Latest / Popular History of France from the Earliest Times / 34 - Popular History of France from the Earliest Times by Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Section thirty four a Volume one, A Popular History of
- 0:05Speaker 1: France from the Earliest Times. This is a LibriVox recording.
- 0:10Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
- 0:14Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
- 0:21Speaker 1: by Emily Joan Mars, Volume one of A Popular History
- 0:26Speaker 1: of France from the Earliest Times by Francois Ghiso, translated
- 0:31Speaker 1: by Robert Black, Chapter sixteen, The Crusades, Their Origin and
- 0:38Speaker 1: their Success, Part four. On returning to camp, Peter the
- 0:44Speaker 1: Hermit was about to set forth in detail before all
- 0:47Speaker 1: the people of the Crusaders the answer of Corboga, his pride,
- 0:52Speaker 1: his threats, and the pomp with which he was surrounded.
- 0:56Speaker 1: But Godfrey de Bouillon, fearing lest the multitude, already crushed
- 1:00Speaker 1: beneath the weight of their woes, should be stricken with
- 1:03Speaker 1: fresh terror, stopped Peter at the moment when he was
- 1:07Speaker 1: about to begin his speech, and, taking him aside, prevailed
- 1:12Speaker 1: upon him to tell the result of his mission in
- 1:15Speaker 1: a few words, just that the Turks desired battle, and
- 1:19Speaker 1: that it must be prepared for at once. Forthwith all,
- 1:23Speaker 1: from the highest to the lowest, testify the most eager
- 1:27Speaker 1: desire to measure swords with the infidels, and seemed to
- 1:30Speaker 1: have completely forgotten their miseries, and to calculate upon victory.
- 1:36Speaker 1: All resume their arms and get ready their horses, their breastplates,
- 1:40Speaker 1: their helmets, their shields, and their swords. It is publicly
- 1:44Speaker 1: announced throughout the city that the next morning, before sunrise,
- 1:48Speaker 1: every one will have to be in readiness and join
- 1:51Speaker 1: his host to follow faithfully the banner of his prince.
- 1:56Speaker 1: Next day, accordingly, the twenty eighth of June one thousand
- 2:00Speaker 1: ninety eight, the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul,
- 2:05Speaker 1: the whole Christian army issued from their camp, with a
- 2:08Speaker 1: portion of the clergy marching at the head and chanting
- 2:11Speaker 1: the sixty eighth psalm. Let God arise and let his
- 2:15Speaker 1: enemies be scattered. I saw these things, I who speak,
- 2:20Speaker 1: says one of the chroniclers, Reimond, a Gilles chaplain to
- 2:24Speaker 1: the Count of Toulouse. I was there, and I carried
- 2:28Speaker 1: the spear of the Lord. The Crusaders formed in twelve divisions,
- 2:33Speaker 1: and of all their great chiefs, the Count of Toulouse
- 2:36Speaker 1: alone was unable to assume the command of his He
- 2:40Speaker 1: was detained in Antioch by the consequences of a wound,
- 2:44Speaker 1: and he had the duty of keeping in check the
- 2:46Speaker 1: Turkish garrison. Still masters of the citadel, the Crusaders presented
- 2:52Speaker 1: the appearance of old troops, ill clad, ill provided, and
- 2:57Speaker 1: surmounting by sheer spirit the fatigues and last of a
- 3:00Speaker 1: long war. Many sick soldiers could scarcely march. Many barons
- 3:06Speaker 1: and knights were on foot, and Godfrey de Bouillon himself
- 3:09Speaker 1: had been obliged to borrow a horse from the Count
- 3:12Speaker 1: of Toulouse. During the march, a gentle rain refreshed souls
- 3:17Speaker 1: as well as bodies, and was regarded as a favor
- 3:20Speaker 1: from Heaven. Just as the battle was commencing, Corboga, struck
- 3:26Speaker 1: by the impassioned, stern and indomitable aspect of the Crusaders,
- 3:30Speaker 1: felt somewhat disquieted and made proposals. It is said to
- 3:34Speaker 1: the Christian princes of what he had refused them the
- 3:38Speaker 1: evening before a fight between some of their knights and
- 3:42Speaker 1: as many saracens, but they, in their turn rejected the proposition.
