ulate himself, that he had almost reached the first term of his pilgrimage, without drawing his sword against a Christian adversary. After an easy and pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to Aquileia, Raymond and his provincials marched forty days through the savage country of Dalmatia 59 and Sclavonia. The weather was a perpetur1 fog; the land was mountainous and desolate; the natives were either fugitive or hostile loose in their religion and government, they refused to furnish provisions or guides; murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and day the vigilance of the count, who derived more security from the punishment of some captive robbers than from his interview and treaty with the prince of Scodra.60 His march between Durazzo and Constantinople was harassed, without being stopped, by the peasants and soldiers of the Greck emperor; and the same faint and ambiguous hostility was prepared for the remaining chiefs, who passed the Adriatic from the coast of Italy. Bo hemond had arms and vessels, and foresight and discipline; and his name was not forgotten in the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever obstacles he encountered were surmounted by his military conduct and the valor of Tancred; and if the Norman prince affected to spare the Greeks, he gorged his soldiers with the full plunder of an heretical castle.61 The nobles of France pressed forwards with the vain and thoughtless ardor of which their nation has been sometimes accused. From the Alps to Apulia the march of Hugh the Great, of the two Roberts, and of Stephen of Char

69 The Familiæ Dalmaticæ of Ducange are meagre and imperfect; the national historians are recent and fabulous, the Greeks remote and careless. In the year 1104, Coloman reduced the maritime country as far as Trau and Salona, (Katona, Hist. Crit. tom. iii. p. 195–207.)

60 Scodras appears in Livy as the capital and fortress of Gentius, king of the Illyrians, arx munitissima, afterwards a Roman colony, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 393, 394.) It is now called Iscodar, or Scutari, (D'Anville, Géographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 164.) The sanjiak (now a pacha) of Scutari, or Schendeire, was the viiith under the Beglerbeg of Romania, and furnished 600 soldiers on a revenue of 78,787 rixdollars, (Marsigli, Stato Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 128.) "In Pelagonia castrum hæreticum spoliatum cum suis habitatoribus igne combussere. Nec id eis injuriâ contigit : quia illorum detestabilis sermo et cancer serpebat, jamque circumjacentes regiones suo pravo dogmate fœdaverat, (Robert. Mon. p. 36, 37.) After coolly relating the fact, the Archbishop Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnes siquidem illi viatores, Judeos, hæreticos, Saracenos æqualiter habent exosos; quos omnes appellant inimicos Dei, (p 92.)

tres, through a wealthy country, and amidst the applauding Catholics, was a devout or triumphant progress: they kissed the feet of the Roman pontiff; and the golden standard of St. Peter was delivered to the brother of the French monarch.62 But in this visit of piety and pleasure, they neglected to secure the season, and the means of their embarkation: the winter was insensibly lost their troops were scattered and corrupted in the towns of Italy. They separately accomplished their passage, regardless of safety or dignity; and within nine months from the feast of the Assumption, the day appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes had reached Constantinople. But the count of Vermandois was produced as a captive; his foremost vessels were scattered by a tempest; and his person, against the law of nations, was detained by the lieutenants of Alexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh had been announced by four-and-twenty knights in golden armor, who commanded the emperor to revere the general of the Latin Christians, the brother of the king of kings.63 *

In some Oriental tale I have read the fable of a shepherd, who was ruined by the accomplishment of his own wishes: he had prayed for water; the Ganges was turned into his grounds, and his flock and cottage were swept away by the inundation. Such was the fortune, or at least the apprehension, of the Greek emperor Alexius Comnenus, whose name has already appeared in this history, and whose conduct is so differently represented by his daughter Anne,64 and by the Latin wri

• Αναλαβόμενος ἀπὸ ̔Ρώμης τὴν χρυσὴν τοῦ ̔Αγίου Πέτρου σημαίαν, (Alexiad. 1. x. p. 288.)

̔Ο Βασιλεύς τῶν βασιλέων, καὶ ἄρχηγος τοῦ Φραγγίκου στρατεύματος an avtos. This Oriental pomp is extravagant in a count of Vermandois; but the patriot Ducange repeats with much complacency (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 352, 353. Dissert. xxvii. sur Joinville, p. 315) the passages of Matthew Paris (A. D. 1254) and Froissard, (vol. iv. p. 201,) which style the king of France rex regum, and chef de tous les rois Chrêtiens.

64 Anna Comnena was born the 1st of December, A. D. 1083, indic tion vii., (Alexiad. 1. vi. p. 166, 167.) At thirteen, the time of the first crusade, she was nubile, and perhaps married to the younger Nicephorus Bryennius, whom she fondly styles τὸν ἐμὸν Καίσαρα, (1. x. p. 295, 296.) Some moderns hare imagined, that her enmity to Bohemond was the fruit of disappointed love. In the transactions

Hugh was taken at Durazzo, and sent by land to Constantinoply Wilken.-M.

ters.65 In the council of Placentia, his ambassadors had so licited a moderate succor, perhaps of ten thousand soldiers; but he was astonished by the approach of so many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The emperor fluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and courage; but in the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom, I cannot believe. I cannot discern, that he maliciously conspired against the life or honor of the French heroes. The promiscuous mul titudes of Peter the Hermit were savage beasts, alike destitute of humanity and reason: nor was it possible for Alexius to prevent or deplore their destruction. The troops of Godfrey and his peers were less contemptible, but not less suspicious, to the Greek emperor. Their motives might be pure and pious but he was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemoud, and his ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs: the courage of the French was blind and headstrong; they might be tempted by the luxury and wealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion of their invincible strength; and Jerusalem might be forgotten in the prospect of Constanti nople. After a long march and painful abstinence, the troops of Godfrey encamped in the plains of Thrace; they heard with indignation, that their brother, the count of Vermandois, was imprisoned by the Greeks; and their reluctant duke was compelled to indulge them in some freedom of retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the submission of Alexius: he promised to supply their camp; and as they refused, in the midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters were

of Constantinople and Nice, her partial accounts (Alex. 1. x. xi. p. 283 -317) may be opposed to the partiality of the Latins, but in their subsequent exploits she is brief and ignorant.

