Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/324

 302 THE DECLINE AND FALL allies I shall proceed to consider : the human causes of the victory of Antioch were the fearless despair of the Franks ; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps the errors, of their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle is described with as much disorder as it was fought ; but we may observe the tent of Kerboga, a moveable and spacious palace, enriched with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above two thousand per- sons ; we may distinguish his three thousand guards, who were cased, the horses as well as men, in complete steel. Tiieir famine In the eventful period of the siege and defence of Antioch, and distress i atAntiocii the crusadcrs were, alternately, exalted by victor}'^ or sunk in despair ; either swelled with plenty or emaciated with hunger. A speculative reasoner might suppose that their faith had a strong and serious influence on their practice ; and that the soldiers of the cross, the deliverers of the holy sepulchre, pre- pared themselves by a sober and virtuous life for the daily contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows away this charitable illusion ; and seldom does the history of profane war display such scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were exhibited under the walls of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no longer flourished ; but the Syrian air was still impregnated with the same vices ; the Christians were seduced by every tempta- tion ^^'^ that nature either prompts or reprobates ; the authority of the chiefs was despised ; and sermons and edicts were alike fruitless against those scandalous disorders, not less pernicious to military discipline than repugnant to evangelic purity. In the first days of the siege and the possession of Antioch, the Franks consumed with wanton and thoughtless prodigality the frugal subsistence of weeks and months ; the desolate country no longer yielded a supply ; and from that country they were at length excluded by the arms of the besieging Turks. Disease, the faithful companion of want, was envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer heats, unwholesome food, and the close imprisonment of multitudes. The pictures of famine and pesti- lence are always the same, and always disgustful ; and our Thesaurarius (c. 39, p. 695), are content with the vague expressions of infinita mul/itudo, immensum agnien, innumerae copiae, or gentes, which correspond with the MfTi draptflnVirui' xiXiaSoji' of Anna Comnena (Alexias, 1. xi. p. 318-320 [c. 4]). The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Albert Aquensis at 200,000 (1. iv. c. x. p. 242), and by Radulphus Cadomensis at 400,000 horse (c. Ixxii. p. 309). [Much larger figures are given by Matthew of Edessa, c. civ. p. 221.] 100 See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon of royal birth, who was slain by the I'urks as he reposed in an orchard, playing at dice with a Syrian concubine. i