Soldier of Crusade

by Jack Ludlow

  It raised the mood of all a little as, after entering the town, they rode through the streets to the cheers of a multitude of happy citizens, with flowers thrown at them to form a carpet under their hooves. When it came to providing sustenance Oshin was as good as his word, for the food was superb and the wine flowed, which gave some concern to Tancred who knew that, when drunk, some of his men were likely to go wild and start to look for women and booty, regardless of the fact that they were with future allies. He mentioned his worries to the Armenian leader, pointing out that would only increase the longer they stayed.

  ‘So we must move on at the rise of tomorrow’s sun for the Belen Pass.’

  If Oshin was surprised that the cause for so many Crusaders was profit not absolution he hid it well. He was also wise enough, when told of what had occurred at Tarsus, to sense what Tancred was not saying: that his men were hungry for more than he could provide.

  ‘My Lord Tancred, to get to the Belen you must pass Mamistra.’

  ‘And pass it is all I will probably be able to do, for you will have seen that I lack the strength to take it if they resist, and if I camp outside to try to winkle out the defence, then the Baldwin I mentioned to you will only come and seek to dislodge me. I doubt I could stop that turning into a fight.’

  ‘The garrison of Mamistra is weak.’

  ‘And so am I.’

  ‘If you were stronger?’ Seeing Tancred’s eyebrows lift Oshin added with a smile, ‘It would aid Adana if Mamistra too was stripped of its Turks. People travel frequently between here and there to trade, for it is a far richer place than where you now sit. I know the Turks have heard of your arrival in Cilicia and I am informed they are in terror of seeing your banners from their walls. I wonder how they would act if they saw ours at the same time?’

  ‘You think they might surrender?’

  ‘If they fear you, they fear we Armenians just as much, for they have been oppressors and the fate of such people is not a mystery when power changes hands. The Turks of Adana did not die easily or swiftly and that will be known to them in Mamistra.’

  ‘A joint attack?’

  Oshin nodded and quickly added, ‘We need nothing for ourselves, for with Tarsus and Mamistra in friendly hands our town of Adana is secure. It would serve both our causes well if a Frankish banner flew over both our nearest neighbours.’

  Tancred could not keep the surprise out of his voice. ‘You are offering me and my lances a gift?’

  ‘One, I must remind you, that is not yet mine to give. But I will accompany you with part of the force that greeted you, enough I hope to terrify the Turks into surrender.’

  ‘Do not denude your own town, for Baldwin will be hard on my heels.’

  ‘Never fear, I will leave enough men to check him should he prove greedy.’

  ‘Then we still must depart at the rising of the sun.’

  ‘We shall, side by side,’ Oshin replied, ‘but may I suggest that you let your men know we do so as allies, so that before we go they do not misbehave.’

  ‘Do you trust him?’ Robert of Salerno asked, when he was told of the plan.

  ‘Yes. He wants security for Adana.’

  ‘But has he made a pledge?’

  ‘Robert, I am in no position to demand one, but I do know we cannot stay here. We both know we must ride on, and not just for the sake of the task we have been given. The men are upset after Tarsus and I know they blame me.’

  ‘A few malcontents.’

  ‘That is all it takes to break the peace between the Armenians and us. If we rest here for any time those “malcontents”, as you call them, will start eyeing what is available to steal, and once that commences every one of our lances will join in so as not to miss out. I think Oshin knows that too, which is his other reason for offering support. He wants us gone, and if we are going to plunder anywhere, let it be his neighbour.’

  ‘Baldwin?’

  ‘If he comes here the gates will stay closed against his men, but he will be allowed to enter himself and treated with courtesy.’

  ‘Pearls before swine,’ Robert spat.

  Tancred grinned. ‘I have a higher opinion of pigs than you.’

  Oshin and Tancred rode out in company, leading a combined force that now numbered near five hundred men, all mounted, for the Armenian had left his foot behind to hold Adana. At his insistence they did not hurry, he sure that word of their coming should reach the Turks before they arrived.

  ‘For their imagination of the fate that awaits them will do more to aid our cause than even your chain armour.’

  That night, round the campfire, Tancred and some of his Greek-speaking lances were entertained by Oshin with tales of what Armenia had once been, a great and ancient nation that had dominated the whole of Asia Minor. He was proud that his race and its then ruler had adopted Christianity as the state religion before the mighty Romans; Armenian bishops had been prominent at the Council of Nicaea and they had held to their faith through invasion and occupation with an iron will that not even the sons of the Prophet could dislodge.

  He was also curious, and enquired over two nights, about the lands from which these men he had adopted as allies came from, the ongoing dispute between Greek Orthodoxy and Latin Rome, the places they lived and the customs by which they led their lives. And he probed, if not too strongly, to seek their motives for coming this way, which exposed no more than their complexity; some had genuinely come for the sake of their souls, others in search of a better life or to drive back the infidel, a few with dreams of fabulous wealth which, under careful questioning, they could not disguise.

  ‘On the morrow,’ he said to Tancred before they retired, ‘it may be that all the dreams you Normans hold can be met.’

  Mamistra was three times the size of Adana and judging by the number of churches and mosques very much more prosperous as well, but its walls were in poor repair, worse than those of Tarsus. It sat on the River Pyramus, which Oshin informed them flowed strongly to the sea except in high summer. Thus every trader in Cilicia flocked towards it to exchange the goods they wished to trade for that which could be brought in from around the Mediterranean. In that exchange and the customs dues charged lay its wealth and, given such income, the Turks should have better protected it, and certainly the fortifications should have been better maintained.

