ainly entreated the Pope to visit the city where
the disciples of St. Peter first received the Christian name; the people
were disheartened by the animosities and the selfish or crooked policy
of their chiefs. Raymond still hankered after the principality of
Antioch, and insisted that Bohemond and his people should share in the
last great enterprise of the crusade. More disgraceful than these feuds
were the scenes witnessed during the siege and after the conquest of
Marra. Heedlessness and waste soon brought the assailants to devour the
flesh of dogs and of human beings. The bodies of Turks were torn from
their sepulchres, ripped up for the gold which they were supposed to
have swallowed, and the fragments cooked and eaten. Of the besieged many
slew themselves to avoid falling into the hands of the Christians; to
some Bohemond, tempted by a large bribe, gave an assurance of safety.
When the massacre had begun he ordered these to be brought forward. The
weak and old he slaughtered; the rest he sent to the slave markets of
Antioch.

A weak attempt made by Alexius to detain the crusaders only spurred them
to more vigorous efforts. They had already left Antioch, and Laodicea
was in their hands, when he desired them to await his coming in June.
The chiefs, remembering the departure of Tatikios with his Byzantine
troops for Cyprus, retorted that he had broken his compact, and had
therefore no further claims on their obedience. Hastening on their way,
they crossed the plain of Berytos (Beyrout), overlooked by the eternal
snows of Lebanon, along the narrow strip of land whence the great
Phoenician cities had sent their seamen and their colonists, with all
the wealth of the East, to the shores of the Adriatic and the gates of
the Mediterranean. Having reached Jaffa, they turned inland to Ramlah, a
town sixteen miles only from Jerusalem.

Two days later the crusaders came in sight of the Holy City, the object
of their long pilgrimage, the cause of wretchedness and death to
millions. As their eyes rested on the scene hallowed to them through all
the associations of their faith, the crusaders passed in an instant from
fierce enthusiasm to a humiliation which showed itself in sighs and
tears. All fell on their knees, to kiss the sacred earth and to pour
forth thanksgivings that they had been suffered to look upon the desire
of their eyes. Putting aside their armor and their weapons, they
advanced in pilgrim's garb and with bare fee