ould have sufficed to disorganize and rout them as
they clambered over the defiles of Mount Taurus; nor could Raymond,
recovering from a terrible illness, or Godfrey, suffering from wounds
inflicted by a bear, have done much to help them. But for the present
their enemies were dismayed; and Baldwin, brother of Godfrey, hastened
with eagerness to obey a summons which besought him to aid the Greek or
Armenian tyrant of Edessa. As Alexius had done to his brother, so this
chief welcomed Baldwin as his son; but Baldwin, having once entered into
the city, cared nothing for the means which had brought him thither, and
the death of his adoptive father was followed by the establishment at
Edessa of a Latin principality which lasted for fifty-four, or, as some
have thought, forty-seven years. Baldwin had anticipated the
unconditional surrender of Samosata; but the Turkish governor had some
of the Edessenes in his power, and he refused to give up the city except
on the payment of ten thousand gold pieces. The Turk shortly afterward
fell into Baldwin's hands, and was put to death.

Meanwhile the main army of the crusaders was advancing toward the Syrian
capital (Antioch), that ancient and luxurious city whose fame had gone
over the whole Roman world for its magnificence, its unbounded wealth,
its soft delights, and its unholy pleasures. The days of its greatest
splendor had passed away. Its walls were partially in ruins; its
buildings were in some parts crumbling away or had already fallen; but
against assailants utterly ignorant and awkward in all that relates to
the blockade of cities it was still a formidable position. Nor could
they invest it until they had passed the iron bridge--so called from its
iron-plated gates--of nine stone arches, which spanned the stream of the
Ifrin at a distance of nine miles from the city. This bridge was carried
by the impetuous charge of Robert of Normandy, aided by the more steady
efforts of Godfrey; and in the language of an age which delighted in
round numbers, a hundred thousand warriors hurried across to seize the
splendid prize which now seemed almost within their grasp.

But the city was in the hands of men who had been long accustomed to
despise the Greeks, and who had not yet learned to respect the valor of
the Latins. Preparing himself for a resolute defence, the Seljukian
governor Baghasian had sent away as useless, if not mischievous, most of
the Christians within the town; and the cr