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parts of the wall, or to strike any of the enemy he could see with his sling,
stopped at last; he was armed sufficiently like a foot-soldier, with iron
headpiece, coat of mail, and a tunic of many folds of linen, difficult of
penetration, and artificially worked with the needle, vulgarly called a
pourpoint. A Turk from the wall struck him with a dart from a sling with
great force on the breast, so that it penetrated all the aforementioned, the
iron armour descending from the head, and the coat of mail and pourpoint,
but it was stopped by a certain writing banging from his neck on his breast,
and fell out blunted and twisted as from an iron plate. Are not the works of
God manifest in the dart penetrating many folds of steel, and bounding
back blunted from a little scroll? For the man was said to have worn
suspended from his breast, the name of God on a scroll, thus proved to be
impenetrable to steel. God is a wall of strength to them that hope in him.
Chapter L. Ñ How one of our men. unarmed, having retired to satisfy the calls of
nature, struck down with a stone a Turk attacking him with a lance.
Again, as one of our men was stooping down outside the camp, a
Turk rode up to attack him unawares, but the soldier on seeing him
advance sideways, and scarcely having done what he came for at the
aforesaid ditch, rose up hastily, though unarmed, either to avoid him as he
came up, or by an impulse from the Lord to receive him in the best way he
could, As the Turk struck at him with the point of his lance, he bent down
and escaped the blow by the protection of God.
ÒThe horse rode by and passed with scatheless blow.Ó
The Turk annoyed at his ill success, prepared to repeat the attack, and
brandishing his lance, bore down upon the soldier. What could the latter
do, unarmed as he was? On foot, single-handed, and a ready prey for the
foe, he called upon God, who is always by his grace present with his
people, and seeing a stone by chance ready at hand, he aimed it at the face

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Itinerary
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of his enemy, which was exposed beneath his helmet, and it struck him on
the temple. The Turk fell stunned from his horse, broke his neck, and died;
the soldier caught the horse, mounted, and returned to his friends. One
who saw the occurrence, related it; and it is well known as a fact in the
camp.
Chapter LI. Ñ How a woman on the point of death, while our men were filling
the city trench with earth, threw herself in instead of earth.
On another occasion, amongst those who were carrying earth to
make a mound in the ditch for assaulting the town more easily, was a
woman who laboured with great diligence and earnestness, and went to
and fro unceasingly, and encouraged others unremittingly, in order that
the work might be accomplished; but her zeal put an end to her life and
labours; for while a crowd of all sexes and ages were constantly coming
and going to complete the work in question, and while the aforesaid
woman was occupied in depositing what she had brought, a Turk, who
had been lying wait for her, struck her a mortal blow with a dart. As she
fell to the ground, writhing with the violence of her pain, she entreated her
husband and many others who had come up to assist her, with tears in her
eyes, and very urgently, saying, ÒBy your love for me, my dearest lord, by
your piety as my husband, and the faith of our marriage contracted of old,
permit not my corpse to be removed from this place; but I pray and
beseech you, that since I can do nothing more towards the fulfilment of the
work, I may deem myself to have done some good, if you will allow my
lifeless body to be laid in the trench instead of earth, for it will soon be
earth.Ó This she urged with supplications to all the multitude that stood
around, and soon after gave up the ghost. Oh! wonderful faith of the
weaker sex! Oh! zeal of woman, worthy of imitation, for she ceased not,
even dead, to help those who laboured, and in her death continued to shew
her zeal in the cause!
Chapter LII. Ñ Of the TurkÕs horse caught in a net.

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