and his faithfulness; but he had made up his mind that Antioch should
fall that night, and that night by means of a rope ladder Bohemond with
about sixty followers (the ropes broke before more could ascend) climbed
up the wall. Seizing ten towers, of which all the guards were killed,
they opened a gate, and the Christian host rushed in. The banner of
Bohemond rose on one of the towers; the trumpets sounded for the onset,
and a carnage began in which at first the assailants took no heed to
distinguish between the Christian and the Turk. In the awful confusion
of the moment some of the besieged made their way to the citadel, and
there shut themselves in, ready to resist to the death. Of the rest few
escaped; ten thousand, it is said, were massacred. Baghasian with some
friends passed out beyond the besiegers' lines, but, fainting from loss
of blood, he fell from his horse, and his companions hurried on. A
Syrian Christian heard his groans, and striking off his head carried the
prize to the camp of the conquerors. Phirouz lived to be a second time a
renegade, and to close his career as a thief.

The victory was for the crusaders a change from famine to abundance; and
their feasting was accompanied by the wildest riot and the most filthy
debauchery. But if heedless waste may have been one of the most venial
of their sins, it was the greatest of their blunders. The reports which
spoke of the approach of the Persians were not false. The Turks within
the citadel suddenly found that they were rather besiegers than
besieged, and that the Christians' were hemmed in by the myriads of
Kerboga, Prince of Mosul, and the warriors of Kilidje Arslan. The old
horrors of famine were now repeated, but in greater intensity; and the
doom of the Latin host seemed now to be sealed.

Stephen, Count of Chartres, had deserted his companions before the fall
of the city; others now followed his example, and with him set out on
their return to Europe. In Phrygia, Stephen encountered the emperor
Alexius, who was marching to the aid of the crusaders, not only with a
Greek army, but with a force of well-appointed pilgrims who had reached
Constantinople after the departure of Godfrey and his fellows. The story
told by Stephen drove out of his head every thought except that of his
own safety. The order for retreat was given; and the pilgrim warriors,
not less than the Greeks, were compelled to turn their faces westward.

In Antioch the crusading soldier