Raymond of Toulouse had, unbeknown to him or his knights, always had the harder task, given that the Fatimids had assumed his attack to be the main effort, while that on the formidable and easily defended Quadrangular Tower was seen as a diversion, which proved that if they had got wind of Crusader dissension, they had failed to make sense of it. These leading magnates were men who were barely talking to each other with civility, never mind leaders coordinating a winning strategy.
Godfrey’s surprise had thrown that notion to the winds, yet on the previous assumption the Provencals were attacking the best and most comprehensively organised resistance, with the walls well protected by ropes and filled sacks against the rock-throwing ballistae and sharpened baulks of timber protruding from the fortifications at the point at which they knew for certain Raymond’s siege tower must come upon the ramparts.
Here also the Fatimids had concentrated the mass of their mangonels and the majority of their archers and they were targeted on what was a very narrow field of battle, the known line by which Raymond’s siege tower would progress. That he had a clear run to the main defence — there was no outer curtain wall to impede him here — proved a small positive against such a ferocious attempt to counter his advance.
High-fired stones rained down on the heads of those pushing the tower as well as the men following behind it, the engine itself, once within range, being hit by flaming arrows and burning bolts, soon added to this wooden hammers wrapped in pitch-soaked straw and studded with nails so that they would adhere to whatever they struck. Those fighting men not on the tower were advancing under an endless bombardment but it was the siege engine, and those at the very top, that would decide the fate of the attack.
Raymond’s main weapon was placed under such relentless bombardment that following several hours of pushing it had still not reached the wall alongside the Zion Gate and, despite all the precautions to avoid it happening, it was alight in many places, so much so that Raymond ordered his men to pull it back out of danger so the fires could be dealt with — without the presence of their main assault weapon that meant a withdrawal of the whole of his forces.
That night it was hard to find anyone not too exhausted to stand guard, this being a must lest the Fatimids sortie out in a surprise raid, even harder to find those willing to risk their lives by going forward in torchlight to clear as much as possible of the larger pieces of rubble that had fallen into the path of the siege tower from that destroyed curtain wall.
Every captain and fighting man, as well as those who were mere labourers, was weary from the efforts of a day of combat and, even if it was kept to mumbles of disgruntlement around their cooking fires, alarmed at the ferocity of the defence they had faced. It was the task of leaders like Tancred, despite his own fatigue, to move amongst his men and point out that if they were dispirited, so must be their enemies, well aware that the coming dawn would see the attack renewed.
In Godfrey’s camp there was no gratification to hear that their Provencal confreres had fared worse than they, suffering more casualties and an even more spectacular reverse. For the men before the St Stephen’s Gate it was to be hoped they would succeed if for no other reason than to make easier their own assault. Yet there was true fellow feeling to add to that — the whole could not enjoy any triumph if one part failed.
Before dawn they were awakened to eat a breakfast of gruel and to say their prayers, many seeking out a priest to bless them as a habit before battle. Then, as the light again touched the eastern horizon, the horns blew and Godfrey’s men took their places around Gaston’s great siege tower, which would, this day, either prove its worth or, like Raymond’s, miserably fail.
In its favour, Gaston’s tower was a much more formidable construct, three storeys in height and with a few more of his innovations, which would only prove their worth when tested. Godfrey de Bouillon would not hear that any other man should take the lead, so he was on the top level, under the golden cross banner so beloved by the faithful, when the tower began to slowly grind forward again, before them, again under bombardment screens, a mass of people clearing the last of the rubble as well as the ashes and charred remains of their battering ram.
In choosing to move to the St Stephen’s Gate there had been several considerations much discussed by Godfrey and his fellow magnates, the two Roberts and Tancred. First it was a relative weak spot in an otherwise stout defence, but it was also, on the reverse side of the walls, a place much crowded with buildings and one in which the streets were really alleyways, too narrow to allow the Fatimids to deploy their mangonels.
This meant these weapons could only be employed on the actual ramparts and right below the fighting parapet, which entailed them sending most of what they discharged in a high arc, which of necessity reduced their range. More important to the advance of the siege tower, that range was fixed, so that once it covered a certain amount of the intervening ground it would be impossible for the defence to employ large objects to impede its progress.
Raymond of Toulouse attacked again at dawn, just like Godfrey, for the second day pushing forward his tower and in receipt of the same response; in fact, if anything the defence was even more ferocious, an indication that the Fatimids knew that the slightest breach could lead to destruction. Every man that Iftikhar had, it was expected, would be on the walls and now in both places they would be required to engage in a test of will as much as warfare; the Crusaders could not fight without respite and another day of reverses might kill off their fervour for the battle.
The same anticipation lay within the besiegers; these were the men who had defended the walls of Antioch against Kerbogha and they knew only too well how debilitating that could be, a constant daily effort that sapped both the will to fight and the degree of faith they reposed in the spirituality of their cause. What they had once experienced would apply to those defending Jerusalem; all that was needed was that the Crusade impose its will.
For Raymond the second day was an even greater debacle than the first; again he and his men advanced into a hail of stones and arrows, the rocks from the Muslim mangonels large enough to crush any shield as well as the man holding it up as protection. Drop the shield a fraction to see what was coming and there were sharp-eyed archers skilled enough to choose a now exposed target, a task made easier the closer the attack came.
But again it was Raymond’s siege tower that bore the brunt of the retaliation, the same methods employed as the day before to set it alight in so many places that it see-sawed back and forth, dragged just out of range of more fire so that those already alight could be doused. That achieved it was pushed forward once more, but another difficulty began to manifest itself.
Regardless of what carpentry skills were employed, such a construct, built in such a place, had to be flawed. No amount of effort could take all the potential hazards out of the ground over which it must travel, and to the men at the top, not only in the most danger, it seemed to sway alarmingly and that put a heavy strain on joints that were secured by no more than glued and hammered-in wooden dowels. Fire also led to structural weakness and the tower before the Zion Gate had been set ablaze several times.
In the end it was the combination that caused the tower to partially collapse, leading to a hurried exodus by those manning the top levels, few because the greater the number the higher the weight that had to be moved. Slowly, with much creaking, Raymond’s tower began to sag and if it was still capable of being employed, no exhortations of his or even offers of gold could get his men to trust to it, for the very simple reason that if it fell apart completely, and it looked as if it might, then those fighters manning it would be doomed to die in the wreckage.