siege engines were of no avail against this city, and had Pyrrus not
betrayed it to the besiegers, or rather had God not aided those whom
he wished, French bravery would have endured famine and other
suffering in vain. Our men had besieged the city for eight months
and one day. Then they were themselves besieged for three weeks by
an uncountable horde of pagans; after they finally defeated them, the
Christians remained there five months and eight days, until the
people were urged by their leaders again to take up the journey to
Jerusalem.

But because it seems to me that I shall not have another chance to
report what happened to the Pyrrus whom I mentioned earlier, I should
do it now. Having received the sacraments, he accepted Christianity,
taking, as his baptismal name, Bohemund. He helped us out at the
siege of Jerusalem, and, when it was captured, returned to Antioch.
There he sent out a messenger to announce that any Christian in the
city or in the vicinity of the city might come with him to a far-off
land, where he had considerable land, and he offered to make everyone
rich. He inspired a large group of people with this hope, and he is
said to have led this deceived group off to what he called his own
land. When he had reached his own encampments, he betrayed some of
the knights who had accompanied him by killing them, and he exiled
others. Had word of the betrayal not reached the others, who were
lodged outside of the encampment because of their great numbers, and
who therefore managed to hide or to escape wretchedly, the freedom of
all of them would have perished by the sword or in slavery. There
Pyrrus deserted Christianity and returned to the filth of his old
lechery and paganism. Nor was this unfitting, for the name Pyrrus in
Greek is Rufus[187] in Latin, and the mark of treachery is branded on
red-haired people; he is shown by no means to have been deprived of