time
throughout Western Asia, Corbogha, sultan of Mossoul (hard by what was
ancient Nineveh), commanded all the hostile forces, and four days after
the capture of Antioch he was already completely round the place,
enclosing the crusaders within the walls of which they had just become
the masters. They were thus and all on a sudden besieged in their turn,
having even in the very midst of them, in the citadel which still held
out, a hostile force. Whilst they had been besieging Antioch, the
Emperor Alexis Comnenus had begun to march with an army to get his share
in their successes, and was advancing into Asia Minor when he heard that
the Mussulmans, in immense numbers, were investing the Christian army in
Antioch, and not in a condition, it was said, to hold out long. The
emperor immediately retraced his steps towards Constantinople, and the
crusaders found that they had no Greek aid to hope for. The blockade,
becoming stricter day by day, soon brought about a horrible famine in
Antioch. Instead of repeating here, in general terms, the ordinary
descriptions of this cruel scourge, we will reproduce its particular
and striking features as they have been traced out by contemporary
chroniclers. "The Christian people," says William of Tyre, "had recourse
before long, to procure themselves any food whatever, to all sorts of
shameful means. Nobles, free men, did not blush to hungrily stretch out
the hand to nobodies, asking with troublesome pertinacity for what was
too often refused. There were seen the very strongest, those whom their
signal valor had rendered illustrious in the midst of the army, now
supported on crutches, dragging themselves half-dead along the streets
and in the public places; and, if they did not speak, at any rate they
showed themselves, with countenances irrecognizable, silently begging
alms of every passer-by. No self-respect restrained matrons or young
women heretofore accustomed to severe restraints; they walked hither and
thither, with pallid faces, groaning and searching everywhere for
somewhat to eat; and they in whom the pangs of hunger had not
extinguished every spark of modesty went and hid themselves in the most
secret places, and gnawed their hearts in silence, preferring to die of
want rather than beg in public. Children still in the cradle, unable to
get milk, were exposed at the cross-roads, crying in vain for their usual
nourishment; and men, women, and children, all threw themselve