CHAP. VI.] 



THE CRUSADES. 



175 



of carnage 



tempted to assault by that nietliod at different points. 

 Godfrey took his place on the highest platform of his 

 wooden fortress, accompanied by his brother Eustace and 

 Baldwin du Bourg,^ and, surrounded by knights, they 

 sent showers of javelins into the city. The other leaders, 

 Raymond, Tancreci, the Duke of Normandy, and the 

 Count of Flanders, all fought in the front ranks. After 

 fighting without success for nearly two days, Godfrey's 

 tower advanced near enough to have its drawbridge 

 lowered, and then the knights, rushing in to close 

 quarters, soon had possession of the walls, and drove the 

 Saracens through the streets of the city. The crusaders, 

 pouring in at every point in the fury of the assault, 

 massacred without pity, and a fearful scene 

 ensued that baffles all description. 



These accounts of the capture of Nicea, Antioch, and 

 Jerusalem show that the knights were almost entirely 

 relied upon for every species of military duty, and prove 

 that the military art of the time was very defective, 

 and such as entailed a great waste of available power. 



Among the Saracens also the same exaltation of the 

 cavalry service existed, and their armies were composed 

 to a very great extent of mounted men. At the battle of 

 Doryloeum in Phrygia, the army of Soliman is loosely 

 computed at from 200,000 to 350,000 horsemen.^ They 

 were armed with the long Tartar bow, the crooked sabre, 

 and the javelin. They did not fight in the direct 

 charge, but by continual irregular evolutions, in which 

 they kept up a constant volley of arrows. While the 

 horses were fresh and the quivers full the Saracens had 

 the advantage, but after a long and desperate struggle 

 in which 4,000 Christians fell pierced by the Turkish 

 arrows, a flank attack by Ra3rm.ond of Toulouse turned 

 the scale, and a brilliant victory to the crusaders was 

 the result. 



In the battle before Antioch, where the; Saracens 

 under Kerboga were attacked by the crusaders, the 

 Turkish army is computed at 100,000 horse, and 300,000 

 foot,^ some writers even going as high as 600,000 of all 



' ^lichaud, i. 218, 219. ^ Gibbon, v. 577. » Michaud,i. 158. 



