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M.Besant E.Walter
Jerusalem, the city of Herod and Saladin
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M.Besant E.Walter
Jerusalem, the city of Herod and Saladin
page 191
plates of iron, or defended by wet bides ; the back part was of wood. On the top was a sort of drawbridge, which could be lowered so as to afford a passage to the wall.
All being ready, it was determined to preface the attack by a processional march round the city. After a fast of three days and solemn services, the Crusaders solemnly went in procession, barefooted and bareheaded, round the city. They were preceded by their priests in white surplices, carrying the images of saints, and chanting psalms ; their banners were displayed, the clarions blew. As the Israelites marched round Jericho, the Crusaders marched round Jerusalem, and doubtless many longing eyes, though more in doubt than in hope, were turned upon the walls to see if they, too, would fall. They did not. The besieged crowded upon them, holding crosses, which they insulted, and discharging their arrows at the procession. But the hearts of the rough soldiers were moved to the utmost, not by the taunts of their enemies, but by the sight of the sacred spots, and the memory of the things which had taken place there : there was Calvary ; here Gethsemane, where Christ prayed and wept ; here the place where He ascended ; here the spot on which He stood while He wept over the city. They, too, could see it lying at their feet, with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Great Mosque in the midst of the place where had been the Temple of the Lord. These places cried aloud to them for deliverance. Or, if they looked behind them, to the east, they saw the banks
of the river across which Joshua had passed, and the Dead Sea which lay above the Cities of the Plain.
Arnold, chaplain to Duke Bobert of Normandy—an eloquent man, but of dissolute morals—harangued them. His discourse had been preserved after the manner of historians; that is, we are told what he ought to have said ; very likely, in substance, what he did say. God, he told them, would pardon them all sins in recompense
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