Disposition for Battle
Raymond D'Agiles carried the lance-head and fixed their attention on it. Some of the priests chanted a warlike psalm in the front rank, while others blessed the outgoing army from the walls. The walls and the hills echoed the cry, "God wills it! God wills it!" The appearance of the army was such as to fill the Mussulmans with contempt. Ragged, thin, and weak, mounted on asses and camels, on anything which could carry them, they deployed to meet the fifteen masses of Saracens. The Crusaders soon cut to pieces the two thousand who guarded the bridge of Antioch, and ranged themselves where the mountain protected them from
surprise. The great names commanded the wings and the center, with Bohemond in reserve. The early hours were friendly to the Christians. Later they were sorely hurt by a surprise from a body of Saracens who had passed around the mountain and had attacked their rear. The grass was fired in front of the Christians by the sultan of Nicea, a fact which was near ruining the prospects of the Christians.
Prodigy of Horsemen
Hundred Thousand Turks Killed
Once again a prodigy is reported. A squadron descends from the mountains, led by three white horsemen. A bishop, perhaps himself the inventor of this pious fraud, cries out to the wavering Crusaders: "Behold, heavenly succor has come!" Instantly the Christians revive and renew the attack, and the Saracens were put to rout. Failing even to rally on the other side of the river, they left behind them their arms and their baggage. Their general had only a small body-guard as he fled toward the Euphrates. With horses captured on the field, the Christians kept up the pursuit. A hundred thousand of the infidels died, and four thousand Christians won the martyr's crown. The battle enriched the Crusaders beyond any hope or experience, and Antioch was filled with the captured booty. The historian declares, "Horrors had made the Christians invincible. This was the only miracle."
Disputes Follow Victory
With this astounding victory the march of the Crusaders almost ceased to meet armed resistance. The mass of the army clamored to march on to Jerusalem. The leaders were divided. Some said, "Let us march before the enemy recovers from the terror of our arms." The majority of the leaders forgot the Holy City in the pleasures, securities, and conquests of Syria. This gave strength to their arguments to wait for the re-enforcements of men and horses for which they asked the home authorities.
Fifty Thousand Christians die of Pestilence