorius in Raynaldif Godfrey, and the Monk of Alberic
may be consulted. We haye examined the account attribated to OliTier,
priest of Cologne, which may be found in the Gesia Dei per FraneoM, but
this account is repeated by James of Vitri. The Arabian authors and the
Chronicle of Ibn-ferat have afforded us great assistance in our labours,
and haye informed us of very important facts of which the Franks and
their hutorians were ignorant.

t Le P^re Mairabourg gives a long account of this machine, not neoes-
ssrr to be repeated. *

X This pftm, who was named Olivier, afterwards became bishop of

Vol. II.— 11

294 HISTOBr OF THIS CBUSAJ)£8.

Shine, and followed the Christian armj into Egypt, was
charged with the superintendence of the erection of this
formidahle edifice. As the popes in their letters always
advised the Crusaders to take with them to the East men
skilled in the mechanical arts,* the Christian army was in
no want of workmen to perform the most difficult lahoUrs ;
the liberality of the leaders and soldiers supplied all the
necessary expenses.

The whole army looked with impatience for the moment
at which the enormous fortress should be brought near to
the tower on the Nile ; prayers were offered up in the camp
for the protection of Heaven ; the patriarch and the king of
Jerusalem, the clergy and the soldiers, during several days,
submitted to all the austerities of penitence, — all marched
in procession barefooted to the seashore. The leaders had
fixed upon the festival of the apostle St. Bartholomew as
the day for the assault, and the Crusaders were filled with
hope and ardour. They vied with each other in eagerness to
be of the assaulting party, for which the best soldiers of each
nation were selected, and Leopold, duke of Austria, the
model of Christian knights, obtained the honour of com-
manding an expedition with which the first success of the
crusade was connected.

On the appointed day, the two vessels surmounted by the
wooden tower received the signal for moving. They carried
three hundred warriors fully armed; and an innumerable
multitude of Mussulmans assembled on the walls contem-
plated the spectacle with surprise mingled with dread. The
two vessels pursued their silent course up the middle of. the
river, whilst all the Crusaders, either drawn up in battle-
array on the left bank of the Nile, or dispersed over the
neighbouring hills, saluted with loudest acclamations the
moving fortress which bore the fortunes and the hopes of the
Christian army. On drawing near to the walls the two
vessels cast anchor, and the soldiers prepared for the assault.
Whilst the Christians hurled their javelins and got ready

Pftderbom and a cardinal of St. Sabina ; it ia the same that signed his
name to the account we have mentioned in a preceding note.

* Gretser, in his treaty de Cruee, says formally that the popes required
the commanders of the pilgrims to take with them both agricultuiists and
workmen.

HISTOBT OF TnS CJIUSADES. 285

tbeir lances and swords, the Saracens poured upon them
torrents of Greek fire, and employed every effort to make
the wooden castle on which their enemies fought a prey to
the flames. The one party was encouraged .by the shouts
and applauses of the Christian army, the other by the thou-
sand times repeated acclamations of the inhabitants of Da-
mietta. Amidst the fight, the machine of the Crusaders all
at once appeared on fire ; the drawbridge lowered on to the
walls of the tower wavered and was unsteady ; the flagstaff
of the duke of Austria fell into the Nile, and the banner of
the Christians remained in the hands of the Mussulmans.
At this sight the Saracens uttered the most extravagant
cries of joy, whilst groans and sounds of grief were heard
along the shore on which the Crusaders were encamped ; the
patriarch of Jerusalem, the clergy, the whole army, fell on
their knees, and raised their supplicating hands towards
heaven.

But soon, as if God had been favourable to their prayers,
the flames were extinguished, the machine was repaired, the
drawbridge was replaced, and the companions of Leopold
renewed the attack with more ardour than ever. Prom the
top of their fortress they commanded the waUs of the tower,
and dealt mighty blows with sabre, spear, battle-axe, and iron
mace. Two soldiers sprang upon the platform upon which
the Saracens defended themselves ; they carried terror among
the besieged, who descended tumultuously to the first stage
of the tower ; the latter set fire to the floor, and endeavoured
to oppose a rampart of flames between themselves and the
enemies who rushed down in pursuit of them ; but these
last efforts of despair and bravery presented but a vain re-
sistance to the Christian soldiers. The Mussulmans were
attacked in all parts of the tower ; and their walls, shaken
by the machines, appeared to be sinking around them, and
about to bury them oeneath the ruins : in this hopeless con-
dition they laid down their arms, and sued to their conquerors
for life.

After this memorable victory, the Christians, masters of
the tower of the Nile, broke tne chain which impeded the
passage of vessels, and their fleet was able to approach close
to the ramparts of the city.

About the same time (September, 1217) Malek-Adel, who

2d6 HiaXOBT OT THS CB1T8JU>X8.

had rendered himself so formidable to the Christians, died
in the capital of Egypt. He heard before his death of the
yietorj ivnuch the Chnstians had gained at Damietta ; and
the Crusaders did not fail to say that he had sunk under the
effects of despair, and that he carried with him to the tomb
thepower ana glory of the Mussulmans.

The Christians, in their histories, have represented Malek-
Adel as an ambitious, cruel, and stem prince; Oriental
writers celebrate his piety and mildness. An Arabian his-
torian boasts of his love of justice and truth,* and paints, by
a single trait, the moderation of the absolute monarchs of
Asia, when he says, " that the brother of Saladin listened
without anger to that which displeased him."

Historians unite in praising the bravery of the Mussulman
prince, and the ability he displayed in the execution of all
his designs. No piince knew better how to make himself
obeyed, or to give to supreme power that brilliant exterior
which strikes the imagination of nations, and disposes them
to submission. In his court, he always appeared surrounded
with the pomn of the East : his palace was as a sanctuary
which no one aurst approach : he rarely appeared in public ;
when he did, it was in a manner to inspure fear: as he was
fortunate in all his undertakings, the Mussulmans had no
difiSculty in belieying that the favourite of fortune was the
favourite of Heaven : the caliph of Bagdad sent ambassadors
to salute him king of kings, Malek-Adel was pleased to be
styled in camps Self Eddinf (the sword of religion), and
this glorious name, which he had merited by his contests
with the Christians, drew upon him the love and confidence
of the soldiers of Islamism. He astonished the East by his
abdication, as much as he had astonished it by his victories ;
the surprise he excited only added to his glory as well as to
his power ; and, that his destiny might in everything be ex-
traordinary, fortune decreed that when he had descended

* The Chronicle of Ihn-feraC collects the judgments of all the ArabiaQ
historians upon Malek-Adel. These historians all express themselves in
the same manner. The continnator of William of Tyre, who appears to
have lived in the East, speaks of the pomp and of the air of majestj which
were remarked in the brother of Saladin : the latter otherwise treats
Malek-Adel with great severity.

t It is under the name of Seif-Eddin, by corruption S^>badin, that
Malek-Adel is known in onr Histories of the CmsadM.

HIBTOBT OF THE CBUSi^DES. 287

from the throne, he, should still remain master. His fifteen
sons, of whom several were sovereigns, still tremhled before
him ; nations prostrated themselves on his passage ; up to the
very hour in which he closed his eyes, his presence, his
name only, maintained peace in his family and the provinces,
and order and discipline in the armies.

At his death the face of everything began to change ; the
empire of the Ayoubites, which he had sustained by his ex-
ploits, gave tokens of decline ; the ambition of the emirs,
for a long time restrained, broke out into conspiracies
against the supreme authority ; a spirit of license began to
be apparent in the Mussulman armies, and particularlv
among the troops that defended Egypt.

The Crusaders ought to have profited by the death of
Malek-Adel, and the consequences it was sure to produce,
by attacking the discouraged Mussulmans without inter-
mission. But instead of following up their success, after
they had obtained possession of the Tower of the Nile, they
all at once neglected the labours of the siege, and appeared
to have fallen asleep over their first victories. A great
number of them, persuaded that they had done enough for
the cause of Christ, only thought of embarking to return
into Europe. Every vessel that left the port recalled to the

Pilgrims remembrances of home ; and the beautiful sky of
)amietta, which had inflamed their imaginations at the com-
mencement of the siege, was not sufficient to retain them in
a country which they began to consider as a place of exile.

The clergy, however, warmly censured the retreat and de-
sertion of the Crusaders, and implored Heaven to punish
the base soldiers who thus abandoned the standards of the
cross. Six thousand pilgrims from Brittany, who were return-
ing to Europe, were shipwrecked on the coast of Italy, and
almost all perished ; and the ecclesiastics, with the most
ardent of the Crusaders, did not fail to see, in so great a dis-
aster, a manifestation of divine anger. When the Crusaders
of Friesland, after having deserted the banners of the Holy
Land, had returned into the "West, the ocean all at once
broke through the dykes, and overflowed its customary boun-
daries ; the richest provinces of Holland were submerged,
and a hundred thousand inhabitants, with whole cities, dis-
appeared beneath the waters. Many Christians attributed

238 HI8T0BT OF THE CBIFaASXS.

this calamity to the culpable retreat of the Frieson and
Dutch Crusaders.

The pope beheld with jpain the return of the pilgrim de-
serters £rom the cause of Christ. Honorius neglected notliing
to secure the success of a war he had preached ; and he
every day, both b;^' prayers and threats, pressed the departure
of those who, after having taken the cross, delayed the
accomplishment of their vow.

According to the usual custom of navigators, two periods
of the year were fixed upon at which it was best to cross the
sea. The pilgrims almost always embarked in the month of
March and in the month of September, whether to repair to
the East or to return to Europe ; which caused them to be
compared to those birds of passage that change their climate
at the approach of a new season, and towards the end of
fine weather.* At each passage, the Mediterranean was
covered with vessels which transported Crusaders, some re-
turning to their homes, others going to fight the infidels.
At the very moment the Christians were deploring the loss
of the Frieson and Dutch warriors, their spints were restored
by seeing Crusaders from Germany, Pisa, Genoa, Venice, and
several provinces of France, arrive in tlie camp at Damietta,

Among the French warriors, history names Ilerve, count
of Nevers ; Hugh, count de la Marche ; Miles de Bar-sur-
Seine ; tlie lords John of Artois and Ponce de Crancey ;
Ithier de Thacy, and Savary de Maul^on ; they were accom-
panied by the archbishop of Bordeaux, the bishops of
Angers, Autim, Beauvais, Paris, Meaux, Noyon, &c. Eng-
land also sent the bravest of her knights into Egypt. Henry
III. had taken the cross after the council of the Lateran ;
but as he could not quit his dominions, at that time a prey
to civil wars and torn by discord, the earls of Ilarcourt,
Chester, and Arundel, with Prince 01iver,t were honoured
with the charge of acquitting, in his name, the vow he had
taken to fight in the East for the cause of Christ.

At the head of the pilgrims who arrived at that time in
Egypt were two cardinals, whom the pope had sent to the

* A Latin disnertation, by Boeder, entitled 2>e PoMtOffiiif may be oon«
fcdted OD this subject,
t I caoDOt make out who this Prince Oliver was.— -Trans.

HISTOBt OF TnS C]IVBAJ)£S. 239

Christian army. Bobert de Coui^n, one of the preachers
of the crusade, was charged with the mission of inculcating
the moral precepts of Christ in the camp of the Crusaders,
and animating the zeal and devotion oi the soldiers by his
eloquence. Cardinal Pelagius, bishop of Albano, was in-
Tested with the entire confidence of the Holy See; ho
brought with him the treasures that were to defray the ex-
penses of the war ; the Crusaders from Eome and several
other cities of Italy marched under his orders, and recognised
him as their military leader.

Cardinal Pela^us, by his position, was endowed with
great authority m the Christian army, and his naturally
imperious character led him to assume even more power than
he had received from the Holy See. In whatever affair he
was employed, he acknowledged no equal, and would not en-
dure a superior. He had been known to oppose the sove-
reign pontiff in the bosom of the conclave ; ne would have
resisted the most powerful monarchs, even in their own
councils. Cardinal Pelagius, persuaded that Providence
meant to make use of him to accomplish great designs, be-
lieved himself fit for all works, and appointed to all kinds of
glory ; when he had formed a determmation, he maintained
it with invincible obstiaacy, and was influenced by neither
obstacles nor perils, nor even by the lessons of experience.
If Pelagius originated any advice in council, ha supported it
with all the menaces of the court of Rome, and often gave
cause for a belief that the thunders of the Church had only-
been confided to his hands, that he might secure the triumph
of his own opinions.

Pelagius had scarcely arrived in Egypt, when, as legate of
the pope, he disputed the command ol the army with John
of Brienne. To support his pretensions, he asserted that
the Crusaders had taken up arms at the desire of the sove-
reign pontiff; that they were the soldiers of the Church,
and ought to recognise no other head than the legate of the
Holy See: these assumptions gave great offence to the
barons and principal leaders. From that time it was eaay to
foresee that discord would be introduced by him whose
mission it was to establish peace ; and that the envoy of the
pope, charged to preach humility among Christians, was

240 HISTOBT OF THB OBUSADES.

about to ruin eyerytbiug bj his mad presumptioii.* Cardinal
de Cour9on died shortly after his arrival.

The continuator of "William of Tyre, whilst deploring the
death of this legate, who had been remarkable for his mo-
deration, characterizes, by a single word, the conduct of
Pelagius, and the consequences that might be expected fix)m
it, by saving : " Then died Cardinal Peter, and Pelagius lived,
which was a great pity."

In the mean time, the approach of danger had reunited
the Mussulman princes. The caliph of Bagdad^ whom James
of Vitrit styles the pope of the injldeh, exhorted the nations
to take up arms agamst the Christians. All the sons of
Malek-Adel, who reigned over the provinces of Syria and of
Temen, prepared to march to the assistance of Egypt. The
sultan 01 Damascus, after having made several mcursions
into the territories of Ptolemais, gathered together his whole
army, and resolved to go and defend Damietta. As he had
reason to fear the Christians might take advantage of his
absence to seize Jerusalem and fortify themselves in it, he
caused the ramparts of the holy city to be demoKshed. He
also ordered the fortress of Tabor, and all those that the
Mussulmans held along the coasts of Palestine, to be de-
stroyed ; a vigorous measure that afficted the infidels, but
was calculated to afflict the Christians still more ; as it proved
to them that they had to contend with enemies animated by

* la the letter by which Honorius announced to the leaders of the
crusade the powers he bad given to Cardinal PelagiaSf his holiness ex-
presses himself thus : Ut ezercitum Domini cum humiliCate praecedens,
Concordes in concordia foveat, et ad pacem revocet impacatos.

t Cal{fai papa iptorum. The continuator of William of Tyre calls the
caliph the Apostle of the Miscreants. The same bLitorian adds : — * ' Apr^
manda (le soudan du Caire) au calife de Baudac, qui apostoiUe 6tait des
Sarrasins, et par Mahomet qu'il le seccurQt, et sMl ne le seccurait, il per*
drait U terre. Car Tapostolic de Rome y euToyait tant de gent, que ce
n'^tait mie conte ne mesure, et qu'il fait preschier par Payennisme ainsi
oomme faisaient par Chretienti, et envoyat au soudain grant seccurs de
gent par son preschement." — " The sultan of Cairo afterwards sent to the
caliph of Bagdad, who was the apostle of the Saracens, and implored him,
in the name of Mahomet, to assist him, assuring him that if he did not
assist him, he should lose his dominions. For the apostle of Rome ^ent
so many people that they were beyond all count or meaaure, and that the
caliph mast order preaching throughout Paganism as was practised in
Christendom, and he might send the sultan great *«fiiit^np^ in cdDseqaeDoe
of bis preachings."

HIBTOBT OF THB CBUSADXB. 241

despair, and disposed to sacrifice everything to secure their
own safety.

The sultan of Cairo encamped in the vicinity of Damietta,
where he awaited the princes of his family. The garrison
of the city received every day provisions and reinforcements,
and was in a condition to resist the Christian army for a
length of time. The preparations and the approach of the
Mussulmans at length roused the Crusaders m>m their state
of inaction. Animated by their leaders, but more by the
appearance of danger and the presence of a formidable
enemy ; still led by the king of Jerusalem, who had resisted
the pretensions of Pelagius, the Christian soldiers resumed
the labours of the siege and made several assaults upon the
city on the river side. The winter, which had just set in,
did not at all prevent their attacks ; nothing could equal the
heroic constancy with which they braved, during several
months, cold, rain, hunger, all the fatigues of war, and all
the rigours of the season. A contagious malady committed
great ravages in the Christian army : a frightful storm,
which lasted three days, carried away the tents and the
baggage of both leaders and soldiers; but nothing dimi-
nished the fury of the contests, which were incessantly
renewed.

At length the Christians, having become masters of all
the western bank of the Nile, determined to cross the river,
and attack the city on the land side. The passage was
difficult and dangerous ; the sultan of Cairo had fixed his
camp on the opposite shore ; the plain on which the Crusa-
ders wished to pitch their tents was covered with Mussul-
man soldiers ; an unexpected event removed all obstacles.

We have spoken of the seditious spirit of the emirs, who,
since the death of Malek-Adel, had openly shown their am-
bitious designs and sought to introduce divisions into the
Mussulman armies. The most remarkable among these
emirs, was the leader of a troop of Curds, named Emad-
eddin,* who had taken a part in all the revolutions of Egypt

* The Chronicle of Ibn-ferat, from which we have drawn that which we
relate, says that Emad-eddin was the son of Seif-Eddin-aboul-Hassan-
Ali-bqn-Ahmed Alhekari, suroamed Ibn-almachtoub (son of the Scarred),
OD account of a wound which had marked his face. The same chronicle adds
that the emir, the son of the Scarred, despised the futile things of kingi|

11*

242 HI8T0BT OF THC CBlTflABia.

lind Syria. Associated with the destinies of the bodb of
Ayoub, this emir had witnessed the rise and fall of several
Mussulman dynasties, and held in contempt the powers of
which he knew both the source and the origin. An intrepid
soldier, a faithless subject, always ready to serve his sove-
reigns in fight or betray them in a conspiracy, Emad-eddin
could not endure a prince who reigned by the laws of peace,
or recognise a power which was not the fruit of his intrigues
or of a revolution. As fortune had always favoured his
audacity, and as all his treacheries had been well rewarded,
every fresh revolt augmented his credit and his renown ; an
enemy to all acknowledged authority, the hope of all who
aspired, to empire, he was almost as redoubtable as the Old
Man of the Mountain, whose menaces made the most
powerful monarchs tremble. Emad-eddin resolved to change
the government of Egypt, and conceived the project of de-
throning the sultan of Cairo, and replacing him by another
of the sons of Malek-Adel.

Several emirs were drawn into this conspiracy. On the
day appointed, they were to enter the tent of Melic-Kamel,'
and compel him, by violence, to renounce the supreme
authoritv. The sultan was warned of the plot prepared
against him, and on the eve of the day on which it was to
be carried into effect, he left his camp in the middle of the
night. The next da^, at dawn, the conspirators were made
aware tliat their designs had been discovered ; they endea-
voured in vain to draw the soldiers into a revolt ; the greatest
confusion prevailed throughout the camp ; among the emirs,
some gathered around Emad-eddin, and swore to follow his
fortunes ; others, doubtful of the success of his enterprise,
remained silent ; many took an oath to defend Melic-Kamel.
Amidst these debates, the Mussulman army, conscious that
they were without a leader, feared they might be surprised
by the Christians. A panic terror all at once seized upon
the soldiers, who abandoned their tents and their baggage,
and rushed in the greatest disorder in the traces of their
fugitive sultan.

This retreat, of which the Christians could not imagine
the cause, and which their historians explain by a miracle
$nd that most extnordiiuury ciioamitanoet w«n rcUtad of hk nvoUi

HISTOBT OF TH£ CBUSADEB. 243

firom heaven,* opened to tbem the passage of the Nile. The
army hastened to cross the river, took possession of the
Mussulman' camp, made an immense booty, and drew near
to the walls of Damietta.

The panic, however, which had put the Mussulman troops
to flight, had not at all communicated itself to the garrison
of the city : this intrepid garrison offered the most vigorous
resistance, and gave the army of Melic-Kamelf time to re-
cover from its fright. The sultan of Damascus soon joined
his brother the sultan of Cairo. Emad-eddin and the other
leaders of the conspiracy were arrested and loaded with
chains. Order and discipline were reestablished among the
Saracens, and the Christian army had to contend with all
tlie united forces of the infidels, impatient to repair their
check, and recover the advantages they had lost.

The burning days of summer were approaching: the
Nile, increased by the rains of the tropics, oegan to issue
from its bed. The Christian army was encamped under the
walls of Damietta, having the lake Menzaleh in its rear.
The Saracens came and pitched their tents at a short dis-
tance from the camp of the Christians, who, oppressed by
the consumins heat of the season and the climate, were
subject every day to the ^irited attacks of the infidels. In
one of these conflicts, the Mussulmans got possession of a
bridge which the Crusaders had thrown over the Nile ; the
banks of the river were covered with dead, and the Christian
army only owed its safety to the heroic bravery of the duke
of Austria, the king of Jerusalem, and the grand masters of
St. John and the Temple. Soon after, another battle was
fought still more bloody than the first. In this fight, as it
is described by James of Vitri, an ocular witness, not a per- •
son among the Christians was idle : the clergy were *at pray-
ers or attending the wounded ; whilst the women and chil-
dren carried water, wine, food, stones, and javelins, to the
combatants. AVliirlwinds of scorching dust arose in the air,
and enveloped the two armies. The cries of the wounded
and the dying, the somid of the trumpets, and the clashing

* All the Christian historians of the middle ages, and Maimboorg after
them, appear persuaded that Providence, by a miracle of its will, put the
Saracens to flight.

t Oar historians of the crusades name this prince Meledio.

244 HisTOBY or the cbitsades.

of arms resounded from the neighbouring hills and from both
shores of the Nile. Sometimes the Saracens were put to
flight, and whole battalions, sajs James of Vitri, disappeared
submerged in the Nile, as formerly the armies of Pharaoh
perished in the Bed Sea. Sometimes the Christians were
repulsed in their turn, and left a great number of their war-
riors on the field of battle : the carnage lasted during the
whole day, without either side being able to claim the vic-
tory. W hilst the two armies were contending with such
fury on the banks, the Genoese and the Pisans, on board
their vessels, made an attack upon the ramparts of the city.
Several of their ships were consumed by the Q-reek fire, and
the bravest of their soldiers were crushed beneath the beams
and stones hurled from the top of the walls. At the aj^proach
of night the Crusaders returned to their tents, despairing of
ever being able to subdue the Saracens, and reproaching
each other with want of courage in this unfortunate day.

On the morrow fresh disputes arose between the horse
and foot soldiers,* each of which bodies accused the other
with having been the cause of the losses the army had ex-
perienced. These debates became so warm that at length
the foot and the horse both demanded, with loud tries, to
be led again to battle, and rushed tumultuously out of the
camp, to give convincing proofs of their bravery ; the leaders
could neither restrain nor direct the ardoiur and impetuosity
of their soldiers, who fought in disorder, and were repulsed
by the Saracens after a horrible carnage.

At this period a holy person, named Francis of Assise,
made his appearance in tne Christian army, whoso reputa-
tion for piety was spread throughout the Christian world,
and had preceded him into the East. From his earliest
youth, Francis had left the paternal roof to lead a life of
edification. One day, whilst present at mass in a church in
Italy, he was struck with the passage of the Gospel in which
our Saviour says, " Take with you neither gold nor silver,
nor other moneys ; neither scrips for the journey, nor sandals,

* The infantry must have rendered, during the siege, greater serrices than
the cavalry, in defending the intrenchments, mounting to the assault, or
fighting on board the ships. This dispute alone proves that the infantry
had made great prdgrau ; for till that time they would not have dared to
compare themselves with the cavalry.

HIBTOBT 07 THB OBVBADSfl. 245

nor staff." From that period Prancis had held in contempt
all the riches of this world, and hod devoted himself to the
poverty of the apostles ; he travelled through countries and
cities, exhorting all people to penitence. The disciples who
followed him braved the contempt of the multitude, and
glorified themselves with it before God : when asked whence
they came, they were accustomed to answer, " We are poor
penitents from Assise."

Francis was led into Egypt by the fame of the crusade,
and by the hope of there effecting some great conversion.
The day preceding the last battle, he had a miraculous pre-
sentiment of the defeat of the Christians, and impartea his
prediction to the leaders of the army, who heard him with
indifference. Dissatisfied with the Crusaders, and devoured
by the zeal of a mission jGrom God, he then conceived the
project of securing the triumph of the faith by his eloquence
and the arms of the Gospel alone. He directed his course
towards the enemy's camp, put himself in the way of being
taken prisoner by the Saracen soldiers, and was conducted
into the presence of the sultan. Then Francis addressed
Melic-Kamel,* and said to him, " It is God who sends me
towards you, to point out to you the road to salvation."
After these words, the missionary exhorted the sultanf to

* The oontinnator of William of Tyre ipeaks at length of the interview
between St. Francis and his companion and the sultan of Cairo. St.
Francis at first proposed to the sultan to renounce Mahomet, under pain
of eternal damnation.

t Li soudan dist qu'il avait archevesques et ere^qaes de sa loi, et sans
eux ne pouvoit-il cner ce qu'ils diraient. Les clercs lui respondirent :
**Mandez les guerre ;' ' et ils vinrent k lui en sa tente. Si leur conta ce que .
11 clercs li avaient dist ; ils re#pondirent : " Sire, tu es ^pee de la loi. Nous
nous te commandons, de par Mahomet que tu lor fasse la teste couper.''
A tant puient oong^, si s'en allerent. Li soudan demora et li dist clercs,
dont Tint li soudan, si lors dist, ** Seignors, ils m'ont command^, de par
Mahomet, et de par la loi, que je yous fasse les testes couper ; mais j'irai
en centre le commandement," &c. &c. (The sultan — we translate our old
historian — said he had archbishops and bishops of the law, and without
them he could not listen to what they had to say. The clerks, St. Francis
and his companion, answered him, " Send for them here" — and they
came to him in his tent. He then related to them what the clerks had
said, and they answered : " Sire, thou art the sword of the law. We com.
mand you, by Mahomet, to order their heads to be cut off." They then
made their obeisance and went away. The sultan and the said derka
remained. Then the sultan came towards them, and laid, " Seignon, tbey

246 HI8T0UY OF THE CRUSADES.

embrace the Gk)8pel ; he cliallenged in his presence all the
>doctor8 of the law, and to confound imposture and prove the
truth of the Christian religion, offered to cast hunself into
the midst of a burning funeral-pile. The sultan, astonished,
ordered the zealous preacher j&om his presence, who ob-
tained neither of the objects of his wishes, for he did not
convert the sultan, nor did he gather the palm of mar-
tyrdom.

After this adventure, St. Francis returned to Europe,
where he founded the religious order of the Cordeliers, who
at first, possessing neither churches, monasteries, lands, nor
flocks, spread themselves throughout the West, labouring
for the conversion of penitents. The disciples of St. Francis
sometimes carried the word of God among savage nations ;
some went into Africa and Asia, seeking, as their master
had done, errors to confute and evils to endure ; they fre-
quently planted the cross of Christ upon the lands of the
iufideb, and in their harmless pilgrimages, constantly re-
peated the scriptural words, Pectce he with you ; they were
only armed with their prayers, and aspired to no glory but
that of dying for the faith.

The Crusaders had been encamped seventeen months
before the waUs of Damietta, and not a single day had passed
without a murderous conflict. The Mussulmans, altnough
they had obtained some advantages, be|;an to lose all hope of
triumphing over an enemy proof against the evils of war
and an unhealthy climate. Eeport proclaimed the approach-
ing arrival of the emperor of Germany, who had taken the
cross, and this news, whilst it sustained the courage of the
Christians, made the Mussulmans tremble at the idea of
having to contend with the most powerful of the monarchs
of the West. The sultan of Damascus, in the name of all
the princes of his family, sent ambassadors to the camp of
the Crusaders to ask for peace. He ofi*ered to abandon to
the Franks the city and kmgdom of Jerusalem, and only to
reserve to themselves the places of Krak and Montreal, for
which they proposed to pay a tribute. As the ramparts and

have commanded me, by Mahomet, to order your beads to be cut off; but
I diall act contrary to the commandment/' &c. &c. The historian adds,
that the sultan offered them presents, which they refused — h» ordered
them csfreihmant, and tent them back to the Christian army.

BI8IOBT OF THE CBU8iJ>X8. , 217

towers of tbe Lolj city had been recently destroyed, the
Mussulmans engaged to pay two hundred thousand dinars
to re-establish them; they further agreed to give up all
Christians made prisoners since the death of Saladin.

The principal leaders of the Christian army were called
together to deliberate upon the proposals of the Mussulmans.
The king of Jerusalem^ the f^rench baroUB, the English,
Dutch, and Germans, were of opinion that the terms should
be acceded to, and the peace accepted : the king of Jerusa-
lem would regain his kingdom, aud the barons of the West
would see the happy end of a war that had detained them
80 long from their nomes.

" By accepting the peace they attained the object of the
crusade, — the deliverance of the holy places. The Christian
warriors had besieged Damietta during seventeen months,
and the siege might be still prolonged. Many Crusaders
daily retiuned to Europe ; whilst crowds of Mussulman war-
riors as constantly joined the standards of the sultans of
Cairo and Damascus. If they should take Damietta, they
would be but too happy to exchange it for Jerusalem. The
Mussulmans offered to give, before victory, quite as much as
they could demand after having subdued them. It was not
wise to refuse that which fortune offered to bestow upon
them without conflicts or perils. The effusion of blood
should be avoided, and they ought to reflect, that victories
purchased by the death of the soldiers of the cross, were such
as were most acceptable to the God of the Christians."

The king of Jerusalem and most of the barons spoke thus,
and endeavoured to bring to their opinion the Italian nobles
and the body of the prelates, whom Cardinal Felagius led in
an opposite direction. The legate of the pope regarded
himself as the head of this war, and he wished it to continue,
in order to prolong his power and to procure for him addi-
tional renown. " lie could see nothing in the proposals of
the enemy but a new artifice to delay the capture of Da-
mietta, and gain time. The Saracens offered nothing but
desert countries and demolished cities, which would fall again
into their power. Their only object was to disarm the
Christians, and furnish them with a pretext for returning
into the West. Things had gone too for to allow them to
^ retreat without dishonour. It was disgraceful for Christians

248 HISTOST OV THB GBUBADIS.

to renounce the conauest of a city they, had besieged seren-
teen months, and wnich could hold out no longer. They
must take possession of it first, and then they should know
what was best to be done — once masters of Damietta, the
Crusaders might conclude a glorious peace, and reap all the
advantages of victory."

The motives alleged by Cardinal Pelagius were not un-
reasonable, but the spirit of party and faction reigned in the
council of the leaders of the crusade. As it always happens
in similar circumstances, every one formed his opinion not
upon that which he believed to be useful and just, but upon
that which appeared most favourable to the party he had
embraced ; some advised that the siege should be prosecuted,
because the king of Jerusalem had offered a contrary opinion ;
others wished the proposed capitulation should be accepted,
because this capihilation was rejected by the legate of the
pope. The Christian army exhibited a strange spectacle.
On one side, John of Brienne and the most renowned war-
riors were advocates for peace ; on the other, the legate and
most of the ecclesiastics demanded with great warmth the
continuation of the war : they deliberated during several
days without a chance of bringing the two parties to an
agreement ; and whilst the discussions became more intem-
perate, hostilities were renewed: then all the Crusaders
united to prosecute the siege of Damietta.

The sultan of Cairo employed every means to throw suc-
cours into the city, and keep up the courage of the garrison
and the inhabitants. Some Mussulman soldiers, taking
advantage of the darkness of night, attempted to effect an
entrance into the place ; a few were able to gain and pass
through the gates, but by far the greater number were sur-
prised and massacred by the Crusaders, who kept constant
and close watch around the walls.

The news which the sultan, Melic-Kamel, received firom
Damietta, became every day more alarming ; the Mussulman
army, not daring to succour the besieged, remained inactive,
and confined themselves to the defence of their own in-
trenchments. Communication was soon entirely cut off
between the place and the camp of the infidels ; some divers
crossed the Nile through the Christian fieet, attained Da-
mietta, and returned to inform the sultan that pestilence.

HI8T0BT OF THE CBUSADES. 249

famine, and despair reigned throughout the city. The Mus-
sulmans had recourse to all sorts of stratagems to convey
food to the garrison ; sometimes thej filled leather sacks
with provisions, which, heing abandoned to the stream of
the Nile, floated under the ramparts of the citj ; at others,
they concealed loaves in the sheets that enveloped dead
bodies, which, being borne on by the waters, were stopped in
their course by the besieged. It was not long before these
stratagems were discovered by the Christians, and then
famine began to make horrible ravages ; the soldiers, over-
come by fatigue and weakened by hunger, had not the
strength to fight or guard the towers and ramparts. The
inhabitants, given up to despair, abandoned their houses,
and fled from a city that presented nothing but images of
death : many came to implore the pity of the Crusaders.
The commander of Damietta, whose name history has not
preserved, in vain endeavoured to keep up the courage of
the people and the soldiers. To prevent desertion, he caused
the gates of the city to be walled up ; and from that period
neither the sultan of Cairo nor the Crusaders were able to
know what was passing in the besieged place, in which a
dismal silence reigned, and which, according to the expres-
sion of an Arabian author, was no longer anything but a
closed sepulchre.

The Christians had placed their machines at the foot of a
tower, and as they saw no one defending it, the legate, at
the head of the Italian Crusaders, took advantage of a dark
and stormy night to penetrate within the first inclosure of
the walls. The king of Jerusalem and the other leaders
resolved at the same time to make an assault and enter the
city, sword in hand. As soon as day appeared, the boldest
ascended into the tower, which they found deserted, and
called aloud upon their companions to join them. The
• Christian army applauded theur success, and answered by
shouts of joy ; the soldiers flew to arms, and instantly put
the rams in motion. The walls were scaled, the gates were
beaten to pieces, and a passage opened ; the eager Crusaders
rushed forward with naked swords and ready lances to en-
counter the enemy ; but when they penetrated into the
streets, a pestilential odour enveloped tnem, and a frightful
spectacle made them recoil with horror ! The public phices.

250 HISTOBY OF TH£ CB17SADSS.

the mosques, the houses, the whole city, were strewed with
dead !• Old age, infancy, ripened manhood, maiden beauty,
matronly grace — aU had penehcd in the horrors of the siege !
At the arrival of the Crusaders, Damietta contained seventy
thousand inhabitants ; of these only three thousand of the
most robust remained, who, ready to expire, glided like pale,
fading shadows among tombs and ruins. •

This horrible spectacle touched the hearts of the Cru-
saders, and mingled a feeling of sadness with the joy their
victory created. The conquerors found in Damietta immense *
stores of spices, diamonds, and precious stuffs. "When they
had pillaged the city, it might nave been believed, says an
historian, that the warriors of the West had conquered
Persia, Arabia, and the Indies. The ecclesiastics launched
the thunders of excommunication against all who secreted
any part of the booty ; but these menaces had no effect upon
the cupidity of the soldiers : all the wealth brought to the
public stock only produced two hundred thousand crowns,
which were distributed among the troops of the victorious
army.

Damietta boasted a celebrated mosque, ornamented by six
vast galleries and a hundred and fifty columns of marble,
surmounted by a superb dome, which towered above all the
other edifices of the city. This mosque, in which, on the
preceding evening, Mussulmans had lifted their imploring,
tearful eyes to their prophet, was consecrated to the virgin
mother of Christ, and the whole Christian army came thither
to offer up thanks to Heaven for the triumph granted to
their arms. On the following day the barons and prelates

* Ingredientibus nobis foetor intolerabilis, specttu misenLbilis ; mortai
Tivos ocrideraot ; vir et uxor, dominiu et servus, pater et filins, se matuis
foetoribas interemerant. Non solum platece erant mortuis plenie, sed in
domibuB et cabicaUs et lectis jacebant defuncti ; exdncto viro, mulier
impoteoa sargere, sublevandi carens subiddio vel solatione, putritudinem
non ferens expiravit. Filius juxta patrem, vel e converso ; ancHla juxta
domlnam, vel vice versA, languore deficiens jacebat extincta; parvuli
petierunt panem, et non erat qui frangeret eis. Infantes ad obera matrum
pendentes, inter amplexus morientium vocitaoant ; delicati divites^ inter
acervos tritici interienint fame; deficientibus cibis, in quibus erant
natriti, pepones et allia, cepas et alitilia, pisoes et volatilia, et fractna
arborum, et olera frustra desiderantea. Maltitado vnlgi oontracta vel
molestiis dintius fatigata deficiens arnit. — J, VUr. Hisi. Or, I. iii.

HI8T0BT 01 THI 0KIT8ADX8. 251

assembled in tlie same place, to deliberate upon their con-
quest ; and, by a unanimous resolution, the city of Damietta
was assigned to the Ung of Jerusalem. They then turned
their attention to the iate of the unfortunate inhabitants
who had escaped pestilence and famine. James of Yitri,
when descrihing the miseries of Damietta, and speaking of
the horrible famine which swept away so many families
during the siege, sheds tears over the little children who in
vain asked their dead parents for br^ad.* The fate of such of
those as remained alive inspired the virtuous bishop of
Ptolemais with pity, and he purchased many of them, in
order to have them, baptized and brought up in the Christian
religion. The pious charity of the prelate, however, could
only procure them eternal life, for they almost all died after
having been baptised. All the Mussulmans who had suffi-
cient strength to work received liberty and bread, and were
employed in cleansing and purifying the city. Whilst the
leaders were thus watehing over a mourning city, and gave
their anxious attentions to prevent new calamities, the spec-
tacle that Damietta presented, and the empoisoned air they
breathed within its walls, obliged the Christian army to
return to their camp, and wait for the time at which the
conquered city might be inhabited without danger.

"When the news of the taking of Damietta was spread
through Syria and Upper Egypt, the Mussulman nations,
seized with terror, flew to then* mosques to implore the
intervention of their prophet against the enemies of Islam-
ism. The sultans of Cairo and Damascus sent anlbassadors
to the caliph of Bagdad, conjuring him to exhort all true
believers to take arms to defend the religion of Mahomet.
The caliph contemplated with grief the calamities about to
faU upon the princes of the family of Saladin ; but other
dangers threatened him more nearly. Tartar hordes had
issued from their mountains, invaded several provinces of
Persia, and were advancing towards the Euphrates. The
caliph, far from being able to assist the Mussulmans of Syria

* M. Michand is acciued by some French critics of being too rhetorical
-^in this instance he has not made his story so effective as he might baye
done. If the reader will turn to the extract from Jamet qf Vitri, at the
foot of the last page, he will find the old chronicler much more powerful
than the modem lustorian. — ^T&ans.

252 H18TOBT OJt THE CBUBASSB.

and Egypt hj bis prayers and exhortations, invoked their
succour to defend his capital, and tiim aside the storm ready
to burst over the whole East. "Wliei^ the Mussulman am-
bassadors returned to Damascus and Cairo, their accounts
added new alarms to those which the conquests of the
Christians had already inspired.

The Ayoubite princes, however, did not delay endeavouring
to unite all their efforts against the Crusaders, postponing, to
a more favourable moment, the defence of the head of
Islamism. The Mussulman nations had a much greater
dread of the invasion of the Christians than of the irrup-
tions of the hordes of Tartary. The conquerors whom
nations fear the most, are those thdt desire to change the
laws and religion of the conquered country. The Tartars,
whose habits and manners were not formed, easily complied
with those of the people they subdued ; the Christians, on
the contrary, only made war to destroy all and enslave all.
Already rich cities, great provinces, were in their power :
everything had changed its form under their domination.
Thus the Mussulman princes and people, from the Euphrates
to the Bed Sea, forgot or neglected the storm which growled
over Persia and was advancing slowly towards Syria, and re-
solved to take arms against the Crusaders, who were masters
of the Nile.

After the taking of Damietta, the Mussulman soldiers
who defended Egypt were struck with such excessive fear,
that, during several days, not one of them durst face a Chris-
tian soldier. The Egvptian warriors who guarded the for-
tress of Tannis, built beyond the lake Menzaleh, abandoned
their ramparts at the approach of a f^w Crusaders, and thus
one of the firmest bulwarks of the Mussulman empire fell
without defence into the hands of the Franks. From that
time, the Christians had reason to believe they had no more
enemies on the banks of the Nile ; and, diuring the rigours
of ^Tuiter, many of the pilgrims returned to !E£rope. Half
the army tooK advantage of the March passage to quit
Egypt ; such as remained imder the banners of the crusade
forgot the labours and perils of war, and gave themselves up
to mdulgence and voluptuousness, to all the pleasure which
the approach of spring, and the fine dimate and beautiful
sky of Damietta inspired.

HI8T0ST 07 THS OBUBADES. 2^

During the leisure of peace, the diriBions which had flO
often interrupted the course of the war, soon revived ; the
taking of Damietta had inflamed the pride of Cardinal
Pelagius, who, in the Christian army, spoKe as a conqueror
and commanded as a master. The kmg of Jerusalem was so
dissatisfied, that he ahandoned a city uiat had been given to
him, and quitted an armj of which he was the head, to
retire to Ptolemais.

New Crusaders, however, eaf er to signalize their valour
against the Mussulmans, arrived daily. The duke of Bavaria,
with four hundred German knights and barons, sent by
Frederick II., landed on the banks of the Nile. A short
time afterwards, the Christian army received into its ranks
Crusaders from Milan, Pisa, and Genoa, and prelates and
archbishops conducted a crowd of defenders of the cross,
who came from the various provinces of Germany, and from
Prance and Italy. The sovereign pontiff had neglected
nothing to secure the success oi the holy war ; he sent
to Cardinal Pelagius provisions for the army, and a con-
siderable sum of money, partly from his own treasury, and
partly from the charity of the faithful of the West.* The
legate was desirous of profiting by the succours he had just
received, and proposed to foUow up the war, and march
directly against the capital of Egypt. The clergy adopted
the advice of Pelaffius, but such of the Crusaders as saw
with disgust a prelate at the head of warriors, refused to
take up arms. The duke of Bavaria and the barons and
knights would acknowledge no leader but the king of Jeru-
salem ; the legate Pelagius was obliged to send deputies to
John of Brienne, who, pressed by the pope himself, was at.
length prevailed upon, and consented, after an absence of
several months, to come back and take the command of the
army.

Whilst the Crusaders remained thus in inaction, all the
Mussulmans were flying to arms : the sultans of Damascus
and Aleppo, the princes of Hamah, Balbec, and of Arabia,
assemblea fresh armies. After the taking of Damietta, the
sultan of Cairo had retired, with his troops, to the spot where

* Two letters which HonorivB wrote to Pelagins, when sending him the
money » are stiil extant: tbej appear to ns to be very ooiioua, and merit a
place in our Appendix.

254 HI8T0BT Ol* THS CBUSADK8.

the two eastern branches of the Nile separate : there he daflr
beheld troops of Mussulman warriors join his standard, and,
awaiting a favourable opportunity, he constructed a palace in
the centre of his camp, surrounded hj walls.

The Mussulmans there built houses, baths, and bazaars,
and the camp of the sultan became a citj, called Mansourah,
which was destined to be celebrated in history by the defeat
and ruin of the Christian armies.

As soon as the king of Jerusalem returned to Damietta^
the leaders of the Crusaders assembled in council, to de-
liberate upon what they had to do : the legate of the pope
was the first to offer his opinion, and proposed to march
against the capital of Egypt. " We must attack the evil at
its source, and, in order to conquer the Saracens, destroy the
foundation of their power. Egypt supplies them with sol-
diers, provisions, and arms. By taking possession ofJEgypt,
we should cut off all their resources. At no period were tne
soldiers of the cross animated by more zeal ; never were the
infidels more depressed. To lose such an opportunity was
to betray the common cause. When a great empire was
attacked, prudence commanded the assailants not to lay down
their arms till they had subdued it ; by stopping after the
first victory, they exhibited more weakness than moderation..
The eyes of the whole Christian world were upon the
army of the Crusaders ; it was not only the deliverance of
the holy places that was looked for firom their valour, but the
death of all the enemies of Christ, the destruction of every
nation that had imposed a sacrilegious yoke upon the city of
God."

The bishops, the prelates, and most of the ecclesiastics
were loud in their applause of the speech of the legate ; but
John of Brienne, who did not at all partake of their opinion,
arose, and protesting his devotion to the cause of Christ,
began by appealing to the assembly, if anj one could be more
interested in the conquests of the Christians in the East,
than the man who had the honour to be king of Jerusalem.
He then pointed out how imprudent it wovdd be to go up
the Nile at the very moment at which that river was begin-
ning to overflow, and would most likely inundate the roads
which led to Cairo. " Mark," said he, '' all the perils of the
expedition proposed to you. We axe to mareh into an un-

HI8T0BT 07 TUS CS17SADE8. 255

known land, through the midst of an enemy's country : if
conquered, there can be no place of asylum for us ; if con-
querors, our victories will only weaken our army. However
easy it may be for us to conquer provinces, it will be almost
impossible for us to defend them. The Crusaders, always
eager to return to Europe, are incalculably more serviceable
in gaining battles than in securing the possession of con-
quered countries. Nobody can suppose, that with the brave
bands that surround us, we entertain any fear of the Mussul-
man armies which are gathering together from all parts ; but
in order to secure our safety, we must not only subdue our
enemies, we must destroy them — we have not to deal wit!i
an army, but with an entire nation animated by despair.
The whole Mussulman race are about to become so many
intrepid soldiers, impatient to shed their blood in the field of
battle. But what do I say ? we shall have much less to dread
from their courage than from their timid prudence. They
will not fail to shun the fight, and will wait until diseases,
want, fatigue, discord, the mconstancy of men*s minds, the
overflowing of the Nile, and the heat of the climate shall
have triumphed over our efibrts and secured the failure of
all our enterprises."

John of Brienne strengthened his opinion by other mo-
tives, with which his knowledge of the art of war supplied
him, and terminated his speech by saying, " That Damietta
and Tannis were powerful enough to restrain the people of
Egypt ; that it was necesjtary to recapture the cities they
had lost, before they thought of conquering countries that
had never been in their possession ; and that, in short, they
had not assembled under the banners of the cross to besiege
Thebes, Babylon, or Memphis, but to deliver Jerusalem,
which opened its gates to the Christians, and which they
could fortify against all the attacks of the infidels."

This moderate and pacific language would well have be-
come the mouth of an envoy of the pope; but Pelagius
listened to the king of Jerusalem with the most evident im-
patience : he answered, that weakness and timidity screened
themselves behind the veil of moderation and prudence ;
that Christ did noc summon to his defence such wise and
far-sighted soldiers, but warriors who sought for battle
rather than for reasons, and who could see the glory of an

256 HXSTOBY OF THJB CBUBADES.

enterpriBe, and be blind to its dangers. The legate added
several more reasons to those he had already adTanced, and
expressed them with great bitterness ; at length, led awaj
by the heat of the discussion, he threatened all those who
did not partake of his opinions with excommunication.
Most of the leaders, and the king of Jerusalem himself,
fearing to be excommunicated, but dreading much more to
see the least sus{)icion cast upon their braYery, at length
yielded to the obstinate will of Pelagius : the council of the
barons and the bishops decided that the Christian army
should leave Damietta, and march against the capital of
Egypt.

This army, composed of more than seventy thousand men,
advanced up the banks of the Nile. A numerous fleet, laden
with provisions, arms, and machines of war, ascended the
river at the same time. The Christian army passed through
Earescour and several other villages, that had been abandoned
hy their inhabitants'; all fled away at the approach of. the
Crusaders, who began to believe they should meet with no
obstacle to their victories, and celebrated, beforehand, the
conquest of Memphis and Cairo. The legate of the pope
exulted in the resolution he had dictated to the Christian
army ; and, Ml of confidence in a prediction that had been
made concerning him in his youth, the presumptuous cardinal
flattered himseU* that he was about to overthrow the worship
of Mahomet ; and indulged in the most insulting railleries
against those who had been opposed to the war. Without
fighting a single battle, the Christians gained the extremity
of the Delta, at the angle formed by the arm of the river
which descends towards Damietta and the canal of Almon,
whose waters flow into the sea on the eastern side. The
Saracens were encamped in the plain of Mansourah, on the
opposite bank of the river: the Crusaders halted on the
hither shore, and their fleet cast anchor as near to them as
possible.

The sultan of Damascus, and the princes of Aleppo,
Balbec, Hamah, and Bosra, had imited their troops with
those of the sultan of Cairo. The Nile, whose bimk was
covered with intrenchments, presented a barrier very diffi-
cult to be overcome. But Melic-Kamel did not dare to
match himself with the Crusaders; dreading their raBh

aiBTOBT OF THI OBXTBADIB. 367

hnYery, bo aocustoioed to sport with perils and triumpli over
all obstacles. Beports of the arrival of Frederick, and of
the approach of the Tartars, kept the Mussulmans in a con-
tinual state of alarm, and made them anxious to terminate a
war which exhausted their resources, consimied their strength,
and did sot promise them, even in victory, a compensation
for so many efforts and so many sacrifices.

Ambassadors were sent to propose peace to the leaders of
the Christian army : the Mussulmans offered their enemies,
if they would consent to an entire cessation of hostilities, to
give up to them Damietta and its territories, and to restore
•Terusalem, with all the places of Palestine that had been
conquered by Saladin.

These conditions assured to the Christians all the advan-
tages of both war and peace. The king of Jerusalem, and
most of the barons, who saw the difficulties and perils of the
expedition they had entered upon, listened with as much
surprise as joy to the proposals of the infidels, and did not
hesitate to accept them ; but they had absolutely no power
in the army. The legate, who exercised an arbitrary authority,
and who was constantly dreaming of conquests, persisted in
thinking that these pacific proposals were only the effects of
fear, and that the enemy who sued for peace was the one
with whom war should be prosecuted with most spirit.

The ambassadors returned to the camp of the Mussulmans,
to announce that the Christians refused the peace : their
account excited indignation, and indignation roused courage.
When the Ayoubite princes proposed peace, they were in
possession of ample means to carry on the war with advan-
tage; they every day received reinforcements, and their
camp rapidly assumed a more formidable aspect ; but soon a
terrible auxiliary, against whose attacks Pelagius had no de-
fence, came to the assistance of the Mussulmans, and pro-
cured them a complete triumph without either battles or
danger.

l%e Christian warriors, who flattered themselves they
had now only to deal with a conquered enemy, were satisfied
with surrounding their camp with a ditch and a waQ ; the
army remained for several days in this position, without
making an effort either to attack the Saracens or jpass the
Nile. Pelagius, who was confltantly promising victory to
Vol. II.— 12

258 HISTOBT OV THE CBTTSADBB.

his soldiers, remained, nevertheless, in a state of inactivity
in his tent. During this period, many of the Crusaders
grew weary of a war in which no battles were fought ; some
fancied that the cause no longer stood in neea of their
assistance ; whilst others, with more foresight, feared coming
reverses : more than ten thousand Crusaders abandoned the
camp and returned to Damietta.

The Christian army had been for more than a month in
face of the enemy, always in expectation of the victories
that had been promised to them. At length, the overflowing
of the Nile, in a most alarming manner, disturbed their
imagined security. The Saracens opened, the sluices, and
filled all the canals of Lower Egypt. The Mussulman fleet,
which had not been able to ascend the Nile by Damietta, took
advantage of .the canals, and came up with the Christian ships.
In a single engagement, the vessels of the Crusaders were
almost all dispersed and consumed by the Greek Are : from
that moment terror seized upon the Christians, for they were
in want of provisions, and had neither means nor hopes of
obtaining any. The Saracens, after having crossed the Nile
on bridges, occupied all the circumjacent hills. The Chris-
tian soldiers wandered about the fields at hazard, pursued by
the waves of the rising river, and by the Mussulmans, whose
bravery they had so lately held in contempt. The whole
army was on the point of being submerged or perishing with
hunger, and had no hope but in the clemency of an enemy
with whom they had recently refused to make peace.

In this extremity, the king of Jerusalem and the principal
leaders of the Christians sent several of their knights to offer
the Saracens little ; but the latter were neither sufficiently
imprudent, nor sufficiently generous to accept a proposal
dictated by despair. The Crusaders were exhausted with
hunger and fatigue ; the cavalry sunk into, and encumbered
by mud and slime, could neither advance nor retreat ; the
foot-soldiers ca«t away their arms ; the baggage of the army
floated away upon the waters, and nothing was heard but
groans and lamentations. " "When the Chnstian warriors,"
says an Arabian historian, " saw nothing before them but
death, their minds sank into a state of despondency, and
their backs bent beneath the rod of God, to wham be all
prake /"

HI8T0BT OF THX OBUSASSfl. 259

FelagiuB must then hare been sensible of the full extent of
his error : his project of marching to Cairo had, doubtless,
something great in it, if it could have been executed ; but
the presumptuous legate disdained all counsels, all lessons of
experience, and foresaw none of the obstacles he was certain
to meet with on his route ; he conducted an army filled with
discontent ; the soldiers had neither that confidence nor that
enthusiasm that leads men to brave dangers or cheerfully
encounter fatigue. The king of Jerusalem, the diike of
Bavaria, and a great number of the barons were his personal
enemies, and took very little interest in the success of an
enterprise of which they had disapproved.

Amidst the cries and lamentations of an army to which he
had promised victory, Pelagius was obliged to negotiate for
peace, and his pride humbled itself so far as to implore the
clemency of the Saracens. Christian ambassadors, among
whom was the bishop of Ptolemaia, went to propose a capi-
tulation to the conquerors ; they offered to give up the city
of Damietta, and only asked for the Christian army liberty
to return to Ptolemais.

The Mussulman princes assembled in council to deliberate
upon the proposals of the Crusaders. Some were of opinion
they should be accepted ; others declared that all the Chris-
tians ought to be made prisoners of war. Among those who
proposed the harshest measures, the sultan of Damascus, an
implacable enemy of the Franks, was conspicuous. " No
treaty can be made," said he, "with warriors without
humanity and without faith. We should remember their
barbarities in war and their treachery in peace. They armed
themselves to ravage provinces, to destroy cities, and over-
throw the worship of Mahomet. Since iortune has placed
these most cruel enemies of Islamism, these devastators of
the East, in the hands of the true believers, we ought to im-
molate them to the safety of the Mussulman nations, and
take an advantage of our victory that will create a terror
among the people of the West for ever."

Most of the princes and emirs, animated by fanaticism
and vengeance, applauded this violent speech. The sultan of
Cairo, more moderate, and, doubtless, more prescient than
the other leaders, dreading likewise the arrival of Frederick
and the invasion of the Tartars, combated the opinion of

HISTOBT OF THB CBITSADES.

tbe sultan of Damascus, and adyised that the capitulation of
the Franks should be accepted. '' All the Enuika were not
comprised in this army now in their power ; other Crusaders
guarded Damietta, and might be able to defend it; the
Mussulmans had sustained a siege of eight months, the
Christians might hold out as long. It was more advan-
tageous for the princes of the family of Saladin to return to
their cities than to retain a few of their enemies in chains.
If they destroyed one Christian army, the West, to avenge
the defeat of its warriors, was able to send numberless
legions into the East. They ought not to forget that the
Mussulman armies had lost a portion of tlmt spirit of
obedience and discipline that was the sole guarantee of vic-
tory ; that they were Worn out with fatigue, and sighed for
repose. Other enemies than the now disarmed C&3tians,
other perils than those they had just escaped, might soon
hang over both Syria and Egypt.* It was wise to make
peace at this moment, in order to prepare for fresh contests,
for new wars, perhaps much more cruel than that which they
had now an opportunity of terminating with so much glory
to the Mussulman arms."

Tbe speech of Melik-Kamel brought back the princes of
his family to sentiments of moderation.f The capitulation
was accepted ; the sultan of Cairo sent his own son to the
camp of the Christians as a pledge for his word. The king
of Jerusalem, the duke of Bavaria, the legate of the pope,
and the principal leaders repaired to the camp of the Sara-
cens, and remainecL as hostages till the accomplishment of
the treaty.

When the deputies of the imprisoned army came to Ba-

* The Chronicle of Ibn-ferat gives some details of this council of the
Mussulman princes. The Western historians say nothing of it. It is a
pity that James of Vitri, who was sent to the camp of the Saracens to
propose the capitulation, should have preserved a profound silence upon
so important a circumstance. We have several times remarked that the
Arabian historians, when the Mussulmans experience reverses, content
themselves with saying, *♦ God it great ; may God curse the Ckriitiant /"
We find the same inconvenience in the Western historians, who are almost
always silent when the Christians are conquered.

t We cannot refrain from observing that the deliberations of the Mus-
sulmans generally end in resolutions of moderation and mercy ; and that
ta.'se of ibe Crusaders have, as ofteo, a very different regaU. — ^TlUNt.

HISTOBY OF TH£ CBTTBADXS. S61

mietta and announced the disasters and captivity of the
Christians, their account drew tears from the crowd of
Crusaders who at that time arrived from the West. When
these same deputies informed them that the city must he
given up to the infidels, the most intrepid of the Franks
could not restrain their iudignation, and refused to recog-
nise a treaty so disgraceful to the soldiers of the cross. The
greatest tumult prevailed throughout the city. Some, filled
with despair, determined to return to Europe, and prepared
to desert the banners of the cross ; others ran towards the
ramparts, and getting possession of the towers, swore to
defend them.

A few days after, fresh deputies arrived to declare that the
king of Jerusalem and the other leaders of the armv would
be obliged to give up Ptolcma'is to the Mussulmans if they
refused to surrender Damietta. In order to overcome the
obstinate resistance of those who wished to defend the city,
and who reproached tlie imprisoned army with disgracing
the Christians, they added, that this army, though defeated,
had obtained a prize worthy of their former exploits, for the
Saracens had engaged to restore to them the true cross of
the Saviour, which had fallen into the hands of Saladin at
the battle of Tiberias. Tlie fear of losing Ptolemais, the
hope of regaining the cross of Christ, together with the
speeches of the deputies, brought back the spirit of peace
and resignation to the minds of the most ardent of the
Crusaders, and disposed them to the performance of the
conditions of the treaty.

In the mean time, the Christian array having lost their
tents and their baggage, passed many days and many nights
in a plain covered with the waters of the Nile. Hunger,
disease, and inundation threatened their entire destruction.
The king of Jerusalem, then in the camp of the Saracens,
upon being informed of the horrible distress of the Chris-
tians, went to conjune Mclik-Kamel to have pity on his
disarmed enemies. The continuator of AVilliam of Tyre,
who is our guide in this part of our history, reports, in his
old, quaint language, the touching interview between John
of Brienne and the sultan of Eg}^pt. " The king sat down
before the sultan, and began to weep ; the sultan, on seeing
tlie king weep, said, * Sire, why do you weep ?* ' Sire, I

262r niSTOBT OF ths crusades.

have good cause,' replied the king, * for I heboid the people
whom Gk)d has confided to me perishing amidst the waters,
and dying with hunger.* The sultan felt great pity at seeing
the king weep, and he wept also ; then he sent thirty thou-
sand loaves to the poor as well as the rich ; and sent the
same quantity daily during four days." *

Melik-Kamcl caused the sluices to be closed, and the
waters rapidly retired from the plaiu ; as soon as Damietta
was surrendered to the Mussulmans, the Christian army
began its retreat. The Crusaders, who owed their liberty
and lives to the mercy of the Saracens; passed through the
city which had cost them so many conflicts and so much
labour ; and, weeping, quitted the banks of the Nile, where
so short a time before they had sworn to make the cause of
Christ triumphant. They bore away in sadness the wood of
the true cross, the identity of which they had reason to
suspect, since it no longer performed miracles, and was not
for the^n now the signal ol victory. The sultan of Egypt
caused them to be accompanied by his son, who had orders
to provide for all their wants on their route. The Saracen
leaders were impatient to get rid of an army that had threat-
ened their empire ; they could scarcely give credit to their
own triumph, and some little apprehension was, no doubt,
mingled with the pity with which their conquered enemies
inspired them.

Great rejoicings had been made at Ptolemais for the vic-
tories obtained by the Christians on the banks of the Nile ;
thev believed that they already saw the holy places delivered,
ana the empire of the Saracens destroyed. Consternation
took place of their joy on seeing the army return. As in
all the other reverses which their arms had met with, the
Christians mutually reproached each other with their defeat;
they accused the leaders of ambition, and the king of Jeru-
salem of weakness ; the Templars and Hospitallers, who had

* As translation can scarcelj do justice to this touc]iing little morceau,
I subjoin the original. — Trans, he roi s'assit devanc le sondan, et so
mist & plorer; le soodan regarda le roi qui ploroit, et lui dist : " Sire,
pourquoi plorez vous ?" " Sire, j'ai raison," repondit le roi, " car jc void le
people dont Dex m'a chargi6, perir au milieu de I'eve et mourir de faim."
Le tottdan eut piti^ de ce qu'il vit le roi plorer, si ploraaussi ; lors envoya
trente mille pains as psuvres et as riches ; ainsi leur envoya qnatre jours
de suite.

HISTOBT OF THI CRT7BADE8. 268

on all oocasions set aa example of courage and the most
generous devotedness, were obliged to make a public apology
for their conduct. "VVhen it became known in the West that
Damietta had fallen again into the hands of the Saracens, all
the faithful were affected by the deepest grief,* and sought,
by their prayers, to mitigate the anger of Heaven. Violent
murmurs arose against the legate Pelagius, and represented
him to the sovereign pontiff as the author of all the disasters
of the crusade ; but Honorius was not willing to condemn
his minister, and reproached Frederick, who had three times
renewed his vow to light against the infidels, with having
remained an idle spectator of an unfortunate war, and with
having neglected to succour his brethren of the East.

Erederick, who had sent vessels, provisions, and soldiers
to the holy war, thought that he had iully performed his part
in the crusade, and was at first much astonished at the
reproaches of the Holy See. When the pope threatened
him with the anger of Heaven and the thunders of Bome,
he could not restrain his indignation; in his letters the
emperor complains bitterly of the tyranny of both Innocent
ana Honorius, and talks of o^posmg war to war, and ven*
geance to injustice. After this, Honorius, who acted less
from the dictates of his own mind than after the policy of
his predecessors, changed his tone, attempted to justify both
Innocent and himselt, and, employing prayers instead of
menaces, conjured Frederick to have pity on the Church of
the East.

This paternal language appeased Frederick ; in an inter-
view winch he had with the pope at Veroli, the emperor of
Germany repeated his vow to repair to Palestine at the head
of an army. In another assembly, which was held some
time afterwards at Verona, the pope endeavoured to engage
Frederick, on accoimt of his own interests ; he proposed to
him to espouse Yolande, daughter of John of Brienne, and
heir to tne kingdom of Jerusalem. The grand masters of
the Templars, the l^ospitallers, and the Teutonic order, with
the patriarch and the king of Jerusalem, all summoned to
Italy to deliberate on the i^airs of the crusade, approved of
a union which would secure them the assistance of a powerful

* Muratori has preaerred a little elegaic poem in Latin, upon tho
taking of Damietta. — See SeripL Rer, Hal, vol. vii. p. 992.

264 HISTOBT Olf THE CBTTBADES.

monarch. Prederick accepted a kingdom nrhicb he promised
to defend, and consented to undergo excommunication if he
{aOed in his promises.

After the conference ofYerona, King John of Brienne
visited the principal states of Europe, lor the purpose of
soliciting aicl for the Holy Land. At the time of John's
arrival in France, the French were mourning the death of
Philip Augustus. The king of Jerusalem assisted at the
fimeral ceremonies of his master and benefactor, who, at his
death, had bequeathed three thousand silver marks to the
defenders of Palestine. After having paid the last duties
to Philip, John went first to Englxmd, and afterwards to
Germany, in both of which coimtncs his presence and his
discourses strongly moved Christians with the misfortunes
of the Holy Land.

The emperor Frederick, on his part, made all the requisite
preparations for an expedition which he was to lead in per-
son ; he ordered vessels to be constructed in all the ports of
Sicily for transporting the Crusaders. " Heaven and earth,"
wrote he to the pope, " are witnesses that I desire the suc-
cess of the Christian arms with my wholp soul, and that I
will neglect nothing that can assist in securing the success
of the holy enterprise." In all his letters Frederick ex-
horted the sovereign pontiflf to emplov every means to aug-
ment the numbers of the soldiers of Christ. Become, all
at once, more zealous for the crusade than the pope himself
he reproached the court of Eome with being sparing in in-
dulgences, and with confiding the preaching of the crusade
to vulgar orators ; he advised the pope to redouble his efforts
to appease the quarrels of Christian princes, and to compel
the kings of France and England to sign a peace, in order
that the nobles and people of these two kmgdoms might
take part in the crusade. Frederick not being able to go
into Germany, sent thither the grand master of the Teu-
tonic order, with directions to exhort the landgrave of
Thuringia, the duke of Austria, the king of Hungary, and ■
the other princes of the empire, to take the oath to fight
against the infidels. He undertook to furnish the Crusaders
with vessels, provisions, arms, and everything necessary for
the expedition beyond the sea; in short, he displayed so
much activity, and showed so much ardour and zead, tnat all

HIBTOST 07 THE CBUS:J)ES. 265

the attention of the Christians was directed towards him,
and he was considered as the soul, the moving principle, and
the head of the holy enterprise.

