expedition, were found thrown into the grass by these women, who, in
their urgent flight from the Franks, could not endure the burden, and,
more concerned for themselves than for the babies, heartlessly cast
them away.

In the way in which we have described, then, with Turks everywhere
preventing our men from getting out, and therefore unable to procure
provisions from outside, the dangers of famine took hold of nearly
the entire army, and the extraordinary lack of food particularly
weakened the courage of the poor people. Since the Franks, at the
time that they were besieging Antioch, had prevented the inhabitants
from increasing their dwindling supply of food, when they captured
the city they found very little to eat. After they had used up
everything they could find, a mere piece of bread cost a bezant. The
scarcity of produce and of spices resulted in great hardship, and
many died, their bellies bloated with starvation. About wine I shall
say nothing, since no one had any at all, and he who had nothing to
eat would certainly drink fruit juice. Since there was no proper
meat to eat, no one finally refused to eat the flesh of horses, and
the small amount of donkey meat, sought for throughout the
marketplaces and purchased at exorbitant prices, was a bitter
resource for many crusaders. A chicken sold for fifteen sous, an egg
for two sous, and a nut for penny. If many men assemble in a place
where food is scarce, everything becomes expensive. They ate a
mixture of figs, thistles, and grape leaves; fruit could no longer be
found on the trees; out of the leaves they made a substitute for
vegetables. Wealthy men ate the flesh of horses, camels, cows, and
deer, but the poor prepared the dried skins of these animals, cut
them into slices, boiled them and then ate them.