he had once been on good terms, the pillage and treasures that they might acquire if they joined him. He was not sufficiently beloved by the army to induce many to give up their hopes of reaching Palestine, and a glorious fate, should they rescue the Holy Sepulchre; and both they and the majority of the foot, whom he also endeavoured to persuade, turned away in disgust. A small number alone leant a willing ear to his request; and although his best friends urged him to abandon so unworthy an enterprise, he left the camp one night in secret, with only about one thousand foot and two hundred knights as his companions and followers. However, as his little body of men advanced into Armenia, they were joined by several of the Christian inhabitants, who were frightened at finding their Turkish rulers defeated on every side, and therefore thought it the safer plan to join the Croisés.

Two towns, Tellbasher and Ravendan, were the first to submit to his arms, and these conquests were the means of dividing him from Pancratius. The crafty Armenian tried to obtain his own ends; but Baldwin saw through his designs, and expelled him from his camp. Friendship, unless founded upon other motives than self-interest, is impossible between two men, each bent on his own selfish aims and purposes. Pancratius' fate is lost in obscurity after he separated from Baldwin.

Everywhere that the Lorraine prince turned his arms, success awaited him. His fame reached Edessa, which in 1086 had become subject to the Turks, but nevertheless owned a purely Christian population. An old man named Theodore was its governor; but as the Turks in the neighbourhood were very oppressive and tyrannical, he sent messengers to Baldwin to beg the Croisés to save him and his town from the Infidel rule. Baldwin's ambition for fresh conquest made him turn an easy ear to this call, and he passed safely over the river Euphrates into the province of Edessa. The inhabitants, carrying huge branches of olive in their hands, and singing hymns, came out to meet him and his handful of warriors, while his entrance into the city was such a scene of triumph that the poor old governor began to think his visitors were more to be dreaded than the Moslems. He thought to bribe Baldwin; but the haughty Crusader told him that he disdained the pay of any living man, and threatened to leave the town. The citizens on this assembled in crowds, and implored their lord and protector to remain. This end had doubtless. been foreseen by Baldwin, and even the aged governor implored him to stay, offering to adopt him as his son and heir to the throne, which proposal the Norman formally accepted, celebrated in pomp, and ratified by Theodore and his queen.

Another Armenian prince, called Constantine, had come to the relief of Edessa, and he intrigued with the citizens to put the poor old governor to death, and put Baldwin in his place.

Theodore, who was detested by his subjects, and suspected of the greatest crimes, shut himself up in a fortress, and called the Latin prince to his aid; showing him all his treasures, he implored his intercession. At first Baldwin took his part in good faith, but at length endeavoured to persuade him to save himself by flight.

With trembling hands, the old man fastened a rope to his turret window, hoping to escape in that way; but before he got to the ground he was discovered, and pierced through and through with a thousand arrows, while his body was degraded by his infuriated subjects in the most public manner. Next day Baldwin was proclaimed governor in his stead, and very soon afterwards the neighbouring Turkish town Samosata was delivered up to him by its ruler Balduk, who went and lived as a private individual and good subject of Baldwin's, at Edessa.

The Latin prince became a prudent and excellent ruler over his numerous conquests, and he established a complete route of communication between Edessa and Antioch. In the meantime, Godfrey de Bouillon and the other Croisés were occupied with

the siege of Antioch, and we turn with relief from contemplating the career of such an interested character as Baldwin, to the more disinterested conquests of his brother and his colleagues, merely seeking fresh victories instead of a means of reaching Palestine.

CHAPTER III.

GODFREY DE BOUILLON.

ODFREY DE BOUILLON, and his brave
Crusaders, 300,000 strong, after surmount-

ing great difficulties, reached the fair city of Antioch—that place where first the followers of their Redeemer were called Christians.

They had journeyed over the steep mountain ranges of Mount Taurus and Amaums; often had they been sorely harassed by hunger and thirst, and misled by the treachery of the deceitful eastern guides; but Godfrey's legions still marched hopefully on. Their undaunted zeal was rewarded when, ten miles distant from the blue Mediterranean, they saw before their weary eyes, amid lovely hills, covered with low vineyards, a city with walls of such thickness, that it was said a chariot and four steeds could easily run along them. On the north side was a lake called Ofrunis, and to the west a strong castle that overlooked the broad waters of the majestic river Orontes.