394 ROGER OP 'WENDOVER. [A.D. 1007. Soliman appeared in the plain, as the captive messenger had told them, at the head of five hundred thousand men. He first despatched ten thousand cavalry to attack the count of Toulouse, who was stationed at the southern gate of the city, but the count received them bravely, repulsed their attack, and they were already on the point of dispersing, when Soliman, coming up with more numerous troops, rallied the fugitives, and again forced them onward upon our men. Duke Godfrey, the lord Boamund, and the count of Flanders, with their followers, armed to the teeth, seeing the count's men hard pressed, charged the enemy with vigour, and, having slain four or five thousand of them, besides taking a few prisoners, compelled them to take flight. Thus our men gained the first victory and continued the siege, with their troops arranged round the city in the following order. A t the eastern gate was duke Godfrey with his two brothers and their men ; at the northern gate were the lord Boamund, Tancred, and their other princes : the southern gate was assigned to count Raimund and the bishop of Puy ; and the western to Robert duke of Normandy, and the count of Flanders, with their followers. Thus the city was blockaded on every side, and the sun never before saw so glorious an army as that which lay around its walls. Our princes now, to strike terror into the besieged, cut off the heads of the slain, and shot them from their engines into the city. A thousand of these heads, together with a select number of the prisoners, were sent to Constantinople, as a present to the emperor. s How one of (Ite towers was undermined and fell. After this, the princes determined to apply petrarias and other machines to destroy the walls of the city. The workmen, accordingly, began to ply their labours, and the city was shaken by frequent strokes, during the space of seven days, when it happened one day that, an assault having, as usual, been resolved on, our men had the misfortune to lose two nobles, Baldwin Calderon, and Baldwin of Ghent, the one by a stone, the other by an arrow, as they were bravely fighting and assaulting the city. In another conflict, also, agreed on in the council of the princes, count William de Foreis, and Gaio de Lisle were slain by arrows, Guy de