The

saint), and (ever) of our Lady, we dub thee knight." church bells pealed out; the church rang with acclamations; the knight mounted his horse, and rode round the lists or over the green meadows, amid the shouts of the rejoicing multitude.

But what young knight, thus dedicated, could doubt that the conquest of the Holy Land was among his primary duties, his noblest privileges? Every knight was a soldier of the Cross; every soldier of the Cross almost enlisted for this great object.

. . The Infidel, as much as the giant or dragon of romance, was the natural foe of the Christian. Every oppressed Christian,—and every Christian in the Holy Land was oppressed,the object of his sworn protection. Slaying Saracens took rank with fastings, penitential discipline, visits to shrines, even alms-givings, as meritorious of the Divine mercy. So by the Crusades chivalry became more religious, religion more chivalrous; for it was now no unusual, no startling sight, as the knight had become in one sense part of the hierarchy, to behold bishops and priests serving, fighting as knights. In a holy war, the bishop and the abbot stood side by side with the prince or the noble; struck as lusty blows; if they conquered, disdained not the fame; if they fell, supposed that they had as good a right to the honour of martyrdom.

Even the most incongruous and discordant part of chivalry, the devotion to the female sex, took a religious tone. There was one Lady of whom, high above all and beyond all, every knight was the special servant. It has been remarked that in the French language the Saviour and His Virgin Mother are worshipped under feudal titles (Notre Seigneur, Notre Dame). If the adoration of the Virgin, the culminating point of chivalrous devotion to the female sex, is at times leavened with phrases too nearly allied with human passion, the general tone to the earthly mistress is purified in word, if not always in thought, by the reverence which belongs to the Queen of heaven. This was the poetry of chivalry, the religious poetry; and in an imaginative age the poetry, if far, very far, above the actual life, cannot be absolutely without influence on that life. If this ideal love, in general, existed only in the outward phrase, in the ceremonial address, in the

sonnet, or in the song, yet on the whole the elevation, even the inharmonious religiousness, of chivalry must have wrought for the benefit of mankind. War itself became, if not less sanguinary, conducted with more mutual respect, with some restraint. Christian chivalry, in Spain and in the Holy Land, encountered Asiatic Mahommedan chivalry. For in the Arab, in most of the Oriental races, there was a native chivalry, as among the Teutonic or European Christians. If Achilles, as has been finely said, is a model of knighthood, so is the Arabian Antar ; both Achilles and Antar may meet in Richard Cœur de Lion; though Saladin, perhaps (and Saladin described by Christian as well as Mahommedan writers), may transcend all three. Hence sprang courtesy, at least an initiatory humanity in war.

The most intolerant strife worked itself into something bordering on toleration. There was a contest of honour, as of

arms.

If, finally, the Crusades infused into the mind of Europe a thirst for persecution long indelible,—if they furnished an authority for persecution which wasted continents and darkened centuries with mutual hostility, yet chivalry, at once, as it were, the parent and the child of the Crusades, left upon European manners, especially in the high-born class, a punctilious regard for honour, a generous reverence for justice, and a hatred (perhaps a too narrow and aristocratical hatred) of injustice; a Teutonic respect for the fair sex; an element, in short, of true nobleness, of refinement, of gentleness, and of delicacy. The chivalrous word courtesy designates a new virtue, not ordained by our religion; and words are not formed but out of the wants, usages, and sentiments of men; and courtesy is not yet an obsolete term. Even gallantry, now too often sunk to a frivolous or unnatural sense, yet retains something of its old nobility, when it comprehended valour, frankness, honourable devotion to woman. The age of Chivalry may be gone, but the influences of Chivalry, it may be hoped, mingling with and softened by purer religion, will be the imperishable heirloom of social man.1

1 Abridged from chap. vi. vol. iv. fourth edit.

301

THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM.

A.D. 1099.

(From "History of the Life of Richard Cœur de Lion," by G. P. R. JAMES.)

DURING their march from Archas through Palestine all the A.D. associations of the land had been crowding upon the imagina- 1099 tions of the pilgrims of the Cross. The names of Ramula, Sidon, Emaus, had all awakened the memories of what had passed in those places in earlier days; and at the latter town, when they encamped for the evening, the host was joined by envoys from the Christians at Bethlehem, beseeching the leaders to send forward a body of men to protect that town from the threatened vengeance of the Saracens. Tancred was accordingly despatched, with a hundred lances, to give the assistance required: but during the whole of that night the host of the Crusade knew no repose. The name of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, passed from mouth to mouth, recollections were awakened that banished sleep, all the enthusiasms of their nature were aroused, zeal, and tenderness, and love, and hope, and indignation, for that sweet religion which they all professed, scared away slumber from every eye, and some hours before darkness disappeared the excitement became so great, that the army arrayed itself spontaneously, and began to move towards Jerusalem.

