When arrived at this last-named city, the Christians had only a march of sixteen miles to be before Jerusalem. The leaders held a council, in which some of them proposed to go and attack the infidels in Egypt, instead of undertaking the siege of the holy city.[154] “When,” said they, “we shall have conquered the sultan of Egypt, the cities of Alexandria and Cairo, with Palestine and most of the kingdoms of the East, will fall under our power. If we go straight to Jerusalem, we shall want both water and provisions, and we shall be obliged to raise the siege, without having the power to undertake anything else.” Such of the leaders as did not agree with this opinion, answered, “That the Christian army amounted to no more than fifty thousand combatants, and that it would be madness to begin a march to distant, and, to them, unknown regions, and where they could look for no assistance. On all sides they must expect dangers and obstacles; nowhere should they be free from the dread of want of provisions; but the route to Jerusalem was much more easy than that to Alexandria or Cairo. The Crusaders could pursue no wiser plan than to continue their march, and prosecute the enterprise they had begun, leaving it to Providence to provide for their wants, and protect them from thirst and famine.” This latter opinion was adopted, and the army received the signal for departure. The cities which lay in the route of the Crusaders were all abandoned by the infidels. The greater part of the pilgrims endeavoured to get in advance of each other, that they might be the first to obtain possession of the places and castles that were thus left without inhabitants. The Crusaders, says Raymond d’Agiles, had agreed among themselves, that when one of the leaders had planted his standard upon a city, or had placed any mark whatever on the door of a house, he should become the legitimate possessor of it. This imprudent agreement had given birth to ambition and covetousness in the soldiers as well as the barons. Many, in the hope of obtaining rich possessions, abandoned their colours, wandered about the country, and spread themselves even as far as the banks of the Jordan. In the mean time, those to whom, according to the expression of the historians, _nothing was more dear than the commandments of God_, advanced, barefooted, under the standard of the cross, lamenting the error of their brethren. When they arrived at Emmaus, a considerable city in the times of the Maccabees, and which was then no more than a large village, known under the name of Nicopolis, some Christians of Bethlehem came to implore their assistance. Touched with their prayers, Tancred set out in the middle of the night with a detachment of three hundred men, and planted the flag of the Crusaders upon the walls of the city, at the same hour in which Christ was born and was announced to the shepherds of Judea.