But though the Crusaders were very angry, they did not stay to grieve
that Nicæa was not their own. They were glad, because they had subdued
so strong a city. They hastened on and broke into two bands that they
might more easily find food. But Turks on swift horses watched them and
rode back to tell their chief how carelessly the Crusaders marched.
The land was beautiful and rich, and Bohemond gave the command to
halt by a river that flowed through a grassy plain amongst clumps of
trees. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful. Tancred listened to the
heralds as they shouted three times over, ‘Save the Holy Sepulchre!’
and thought with joy that soon there might be no need for the heralds’
shout. But another cry ran through the tents! ‘The enemy is on us!’ Ere
men had time to arm, the clouds of dust beyond the river and the white
turbans and green vests that flashed through the dust, proved to every
man that the cry was true.
Arrows fell thick as rain. They glanced from the chain-mail of the
knights, but they entered the joints of the horses’ armour and made
them frantic with pain. The horns and drums and terrible yells of the
Turks maddened the horses still more. The Arab horses were lighter
and swifter than those of the knights. They could dart away when the
Crusaders attacked them and rush in again to attack in return.
Tancred was nearly killed. He had seen his brother fall. It may have
made him reckless. Bohemond’s sharp eyes saw that he was in the midst
of foemen and that his lance was broken. He dashed across the river,
swooped down on the Turks with a terrific yell, and bore Tancred safely
away.
But while the Crusaders were fighting, another band of Turks fell on
the camp and took it. The knights could not retake the camp and keep
the foe at bay at the same time. They had no thought of yielding, but
they saw that many of their followers were losing courage. Suddenly
they heard a shout of joy. Godfrey and his warriors were in sight. The
voices of the priests led the battle cry, ‘It is the will of God! It is
the will of God!’
The Turks were tired with the long fight. They could not resist this
new force. They were overcome, chased, and slain. Their camp fell into
the Crusaders’ hands. The knights found strange new weapons there,
and many camels and horses. They handled the curious Eastern arms in
wonder, and led the camels about in delight.
But a great danger was before them. A band of Turks had escaped. They
had not been able to conquer their foes, but they could injure them
still. They rode swiftly forward and burned the towns and trampled the
corn in the fields along the roads by which the Crusaders would have
to go. They rode forward for five hundred miles, and behind them they
left empty houses and barren lands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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