The Christians of Palestine placed all their hopes in him ;
the patriarch of Alexandria, in a letter to the pope, said that
they looked for the emperor of Germany on the banks of the
Kile and the Jordan, as formerly the sainU had looked for
the coming of the Mea$iah or Saviour of the world. The
patriarch spoke with grief of the oppression and servitude
that had been inflicted upon the Christians established in
Egypt since the last invasion of the Crusaders. The unfor-
tunate disciples of Christ were not allowed to keep in their
dwellings either arms or horses, nor eyen to bear a crucifix
at the funeral processions of their relations ; a hundred and
fifteen of their churches had been destroyed since the con-
quest of Damietta. Oppressed by tributes,* condemned to
disgraceful labours, bamshed £rom their homes, wandering
around their temples and their altars, they invoked the
mercy of Heaven and the valour of the warriors of the West
for their deliverance.

The report of Frederick's preparations was spread even
to the remote nations of Georgia ; and the queen of that
country wrote to the head of the Church of Some, that the
constable of her kingdom and a great number of warriors
only waited for the arrival of the emperor of Germany, to
fly to the assistance of Palestine. The Georgians had the
reputation of being a warlike people, and were dreaded by
the Mussulmans; their pilgrims enjoyed the privilege of
entering Jerusalem without paying the tribute imposed
upon other Christians. When the sultan of Damascus
caused the ramparts of the holy city to be destroyed, the
warriors of Georgia swore to avenge the outrage committed
on the city of God ; but an invasion of the Tartars pre-
vented them from leaving their own territories.f Since that

* See the letter of the patriarch of Alexandria, in the Appendix. The
patriarch, at the end of his letter, girea the pope lome remarkable opiniona
upon the manner in which the emperor and the Crusaders were to arrive
in Egypt.

t The letter of the qneen of Georgia is to be fonnd in the continuator
of Baronius, under the year 1224. Carious details of the manners of the
Georgians in the thirteenth century may likewise be found in Jamei of
Vitri, Hi$t. OrieiU.

12»

266 HISTOBT 07 THE CBUSiDES.

period, the hordes of Tartary having directed their ravages
towards other countries, the Crusaders of Caucasus and the
shores of the Caspian Sea promised to unite themselves in
the plains of Syria and Egypt, with the Crusaders fipom the
banks of the Ehine and the I)anube.

Frederick, however, was not yet in a position to perform
his so often repeated promises ; the kingdom of Sicily and
Naples contained ^erms of discori and rebellion ; the re-
publics of Lombardy were openly opposed to the emperor
of Q-ermany ; and the Holy See, which observed with anxiety
the ambitious projects of Fre'derick upon Italy, encouraged
all the enemies of a power of which it dreaded the too close
neighbourhood. Thus, the policy of the court of Rome,
the revolts of Sicily, and the enterprises of the Italian
republics, would not allow the emperor to lead his armies
into Asia. Frederick demanded of the pope the indulgence
of a delay of two years for the performance of his vow;
founding his request upon the length of time required for
assembling his armies, and declared that he was not willing
to begin the war before the expiration of the truce made
with the Mussulmans ; thus shoeing much more respect for
treaties with infidels, than had till that time been common
among Christians, indeed, more respect than he had himself
shown. The pope, although much dissatisfied, could not
refuse the delay the emperor demanded ; he, however, dis-
sembled his anger, and contented himself with requiring
fresh promises, which were made, as all the rest had been,
with the greatest solemnity.

The new vows of Frederick were strengthened by hia
marriage -with the heir of the king of Jerusalem. The mar-
riage was celebrated at Rome, amidst the benedictions of the
clergy and the acclamations of the people ; all the Christians
of the West hoard of it with joy, and this union appeared
to them to be the most certain pledge of the victories the
Crusaders would gain over the infidels. John of Brienne,
who assisted at the ceremony, congratulated himself upon
having obtained an emperor for a son-in-law and a supporter ;
but his joy was not of long duration. Frederick, after his
marriage, only saw in him the brother of that Gauthier de
Brienne, who had borne the title of king of Naples and
Sicily ; he considered him as an enemy to hb power, a dan-

HIBTOBT or THE 0BU8ADES. 267

gerous riral, and be disputed the possession of the kingdom
of Jerusalem with him. The pope was secretly pleased at
this claim or pretension, as he noped it would promote the
interests of the crusade. Honorius was delighted to see the
ambition of the emperor mix itself up with the great designs
for the execution of which he was so anxious. Frederick
was therefore acknowledged king of Jerusalem. Thus John
of Brienne, who had always proved himself the most ardent
apostle of the holy war, deprived of his crown, and from
that time a stranger to the affairs of Palestine, was obliged
. to wait in retirement and silence for a favourable opportunity
to avenge himself on his son-in-law, and recover his kingdom.
Frederick carried on his preparations for the holy war,
and appeared more than ever disposed to set out tor the
East. The crusade was preached, in the name of the head
of the Church, in all the kingdoms of Europe ; the sovereign

Sontiff wrote to the princes to exhort them to suspend their
ivisions and occupy themselves solely with the war beyond
the sea.

As hostilities had just been renewed between England and
France, Honorius ordered Louis VIII. to lay down his arms,
and threatened him with excommunication, if he did not
immediately make peace. The king of France, before he
obeyed the orders of the pope, was desirous of completing
the conquest of Poitou ; and whilst the thunders or Bome
w^ere growling over his head, the people and clergy were
returning Heaven thanks for his victories, in every church
of his kingdom.

The war against the English was not the only obstacle to
the departure of the French Crusaders for the Holy Land ;
the exterminating crusade against the Albigeois was still
going on, and Louis VIII. took a more active interest in it
than his father Philip had done. When Louis VIII. had
concluded a truce with England, he at length resolved to
take the cross, and made a vow, not to go and fight against
the^ Saracens in Asia, but against the heretics in Languedoc.
In this crusade the king of France had the double advantage
of scarcely going out of his own territories, and of making
conquests that might some day enlarge his kingdom. The
lords and barons followed Louis into the southern provinces,
and thought no more about the deliverance of JeruiBalem.

268 HIBIOBT 07 THX CBrSAI>B8.

At the same time the envoys of the pope and the emperor
were busy in exhorting the nations of Ghermanj to snccour
the Chnstians of Palestine. Their orations, which at first
had great success, ended hj diminishing both confidence and
enthusiasm. As the pope had recommended the preachers
to be prodigal of the mdulgences of the Church, the people
beheld mth astonishment the greatest criminals take the
cross, and swear to expiate their sins by the holy pilgrimage.
They remembered that St. Bernard had called thieves and
murderers to the defence of Christ; but opinions and
morals began to change, and that which had succeeded in ,
the preceding century was now only a source of reproach.
The monk of XJpsberg, a contemporary author, informs us
that the facility granted to the most vicious of mankind to
redeem their crimes by taking up arms and the cross, only
served to increase ^at offences, and cool the zeal of the
true defenders of Christ *

The orators who preached the crusade in England gathered
more fruit from their labours, but owed great part of their
success to celestial phenomena, which came very opportunely
to second their eloquence. A luminous crucifix, with the
marks of the five ^^ounds of the Saviour, appe&red suddenly
in the heavens. This miraculous spectacle greatly inflamed
the enthusiasm of the people ; and, if we may believe Mat-
thew Paris, more than sixty thousand English took the
oath to arm themselves for the deliverance of the tomb of
Christ.

Spain was constantly the seat of a sanguinary war
between the Moors and the Christians ; the one yarly sup-
ported hj warriors from Africa, the other by knights and
soldiers from the provinces of France, fought battles every
day without destroying their means of either attack or
defence : ^ amidst such wars, in which, by turns, Mahomet
and Christ were invoked, Spain was not likely to hear or
attend to the complaints and appeals of Jerusalem.

Another enthusiasm than that of the crusades, — an ardent
desire for liberty, — then agitated the finest countaies of Italy.
The greater part of the cities, acted upon by jealousy and

* The Chronicle of Upsberg attributes the murder of the respectable
Engelberfc, archbishop of Maience, to this indulgence of the preachers of
the crusade.

HI8T0BT OF THE CBUSADBS.

tbe other passioDS of republics, were all at war among them-
aelves ; fighting eometimes for territory, and sometunes for
independence. In all these small states, parties attacked and
pursued each other with fury, and disputed the exercise of
power, sword in hand. Some of the cities, principalities,
and baronies invoked the authority of the pope, others that
of the emperor of Germany ; the factions oi the Guelphs
and the Ghibellines troubled everv city, and created divisions
in most families. These discords and ciril wars naturally
turned the attention of Christian nations from the crusades.
The cities of Lombardy had formed a powerful confe-
deracy, which ffave Frederick continual caiise of inquietude,
and detained nim in the West ; Honorius employed every
means in his power to re-establish peace, and direct men's
minds towards his darling object ; and at last succeeded in
getting the Lombard republics to ioin the emperor of Ger-
many for the deliverance of the holy places.

Although the people hod lost some portion of their enthu-
siasm for the holy war, it was still possible to form a redoubt-
able army, by gathering together all the warriors that had
taken the cross in the various countries of Europe ; and the
new Crusaders were ordered to meet at the port of Brindisi,
where vessels were being prepared to transport them to the
East. On their arrival in the kingdom of Naples, the em-
peror of Germany supplied them with provisions and arms ;
evejything was ready, and the pope was about, at length, to
see his wishes accomplished, and receive the reward of all
his labours and preachings, when inexorable death deprived
Christendom of its head.

Gregory IX., who succeeded him, had all the abilities, the
virtues, and the ambition of Innocent III. In the execution
of his designs, he feared neither difficulties nor perils; the most
violent measures had no terrors for his obstinacy or audacity,
when the triumph of his will was in question. Gregory had
scarcely ascended the pontifical throne, when the preparations
for the holy war engrossed all his thoughts, and became the
principal object of his active solicitude.

The Crusaders assembled in Apulia had much to suffer
from the influences of the climate and the season ; the sove-
reign pontiff neglected nothing to alleviate their distresses
and hasten their departure. lie exhorted the emperor to

270 HX8T0BT OF THB OBUSADEB.

embark, hj saying to him, " The Lord has pliused ^ou in this
'world as a cherubim with a flaming sword, to direct those
who stray from the way of the tree of life." Frederick at
length yielded to the prayers of the pope, and sailed from
the port of Brindisi with his fleet pnd army. Prayers were
being put up for the prosperity of his Toyage and the success
of his expedition, in all the provinces of his empire, when,
at the end of thi^ days, being attacked by the malady that
had made such ravages in the Christian army, he retraced
his course, and landed in the port of Otranto.

Gregory had celebrated the departure of Frederick as a
triumph of the Church; he considered his return as an
absolute revolt against the Holy See. The little city of
Agnani, to which the pope had retired, witnessed the rage of
the pontifl*, and beheld the birth of that formidable storm
which so long diBturbcd the Christian world. Accompanied
by the cardinals and several bishops, Gregoiy repaired to the
principal church, and having mounted the pulpit, before the
assemoled people, he pronounced a sermon which had for its
text, *^ It is necessary that scandals should arise." Afler
having called upon the prophets, and spoken of the triumph
of St. Michael over the dragon, he launched against Frede-
rick all the anathemas of the Church.

The emperor at first sent messengers to the pope to ex-
plain and justify his conduct ; but the inexorable Gregoiy
refused to listen to them, and complained to all the sove-
reigns of Europe, representing Frederick as a faithless and
perjured prince. He accused him of having consigned his
in& Yolande to close imprisonment, in which she died oi
grief; of having left the Crusaders to perish with hunger,
thirst, and heat in the plains of Apulia ; and of having, at
last, under the frivolous pretext of sickness, violated his oath
and deserted the banners of Christ, in order to return to the
cuitomary ef^oyments of hie kingdom. He made him many
other reproaches ; and in his anger called down upon him
the maledictions of all Christians.

Frederick, exceedingly irritated, replied to the accusations
of Gregory with much bitterness. In his apology, which
he sent to all the princes of Christendom, he complained
strongly of the usurpations of the Holy See, and exposed, in
the nM)fit odious colours, the policy ana ambitious designs of

HI8T0BT 07 THE CBrSABXS. 271

the court of Borne. '* The Churcli of Borne," said be, " sendis
legates eveiywhere, tnth power to punish, to suspend, and
excommunicate, not toith the designs of spreading the word of
Ood, hut to heap up money, and reap that which thev have not
sown.^' The emperor reminded the princes, in his letters, of
the violences which the pope had exercised agauist the count
of Thoulouse and the king of England ; he said that the
domains of the clergy did not now satisfy the ambition of
the Holy See, and that the sovereign pontiffs wished to lay
their hands upon every kingdom. Prom that moment open
war was declared between the pope and the emperor ; neitner
of them possessed a pacific character or a love of quiet ;
both were animated by boundless ambition, jealous to excess
of their power, implacable in their revenge, and always ready
to employ the arms which the Chiurch or fortime placed in
their hands. Gregory displayed an indefatigable activity,
leaving his enemies no repose, but pursuing them at the
same time with the thunders of religion and war. In addi-
tion to the arms of eloquence, the pontiff did not disdain to
emplov satire ; the manifestoes which he published against
his adversaries constantly recalled the spirit of the denun^
ciations made bv the prophets^ These denunciations, mixed
with obscure aUegones, gave to his words a dark and mys-
terious tone, which caused him to be considered as the inter-
preter of angry Heaven. Frederick was neither a less
able prince nor a less redoubtable enemy : the art of war
contained no stratagems or secrets with which he was un-
acquainted; policy dictated no means that he scrupled to
employ. Endowed with all the giils of mind, and with a
keen spirit of raillerv, he was as competent to confound his
enemies in a discussion, as to conquer them in the field of
battle. Descended, on the female side, from those famous
Kormans who had conquered Sicily and the kingdom of
Naples, he united, as they had done, courage with subtlety,
and audacity with dissimulation : to please the court of
Borne, he had made barbarous laws against heretics ; and, «
now become the enemy of the popes, he did not fear to arm
heretics or Saracens against the court of Borne. When
the kingdom of Jerusalem was offered to him, he set no
ereat viJue upon the acquisition ; but he accepted^ it with
joy, in order to increaBe his popularily in the Christiaii

872 EIBTOBT 07 THB CBUSABES.

world, and to arm himself^ one day, aeunst the sovereign
pontiff with a title, which was then held in universal vene-
ration.

A war between such enemies must necessarily prove ter-
rible, and spread desolation and confusion throughout Chris-
tendom. Gregory, on his return to Some, repeated his
excommunications in the church of St. Peter ; Frederick,
in order to revenge himself, seduced into his party most of
the Boman nobles, who took up arms, insulted the sovereign
pontiff at the very foot of the altar, and compelled him to
abandon the capital of the Christian world. The pope,
driven from his states, pursued his enemy with more fury
than ever ; and, availing himself of the formidable authority
of the Church, he released the subjects of Frederick from
their oath of fidelity, by reminding them that they could
owe no obedience to those who opposed themselves to God
and his saints. On his side, Frederick drove the Templars
and Hospitallers from the kingdom of Naples, plunderea the
churches, and ill-treated all ecclesiastics whom he suspected
of being attached to the party of the Holy See. He sent
troops to ravage the patnmony of St. Peter, and enlisted
the Saracens established in Sicily, under the banners of a
Christian prince, to combat the head of the Christian church.
The Boman states were ravaged, and given up to the hor-
rors of war. The eyes of all Europe were fixed upon these
deplorable scenes, and every one seemed to have forgotten
the holy war.

The Christians of Palestine, however, never ceased to im-
plore aid from the West. A letter to the pope from the
Eatriarch of Jerusalem, the bishops of C»sarea and Bethle-
em, and the grand masters - of the three military orders,
painted in strong colours the despair into which the Chris-
tians of the East had fallen, when they learnt that Frederick
had deferred his departure. The pope received their com-
plaints with expressions of sorrow and kindness, and com-
• municated them to the faithful with greater zeal, from their
furnishing him with a fresh opportunity of accusing the
emperor of Germany. But the nations of the West, occu-
pied with their own dangers, and terrified at the sight of the
violent *storms that had recently burst forth, were not in the
least moved by either the lamentatioiui from Palestine or

HI8T0BT 07 THB OBVBABXI. 278

the jjiessing exhortations of Gregory. In this unfortnnate
position of fhiropean affairs, the Christian colonies, ahan-
doned to themselves and their own feeble resources, and a
pre^ to the greatest disorders, must have been inraded and
entirely destroyed, if Providence had not stirred up fresh
discords among their enemies.

During the siege of Damietta, the common danger had
united the children of M)^k-Adcl ; after victory, ambition
resumed the place of fear ; and the Ayoubite princes quar-
relled for the provinces which their umon had wrested from
the power, or saved from the invasion of the Christians.
Conraddin, sultan of Damascus, dreading the views of
Melik-Kamel, called Gelaleddin, prince of the vast empire
of Carismia, to his aid. The smtan of Cairo, in great ap«
prehension of the consequences of this alliance, turned his
eyes towards the princes of the "West. During several
years, the report alone of the preparations of Frederick had
been a source of terror to the Mussulman powers. The
emperor of Germany was considered, in the East, as the
head of all the nations of Europe. The sultan of Egypt
attached the greatest importance to the disarming of a for-
midable enemy ; and as the complaints of the pope, and the
report of the discords that had broken out among the Chris-
tians, had reached his ears, he conceived a hope of finding
in Frederick a sincere ally and a powerful auxiliary.*

Melik-Kamel sent presents and ambassadors to the
emperor of G^ermany; ne invited Frederick to come into
the East, and promised to deliver Jerusalem up to him.
This proposition gave the emperor as much surprise as
joy ; and he, in reply, sent an ambassador into E^;ypt, to
ascertain the exact intentions of the sultan of Cairo, and
offer him his friendship. The envoy of Frederick was
received at the court of the sultan with the greatest
honours, and returned to announce to his master that Melik-
Kamel was ready to favour his expedition to Palestine.

* These details, unknown to all the historians of the West, are related
by Abulfeda and the greater part of the Arabian historians who treat of
the events of this period. The same authors name the Mussulman envoy
* Fakr-eddin ; they disfigure the name of Frederick's envoy, and say that
this prince selected for this mission the person who had beoi his
gofernor in bis childhood.

274 HI8T0BT Of THE CRrSADXB.

This negotiation, with whicli the pope and the Christiazis
of the West were perfectly unacquainted, made Frederick
determine to follow up the project of the crusade : he had,
besides, several other motives for not renouncing the
Eastern enterprise. He knew that John of Brienne was
on the point of returning to Palestine, and resuming pos-
session of the kingdom of Jerusalem. The pope continued
to represent him as the enemy of Christ, and the scourge
of Christians. To secure the failure of the plan of John
of Brienne, and, at the same time, reply to the sovereign
pontiff in a victorious manner, Frederick resolved to embark
tor the Holy Land. He was desirous of proclaiming his
intention with the greatest pomp ; and caused a magnincent
throne to be erected in the plam of Barletta, which he
ascended in the presence of an immense crowd of spectators.
In all the splendour of imperial magnificence, he presented
himself invested with the pilgrim's cross, and announced to
the assembled people that ne was about to set out for Syria.
In order to give more solemnity to this pompous ceremony,
and affect the hearts of the multitude, the emperor caused
his will to be read with a loud voice ; and the barons and
nobles swore at the foot of the throne, to see that his last
commands should be executed, if he should chance to lose
his hfe, either in the perils of the sea or ..the wars of the
Ea£t.

"When the pope learnt this determination of Frederick's,
he sent ecclesiastics to forbid him to embark. The sove-
reign pontiff reproached the emperor with presenting to the
Christian world the scandal of a crusade directed by a prince
reproved of Qod: as the fleet of Frederick consisted of
only twenty galleys, and as he took with him only six hun-
dred knights, Grregory reproached him with not having ful-
filled his promises, and compared his imprudent attempts to
the expedition of a captain of pirates. The emperor did
not condescend to make any reply to the messengers of the
pope ; the more opposition the head of the Church gave to
his departure, the more impatient Frederick appeared to set
out and accomplish his design : in his indignation, he con-
gratulated himself at having to brave the anger of the
Church and the arms of the Saracens at the same time. He
left the greater part of his army in Sicily ; charging lus

HISTOBT or THS CBIfBABXS. 276

lieutenant, the duke of Spoleto, to negotiate for peace with
the pope, but at the same time to carry on the war com-
menced against the Boman states with unabated vigour.

When he heard of the departure of the emperor, Gregory-
was in the little city of Assisi, occupied in the canonization
of St. Francis. During several days, he had sung nothing
but hymns of hope and joy : " Francis," said he, " had ap-
peared like the star of morning, like the orb of day, like the
moon in its splendour." This language of peace, this fes-
tive pomp, were all at once interrupted by the maledictions
that the pope pronounced against Frederick : the sovereign
pontiff repaired to the foot of the altar, and there implored
Heaven to confound the pride of impious monarchs, and
frustrate all their sacrilegious enterprises.

The emperor, notwithstanding, arrived safely on the coast
of Syria, and was received at Ptolemajs by the patriarch,
the clergy, and the grand masters of the military orders.
For some days, the Christians of the East viewed him as
the liberator and the king of Jerusalem; but a change
speedily took place. Two disciples of St. Francis, sent by
the pope, came to announce to the faithful that they had
received a prince rebellious to the will of the Church. iFrom
that moment, contempt, hatred, and mistrust took place of
respect and submission. They began by perceiving that
Frederick was followed by only a smaU number of warriors,
and that he had not troops enough to render him formidable
to either the Saracens or the Christians. Nothing was
talked of in Ptolemais but the excommunication of the

S>pe, and the means of withdrawing themselves from obe-
ence to a heretic prince: never had the deliverance of
Jerusalem been less thought of.

At the moment in which Frederick arrived in Syria,
Conraddin, sultan of Damascus, died ; and the death of^^this
prince gave birth to more discords among the Mussulman
powers. The principality of Damascus was governed by a
jroung inexperienced prince ; and the spirit of license and
insubordination, which had, in the last wars, been already
observed among the troops of Syria and Egypt, made, every
day, greater progress, and put all the Mussulman thrones in
peril.

The sultan of Cairo, when informed of the arriTal of

276 HIOTOBT 07 THX CBVSABES.

Frederick, came into Palestme, at the bead of an army.
Some asserted that he came to defend Jerusalem, and to
fight with the Christians ; but his true design was to take
advantage of the chances of war, and of the discords which
everywhere prevailed, to get possession of Damascus, and
defeat the plans of the enemies that jealousy and ambition
had raised up against him among the Mussulmans and
princes of his family.

The emperor of Grermany marched out of Ptolemais, at
the head of his small army, and directed his course towards
the mountains of Naplouse. He had sent Count Thomas
de Celano to Melik-Kamel, to remind him of his promises,
and to tell him, that, being master of the most vast provinces
of the West, he was not come into Asia for the purpose of
making conquests ; that he had no other design but that of
visiting the holy places, and taking possession of the king-
dom of Jerusalem, which belonged to him.* The sultan
received the ambassador of Frederick with due respect;
but whether he was ashamed to make peace before he had
begun the war, or whether he feared to draw upon himself
the hatred of the Mussulmans, by showing too much defer-
ence for a Christian prince, he at first made no reply to the
propositions that were made to him.

Nevertheless the two princes sent firesh ambassadors,
charged on both sides to express a desire for peace ; both
were placed in embarrassing circumstances, being surrounded
by enemies who blamed their proceedings, and did not allow
them to publish all their sentiments freely. The Mussul-
man army from Damascus, encamped in the neighbourhood
of Jerusalem, watched all the movements of the sultan of
Egypt, and seemed much more disposed to fight with him
than to repulse the Christians. The emperor of Germany
found himself in the presence of two hostile armies, and that
which he himself commanded inspired him with no more
confidence than he inspired in it. The Hospitallers and
Templars had left him, and followed him at a distance ; in
the camp of the Christians no one durst pronounce the

* Th$ pemsal of Arabian authors throws great light upon this part of
"the history of the crusades; the continuator of William of Tyre, the
letters of the patriarch of Jerusalem, or the correspondenoe of the pope,
give but very incomplete information.

HI8T0BT OF THB CBVBADSfl. 277

ntme of the prince who commanded the axmy. Frederick
hiid been obhged to withdraw the standard of the empire,
and his orders were only issued to the soldiers of the cross
in the name of God and of the Christian republic.

In this difficult situation, Frederick and Melik-Kamel
were equaJlj sensible of the necessity for peace, and of the
danger of commencbg war ; they therefore gaye more em-
ployment to their ambassadors tnan to their soldiers ; this
crusade was nothing but a long negotiation, disapproved of
by both Christians and infidels. As the two soyereigna
covered their policy with a veil of profound mystery, it was
easy for hatred to spread and procure countenance for sinis-
ter reports. Crimmal intentions were discovered in the
simplest actions. In the Christian army it was conceived
that Frederick had committed a crime by sending his sword
and cuirass to the sultan of Cairo, as a pledge of his wish
for peace, ^mong the Mussulmans, Melik-Elamel was re«
preached with seeking an alliance with the enemies of
Islamism, by sending to the leader of the Franks an ele-

?hant, some camels, and the rarest productions of Arabia,
ndia, and Egypt. The scandal reached its height when the
emperor received as a present from the sultan of Cairo, a
troop of girls, brought up, according to the custom of the
Orientab, to sing and dance in the banqueting-hall.

At length prejudices were carried so far on both sides,
that Fre&rick was judged more favourably of by his ene-
mies than by his own army; and Melik-Kamel would sooner
have found grace among the Christians than atnong his own
troops. The infidels regarded, the emperor of Germany as a
prince full of wisdom and moderation ; Abulfeda, and all the
Arabian authors, have celebrated the qualities and virtues of
the monarch of the Franks, whilst the continuator of Wil-
liam of Tyre only speaks of this prince with bitterness, and
reports in his history, that all the apostles and other Chris-
tians had great doubt and great suspicion that he was far
gone in infidelity, and warm in his belief in the law of
Mahomet.

Hatred soon broke out in acts of treachery and the most
odious plots. As the emperor had expressed an intention of
going to bathe in the waters of the Jordan, the Templars
addiessed a letter to Melik-Eamel, pointing out the meao»

278 HI8T0BT OF THB CSVSABXS.

of surprising tlie head of the Christian army in his pfQ-
grimage : the sultan of Cairo despised such treachery, and
sent the letter he had received to Frederick. At the same
time Melik-Kamel learnt that the sultan of Damascus had
declared war against him, and would be joined by several
other Mussulman princes. The sultan of Cairo and the
emperor of Germany had carried on their negotiations
for peace during several months, but now, pressed on all
sides by enemies, and surrounded by dangers, even in their
own camp, they at length resolved to end the matter, and
conclude a treatv, which would permit them to dispose of
their forces for their security- or ror their personal ambition.
They agreed between themselves, that they would make a
truce of ten years, and that Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem,
and Thoron should be given up to Frederick or his lieu-
tenants.* According to the conditions of the treaty, the
Mussulmans were to retain in the holy city, the mosque of
Omar and the free exercise of their worship : the princi-
pality of Antioch and the county of Tripoli were not com-
prised in the treaty. The emperor of Germany undertook
to divert the Franks from every kind of hostility against
the subjects or lands of the sultan of Egypt.

When the articles of the treaty became known in the two
camps, the peace was considered by both as impious and
sacnlegious.t The imauns and cadis, invoking the name of
the caliph of Bagdad, loudly condemned a truce which con-
veyed away from the Mussulmans the holy city, which they

* The Arabian authors who speak of this treaty, say that one of the
conditions was, that the fortifications of Jerusalem should not be repaired ;
this condition is not named in the treaty which is found in the oontinuator
of Baronios.

f Quant I'apostelle oi ces nouTelles, si n'en fu mie lies, paroe que
I'empereur ^tait ezoommuni^, et qu'il li etoit avis qu'il avait fait mauvaise
pais, parce que les Sarrasins tenaient le temple et per ce ne volnt-il sofirir
nn le s^ut fait par lui, ne que sainte ^lise en fit fete, ains recommanda
par toute Chrestianet^ qu'on excommuniat I'emperor come renvoy^ et
mescr&int.— Om/. of William qfTyre, (When the apostle heard these
news, he was not at all pleased, because the emperor was excommunicated,
and he thought he had made a bad peace, as the Saracens were to retain
the temple. Therefore he was not willing it should be thought he con-
sented to the peace, or that the Church should offer up thanks for it ; and
he ordered that ^e emperor should be ezoommnnicated throughout
Chrirtendom, as a castaway and an infidel.)

HIBTOBT or THX OBrBASXB. 279

called the house of Oody the city of the prophet. The prelates
and biahops, speaking in the name of the pontiff of Borne,
declaimed vehemently against a treaty which left mosques
standing by the side of the Holy Sepulchre, and in some
sort confounded the worship of Mahomet with that of Christ.
When the envoy of the emperor of Germany went to Damas-
cus, to procure the ratification of the treaty which had been
concluded, the sultan and his vizier refused to hear him.
The peace made with the Christians was a subject of afflic-
tion and scandal for aU true believers. One of the most
celebrated orators of Islamism pronounced the panegyric of
Jerusalem in the great mosque ;• and, when recallinc; in
pathetic terms the loss the Mussulmans had experienced, he
drew tears from aU the assembled people.

The patriarch of Jerusalem placed an interdict upon the
recovered holv places, and refused pilgrims permission to
visit the sepulchre of Christ. Jerusalem was no longer, in
the eyes of Christians, the holy city and the heritage of the
Son of Gk)d ; when the emperor made his public entrance,
the faithful preserved a sullen and melancholv silence as he
passed along. Accompanied by the German barons and the
Teutonic knights, he repaired to the church of the Holy
Sepulchre, which was hung with mourning, and appeared as
if guarded bv the angel of reprobation ; tul the ecclesiastics
had deserted the sanctuary, and everything wore the air of
abomination and desolation. Frederick himself took the
crown, and placing it- upon his head, he was proclaimed king
of Jerusalem without any religious ceremony ; the images of
the apostles were veiled ; nothmg was seen around the altars
but swords and lances ; and the sacred vaults gave back no
sounds but the noisy acclamations of warriors.

After his coronation, Frederick wrote to the pope and to
all the princes of the West, that he had reconquered Jeru-
salem without the efiiision of blood ; in his account he en-
deavoured to enhance the splendour and merit of this vic-
tory, which must fulfil all the hopes of the Christian world.
At the same time, the patriarch wrote to Gregory, and all
the faithful of Christendom, to show them the impiety and
the disgrace of the treaty Frederick had just concluded.
When he heard of the success of the emperor, the sovereign
pontiff deplored the conquest of Jenualem as he would have

280 BI8T0BT 07 THX OBUIABSB.

deplored its loss, and compared the new king of Judsa to
those impious monarchs whom the anger of Gh>d placed upon
the throne of Darid.

Frederick was not ahle to remain long in the holy city,
which resounded with imprecations against him. He re-
turned to Ptolemais, where he found only revolted suhjects
and Christians scandalized at his successes. The patriarch
and the clergy placed an interdict upon the city during the
time the emperor should remain in it ; all religious worship
was suspended ; the altars were deprived of their ornaments,
and the crosses, relics, and images of the saints were cast
upon the ground ; no more hells, no more religious hymns
were to he heard ; a melancholy silence prevailed in the
sanctuary, where mass was celehrated in a low voice, and
with closed doors. The dead were huried in the fields,
without funeral ceremonies or monumental stones; eveiy-
thing, in short, denoted a season of great calamities, and a
dread of the vengeance of Heaven: it was thus that the
liherator of Jerusalem was welcomed at Ptolemais.

It was Passion-week, and this religious period gave addi-
tional influence to the clergy and more solemnily to the
maledictions of the Church . fVederick found himseu obliged
to negotiate for peace with the Christians, as he had done
with the infidels, and being unable to regain their goodwill,
he still further exasperated them by his violence. He caused
the gates of the city to be closed, and prohibited the bring-
ing in of provisions ; he planted archers and arbalatiers in
every place where they could insult the Templars and pil-
grims ; aud by his orders, mendicant preaching monks were
dragged from the foot of the altar, and beaten with rods in
the public places of the city.

Hatred and vengeance were carried, on both sides, to the
greatest excess. It was impossible for the emperor, sur-
rounded as he was by enemies, to remain long at Ptolemais,
in addition to which motive, he daily received letters from
Europe urging his return. Two formidable armies, under
the banners of the Holy See, had entered the kingdom of
Naples, pillaged the cities, ravaged the country, mutilated
prisoners, and committed all kmds of enormities. These
armies were under the command of John of Brienne, impa-
tienii; to lerenge his own injaiies, and two Sicilian counts,

HI8T0BT OT THE GBVSAJ>S8. 281

whom the emperor of Germany had driven from the kingdom
of Naples.

Frederick at length quitted Palestine and returned to his
own dominions. As he left Ptolemais, the inhabitants
chanted hymns of deliverance and joy. He accused the
Templars of having endeavoured to deliver him up to the
Saracens; the Templars, on their part, accused him of
having wished to surrender all the Christian cities to the
sultan of Cairo : these accusations, and a thousand others,
dictated by hatred, ought to inspire the historian with great
and just suspicions. The Christians might have urged
against Frederick a much more reasonable reproach ; he had
taken no means to secure his conquest, and they were war-
ranted in believing that he had only made his triumphal
entry into Jerusalem with the view of annoying the Holy
See, and dating a reply to the inculpations of Gregory from
the holy places : havmg attained his object, he had deceived
the faithful, by inviting them to a city that he was disposed
neither to defend nor fortify. In addition to this, Frederick
himself felt very little pride in the advantages of which he
made such a pompous display throughout Europe ; and the
crusade in wnich he had taken a part was frequently the
object of his pleasantries and sarcasms.

On his return to^ Italv, he found a much more serious war
than that he had carried on in Asia. The pope had not only
levied troops to ravage hia states, he had mduced the Lom-
bard republics to take up arms against him. John of
Brienne, deprived of his title of king of Jerusalem, deter-
mined to endeavour to be acknowledged emperor, and his
pretensions were supported by ail that was then held most
sacred, the authority of the Church and the right of victory.
The presence of Frederick restored courage to his subjects,
whose fidelity was stiLL unshaken; he met his enemies in
several engagements, in which he always gained the advan-
tage. The army of John of Brienne was dispersed, and the
pontifical troops quitted aU the cities and provinces they had
conquered, in the greatest disorder.

The pope, learning that fortune had deserted his banners,
again had recourse to the thunders of religion, and employed
the most terrible of its denunciations against Frederick. He
declared that all were excommimicated who should hold any

Vol. IL— 13

282 HI8T0BT 07 THS CBU8ADS8.

kind of commerce with the emperor, all who should sit at
his table, be present at his councils, celebrate divine service
before him, or offer him any mark of attachment or respect.
Frederick was terrified at tnis sentence, which was published
with great solemnity in all parts of Europe, particularly in
his own dominions ; and sent ambassadors to the pope, who,
in spite of the thunders with which he was armed, dreaded
the consequences of war, and showed himself disposed to
receive the submission of an enemy he dreaded.

After a negotiation of several days, a treaty was made, in
which the conquered pope dictated laws to his conqueror,
and appeared, whilst receiving peace, to accord a pardon.
But in spite of this treaty of peace, the effects of discord
still subsisted, and were felt even in the East, where debates,
raided in the name of the Church, had divided men*s minds,
and depressed the general courage ; and where the Christian
states, for which Europe had taken up arms, remained
without support and without defence. As Frederick had
abandoned Jerusalem without fortifying it,* the Christians
were in constant dread of the invasion of the Mussidman .
peasants, whom the hopes of pillage attracted from the
mountains of Naplouse. The great bell of the church of
the Holy Sepulchre often gave warning of the approach of
an enemy eager for carnage ; and most of the mhabitants
retired with their terrified families, some to the fortress of
St. David, which was still standing among the *ruins, and
others into desert places.

The patriarch of Jerusalem, the prelates, barons, and
people of Palestine, who had no longer either a leader or a
king, in vain implored the assistance of the warriors and
princes of the West : prayers and complaints so frequently
repeated, had no power to awaken in the hearts of the faith-
ful either the sentiments of pity or the enthusiasm which
had so often caused them to take up arms and the cross.
They could have no faith in perils that followed so closely

* Un poi apr^ que I'emperor se fiut parti de la terre de Jerusalem,
s'auemblcrent villains de la terre as Samiins, et alldrent k Jerusalem
une mating, pour occir les Chretiens qui dedans estoient.— Cbn^. de Guill,
de Tyr. The same author adds that the Christian knights then at Ptole-
mai's came to the assistance of Jerusalem, and that th^ ViHe^ a giwt
number of the Mastolmans.

HI8T0&T 07 THE CBX7SADE8. 288

upon vietoiy; and they despaired of ever being able to
aasore the deliverance of a country which required to be
delivered so often.

The pope, however, had not abandoned the project of the
crusade, and still entertained the hope of reviving the
ardour and zeal of the Christian warriors by his exhortations.
He convoked an assembly at Spoleto, at which Frederick,
with the patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, and Jeru-
salem assisted. It was resolved in this assembly, to renew
the war in Palestine, notwithstanding the truce concluded
with the sultan of Cairo.

Ghregory was impatient to accomplish his designs, and
proclaim the laws of the Church in the rich countries of the
East ; and, to employ the time till warriors could be gathered
together, he sent several missionaries across the sea, armed
with the sword and the word, to elideavour to convert the
infidels of Syria and Egypt. The sovereign pontiff was so
persuaded of the success of this pacific crusade, that he
wrote to the caliph of Bagdad, the sultan of Damascus,
and the principal Mussulman chiefs, to exhort them to em-
brace Christianity.* History does not say what the fate
was of these mendicant preachers in the East; but the
caliph of Bagdad and the Mussulman princes did not cease
to be inveterate enemies to the Christians. Gregory IX.
was better inspired and more fortunate when he sent sacred
orators into several of the provinces of the West, to appease
the troubles and civH wars that were so injurious to the cause
of religion, and diverted the minds of the people from the
great enterprise of the holy wars,

The disciples of St. Dominick and St. Francis of Assisi,
charged with a mission worthy of the Gospel, pervaded cities
and countries, preaching peace and concord. Among the
preachers thus sent to pacify states, Brother John of Yicentia
made himself conspicuous by the miracles effected by his
eloquence.f In all the countries he visited, the nobles, the
peasants, the citizens, and the warriors flocked to listen to

* The letters addressed by the pope to the Muwulman princes may be
found in the oontinuator of Baronius.

t For the preachings of John of Vicentia consult L*HUioir§ BeeU^
tioMfigue, of Fleuy, voL xfii., and VHUioif dm BfyublifMm d^IUiU^
h\ Sismondi.

2M HI8T0BT or THB CBUAiLDXB.

him, and swore to pardon all injuries and terminate all
quarrels. After having re-established peace in several citiea
troubled bj the spirit of jealousy, and animated bj the
stormy passions of imdefined, ill-understood liberty, he an-
nounced that he should preach in the plain of Fescniera, on
the banks of the Adige. All the inhabitants of the neigh*
bouiing cities, headed by their clergy and their magistrates,
repaired to the place appointed, to listen to the An^el of
Concord* and the orator of public peace. In the presence of
more than four hundred thousand auditors. Brother John
mounted a pulpit elevated in the centre of the plain of
Peschiera; a profound silence prevailed throughout the
assembly ; every eye was fixed upon the holy preacher ; hia
words seemed to descend from heaven. He took for his
text these worcls of the Scripture : " I give you my peace, I
leave you my peace." After having drawn a frightful pic-
ture of the evils of war and the effed» of discord, he ordered
the Lombard cities to renounce their enmities, and dictated
to them, in the name of the Church, a treaty of universal
pacification. At no period had the middle ages presented
a more sublime and touching spectacle ; the historian of that
time, who has nothing but troubles and wars to describe,
ought to be delighted at an opportunity to tell of such an
imposing and solemn scene, wherein religion recalled assem-
bled nations to a sense of all that her maxims contain that
is most consoling and salutary. The discourse of Brother
John filled his auditory with a holy love of peace, and the
cities then at war swore, before him, to forget for ever the
subjects of their long div^ions and eternal rivalries.

These evangelical discourses restored to Italy a few days
of peace, and gave the Holy See an opporilunity of preachine
a new crusade with success. Gregory addressed pastond
instructions to all the bishops and prelates of Christendom.
In his letters to the French bishops, he applied these words
of Christ to the holy war : " If any one would come with
me, let him renounce himself, let him take up my cross and
follow me.** The sovereign pontiff declared all who would
not employ their utmost efforts to conquer the heritage of

* This was then a oommon epithet. St Thoniu ^t^-tt was eaUed
ike Ang^ qftk€ SekooL'^TwLAVB,

HISTOBT OF THIS CBXTSADES. 285

Christ, guilty of treason. The circulars of the pope ordered
all the faithful, of both sexes, to pay a denier per week
towards the expenses of the crusade. The head of the
Church compared these alms to those which St. Paul
solicited for the poor of Jerusalem, and did not fear to
assert, beforehand, that they would suffice for the main-
tenance of the army of Crusaders for ten years.

The preaching of this crusade was confided to the frater-
nities of St. Dominick and St. Francis, which had, in Asia,
missionaries for the conversion of infidels, and in the "West,
preachers to re-establish peace among Christians ; the new
apostles of the holy war received from the pope the power,
not only to give the cross, but to commute the vow of pil-
grimage to a pecuniary alms, a practice that had never been
seen since the begin nmg of the crusades ; they had likewise
the faculty of granting indulgences for several days to all
who came to listen to their sermons. According to the spirit
of their institutions, the disciples of St Francis and St.
Dominick lived amidst austerities and penance ; they de-
voted themselves to poverty, an<i were bound to furnish a
constant example of Christian humility; but, in this in-
stance, the pope desired they should be received into monas-
teries and cities with pomp and ceremony ; and that the
clergy should come out to meet them, with the banners and
most splendid ornaments of their churches. Whether this
roagnincence changed the simplicity of their manners, or
that the people did not like to behold men whom they had
lately seen devoted to evangelical poverty, treated with
ceremonial pomp, the preachers ol^the crusade inspired their
auditors with neither esteem nor respect, aud the crowd
diminished every day. As they received abundant alms, of
which no one could see the employment, neither the
solemnity of their mission nor the sanctity of their charac-
ters could screen them from the suspicions and accusations
of the multitude : the murmurs and complaints which arose
on all sides, at length weakened the authority of their words,
and assisted in cooling the zeal and devotion of the Chris-
tians for the holy war.

The enthusiasm of the people, which Christian eloquence
could not revive, stood in need of the example of the most
illustrious princes and warriors. France was then at peace ;

286 HI8T03T OV THS OBrSADXS.

the war against the Albigeois was drawing towards its end :
siost of the kuights and barons, reared amidst battles, could
not endure rest, and sighed for an opportunity of signalizing
their warlike temperament. Thej took the oath to go into
Asia and fight against the Saracens.

Thibault V., count of Champagne, and king of Navarre,
son of' Thibault, who died before the fifth crusade, under-
took to discharge the vow his father had made to the Church
and to Christ. The king of Navarre was celebrated among
knights and among troubadours ; his muse, which had sung
profane loves, now gave voice to the complaints of Jerusalem,
and awakened, by Christian songs, the sotlour of the soldiers
of the cross. "Learn," said he, "that heaven is closed to
all those who will not cross the seas to visit and defend the
tomb of God.- Yes, all the brave, all who love Qod and
glorj, will not hesitate to take up the cross and arms.
Those who prefer repose to honour, those who dread perils,
will remain alone in their homes. Jesus Christ, in the daj
bf judgment, will say to the one party : * You, who helped
me to bear my cross, go to the place in which dwell the
angels and my mother Mary ;' he will say to the others :
* You, who have not succoured me, descend to the abode of
the wicked.*"* The example and the exhortations of
Thibault attracted princes, barons, and knights from all the
provinces of Trance.

Pierre de Dreux, duke of Brittany, whom the clergy sur-
named Mauderc, because, in his youth, he had abandoned
the ecclesiastical state, wished to expiate his numerous
felonies, his unjust wars, kis tyranny towards his subjects,
his perfidies towards his allies, by the holy pilgrimage.
Hugh IV., duke of Burgundy, the counts of Bar, Ferez,
M&con, Joigny, Sancoure, and Nevers ; Simon de Montfort,
Andrew de Vitri, Amaury fils, Geoffrey d*Ancenes, and
a crowd of barons and knights took the cross, and engaged
to follow the duke of tfrittany and the king of Navarre into
Palestine.

As the preaching of the crusade had been accompanied
by several abuses that might prove injurious to the success

* This poetical exhortation, addresaed to aU knights, may be found
printed among the poetry of Thibault.

HIBTOUT or THB CH178ADES. 287

of ihe holj expedition, a council assembled at Tours, em-
ployed itself m remedying and stopping the e^il at its
source. We have seen, on preceding occasions, that
preachers of the crusades, by rec^ivin^ criminals under the
banners of the cross, had scandalized Christian knights ;
and crusades, as was seen in the twelfth centuiy, were not
considered as a means of salvation for the faithful, and as the
way of the Lord, in which all the world might enter. Great
criminals no longer found a place in the ranks of the pious
defenders of Christ. The council of Tours decided that
Crusaders, arrested by justice, should be transferred to the
hands of an ecclesiastical judge, who would pay no respect
to their privileges, and shoidd even .take the cross from
them, if he found them guilty of homicide or any other
great crime committed against divine and human laws.

As in other crusades, the people were led into violent
excesses against the Jews, whom they accused of havine
immoLited the God for whom they were going to fight, and
who retained immense treasures in their hands, whilst the
Crusaders were obliged to pledge their property to perform
the voyage to Palestine. In order to stop the course of
these popular violences, the council forbade anv ill-treatment
of the Jews, either by plundering them of tfieir wealth or
by doing them personal injury, under pain of heavy eccle-
siastical censures. ^

Another abuse, not less prejudicial to the Crusaders than
all the others, had been likewise observed. The preachers
of the holy wars and many other theologians had permitted
Crusaders to buy off their vow 1^ paying a sum of money
equal to that which they would have expended in their pil-
grimage :• this abuse caused great scandal among the faith-
ful, but the Holy See, which derived considerable sums from
it, paid no attention to the complaints made on accoimt of
it in England and many other states of Europe.

The Crusaders were preparing for their departure, when,
all at once, a fresh cry of alarm resounded through the
West. The empire of the Latins, at Constantinople, was
reduced to the lowest extremity. After the reigns of Bald-
win of Flanders and his son Henry, the family of Courtenay,

* Matthew Paris speaks warmly against this abuse, which created mnch
Biiirmoring in England.

288 HISTOUT 01* THE CBXTSASIS.

called to the throne, derived nothing from their exaltation
but the griefs and reverses inseparable from the government
of an empire which is haatening to decay. Peter of Courtenajy
count 01 Auierre, when on his wjy to take ^possession of the
throne of Baldwin, was surprised and maasacred in Mace*
donia, by the orders of Theodore Comnenus, prince of
Epirus. A short time afterwards, the empress, who had
arrived at Constantinople by sea, died of grief, on learning
the tragical end of her husband. Bobert of Courtenay,
second son of Peter, only ascended the throne to experience
the rapid decline of the empire ; conquered in a great bat-
tle by Vataces, the successor of Lascaris, he lost all the pro-
vinces situated beyond the Bosphorus and the Hellespont ;
whilst, on the other side, the prince of Epirus took posses-
sion of Thessaly and a great part of Thrace. Constantinople,
threatened by formidable enemies, beheld from -its towers
the standards of the Greeks of Nice and of the barbarians
of Mount Hemus, floating near its walls and insulting its
majesty. Amidst these various disasters, Bobert died, kav-
iaSf as his only successor, his brother Baldwin, stiU in his
childhood. John of Brienne, whom fortune had made, for
a short period, king of Jerusalem, was called to the totter-
ing throne of Constantinople, at the moment that the
Greeks and Bulgarians, animated hy the ardour of pillage,
were at the gates of the capjtal. Their fleets penetrated to
the port, their numerous battalions were preparing to scale
the ramparts ; but the new emperor fl^ught several battles
with them, obtained possession of their ships, and dispersed
their armies. The miraci^lous victories of John of Brienne
added greatly to his renown, but only served to diminish his
forces : after having defeated his enemies, he found himself
without an army ; and whilst the poets were comparing him
to Hector, Bolmid, and Judas MachabsDUs,* he was obliged

♦N'aio, Ector, Roll', ne OgierB,
Ke Jadas Maabebeos li fien
Taut ne fit d'armes en estora
Com fist li Rois Jehana eel jors
£t il defora et 11 dedana
La para sa force et sea aena
£t U hardement <|a'il avoit.

PMUp MomdkH, 1274.

HI8T0BT Oir THB CBUSADES. 288

to wait in his capital for succours that 'had been promised
him, and which never arrived. More than eighty years of
age, he terminated his active career in contesting with the
barbarians the remains of a power which had been founded
by arms, and the miserable wreck of which could only be
preserved by prodigies of valour.

The ruins which surrounded him in his last moments
must have made him sensible of the nothingness of human

rdeur, and produced sentiments of Christian humility,
had passed the early days of his life amidst the auste-
rities of the cloister. On his deathbed he laid aside the
imperial purple, and was desirous of breathing his last sigh
in the habit of a Cordelier. A simple French knight, seated
for some few days upon two thrones, both ready to pass
away, son-in-law of two kings,* father-in-law of two empe-
rors, John of Brienne only left, when dying, the remem-
brance of his extraordinary exploits, and the example of a
wonderful destiny. Toung Baldwin, who had married his
daughter, and who was to have succeeded him, was unable
to obtain his inheritance ; and departing as a Aigitive from
his capital, he wandered through Europe as a suppliant,
braving and enduring the contempt of princes and nations.
Spectacle worthy of pity! the successor of the Ciesars,
clothed in the' purple, was beheld imploring the charity of
the faithful, begging for the assistance granted to the lowest
indigence, and frequently not obtaining that for which he
sued.

Whilst the emperor of the East was thus travelling
through Italy, France, and England, Constantinople was
left without an arm^, and sacrificed for the defenee of the
state, even to its relics, the objects of the veneration of the
people, and the last treasures of the empire. The sovereign
pontiff was touched with the misery and degmdation of
Baldwin, and, at the same time, could not hear without pity
the complaints of the Latin church of Byzantium : ho pub-
lished a new crusade for the defence of the empire of the
East.

The Crusaders, who were about to set out for the Holy
Land, were invited to lend their assistance te their brethren

* John of Briemie married, na his second wife, a daughter of the king
of Arngon*

13«

290 HISTOBT OF THE CBUSABES.

of Constantmople ; but the prayers and exhortationB of the
Holj See produced but very ^ble effects ; opinions were
divided ; some wished to defend the empire of the Latins,
others, the kingdom of Jerusalem.

The French princes and nobles, however, persisted in
their resolution of going to fight against the Saracens in
Asia. The barons and knights either pawned or sold their
lands to purchase horses and arms, quitted their donjons
and their castles, and tore the];nselves from the embraces of
their wives. Thibault, their leader and interpreter, bade
adieu to France in verses which are still extant, and which
express, at the same time, the devotion of a Christian and
the spirit of chivalry. His muse, at once pious and profane,
deplores the torments of love, the griefs of absence, and
celebrates the gloiy of the soldiers of Christ ; to console
himself for having lefl the lady of his thoughts, the king of
Navarre invokes the Virgin Mary, the lady of the heaverUy
and finishes his complaints, by this verse, which so admir-
ably paints the manners of the time :

Qnand dame perds, Dame me soit aidant.*

Other troubadours, after the example of the king of
Navarre, sang the departure of the pilgnms ; they promised,
in their verses, the indulgences of the crusade to the war-
riors that would set out for Syria, advising the dames and
demoiselles not to listen to those that should be left in
Europe ; for, said they, there will remain none but cowards :
bHI the brave are going to seek glory in the battles of the
East. Whilst France was repeating the songs of the trou-
badours, and prayers were offered up to Heaven in the
churches for the success of the expedutions, the Crusaders
from all the provinces of the kingdom commenced their
march, directing their course towards the port of Marseilles,
where vessels waited, to transport them into Asia ; all were
animated by the most ardent zeal for the deliverance of the
holy places ; but the pope, at whose voice they had taken
up arms, no longer applauded their enthusiasm. Gregory,
wno had made himself a great many formidable enemies in the

* « My lady iMt, holy lady be my aid."— TaAira.

HISTOBY OF THE CBU8ADES. 201

"West, appeared to have forgotten a war he had so wannlj
promoted^ and was entirely engrossed bj his own dancers.

Most of the leaders of the crusade were assembled at
Lyons to deliberate upon the best means of carrying on their
enterprise, when they received a nuncio from the sovereign
pontiff, who commanded them to return to their homes.
This unexpected order from Gregory IX. gave great offence
to the princes and barons, who told the envoy of the court
of Borne, that the pope might change his pohcy, and di^ap-

Srove of that which he himself had set on toot ; but that the
efenders of the cross, they who had devoted themselves to
the service of Christ, would remain steadfast in their inten-
tions. " We have made,*' added they, " all our preparations ;
we have pledged or sold our lands, our houses, and our goods ;
we have quitted our friends and our families, giving out our
departure for Palestine: religion and honour forbid us to
retrace our steps.'**

As the pope's nimcio wished to speak and uphold the
authority of the Church, and as he accused the barons of
betraying the cause they were goiu^ to defend, the Chris-
tian warriors could not restrain their indignation; the
soldiers and leaders were so exasperated, that they even
ill-treated the ambassador of the pontiff; and, but for the
intercession and prayers of the prelates and bishops, would
have immolated hun to their anger.

Scarcely had the Crusaders dismissed the pope's nuncio
with contempt, than deputies arrived from the emperor of
Germany, equally supplicating them to suspend their march,
and wait till he had collected his troops, m order to place
himself at their head. The knights and barons, animated
by a sincere zeal for the objects of their expedition, could
not comprehend the meaning of the delays thus attempted
to be thrown in the way of it, and sighed over the bUndness
of the powers that wished to turn them aside from the road
to salvation. The king of Navfcrre, the dukes of Brittany
and Burgimdy, with most of the nobles that had taken the
cross, persisted in the design of accomplishing their vow,
and embarked for Syria at the port of Marseilles.

* See Raynold, Matthew Paris, Albcric, Richard of St. Germain, «nd
the EeeUtioMtieal HUtory of Fleury, regarding thii drcoouttnoe.

292 HISTOBT Of THS CBUSADXS.

A new misunderstanding had broken out between the
pope and Frederick, who were disputing the sovereignty of
Sardinia ; all the passions were soon engaged in this quarrel,
and armed themselves, by turns, with the vengeance of
Heaven and the furies of war. Gregory, after having ex-
communicated Frederick afresh, was determined to attack
his reputation, and degrade him in the opinion of his con-
temporaries. Monitories and briefs from the pope were
read in all the churches of Europe, in which the emperor
was represented as an impious man, an accomplice of heretics
and Saracens, an oppressor of religion and humanitv.
Frederick replied to tne accusations of the sovereign pontiff
by the most violent invectives ; he addressed himself to the
Bomans, to excite them against the Holy See, and called
upon aU the princes of Europe to defend his cause as their
own.* " Kings and princes of the earth," said he, ** look
upon the injury done to us as your own, brin^ water to eX'
tinguish the fire that has been kindled in our neighbourhood ;
'a similar danger threatens you." Tlie irritated pope hurled
all the thunders of the Church against his adversary ; and
even went so far as to preach a crusade against the emperor,
saying, " There was more merit in combating a prince who
was rebellious to the successors of St. Peter, than in de-
livering Jerusalem." Throughout this scandalous contest,
the Church was allowed to possess nothing that was sacred,
the authority of princes nothing that was legitimate ; on
one side, the sovereign pontift' considered all who remained
faithful subjects to the emperor as the ministers and accom-
plices of the demon ; on tne other, the emperor would not
aclmowledge the pope as the vicar of Christ. At last,
Q-regory promised the imperial crown to any Christian
prince who would take up arms against the emperor, and
drag him from his throne : Louis IX., more wise than the
Church itself, refused the empire which was offered to him
for his brother Eobert, and employed earnest but vain en-
deavours to restore peace to Europe, disturbed by the pre-
tensions and menaces of the pope.

They soon came to hostilities ; and Frederick, after having

* Upon the qaarrels of the pope and the emperor, Vllaiia Sacra,
torn, viii., Richard de St. Germain, and particularly Matthew Paris, who
reports the letten of Frederick, maj be ooDsnlted.

HI8TOBX Off THX CBUSADXS. 298

gained a great victory over the Milanese, and carried terror
amongst all the republics of Lombard^, inarched towards
Some at the head of an army. Gregory, who had no troops
at all, went through the streets of his capital at the head of
a procession ; he exhibited to the Eomans the relics of the
apostles, and, melting into tears, told them he had no means
01 defending this sacred deposit without their assistance.
The nobility and people, toucned by the prayers of the pope,
swore to die in defence of the Holy See. They set about
preparations for war, they fortified the city with the greatest
expedition ; and when the emperor drew near to the gates,
he saw those same Bomans, who, a short time before, had
embraced his cause against the pope, drawn up in battle*
array on the ramparts, determined to die in the cause of the
head of the Church. Frederick besieged the city, without
being able to get possession of it ; in his an^er, he accused
the Bomans of perfidy, and revenged himself by exercising
horrible cruelties on his prisoners. The hatred enkindled
between the pope and the emperor soon passed into the
minds of the people, and the furies of civil war devastated
the whole of Italy.

Amidst such general disorder and agitation, the cries and
prayers of the Christians of Palestine were scarcely audible.
At the expiration of the truce concluded with Frederick,
the sultan of Damascus re-entered Jerusalem, and destroyed
the tower of David and the weak ramparts erected by the
Christians : this conquest, which revived the courage of the
Mussulmans, necessarily produced more than proportionate
despair among the unfortunate inhabitants of the Holy Land.
Instead of receiving within its walls the innumerable armies
that fame had announced, Ptolemais only had to welcome
the arrival of a few unarmed pilgrims, who had nothing to
relate but the deplorable quarrels of Christian monarchs
and princes. Most of the communications with the East
were closed ; all the maritime powers of Italy were contend-
ing for the empire of the sea ; sometimes in league with the
sovereign pontiff, sometimes with the emperor. Several of
the Crusaaers who had sworn to go to Constantinople or
Ptolemais, took part in the crusade that had been preached
against Frederick ; others resolved to proceed to Syria by
luid, and almost all perished in the mountains and deserts

2d4 HI8T0BT OF THE CBUSJlDES.

of Asia Minor ; tbe French lords and princes, who, in spito
of the orders of the pope, set out for Asia &om the porta
of Provence, were able to bring with them into Palestine
but a very small number of warriors.

At the period of the arrival of these Crusaders, the East
was not less troubled than the West. Melik-Kamel, the
sultan of Cairo, had recently died, and his death became the
signal for many sanguinary wars among the princes of his
family, who disputed by turns the kingdom of Egypt, and
the principalities of Damascus, Aleppo, and ELamah. Amidst
these divisions, the emirs and the Mamelukes, whose dan-
gerous support was constantly sought for, were accustomed
to dispose of power, and proved themselves more formidable
to their sovereigns thm to the enemies of Islamism.
Supreme authori^ seemed to be the reward of victory or of
skill in treachery ; the Mussulman thrones were environed
bv so many perils, that a sultan of Damascus was seen
abandoning his sceptre, and seeking retirement, saying,
"a hawk and a hound afforded him more pleasure than
empire." The princes, divided among themselves, called
for the succour of the Carismians and other barbarous
nations, who burnt their cities, pillaged their provinces, com-
pleted the destruction of the powers they came to defend,
and perfected all the evils that were bom of discord.

The Crusaders might have taken advantage of all these
troubles, but they never united their forces against the
enemy they had sworn to contend with ; the kingdom of
Jerusalem had no government capable of directing the forces
of the crusade ; the crowd of pilgrims had no tie, no common
pomt of interest which could hold them together for any
length of time under the same standards : scattered troops
of soldiers were to be seen, but there was nowhere an army ;
each of the leaders and princes followed a plan of his own,
declared war or proclaimed peace in his own name, and
appeared to fight entirely for his own ambition or renown.

The duke of Brittany, followed by his knights, made an
incursion into the lands of Damascus, and returned to
Ptolema'is with a rich booty ; the other Crusaders, jealous
of the success of this expedition, were desirous of distin-
guishing themselves by exploits, and formed the project of
attacking the city of Qaza. As they marched without

HI8T0BT OF THX 0BUSADX8. 295

order or precaution, they were surprised and cut to pieces
by the Saracens. The duke of Burgimdv, who was at the
head of this expedition, escaped the pursuit of the con-
querors almost alone, and came back to Ptolemaas, to de-
plore the loss of his knights and barons, who had all met
with slavery or death on the field of battle. This reverse,
instead of uniting the Christians more closely, only increased
their discords ; in the impossibility of effecting any triumph
for their arms, they treated separately with the infidels, and
made peace, as they had made war. The Templars and
some leaders of the army agreed for a^truce with the sultan
of Damascus, and obtained the restitution of the holy
places ; on their side, the Hospitallers, with the count of
Champagne, and the dukes of Burgundy and Brittany, con-
cluded a treaty with the sultan of Egypt, and undertook to
defend him against the Saracens who had just given up
Jerusalem to the Christians.

Afber having disturbed Palestine by their disorders, the
Crusaders abandoned it to return to JSurope, and were re-
placed at Ptolemaia by some English, who arrived under
Itichard of Cornwall, brother to Henry III. Bichard, who
possessed the tin and lead mines of the county of Cornwall,
was one of the richest princes of the West : if old chroni-.
cles are to be believed, Gregory had forbidden him to go to
the East, hoping that he would consent to remain in Europe,
and would impart a portion of his treasures to the Holy See,
to produ-e the indulgences of the crusade. When Eichard
arrived before Ptolemais, he was received by the people and
the clergy, who went out to meet him, singing, " Blessed
be hQ who comes in the name of the Lord.*' This prince
was the grandson of Richai'd CoBur de Lion,* whose courage
and exploits had rendered him so famous in the East. The
name alone of Richard spread terror among the Saracens ;
the prince of Cornwall equalled his ancestor in bravery ; he
was full of zeal and ardour, and his army shared his enthu-
siasm for religion and glory. He prepared to open the
campaign, and everything seemed to promise success ; but,

* This is a mistake ; Richard had no legitimate children. Richard,
duke of Cornwall, who was likewise king of the Romans, was the son of
John, Richard's brother. In the same manner Gibbon calls Edward I.
Richard's fupAnv;— he was his grwt-nephno, — ^Tkans.

296 HI8T0BT OV THE CBUfiADES.

after a march of some days, and a few advantages obtained
over the enemy, finding himself veiy ill-seconded by the
Christians of Palestine, he was obliged to renew the truce
made with the sultan of Egypt. As the whole fruit of his
' expedition, he could only obtain an exchange of prisoners,
and permission to pay the honours of sepultui^ to the
Christians killed at the battle of Gaza.

Without having seen either the walls of Jerusalem or the '
bauks of the Jordan, Sichard embarked for Italy, where he
found the pope still engaged in the war against Frederick.
All Europe was in a blaze ; a council convoked for the peace
of the Church had not been able to assemble ; the emperor
still besieged the city of Borne, and threatened the head of
Christendom. Amidst this general disorder, Gregory died,
cursing his implacable adversary', and was succeeded by
Celestine IV., who only wore the tiara sixteen days. The
war was continued with renewed fury, the Church re-
mained without a head, and Christ without a vicar upon
earth ; the cardinals wandered about dispersed ; Frederick
holding several of them in chains. " The court of Eome,"
says Fleury, " was desolate, and fallen into great contempt."
This deplorable anarchy lasted nearly two years ; all Chris-
tendom was loud in complaints, and demaiided of Heaven a
pope able to repair the evils of Europe and the Church.

The conclave met at length, but the election of Inno-
cent I v., made amidst trouble and discord, put an end to
neither the public scandal nor the furies of tne war, which
grieved all true Christians. The new pontiff followed the
example of Innocent* III. and Gregory IX., and soon sur-
passed all their excesses. Under nis pontificate, disorder
continued increasing, until it had reached its height. The
Christians of Greece and Palestine were quite forgotten. Mis*
sionaries in vain perambulated the kingdoms of the West,
to exhort the faithful to make peace among themselves, and
turn their arms against the Saracens ; many of these angels
of peace were proscribed by Frederick, who was, at once, at
war with the sovereign pontiff, the emperor of the East, and
all those who, in taking the cross, nad sworn to defend
Eome, or to deliver Constantinople or Jerusalem. We will
not attempt to describe the violent scenes of which the West,
but pnrtic'Lilarly Italy, was the theatre. Attention becomes

HI8T0BT 07 THE CBITSABES. 297

fatigued bj dwelling long upon the same pictures ; tlie wan
and revolutions which lend so much life to history finish bj
presenting only a wearisome, twice-told tale ; and thus, like-
wise, may the reader perceive that the passions have their
uniformity and tempests their monotoi^.

Each of the preceding crusades had a distinct object, a
march which could be easily followed, and was only remark-
able for great exploits or' great reverses. That which we
have just described, which embraces a period of thirty years,
is ramgled with so many different events, with so many
clashing interests, so many passions foreign to the holy
wars, that it at first appears to present only a confused pic-
ture ; and the historian, constantly occupied in relating the
revolutions of the East and of the West, may with reason
be accused of having, as a European Christian, forgotten
Jerusalem and the cause of Christ.

When we have read the twelfth book of this history, we
perceive that we are already far from the age that gave birtli
to the crusades, and witnessed their brilliant progress. When
comparing this war with those that preceded it, it is easy to
see that it has a different character, not only in the manner
in which it was conducted, but in the means employed to
inflame the zeal of the Christians, and induce them to take
• up arms.

