rdour for the fight, and equal
determination to shed their blood--the one to carry the town, the
other to defend it. The hatred which animated them was so violent,
that during the whole course of the siege, no Mussulman deputy came
to the camp of the besiegers, and the Christians did not even deign
to summon the town. Between such enemies, the shock could not be
other than terrible, and the victors implacable.

"On Thursday, 14th July 1199, at daybreak, the trumpets resounded,
and the whole Christian army stood to their arms. All the machines
were worked at once: the mangonels and engines poured on the
ramparts a shower of stones, while the battering-rams were brought
up close to their feet. The archers and slingers directed their
missiles with fatal effect against the troops who manned the walls,
while the most intrepid of the assailants planted scaling-ladders
on the places where the ascent appeared most practicable. On the
south, east, and north of the town, rolling towers advanced towards
the ramparts, in the midst of a violent tumult, and amidst the
cries of the workmen and soldiers. Godfrey appeared on the highest
platform of his wooden tower, accompanied by his brother Eustache
and Baudoin du Bourg. His example animated his followers: so
unerring was their aim, that all the javelins discharged from this
platform carried death among the besieged. Tancred, the Duke of
Normandy, and the Count of Flanders, combated at the head of their
followers: the knights and men-at-arms, animated with the same
ardour, pressed into the _melee_, and threw themselves into the
thickest of the fight.

"Nothing could equal the fury of the first shock of the Christians;
but they met every where the most determined resistance. Arrows and
javelins, boiling oil and water, with Greek fire, were poured down
incessantly on the assailants; while fourteen huge machines, which
the besieged had got time to oppose to those of the besiegers,
replied with effect to the fire of the more distant warlike
instruments. Issuing forth by one of the breaches in the rampart,
the Infidels made a sortie, and succeeded in burning some of the
machines of the Christians, and spread disorder through their army.
Towards the end of the day, the towers of Godfrey and Tancred were
so shatte