- 3:48Speaker 1: There is a moment during great struggles when the souls
- 3:51Speaker 1: of men are launched forth like bomb shells, which nothing
- 3:55Speaker 1: can stop or cause to recoil. The battle was long, stubborn,
- 4:00Speaker 1: and at some points indecisive. Kiloge Arslan, the indefatigable Sultan
- 4:05Speaker 1: of Nicea, attacked Boemond so briskly that, save for the
- 4:10Speaker 1: prompt assistance of Godfrey de Bouillon and Tancred, the Prince
- 4:14Speaker 1: of Antioch had been in great peril. But the pious
- 4:18Speaker 1: and warlike enthusiasm of the Crusaders at length prevailed over
- 4:22Speaker 1: the savage bravery of the Turks, and Corboga, who had
- 4:26Speaker 1: promised the Caliph of Baghdad a defeat of the Christians,
- 4:29Speaker 1: fled away towards the Euphrates. With a weak escort of
- 4:33Speaker 1: faithful troops. Tancred pursued till nightfall the Sultans of Aleppo
- 4:38Speaker 1: and Damascus and the Amir of Jerusalem. According to the
- 4:43Speaker 1: Christian chroniclers, one hundred thousand infidels and only four thousand
- 4:47Speaker 1: Crusaders were left on the field of battle. The camp
- 4:51Speaker 1: of the Turks was given over to pillage and fifteen
- 4:54Speaker 1: thousand cammels, and it is not stated how many horses
- 4:57Speaker 1: were carried off. The tent of Corboga himself was for
- 5:01Speaker 1: his conquerors a rich prize and an object of admiration.
- 5:06Speaker 1: It was laid out in streets flanked by towers, as
- 5:09Speaker 1: if it were a fortified town. Gold and precious stones
- 5:13Speaker 1: glittered in every part of it. It was capable of
- 5:16Speaker 1: containing more than two thousand persons, and Baamont sent it
- 5:20Speaker 1: to Italy, where it was long preserved. The conquerors employed
- 5:25Speaker 1: several days in conveying into Antioch the spoils of the vanquished,
- 5:29Speaker 1: and every crusader, says Albertves, found himself richer than he
- 5:34Speaker 1: had been at starting from Europe. This great success, with
- 5:39Speaker 1: the wealth it was the means of spreading, and the
- 5:42Speaker 1: pretensions and hopes, it was the cause of raising amongst
- 5:44Speaker 1: the crusaders, had for some time the most injurious effects.
- 5:49Speaker 1: Divisions set in amongst them, especially amongst the chiefs. Some
- 5:54Speaker 1: abandoned themselves to all the license of victory, others to
- 5:58Speaker 1: the sweets of repose. Some fatigued and disgusted, quietly prepared
- 6:03Speaker 1: for and accomplished their return home. Others, growing more and
- 6:06Speaker 1: more ambitious and bold, aspired to conquests and principalities in
- 6:11Speaker 1: the East. Why should not they acquire what Baldwin had
- 6:14Speaker 1: acquired at Odessa, and what Boamon was within an ace
- 6:18Speaker 1: of possessing at Antioch. Others were jealous of the great
- 6:22Speaker 1: fortunes made before their eyes, and Oremond of Toulouse was
- 6:26Speaker 1: vexed at Boemon's rule in Antioch and refused to give
- 6:30Speaker 1: up to him the citadel. One and another troubled themselves
- 6:34Speaker 1: little more about the main end of their crusade, the
- 6:37Speaker 1: deliverance of Jerusalem, and devoted themselves to their personal interests.
- 6:43Speaker 1: A few days after the defeat of the Turks, the
- 6:46Speaker 1: Council of Princes deliberated upon the question of marching immediately
- 6:50Speaker 1: upon Jerusalem, and then all these various inclinations came out.