When we observe the incredible efforts of the popes to
arm the nations of the West, we are at first astonished at
the small quantity of success obtained by their exhortations,
their menaces, and their prayers. We have but to compare
the Council of Clermont, neld by Urban, with the Council of
the Lateran, presided over by Gb^gory. In the first, the
complaints of Jerusalem excite the tears and sobs of the
auditory ; in the second, a thousand different objects intrude,
to occupy the attention of the fathers of the Church, who
express themselves upon the misfortunes of the Holy Laud,
without emotion and without pain. At the voice of Urban,
knights, barons, and ecclesiastics all swore together to go
and fight against the infidels; the council became, in a
moment, an assembled host of intrepid warriors : it was not

298 HISTOBY OF THE CBVSADJBS.

BO at the Council of the Lateran, in which no one took the
cross, or burst forth into an expression of that high enthu-
eiasm which the pope desired to awaken in all hearts.

We have drawn attention, in the course of our recital, to
the circumstance of pilgrims being permitted by the preachers
of the holy war to buy off their vow by paying a sum of
money ; this mode of expiating sins appeared to be a scan-
dalous innovation : and the indulgence of the missionaries of
the holy war, who thus released the faithful from the pil-
grimage, made them lose a considerable portion of their
ascendancy. They were not, as formerly, the messengers of
Heaven ; the multitude no longer endowed them with the
power of working miracles ; they were even sometimes
oblifi;ed to employ the menaces and promises of the Church
to £raw hearers to their sermons ; m short, at length the
people ceased to consider them as the interpreters of the
gospel, and saw in them only the collectors ^f the dues of
the Holy See. This sale of the privileges of the crusade,
piirchased at an extravagant price, necessarily checked the
effects of aU generous passions, and, in the minds of Chris-
tians, confounded that which belonged to Heaven with that
which belonged to earth.

Preceding ages were unacquainted with any other motive
but religion and its promises.* The companions of Peter
the Hermit and Godfrey, the warriors who followed Louis
the Yo\mg, Philip Augustus, Bichard Cobut de Lion, Boni-
face, and Baldwin of Flanders, could not have possibly be-
lieved that gold could be made a substitute for the merit
and glory of the holy war.

We find another remarkable difference in the preaching of
this crusade, — ^the refusal to admit great criminals under the
banners of the cross. The astonishment which the enrol-
ment of a crowd of obscure persons in the holy militia
caused amon^ the Christian knights, suffices to denote a
great change m the manners and opinions of the Crusaders.
The sentiment of honour, which is allied with a love of

* It appears to be almost incredible that our autlior should be bo blind
himself, or expect bis readers to be so, to the lessons taught by his His-
tory ! If the early Crusaders could not buy oflF their pilgrimages, more
of them were attracted by what they might obtain on earth, than by
*' religion and its promises.*' — ^Trans.

HISTOBY OF THB CBITBASSS* 290

gloiy, and has a tendency to establisli distinctioiis among
men, appears to have prevailed over the purely religious
feeling which inspires numilitj, acknowledges the equal
rights of all Christians, and confounds repentance with
virtue. The crusade, into which none were admitted hut
men of acknowledged hravery and good conduct, ceased, in
some sort, to be a simplv religious war, and began to re-
semble other wars, in which leaders have tlie power of
selecting the soldiers they have to command.

The enthusiasm for the holy wars only revived at intervals,
like a fire upon the point of going out. of itself; the people
required some great event, some extraordinarjr circumstance,
some striking example of princes or wamors, to induce
them to take arms against the infidels; the subtleties of
theologians, who insisted upon everything being subservient
to their discussions, contributed to cool the remains of that
pious and warlike ardour, which, till that time, it had been
found necessary to moderate and restrain within just limits.
Disputes were started in the schools upon such questions as
these : In what case was a Christian exempt from the accom-
plishment of his vow P What sum was sufficient to redeem
a promise made to Christ ? If certain pious exercises could
be substituted for pilgrimage P If an heir was bound to
fulfil the oath of a testator P Whether the pjil^m who died
on his way to the Holy Land, had more merit m the eyes of
GK)d than one who died on his return?* Whether a wife
could take the cross without the consent of her husband, or
the husband without the consent of the wife ? &c. From
the moment in which all these questions were solemnly dis-
cussed, and, upon several points, the opinions of theologians
differed, enthusiasm, which never reasons, was rendered
languid by the cold arguments of the doctors ; and pilgrims
appeared to yield less to the transports of a generous feeling,
than to the necessity of performing a duty or of following
an established rule.

This sixth crusade was more abundant in intrigues and
scandalous quarrels than in military exploits ; the Christians
never united all their efforts against the infidels ; no spirit
of order presided over their enterprises ; the Crusaders, who

* Most of these questions may be found in the work of the Jemiit
Grentxetf which bean for title De Oruce,

800 mSTOBT OF THE CBU8ADSB.

only held their mission of their zeal, set out at the time
their will or their fancy selected ; some returned to Europe
-ndthout having faced a Saracen in fight ; others abandoned
the colours of the cross, after a victory or a defeat ; and fresh
Crusaders were constantly summoned to defend the con-
quests or repair the faults of those that had preceded them.
Although the West had counted in this crusade more than
five hundred thousand of her warriors departing for Palestine
or Egypt, great armies were rarely assembled on the banks
of the Nile or the Jordan. As the Crusaders were never
gathered together in great bodies, they were not subjected
to famine, or the other scourges that had so fearfully thinned
the ranks of the early defenders of the cross ; but if they
experienced fewer reverses, if they were better disciplined,
we may say that they showed none of that ardour, or of
those lively passions which men communicate to each other,
and which acquire a new degree of force and activity amidst
a multitude assembled for the same cause and under the
same banners.

By transferring the theatre of the war to Egypt, the Chris-
tians no longer had before their eyes, as in Palestine, the
revered places and monuments, which could recall to them
the religion and the God they were about to fight for ; they
had no longer before them and around them the river Jordan,
Libanus, Thabor, or Mount Sion, the aspect of which had
80 vividly affected the imagination of the first Crusaders.

When the people of Europe heard the head of the Church
exhort the faithful to the conquest of Jerusalem, and at the
same time curse Prederick, the liberator of the holy city,
the object of the crusade lost its sacred character in the
eyes of Christians. The emperor of Germany, after his
return from his expedition, sometimes said, " If God had
been acquainted with the kingdom of Naples, he never could
have preferred the barren rocks of Jerusalem to it." These
^sacrilegious words of Frederick must have been a great sub-
ject of offence to pilgrims ; but, indeed, this prince only sent
to the Holy Lana such of his subjects as he was dissatisfied
with, or wished to punish. The popes also condemneid to
pilgrimage the great criminals whom society r^fjected from
its bosom, which was very repugnant to the manners And
opinions of the nobles and knights of Europe. Ab a

nil^TOBT OV THX CBV8ADX8. 801

crowning misfortune, the reverses or exploits of the Crusa-
ders beyond the seas frequently created divisions among the
princes of the West. From that time, Palestine was no
longer, in the eyes of the £uthful, a land of blessedness,
flowing with milk and honey, but a place of exile. From
that tune Jerusalem was less considered the city of God and
the heritage of Christ, than a subject of discord, or the
place in which were bom all the storms that disturbed
Christendom.

In the other crusades, the popes had been satisfied with
awakening the enthusiasm of pilgrims, and addressing prayers
to Heaven for the success of the Cruaeulers ; but in this war,
the heads of the Church insisted upon directing all the ex-
peditions, and commjuiding, by their legates, the operations
of the Christian armies. The invasion of Eg}'pt was de-
cided upon in the Council of the Lateran, without a thought
of asking the advice or opinions of any of the skilful cajp-
tains of the age. When hostilities began, the envoys of the
pope presided over all the events of the war ; weakening the
ardour of the soldiers of the cross, by their ambitious pre-
tensions, as well as by their ignorance. They let all the
fruits of victory slip through their hands, and gave birth to
an injurious rivalry between the spiritual and the temporal
powers. This rividry, this reciprocal mistrust, were carried
so far, that the sovereign pontiff and the emperor of Ger-
many, by turns, arrested the march of the pilgrims,; the first
fearing that the Crusaders, on embarking for Palestine,
would become the soldiers of Frederick; the second, that
these same soldiers might become the defenders of the
temporal power of the popes.

At the period of which we have just retraced the history,
so many crusades were preached at once, that the eves of
the &ithful were necessarily diverted from the first object of
these holy expeditions. Called upon to defend so many
causes, no one could distinguish which was the cause of God
and Jesus Christ ; so many interests presented themselves
at the same time to the attention of Christians, and were
recommended to the bravery of warriors, that they gave
birth to hesitation and reflection; and these produced in-
difference. Europe, for a length of time in a state of fer-
mentation, was undergoing the vague uooertainty at a

802 HI8T0BT OF THB CBUBADXS.

change ; states began to think more of their independence,

ale of their liberty. The passions which politics bring
, took the place of passions of which religion is the
motive.

The san^inary quarrels of the emperor and the popes
contributed greatly to the revolution which was brought
about in men's minds : the motive which animated the heads
of the Church was not alwjys a religious one ; the emperor
of Germany and the pontiff of Eome had pretensions to
the domination of Italy, and had been, for a long time,
engaged in a rivalry of ambition. Gregory could not see
Frederick master of the kingdom of Naples without great
pain ; and when he pressed him to go into Asia, to make
war upon the Saracens, he might have been compared to
that personage of ancient fable, who, in order to get rid of
his rival, sent him to combat the Chimera.

Four popes, although of a different character, finding
themselves in the same circumstances, pursued the. same
policy. Frederick, by his cruelties, injustice, and extrava-
gant ambition, often justified the violences of the Holy See,
of which he was, by turns, the ward, the protector, and the
enemy ; like his predecessors, he made no secret of his pro-
ject of restoring the empire of the Caesars ; and, had it not
been for the popes, it is not improbable that Europe would
have been brought under the yoke of the emperors of Ger-
many.

The policy of the sovereign pontiffs, whilst weakening the
imperial power, favoured, in Cfermany, the liberty of cities,
and the growth and duration of small states; we do not
hesitate to add, that the thunders of the Church preserved
the independence of Italy, and perhaps that of France,
which was less ill treated by the court of Eome than neigh-
bouring nations. The French monarchy took advantage of
the troubles that existed on the other siae of the Bhine, and
of the interdict set upon England, to repel the invasions of
the English and Germans ; and, at the same time, availed
itself of the absence of the king of Navarre, the dukes of
Brittany and Burgundy, with several other great vassals,
whom the crusade attracted beyond the seas, to increase the
preropiatives of the royal authority, and extend the limits of
the kingdom.

HISTORY OF THX GBUSASXS. 303

England hereelf owes something to the authority of tho
popes, who, by overwhelming John Lackland- with excom-
munications, rendered him powerless in his attempts to
enslave the English people, or to resist the demands of the
barons and the commons. This is a truth which imp^&rtial
history cannot deny or doubt, and which disposes us not to
approve, but to blame with less bitterness, excesses and
abuses of power of which all the effects have not been de-
plorable.* The populace of London, who bum every year
the effi^ of the pope, would be much astonished if, amidst
a fanatical delirium, they were told that the army which
once fought for the independence of Great Britoin was
called the army of &od and of the Holy Church; if they
were reminded that the great charter of the Forest, the first
monument of British liberty, was the fortunate fruit of the
menaces and thunders of the Church of Bome, and that this
charter would never have been granted by John, without
the redoubtable influence and the imperious counsels of the
sovereign pontiff.f

Without wishing to justify the domination of the popes,
we may say that they were led to grasp at supreme power
by the circumstances in which Europe was placed in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries. European society, without
experience or laws, and plunged in ignorance ana anarchy,

* AlthoQgli thia ia very like " damning with faint praise," I cannot see
how the popes or their abases are entitled to any mitigation of contempt
or disapproval t the beneficial results were the work of Providence, and
were never contemplated by the pontiffs. — Taaks.

t King John was a bad prince : he inspired mistrust in his subjects,
who demanded a pledge of him, and this pledge became the English
constitution. If France, before the revolution of 1789, had never asked
her kings for a pledge, it was because none of them had inspired mistrust
•io his people : the best eulogy that can be made upon the kings of France
is, that the nation had never felt under their government the want of a
written or guaranteed constitution, and that they were in all times con-
sidered as the safest guardians of the public liberty.

[It is scarcely conceivable bow a writer of the nineteenth century could
offer his readers such opinions as these (both text and note). Some of
the best portions of British liberty were obtained from better kings than
any France had, with the exception of Henry IV., from Louis IX. to the
end of the monarchy. Our Charles I. and James II. had their faults,
but they are as '* unsunned snow " by the side of nine French numarcha
out of tee.]— TnANi.

8M HI8T0B*T OF THE CBUSADX8.

cast itself into the afms of the popes, and belicycd that it
placed itself under the protection of Heaven.

As nations had no other ideas of civilization than such aa
they received from the Christian religion, the sovereign pon-
tiffs naturally became the supreine arbiters between rival or
neighbouring countries ; amidst the darkness which the light
of the G-ospel had a continued and never-ending tendency to
diminish, their authority must naturally have been the first
established and the first recognised ; temporal power stood
in need of their sanction ; people and kings implore4 their
support and consulted their wisdom : they beheved them-
senres authorized to exercise a sovereign dictatorship.

This dictatorship was often exercised to the advantage of
public morality and social order ; it often protected the weak
against the strong; it arrested the execution of criminal
plots; it re-established peace between states; and it pre-
served a young society from the excesses of ambition, licen-
tiousness, and barbarism. When we cast our eyes over
the annals of the middle ages, we cannot help being struck
by one of the most beautiful spectacles that human society
has ever presented, — it is that of Christian Europe recog-
nising but one religion, having but one law, forming as it
were but one empire, govemea by a single head, who spoke
in the name of God, and whose mission was to make the
Gospel reign upon earth.

In the general reflections by which we shall terminate this
work, we will enter into much greater developments upon
this head ; we will compare modem Europe with the Europe
of the middle ages, and we will make it clear that, if we have
acquired some wisdom in the art of civilization, we are still
far from having turned it to the advantage of public libertv :
nations are at the present day led away by the spirit of tl^e
French revolution, as they were in the middle ages by the
spirit of the court of Bomd and enthusiasm for the crusades.
The French revolution began by liberal ideas, it was con-
tinued by victories. The military spirit allied itself with the
fanaticism of new ideas, as it formerly allied itself with reli-
gious enthusiasm. On casting a glance over our Europe,
we are astonished at seeing two contradictory tilings, which
should naturally exclude each other ; we see almost every-
where a tendency to favour the propagation of liberal ideM^

UlSTOHT OF TU£ CEITSADES. 305

and at the same time an iuclinatiou to increase the mass of
armies ; it is difficult to explain a policy wliicli tends, on the
one side, to multiply the apostles of lioerty, on the other to
multiply soldiers ; which, by turns, proclaims a principle, and
raises a regiment ; which speaks, at the same time, of re-
cruiting, and of a constitution ; which appears never to have
laws enough, and yet is insatiable of cannons and bayonets.
It is easy to foresee the near and distant results of such a
monstrous amalgamation.* Everything leads us to believe
that these results, like those of the crusades and the influence
of the pope in the middle ages, will not turn out entirely for
the advantage of civilization.

But without dwelling longer on these distressing reflec-
tions, we will return to our subject, from which, perhaps,
we have strayed too long. In the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, the nations of Europe, subject to the authority
of St. Peter, were united together by a tie more strong than
that of liberty. This motive, this tie, which was that of
the imiversal Church, for a length of time kept up and
favoured the enthusiasm for and the progress of holy wars.
Whatever may have been the origin of the crusades, it is
certain they never would have been undertaken without that
unity of reugious feelings which doubled the strength of the
Christian republic. The Christian nations, by the agree-
ment of their sentiments and their passions, showed the
world all that can be done by enthusiasm, which increases
by communication, and that lively faith, which, spread
among men, is a miraculous power, since the Gospel accords
it the faculty of moving mountains. In proportion as people,
united by one same spirit, separated, and ceased to make
one common cause, it became more difficult to collect toge-
ther the forces of the West, and pursue those gigantic
enterprises of which our age can scarcely perceive the
possibility.

It may have been observed, that the pontifical authority
and the enthusiasm for the crusades experienced the same
vicissitudes ; the opinions and the exaltation of the religious
spirit which caused men to take up arms, necessarily, at the

* M. Michaud is here more happy than uaaal in his political and
philosophical reflections. We might fancy him prescient of the 2nd of
December. — Taans.

Vol. II.— 14

806 HIBTOBT OF THS GBTiaAjnS.

same time, increased tlie influence of the sorereign poatiffiL
But springs so active and so powerful could not poasiblj*
last long ; they broke bj the violence with which thej were

be popes, invested with authority^ without limit, exer*
cised that authority without moderation ; and as the abuse
of power brings on, sooner or later, its own niin, the empire
of the sovereign pontiffs finished by declining as other em-
pires have done. Their fall commenced with their long con*
tests with Frederick ; all Europe waa called upon to jud^
their cause ; their power, founded upon opinion, the origin
of which was entirely religious, lost much of its prestige by
being given over to the discussions of men of the world.

At the same time that the sovereign pontiffs abused their
power, the spirit and enthusiasm that had produced the holy
wars were likewise abused. Many Christian princes took
the cross, sometimes to obtain the protection oi the ^opes ;
sometimes as a pretext for assembbng armies, and enjoying
the temporal advantages accorded to the soldiers of Cm-ist.
The leaders of Christendom, without having originated the
wars of the East, were eager to profit by them ; in the first
place, to extend their dominions, and in the next to gratify
violent passions. From that moment society sought other
supports than that of the Holy See, and warriors another
glory than that of the crusades.

Thibault, king of Navarre, who, in his verses, had preached
the war beyond the seas, was disgusted at the troubles ex-
cited in Europe by the heads of the Church, and deplored
with bitterness- a time full of felony ^ cnvjf, and treachery.
He accused the princes and oarons of being without cour*
tome, and reproached the popes with excommunicating
those who were most in the right (ceux qui avaient le plui
raisan). If a few troubadours still raised their voices to
exhort Christians to take up the cross and arms, the greater
part did not partake of their enthusiasm for the holy wan ;
and beheld nothing in these pilgrimages beyond the seas,
but the griefs of along absence, and the rigours of a pious
exile.

In a Tenson* which has come down to us, Folquet de

* A dispute upon an affair of gallantry, btCweea tfpo «r more trmiba-
donn.— Taamb.

HIBTOBT 07 THE CnUS.VrilS. 807

Bomaofl aaka Blaccas, the model of troubadours and of
kni^hta, whether he will go to the Holy Land? After
haying answered that he Iotos and is beloved, and that he
will remain at home with his lodye-love, (she was countess
of Frovenoe), Blaccas thus ends his simple song : —

** Jc fend ma p^aitenoef
Entre mer et Darance,
Aupres de son manoir." *

** I will perform my penitenos
Between the aea and swift Dnfancef
Near to my lady's bower/'

These sentiments belonged to the manners of trouba-
dours and knights ; but at the time of the first crusadeSy
religious ideas were much more mixed up with ideas of
gaUantry ; a poet, invited to take the cross, would not have
dared to speak of his ladye-love,t without likewise speaking
of the mercy of God and the captivity of Jerusalem.

During the other crusades, the reh'gion and morality of
the Gospel resumed their empire, and spread their benefits
everywhere; at the voice or the holy orators, Christians
became penitent and reformed their morals ; all political
tempests were laid by the simple name of Jerusalem, and
the West remained in profound peace4 It was not so at
the period we have juit described; Europe was perhaps
never more agitated, or, perhaps, more corrupted than
during the thirty years whidi this crusade lasted.

In the relations between the Christians and Mussulmans,
little respect had, to this time, certainly, been paid to
treaties ; out in this crusade, contempt for sworn faith and
forgetfulness for the laws of nations were carried to an ex-
treme : signing a truce was a preparation for war ; — the

* These verses are quoted by M. Raynourd in hia grammar of the
Romance language.

t We have but to compare the piece of the Provenfal with that of
Kaoal de Coorcy, who died in the third crusade.

X M. Michaud's parental partiality for his elder bom makes him very
obUvious. If we look back to his own account of the morals of the early
crusadeSr particularly those of Jerusalem, we cannot see the justice ox
these remarks. The Cmiaders only ** remembered to be piona and peni*
tent" when they experienced reverses. — Trans.

808 UISTOBT OF THJfi CBUSADES.

Christian iarniies owed their safety to a treatj of peace ; and
the sovereign pontiff, far from respectiug the conditions of
it, preached a new crusade against the infidels. It must be
allowed, also, that the most solemn treaties were often
violated by the Mussulmans. The duration of peace de-
pended solely upon the want of power in both parties to
resume hostilities with advantage. The least hope of success
was suiBcient to induce them to fly to arms ; the slightest
circumstance was an excuse for rekindling all the flames of
war. The continuator of William of Tyre says, with great
ingenuousness, when speaking of the death of a sultan ot
Damascus : '* When the sultan died, all the truces died
with him.'' These words alone are sufficient to give an idea
of the state of the East during the sixth crusade, and of
the small degree of respect then entertained for the laws of
peace and war.

If, in the preceding crusade, the expedition of the soldiers
of the cross against Greece did not produce great advan-
tages to the West, it at least illustrated the arms of the
Venetians and the French. In the war we have just de-
scribed, the knights and barons who took the cross, added
nothing to their glory or their renoN^-n. The Crusaders who
were fortunate enough to revisit their homes, brought back
with them nothing but the remembrance of most shame-
ful disorders. A great number of them had nothing to
show their compatriots but the chains of their captivity;
nothing to communicate but the contagious disorders of tho
East.

The historians we have followed are silent as to the ravages
of the leprosy among the nations of the West ; but the
testament of Louis VIII., an historical moniunent of that
period, attests the existence of two thousand leproseriea
(hospitals for lepers) in the kingdom of France alone. This
horrible sight must have been a subject of terror to the
most fervent Christians ; and was sufficient to disenchant, in
their eyes, those regions of the East, where, till that time,
their imaginations had seen nothing but prodigies and
marvels.

Among the abuses then made of the spirit of the cru-
sades, and the misfortunes they brought in their train, we

HISTORY or THE CBVSABZS. 800

must not forget the civil and religious wars of which Prance
and several other countries of Europe were the theatre. In
their expeditions into the East, Christians had become fami-
liarized with the idea, of employing force and violence to
change men*s hearts and opinions. As they had long made
war against infidels, they were willing to make it, in the
same manner, against heretics ; they first took up arms
against the Albigeois, then against the pagans of Prussia ;
for the same reason, and in the same manner, that they had
armed themselves against the Mussulmans.

Modem writers have declaimed with great vehemence and
eloquence against these disastrous wars ; but long before the
age in which we live, the Church had condemned the excesses
of blind fanaticism.* Saint Augustine, St. Ambrose, the
fathers of councils, had long taught the Christian world that
error is not destroyed by the sword, and that the truths of
the Gospel ought not to be preached to mankind amidst
threats and vidences.

The crusade against the Prussians shows us all that am-
bition, avarice, and tyranny can exhibit that is most cruel
and barbarous ; the tribunal of history cannot judge with
too much severity the leaders of this war, the ravages and
furies of which were prolonged during more than a century ;
but, whilst condemnm^ the excesses of the conquerors of
Prussia, we must admit the advantages Europe gained by
their victories and exploits. A nation that had been separ
rated from all other nations by its manners and customs,
ceased to be a foreigner in the Christian republic. Industry,
laws, religion, which marched in the train of the conquerors,
to moderate and remove the evils of war, spread their bless-
ings among hordes of savages. Many fiourishing cities
arose from amidst the ashes of forests, and the oak of
Reihove,t beneath the shade of which human victims had
been immolated, was replaced by churches, in which the vir-
tues and charity of the Gospel were inculcated. The con-

* It may be questioned whether the weapons since employed for the
fame purpose, the canning and the tongue of Jesuits, were not in all
senses as bad as the sword and lance of the Crusaders. — Trans.

t The city of Thorn was built on the spot where the consecrated oak
grew*

810 HIBTOBT 01P TUX CBXTBASSS.

quests of the Bomans were sometimes more unjust, their
wars more barbarous ; they procured less advantages to the
civilized world, and yet they have never ceased to be objects
of the admiration and eulogy of posterity.

The war against the Albigeois was more cruel and more
unfortunate than the crusade directed against the nations of
Prussia. Missionaries and warriors outraged, by their con-
duct, all the laws of justice and of the religion whose
triumph they pretended to aim at. The heretics, naturally,
sometunes employed reprisals against their enemies; both
sides armed with the steel and axe of murderers and
executioners, humanity had to deplore the most guilty
excesses. ,

When casting a retrospective glance over the annals of
the middle ages, we ore particularly grieved to see sangui-
nary wars undertaken and carried on in the name of a reli-
gion of peace, whilst we can scarcely find an example of a
religious war among the ancients and under the laws of
paganism.* We must believe that modem nations ajid
those of antiquity have, and had the same passions ; but,
amongst the ancients, religion entered less deeply into the
heart of man or into the spirit of social institutions. The
worship of jhlse gods had no positive dogma ; it added no-
thing to morality ; it prescribed no duties to the citizen ; it
was not bound up with the maxims of legislation, and existed,
in some sort, only upon the surface of society. When
paganism was Attacked, or when a change was effected in
the worship of false gods, the affections, morals, and inter-
ests of pagan society were not deeply wounded. It was not
thus with Christianity, which, particularly in the middle
ages, mixed itself up with all civil laws, recalled man to all
the duties due to his country, and united itself with aU the
principles of social order. Amidst the growing civilization
of Europe, the Christian religion was blended with all the
interests of nations ; it was, in a manner, the foundation of

* We may name, among the Greeks, the sacred war undertaken for the
lands which helonged to the temple of Delpbos ; but on reading closel?
the history of this war, it is easy to see that they did not fight for a dogma
or a religious opinion, as in the wars wUch, among the modems, have
had religion for a motiTe or a pretence.

HISTOBT OP TH£ CBUSADES. 311

all society; it was sociely itself: we cannot wonder, then,
that men were passionate in its defence. Then all who
separated themselTes from the Christian religion, separated
themselves from society ; and all who rejected the laws of the
Church, ceased to acknowledge the laws of their country.
We must consider the wars against the Albi^eois and the
Prussians in this light ; they were rather social wars than
religious wars.

BOOK XIII.

SEVENTH CEUSADB.

A.D. 1242—1245.

Whsk I began this work, I was far from being aware ot
tbe task I waa imposing upon mTself ; animated hj the in-
terest of my subject, full of a too great confidence in my
own powers, like those villagers who, when they set out for
the nrst crusade, fancied every city they saw to be Jerusa-
lem, I constantly believed I was approaching the end of my
labours. As I advanced in my career, the horizon expanded
before me, difficulties multiplied at every step, so that to
sustain my courase, I have often been obliged to recall to
my mind the kindness with which the early volumes of this
history have been received by the public.

The difficulty did not consist in placing a narrative of the
holy wars before our readers ; it became necessary to present
exact ideas of the manners and characters of the nations
which, in any way, took part in them. We have endea-
voured to make all the peoples known who have in turn
passed across the scene: the Franks, with their ^soldier-
like roughness, their love of glory, and their generous pas-
sions; the Turks and Saracens, with their military reli-
gion and their barbarous valour; the Grreeks, with their
corrupted manners, their character at once superstitious and
frivolous, and their vanity, which with them supplied the
place of patriotism : a new nation is now about to ofier
itself to tne pencil of history, and mingle 'with the events
of which we are attempting to give the picture. "We are
about to say a few words upon the manners and conquests
of the Tartars in the middle ages.

The hordes of this nation, at the period of the sixth cru-
sade, had invaded several countries ol Asia, and the progress

HIBVOBT OT THX CBITBASSB. 81S

of their arms had a great influence oyer the policy of the
MuflsulmBn powers of Syria and Egypt, which were then at
war with the Christians. At the time of which we are
speaking, the fame of their victories filled the East, anil
spread terror eren to the most remote countries of Europe.

The Tartars inhabited the vast regions which lie between
ancient Emaiis, Siberia, China, and the Sea of Kamschatka ;
they were divided into several nations, which all boasted of
having the same origin ; each of these nations, governed by a
khan, or supreme leader, was composed of a great number of
tribes, each tribe commanded by a particular chief, called
Myrza. The produce of the chase, the milk of their mares,
and the flesh of their flocks, satisfied the simple wants of the
Tartars; they lived under tents with their families; and
moveable dwellings, drawn by oxen, transported from one
place to another their wives, their children, and all they
possessed. In summer, the whole tribe drew towards the
northern countries, and encamped upon the banks of a river
or a lake ; in winter; they directed their course southward,
and sought the shelter of mountains that could protect them
fix>m the icy winds of the north.

The Tartor hordes assembled everj^ year, in either autumn
or spring. In these assemblies, which they called Oouraltat^
they debberated on horseback, upon the march of the tribes,
the distribution of the pasturages, and peace and war. It
was from the bosom of this tumultuous assembly that issued
the legislation of the people of Tartary ; a simple and laconic
legislation, like those of all barbarous nations, whose only
objects are to maintain the power of the leaders, and keep
up discipline and emulation among the warriors*

The nations of Tartary acknowledged one God, the sove-
reign of heaven, to whom they offered up neither incense
nor prayers. Their worship was reserved for a crowd of
genii, whom they believed to be spread through the air,
upon the earth, and amidst the waters ; a great number of
iools, the rough work of their own hands, filled their dwell-
ings, followed them in their courses, and watched over their
flocks, their slaves, and their families. Their priests, brought
up in the practices of magic, studied the course of the stars,
predicted luture events, and employed themselves in abusing
the minda of tibe people by soroMy. TbA veligioiia ynns

814 niSTOBY OF THE OBVBASEB.

ship, whicli inculcated no morality, had neither softened
their rude manners nor ameliorated their character, which
was as boisterous and unkindly as their climate. No monu-
ment raised under the auspices of religion, no book inspired
by it, reminded them of deeds of glory, or laid before them
precepts and examples of yirtue. In the course of their
wandering life, the dead, whom they sometimes dragged with
them in their waggons, appeared to them an anpoying burden,
and they buried them in haste in retired places ; where, covering
them with the sands of the desert, they were satisfied with
concealing them from the eyes or the outrages of the living.

Everything that might nx them to one spot rather than
another, or lead them to change their manner of livhig, ex-
cited the animadversion and dmdain of these races. Of all the
tribes that inhabited Mogul Tartary, one alone was acquainted
with writing, and cultivated letters ; all the rest despised com-
merce, arts, and learning ; which constitute the true splen-
dour of polished societies. The Tartars disdained the idea
of building ; in the twelfth century their vast country con-
tained but one city,* the extent of which, according to the
monk Eubruquis, did not equal that of the little town of
Saint Denis. Confining themselves to the care of their
flocks, they regarded agriculture as a degrading occupation,
only fit to employ the industry of slaves or conquered people.
Their immense plains had never become yellow with harvests
sown by the hand of man ; no fruit had there ripened which
he had planted. The spectacle most agreeable to a Tartar
was the desert, upon which grass grew without cultivation,
or the field of battle covered with ruin and carnage.

As the limits of their pastures were under no regulation,
frequent quarrels necessarily arose among the Tartars ; the
spirit of jealousy constantly agitated the wandering hordes ;
the ambitious leaders could endure neither neighbours nor
rivals. Thence civil wars ; and from the bosom of civil wars
issued a fully-armed despotism, to support which the people

* Karakoroam, the residence of the principal branch of the snccewora
of Gengiskhan. It is only lately that the true situation of this city has
been fixed by M. Abel-Remnsat ; it was on the left bank of the Orgon,
not hr from the junction of that river with the Selinga to the south of the
Lake of Baikal, by the 49^^ of latitude and the 102^ of longitude. The
nine country hu nnos been tha residence of the Girnnd Lama.

niSTOBT OF THE CBUSADES. 315

flocked with cheerfulness, because it promised them con
quests. Tlie entire population was military, to whom fighting
appeared to bo the only true glory, and the most noble
occupation of man. The encampments of the Tartars, their
marcnes, their hunting-parties, resembled military exhibi-
tions. Habit imparted so much ease and firmness to their
seat on horseback, that they took their food, and even in-
dulged in sleep, without dismounting. Their bow, of an
enormous size, announced their strength and skill; their
sharp steel-headed arrows flew to an immense distance, and
struck down the bird amidst its rapid career, or pierced
through and through the bear or tiger of the desert ; they
surpassed their enemies in the rapidity of their evolutions ;
they excelled them in the perfidious art of fighting whilst
flying ; and retreat was often, for them, the signal of victory.
All the stratagems of war appeared familiar to them ; and as
if a fatal instinct had taught them all that could assist in
the destruction of the human race, the Tartars, who built
no cities, knew how to construct the most formidable
machines of war, and were not unacquainted with any means
that could spread terror and desolation amon^ their enemies.
In their expeditions, their march was never impeded by the
inclemency of seasons, the depth of rivers, the steepness of
precipices, or the height of mountains. A little hardened
milk, diluted with water, sufficed for the food of a horseman
during several days ; the skin of a sheep or a bear, a few
strips of coarse felt, formed his garments. The warriors
showed the most blind obedience to their leaders, and, at
the least signal, were ready to encounter death in any shape.
They were divided into tens, hundreds, thousands, and tens
of thousands ; their armies were composed of all that could
handle the bow or lance ; and what must have caused their
enemies as much surprise as terror, was the order and dis-
cipline that prevailed in a multitude that chance seemed to
have gathered together. According to their military legis-
lation, the Tartars were never allowed to make peace but
with a conquered enemy ; he who fled from battle, or aban-
doned his companions in danger, was punished vnth death ;
they shed the blood of meli with the same indifference as
that of wild animals, and their ferocity added greatly to the
terror which they inspired in their enterprises.

816 HI8X0BY Cnt Tfil CBU8ADX8.

The Tartars, in their pride, despised all other natioiui, and
believed that the whole world ought to be subject to them.
According to certain opinions, transmitted from age to age,
the Mogiu hordes abandoned the north to the dead they left
behind them in the deserts, and kept their faces constantly
directed towards the south, which was promised to their
valour. The territories and the riches of other nations
excited their ambition; and, possessing neither territories
nor riches themselves, they had almost nothing to fear from
conquerors. Not only theu* warlike education, but their pre-
judices, their customs, the inconstancy of their character,
everything with them seemed to favour distant expeditions
and warlike invasions. They carried with them neither
regrets, nor endearing remembrances from the countries they
abandoned ; and if it be true, when we say that country is
not within the walls of a city, or the limits of a province, but
in the affections and ties of family, in the laws, manners,
and customs of a nation, the Tartars, when changing their
climate, had always their country with them. The presence
of their wives, of their children ; tlie sight of their flocks and
their idols, everywhere inflamed their patriotism, or love of
their nation, and sustained their courage. Accustomed to
consult their own inclinations, and take them for their sole
rule of conduct, they were never restrained by the laws of
morality or by feelings of humanity ; as they had a profound
indifference for all the religions of the earth, this incufbrence
even, which aroused no hatred in other nations, facilitated
their conquests, by leaving them the liberty of readily re-
ceiving or embracing the opinions and creeds of the people
they conquered, and whom they thus completely subjected
to their laws.

In very remote antiquity, the hordes of Tartary had
several times invaded the vast regions of India, China, and
Persia, and had extended their ravages even into the West :
the ambition or the caprice of a skilful leader, excess of
population, want of pasturage, the predictions of a wizard,
were ^uite sufficient to inflame this tumultuous race, and
precipitate them in a mass upon distant regions. Woe to
the people whom the Tartars encountered in their passage !
At their approach, empires fell with a horrible crash ; nations
were driven back upon one another, like the waves of the

HI8T0ST OT THE CBUSASXB. 817

sea ; the world was shaken and covered with ruins. History
has preserved the remembrance of several of their invamons ;
the most remote posterity will never pronounce without a
species of terror the names of the Avari, the Huns, the
Heruli, of all those wandering nations who, some flowing
from the depths of Tartarj, and others dragged in the wake
of the conquerors or driven before them, poured down upon
the tottering empire of the Bomans, and divided the spoils
of the civilized world amongst them : in the middle ages,
the wars of the Tartars were compared to tempests, inunda-
tions, or the bursting forth of volcanoes ; ana the resigned
nations believed that the justice of Gk>d held these innume-
rable swarms of barbarians in reserve in the north, to pour
out his anger upon the rest of the earth, and chastise cor-
rupted nations by their hands.

The Tartars never proved themselves more redoubtable
than under the reign of G^ngiskhan. Temugin, which was
the first name of the heroic barbarian, was bom of a prince
who reigned over some hordes of ancient Mogulistan.*
Traditions relate that the seventh of his ancestors was
engendered in the womb of his mother by the miraculous
influence of the rays of the sun. At the birth of Temugin,
his family remarked with joy some coagulated blood in the
hands of the infant, a sinister presage for the human race,
in which flattery or superstition saw the future glory of a
conqueror. Some historians inform us that nothing was
neglected in the education of Temugin ; others, more worthy
of faith, affirm that he cotdd not read ; but all agree in
saying that he wab bom for war, and to command a warlike
people. Endowed with great penetration of mind, and with
a sort of eloquence, knowing how to dissemble in season,
skilful in working upon the passions, uniting bravery to a
boundless ambition, that was never checked by any scruple,

* M. Petis de Lacroix has published a life of Gengiskhan, accordiog to
Eastern authors. This history, though fable is sometimes mixed ^th
truth, is one of the best works that can be consulted. M. Deguignes, in
his History of the Huns, has spoken at great length of the Tartars and of
Gengiskhan ; he announces that be has deviated from the account of Petis
de I^roix ; but as he does not always name the sources from which he
has drawn, he does not inspire perfect confidence for this part of bis his-
tory. We find some details upon Gengiekhan in La Bibiiotheque Orteii-
tale of D'Herbelot.

818 HIBTOBY OF THE CBUSABXS.

be had all the qualities and all the vices which lead to empire
among barbarians, and sometimes even among polished
nations. His natural propensities developed themselves in
adversity, which hardened his character, and taught him to
brave everything in order to carry out his designs. From
the age of foiuieen, despoiled of his paternal heritage, and
a fugitive with the khan of the Karaites, he sacrificed witho\\t
pain the most holy duties of hospitalily to his futuro gran-
deur. The khan of the Karaites was known by the name of
Prester John among the Christians of the middle a^es,*
who celebrated his conversion to Christianity, and consi<&red
him as one of the most fervent apostles of the Gospel,
which, doubfcless, he never had known. He confided the
care of his states to voung Temugin, who insinuated himself
into the favour of t\xe armv, and dethroned his benefactor.
As he had outraged all the laws of morality to usurp empire,
he violated all the laws of humanity to maintain hunseu in
it. Seventy of his enemies plunged into seventy caldrons
of boiling water, and the skull of the chief of the Karaites
enchased in a golden box, announced very plainly what the
master was whom fortune was about to place over the
nations of Asia.

Victory was to achieve what treachery, violence, and in-
gratitude had begun ; the arms of Temugin and his lieu-
tenants subdued successively all the hordes whose camps
arose between the wall of China and the Volga. Temugm
was the all-powerful leader of many millions of shepherds
and warriors, impatient to quit their own dimate and mvade
the regions of the south. In order to attach the companions
of his victories to his fortunes, he was desirous of reigning
b^ their suffi*ages, and called together a coviraltaa or gener^
diet, in which he was proclaimed sovereign of the Moguls.
The ambition of Temugin did not neglect the influence of
superstition ; he took the title of Qengis, kin^ of kingg, or
master of the worlds and fame gave out that he had received

* The Chronicles of the middle ages often epeak of Prester John. A
letter written by a prince of this name to Louis VII. has been presenred.
Seven barbaroas princes have been reckoned who bore the name of Prester
John. The researches made to ascertain the troth would be uninteresting
nowadays. — See the Precis de la Geographit VnivtnelU^ by M. Malta
Bmn, tom. i. p. 441.

HISTOBT 07 THS CB1T8ADS8. 819

this pompons title from a prophet who descended from
heaven upon a white horse.

Eastern historians have praised Gengiskhan for having
given laws to nations he had conquered. These laws, the
aim of which was to maintain the peace of families, and to
direct the minds of the people towards war, for a length of
time retained the obedience and the respect of the Moguls.
As Gengiskhan, in his legislation, acknowledged one God,
the sovereign of the earth and heaven, and, at the same
time, permitted all kinds of creeds, some modem writers
have taken occasion to boast of his religious tolerance. But
what could be the tolerance of a savage conqueror, who
caused himself to be styled the son of the sun, the son of
God ; who himself followed no worship, and to whom all
religions were equally indifferent, provided they crossed
neither his ambition nor his pride P

The lieutenants and warriors of Gengiskhan had recog-
nised him with the greater joy, as universal conqueror and
master of the earth, from the hopes they entertained of en-
riching themselves with the spoils of all the nations subdued
by his arms. His first enterprises were directed against
China, of which ' ^.*e he had been the vassal. Neither
the barrier of the great wall, nor the ascendancy of know-
ledge and arts, nor the use of gunpowder, said to be then
known among the Chinese, was able to defend a flourishing
empire against the attacks of a multitude, whom the thirst
for booty and a warlike instinct, urged forward to face perils,
and rendered invincible.

The wars we have seen in our days, and of which we de-
plore the calamities, give nothing but a feeble idea of these
gigantic invasions, in which many millions of men perished
by sword and famine. China experienced twice all the evils
inseparable from a war which appeared to be directed by
the genius of destruction ; and, in the space of a few
' years, the most ancient and the most powertiil kingdom of
Asia, covered with blood and ruins, and deprived of half its
population, became one of the prminces of the new empire
founded by the shepherds of Mogulistan.

The conquest of Carismia soon followed that of China ;
Carismia was close to the frontiers of the Mogul empire,
and, on one side extended to the Gulf of Persia, and on the

820 HI8T0BT OF THS CRUGLVDES.

other, to the limits of Lidia and Turkistan. Grenffie learnt
that a Tartar carayan and three of his amhassadors nad been
massacred in one of the cities of the Carismians. It is easy
to imagine the effect that this news would produce upon the
emperor of the Moguls, who himself compared the anger
of Kings to the fire of conflagrations, which the lightest
wind maj light up.* After having fasted and prayed, during
three days and three nights, upon a mountain, where a
hermit announced to him, the second time, the conquest of
the whole world, the terrible Gengiskhan commenced his
march, at the head of seven hundred thousand Tartars. This
army met that of the Carismians on the banks of the
Jaxartes; Mahomet, sultan of Carismia, who had several
times carried his victorious arms into Turkistan and Persia^
commanded the host of the Carismians. The plain in which
this battle was fought was covered by twelve hundred thou-
sand combatants ; the shock was terrific, the camaee horri-
ble ; victory was adverse to Mahomet, who, from niat day,
together with his family and the whole of his nation, sunk
into the lowest abyss of misfortune.

The cities of Otrar, Bochara, Samarcand, Candahar, and
Carismia, besieged by an innumerable multitude, fell in turn
into the power of the conqueror, and witnessed the extirpa-
tion of their garrisons and inhabitants. We cannot sup-
press a feeling of pity when history presents to us, on one
side, an entire population flying from their devastated homes,
to seek an asylum in deserts and mountains ; and on the
other, the family of a powerM monarch dragged into slaveiy
or ^aning in exile ; and this monarch himself, whose pros-
perity all Asia had boasted or envied, abandoned by his sub-
jects, and dying with misery and despair in an island of the
Caspian Sea.

Tne army of Gkngiskhan returned to Tartary, loaded with

* According to what we know of Gengiskhan, we shoald with difficolty
believe that among modern historians he has been able to find panegyrists ;
bnt Petis de Lacroix has not been able to avoid the example of moat his-
torians, who generally appear infatuated by the hero whose life they are
writing. An Arabian historian relates, that on learning the massacre of
his ambassadors, Gengiskhan was not able to refrain from tears. Here
Petis de Lacroii is very angry with the Arabian, and reproaches him
bitterly with having given the emperor of the Moguls a feminine ch&nctier.
All others, says he, have given a portrait of him more worthy of a hero.

HI8T0BY OF TH£ OBTTSADES. 821

the spoils of Garismia: the soTereign of the Moguls* ap-
peared to form the desire of governing his conquests m
peace ; but the world, agitated by his victx)ries, and alwajrs
eager to throw off his yoke, together with the warlike spirit
of his nation, to whom ho had afforded a glimpse of the
riches of other people, would not permit him agam to enjoy
repose ; he was on the point of undertaking a third expedi-
tion against China, which seemed disposed to rebel, when
deajh put an end to his career. Some nistoriaus assert that
he was struck dead by thunder, as if Heaven had deter-
mined itself to crush the instrument of its wrath ;t others,
much more worthy of belief, inform us that the Tartar hero
died in his bed, surrounded by his children, to whom he re-
commended to preserve union among themselves, that they
might achieve tne conquest of the world. Octai, the eldest
of his sons, succeeded him in the empire, and, according to
the custom of the Moguls, the great men assembled and
said to him, " "We wish, we pray, we command you to ac-
cept of entire power over us.* The new emperor answered
by this formula, which contains the whole spirit of the
despotic governments of the East : " If you desire that I
should be your khan, are you resolved to obey me in every-
thing ; to come when I shall call you, to so where I shall
Bend you, and to put to death all those I shall command you
to kill?" After they had answered " Tes," he said to
them, "Henceforth my simple word shall serve me as a
Bword." Such was the government of the Tartars. Octai
was about to reign over an empire composed of several
great empires; his brothers and nephews commanded the
innumerable armies that had conquered China and Carismia;
they governed in his name in the north, in the south, and
the east, kingdoms of which the extent was scarcely known ;
each of his lieutenants was more powerful than the greatest

* There have been long disputes upon the terms Mogul and Tartar.
We think we can make out, amidst much uncertainty, that the Moguls
originally formed a distinct tribe of the vast countries of Tartary ; and
that the Tartars, being in great numbers in the armies of the conquering
Moguls, obliterated in a degree the names of their conquerors in the king-
doms of Europe and Asia to which these armies penetrated.

t Father Gaubil has translated a Chinese history of Gengiskhan ; thia
history yields but little information, and gives no curious details but upon
the family and the successors of the conqueror.

822 HI8D0BT or THE 0BV8AJ>X8.

kings of the earth, aad all obeyed him u bis Blavea. For
the first time, perhaps, ooncord waa preserved among con«
querors ; and this monstrous union effected the ruin of idl
the nations of Asia : Turkistan, Persia, India, the southern
nrovinces of China^ which had escaped the ravages of the
nrst invasion, all that remained of the empire of the Abas-
sides and of that of the Seljoucides — ^all fell before the arms
of the redoubtable posterity of Gengiskhan. Many of the
sovereigns whom, in these days of disord^ and calamity, the
chance of war hurled from their thrones, had invoked the
succour of the Moguls, and favoured the enterprises of that
warlike people against neighbouring or rival powers. For*
tune enveloped them all in the same ruin, and oriental his*
tory compares them to the three dervises whose indiscreet
wishes and prayers reanimated, in the desert, the bones
of a lion, who sprang up from the bosom of the sand and
devoured them.

The conquest of the richest countries of Asia had inflamed
the enthusiasm of the Tartars to such a degree, that it would
have been impossible for their leaders to confine them within
the limits of their own territories, or bring them back to the
peaceful labours of pastoral life. Octai, whether desirous
of obeying the paternal instructions, or whether he felt the
necessity of employing the restless and turbulent activi^ of
the Moguls, resolved to turn his arms towards the "West.
Fifteen hundred thousand shepherds or warriors inscribed
their names upon the military register ; five hundred thou-
sand of the most robust were selected for the great expedi-
tion ; the others were to remain in Asia, to maintain the
submission of the vanquished nations, and complete the
conquests commenced by G-engiskhan. Bejoicings, which
lasted forty days, preceded the departure of the Mogul
army, and were as a signal of the desolation they were abo^t
to spread among the countries of Europe.

In their rapid course, the Tartars crossed the Volga, and
penetrated, almost without obstacle, into Muscovy, then a
prey to the fury of civil war. The devastation of their
country, the conflagrations of Kiow and Moscow, and the
disgraceful yoke that so long oppressed these northern
regions, were the punishments due to the feeble resistance
of the Muscovites. After the conquest of Eussia, the mol-

HISTOBT OT THX CBITSADISS. 823

titude of Moguls, led by Baton, son of Tuli, directed tbeir
victorious course towards Poland and the frontiers of Ger-
many, and repeated, whererer they went, the horrors of
Attila and his Huns. The cities of Lublin and Warsaw
disappeared on their passage, and they laid waste both shores
of the Baltic. In vam the duke of Silesia, the Polish pala-
tines, and the grand master of the Teutonic order, united
their forces to arrest the progress of this new scourge of
Gtod ;* the generous defenders of Europe succumbed upon
the plains of Lignitz, and nine sacks, filled with human
ears, were the trophy of the victory of the barbarians. The
Carpathian mountams presented but a feeble barrier to
these invincible hordes ; and the Tartars soon burst like a
feari^ tempest over the territories of those Hungarians
who, two centuries before, had, like them, quitted the deserts
of Scythia, and conquered the fertile banks of the Danube.
Bela, king of Hungaiy, had recently attracted forty thou-
sand families of Comans into his dominions, who betrayed
him; the palatines and magnates of the kingdom were
divided among themselves, and not even the aspect of dan-
ger could induce them to unite or submit themselves to the
laws of the monarch. Disobedience, treachery, and discord,
delivered the whole kingdom up to the furies of a pitiless
enemy ; the flocks, the harvests, the entire wealth of the
country, became the prey of the Moguls ; half the popula-
tion was exterminatea. Of all the cities of Himgary, only
three offered an earnest and true resistance, and thus pre-
served themselves from scenes of carnage and destruction.
The shepherds of Scythia, who could not read, have left to
the vanquished the task of describing their conquests, and
we have great difficulty in crediting the accounts of the pld
Hungarian chronicles, when they describe the unheard-of
cruelties by which the Moguls disgraced thoir victories ;t
but several provinces entirely depopulated and changed into

* Matthew Paris speaks of the terror which the Mogpils spread throngh
Europe : his history contains an exhortation to all the nations of the West
to fly tA arms ; each nation Is in this history characterized by an honour-
able and flattering epithet.

t The reader may consult Thuroetiut, vol. i., Rerum Htmgoricttmmt
and particularly the Carmen MwerabiU of Roger of Hungary, caoon of
Taradin, who has described in poetical prose the disasters t>f which ha
himself was a witness.

824 HISTOBY 07 THS CBXTSUDES.

deserts, the ruins of two thousand churches, fifty destroyed
cities, the traditions of these great disasters transmitted
from age to age, and the terror that pervaded Europe, are
evidences so worthy of faith, that we cannot reject them.

In the general consternation, it is surprising that the
Moguls did not direct their arms against the Latin empire of
Constantinople, then menaced by the G-reeks, and little hotter
than a ruin ; but the shepherds of the desert did not employ
themselves in inquiries concerning the interior revolutions
of states or of the signs of their decav ; they preserved, as
did all the nations of Asia, a vague and conftised idea of the
power of the armies of ancient Byzantium, but took little
need whether the moment were come to attack it and con-
quer it. The great advantages which the imperial city derived
from its position between Europe and Asia, did not at all
strike the Tartars, who were ignorant of both navigation
and commerce, and infinitely preferred rich pastures to the
sumptuous edifices of great capitals. Thus we may equally
believe, either that the city of Constantino was protected on
this occasion bv the memories of its past greatness, or that
it owed its safety to the contempt and indifference of the
barbarians.

The Franks established in Syria enjoyed the same good
fortune as the Greeks of Byzantium. The armies of the
Moguls had not yet crossed the Euphrates.

Whilst the tumult of war and the fall of empires re-
sounded from the Yellow Eiver to the Danube, the Christians
of Palestine, protected by the discords of the Saracens,
resumed possession of Jerusalem : they were beginning to .
repair the walls of the holy city, and rebuild the churches ;
and thanked Heaven in peace, for having preserved them
from the scourges that were devastating the rest of the
world. The Tartars were scarcely aware of the existence or
the name of a country for which so much blood had been
spilt, and were not likely to be attracted to the revered but
barren banks of the Jordan, by either the hopes of booty
or by the remembrances which excited the warlike enthu-
siasm of the nations of the West. Happy would it have
been for the Christian colonies, if a people, conquered by
the Moguls, driven from their own territories, and seek-
ing an asylum every^'here, had not come to disturb their

HIBTOBT OP THE CBVBADEff. 825

transient securitj, and plunge the city of Christ into firesh
calamities.

After the death of Mahomet, sultan of Carisraia, his son
G-elaleddin gathered together an army. The valour which
he displayed in several battles astonished his enemies; and,
for a moment, brought back to his standard the sad remains
of his empire ; fortune favoured his expeditions into Georgia
and India ; but at last he forgot the lessons of adversity
amidst the intoxication of pleasures ; he lost all his con-
quests, and perished miserably among the Curds, where he
had sought refuge. The Carismian warriors, incessantly
pursued oy the Tartars, abandoned a country they could no
longer defend, and, under the command of one of their
leaders named Barbakan, spread themselves through Asia
Minor and Svna.

These hordes, banished from their own country, marched^
sword and torch in hand, and, in their despair, seemed to
wish to avenge ijpon other nations the evils they had suf-
fered from the Tartars. History describes these furious
bands, wandering along the banks of the Orontes and the
Euphrates, dragging in their train a multitude of men and
women that had fallen into their -hands ; a great number of
waggons conveyed the spoils of the ravaged provinces thejr
passed through. The most brave of them ornamented their
lances with the hair of those they had immolated in fight.
Clothed in the produce of pillage, their army presented a
spectacle at once terrific and ridiculous. Tne Carismian
warriors had no resource but in victory, and all the ha-
rangues of their leaders consisted of these words : You will
conquer, or you will die. They gave no quarter to their
enemies on the field of battle ; when conauered themselves,
. they submitted to death without a complaint. Their fury
spared neither Christians nor Mussulmans ; all they met on
their passage. were their enemies; their approach spread
terror everywhere, put the distracted peoples to flight, and
changed cities and towns into deserts.

The Mussulman powers of Syria several times united in a
league against the Carismians, and drove them back to the
other side of the Euphrates. But the apirit of rivalry
which at all times divided the princes of the family of
Baladin, soon recalled an enemy always redoubtable notwith-

826 HISTOBY OF THE OBUSADSS.

standing defeats. At tbe period of which we are speaking,
the princes of Damascus, Carac, and Emessa had just formed
an alliance with the Christians of Palestiue ; they not onlj
restored Jerusalem, Tiberias, and the principality of Ghdilee
to them, but thej promised to join them, in the conquest of
Egypt, a conquest for which the whole of Syria was making
preparations. The sultan of Cairo, to ayenge himself upon
the Christians who had broken the treaties concluded with
him, to punish their new allies, and protect himself from
their invasion, determined to apply for succour to the hordes
of Carismia ; and sent deputies to the leaders of these bar-
barians, promising to abancton Palestine to them, if thej
subdued it.

This proposition was accepted with joy, and twenty thou-
sand horsemen, animated by a thirst for booty and slaughter,
hastened from the further parts of Mesopotamia, disposed
to be subservient to the vengeance or anger of the Egyptian
monarch. On their march they ravaged the territory of
Tripoli and the principality of Galilee, and the flames which
everywhere accompanied their steps, announced their arrival
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Portiiications scarcely commenced, and the small number
of warriors in the holy city, left not the least hope of being
able to repel the unexpected attacks of such a formidable
enemy. The whole population of Jerusalem resolved to fly,
under the guidance of the knights of the Hospital and the
Temple. There only remained in the city the sick and a
few mhabitants whp could not make their minds up to aban-
don their homes and their infirm kindred. The Carismians
soon arrived, and having destroyed a few intrenchments that
had been made in their route, they entered Jerusalem sword
in hand, massacred all they met, and as, amidst a deserted
city the conquerors found no victims to glut their vengeance
with, they had recourse to a most odious stratagem to lure
back the inhabitants who had taken flight. They raised
the standards of the cross upon every tower, and set all the
bells ringing. The crowd of Christians who were retiring
towards Jaffa, marched on in silence, and advanced but
slowly, constantly hoping that Heaven would be touched by
their misery, and, by some miracle, lead them back to the
homes they had quitted : from time to time, their eyes in-

HlflTOBT 07 THE CRUSjUIXS. dSff

yoluatarily turned towards the holy eitj. All at once thej
saw the banners of the Cross unfurled, and the sound of tjbe
aaored braes, which overy day called them to prayers, re-
sounded in their ears. The news soon spread that either
the barbarians had marched their army in another direction,
or that they had been repulsed by the Christians who were
left in the city. They became soon persuaded that God had
token pity on his people, and would not permit the city of
Christ to be defiled by the presence of a sacrilegious horde.
Seven thousand fugitives, deceived by this hope, returned
to Jerusalem and gave themselves up to the fury of the
Carismians, who put them all to the sword. Torrents of
blood flowed through the streets and along the roads. A
troop of nuns, chil<ken, and aged people, who had sought
refuge in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, were massacred '
at the foot of the altars. The Carismians finding nothing
among the living to satisfy their ftiry, biurst open the sepul-
chres, and gave the coffins and remains of the dead up to
the ^mes ; the tomb of Christ, that of Godfrey of BouiUon,
the sacred relics of the martyrs and heroes of the faith,
nothiiifi; was respected, and Jerusalem then witnessed within
its walls such cruelties and profanations as had never taken
place in the most barbarous wars, or in days marked by the
anger of God.*

In the mean time, the grand masters of the Templars and
the Hospitallers, assembled with the patriarch of Jerusalem
and the nobles of the kingdom, in Ptolemais, endeavoured
to devise means by which the Carismians might be repulsed
and Palestine saved. All the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon,
Ptolemais, and other Christian cities, able to bear arms, re-
paired to their standards. The princes of Damascus, Carac,
andEmessa, whose assistance the Christians implored, united
their forces, and assembled an army to stop the progress of
the general devastation. This Mussulman army soon arrived
in Palestine. Its appearance before the walls of Ptolemais
raised the courage of the Franks, who, in so pressing a dan-
ger, appeared to have no repugnance to fight in company
with the infidels. Almansor, prince of Emessa, who com-
manded the Mussulman warriors, had recently signalized

* See in the Appendix the details which many of the Chroniolet giw of
th9 r»va«fp of thaCaroniaof inP^ketiM.

HI8T0BT OF THS CBlTSADBfl.

his yalour against tbe hordes of Cansmia. The Christians
took pleasure in relating his yictones in the plains of
Aleppo, and on the banks of the Euphrates. He was re-
ceiyed in Palestine as a liberator, and carpets bordered with
gold and silk were spread upon his passage. '' The people,"
says Joinville, '* considered him as one of the best barons of
poffanismy

The preparations of the Ohristians, the zeal and ardour
of the military orders, the barons, and prelates ; the union
that subsisted between the Franks and their new allies,
altogether seemed to form a presage of success in a war un«
dertaken in the names of religion, humanity, and patriotism.
The Christian and Mussulman armies, united under the
same banners, set out from Ptolemais, and encamped upon
the plains of Ascalon. The army of the Carismians advanced
towards Gaza, where they were to receive provisions and
reinforcements sent by the sultan of Egypt. The Franks
became impatient to meet their enemies, and to avenge the
deaths of their companions and brethren massacred at Jeru-
salem. A council was called, to deliberate upon tlie best
mode of proceeding. The prince of Emessa and the more
wise among the barons thought it not prudent to expose the
safety of the Christians and their allies to the nsk of a
battle. It appeared to them most advisable to occupy an
advantageous position, and wait, without giving battle, till
the natural inconstancy of the Carismians, want of provi-
sions, or discord, might assist in dispersing this vagabond
multitude, or lead them into other countries.

Most of the other chiefs, amon^ whom was the patriarch
of Jerusalem, did not agree with this opinion, and could see
nothing in the Carismians but an undisciplined horde that
it would be very easy to conquer and put to flight : any
delay in attacking them would only raise their pride and re-
double their audacity. Every day the evils of war were in-
creasing ; humanity and the safety of the Christian colonies
required that they should promptly put an end to so many
devastations, and that they should make haste to chastise
the brigands, whoso presence was at once an opprobrium
and a calamity for the Christians, and all the allies of the
Christians.

ThiB opinion, too oongenial with the impatient yalour of

HI8T0EY 07 THE CBTTSASXa. 829

the Pranks, prevailed in the council. It was resolved to
■ march, and oner the enemy battle.

The two armies met in the country of the ancient Philis-
tines. Some years before, the duke of Burgundy and the
king of Navarre, surprised in the sandy plains of Gaza, had
lost the best of their knights and soldiers. Neither the
sight of places where the Crusaders had been defeated, nor
the remembrance of their recent disaster, diminished the
imprudent ardour of the Christian warriors ; as soon as
they perceived the enemy, they were eager for the signal fop
battle. The Christian army was divided into three Dodies ;
the left wing, in which were the knights of St. John, was
commanded by Qauthier de Brienne, count of Jaffa, nephew
to king John, and son of that Gauthier who died at the con-
quest of Naples. The Mussulman troops, imder the orders
of the prince of Emessa, formed the right wing. The
patriarch of Jerusalem, surrounded by his clergy, with the
wood of the true cross borne belbre him, the grand master
of the Templars with his knights, and the barons of
Palestine with their vassals, occupied the centre of the
army.

The Carismians formed their line of battle slowly, and
some degree of disorder was observable in their ranks.
Ghiuthier de Brienne was anxious to profit by this circum-
stance and attack them with advantage ; but the patriarch
restrained his valour by a severity not less contranj" to the
interests of the Christians than to* the spirit of the Gospel.*

The count of Jaffa, having been excoUimunicated for de-
taining in his hands a castle to which the prelate laid claim,
asked, before he commenced the encounter in which he
might lose his life, to be relieved from his excommunication.
The patriarch twice rejected his prayer, and refused to
absolve him. The army, which had received the benedictions
of the priests and bishops, arising from their knees, awaited
in silence the signal for battle. The Carismians had formed
their line and advanced, uttering loud cries and discharging

* Joinrille gives many particulars of this war which he had learnt
daring his sojourn in Palestine. The continnator of William of Tyre may
likewise he consulted. Matthew Paris has preserved two letters, one from
the patri irch of Jerusalem, the other from the grand master of the Hos«
piullen, which deecribe this hettie.
Vol. 1L— 16

830 UISTOEY OF TUE CBCSADES.

a cloud of arrows. Tben the bishop of Bama, in complete
armour, impatient to signalize his bravery against the
enemies of the Christians, approached the count of Jaffa, ex-
claiming, " Let us march, — the patriarch is wrong : I absolve
you, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost." After having pronounced these words, the
intrepid bishop of Eama and Gauthier de Brienne, followed
by his companions in arms, rushed amidst the ranks of
the enemy, burning to obtain victory or the crown of mar-
tyrdom.

The two armies were soon generally engaged, and mingled
on the field of battle. The ardour to conquer was equal on
both sides ; neither the Christians nor their enemies could
be ignorant that a single defeat must cause their ruin, and
that their only safety was in victory. On this account, the
annals of war present no example of a more murderous and
obstinate contest ; the battle began with the dawn, and only
ended at sunset. On the following morning fighting was
renewed with the same fury ; the prince of Emessa, after
having lost two thousand of his horsemen, abandoned the
field of battle, and fled towards Damascus. This retreat of
the Mussulmans decided the victory in favour of the Caris-
mians ; the Christians for a long time sustained the repeated
shocks of the enemy ; but at length, exhausted by fatigue
and over^'helmed by a multitude, almost all were either
killed or taken prisoners. This sapguinary battle cost life
or liberty to more than thirty thousand Christian and
Mussulman warriors ; the prince of Tyre, the patriarch of
Jerusalem, and some of the prelates, with great difiiculty
escaped the slaughter, and retired to Ptolemais. Among the
warriors who regained the Christian cities, there were only
thirty-three knights of the Temple, twenty-six Hospitallers,
and three Teutonic knights.

When the news of this victory reached Egypt, it created
a universal joy ; it was announced to the people by sound
of drams and trumpets ; the sultan ordered public rejoicings
throughout tlie provinces, and aU the public edifices of the
capital were illumined during three nights. In a short
time the prisoners arrived at Cairo, mounted on camels, and
pursued by the insulting clamours of the multitude. Before
their arriyaly the heada of their oompaiuons and brethren

nisTouT or the cbusabes. 831

killed at the battle of Gkza were exhibited on the walls.
This horrible monument of their defeat foreboded all they
had to fear for themselves from the barbaritj of the con-
querors. They were cast into dungeons, where they were
abandoned to the mercies of cruel gaolers, and where they
had the melancholy satisfaction of embracing the barons
and knights made prisoners in the last crusade.

Whilst all Egypt was celebrating the victory of Guza, the
inhabitants of Palestine deplored the death and captivity of
their bravest warriors. As long as any hope existed of con-
quering the Carismians with the assistance of the Mussul-
mans of Syria, their alliance had created neither mistrust
nor scruple; but reverses quicklv revived prejudices; the
last disaster was attributed to divine justice, irritated by
having seen the banners of Christ mingled with those of
Mahomet. On the other hand, the Mussulmans believed
they had betrayed the cause of Islamism by allying them-
selves with the Christians ; the aspect of the cross on the
field of battle awakened their fanaticism and diminished
their zeal for a cause which appeared to be that of their
enemies. At the moment of beginning the fight, the prince
of Emessa was heard to pronounce these words : " I am
armed for battle, and yet God tells me; in the depths of my
heart, that we shall nofc be victorious, because we have
sought the friendship of tlie Franks."

