Baldwin did not wait to get a response; he spun his mount and rode away.
‘We should ride out and teach him a lesson,’ Robert hissed.
‘He has his lesson already, cousin, we need deliver him no more.’
‘A sound thrashing for him and his slime would be no more than he deserves and there is not a man you lead who does not share that feeling.’
‘Then I look to you, Robert, as I should, to aid me in maintaining the peace. Baldwin will ride on, he has no choice.’
‘To what, cousin? He is a member of the council if his brother is still not recovered, Tancred — you are not. If he makes a case to them to censure you …’
‘Then I will rely on those who know me and know Baldwin to judge who has been honourable and who has not. Meanwhile, make sure none of our men meet his, for Baldwin has stirred up bad blood where there should be none.’
It was a forlorn hope; Baldwin’s Lotharingian knights came to the walls to taunt the Normans, perhaps at his behest, and if it was plunder at the base of their jibes it was to their manhood and the chastity of their mothers that they alluded. The Apulians were not inclined to be insulted and do nothing, so as darkness began to fall a large party, weapons in hand, exited the postern gate to meet head-on their tormentors. Enquiries by Tancred never established who struck the first blow, only that when it was forthcoming the whole confrontation quickly descended into a brawl, and given these were warriors by trade it was not carried out with fist and feet, but with swords and axes.
Hearing the clash, Baldwin’s remaining men rushed up from their camp, to find the Apulian Normans only too keen to pour out and meet them, with Robert of Salerno at their head. If it was a short affair it was a bloody one, with eight men dead at the count and many more carrying wounds. Each side had taken captives, Baldwin’s men dragged into Mamistra, Tancred’s to the Lotharingian camp, and it required Oshin, the following morning, to arrange a truce. Matters were not improved when a trader from Adana arrived, to tell what had happened to Tancred’s reinforcements at Tarsus and that made the meeting an even more bitter affair.
‘My cousin of Salerno suggested you would seek to blacken me at a meeting of the Council of Princes, Baldwin. I look forward to hearing you explain how you allowed such a large number of Norman knights to be murdered in their sleep.’
‘Accuse me and you will be required to prove it by combat.’
‘Why wait till then, Baldwin? I am happy to face you now.’
Oshin did not understand what was being said in the Frankish tongue but he was sharp enough to know by the expressions on the faces of Tancred and Baldwin that a full-scale battle could break out at any moment, for the gates of Mamistra were open and all of Tancred’s men were willing to come out and fight; if they did he would add his Armenians but it was far from what he sought and what should happen.
‘Tancred, you have prisoners of your fellow Frank, he has prisoners of yours. Let us exchange those, then set a time for a proper parley in which your differences can be discussed without rancour. Translate that to the other side.’
Tancred nodded and seeking to moderate his tone he made the offer. Baldwin thought he saw a chink in the Apulian’s intransigence and agreed, so men were led forward from both sides to rejoin their confreres.
‘So when do we parley, Tancred?’
‘I will not speak with you, Baldwin, until we face Ademar and the council.’
With that Tancred spun on his heels and led his party inside the gates, his order to shut them behind him loud enough to carry. Faced with a situation he could not solve and fearful of looking foolish, Baldwin rode off before the sun was at its zenith, heading due east, watched from the walls by a curious Tancred.
‘What now?’ Robert asked.
‘We finish repairing the walls, garrison the city and then set about what we were tasked to do.’
‘We might find Baldwin waiting for us at the Belen Pass.’
‘Then we will take that as it comes.’
Days later Oshin and Tancred took their leave, with promises of friendship and mutual support, the garrison of Mamistra told to train an Armenian militia that could go to the aid of Adana if it was threatened, Oshin guaranteeing to come to Mamistra on the same purpose. The commander of the garrison was obliged to levy the necessary customs dues, to pay his men and put the excess into Tancred’s treasury and guard it well.
‘For when we have Jerusalem, I will send for it.’
There was no sign of Baldwin prior to passing through the Belen Pass, or indeed beyond at the port of Alexandretta to which the road led; if he was coming to Antioch then he had clearly chosen a different route, one that would, Tancred supposed, line his purse with plunder. If that laid to rest a concern, the news was better when it came to the Turks; local intelligence informed him the enemy, being small in number and afraid, had withdrawn to Antioch, and when he sighted the fortifications he could see why, for they were the most formidable he had ever laid eyes upon.
Unmolested, crossing busy roads full of traders, he rode round those parts of the perimeter easily accessible, marvelling at the ingenuity of what had been constructed on terrain which did not lend itself to straightforward building, battlements in one section that appeared to run up near sheer mountainside. He found, in a place called the Ruj Valley to the south of the city, a force of Provencal knights sent ahead by Raymond of Toulouse on the rumour that the Turks had abandoned Antioch, only to find it fully garrisoned and those inside prepared to come out and fight what was seen as a force posing some danger.
Driven off far enough to nullify any threat, even to communications, their commander Peter of Roaix had set up an outpost and intended to remain, if only as an irritant. Given there was nothing Tancred and his lances could do that would not amount to even a feeble spit on a stone wall, it was time to rejoin the main host and advise them of his progress.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The progress of the Christian army and their attendant pilgrims had been slow because of its size and the obstacles of terrain; crossing the anti-Taurus mountains over a single track in unseasonal mist and lashing rain had incurred heavy losses, especially of pack animals and their loads, which brought back hunger almost as acute as the Anatolian desert. Such a recurrence reduced some of the milities and even the odd knight to insist the Crusade was cursed and to offer to sell their weapons and shields to any local peasant for food, such misery only relieved when they got back down onto the plains and plenty at the Armenian city of Marash, albeit they were also once more at the mercy of the burning summer heat.
Expecting to have to fight they were relieved to find that the Turks, indeed the whole Muslim population, had decamped before they arrived. From high to low the Armenians of Marash were ecstatic, eager to provide them, albeit for payment, with all that they required to progress to their destination: food, horses, oxen and encouragement, their leaders also accepting the role of guarding the crusading flank from any incursions by their now joint enemy; if they could not stop the Turks from passing through — they lacked the military capacity to prevent them — they could ensure the Crusaders had ample warning of any looming threat.
From Marash onwards the Crusaders were able to form alliances with the numerous Armenian satraps; they ran large parts of Syria for Turkish overlords who would have been overstretched to do it for themselves. Such powerful local magnates had no love for the Seljuks and openly welcomed people they saw as their religious brothers, and many arrangements were made, not least for the transportation of supplies in the future.
Tancred met the forward elements of the Crusade on the road to Aleppo, able to assure Bishop Ademar, still acting as the titular leader and well ahead of the host, that the passes he had been sent to secure were open and the towns between Nicaea and Antioch garrisoned and safe should Alexius Comnenus wish to bring his forces that way; they had not joined at Caesarea as had been hoped. This also meant the Emperor would be supplied en route, which would speed his progress, while if he wished to send men by sea, Alexandretta was also in Christian hands.