"What shall I say next? We were all indeed huddled together like sheep in a fold, trembling and frightened, surrounded on all sides by enemies so that we could not turn in any direction. It was clear to us that this had happened because of our sins. A great clamour rose to the sky, not only from our men and our women and children but also from the pagans rushing upon us. By now we had no hope of surviving."

The writer’s terror both moves us and makes us long to know their fate. Yet even as we find ourselves drawn into this very human drama, a sense of distance separates us from the writer...