It was a beautiful summer morning, we are told, in the month of June, and ere the great body of the Crusade had proceeded many miles the day broke in all the majesty of Eastern light. They had just reached the summit of a gentle hill, when, starting up with the rapidity which characterises the dawn of Syria, the sun rushed forth, and they beheld in the distance a rocky steep, crowned with towers, and walls, and domes, and minarets. "Jerusalem! Jerusalem!" became the cry throughout the army, as the object of all their toil, and labour, and

strife, and suffering appeared before their eyes. All that they had endured up to that moment,-weariness, thirst, famine, pestilence, and the sword,-were forgotten in exceeding great joy, or only remembered to render that joy more ecstatic and overpowering. The effect could scarcely be borne: some laughed, some wept, some shouted "Hierosolyma!" some cast themselves on the ground, some fainted, and some died upon the spot.

The more devout of the pilgrims pulled off their shoes, and approached the scene of our redemption barefoot; but the general feeling which succeeded to the emotions produced by the first sight of the city was wrath at seeing it in the hands of the Infidel. The soldiery advanced with a strong determination of spending the last drop of their blood to free the Redeemer's tomb from the power of the Mussulman; and after a skirmish, in which some Saracens, who had come forth to reconnoitre, were driven in, the barbicans were carried by Godfrey, Tancred, and others, the wall itself was reached, and the assault commenced with mattocks, axes, and whatever other instruments could be procured. Some short ladders enabled the crusaders to climb up the wall, so as to urge the strife with the enemy upon the battlements; but those machines were not sufficiently tall or numerous to afford any prospect of success. The Saracens assailed the Christians, as they approached, with stones, arrows, and Greek fire; and as night advanced it was found necessary to withdraw the troops of the Crusade, and to delay any farther attack till catapults, mangonels, and the usual implements of war had been provided. Wood for the construction of these machines was procured from Sichon; some Genoese seamen, who had landed at Jaffa, and who were famous for their skill in mechanics, aided greatly in preparing the artillery afterwards used: but still much time was occupied in this task; and in the meanwhile a precaution taken by the commander of the Egyptians, named Iftikhur-eddaulé, or the Glory of the Empire, operated terribly against the Christians. In the hottest and most arid part of the year, he had filled up all the wells, and the streams had been dried by the sun such was the drought in the Christain camp, that a drop of liquid was not to be procured for a

piece of gold. Springs, however, were at length discovered at a considerable distance from the city; but the service of procuring water was a very dangerous one, as the Mussulman forces infested the whole of the surrounding country, and cut off any small bodies which strayed from the Christian camp.

It is scarcely possible to arrive with any degree of certainty at the number of men with which the crusading leaders now besieged Jerusalem. It has been estimated at every different amount, from forty thousand to nearly a million. The former is the lowest number given by the crusaders themselves; the latter, we need hardly say, is the highest estimate of the Arabs....

Of the forces within the city of Jerusalem itself, we have better information, the regular garrison consisting of forty thousand men, besides both a vast number of Mussulman peasantry, who had taken refuge in the city, and the population which it contained at other times. It would certainly appear that Jerusalem presented in its defence as many men in a condition to bear arms as those which sat down before its walls. It was strongly fortified also, and its inhabitants were fresh, vigorous, and well supplied, while the crusaders were wearied, wasted, and without provisions. This, therefore, was in every respect the greatest and most difficult enterprise, as well as the crowning object, of the whole Crusade.

The modern city comprised within its fortifications four of the mountains, or rather hills, on which the capital of the Hebrews was anciently seated. These were Moria, Golgotha, Bezetha, and Acra; Mount Sion had been left out in the circuit of the walls, though it would appear that they extended some way up the rise of that hill. On three sides the place was defended by deep valleys; the Valley of Josaphat on the east, that of Ennom on the south, and a lateral branch of the same valley on the west on the north the approach was open. A narrow valley also divided the old town into two parts, the largest of which was Mount Moria, a great portion of Sion being, as we said, left out.

The camp of the crusaders, as at first marked out, extended from the north-eastern angle to the most western gate of the city; Godfrey himself with his troops ending the line towards the east, and the Count of St. Giles towards the west.

But