The victory of the Carismians delivered up the greater
part of Palestine to the most redoubtable enemies of the
Christian colonies. The Egyptians took possession of Jeru-
salem, Tiberias, and the cities ceded to the Franks by the
prince of Damascus. The hordes of Carismia ravaged all
the banks of the Jordan, with the territories of Ascalon
and Ptolemais, and laid siege to Jaffa. They dragged the
unfortunate Gauthier de Brienne in their train, hoping that
he would cause a city that belonged to him to open its gates
to them : this model of Christian heroes was fastened to a
cross before the walls. Whilst thus exposed to the eyes of
his faithful vassals, the Carismians loaded him with insults,
and threatened him with instant death if the city of Jaffa
ofiered the least resistance. Gauthier, braving death, ex-
horted the inhabitants and the garrison, with a loud voice,
to defend themselves to the last extremity. ^ Tour duty,"

HISTOBT OT THJB CUXr8AJ>ES.

cried he, '' is to defend a Christian oily ; mine is to die for
you and Jesus Christ." The citj of Jaffa did not fall into
the hands of the Carismians, and G-authier soon received
the reward of his generous devotedness. Sent to the sultaa
of Cairo, he perished heneath the hrutal hlows of a furious
moh, and thus obtained the palm of martyrdom for which
he had wished.

In the mean time, fortune, or rather the inconstancy of
the barbarians, came to the assistance of the Franks, and
delivered Palestine from the presence of an enemy nothinc^
could resist. The sultan of Cairo sent robes of honour and
magnificent presents to the leaders of the victorious hordes,
proposing to them to crown their exploits by directing their
arms against the city of Damascus. The Carismians imme-
diately laid siege to the capital of Syria. Damascus, which
had been hastily fortified, was able to oppose but a very
slight resistance to their impetuous attacks. Having no
hope of succour, they opened their gates, and acknowledged
the domination of the sultan of Egypt. It was then that
the Carismians, inflated by their victo^, demanded, in a
menacing tone, that the lands that had been promised to
them in Palestine should immediately be given up to them.
The sultan of Cairo, who dreaded such neighbours, attempted
to defer the fulfilment of his promise. In the fury which
his refusal created, the barbanans offered their services to
the prince whom they had just despoiled of his states, and
laid fresh siege to Damascus, in order to deprive the Egyp-
tians of it. The garrison and the inhabitants defended
themselves with obstinacy ; the fear of falling into the hands
of a pitiless enemy supplying the place of courage. All the
evils that war brings in lier train, even famine itself^ appeared .
to them a less terrible scourge than the hordes assembled
under their ramparts.

The sultan of Egypt sent an army to assist the city, which
was augmented by the troops of Aleppo and of several of
the principalities of Syria. The Carismians were conquered
in two battles. After this double defeat. Oriental history
scarcely mentions their name, or furnishes us with means of
following their track. The greater part of those that escaped
the sword perished with hunger and misery in the countries
they had devastated ; the most brare and the best disciplined

HIBTOBT OF THB CBU8A.D28. 833

went to seek an asylum in the states of the sultan of Ico-
nium : and if faith con be given to the conjectures of some
historians,* thev were the obscure origin of the powerful
dynasty of the Ottomans.

The Christians of Palestine must have been grateful to
Heaven for the destruction of the Carismians ; but the loss
of Jerusalem and the defeat of Graza could not permit them
to indulge in many joyful sensations. They had lost their
allies, and could reckon upon nothing but enemies among
the Mussulmans. The sultan of Egypt, whose alliance they
had rejected, was extending his dommions in Syria, and his
power "became every day more formidable. The cities which
the Christians still retained on the coasts of the sea were
almost all without defenders. The orders of St. John and
the Temple had offered the sultan of Cairo a considerable
sum for the ransom of his prisoners ; but the sultan refused
to listen to their ambassadors, and threatened them with all
the terrors of his wrath : these two bodies, formerly so much
dreaded by the Mussulmans, were no longer able to serve
the cause of the Christians with any advantage, and were
compelled to wait, in a state of inaction, till the warlike
nobuity^ of Europe should come to replace the knights held
in captivity by the infidels, or swept away on the field of
battle. The emperor of Germany made not the least effort
to save the wreck of his feeble kingdom ; he had sent several
warriors to protect his rights in Ptolemais; but as these
rights were not recognised, the presence of the imperial
troops only added to the other scourges that desolated the
Holy Land, that of discord and civil war.

Palestine, threatened every day with a fresh invasion,
could not entertain the smallest hope of being succoured by
the other Christian states of the East. The Comans, a
barbarous people from the confines of Tartary, and who
surpassed the hordes of Carismia in ferocity, ravaged the
banks of the Orontes, and submitted everything in the
principality of Antioch to fire and sword; the king of Armenia
was in dread, at the same time, of the ravages of the Tar-
tars, and of the aggressions of the Turks in Asia Minor ;
the kingdom of Cyprus, a prey to factions, had recently been

* Thif is the opinion of M. Degnignes, in hit Hktoire dm Hun$,

884 iQBTOBY OF THE CBUBABIB.

the theatre of a civil war, and had reason to fear the incur-
sions of the Mussulman nations of Syria and Egypt. In
this deplorable situation, it might be believed that the king-
dom of Godfrey was on the eve of perishing entirely, and
that all that remained of the Christians in the Holy Land
would soon share the fate of the Carismians. But, on
turning their eyes towards the West, the Franks of Palestine
again felt their hopes and their courage revive ; more than
once the Christian states of Syria had owed their safety, and
even a few days of prosperity and glory, to the excess of
their abasement and misery. Their groans and complaints
were seldom heard in vain by the warlike nations of Europe,
and their extreme distress became almost always the signal .
for a new crusade, the very report of which was enough to
make the Saracens tremble.

Valeran, bishop of Berytus, had been sent into the "West
to solicit the protection of the pope and the assistance of
princes and warriors. The pope received the envoy of the
Christians with kindness, and promised his succour tp the
Holy Land. But the West was at that period agitated by
troubles : the quarrel that had broken out between the Holy
See and the emperor of Germany was carried on with an
animosity that disgraced both religion and humanity. Fre-
derick II. exercised all sorts of violences against the court
of Home and the partisans of the sovereign pontiff; the
pope, every day more irritated, invoked the arms of the
Christians against hisienemy, and promised the indulgences
of the crusade to all who would minister to his anger.

On another side, the Latins established at Constantinople
were environed by the greatest perils. The emperor BaJd-
win II., after having conducted a feeble reinforcement to
his capital, had returned into the West, and was, the second
time, soliciting the alms and the succours of the faithful to
sustain the deplorable remains of his empire, exposed, almost
without defence, to the attacks of' the Greeks and Bulga-
rians. At the same time, the Tartars continued to ravage
the banks of the Danube, and threaten Germany; their
barbarous exploits had carried terror to the very extremities
of Europe ; ever^'where the excited imagination of nations
represented these terrible conquerors as monsters vomited
u;) by hell, clothed in hideous forms, and endowed with

UIBTORT OF TnS CRITBADES. 885

Btrength against which no man was able to contend. The '
deficiency of communication, which did not allow of exact
information as to their march, gave birth to the most
frightful rumours. Eame declared at one time they were
invading Italy, and immediately afterwards, that they were
ravaging the banks of the Bhine; every nation dreaded
their prompt arrival, every city believed they were at its
gates.

It was amidst this general disorder and consternation, that
Innocent IV., a refugee at Lyons, resolved to convoke an
ojcumenic council in that city, to remedy the evils that de-
solated Christendom in both the East and the West.* The
Bovereiffn pontiff, in his letters addressed to the faithful,
exposed the deplorable situation of the Eomish Church, and
conjured the bishops to come around him, and enlighten him
w^ith their counsels. The patriarchs of Constantinople,
Antioch, and AauDaja, a great number of prelates and doc-
tors, with several secular princes, responded to the invitation
of the head of the Church. Among the crowd of bishops,
one alone seemed to attract general attention ; this was tne
bishop of Berytus ; his presence, and the grief impressed
upon his brow, reminded the assembly of all the misfortunes
of the Holy Land. Baldwin II., emperor of Byzantium,
created very little less notice; and his suppliant attitude
but too plainly showed what the empire toimded by the
sixth crusade had become.

Most of the Western monarchs had sent their ambassa-
dors to this assemblj', in which the safety and the great
interests of the Christian world were about to be discussed.
Frederick in particular, who had so long been the object of
the anger of the sovereign pontiff, neglected nothing to turn
aside the thunders suspended over his head, and ministers
invested with his confidence were commissioned to defend
him before the fathers of the council. Among the deputies
of the emperor of Crermany, history names Pierre Desvignes,
who had written, in the name of Frederick, eloquent letters
to all the sovereigns of Europe, to complain of the tyranny
exercised by the Holy See ; and Thadaeus of Suesse, who was
not prevented by the profession of arms from employing the

* Consult Matthew Paris, and the AnnalcM EcclesiatiiqueSf for par*
ticulan concerning the council of Lyoni.

8&6 HISTOHX 07 THJB CBUSADIB.

arts of eloquence, or fathoming the depths of the study of
laws. The latter had often served his master with gloiy
amidst the perils of war, hut he had never had an opportu*
nitj of showing so much firmness, courage, and devotion as
in this assembly, in which the court of Eome was about to
put forth all its power and realize all its -threats.

Before the opening of the council, the pope held a congre-
gation in the monastery of St. Just, where he had chosen to
nx his residence. The patriarch of Constantinople exposed
the deplorable state of his church : heresy had resumed its
empire in a great part of Greece, and the enemies of the
Latin church were advancing to the very gates of Constan-
tinople ; the bishop of Berytus read a lel^r, in which the
patriarch of Jerusalem and the baroDS and prelates of Pales-
tine described the ravages of the Carismians, and showed
that the heritage of Christ was upon the point of becoming
the prey of the barbarians, if the West did not take arms
for its defence. The dangers and misfortunes of the Chris-
tians of the East affected the fathers of the council deeply.
Thadseus, taking advantage of their emotion, announced that
the emperor, his master, fully partook of their profound grief,
and that he was ready to employ all his powers for the de-
fence of Christendom. Frederick promised to arrest the
Srogress of the irruption of the Tartars, to re-establish the
omination of the Latins in Greece, to go in person to the
Holy Land, and to deliver the kingdom of Jerusalem ; he
still further promised, in order to put an end to all divisions,
to restore to the Holy See all he had i^aken from it, and to
repair all wrongs offered to the sovereign pontiff. Such
lofty promises, made by the most powerful monarch of Chris-
tendom, created as much joy as surprise in the greater part
of the bishops ; the whole assembly appeared impatient to
know what would be the reply of Innocent. The pope
proved inflexible, and rejected with scorn propositions, as ne
said, already made several times, and which had no other
guarantee but the too suspicious loyalty of Frederick. He
was determined to view the new protestations of the em-
peror as nothing but a fresh artifice to deceive the Church,
and turn aside the course of its justice. " The axe,^ ' added he,
" w already lifted^ and ready to cut the roots of the tree;^' words
very ill assorted with the charity of the Gospel, and which

HISTORY OF THS CBUBADES. 837

plainly show tliat Innocent had prepared the solemn pomp of
a council with less purpose to oppose the foes of Christendom
than to prepare the fall, and consummate the ruin of his
personal enemy.

The pope lield this preparatory sitting in order to make a
trial of his strength, and to become acquainted with the dis-
positions of the bishops. A few days afterwards, the coun-
cil was opened with great solemnity in the metropolitan
church of St. John ; the sovereign pontiff, wearing the tiara,
and clothed in pontifical robes, was placed upon an elevated
seat, having on his right hand the emperor of Constanti-
nople, and on his left the count of Provence and the count
of Thoulouse. After having given out the Vent Creator , and
invoked enlightenment from the Holy Ghost, he pronounced
a discourse, for the subject of which he took the five griefs
with which he was afflicted, and compared them to the five
wounds of the Saviour of the world upon the cross. The
first was the irruption of the Tartars ; the second, the schism
of the Greeks ; the third, the invasion of the Holy Land by
the Carismians ; the fourth, the relaxation of ecclesiastical
discipline and the progress of heresy ; and the fifth, the
persecution he endured from Frederick.

Whilst describing the misfortunes of Christendom, the
pontiff could not restrain his tears. His voice, if we may
believe a contemporary historian, was often stifled by sobs ;
he conveyed to all hearts the sentiments by which he was
affected ; but he soon abandoned the language of compassion
and despair, and assumed that of anger and menace. The
Tartars, the Carismians, and the Mussulmans, inspired him
with less hatred than the emperor of Germany, and it was
for this prince he reserved all the thimders of his eloquence.
He reproached him, in the most vehement expressions, with
all the crimes that could draw upon his head the maledic-
tions of his age, the hatred of his contemporaries,, and the
contempt of posterity. When the pope had pronounced his
discourse, a profound silence reigned throughout the assem-
bly ; it appeared to the greater part of the terrified bishops
that the voice of Heaven had made itself heard for the pur-
pose of condemning Frederick : all eyes were turned upon
the deputies of the emperor, and no one could believe that
either of them would dare to reply to the interpreter of the

15*

838 HISTOBT OF THB CBUBADXB.

anffer of Heaven. All at once Thadseus of Suesse arose, and
addreBsed tlie council, calling upon Grod, who searches all
hearts, to witness that the emperor was faithful to all his
promises, and had never ceased to endeavour to serve the
cause of the Christians. He combated all the accusations of
the sovereign pontiff, and in his reply did not hesitate to
allege numerous complaints against the court of Eome.*
The angry pope replied from his lofty throne; he again
accused the emperor, and evinced but too great a desire to
find him guilty: the first sitting of the coimcil, entirely
occupied with these violent debates, exhibited the unedifying
spectacle of a contest between the head of the faithful, who
accused a Christian prince of perjury, felony, heresy, and
sacrilege ; and the minister of an emperor, who reproached
the court of Some with having exercised an odious des-
potism, and committed revolting iniquities.

This contest, tho results of which were likely to prove
equally injurious to the head of the Church and the head
of the Empire, was prolonged during several days ; it doubt-
less scandalized all those that the pope Iiad not associated
with him in his resentments, and most of the bishops must
have been afflicted at being thus diverted from the principal
object of the convocation.

At length, however, the calamities of the Eastern Chris-
tians, the captivity of Jerusalem, and the dangers of Byzan-
tium engaged the attention of the fathers of the council.
•The pope and the assembly of prelates decided that a new
crusade should be preached for the deliverance of the Holy
Land and the Latin empire of Constantinople. They re-
newed all the privileges granted to Crusaders by preceding
popes and councils, as well as all the penalties directed
against such as should favour either pirates or Saracens :
during three years all who should take the cross would be
exempted from every kind of tax or public office ; but if after
taking tho vow they did not perform it, they incurred ex-
communication. The council recommended to the barons
and knights to reform the luxury of their tables and the
splendour of their dress ; they advised all the faithful, and
particularly ecclesiastics, to practise works of charity, and to

* Matthew Paris affords some very cnrioos details upon the couqclI of
L701U ; ts Pire Labbe m^y also be consoltad.

HISTORY Oir THE CEU8ADES. 839

arm themselves with all the austerities of penitence against
the enemies of God. In order to obtain the protection of
Heaven by the intercession of the Holy Virgm, the pope
and the fathers of the council ordered that the octave of the
Nativity should be celebrated in the church. In several
councils Christian knights had been forbidden to take part
in the profane solemnities of tournaments ; the council of
Lyon renewed the prohibition, persuaded that these military
festivals might turn aside the minds of the warriors from the
pious thoughts of the crusades, and that the expenses they
occasioned would render it impossible for the bravest of the
lords and barons to make the necessary preparations for the
pilgrimage beyond the seas. The council ordered that the
clergy should pay the twentieth part of their revenue, and
the sovereign pontiff and cardinals the tenth of theirs, to
provide for the expenses of the holy war. Half of the
revenues of all non-resident benefices was specially reserved
for the assistance of the empire of Constantinople. The •
decrees of the council ordered all whose mission it was to
preach the word of God, to urge princes, counts, barons, and
the corporations of cities, to contribute to the extent of their
power to the success of the holy war ; the same statutes re-
commended the clergy to show to the faithful that sacrifices
ofiered to the crusade were the surest means of redeeming
their sins; but above all they recommended the clergy to
excite the faithful, in the tribunal of penitence, to multiply
their offerings, or at least to bequeatn in their testaments
something for the assistance of the Christians of the East.

It was thus the council declared war against nations
opposed to the Christians, and prepared means for assuring
the triumphs of the soldiers of Christ. "We are nevertheless
surprised that the pope said nothing about preaching a
crusade against the Tartars, whose invasion he had com-
pared to one of the wounds of the Saviour on the cross. In
the state of desolation in which Hungary was, then placed,
none of the bishops of that unfortunate kingdom had been
able to appear at the council, and no friendly voice was
raised to direct attention to, or implore favour for the Hun-
garian nation. The Tartars, it is true, repulsed by the duke
of Neustadt, had fallen back from the banks of the Danube ;
but there was great reason to dread their return : to prevent

840 UISTOBX Of THS 0BUSiJ)£8.

fresh inyasions, the council contented itself with advising
the Gbrmans to dig ditches and build walls on the roads the
Tartarian hordes were likely to take. These measures, which
even then must have been known to be insufficient, assist us
at the present day in forming an opinion of the spirit of im-
providence and blindness which then presided over political
councils. Who can fail to be surprised at seeing, in an
assembly so grave as a council, Europe pressed to lavish its
treasures and sacrifice its armies for the deliverance of Con-
stantinople and Jerusalem, whilst the most redoubtable of
the barbarians were at their doors, and theatening to invade
their own territories ?

We may, however, remark, that Frederick himself had
solicited the powers of Europe to assist him in repelling the
Tartars ; and the pope took much less interest in succouring
the empire than ne did in endeavouring to wrest it from
Frederick. Innocent seemed very little disposed to set an
example of that spirit of concord and charity which the
council had just recommended to Christian princes; history
can but deplore the zeal and ardour he evinced in carrying
out his projects of vengeance against the emperor of Ger-
many, at the risk of arousing evil passions, of perpetuating
discord, and thus giving up the West to the invasion of the
barbarians. In the second sitting of the council he waa
preparing to crush his enemy and completely overwhelm
him with the weight of ecclesiastical power, when ThadsBus
of Suesse demanded a delay of a few days, to allow the em-
peror to come in person to justify his conduct and demon-
strate his loyalty. The defender of Frederick hoped that
the presence of a powerful monarch, by awakening in the
minds of the assembly the respect due to the majesty of
kings, would bring about the triumph of justice. The pope
consented, though very unwillingly, to deier the accomplish-
ment of his menaces ; but the emperor could not condescend
to appear as a suppliant before an assembly convoked by
the most implacable of his enemies : he did not come to the
council, and when the required period of delay had expired,
the sovereign pontiff took advantage of his absence to re-
proach him afresh with his bad faith, and his Feaistance to
the laws of the Chuidu

HIBTOBT OP THX OBVBABEB. 841

At the moment in which the aaaemhly of thd bishops
tremblingly awaited the terrible sentence, the English am-
bassadors arose to complain of the agents of the court of
Bome, whose ambition and avarice were mining the kingdom
of England; thej at the same time protested against the
feudal supremacy which the pope, in consequence of a ces-
sion made by lung John, pretended to exercise over the
English monarchy and nation. These claims could not
restrain the ever-boiling anger of the sovereign pontiff. In
yffdn Thadieus again rose to urge that a great number of
bishops were absent — that several princes had not sent their
ambassadors to the council; in vain he declared that he
should appeal from this to a more numerous and more solemn
council ; nothing could turn aside the storm or retard the
hour of vengeance. Innocent at first replied with modera-
tion to the deputies of England, and even to those of Fre-
derick ; but soon assuming the tone of a judge and a master,
" I am," said he, " the vicar of Jesus Christ ; all that which
I shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, according to
the promises of the Son of God made to the prince of the
a})ostles; and ;therefore, after having deliberated upon it
with our brethren the cardinals, and with the council, I
declare Frederick attainted and convicted of sacrilege and
heresy, to be excommimicated and degraded from the em-
pire ; I absolve from their oaths, for ever, all who have sworn
fidelity to him ; I forbid any, under pain of excommunica-
tion incurred by that single fault, to henceforth yield him
obedience; to conclude, I command the electors to elect
another emperor, and I reserve to myself the right of dis-
posing of the kingdom of Sicily."

During the reading of this sentence, the pope and the
prelates held lighted wax tapers in their hands, and bent
towards the earth in sign of malediction and anathema.
The envoys of Frederick retired filled with confusion and
despair ; Thadseus of Suesse was heard to pronounce these
words of the Scripture : " O terrible day ! O day of anger and
calamity .' " A deep and melancholy silence prevailed through-
out this assembly, into the bosom of which it appeared as if
the bolts of heaven had just fallen amidst awful peals. The
pope abne appeared collected, and his couutenanoe was

842 HISTOBY 07 TnS GBVSADE8.

radiant with joy ; he gave out the Te Deum, as if he had
obtained a victoiy oyer the infidels, and declared that the
council had terminated its labours.

Such was the council of Lyons, too celebrated in the annals
of the middle ages, which has frequently supplied the enemies
of religion with a pretext for attacking the judgments of the
Church. The pope in his opening discourse had deplored
the progress of heresy ; but always more eager to combat
the enemies of his power than those of religion, he did not
propose a single measure to arrest the progress of the new
errors. In this council, which had no tendency to the en-
lightenment of the faithful, the majesty of kings was violently
outraged ; all the maxims of the rights of nations, and all the
precepts of scriptural charity were in it trampled under foot.
When Innocent announced the intention of deposing the
emperor, not a single bishop raised his voice to divert the
sovereign pontiff from this revolting use of his power. The
real wrongs that Frederick had committed against the
Church ; the remembrance of the persecutions he had exer-
cised towards several bishops ; the intention which they be-
lieved he entertained of plundering the clergjr ; the threaten-
ing language and tone of the pope ; that invmcible influence
under which all feel themselves m a numerous assembly — all
assisted in preventing any of the bishops from pleading the
cause of reason or recalling the maxims of the Uospel to the
mind of the enraged pontiff. Nevertheless the fathers of the
council, whatever might be their prejudices or their resent-
ments, did not take part in all the fury of Innocent, and did
not actively assist in carrying out his acts of injustice and
/violence.

The pope did not appeal to their wisdom, and seemed
afraid to ask their opinions. Without repeating here that
which has frequently been said in schools of theology, im-
partial history must disapprove of the silent neutrality of tho
council ; but it must at tne same time assert that the odious
decree against Frederick was not an act of the Church ; that
the bishops and prelates did not give their formal approba-
tion to it ; and that the shame of this great iniquii^ fails
entirely upon the memory of Innocent.*

• We find in the grait theology of Toarnely (Traii/de VEgliie, torn, li.)
a very learned ditsertatioD upon this deposition of the emperor Fiederiek II.

HISTORY Of TUE CBUSAPES. 848

It was at this deplorable period that the cardinals, by
order of the pope, clothed themselves for the first time in

at the first council of Lyons. This theologian asserts that the conndl
had nothing at all to do with this great act of authority of Innocent IV.,
and brings seTeral reasons to support his opinion. We will quote some
of them, leaving our readers to appreciate their value.

*' Whilst all the bulls of the pope, published in council, begin by
these words : ' We have decreed, with the approbation of the council,'
according to the advice of the sacred council, &c. (sacro approbante
concilio, ex communi concilii approbatione, statuimus),' we read at
the head of the bull in question : * Sentence pronounced against the
emperor Frederick by the pope, Innocent IV., in presence of the council
(sacro prsesent« concilio),' an essential diflTerence, which is likewise
observable in the body of the bull, when the sovereign pontiff only speaks
in bis own name, and as holding the place of Jesus Christ upon earth.
All the fathers of the council, says Matthew Paris, on hearing the sentence,
tt^e ttruck vfith mrprue and horror^ sentiments they certainly would
not have felt if they had had any part in the judgment.

'* All the historians of the time attribute this act of authority to the
pope, without even mentioning the council; and Frederick II., when
accusing the incompt* tence of the judge, his partiality, his blindness, and
his ingratitude, when writing to the kings of France and England and tho
barons of his kingdom on the subject, only complains of the pontiff, and
does not attach the least reproach to the prelates who composed the
assembly. The sentence was considered as so completely the work of the
pope, that the Church, v^hich received the decisions of the council, attached
little importance to the bull, and that this bull became absolutely a party
affair. U was rejected by a great number of the churches of Germany
and Italy. The kings of France and England considered it as injurious to
sovereign majesty, and continued to treat Frederick as legitimate emperor.
It only rendered the wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines more active
and more inveterate.

** The pope said truly that he had deliberated with the fathers of the
council ; but he adds, that the deliberation turned upon no other object
hut the excommunication of the emperor ; that he did not at all speak of
the article of the deposition, and that thence came the surprise and horror
which the prelates manifested

** It is nevertheless objected that the pope and the fathers of the coun-
cil, after the reading of the sentence, turned down the waxlights which
they held and extinguished them, and that afterwards the pope gave out
the Te Deum, in which the prelates assisted ; but Matthew Paris believes
that the circumstances are here not exact. He thinks that some priests
only, attached to the court of Rome, lent themselves to the passion of the
pope against Frederick, and performed the ceremony of the waxlights,
which may still further only relate to the excommunication ; otherwise
how can we reconcile this passage of the historian with the surprise and
horror that were manifested, according to him, in the assembly at the
reading of the sentence.

'* The pope did not even endeavotir to perroade anybody that he waa

841 HIBTOBX or THS CBCTBADSS.

the scarlet robe, a symbol of persecution, and a sad presago
of the blood that was about to flow. Frederick was at Turin
when he heard of his condemnation ; at this news he'called
for his imperial crown, and placing it upon his head, ex-
claimed in a loud and angry voice, " There it is, and before
it shall be wrested from me, my enemies shall well know tho
terror of my arms ; lot this pontiff tremble, who has broken
every tie that bound me to him ; he at length permits me
henceforth to listen to nothing but the dictates of my just
anger." These threatening words announced a formidable
contest, and every finend of peace must have been seized
with terror : the fury which animated the emperor and the

supported by the aathority of the coancil. He declared that he should
know bow to maintain irrevocably all thai he had done relative to
Frederick."

After having discussed all these points, Toumely raises doubts upon
the oecumenicity of the first council of Lyons.

'* The council of Florence." says this theologian, " which makes an
enumeration of the general councils held before that period, passes by
that of Lyons in silence, and in fact several countries, as Germany, Italy,
Spain, Brittany, Stveden, and Poland, had no bishops there ; there were
few prelates from France or England.

"In the same way the council of Constance, enumerating in a formula,
that the pope about to be elected was to sign all the oecumenic councils
which had preceded, only mentions one council of Lyons. Now, this
could only be the second, for that was very solemn. There were more
than five hundred bishops at it, as well from the East as the West, and
the Greeks in it acknowledged the divine filiation,**

Thadnus of Suesse, representative of the emperor Frederick IL at the
council of Lyons, and zealous defender of the rights of that prince, appealed
publicly from this council to a future general and cecumenic council. One
of the causes which might, according to Toumely, lead several bishops
into error, but which will appear very strange at the present day. was,
that they imagined the empire really was a feudatory of the court of Rome.
It is the sovereign pontiff, they say, who crowns the emperor ; he has then
a particular and special right over the empire ; he can depose the head of
it for a serious matter. Frederick, in his letters to the kings of France
and England, mentions and combats strongly this ridiculous prejudice,
and the foolish pretensions of the popes. Gregory IX., in a letter
addressed to Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, informs him that
Frederick is engaged by oath to go to the Holy Land, abandoning, if ho
failed in his promise, his states and his person to the sovereign pontiff.
According to this, the fathers might believe that the deposition was a con-
sequence of the penalty the prince had incurred as a peijurer. We must
refer to the ages in wlucfa these questions were agitated to appreciate dia
hifinenoe they had upon events*

HISTOBT Of THE CBU8AJ)£8. 845

pope quicklypassed into the minds of the people ; in the
provinces of Grermany and Italy all flew to arms. Amidst the
agitation in which the West was then plunged, it is probable
that Jerusalem and the Holy Land would have been quite
forgotten, if a powerful and highly-revered monarch had not
placed himself at the head of the crusade which had been
proclaimed in the council of Lyons.

The preceding year, at the very moment the nations of the
West heard of the last misfortimes of Palestine, Louis IX.
of France fell dangerously ill. The most earnest prayers
were offered up by the people of his kingdom for the pre-
servation of the virtuous monarch. The malady, the attacks
of which became every day more violent, at length created
serious alarm. Louis sunk into a mortal lethargv, and the
intelligence was soon circulated that he was dead. The
court, the capital, the provinces were struck with the deepest
grief ; nevertneless, the king of France, as if Heaven had not
been able to resist the prayers and tears of a whole nation,
recovered, even when apparently at the portals of the tomb.
The first use he made ot speech, after again beholding the
light, was to ask for the cross and express his determination
of going to the Holy Lnnd.

Those who surrounded him considered his return to life
as a miracle effected by the crown of thorns of Christ, and
by the protection of the apostles of France ; they cast them-
selves on their knees to return thanks to Heaven, and in
the joy they experienced, scarcely paid attention to the vow
Louis had made of quitting his kingdom and going to fight
against the irfidels in the East. AVhen the king began to
recover his strength, he repeated his vow, and again asked
for the cross of the Crusaders.* The queen Blanche, his

* This great incident in the life of Louis IX. is differently, and indeed
more strikingly, related by most French historians. ** When he felt him.
self better, to the great astonishment of ali, he ordered the red cross to
be affixed to his bed and his vestments, and made a tow to go and fight
for the tomb of Christ. His mother, and the priests themselves, implored
him to renounce his fatal design. It was all in vain ; and scarcely nas
he convalescent than he called his mother and the bishop of Paris to his
bedside, and said to them, * Since you believe that I was not perfectly
myself when I pronounced my vows, there is my red cross, which I tear
from my shoulders ; I return it to you : but now, when you must perceive
that I am in the full enjoyment of all my facultiei, restore to me my croti ;

846 HISTOBT OF THI €BUSiJ)Z8.

mother, the princes of his family, and Pierre d'Auvergne,
bishop of Paris, then endeavoured to divert him from his
purpose, and conjured him, with tears in their eyes, to wait
till he was perfectly restored to health before he directed his
thoughts to so perilous an enterprise ; but Loms thought he
was only obeying the will of Heaven. His imagination had
been forcibly affected by the calamities of the Holy Land ;
Jerusalem given up to pillage, the tomb of Christ profaned,
were constantly present to his mind. Amidst the neight of
a burning fever, he had fancied he heard a voice which came
from the East, and addressed these words to him : " King of
France^ thou seest the outrages offered to the city of Christ ;
it is thou whom Heaven hath appointed to avenge them"
This celestial voice resounded still in his ears, and would not
allow him to listen to the prayers of firiendship or the coun-
sels of human wisdom. Steadfast in his resolution, he re-
ceived the cross from the hands of Pierre d*Auvergne, and
caused it to be announced to the Christians of Palestine —
sending them at the same time succours of both men and
money — that he would cross the seas as soon as he could
assemble an army, and had reestablished peace in his
dominions.

This information, which conveyed such joy to the Chris-
tian colonies, spread grief and consternation through all the
prorinces of France. The sieur de Joinville expresses warmly
the regret of the royal family, particularly the despair of
the queen mother,* by saying, that when this princess saw
her son wearing the cross, she was struck as fearfuXlv as if
she had looked upon him dead. The late disasters of Jeru-
salem had drawn tears from most Christians in the West,
but without inspiring them, as in the preceding age, with
any earnest desire of going to fight the infidels. It was im-
possible to see, in these fistant expeditions, anything but
great perils and inevitable reverses ; and the project of

for He who is acquainted with all things, knows also that no kind of food
shall enter into my month until I have again been marked with His holy
sign.' ' It is the hand of Henven/ cried all who were present ; * its wiU
be done. ' " ( B<mnecho9e) . — Tr a ns.

* English readers should acknowledge a familiar acquaintance in this
excellent mother and good queen : she is the Lady BUmcke of Shakespear's
King John, — Trans.

mSTOBT OF THX CBITSAOXS. 947

recoyering the city of God awakened more alarm than
enthusiasm.

The sovereign pontiff, however, sent eccleaiastica into all
the Christian states with a charge to preach the holy war.
Ciirdinal Eudes, of Chateauronx, arrived in France with the
express commission of publishing and causing to be executed
the decrees of the council of Lyons respecting the crusade.
The holy expedition was preached in all the churches of the
kingdom. Contemporary history scarcely mentions the effect
of these preachings, and everything leads us to believe that
those who then took the oath to fight against the Saracens
were induced to do so more by the example of the king than
by the eloquence of the holy orators.

In order to give more solemnity to the publication of the
crusade, and to excite the ardour of the warriors for the de-
liverance of the holy places, Louis IX. convoked a parlia-
ment in his capital, in which were assembled the prelates
and magnates of the kingdom. The cardinal legate there
repeated the exhortations addressed by the head of the
Church to the faithful. Louis IX. spoke after the cardinal
of Chateauroux, and retraced the picture of the disasters of
Palestine. " According to the expression of David, an im-
pious nation has entered into the temple of the Lord;
blood has flowed like water around Jerusalem ; the servants
of God have been massacred in the sanctuary ; and their
remains, deprived of sepulture, are abandoned to the birds
of heaven.'* After having deplored the miseries of Sion,
Louis IX. reminded his barons and knights of the example
of Louis the Young and of Philip Augustus ; he exhorted
every generous soldier who heard him to take arms, to go
across the seas, flglit against the infidels, and defend the
glory of God and of the French name in the Bast. Louis,
invoking by turns the charity and the warlike virtues of
his auditory, endeavoured to awaken in all hearts both in-
spirations of piety and sentiments of chivalry. There is no
necessity for repeating what was the effect of the exhorta-
tions and prayers of a king of France who addressed him-
self to the honour, and appealed to the bravery of his subjects.
He had scarcely ceased speaking, when his three brothers,
Bobert, count d'Artois, Alphonse, duke of Poictiers, and
Charles, duke of Anjou, took the oath to go and defend the

348 HISTORY OP THE CEITSAPES,

heritage of Christ and the French colonies in Asia. Queen
Marguerite, the countess d'Artois, and the duchess of Poic-
tiers, likewise took the cross and resolved to accompany their
husbands. Most of the bishops and prelates who were pre-
sent at this assembly, influenced by the discourse of the
king and the example of the cardinaHegate, did not hesitate
to enrol themselves in a war for which, it is true, less en-
thusiasm was shown than had appeared in a former age, but
which was still termed the tear of Qod, Among the great
vassals of the crown who swore to quit France for the pur-
pose of fighting the Saracens in Asia, the friends of the
French monarchy must have numbered, with much joy,
Pierre de Dreux, duke of Brittany, Hugh, count de la
Marche, and several other lords whose jealous ambition had
60 long disturbed the kingdom. Quickly after them were
seen the duke of Burgundy, Hugh de Chatillon, the count
de St. Pol, the counts of Dreux, Bar, Soissons, Blois, Bhotel,
Montfort, and Vcndome ; the seigneur de Beaujeu, constable
of France, and John de Beaumont, great admiral, and great
chamberlain ; Philip of Courtenay, Guy of Flanders, Ar-
chambaud de Boiu*bon, voung Kaoul de Coucy, John of
Barres, Gilles de Mailly, "feobert de Bethune, and Oliver de
Thermes. There was not an illustrious family in the king-
dom that did not supply one hero for the crusade. In the
crowd of these noble Crusaders, history is gratified in ob-
serving the celebrated Boileve, who was afterwards provost
of the traders of Paris, and the sieur de Joinville, whose
name will for ever appear in the history of France by the
side of that of Louis IX.

In the assembly of prelates and barons several measures
were adopted for the maintenance of public peace and the
preparations for the holy war. An immense number of pro-
cesses at that period disturbed the peace of families, and
those processes, of which many were decided by the sword,
often amounted to actual wars. The tribunals were enjoined
to terminate all affairs brought before them, and in cases in
which they could not oblige the parties to acquiesce in a
definite judgment, the judges were directed to make them
Bwear to a truce of five years. In agreement with the
authority of the pope, and the decrees of the council of
Lyons, it was ordered that ecclesiastics should pay to the

HISTOBT OF TSI CBUBAI>X8. 849

king tlie tentli of their revenues, which created a diBsatisfac*
tion in the clergy that Louis had great trouble in dispelling.
A proscript, issued by roval authority, in concert with the
wilt of the pope, decreed that Crusaders should be protected
during three years from the pursuits of their creditors,
reckoning from the day of their departure for the Holy
Land ; this proscript, which likewise excited much murmur-
ing, had great effect in determining many barons and knights
to leave the West.

Louis IX. occupied himself constantly in carrying his
design into execution, and neglected no means of winning to
his purpose all the nobility of his kingdom ; his piety did
not disaain to employ, for what he considered a sacred cause,
all the empire that kings generally possess over their cour-
tiers ; he sometimes even lowered himself to seduction and
trick, persuaded that the sanctity of the crusade would
excuse everything. Afler an ancient custom, the kings of
France, at great solemnities, gave such of their subjects as
were at court certain capes or furred mantles, with which
the latter immediately clothed themselves before leaving the
court. In the ancient comptes (a sort of audits) these capes
were called livrees (whence, no doubt, our word livery),
because the monarch gave them (les livrait) himself. Louis
ordered a vast number of these to be prepared against
Christmas Eve, upon which crosses were embroidered in

gold and silk. The moment being come, ey&rj one covered
imself with the mantle that had been given to him, and
followed the monarch to the chapel. What was their
astonishment when, by the light of the wax tapers, they at
once perceived upon all before them, and then upon them-
selves, the sign oi an engagement they had never contracted.
Such was, however, the character of the French knights,
that they believed themselves obliged to respond to this
appeal to their bravery ; all the courtiers, as soon as divine
service was ended, joined in the laugh with the skilful JUker
of men,* and took the oath to accompany him into Asia.

Notwithstanding all these efforts, the publication of the
holy war created in the nation much more sorrow than waiv
like ardour, and the approaching departure of the monarch

• 8c»tn oiur Appendix this tut lelikted bp Mattiiew Paris.

8(K> HIiTOBT OT THX C&U8AJ)S8.

afflicted all France.' Queen Blanche, and the most pmdent
of the ministers, who had at first endeavoured to divert
Louis IX. from the crusade, repeated their attempts several
times : resolved to make a last effort, thej went to the king
in a body. The bishop of Paris was at their head, and

rke for all; this virtuous prelate represented to Louis,
t a vow made in the height of a disease ought not to
bind him in an irrevocable manner, particularly if the in-
terests of his kingdom imposed upon him the obligation of
dispensing with it. " Everything demanded the presence of
the monarch in his dominions ; the Poitevins were threat-
ening to take up arms again ; the war of the Albigeois was
ready to be rekindled ; the animosity of England was
always to be dreaded, as it paid little heed to treaties ; the
wars occasioned by the pretensions of the pope and the em-
peror inflamed all the states adjoining to France, and the
conflagration was not unlikely to extend to that kingdom."
Many of the nobles to whom Louis had confided the most
important functions of the state, spoke ailer the bishop of
Paris, and represented to the monarch that all the institu-
tions founded by his wisdom would perish in his absence ;
that France would lose by his departure the fruits of the
victories of Saintes and Taillebourg, with all the hopes that
the virtues of a mat prince made her entertain. Queen
Blanche spoke the last. " My son," said she, " if Providence
has made use of me to watch over your infancy and preserve
your crown, I have perhaps the right to remmd you of the
duties of a monarch, and of the obligations which the safety
of the kingdom over which Grod has placed you imposes upon
you ; but I prefer speaking to you with the tenderness of a
mother. Tou know, my son, that I can have but few days
to live, and your departure leaves me only the thought of an
eternal separation : nappy still if I die before fame may have
borne into Europe the mtelligence of some great disasters.
Up to this day, you have disdained both my counsels and my
prayers ; but if you will not take pity on iny sorrows, think
at least of your children, whom you abandon in the cradle ;
they stand in need of your lessons and your assistance ;
what will become of them in your absence r are they not aa
dear to you as the Christians of the East ? U you were
now in Asia, and were informed that your deaerted family

HI8T0ET 07 THE CEU8AJ>S8. 35l

was the sport and prey of factions, you would not fail to
hasten to us. Well! all these evils that my tenderness
makes me dread, your departure is most likely to give birth
to. Eemain then in Europe, where you will have so many
opportunities of displaying the virtues of a g^reat king, of a
kmg the father of his subjects, the model and support of the
princes of his house. If Christ requires his heritage to be de-
livered, send your treasures and your armies into the East ;
Grod will bless a war undertaken in his name. But this God,
who hears me, believe me, never commands the accomphsh-
ment of a vow which is contrary to the great designs of his
providence. No ; that God of mercy who would not permit
Abraham to complete his sacrifice, does not permit you to
complete yours, and expose a life upon which so entirely
depend both the fate of your family and the welfare of your
kingdom."

On finishing these words. Queen Blanche could not restrain
her tears ; Louis himself was deeply moved, and threw him-
self into the arms of his mother ; but soon resuming a calm
and serene countenance, he said : " My dear friends, you
know that all Christendom is acquainted with my resolution ;
during several months the preparations for the crusade have
been carried on under my orders. I have written to aU the
princes of Europe that I was about to leave my dominions
and to repair to Asia ; I have announced to the Christians
of Palestme that I would succour them in person ; I have
myself preached the crusade in my kingdoms ; a host of
barons and knights have obeyed my voice, followed n^yex-
ample, and sworn to accompany me into the East. What
do you now propose to me ? to change my projects publicly
proclaimed, to do nothing that I have promised to do, or
that Europe expects of me, and to deceive at once the hopes
of the Church, of the Christians of Palestine, and of my
faithful nobility.

" Nevertheless, as you think that I was not in possession
of my reason when I took the cross ; well, I give it back to
you ; there is that cross which gives you so much alarm, and
which I only took, you say, in a fit of delirium. But now
that I am in the nill enjoyment of my reason I ask it of
you again, and I solemnly declxure that no food shall enter
my mouth until you have returned it to me. Your reproaches

852 HIiTOBT OF THS CBVaAJ)£8.

and jour complamts affect me with the deepest sorrow ; but
leani to be better acquainted with my duties and your own ;
aid me in seeking for true glory; second me in the powerful
cause in which I am engaged, and do not alarm yourselves
on account of my destiny or that of my family and people.
The God who made me victorious at Taillebourg will watch
over the designs and plots of our enemies ; yes, the Qt>d
who sends me into Asia to deliver his heritage, will defend
that of my children, and pour his blessings upon France.
Have we not still her who was the support of my childhood
and tlie guide of my youth, her whose wisdom saved the
state in so many perils, and who, in my absence, will want
neither courage nor ability to crush factions P Allow me,
then, to keep all the promises I have made before God and
before men ; and do not forget that there are obligations
which are sacred for me, and ought to be sacred for you — I
mean the oath of a Christian and the word of a king!"

Thus spoke Louis IX.: Queen Blanche, the bishop of
Paris, and the other counsellors of the king preserved a reli-
gious silence, and from that time only thought of seconding
the endeavours the monarch was making to forward the
execution of an undertaking which appeared to emanate
from GU)d.*

The crusade was preached at this time in all the countries
of Europe ; but as most states were filled with agitation and
discord, the voices of the sacred orators were lost amidst the
din of factions and the tumult of arms. When the bishop
of Berytus went into England, to entreat the English
monarch to succour the Christians of the East, Henry III.
was fully employed in repelling the aggressions of the king
of Scotland, and in appeasing the troubles of the country
of Wales. The barons menaced his authority, and did not
permit him to engage in a distant war. This prince not
only refused to take the cross, but forbade the preaching of
a crusade in his kingdom.

* It is Matthew Paris who furnishes us with information relative to
this attempt to persuade St. Louis. This is the chronicler that throws
most light upon the events of that period ; such as the council of Lyons,
the quarrel of Frederick and the pope, and the crusade of the king of
France. We also find some details in William of Nangis, in JoiimUe»
and in tlM BeeUnatHeal Asmah of B« jnaldi.

HISTOBT OF THE CBUSADES. 353

All Germany was in a blaze in consequence of the quar-
rel between the Church and the Empire. After having
deposed the emperor at the council of Lyons, Innocent I v.
offered the imperial crown to any one who would take up
arms against the excommunicatea prince, and bring about
the triumph of tlie Holy See. Henry, landgrave of Thu-
ringia, allowed himself to be seduced by the promises of the
sovereign pontiff, and was crowned emperor by the arch-
bishops of Mayence and Cologne, and a few other ecclesias-
tical electors. From that event civil war broke out in all
parts ; Germany was filled with missionaries from the pope,
with the power of the evangelical word against Frederick,
whom they styled the most redoubtable of infidels. The
treasures collected for the equipments of the holy war were
employed in corrupting fidelity, laying plots, fomenting trea-
sons, and keeping up troubles and discords ; so that it may
weU be supposed the cause of Christ and the deliverance of
Jerusalem were entirely forgotten.

Italy was not less agitated than Germany ; the thunders
of Borne, so often hurled at Frederick, had redoubled the fury
of the Guclphs and the Ghibellines. All the republics of
Lombardy were leagued in opposition to the party of the
emperor ; the threats and the manifestoes of the pope would
not allow a single city to remain neuter, or leave peace an
asylum in the countries situated between the Alps and
Sicily. The missionaries of Innocent employed, by turns,
the arms of religion and of policy ; after having declared
the emperor to be a heretic and an enemy to the Church,
they represented him as a bad prince and a tyrant, and
dazzled the eyes of the people with the charms of liberty,
always so powerful a motive upon the minds of nations.
The sovereign pontiff sent two legates into the kingdom of
Sicily, with letters for the clergy, the nobility, and the peo-
ple of the cities and country. *" We have not been able to
see without some surprise," wrote Innocent, "that, bur-
dened as you are, living under the opprobrium of servitude,
and oppressed in your persons and your property, you have
hitherto neglected the means of securing yourselves the
sweets of liberty. Many other nations have presented you
with an example ; but the Holy See, far from accusing you,
is satisfied with pitying you, and finds your excuse in the
Vol. U.— 16

854 UI8TO&Y OF THE CBVBABXB*

fear that must hold possession of your hearts under the joke
of a new Nero." On terminating his letter to the Sicilians,
the pope endeayoured to make them understand that God
had not placed them in a fertile region and beneath a smil-
ing sky to wear disgraceful chains ; and that by shaking off
the yoke of the emperor of Germany, they would only
second the views of Providence.

Erederick, who had at first defied the thunders of Borne,
was terrified at the new war declared against him by the
pope. The interdict placed upon his states, the terrible
array of the maledictions of the Church, strongly affected
the minds of the multitude, and might at length shake the
fidelity of his subjects ; he himself felt his courage forsake
him ; his party in Italy grew weaker every day ; his armies
had experienced some checks in Germany ; many conspira-
cies had been formed against his life, ana amongst the con-
spirators, he had the grief to find some of his servants
whom he had loaded with kindnesses. This haughty
monarch became convinced that he had no course but to
seek a reconciliation with the Church, and addressed himself
to Louis IX., whose wisdom and piety rendered him the
arbiter of sovereigns and nations. Frederick, in his letters,
promised to abide by the decision of the king of France and
nis barons, and engaged, beforehand, to go in person to the
conquest of the Holy Land, or to send his son, the king of
the Komans. In order to interest Louis in his cause, the
emperor offered to supply him with provisions, vessels, and
everything he should stand in need of in the expedition to
the £a8t.

Louis cageriy embraced this opportunity for reestablish-
ing peace in Europe and assuring the success of the holy
war. Several ambassadors were sent to the pope at Lyons,
conjuring the father of the faithful to listen to the voice of
mercy rather than to that of anger. The king of France
had two long conferences with Innocent in the monastery
of Cluni, and supplicated him afresh to appease by his cle-
mency the troubles of the Christian world ; but enmity had
been carried too far to leave any hopes of peace ; it was not
possible for Innocent and FredericK to pardon each other
sincerely the outrages they had mutually committed. The
emperor had spared neither threats nor yiolexioes against the

UI8T0BT OF TILB CBUBAiXES. 355

popes ; lie did not hate them more for the injuries he hod
received from them than for those he had done them. On
the other side, it had for a length of time been determined,
in the councils of Eome, to effect the overthrow of the house
of Swabia, which was suspected, and with reason, of enter-
taining the project of invading Italv and establishing the
seat of imperial domination in the citj of St. Peter. This
policy, embraced with ardour, had assumed all the character
of a personal vengeance in the mind of Innocent. The
triumph, even, of the pontiff, whilst flattering his pride and
ambition, appeared to double his hatred, and the hope of
completing the ruin of his enemy rendered him implacable.

In vain the emperor of Germany, overcome by fear rather
than won by the love of peace, promised to descend from his
throne, and pass the remainder of his days in Palestine, on
condition that he should receive the benediction of the pope,
and that his son Conrad should be raised to the empire. This
entire abnegation of power, this strange abasement of royal
majesty, produced no efiect upon Innocent, who did not be-
lieve, or fei^ed not to believe, the promises of rrederick ;
in vain Louis IX., whose mind was incapaCle of suspecting
imposture, represented to the pope the advantages that
Europe, Christendom, and the court of Bome itself might
derive from the repentance and offers of the emperor ; in
vain he spoke to him of the vows and the safety of pilgrims,
of the glory and peace of the Church ; the discourses of the
holy king were scarcely listened to, and his pious mind could
not view, without being moved with disgust, this inflexible
rigour in the father of the Christian world.

Whilst the report of these discords, upon gaining the
East, spread joy among the infldels, the unhappv inhabitants
of Palestine gave themselves up to despair on learning that
so many untoward events retarded the 'preparations for the
crusade. Several messages from the Christians beyond the
seas wero sent to the sovereign pontiff to intercede for a
prince from whom they hoped for such powerful assistance.
The patriarch of Armenia wrote to the court of liome to
demand favour for Frederick ; he demanded it in the name
of the threatened Christian colonies ; in the name of the city
of Grod, fallen into ruins ; in the name of the sepulchre of
Christ, profimed by barbarians. The pope made no reply

356 HI8T0BT OT THE CBUSAI>E8.

whatever to the patmrch of the Armenians, and appeared
to have forgotten Jerusalem, the holj sepulchre, and the
Christians of Syria ; he had, indeed, but one thought, — ^that
of carrying on the war against Frederick. Innocent pursued
his redoubtable enemy even to the East, and endeavoured to
induce the sultan of Cairo to break his engagements with
the emperor of Germany. The sultan of Cairo received,
with as great joy as surprise, a message which informed him
so authentically of the divisions that existed among the
Christian princes ; he answered the pope with a severitv full
of contempt ; and the more he was pressed to be unfaithful
to the treaties made with Frederick, the more he affected to
display a fidelity &om which he hoped to obtain an advantage
over the Christian Church.

It was at this period that the emperor of Germany, urged
on to despair, in some sort justified the most violent pro-
^ceedings of the court of Kome by his conduct. He could
not pardon Louis IX. for having remained neuter in a
quarrel that interested all Christendom, and if the Arabian
historian Yafey may be believed, he sent an ambassador
secretly into Asia to warn the- Mussulman powers of the
expedition projected by the king of France, Throwing off
at once the tone of submission to the pope, he resolved to
repel force by force, and violence by violence. Some suc-
cesses which he obtained in Germany, raised his courage,
and completely dissipated all his scruples. He laid siege to
the city of Parma, at the head of a formidable army. Hor-
rible cruelties signalized hia first triumphs ; the bishop of
Arezzo, who fell into his hands, with many other prisoners
of war, were loaded with irons, and handed over to the
executioner without even the ceremony of a trial.

In the intoxication of success, Frederick threatened to
cross the Alps, and attack Innocent within the walls of
Lyons. Heaven, however, would not permit the execution
of a project formed by hatred and revenge. The Guelpha
beat and dispersed the imperial army. Fortune changed,
and the irresolute character of Frederick changed as sud-
denly with it. Victory had inflamed hia pride and redoubled
his fury; a single defeat cast him into despondency, and
rendered him again accessible to fear. From that tune he
resomed the part of a tuppliaiat to the pope; fiom that

HI8T0BT OI THX CRU8jU)E8. 857

time protestatioxiB and prayers seemed to cost his terrified
mind no efibrt.

As the extent of his empire gave umbrage to the court of
Borne, Frederick promised to (livide his dominions, and give
Sicily to his son Henry, and Germany to his son Conrad.
He submitted his religious belief to the examination of
several bishops, and sent their decision to the pope. He
went at last even so far as to promise to come in person to
solicit the clemency of Innocent. The sovereign pontiff had
just caused the count of Hollajid to be nominated emperor,
in the place of the landgrave of Thuringia, who had died on
the field of battle. In this state of tlmigs he dreaded less
the hostilities and angry threats of Erederiek, than he did
his protestations of submission and repentance. The sup-
pUcations of princes and nations, who demanded favour ibr
a power he wished to destroy, annoyed Innocent; they
seemed to accuse him. in the eyes of Christendom, of obsti-
nacy in his refusal, and without inducing him to renoimce
his policy, only embarrrassed him in the execution of his

The pope remained constantly inflexible ; but astonished
Europe began to ask what powerful interest it was that
commanded all these rigours. Frederick, pursued with so
much inveteracy, found at length the number and zeal of
his friends and partisans increase. Germany, Cologne,
and several other cities, rejected the decrees of the Holy
See, and proceeded to violent excesses. The angry popo
launched all his thunders against the guilty, and by an
injustice which characterizes these times of discord and ven-
geance, many of the penalties he pronounced extended to
the fourth generation. This senseless rage completed the
alienation of men's minds, and the fanaticism of heresy was
added to the furies of ci\'il war.

As the court of Home, under the imposing pretext of the
crusade, levied tributes in all the states of Europe to keep
up the fire of sedition and revolt, so many violences, and so
much injustice infused dissatisfaction everywhere, and gave
birth to a spirit of opposition among nations even, that had
been exempt from the consequences of the terrible quarrel.
The commissaries of the Holy See ruined the provinces of
France ; they pervaded the cities and countries, compelling

858 HIBTOET OF THE CBr8A3>SS.

the curates and chaplains of the nobles to sell all their little
property ; they required from all, church dues; and from reli-
gious communities, now the twentieth for the crusade against
Constantinople, then the tenth for that of Palestine, and at
last a contribution towards carrying on the war against the
emperor. The French nobility, stimulated by a feeling of
patriotism, by the spirit of chivalry which led all the prettx
of that time to enter the lists against iniquity of any kind,
and perhaps also by the fear of being oppressed in their
turn, spoke loudly in favour of Frederick, and expressed
their anger at seeing the kingdom of France a prey to the
agents of the pope. Just remonstrances were at nrst made ;
but in a short time no measures were observed, and they
proceeded so far as to agitate the question, whether they
ought to acknowledge a pontiff, whose conduct appeared so
contrary to the spirit ot the Gospel, as the vicar of Jesus
Christ. The principal French nobles at length formed a
confederacy against the proceedings of the pope and the
clergy. Throughout this new stn^gle, Louis IX., equally
removed from that sacrilegious impiety which pretends to
brave everything, and from that superstitious jpusiUanimity
which believes itself obliged to suffer everything, managed
to restrain the excesses of both parties, and maintain peace ;
the league which was then formed, without embittering
men's minds, succeeded in enlightening them; it servec^
during the absence of the king, to repress the enterprises of
the Holy See, and many writers trace to this period the
origin of those Q-allican liberties which have constituted the
glory of the French clergy up to modem times.

!^feverthele8s, Louis IX. was constantly employed in pre-
parations for his departure. As no other route to the !Kast
was availablo but that by sea, and as the kingdom of France
had no port in the Mediterranean, Louis made the acquisition
of the territory of Aigues-Mortes, in Provence ; the port,
choked with sand, was cleansed, and a city large enough to
receive the crowd of pilgrims was built on the shore. Louis
at the same time busied himself in provisioning his army,
and preparing magazines in the isle of Cyprus, where he
meant to land. Thibault, count de Bar, and the sieur de
Beaujeu, sent into Italy, found eveiything necessary for the

HISTOnY 07 TH£ CBU8A])£S. 859

provisioning and transport of an army, either in the republic
of Venice, or in the rich provinces of Apulia and Sicily,
whither the directions of the emperor Frederick had pre-
ceded them.

The fame of these preparations soon reached Syria, and
the authors, of the times describe the Mussulman powers as
struck with terror, and as immediately and earnestly em-
ployed in fortifying their cities and their frontiers against the
approaching invasion of the Franks. Such popular rumours
as were then in circulation that history has deigned to pre-
serve, accuse the Saracens of having employed perfidious
means and odious stratagems to avenge themselves upon tho
Christian nations, and ruin their enterprise. It was asserted
that the life of Louis IX. was in danger from the emissaries
of the Old Man of the Mountain ; it was reported in cities,
and the multitude did not fail to give credit to it, that tho
pepper which came from the East was empoisoned; and
Matthew Paris, a grave historian, does not hesitate to affirm
that a great number of persons died of it before this horrible
artifice was discovered. We may well believe that the policy
of the time itself invented these gross fables, to render the
enemies they were about to combat more odious, and that
indignation might increase and animate the courage of the
warriors. It is natural also to suppose, that such rumours
had their origin in popular ignorance, and that they gained
credit from the opmion that was then entertained of the
manners and charticters of infidel nations.

Three years had passed away since the king of France
assumed the cross. He convoked a new parliament at
Paris, in which he at length fixed the departure of the holy
expedition for the month of June of the following year
(1248). The barons and prelates renewed with him the
promises of fighting against the infidels, and engaged to set
out at the period assigned, under the penalty of incurring
ecclesiastical censures. Louis took advantage of the mo-
ment that the magnates of his kingdom were assembled in
the name of religion, to require that they should take tlio
oath of fealty and homage to his children, and to make
them swear (these are the expressions of Joiuville) " that
they should be loy^ to his mmily, if any misadventure

860 HI8T0BY OE THE OBUSADSS.

should befall bis person in tbe holy voyage beyond the
seas."*

It was then that the pope addressed a letter to the nobility
and people of France, in which he celebrated in solemn terms
the bravery and other warlike virtues of the French nation
and its pious monarch. The sovereign pontiff gave his bene-
diction to the French Crusaders, and threatened with the
thunders of the Church all who, having made the vow of
pilgrimage, deferred their departure. Louis IX., who had
no doubt requested this warning from the pope, saw with
joy all the nobility of his kingdom hasten to join his stan-
dard ; many nobles, whose ambition he had repressed, were
the first to set the example, for fear of awakening old mis-
trusts or incurring fresh disgraces ; others, seduced by the
habitual spirit of courts, declared themselves with ardour
champions of the cross, in the hope of obtaining, not the
rewards of Heaven, but those of the earth. The character
of Louis IX. inspired the greatest confidence in all the
Christian warriors. " If, till this time," said they, " God
has permitted the crusades to be nothing but a long course
of reverses and calamities, it is because the imprudence of
the leaders has compromised the safety of the Christian
armies ; it is because discord and licentiousness of manners
have reigned too long among the defenders of the cross : but
what evils have we to dread under a prince whom Heaven
appears to have inspired with its own wisdom, — under a
prmce who, by his furmness, has succeeded in suppressing
every division in his own countrj% and is about to exhibit to
the East an example of all the vutues ? "

Many English nobles, among whom were the earls of
Salisbiuy and Leicester, resolved to accompany the king of
France, and share with him the perils of the crusade. The
earl of Salisbury, grandson of " Fair Eosamond," who had
gained by his exploits the surname of " Long Sword," had
just been stripped of all his possessions by Henry III. In
order to place himself in a condition to make preparations
for the war, he addressed himself to the pope, ana said to
him, " Beggar as 1 am, I have made a vow to perfonn the
pilgrimage to the Holy Land. If Prince Bichard, brother

* Que loyaut^ ils porteraient a sa famille, id aacune malle chose avenalt
do aa peraozine aa saint veage d'oatre-mer.

HZBTOBT OF THB CBUSADES. 861

to the king of England, has been able to obtain, without
taking the cross, the privilege of levying a tax upon those
who have just laid it down, I have thought that I might
obtain a sunilar favour; — I, who have no resource but in
the charity of the faithful." This discourse, which informs
us of a verv curious fact, made the sovereign pontiff smile :
the earl of Salisbury obtained the favour he asked, and
deemed it his duty to set out for the East.

The preachings for the holy war, which had produced but
little effect in Italy and Germany, had nevertheless been
successful in the provinces of Friesland and Holland, and in
some of the northern kingdoms. Haco, king of Norway,
celebrated for his bravery and exploits, took the oath to
fight against the infidels ; and the Norwegians, who had
several times distinguished themselves in the holy wars,
followed the example of their monarch. Haco, after com-

Eleting his preparations, wrote to Louis IX. to announce
is approaching departure. He asked him permission to
land upon the coast of Prance, and to furnish himself there
with the supplies necessary for his army. Louis made a
most cordial reply, and proposed to the Norwegian prince to
share with him the command of the crusade. Matthew Paris,
who was charged with the message from Louis IX., informs
us in his History that the king of Norway declined the gene-
rous offer of the French king, persuaded, he said, that har-
mony could not long subsist between the Norwegians and
the French, — ^the first, of an impetuous, restless, and jealous
character, the others, full of pride and haughtiness.

Haco, after having made this reply, thought no more of
embarking, and remained quietly m his kingdom, history
being perfectly imable to discover the motives which pro-
duced this sudden change. It may be believed, that in
accordance with the example of several other Christian mo-
narchs, this prince had made use of the crusade as a cloak
for his political designs. By levying a tax of a third upon
the revenues of the clergy, he had amassed treasures which
he might employ in streng^thening his power. The army he
had raised in the name or Christ might minister to his am-
bition much more effectually in Europe than in the plains of
Asia. The pope, from whom he had received the title of
king, at first exhorted him to assume the sign of the Cru-

16»

3G2 nisTonT op tue cbtjsadics. ,

saders ; but everything leads us to believe that he afterwards
advised him to remain in the "West, where he hoped to raise
in him one more enemy against the emperor of Grcrmany.
Thus the king of Norway had promised to go into the East
in the hope of obtaining the favour and protection of the
court of Eome ; and to preserve this favour and this support,
he had but one thing to do, and that was to forget his
promises.

However this may be, it is certain that the pope, at that
time, took but very little interest in the success of the
eastern crusade. We may judge of this by the facility
with which he liberated so many from their vows of fighting
against the infidels : he went even so far as to forbid the
Crusaders from Friesland and Holland to embark for Pales-
tine. In vain Louis IX. made some serious remonstrances
on this head ; Innocent would not listen to him. Engrossed
by one passion, he found it much more advantageous to
grant dispensations for the voyage to Syria; for, on one
part, those dispensations which were bought with solid
money, contributed to fill his treasury, and on the other,
they left soldiers in Europe that he might arm against his
personal .enemies.

Thus France was the only country in which the crusade
was really an object of interest; the piety and zeal of
Louis IX. brought back all those whom the indifierence of
the pope had*cooled ; and the love of the French for their
king, replacing religious enthusiasm, sufficed for the removal
of all obstacles. The cities whose liberties the monarch
had protected, voluntarily sent him considerable sums. The
farmers of the royal domains, which were then very extensive,
advanced the revenues of a year. The rich taxed themselves,
and poured their hoards into the coffers of the king;
poverty dropped its mite into the poor-boxes of churches ;
and we mav add, that at that period there was scarcely a will
made in the kingdom which did not contain some legacy
towards the expenses of the holy war. The clergy were not
content with addressing prayers to Heaven for the crusade,
thev paid the tenth of their revenues for the support of the
soldiers of the cross.

The barons, nobles, and princes, who equipped themselves
at their own expense, imposed taxes on their yassalsy and

HI8T0BT OF THB GBUSADES. 863

found, after the example of the king of France, the monej
necessarv for the voyage in the revenues of their domains
and in the pious generosity of the towns and cities. Many,
as in other crusades, pledged their lands, sold their property,
and ruined themselves, to provide means to support their
soldiers and knights. They forgot their families, they forgot
themselves in the sad preparations for departure, and appeared
never to look forward to the period of return. Many pre-
pared themselves for the voyage as they would have prepared
for exile or death ; the most pious of the Crusaders, as if
they only went to the East to nnd a tomb, were particularly
anxious to appear before Qod in a state of grace ; they ex-
piated their sins by penitence; they pardoned offences,
repaired the iU they had done, disposed of their goods, gave
them to the poor, or divided them amongst their natural
heirs.

This disposition of men's minds was greatly to the advan-
tage of humanity and justice ; it imparted generous senti-
ments to people of property; whilst, in the wicked, it
awakened a remorse that was nearly allied to virtue. Amidst
civil wars and feudal anarchy, a crowd of men had enriched
themselves by strife, rapine, and brigandage; religion in-
spired them with a salutary repentance, and this time of
penitence was marked by a great number of restitutions,
which for a moment made the triumphs of iniquity to be
forgotten. The famous count de la Marche set the example ;
his conspiracies, his revolts, his unjust enterprises had often
troubled the peace of the kingdom, and ruined a great
number of families ; he became desirous of expiating his
foults ; and to mitigate the just anger of God, he, Dy his will,
ordered a complete restitution to be made of all the property
he had acquired by injustice and violence.* The sieur de
Joinville tells us, with great simplicity, in his History,
that his conscience did not reproach him with anything
serious, but that, nevertheless, he assembled his vassals and
neighbours to offer them reparation for the wrongs he might
have done them without knowing it.

