witnesses of the death of their sons, wept that they had ever been mothers." The slaughter lasted the whole day, and it was not till towards evening that Accien allowed the gates to be opened to the miserable remains of his troops. per The leaders and soldiers of the Christian army had formed prodigies of valour. Bohemond, Raymond, Tancred, Adhemar, Baldwin du Bourg, and Eustace had constantly shown themselves at the head of their warriors. The whole army concurred in admiration of the marvellous lance-thrusts and feats of arms of the count de Vermandois and the two Roberts. Robert of Normandy maintained, alone, a conflict with an infidel chief at the head of his people. With one blow of his sabre he split his head to the shoulder, and laid him at his feet, exclaiming: "I devote thy impure soul to the powers of hell!" "Tancred," says Ralph of Caen, "distinguished himself among the most intrepid of the knights.. In the heat of the mêlée, the Christian hero, as modest as he was brave, made his squire swear not to reveal the exploits of which he was a witness." Godfrey, who in this battle had displayed the skill of a great captain, likewise signalized his bravery and strength by actions which history and poetry have celebrated. No armour could resist his trenchant blade; lances, casques, and cuirasses flew in splinters beneath its stroke. A Saracen of surpassing stature singled him out in the mêlée, and, at his first blow, shivered Godfrey's buckler to pieces. Indignant at this audacity, Godfrey raised himself in his stirrups, rushed upon his enemy, and dealt him so terrible a blow on the shoulder, that he split his body into two parts, "the first of which," say the historians, "fell to the earth, and the other was carried by his horse into the city, to the horror and consternation of the inhabitants." Notwithstanding these prodigious exploits, the Christians sustained a considerable loss. Whilst celebrating the valour of the Crusaders, contemporary history is astonished at the multitude of martyrs whom the Saracens sent to heaven, and who, on arriving in the abode of the blessed with crowns upon their heads and palms in their hands, addressed God in these words: "Why have you not defended our blood, which has flowed for you this day?" The Saracens passed the night in burying their dead near a mosque without the walls. Their sad duty performed, they |