  ‘It is a mystery, Lord Tancred,’ Oshin replied, when the very obvious point was made. ‘Perhaps my fellow Armenians do not threaten, they are too busy trading and profiting to think of freedom. As for the walls, how long is it since the Turks had anything to fear, and the Governor would care more for the weight of his purse than the strength of his defences.’

  The customary invitation to open the gates for the sake of their lives was offered and rejected, so the combined force made ready to attack, selecting a part of the walls away from the main gate in such a parlous state that they looked as though a hefty push would knock them down. The dismounted Normans carried ladders forward and if they were met with arrows the effect was hardly as frightening as they had previously experienced – the aim was terrible – and in any case their mail and shields protected them from most of the harm.

  With real brio, led by Tancred and Robert, they got onto the battlements and began to fight to control them, which allowed Oshin’s Armenians to approach in relative safety. As Tancred’s men began to expand the area of combat, in execution of the standard tactics of seeking one of the towers, their allies got in the conflict and proved to be worthy supporters. It was a loud blowing horn that caused a slight let-up, with Oshin riding forward, leading Tancred’s mount, to shout to him that there was a truce flag flying above the tallest minaret.

  ‘Hold your positions, Lord Tancred, but push no more. I think our Turks are ready to seek to save their skins, so I beg you to join me in talking to them.’

  Looking around him and the many dead who had already fallen to Norman weapons, not a few of them to his own, Tancred calculated that with a bit more effort
they might achieve that rare event, the taking of a fortified place on the first assault; he was loath to depart from that.

  ‘Talk to them, Oshin, speak for us all.’

  ‘That would not be fitting. If Mamistra falls it does so to you. Come and bring with you your banner.’

  ‘Take over, Robert, and hold the ground we have gained.’

  Bloodstained and sweaty Tancred clambered down and mounted his horse, bringing in his own hand the de Hauteville flag. He and Oshin rode to the main gate to find a splendidly clad and swarthy individual on the barbican waiting to parley with them and he was seeking terms. Two notions were uppermost in Tancred’s mind: the way Gökham Bey had betrayed him to Baldwin at Tarsus, and the fact that his and Oshin’s men were still on the walls and in a position to press home the attack.

  So pleas for time were denied; the Governor of Mamistra was given one glass of sand to get him and his Turks, military and civilian, out of the town on pain of death for all, including his wives and children. Nor was Tancred, egged on by Oshin, prepared to play the normal Turkish game of extended negotiations. He dismissed out of hand the man’s attempts to bargain and swore he would personally make his death so painful that he would seek to convert to save himself.

  ‘Take nothing,’ Tancred added. ‘Only what you wear and what you must ride. Your men must leave their weapons also, and if you abide by those terms I swear on the soul of Jesus Christ our Saviour that you will not be harmed.’

  For a man that had no choice habit made him seek amelioration, until Oshin spoke up and began to describe what the people of Adana had done to their Turks. Argument ceased then, and for such a dark-skinned fellow it was strange how pale he had gone. Within the required time the Turks moved out, a long and slow caravan of horses, carts, women, each sat on an ass, children walking beside them, but no possessions of any size. When the last donkey left, Tancred called his men off the walls and with Oshin at his side rode into Mamistra to the cheers of the Armenian population.

  The treasury of Mamistra was intact, as were all the furniture and artefacts held by the Governor of a wealthy trading city: chests of coins, gold, silver and bronze, beautifully crafted objects that would yield a fortune on their own. Now Tancred could still those moaning tongues and reward his lances with the kind of booty they had craved since leaving Apulia.

  He too would gain much, wealth greater than he had ever possessed, for Oshin refused to take any share. Yet the pleasure in that was topped by the cheering sight of his banner flying over the city, its red background and blue and white chequer telling all who saw it that a de Hauteville was the Lord of Mamistra.

  It was only two days before that was spotted by Baldwin of Boulogne, who stopped his men by the river and made camp. After that banner, the first thing he would have espied was much work being done on repairing the walls, tasks at which the Normans, endemic castle builders, were extremely adept. He would have wondered, while they toiled at the masonry, as to the identity of the men who were standing guard, for he would have no idea, even if he had been refused entry to Adana, that the man who commanded there was now here with half his forces. He took his time, but eventually Baldwin was obliged to ride towards the closed gates and ask to speak to Tancred.

  ‘I come in peace.’

  Getting no reply Baldwin asked that he and his men be allowed to enter.

  ‘Denied, which is, you must admit, a fair response to Tarsus.’

  ‘You were too arrogant, Tancred, unwilling to share as you should, for we are brothers in our endeavour. I acted as was necessary, and had you lingered you would have found me generous.’

  ‘As generous as you wish me to be here?’

  Try as he might to contain himself, Baldwin’s natural bellicosity broke through and he positively snapped his response. ‘As generous as you should be here!’

  ‘And if I decline?’

  ‘Then count my lances.’

  ‘I suggest instead that you ride around the walls and observe that not all the men upon them are Normans. If you mean you outnumber me, you will learn that is no longer the case, and besides that, I sit behind these walls and if you wish to enter there is only one way you can do it. I will hazard that after you try, we Normans will outnumber you, for your lances will die on these battlements.’

  ‘You would fight your fellow Crusaders?’

  ‘Only if they seek to fight me.’

  ‘I demand that you share with us that which you have taken here.’

  ‘No, Baldwin, what I have here is mine. Ride on, I suggest, and do that for which we were sent. Make sure the Belen Pass is clear.’

  ‘I will camp by the river overnight, Tancred, and in the morning I will come again and I expect a different answer.’

  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 side
s to rejoin their confrères.

  ‘So when do we parley, Tancred?’

  ‘I will not speak with you, Baldwin, until we face Adémar 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.