army should remain there to recruit before advancing toward Jerusalem.
The tragical fate of Peter Barthelmy must be mentioned. Many of the
crusaders had begun to question the genuineness of the relic he had
found. He was prevailed upon to submit to the ordeal of fire, and
perished in the flames. From that moment the story of the relic lost
credit.

26. It was on a lovely morning in the summer of 1099 that the forty
thousand crusaders, who were all that remained of the vast army which
had two years ago laid seige to Nice, were recompensed for all their
toils by a sight of the Holy City, bathed in the splendor of eastern
sunshine. The name "Jerusalem" escaped from every lip; some leaped and
shouted, some kneeled and prayed, some wept, some threw themselves
prostrate and kissed the earth, some gazed and trembled. "All had much
ado," says the quaint Fuller, "to manage so much gladness."

27. Preparations for a siege were soon under way. The besiegers, who
had gained skill by their former attempts, employed all the methods of
attack that experience could suggest or courage execute, while the
garrison of forty thousand Turks, who maintained the city for their
master, the caliph of Egypt, resisted with determined obstinacy. At
length, after a confession of sins by the whole army, and a
penitential procession around the walls, a simultaneous attack was
made with battering-rains, mangonels, and all manner of besieging
engines. At one quarter a huge wooden tower was wheeled close to the
walls, a movable bridge was let down, and, bounding across it, a
soldier named Lutold was the first man to stand upon the battlements.
Godfrey of Bouillon and a number of knights sprang after him, and the
Christians were within Jerusalem. Meanwhile, at another part of the
wall, Tancred and Robert of Normandy had shattered open a gate, and