For this reason was it well seen that two ships
would attack each tower with greater effect than one. As had been
settled, so was it done, and they waited thus during the Saturday and
Sunday.
THE CRUSADERS TAKE A PART OF THE CITY
Before the assault the Emperor Mourzuphles had come to encamp, with
all his power, in an open space, and had there pitched his scarlet
tents. Thus matters remained till the Monday morning, when those on
the ships, transports, and galleys were all armed. And those of the
city stood in much less fear of them than they did at the beginning,
and were in such good spirits that on the walls and towers you could
see nothing but people. Then began an assault proud and marvellous,
and every ship went straight before it to the attack. The noise of the
battle was so great that it seemed to read the earth.
Thus did the assault last for a long while, till our Lord raised a
wind called Boreas which drove the ships and vessels further up on to
the shore. And two ships that were bound together, of which the one
was called the Pilgrim and the other the Paradise, approached so near
to a tower, the one on the one side and the other on the other-so as
God and the wind drove them-that the ladder of the Pilgrim joined on
to the tower. Immediately a Venetian, and a knight of France, whose
name was Andrew of Urboise, entered into the tower, and other people
benan to enter after them, and those in the tower were discomfited and
fled.
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