114 TIIE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF [book. i.

after considered their son and heir, and indeed neg-lected nothing to defend what had now become hisown inheritance. When the death of the aged princemade him sovereign, he acquired in a signal degreethe respect and love of his subjects; and in theirannals he is held the best monarch they ever had.Being a widower, he married the niece of anotherof the small Armenian despots, a marriage thatbrought him a vast deal of money, and enabledhim by purchase to extend his principality as farwest as Mount Taurus. Orfa in the end was veryuseful to the crusaders, as a bulwark against theTurks on the side of the Euphrates towards thenorth-east.

But all this while was Godfrey stopped byAntioch, hard both to take and to maintain; and fora year and a half before it or within it, besiegingor besieged, equally had the Franks to enduremuch and to suffer immense losses. The capitalof Syria, with its massive fortifications of hugeblocks of stone, and the iron bridge over theOrontes, and both its banks, were in quiet pos-session of the Latins, and the Turkish forces drivenfar away eastward of the Euphrates, but consequenton—ah! what tremendous sacrifices of life! Of thefive or six millions computed to have left Europe,and