316 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE grievance that instead of cooperating generously with them in their great enterprise, he tried by diplomacy, bribery, and tricks to make use of them for his own ends. From Nicaea they marched on and soon won a vic- tory in the field over the Turks that opened up to them the route across Asia Minor. Alexius loitered in their wake, gathering up in western and southern Asia Minor the fruits of the victories which they had won, and later attempting to wrest from them the territories which they had occupied in Syria. Naturally afterward relations be- tween the crusaders and the Byzantine emperor were sel- dom cordial. After a terrible march across Asia Minor the crusaders reached Little Armenia, a Christian state founded by fugi- The tives from Greater Armenia, and hostile alike to crusaders the Saracens and the Byzantine Empire. As the crusaders approached Syria, the leaders began to bethink them of the territorial conquests which each might make. One of them left the main army and penetrated east of the Euphrates to Edessa, where he established a lord- ship of his own. This was nevertheless a useful exploit, as Edessa served to protect Syria from attack from that direc- tion. The main army laid siege to Antioch for seven months. It finally fell, owing to the treachery of one of the garrison with whom Bohemond had entered into secret negotiations, but in return for this service by Bohemond the other leaders had to relinquish Antioch to him, despite their oaths to Alexius and their own ambitions. But imme- diately the Christians were themselves penned up in Anti- och by a Turkish army, which had arrived just too late to save the city from their excesses. The crusading army was by now sadly depleted by famine, plague, and the desertion of many who had sailed away home. But the digging-up of what was supposed to be the lance that pierced the side of the crucified Christ suddenly inspired the host with re- newed vigor and enthusiasm, and the Turkish force was driven off. But then for several months longer the crusaders tarried at Antioch, recuperating while their leaders quar-