- 6:55Speaker 1: After a lively debate, the majority decided that they should
- 6:59Speaker 1: wait till the heat of the summer was over, the
- 7:01Speaker 1: army wrested from its fatigues, and the reinforcements expected from
- 7:05Speaker 1: the West arrived. The common sort of crusaders were indignant
- 7:10Speaker 1: at this delay. Since the princes will not lead us
- 7:13Speaker 1: to Jerusalem, was said aloud, choose we among the knights
- 7:17Speaker 1: a brave man who will serve us faithfully, And if
- 7:19Speaker 1: the grace of God be with us, go we under
- 7:22Speaker 1: his leading to Jerusalem. It is not enough for our
- 7:25Speaker 1: princes that we have remained here a whole year, and
- 7:28Speaker 1: that two hundred thousand men at arms have fallen here.
- 7:32Speaker 1: Perish all they who would remain at Antioch even as
- 7:35Speaker 1: its inhabitants, but lately perished, but murmuring all the while.
- 7:41Speaker 1: They stayed at Antioch in spite of a violent epidemic
- 7:44Speaker 1: which took off, it was said, in a single month,
- 7:47Speaker 1: fifty thousand persons, and amongst them the spiritual chief of
- 7:51Speaker 1: the Crusade, Ademar Bishop of Puy, who had the respect
- 7:56Speaker 1: and confidence of all the Crusaders, to find some specious pretext,
- 8:01Speaker 1: or some pious excuse for this inactivity, or simply to
- 8:05Speaker 1: pass the time which was not employed as it had
- 8:07Speaker 1: been sworn it should be. Warlike expeditions were made into
- 8:11Speaker 1: Syria and Mesopotamia. Some emirs were driven from their petty dominions,
- 8:16Speaker 1: Some towns were taken, some infidels were massacred. The Count
- 8:21Speaker 1: of Toulouse persisted during several weeks in besieging Mrah, a
- 8:25Speaker 1: town situated between Hamath and Aleppo. At last he took it,
- 8:30Speaker 1: but there were no longer any inhabitants to be found,
- 8:32Speaker 1: in it. They had all taken refuge under ground. Huge
- 8:37Speaker 1: fires lighted at the entrance of their hiding place forced
- 8:40Speaker 1: them to come out, and as they came they were
- 8:42Speaker 1: all put to death or carried off as slaves, which
- 8:45Speaker 1: so terrified the neighboring towns. Says a chronicler, that they
- 8:49Speaker 1: yielded of their own free will and without compulsion. It
- 8:55Speaker 1: was all at once ascertained that Jerusalem had undergone a
- 8:58Speaker 1: fresh calamity and fallen more and more beneath the yoke
- 9:01Speaker 1: of the infidels. Abuka Chem, Caliph of Egypt, had taken
- 9:06Speaker 1: it from the Turks, and his vizier Aftel had left
- 9:09Speaker 1: a strong garrison in it. A sharp pang of grief,
- 9:13Speaker 1: of wrath, and of shame shot through the Crusaders. Could
- 9:16Speaker 1: it be? They cried that Jerusalem should be taken and retaken,
- 9:20Speaker 1: and never by Christians. Many went to seek out the
- 9:23Speaker 1: Count of Toulouse. He was known to be much taken
- 9:26Speaker 1: up with the desire of securing the possession of Murrah,
- 9:30Speaker 1: which he had just captured. Still great confidence was felt
- 9:34Speaker 1: in him. He had made a vow never to return
- 9:37Speaker 1: to the West. He was the richest of the crusader princes.
