far different from the undisciplined hordes which Peter the Hermit had accompanied. The religions zeal of the Cru- saders was at its best. Priests went daily through the host, urging the warriors to obedience, to prayer, and to courage. "This mass of warriors," says Baudri,[1] " was the image of the Church of God, and Solomon could have said on seeing them, 'How beautiful art thou, O my well beloved! how like to a tabernacle of cedar!'" "The two armies," says
Siege and Capture of Nicea
capture of Matthew of Edwssa, "attacked with equal fury ; the horses shrank from the clash of arms, from the whizzing of arrows; the plain was covered with javelins and the débris of war." As the siege progressed both parties became more bitter in their hostility. The Crusaders imitated the Moslems in barbarism. Christian knights cut off the heads of their enemies, and tied them to their saddles. A thousand of these heads were hurled by the besieging machinery of the Crusaders into the city. Another thousand were sent as a trophy to Alexis in Constantinople. On the other side, the besieged threw down boiling oil on the besiegers, and defeat- ed many attempts made to destroy the walls. The breaches made during the day were repaired during the night. To prevent the Turks from receiving provisions by the lake, the Crusaders, in the seventh week of the siege, transported a considerable number of boats overland from Civitot, the modern Guemlik, into the lake. The besieged were at once aston- ished and discouraged by this manoeuvre, while the besiegers pressed on the siege with renewed vigor. Ko part of the walls was left unassailed. A breach was at length effected, and one of the strongest towers was undermined and fell. The day after, the wife of the sultan, with her two children, in endeavoring to escape by the lake, fell into the hands of the Christians. On every side were indications that the city must shortly surrender. The surprise of the Crusaders was therefore great when, one morning at dawn, they saw the
standard of Alexis, the Emperor of Rome, flying triumphantly above the walls.
- ↑ "Bibliothèque des Croisades," t. i.