In those days of repentance monasteries were founded

* We do not observe that this worthy penitent opened his hand and
relaxed his grasp whilst living ; death- bed repentances and posthumoaa
restitutions are very saspicious affairs. — ^Trans.

364 HIBTOAY or TUS CBUSADE8.

and treasures lavislied on churches : " The most sure means,"
said Louis IX., " to avoid perishing like the impious, is to
love and enrich the place m which dwells the glory of the
Lord." The piety of the Crusaders was not forgetftil of the
poor and infirm ; their numerous offerings endowed cloisters
as asylums for want ; hospices, or small convents, for the re-
ception of pilgrims ; and particularly leper hospitals, which
were estahlished in all the provinces, the melancholy abodes
of victims of the holy wars.

Louis IX. distinguished himself by his liberality towards
churches and monasteries ; but that which must particularly
have drawn upon him the blessings of his people, was the
care he took to repair all injustice committed in the adminis-
tration of government. The holy monarch knew, that if
kings are the images of God upon earth, they are never
BO truly so as when justice is seated beside them on the
throne. Eestitution-offices, established by his orders in the
royal domains, were charged with the repairing of all wrongs
that might have been committed by the agents or farmers
of the king. In most of the great cities it was the duty of
two commissaries, one an ecdesiastic, the other a layman,
to hear and decide upon complaints made against his
ministers and officers : a noble exercise of the supreme
authority, which rather employs itself in seeking out the
unfortunate to assist them, than the guilty to pumsh them !
which watches for the murmurs of the poor, encourages the
weak, and submits itself to the tribunal of the laws ! It
was not sufficient for Louis to have established regula-
tions for the administration of justice, — their execution ex-
cited his most anxious solicitude. Preachers announced the
intentions of the kin^ in all the churches, and as if he
thought himself responsible to God for all judgments pro-
nounced in his name, the monarch secretly sent holy
ecclesiastics and good monks to make fresh observations,
and learn from faithful reporters, if* the judges whom he
believed to be worthy men, were not themselves corrupt.
The historian pauses complacently over this touching picture ;
so noble an example presented to the kings of the earth,
appeared likely to bring down the blessings of Heaven upon
Saint Louis ; and when we reflect upon the deplorable results
of this crusade, with the chroniclers of lus own time^ wa

HIBTOBY OF THS CB1J8iJ>£8. 865

feel astonished that so many calamities should have been the
reward of such exalted virtue.*

The preparations were now carried on with redoubled zeal
and activity ; all the provinces of France appeared to be in
arms ; the people of cities and country had but one thought,
and that was the crusade. The great vassals assembled their
knights and troops; the nobles and barons visited each
other, or exchanged messengers, in order to settle the day of
their departure. Belations and friends engaged to unite their
banners, and place everything in common — money, glory,
and perils. Devotional practices were mingled with military
preparations. Warriors were seen laying aside the cuirass
and sword, and walking, barefooted and in their shirts, to
visit monasteries and churches, to which the relics of saints
attracted the concourse of the faithful. Processions were
formed in every parish ; all the Crusaders appeared at the
foot of the altars, and received the symbols of pilgrimage
from the hands of the clergy. Prayers were put up in aT
churches for the success of the expedition. In families,
abundance of tears were shed at the moment of departure ;
and most of the pilgrims, on receiving these last endearments
of their friends, seemed to feel, more than ever, the value of
all they were leaving behind them. The historian of Saint
Louis tells us, that after visiting Blanch icourt and Saint-
Urbaln, where holy relics were deposited, he would not once
turn his eyes towards Jokiville, for his heart was softened at
the idea of the beautiful castle he was leaving, and of his
two children .f The leaders of the crusade took with them
all the warlike youth, and left in many countries nothing
but a weak and unarmed population; many abandoned
castles and fortresses must, naturally, fall to ruins ; much
flourishing land must be changed into a desert, and a vast
many families must be left without support. The people,
no doubt, had cause to regret the nobles whose authority
was supported by kindnesses, and who, after the example of

* These calamities were but a portion of God's great law of cause and
effect — they were begun in errdr and ended in failure. What connection
is there between Louis' just government of his kingdom and his mad and
foolish expeditions to the East ? — Trans.

t 11 DC ▼onlol oncques retoumer ses yeux vers JoinviUe, pour oe que lo
onur lui atteadrit da biaa cbastel qa'U Imiisait, «t d« sm dens enfints.

HISTOUT OF THS CBV8ADES.

Saint Louis, loved truth and justice, and protected the weak
and the innocent; but there were some whose departure
was witnessed with gladness ; and more than one town, more
than one village, rejoiced at seeing the donjon, from which
thej had been accustomed to experience all the miseries of
servitude, empty and abandoned.

It was an affecting spectacle to see the families of artisans
and poor villagers lead their children to the barons and
knights, and say to them : " You will be their fathers ; you
will watch over them amidst the perils of war and of the
sea/* The barons and knights promised to bring back their
soldiers to the West, or to perish with them in fight ; and
the opinion of the people, the nobility, and the clergy, de-
voted, beforehand, aU wtio should fail in this sacred promise,
to the anger of Qod and the contempt of men.

Amidst these preparations, the most profound calm pre-
vailed throughout the kingdom. In all preceding crusades,
the multitude had exercised great violence against the Jews ;
but bv the firmness and wisdom of Saint Louis, the Jews,
though depositaries of immense wealth, and always skilful
in taking advantage of circumstances to enrich themselves,
were respected among a nation they had plundered, and
which was now completing its own ruin by the holy war.
Adventurers and vagabonds were not admitted beneath the
banners of the cross ; and, upon the demand of Saint Louis,
the pope forbade all who had committed great crimes to
take up arms in the cause of Christ. These precautions,
which nad never been observed in former crusades, were
highly calculated to insure the maintenance of order and
discipline in the Christian army. Among the crowd that
presented themselves to go into Asia, artisans and labourers
met with the best reception, — which is a remarkable circum-
stance, and clearly proves that views of a wise policy were
mingled with sentiments of devotion, and that, though the
ostensible object was the deliverance of Jerusalem, hopes
were entertained of foimding useful colonies in the East.

At the appointed time Louis IX., accompanied by his
brothers, the duke of Anjou and the coimt d'.Ajtois, repaired
to the abbey of St. Denis.* After having implored the

* Concerning the departare of Saint Loais, and the fiictfl that follow,
coMult Wmiam of Nangis, William of Puita, Matthew Pam, Sanati, &c

HIBTOBT OF THX CBUSADES. 867

support of the apostles of France, he received from the
hands of the legate the pilgrim's staff and scrip, and that
orifiamme which his predecessors had abeady twice unfuried
before the nations of the East. Louis then returned to
Paris, where he heard mass in the church of Notre Dame.
The same day he quitted his capital, not s^in to enter it
before his return from the Holy Land. The people and
clergy were softened to tears, and accompanied him to the
abbey of St. Antoine, singing psalms by the way. There
he mounted on horseback to go to Corbeil, at which place
the Queen Blanche and Queen Marguerite were to meet
him.

The king gave two more days to the affairs of his king-
dom, and confided the regency to his mother, whose firmness
and windom had defended and preserved the cro^-n during
the troubles of his minority. If anything could excuse
Louis IX., and justify his pious obstinacy, it was his leaving
his country in profound peace. He had renewed the truce
with the king of England; and Germany and Italy were so
occupied with their own internal discords, that they could
not give France the least subject for alarm. Louis, after
having employed every precaution against the spirit of dis-
affection, took with him into the Holy Lajid almost all the
powerful nobles that had disturbed the kingdom. The
county of MAcon, sold at the end of the preceding crusade,
had recently reverted to the crown ; Normandy had escaped
from the yoke of the English ; the counties of Thoulouse
and Provence, by the marriage of the counts of Anjou and
Poictiers, were about to become apanages of the princes of
the royal family. Louis IX., after he took the cross, never
ceased in his endeavours to preserve the recent conauests of
France, to appease the murmurs of the people, and remove
every pretext for revolt. The spirit of justice, which was
observable in all his institutions ; the remembrance of his
virtues, which appeared more estimable amidst the general
grief caused by his departure ; the religion which he had
caused to flourish by his example, were quite sufficient to
maintain order and peace during his absence.

A.S soon as Louis had placed the administration of his
kingdom in other hands, he gave himself up to the exercises
of piety, and appeared to be no more than the most meek

868 HI8T0&T 07 TBJC CBUSADXS.

of Christians. The dress and attributes of a pilgrim became
the only adornments of a powerful monarch. He wore no
more splendid stuffs, no more valuable furs ; his arms eyen,
and the harness of his horses, glittered with nothing but the
polish of steel and iron, llis example had so much influ-
ence, says Joinville, that on the voyage not a single instance
of an embroidered coat was seen, either upon the king or
any one else. When endeavouring to reform splendour in
equipages or dress, Louis caused the money he had been
accustomed to expend in these to be distributed to the poor.
Thus royal magnificence was in him nothing but the luxury
of charity.

Queen Blanche accompanied him as far as Cluny. This
princess was persuaded she should never see her son again
until they met in heaven, and took leave of him in the most
affectionate manner ; the tears of mother and son bearing
witness to the truth of their grief at parting. On his way,
he saw the pope at Lyons, and conjured him, for the last
time, to be merciful to Frederick, whom reverses had humi-
liated, and who implored pardon. After having represented
the great interests of the crusade, after having spoken in
the name of the numerous pilgrims who were abandoning
everything for the cause of Christ, the pious mind of the
king was astonished to find the pontiff still inexorable. The
king then directed all his attention to the prosecution of
his journey. Innocent promised to protect the kingdom
of France against the heretic Frederick and the king of
England ; the latter of whom he always styled his vassal : he
witnessed without regret the departure of a prince venerated
for his love of justice, whose presence in Europe might be
an obstacle to his policy. The sovereign pontiff had not
much trouble in keeping his promise of defending the inde-
pendence and peace of France ; for the discords he excited
in other states preserved that kingdom from all foreign
annoyance during the time of the crusade.

The fleet, which awaited Louis at Aigues-Mortes, was
composed of twenty-eight vessels, without reckoning those
that were to transport the horses and the provisions. The
king embarked, followed by his two brothers, Charles duke
of Anjou, and Robert count d'Artois, and the queen Mar-
guerite, who did not dread less the idea of remaining with

HJ8TOBT 0? THE C£U8iJ>X8. 860

her motber-in-law than that of living away from her hus-
band.* Alphonse, count of Poictiers, deferred his departure
till the following year, and returned to Paris to assist the
queen regent with his counsels and authority. When the
whole army of the Crusaders was embarked, the signal was
given, the priests, according to the custom in maritime ex-
peditions, sang the Veni Creator, and the fleet set sail.

Prance had then no marine, the sailors and pilots were
almost all Spaniards or Italians. Two Genoese performed
the functions of commanders or admirals. A great part of
the barons and knights had never before seen the sea, and
ever}' tiling they saw fiUed them with surprise and dread ;
they invoked all the saints of Paradise, and recommended
their souls to God. The good Joinville does not at all dis-
semble his fright, and cannot help saying : " A great fool is
he who, having any sin on his soul, places himself in such a
danger ; for if he goes to sleep at night, he cannot be cer-
tain he shall not iind himsell at the bottom of the sea in
the morning." t

Louis IX. embarked at Aigues-Mortes, the 26th of
August, and arrived at Cyprus on the 2l8t of September.J
Henry, grandson" of Guy of Lusignan, who obtained the
kingdom of Cyprus in tne third crusade, received the king
of France at Lmiisso, and conducted him to his capital of
Nicosia, amidst the acclamations of the people, nobility, and
clergy.

* Like many good and affectionate mothers, Blanche was very jealous
of the influence of a young wife over her son. Principally for territorial
advantages, Louis married Marguerite of Provence, when be was nineteen
and the princess thirteen. Immediately after the ceremony, Blanche
separated the newly -marrii^d couple and kept them apart for six years,
under pretext of the youth of the new queen. — Trans.

t Bien fou celui qui, ayant quelque peche sur son 4me, se met en un
tel danger ; car si on s'endort au soir, on ne salt si on se trouvera le matin
au fond de la mer.

, X Micliaud has omitted to mention the cause of Louis' unfortunate
dioice of a ront^, — the residence in Cyprus proving so injurious to the
army. The mo^t regular and advisable route wouhl have bctMi by Sicily ;
but alter Louis Lud in vain tried every means of subduing the anger of
the pope, his superstitious reverence for the head of the Ci'tirch prevailed
over even his goid scise and bid pmdcnce. and be declined slopping in
Sicily, because that island was part of the domiutons of au czoommoni-
oited prince. — Tbjlvb.

870 HI8T0&T OV THS CBUBAJISfl.

A abort time after the arrival of the Crusaders, it was
decided in a council, that the arms of the Christians should,
in the first place, be directed against Egypt. The reverses
that bad been met with on the banks of the Nile, in pre-
ceding wars, did not at all alarm the king of France and his
barons ; it is even more than probable that Lotiis, before be
left his kingdom, had formed the design of carrying the war
into the country from which the Mussulmans drew their
wealth and their strength. The king of Cyprus, who had
recently received the title of king of Jerusalem from the
pope, the more strongly applauded this determination, from
its giving him reason to hope to be delivered from the most
formidable of his neighbours, and the most cruel enemy of
the Christian colonies in Syria. This prince also caused a
crusade to be preached in his kingdom, lor the sake of being
placed in a condition to accompany the French Crusaders,
and associate himself usefully in their conquests. He pro-
posed to the king of France and his barons to wait till he
had concluded his preparations. " The lords and prelates
'of Cyprus," says William of Nangis, " all took the cross,
appeared before Louis, and told him they would go with him
wherever it should pleaae him to lead them, if he would
stay till the winter had passed away.'* As Louis and the
principal French nobles appeared but little disposed to delay
their march, the Cypriots spared neither protestations of
friendship, caresses, nor prayers to detain them. Every day
was devoted to rejoicings and feastings, in which the nobility
and wealthy men of the kingdom exhibited the spleiMlour of
eastern courts. The enchantinff aspect of the isle, a coun-
try rich in all the delicious productions of nature, particu-
larly that Cyprus wine which Solomon himself has not dis-
dained to celebrate, seconded in a powerful manner the
entreaties and seductions of the court of Nicosia. It was
decided that the Christian army should not depart before
the following spring.

It was not long before they became fuUy aware of the
error they had committed. Amidst the excessive abundance
that reigned in their camp, the Crusaders gave themselves
up to intemperance; in a country in which pagan fables
placed the altars of voluptuousness, the virtue of the pil-
grims was every day exposed to fresh trials ; a protracted

HISTOBT or THX CB1T8ADSS. 871

idleness relaxed the diBcipline of the army, and, to crown
these evils, a pestilential disease exercisea great ravages
among the deltenders of the cross. The pilmms had to
lament the death of more than two hundred and fifty knights
from this calamity. Contemporary chronicles mention among
the lords and prelates that were victims to it, the counts of
Dreux and Venddme, Bobcrt, bishop of Beauvais, and the
brave William des Barres ; the army had likewise to regret
the loss of the last of the race of the Archambault de Bour-
bons, whose county became afterwards the heritage of the
children of Saint Louis, and gave to the royal family of
France a name that it has rendered for ever illustrious in
the annals of that country.

A great number of barons and knights were in want of
money to maintain their troops, and Louis freely opened his
treasury to them. The sieiur de Joinville, who had no more
than one hundred and twenty livres toumoia* left, received
from the monarch eight hundred livres ; a considerable sum
in those days.

Many of the nobles complained of having sold their lands
and ruined themselves to follow the king to the crusade.
The liberality of Louis could not possibly satisfy all these
complainants. A great number of knights, after being
ruined by the abode in the isle of Cyprus, could not endure
the idleness they were condemned to, but were anxious to
set out for Syria or Egypt, hoping to make the Saracens pay
the expenses of the war. Louis had a great deal of trouble
to restrain them; historians agree in saying that he was
only half oheyed; therefore, he had much more frequent
occasion to exercise his patience and evangelical mildness
than his authority ; and if he succeeded in appeasing all dis-
cords and suppressing all murmurs, it was less by the ascen-
dancy of his power than by that of his virtue.

Differences arose between the Greek clergy and the Latin
clergy of the isle of Cyprus. Louis succeeded in putting
an end to them. The Templars and Hospitallers appealed
to him as judge in their constantly reviving quarrels ; he
made them swear to be reconcilea, and to have no other

* The French had a costom of reckoning rams by twentiet; in the text
of Joinville this stands, " six tingts livres toomois."-— Traiis.

872 HISTOBY or THB CBTTBADSS.

enemies than those of Christ. The Genoese and Fisans
resident at Ptolemais, had long and serious disputes, both
parties having recourse to arms, and nothing appeared able
to check the fury and scandal of a civil war in a Christian
city. The wise mediation of Louis reestablished peace.
Aitho, king of Armenia, and Bohemond, prince of Antioch
and Tripoli, implacable enemies, both sent ambassadors to
the king of France : he induced them to conclude a truce :
thus Louis IX. appeared among the nations of the East as
an angel of peace and concord.

At this i)eriod the territory of Antioch was ravaged by
vagabond bands of Turcomans ; Louis sent Boheraond five
hundred cross-bowmen. Aitho had just formed an alliance
with the Tartars, and was preparing to invade the states of
the sultan of Iconium in Asia Minor. As the Armenian
prince enjoyed a great reputation in the East for skill and
braver}', many French knights, impatient to display their
valour, left Cyprus for the piurpose of joining his standard
and sharing the fruits of his victories. Joinville, after
having spoken of their departure, says nothing of their ex-
ploits, and only informs us of their unhappy destiny by these
words : " not one of them ever came back."*

Fame had announced the arrival of Louis throughout all
the countries of the East, and the news produced a great
sensation among both Mussulmans and Christians. A pre-
diction, that was credited in the most distant regions, and
which missionaries found spread even through Persia,
announced that a king of the Franks was destined speedily
to disperse all infidels and deliver Asia from the sacrilegious
worship and laws of Mahomet. It was believed that the
time was now come for the accomplishment of this predic-
tion. A crowd of Christians hastened from Syria, Egypt,
and all the countries of the East, to salute him whom God
had sent to fulfil his divine promises.

It was at this period that Louis received an embassy that
excited the curiosity and attention of the Crusaders in
the highest degree ; the marvellous account of it occupies a
conspicuous place in the chronicles of the middle ages.f

• Oncques nul d'eux ne revint.

t Matthew Paris, William of Nangis, and Zaniliet are agreed concerDiog
this embasay. We shall revert to it io our Appendix*

H18T0BT OW THS CBUBADES. 878

This embassy came from a Tartar prince, named Ecaltbai,*
\rho professed himself to be converted to the Christian faith,
and displayed the most ardent zeal for the triumph of the
Gospel. The head of this deputation, named David, remitted
to the king a letter filled with sentiments expressed with so
much exaggeration as ought to have rendered it doubtful ;
he said that the great khan had received baptism three years
before, and that he was prepared to assist the expedition of
the French Crusaders with all his power. The news of this
embassy soon spread through the army, and from that time
nothing was talked of but the promised succour of the great
khan or emperor of the Tartars ; the leaders and soldiers
flocked to the residence of Louis to see the ambassador of
the prince Ecalthaji, whom they considered as one of the
first barons of Tartary,

The king of Prance interrogated the deputies several
times respecting their journey, their country, and the
character and disposition of their sovereign ; and as all he
heard flattered his most cherished thoughts, he conceived no
mistrust, and discovered no signs of imposture in their re-
plies. The Tartar ambassadors were received at his court,
and admitted to his table ; he himself conducted them to the
celebration of divine service in the metropolitan church of
Nicosia, where all the people were edified by their devotion.

At their departure, the king of France and the legate of
the pope charged them with several letterst for the prince
Ecalthai and the great khan of the Tartars. To these letters
were added ma^ificent presents ; among which was a scarlet
tent, upon which Louis had caused to be worked " The
Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Ood, and
all the other points of faith." The king wrote to Queen
Blanche, as did the legate to the sovereign pontiff, to
announce the extraordinary embassy that had arrived from
the most distant regions ot the East. The propitious news
of an alliance ^dth the Tartars, who were then looked upon

* Deguignes informs at that the prince Ecalthu was the lientenant of
the khan of the Tartan in Alia Minor.

t Most of thearticlea which fonn the correspondenoe between Christen*
dom and the Tartars are collected in the book of Moshemins, entitled
HuioriA Tartrnvm Bechiiatiiea : the letters of this oorrespondenoe do
not all merit the sane atteation or the i

874 HIBTOBT OF THB CBITSJlBIB.

as the most formidable of all nations, spread joy among the
people of the West, and increased their nopes of the success
of the crusade.

Missionaries that were senc into Tartarj by Louis were
very soon satisfied that the conversion of the great khan was
nothing but a fable. The Mogul ambassadors had advanced
many other impostures in their accounts, which has induced
some learned modems to think that this great embassy*
was nothing but a trick, the contrivance of which may bo
attributed to some Armenian monks. However it may be,
there can be no doubt that the Moguls, who were at war
with the Mussulmans, might have some interest in con-
ciliating the Christians, and might be led, firom that time, to
consider the Franks as useful auxiliaries.

Winter, in the mean time, was drawing towards an end,
and the period fixed upon for the departure of the French
Crusaders was approaching. The king of France ordered a
great number of flat-bottomed boats to be constructed, to
£u:i]itate the descent of the Christian army upon the coast
of Egypt. As the Genoese fleet, in which the French had
embarked at Aigues-Mortes, had left the port of Lemisso,
it required considerable trouble to get together, from all
parts, vessels sufficient to transport the army and the nu-
merous magazines formed in the isle of Cyprus. Louis IX.
applied to the Genoese and Venetians established on the
coast of Syria, who, to the great scandal of the knights and
barons, showed, in this instance, more cupidity than devo-
tion, and placed an exorbitant price upon services demanded
of them in the name of Christ.

At this time Louis received a communication from the

* M. Abel-Remnsat, in hiB learned Memoir upon the Tartan, explains
■everal doubtful circumstances of this embassy ; he examines the opposite
versions, and does not at all adopt the opinion of M. De^uignes, who
views the Mogul ambassadors as nothing but impostors. If it maj be
allowed me, after these two great authorities, to offer an opinion, I should
say that the arriTal of Louis haying created a great sensation in the East,
Ecalthai, governor of all the provinces of Asia, might send emissaries to
ascertain the designs and strength of the Franks ; and it may be believed
that these emissaries, to perform their mission with more snooess, feiffned
several circumstances calcuUted to increase their credit in the minds of
the Christians. It appears to us that this opinion may reooncila that
which is opposite in that of the two writers quoted.

HISTOBT OF THE CBTTSASES. 375

emperor of Gkrmany, still pursued by the thunders of Eome.
This prince sent provisions to the Crusaders, and expres^d
great grief, in his letters, at being unable to share the perils
of the holy war. The king of France thanked Frederick,
and sighea at the obstinacy of the pope, which deprived the
defenders of the cross of such a powerful auxiliary.

Preparations were continued with the greatest activity ;
eyeTY day fresh Crusaders arrived, who came frt>m the ports
of the West, or had passed the winter in the isles of the
Archipelago, or *on the coasts of Greece. All the nobilitj
of Cyprus had taken the cross, and were preparing for their
conflict with the infidels. The greatest harmony prevailed
between the two nations ; in the Greek as well as the Latin
churches, prayers were offered up to Heaven for the success
of the Christian arms; aad throughout the host nothing
was talked of but the wonders of the East, and the riches
of Egypt, which they were about to conquer.

Wiutst enthusiasm and joy were thus exuberant among
the Christian warriors, the grand masters of St. John and
the Temple wrote to Louis IX., to consult him upon the
possibility of opening a negotiation with the sultan of Cairo.
The leaders of these two orders anxiously desired to break
the chains of their knights who were detained in capti\ity
since the defeat of Gaza; they did not otherwise partake
with the Crusaders their blind confidence in victory; ex-
perience of other crusades had taught them that the warriors
of the West, at first very redoubtable, almost always began
their wars with splendour, but that afterwards, weakened by
discord, exhausted by the fatigues of a distant expedition,
and sometimes led away by their natural inconstancy, they
only thought of returning into Europe, abandoning the
Christian colonies to all the furies of an enem^ irritated by
former defeats. According to these considerations, the two
grand masters would have wished to take advantage of the
powerful succours from the West, to conclude a useful and
durable peace. The mode of negotiation presented them
much greater future advantages than a war, whose chances
were doubtful, and whose perils might, in the end, all recoil
upon them.

Their pacific message arrived at the moment when nothing
waa spoken of in the Chriatian army but tho conquests they

876 HI8T0BT OF THE CSUSADSS.

were about to make ; when all minds were heated by the
enthusiasm of glory, and the hope of a rich booty. The '
proposition alone of peace with the infidels was a true sub-
ject of scandal for these warriors, who believed themselves
called upon to destroy, throughout the East, the domination
and the power of all the enemies of Christ. The general
surprise and indication gave credence to the blackest ca-
lumnies against tne grand master of the Temple, who was
loudly accused of keeping up a secret intelligence with the
sultan of Cairo, and of having joined in barbarous ceremo-
nies to bind this impious union. Louis IX., who did not
come into the East to sign a treaty of peace and to deliver
only a few prisoners, shared the indignation of his compa-
nions in arms, and forbade the grand masters of the Temple
and St. John to reiterate propositions insulting to the
Christian warriors, insulting to him.

The Crusaders, intoxicated with their future success, were
not aware of half the obstacles they were about to encoun-
ter ; they thought more about the wealth than the strength
of their enemies ; acquainted with neither the climate nor
the country to which their ^"ishes were directed, their igno-
rance redoubled their security, and fed hopes that were
doomed soon to fade away.

The leaders of the crusade were particularly sanguine
with respect to the divisions of the Mussulman princes, who
were quarrelling for the provinces of Syria ana Egjpt : in
fact, since the death of Saladin, discord had rarely ceased to
trouble the family of the Ayoubites. But as their dissen-
sions broke out in civil wars, and as civil wars rendered the
population more warlike, their empire, which grew weaker
every day inwardly, often, consequently, became the stronger
outwardly; when common danger united the Mussulman
powers, or that one of those powers mastered the rest, every-
thing was to be dreaded from an empire always tottering in
peace, but which seemed to derive nresh strength from the
animosities and perils of a war against the Cliristians.

Malek Saleh Negmeddin, who then reigned in Egypt, was
the son of the sultiui Camel, celebrated by the victory gained
at Mansourah over the army of John of Brienne and the
legate Pelagius. Driven from the throne by a conspiracy,
be endeiifoiired to recorar it by arms; coDquered, oe fw

HISTOBT OF THB CBUftADSS. 877

into the chains of his rival, and profited hj the lessons of
adversity. Yeiy soon, the esteem in which his ahilities were
held ; the hatred which the prince who reigned in his pkce
inspired; the want of change, and perhaps a certain par-
tiality for revolt and treason, recalled him to empire. The
new sovereign showed himself much more skilful and more
fortunate than his predecessors ; he knew how to preserve
ohedience in the provinces; to maintain discipline in his
army ; and to keep fear alive among his enemies. He had
taken advantage of the arms of the Carismians to get pos-
session of Damascus, and to crush both the Christians and
their allies. Trom this period Negmeddin extended his
conquests upon the banks of the Euphrates, and at length
gathered under his laws the greater part of the empire of
Saladin.

At the moment Louis IX. landed in the isle of Cyprus^
the sultan of Cairo was in Sjria, where he was making war
against the prince of Aleppo, and held the city of Emessa in
siege. He was acquainted with all the projects of the
Christians, and gave orders for the defence of all the avenues
of Egypt. When he learnt that the Christian army was
about to embark, he immediately abandoned the siege of
Emessa, and concluded a truce with enemies of whom he
entertained very little dread, to return to his states that
were threatenea with invasion.

The Orientals considered the French as the bravest people
of the race of the Franks, and the king of France as the
most redoubtable monarch of the West. The preparations
of Negmeddin were commensurate with the dread these new
enemies naturally inspired. He neglected nothing in for-
tifying the coasts or in provisioning Damietta, which was
most likely to be the ohject of the first hostilities. A
numerous fleet was equipped, descended the Nile, and was
placed at the mouth of the river ; an army, commanded by
Fakreddin, the most skilful of the emirs, encamped on tlie
coast, to the west of the mouth of the river, at the very
same point where, thirty-three years before, the army of
John of Brienne had landed.

All these preparations would, no doubt, have been suffi-
cient to meet the first attacks of the Crusaders, if the sultaa
of Cairo had been able to direct them himself, and oomnuind

Vol. II.— 17

878 HISTOBT OF THE CBUSABES.

his troops in person ; but he was attacked by a disease which
his physicians pronounced to be mortal. In a state of
things in which everything depended upon the presence and
life of the prince, the certainty of his approaching end
necessarily weakened confidence and zeal, cooled the general
courage, and was injurious to the execution of all the measures
taken for the defence of the country.

Such was the milifcaiy and political situation of Egypt at
the time Louis embarked from the ports of the isle of
Cyprus. Many historians say, that before his departure,
according to the custom of chivalry, he sent a herald-at-arma
to the sultan IN^egmeddin, to declare war against him. In
the early crusades, many Christian princes had in this manner
addressed chivalric messages to the Mussulman powers they
were about to attack : it is quite possible that Louis might
imit-ate this example ; but the letter attributed to him bears
no character of truth about it. The same historians add,
that the sultan of Cairo could not refrain from tears on
reading the letter of St. Louis. His reply, quoted in Ma-
krisy, is at least conformable to his known character, and to
the spirit of the Mussulman princes. He affected to brave
the uneicpected threats and attacks of the disciples of
Christ ; he referred with pride to the victories of the Mus-
sulmans over the Christians; and whilst reproaching the
king of France with the injustice of his aggressions, he
quoted in his letter this passage from the Koran : — " They
•who fight unjustly shall perish."

This message contained predictions that were but too
fiilly realized in the end. There is nothing, however, to lead
us to believe that any correspondence was then established
between Louis and the sultan of Cairo. Prudence, at least,
required the king of France to send messengers and emis-
saries into Egypt, to reconnoitre the state, strength, and
resources of the country. It is more than probable, that in
preceding crusades it was not only in obedience to the spirit
of chivauy, but to ascertain the position of their enemies,
that ambassadors were sent ; we must confess, however, that
we cannot find in any chronicle of the times evidence of
their having taken any precaution of this kind. A foresight
which might bear the slightest association with timidity,
stratagem, or even policy, was not the least in accordiiuee

HI8T0BT OP THE CBUSAJ)XS. 879

with the cliaracter of Louis and his knights. History has
no hesitation in a£5[rming that the Crastulers, ready at this
period to embark for Egypt, knew nothing of the countries
mto which they were about to carry their arms, but that
which they had learnt from the uncertain accounts of common
report.

The signal of departure was giyen on the Friday before
Pentecost; and a numerous fleet, in which embarked the
French army and the warriors of the isle of Cyprus,* sailed
gallantly out from the port of Limisso. '' This was a thing
most beautifid to behold," says Joinyille ; " for it appeared
as if the sea, as far as the eye could reach, was covered with
the sails of yessels, which were to the number of eight hun-
dred, as well large as small." AH at once a wind blowing full
from the coast of Egypt gave rise to a violent storm, which
dispersed all the fleet ; and Louis IX., who was forced to
put back to port, found, with great grief, that at least the
naif of his yessels had been carried by the wind on to the
coasts of Syria. At this moment of disappointment, how-
ever, unexpected reinforcements arrived, which restored the
hopes of Louis and his captains. These consisted of the
duke of Burgundy, who had passed the winter in the Morea ;
"William of Bahsbury, at the head of two hundred English
knights ; and William of Villehardouin, prince of Achaia,
who forgot the dangers of the Latin empire of Constanti-
nople to go and fight the infidels on the banks of the Nile
ana the Jordan. Without waiting for the vessels which the
tempest had dispersed, they again set sail, and the fleet, with
a favourable wind, directed its course towards Egypt. On
the fourth day, at sunrise, the watch on deck cried, " Land !
land ! " A sailor, who served as pilot, ascended to the round
top of the leading vessel, and such was the sentiment which
the sight of the land inhabited by the infidels inspired in the
Christians, that this man cried out, " "We have nothing to
do but to recommend ourselves to God ; for here we are,
before Daraietta." These words flew from rank to rank, and
the whole fleet drew as near as they could to tlio vessel of
Louis IX. The principal leaders endeavoured to get on

* No chronicle sajs that the king of Cyprus went with Tvoais, although
be had taken the cross. This prince is never mentionixl in any of the
events of the war.

8fK) lUBTOBT OS TUX CBUBADXfl.

board of it ; the king awaited them in a warlike attitu^,
and exhorted them to offer thanks to Qod for having brought
them &ce to face with the enemies of Jesus Christ. As the
greater part of the leaders seemed to fear his life would be
too much exposed in the course of a war which must be
terrible : " Follow my example," said he to them ; " leave me
to brave all perils, and in the midst of the hottest fi^ht never
once think that the safety of the state and the Church re-
sides in my person ; you yourselves are the state and the
Chprch, and you ought to see in me nothing but a maa
whose life, like that of any other, may be dissipated like a
shadow, when it shall please the GK)d for whom we combat."
Thus Louis forgot hunself and his state, and before the
infidels, the king of France was but a simple soldier of Jesus
Christ.

This discourse animated the courage of the barons and
knights ; orders were given for the whole fleet to prepare
for action. In every vessel the warriors embraced each
other with joy at the approach of peril; such as quarrels
had alienated, swore to forget all divisions and injuries, and
to conquer or to die together. Joinville says he forced two
knights, who had been irreconcilable enemies, to make
peace, by persuading them that their discord might draw
down the malediciions of Heaven, and that union among
the Christian soldiers could alone open to them the road to
Egypt.

Whilst the Crusaders were thus preparing, the Mussul-
mans neglected nothing for their defence ; their sentinels
had perceived the Christian fleet, from the walls of Bamietta,
and the news was soon spread through the city ; a bell,
which had remained in the great mosque since the conquest
of John of Brienne, gave the signal of danger, and was
heard on both sides of the river. Four MussiUman galleys
advanced to reconnoitre the strength of the Crusaders;
three of them were sunk, and the fourth, getting back with
great difficulty to the Nile, announced to the mfidels what
enemies they had to contend with.

In the mean time the Christian fleet advanced in order of
battle, and cast anchor within a quarter of a league of the
coast, at the moment at which the sun had performed half
his daily course. The shore and sea presented the most im^

HI8T0BT 01 THS GBUBAPKB. 881

poring spectacle ; the coast of Egypt was lined with all the
povoers of the eoldan^ who were people aoodly to look upon.
The sea appeared to be covered ¥ritn ships, over which
floated the hanners of the cross. The Mussulman fleet,
laden with soldiers and machines of war, defended the
entrance of the Nile. Eakreddin, the leader of the infldel
army, appeared amidst their ranks in a panoply so splendid,
that Joinville, in his surprise, compares lum to the sun.
The heavens and the earth resoimded with the noise of the
bended horns and the naccaires,* a kind of enormous kettle-
drum, a thing very frightful to hear, and very strange to the
French.t

All the leaders assembled in council in the king's vessel ;
some proposed to defer the descent till the vessels which
had been dispersed by the tempest should rejoin them : " To
attack the infidels without having all their forces, would be
to e'ive them an advantage that might ^atly elevate their
pride ; and even if success were certain, it appeared but just
to wait, that all the Crusaders might have their share oi the
glory they came so far to seek." Some went still further,
and spoke of the embarrassments and perils of a descent in
an unknown country ; of the disorders which must accom-
pany a first attack ; and of the difficulty of rallying the army
and fleet, if the obstacles they met with should prove invin-
cible. Louis IX. did not at all agree with this opinion:
" We have not come thus far," he said, " to listen coolly to
the menaces and insults of our enemies, or to remain, during
several days motionless spectators of their preparations.
To temporize is to raise their courage, and weaken the
ardour of the French warriors. We have neither road nor
port, in which we can shelter ourselves from the winds, or
from the unexpected attacks of the Saracens ; a second
tempest may again disperse what remains of our fleet, and
deprive us of ali means of beginning the war with a chance
of success. To-day God oflers us victory; later he will
punish us for having neglected the opportunity to conquer."

The majority of the leaders were of the opinion of

* This word comes to us from the Arabs, with the instrument which it
designates. The Arabs pronounce it tutkarah.

•f chow ^pouTantable ^ onir et moult Strange aux Franfais.—

JohmUe.

382 HisTosr of the cbubades.

Louis IX., and it was resolved that the descent should be
made on the morrow. A strict watch was preserved during
the night ; a vast number of flambeaux were kept burning,
and vessels were placed near the mouth of the Nile, to
observe the motions of the Saracens.

At daybreak the whole fleet weighed anchor, and the
Mussulmans at the same time got under arms. Their in-
fkntrv and cavalry occupied the entire shore of the point at
which they expected the Crusaders to land.

When the vessels drew near the shore, the Christian war-
riors got into the barks that accompanied the fleet, and
ranged themselves in two lines. Louis IX., accompanied
bv the two princes his brothers, and his chosen knights,
placed himsell at the right point. The cardinal legate, bear-
ing the cross of the Saviour, was on his right hand, and in a
bark in fix)nt of him floated the oriflamme of France.

The count of Jafla, of the illustrious family of Brienne,
was at the left point towards the mouth of the Nile ; he ap-
peared at the head of the knights from the isle of Cyprus
and the barons of Palestine. He was on board the lightest
bark of the fleet. This boat bore the arms of the counts of
Jaffa, painted on its poop and prow. Around his standard
floated banderoles of a thousand colours, and three hundred
rowers impelled the vessel through the waves like the flight
of the swallow over the stream. Erard of Brienne, sur-
rounded by a chosen troop, occupied the centre of the line,
with Baldwin of Eheims, who commanded a thousand warriors.
The knights and barons stood erect in their boats, looking
earnestly at the shore, lance in hand, with their horses beside
them. In the front and on the wings of the army, a crowd
of crossbow-men were placed to keep off the enemy.*

As soon as they were within bowshot, a shower of stones,
arrows, and javelins was poured at the same instant from the
shore and from the line of the Crusaders. The ranks of the
Christians appeared for a moment shaken. The kin^ com-
manded the rowers to redouble their efforts to gam the
shore. He himself set the first example ; in spite of the
legate, who endeavoured to restrain him, he plunged into
the waves, in full armour, his buckler over his breast, and
his sword in hand ; the water being up to his shoulders : the

* An admirable subject for a Urge hiatorical picture.— T&ams.

HISTOBT OT THS CBTTSASES. 883

vrhole Christian army, after the example of the king, cast
themselves into the sea, crying, ^^Montjoie ! Si. Denis I ' ' This
multitude of men and horses, endeavouring to gain the shore,
elevated the waves which hroke at the feet of the Saracens ;
the warriors pressed on, clashing against each other in their
progress — nothing was heard but the noise of the waves and
the oars, the cries of the soldiers and the sailors, and the
tumultuous shock of the barks and vessels, which advanced
in disorder.

The Mussulman battalions assembled on the shore could
not stop the French warriors. Joinville and Baldwin of
Kheims landed the first ; after them came the count of Jaffa.
They were drawing up in order of battle, when the cavalry
of tne Saracens came pouring down upon them ; the Cru-
saders closed in their ranks, covered themselves with their
bucklers, and presenting the points of their lances, checked
the impetuosity of the enemy. All their companions who
had reached the shore, immediately formed in rear of this
battalion.

Already the oriflamme was planted on the shore ; Louis
had landed. Without giving the least reflection to the dan-
ger, he immediately feu on his knees to offer up his thanks
to Heaven ; and springing up again, filled with fresh ardour,
called his bravest Knights around him. An Arab historian
relates that the king of the Franks then caused his tent to
be pitched, which was of a bright scarlet, and attracted all
eyes. At length, all the army being landed, a sanguinary
contest began on every part of the coast ; the Saracens and
Franks, seeking and attacking each other, formed one con-
flicting mass. Nobody remained inactive; the two fleets
quickly became engaged at the mouth of the Nile. Whilst
the shore and the sea resounded thus with the shock of arms,
Queen Marguerite and the duchess of Anjou, who remained
on board a vessel at a distance, awaited in terrible anxiety
the issue of the double battle; they offered up fervent
prayers, and pious ecclesiastics assembled around them,
joined in holy psalms to obtain the protection of the God of
armies.

The fleet of the Saracens was soon dispersed ; many of
the vessels were sunk, the remainder escaped up the river.
In the mean time, the troops of Fakredoin, broken in all
directionBy retired in the greatest confusion; the French

884 HIBTOBT OF SHS CB1TBAJ>X8.

pursuing them up to their mtrenchments. After a lart
desperate struggle, the Mussulmans abandoned their camp
and the western bank of the Nile, leaving several of their
emirs on the field of battle : nothing could resist the Franchy
animated hj the presence and the example of their king.

In the course of the battle several messen^r pigeons had
been sent to the sultan of Cairo, whose maladj coined him
in a small town situated between Damietta and Manaourah :
as no answer was received, a report of his death began to
prevail, and completed the discouitigement of the Eg^tian
troops. Man^ of the emirs were impatient to know, and at
the same time were doubtful of the fate that awaited them
under a new reign. Several deserted their standards, and
bj that means augmented the disorder: towards evening
the whole army dispersed, and the soldiers, abandoned by
their leaders, thought of nothing but seeking safety in
flight.* The Crusaders remained masters of the coast and
of both banks of the Nile ; and this glorious victory had
cost but little Christian blood, for only two or three knights
were killed: of the French nobles the amir had only to
deplore the count de la Marche, who appearea to seek death,
and, dying thus by the side of his kuig, expiated, say our
historians, his numerous treasons and crimes.

Towards the end of the day, the tents were pitched on the
field of battle ; the clergy chanted the Hb Deum^ and the
night was passed in rejoicmgs. Whilst the victorious army
was thus giving itself up to exultation, the greatest confu-
sion reign^ in Damietta ; the fugitives had passed through
the city, spreading, as they went, the contagion of the fear
that pursued them. Fakreddin himself gave no orders for
the security of the place : the inhabitants expected every
instant to see the French enter ; some dreaded a surprise,
others feared a siege ; there was no one to- reassure them,
and the darkness of night came on to complete their terror
and confusion. Fear rendered them barbarous ; they piti-

* Upon the battles that preceded the taking of Damietta, and opon the
taking of that dtj, Joinville may be consulted, as the historian that far-
nuhes the greatest number of details. William of Nangis, Matdiew
Paris, but particularly Guy de Melun, may be read with advantage. We
hare quoted in our text the Arabian authors that have spoken of these

HISTOBT OF THX dtTTBABSS* 885

lesaly massacred all the Christians that were in the city ; the
troops, on retiring, pillaged the houses and set fire to the
puhhc edifices ; whole families abandoned their homes, car-
rying with them their furniture and movable wealth. The
garrison was composed of the bravest of the Arab tribe of
the Benou-Kenaneh ;* but fear gained dominion over them
as well as the rest; they abandoned the towers and the
ramparts intrusted to their guardianship, and fled away
with the army of Fakreddin. Before the dawn of day, the
ciW was without defenders, and almost without inhabitants.

The columns of flame that arose from the bosom of the
city were soon observed in the Christian camp ; the whole
horizon was on fire. On the morrow, at daybreak, the sol-
diers advanced towards the city, all the gates of which they
found open. They met with nothing in the streets but the
carcasses of the victims immolated by the despair and fana-
ticism of the infidels, and a few living Christians, who,
having contrived to conceal themselves from the murderers
and executioners, had, in their turn, massacred all the
Mussulmans whom age and infirmities prevented from flying
with their compatriots. The soldiers returned to announce
what they had seen, and could scarcely gain credit from
their companions. The army advanced cautiously in order
of battle. When they were assured that the city was
deserted, the Crusaders took possession of it. They em-
ployed themselves, in the first place, to stop the progress of
the flames ; then the soldiers spread themselves throughout
the city, for the purpose of pillaging it, and all that escaped
the conflagration became the reward of victory.

In the mean time, the king of France, the pope's legate,

* At this period the national troops had neither the courage nor the
constancy that the laboars of war reqniroi llie Arabs, who had entered
Egypt as conquerors with Amron-Ben-al-As, had disappeared, without
leaving successors capable of supporting their reputation. There were no
means of recruiting the army but by slaves bought in the nonh of Asia
and in Europe, or by wandering Arabs, who, accustomed to a hardy,
active life, still showed some energy. This latter measure presented
another advantage. By bringing these nomads under the yolce of military
discipline, the nations were delivered from the depredations of men who
lived by war. It was with this motive that the pacha of Egypt of the
present day has enrolled the Arabs of his states under hie baniifln.*
the Vay^e qfBeUomi in Egypt and Numidim,

17*

886 HisTOKT or the cbvsades.

and the patriarcli of Jerusalem, followed bj a crowd of pre-
lates ana ecclesiastics, entered Dainletta in procession, and
repaired to the great mosque, which was once more converted
into a church, and consecrated to the Holy Virgin, the
mother of Jesus Christ. The Prench monarch, the clergy,
and all the leaders of the army, marched with heads un-
covered and barefooted, singing psalms of thanksgiving,
and attributing to God all the glory of this miraculous
conquest.

The news of this victory was soon spread through all the
Egyptian provinces. The continuator of Tabary, who was
then at Cairo, informs us in his History, that this event was
considered as one of the greatest calamities. All Mussul-
mans were sunk in despondency and fear ; the most brave
even despaired of being able to save Egypt.

* Negmeddin was still ill, and unable to mount on horse-
back; the defeat of his army, and the victory of the
Christians, were announced to him by the soldiers and
fjihabitants that had fled from Damietta. He broke into a
fiolcnt rage against the garrison, and pronounced a sentence
of instant death upon fifty-four of the most guilty : in vain
Ihey alleged the retreat ot the emir Fakreddin as an excuse ;
the sultan said they merited death for having feared the arms
of their enemies more than the anger of their master. One
d£ these, condemned to suffer with his son, a young man of
singular beauty, implored the sultan to allow him to die
first ; the sultan refused even this grace, and the unjiappy
father underwent the agony of seeing his son killed before
his eyes, ere he himself was handed over to the executioner.
When we reflect upon the barbarity of these executions, we
are astonished that a prince without an army should find
instruments to execute his wrath, or even that he should
dare to display it in this frightful manner upon deserters
and cowards ; but this public and awful exhibition of punish-
ment, which kept up the belief in the power of the master,
acted strongly upon the minds of the multitude, and assisted
in bringing back the vulgar crowd of the Mussulman sol-
diery to discipline and order. But it was not thus with the
principal emirs ; already but little disposed to tremble before
a sovereign whom they resarded as their own work, and who
•tood in Bucli need of their support. The sultan would

HISTOBY O? THE CBXJSADES. 887

vrflHngly have punished Fakreddin, but the circumstances,
says an Arabian historian, dictated patience. He contented
himself with addressing a few reproaches to him. " The
presence of these Franks," said he to him, "must have
something ver}r terrible in it, since men like you cannot
support it during one whole day." These words created
more indignation than fear among the emirs that were
present, and some of them looked at Fakreddin, as if to tell
him they were ready to sacrifice the sultan ; but the print of
the cold hand of death was on the brow of the sultan, and
the sight of a dying man took away the wish to commit a
useless crime : — deplorable situation of a prince who had
within a few leagues of him a formidable enemy, that he was
not able to contend with ; near him traitors, that he did not
dare to punish ; and who, whilst seeing his authority every
day dimmish, and feeling himself hourly dying, appeared
to have no salvation to expect for either himself or his
empire!

I)uring this time the Crusaders established themselves in
Damietta without obstacle; Queen Marguerite and the
other princesses, with the legate and the clergy, occupied
the palaces and principal houses ; the rest of the city was
abandoned to the pilgrims who did not bear arms: the
towers and ramparts were guarded by five hundred knights,
and the Christian army was encamped upon the plain on the
banks of the Nile. In this situation the Crusaders only
thought of enjoying the fruits of their victory in peace, and
appeared to have forgotten that they had still enemies to
contend with.

The sultan of Cairo had caused himself to be transported
to Mansourah, where he endeavoured to rally his army, and
re-establish discipline among the troops. Whether he had
recovered from his terror, or that he was willing to conceal
his alarm and the progress of his malady, he sent several
messages to Louis DC. In one of these letters, Negmeddin,
joining menaces to irony, congratulated the king of France
upon his arrival in Egypt, and asked him at what period it
would please him to depart again. The Mussulman prince
added, among other things, that the quantity of provisions
and agricultural instruments with which the Crusaders had
burdened their vessels, appeared to him to be a useless pre-

H18TOBT or THIS GBITSASXS.

caution ; and to perform the duties of boepitality towards
the Enuiks, in a manner worthy of himself and them, he
engaged to supply them with com during their sojourn in
his states. Xegmeddin, in another message, offered the king
of France a general battle on the 25th day of Jime, in a
place that should be determined upon. Louis IX. answered
the first letter of the sultan by saying that he had landed in
Egypt on the day he had appointed, and as to the day of his
depcu*ture, he should think about it at leisure. With regard
to the proposed battle, the king contented himself with
replying, that he would neither accept the day nor choose
the place, because all days and all places were equally fit for
fighting with infidels. The French monarch added, that be
would attack the sultan wherever he should meet with him ;
that he would pursue him at all times and without inter-
mission ; and would treat him as an enemy till God had
touched his heart, and Christiaos might consider him as a
brother.

Fortune presented King Louis with an opportunity and
the means oi accomplishing his threats. The Crusaders, whom
the tempest had separated from the fleet, continued to
arrive every day, ana the knights of the Temple and of
St. John, who had been accused of being anxious for peace,
joined the banners of the army, and breathed nothing but
war. They were acquainted with the country, and witti the
best manner of combating the infidels; and with this useful
reinforcement, the kin^ was able to undertake an expedition
against Alexandria, or, by obtaining possession of Mansourah,
render himself master of the route to Cairo. After the taking
of Damietta, several of the leaders had proposed to pursue
the Mussulmans, and take advantage of the terror that the
first victory of the Christians had inspired. But the period
was approaching at which the waters of the Nile began to
rise, and the remembrance of the overthrow of Pela^us and
John of Brienne, dispelled the idea of marching agamst the
capital of Egypt. Before he pursued his conquests, Louis
wished to wait the arrival of his brother, the count of Poic-
tiers, who was to embark with the arriere ban of the kingdom
of France. Most historians view in this delay the cause of
all the evils that afterwards befell the Crusaders. We have
nothing like sufficient positive documents to test the truth

HI8T0BT OW THB CBUBASIS.

of their opinioa ; bat we maj say with certainlr, that the
inaction of the Christian army became, from that time, a
source of most fatal disorders.

These disorders began to break out when the division took
pkce of the booty made at the taking of Damietta. To ani-
mate the courage of the Crusaders, the treasures of this
city, the entrepdt of the merchandises of the East, had often
been boasted of; but as the richest quarters had been de-
stroyed by the conflagration, and as the inhabitants had,
when they fled, taken their most valuable effects with them,
the spoils were very far from answering the hopes of the
«victonous army. In spite of the threats of the legate, several
of the Crusaders had not brought all that fell into their
hands to the common stock. The whole of the booty ob-
tained in the city only produced the simi of six thousand
litres toumais,* to be divided among the Crusaders, whose
surprise and indignation found vent in violent murmurs.

As it had been determined that no division should be
made of the provisions, but that they should be preserved in
the royal magazines, for the support of the army, this reso-
lution, so contrary to ancient usages, gave birth to loud
complaints. Joinville informs us that the prud'hamme John
of V alerv, whose stem probity and bravery were the admi-
ration 01 the whole army, addressed some warm representa-
tions to the king on this subject. John of Valery alle^d
the laws of the Holy Land, and the custom pursued till that
time in the crusades ; he mentioned the example of John of
Brienne, who, at the first conquest of Damietta, had only
retained one-third of the riches and provisions found in the
city, abandoning thereat to the general army. This custom
was even less consecrated by the holy wars than by the
feudal laws, according to which every lord carried on the war
at his own expense, and by right had a share in all the plunder
obtained from the enemy. But it might be objected, that
Louis IX. furnished most of the leaders of the army with
money, and by that the counts and barons had renoimced

* The livre Toumois was bo called from being coined at Toun, and
was one-fifth less in value than the livre coined in Paris ; thos afterwarda
the livre Toumois was yalaed at twenty sons, that of Paris at twenty- five.
The svm mentioned wonld thus only amount to little more than £200,
which appears almost impoisible.— Taams.

390 UI8T0BT 07 THE CBUSADE8.

the conditions of tbe feudal compact. This law of the di-
vision of provisions, which had, in fact, heen observed in
'preceding crusades, sufficiently accounts for the scarcity
that had so often desolated the Christian armies. The pious
monarch was anxious to avoid evils that were the fruit of
want of prudence and foresight, and refused to listen to the
complaints of most of the French nobles. Thus, says Join-
ville, scarcity continued, and made the people very much
dissatisfied.*

This spirit of dissatisfaction was quickly joined by other
disorders, the consequences of which were still more de-
plorable. The knights forgot, in their fatal inactivity, both
their warlike virtues and the object of the holy war. The
riches of Egypt and the East being promised to them, the
lords and barons made haste to consume, in festivities and
pleasures, the money which thev had obtained from the libe-
rality of the king, or by the side of their lands and castles.
The passion for gaming had got entire possession of both
leaders and soldiers ; sher losing their fortune, they risked
even their horses and arms. Even beneath the shadow of
the standards of Christ, the Crusaders gave themselves up
to all the excesses of debauchery ; the contagion of the most
odious vices pervaded all ranks, and places of prostitution
were found even in the close vicinity of the pavilion inhabited
by the pious monarch of the French.

To satisfy the boundless taste for luxiuy and pleasure,
recourse was had to all sorts of violent means. The leaders
of the army pillaged the traders that provisioned the camp
and the city ; they imposed enormous tributes npon them,
and this assisted greatly in bringing on scarcity. The most
ardent made distant excursions, surprised caravans, devas-
tated towns and plains, and bore away Mussulman women,
whom they brought in triumph to Damietta. The sharing
even of this sort of booty often gave rise to angry quarrels, and
the whole camp resounded with complaints, tbreats, and
confusion.

One of the most afflicting phases of this picture was, that
the authority of the king became less respected daily ; as
corruption increased, the habits of obedience declined ; the

* Ainsi demean la betogne, dont maintes gens Be tiiu«iit mal latis*

HI8T0BT OF THI CB17SADIB. 891

laws were without power, and yirtue had no longer any
empire. Louis IX. met with opposition to his wishes, even
from the princes of his own family. The count d'Artois,
a young, ardent, and presumptuous prince, unable to en-
dure either rivalry or contradiction, proud of his military
renown, and jealous to excess of that of others, was in the
habit of constantly provoking the other leaders, and of
heaping upon them, without motive, the most outrageous
affronts. The earl of Salisbury, to whom he had behaved
very ill, complained of him to Louis, and being unable to
obtain the satisfaction he demanded, in his anger pro-
nounced those memorable words : " You are then not a Jcingy
if you are unable to administer justice,** This indocility of
the princes, and the licentiousness of the great, completed
the disorder ; every day relaxation of discipline was observed
fco increase ; the guarding of the camp, which extended far
over the plains and along the banks ot the Nile, was scarcely
attended to ; the advanced posts of the Christian army were
constantly exposed to the attacks of the enemy, without
being able to oppose any other means of resistance than
imprudent and rash bravery, which only increased the
danger.

Among the Mussulman soldiers sent to harass the Cru-
saders, the most successful in their mission were the Bedouin
Arabs ; intrepid warriors, indefatigable horsemen, having no
other country but the desert, no other property but their
horses and arnft, the hopes of plunder supported them through
all toils, and taught them to brave all dangers. With the
Arabs of the desert were joined some Carismian horsemen,
who had escaped from the ruin of their warlike nation.
Accustomed to live by brigandage, both these watched night
and day, to dog the Christian soldiers, and appeared to
possess the instinct and activity of those wild animals that
prowl constantly around tho dwellings of man in search of
their prey. The sultan of Cairo promised a golden byzant
for every Christian head that should be brought into his
camp ; sometimes the Arabs and Carismians surprised the
Crusaders who wandered from the army, and often took ad-
vantage of the darkness of night to get access to the camp ;
sentinels asleep on their posts, knights in bed in their tents,
were struck by invisible hands, and when day appeared to

EI0TOBY OV THB OBUBASXa.

lighten the scene of carnage, the barbarians fled along the
banks of the Nile, to demand their wages of the sultan of
Egypt.

These surprises and nocturnal attacks had a considerable
effect in reanimating the courage of the Mussulmans. To
raise the confidence of the miutitude and the army, great
care was taken to exhibit the heads of the Christians ; all
captives were paraded about in triumph, and the least ad-
vantage obtained over the Franks was celebrated through-
out l^pt. Contemporary historians, led away by common
exaggeration, talk of the most trifling combats as memorable
victories ; and we are astonished, at the present day, to read
in the history of a period so abounding in great military
events, that in the month of Bamadan thirty-seven Chris-
tiana were brought in chains to Cairo, that they were
followed, some days afterwards, by thirty-eight other cap-
tives, among whom were distinguished five knights. The
activity of Negraeddin appeared to increase as his end ap-
proached. He employed the greatest exertions to get to-
gether all his troops ; was indefatigablv attentive in watching
the movements of the Crusaders,- an j seldom failed to take
advantage of their errors. Men were employed night and
day in repairing the towers and fortifications of Mansourah ;
the Mussulman fleet, which had ascended the Nile, cast
anchor immediately in front of the city. Whilst these pre-
parations were going on, news arrived that the garrison of
I)ama8cus had taken possession of the city of Sidon, belong-
ing to the Franks, and that the important place of Carac
had just declared in favour of Negmeddin. This nnexpected
intelligence, the sight of the prisoners, but above all, the in-
activity of the Christian army, which was attributed to fear,
completed the dissipation of the terror of the Mussulmans.
Whilst new reinforcements were every day arriving in the
camp of the sultan, the people flocked in crowds to the
mosques of Cairo and the other cities of Egypt, to invoke
the protection of Heaven, and return thanks to the Gk>d of
Mahomet, for having prevented the Christians from taking
advantage of their victories.

BOOK XIV.

A.D. 1248—1255.

Whilbt the Christian army was forgetting in its sojourn
at Damietta both the laws of discipline and the object of
the holy war, Alphonse, count of Poictiers, prepared to set
out for the East. All the churches of France still resounded
with pathetic exhortations addressed to the Christian war-
riors ; the bishops, in the name of the sovereign pontiff,
conjured the faithful to second, by means of charity, the
enterprise against the Saracens ; an apostolic brief, granted
to the brother of the king not only the tribute imposed
upon the Crusaders who repurchased their vow, but all the
sums destined by testament to acts of piety, the object of
which was not distinctly signified. These sums must have
been considerable, but could scarcely suffice for the expenses
of an expedition which bore the appearance of another
crusade. The knights and barons who had not been affected
b^ the example of Louis IX. showed but very little enthu-
siasm, or else wanted money for so long a voyage. Piety
and the love of glory were not powerful enough to seduce
them to join the banners of the holy war. History has pre-
served an agreement, by which Hugh Lebrun, count of
Angouleme, consented to set out for the crusade with twelve
knights,' but on the express condition that the count of
Poictiers should feed them at his own table during the ex-
pedition ; that he would advance the seigneur Hugh Lebrun
the sum of four thousand livres ; and should pay him, in
perpetuity, a pension of six hundred livres toumois. This
agreement and several other similar ones were innovations
in the military usages of feudalism, and even in the usages
consecrated by the holy wars.

The English nobles, however, were impatient to follow
the example set them by Louis IK. We read in Matthew

894 HISTOBT OF THE 0BTJ8ADB8.

Paris, that the English lorda and knic^hts had already 8old
or empawned their landsy and placed themselTes entu^ly at
the mercy of the Jews ; which appeared to be the pre-
liminary of a departure for the Holy Land. It is not out
of place to add here, that this impatience to set out for the
East, arose less &om a religious motive than from the spirit
of opposition that animated the barons against their monarch,
Henry III., who was accused of being desirous of taking
advantage of the absence of Louis IX., and did all in his
power to retain the barons and lords of his kingdom ; and as
the latter resisted his solicitations with contempt, he resolved
to employ the influence of the Church ; " so that," says
Matthew Paris, " like a young child who, having been ill-
used, goes to its mother to complain, the king of England
carried his complaints to the 80vereis;n pontiff adding that
he proposed to go himself, and lead his barons shortly to the
Holy Land." The pope, in his replies, forbade Henry III.
to undertake anything against the Kingdom of France ; but,
at the same time, he threatened with the thunders of the
Church, all the knights and barons that should leave the
kingdom against the will of the king. Henry, supported by
the authority of the pope, ordered the commanders at Dover
and the other ports to take measures that no Crusader
should embark. Thus the court of Bome on one side
preached the crusade, iand on the other prevented the de-
parture of the soldiers of the cross; which must have
tended to dissipate all the illusions and annihilate the spirit
of the holy war.

Baymond, count of Thoulouse, had likewise taken the
oath to combat the infidels ; but the inconstancy of his
character, and the policy of the pope, soon led him into
other enterprises. His age had seen him, by turns, full of
zeal for the Church, ardent to persecute it ; the apostle of
heresv, and the terror of heretics ; sometimes abandoned to
the furies of revolt, sometimes submissive to sendtude;
braving the thunders of the court of Bome, afterwards
seeking the favour of the pontiffs ; pursued by unjust wars,
and himself declaring war without a motive. At the epoch
of which we are speaking, the count of Thoulouse had given
up all idea of fighfing against the infidels, and waa preparing
to minister to the personal vengeance of Innocent I v ., by

HIBTOBX OF THS CBUSADEI. 896

turning bis arms against Thomas of Savoy, who had recently
married a daughter of the emperor Frederick, in opposition
to the commands of the pope. He had already received the
money necessary for his preparations &om the pope, and had
taken leave of his daughter, the countess of Poictiers, about
to depart for the East, when he fell sick at Milan. ITrom
that time all the projects of his ambition faded away, and,
to borrow the expression of a modem historian, he went into
another world to learn the reiult of the incomprehensible
varieties of his life.

With him the illustrious house of Thoulouse became
extinct, a house of which several of the princes had been
heroes of the holy wars, others deplorable victims of crusades.
The county of Thoulouse thus became a property of the
family of the king of France, and whilst Louis IX. was
dissipating his armies and his treasures in vain endeavours
to make conquests in the East, conquests less brilliant, but
also less expensive, more useful and more durable, were in-
creasing the power of the monarchy and extending the limits
of the kingdom.

Germany, Holland, and Italy, filled with troubles, at that
time occupied all the attention of Frederick II., and did not
allow him to turn his thoughts towards the East. He sent
the count of Poictiers fifty horses and a quantity of pro*
visions, delighted, as he said, to seize an opportunity of
acquitting some of the obligations he had received from
France ; he put up .prayers for the success of the crusade,
and deeply regretted his inability to take a part in it.
Frederick had lived as the count of Thoulouse had done,
and like him, he was soon, in another world, to behold the
end of his ambition, of the inconstancy of his designs, and
of the vicissitudes of fortune.

Although the count of Poictiers was little favoured by
circumstajaces, he finished his preparations and got together
an army. The new Crusaders embarked at Aigues-Mortes,
at the moment the news of the taking of Damietta arrived
in the West. The Christian army expected them in Egypt
with* greater anxiety, from the circumstance of the Sea of
Damietta having been, for more than a month, agitated, un-
ceasingly, by a lurious tempest. Three weeks before their
arrival, aU the pilgrims had put up prayers on their account ;

896 HXBVOBT 07 TEX CBrSADBB.

on the Saturday of each week they went in pTocesnon to the
eeasbore, to implore the protection of Heaven in fayonr of
the wairiors about to join the Christian army. At length,
after a passage of two months, the count of Poictiers disem-
barked before Damietta. His arrival not only diffused joy
and hope among the Crusaders, but permitted them to leave
their long and fatal state of inactivi^.

Louis IX. assembled the council of the princes and barons,
to consult them on the line of march most advisable to be
taken, and upon measures for perfecting the conquest of
Egypt. Several of the leaders proposed to lay siege to
Alexandria: they represented that that city had a com-
modious port; that the Christian fleet would there find
certain shelter ; and that they could there procure munitions
and provisions with great facility : this was the opinion of
all that had experience in war. The headstrong youth of
the array, persuaded that they had sacrificed sufficiently to
prudence, by remaining several months in idleness, main-
tained that they ought to proceed immediately against Cairo ;
they thought nothing of the dangers the Cimstian army
must encounter in an unknown country, where they must
expect to meet with enemies irritated by fanaticism and
despair. The count d'Artois put himself particularly for*
wanl among those who wished them to attack the capital of
Egypt. " When you wish to kill the serpent," cried he, ** yon
ought always first to endeavour to crush his head." This
opinion, expressed with warmth, prevailed in the council ;
Louis himself partook of the ardour and hopes of short-
sighted youth, and the order was given for marching towards
Cairo.*

The army of the Crusaders consisted of sixty thousand
fighting men, more than twenty thousand of whom were
horse. A numerous fleet ascended the Nile, laden with pro-
visions, baggage, and machines of war. Queen Marguerite,
with the countesses of Artois, Anjou, and Poictiers, remained
at Damietta, where the king had left a garrison under the
command of Olivier de Thermos.

