Raymond alone met with some resistance. Made aware of the victory of
the Christians by the cries of the Mussulmans, the clash of arms, and
the tumult from the interior of the city, he roused the courage of
his soldiers. These brave men, impatient to join their companions,
abandoned their tower and their machines, which they could no longer
move. They planted their ladders, and sticking their swords into the
walls as steps, they mounted to the ramparts; they were preceded by
the Count de Toulouse, Raymond Pelet, the Bishop of Bira, the Count de
Die, and William de Sabran. Nothing could now stop them; they dispersed
the Saracens, who, with their Emir, flew for refuge to the fortress of
David; and soon all the Crusaders in Jerusalem met together, embraced,
wept with joy, and gave all their attention to securing their victory.
In the mean time despair had for a moment rallied the bravest of the
Saracens; they fell with impetuosity upon the Christians, who were
advancing in disorder, bent upon pillage. The latter were beginning to
give way before the enemy they had conquered, when Evrard de Preysaie,
whose bravery Ralph of Caën has celebrated, revived the courage of his
companions, placed himself at their head, and once more carried terror
among the infidels. From that moment the Crusaders had no longer an
enemy to contend with.
History has remarked that the Christians entered Jerusalem on a
Friday, at three o’clock in the afternoon, which was the day and
the hour at which Christ expired for the salvation of mankind. This
memorable epoch ought to have recalled to their hearts a feeling of
mercy; but, irritated by the menaces and long insults of the Saracens,
exasperated by the various ills they had undergone during the siege,
and the resistance they had met with, even in the city, they filled
the Jerusalem they came to deliver, and which they considered as
their future country, with blood and mourning. The carnage was soon
general, such as escaped the swords of the soldiers of Godfrey and
Tancred, becoming the victims of the Provençals, equally thirsty for
blood. The Saracens were indiscriminately massacred in the streets
and in their houses; Jerusalem had no asylum for the vanquished; some
tried to escape death by precipitating themselves from the ramparts,
whilst others ran in crowds to seek refuge in the palaces, the towers,
and particularly in the mosques, but nowhere could they escape the
murderous pursuit of the Christians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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