After eight days of ineffectual fighting, Saladin changed his camp to the east side, pitching it at the gate of St. Stephen, where the valley of the Kedron has no great depth. In this new position, Saladin was able to erect machines for casting stones and arrows into the city. He also set his men to work undermining the walls. In two days they had undermined fifteen toises of the wall, the Christians not being able to countermine “because they were afraid of the showers of missiles from the mangonels and machines.” The Saracens fired the supports of their mines, and as much of the wall as had been mined fell down. Then the besieged, finding that no hope remained of holding the town, held a hasty council as to what should be done. For now a universal panic had seized the soldiers; they ran to the churches instead of to the ramparts, and while the defenders of the city prayed within the walls of the church, the priests formed processions and walked round the streets chanting psalms. Let Bernard the Treasurer tell this story in his own words: “The bourgeois, knights, and men of arms, in the council, agreed that it would be better to sally forth and for all to die. But the patriarch advised them to the contrary. ‘Sirs, if there were no other way, this would be good advice, but if we destroy ourselves and let the lives perish which we may save, it is not well, because for every man in this town there are fifty women and children, whom, if we die, the Saracens will take and will convert to their own faith, and so they will all be lost to God. But if, by the help of God, we can gain permission, at least, to go out from here and betake ourselves to Christian soil, that would seem to me the better course.’ They all agreed to this advice. Then they took Balian of Ibelin and prayed him to go to Saladin and make what terms of peace he could. He went and spoke to him. And while he was yet speaking with Saladin about delivering up the city, the Turks, bringing ladders and fixing them against the walls, made another assault. And, indeed, already ten or twelve banners were mounted upon the ramparts, or had entered where the wall had been undermined and had fallen down. When Saladin saw his men and his banners on the walls, he said to Balian, ‘Why do you talk to me about delivering up the city, when you see my people ready to enter? It is too late now; the city is mine already.’ And even while they spoke, our Lord gave such courage to the Christians who were on the walls, that they made the Saracens thereon give way and fall to the ground, and chased them out of the moat. Saladin, when he saw it, was much ashamed and troubled. Then he said to Balian that he might go back, because he would do nothing more at the time, but that he might come again the next day, when he would willingly listen to what he had to say.... The ladies of Jerusalem took cauldrons and placed them before Mount Calvary, and having filled them with cold water, put their daughters