Eagle Byzantium

After that, Wright and five or six other members of the Brotherhood, wearing chain mail, holding shields, bows and arrows, and long swords, escorted the Grand Duke in the middle, walked past the noisy and restless crowd, and headed for the orchard.

At the same time, Bohemond winked at his nephew beside him, and Tancred understood and also got off his horse. Ostus and Hercules, with the same number of entourage soldiers, were fully armed and also on the left side of Gawain's team, and walked into the forest from another "entrance", a passage formed by a pile of weeds and fruit trees.

The fishy smell blew out with the wind, and under the dense long grass and tree canopy, various birds made terrifying and ominous calls. Wright, who walked to the front of the team as a scout, was obviously a little anxious. When he saw a lot of blood in the grass, he began to let go of his pace, but Gawain grabbed his arm and pulled him back - six members of the Brotherhood were walking slowly and cautiously, guarding against the possible Turkic ambushes everywhere.

On the road over there, the Normans, who were also approaching slowly, also gathered Tancred in the center and walked towards the depths of the orchard.

Soon, they saw the first corpse, a slave, lying on the ground, completely dead, with three or four Turkish arrows deeply stuck in his back. Then when Wright turned around the stump opposite the corpse, he saw a maid, Beatrice, who was also dead. She was shot through the throat by a Turkish arrow and nailed to the tree trunk. Her head was tilted, and her feet raised a pile of mud. It seemed that she was struggling in pain before her death.

As they continued walking forward, the smell of blood became stronger. Everyone saw that the two mules that the priest and Beatrice were riding on were still tied to the stakes. "Wright, this shows that the Turks did not rob and kill us on impulse, but a deliberate ambush." ​​Gawain raised his hand, and everyone including Tancred behind him stopped. The brotherhood went up one after another, using shields to block the view between the Grand Duke and the Four Sisters Tower. Only a hundred feet away was the wall of the tower, surrounded by bushes, hedges and vines, and it was easy to ambushed people inside. On all four sides of the two mules, there were four or five corpses shot by arrows, all submerged in a pool of blood, some even had their heads chopped off. There was no one alive, and they had already been killed. They were completely dead. "All these people were killed by the Turkish arrows in an instant. They didn't even have armor." Wright half-knelt down, looked at the miserable bodies, and made a judgment. Then he quickly stood up and said to the Grand Duke, "Your Excellency, we can withdraw quickly. As expected, the bodies of the priest and Lady Beatrice are not here, which means they were taken away."

Under the shade of the trees that blocked out the sun, Gawain turned around angrily, staring directly at Tancred, who was a little guilty. The other party couldn't help but hold the hilt of the sword and took a half step back. His flaxen eyes wandered a little. "You deliberately withdrew the patrol cavalry and put the young couple to death!" Gawain shouted.

"Unfounded accusations and reproaches, you must take responsibility for your words!" Tancred hit back. An Armenian warrior and a Turkish warrior beside him came forward and faced Gawain with a vigilant attitude.

"You have to take responsibility for your conscience!" Before Gawain finished his accusation, violent Turkish language exploded from the top of the city wall, and Beatrice's miserable cry for help!

They trotted all the way out of the orchard, because Gawain could not see the scene on the top of the city wall due to the shade of the trees and the city wall. At this time, he saw Admar riding a donkey, his face ashen, surrounded by the lords and nobles, including the hermit Peter, looking up at the direction of the top of the city wall across the wooden fence of the camp. Gawain panted, turned around while walking, and saw that on the most prominent tower, many Turkish soldiers were holding down the miserable Adelbero and Beatrice, who was half naked and had her skirt torn. They grabbed their hair, beat and insulted them, and deliberately let the entire pilgrim siege camp see that more and more people stood up on their backs.

Wright saw that Beatrice, who was so beautiful, was slapped, her hair was torn, and she was whipped by the vulgar pagan shepherds. She cried, her mouth and cheeks were full of blood, and her teeth were knocked out. In the eyes of both sides, her spirit seemed to have completely collapsed. She could only keep begging, begging the Turks and the pilgrims to save her, save her and Adelbero, and she was willing to atone for all her sins and ask for everyone's forgiveness.

Wright trembled all over, almost feeling that his muscles were burning or freezing.

And a Turkic ghazi wearing a nose helmet was standing on the battlement, pointing at the pair with an excited look and yelling.

On the tower over there, Pragit also approached the shooting hole and saw this scene from the side. He was also stunned.

"Adelbero my child, Adelbero my child, what has bewitched you, putting you in such a purgatory!" The priest, who could no longer bear this miserable scene, was almost going crazy. He raised the cross with the rosary and kept kissing it, while Peter behind him covered his eyes with his hands in pain.

At this moment, Raymond, Robert of Flanders, Godfrey, Hugh, Baldwin and many earls and barons came over. They had all kinds of expressions on their faces, some were frightened and uneasy, some were angry and sad, but Bohemond kept shouting in the crowd, "Who can understand the Turkish language, who can understand the Turkish language! We want to know what the cruel pagans say."

Undoubtedly, under Gawain's cold gaze, that Ostus raised his hand, then rode his horse to the front of the crowd, then turned around and translated the words of the Turkish officer, "He said that the man and woman were doing something indescribable but filthy and shameless in the orchard, and were caught by their scouts."

"What exactly is the indescribable but filthy thing? Please forgive me for not being very clear about some taboos in Greek." Bohemond continued to pull the reins, covering his ears with his right hand, and asked loudly and seriously.

"It's ****!" Ostus used a term that everyone could understand.

"Please forgive me, my father, the Apulian cavalry failed to take good care of the priest and this poor lady." Bohemond turned his head and apologized to the trembling Adhmar very "painfully and sincerely".

The sun shone down on the group of people on the top of the city wall. The Turkish officer was still talking loudly. The two men and women were beaten and bruised. Then several Turkish men pushed Beatrice to the parapet, tore off the remaining clothes on her body, and knocked her to the ground. "No, don't do this!" Adelbero screamed in despair and pain. With such voices and the laughter of the Turkish people, and under the gaze of all the pilgrims in the siege camp, Beatrice was raped and abused over and over again. At first, she could still shout and resist, but soon she was out of breath. (To be continued ~^~)