Running for the whole foraging party was not an option; too many were foot bound, quite apart from their encumbrances, so they were ordered to make a corral with their wagons, into which they should lead their donkeys, mules and packhorses, and to then form a defence around that while the knights sought to drive off the enemy enough to create a corridor of escape. To the west the Turks were coming in from both the pincers to close the gap, leaving the lances no choice but to seek to force a way through.
Robert of Flanders declined to give first chance to the Normans — or was it their commander, for whose fame and reputation he now openly demonstrated his disdain? Gathering his knights he set off to stop the completion of that encircling movement, Bohemund electing not to join him but determined to hold his men together so that he could react to whatever came next. The knights of Flanders did good service, crushing the line of Turks before them, which allowed Bohemund to split his forces and attack the two wings which were now in confusion, thus opening the potential for flight by all.
With their weight superiority the Crusader knights were doing great slaughter and driving back the enemy so that the route west was clear. Hard as they fought to hold open that corridor, and despite an order to move, abandoning wagons and animals, including the stores they had worked so hard to collect, it soon became clear that the milities felt safer in their wagon-bound enclave than in the open and when they should have moved they stayed put. Never having the discipline of their mounted confreres, regardless of where they came from, no amount of browbeating would make them budge.
Both Bohemund and Robert of Flanders were in a bind: if they went to the rescue of their Provencal milities they would be riding back into the Turkish trap, and pouring towards that square of wagons were thousands of Turkish foot, too many for a force of five hundred knights to beat off unless they could be induced to panic. Why would they do that when on either flank they still had mounted men ready to fall upon their enemy?
It had to be attempted, there was no choice; mounts which had already been in action once were kicked into motion once more to filter round the wagons on both sides, one half of the field the ragged lances of Flanders, the other the near-to-neat line of Normans. The effect was immediate in that the Turks halted their onward progress, yet they were numerically so superior that the hoped for wave of dread and flight did not materialise; they formed a firm line ready to resist the charge of heavy cavalry under command of men who held them steady.
For their bravery the men at the front died in droves, speared, sliced, cut and trampled by the sheer weight of what hit them, and soon the knights were doing execution in staggering quantities, though not without losses of their own. Bohemund, in between slaying his foes, realised that the cavalry they had driven back were now re-formed and about to repeat their previous manoeuvre, only this time they would be close to and in support of their own foot, a potentially deadly combination.
Much as he hated the notion there was no choice but to withdraw or die in a situation where preservation of the mounted part of the crusading host was paramount. Added to that was the frustration that the Provencal milities had still not moved; this they could have done at a run and then at least he and Flanders could have acted to protect their back. Nor was he sure that his fellow leader would discern the same dilemma as he, leaving him no choice but to disengage independently, an act which left the Count of Flanders no option but to do likewise, a later cause of increased recrimination.
To get clear was not simple; the Turks did everything they could to hamper their efforts, but find space they did, riding hard towards the wagons, Bohemund yelling that there was still a slim chance to flee, a faint hope the Turks would not come on at speed. Now, as the knights rode by them without stopping — they could not without they sacrifice themselves — these Provencal foot soldiers finally realised the extent of their plight and some emerged to grab the stirrups of their knights so as to be dragged to safety.
Most remained, and when the mounts were blown and the knights stopped on the crest of a hill, it was to look back at a scene of slaughter as the milities fought and failed to hold off the Turks. For those who did not fall, slavery would be their lot, but nearly as depressing was the fact that all the supplies they had gathered were now in Turkish hands. Painful to watch, it had to be witnessed and it sat heavy on their souls as they rode back to Antioch, only to find there that the Turks had taken advantage of their absence to sortie out and attack the siege lines, inflicting a serious check using the tactic of the false retreat.
Emerging in numbers from the Bridge Gate they had enticed the Crusaders under Raymond and Ademar to cross the bridge of boats and seek to chase them off. It seemed to have been initially successful, but it was a trap and once the knights were on the wrong bank of the Orontes the Turks had turned upon them and engineered a rout, not a serious one in terms of dead and wounded, but a dent to their pride and also their faith: the Turks had taken the blue and gold Virgin banner of Bishop Ademar, which was held to be a thing no Christian God should have allowed.
Hope in any army is of paramount concern and the losses in men and food reported when the two Counts returned, added to the recent defeat before the Bridge Gate, sent that plummeting and it was not assuaged in the weeks that followed as food grew ever more scarce. First the non-combatant pilgrims began to die, and many of those who could not cling to life set off north in the hope of at least getting home. With soldiers reduced to eating berries and weeds death stalked the lines too and every morning produced more copses. The morale of the host led even powerful knights to seek succour: Stephen of Blois, claiming to be too ill to continue and his purse to be bare, removed himself to Alexandretta.
Every leader was emptying his purse to buy what could be purchased from those with food and they were selling at rapacious prices, this while the wind blew, the rain lashed down every few days and the occasional snow reduced the whole effort to stark misery, a state of which Yaghi Siyan took full advantage. No body of knights was safe, especially on starving, unfit horses, and even the trickle of supplies coming in from the ports of St Simeon and Latakia were subject to constant raids, all launched from the three Antioch gates the Crusade could not block.
Then Tacitus declared he must go north and seek reinforcements from the Emperor, a move that was greeted with much encouragement. That faded when it was realised he had taken his troops with him, abandoning his own possessions and much of their equipment to facilitate a fast march, the conclusion obvious: it was very doubtful if he intended to return.
Such gloom reached its nadir when it was discovered that even Peter the Hermit, that talismanic figure, in the company of a pious knight called William, Lord of Melun, had set off for Constantinople too and that could not be borne. Tancred was sent after him and he did bring both men back. Tempted to string them up, Bohemund, who was given the power of decision over their fate, felt he had to release them after no more than a stern lecture; to punish either severely would, in Peter’s case, upset the pilgrims who saw him as their spiritual leader, and as for William of Melun, the knights in the host were restive enough without firing that up anymore, though he was treated as dirt and a carpet for the whole of the time he spent in Bohemund’s tent.
Bleak as it was in want and dearth, there were occasional bright spots: the arrival of a fleet from England bearing supplies raised hope of assuaged hunger, until it was realised that most of the cargo was large quantities of oak and along with that came the woodworkers who could fashion it. Still, there was food too, and since oak was important, a large escort, hundreds of knights, went to bring it in safety to the siege lines, an indication of how difficult that was the fact that there were half a dozen small engagements on the way.