The Crusaders encamped at Pharescour the 7th of Decem-
ber ; terror had preceded their triumphant march, and every-

* At tbk period Louis IX. was bat thirtj-tiiree yean oM.-— TaAKS.

HIBT02Y Of THS CI(V8A9X8. WT

thing seemed to faTour their enterpiiBe. One eireumstaiiee,
of which they were ignorant, would have increased the
security and joy of the Christian knights if they had known
of it ; "Negmeddin, afler having struggled for a long time
against a cruel malady, was at length dead. This death
might haye produced serious trouble in both the Egyptian
nation and army, if it had not been carefully concealed for
seyeral days. After the sultan had breathed his last, the
Mamelukes guarded the gates of his palace as if he had been
still liying ; prayers were put up, and orders were issued in
his name : with the Mussuhnaus, nothing interrupted the
preparations for defence or attention to the war against the
Christians. All these precautions were the work of a
woman — ^a woman who had been purchased as a slaye, and
had become the fayourite wife of Negmeddin. The Arabian
historians are eloquent in the praise of the courage and
talents of Chegger-Eddour, and agree in saying, that no
woman siurpassed her in beauty, and no man excelled her in
genius.

After the death of Negmeddin, the sultana assembled the
principal emirs ; in this council the command of Egypt wba
giyen to Pakreddin, and they acknowledged as sultan
Almoadam Touranschah, whom his father had banished to
Mesopotamia : some authors assert that in this council it
was resolyed to send ambassadors to the king of the Franks,
to propose peace in the name of the prince of whose death
he was still ignorant. The ambassadors, in order to obtain
a truce, were to offer the Christians Damietta with its
territories, and Jerusalem with seyeral other cities of Pales*
tine. It was not probable that this negotiation should
succeed ; the Christians had adyanced too fieur, and had too
much confidence in their amis, to listen to any pronosition.

The Christian army pursued its march along the oanks of
the Nile, and entered the town of Scharmesah, without
meeting any other enemy than fiye hundred Mussulman
fiorsemen. These horsemen at first eyinced nothing but
pacific intentions, and, from the smallness of their numbers,
they inspired no dread.* Louis IX., whose protection they

* There is here an apparent contradiction between the Teraion of
Dncange and that of MM. Melot, Sallier, and Caperonier : in th^ latter
we read that these fire hundred Moaaahpoans were aent to haraas the

ElflTOBT OV THl OBTTBADSS.

Beemed to implore, forbade the Crusaders to attack them ;
but the Mamelukes, abusing the confidence that was placed
in them, and taking adTantage of a favourable opportunitf,
fell all at once upon the Templars, and killed a knight of
that order. A cry to arms immediately rung through the
French army, and the Mussulman battalion was assaued on
ail sides : such as did not fall beneath the swords of the
Crusaders, were drowned in the Nile. In proportion -with
the approach of the Christians to Mansourah, the anxiety
and terror of the Egyptians increased : the emir Fakreddin
exposed the dangers of the country in a letter that was read
at the hour of prayer in the great mosque of the capital.
After the formula, " In the name of God and of Mahomet his
prophet" the letter of Fakreddin began by these words of tho
Koran : " Hasten, great and small, the cause of God has need
of your arms and of your wealth' * " The Franks,' * added the
emir, ** the Franks (Heaven curse them) are arrived in our
country with their standards and their swords ; they wish to
obtain possession of our cities and ravage our provinces :
what Mussulman can refuse to march against them, and
avenge the glory of Islamism ?"

Upon hearing this letter read, all the people were melted
to tears; the greatest agitation prevailed throughout the
city of Cairo ; the death of the sultan, which began to be
known, added greatly to the general consternation ; orders
were sent to raise troops in all the Egyptian provinces ; war
was preached in all the mosques, and the imauns endeavoured
by every means to awaken fenaticism, in order to combat the
depression of despair.

The Christian army arrived before the canal Aschmoimi

French armj, but there is no mention of a deceit, or ruae de gnerre; ia
that of Ducange, on the contrary, we find this sentence: '*Ue [the
Bultan] sent to the king, as a nuCj five hundred of his best-mounted
horsemen, they telling the king that they were come to assist him, him
and all his army." We find nothing like this in the edition of MM.
Melot, Sallier, and Caperonier ; it is probable that this sentence may have
been interpohited in the manuscript, for we cannot believe that five hnn«
dred Mussulman horsemen could have been received as friends in the
Christian army, who stood in no need of auxiliaries, and who certainly
did not look for them among the Saracens. We avail ourselves of this
opportunity to warn .our readers that the various editions of Joinville
often vary in important circumstances, and that they should at all timet
be subjected to a very critical examination.

HIBTOBT OF TUX CBITSiJDXB. 899

Tberiah on the 19th of Decemher. The Mussulman eamj
was encamped on the opposite shore, having the Nile on its
left, and behind it the city of Mansourah ; close to them, in
the direction of Cairo, the Saracens had a numerous fleet
upon the river. That of the Christians had advanced to the
head of the canal. Everything seemed to announce that
the fate of the war would be decided on this spot. The
Crusaders marked out their camp in the place in which the
army of John of Brienne had encamped thirty years before.
The remembrance of a great disaster ought to have served
them as a lesson, and, at least, have tempered the excessive
confidence that the too easy conquest of Damietta had given
them.

The canal of Aschmoum was of the width of the Seine,
its bed was deep, and its banks steep. In order to cross it,
it was necessary that a dike should be constructed: the
work was begun, but as fast as they heaped up the sand and
stones, the Saracens dug away the earth in front of the dike,
and thus removed further back the opposite bank of the
canal ; in vain the causeway advanced, the Crusaders had
always the same distance to fill up, and each of the trenches
dug by the enemy tended to make their labours useless. In
adaition to whicn, they were night and day interrupted in
their works, and were constantly exposed to the arrows and
javelins of the Saracens.

Although the Mussulman general had fled without fight-
ing at the first appearance of the Franks, the chronicles of
the times speak very highly of his braveiy and military
talents. They add that he had been made a knight by
Frederick II., and that he bore the arms of the emperor of
Germany with those of the sultans of Cairo and Damascus
upon his escutcheon. These distinctions might draw the
attention of the multitude ; but that which was for Fakred-
din a true title of glory is, that he was able, by his speeches
and his example, to reanimate the courage and confidence of
a conquered army.

Scarcely had the Crusaders seated themselves down in
their camp, and begun the works necessary for the passage
of the Aschmoum, than Fakreddin sent a party of troops to
Scharmesah, to attack the rear of the Christian army. The
Saracens, by tMs unexpected asBault, spread disorder and

400 HI8T0BY OT THB C&UtiiBJBB.

terror through the camp of their enemies. The first advan*
tage redoubled their audacity, and soon after an assault was
made upon the Christians, along the whole line of their
camp, extending firom the canal to the Nile. The Mussul-
mans several times passed the intrenchments of the Crusa-
ders ; the duke of Anjou, Guy count of Forest, the sieur
de Joinville, and several other knights, were compelled to
exert all their bravery to repulse from their camp an enemy
whom every fresh combat taught that the French were not
invincible, and that it was at least possible to stop them on
their march.

Conflicts took place eveiy day in the plain and upon the
river. Several vessels belonging; to the Christians fell into
the hands of the Mussulmans ; the Arabs, constantly prowl-
ing round the camp, bore away into captivity every man
that ventured to stray from his colours. As the emir Fak->
reddin could only learn from the reports of prisoners the
state and disposition of the Christian army, he promised a
recompense for every captive that should be brought into hia
tents : all the means that audacity and cunning could sug-
gest were employed to surprise the Crusaders. It is related
that a Mussulman soldier haying buried his head in a melon
that had been hollowed out, threw himself into the Nile, and
swam down the stream. The melon, which appeared to
float upon the water, attracted the eyes of a Christian war-
rior, who sprang into the river^ and as he stretched out his
hand to seize the floating melon, he himself was seized and
dragged away to the camp of the Mussulmans. This anec-
dote, more whimsical than instructive, is related by several
Arabian historians, who scarcely say anything of the pre-
ceding combats. Such are the spirit and character of the
greater part of oriental histories, in which the most frivo-
lous details often take the place of useful truths and impor-
tant events.

"Whilst the armies were thus in &ce of each other, the
Crusaders pursued the work they had begun upon the Asch-
moum. Towers of wood and machines wei-e constructed, to
protect the workmen employed in making the dike upon
which the Christians were to cross the caniu. On their side»
the Mussulmans redoubled their efibrts to prevent their
enemies from completing their work. The <uke advanoed

ItlBTOBT OF TUE CBUHADIIS. 401

but very rIowIj, and tbe wooden towers that had been con-
Btructed in front of the causewaj^, could not defend oitlier
the workmen or the eoldiers agmnst the arrowB, stones, and
Rery darts that were being constantly launched from the
camp of the Egyptians. Nothing coiud eqiial the surprise
and terror that the sight alone of the Greek fire caused the
Christian army. According to the relation of ocidar wit-
nesses, this redoubtable fire, cast sometimes through a brass
tube, and sometimes by an instrument that was called the
perriere, was of the size of a tun or large cask ; the flaming
tail, which it drew after it, was many feet in length ; the
Crusaders imagined they beheld a fiery draf^on flying through
the air ; the noise of its explosion resembled that of thun-
der, which rolls in repeatea peals. When it was launched
during the night, it cast a lurid splendour over the whole
camp. At the first sight of this terrible fire, the knights
set to guard the towers, ran here and there, like men be-
wildered; some called their companions to their aid, whilst
others threw themselves on the groimd, or fell on their
knees, invoking the celestial powers. Joinville could not
conceal liis fright, and thanked Heaven with all his heart
when the Greek fire fell at a distance from him. Louis IX.
was not less terrified than his barons and knights, and when
he heard the detonation of the fire, he burst into tears,
exclaiming : " Great God ! Jesus Christ, protect me and all
my people ! " *

** The good prayers and orisons of the king,'* says his histo-
rian, " were ot great service to us ;" nevertheless, they were
not able to save the towers and wooden works constructed
by the Crusaders : all were consiuned by the flames in sight
of the Christian army, without their having any power to
arrest their devastation. This misfortune was a lesson by
which they ought to have profited ; tlie Christians ought to
have perceived that they had undertaken an impossible en-
terprise, and that they ought to seek for some means, more
easy and more certain, of crossing the canal. But, unhap-
pily, the leaders persisted in causing other erections to be
made, which shared the fate of the first. They thus lost

* II s'ecriait« pleurant a grant larmes : Bean Sire, Diea Jesus Christ,
grjdc ir.ol ct toutc rea gent. — Voia^fe.

Vol. II.— 18

402 HIBTOAT OF THE CKU8ADKS.

much time, ana the futility of their attempts assisted in
raising the pride and confidence of the Saracens.

The Mamelukes at this time learned that their new
sovereign had arrived in Damascus, and that he was hourly
expected in his capital. This arrival gave them fresh hopes,
and rendered them more confident of victory. To redouble
the ardour of his soldiers, Fakreddin often repeated, with a
tone of assurance, that he should soon go and sleep in the
tent of the king of the Franks.

The Christians had been a month before Aschmoum, ex-
hausting themselves in useless efforts. Their leaders never
took the trouble to examine if it were possible to ford the
canal, or cross it by swimming, as the I^yptian cavalry had
done. They were beginning to despair, when chance re-
vealed to them a means of extricating themselves from their
embarrassment, a means they might have known much
sooner, if they had had less obstinacy and more foresight.
A Bedouin Arab came to propose to Imbert de Beaujeu,
constable of France, to show nim, at a distance of half a
league from the camp, a ford, by which the Crusaders might
cross without danger or obstacles, to the opposite bank of
the Aschmoum. After having ascertained that the Arab
told the truth, they paid him the sum of five hundred golden
byzants, which he had demanded, and the Christian army
prepared to profit by this happy but late discovery.

The king and the princes his brothers, with all the ca^
valry, began their march in the middle of the night ; the
duke of Burgundy remained in the camp with the infantry,
to observe the enemy, and guard the machines and the bag-
gage. At daybreak, all the squadrons that were to cross
the canal, awaited the signal on the bank. The count
d' Artois was ambitious of crossing first ; the king, who knew
the impetuous character of his brother, at first wished to
restrain him ; but Kobert insisted warmly, and swore upon
the Gospel, that when he arrived on the opposite shore, he
would wait till the Cliristian army had passed. Louis im-
prudently placed faith in the promise of a young, fiery, and
haughty Knight, to master his warlike transports, and resist
all the temptations of glory on the field of battle. The
count d'Artois placed himself at the head of the van,
in which were the Hospitallers^ the Templars, and the

lUBTOBr Of T&Z CUUSADES. 408

Engliflb. This ran crossed the Aschmoum, and put to flight
three hundred Saracen horsemen. At the sight of the flying
MusBuhnons, young Bobert was on fire to pursue them. In
vain the two grand masters represented to him that the
flight of the enemy was perhaps nothing but a stratagem,
and that he ought to wait for the army, and follow the orders
of the king. Eobert feared to lose an opportunity of tri-
umphing over the iuJidels, and would listen to nothing but
his ardour for conquest. He rushed on to the plain, sword
in hand, drawing the whole van after him, and pursuing the
Saracens to their camp, into which he entered with them.

Eakreddin, the leader of the Mussulman army, was at the
moment in the bath, and, after the custom of the Orientals,
was having his beard coloured. He sprang on horseback,
almost naked, rallied his troops, and resisted for some time ;
but soon, left almost alone on the field of battle, ho was
surrounded, and died, covered with a thousand wounds.

The whole Mussulman army fled away towards Man-
Bourah. How was it possible to resist the inclination to
pursue them ? What was to be feared from enemies that
abandoned their camp ? Might it not be believed that the
Saracens fled as they had done at Damietta, and that terror
would prevent their ralljing ? All these thoughts arose in
the mind of the. count d'Artois, and would not permit him
to wait for the rest of the army to complete his victory. The
grand-master of the Temple in vain renewed his representa-
tions; the young prince replied with great heat to the
counsels of experience. In his passion he accused the
Templars and Hospitallers of maintaining an intelligence
with the infidels, and with wishing to perpetuate a war that
was advantageous to their ambition. " Tliua, then," replied
the two grand masters, " it would appear that we and our
knights have abandoned our families and our countr}', and
would desire to pass our days in a foreign land, amidst the
fatigues and perils of war, in order to betray the cause of
tlie Christian church !" On finishing these words, the master
of tlio Templars sternly bade the standard-bearer of his
order to unfurl the banner of battle. The earl of Salisbury,
who commanded the English, ventured to speak of the
danger to which the army would be exposed, thus separated
from its van ; but the count d'Artois interrupted him by

104 HIBTOBT OP THE CBV8JJ>XB.

saying, ^liarply, "Timid coimBels do not suit us!" Then
the quarrels tnat had so often disturbed the discipline of the
army were renewed, and the heat o^ debate completely stifled
the voice of prudence. Whilst they were thus inflaming
each other, the ancient governor of the count d' Artois, who
was deaf, and who believed they were preparing for battle,
never ceased crying, " Ores h eux, ores k eux !*'• (Hurrah !
on them ! hurrah! on them !) These words became a fatal
signal for warriors, urged on at once by anger and impatience
for victory. The Templars, the English, the French, all set
forward together, all flew towards Mansourah, and penetrated
into the city abandoned by the enemy ; some stopped to
pillage, whilst the others pursued the Saracens along the
road to Cairo.

If all the Christian troops had crossed the canal at the
moment that the count d'Artois entered Mansourah, the
defeat of the enemy could have been complete. But the
passage was made with much difliculty and confusion ; and
when the French army had crossed the Aschmoum, a space of
two leagues separated it from its van.

The Mussulmans, who had been driven from their camp,
at first believed they had fought with all the forces of the
Crusaders, commanded by the king of France; but they
soon became aware of the small number of their enemies,
and were astonished at ha\dng been put to flight. From the
ver}' bosom of peril and disorder, a skilful leader arose among
them, whose presence of mind all at once revived their
courage.t Bibars Bondocdar, whom the Mamelukes had
recently placed at their head, having perceived the impru-
dence of the Christians, rallied the Mussulmans, led a part
of his army between the canal and Mansourah, got posses-
sion of the' gates of the city, and, with a chosen part of his

^ This word orer, which was employed to animate the courage of com-
batants, and which is still in use among the people in seTeral provinces of
Fnnce, may it not be the same as the word Aourot which the Russians
employ ? May it not have been introduced by the Franks and the other
barbarians who oonquere4 the Gauls ?

t This is the same person who, later, made himself so formidable to
the Christians when he had united Egypt and Syria under his power ; he
had preserved the name of Bondocdar from that of his ancient master, so
called because he was the bondocdar ^ or general of the arbalatien, in the
reign of Malek-Saleh.

HI8TOBT OP THX CBTTBASIS. 405

troops, poured down upon the Crusaders, who were pillaging
the palace of the sultan. " The Mamelukes, lions of fights*^
says an Arabian historian, " rushed upon the Franks, like a
furious tempest; their terrible maces dealing deaths and
wounds in all directions,'^ The Christians, dispersed about
in the city, had scarcely time to rally ; pressed together in
narrow streets, they could neither fight on horseback nor
make use of their swords. From the roofs of the houses and
from the windows, the Mussulmans hurled stones and other
missives, or poured down upon them heated sand and boiling
water. The gates of the city were closed, a multitude of
Mussulmans occupied all the roads, and there remained not
a single hope of salvation for warriors who had so recently
put to flight a whole army.

This first disaster brought on several others ; and soon the
Christian army, which had just crossed the canal, found itself
in the greatest danger. As fast as the Crusaders arrived on
the other bank of the Aschmoum, some learned that the
coHnt d'Artois was pursuing the enemy, others that he was
shut up in Mansourah, and most of the barons and knights,
who burned, according to what they heard, to share his
glory or aid him in his danger, without waiting for those
who followed them, flew first towards the camp of the Sara-
cens, and then towards the city.

The count of Brittanv was one of the first who moved for-
ward, and ho was quickly followed by Guy of Malvoisin, the
sieur de Joinville, and the bravest knights of the Christian
army. They advanced in great haste, and without the least
precaution, through a country covered with enemies ; they
were not long in being separated from each other, when some
retraced their steps, but the greater part were surroimded by
the Mussulmans. A thousand combats were fought at once
upon the plain ; here the Christians were conquerors, further
on they were conquered ; in every direction they, by turns,
attacked their enemies or defended themselves, at one
moment putting the Saracens to flight, and the next flying
before them.

All at once a cloud of dust arose from the bank of the
Aschmoum, and the sound of trumpets and clarions arose,
mingled with the neighing of horses and the shouts of
warriors ; it was the main body of the Christian army ad-

406 HI8T0BI OF THB €BU8ia>XS.

yancing. Saint Louis, marching at the head of the cayaby,
halted on the summit of an acclivity, where all ejes were
turned towards him. The knights scattered about at the foot
of the hill, no longer able to resist the Saracens, believed they
saw the angel of battles come to their assistance ; Joinville,
in particular, who, though pressed hard by the enemy, was,
nevertheless, struck by the majestic aspect of the monarch.
Louis woi*e a golden helmet^ and held in his hand a German
Bword ; his armour was resplendent, and his noble bearing
animated all Ms warriors ; "in short," says the ingenuous sene-
schal, in whom, perhaps, the feeling of danger increased that
of admiration, "1 declare that a more noble armed man was
never seen."*

Many of the knights who accompanied the French king,
seeing the Christian warriors engaged with the Saracens in
all directions, broke from their nmks, and rushed down to .
the melee. Then the confusion proceeded fast to its climax ;
every one hastened forward without knowing where the
enemy's army was, and they very soon became equally ignorant
where that of the Christians was, or the kmg that com-
manded it; there was no one to issue an order, and no
signal was given, except that of peril. In this horrible tumult,
prudence and caution were useless, strength and skill in
anns alone were triumphant ; the mace and the battle-axe
dash polished casques and proudly-deviced shields to frag-
ments ; some knights sink covered with wounds, others are
trampled to death beneath the feet of the horses ; the cry of the
French, " Montjoie, St. Denis !" and that of the Mussulmans,
" Islam! Islam !" are confounded together, and mingle with
the plaintive voices of the dying, and the menacing clamours
of the triumphant, with the clash of cuirasses, lances, and
swords. From the canal to Mansourah, and fh)m the Nile
to the shore whereon the Crm»aders had just landed, the
country presented but one vast field of battle, where fury
and despair by turns animated the combatants, where tor^
rents of blood were shed on both sides, without allowing
either Christians or Mussulmans to claim the victory.

The Crusaders had the advantage in almost all the com*
bats, or more properly duels, as the fights were generally

* Je TOQS promets qae onoques plus bel homme ann^ ne vis.

HlflTOBT OF THE 0SV8ADSS. 407

maa to man ; but their army was in a great measure dispersed.
At this moment, Bibars, having left in Mansourah a suffi-
cient number of troops to triumph over the resistance of
the count d'Artois and his knights, set forward with all his
forces, directing his course towards the canal, for the purpose
of sustaining the Mussulmans, who were beginning to flj,
or to bring on a decisive battle. Louis and the leaders that
surrounded him at once perceived the movement and the

?lans of the enemy. It was immediately decided that the
Jhristian army should draw near to the canal, in order to
prevent its being surrounded, and, at the same time, to pre-
serve some communication with the duke of Burgundy, who
remained on the opposite bank. The oriflamme, at the
head of the battalions, already pointed out the direction the
army was to take, when the counts of Foictiers and Flan-
dors, who had advanced into the plain, sent word to the king
that they must succumb unless speedily succoured : at the
same moment, Imbert de Beaujeu came to announce that
Eobert of Artois was perishing in Mansourah. Struck by
the conflicting demands, Louis hesitated for a moment, and
in that moment a crqwd of impetuous warriors, unable to
wait for his orders, galloped off, some to the succour of the
Poitevins and the Flemings, others to the aid of the count
d' Artois ; the Saracens completely covered the country, and
the French warriors, who had thus separated themselves from
the king, were totally unable to contend with such a mul-
titude of enemies, and, falling back upon the Christian
army, produced disorder and created terror.

Amidst the general confusion, a report was spread that the
Mussulmans were everywhere victonous, and that the king
had given orders for retreat. Several squadrons disbanded,
and rushed towards the canal. In an instant the waters
appeared covered with drowning men and horses. In this
extreme peril, Louis in vain endeavoured to rally his troops.
TTia voice was scarcely heard, no one executed the orders ne
endeavoured to give. He then precipitated himself into the -
thickest of the fight, and so impetuously was he carried
forward by his ardour, that his squires had great difficulty
in keeping up with him; at last he remained alone, sur-
rounded on all sides by Saracens. Thus situated, he had to
defend himself against six MusBulmaa horsemen, who were

408 HISTOBT 07 THE CBUSiUDXa.

determined to take him prisoner. Lotus defeated all their
endeayourSy and succeeded in disengaging himself, and
putting them to flight. This brilliant act of bravery re-
animated the flying Crusaders that witnessed it; they
crowded after their gallant king, recommenced the fight, and
once more dispersed the Mussulman battalions.

Whilst the whole Christian army was thus fighting to
repair the faults and save the life of the count d'Artois, this
unfortunate prince was defending himself with heroic bra-
yery; but all his eflbrts, without the walls and within
the walls of Mansourah, could not free him from the host of
Saracens his imprudence had drawn upon him. Eobert, with
his knights, the Templars, and the English, forgetting all
their fatal quarrels, resolved to die together as knights and
Christian soldiers. The combat had lasted from ten o'clock
in the morning till three in the afternoon ; the Crusaders,
covered with wounds and stained with blood and dust, fought
on bravely, though only sustained by the flickering strength
of exhausted life. They fell almost all at the same time ;
Salisbury was killed at the head of the warriors he com-
manded; Bobert de Vair, who bore the English banner,
folded it round him before he died ; Baoul de Coucy expired
on a heap of dead ; the count d' Artois, intrenched within a
house, defended himself for a long time, but at length sank
amidst carnage and ruins. The Christian warriors had
entered Mansourah to the number of fifteen hundred, and
almost all met with death there. The grand master of the
Hospitallers, left alone upon the field of battle, was taken
prisoner. The master of the Templars escaped by a miracle,
and came back in the evening to the Christian camp, wounded
in the face, his vestments torn to rags, and bis cuirass
pierced in several places. He had beheld two hundred and
eighty of his knights fall around him.

Most of those who advanced towards Mansourah to suc-
cour the count d'Artoia, fell victims to their intrepid zeal.
The brave G-uy de Malvoisin succeeded in reaching the
walls, but not in gaining entrance to the city. The duke of
Brittany made incredible efforts to gain the place of combat ;
he heard the threats, cries, and tumult with which the city
resounded, without being able to force the gates or scale the
nunparts. He returned towiurda nightfall ; ne vomited blood

HIBTOBT OV THX CBUSAD28. 409

in streams ; his horse, stuck all over with arrows, had lost
its bridle, and part of its furniture ; and every warrior that
followed him was wounded. Even in this state he proved
himself terrible to the enemy, killing or driving away, with
powerful thrusts of his lance, all who dared to pursue or
oppose him, and jeering at their abortive attempts.*

When night separated the combatants, the prior of the
hospital of Eosnay came towards the king, and kissing hie
hand, asked him if he had received any tidings of the count
d'Artois. " All that I know," replied the pious monarch,
"is that he is now in Paradise." The good knight, to
remove such sad thoughts, was about to expatiate upon the
advantages they had gained; but then Louis, raismg his
eyes towards heaven, burst into tears. The prior of Eosnay
became silent; the barons and lords assembled round the
king were unable to ofter a word of consolation, but were
all oppressed with pain, compassion, and pity at seeing him
weep.t

The Christian army, although it had to reproach the
count d'Artois for all the misfortunes of this day's conflict,
sympathized with the sorrows of Louis. Such was the
ascendancy of bravery among the French warriors, that the
greatest faults appeared to them to be expiated by a glorious
death. It was liKewise acknowledged in all the crusades,
that they who died with arms in their hands were placed in
the rank of martyrs. The Christian warriors only considered
the count d'Artois as a soldier of Christ, whom God had re-
called to his bosom : it was thus that piety accorded with
glory, and that men honoured as saints the same persons
they admired as heroes. Matthew Paris asserts in his History
that the mother of Salisbury saw her son ascending into
heaven on the day of the battle of Mansourah. The same
opinion was established among the Saracens ; all who fell in
the Held of battle, in the wars against the Christians, passed

* Lear disant paroles en eigne de mocqnerie. — Joinvilie,

f et tons furent moult oppress^ d'angoisse, de compassion et de

piti^ de le roir ainsi plorer. — Joinville. [I hope my readers will excnse
mj repetitions of this kind ; I make them from a sense of inability to
convey the touching and characteristic simplicity of the original, and
from a wish that others shotdd partake with me the feding they create.]—

TlLUfS.

18*

410 nisTOBT OF Tns cbvsades.

for martyrs of Islamism. " The Pranks," says the continuator
of Tabary, " sent Eakreddin to the banks of th© celestial
river, and his end was a glorious end."

History has not preserved the names of all the warriors
who signalized theur valour at the battle of Mansourah.
The seneschal of Champagne was not one of those who were
backward in seeking daiiger, or in evincing want of courage ;
one of six, he defended a bridge against a host of Saracens.
He was twice unhorsed. In such great distress, the pioua
knight did not forget his patron saint, and exclaimed to nim :
^* My lord, great sire, St. James, I supplicate thee, aid me
and succour me in this my need." joinville continued
fighting during the whole day; his horse received fifteen
wounds, and he himself was pierced by five arrows.

The seneschal informs us that during the battle of thia
memorable day, he saw several men of high distinction
running disgracefully away, in the general confusion: he
does not name them, because at the time he wrote they
were dead, and it does not appear becoming to him to speak
ill of the departed. The reserve with which the historian
here expresses himself, shows plainly enough what was the
general spirit of the French army, in which it was considered
as an ineffaceable shame, and as the greatest of misfortunes,
to have ever experienced a single moment of fear.

The greater part of the French warriors, when in the
presence of danger, were never abandoned by that sentiment
of honour that constituted the spirit and character of
chivalry. . Erard de Severy, whilst fighting bravely with a
small number of knights, received a sabre-cut in the face ;
his blood flowed fast, and it appeared not at all likely that
he would survive the wound ; when, addressing the knights
that fought near him, he said, " If you will assure me that
I and my children shall be free from all blame, I will go and
demand help for you, of the duke of Anjou, whom I see
yonder on the plain." All praised this determination highly,
and he immediately mounted on horseback, pierced through
the enemy's scjuadrons, reached the duke of Anjou, and re-
turned with hun to rescue his companions, who were near
perishing. Erard de Severy expired shortly after this heroic
achievement : he died, bearing away with him, not the senti-
ments of a vain glory, but the consoling certainty that no

HISTOBT 07 THE CBTISASXS. 411

bliime, as he bad defiired, should stain his name, or that of
his children.

That which at the same time astonishes and charms ns in
the relations of the old chroniclers who have spoken of thia
battle of Mansourah is, to find, amidst scenes of carnage,
traces of French gaiety, of that gaietj which despises death
and laughs at pei^. We have spoken of six knights who
defended the passage of a bridge against a great number of
Saracens; whilst these preux chevalierSy surrounded by
enemies, maintained sucn a perilous post, the count de
Soissons, addressing Joinville, exclaimed: ''Seneschal, let
us leave this rascally canaille to cry and braj as they please,
vou and I will yet talk of this clay, and in ladies^ bowers
too."

The Mussulmans haring retired, the Christian army occu-
pied their camp, which the van had taken possession of in
the morning, and which the Arabs had plundered during the
battle. The camp of the enemy, and the machines of war
they had left in it, were the only fruit of the exploits of
this day. The Crusaders had shown what valour could effect,
and their triumph would have been complete if they had
been able to rally and fight together. Theur leaders had not
sufficient ability or ascendancy to repair the error of the count
d' Artois ; the Mussulman leaders, who proved themselves to
be more skilful, were also better seconacd by the discipline
and obedience of the Mamelukes.

"When they became fully aware of the losses they had ex-
perienced, the Christians' gave up all idea of celebrating
their victory. To appreciate the result of so many bloody
conflicts, it was quite sufficient to contemplate the contrast
between the sentiments that animated the two armies. A
melancholy sadness prevailed among the conquerors ; whilst
the Saracens, on the contrary, although driven from their
camp, and obliged to fall hack upon Mansourah, considered
it a triumph to have stopped the march of their enemies ;
and, reassured as to the issue of the war, they abandoned
themselves to the greater joy, from having, before the battle,
entertained the most depressing fears.

In fact, nothing can paint the consternation which the
first attack of the count u* Artois had created among the in-
fidels. At the beginning of the day, a pigeon that was sent

412 HISTOBT OF THX CBVBADBS.

to Cairo, conveyed a message expressed in these words :
"At the moment this bird is dispatched, the enemy is
attacking Mansourah; a terrible battle has been fought
between the Christians and the Mussulmans.'' At this news
the people of Cairo were seized with the greatest terror ;
and sinister reports soon added to the alarm. The gates of
the city were left open all night, to receive such as might
have fled ; and all of these exaggerated the danger to excuse
their desertion. It was believed that the davs of Islamism
were numbered, and many were already abandoning the
capital, to seek an asylum in Upper Egypt, when, on the
morrow, another pigeon arrived, bearing news cal<;ulated to
raise the spirits of the Mussulmans. The fresh message
announced that the God of Mahomet had declared himself
to be against the Christians ; then all fears were dispersed,
and the issue of the battle of Mansourah, says an Arabian
author, tDos the note of ^ov for all true believer9,

During the very night that followed the battle, the
Mussulmans made several attempts to recover their camp
and the machines of war that remained in the hands of the
Pranks. The Christian warriors, oppressed by fatigue, were
repeatedly aroused by cries to arms ; the continual attacks
of the enemy would not allow them to repair their strength
by sleep ; many among them were so weakened by their
wounds, they could scarcely put on their cuirasses ; never-
theless, they defended themselves with their accustomed
bravery.

The day after the battle was Ash- Wednesday, and the
priests performed the ceremonies ordered by reli^on for the
opening of Lent. The Christian army passed a part of the
day in. prayer, the rest of it in preparations for defence.
Whilst tne soldiers of the cross prostrated themselves at the
foot of their altars, or prepared to repulse the infidels,
images of mourning were mingled in theur hearts with sen-
timents of piety and bravery. Whilst remembering their
past victories, they could not forbear dreading the fixture ;
and the symbol of human fragilities, that the Church
offers to each of her children on that solemn day, must have
kept up their sad presentiments.

On the same day they employed themselves in throwing
a bridge over the Aschmoum, in order to form a junction

HI8T0BY OF THJB CBUBADES. 413

with the camp of the duke of Burgundy. The leaders and
soldiers all lent a hand to the work, which was finished in
the space of a few hours. The infantry, which had heen left
on the other side of the canal, came to reinforce the army,
which was fated to he soon engaged in fresh contests.

Bihars, who had the command of the Mamelukes, hastened
to take advantage of his first successes. When the body of
the count d'Artois was found, the Mamelukes exhibited his
cuirass, sown over with flewr% de lis, and declared it was the
spoil of the king of France. They carried about the heads
of several knip;hts in triumph, and heralds-at-arms repeated
in a loud voice: "The Christian army is nothing but a
trunk without life, like the heads you behold on the points
of these lances."

This spectacle completely inflamed the ardour of the
Mussulmans. The leaders and soldiers, with great cries,
demanded to be led agaiost the Christians. The Mussulman
army had orders to hold themselves in readiness for battle
on the morrow, the first Friday in Lent.

Louis IX. was warned of the intention of the Saracens ;
he gave orders to the leaders to fortify the camp, and prepare
their troops for the conflict. On the Friday, by daybreak,
the Christians were all under arms ; and at the same time
the leader of the Mussulmans appeared in the plain, ranging
his men in battle-array. He placed his cavalry in the front,
behind them the infantry, and still further back, the reserve.
He extended or strengthened his lines according to the posi-
tions he saw his enemies take. His army covered the plain
from the cdHal to the river. At midday he unfurled the
banners and sounded the charge.

The duke of Anjou was at the head of the camp on the
side towards the Nile; he was the first attacked. The
infantry of the Saracens commenced by launching the
Greek fire. This fire seized the clothes of the soldiers
and the caparisons of the horses. The soldiers, enveloped
in flames ttiey could not extinguish, ran about uttering the
most frightful cries; the horses broke away, and createdr
confusion in the ranks. By means of this disorder, the
enemy's cavalry opened themselves a passage, dispersed such
as were still fighting, and penetrated within the intrench-
ments. The duke of Anjou was unable to resist the mul-

414 niSTOBT OF THE CBUSADES.

tiplied attacks of the Saracens ; kis horse having been killed
under him, he fought on foot, and, nearly overwhelmed by
the number of his enemies, he at length sent to Louis IX.
for aid.

The king, himself engaged with the Mussulmans, re>
doubles his ardour and his efforts, drives the enemy back on
to the plain, and then flies where other dangers call him.
The kmghts who follow him precipitate themselves upon the
Mussulman battalions which were attacking the quarter of
the duke of Anjou. Louis is not stopped, either by the
numberless arrows shot at him, or by the Greek fire, which
covers his arms and the caparison of his horse. Lithe
account of this battle, JoinviUe is astonished that the king
of France escaped being killed, and can in no other way
explain this species of miracle than by attributing it to the
power of Goa : " Then it may well be believed " (we let the
seneschal of Champagne speak) " that the holy king had his
God in remembrance and wish : for, in truth, our Lord was
then a great friend to him in his need, and aided him so
efiectuidly, that he delivered his brother, the duke of Anjou,
and drove away the Turks."

On the left of the duke of Anjou, the Crusaders from the
isle of Cyprus and Palestine were encamped, under the
command of Guy d'Ibelin and his brother Baldwin. These
Crusaders had not been engaged in the last battle, and had
lost ni ither their horses nor their arms. Near them fought
the brave G^uthier de Chatillon, at the head of a chosen
troop. These intrepid warriors were proof against all
attacks, and remaining firm at the post confided to them,
contributed greatly to the saving of both the camp and the
army.

The Templars, having lost the greater part of their knights
in Mansourah, formed an intrenchment or barricade in front
of them, of the wood of the machines taken from the Sara-
cens ; but this feeble defence was of little avail against the
Greek fire. The enemy rushed into the camp throi^jh the
flames; the Templars formed an impenetrable rampart of
their bodies, and resisted the violent attacks of the assailants
during several hours. The conflict was so severe at this
point, that the earth could scarcely be seen behind the spot
occupied by the Templars, so completely was it covered with

HISTOBT 0? TBI CBrSlDIB. 415

arrows and javelins. The grand master of the Templars lost
his life in the milee, and a great number of knights died in
defending or avenging him. The prodigies of their bravery
at last succeeded in arresting the progress of the enemy,
and the last who fell in this hardly-contested battle had the
consolation, when dying, to see the Saracens fly.

Guy de Malvoisin was placed near to the post which the
knights of the Temple defended so .bravely ; the battalion
he commanded was composed almost entirely of his rela-
tions, and in battle presented the spectacle of a family ot
warriors, ever united and ever invincible. Gny incurred
the greatest peril ; he was wounded several times, but never
dreamt of retiring from the contest. His example and the
sight of his wounds redoubled the courage of nis compa-
nions, who, at length, repulsed the Mussulmans. Not fa^
from Guy de Malvoisin, descending towards the canal, the
Flemish Crusaders were posted. "William, their count, was
at their head ; they sustamed the furious shock of the Mus-
sulmans without giving way in the least : Joinville, with some
other knights, fought on their left, and on this occasion owed
his safety to the warriors of Flanders, to whom he accords
the warmest praises. The Flemings, united with the Cham-
penois, put the Mussulman cavalry and infantry to- flight,
pursued them out of the camp, and returned loaded with
the bucklers and cuirasses they had takeo from their
enemies.

The count of Poictiers occupied the left wing of the
army ; but as this prince had only infantry under his com-
mand, he was unable to resist the' cavalry of the Saracens.
Such were the warriors of these remote times, that when
they were not on horseback, they seemed to be disarmed,
and could not fight even for the defence of intrenchments.
The quarter confided to the Poitevins was attacked bv the
Mussulmans at an early period of the fight ; the Mamelukes
plundered the tents of the Christians, the brother of
the king was dragged out of the camp by some Saracen
horsemen, and was being carried away a prisoner. In tliis
extreme peril the count of Poictiers could not look to
Louis IX. for any assistance, as he had gone to the succour
of the count of Anjou; nor to the other leaders of the
Christian army, all so closely pressed by the enemy them-

416 HISTOBT OJP THB OBITBADSfl.

Bdves. This prince was adored by the" people for his good-
ness ; and on this occasion received the reward of his virtues,
bv owing his deliverance to the love with which he inspired
all the Crusaders. "When the workmen, sutlers, and women
that followed the army saw him made a prisoner, they assem-
bled in the greatest tury, and arming themselves with axes,
clubs, sticks, or anything that fell in their way, flew after the
Mussulmans, delivered the count of Foictiers, and brought
him back in triumph.

At the extremity of the camp, close to the quarters of the
Poitevins, fought Josserant de Brandon, with his son and
his knights. The companions in arms of Josserant had all
left Europe well mounted and magnificently equipped : now
they all fought on foot, and had nothing left but lance and
sword. Their leader alone was on horseback, and rode fipom
rank to rank, exciting the soldiers, and flying to every point
where the danger seemed most pressing. This weak troop
would entirely have perished, if Henry of Brienne, who re^
mained in the camp of the duke of Burgundy, had not
caused his cross-bowmen to shoot across the arm of the
river, every time the Saracens renewed their attacks. Of
twenty knights that accompanied Josserant, twelve were left
upon the field of battle. This old warrior had been present
in thirty-six battles, in all of which he had borne away the
priz^ of valour. Joinville, when relating the exploits of
this day, remembers that he had formerly seen Josserant de
Bran9on come out victorious &om a combat against some
Germans who were pillaging the church of M4con ; he had
seen him prostrate himself at the foot of the altar, and pray
with ardour for the favour of dying in fight against the
enemies of Christ. And Josserant obtained the blessinff he
had asked of God ; for a few days after the battle he died
of his wounds.

Such was the contest of which Louis IX., in the account
which he sent to France, speaks with such admirable sim-
plicity^. " On the first Friday in Lent, the camp being
attacked, Gt)d favoured the French, and the infidels were
repulsed with much loss."

In this battle, as in the last, the Christiahs had had all
the glory, the Saracens all the advantage. The Christian
army lost a great number of its warriors, and abnoet all its

•HISTOBT OP THl OBITSAJDES. 417

horses : tlie enemy was reinforced erery day ; the Crusaders
could not attempt to march upon Cairo, and prudence
seemed to suggest that they should retrace their steps to
Damietta. Eetreat, still easy, offered a means of preseryine
the army for a more favourable season : but this plan could
only be counselled by despair, and despair has great difficulty
in mastering the hearts of the brave. Nothing could appear
more disgraceful to the French than flying, or appearing^ to
fly, before a conquered enemy : they resolved to remain.

Towards the end of February, Aunoadam, whom Chigeer-
Eddour and the principal leaders of the Mamelukes had <^ed
to the throne of his father, teived in Egypt, and was re-
ceived with loud acclamations by the people, always desirous
of change, and always delighted with a new rei^. The
emirs and magnates likewise displayed great joy, but their
demonstrations were less sincere ; they looked for the coming
of the successor of Negmeddin with more anxiety than im-

Eatience ; placing a very high value upon that which they
ad done for him, they, beforehand, expected his ingratitude.
On the other side, the young prince was jealous of his au-
thority ; and the power of the emirs, the nature even of their
services, gave him alarms that he had not the prudence to
dissemble. It was not long before a mutual mistrust and a
reciprocal estrangement arose between Almoadam and the
leaders of the Mussulman army; the latter repented of
having raised to empire a prince who showed a disposition
to rule alone, and the former was determined to deiend his
power, even against those who had bestowed it upon him. This
state of things and the disposition of men's minds, appeared
ominous of new revolutions in Egypt ; unhappily these re-
volutions broke out too late to allow the Christians to derive
any advantage from them.

The Crusaders likewise had soon to contend with calami-
ties more destructive to them than even the power or the
arms of the Mussulmans ; a contagious disease made its ap-
pearance in the Christian army. They had neglected to bury
the dead after the last two battles ; the bodies cast confusedly
and heedlessly into the Aschmoum, and floating on its
waters, stopped before the bridge of boats constructed by
the Crusaders, and cov<ered the surface of the canal from ono
shore to the other. Pestilential exhalations quickly arose

418 B.ISTOBX OF THS CBtTBADES.

firom ibis heap of carcasses. Louis IX. ordered the bodies
of the Christians to be buried in the ditches dug by the
Saracens on the bank ; but these spoils of death, moved and
transported without precaution, only assisted the progress
of the epidemic. The spectacle which was then presented
to the eyes of the Crusaders spread the deepest grief through-
out the camp,~and awakened a more perfect consciousness
of their losses. Christian soldiers were seen searching
among bodies which wounds, the hues of death, and the
action of the sun and air had disfigured, for the deplorable
remains of their friends or companions. Many of those upon,
whom friendship imposed thi/ pious task, feU sick and died
almost instantly. The devoteduiess and grief of one of the
knights of Bobert count d' Artois, were conspicuous among
these affecting instances. This inconsolable knight passed
whole nights and days on the banks of the canal, with his
eyes intensely fixed upon the w^aters, braving contagion and
death, in the hope of recovering and burying the young
prince, whose loss was so deep^ deplored by the French
army.

The fatigues of war did not at all prevent the pious war-
riors from observing; the abstinence of Lent ; ana the pri-
vations and austerities of penitence completed the exhaustion
of their strength. The contagion attacked the most robust
as well as the most weak;* their flesh withered away, their
skin became livid, and was covered with black spots ; their
gums were inflamed and swollen so as to prevent the passage

* ThU disease was the scarry ; *' it was sach/' says Joinville, ** that
the flesh of oar legs dried away to the bone, and our skins became of a
black or earth coloar, like an old saddle which has been a long time laid
aside : and besides this, we who were afflicted by this disease were soon
-subjected to another persecution, in a complaint of tlie mouth, which arose
from our having eaten of those fish ; it putrified the flesh of the gums, so
that it rendered the breath horribly stinking." Joinville here speaks of
the burbottey a flsh of the Nile, which is a voracious fish, and feeds upon
dead bodies. The seneschal adds, in another passage of his memoirs,
« that the malady having seized upon the army, it became necessary for
the barbers to cut out the pollen flesh of the gums of all who were
afflicted with this disease, so that they could not eat. Great pity was it
to hear all from whom this dead flesh had been cut, going about in the
army, crying and moaning. They appeared to me like poor women who
are in labour with their children when they come upon earth: nobody can
tell how pitiable that sight was."

EISTOEY OF TUS CBUBiuDES. 419

of food ; the flowing of the blood from the nose was the sign
of approaching death. Most of the diseased viewed the gnm
monarch without fear, and considered his dominions as the
wished-for end of all their sufferings.

Dysentery and dangerous feyers were soon added to the
above malady ; nothing was heard in the Christian camp but
prayers for the dying or the dead ; nothing was seen but
the pale and haggard coimtenances of imhappy beings who
accompanied their companions to the tomb, and whom death
must soon sweep away in their tiu*n. The soldiers
capable of bearing arms did not suffice for the guarding of
the avenues of the camp. A thing unheard of in Christian
armies, the grooms of knights were seen clothed in the
armour of their masters, and taldng their places in the post
of danger. The clergy, who attended the sick and bmriedthe
dead, suffered greatly from the epidemic ; very quickly there
were not ecclesiastics enough to minister at the altars and
perform the Christian ceremonies. One day, the sieur de
Joinville, himself sick, and listening to the mass in his bed,
was obliged to rise and support his almoner, ready to faint
upon the steps of the altar. " Thus supported,^^ adds the
kindly histonan, " heJinUhed his sacramenty chanted the man
quite thraitgh — hut never chanted more J**

We have seen in former holy wars, multitudes of Cru-
saders a prey to the most cruel scourges ; the bravest of the
warriors often despaired of the cause of the pilgrims, and
deserted the banners of the cross ; and many times the
excess of their misery drew from them imprecations and
blasphemies. We must here remark that the soldiers and
companions of Louis IX. supported their evils with more
patience and resignation. Kot one knight thought of de-
serting the banners of the crusade, and not a seditious or
sacrilegious complaint was heard in the army ; the example
of the pious monarch doubtless strengthened the courage of
the Crusaders, and preserved them from the excesses of de-
spair. Louis IX., deeply affected by the evils that desolated
his army, employed every effort to mitigate and end them.

* . . . . ne oncques plus ne chanta. [The readers of Michaud have
reason to congratalate themselves, when he is availing himself of such
•uthoritieft as Villehardouin and Joinville ; he seems to have a sympathy
vvith them that procures us some very delightful traits.] — ^T&ans.

420 HIBTOAT 07 THX OBUaADES.

If anytliing could haye consoled the Crusaders in the miser-
able condition in which they were placed, it must have been
seeing a king of France himself attending the sick, lavishing
upon them every kind of assistance, and preparing them for
death. In vain he was conjured not to expose himself to
dangers still greater than those of the field of Dal^tle ; nothing
could shake his courage or check the ardour of his charity ;
he considered it his duty (it is thus lie expressed himself) to
expose his lite for those who every day exposed theirs for
him. One of his servants, a worthy man, being at the point
of death, and exhorted by a priest to meet his fate like a
Christian, replied, " I will not die till I have seen the king.^^
The king complied with his desire, and the man died in
peace, consoled by the presence and words of his kind master.
But at length he who consoled all others fell sick himself.
The king was not able to leave his tent ; the desolation be-
came more profound and more general ; th^ who suffered
began now to lose all hope ; it seemed as if Providence had
abandoned them, and that heaven no longer protected the
soldiers of the cross.

The Saracens remained motionless in their camp, leaving
their awful auxiliaries, diseases, to perform their mission
undisturbed ; only Almoadam, in order to add famine to the
other evils his enemies experienced, resolved to interrupt all
communication between the Christians and Damietta, whence
they received provisions by way of the Nile. Having got
together a great number oi boats, the sultan caused them to
be taken to pieces, and afterwards transported over-land
to the mouth of the canal of Mehallah. A Trench flotilla
came up the river without suspicion, bearing provisions for
the camp, and fell directlv into an ambuscade of galleys,
placed behind a small island. All at once the enemies ap-
pear, surprise the Christians, attack them with fury, kill a
thousand soldiers, and obtain possession of fifty vessels laden
with provisions. A few days afterwards, other vessels coming
up the river towards Mansourah experienced the same fate. -
]So one arrived at the camp ; no news came from Damietta,
and the Christians were abandoning themselves to the most
melancholy presentiments, when a vessel belonging to the
count of Elanders, which had escaped the enemy by a miracle^
came to announce to them that all the vessels of the Cro-

HIBTOBY OF THE CBUBADES. 421

saders had been taken, and that the Mussidman flag domi-
nated along the whole course of the river.

Famine soon made frightful ravages in the army ; and .
Buch as had been spared by disease, were threatened with
death from misery and hunger. Both leaders and soldiers
were seized with the deepest despondency ; and the king at
length judged it best to attempt to enter into a truce with
the Mussulmans. Philip de Montfort was employed in the
embassy to the sultan of Egypt ; commissioners were named
on botn sides to conclude a treaty. Those of the king of
France proposed to surrender Damietta to the sultan, on
condition that Jerusalem and all the other places in Pales-
tine, that had fallen into the hands of the Mussulmans in the
late wars, should be given up to the Christians. The sultan,
who dreaded the bravery and the despair of the Crusaders,
who, besides, had reason to fear that his enemies might
receive reinforcements, and that Damietta might hold out
for a considerable time, accepted the proposed conditions.
When the question of hostages came to be discussed, the
king offered his two brothers ; but whether the sultan placed
no faith in the loyalty of his enemies, or whether he was
wantmg in it himself, he required that the kin£; of Prance
should remain in his hands, as a guarantee of the treaty.
Sergines, one of the commissioners, could not listen to
this proposal without anger. " You ought to know French-
men better," criei he, " than to suppose they would ever
allow their king to remain a prisoner with Mussulmans."
A council was held on this subject in the Christian army.
The king' consented to everything, but the lords and barons
exclaim^ with vehemence against the giving up of their
sovereign. On one side, the monarch was willing to pur-
chase the safety of his people by his own personid danger ;
on the other, a crowd of warriors all warmly declared
they could not suffer such a disgrace, and that they would
rather die than place their king in pledge. The more Louis
was beloved by his warriors, the less he was master in this
circumstance ; and every one thinking it to his honour, and
almost consistent with his duty, to disobey him, the nego-
tiation was abandoned.

To paint the frightful scarcity that desolated the Christian
oarap, contemporary cbronideB relate, as an extraordiiuoy

4fiS2 HI8T0BT OT THS CSrSASSS.

tiling, that a sheep was sold for as much as ten crowns, an
01 for eighty livres, and an egg for twelve deniera. Such
high prices exceeded the means of most of the pilgrims;
some were obliged to live upon the fish caught in the Nile,
others upon herbs and roots.

Louis IX. preserving his courage and tranquillity of mind
amidst the general mourning and depression, as a means of
endeavouring to save the miserable remains of his ftrmy, re-
solved to repass to the other side of the Aschmoum. Whilst
the Christians were crossing the wooden bridge thrown over
the canal, thev were warmly attacked by the Mussulmans.
Ghiucher de Chatillon, who commanded the rear, at first re-
pulsed them ; but as the Saracens returned several times to
the charge, and as they had greatly the advantage in num-
bers, victory was upon the point of being adverse to the
Crusaders. The brilliant valour of the count of Anjou
checked the impetuosity of the Mussulmans. Erard and
John de Valeri performed prodigies of bravery. Jeffroi de
Hassemburgh likewise distinguished himself by heroic ac^
tions, and merited the palm of valour in that day's fight.
Thus glory was always mingled with the misfortunes of the
French Crusaders: but victory procured them no advan-
tages, and always left them still exposed to the same perils,
stul a prey to the same calamities. Tliey were not more
fortunate on one side of the Aschmoum than on the other ;
and after remaining some days in their old camp, they were
obliged at length to form the disheartening resolution of re-
turning to Damietta.

As soon as Almoadam was informed of these last dispo-
sitions of the Christians, he himself harangued his troops,
distributed provisions and money to them, and reinforced
them with a great number of Arabs, attracted to his stan-
dards by the hopes of booty. By his orders, boats loaded
with soldiers descended the 5^ile, and joined the Mussulman
fleet that had intercepted the convoys of the Crusaders.
Bodies of light cavaliy were distributed along the whole
course of the roads which the French army would take in
its retreat.

On the fifth day of April,* the Tuesday after the octave

* Bernard Thesaurius, the author of the Continaation of the History of
William of T7re,faa« fixed the precise epoch of each (bet. Weriialli

HI8TOBT O? THS CUrSADES. 428

of Easter, Louis IX. ordered everything to be prepared for
the departure of his army : the women, the children, and
the sick were embarked upon the Nile ; they waited till
night-fall, to conceal these sad preparations from the enemy.
The bank of the Nile presented the most heart-breaking
spectacle ; nothing was to be seen but Crusaders overcome
by their sufferings, parting, with tears in their eyes, from
mends they were doomed never to see again. Amidst
these painful scenes, the Arabs, taking advantage of the
darkness of the night, penetrated into the camp, plundered
the baggage, and slaughtered every living creature they'met
with. A terrified crowd fled on all sides, and cries of alarm
resounded along the whole bank of the river. The mariners
perceiving, by the light of the fires in the boats, this fright-
ful disorder, and that the Christians were being massacred,
became terrified on their own account, and prepared to de-
part. The king, who, in spite of his weakness, was present
everywhere, and watched over everything, drove the mfidels
from the camp, reassured the Christian multitude, and com-
manded the vessels which had left the shore, to put baqk and
take the rest of the sick on board.

The pope's legate and several Prench nobles got on board
a large vessel. The kiiig was pressed to follow this exam-
ple, but he could not make up his mind to abandon his
army. In vain his anxious and loving friends represented
to him that his state of weakness would not permit him to
fight, and exposed him to the risk of falling into the hands
of the Saracens ; in vain they added, that by thus hazarding
his life he compromised the safety of the army. These and
many other remonstrances, dictated by sincere attachment
for his person, were not able to make him change his reso-
lution. He replied, that no danger should separate him from
his faithful warriors ; that he had brought them with him ;
that he would return \^'ith them ; or, if it proved necessary,
die in the midst of them. This heroic determination, the
inevitable consequences of which were foreseen, plunged all
his knights into consternation and grief. The soldiers, par-
taking the feelings of the knights, ran along the bank of
the Nile, crying with all their strength to those that were

likely have occasion to draw the reader's attention to the Armalet EecU-
tiasiiques of this writer in a future volume.

424 H18T0&T OF THE CBUBASSB.

ling down the river, " Wait for the king ! wait for the
ing!"* Arrows and javelins were falling thick upon the
vessels which continued to go down the river. Many stop-
ped ; but Louis insisted upon their pursuing their course.

Most of the French warriors were borne down by disease
and weakened by hunger. The fatigues and new perils they
were about to luidergo did not at all diminish theur courage ;
but they could not endure the thoughts of abandoning
places rendered dear to them by the remembrance of their
victories. The duke of Burgundy set out on his march at
night-fall ; and, a short time after, the rest of the troops
quitted the camp, taking away their tents and baggage.
Louis, who was aetermined to go with the rear-guard, only
kept with him the brave Sergines and a few other knights
and barons who were still fortunate enough to have horses.
The king, scarcely able to support himself in his saddle,
appeared in the midst of them mounted on an Arabian
horse ; he wore neither helmet nor cuirass, and had no other
weapon but his sword. The warriors who had surrounded
his person, followed him in silence ; and in the deplorable
state to which they were reduced, evinced still some joy at
having been chosen to defend their king and die by his side.

The retreat of the Christian army was already known to
the Saracens. The king had ordered the bridge of Asch-
moum to be broken ; but this order had not been executed,
and it furnished the Mussulmans with an easy means of
crossing the canal. In a moment the whole plain which
extended on the Damietta side was covered with enemies.

* This generouB trait of St Louis, who refused to quit his army, is
attested by both French and Oriental historians. Joinville expresses
himself thus : — ** Seeing the king had the same disease as the army, and
great weakness, as others bad, we thought he would be much safer oa
board one of the great galleys ; bat he said ' he would rather die thaa
leave his people.* Geoffrey of Beaulieu, equally an eyewitness, attests
this fact. To the evidence of these two historians we mny add that of
the Arabian historian Aboul Mahassem. *' The king of France," says
he, " might have escaped from the Egyptians, either on horseback, or in
a boat ; but this generous prince would never consent to abandon his
troops."

[The conduct of Louis might be imprudent, but it was noble Aid
heroic. The admirers of the modem French idol, Buonaparte, would be
very much at a loss to find such a trait in his history ; it was always
tmtv€ qui pent with him, when he met with reverses.] — ^T&axs.

HISTOBT OF THS CBVSASXS. 425

The rear-gnard of the Christians was stopped at every step
of its route, sometimes by the crossing of a rivulet, but
more frequently by a charge of Miissulman cavalry. Amidst
the darkness of the night, the Crusaders could not see which
way to direct their blows, and when they did obtain some
trilling advantage, they did not dare to pursue their enemy :
they advanced fighting, and in disorder; fearing to lose
themselves, such as were at any distance from their compa-
nions, called upon them by name ; such as adhered closely
to the standara, ran against and impeded each other in their
march: over the whole plain nothing was heard but the
neighing of horses, the clash of arms, and cries of rage and
despair ; but the most deplorable spectacle in this defeat was
that of the wounded lying stretched along the roads, hold-
ing up their hands to their comrades, and conjuring them,
with tears, not to leave them exposed to the fury of the
Saracens. They looked for day with the most anxious im-
patience ; but the daylight, by discovering the small number
of the Christians, redoubled the confidence of the Mussul-
mans : it filled the former with proportionate dread, as it
showed them the multitude of theur enemies.

Menaced and pursued on all sides, the knights who had
taken the route oy land, envied those who had embarked
upon the Nile ; but these latter were in no less danger than
their unfortunate companions. A short time after their
departure, a high wind arose, and drove back the vessels
towards Mansourah: some of them were run aground,
others were dashed violently against accompanying boats,
and were near being sunk. Towards dawn their flotilla
arrived near Mehallah, a place fiEttal to the Christians. The
Mussulman fleet awaited them there. The archers charged
to proceed along the shore and protect them, had fled, and
in their place appeared a multitude of Mussulman horse->
men, launching such a number of arrows armed with the
Greek fire, that it might have been believed, says JoinviUe,
" that all the stars of heaven were falling y

The wind disconcerted all the moncauvres of the mariners.
The Crusaders, crowded closely in their vessels, could scarcely
stand upright, and were most of them without arms. Turn-
ing their eyes, sometimes towards the shore, where they
perceived clouds of dust at a distance, and sometimes towards

Vol.. II.— 19

426 HISTOBT OF THE CBTTSABSS.

beaven, whose mercy thej implored, they still hoped thac
some unexpected event might deliver them, or else that the
army advancing towards Damietta would come to their suc-
cour ; thus placing their last hopes in the miracles of Provi-
dence and in those of bravery. Deceitful illusions! one
division of tho Christian troops had been dispersed; the
rear-guard, encouraged by the presence of the king, made
incredible but useless efforts to repulse the crowd of Sara-
cens, which increased from moment to moment. The de-
spair of tho French warriors gave birth to a thousand glorious
actions ; but so much heroism was only able to procure them
the palm of martyrdom. Guy du Ch^tel, bishop of Soissons,
giving up all hopes of gaining Damietta or revisiting France,
resolved to seek death, and rushed, followed by several
knights, into the thickest of the ranks of the Saracens, who,
according to the expression of Joinville, killed them, and
sent tJtefn into the company of God, Gaucher de Chatillon
and Sergines still fought on, m the hope of saving the life of
the king of France. Sergines, adhering close to the side of
the king, drove away the enemies with mighty blows of the
sword ; danger seemed to have doubled his stren^h. Con-
temporary history, which describes him to us dnving away
the Saracens that surrounded Louis, compares him to the
vigilant servant who carefully drives away the fiies from hia
master's cup.

In the mean time the hope of victory inflamed the enthu-
siasm and the fanaticism of the Mussulmans ; thev were per-
suaded they were fighting for the cause of their prophet :
their dervises and imauns, who had preached the war against
the Christians, followed them on the field of battle, pervaded
the ranks of the army, and excited the soldiers to carnage.*
An Arabian historian, mixing the marvellous with his ac-
count, relates that the scheikh Ezzedin, seeing that victory
for a moment inclined towards the Christians, because a
whirlwind of dust covered the Mussulmans and prevented
them from fighting, addresses these words to the wmd : " Oh
wind, direct thy breath against our enemies .'" The tempest,
adds the same historian, obeyed the voice of this holy person,
and victory was the reward of the soldiers of Islamism. We

* See the extract from SoyouH in Appendix.

niSTOBT or THIS CBtrSADES. 427

only report this circumstance here, to show the- spirit that
animated the Mussulmans in their wars against the Chris-
tians. The Saracens did not require a miracle to triumph
over a dispersed army reduced to so small a number of com-
batants. The rear-guard of the Christians, always pursued
and unceasingly attacked, arrived with much difficulty before
the little town of Minieh.* The king, escorted by a few.
knights, preceded the troops into the city, where he alighted
as weak " as a child in its mother's lap," says Joinville.
Fatigue, sickness, and the grief which such disasters caused
him, had so overcome him, that all believed (we still quote
the same author) he was about to die.

The intrepid Gaucher de Chatillon watched over his
safety ; alone, he for a length of time defended the entrance
of a narrow street, which led to the house in which hia
faithftd servants were endeavouring to recall the exhausted
monarch to life. At one moment he rushed like lightning
upon the infidels, dispersed them, cut them down ; then,
after turning to pull from his cuirass, and even his body, the
arrows and darts with which he was stuck all over, he flew
again upon the enemy, rising from time to time in his stir-
rups, and shouting with all his force, " Chatillon, knights !
Chatillon, to the rescue ! Where are ye, my gaUant men ?*'
The remainder of the rear-guard were still at some distance ;
nobody appeared, but the Saracens, on the contrary, came
up in crowds ; at length, overwhelmed by numbers, bristling
with arrows, and covered with wounds, he fell ; none of tho
Crusaders could succour him, not one could witness hia
heroic end ! His horse, one sheet of blood and foam, became
the prey of the infidels, and his last exploits were narrated
by a Mussulman warrior, who exhibited his sword, and
boasted of having killed the bravest of the Christians.

The rear-g^rd drew up upon a neighbouring hill, and
still defended themselves with some advantage. Philip de
Moutfort, who commanded them, came to inform the king
that he had just seen the emir with whom they had treated
for a suspension of hostilities at the camp of Mansourah ;
and if it were his good pleasure, he would go and speak to
him about it again. The monarch consented, promising to

* This is the Minieh of Abool- Ahdallah.

428 HISTOBT OT THE CBUBADXS.

submit to the conditions the sultan bad first required.
However miserable the situation of the Crusaders, they still
inspired considerable dread in their enemies. Five hundred
knights remained under arms, and many of those who had
gone past Minieh, retraced their steps to dispute the yictorj
with the Saracens. The emir accepted the proposition for a
truce. Montfort, as a pledge of his word, gave him a ring
which he wore on his finger. Their hands already touched,
when a traitor , a rascal doorkeeper, named Marcel, cried
aloud : " Seigneurs, noble French knights, surrender your-
selves all, the king commands you by me ; do not cause him
to be killed!" At these last words, the consternation
became general ; they believed that the life of the monarch
was in great daiiger, and the leaders, officers, and soldiers,
all laid down their arms.

The emir, who had begun to treat for peace, perceived this
sudden change, and he broke off" the negotiation by saying :
" It is not customary to treat with conquered enemies."
Soon after, one of the principal emirs, Djemal*eddin, entered
Minieh. Finding the king surrounded by his weeping
servants, he took possession of his person, and without any
regard for royal majesty, without any respect for the greatest
misfortunes, ordered chains to be placed upon his hands and
feet ; from that moment there was no safety for the Cru-
saders. Both the brothers of the king fell into the hands of
the infidels; all those that had reached Pharescour, were
seized, and lost either their lives or their liberty. Many of
them might have gained Damietta ; but when they learnt the
captivity of the king, they lost all strength or spirit to con-
tinue their rout« or to defend themselves. These knights,
but lately so intrepid, remained motionless on the high roads,
and allowed themselves to be slaughtered or manacled,
without ofiering the least complaint or making the slightest
resistance. The oriflamme, the other standards, and the
^«l»g«^g^> *^1 became the prey of the Saracens. Amidst
scenes of carnage, the Mussulman warriors \\i lered the most
horrible imprecations against Jesus Christ and his defenders :
thev trampled under-foot, they profaned by insults, crosses
and sacred images — ^a crowning cause for scandal and despair
for Cluristians, who, having seen their king loaded with

HISTOBX 07 XnS OfiVBiJ^SS. 429

chainBy beheld their Gt>d giyen up to the outrages of the
conqueror !

