[127] Pierre Angelli, author of a Latin poem on the first crusade, which has for title, Syriados Libri XII., describes this battle at great length, and reports one part of the miraculous circumstances by which it was accompanied; but his recital is too diffuse to excite much interest. The Syriade begins with the first voyage of Peter the Hermit to Jerusalem, and is nothing but a copy in verse of the histories of William of Tyre, Albert d’Aix, and others. After having described the march and the early labours of the Crusaders, the Latin poet arrives, towards the end of the last canto, at the siege of Jerusalem, to which he only consecrates a hundred verses.
[128] It is surprising that Raoul de Caen, who describes this battle, and in epic verse too, has related no marvellous circumstance. Raymond d’Agiles makes no mention of the heavenly legion, but he says: Multiplicavit insuper adeo Dominus exercitum nostrum, ut qui ante pugnam pauciores eramus quàm hostes, in bello plures eis fuimus. Oderic Vital speaks thus of the legion which appeared to descend from heaven: Ecce, Deo gratias, ab ipsis montanis visus est exire exercitus innumerabilis, albis equis insidentes, et in manibus Candida vexilla præferentes. Hoc multi viderunt Christianorum, et sicut putant, gentilium, et hæsitantes, mirabantur quidnam esset. Tandem utrique cognoverunt signum de cœlo factum, et duces illius agminis, sanctos martyres Georgium, Demetrium, et Theodorum sua signa ferentes præcedere cognoverunt. Sarracenis multus timor inhæsit, et Christianis spes melior crevit.—Od. Vital. lib. ix. Robert the Monk and Baldric relate the same circumstance and the same details.
[129] This tent was able to contain more than two thousand persons. Bohemond sent it into Italy, where it was preserved for a length of time.
[130] Gemaleddin, who of all the Oriental historians gives the greatest number of details upon the taking and the battle of Antioch, reports that a violent quarrel had broken out between the Turks and the Arabs; he even adds that the Arabs had retired before the battle, and that in the courseof it the Turks turned their arms against their allies.
[131] The leaders of the Crusades declared that the siege and the battle of Antioch had scarcely cost them ten thousand men.
[132] Corvini generis legatus, postea non rediit.—Bald. lib. iv.
[133] Albert d’Aix says a hundred thousand.
[134] Tasso makes Adhemar die at the siege of Jerusalem, and makes him die by the hands of a woman. Some historians attribute the canticle “Salve Regina” to Bishop Adhemar. The bishops of Puy, his successors, bear in their coat of arms the sword on one side and the pastoral staff on the other. It is added that the canons of the same city wore every year, at Easter, a cloak in the form of a cuirass.
[135] This anecdote, which is here quoted without giving it any more importance than it merits, is related in the Magnum Chronicon Belgicum, which is found in the collection of the historians of Germany of Pistorius. The author says the lion followed Geoffrey like a hare:—Eum sequitur, sicut lepus; et quamdiù fuit in terrâ, nunquam recedens, multa ei commoda contulit tam in venationibus quam in bello; qui carnes venaticas abundanter dabat. Leo verò quæcunque domino suo adversari videbat, prosternabat, quem, ut dicunt, in navi positum cùm domum rediret, derelinquere noluit, sed nolentibus eum, ut crudele animal, in navem recipere nautis, secutus est dominum suum, natando per mare, usque quo labore deficit.
The same fact is related by le Père Maimbourg, who adds to his recital this singular reflection. “Strange instruction of nature, which casts shame upon men by giving them, as she has done more than once, lions for masters.”