OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 305 without discovering the object of their search. In the evening, when count Raymond had withdra^vn to his post, and the weary assistants began to murmur, Bartholeray, in his shirt and without his shoes, boldly descended into the pit ; the darkness of the hour and of the place enabled him to secrete and deposit the head of a Saracen lance, and the first sound, the first gleam, of the steel was saluted with a devout rapture. The holy lance was drawn from its recess, wrapt in a veil of silk and gold, and exposed to the veneration of the crusaders ; their anxious suspense burst forth in a general shout of joy and hope, and the desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm of valour. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the sentiments of the chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate revolution by every aid that discipline and devotion could afford. The soldiers were dismissed to their quarters, with An injunction to fortify their minds and bodies for the approaching conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance on themselves and their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day the signal of victoiy. On the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of Antioch were thro^vn open ; a martial psalm, " Let the Lord arise, and let his enemies be scattered I " was chaunted by a procession of priests and monks ; the battle array was marshalled in twelve divisions, in honour of the tMclve apostles ; and the holy lance, in the absence of Raymond, was entrusted to the hands of his chaplain. The influence of this relic or trophy was felt by the servants, and perhaps by the enemies, of Christ ; ^^^ and its potent energy was heightened by an accident, a strata- gem, or a rumour, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, celestial in white garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue, from the hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope's legate, proclaimed them as the martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St. Maurice ; the tumult of battle allowed no time for doubt or scrutiny ; and the welcome apparition dazzled the eyes or the imagination of a fanatic army. In the season of danger and triumph, the revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles was unani- mously asserted ; but, as soon as the temporary service was accomplished, the personal dignity and liberal alms which the count of Toulouse derived from the custody of the holy lance provoked the envy, and awakened the reason, of his rivals. A i^The Mahometan Aboulmahasen (apud de Guignes, torn. ii. p. 95) is more correct in his account of the holy lance than the Christians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius : the Greek princess confounds it with a nail of the cross (1. xi. p. 326 [c. 6]) ; the Jacobite primate, with St. Peter's staff (p. 242). VOL. VI. 20
