ing so dainty, that they would
only eat particular parts of the beast. So insane was their extravagance,
that in less than ten days famine began to stare them in the face. After
making a fruitless attempt to gain possession of the city by a _coup de
main_, they, starving themselves, sat down to starve out the enemy. But
with want came a cooling of enthusiasm. The chiefs began to grow weary of
the expedition. Baldwin had previously detached himself from the main body
of the army, and, proceeding to Edessa, had intrigued himself into the
supreme power in that little principality. The other leaders were animated
with less zeal than heretofore. Stephen of Chartres and Hugh of Vermandois
began to waver, unable to endure the privations which their own folly and
profusion had brought upon them. Even Peter the Hermit became sick at
heart ere all was over. When the famine had become so urgent that they
were reduced to eat human flesh in the extremity of their hunger, Bohemund
and Robert of Flanders set forth on an expedition to procure a supply.
They were in a slight degree successful; but the relief they brought was
not economised, and in two days they were as destitute as before.
Faticius, the Greek commander and representative of Alexius, deserted with
his division under pretence of seeking for food, and his example was
followed by various bodies of Crusaders.

Misery was rife among those who remained, and they strove to alleviate it
by a diligent attention to signs and omens. These, with extraordinary
visions seen by the enthusiastic, alternately cheered and depressed them
according as they foretold the triumph or pictured the reverses of the
cross. At one time a violent hurricane arose, levelling great trees with
the ground, and blowing down the tents of the Christian leaders. At
another time an earthquake shook the camp, and was thought to
prognosticate some great impending evil to the cause of Christendom. But a
comet which appeared shortly afterwards raised them from the despondency
into which they had fallen; their lively imaginations making it assume the
form of a flaming cross leading them on to victory. Famine was not the
least of the evils they endured. Unwholesome food, and the impure air from
the neighbouring marshes, engendered pestilential diseases, which carried
them off more rapidly than the arrows of the enemy. A thousand of them
died in a day, and it became at last a matter of extreme difficulty to
afford the