search everywhere for supplies, while the others maintained the siege
they had undertaken. Bohemund then said, "If, O powerful soldiers,
it seems prudent to you, I, with the support of the army of the count
of Flanders, shall devote myself to the effort of procuring food."
The offer was accepted gratefully by the younger men, since they were
worn out by greater thirst and more urgent need for food. The day
after the Lord's Nativity, which was the second day of the week, had
been celebrated, with what emotion and energy they could muster, the
two princes just mentioned, together with 20,000 foot-soldiers and
cavalry, set out as swiftly and as energetically as they could to
attack the Saracen provinces. Meanwhile the Turks, Arabs, Saracens,
and other Gentiles, who had assembled from Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleph,
[157] and other places, with one purpose in mind, to bring aid,
hastened to Antioch in large numbers. They had heard that the
Christians were coming into their own lands, to gather food and other
supplies; as dusk fell, they moved in formation towards the place
where they had learned our men were, with an eagerness that would
soon be turned to grief. They divided themselves into two lines of
battle, setting the first in front of us, and moving to position the
other behind us. But the count of Flanders, trusting in divine power,
with the sign of the Cross fixed to his heart and body, relying
confidently on the excellent count Bohemund, attacked the enemy with
the courage to be expected of such men. The battle began, but from
the first moment of contact, the enemy turned in flight. The battle
turned into victory, and many a sharp spear shattered in the bodies
of those who had turned their backs to flee. The enemy's shields
were battered by long ashwood lances that were struck with such force
that they dwindled into slivers. No helmet prevented a head struck
by the edges of the Crusaders' swords from being wounded; and they
found the stitching of their so-called impenetrable cuirasses too