ptolemais
however indifferent bonaparte was in regard to jerusalem, having passed within twenty miles of it without tarrying to visit it, he was none the less interested in the ground on which he stood. being unable, or not having cared to do as alexander did at the time of his conquest of india, to go out of his way to visit the high-priest of jerusalem, he regarded it as some compensation to stand upon the ancient site of ptolemais, and to set up his tent where richard c?ur-de-lion and philippe-auguste had set up theirs.
far from being indifferent to his historical surroundings, his heart rejoiced in it; and he had chosen the little hill where he had watched the fight on the first day as his headquarters, confident that the heroes who had preceded him had placed their banners on the same spot.
but he, the first of the leaders of political crusades, following the banner of his own fortune and leaving behind him all the religious beliefs which had led millions of men to the same place, from godfrey de bouillon to saint louis—he, on the contrary, brought in his train the science of the eighteenth century, of volney and dupuis; or, in other words, scepticism.
while caring little for christian traditions, he was on the other hand deeply interested in historical legends.
the very evening of the unfortunate assault in which poor mailly had perished by the same death as his brother, he assembled his officers and generals in his tent, and ordered bourrienne to take the few books which composed his library from the boxes. unfortunately it contained but few historical works relating to syria. he had only plutarch, the lives of cicero, pompey, alexander and antony;[pg 602] and in the way of political literature he had only the old and new testaments and a mythology.
he gave each of the books which we have just named to the most literary of his generals or his young friends, and then called upon the historical reminiscences of the others, which, combined with his own, formed the only information which he could obtain in that desert country. thus he was but incompletely informed. we who, more fortunate than he, have the literature of the crusades before our eyes, can raise the veil of centuries for our readers, and give them the history of this little corner of the earth, from the time when it fell to the share of the tribe of asher in the distribution of the promised land, until the day when richard c?ur-de-lion endeavored to take it for the third time from the saracens.
its old name was acco, meaning "burning sands," and the arabs still call it acca. made tributary to egypt by the kings of the greek dynasty of ptolemy, who inherited alexandria upon the death of the conqueror of the indies, it bore the name of ptolemais about one hundred and six years before the birth of christ.
vespasian, when preparing his expedition against judea, spent three months at ptolemais, and held court there for the kings and princes of the adjacent countries.
it was there that titus saw berenice, daughter of agrippa i., and fell in love with her.
but bonaparte had nothing relating to this period save a tragedy of racine's, fragments of which he was wont to make talma declaim with great frequency.
the acts of the apostles says: "from tyre we came to ptolemais, where our voyage ended, and having saluted our brethren, we abode one day with them." as you know, saint paul says that, and it was he who came from tyre to ptolemais.
the first siege of ptolemais by the crusaders began in 1189. boah-eddin, an arab historian, says, in speaking of the christians, that they were so numerous that god[pg 603] alone could number them. but on the other hand a christian author, one gauthier yinisauf, chronicler of richard c?ur-de-lion, assures us that saladin's army was more numerous than that of darius.
after the battle of tiberius (of which we shall have occasion to speak in describing the battle of mount tabor), guy de lusignan, having escaped from captivity, laid siege to jerusalem, whose fortifications had just been rebuilt. strong towers defended it on the seaward coast. one was called the tower of the flies, because the pagans offered up their sacrifices there, and the smell of the human flesh attracted the flies. the other was called the accursed tower, because, says gauthier vinisauf in his "itinerary of king richard," it was in this tower that the pieces of silver were struck for which judas sold christ.
it was by this very same old "accursed tower" that the saracens made their way into the city in 1291.
although he was ignorant of the fact, that was the very tower which bonaparte had so unsuccessfully attacked. walter scott, in one of his best novels, "the talisman," has related an incident of this famous siege, which lasted two years. the arab histories, much less well-known than the french, contain some interesting data concerning this siege.
ibn-alatir, one of saladin's physicians, has, among others, left us an interesting account of the mussulman camp.
"in the midst of the camp (it is ibn-alatir who is speaking) was a vast square where the farriers' forges were located. there were one hundred and forty of them. we can judge of the rest of the camp in proportion.
"in a single kitchen there were twenty-nine pots, each one large enough to hold a sheep. i myself counted the number of shops registered as markets. i counted seven thousand. you must know that they are not like our city shops. a shop in a camp would make a hundred of ours. all were well supplied. i have heard that when saladin changed his camp to retire to karouba, although the dis[pg 604]tance was short, that it cost one butter-merchant seventy gold pieces to move his shop. as for the old and new clothes shops, they were something beyond description. there were more than one thousand baths in the camp. they were kept by africans, and it cost a piece of silver to take a bath.
"the camp of the christians was like a fortified city. all the trades and all the mechanical arts were represented there."
the markets were supplied with meat, fish and fruits as completely as the capital of a great kingdom could have been. there were even churches with bells there. therefore it was usually at the hour of mass that the saracens attacked the camp.
