[111] Et si Sarracenum noviter interfectum invenerunt, illius carnes, ac si essent pecudis, avidissimè devorabant.—Gesta Francorum.
[112] Matthew of Edessa does not name the Mussulman who gave up Antioch to the Christians. Abulfaradge calls him Ruzebach, and says that he was a Persian by origin. Anna Comnena pretends that he was an Armenian. Most historians call him Pyrrus, or Phirous. William of Tyre gives him the name of Emir Feir, and Sanuti calls him Hermuferus. It may most probably be said that he had abjured Christianity. If authors are not agreed as to his name, it may be believed that some have called him by his proper name, and that others have designated him by a name which expressed his profession. William of Tyre says that he was born of a family called in Armenian Beni Zerra, that is, the family of the makers of cuirasses.
[113] Apparuit enim ei Dominus Jesus Christus per visum, et ait; Vade et redde civitatem Christianis.—Gesta Francorum, lib. v. cap. 12.
[114] A comet appeared on the very night of the taking of Antioch, June 3, 1098.—See Robert. Monach. lib. v. ad finem; Chronicon Fossæ Novæ, in Muratori, tom. vii.; Chronica Mailross. ab anno 733 ad 1270, per diversos auctores in Rerum Anglicarum Script. tom. i.; Annales Waverlienses, ibid. tom. ii.; Pingie, Cométographie, tom. i. p. 382.
[115] The anonymous author of a chronicle entitled Passages d’Outre-Mer, expresses himself thus, p. 46: “But there was not one among them who did not refuse to mount except Bohemond, whom Æmiscrius received with great joy, and showed him his brother lying in his bed, whom he had just killed because he would not join the enterprise....cunctis vero, qui cum Bohemondo erant, diffidentibus ad ascensum, solus Bohemondus fœderis fide fultus, per funem ascendit.—Bernardus Thesaurius, cap. 36; Muratori, tom. iii.
[116] Sicut aquila provocans pullos suos ad volandum, et super eos volitans.—Rad. Cair. tom. iii. p. 66.
[117] All these details of the siege and the taking of Antioch, which appear to belong to the epopea, are taken literally from the ancient historians of the crusades. See Albert d’Aix, lib. iii. and iv.; William of Tyre, lib. v.; Robert the Monk, lib. v. and vi.; and the authors of the Collection of Bongars. All these historians agree in the principal circumstances. The monk Robert, in the recital that he makes of it, expresses his surprise in these words: “Non est lingua carnis quæ satis valeat enarrare, quid Francorum manus valuit persundare.” Foulcher de Chartres, who, according to common opinion, was the first to mount the ladder of ropes, never speaks of himself in his narration, which fact is luite consistent with the spirit of the Christian knights.
[118] Matthew of Edessa estimates this army at a hundred thousand horse and three hundred thousand foot. Abulfaradge speaks of “mille mille” horse. The Latin historians do not exaggerate so much, but do not at all agree in their accounts.
[119] Alii multi, quorum nomina non tenemus, quia delecta de libro vitæ, præsenti operi non sunt inserenda.—Will. of Tyre, lib. iv.
[120] These speeches and the complaints of the Crusaders are almost all translated from contemporary historians. We feel it our duty to report the text of them here.