of Puy-en-Velay, led the charge across the bridge, opening the way for the advancing army. Bohemond of Taranto took a vanguard along the river's south bank and headed towards Antioch on 21 October and the crusaders established themselves outside the city's north wall. The crusaders divided into several groups. Bohemond camped outside Saint Paul's Gate near the northernmost corner of the city walls and immediately to the west were Hugh I, Count of Vermandois; Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy; Robert II, Count of Flanders; and Stephen II, Count of Blois. Adhemar of Le Puy and Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, took up positions outside the Dog Gate either side of where the Orontes penetrated Antioch's defences. Godfrey of Bouillon was stationed west of the Duke's Gate in the northwest of the city walls. The bridge across the Orontes outside Antioch's west walls remained under Yaghi-Siyan's control at this point. The ensuing nine-month siege has been described as "one of the great sieges of the age". The sources emphasise that a direct assault would have failed. For instance, Raymond of Aguilers noted that the chaplain of Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, said "[Antioch] is so well fortified that it need not fear attack by machinery nor the assault of man, even if all mankind came together against it". According to Fulcher of Chartres the leaders resolved to maintain the siege until the city was forced into submission. Though his figures may not be accurate, Raymond of Aguilers gave an account of the army defending the city: "There were, furthermore, in the city two thousand of the best knights, and four or five thousand common knights and ten thousand more footmen". One of the problems of camping so close to the city was that it left the besiegers vulnerable to sorties from the garrison and even missiles. For the first fortnight of the siege, the crusaders were able to forage in the surrounding area as the defenders chose not to leave the safety of the city walls. However, in November Yaghi-Siyan learned that the crusaders felt the city would not fall to an assault so was able to turn his attentions from the defensive to harrying the besiegers. He mobilised his cavalry and began harassing the besiegers. With the immediate area stripped clean, the crusaders' foraging parties had to search further afield for supplies leaving them more vulnerable and on several occasions