- 9:40Speaker 1: He was conjured to take upon himself the leadership of
- 9:43Speaker 1: the army to him had been entrusted the spear of
- 9:46Speaker 1: the Lord discovered at Antioch. If the other princes should
- 9:50Speaker 1: be found wanting, let him at least go forward with
- 9:53Speaker 1: the people in full assurance. If not, he had only
- 9:57Speaker 1: to give up the spear to the people, and the
- 9:59Speaker 1: people would go right on to Jerusalem with the Lord
- 10:02Speaker 1: for their leader. After some hesitation, Raymond declared that the
- 10:07Speaker 1: departure should take place in a fortnight, and he summoned
- 10:10Speaker 1: the princes to a preliminary meeting. On assembling, they found
- 10:14Speaker 1: themselves still less at one, says the chronicler, and the
- 10:18Speaker 1: majority refused to budge to induce them. It is said
- 10:23Speaker 1: that Raymond offered ten thousand sous to Godfrey de Buillon,
- 10:27Speaker 1: the same to Robert of Normandy, six thousand to the
- 10:31Speaker 1: Count of Flanders, and five thousand to Tancred. But at
- 10:34Speaker 1: the same time Raymond announced his intention of leaving a
- 10:37Speaker 1: strong garrison and Marah to secure its defense. What cried
- 10:43Speaker 1: the common folk amongst the crusaders, disputes about Antioch and
- 10:47Speaker 1: disputes about Marah, we will take good care there be
- 10:51Speaker 1: no quarrel touching this town. Come, throw we down its walls,
- 10:55Speaker 1: restore we peace amongst the princes, and set we the
- 10:59Speaker 1: Count at liberty. When Maran no longer exists, he will
- 11:03Speaker 1: no longer fear to lose it. The multitude rushed to
- 11:07Speaker 1: surround Marah and work so eagerly at the demolition of
- 11:10Speaker 1: its ramparts, that the Count of Toulouse, touched by this
- 11:14Speaker 1: popular feeling, as if it were a proof of the
- 11:16Speaker 1: divine will, himself, put the finishing touch to the work
- 11:20Speaker 1: of destruction, and ordered the speedy departure of the army.
- 11:25Speaker 1: At their head. Marched he barefooted, with his clergy and
- 11:29Speaker 1: the Bishop of Akbar, all imploring the mercy of God
- 11:33Speaker 1: and the protection of the saints. After him marched Tancred,
- 11:38Speaker 1: with forty knights and many foot, Who then may resist
- 11:42Speaker 1: this people, said Turks and Saracens to one another, so
- 11:46Speaker 1: stubborn and cruel, whom, for the space of a year,
- 11:49Speaker 1: nor famine, nor the sword, nor any other danger could
- 11:53Speaker 1: cause to abandon the siege of Antioch, and who now
- 11:57Speaker 1: are feeding upon human flesh. In fact, a rumor had
- 12:01Speaker 1: spread that, in their extreme distress, for want of provisions,
- 12:05Speaker 1: the crusaders had eaten corpses of Saracens found in the
- 12:09Speaker 1: moats of Marah. Several of the chiefs, hitherto undecided, now
- 12:16Speaker 1: followed the popular impulse, whilst others still hesitated. But on
- 12:20Speaker 1: the approach of spring one thousand ninety nine, more than
- 12:24Speaker 1: eight months after the capture of Antioch, Godfrey of Bouillon,
- 12:29Speaker 1: his brother Eustace of Boulogne, Robert of Flanders, and their
- 12:33Speaker 1: following likewise began to march Bauemond. After having accompanied them
- 12:38Speaker 1: as far as Laodicea left them with the promise of
- 12:42Speaker 1: rejoining them before Jerusalem, and returned to Antioch, where he remained.
- 12:47Speaker 1: Fresh crusaders arrived from Flanders, Holland and England, and amongst
- 12:52Speaker 1: them the Saxon Prince edgar Atheling, who had for a
- 12:57Speaker 1: brief interval been king of England between being the death
- 13:00Speaker 1: of Harold and the coronation of William the Conqueror. The
- 13:05Speaker 1: army pursued its way pretty slowly, still stopping from time
- 13:09Speaker 1: to time to besiege towns which they took and which
- 13:12Speaker 1: the chiefs continued to dispute for amongst themselves. Envoys from
- 13:17Speaker 1: the caliph of Egypt, the new holder of Jerusalem, arrived
- 13:21Speaker 1: in the Crusader's camp with presents and promises from their master.