"a poor english priest," says michaud, "built a chapel dedicated to the dead at his own expense on the plain of ptolemais. there was a vast plot of consecrated ground around the chapel, whither he followed the remains of more than one hundred thousand pilgrims, chanting their burial service himself. forty lords of lubeck and bremen made tents with the sails of their vessels for the poor soldiers of their country and took care of them in sickness. this was the origin of a celebrated order which still exists under the name of the teutonic order."
whoever has travelled in the east, in egypt, or to constantinople, has made the acquaintance of the famous turkish punchinello, called caragous. the exploits of our punchinello are as nothing when compared to his; and he, the cynic of cynics, would blush at the most innocent jokes of his turbaned colleague.
it was during this siege, in which richard c?ur-de-lion and saladin played such an important part, that the ancestor of the modern caragous appeared. he was an emir.
another historical date, no less important to verify, is that of the first bill of exchange. emad-eddin speaks of an ambassador of the caliph of bagdad who was the bearer of two loads of naphtha and reeds, and who brought with[pg 605] him five persons skilled in the distillation and the use of naphtha. it is admitted that naphtha and greek fire are one and the same. furthermore, this same ambassador brought a note of hand for twenty thousand pieces of gold on the merchants of bagdad. thus the bill of exchange and the note of hand are not inventions of modern commerce, as they were used in the east in the year 1191.
it was during this two years' siege that the besieged invented the zenbourech, which the popes afterward forbade the christians to use. it was a sort of arrow about twelve inches long and four inches thick. it had four sides, an iron point, and a feathered head. vinisauf relates that this dreadful arrow, thrown by the instrument which was used to shoot it, would at times pass through the bodies of two men armed with shields, and then bury itself in the wall.
it was toward the close of this siege that the great dispute arose which alienated richard c?ur-de-lion and leopold, duke of austria. c?ur-de-lion, who sometimes returned from an assault so riddled with arrows that he looked like a pin-cushion, as his historian says, was justly proud of his courage and strength. leopold, who was equally proud, had his flag hoisted over the city which he had just entered with richard. richard might have put his own flag beside that of duke leopold, but he preferred to take down the austrian flag and throw it into a ditch. all the germans revolted and wished to attack the king in his quarters; but leopold opposed this.
a year later, as richard did not wish to return to his domain through france, owing to his differences with philippe-auguste, he travelled through austria in disguise; but he was recognized in spite of it, made prisoner, and incarcerated in the castle of durenstein. for two years no one knew what had become of him; this thunderbolt of war had been extinguished like a meteor. there were no traces left of richard c?ur-de-lion.
a gentleman of arras named blondel undertook to find him; and one day, without having the least idea that he was[pg 606] so near the english king, he sat down at the foot of an old castle, and began to sing the first verse of a couplet which he had composed with richard. richard, by the way, was a bit of a poet in his leisure moments. when he heard the first verse of this couplet which he and blondel had composed, he suspected the latter's presence and replied with the second.
the rest of the story, which has furnished grétry with a theme for his masterpiece, is well known.
ptolemais surrendered to the christians, as we have said, after a siege of two years. the garrison were promised their lives on condition that they surrender the true cross, which was captured at the battle of tiberias. it is needless to say that, once at liberty, the saracens forgot all about their promise.
a hundred years later, ptolemais was recaptured from the christians, never to be given up to them again.
this siege also had its chroniclers, its sudden turns of fortune, which rent all europe and asia, and its devotion, which was marked in more than one instance by heroism and self-abnegation.
saint antonius relates a curious legend in reference to this siege.
"there was," he says, "a celebrated monastery of nuns at saint-jean d'acre belonging to the order of saint claire. when the saracens entered the town, the abbess ordered the convent bell to be rung, and assembled all the community.
"addressing the nuns, she said: 'my dear daughters and beloved sisters, we have promised the lord jesus christ to be his spotless wives. we are at this moment in twofold danger—danger to our lives and danger to our purity. those enemies of our bodies and of our souls as well are close at hand, who, after dishonoring those whom they meet, run them through with the sword. if we cannot escape them by flight, at least we can do so by taking a painful but invincible resolve. it is woman's beauty which attracts men most frequently. let us despoil our[pg 607]selves of this attraction. let us use our faces as a means of preserving our moral beauty, our chastity, intact. i will set you the example. let those who wish to appear spotless before their spotless spouse imitate their mistress!'
"having spoken thus, she cut off her nose with a knife. the others followed her example, and courageously disfigured themselves in order to appear more beautiful in the eyes of the lord.
"by this means they preserved their purity," continues saint antonius; "for the mussulmans, upon seeing their bleeding faces, experienced naught save horror for them, and contented themselves with merely taking their lives."
