Turks, unable longer to sustain the attack and taking to flight, either cast themselves down headlong, or fell by the hand of their enemies. Many were reserved for slavery; a few for ransom. Among these was the governor of the city, and a bishop named Arcadius. The scene was enough to excite laughter in a by-stander, to see a Turk disgorging bezants,[1] when struck on the neck by the fist of a Christian. The wretched males, through fear of extreme indigence, had hid money in their mouths; the females in parts not to be particularized: you perceive that my narrative blushes to speak plainly, but the reader understands what I wish, or rather what I wish not to speak.
Still, however, the emperor of Babylon could not be at rest, but would frequently send commanders and armies to attack the Franks. Arriving at Ascalon on ship-board, they scoured about Ramula, taking advantage of the king's occupation, who was then busied in the contest with Cæsarea. They frequently, therefore, by depopulating the country, irritated him to engage. But he, with equal subtlety, that their mad impetuosity might subside, suffered them, when eagerly advancing, to grow languid by declining battle. By this procrastination he effected that many, weary of delay, withdrew, while he attacked the remainder, consisting of eleven thousand horse and twenty-one thousand infantry, with his own two hundred and fifty cavalry and less than seven hundred foot. Addressing a few words to his soldiers, to whom he pledged victory if they persevered, and fame if they fell; and calling to their recollection that if they fled France was a great way off, he dashed first against the enemy; and the contest continuing for some time, when he saw his ranks giving way, he remedied circumstances which seemed almost bordering on desperation. Thus dismaying
- ↑ Fulcher relates, with great coolness, that he saw the bodies of the Turks, who were slain at Cæsarea, piled up and burned, in order to obtain the bezants which they had swallowed. Hist. Hierosol. ap. Du Chesne, tom. iv. 845. This practice of swallowing money is referred to by pope Urban, and, by his account, the merely burning dead bodies to obtain the hoard was a very humble imitation of the Saracen custom, with respect to those who visited Jerusalem before the crusades; which was to put scammony in their drink to make them vomit, and if this did not produce the desired effect, they proceeded to immediate incision! Guibert Abbas. Opera, p. 379.
