THE SIEGE OF PTOLEMAIS -BALDWIN
Book VIII.. Joseph-Francois Michaud .. Illustrated by Gustave Dore

History of the Crusades

Illus -42 Tissue

THE SIEGE OF PTOLEMAIS

Baldwin had captured Ptolemais ; Saladin recovered it from the Crusaders after two days' siege ; Saladin had captured and held prisioner Guy de Lusignan while he besieged Jerusalem and drove the Christians from it, then Saladin set free Guy, the ex-king of Jerusalem, after extracting an oath that he would renounce his kingdom and return to Europe. Guy immediately appeared at Tyre to reclaim his sovereignty, but was rejected ; he then laid siege to Ptolemais. In the battles of this siege the Crusaders were generally successful in the morning, and at noon they would begin to rob the Saracens' camp, which was the signal for Saladin to make a sortie and repulse the careless, avaricious Christians. Bad weather, want, and disease reduced the Crusaders' camp to a pitiable condition, when Richard Coeur de Lion arrived, and he at first sided with one fraction of the Crusaders, so that when the French made an assault, Richard remained in his tent. Necessity healed these factions, and the final rallies were made. Moats were filled with bodies of the slain Crusaders, their battering rams and wooden towers were reduced to ashes, they dug under the ramparts, and the walls began to fall. "The tumultuous waves of the Franks," says an Arabian author, "rolled towards the place with the rapidity of a torrent ; they mounted the half-ruined walls as wild goats ascend the steepest rocks, whilst the Saracens precipitated themselves upon the besiegers like stones detached from the summits of mountains." After sustaining a siege for nearly three years, Ptolemais capitulated. - Book VIII

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