Nine or ten months later Peter Barthelemy paid the penalty of his life
for his fraud or his superstition. A bribe taken by his master Raymond
brought that chief into ill odor with his comrades, and let loose
against his chaplain the tongue of Arnold, the chaplain of Bohemond.
Raymond had traded on fresh visions of his clerk; and Arnold boldly
attacked him in his citadel by denying the genuineness of the Holy
Lance. Peter appealed to the ordeal of fire. He passed through the
flames, as it seemed, unhurt. The bystanders pressed to feel his flesh,
and were vehement in their rejoicings at the result which vindicated his
integrity. He had really received fatal injuries. Twelve days afterward
he died, and Raymond suffered greatly in his dignity and his influence.

The infidel was doomed; but the crusaders resolved to give him one
chance of escape. Peter the Hermit was sent as their envoy to Kerboga to
offer the alternative of departure from a land which St. Peter had
bestowed on the faithful, or of baptism which should leave him master of
the city and territory of Antioch. The reply was short and decisive. The
Turk would not embrace an idolatry which he hated and despised, nor
would he give up soil which belonged to him by right of conquest. The
report of the hermit raised the spirit of the crusaders to fever heat;
and on the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul they marched out in twelve
divisions, in remembrance of the mission of the Twelve Apostles, while
Raymond of Toulouse remained to prevent the escape of the Turks shut up
in the citadel. The Holy Lance was borne by the papal legate, Adhemar,
Bishop of Puy; and the morning air laden with the perfume of roses was
now regarded as a sign assuring them of the divine favor. They were
prepared to see good omens in everything; and they went in full
confidence that departed saints would, as they had been told, take part
in the battle and smite down the infidel. The fight--one of brute force
on the Christian side, of some little skill as well as strength on the
other--had gone on for some time when such help seemed to become
needful. Tancred had hurried to the aid of Bohemond, who was grievously
pressed by Kilidje Arslan; and Kerboga was bearing heavily on Godfrey
and Hugh of Vermandois, when, clothed in white armor and riding on white
horses, some human forms were seen on the neighboring heights. "The
saints are coming to your aid," shouted the Bishop of Puy, and the
people saw in th