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 o 10 THE DECLINE AND FALL Kedron/^^ or approached the precipices of the south and east, from whence they had nothing either to hope or fear ? Their siege was more reasonably directed against the northern and western sides of the city. Godfrey of Bouillon erected his standard on the first swell of Mount Calvary ; to the left, as far as St. Stephen's gate, the line of attack was continued by Tan- ered and the two Roberts : and count Raymond established his quarters from the citadel to the foot of Mount Sion, which was no longer included within the pi-ecincts of the city. On the fifth day, the crusaders made a general assault, in the fanatic hope of battering down the walls witliout engines, and of scaling them without ladders. By the dint of brutal force they burst the first barrier, but they were driven back with shame and slaughter to the camp ; the influence of vision and prophecy Avas deadened by the too frequent abuse of those pious strata- gems ; and time and labour were found to be the only means of victory. The time of the siege was indeed fulfilled in forty days, but they were forty days of calamity and anguish. A re- petition of the old complaint of famine may be imputed in some degree to the voracious or disorderly appetite of the Franks ; but the stony soil of Jerusalem is almost destitute of water ; the scanty springs and hasty torrents were dry in the summer season ; nor was the thirst of the besiegers relieved, as in the city, by the artificial supply of ctisterns and aqueducts. The circumjacent country is equally destitute of trees for the uses of shade or building ; but some large beams were dis- covered in a cave by the crusaders : a wood near Sichem, the enchanted grove of TassOj^^*^ was cut down ; the necessary timber was transported to the camp, by the vigoin* and dexterity of Tancred ; and the engines were framed by some Genoese artists, who had fortunately landed in the harbour of Jaffa. Two moveable turrets were constructed at the expense, and in the stations, of the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tou- louse, and rolled forwards with devout labour, not to the most accessible, but to the most neglected, parts of the fortification. 115 Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent of Kedron, dry in summer, and of the little spring or brook of Siloe (Reland, torn. i. p. 294, 300). Both strangers and natives complained of the want of water, which, in time of war, was studiously aggravated. Within the city, Tacitus mentions a perennial fountain, an aqueduct, and cisterns for rain-water. The aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekoe [Tekua, 10 miles south of Jerusalem], or Etham, which is likewise mentioned by Bohadin (in Vit. Saladin. p. 238 [c. 157]). ii*" Gierusalemme Liberata, canto xiii. It is pleasant enough to observe how Tasso has copied and embellished the minutest details of the siege. i