and discontented: Phirouz, a Syrian renegado, had
acquired the favor of the emir and the command of three towers; and the
merit of his repentance disguised to the Latins, and perhaps to himself,
the foul design of perfidy and treason. A secret correspondence, for
their mutual interest, was soon established between Phirouz and the
prince of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in the council of the chiefs,
that he could deliver the city into their hands. [921] But he claimed
the sovereignty of Antioch as the reward of his service; and the
proposal which had been rejected by the envy, was at length extorted
from the distress, of his equals. The nocturnal surprise was executed
by the French and Norman princes, who ascended in person the
scaling-ladders that were thrown from the walls: their new proselyte,
after the murder of his too scrupulous brother, embraced and introduced
the servants of Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and the
Moslems soon found, that although mercy was hopeless, resistance was
impotent.

But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victims themselves
were speedily encompassed and besieged by the innumerable forces of
Kerboga, prince of Mosul, who, with twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced
to the deliverance of Antioch. Five-and-twenty days the Christians spent
on the verge of destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and
the sultan left them only the choice of servitude or death. [93] In this
extremity they collected the relics of their strength, sallied from the
town, and in a single memorable day, annihilated or dispersed the host
of Turks and Arabians, which they might safely report to have consisted
of six hundred thousand men. [94] Their supernatural allies I shall
proceed to consider: the human causes of the victory of Antioch were the
fearless despair of the Franks; and the surprise, the discord, perhaps
the errors, of their unskilful and presumptuous adversaries. The battle
is described with as much disorder as it was fought; but we may observe
the tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace, enriched with the
luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above two thousand persons; we
may distinguish his three thousand guards, who were cased, the horse as
well as the men, in complete steel.

[Footnote 891: This bridge was over the Ifrin, not the Orontes, at a
distance of three leagues from Antioch. See Wilken, vol. i. p. 172.--M.]

[Footnote 90: For Antioch, see Pocock, (D