- 13:26Speaker 1: They had orders to offer forty thousand pieces of gold
- 13:29Speaker 1: to Godfrey, sixty thousand to Bohemond, the most dreaded by
- 13:33Speaker 1: the Mussulman of all the Crusaders, and other gifts to
- 13:37Speaker 1: diverse other chiefs. Abulkachem further promised liberty of pilgrimage and
- 13:43Speaker 1: exercise of the Christian religion in Jerusalem, only the Christians
- 13:47Speaker 1: must not enter unless unarmed. At this proposal, the Crusader
- 13:53Speaker 1: chiefs cried out with indignation and declared to the Egyptian
- 13:57Speaker 1: envoys that they were going to hasten their march on Jerusalem,
- 14:01Speaker 1: threatening at the same time to push forward to the
- 14:03Speaker 1: borders of the Nile. At the end of the month
- 14:06Speaker 1: of May one thousand ninety nine, they were all en
- 14:10Speaker 1: mass upon the frontiers of Phoenicia and Palestine, numbering, according
- 14:15Speaker 1: to the most sanguine calculations, only fifty thousand fighting men.
- 14:21Speaker 1: Upon entering Palestine, as they came upon spots known in
- 14:25Speaker 1: sacred history or places of any importance, the same feelings
- 14:29Speaker 1: of greed and jealousy which had caused so much trouble
- 14:32Speaker 1: in Asia Minor and Syria, caused divisions once more. Amongst
- 14:36Speaker 1: the Crusaders. The chieftain, the simple warrior, almost who was
- 14:41Speaker 1: the first to enter the city or burgh or house
- 14:44Speaker 1: and plant his flag there, halted in it and claimed
- 14:48Speaker 1: to be its possessor. Whilst those whom nothing was dearer
- 14:52Speaker 1: than the commandments of God, say the chroniclers, pursued their
- 14:56Speaker 1: march barefooted beneath the banner of the cross, deplored the
- 15:00Speaker 1: covetousness and the quarrels of their brethren. When the Crusaders
- 15:05Speaker 1: arrived at Immaeus, some Christians of Bethlehem came and implored
- 15:09Speaker 1: their aid against the infidels. Tankard was there, and he,
- 15:13Speaker 1: with the consent of Godfrey, set out immediately in the
- 15:16Speaker 1: middle of the night with a small band of one
- 15:18Speaker 1: hundred horsemen, and went and planted his own flag on
- 15:22Speaker 1: the top of the church at Bethlehem, at the very
- 15:25Speaker 1: hour at which the birth of Jesus Christ had been
- 15:27Speaker 1: announced to the shepherds of Judea. Next day, June tenth,
- 15:32Speaker 1: one thousand ninety nine, on advancing at dawn of day
- 15:35Speaker 1: over the heights of Emmaeus, the army of the Crusaders
- 15:39Speaker 1: had all at once beneath their gaze the Holy City. Lo,
- 15:44Speaker 1: Jerusalem appears in sight. Lo. Every hand point out Jerusalem. Lo.
- 15:50Speaker 1: A thousand voices are heard as one in salutation of Jerusalem.
- 15:55Speaker 1: After the great sweet joy which filled all the hearts,
- 15:58Speaker 1: at this first glimpse came a deep feeling of contrition,
- 16:02Speaker 1: mingled with awful and reverential affection. Each scarcely dared to
- 16:07Speaker 1: raise the eye towards the city which had been the
- 16:09Speaker 1: chosen abode of Christ, where he died, was buried, and
- 16:13Speaker 1: rose again in accents of humility, with words low spoken,
- 16:19Speaker 1: with stifled sobs, with sighs and tears, The pent up
- 16:24Speaker 1: yearnings of a people in joy and at the same
- 16:26Speaker 1: time in sorrow, sent shivering through the air, a murmur
- 16:30Speaker 1: like that which is heard in leafy forests, what time
- 16:33Speaker 1: the wind blows through the leaves, or like the dull
- 16:36Speaker 1: sound made by the sea which breaks upon the rocks,
- 16:39Speaker 1: or hisses as it foams over the beach. It was
- 16:43Speaker 1: better to quote these beautiful stanzas from Jerusalem delivered than
- 16:48Speaker 1: to reproduce the pompous and monotonous phrases of the chroniclers,
- 16:52Speaker 1: the genius of Tasso was capable of understanding and worthy
- 16:55Speaker 1: to depict the emotions of a Christian army at sight
- 16:59Speaker 1: of the Jerusalem they had come to deliver. We will
- 17:03Speaker 1: not pause over the purely military and technical details of
- 17:07Speaker 1: the siege. It was calculated that there were in the
- 17:10Speaker 1: city twenty thousand armed inhabitants and forty thousand men in garrison,
- 17:15Speaker 1: the most valiant and most fanatical Mussulmen that Egypt could furnish.
