1 LVIII. CHA P. tian people, to whom the name, or at least the abufe, of the crofs was juftly odious. The Hungarians still smarted with the wounds which they had received from the firft pilgrims: in their turn they had abused the right of defence and retaliation; and they had reafon to apprehend a fevere revenge from an hero of the fame nation, and who was engaged in the fame caufe. But, after weighing the motives and the events, the virtuous duke was content to pity the crimes and misfortunes of his worthlefs brethren; and his twelve deputies, the meffengers of peace, requested in his name a free paffage and an equal market. To remove their fufpicions, Godfrey trufted himself, and afterwards his brother, to the faith of Carloman king of Hungary, who treated them with a fimple but hofpitable entertainment: the treaty was fanctified by their common gofpel; and a proclamation, under pain of death, reftrained the animofity and licence of the Latin foldiers. From Auftria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of Hungary, without enduring or offering an injury; and the proximity of Carloman, who hovered on their flanks with his numerous cavalry, was a precaution not less useful for their fafety than for his own. They reached the banks of the Save; and no fooner had they paffed the river than the king of Hungary reftored the hoftages, and faluted their departure with the fairest wishes for the fuccefs of their enterprife. With the fame conduct and discipline, Godfrey pervaded the woods of Bulgaria and the frontiers of Thrace; and might con LVIII. congratulate himself, that he had almoft reached CIA P. the first term of his pilgrimage, without drawing his fword against a Christian adversary. After an eafy and pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to Aquileia, Raymond and his provincials marched forty days through the favage country of Dalmatia 5 and Sclavonia. The weather was a perpetual fog; the land was mountainous and defolate; the natives were either fugitive or hoftile: loofe in their religion and government, they refused to furnish provifions or guides; murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and day the vigilance of the count, who derived more fecurity from the punishment of some captive robbers than from his interview and treaty with the prince of Scodra "°. His march between Durazzo and Conftantinople was haraffed, without being stopped, by the peasants and foldiers of the Greek emperor; and the fame faint and ambiguous hoftility was prepared for the remaining chiefs, who paffed the Adriatic from the coaft of Italy. Bohemond had arms and veffels, and forefight and discipline; and his name was 60 59 The Familiæ Dalmatice of Ducange are meagre and imperfect; the national hiftorians are recent and fabulous, the Greeks remote and carelefs. In the year 1104, Coloman reduced the maritime country as far as Trau and Salona (Katona, Hift. Crit. tom, iii. p. 195-207.). 60 Scodras appears in Livy as the capital and fortress of Gentius king of the Illyrians, arx munitiffima, afterwards a Roman colony (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 393, 394.). It is now called Ifcodar, or Scutari (d'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 164.). The fanjiak (now a pasha) of Scutari, or Schendeire, was the viiith under the Beglerbeg of Romania, and furnished 600 soldiers on a revenue of 78,787 rix-dollars (Marfigli, Stato Militare del Impero Ottomano, p. 128.). not CHAP. not forgotten in the provinces of Epirus and ThefLVIII. faly. Whatever obftacles he encountered were furmounted by his military conduct and the valour of Tancred; and if the Norman prince affected to fpare the Greeks, he gorged his foldiers with the full plunder of an heretical castle"1. The nobles of France preffed forwards with the vain and thoughtlefs ardour of which their nation has been fometimes accufed. From the Alps to Apulia the march of Hugh the Great, of the two Roberts, and of Stephen of Chartres, through a wealthy country, and amidst the applauding. Catholics, was a devout or triumphant progress: they kiffed the feet of the Roman pontiff; and the golden ftandard of St. Peter was delivered to the brother of the French monarch 62. But in this vifit of piety and pleafure, they neglected to fecure the season, and the means, of their embarkation: the winter was infenfibly loft; their troops were fcattered and corrupted in the towns of Italy. They feparately accomplished their paffage, regardless of fafety or dignity: and within nine months from the feaft of the Affumption, the day appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes had reached Constantinople. 61 In Pelagonia caftrum hæreticum..... fpoliatum cum fuis habitatoribus igne combuffere. Nec id eis injuria contigit: quia illorum deteftabilis fermo et cancer ferpebat, jamque circumjacentes regiones fuo pravo dogmate fœdaverat (Robert. Mon. P. 36, 37.). After coolly relating the fact, the archbishop Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnes fiquidem illi viatores, Judeos, hæreticos, Saracenos æqualiter habent exofos; quos omnes appellant inimicos Dei (p. 92.). 62. Αναλαβόμενος από Ρώμης την χρυσήν το 'Αγιο Πεπρω σημείων (Alexiad, 1. x. p. 288.). But LVIII. But the count of Vermandois was produced as a CHAP. captive; his foremost veffels were scattered by a tempeft; and his perfon, 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 armour, who commanded the emperor to revere the general of the Latin Christians, the brother of the King of kings 63 Policy of the empe ror Alexi us Comnenus, A. D. 1096, De cember In fome Oriental tale I have read the fable of a fhepherd, 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 apprehenfion, of the Greek emperor Alexius May. Comnenus, whofe name has already appeared in this history, and whofe conduct is fo differently represented by his daughter Anne 64, and by the 63 Ο Βασιλεύς των βασιλέων, και αρχηγός το Φραγγικό τρατεύματος απαντος. This Oriental pomp is extravagant in a count of Vermandois; but the patriot Ducange repeats with much complacency (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 352, 353. Differt. xxvii. fur Joinville, p. 315.), the paffages of Matthew Paris (A. D. 1254.) and Froiffard (vol. iv. p. 201.), which ftyle the king of France, rex regum, and chef de tous les rois Chretiens. 64 Anna Comnena was born the 1st of December, A. D. 1083, indiction 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 the fondly ftyles ro sov Kaioapa (1. x. p. 295, 296.). Some moderns have imagined, that her enmity to Bohemond was the fruit of disappointed love. In the transactions of Conftantinople and Nice, her partial accounts (Alex. 1. x, xi. p. 283-317.) may be opposed to the partiality of the Latins, but in their fubfequent exploits fhe is brief and ignorant. Latin A. D. 1097, e LVIII. 65 CHAP. Latin writers "5. In the council of Placentia, his ambaffadors had folicited a moderate fuccour, perhaps of ten thoufand foldiers: but he was aftonished by the approach of fo many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The emperor fluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and courage; but in the crooked policy which he miftook for wifdom, I cannot believe, I cannot difcern, that he maliciously confpired against the life or honour of the French heroes. The promifcuous multitudes of Peter the hermit, were favage beafts, alike destitute of humanity and reafon nor was it poffible for Alexius to prevent or deplore their deftruction. The troops of Godfrey and his peers were lefs contemptible, but not lefs fufpicious, to the Greek emperor. Their motives might be pure and pious; but he was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond, and his ignorance of the Tranfalpine chiefs: the courage of the French was blind and headftrong; they might be tempted by the luxury and wealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion of their invincible ftrength; and Jerufalem might be forgotten in the profpect of Conftantinople. After a long march and painful abftinence, 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 65 In their views of the character and conduct of Alexius, Maimbourg has favoured the Catholic Franks, and Voltaire has been partial to the fchifmatic Greeks. The prejudice of a philofopher is lefs excufeable than that of a Jefuit. reluctant |