The Crusaders who had embarked upon the Nile had no
better destiny ; all the vessels of the Christians, except that
of the legate, were sunk by the tempest, consiuned by the
Greek fire, or taken by the Mussulmans. The crowd of
Saracens, assembled on the shore or on board the barks,
immolated all that came within reach of their arms. They
spared neither the women nor the sick. Avarice, rather
than humanity, saved such as could expect to be ransomed.
The sieur de .foinville, still suffering trom his wounds and
the disease that had prevailed in the camp of Mausourah,
had embarked with the only two knights ne had left and
some of his serving-men. Pour Mussulman galleys came
up to his vesssl, which had just cast anchor in the middle of
the river, and the soldiers threatened them with instant
death if they did not at once surrender. The seneschal de-
liberated with the persons of his suite upon what was best
to be done in such an imminent danger : all agreed that it
would be most prudent to surrender, except one of his eccle-
siastics, who saia it would be best to be killed, that they might
go at once to Paradise ; but this the others were not willing
to comply with. Joinville then took a little coffer, and
emptying it of the jewels and relics it contained, he threw
them into the water, and surrendered at discretion. In spite
of the laws of war, the seneschal would have been killed, if
a renegade, who knew him, had not covered him with his
body, crying : " It is the king's cousin !" Joinville, scarcely
able to support himself, was dragged into a Mussulman
galley, and Irom that transported to a house close to the
shore. As they had deprived him of his coat of mail, and he
remained almost without covering, the Saracens, whose
prisoner he was, gave him a little cap, which he placed upon
his head, and threw over his shoulders a scarlet cloak of his
own, furred with minever, which his mother had given him :
he was trembling all over, as well from his disease as the
great fear that possebsed him. Being unable to swallow a
glass of water that was given to him, he believed himself to
be dying, and called his servants around him, who all began
to weep. Among those who M^ept the most bitterly, was a

480 HI8T0BX OX THE CAVSJJ)E8.

young boy, a natural son of the seigneur Montfaucon. This
child, upon seeing the persons perish who had charge of hitn,
had thrown himself into the arms and imder the protection
of Joinville. The sight of abandoned infancy and the de-
spair of the worthy seneschal, excited the compassion of
some of the emirs that were present, and one of them, whom
Joinrille at one time calls the good Saracen, and at another
the poor Saracen, took pity on the boy, and when he left the
seneschal, he said to him, "Be sure to hold this little child con-
stantly by the hand, or I am certain the Saracens will kill him.'*

The carnage was prolonged for a considerable time after
the battle ; it lasted during many days. All the captives
that had escaped the first niry of the Mussulman soldiers,
were landed ; and woe to such as sickness had weakened or
as exhibited marks of poverty ! the more worthy the victims
were of pity, the more they roused the barbarity of the
conquerors. Soldiers armed with swords and maces, charged
to execute the terrible sentence of victory, awaited the
prisoners on the shore. John of Yaissy, the priest, and
some other servants belonging to Joinville, crawled from the
ships in a dying state : the Saracens completed the work
before the eyes of their master, saying that these poor
wretches were good for nothing, and could pay for neither
their liberty nor their lives.

In these days of disasters and calamities, more than thirty
thousand Christians lost their lives, killed on the field of
battle, drowned in the Nile, or massacred after the fight.
The news of this victory obtained by the Mussulmans was
soon spread throughout Egypt. The sultan of Cairo wrote
to the governor of Damascus, to inform him of the last
triumphs of Islamism. " Let thanks be rendered," said he
in his letter, " to the All Powerful, who has changed our .
sadness into joy ; it is to him alone we owe the glory of our
arms ; the blessings with which he has deigned to favour us
are numberless, and the last is the most precious of all.
You will announce to the people of Damascus, or rather to
all Mussulmans, that God has enabled us to gain a complete
victory over the Christians, at the moment they were con-
spiring to efiect our ruin."*

* What a lesson is this letter to all such as designate their God " the
Gcd of armies," or are worshippers of military glory ! The archbishop

HI8T0BT OF TUB CIIUSADES. 4U

The day after that on which tho Chrijjtiaii army had laid
down their arms, the king of France was taken to Mau-
Bourah on board a war-boat, escorted by a great number of
Egyptian vessels. The trumpets and kettle-drums carried
the notes of triumph to a vast distance. The Egyptian
army, in order of battle, marched along the eastern bank of
the Nile as the fleet advanced. All tho prisoners whom the
fury of the enemy had spared, followed tho Mussulman
troops, with their hands tied behind them. The Arabs
were in arms on the western bank, and tha multitude flocked
from all parts to witness this strange spectacle. On his
arrival at Mansourah, Louis IX. was connned in the house
of FakreddLa ben Lokman, secretary of the sultan, and
placed under the guard of the eunucn Sabyh. A vast in-
closure, surrounded by walls of earth, and guarded by tho
fiercest of the MuBsulman warriors, received the other
prisoners of war.

The news of these disasters carried consternation and de-
spair to the city of Damietta, over the walls of which the
standard of the French still floated. Confused reports at
first were circulated ; but soon a few Crusaders, who had
escaped from the carnage, announced that the whole Chris-
tian army bad perished. Queen Marguerite was on the point
of being confined : her terrified imagination, at one moment,
represented to her her husband falling beneath the swords
of the enemy, and at the next, the> Saracens at the gates of
the city. Her emotions became so violent, that her servants
believed her to be expiring. A knight of more than eighty
years of age served her as esquire, and never left her either
night or day. This unhappy princess, after having, for a
moment, sobbed herself to sleep, started up in the greatest
terror, imagining that her chamber was filled with Saracens
about to kill her. The old knight, who had held her hand
while she slept, pressed it, and said : '^ Be not afraid,
madam, I am with you." An instant after she had reclosed
her eves, she awoke ng^iin, and uttered loud and fearful cries,
and tfie grave esquire reassured her again. At length, to free
herself from these cruel alarms, tho queen ordered every one
to leave her chamber except her knight, and then, throwing

of Canterbury could not have written a better, or one apparently morQ
pious, after the battles of Trafalgar or Waterloo. — ^Trans.

432 liiaxoRY OF the crusades.

herself upon her kiieen before hiia, xdth tearful eyes, she ex-
claimed : " Sir knight, promise that you will grant the faTour
I am about to ask of you." Ho promised upon his oath.
Morffucrite then continued : " I require you, on the faith
you have pledged f o me, that if the Saracens should take
this city, you vdM cut off my head rather than aUow me to
become their captive." " Certainly, I will do it," replied
the old knight ; '* I meant to do so, if the thing should so
happen !"•

On the morrow the queen was brought to bed of a son,
who was named Jean Tristan, on account of the melancholy
circumstances amidst which he was bom. The same day her
attendants informed her that the Pisaus, and many Crusaders
from the maritime cities of Europe, were desirous of aban-
doning Damietta and returning to their homes. Marguerite
caused the leaders of them to be brought before her bed, and
said to them : " Seigneurs, for the love of God, do not quit
thi§ city ; its loss would brirm on that of the king ana of
the whole Christian army. Be moved by my tears, have
pity on the poor child that .you behold lying beside me I"
The merchants of Genoa and Pisa were at first but very
little affected by these words. Joinville reproaches them
with bitterness for their want of feeling for the cause of
Christ, or for that of humanity. As they answered the queen
that they had no provisions left, this princess gave orders
that all the provisions in Damietta should be immediately
bought up, and caused it to be announced to the Genoese
and Pisans, thalf from that time they should be supported
at the expense of the king. By this means, the city of
Damietta preserved a garrison and defenders, whose presence,
more than their valour, produced an effect upon the Saracens.
It is even asserted that the Mussulmans, after the victory of
Minieh, being desirous of surprising Damietta, presented
themselves before the walls, clothed in the arms and bearing
the standards of the conquered Christians ; but they were
betrayed by their language, their long beards, and their
bronzed coimtenoiices. Ad the Christians showed thom-
B(»lves in great numbers upon the ramparts, the enemy drew
off in haste from a city which they believed was disposed to

* Tret yoIoDtiers le ferai, et si ai-je ca en pcna^ d'ainsi f^iiie, ti le cu
y uchdait.— /oinnV/*.

HISTOSY OF THE CBUSADEB. 438

defend itself, but in which, really, nothing but despondency
and fear prevailed.

During this time, Louis IX. was more calm at Mansourah
than they were at Damietta. That which misery and mis-
fortune have of the most bitter for the exalted of this
world, only served to develop in him the virtue of a Christian
hero and the character of a great king. He had no covering
at night but a coarse cassock, which he owed to the charifcy
of another prisoner. In this state, he never addressed one
petition to his enemies, nor did the tone of his language
announce either fear or submission. One of his almoners
afterwards attested upon oath, that Louis never suffered a
word of despair or a movement of impatience to escape from
him. The Mussulmans were astonished at this resignation,
and said among themselves, that if ever their prophet should
leave them a prey to such great adversities, they would
abandon his faith and his worship. Of all his riches, Louis
had only saved his book of psalms, too sterile a spoil to be
worth the attention of the Saracens ; and when all the world
seemed to have abandoned him, this book alone consoled him
in his misfortunes. He every day recited those hymns of
the prophets in which God himself speaks of his justice and
his mercy, reassures virtue which suffers in his name, and
threatens with his anger those whom prosperity intoxicates,
and who abuse their triumph.

Thus religious sentiments and remembrances sustained
the courage of Louis even in fetters ; and the pious monarch,
surrounded every day by fresh perils, amidst a Mussulman
army that he had irritated by his victories, might still cry
out with the prophet-king : " Supported by the living God,
who is my buckler and my glory, I will not fear the crowd
of enemies encamped around me."

The sultan of Cairo, appearing inclined to soften his
rigorous policy, sent Louis fifty magnificent dresses for him-
self and the lords of his train. Louis refused to clothe
himself in them, saying that he was the sovereign of a
greater kingdom than Egypt, and that he would never wear
the livery of a foreim prince. Almoadam ordered a great
feast to be prepared, to which he invited the king. But
Louis would not accept of this invitation, as he was persuaded
it was only meant to exhibit him as a spectacle to the
19*

434 HISTOUT OF THE CBU8ADEB.

Mussulman army. At length tho sultan sent his most skil-
fiil physicians to him, and did all he could to preserve a
prince whom he destined to adorn his triumph, and hy whose
means he hoped to obtain the advantages attached to his last
victory. Before long he proposed to the kin^ to break his
chains upon condition of his giving up Damietta and the
cities of Palestine that were still under the power of the
Franks. Louis replied, that the Christian cities of Palestine
did not belong to him ; that God had recently replaced
Damietta in the hands of the Christians, and that no human
power had the right to dispose of it. The sultan, irritated
by this refusal, resolved to employ violence. At one time he
threatened Louis to send him to the caliph of Bagdad, who
would closely imprison him till death; at another, he
announced the project of leading his illustrious captive
throughout the East, and of exhibiting to all Asia a king of
the Christians reduced to slavery. At length he went so far
as to threaten to have him placed in the bemuilesy* a fright-
ful punishment reserved for the greatest criminals. Louis
still showed himself firm, and, as the only reply to all these
menaces, said, " I am the sultan's prisoner, he can do with
me what he pleases."

The king of France suffered, though he did not complain ;
he feared nothing on his own account, but when he thought
of his faithful army, and of the fate of the other captives,
his heart was a prey to the deepest sorrow. The Christian
prisoners were crowded into one open court, some sick,
others wounded, the greater part naked, and all exposed to
hunger, the injuries of the elements, and the ill-treatment
of their pitiless guards. A Mussulman was commanded to
write the names of all these wretched captives, whose num-
ber amounted to more than ten thousand. They led all
Buch as could purchase their liberty into a vast tent ; the
others remained in the place into which they had been
driven like a flock of animals, destined to perish miserably.
Every day an emir, by the sultan's orders, entered this
abode of despair, and caused two or three hundred prisoners

* I am unable to discover tbe natare of this punishment, or the mean-
ing of the word, bat cannot help thinking they are connected with the
French proverbial expression, Emwytr qu€lgn*un au bemiguetif as meaning
to roin him. — Twlavb.

HI8T0BT or THS CBUSADES. 435

to be dragged out of the inclosure. They Were asked if
they would abjure the religion of Christ, and those whom
the fear of death induced to desert their faith, received their
liberty ; the others were put to the sword, and their bodies
were cast into the IS^ile. They were slaughtered during the
night ; silence and darkness adding to the horrors of the
execution. J)uring several days the steel of the executioner
thus decimated the imhappy prisoners. None were ever
seen to return who went out of the inclosure. Their sad
companions, on bidding them farewell, wept beforehand over
their tragical end, and lived in certain expectation of a similar
fate. At length the lassitude of slaughter caused those that
remained to be spared. They were led away to Cairo ; and
the capital of Egj'pt, into which they had flattered them-
selves they shoula enter in triumph, beheld them arrive
covered with rags and loaded with chains. They were
thrown into dungeons, where many died of hunger and
grief; the others, condemned to slavery in a foreign land, de-
prived of all assistance and of all communication with their
leaders, without knowing what was become of their king,
were hopeless of ever recovering their liberty, or of revisiting
the West.

The Oriental historians relate the scenes we have just
described with indifference ; many even seem to consider the
massacre of prisoners of war as a second victory ; and, as
if the misfortune and murder of a disarmed enemy could
heighten the glory of a conqueror, they exaggerate m their
accounts the misery of the vanquished, and particularly the
number of the victims immolated to Islamism.

The barons and knights that were shut up in the pavilion,
were not ignorant of the fate of their companions m arms ;
they passed their days and nights in continual terrors. The
sultan wished to obtain from them that which he had not
been able to obtain from Louis IX. He' sent an emir to
inform them that he would set them at liberty if Damietta
and the Christian cities of Palestine were restored to the
Mussulmans. The count of Brittany replied in the name
of all the prisoners, that that which was asked of them was
not in then* power, and that French warriors had no other
will than that of their king. " It is plainly to be perceived,"
said the messenger of Almoadam, " that you core very little

436 HI8T0BT OF THJE C&U8ADJEB.

for liberty or life. You shall see some m€n aeeustomed to
siDor deploying. * ' The emir retired, leaving the prisoners in the
expectation of an early death. The apparatus of punishment
was exhibited before them. Tho sword remained several
days suspended over their heads ; but Almoadam could make
no impression upon their firmness. Thus, neither the cap-
tivity of an entire army, nor the death of so many warriors,
had been able to deprive the Christians of a single one of
their conquests, and one of the bulwarks of Egypt was still
in their hands. The conquerors prayed and threatened by
turns; the conquered resisted all their endeavours, and
always appeared masters.

In the mean time several French nobles offered to pay
their own ransom. Louis was informed of this ; and as he
feared that many, not having the means to redeem them-
selves, would remain in chains, he forbade any particular
treaty. The barons and knights, but lately so intractable,
did not persist in opposing the will of an unfortunate king,
and instantly gave up all idea of a separate negotiation. The
king said he would pay for everj^body, and that he would
never think about his own liberty till after he had assured
that of all others.

Whilst the sultan of Cairo was thus making useless
attempts to overcome the pride and lower the courage of
Louis and his knights, the favourites he had brought with
him from Mesopotamia pressed their master to conclude the
peace quickly. " You have," said they to him, " enemies
much more dangerous than the Christians; they are the
emirs, who wish to reign in your place, and who never cease
to boast of their victories, as if you had not yourself con-
quered the Franks, as if the God of Mahomet had not sent
Sestilence and famine to aid you in triumphing over the
efenders of Christ : hasten, tnen, to terminate the war, in
order that you may strengthen your power within, and begin
to reign." These speeches, which flattered the pride of
Almoadam, induced him to make rather more reasonable
proposals to his enemies. The sultan limited his demand to
a ransom of a million of golden byzants, and the restitution
of Damietta. Louis, aware that the city of Damietta could
not resist, consented to the proposals that were made to
him, if the queen approved of them. As the MiissulmaoB ex-

mSTOBT OT THB CBUSiJ>S8. 437

pressed some surprise at this, the king added, ^ The queen it
my lady, lean Jo nothing without her consent.** The ministers
ot the sultan returned a second time, and told the French
monarch, that if the queen would pay the sum agreed upon,
he shoiild be free. " A king of France," answered he, " is
not to be redeemed by money ; the city of Damietta shall
be given up for my deliverance,* and a million of golden
byzants paid for that of my army." The stdtan agreed to
ail ; and, whether he was pleased at having terminated the
negotiations, or whether he was touched by the noble cha-
racter the captive monarch had displayed, he reduced the
sum iixed upon as the ransom of the Christian army a fifth.

The knights and barons were still ignorant of the con-
clusion of the treaty, and were revolving in theur minds their
customary melancholy reflections, when they saw an old
Saracen enter their pavilion. His venerable figure and the
gravity of his carriage inspired respect. His train, composed
of men-at-arms, inspired fear. The old man, without any
preliminary discourse, asked the prisoners, by means of an
interpreter, if it was true that they believed in a God, bom
of a woman, crucified for the salvation of the human race,
and resuscitated the third day? All having answered at
once that that was their belief: *' In that case," added he,
" congratulate yourselves at suffering for your Gt)d ; you are
yet far from having suffered as much for him as he suf-
fered for you. Place your hopes in him, and if he has been
able to recall himself to life, ne will not want power to put
an end to the evils that afflict you now."

On finishing these words, the old Mussulman retired,
leaving the Crusaders divided between surprise, fear, and
hope. On the next day it was announced to them that the
king had concluded a truce, and wished to take counsel of
his barons. John of Vallery, Philip de Montfort, and Guy
and Baldwin d'lbelin were deputed to wait upon the king.
It was not long before the Crusaders learnt that their cap-
tivity was about to end, and that the king had paid the
ransom of the poor as well as the rich. When these brave

* Joinville speaks of a sum of fi^e hundred thousand litres. Ducange
has made a dissertation on this head, that gives yery little information : —
in the first place, we must be able to ascertain what was then the value of
600,000 livres of onr money.

438 HisroBT Of the cbvsadxs.

knigbts turned their though fca towards their victories, they
never could conceive how it was possible for them to have
fallen into the hands of the infidels ; and when thej reflected
on their late miafortimes, their deliverance appeared equallj
miraculous to them. All raised their voices in praises to
God and benedictions to the king of France.

All the cities of Palestine that had belonged to the Chris-
tians at the arrival of the Crusaders in the East, were com-
prised in the treaty. On both sides, the prisoners of war
made since the truce concluded between tne emperor Fre-
derick and Melik-Kamel, were to be given up. It was agreed,
also, that tlie munitions and machines of war belonging to
the Christian army should remain provisionally at Damietta,
under the safeguard of the sultan of Egypt.

It next became the object to perform the conditions of the
treaty of peace. Four krge galleys were prepared to trans-
port the principal prisoners to the mouth of the Nile. The
sultan lett Mansoimih, and repau^d to Pharescour by land.

After the battle of Minieh, a vast palace, built of fir
timber, of which the chronicles of the times hove leil pom-
pous descriptions, had been erected in that city. It was in
this palace Almoadam received the felicitations of the Mus-
sulmans, upon the happy issue of a war against the enemies
of Islamism. All the cities, all the principalities of Syria,
sent ambassadors to salute the conqueror of the Christians.
The governor of Damascus, to whom he had sent a helmet,
found on the field of battle, that had belonged to the king
of France, replied to him thus : *' There is no doubt that God
destines for you the conquest of the universe, or that you
wdll proceed from victory to victory ; who can doubt of this
w^hen we already see your slaves clothed in the spoils of con-
quered kings ?** Thus the young sultan imbibed intoxi-
cating draughts of Upraise, and passed his time in the festi-
vities and pleasures of peace, forgetting the cares of his
empire, and foreseeing none of the dangers which threatened
him amidst his triumphs.

Almoadam had disgraced, and deprived of their places,
many of the ministers of his father ; most of the emirs were
in fear of a similar fall, and this fear even led them to brave
everything for the preservation of their fortunes and their
lives. A^ong these malcontents, the Mamelukes and their

BISTORT 07^ THE CBUSJlDBB. 4M

leader were most conspicuous. This military body owed
their origin to Saladin, and they had enjoyed the greatest
privileges under the preceding reign. They reproached the
sultan ^-ith preferring young favourites to old warriors, the
support of the throne and the saviours of Egypt. They re-
proached him with having concluded a peace, without consult-
ing those who had supported the burden of the war ; and with
having bestowed the spoils of the vanquished upon courtiers,
who had only deserved them by coming from the banks of
the Euphrates to the shores of the Nile. In order to juatify
beforehand all they might attempt against the prince, they
attributed to him projects of the most sinister nature ; and
nascent rebellion inflamed itself by the recital of future per-
secutions. The emirs who were to die were designated ;
the instruments of death were named, the day was fixed,
everything was appointed, everything was ready. It was
asserted that the sultan, in the course of one of his nocturnal
orgies, had cut off the tops of the flambeaux in his apart-
ment, crying, "Thus shall fly the heads of all the Mamelukes."
A woman animated the minds of the warriors by her dis-
course: this was Chegger-Eddour, who, having disposed
of the empire, could not endure the neglect of the new sul-
tan. Erom complaints they soon passed to open revolt ;
for it was less perilous to attack the prince sword in hand,
than to declaim for any length of time against him. A con-
spiracy was formed, in which the Mamelukes and all the
emirs who had outrages to avenge or to fear were concerned.
The conspirators were impatient to execute their project,
and fearing that the Bultan, if once arrived at Damietta,
might escape them, they resolved to proceed to the consum-
mation at Pharescour.

The galleys which transported the Christian prisoners
arrived before that city. The king landed, with the princes,
his brothers, and was received in a pavilion, where he had
an interview with the sultan. History says nothing of this
conference between two princes, who equally commanded
attention, and whoso position was so difierent ; the one, in-
toxicated by his victories, blinded by his prosperities ; the
other, the conqueror of ill-fortune, coming out much greater
from the ordeal of adversity.

The two sovereigns had appointed Saturday, the eve of

4M HI8T0BT OV THS CBUBASSB.

tbe ABcension, for the giving up of Damietta. According to
this convention, the Crusaders, who had been detained more
than a month in chains, had only to endure the pains of
captivity three days longer ; but new misfortunes awaited
them, and their courage and resignation were doomed to
further trials. The day after their arrival before Phares-
cour, the sultan of Cairo, in celebration of the peace, de-
termined to give a banquet to the principal officers of the
Mussulman army. The conspirators took advantage of this
opportunity, and, towards the end of the repast, Sn rushed
upon him, sword in hand. Bendocdar struck the first blow.
Almoadam, being only wounded in the hand, arises in a state
of terrified amazement, escapes through his motionless guards,
takes, refuge in a tower, shuts the door of it, and appears at
a window, sometimes imploring succour, and sometimes
demtuiding of the conspirators what they required of him.
The envoy of the caliph of Bagdad was at Pharescour. He
mounted on horseback, but the Mamelukes threatened him
with instant death if he did not return to his tent. At the
same moment some drums were heard, giving the signal for
assembling the troops ; but the leaders of the conspiracy told
the soldiers that Damietta was taken, and immediately the
whole army precipitated themselves upon the road to that
city, leaving the sultan at the mercy of men who thirsted for
his blood. The Mamelukes accuse and threaten him. He
endeavours to justify himself; but his words are drowned in
the tumult. A thousand voices ciy out to him to descend ;
he hesitates ; he groans ; he weeps ; arrows fly against the
tower in showers; the Greek fire, hurled from every direction,

fives birth to a conflagration. Almoadam, nearly surrounded
y the flames, precipitates himself from the window ; a nail
catches his mantle, and he remains for a moment suspended.
At length he falls to the earth ; sabres and naked swords
wave over him on all sides ; he casts himself on his knees,
at the feet of Octai, one of the principal officers of his guard,
who repulses him with contempt. Tlie imhappy prince
arises, holding forth his imploring hands to all the assembly,
saying, tiiat he was willing to abandon the throne of Egypt,
and would return into Mesopotamia. These supplications,
unworthy of a prince, inspire more contempt than pity;
nevertheless, the crowd of conspirators hesitate; but the

HIBTOBT OF THB CAITSABBS. 441

leaders know too well there can be no safety for them but
in completing the crime they have begun. Bendocdar, who
had inflicted the first blow, strikes lum a second time^with
his sabre ; Almoadam, streaming with blood, throws himself
into the Nile, and endtevours to gain some yessels that ap-
pear to be drawing near to the shore to receive him ; nine
Mamelukes foUow him into the water, and pour upon him
a thousand blows, within sight of the galley which Joinville
was on board of!*

Such was the end of AlmoaJam, who neither knew how
to reign nor how to die. Arabian authors point it out
as a remarkable circumstance, that he perished at once by
the sword, fire, and water. The same authors agree 'in
saying, that he himself provoked his ruin by his impru-
dence and his injustice. But oriental history, accustomed
to laud success and blame aU who succumb, repeats the
complaints of the Mamelukes without examining them;
and, passing lightly over this re^ution, contents itself
with saying, " When God wills an event, he prepares the
causes beforehand.**

The Nile and its shore presented, at that moment, two
very different spectacles : on one side was a prince, whilst
revelling in all the pomps of grandeur, in all the triumphs
of victory, massacred by his own epiards; on the other,
an unfortunate king, siurounded by his knights, as un-
fortunate as himself, inspiring them with more respect in
his adversity than when he was encompassed with all the
splendour of prosperity and power. The French knights
and barons, although they had been victims of the bar-
barity of the sultan, felt more astonishment than joy at the
sight of his tragical death; they could not comprehend
the murderous attack of the Mamelukes; and these revo-
lutions of military despotism, at war wdth itself, filled them
with dread.

After tliis sanguinary scene, thirty Saracen officers, sword
in hand and battle-axes on their shoulders, entered the galley
in which were the counts of Brittany and de Montfort,
Baldwin and Guy d'Ibelin, and the sieur de Joinville. These

* The continuator of Tabary and the History of Si. Louu, by
Joinville, furnish information upon this event. Their accounts agree
exactly*

442 HISTORY oir the cbubadxs.

furious men vomited imprecations, and tbreatening l^e
prisoners with both voice and gesture, made them believe
that their last hour was come. The Christian warriors pre-
pared themselves for death, and throwing themselves on their
Knees before a monk of the Trinity, aAk^ him for absolution
of their sins ; but as the priest could not hear them all at
once, they confessed to each other. Guy d'Ibelin, constable
of Cyprus, confessed to Joinville, who gave him " such absolu-
tion as God had given him the power to give." It was thus,
in after-times, history represents the Chevalier Bayard,
wounded to death, and ready to expire, confessing himself
at the foot of an oak to one of his faithful companions in
arms.*

But these menaces and violences of the emirs might have
a politic aim. At the conclusion of a conspiracy that had
divided men's minds, in order to awaken fresh passions, it
was necessary for the leaders to excite the fanaticism of the
multitude, and direct th& general fury against the Christiana.
It was important for them to make others believe, and they
might have believed it themselves, that Almoadam had
endeavoured to find an asylum amongst the enemies of
Islamism.

The lords and barons did not meet with the fate they ex-
pected ; but as if their understanding with Almoadam had
been really dreaded, they were thrust into the hold of the
vessel, where they passed the night with the terrible images
of death constantly before their eyes.

Louis, shut up in his tent with his brothers, had heard
the tumult. In ignorance of what was passing, he concluded
that either they were massacring the French prisoners, or
else that Damietta was taken. He was a prey to a thousand
terrors, when he saw Octai, the chief of the Mamelukes,
enter his tent. This emir ordered the guards t^ retire, and
pointing to his bloody sword, exclaimed : " Almoadam is no
more ; what will jon give nie for having delivered you from
an enemy who meditated your destruction as well as ours ?"
Louis made no reply. Then the furious emir, presenting

* Woald not the death of the accomplished Sidney assort worthily with
these pictures, as not onlv exemplifying the good and true knight, bat
the Christian hero, imbued with charity, the great principle of theOospd ?
— Tranb.

HISTOBT Ol* THS CRITSADES. 44S

the point of his sword, cried, " Dost thou not know that I
am roaster of thy person ? Make me a knight, or thou art
a dead man." "Make thyself a Christian,'* replied the
monarch, " and I will make thee a knight."* Without in-
sisting further, Octai retired, and in a very short time the -
tent of the king was filled with Saracen warriors, armed with
sabres and swords. Their demeanour, their cries, the fiiiy
painted on their countenances, announced sufficiently that
they had just committed a great crime, and that they were
ready to commit others ; but by a species of miracle, changing,
all at once, both countenance and language at the sid^t of
the king, they approached him with respect ; then, as if they
felt in the presence of Louis the necessity for justifying
themselves, they told him that they had been forced to IdU
B tyrant, who aimed at their destruction as well as that of
the Christians; now, they added, they had only to forget
the past ; all they required for the ftiture was the faithful
execution of the treaty concluded with Almoadam. Then
lifting their hands to their turbans, and bending their brows
to the ground, they retired in silence, and lefb the monarch
in a state of astonishment at seeing them thus pass, all at
once, from transports of rage to sentiments apparently the
most respectful.

This smgular scene has made some historians say that the
Mamelukes offered the throne of Egypt to St. Louis. This
opinion has rather gained ground in our days, so easy is it
for us to give faith to everything that appears favourable to
the glory of the French name. The sieur de Joinville, who
is quoted in support of this assertion, only relates a con-
versation he had held with Louis. The king asked him what
he thought he ought to have done, in case the emirs had
offered him the supreme authority. The good seneschal con-
ceived it was not possible to accept a crown from the hands
of those seditious emirs, who had killed their sovereign.
Louis was not of this opinion, and said that, truly, if they

* Tliis is really cne of those tales that require " seven justices' names"
to Touch for their authenticity. How such a man, at sach a time, could
be ambitious of the honour of knighthood, it is very difficult to imagine.
But when we recollect that the evidence of sixty-five miracles performed
by him, was produced to procure his canonization, we must not be scep-
tical in what regards Louis IX.— Trans.

444 HISTOBT 07 THE CBUBABB8.

had proposed to him to become the successor of the sultan,
he would not in the least have refused to be so (il ne Vedt
mie refuse).* These words alone prove sufficientlj that thev
had proposed nothing to the captive monarch. Joinville, it
is true, adds to this recital, that according to reports that
were circulated in the Christian army, the emirs had caused
the trumpets to be sounded and the drums to be beaten
before the tent of the king of France, and that at the same
time they deliberated among themselves, whether it would
not be best to break the chains of their prisoner, and make
him their sovereign. The sieur de Joinville relates this fact,
without affirming it ; and as oriental history preserves the
most profound silence upon it, an historian of the present
day cannot adopt it without compromising his veracity. It
is, without doubt, possible that the emirs might have ex-
pressed the desire of having a prince amongst them possessed
of the firmness, bravery, and virtues of Louis IX. ; but how
can it be believed that Mussulmans, animated by the double
fanaticism of religion and war, could have, for a moment,
entertained a thought of choosing an absolute master among
the Christians, whom they had just treated with unexampled
barbarity ; and thus place their property, their liberty, their
lives in the hands of the most implacable enemies of their
country, their laws, and their failli ?

The supreme power, of which the emirs had shown them-
selves to be so jealous, and which they had wrested with so
much violence from the hands of Ainoadam, appeared at
first to terrify their ambition, when they had it in their
power to dispose of it. In a council called to nominate a
sultan, the wisest declined to rule over a country filled with

^ We had at first consulted the edition of Ducange ; and we have been
surprised to find an account and eipressions totally different in that of
Caperonier, otherwise called the edition of the Lourre ; however this may
be, we cannot conclude, from either one version or the other, that any
proposal of the kind was made to Louis IX. [As the reader may like,
without trouble, to see the opinion of our great historian upon this in-
teresting subject, I venture to subjoin it: — "The idea of the emirs to
choose Louis for their sultan is seriously attested by Joinville, pp. 77-78,
and does not appear to me so absurd as to M. de Voltaire. The Mame-
lukes themselves were strangers, rebels, and equals ; they had felt his
valour, they hoped for his conversion ; and such a motion, which was not
seconded, might be made perhaps by a secret Christian, in their tumul-
tuous assembly.'*— GiWon.]— Tea N8.

U18T0BT or TUX CBUBABSS. 445

troubles, or command an army given up to the spirit of
sedition. Upon their refusal, the crown was given to
Chegger-Eddour, who had had so great a share, first in the
elevation, and then in the fall of Almoadam. As governor
with her, in the quality of Atabec, they chose Ezz-Eddin
Aybek, who had oeen brought a skve into Egypt, and
whose barbarous origin procured him the siuname of the
Turconuzn.

The new sultana soon arrived at Fharescour, and was pro-
claimed under the name of Mostassemieh Salehieh, queen of
the Mussulmans, mother of Malek-Almansor Khalil. Almau-
sor Khalil, a young prince, the son of Negmeddin, had pre-
ceded his father to the tomb. Thus finished the powerful
dynasty of the Ayoubites, a dynasty founded by victory, and
overturned by an army" which the pride of victory ha^ ren-
dered seditious. Whdst they were thus forming a new
government, the body of Almoadam was abandoned on the
banks of the Nile, where it remained two days without sepul-
ture. The ambassador from the caliph of Bagdad at length
obtained perhiission to bury it, and deposited in an obscure
place the sad remains of the last successor of Saiadin.

The elevation of Chegger-Eddour astonished the Mussul-
mans ; the name of a woman or of a sUive had never till that
time been seen engraved upon the coins, or pronounced in
public prayers. The caliph of Bagdad protested against the
scandal of this innovation ; and when he afterwards wrote to
the emirs, he asked them if they had not been able to find a
single man in all Egypt to govern them. The supreme
authority, placed in the hands of a woman, could nmther
restrain the passions which troubled the empire, nor cause
treaties to be respected; which became very fatal to the
Christians, condemned to suffer by turns &om the revolt and
the submission, from the union and the discord of their
enemies.

Among the emirs, some wished that the treaty concluded
with the sultan should be executed ; whilst others were de-
sirous that a fresh one should be made : many were indignant
that the Christians should be treated with at all. After long
debates, they returned to that which had been done at first,
adding to it the condition that the king of France should
give up Pamietta before he was set at hbesTty, and that he

4M HI8T0BT OT THB CBTTSABIS.

should pay half of the sum a£;reed upon for the ransom of
himself and his army, before he left the banks of the Nile.
These last conditions announced the mistrust of the emirs,
and might mve the Christian prisoners reason to fear that
the day of their deliverance was not yet arrived.

When the observance of the treaty was to be sworn to,
the forms of the oaths caused some discussion. The emirs
swore that if they failed in their promises, " they consented
to be jeered at like the pilgrim who makes the joiimey to
Mecca bareheaded ; or else to be as much despisea as he who
takes back his women after having left them." T?he Mussul-
mans, according to their manners and customs, had no more
solemn expression with which to guarantee their sworn faith.
They proposed to Louis IX. the following fonnula : " If I
keep not my oath, I shall be like to him who denies his God,
who spits upon the cross, and tramples it under-foot." This
formula of the oath which they wished the king to take,
appeared to him to be an insult to God and himself. He
reiused to pronounce it. In vain the emirs showed their
anger and their passion ; he braved all their menaces. This
resistance of St. Louis, celebrated by his contemporaries,
will not perhaps obtain the same eulogies in the age we now
live in ; nevertheless it must be considered that the king was
not only restrained on this occasion by the scruples of an ex-
aggerated devotion, but by a feeling of royal dignity. It may
be remembered, that in the third crusade, Eichard and Saladin
had judged it unworthy of the majesty of kings to degrade
their word to the formula of an oath ; and had been satisfied
with a touch of the hand, to cement the peace. Seditious
emirs, still stained with the blood of their master, might
undervalue the dignity of the supreme rank ; but, on im-
portant occasions, Louis never forgot he was a great king ;
and the supposition of a perjury, the thought even of a
blasphemy, could not ally itself in his mind with the charac-
ter of a Christian prince and of a king of France.

The Mussulmans, irritated at seeing a king in fetters dic-
tate laws to them, and resist all their demands, began te talk
of putting him to death accompanied by tortures. " You
are masters of my body," he replied, " but you have no ^ower
over my will." The princes, his brothers, implored him to
pronounce the required formula ; but he was as firm against

HISTOBT OF THB OBVSADBB. 447

tbe entreaties of friendabip and affection, as lie liad beezi
against the threats of his enemies. Even the exhortations
of the prelates had no more effect. At length the Mame-
lukes, attributing such an obstinate resistance to the pa-
triarch of Jerusalem, seized this prelate, who was more than
eighty years of age, fastened him to a post, and tied his
hands behind him so tightly, that the blood sprang from
beneath the nails. The. patriarch, oyercome by the pain,
cried, " Sire ! Sire ! swear ; I will take the sin upon myself.*'
But Louis, who was throughout persuaded that they insulted
his good faith, and that they demanded of him a thing unjust
and dishonourable, remained immovable. The emirs, at
length subdued by so much firmness, consented to accept
the simple word of the king, and retired^ saying that " this
Frank prince was the most haughty Christian that had ever
been seen in the East."

AU now gave their attention to the execution of the treaty.
The galleys, on board of which were the prisoners, heaved
their anchors, and descended towards the mouth of the Nile ;
the Mussulman urmy accompanying them by land. The
Christians were to deliver up Damietta the next morning at
daybreak. It is impossible to describe the trouble, conster-
nation, and despair that reigned in the city throughout the
night. The unfortunate inhabitants ran about the streets,
asking each other questions, and communicating their fears
with breathless anxiety. The most sinister reports prevailed ;
it was said that the whole of the Christian army had been
massacred by the Mussulmans, and that the king of France
was poisoned. When they received orders to evacuate the
place, most of the warriors declared aloud that they would
not obey, and that they preferred dying on the ramparts to
being slaughtered as prisoners of war.

At the same time excitement began to prevail in the
Mussulman army. It was whispered that the king of France
refused to execute the treaty, and that he had ordered the
garrison of Damietta to defend themselves. The soldiers
and their leaders repented of having made a truce with the
Franks, and appeared determined to take advantage of the
least pretext for breaking it.

The commissioners of Louis IX., however, at leneth |>er«
Buaded the Christians of Damietta to evacuate the city*

448 niSTORT OF the CBUflABXS.

Queen Marguerite, scarcely reoovered from her confinement,
went on board a Genoese vessel. She was accompanied by
the duchess of Anjou, the countess of Poictiers, and the
unhappy widow of the count d'Artois, who, amidst present
calamities, still wept over the first misfortune of the war.
Towards the end ot the night, Olivier de Thermes, who com-
manded the garrison, the duke of Burgundy, the pope's
legate, and all the Franks, except the sick that remained in
the city, embarked on the Nile.

Geoffrey de Bergines having entered Damietta, brought
the keys to the emirs ; and when day broke, the Mussulman
standards were seen floating over the towers and ramparts.
At sight of this, the whole Egyptian army rushed tumul-
tuously into the city. The reports that had been circulated
during the night, had excitea the fury of the soldiers, and
they entered Damietta as if the opening of the gates had
been the result of a sanguinary contest ; they massacred the
sick wherever they found them, they pillaged the houses,
and gave to the flames the machines of war, the arms^ and
all the mimitions that belonged to the Christians.

This earlv violation of the treaty, the intoxication of car-
nage, and the impunity of license, only served to inflame still
further the minds of the Mussulmans, and to lead them to
greater excesses. The emirs, partaking of the fury of the
soldiers, formed the idea of putting all the Christian prisoners
to death. The galleys in which the French barons and
knights were crowded, immediately received orders to re-
ascend the river towards Fharescpur, *' which caused great
grief amongst us,*' says Joinville, " and many tears issued
from our eyes; for we all believed they were about to
kill us."

Whilst the galleys re-ascended the Nile, the Mussulman
leaders deliberated in council upon the fate of the king of
France and the French warriors. " Now we are masters of
Damietta," said one of the emirs, " and a powerful monarch
of the Franks, with the bravest of his warriors, may receive
from our hands death or liberty. Fortune ofiers us an
opportunity of securing peace to Egypt for ever, and with
it the triumph of Islamism. We have shed the blood of
Mussulman princes without scruple ; why sliould we then
respect that of Christian princes, who have oome into the

HI8T0BT or THB OB17SADB8. 449

East to Bet fire to our cities and reduce our provinces to
slavery ?" This opinion was that of the people and the
army ; and most or the emirs, actuated hy the general spirit,
held similar language. An emir of Mauritania, whose name
Joinville has not preserved, opposed, almost alone, this
violation of the laws of war and peace. " You have," said
ho, " put to death your prince, whom the Koran commaada
you to cherish as the apple of your eye. This death might,
doubtless, be necessary for your own safety ; but what can
you expect from the action that is proposed to you, except
the anger of God and the maledictions of men?'* Tnia
speech was interrupted by murmurs ; the language of reason
only added heat to hatred and fanaticism. As violent
passions are never at a loss for motives of self-justification,
or for excuses for their excesses, the Crusaders were accused
of perfidy, treachery, and all the crimes that they themselves
contemplated against them. There was no imputation that
did not appear probable, consequently no violence that did
not appear just. " If the Koran ordered Mussulmans to
watch over the lives of their princes, ifc likewise commanded
them to watch over the preservation of the Mussulman
faith : death ought to be the reward of those who came to
bring death, and their bones ought to whiten upon the same
plains that they had laid waste. The safety of Egypt and
the laws of the prophet required that it should be so."

After a very stormy deliberation, the terrible sentence of
the captives was about to be pronounced ; but cupidity came
to the aid of justice and humanity;* the emir who had
spoken in favour of the* Christian prisoners, had, in his
speech, more than once repeated the words. Bead men pay no
ransom ; and they at length acknowledged that the sword,
by immolating the Crusaders, would only rob victory of its
dues, and deprive the conquerors of the fruit of their labours.
This observation at length calmed the minds of the assem-
bly, and brought about a change of opinions. The fear of
losing eight hundred thousand golden byzants caused the

* If we compare this council with that of the Chriatiani which sat after
the taking of Jerusalem, and the results of both, we shall be less inclined
to blame the hesitation of the Mussuhnans. The Crusaders were the
invaders of the country of the Mussulmans, the assailants of their faith—
can it be wondered at if they awakened Tindictive passions ? — Tblav9»

Vol. II.— 20

450 HI8T0BT 07 THE OBUSIDIS.

treaty to be respected, and saved the lives of the king of
France and bis companions in misfortune.

The emirs issued orders for the galleys to be brought back
towards Bamietta. The Mamelukes appeared, all at once,
to be governed by the most pacific sentiments ; and, as it is
neural for the multitude to pass from one extreme to
another, they treated with all the attentions of hospitality
the very men whom, a few hours before, they had wished to
put to death. On their arrival before the city, the prisoners
were treated with fritters cooked in the sun, and with hard
eggs, " which," says Joinville, " in honour of our persons,
were painted of various colours."

The knights and barons at length had permission to leave
the ships that had been their prisons, to go and join the
king, whom many of them had not seen since the disaster of
Minieh. As they lefb their vessels, Louis was marching
towards the mouth of the Nile, escorted by Mussulman war-
riors ; an innumerable multitude followed him, and contem-
plated, in silence, the features, the bearing, and the arms of
the Christian monarch. A Genoese galley awaited him ; as
soon as he was on board, eighty archers, with their cross-
bows strung, appeared suddenly upon the deck of the vessel :
the crowd of Egyptians imme<uately dispersed, and the ship
glided away from the shore. Louis had with him the count
of Anjou, the count de Soissons, Geoffrey de Sergines, Philip
de Nemours, and the seneschal de Joinville. The count of
Poicticrs remained as a hostage in Damietta, until the pay-
ment of the four hundred thousand golden byzants, which the
king ought to have paid to the emirs before he put to sea,
should be completed. Louis had not enough by thirty
thousand livres ; this sum was requested of the Templars,
who, to the great scandal of the lords and barons, at first
refused it. Thisy were threatened with bein^ forced to fur-
nish it ; and then complied. The amount stipulated in the
treaty was paid to the Saracens. The count of Poictiers
had left Damietta, and everything was ready for the depar-
ture of the Crusaders, when Philip de Montfort, who nad
been directed to make the payment, returned to give an
account of his mission, and told the king that he had con-
trived to cheat the emirs out of ten thousand livres. Louis
expressed himself much dissatisfied with such a proceeding.

HI8T0BY or THB OBXr8AJ)S8. 451

and sent Fhilip de Montfort back to Damietts, to make res-
titation of the monej he had kept back — a lesson of justice
which he wished to give to both his enemies and his servants.
This last mission is spoken of by an Arabian author, who
attributes it to a yeiy whimsical and singular motive. He
says that Philip de Montfort was sent to the emirs to tell
them that they were deficient in religion and good sense ; in
religion, because they had murdered their sovereign ; in good
sense, because, for a moderate sum, they had released a
powerful prince, who would have given half of his kingdom
to recover his liberty. This explanation, however improbable
it may be, at least serves to inform us of the opinion then
common in the East, that the Egyptian emirs were re-
proached with having destroyed their siiltan, and allowed their
enemy to escape.

Louis IX., with the miserable wreck of his army, soon
passed out at the mouth of the Nile, and in a few days
arrived at Ptolemais, where the people and the clergy were
still putting up prayers for his deliverance.

The Egyptians celebrated the restitution of Damietta
with public rejoicings ; the Mussulman army broke up their
camp, and returned towards the capital. The sultana,
Chegger-Eddour, caused vests of gold and silver to be dis-
tributed to the leaders, and her liberality even extended to
the soldiers. An Arabian poet composed some verses upon
this occasion, which history has preserved, and w£ich contain
the remarkable passage that follows : —

'* When thou shalt ae« this Frenchman (the king of France), tell him
these words from the month of a sincere friend :

" Thou earnest into Egypt, thou covetedest its riches ; thou believedst
that its powers would fade away as smoke.

'* Behold now thine army 1 see bow thy imprudent conduct has pre-
cipitated it into the bosom of the tomb !

*' Fifty thousand men ! and not one that is not either killed, a prisoner,
or covered with wounds I

*' And if he should be ever tempted to come to avenge his defeat ; if
any motive should bring him back to these places ;

** TeU him, that the house of the son of Lokman is reserved for him ;
that he will still find there both his chains and the eunuch Sabyh." *

* These Arabian verses were translated by M. I'Abb^ Renard. See
L'Bxirttit d'AM/eda, vol. vL

452 HI8T0BT OV THB OBTTSADIS.

Whilst Louis IX. was landing at Ptolemais, general con*
Btemation prevailed in the West ; as it always happens in
distant wars, fame had spread the most extraorainary reports
relative to the expedition of the Cru8adei:s. At fijnst it was
believed that the Christian standards were floating from the
walls of Cairo and Alexandria; but to these ne^'s other
rumours soon succeeded, announcing great disasters. The
most marvellous accounts had found plenty of credulous
minds in France to receive them ; they refused to believe in
reverses, and the first who spoke of them were given up to
the hands of justice, as enemies of religion and of the kmg-
dom. The sinister reports, however, were not long in being
confirmed ; the people passed from the excess of joy to the
excess of grief; there was not a family in the kingdom that
had not to deplore a loss in the disasters of which they
acquired the painful certainty. But for the French, that
which rendered so many misfortunes irreparable, and for
which no one could find consolation, was the captivity of the
king ! Dances, festivals, spectacles,* every thmg that bore
the air of joy or pleasure, wfls forbidden : the kingdom,
plunged in ' sorrow and abasement, appeared, all at once, to
be like one of those cities of which the Scripture speaks,^—
threatened with the wrath of God, they gave themselves up
to grief, and covered themselves with the mourning garb of
penitence.

The whole Church deplored so great a misfortune with
torrents of tears ; the father of the faithful was nearly in
despair for the safety of Christendom. He addressed letters
filled with affliction to all the prelates of the West. He
ordered the clergy to put up public prayers ; he exhorted the
faithful to take up arms. Innocent ^^Tote to Blanche to
console her, and to Louis to sustain him in his adversity.
When addressing the king of France, he is astonished at
finding one man oppressed by so many calamities, and en-
dowed with so many virtues ; and demands of God what
justice had been able to find in the most Christian of kings,
which deserved to be expiated by misfortunes so great.

England was likewise much afflicted by the captivity of
the French monarch ; the barons and knights were indignant

* Matthew Paris gives curious details upon the effects produced hj the
news of the captivity of the king.

KEBTOBT 07 THX CBUBADBfl. 468

towards their king for haying prevented them from going
into the East to share the perils of the Crusaders. The
king of CastUe, then at war with the Moors, was sensible
only of the evils of the Christians beyond the seas, and
swore to go and fight with the victorious infidels on the
banks of the Nile or the Jordan. No monarch of the West
expressed, more grief than Frederick II., emperor of Ger-
many ; in his letters he spoke of the king of France as his
best finend, and deplored the disasters of the crusade with
bitterness. Frederick, still at variance with the pope, did
not neglect this opportunity of accusing Innocent, whom he
reproached with the ruin of the Christians. Frederick re-
paired to Sicily, for the purpose of arming a fleet that might
convey prompt assistance to the Crusaders ; and whilst the
vessels were getting ready, he sent an embassy into the East,
to solicit of the sultan of Egypt the deliverance of the king
of France and his army.

Amidst the universal desolation, a single Christian city
gave demonstrations of joy : Florence, according to Villam,
celebrated the reverses of the French Crusaders with festi-
vities. Some pirates from Genoa, Pisa, and Venice took
advantage of the disasters of Louis IX. to put to sea, and
pillage the Crusaders that were returning into Europe. The
joy of the Florentines, and the brigandages of the Italian
pirates, were subjects of great scandal for all Christendom.

Louis IX., on his arrival at Ptolemaiis, had only been able
to retain a small number of faithful knights ; many of the
French nobles, the companions of his captivity, instead of
following him to Palestine, returned into the West. Among
those who had quitted the banner of the crusade, were the
duke of Burgundy and the brave count of Brittany : the
latter, worn out with sickness and covered with wounds, died
on his passage : his mortal remains, preserved by his knights,
were transported to the abbey of Villeneuve, near Nantes,
where, many ages afterwards, his tomb was still to be seen.

The appearance of the sad remains of the Christian army
must have excited the compassion of the inhabitants of
Ptolemais. Both knights and soldiers were almost naked ;
the seneschal of Champagne, in order to appear at the king's
table, was forced to make himself a vestment of the shreds
of a bed-quilt. An epidemic disease, the fruit of lengthened

iM HI8T0BT OF THX .0SV8AB1S.

misefy and all sorts of privatioiiSy bioko out among the Gra«
saders, and soon extended its ravages to the city. JoinTille,
who was lodged in the house of the cur6 of Ptolemaas, in-
forms us that he saw daily twenty convoys pass beneath his
windows ; and that every time he heard the funeral words,
" Libera me, Damine" he burst into tears, and addressed him-
self to Gtod crying, Mercy !

In the meantime the king of Erance was engaged in en-
deavouring to deliver the captives that still remained in
Egypt. These captives amounted to twelve thousand, and
most of them might be able to resume their arms smd serve
under the banner of the crusade. Louis sent his ambassa-
dors to pay the four hundred thousand firancs that he still
owed to the Saracens, and to press the execution of the last
treaties. These ambassadors found Egypt filled with troubles;
the emirs were divided into several factions, all disputing for
power: fanaticism animated these divisions; they recipro-
cally accused each other of having favoured or spared the
Christians. Amidst these debates, many captives had been
massacred, and some forced to abjure the faith of Christ.
The messengers of Louis IX. could scarcely obtain a hearing ;
in answer to their demands, they were told that the king of
France might esteem himself fortunate in having regained
his liberty, and that the Mamelukes would soon go and
besiege him in Fk)lemais. At length the Christian ambassa-
dors were obliged to quit Egypt without having obtained
anything ; and only brought bacK to Palestine four hundred
prisoners, the greater part of whom had paid their own
ransom.

On their return, Louis IX. was plunged in the deepest
distress ; he had just received a letter from Queen Blanche,
who exhorted him to leave the East. He, thereupon, was
desirous of returning to France ; but how could he make up
hij3 mind to abandon twelve thousand Christians in slavery,
or to quit the Holy Land when it was threatened with in-
vasion? The three militarv orders, the barons, and the
nobles of Palestine, conjured Louis not to abandon them ;
repeating with accents of despair, that if they were deprived
of his support, the Christians of Syria would have no other
resource than to follow him into the West.

Louis was touched by their prayers, but before he would

HISTOBt 07 THE CBITSJLDSS. 4S5

form a resolutioii, he was desirous of consulting his i^o
brothers and the principal nobles that had remained with
him. He exhibited to them the reasons he had for returning
to France, and those that would lead him to remain in
Palestine : on the one side, his kingdom threatened by the
king of England, and the impossibility of his undertaking
anything against the infidels, ought to induce him to quit
the East ; on the other side, the want of good faith in the
emirs, who had failed in executing the first conditions of the
treaty ; the perils to which the Holy Land would be exposed
by his departure ; the hope, in short, of receiving succours,
and profiting by them, to break the chains of the Christian

Erisoners and deliver Jerusalem, in some sort, imposed upon
im the obligation to defer his return.
After having thus described the state of things, without
saving a word that might reveal his own opinion, he requested
his knights and barons to reflect seriously upon the line of
action it would be best for them to pursue. On the follow-
ing Sunday he again convoked them, and demanded their
opinion. The first that spoke was Guy de Malvoisin, whose
bravery in fight and wisdom in council were admired and re-
spected by all the Crusaders. " Sire," said he, addressing
Jjouis, " when I consider the honour of your person and the
glory of your reign^ I do not think you ought to remain
in this country. Eemember that flourishing army with which
you left the ports of Cyprus, and then turn your eyes upon
the warriors you have with you ; on that day we reckoned
two thousand eight hundred knights with banners in the
Christian army ; now, one hundred knights constitute your
whole force ; most of them are sick ; they have neither arms
nor horses, nor the means of procuring any ; they have not
the power of serving you with either honour or advantage.
You do not possess a single city of war in the East ; that
in which you now are belongs to several different nations ;
by remaining here, you inspire no fear in the infidels, and
you allow the audacity of your enemies in Europe to increase ;
you expose yourself to the risk of losing both the kingdom
of France, where your absence may embolden ambitious
neighbours, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ, upon which
your presence will draw the attacks of the Mussulmans. We
are all persuaded that the pride of the Saracens shoold be

456 HIBTOST 07 THB CBUAAJ>X8.

ptmiabed ; but it is not in a country far distant from home
that the preparations for a decisive and glorious war can be
carried on. Thus, then, we advise you to return into the West,
where you will watch in safety over the welfare of your
states ; where you will obtain, amidst a peace which is your
own work, the necessary means for avenging our de^ats,
and, some day, repairing the reverses we have undergone."

The duke of Anjou, the duke of Poictiers, and most of the
French nobles, who spoke after Guy de Malvoisin, expressed
the same opinion. "When they came to the count of Jaffa, he
refused to speak, saying, 'Hhat he possessed several castles in
Palestine, and might be accused of defending his own per-
sonal interests." Upon being pressed by the king to give
his opinion as the others had done, he contented himself
with saying, " that the glory of the Christian arms, that the
safety of the land of Jesus ChrLst, required that the Crusa-
ders should not at that time return to Europe.*' When it
came to Joinville's turn, the good seneschal remembered
the advice that his cousin, the seigneur de Bollaincourt, had
given him on the eve of his departure for the crusade. " You
are going beyond the seas," — it was thus the good seigneur
BoUaincourt expressed himself, — " but take care how you re-
turn ; no knight, either poor or rich, can come back without
shame, if he leaves any of the common people in whose com-
pany he quits Prance in the hands of the Saracens." Join-
ville, full of the remembrance of these words, declared that
they could not abandon the great numbers of Christian
prisoners without shame. ** These unhappy captives," added
he, " were in the service of the king as well as in the service
of God ; and never will they escape from their captivity if
the king should go away." There was not one of the lords and
knights who had not either relations or friends among the
prisoners ; therefore, many of them could not restrain their
tears whilst listening 4^o Joinville; but this kindly feeling
was not sufficiently strong to stifle in their hearts their
desire to revisit their own country. In vain the seneschal
added that the king had still a portion of his treasure left ;
that he could raise troops in the Morea and other countries ;
and that with the succours which would come from Europe,
they should soon be in a condition to renew the war. These
reasons, with many others, made no impression upon the

HI8T0BT or THE CBTJ8JLDS8. 457

greater part of the assemblj : they could only view the cru-
sade as a long and painful exile. The sieur de Chastenaiy
and Beaumont marshal of France, were all that agreed with
the opinion of Joinville. " What shall we reply," said they,
" to tnose who shall ask us on our return what we have done
with the heritage and the soldiers of Jesus Christ ? Listen
to the imfortunate inhabitants 'of Palestine : they accuse us
of having brought war to them, and reproach us with pre-
paring their entire ruin by our departure. If we do not
receive succours, it will be then time enough to go ; but why
anticipate days of despair ? The Crusaders, it is true, are
not in great numbers ; but can we forget that their leader,
even when in chains, made himself respected by the Sara-
cens ? Beport, likewise, tells us, that discord prevails among
our enemies, and that the sultan of Damascus has declared
war against the Mamelukes of Egypt." These two knights
spoke amidst the miurmurs of their companions ; and the more
reasonable the opinions tjiey advanced appeared, the greater
was the impatience 'with which they were listened to. The
seigneur de Beaumont was about to continue ; but he was
interrupted with great warmth by his uncle, John de Beau-
mont, who loaded him with the most bitter reproaches. In
vain the king urged the right that every one had to express
his opinion ; authority .of blood prevailed over the authority
of the king ; the stem old man continued to raise his voice,
and reduced his nephew to silence. When he had received
the opinions of the assembly, the king dismissed them, and
convoked them again for the following Sunday. Upon leaving
the council, Joinville found himself exposed to the railleries
and insults of the knights, for having expressed an opinion
contrary to that of the general meeting. To complete his
chagrin, he thought he had incurred the displeasure of the king;
and in his despair, he formed the resolution of joining the
prince of Antioch, his relation. As he was revolving these
gloomy thoughts in his^ mind, the king took him aside,
and opening his heart to him, declared that it was his
intention to remain some time longer in Palestine. Then
Joinville forgof all the scoffs of the barons and knights ; he
was so joyous with what the king had told him, that all his
griefs were at an end. On the following Sunday the barons
iWNBiembled for the third time. The king of Fruice invoked

20»

458 HI8T0BT OF THX CItrSABSB.

the inspiration of the Holy Ghost by a sign of the crosSy
and pronounced the following words : — " Seigneurs, I thank
equally those who have advised me to remain in Asia, and
those who have advised me to return to the West. Both, I
am convinced, had no other view hut the interest of my
kingdom and the glory of Jesus Christ. After the most
serious and lengthened reflection, I think I may, without
injury or peril to my states, prolong my sojourn in this
country. The queen, my mother, has defended the honour
of my crown in troublesome times ; she wOl now exhibit the
same firmness, and will meet with fewer obstacles. "No, my
kingdom vdll not suffer by my absence ; but if I quit this
land, for which Europe has made so many sacrifices, who
will protect it against its enemies ? Is it to be wished, that,
having come here to defend the kingdom of Jerusalem, I
shall be hereafter reproached with its ruin ? I remain then to
save that which is left, to deliver our prisoners, and if pos-
sible, to take advantage of the discords of the Saracens. I am
not willing, however, to impose restraint upon anybody;
such as are desirous of quitting the East are free to de-
part ; as to those who shall determine to remain beneath
the banners of the cross, I promise that they shall want
for nothing, and that I wiD ever share with them both
good and ill fortune.**

After these words, says Joinville, most were astonished,
and many began to shed hot tears. From that time, the
dukes of Anjou and Poictiers, with a great number of the
leaders, made preparations for their departure. Louis
charged them vrith a letter addressed to the clergy, the
nobi&ty, and people of his kingdom. In this letter, Louis
described, with a noble simplicity, the victories, defeats, and
captivity of the Christian knights, and conjured his sul^ects
of all classes to take up arms for the assistance of the Holy
Land.

As soon as the two brothers of the king were gone, a levy
of soldiers was commenced, and Palestine was placed in a
state of defence. But that which most materially favoured
the Crusaders, and gave a chance of security to the Christian
colonies, was the discord that then prevailed among the
Saracens. After the murder of Almoadam, the Mussulmans
of Syria refused to recognise the authority of the Mame-

HI8T0&T 07 THS CBV8ABB8. 459

lukes. The principality and citj of Damascus had recently
been given up to Nasser, who was preparing to march
against Cairo, at the head of a formidable army ; the jgreat-
est agitation reigned amongst the Mamelukes of Egypt, in
whom remorse seemed to be accompanied by fear. The
sultana, Chegger-Eddour, was forced to descend from the
throne, and to yield the supreme authority to the Turcoman
Ezz-£ddin, whose wife she had become. This change allayed
agitation for a time ; but in such a state of things, one
revolution seemed immediately to bring on another. The
turbulent, restless soldiery, that had overthrown the empire
of the Ayoubites, could neither endure that which was
ancient, nor that which was new. To suppress sedition, the
leaders at one time exhibited to the mmtitude a child of
that family which they had proscribed, and decorated him
with tbe vain title of sultan. They afterwards declared that
Egypt belonged to the caliph of Bagdad, and that they
goveme,d it iu his name.

It was at this period that the sultan of Aleppo and
Damascus sent ambassadors to Louis IX. to invite the
French monarch to unite with him to chastise the pride and
the revolt of the soldiery of Cairo. He promised the Chris-
tians to share with them the spoils of the conquered, and to
restore to them the kingdom of Jerusalem. These brilliant
promises were likely to produce an effect upon the king of
France, and at least merited all his attention. The emirs
of Egypt equally solicited the alliance of the Christians,
and proposed very advantageous conditions. In the choice
before hun, there were powerful motives to incline the king
to the party of the sultan of Damascus. He had, on one
side, to treat with emirs whose good-will was very uncertain,
whose fortune might be transitory, and whose authority
was menaced and tottering. On the other, he had to deal
with a powerful prince, whose authority being much better*
established, offered a more sure guarantee to his allies.
Another motive, which could not be indifferent in the
eyes of the virtuous monarch, was, that the only aim of
the policy of the Mamelukes was to secure impunity for
a great crime, and that the sovereign of Damascus was
aiming to avenge the cause of princes. All these consider-
ations were, no doubt, presented in the council of Louis,

460 HISTOBT OF THE CBVSAJIXS.

fuid must have left the monarch great difficulty in deciding
whicli side it would be best for him to take. But he could
not forget that he had signed a treaty with the emirs, and
that nothing could liberate him from his oath ; but aboTS
all, he could not forget that the Mamelukes still held in
their htvnds the destiny of twelve thousand Christian pri*
soners, and that by breaking with them, he should renounce
the hope of deUyenng the unhappy companions of his cap-
tivity. Louis answered the Syrian amoassadors, that he
would willingly join his arms to those of the sultan of
Damascus, if the Mamelukes did not perform their treaties.
At the same time, he sent John de Valence to Cairo, with
directions to offer the emirs peace or war. The latter pro-
mised at length to fulfil all the conditions of the treaty, if
Louis should consent to become their ally and auxiliary :
more than two hundred knights were immediately set at
liberty.

These unfortunate victims of the crusade arrived at Ptole-
mais about the month of October (1251): the people
flocked in crowds to see them land ; thev exhibited too evi-
dent signs of their late captivity, and trie remembrance of
what they had undergone, together with their present
wretchedness, drew tears of compassion irom all the specta-
tors. These prisoners, whose chains Louis had succeeded
in breaking, brought with them, in a kind of triumph, a
coffin, containing the bones of Gauthier de Brienne, who
fell into the hands of the infidels at the battle of Gaza, and
had been massacred "by a furious mob at Cairo. The clergy
accompanied the remains of the Christian hero to the
church of the Hospitallers ; and the companions in arms of
Gauthier describea his exploits and the glorious death he
had undergone for the cause of Christ. Beligion displayed
all its pomps, and in its holy songs celebrated the glory of
a martyr, and the devotion that it alone had inspired. The
charity of the faithful relieved and consoled the miseiy of
the captives, and Louis took into his service aU. whom age
or infirmities rendered incapable of bearing arms.

The king learnt with much pain that many Christian pri-
soners still remained in Egypt. As the Egyptian ambassa-
dors arrived at that time at Ptolemais, Louis DC. declared
that they must not at all depend upon the alliance they

HIBTOBT 0¥ THE OBITflASSS. 461

came to solicit, if the emirs did not hasten to liberate all the
captiyea and ^ the children of Christians brought up in the
Mussulman faith, and even send to him the heads of the
Crusaders that had been exposed upon the walls of Cairo.

Thus the position of the Christians was ameliorated daily
by the divisions among their enemies. The king of Prance
dictated the conditions to the emirs, and if he had had
troops, he might haye repaired some of the reverses he had
experienced in Egjpt ; but the East furnished him with but
a very small number of soldiers, and the West did not seem
at all disposed to send him any supplies.

The kmg of CastQe, who had taken the cross, died at
the moment he was preparing to set out. In England,
Henry III., who had likewise assumed the cross, obtained
from the pope and the parliament the power to levy a
tenth upon his people and clergy ; he at the same time
imposed enormous taxes upon the Jews of his kingdom.
The preachers of the crusade were directed to announce his
approaching departure for the East, and he himself sworo
upon the Gospel, in the presence of the assembled barons
and people, that he would go to the Holy Land, at the head
of his army ; but afler having obtained what he wanted, he
forgot all his promises.