- 17:21Speaker 1: According to William of Tire, the most judicious and the
- 17:24Speaker 1: best informed of the contemporary historians, when the Crusaders pitched
- 17:28Speaker 1: their camp over against Jerusalem, there had arrived there about
- 17:32Speaker 1: forty thousand persons of both sexes, of whom there were
- 17:36Speaker 1: at the most twenty thousand foot well equipped, and fifteen
- 17:39Speaker 1: hundred knights. Raymond Dagill, chaplain to the Count of Toulouse,
- 17:45Speaker 1: reduces still further to twelve thousand the number a foot
- 17:48Speaker 1: capable of bearing arms, and that of the knights to
- 17:51Speaker 1: twelve or thirteen hundred. This weak army was destitute of
- 17:56Speaker 1: commissariat and the engines necessary for such a siege. Before
- 18:00Speaker 1: long it was a prey to the horrors of thirst.
- 18:04Speaker 1: The neighborhood of Jerusalem, says William of Tire, is arid,
- 18:08Speaker 1: and it is only at a considerable distance that there
- 18:10Speaker 1: are to be found rivulets, fountains, or wells of fresh water.
- 18:14Speaker 1: Even these springs had been filled up by the enemy.
- 18:17Speaker 1: A little before the arrival of our troops. The crusaders
- 18:21Speaker 1: issued from the camp secretly and in small detachments, to
- 18:24Speaker 1: look for water in all directions. And just when they
- 18:27Speaker 1: believed they had found some hidden trickle, they saw themselves
- 18:31Speaker 1: surrounded by a multitude of folks engaged in the same search.
- 18:35Speaker 1: Disputes forthwith arose amongst them, and they frequently came to blows. Horses, mules, asses,
- 18:43Speaker 1: and cattle of all kinds, consumed by heat and thirst,
- 18:46Speaker 1: fell down and died, and their carcasses left here and
- 18:49Speaker 1: there about. The camp tainted the air with a pestilential smell. Wood, iron,
- 18:55Speaker 1: and all the materials needful for the construction of siege
- 18:58Speaker 1: machinery were as much to seek as water. But a
- 19:01Speaker 1: warlike and pious spirit made head against all. Trees were
- 19:05Speaker 1: felled at a great distance from Jerusalem, and scaling towers
- 19:09Speaker 1: were roughly constructed, as well as engines for hurling the stones,
- 19:13Speaker 1: which were with difficulty brought up within reach of the city.
- 19:17Speaker 1: All ye who read this, says Raymond Ajib, think not
- 19:21Speaker 1: that it was light labor. It was nigh a mile
- 19:24Speaker 1: from the spot where the engines all dismounted, had to
- 19:27Speaker 1: be transported to that where they were remounted. The knights
- 19:31Speaker 1: protected against the sallies of the besieged the workmen employed
- 19:35Speaker 1: upon this work. One day, Tankred had gone alone to
- 19:40Speaker 1: prey on the Mount of Olives and to gaze upon
- 19:42Speaker 1: the holy city. When five mussulmans sallied forth and went
- 19:46Speaker 1: to attack him. He killed three of them, and the
- 19:49Speaker 1: other two took to flight. There was at one point
- 19:52Speaker 1: of the city ramparts a ravine which had to be
- 19:55Speaker 1: filled up to make an approach, and the Count of
- 19:58Speaker 1: Toulouse had proclamation made that he would give a degnier
- 20:01Speaker 1: to every one who would go and throw three stones
- 20:04Speaker 1: into it. In three days. The ravine was filled up.
