A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 499 pages of information about A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 1.

A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 499 pages of information about A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 1.
the chiefs in person sustained the first shock; and the duke of Normandy, Robert Shorthose, took in his hand his white banner, embroidered with gold, and waving it over his head, threw himself upon the Turks, shouting, “God willeth it!  God willeth it!” Bohemond obstinately sought out Kilidge-Arslan in the fray; but at the same time he sent messengers in all haste to Godfrey de Bouillon, as yet but a little way off, to summon him to their aid.  Godfrey galloped up, and, with some fifty of his knights, preceding the rest of his army, was the first to throw himself into the midst of the Turks.  Towards mid-day the whole of the first body arrived, with standards flying, with the sound of trumpets and with the shouting of warriors.  Kilidge-Arslan and his troops fell back upon the heights whence they had descended.  The crusaders, without taking breath, ascended in pursuit.  The Turks saw themselves shut in by a forest of lances, and fled over wood and rock; and “two days afterwards they were still flying,” says Albert of Aix, “though none pursued them, unless it were God himself.”  The victory of Doryleum opened the whole country to the crusaders, and they resumed their march towards Syria, paying their sole attention to not separating again.

It was not long before they had to grapple with other dangers against which bravery could do nothing.  They were crossing, under a broiling sun, deserted tracts which their enemies had taken good care to ravage.  Water and forage were not to be had; the men suffered intolerably from thirst; horses died by hundreds; at the head of their troops marched knights mounted on asses or oxen; their favorite amusement, the chase, became impossible for them; for their hawking-birds too—­the falcons and gerfalcons they had brought with them—­languished and died beneath the excessive heat.  One incident obtained for the crusaders a momentary relief.  The dogs which followed the army, prowling in all directions, one day returned with their paws and coats wet; they had, therefore, found water; and the soldiers set themselves to look for it, and, in fact, discovered a small river in a remote valley.  They got water-drunk, and more than three hundred men, it is said, were affected by it and died.

On arriving in Pisidia, a country intersected by Water-courses, meadows, and woods, the army rested several days; but at that very point two of its most competent and most respected chiefs were very nearly taken from it.  Count Raymond of Toulouse, who was also called Raymond of Saint-Gilles, fell so ill that the bishop of Orange was reading over him the prayers for the dying, when one of those present cried out that the count would assuredly live, for that the prayers of his patron saint, Gilles, had obtained for him a truce with death.  And Raymond recovered.  Godfrey de Bouillon, again, whilst riding in a forest, came upon a pilgrim attacked by a bear, and all but fallen a victim to the ferocious beast.  The duke drew

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A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.