[Illustration: COSTUME OF EMPRESS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. (_From a Greek MS._)]
In the subsequent march through Phrygia, the Christians had to pass over a large tract of country which had been completely ravaged by the enemy. Their provisions soon became exhausted, and under the burning rays of a southern sun they found themselves without water. The accounts given by the chroniclers of the sufferings of the troops are too dreadful to be repeated. Men, women, and horses fell by thousands on the way, and perished by a lingering and painful death.
[Illustration: PROCESSION OF THE CRUSADERS ROUND THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM. (_See p._ 150.)]
At length water was found, and the host of the Crusade reached the city of Antioch in Pisidia. Here, surrounded by a fertile district, the main body of the troops rested for a while from their fatigues, while detachments under the command of Tancred and Baldwin, brother of Godfrey Bouillon, made incursions through the country, and became possessed of the towns of Tarsus and Mamistra. Subsequently Baldwin crossed the Euphrates, and was elected King of Edessa, in which city he remained until the conquest of the Holy Land was completed.
[Illustration: PILGRIM (A), HOSPITALLER (B), TEMPLAR KNIGHT (C), PALMER (D), AND CONVENTUAL TEMPLAR (E). (_See p._ 151.)
(_a, Pilgrim's wallet; b, Pilgrim's staff._)]
The great army of the Crusade continued its march through uninhabited wilds and barren mountains, and having taken possession of Artesia, advanced towards the Syrian Antioch. Situated on the hills above the river Orontes, the town of Antioch was so strongly fortified by nature as well as by art, that all efforts to take it by assault proved fruitless, and the movable towers, mangonels, battering-rams, and other engines, which were brought to bear by the besieging army, were used without effect (October 21, 1097). Meanwhile famine and disease spread their ravages in the camp without the walls, and the storms of winter proved more fatal to the troops than the arrows of the enemy. Rendered reckless by their sufferings, the soldiers cast aside all the obligations of morality; crimes of the worst description became common, and even the ties of nature were forgotten. We are told by William of Malmesbury, that such was the extremity to which the Crusaders were reduced, that many of them fed upon the dead bodies of their companions. Some of the inferior leaders deserted the army, and among these was Peter the Hermit, whose impulsive enthusiasm gave way before continued misfortunes. He, however, was brought back by Tancred, and was compelled to take a vow that he would not again abandon the enterprise until the army had reached Jerusalem. After various encounters had taken place before the walls, during which the knights of the Crusades performed extraordinary feats of valour, the town of Antioch was betrayed in 1098 to the crafty Bohemond, and the Turkish inhabitants were slaughtered indiscriminately. But the victors found their condition very little improved by the conquest. The city was rich in booty of various kinds, but contained only a scanty store of provisions, of which the Crusaders stood most in need.