piety and sincerity, induced many of the great leaders to discountenance the tale. The Bishop of Puy, and several other chiefs, declared that the vision was a pretence, and asserted that no such lance could be found in Antioch; but others saw that the hopes of the troops were renewed in a wonderful manner by the mere unsupported tale; and they encouraged the enthusiasm, arguing that no succour was near, that the men must obtain food, and that a battle must ultimately be risked. Raymond of Toulouse had already greatly benefitted by a vision of a similar kind. St. Giles having twice appeared during his illness near Antiochetta, with assurances that he would recover, which promises had been fulfilled, when he had seemed even at the point of death. He therefore gave the fullest support to the Provencal priest, and it was accordingly agreed that the lance should be sought for in form.

At first no such implement could be found in the place designated; but when at length the priest who had seen the apostle, descended into the pit which had been dug, the iron head was discovered in a moment, and brought forth to the eyes of the wondering people. The enthusiasm was now so great, and the visions were so dangerously multiplied, that it became necessary to seize the favourable moment for a great effort, and one of the most extraordinary proceedings of the crusade took place. It was determined to send Peter the Hermit, and a personage named Heloine with a threatening message to Ker

boga, demanding that the quarrel between the Christians and the Turks should be settled by a combat between certain champions chosen on each side. The vizier received the message with contempt, and sent back an answer full of scorn and pride. His reply was related to Godfrey, who, it is said, prevented it from being made known to the rest of the army. Preparations for speedy battle were then commenced, and on the morning of the twenty-eighth of June, 1098, the host of the crusade began to issue forth from the gates of Antioch in order to attack the enemy. Wretched indeed was the sight presented by those gallant forces, which not quite two years previous had commenced their march towards the storied land of Palestine. Squalid famine sat upon their countenances, their worn arms and dimmed weapons told both of labour and of apathy; and such had been the pressing curse of dearth, that of all the noble chivalry which but a short time before had spurred on their splendid steeds to the battle-field, not above two hundred had preserved their horses to go forth against the enemy. The Count of St. Giles remained to guard the town, and Godfrey himself borrowed the charger of that nobleman in order that he might appear mounted at the head of his troops.

At the beginning of the seige, the army of Kerboga, at the very lowest estimation, amounted to more than three hundred thousand men. The Arabs themselves admit a hundred thousand horsemen

completely armed; but every day during the vizier's stay, this force had been increased by immense reinforcements, and we are assured, from very good authority, that it now amounted to nearly seven hundred thousand men. Kerboga had been joined by Soliman, or Kilig Arslan, with all the forces that he could muster, and by all the Emirs of Syria, Armenia, Cappadocia and Mesopotamia. The Franks, who now issued forth from Antioch, were but a handful in comparison, enfeebled by famine and disease, and worn with long toil and desperate contests; but they were animated with religious enthusiasm, with the chivalrous spirit of the land from which they came, and with the superstitious expectation of divine aid, so that confidence in their own power to win a victory, was never more active amongst them.

The troops were divided into four bodies; or as the crusaders themselves call it, into eight, for in their account they separate the horse from the foot of each nation. Hugh of Vermandois, the Count of Flanders, and Robert of Normandy, led the first division; the foot preceding the small force of horsemen, and advancing steadily towards a point in the mountains at the distance of about two miles. Godfrey* of Bouillon, the great leader and commander of the whole host, followed next at the head of his

* I cannot pass over an extraordinary assertion which Mr. Mills makes in regard to the command of the army, as the opinion has consequently gained ground, that Godfrey was never in any degree

own troops. The Bishop of Puy, clothed in armour, sometimes bearing the sacred lance himself, sometimes entrusting it to the hands of his chaplain, recognised as the leader of the crusade, and that Tasso violates the facts of history by so representing him. Mr. Mills says in a note: "This assertion of Baldwin, that his brother Godfrey was generalissimo, was an artifice in order to gain some consequence with the people of Tarsus. The whole tenor of the crusade shews, that whatever respect was paid to Godfrey, was not a tribute to power, but to superior virtues and talents. The Duke of Lorraine never attempted to convert that superiority, which was yielded to his merits, into a real dominion. The operations of the army were directed by a council of chiefs, of which the Count of Blois and Chartres was the president. Archbishop of Tyre, p. 703. It was the celebrated Benedetto Accolti who furnished Tasso with the idea that Godfrey was supreme commander.

All this gives a completely false idea of the true state of the case; the assertion of Baldwin was certainly deceitful, for he himself was entrusted with no superior command; but the whole tenor of the history of the crusades shows, that Godfrey had been elected leader, as his brother stated; and, moreover, many of the contemporary writers and eye-witnesses point out, in distinct terms, that such was the case. Besides, the specch of Baldwin, recorded by Albert of Aix without comment, the same writer, in the beginning of the fourth book of his history, says, speaking of one of the battles with the Turks, in which all the Christian leaders were present: "Tandem à Duce Godefrido populoque fidelium triumphatis et obrutis in gurgitus flumine adversariis Christianæ plebis." He is continually called Dux, without any name following; but this is not all, for Robert the Monk, who accompanied the army repeatedly, mentions him as the General of the leaders; thus, in the seventh book, he says: "Quod ut vidit Dux ducum Godefridus ;" and again, "Quid Dux ducum Godefridus quid Boamondus, quid clara juventus ibi egerint," &c.

Raymond de Agiles, led on the crusaders of Languedoc; and the rear of the whole was brought up by Boemond and Tancred, with the Norman and Italian forces from Apulia.

Early in the morning, a black flag hoisted on the towers of the citadel had announced to Kerboga that the Christians were in movement; but that general committed the great fault of despising his enemy, and he suffered the whole host of the crusade to issue forth, troop after troop, and man after man, without the slightest attempt to attack them, ere they could be put in array. By some we are told that he was playing at chess when the bands of his adversaries began to appear under the walls of Antioch, and that he contemptuously finished his game before he made any movement to impede their progress. One of the Arabian historians says, that he held a council in order to ascertain the opinion of his allies as to whether he should suffer the Franks to issue forth from the city or not; and Aboul Faradj declares that Kerboga allowed the besieged army to quit the sheltering walls of Antioch, in the proud expectation of destroying the whole at one blow.*

Whatever might be the feelings of the vizier at first, he seems to have been seized with some degree of apprehension, as he saw the firm array

* Aboul Faradj had probably read some of the Frankish historians of the crusade, as we find the same assertion in several of their works. See Robertus, lib. vii.