Frederick II., at the moment he was about to assist
Louis IX., died at Naples ; and his death proved to be a
fresh source of trouble and agitation for Christendom. Al-
though he had, when dying, bequeathed a hundred thousand
ounces of gold for the succour of the Holy Land, and by
his testament had restorod to the Churoh all that had
belonged to it, Innocent roceived the news of his death
with a joy that he did not seek to conceal. "Let the
Heavens rejoice ! '* wrote he to the clergy and people of Sicily;
"let the earth be in gladness! " and be pursued with anathemas
the memory of a prince who had borne the title of king of
Jerusalem during thirty-eight years. He excommunicated
Conrad, whom Frederick had named as his successor to the
empiro ; he sent emissaries into the kingdom of Naples, to
corrupt the fidelity of the people ; and ecclesiastics m Ger-
many received the mission to preach a crusade against the
princes of the house of Swabia.

Froaoe was not less agitated than other countries ; on the

462 HI8T0ST 07 THE CBUSiiDBS.

return of the dukes of Anjou and Poicticrs, the letter of
Louis addressed to his subjects was read in all the churches.
This letter revived all the sorrow that had been felt whea
the account was received of the captivity of the king and
his army. The exhortations which Louis addressed to the
Prench to obtain assistance, together with the news that
arrived daily from the 'East, affected all hearts; and as the
people have no idea of moderation in either grief or joy, a
spirit of sedition, mixed with enthusiasm for the crusade,
agitated the cities, pervaded the provinces, and, for a time,
pkced the kingdom in peril.

Princes and magnates having failed in their enterprise,
the multitude was led to believe that Christ rejected the
great ones of the earth from his service, and was only willing
to have for defenders humble men, shepherds, and labourers.
A man appeared, who undertook, with the help of this
popular opinion, to inflame the public mind, and to create a
general moven^nt. This man, named Jacob, bom in Hun-
gary, and far advanced in age, was said to have preached the
crusade of children, of which we have spoken in the twelfth
book of this work. A long beard, which descended to his
girdle, with a pale face and mysterious language, gave him
the air of a prophet. He passed from hamlet to hamlet,
saying that he was sent by Heaven to deliver the citv of
God, and avenge the kiug of France. Shepherds left their
flocks, labourers laid down the plough to follow his footsteps.
Jacob, who was called the master of Hungary, caused a
standard to be borne before him, upon which was painted
a lamb, the symbol of the Saviour of the world ; provisions
were brought to him from all parts, and his disciples asserted
that, like Christ, he had the gift of multiplying loaves.

The name of Pastors was given to these village Crusaders.
Their first meetings, to which little attention was paid, were
held in the provinces of Flanders and Picardy ; they then
directed their course towards Amiens, and afterwards towards
the capital ; increasing as they went, with a crowd of vaga-
bonds, thieves, and prostitutes. Although they had com-
mitted some disorders, Queen Blanche tolerated them, in the
hope thejr might be the means of procuring some assistance
for the king. The implied protection of the queen regent
inflamed their pride, and impunity inc'reased their lioense

HISTOBT O? THS CBITSADEB. 463

and redoubled their audacity. The impostor Jacob and the
other heads of his gang, with whom chance or corruption had
associated him, declaimed with vehemence against the wealth
and the supremacy of the clergy, which pleased the multi-
tude they drew at their heels ; to the great scandal of all
pious men, they themselves performed sacerdotal functions,
and took the place, in the pulpits, of the sacred orators, em-
ploying violence against the ministers of the altars, and
seeking to awaken the passions of the people. At length,
assembled to the number of more than a hundred thousand,
these redoubtable pilgrims lefb Paris, and divided themselves
into several troops, to repair to the coast, whence they were
to embark for the East. The city of Orleans, which hap-
pened to be in their passage, became the theatre of frightful
disorders. The progress of their enormities at length
created serious alarm in the government and the magistracy;
orders were sent to the provinces to pursue and disperse
these turbulent and seditious bands. The most numerous
assemblage of the pastors was fixed to take place at Bourges,
where the master of Hungary was to perform miracles and
communicate the will of Heaven. Their arrival in that city
was the signal for murder, fire, and pillage. The irritated
people took up arms and marched against these disturbers
of the public peace ; they overtook them between Mortemer
and Vifleneuve-sur-le-Cher, where, in spite of their numbers,
they were routed, and received the punishment due to their
brigandages. Jacob had his head cut off by the blow of an
axe ; many of his companions and disciples met with death
on the field of battle, or were consigned to punishment ; the
remainder took to flight.*

Thus this storm, formed so suddenly, was dispersed in the
same manner ; another band, which had directed its course
towards Bordeaux, was likewise subdued; some of the

* Among the great number of historians who have spoken of thU
movement, William de Guy, Matthew Paris, William of Nangis, and the
Anneils of Waverley may be consulted.

[Some historians relate the catastrophe differently. One says : *' The
pastors were accustomed to preach, surrounded by armed men for their
defence ; one day, by the command of Blanche, an executioner introduced
himself among these, and gliding behind Jacob, struck his head off at a
blow, before the eyes of the spectators, who were chilled with horror.
Some knights then appeared and dispersed the pastors."]— Trans.

464 ^ HI8T0BT OV THB CBU8iJ>XS.

paBtors who succeeded in getting to England, were eerred in
the same way. A report was spread that correspondences
with the Saracens haa been found upon the persons of their
leaders, and they were accused of having formed the project
of delivering up Christian people to the swords of the in-
ffdels ; which accusation, however improbable, completed the
hatred the people began to entertain for them. The govern-
ment, which had not at first strength enough to oppose
them, armed the passions of the multitude against them,
and tranquillity waa soon reestablished in the kingdom.

In the mean time the crusade to the East was preached in
most of the countries of Europe; new indulgences were
added to* those which had been accorded to the soldiers of
Christ ; the bishop of Avignon receilbd power to absolve
those who had struck clerks, or burnt churches ; the same
bishop had the fisiculty of converting all vows, except that of
religion, into a vow for the crusade: similar powers were
given to the prior of the Jacobins at Paris. These new
encouragements might have aroused a momentary ardour in
the faithful, if the court of Bome had not been constantly
diverted from the cares of a crusade in the East, by the ^-or
it had declared against the house of Swabia. The Holy See
willingly granted dispensations to Crusaders who took a
part in its cause, or wno paid it a tribute ; which made the
good bishop of Lincoln accuse Innocent of exchanging the
treasures of heaven for those of earth, and of selling the
Crusaders as the heifers and rams of sacrifice were formerly
sold in the Temple. At length, no longer concealing either
his hatred or his ambition, the sovereign pontiff ordered the
Cordeliers to preach a crusade against the heir and successor
of Frederick; the indulgence for those who took the cross
extended to the father and mother of the Crusaders, a thing
that had never taken place in any other crusade. At the
moment when Louis IX. was so earnestly requesting suc-
cour, the preaching of this impious crusade excited great
scandal among the French nobility ; the new Crusaders were
treated as rebels ; Queen Blanche caused their lands to be
seized ; and the princes and lords followed the example of
the ^ueeh in theur domains. The Cordeliers were severely
repnmanded, and their preaching proved inefiectuaL

Whilst the crusade against Conzad was being sappreaaed.

HIBTOBX 01* XHS CBUBADXS. 405

no increased zeal was exhibited for tlie war in the East.
Those who entertained the warmest attachment for Louis IX.
might with justice believe, that by sending him assistance
they should prolong his absence. Thus, in spite of the
reiterated prayers of the king, France, which had shed so
many tears over his captivity, could not resolve to take up
arms to succour him, and was satisfied with putting up tows
for his return.

All that Blanche was able to do for her son was to send
him a vessel laden with money, which was lost on the coast
of Syria. A small number of those who had taken the cross
in the West, determined to cross the sea ; the young count
of Eu, and Eaymond count of Turenne, whom the queen
commanded to set out for Palestine, were almost the only
nobles of this party. Most of the knights and barons that
had remained in Palestine with the king, having spent
everything, and being entirely ruined, fixed so high a price
upon their services, and, according to the expression of the
commissaries of Louis, made themselves so dear^ that the
treasury of the monarch would not suffice to support them.*
Levies were made in Greece, in Cyprus, and in the Christian
cities of Syria ; but these levies only brought to the banners
of the crusade a few adventurers, very iU calculated to share
the labours and dangers of a great enterprise.

Among the warriors whom the love of danger and distant
adventures led at this time to the Holy Land, history speaks
of Alemar of Seliogan. This knight had come &om a country
of the West,t in which the summer, he said, had almost no
nights. Selingan and his companions sought every oppoiv
tunity for signalizing their skill in arms and their romantic
bravery. "Whilst waiting for the happy moment at which
they might fight with the Saracens, tliey made war upon the
lions, which they pursued on horseback into the deserts, and
killed with their arrows ; which was a subject of great sur-
prise and admiration for the French warriors.

Another very noble knight also arrived, says Joinville,

* There can be no doubt that this was the case with those who re-
mained with him ; even the worthy seneschal and all. His determination
to go to Antioch proves that he had no resource in Europe. It was a
desperate game, and they were obliged to play it oat. — ^Tkans.

t Norway.

466 nisTOBY or thje csitsabsb.

wHo was called De Toucy. The cberalier de Toucy had been
regent of the Latin empire of Constantinople, in the absence
of Baldwin, and prided himself upon belonging to the fkmilj
of the kings oi France. In company with nine other
knights, he abandoned an empire which wa^ falling ru)idl7
to ruin, in order to endeavour to support the miserable re-
mains of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Toucj related the
misfortunes of Baldwin, and the deplorable circumstances
that had forced a Christian emperor to ally himself with a
chief of the Comans. According to the custom of the bar-
barians, the prince of the Comans and the emperor of Con-
stantinople had punctured themselves, and mixms the blood
in a cup, had both drunk of it, as a sign of iSlianoe and
brotherhood. The knights who accompanied the seigneur
de Toucy had borrowed this pra<;tice of the barbarians : the
French warriors at first were disgusted with it ; but soon,
led away by the strange novelty of the thing, they them-
selves mingled their blood with that of their companions,
and diluting it with floods of wine, they got intoxicated
together over the mystical draught, which, as they said,
made them brothers.

The manners and customs of the Eastern nations strongly
raised the curiosity and fixed the attention of the Crusaders.
"Wlien the missionaries whom Louis IX. had sent into Tar-
tary returned to Ptolemais, the French warriors were never
tired of interrogating and listening to them. Andrew de Lon-
jumeau, who was at the head of the mission, had set out
from Antioch, and travelling ten leagues every day, had
prosecuted his journey for a year before he arrived at the
place at which the great khan of the Tartars resided. The
missionaries traversed deserts where they met with enormous
heaps of human bones — sad monuments of the victories of
a barbarous people : they related marvellous things of the
court of the monarch of the Moguls, of the manners and
customs of the countries they had travelled through, of the
conquests and legislation of Gengiskhan, and of the prodigies
which had prepared the power and greatness of the con-
queror of Asia. Among the extraormnary and somewhat
nibulous circumstances they related, the Christians learned
with much joy that the religion of Christ was extending its

HIBTOBT or THX CSITBADSB. 467

empire among the most distant nations; the missionaries
declared they had seen, in a single horde of Tartars, more
than eight hundred chapels, in which the praises of the true
God were celebrated. Louis IX. hoped that the Moguls
might some day become auxiliaries of the Christians in the
great struggle against the infidels ; and this hope made him
resolve to send fresh missionaries into Tartary.

But if the Crusaders were thus astonished at all they
beard concerning the most distant re^ons of Asia, they had
close to them a barbarous colony which must have excited
their surprise to a still greater degree. Some months after
his arrival, Louis received an embassy from the Old Man of
the Mountains, who, as we have already said, reigned over
about thirty villages or towns, built on the southern declivity
of Mount Libanus. The envoys of the prince of the Assas-
sins, when admitted into the presence or the king of France,
asked him if he was acquainted with their master. " I have
heard of him," replied the monarch. " Why, then,** added
one of the ambassadors, ^ have you not sought after his
friendship by sending him presents, as the emperor of Ger-
many, the king of Hungary, the sultan of Cairo, and so
many other great princes have done ? " The king listened
to this strange language without anger, and appointed the
ambassadors another audience, at which the grand masters of
the Templars and the Hospitallers were present. The name
alone of the two militiyy orders, which the poniard of the
Assassins did not venture to attack, inspired some degree of
terror in the Old Man of the Mountain, who had been con-
strained to pay them a tribute. In the second audience, the
two grand masters sternly reproved the ambassadors, and
told them that if the lord of the Mountain did not send
presents to the king of France, his insolence would draw
upon him a prompt and just chastisement. The envoys
repeated these threatening words to their master, who him-
self experienced some of the fear he wished to inspire, and
sent them back to Louis to express much more pacific sen-
timents. Among the presents which they were charged to
ofier to the Ising of the Franks, there were several vases, a
chess-board, and an elephant in rock crystal ; to these the
lord of the Mountain added a shirt and a ring, as symbols

4l88 BI8T0BT OF THB OEVBADSB.

of alliance, according to which, said the enroys to the
French monarch, " you and our master will remain united
as the fingers of the hand are, and as the shirt is to the
body/'*

Louis IX. received this new embassy with distinction, and
by their hands sent to the prince of the Assassins vases of
gold and silver, and stuffs ot scarlet and silk ; he commanded
brother Yves, a man learned in Arabic, to accompany them.
Yves, who remained for some time at the court of the Old
Man of the Mountain, on his return related many curious
particulars, which history has not despised. The prince of
the Assassins belonged to the sect of Ali, and professed
some admiration for the Grospel. He had, in particular, a
veneration for Monseigneur St. Peter, who, according to his
belief, was still living, and whose soul, he said, had been
successively that of Abel, Noah, and Abraham. Brother
Yves spoke strongly of the terror with which the Old Man
of the Mountain inspired his subjects. A fearful silence
reigned around his palace, and when he appeared in public,
he was preceded by a hendd-at-arms, who cried ^ith a loud
voice, " Whoever you may be, dread to appear before him
who holds the life and death of kings in his hands."

Whilst these marvellous recitals were amusing the leisure
of the Crusaders, war was declared between the sultans of
Damascus and Cairo. The Christian warriors, impatient
for fight, sighed at being thus condemned to waste their
time in listless idleness. But they mustered scarcely seven
hundred knights beneath the banners of the cross; and
their small number would- not permit Louis to think of
attempting.any important enterprise.

Whilst anxiously looking forward to the perils and hazards
of war, the holy monarch never relaxed in nis endeavours to
ameliorate the destiny and break the chains of the captives
who still remained in the hands of the Mussulmans. But
the captivity of the Christian warriors was not the only
ffrief with which his heart was afflicted : it added greatly to
his sorrow to learn that many of his companions in arms
had embraced Islamism. It is a singular circumstance to

* The reader may remember a cnrkraa ceremony of aUianoe, itt tba
last Tolume, wherein the one party passes througk the shirt of the other
whilst be has it on.^TBAMS. '

HISTOBT 07 THE CBU8ADS8. 489

remark,* tiiat the Crufladere, whose aim always was to bring
about the triumph of Christianity, present us with frequent
examples of apostasy, <|nd history does not hesitate to affirm,
that during the course of the holy wars more Christians be-
came Mussulmans than MnHimlm«.TiB became Christians. Join-
ville informs us in his Memoirs, that most of the mariners who
manned the Christian fleet in the retreat from Mansourah,
renounced their faith to save their lives : in these disastavus
days, many warriors were unable to resist the menaces of the
Saracens, and the fear of death made them forget a religion
for which they had taken up arms. We have seen what
evils the Crusaders had endured in the expeditions to the
East ; among the crowd of pilgrims there were always some
who had not sufficient virtue to pass through the ordeal of
great misfortunes : on the arrival of Louis IX. in Egypt,
that country already contained many of these perjured and
un£ftithful Christians, who, in the perils and calamities of
preceding wars, had forsaken the God of their fathers. . All
these renegadoes were despised by the Saracens. Oriental
authors quote a saving of Saladin's on this subject, which
expresses an opinion generally established, and which was
maintained to the very last days of the crusades ; he said
that a good Christian was never made of a had Mussulman,
nor a good Mussulman of a bad Christian. History affi^rds
a few details upon the lives of these degenerate Franks, who
had renounced their religion and their coimtry ; many em-
ployed themselves in agriculture and the mechanical arts ; a
-great number wer^ emx>lled in the Mussulman armies ; some
obtained employments, and succeeded in amassing great
wealth. We may well, however, believe, that remorse em-
poisoned eveiy moment of their lives, and would not permit
them to enjoy the advantages they had acquired among the
infidels :t the religion they had quitted still inspired them

* M. Miohaud obgeires this is a remarkable circumstance ; bnt it is
much more remarkable, that whilst instructing his readers, be appears to
gather no wisdom himself. Every page of his book tells us, that though
there were many examples of sincere piety and virtue among the Cra.
saders, the bulk of them were adveniuren, to whom the most profitable,
religion would be the best. He is so in loTe with his drama, that he
wishes to think the actors and their motives of action much better than
they are.— Trans.

t M. Ancelot, in his tragedy of lAntis IX., has painted with much
truthfulness the character of a renegado.

d>70 HI8T0BT OV THX OSITSASXS.

witli respect, and the preBenoe and language of the Franks,
who had been their brothers, recalled to them the most sad-
dening remembrances ; but, withheld by I know not what
false shame, and as if Gk>d had struck tnem with an eternal
reprobation, thej remained chained to their error hj an
invincible link, and although sensible of the misery of hving
in a foreign land, they did not dare to entertain the idea of
returning to their own country.

One of these renegadoes, bom at Provins, who had fought
under the banners of John of Brienne, came to salute
Louis IX., and bring him presents, at the moment the
monarch wad embarking on the Nile, to^ repair to Palestine.
As Joinville told him, that if he persisted in practising the
religion of Mahomet, he would go straight to hell after his
death ; he replied, that he believed the religion of Christ to
be better than that of the prophet of Mecca ; but, he added,
that if he returned to the faith of the Christians, he should
sink into poverty, and that during the rest of his life he
should be loadea with infamous reproaches, and be every-
where hooted as a renegade ! a renegade ! Thus, the fear of
poverty, together with a dread of the judgments of the
world, held fast the deserters from the Christian faith, and
prevented their return to the belief they had abandoned.
Louis IX. neglected no means to bring them back to the
right path ; his liberality always met htdf-way such as were
disposed to revert to Christianity ; and to shield them from
the contempt of men, he issued an ordinance that none
should reproach them with their apostasy.

The king of France expended considerable sums in placing
several of the Christian cities in a state of defence; the
towers and walls of Caraarea, as well as those of PtolemaiSy
were heightened and enlarged ; the walls and fortifications
of Jaffa and Caipha, which were almost in ruins, were re-
paired. Amidst these useful labours, carried on in peace,
the warriors remained idle, and not a few of them began to
be forgetful of both military discipline and GK)8pel morality.
The precaution that the sieur de Joinville took to place his
bed m such a manner as to remove all evil thoughts respect-
ing his famib'arity with women, proves that the morals of
the Christian knights were not entirely free from suspicion
at least. Louis was much more severe against licentiousness

HI8T0BT OF THE CBV8ADES. 471

of manners tliaii he had been during his abode at Damietta.
History mentions seyeraL instances of his severity ; and such
was the strangeness of the penal hiws charged with the
protection of public decency and morality, that excess of
libertinism would at the present day appear less scandalous
than the punishments then inflicted on the guilty.

The clergy, however, never relaxed in their endeavours to
recall the Crusaders to the principles of the Christian reli-
gion ; and their efforts were not fruitless. There was no city,
no place in Palestine, that did not remind the warriors of
the holy traditions of the Scriptures, or of the mercy and
justice of Gtod, Many of the French nobles, who had been
models of courage, showed an equally bright example of
devotion and piety; it was common to see the bravest
knights lay down their arms, and assuming the scrip and
staff of the pilgrim, repair to the spots consecrated by the
miracles and the presence of Christ and the holy personages
whose memory is preserved h^ religion. Louis himself
visited Mount Thabor and the village of Cana several times,
and went on a pilgrimage to Nazareth. The sultan of Da-
mascus, who sought every opportunity of forming an alliance
with him, invited him to come as far as Jerusalem ; and this
pilgrimage would have crowned the wishes of the pious
monarch ; but his barons, and more particularly the bishops,
represented to him that it was not befitting for him to enter
Jerusalem as a simple pilgrim, and that he had come into
the East not only to visit, but to deliver the holy tomb.
They added, that the Western princes who should ^e the
cross after him, would believe, from his example, that they
had fulfilled their duty, and performed their vow, by merely
visiting the holy city ; and thus the devotion of the Crusaders
would no longer have the deliverance of the sepulchre of
Christ for its object. Louis IX. yielded to the representa-
tions of the prelates, and consented not to visit Jerusalem
at that time, as he still cherished the hope of one day en-
tering it sword in hand. But this hope was doomed soon to
fade away — God never afterwards permitted the holy city
to be wrested from the yoke of the infidels.

The sultans of Cairo and Damascus continued to nego-
tiate with the monarch of the Franks. Each of these' two
iMiKPtulman princes hoped to have the ChristianB for alUes,

472 HXBTOBY OY THE CB1TBA1>S8,

and was particularly anxious not to baye tbem for enemies.
Every time they entertained a fear of being vanquished, the
emirs of Ee^ypt renewed their proposals, and they at length
accepted all the conditions that the Christians required. A
treaty was concluded, by which the Mamelukes engaged to
liberate all the captives that remained in Egypt, the cmldren
of Chnstians brought up in the Mussmman faith, and,
which had often been demanded by Louis, the heads of the
martyrs of the cross that had been exposed upon the walla
of Cairo. Jerusalem and all the cities of Palestine, with
the exception of Gaza, Daroum, and two other fortresses,
were to be placed in the hands of the Eranks. The treaty
likewise stipulated that, during fifteen years, the kingdom of
Jerusalem should have no war with Eeypt ; that the two
states should combine their forces ; and that all conquests
should be shared between the Christians and the Mamelukes.
Some ecclesiastics expressed their doubts and scruples upon
an alliance with the enemies of Christ; but the pious
monarch disdained to notice their representations ; no tieaty
had ever offered so many advantages for the Christian cause,
if good faith had presided over its execution: but the
generous loyalty of Louis rendered him incapable of sus*
pecting fraud or perfidy in his allies, or even in his
enemies.

The leaders of the Mussulmans were to repair to Ghiza,
and from thence to Jaffa, to confirm the alliance they had
just contracted, and to arrangewith the French king the
plan for carrying on the war. When the sultan of Damas-
cus heard of the treaty thus entered into, he sent an army
of twenty thousand men to take a position between Gaza
and Daioum, so as to prevent the junction of the E^rptiana
and Franks. Whether the Mamelukes were prevented by
their internal divisions, or whether they did not dare to &oe
the troops of Damascus, they did noi appear at Jafifa at the
time agreed upon. They, however, fulfilled all the other con-
ditions of the treaty, and added to the convoy of captives and
funereal relics, the present of an elephant, which Louis sent
to Henry III. of England. As they often repeated their
promise of coming to Jaffa, Louis was constantly in expec-
tation of them, and waited for them an entire year. The
French monarch being thus deceived in his hopes, mighty

HI8T0BT 07 THB CBTTSADZS. 478

witbcmt injustice, have renonnoed a treaty that the other con-
tracting party did not execute ; he might again have opened a
communication with the sultan of Damascus, who offered the
same advantages, with much more prohabilitj of his promises
being fulfilled. The emirs of Egypt had sought the alliance
of the Christians when their own situation appeared despe-
rate, and when they had reason to believe that the king of
Erance would receive succours from the West ; seeing, how-
ever, that Louis had no army, and that all the forces he
could muster did not amount to more than seven hundred
knights, they were fearful of entering too deeply into en-
gagements that would expose them to the hatred of the
Mussulmans, without offenng them any substantial support
against their enemies. All diese emirs besides, only fought
to secure for themselves impunity for their crime, and to be
left in quiet possession of the fruits of their revolt. They
were at all times ready to lay down their arms, if they pro-
cured pardon for the past, and had Egypt abandoned to
them. The caliph of Bagdad was always anxious to estab-
lish peace among the Mussulman powers ; he prevailed upon
the .sultan of Damascus and Aleppo to forget his causes of
resentment, and upon the emirs of Egypt to express re-
pentance, with a aesire for peace. I^veral battles were
fought without any decisive results ; in one of these battles
a party of Syrian troops were defeated by the Mame-
lukes, and fled away towards Damascus; whilst other
bodies of Mamelukes were beaten by the Syrians, and pur^
sued up to the ^ates of Cairo. A war in which victory was
always uncertam, necessorilv weakened the courage and
exhausted the patience of both parties ; and they appealed to
the spiritual father of the Mussulmans to arbitrate between
them. The sultans of Syria and Egypt at length conduded
a peace, and agreed to unite their arms against the Chris-
tians. From that time the hopes of the Crusaders all
vanished ; the king of France, from having procrastinated
80 long, and at the same tune neglected a favourable
opportunity, had, all at once, two united enemies to dread.
It is necessary to be perfectly acquainted with the situation
and policy of the Mussulman powers, to ascertain how far
history has reason to blame the indecision and tardiness of
Louis IX. Le p^re Moimbourg does not scruple to blame
Vol. II.— 21

4l!4k HI8T0BT OT TBI CBITaASXB.

him with much severiiy, and dedarea phunlj, thU to he a
mnnt, it appears not neeessaty to he infhiUble, particularly «t
political e^ffmrM, and even etUl less in those of war.

The treaty concluded between the Mamelukea and Syriana
was the signal for war ; the sultan of Damascus, at the head
of an army, came under the very walls of Ptolemais, and
threatened to ravage the gardens and fields which supplied
the city with provisions, if the inhabitants did not pay him
a tribute of mty thousand golden byzants. The Christiana
were not in a condition to resist their enemies, if the latter
had then had any intention of attacking them in earnest ;
but the Syrians, exhausted by fatigue, were in wuit of pro-
visions, and returned to Damascus, whilst the Mamelukes,
at the same time, retook the route to Cairo ; both of them
departing with an intention of returning on the first jGeivout-
able occasion to invade and desolate Fa^tine.

The threats of the Mussulmans redoubled the zeal and
the efforts of Louis to place the Christian cities in a state
of defence; he determined to restore the fortifications of
Sidon, which had been demolished bv the Saracens of Da-
mascus, at the time that the Crusaders landed in Eeypt.
He sent a great number of workmen into this city, and tne
works were rapidly advancing, when they were all at once
interrupted by the most deplorable occurrence. The place
having a weak garrison, was surprised, and every Christian
it contained put to the sword by the Turcomans, a wander-
ing, ferocious race, accustomed to live by murder and plunder.
Louis was at Tyre when he learned this disastrous news,
and was a1)out to so to Sidon. Some oi the few Svrian in-
habitants that had escaped the carnage, described to him
the unheard-of cruelties of the barbarians ; the iuiy of the
Turcomans had spared neither aee nor sex, and in their re-
treat they had slaughtered two thousand prisoners. Louis,
deepljr afflicted by what he heard, formed at once the deter-
miiiuBtion to go and attack the Turcomans in Belinas, to
which place uiey had retired. At the first sifi^nal all the
warriors that accompanied him eagerly assumed their armour.
The king wished to place himself at their head, but the
barons strongly opposed his intention, saying, ** that he must
not expose a life of so much consequence to the Holy Land,
in such an expedition." The Christian warriors set forward

HI8T0BT OF THS CBtTSADES. 475

on their marcli. Belinas, or Caesarea Fhilippi, was built
'upon a dediyity of Mount Libanus, near the sources of the
Jordan: the place was only to be approached bj narrow
roads and steep ascents ; but nothing could stop the Cru-
saders, impatient to ayen^e their murdered brethren. Upon
their arrim at Belinas, the enemy fled in all directions ; the
city was taken, and this victory would have been complete, if
the Christian warriors had observed the laws of discipline,
and followed the orders of their leaders. Whilst the French
were taking possession of Belinas, the Teutonic knights
went to attack a Mussulman castle, built upon the neigh*
bouring heights, whose towers appeared mingled with the
peaks of Libanus. The Saracens, who had rallied at this
place, and began to recover their courage, repulsed the as-
sailants, and pursued them across the rocks and precipices.
The precipitate retreat of the Teutonic knights threw the
other Christian warriors into confusion ; these latter being
huddled together upon a mountainous piece of ground
where they could neither fight on horseback nor form a
line of battle. The sieur de Joinville, who led the king's
guards, was more than once upon the point of losing his life,
or of idling into the hands of the Turcomans. At length
the French, by hard fighting, repaired the error of the Ger-
mans ; Olivier de Thermes, and the warriors he commanded,
succeeded in repulsing the Mussulmans. The Crusaders,
after having pillaged ^^linas, abandoned it, and returned to
Sidon.

Louis IX. arrived there before them : on his approach to
the city, what was his sorrow at seeing on his route the
ground covered with plundered and bloody carcases ! These
were the miserable remains of the Christians that had been
slarn by the Turcomans.* They were putrefying fast, and

* JoiziTille's account is very confused here ; indeed, almost unintelligible.
He says at first that the king was at Sidon, and that he retired into the
castle on the arriyal of the Saracens. Two pages farther on he says :
'* When the king had finished the fortifying of Jaffa, he formed the inten-
tion of doing the same for Sidon as he had done for Jaffa." We cannot
fidl to observe a contradiction here. We can suppose that Louis had
been to Sidon, had left it, and had again returned ; but one drcumstanoe
proves the contrary. History says that two thousand Christians were
killed at Sidon, or in the vicinity of that city ; if Louis had then been
upon the spot, it ia moat probable he would have buried the dead before.

476 HIBTOBT 07 THS CBUflADSfl.

there bad been no one to undertake tbe cbarge of borjnig
tbem. Louis stopped at beholding the melancholy spectadey
and turning to the legate, requested him to consecrate a
cemetery, and then saye orders for the burial of the dead
that covered the roads ; but instead of obeymg him, everjf
one tumed away his eyes and recoiled with disgust. Louia
then spnuig from his horse, and taking in his hands one of
the booies from which exhaled an infectious odour, exclaimed,
** Gome, myfriendsy come, lei us bestow a Utile earth upon ike
mofrtyrs of Jesus ChrietP The example of the king reanunated
the courage and the charity of the persons of his suite ; all
were eager to imitate him, and the Christians, whom the
barbarians had slaughtered, thus receiyed the honours of
sepulture. Tins act of pious devotedness of Louis IX. to
the memory of his companions in arms, has been celebrai»d
by all historians ; it presents a strange contrast to the in-
sensibility of a hero of modem times, who, in a drcumstanoe
almost sunilar, and in the same country, caused all the
wounded who were left upon a field of battle to be poisoned.

The king remained seyeral months at Sidon, employed in
fortifying the city. In the mean time Queen Blanche was
constantly writing to him and entreating him to return to
France, as she greatly feared she should never see her son
again.

Her presentiments were but too quickly realized. Louia
was still at Sidon, when a message amved in Palestine,
announcing that the queen regent was no more. It was
the legate of the pope who firot received this melancholy
news. He went to seek the king, accompanied by the arch-
bishop of Tyre and i&eoffrey de BeauHeu, Louis's confessor.
As the prelate announced that he had something important
to communicate, and at the same time exhibit^ marks rf
great grief upon liis countenance, the monarch led him
into his chapel, which, according to an old author, "«?«
"his arsenal against all the crosses of the worW The pre-
late began by reminding the king that all that man loves
upon the earth was perishable ; " be thanMil to Qt)d,'* added

his depaitare, and would not have deferred the performance of this irioua
duty tUl his return. It is evident that Joinville's account has been
altered at this part ; nnfortunatel j, this alteration is not tbe only one
which this precious Ustorieal monument has undergone.

lUSTOBT OV THE CBtTSABES. 477

he, '^for baying giyen you a mother who has watched
orer your family and your kingdom with such anxious
care, and so much ability/' The legate paused for a mo-
ment, and then, breathing a profound sigh, continued,
"This tender mother, this yirtuous princess, is now in
heaven." At these words, Louis uttered a piercing cry,
and then burst into a torrent of tears. As soon as he had a
little recoyered himself, he fell on his knees b^ore the altar,
and joining and raising his hands, exclaimed, '' I thank you,
O my Qod ! for haying giyen me so good a mother ; it was
a gin; of yoiur mercy ; you take her back to-day as your
own ; you know that I loyed her above all creatures ; but
since, before all things, your decrees must be accomplished,
O Lord! be your name blessed for ever, and for ever!"
Louis sent away the two prelates, and, remaining alone with
his confessor, he recited the service for the dead. T^'o days
passed away before he would see anjrbody. He then desired
Joinville to be called, and upon seeing him, said, " Ah ! se-
, neschal, I have lost my mother." " Sire," replied Joinville,
'^ I am not surprised at that ; you knew that sne must die at
some time ; but I marvel at the great and extravagant grief
that you feel for it, you who have always been so wise a
prince." When Joinville left the king, Madame Marie de
oonnes Vertus came to beg that he would come to the queen
and endeavour to console her. The good seneschal found
Marguerite bathed in tears, and could not reirain from ex-
pressing his surprise by saying to her, "It is a difficult matter
to believe you are a woman by your weeping, for the grief
you show is for the loss of a woman that you hated more
than any other in the world." Marguerite replied that it
was not, in fact, for the death of Blanche she was weeping,
" but for the great uneasiness in which I see the king, and
also for our daughter, left under the guardianship of men."

Louis LSI. was present every day at a funeral service cele-
brated in memory of his mother. He sent into the West a
great number of jewels and precious stones to be distributed
among the principal churches of France ; at the same time
exhorting the clergy to put up prayers for him and for the
repose of the queen Blanche. In proportion with his en-
deavours to procure prayers for his mother, his grief yielded
to the hope of seeing her again in heaven ; and his mind.

478 HI8T0BT or THB OSUfliJKBB.

vhen calmed by resignation, found its most efiSectual oonso-
lations in that mysterious tie which still unites us with those
"we haye lost, in that religious sentiment which mixes itself
with our affections to purify them, and with our regrets to
mitigate them.

The death of Queen Blanche seemed to im{K>8e an obliga-
tion upon Louis IX. to return to his dominions ; and the
news he received fixim the West convinced him that his pre-
sence was becoming more necessary every day. A war for
the succession of l^anders had broken out again ; the truce
with England had just expired ; the peo{>le were murmuring :
on the other hancf, Louis had now nothing he could under-
take in Palestine. He therefore gave his serious attention
to the subject of his return ; but as, if, on this occasion, he
mistrusted his own understanding, he determined, before he
formed a definitive resolution, to consult the will of GK>d.
Processions were made, and prayers were put up in all the
Christian cities of Palestine, that Heaven might deign to
enlighten those who had been charged with the directmg of
a war undertaken in its name. The clergy and barons of
the kingdom of Jerusalem, persuaded that the presence of
Louis was no longer necessary, and that his return to the
West might rouse the enthusiasm of the French warriors
for a new crusade, advised him to embark for Europe ; at the
same time expressing their fervent gratitude for fdl the ser-
vices he had rendered to the cause of Jesus Christ during
five vears. On preparing for his departure, Louis left a
hundred knights in the Holy Land, under the command of
Geofirey de Sergines, who fought against the Saracens for
thirty years, and became, in his old age, vicerov of Jerusalem.
Louis quitted Sidon, and, with the queen and three children
that he had had in the East, repaired to Ptolemais, in the
spring of 1254. A fieet of fourteen vessels was ready to
receive him and all that remained of the warriors of the
crusade. The day being arrived (April 24th) « the king,
walkiiifi; on foot, followed by the legate, the patriarch of
Jerusalem, and all the nobles and knights of Palestine, took
the road to the port, amidst an immense crowd collected on
his passage. All classes, as the^ saw him depart, recollected
the virtues of which he had given so brignt an example,
particularly his kindness to the inhabitants of Palestme,

HI8TOST 07 THE CET78ADS8. 479

whom he had treated as his own subjects. Some expressed
their gratitude by warm acclamations, others by a melancholy
silence ; but all proclaipied him the father of the Christiam^
' and implored Heayen to shower its blessings upon the vir-
tuous monarch, and upon the kingdom of Firance. The
countenance of Louis plainly indicated that he fully partook
of the regrets of the Christians of the Holy Land; he
addressed a few consoling words to them, gave them useful
counsels, reproached himself with not having done enough
for their cause, and expressed an earnest desire that God
would some day judge him worthy of finishing the work of
their deliverance*

At length the fleet set sail. Louis had obtained per-
mission from the legate to take with him, in his vessel, the
Holy Sacrament, for the assistance of the dying and the
sick; so, when beholding altars raised on board a ship,
priests clothed in their sacerdotal habits, celebrating divine
service, and invoking the protection of Heaven at every
hour in the day, it was easy to recognise the pious wreck of
a crusade, and the last trophies of the war of Jesus Christ.*
As the fleet approached the isle of Cyprus, the vessel in
which the king was struck violently against a sand-bank ;
all the crew were seized with terror; the queen and her
children uttered piercing cries; but Louis prostrated
himself at the foot of the altar, and addressed himself
to Him who commands the sea. When the vessel was
examined, it was found that it had received considerable
damage, and the pilots pressed the king to leave it ; but
seeing that they themselves did not purpose to abandon the
ship, he determined to remain in it. ''There is no one
here," said he, "who does not love his body as dearly
as I do mine ; if I leave, thev will leave also, and, perhapSy
will not see their coimtry for a length of time ; Jt prefer
placing myself, my queen, and my children in the hands of
God, to doing such an injury to so great a number of people

* It is not nninteresting or barren of instroction, to think how different
would be the reflections of a Voltaire or a Gibbon on this subject ! The
reader may safely take a position between the two extremes : Louis was a
good and pious man, but a very mistaken one ; as king of a great people,
he certainly had not 'performed his duties during the last five years.-*
Trans.

4S0 niBTOBY OF^THS CBITSADES.

as there are here." These words, inspired by an heroic
charity, revived the courage of the sailors and the pilgrims,
and thej resumed their course. When leaving the coasts of
Sicily, the fleet very carefully kept clear of the coast of
Tunis, as if a secret presentiment warned the French Cru-
saders of the misfortunes that awaited them upon that shore
in a still more disastrous expedition. A tempest placed the
fleet in great peril ; it was upon this occasion Queen Mar-
guerite made a vow to offer a ship of silver to St. Nicholas
of Lorraine, and requested JoinviUe to become her security
with the patron saint of such as are shipwrecked. "Whilst
everybody else was in despair, Louis found calmness in a
philosophy derived from religion ; and when the danger was
past, he said to his companions : " See if God has not proved
to us how vast is his power, when by means of a single one
of the four winds, the king of France, the queen, their
children, and so many other persons have escaped drowning.'*
The navigation lasted more than two months, during which
many mar\'eUous adventures and accidents were encountered
by the pilgrims, which history has preserved an account of, and
which would not figure unwortliily in a Christian Odyssey.

The fleet at length cast anchor at the isles of Hieres.
Louis crossed Provence, and passing by Auvergne, arrived
at Yincennes on the 5th of September, 1254. The people
flocked from all parts to greet him on his passage ; the more
they appeared to forget his reverses, the more strongly was
Louis anccted by the remembrance of his lost companions ;
and the melancholy that clouded his countenance formed a
painfiil contrast with the public joy. His first care was to
go to St. Denis, to prostrate himself at the feet of the
apostle of France ; on the following day he made his public
entrance into his capital, preceded by the clergy, the noDility,
and the people. He continued to wear the cross upon his
shoulder, the sight of which, whilst recalling the cause of his
long absence, gave his subjects reason to fear that he had
not yet abandoned his enterprise of the crusade. The
greater number of the barons and knights that had gone
with Louis, had found a grave in either Syria or E^rpt.
Such as 4iad survived so many disasters, reentered their
castles, whicli they found deserted and falling to ruins. The
good seneschal, ofter having revisited his home, repaired,

HISTOBT OF THB CBT78ADE8. 481

barefooted, to the church of St. Nicholas of Lorraine, to dis-
charge the vow of Queen Marguerite. He then set eamestlj
about repairing the evils his absence had caused, and swore
never again to quit the castle of Joinville to seek adventures
in Asia.

Thus terminated this holj war, the commencement of
which had filled the Christian nations with so much delight,
and which had, in the end, plunged the whole West into
mourning. Throughout the events I have just described,
the seneschal de Joinville has been mv guide, and I cannot
terminate my recital without paying bun -the just tribute of
my gratitude. The unpretending tone of his narration, the
simplicity of his style, the gaiety of his character, have
afforded me a happy relief amidst a labour always dry and
sometimes revolting. I take delight in beholding him in-
trepid in the field of battle, preserving his cheerfulness
amidst the misfortunes of war, resigned in his captivity, and
in all his actions recalling to our minds the true spirit of
chivalry. Like his compatriot Yillehardouin, he often makes
his heroes weep, and as often weeps himself. He braves
danger, when danger is present ; but he thanks (Jod with all
his heart when he has no longer anything to fear.

When I read his memoirs, I am transported back to the
thirteenth centurv, and I think I am listening to a knight
who is returned m)m the crusade, and who tells to me all he
has seen and all he has done. He has neither method nor
rule ; he drops the line of his discourse, and takes it up
again; and* he extends or abridges his narration, as his
imagination is more or less struck b^ that which he relates.
When we read the narratives of Jomville, we are not sur-
prised that Louis should have taken so much delight in his
conversation ; there is not one of his readers who does not
feel the same confidence and friendship for him that the vir-
tuous monarch accorded him, and history adopts without
hesitation all that he affirms upon his honour, persuaded
that he who was bold enough to speak the truth in the courts
of kings will not deceive posterity.

The crusade of St. Louis was like that which immediately
preceded it. The enthusiasm for these distant expeditions
was daily losing its vivacity and its energy : the crusade no
longer appeared anything to the knights beyond a common

21*

482 HI8T0BT OF THX CBUSADX8.

war, in which the spirit of chirahy was a more powerful
principle than religion. It was omj a religious afikir to
Louis IX.

The manner in which this crusade was preached in Europe,
the troubles amidst which the voices of the preachers were
raised, and particularly the means that were employed to
levy the tributes in the West, were calculated to turn away
all minds from the object that would be supposed to be the
governing one in a holy expedition.

And yet Louis took precautions that had been neglected
in preceding wars.* Three years were employed in preparing
this great enterprise ; the knights who arrived in the isle of
Cyprus could not express their astonishment at seeing the
casks of wine piled one upon another, so high that they ajh
peared like houses; and heaps of wheat, tnrley, and other
grains, so immense, thai they might he believed to he moun-
tains* There is no doubt that the princes and nobles who
accompanied Louis imitated his example : happy had it been
for the Crusaders, if their leaders had shown in war the
same prudence and sagacity they displayed in preparing for
their expedition !

The Prench warriors upon all occasions evinced their
accustomed bravery ; but throughout the crusade there was
never exhibited one instance of the genius of a great cap-
tain ; Louis himself, when in danger, afforded no example to
his troops beyond courage and firmness. We have related
the prooigies of French valour, and we have described tho
prodigies of pious resignation in reverses; the Crusaders
and their leaders merited, even in their disasters and in tho
depth of their misery, the esteem and admiration of their
enemies ; and it is here that history presents the most beau-
tiful spectacle she can offer to man : " Olory, the faithful
companion of misfortwue^^

We have had occasion, in the course of our narrative, to
remark that French gaiety never abandoned the cross-
knights in their distant expeditions. This gaiety often
mixed itself with the saddest images, and sometimes even
did not respect severe propriety. "We beg to be permitted
to repeat on this head a singular anecdote related by Join-
ville. On the eve of the battle of Mansourah, one of the
knights of the seneschal of Champagne, named Laodricourt^

HIBTOSY OF THX CBUBABAS. 488

died ; and whilst the funeral honours were being paid to
him, six of his companions in arms talked so loud that they
interrupted the priest who was chanting mass. JoinviUe
reproved them warmly, and they then laughed aloud, saying
they wqre talking about remarrying the wife of Messire
Hugh de Landiicourt, who was on the bier there. The good
JoinviUe was veiy much scandalized at such discourse, and
ordered them to keep silent. When speaking of this indis-
creet gaiety of his mights, the senesch^ takes care to add
that God punished them on the day of battle ; for of all the
six, he says, there was not one that was not killed and
buried, and whose wife did not afterwards find it conve-
nient to marry again.

The manners of the European knights formed a veiy
striking contrast with those of the Mussulmans, who were
always grave and serious, even amidst the festivities in
which they celebrated the deliverance of their coimtry and
the defeat of the Christians.

We have spoken many times of the want of discipline of
the Crusaders ; the Saracens were very little better in this
respect ; but in addition to having the advantage of fighting
in their own country, with every foot of which they were
acquainted, fortune gave them, m their greatest dangers,
skmul and experienced leaders, who knew how to take ad-
vantage of all the errors of the Christians, and bring back
to their banners that victory that appeared to have been
driven away by the valour of their enemies.

History describes the whole Egyptian nation as struck
with terror at the first appearance of the Crusaders ; but
the Mussulmans, reassured by their leaders, soon felt as
much security and confidence as thej had experienced alarm ;
and as if there was nothing that men forgot so easily as
danger, a year after the taking of Damietta, they could not
conceive what species of madness had led a king of Prance
to the banks of the Nile. The continuator of Tabary relates
a circumstance on this subject, which paints at once the
opinion and the character of the Mussulmans. The emir
Hossam-Eddin, in the course of a conference with the cap-
tive monarch, said to him : ** How did it come into the mind
of the^ ^^» whom I perceive endowed with wisdom and
good qualities, — how did it ever enter his thoughts to trust

484 HIBTOST OF THE OBrBADU.

lumself to a fragfle wooden bark, to braTO the rocks of
the sea, to venture into a country filled with warriors impa-
' tient to fight for the Mussulman faith ; how could he pos-
sibly believe that he should take possession of Egypt, or
that he should land upon these coasts, without exposing
both himself and his people to the greatest dangers F" The
king of France smiled, but made no reply ; ai^ the emir
thus continued: ''Some of the doctors of our law have
decided that he who embarks upon the sea twice consecu-
tively, by thus exposing his life and his fortune, renders
himself unfit to nave his evidence taken in a court of
justice, because such gross imprudence sufficiently proves
the weakness of his reason and the unsoundness of iiis
judgment." Louis IX. again smiled, and answered the
emir : '' He who said so was not deceived ; that is a wise
decision."*

We have transcribed the account of the Arabian histo-
rian, without according him more credit than he merits.
Christian authors have not been less severe towards St.
Louis, and can find no excuse for his expedition beyond the
seas. Without seeking to justify this crusade, we will con-
tent ourselves with saving nere, that the aim of Louis IX.
was not onlv to defend the Christian states of Syria and to
fight with the enemies of the Mth, but to found a colony
which might unite the East and the West by the happy
interchange of productions and knowledge. We have pro-
duced, in the thirteenth book of this history, a letter &om
the sultan of Cairo, by which it may be plainly perceived,
that the king of France had other views than those of a
mere conqueror. The historian Mezerai formally says that
the project of the king of France was to establish a colony
in Egypt, a project of which the execution has been at-
tempted in modem times. " For this purpose," says Meze-
rai, " ho took with him a great number of labourers and
artisans, capable, nevertheless, of bearing arms and fighting
in case of need." To support our opinion, we might add to
the authority of Mezerai tnat of Leibnitz, who; in a memoir
addressed to Louis XIV., does not hesitate to affirm tliat

* The oondDQation of the convenation of King Louis with the emir
has for its object the manner in which the Mussulman doctors interpret
the pnoept for the pilgrimage to Meoou

HlflTOST 01 IHB CBITBASIB. 466

tbe motives wliich determmed LouIb IX. to undertake the
conquest of Egypt, were inspired hj profound wisdom, and
merited the attention of the most skuful statesmen, and of
the most enlightened political writers.

We must however believe that Louis IX. did not con-
template in their fiill extent the advantages that might be
derived firom his expedition, or that have been discovered in
our age. All the polic;jr of those distant ages consisted in
religious ideas, which msinuated themselves into human
affairs, and often directed them towards an end that human
intelligence was incapable of perceiving. What we do now
for the interests of commeroe or civilization, was then done
for the interests of Christianity ; and the results were often
the same. Beligion, in those times of barbarism and ite-
rance, was like a mysterious reason, like a sublime instinct,
given to man to assist him in his search for all that was
doomed to become ^ood and useful to him. We must not
forget that the Christian religion alwavs directed the con-
duct of Louis IX., and that it was to the religious inspira-
tions of this monarch, that France owed those treaties, at
which frankness and good faith presided ; those institutions
that consecrated the principles of justice; and all those
monuments of a wise policy, to which modem philosophers
have not been able to refuse their admiration.

The expedition of Louis IX. produced two results for
Egypt that were not at all expected. Two years after the
deliverance of the king, and whilst he was still in Palestine,
the Mamelukes, fearing a fresh invasion of the Franks, in
order to prevent their enemies from taking Damietta and
fortifying themselves in that city, entirely destroyed it.
Some years after, as their fears were not yet removed, and
the second crusade of Louis IX. spread fresh alarms through-
out the East, the Egyptians caused immense heaps of stones
to be cast into the mouth of the Kile, in order that the
Christian fleets might not be able to sail up the river. Since
that period a new Damietta has been built at a small dis-
tance from the site of the former city ; but the entrance to
the Nile is still, in our days, closed against all vessels, a sad
and deplorable testimony of the terror which the arms of
the Franks formerly inspired.

History has a deeper lament to make over the second

466 HUTOBT OF TBM CRVBAXOM.

eoBseqnenoe of this crusade. It is oertam that it contrilmted
groatlj to change the form of the Egyptian goyemmenty
and to fill that unhappy country with all the scourges that
military despotism brings in its train. It was a spectacle
worthy of our attention and our pilr, to see, after a bloodj
revolution, a rich and vast country abandoned aU at once to
slaves purchased in the most barbarous regions of Asia.
Despotism, which always suspects eyerything that approaches
it, dreaded the natural defenders of Egypt, and was willing
to confide its safety to men without country and without
family ; to those men who, according to the expression of
Tacitus, when speaking of the guards of Artabanus, haye
not the least idea of yirtue, are incapable of remorse, are in-
struments always ready for crime, and only know the hand
that pays them. Most of the dynasties of Syria had already
perished victims of their imprudent confidence in foreign
soldiers. That of Saladin shared the same fate, and was,
Uke all the others, overthrown by the barbarians whom it
had intrusted with its defence. The dynasty of the Baharite
Mamelukes, which succeeded that of Ayoub, was not des-
tined to have a long duration ; and a body of slaves, pur-
chased in Circassia, in their turn got possession of the
power that had armed them. Two centuries after, the
Ottoman empire overcame the second dynasty of the Mame-
lukes ; but tneir military government, amidst the crimes of
tyranny and excesses of disorder, for a long time braved the
power of the conqueror, and subsisted to the end of the
eighteenth century, when the presence of a French army
completed its anmhilation. Thus, two French expeditions
into Egypt were marked, one by the revolt and elevation of
the Mamelukes, the other by their destruction.

Philosophy and humanity, however, derived some advan-
tages from the expedition of St. Louis, which history does
not dispute. The French monarch heard in Syria that a
powerful emir was collecting a great number of books, and
forming a library which was to be open to all the learned,
and to all desirous of gaining knowledge. He became
anxious to imitate this noble example, and gave orders for
having all the manuscripts preserved in the monasteries
transcribed. This literary treasure, confided to the care of
Vincent de Beauvais, was placed in an apartment near the

HI8T0BT 01* THB CBUSiLBES. 487

holy cbapel, and became the first model of those bibliogra-
phical establishments, of those precious d^>o8itories of
letters and sciences, of which the capital of Irance is now
BO justly proud.

It has often been said, that the hospital of the Quinze-
Yingts was established by Louis IX. as an asylum for three
hundred gentlemen who had returned blind £rom the holy
war. The ordinance by which Louis founded this hospital
says nothing to confirm the opinion at first spread by several
writers, and which has since become sanctioned as a popular
tradition.* JoinviUe speaks of the institution of the Qumze-
Yingts ; but he says nothing of the motives that induced
the pious monarch to found this establishment. Besides,
we should add that the origin of the Quinze-Yingts is pos-
terior by several years to his return from the crusade.
Mezerai relates in his history, that an hospital for the blind
was established at Bouen in the middle of the twelfth cen-
tury ; and this ancient monument of charity might give Louis
the idea of founding a similar institution in his capital.

Before this crurade, Tartary was only known by the for-
midable emigrations of the Moguls. This vast region was in
some sort revealed to the West by the missionaries sent
thither by the king of France. William de Longjumeau,
who set out from the isle of Cyprus, collected a great number
of fabulous traditions in the course of his voyage ; but he
likewise brought back some curious notices and some exact
observatioiis. Bubruquis, who started during the king's
abode in Palestine, and returned after the departure of the
Crusaders, did not succeed in hia embassy to the powerful
emperor of the Moguls ; but, as a traveller, he observed
with sagacity the country^ the manners, and the laws of the
Tartars ; and his relation is still a valuable monument, that
more recent voyages have not thrown into oblivion.

The chroniclers of the time, even JoinviUe himself, who
never turned their attention to anything but the events of

* Bnt there is one piece of internal evidence in this tradition, that we
think should obtain it credit, notwithitanding the silence of history.
AVhen we remember how the European armies in Egypt, at the end of the
last century, suffered (rom' ophihalmia, we think there is strong reason to
b«iieTe that Louis might found such an institution on hia retum.^-
Trans.

488 HtSTOBT OP TH£ CBUSADES.

the war, and ^ve no heed to the progress of civilization,
have said nothing of the knowledge Louis might have acquired
concerning the legislation of the East. What interest would
not the old chronicles possess in our . eyes, if they had re-
ported the conversations of the royal legislator with the
Oriental Christians versed in the study of the laws and
customs that prevailed in the colonies of the Franks ! It
was durins the sojourn of the king in Syria, that the chan-
cellor of the kingdom of Cyprus collected all the laws that
formed the Assises ofJerv^aleni, Should we not be warranted,
then, in saying that we owe this precious collection to the
counsels, and still more to the encouragement, of Louis LK. P
It is certain that the pious monarch neglected nothing that
would enable him to acquire a knowledge of th^ usages and
customs of the countries he visited ; and that the Assizes of
Jerusalem served as a model for the monument of le2:iaUtion
which afterwards constituted the greatest gloiy of his reign.

One advantage of this crusade, and tlmt, doubtless, the
greatest of all, was, that Louis returned much better than
he was when he went, and that adversity developed and
perfected in him all the qualities to which his subjects looked
for their future prosperity. A Protestant historian, when
speaking of this subject, makes use of these remarkable
words : " The fruit of his voyage and of his a£9iction was,
that he returned a much better man, having increased in
zeal, modesty, prudence, and diligence ; and that he was
more honoured and beloved by his people than he had ever
been before his departure ; and by the universal earth was
held in singular admiration for his good life and constancy
amidst dangers, as a miracle among kings."*

Far from seeking to forget his misfortunes, Louis was
constantly referring to them, as a great example that God
had been vnlling to present to the world. He attributed
them principally to his own faults ; and the austerities to
which he condemned himself during the remainder of his
life, were, says Father Daniel, a kind of mourning, which he
always wore for the brave men who had perished in the
crusade. On his return, he reformed the coinage, and by hia
order, silver Farisis and Gros Toumois were struck, upon

* Vvrii, Lweat, de VHUioire de France^ by John de Serres, p. 152.

Hisf OBT OF THS cstTaiDxa. 480

whicli chains were figured, in order to preserve the memory
of his captivity. These remembrances rendered him more
dear to his people, and greater in the eyes of all ChristianB.
Happy are princes npon whom tHe lessons of misfortune are
not lost ! happy also is the age in which men are not judged
according to the favours of fortune, and in which the adver-
sity of the great ones of the earth has in it something
respectable and sacred !

The misfortunes of the time, as we have already said, had
ruined a great number of the most illustrious families of the
kingdom. We know that many nobles had sold their lands
to provide iiieans for undertaking the crusade ; and history
has preserved acts passed in the camp, even of Mansourah,
by wnich several gentlemen sold their domains to the crown.
Louis was not at all willing that his companions in arms
should be condemned to pjoveriy for having followed him
into the East, and for having shared with him the labours
and perils of the holy war ; he therefore ordered a Hst
to be made of the indigent nobOity, and found means to
assist them out of his own revenue; he relieved, with
affecting kindness, the widows and orphans of the brave
knights he had seen &11 by his side ; ana his solicitude ex-
tended even to the poor labourers who had suffered, either
in the war of the rasters, by his absence, or by the in-
efficiency of the laws. " Serfs," said he, " belong to Jesus
Christ as well as to us, and in a Chnstian kingdom wo
ought never to forget that they are our brethren." Since
his war with the Mussulmans, he could not endure the
idea of the blood of Christians being shed in battle. His
ordinances forbade war between individuals in all the do-
mains of the crown; and the authority of his example
contributed to maintain order and peace throughout the
provinces.

Before his departure, Louis had sent commissaries to
repair the iniamties committed in the government of hia
kingdom. On nis return, he was determined to see every-
thing himself, and pervaded his provinces ; being convinced
that God will not pardon kings who have neglected any
opportunity or means of becoming acquainted with the
truth. Wnat a touching spectacle it must have been to
see a king as anxious to discover all the ilia that had

490 niBTOBT OF THE CBTTBAfiBB.

been effected in his name, as otber men are to trace out
any injustice done to themselres ! In short, his paternal
vigilance succeeded in destroying all abuses, and repairing
all faults; ''and finally," 'says the noble confidant of bia
thoughts, ^ in lapse of time, the kingdom of France multi-
plied so greatly by the justice and rectitude that reigned
m it, that the domains, feudal fines, rents, and revenues,
increased in one year by a half, and vastly improved the
kingdom of France."

We cannot finish the account of this crusade without
speaking of the emperor Frederick II. and Innocent lY.,
who had so much mfluence over the events we have de-
scribed. It may be said of Frederick, that his glory under-
went as many vicissitudes as his fortune. Contemporary
chronicles sometimes praise him with exaggeration, and at
others blame him without measure. Such is ever the fate
of princes who have lived amidst the conflict of parties.
The spirit of party, which has judged them in their life-
time, leaves to history nothing but uncertainties, and ap*
pears still to exist for them in posterity. No historian has
denied the talent or the genius of Frederick ; he was one
of the most illustrious captains of his times ; he is placed
among the princes who, \>j their example and their muni-
ficence, encouraged the revival of letters in the middle ages.
He diisplayed great qualities upon the throne, but he
did not know how to put himself in harmony with the
spirit of his contemporaries;* he had neither the defects
nor the virtues of his age, and that is the reAson that he
succumbed in the obstinate struggle with the popes. If
this struggle had not troubled and divided Europe, and if
Frederick had been animated by^ the same sentiments as
St. Louis, there is no doubt that Christianity would have
triumphed over Islamism, and that the Crusaders would
have subdued a great portion of the East.

The memory of Innocent lY. has been judged as variously
as that of his redoubtable adversary. When looking at his
manifestoes, his warlike enterprises, his spiritual and tem-

* One thing worthy of remark is, that the emperor Frederick reaembled
cloaely, both in character and policy, Frederick II., king of Pnuaia; bat
the latter waa in harmony with hit age, and his age has named him the
grtai Frtderiek^

HItfrOBY OF THIS CBUBiJ>X8. 491

poral triumphsy we might believe tbat the most able and
ambitious of conquerors was seated in the chair of St.
Peter. The events to which he has attached his name,
and which he directed hj his policy, leave us nothing to
saj regarding his genius or his chai^^r. After the death
of Frederick, this pontiff returned to Italy, which country
he traversed in triumph ; but by a singular contrast, he who
had shaken the power of emperors, only entered Bome trem-
blingly. The Bomans had sent envoys to him to express
their siurprise at seeing him lead a wandering life far from
his capital, and from the flods of which he would have to
render an accoimt to the sovereign judge.

Although obedient in this respect to the will of the people
of Bome, Innocent pursued his projects against the remams
of the imperial &muy, and death surprised him in the king-
dom of j^aples, of which he was taking possession in the
name of the Church ; having lost all care for the fate of the
Christian colonies of the East. The pontiff who succeeded
him, although he had neither his ambition, nor his authority,
nor his gemus, followed not the less the career that had been
marked out for him. He endeavoured to accomplish all
the threats of the Holy See, and the thunders of Bome re-
posed no more in the hands of Alexander YI. than they had
done in those of his predecessors.

That which might justify the persevering, obstinate ardour
with which the popes pursued the posterity of Frederick, is
that by it they nberated Italv from the yoke of the empe-
rors 01 Germany ; and that this rich country remained sixty
years without seeing the armies of the Ghermanic empire.
but, on the other side, this advantage was purchased by so
much violence, and by so many calamities, that the nations
were never able to enjoy or know the value of it. The popes,
who were not always sufficiently strong to maintain the work
of their policy, were sometimes obliged to call in foreign
princes to their aid, who introduced fresh subjects of discord
mto Italy. War constantly brought on war; conquerors
were expelled by other conquerors. This revolution lasted
during several centuries, and becamo fatal, not only to Italy,
but to Germany, France, and Spain, to all who wished to
partake of the spoils of the house of Swabia.

It is not our task to describe these afflicting scenes : to

492 HI8T0BT OF THS GBrSiJ>X8.

return to that which more particularly belongs to our sub-
ject, we will glance, whilst terminating these general con-
siderations, at the crusade which was then being preached
in all the Italian cities against Eccelino de Bomano, whom
the voice of the people, as w^ell as the voice of the Church,
had declared to be the enemy of Gk>d and men.

This Italian noble had taken advantage of the disorder of
the civil wars, to usurp a tyrannical domination over several
cities of Lombardy and Trevisano. AH that we are told of
the tyrants of fabulous antiquity falls short of the cruelties
of Eccelino. Contemporaiy history compares his barbarous
reign to pestilence, inundations, conflagnUions, and the most
terrible convulsions of nature. The pope at first excom-
municated Eccelino, fto tohom he eotUd see nothing hut a wild
heast in a human form; a short time afterwards he published
a crusade against this scourge of God and humanity. John
of Yicenza, who had preached public peace twenty ^eara
before, was the first preacher of this holy war. The fiuthful
who took up arms against Eccelino, were to receive the same
indulgences as those who went to Palestine. This crusade^
which was undertaken in the cause of humanity and liberty,
was preached in all the republics of Italy : the eloquence of
the holy orators easily prevailed over the multitude ; but
that which most inflamea the zeal and ardour of the people,
was the sight of the wretches whom Eccelino had caused to
be mutilated amidst tortures, and the groans and lamenta-
tions of the families from which the tyrant had chosen his
victims. In most of the provinces of Italy, the inhabitants
of the cities and country took up arms to defend the cause
of religion and their native land ; ^ager to obtain the civic
crown, if thev triumphed over tyranny, and the crown of
martyrdom, if thev chanced to fiEkU.

Tha standard of the cross was displayed at the head of the
arm;i^; the crowd of Crusaders marched against Eccelino,
singing this hymn of the Church, —

" Vexilla regis prodeunt,
Fulget crucis mysteriana.'*

The army of the faithful at first obtained rapid successes ;
but as the archbishop of Eavenna, who commanded it,
wanted skill, and as the Crusaders of each town had no
leaders but monks and eoclesiastics, they did not profit bj

HISTOBT OP THB CBUBADSB. 4l93

their early advantages. The intrigaes of policy and the
spirit of rivalry relaxed the ardour of the combatants ; vic-
tory was sometimes balanced by reverses: foiir years of
labours and perils scarcely sufficed for the suppression of an
impious domination, or to avenge humanity oy the defeat
and death of Eccelino.

I regret that the plan of this work does notpermit me to
speak in greater detail of this war, in which rehgion so hap-
pdy assisted the cause of liberty, and which forms so great a
contrast with most contemporaiy events. At this period
such a number of crusades were preached, that history can
scarcely follow them, and we feel astonished that the popu-
lation of the West was not exhausted by so many unfor-
tunate wars. Whilst Louis IX. was returning j&om the
East, where he had leil his armv, and a holy ^eague was
being formed in Italy against the 'tyrant Bccelino, sixty
thousand Crusaders, commanded by a king of Bohemia,
marched against the people of Lithuania, still addicted to
the worship of idols ; and another army of Crusaders was
leaving the banks of the Oder and the Vistula to combat
the pagans of Prussia, so many times attacked and conquered
bv the Teutonic kmghts. History is gratified at being
able to remark that in this last expedition the cities of
Brunsbad and Konigsberg were founded ; but the founding
of two flourishing cities cannot obliterate the remembrance
of the desolation of many provinces. If any advantages
could arise from these sanguinair expeditions, they were
certainly the progressive steps of Christianity, which brought
together people till that time separated by difference in man-
ners and religious belief; they were the lessons of misfor-
tune and the fruits of experience, which in the end enlight-
ened Europe, and gave to the human mind a new direction
more conformable with the laws of justice and reason, more
favourable to the interests of humanity. It is thus that
Providence, always mixing good with evil, renews human
societies, and sows the prolific seeds of civilization in the
very heart of disorder and barbarism.

VSD OF VOL. n.

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Jkli t ^ 1352