was stealing away with William
of Melun, when he with his companion was caught by Tancred and brought
back to the tent of Bohemond.

For a moment the look of things was changed by the arrival of
ambassadors from Egypt. To the Fatimite caliph of that country the
progress of the crusading arms had thus far brought with it but little
dissatisfaction. The humiliation of the Seljukian Turks could not fail
to bring gain to himself, if the flood of Latin conquests could be
checked and turned back in time. His generals besieged Jerusalem and
Tyre; and when the Fatimite once more ruled in Palestine, his envoys
hastened to the crusaders' camp to announce the deliverance of the Holy
Land from its oppressors, to assure to all unarmed and peaceable
pilgrims a month's unmolested sojourn in Jerusalem, and to promise them
his aid during their march, on condition that they should acknowledge
his supremacy within the limits of his Syrian empire.

The arguments and threats of the Caliph were alike thrown away. The
Latin chiefs disclaimed all interest in the feuds and quarrels of rival
sultans and in the fortunes of Mahometan sects. God himself had destined
Jerusalem for the Christians, and if any held it who were not
Christians, these were usurpers whose resistance must be punished by
their expulsion or their death. The envoys departed not encouraged by
this answer, and still more perplexed by the appearance of plenty and by
the magnificence of a camp in which they had expected to see a terrible
spectacle of disorder and misery.

The resolute persistence of the besiegers convinced Baghasian of the
need of reinforcements. These were hastening to him from Caesarea,
Aleppo, and other places, when they were cut off by Bohemond and
Raymond, who sent a multitude of heads to the envoys of the Fatimite
Caliph, and discharged many hundreds from their engines into the city of
Antioch. The Turks had their opportunity for reprisals when the arrival
of some Pisan and Genoese ships at the mouth of the Orontes drew off the
greater part of the besieging army. The crusaders were returning with
provisions and arms, when their enemies started upon them from an
ambuscade. The battle was fierce; but the defeat of Raymond, which
threatened dire disaster, was changed into victory on the arrival of
Godfrey and the Norman Robert, whose exploits equalled or surpassed, if
we are to believe the story, even those of Arthur, Lancelot, or
Tristram. Hundreds, if not