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Into this the Christians rode on horseback and trampled the heaps of dead and dying laid low by "Christian" swords. An eyewitness, Raymond d'Agiles, says that in the porch of this mosque blood rose to the knees and bridles of the horses! Ten thousand were slain there. The authority cited above declares that bodies floated in the blood, and arms and hands were tossed by sanguine waves.
Raymond d'Agiles, chaplain to the count of Toulouse, reduces still further to twelve thousand the number of foot capable of bearing arms, and that of the knights to twelve or thirteen hundred. This weak army was destitute of commissariat and the engines necessary for such a siege. Before long it was a prey to the horrors of thirst.
"All ye who read this," says Raymond d'Agiles, "think not that it was light labor; it was nigh a mile from the spot where the engines, all dismounted, had to be transported to that where they were remounted." The knights protected against the sallies of the besieged the workmen employed upon this work.
The Crusaders strengthened themselves by a meal and the offices of religion, and day coming, the Christian army, representing the twelve apostles, marched out in twelve divisions. Raymond D'Agiles carried the lance-head and fixed their attention on it. Some of the priests chanted a warlike psalm in the front rank, while others blessed the outgoing army from the walls.
Paul, the whole Christian army issued from their camp, with a portion of the clergy marching at their head, and chanting the 68th Psalm, "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered!" "I saw these things, I who speak," says one of the chroniclers, Raymond d'Agiles, chaplain to the count of Toulouse: "I was there, and I carried the spear of the Lord."
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