Then you transgressed your oath, disregarded also the terms of peace and after taking this town and handing it over to us, you changed your mind again and kept possession of it, so that my journey hither to take over the towns you had captured, is bootless.” Then Bohemund asked, “Did you come in the expectation of taking these towns from us by money or by the sword? ” and the other replied, “The money has been given to our brave followers to make them fight bravely.” Then Bohemund said in a rage, “Let me tell you that you will never be able to take even a tiny fort from us without money.” After that he incited the troops under him to ride right up to the gates of the town. Cantacuzenus’ men kept the wall and discharged arrows thick as a snowstorm against the Franks when they approached the walls, and forced them to retreat a little, so Bohemund immediately recalled them all and entered into the Acropolis.
Whole of Cilicia
And because he suspected the Count in charge of the town and also the Franks under him he appointed another in his place and sent the former away. At this time he also had the vineyards near the walls uprooted, so that they might not be an obstacle in future to the Latins when on horseback. After making these arrangements he left and returned to Antioch. Cantacuzenus on his side did not neglect carrying on the siege in various ways and by numberless machines and devices and siege-engines he greatly disturbed the Latins in the Acropolis. And now Monastras who was coming overland with the cavalry seized Longinias, Tarsus, Adana, Mamista, in fact, the whole of Cilicia.
XII Bohemund was now getting alarmed by the Emperor’s threats and had no means of protecting himself (for he had neither an army on land nor a fleet at sea; and danger menaced him from both sides), so he devised a plan which was exceedingly sordid, and yet exceedingly ingenious. First of all he left the town of Antioch to his nephew Tancred, the son of Marceses, and had a report spread about himself, which said that Bohemund had died, and while still alive he arranged that the world should think of him as dead.
And the report spread more quickly than a bird can fly and proclaimed that Bohemund was a corpse! And when he found that the report had taken good hold, a wooden coffin was soon prepared and a bireme, in which the coffin was placed, and also he, the living corpse, sailed away from Sudei, which is the harbour of Antioch, to Rome. Thus Bohemund was carried across the sea as a corpse, for to all appearance he was a corpse to judge by the coffin and the demeanour of his companions (for wherever they stopped the barbarians plucked out their hair and mourned him ostentatiously), and inside he was lying stretched out dead for the time being, but for the rest inhaling and exhaling air through unseen holes.
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