[39] The line of battle was drawn up; the huissiers
and galleys in front, the transports a little behind and alternating
between the huissiers and the galleys. The whole length of the line of
battle was upward of half a league, and stretched from the Blachern to
beyond the Petrion.[40] The Emperor's vermilion tent had been pitched
on the hill just beyond the district of the Petrion, where he could
see the ships when they came immediately under the walls. Before him
was the district which had been devastated by the fire.
On the morning of the 9th the ships, drawn up in the order described,
passed over from the north to the south side of the harbor. The
crusaders landed in many places, and attacked from a narrow strip of
the land between the walls and the water. Then the assault began in
terrible earnest along the whole line. Amid the din of the imperial
trumpets and drums the attackers endeavored to undermine the walls,
while others kept up a continual rain of arrows, bolts, and stones.
The ships had been covered with blanks and skins so as to defend them
from the stones and from the famous Greek fire, and, thus protected,
pushed boldly up to the walls.
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