Thus fell Antioch, one hundred and seventy years after its recovery from the dominion of the infidels by the crusaders, under the command of the valiant Godfrey, Boemond, and Tancred. Near six centuries of Moslem domination have now again rolled over the ancient Queen of the East, but the genius of destruction which accompanied the footsteps of the armies of the ferocious Bendocdar has ever since presided over the spot. The once fair and flourishing capital of Syria, the ancient “throne of the successors of Alexander, the seat of Roman government in the east, which had been decorated by Cæsar with the titles of free, and holy, and inviolate,” is, at this day, nothing more than a miserable mud village; and the ancient and illustrious church of Antioch, which, in the fourth century of the christian era, numbered one hundred thousand persons, now consists only of a few Greek families, who still cling to the christian faith amid the insults and persecutions of the infidels. Immediately after the destruction of the city, Bendocdar caused the following letter to be written to the prince of Antioch, who was at Tripoli: “Since not a soul has escaped to tell you what has happened, we will undertake the pleasing task of informing you.... We have slain all whom you appointed to defend Antioch. We have crushed your knights beneath the feet of our horses, and have given up your provinces to pillage: your gold and silver have been divided amongst us by the quintal, and four of your women have been bought and sold for a crown. There is not a single christian in the province that does not now march bound before us, nor a single young girl that is not in our possession. Your churches have been made level with the dust, and our chariot wheels have passed over the sites of your dwellings. If you had seen the temples of your God destroyed, the crosses broken, and the leaves of the gospel torn and scattered to the winds of heaven; if you had seen your Mussulman enemy marching into your tabernacles, and immolating upon your shrines and your altars, the priest, the deacon, and the bishop; if you had seen your palaces delivered to the flames, and the bodies of the dead consumed by the fire of this world, whilst their souls were burning in the everlasting _fire of_ HELL; doubtless, you would have exclaimed, _Lord, I am become but as dust_; your soul would have been ready to start from its earthly tenement, and your eyes would have rained down tears sufficient to have extinguished the fires that we have kindled around you.”[137]