At length, after infinite sufferings on the part of the Christians,
Antioch was taken on the 3d of June, 1098, by means of the treachery
of an Armenian captain, whom the Turks had intrusted with the command
of one of the towers, and who admitted a number of the crusaders
during a dark and stormy night.
22. Imagination can not conceive a scene more dreadful than that
presented by the devoted city of Antioch on that night of horror. The
crusaders fought with a blind fury which fanaticism and suffering
alike incited. No quarter was shown. At daylight the massacre ceased,
and the crusaders gave themselves up to plunder. They found gold,
jewels, and rich fabrics in abundance, but of provisions little of any
kind. Suddenly they were roused from their sloth and pleasure by the
appearance before Antioch of an immense army, which the Persian caliph
had dispatched to sweep the Christian locusts from the face of the
earth. Great was the alarm of the Christians when they saw this
splendid host of more than two hundred thousand men encamped around
the hills of Antioch. The corn and wine found in the city were soon
exhausted; all the horrors of a second famine began.
23. Many deserted and escaped over the walls, carrying the news of the
sad condition of the Christians back toward Europe. The worst
consequence of these desertions was, that the Greek Emperor Alexius,
who, hearing of the successes of the Latins, was on his march to
assist the crusaders, was deterred from advancing, and returned to
Constantinople.
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