razed to the ground. Nothing was heard but the groans and cries of the dying. The conquerors marched over heaps of corpses to pursue those who vainly sought to escape. The public avenues were choked by the slain. Torrents of blood literally rolled down the streets and avenues. It is said that under the portico, and in the court before the portico, and in the court of the principal mosque, blood was up to "the knees and bridles of the horses." The conquerors asserted themselves to be the messengers of the Divine vengeance, and they greedily executed it.*

And these the so-called soldiers of the cross ! What a contrast to Him whom they professed to acknowledge as the captain of their salvation! But the reader will not mistake them. "My kingdom," said the Saviour, "is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight." "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." They are spiritual. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. "The truth as it is in Jesus"-this is the simple instrumentality which God has appointed for the advancement of his cause in the world. His true servants conquer by the blood of the Lamb. With the sword of the warrior, and the field of battle, and the siege of cities, the religion of Jesus has no sympathy. Not so, however, the judgment of the Crusaders. Under the Christian name, and wearing the holy symbol of the Saviour's passion, they

*Gulielmus Tyrii, lib. viii. caps. xvi.-xxiv,

fought, with what they falsely imagined to be religious zeal, for an earthly kingdom, and with carnal weapons.

"The work of vengeance being over, strange as it may appear, devotion took possession of their minds, and they were lost in its raptures. They wept and groaned before every object which recalled the meek and compassionating Saviour's sufferings and death. They doffed their mail, put on the dress of penance, and washed their bloody hands with their contrite tears. They had compassed sea and land, combated disease and famine, vanquished pestilence and storm, and they were rewarded, for all their chances of flood and field, by this accomplishment of their enterprise, and this con firmation of their faith."* "Never," to adopt the words of sir James Mackintosh, "could the subtle links which combine good and bad passions have been stronger," than they were in the breasts of the Crusaders at the conquest of Jerusalem.

An eloquent paper in an early number of the "North British Review.' ."Gulielmus Tyrii, lib. viii. cap. xxiv.

CHAPTER IV.

THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM.

A.D. 1099-1145.

THE ostensible object of the Crusade was now accomplished. The holy city was delivered from the hands of the infidels. But now that the conflict is over, and the triumph is achieved, what substantially has been gained to the conquerors? In the first flush of victory, their conquest could hardly have seemed more valuable or complete if the earth, with all its treasures, had been given to them in everlasting possession. To acquire a kingdom, however, is one thing, but to retain it is another.

Little

did the exulting Crusaders know the calamities which hung over them, and little did they foresee how short would be the tenure of their hard-earned prize. Only a short succession of Christian sovereigns had occupied the throne, when Jerusalem was again trodden down, and the mausoleum, which had been reared with a new beauty, and adorned with a lavish magnificence, was defiled by infidel barbarians, or leased by them for a term of years, as caprice or rapacity might dictate.

The Latins, however, did succeed in establishing a kingdom; and, for a few years,

Christianity appeared to have erected for itself a permanent residence in the place whence it had had its origin. At first, it merely consisted of Jerusalem and Jaffa, with about twenty villages of the adjacent country. Many of these were separated from each other by places still occupied by the infidels. The standard of the cross and the crescent were seen floating in near vicinity to each other, and the Turks were continually waging war against the newly acquired possessions of the Christians.

But

eventually the empire of the Crusaders embraced all the country of Palestine, between the sea-coasts and the deserts of Arabia; from the city of Berytus, on the north, to the frontiers of Egypt on the south, forming a territory of about sixty leagues in length, and thirty in breadth, besides the principalities of Antioch, Tripoli, and Edessa.*

The first act of the conquerors was the election of one of their number to the SOVEREIGNTY OF JERUSALEM. The accidents of war had diminished the number of the great leaders, who, by their hereditary rank, the strong array of their retainers, or the influence of personal character, were entitled to aspire to this honour. Boemond and Baldwin were already seated in the principalities of Antioch and Edessa, and had withdrawn themselves from immediate participation in the crowning glories of the holy war. The count of Vermandois and the count of Chartres had alto

* Historia Jacobi de Vitriaco, lib. i. cap. i.

gether deserted the sacred expedition; and although the chivalric fame of Tancred was at least equal to theirs, the princes of sovereign rank who remained with the army were only four in number-the two Roberts of Normandy and Flanders, the count of Toulouse, and the duke of Brabant. The general voice of the assembly was in favour of Godfrey of Bouillon. The election was conducted with the utmost deliberation. Even the servants of Godfrey were interrogated as to the private character of their master. They professed, however, to have only one fault with which to reproach him, complaining that after the religious service of the church was concluded, and the congregation was dispersed, he would remain behind to indulge his curiosity in the examination of the statues, pictures, and sacred relics, in consequence of which the meals were delayed to the great annoyance of his friends. On this, the barons, congratulating him on having imputed to him as his only fault what others would reckon as a virtue, at once pronounced him worthy to wear the crown of Jerusalem. He was accordingly conducted in grand procession with psalms and hymns to the holy sepulchre, where he was solemnly installed into his new dignity. But Godfrey, with the pious humility which so eminently distinguished him, refused to wear a royal diadem, or to assume the regal title, where the Saviour of the world had been crowned with thorns and crucified.*

* Gulielmus Tyrii, lib. ix. caps. i. ii.