ty was
invested by the Turks. The Sultan of Persia had raised an immense army,
which he intrusted to the command of Kerbogha, the Emir of Mosul, with
instructions to sweep the Christian locusts from the face of the land.
The Emir effected junction with Kilij Aslaun, and the two armies
surrounded the city. Discouragement took complete possession of the
Christian host, and numbers of them contrived to elude the vigilance of
the besiegers, and escape to Count Stephen of Blots at Alexandretta, to
whom they related the most exaggerated tales of the misery they had
endured, and the utter hopelessness of continuing the war. Stephen
forthwith broke up his camp and retreated towards Constantinople. On
his way he was met by the Emperor Alexius, at the head of a
considerable force, hastening to take possession of the conquests made
by the Christians in Asia. As soon as he heard of their woeful plight,
he turned back, and proceeded with the Count of Blots to
Constantinople, leaving the remnant of the crusaders to shift for
themselves.

The news of this defection increased the discouragement at Antioch. All
the useless horses of the army had been slain and eaten, and dogs,
cats, and rats were sold at enormous prices. Even vermin were becoming
scarce. With increasing famine came a pestilence, so that in a short
time but sixty thousand remained of the three hundred thousand that had
originally invested Antioch. But this bitter extremity, while it
annihilated the energy of the host, only served to knit the leaders
more firmly together; and Bohemund, Godfrey, and Tancred swore never to
desert the cause as long as life lasted. The former strove in vain to
reanimate the courage of his followers. They were weary and sick at
heart, and his menaces and promises were alike thrown away. Some of
them had shut themselves up in the houses, and refused to come forth.
Bohemund, to drive them to their duty, set fire to the whole quarter,
and many of them perished in the flames, while the rest of the army
looked on with the utmost indifference. Bohemund, animated himself by a
worldly spirit, did not know the true character of the crusaders, nor
understand the religious madness which had brought them in such shoals
from Europe. A priest, more clear-sighted, devised a scheme which
restored all their confidence, and inspired them with a courage so
wonderful as to make the poor sixty thousand emaciated, sick, and
starving zealots, put to flight the well