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latter urged them to make haste and seize the favourable interval, as armed men, with lighted torches, patrolled the battlements every half-hour, and at that instant they had just passed.  The chiefs were instantly at the foot of the wall.  Phirouz let down a rope; Bohemund attached to it a ladder of hides, which was then raised by the Armenian, and held while the knights mounted.  A momentary fear came over the spirits of the adventurers, and every one hesitated; at last Bohemund, encouraged by Phirouz from above, ascended a few steps on the ladder, and was followed by Godfrey, Count Robert of Flanders, and a number of other knights.  As they advanced, others pressed forward, until their weight became too great for the ladder, which, breaking, precipitated about a dozen of them to the ground, where they fell one upon the other, making a great clatter with their heavy coats of mail.  For a moment they thought all was lost; but the wind made so loud a howling, as it swept in fierce gusts through the mountain gorges, and the Orontes, swollen by the rain, rushed so noisily along, that the guards heard nothing.  The ladder was easily repaired, and the knights ascended, two at a time, and reached the platform in safety.  When sixty of them had thus ascended, the torch of the coming patrol was seen to gleam at the angle of the wall.  Hiding themselves behind a buttress, they awaited his coming in breathless silence.  As soon as he arrived at arm’s length, he was suddenly seized; and before he could open his lips to raise an alarm, the silence of death closed them up for ever.  They next descended rapidly the spiral staircase of the tower, and, opening the portal, admitted the whole of their companions.  Raymond of Toulouse, who, cognizant of the whole plan, had been left behind with the main body of the army, heard at this instant the signal horn, which announced that an entry had been effected, and advancing with his legions, the town was attacked from within and from without.

Imagination cannot conceive a scene more dreadful than that presented by the devoted city of Antioch on that night of horror.  The Crusaders fought with a blind fury, which fanaticism and suffering alike incited.  Men, women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered, till the streets ran in gore.  Darkness increased the destruction; for, when the morning dawned the Crusaders found themselves with their swords at the breasts of their fellow-soldiers, whom they had mistaken to be foes.  The Turkish commander fled, first to the citadel, and, that becoming insecure, to the mountains, whither he was pursued and slain, and his gory head brought back to Antioch as a trophy.  At daylight the massacre ceased, and the Crusaders gave themselves up to plunder.

Popular Delusions.

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[Illustration:  Letter G.]

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