- 20:08Speaker 1: After four weeks of labor and preparation. The Council of
- 20:12Speaker 1: Princes fixed a day for delivering the assault, but as
- 20:15Speaker 1: there had been quarrels between several of the chiefs, and
- 20:18Speaker 1: notably between the count of Toulouse and Tankered. It was
- 20:22Speaker 1: resolved that before the grand attack, they should all be
- 20:24Speaker 1: reconciled at a general supplication with solemn ceremonies for divine aid.
- 20:30Speaker 1: After a strict fast, all the Crusaders went forth, armed
- 20:34Speaker 1: from their quarters, and preceded by their priests. Barefooted and
- 20:39Speaker 1: chanting psalms, they moved in slow procession round Jerusalem, halting
- 20:44Speaker 1: at all places hallowed by some fact in sacred history,
- 20:47Speaker 1: listening to the discourses of their priests, and raising eyes
- 20:51Speaker 1: full of wrath at hearing the scoffs addressed to them
- 20:54Speaker 1: by the Saracens, and seeing the insults heaped upon certain
- 20:58Speaker 1: crosses they had set up upon all the symbols of
- 21:01Speaker 1: the Christian faith. Ye see, cried Peter the Hermit, Ye
- 21:06Speaker 1: hear the threats and blasphemies of the enemies of God.
- 21:09Speaker 1: Now this I swear to you by your faith. This
- 21:12Speaker 1: I swear to you by the arms ye carry. To
- 21:16Speaker 1: day these infidels be still full of pride and insolence.
- 21:20Speaker 1: But tomorrow they shall be frozen with fear. Those mosques
- 21:24Speaker 1: which tower over Christian ruins shall serve for temples to
- 21:28Speaker 1: the True God, and Jerusalem shall hear no longer aught
- 21:31Speaker 1: but the praises of the Lord. The shouts of the
- 21:35Speaker 1: whole Christian army responded to the hopes of the apostle
- 21:38Speaker 1: of the crusade, and the Crusaders returned to their quarters,
- 21:42Speaker 1: repeating the words of the prophet Isaiah. So shall they
- 21:46Speaker 1: fear the name of the Lord from the west and
- 21:48Speaker 1: his glory from the rising of the sun. On the
- 21:52Speaker 1: fourteenth of July one thousand ninety nine, at daybreak, the
- 21:57Speaker 1: assault began at diverse points, and next day, Friday, the
- 22:01Speaker 1: fifteenth of July, at three in the afternoon, exactly at
- 22:06Speaker 1: the hour at which, according to Holy writ Jesus Christ
- 22:09Speaker 1: had yielded up the ghost, saying Father, into thy hands,
- 22:13Speaker 1: I commend my spirit. Jerusalem was completely in the hands
- 22:17Speaker 1: of the crusaders. We have no heart to dwell on
- 22:21Speaker 1: the massacres which accompanied the victory, so clearly purchased by
- 22:24Speaker 1: the conquerors. The historians Latin or Oriental, set down at
- 22:30Speaker 1: seventy thousand the number of Mussulmen massacred on the ramparts,
- 22:34Speaker 1: in the mosques, in the streets underground, and wherever they
- 22:38Speaker 1: had attempted to find a refuge, a number exceeding that
- 22:41Speaker 1: of the armed inhabitants in the garrison of the city. Battle, madness,
- 22:46Speaker 1: thirst for vengeance, ferocity, brutality, greed, and every hateful passion
- 22:52Speaker 1: were satiated without scruple in the name of their holy cause.
- 22:57Speaker 1: When they were weary of slaughter, orders were given, says
- 23:01Speaker 1: Robert the Monk, to those of the Saracens who remained
- 23:04Speaker 1: alive and were reserved for slavery, to clean the city,
- 23:08Speaker 1: remove from it the dead, and purify it from all
- 23:11Speaker 1: traces of such fearful carnage. They promptly obeyed, removed with
- 23:16Speaker 1: tears the dead erected outside the gates, dead houses fashioned
- 23:21Speaker 1: like citadels or defensive buildings, collected in basket's dissevered limbs,
- 23:26Speaker 1: carried them away and washed off the blood that stained
- 23:29Speaker 1: the floors of temples and houses. Eight or ten days
- 23:34Speaker 1: after the capture of Jerusalem, the Crusader chiefs assembled to
- 23:38Speaker 1: deliberate upon the election of a king of their prize.
