n enemy. By the experience of a recent siege, and a three years'
possession, the Saracens of Egypt had been taught to discern, and in
some degree to remedy, the defects of a place, which religion as well
as honor forbade them to resign. Aladin, or Iftikhar, the caliph's
lieutenant, was intrusted with the defence: his policy strove to
restrain the native Christians by the dread of their own ruin and
that of the holy sepulchre; to animate the Moslems by the assurance of
temporal and eternal rewards. His garrison is said to have consisted
of forty thousand Turks and Arabians; and if he could muster twenty
thousand of the inhabitants, it must be confessed that the besieged were
more numerous than the besieging army. [106] Had the diminished strength
and numbers of the Latins allowed them to grasp the whole circumference
of four thousand yards, (about two English miles and a half, [107] to
what useful purpose should they have descended into the valley of Ben
Hinnom and torrent of Cedron, [108] or approach the precipices of the
south and east, from whence they had nothing either to hope or fear?
Their siege was more reasonably directed against the northern and
western sides of the city. Godfrey of Bouillon erected his standard on
the first swell of Mount Calvary: to the left, as far as St. Stephen's
gate, the line of attack was continued by Tancred and the two Roberts;
and Count Raymond established his quarters from the citadel to the foot
of Mount Sion, which was no longer included within the precincts of the
city. On the fifth day, the crusaders made a general assault, in the
fanatic hope of battering down the walls without engines, and of scaling
them without ladders. By the dint of brutal force, they burst the first
barrier; but they were driven back with shame and slaughter to the camp:
the influence of vision and prophecy was deadened by the too frequent
abuse of those pious stratagems; and time and labor were found to be
the only means of victory. The time of the siege was indeed fulfilled
in forty days, but they were forty days of calamity and anguish. A
repetition of the old complaint of famine may be imputed in some degree
to the voracious or disorderly appetite of the Franks; but the stony
soil of Jerusalem is almost destitute of water; the scanty springs and
hasty torrents were dry in the summer season; nor was the thirst of the
besiegers relieved, as in the city, by the artificial supply of cisterns
and aqueducts.