Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/358

 322 Readings in European History made me, up to the present time, the leader, chief, and director of their whole expedition. You have assuredly heard that after the capture of the city of Nicaea we fought a great battle with the perfidious Turks and, by God's aid, conquered them. Next we con- quered for the Lord all Romania and afterwards Cappa- docia. And we learned that there was a certain Turkish prince, Assam, dwelling in Cappadocia ; thither we directed our course. All his castles we conquered by force and com- pelled him to flee to a certain very strong castle situated on a high rock. We also gave the land of that Assam to one of our chiefs, and in order that he might conquer the above- mentioned Assam, we left there with him many soldiers of Christ. Thence, continually following the wicked Turks, we drove them through the midst of Armenia, as far as the great river Euphrates. Having left all their baggage and beasts of burden on the bank, they fled across the river into Arabia. The bolder of the Turkish soldiers, indeed, entering Syria, hastened by forced marches night and day, in order to be able to occupy the royal city of Antioch before our approach. The whole army of God, learning this, gave due praise and thanks to the omnipotent Lord. Hastening with great joy to the aforesaid chief city of Antioch, we besieged it and had many conflicts there with the Turks. Seven times we fought with the citizens of Antioch and with the innumerable troops coming to their aid ; we rushed to meet them and we fought with the fiercest courage under the lead- ership of Christ ; and in all these seven battles, by the aid of the Lord God, we conquered, and most assuredly killed an innumerable host of them. In those battles, indeed, and in very many attacks made upon the city, many of our breth- ren and followers were killed, and their souls were borne to the joys of paradise. We found Antioch a very great town, fortified with incredi- ble strength and almost impregnable. In addition, more than five thousand bold Turkish soldiers had entered the city, not counting the Saracens, Publicans, Arabs, Turco- politans, Syrians, Armenians, and other different races, of