- 23:42Speaker 1: There were several who were suggested for it, and might
- 23:44Speaker 1: have pretended to it. Robert Shorthou's, Duke of Normandy, gave
- 23:48Speaker 1: an absolute refusal, liking better, says an English chronicler, to
- 23:52Speaker 1: give himself up to repose and indolence in Normandy than
- 23:56Speaker 1: to serve as a soldier the king of kings for
- 23:59Speaker 1: which God never forgave him. Raymond, Count of Toulouse, was
- 24:03Speaker 1: already advanced in years, and declared that he would have
- 24:06Speaker 1: a horror of bearing the name of King of Jerusalem,
- 24:09Speaker 1: but that he would give his consent to the election
- 24:11Speaker 1: of any one else. Tankard was and wished to be
- 24:15Speaker 1: only the first of knights. Godfrey de Buillon. The more
- 24:18Speaker 1: easily united votes in that he did not seek them.
- 24:21Speaker 1: He was valiant, discreet, worthy and modest, and his own servants,
- 24:26Speaker 1: being privately sounded, testified to his possession of the virtues
- 24:30Speaker 1: which are put in practice without any show. He was
- 24:34Speaker 1: elected King of Jerusalem, and he accepted the burden, whilst
- 24:38Speaker 1: refusing the insignia. I will never wear a crown of gold,
- 24:42Speaker 1: he said, in the place where the Savior of the
- 24:45Speaker 1: world was crowned with thorns, and he assumed only the
- 24:48Speaker 1: title of defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulcher. It
- 24:54Speaker 1: is a common belief amongst historians that after the capture
- 24:58Speaker 1: of Jerusalem, and the election of her King. Peter the
- 25:01Speaker 1: Hermit entirely disappeared from history. It is true that he
- 25:05Speaker 1: no longer played an active part, and that on returning
- 25:08Speaker 1: to Europe he went into retirement near Hui, in the
- 25:12Speaker 1: Diocese of Liege, where he founded a monastery, and where
- 25:16Speaker 1: he died on the eleventh of July one thousand, one
- 25:19Speaker 1: hundred fifteen. But William of Tire bears witness that Peter's
- 25:24Speaker 1: contemporaries were not ungrateful to him, and did not forget
- 25:28Speaker 1: him when he had done his work. The faithful says
- 25:31Speaker 1: he dwellers at Jerusalem, who four or five years before
- 25:35Speaker 1: had seen the venerable Peter there, recognizing at that time
- 25:39Speaker 1: in the same city him to whom the Patriarch had
- 25:42Speaker 1: committed letters invoking the aid of the princes of the West,
- 25:46Speaker 1: bent the knee before him and offered him their respects
- 25:49Speaker 1: in all humility. They recalled to mind the circumstances of
- 25:53Speaker 1: his first voyage, and they praised the Lord who had
- 25:56Speaker 1: endowed him with effectual power of speech, and with strength
- 26:00Speaker 1: to rouse up nations and kings, to bear so many
- 26:03Speaker 1: and such long toils for love of the name of Christ.
- 26:06Speaker 1: Both in private and in public, All the faithful at
- 26:09Speaker 1: Jerusalem exerted themselves to render to Peter the Hermit the
- 26:13Speaker 1: highest honors, and attributed to him alone after God, their
- 26:18Speaker 1: happiness in having escaped from the hard servitude under which
- 26:21Speaker 1: they had been for so many years groaning, and in
- 26:25Speaker 1: seeing the Holy City recovering her ancient freedom. End of
- 26:30Speaker 1: chapter sixteen. End of A popular History of France from
- 26:35Speaker 1: the Earliest Times, Volume one by FRANCOI Ghiso, translated by
- 26:41Speaker 1: Robert Black