65 In their views of the character and conduct of Alexius, Maimbourg has favored the Catholic Franks, and Voltaire has been partial to the schismatic Greeks. The prejudice of a philosopher is less ex• cusable than that of a Jesuit.

Wilken quotes a remarkable passage of William of Malmsbury as to the secret motives of Urban and of Bohemond in urging the crusade. Illud repositius propositum non ita vulgabatur, quod Boemundi consilio, pene totam Europam in Asiaticam expeditionem moveret, ut in tanto tumultu oranium provinciarum facile obæratis auxiliaribus, et Urbanus Romam et Boemundus Illyricum et Macedoniam pervaderent. Nam eas terras et quidquid præterea a Dyrrachio usque ad Thessalonicam protenditur, Guiscardus pater, super Alexium acquisierat; idcirco illas Boemundus suo juri competere clamitabat: inops hæreditatis Apuliæ, quam genitor Rogerio minori filio delegaverat. Wilken, vol ii. p. 313.-M

assigned among the gardens and palaces on the shores of tha narrow sea. But an incurable jealousy still rankled in the minds of the two nations, who despised each other as slaves and Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of suspicion, and suspicion was inflamed into daily provocations: prejudice is blind, hunger is deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starve or assault the Latins in a dangerous post, on all sides encompassed with the waters.66 Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net, overspread the plain, and insulted the suburbs; but the gates of Constantinople were strongly fortified; the ramparts were lined with archers; and, after a doubtful conflict, both parties listened to the voice of peace and religion. The gifts and promises of the emperor insensibly soothed the fierce spirit of the western strangers; as a Christian warrior, he rekindled their zeal for the prosecution of their holy enterprise, which he engaged to second with his troops and treasures On the return of spring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a pleasant and plentiful camp in Asia; and no sooner had he passed the Bosphorus, than the Greek vessels were suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The same policy was repeated with the succeeding chiefs, who were swayed by the example, and weakened by the departure, of their foremost companions. By his skill and diligence, Alexius prevented the union of any two of the confederate armies at the same moment under the walls of Constantinople; and before the feast of the Pentecost not a Latin pilgrim was left on the coast of Europe.

The same arms which threatened Europe might deliver Asia, and repel the Turks from the neighboring shores of the Bosphorus and Hellespont. The fair provinces from Nice to Antioch were the recent patrimony of the Roman emperor; and his ancient and perpetual claim still embraced the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt. In his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged or affected, the ambitious hope of leading his new allies to subvert the thrones of the East; but the calmer dictates of reason and temper dissuaded him from exposing his royal person to the faith of unknown and lawless Barbarians. His prudence, or his pride, was content with extorting from the

06 Between the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and the River Barbyses, which is deep in summer, and runs fifteen miles through a flat meadow. Its communication with Europe and Constantinople is by the stone bridge of the Blacherne, which in successive ages was restored by Justinian and Basil, (Gyllius de Bosphoro Thracio, l. ii. c. 3. Du cange, C P. Christiana, l. v. c. 2, p. 179.)

French princes an oath of homage and fidelity, and a solemn promise, that they would either restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests as the humble and loyal vassals of the Roman empire. Their independent spirit was fired at the mention of this foreign and voluntary servitude: they successively yielded to the dexterous application of gifts and flattery; and the first proselytes became the most eloquent and effectual missionarieto multiply the companions of their shame. The pride of Hugh of Vermandois was soothed by the honors of his captivity; and in the brother of the French king, the example of submission was prevalent and weighty. In the mind of God. frey of Bouillon every human consideration was subordinate to the glory of God and the success of the crusade. He had firmly resisted the temptations of Bohemond and Raymond, who urged the attack and conquest of Constantinople. Alexius esteemed his virtues, deservedly named him the champion of the empire, and dignified his homage with the filial name and the rights of adoption.67 The hateful Bohemond was received as a true and ancient ally; and if the emperor reminded him of former hostilities, it was only to praise the valor that he had displayed, and the glory that he had acquired, in the fields of Durazzo and Larissa. The son of Guiscard was lodged and entertained, and served with Imperial pomp: one day, as he passed through the gallery of the palace, a door was carelessly left open to expose a pile of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of curious and costly furniture, that was heaped, in seeming disorder, from the floor to the roof of the chamber. "What conquests," exclaimed the ambitious miser, "might not be achieved by the possession of such a treasure!" "It is your own," replied a Greek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul; and Bohemond, after some hesitation, condescended to accept this magnificent present. The Nor man was flattered by the assurance of an independent principality; and Alexius eluded, rather than denied, his daring demand of the office of great domestic, or general of the East. The two Roberts, the son of the conqueror of England, and the kinsmen of three queens,68 bowed in their turn before the

7 There were two sorts of adoption, the one by arms, the other by introducing the son between the shirt and skin of his father. Ducange (sur Joinville, Diss. xxii. p. 270) supposes Godfrey's adoption to have been of the latter sort.

After his return, Robert of Flanders became the man of the king of England, for a pension of four hundred marks. See the first act in Rymer's Fœdera.