forth. When our men saw the enemy army face-to-face, they wondered
where in the world such an infinite number of people had come from.
Turks, Arabs, and Saracens stood out among the others, both in number
and in nobility; there was a smaller number of auxiliaries and people
from less illustrious nations. There you would have seen the heights
of the mountains and the slopes of the hills grow dense with this
profane mass, and all the plains were covered with countless throngs.
And so our leaders exhorted their men, "If you have devoted to God
the army in which you now serve, if you have given up your countries,
homes, wives, children, and your bodies, and if these bodies have
only survived to be offered for the glories of martyrdom, how, I ask,
can you be terrified at this sight? The wisdom of one of you,
derived from faith in God, is more powerful than the superstitions of
this entire heap of rabble. If death is to be your lot, the heavenly
kingdom and a joyful death await you; if you remain alive, and
persevere in your faith, certain victory awaits you, and after
victory, glory, and after glory, greater courage, and then great
opulence from the enemy's treasures. Whatever happens, you will be
secure, you have nothing to fear; no delay or doubt should stand in
your way. Therefore surrender your minds and bodies to the faith of
the Lord of the Cross, and take up arms against this pile of husks,
these little creatures who are hardly men at all." Then they drew up
their battle lines in an orderly fashion, with great-hearted Bohemund
on the left flank, together with the count of Normandy, valiant
knight, Tancred, and Richard who was called "of the first city." The
Bishop of Puy, however, moving through the mountains from enemy
territory, was surrounding the Turks; count Raymond rode on the left
flank. On the right flank, Duke Godfrey, Robert of Flanders, Hugh
the Great, and the other warriors, powerful because they took up
their positions on behalf of Christ. Oh good God, who knows men's