С НА Р. Infolence of the Franks. Private or public intereft fuppreffed the murmurs of the dukes and counts; but a French baron (he is fuppofed to be Robert of Paris") prefumed to ascend the throne, and to place himfelf by the fide of Alexius. The fage reproof of Baldwin provoked him to exclaim, in his barbarous idiom, "Who is this ruftic, that keeps his feat while fo many valiant captains are "standing round him?" The emperor maintained his filence, diffembled his indignation, and questioned his interpreter concerning the meaning of the words, which he partly fufpected from the univerfal language of gefture and countenance. Before the departure of the pilgrims, he endeavoured to learn the name and condition of the audacious baron. "I am a Frenchman," replied Robert, "of the purest and most ancient "nobility of my country. All that I know is, "that there is a church in my neighbourhood", "the emperor as he fat motionless on his throne, it is clear that they muft have kiffed either his feet or knees. It is only fingular, that Anna fhould not have amply supplied the filence or ambiguity of the Latins. the abasement of their princes would have added a fine chapter to the Ceremoniale Aulæ Byzantinæ, 71 He called himself payyos nabagos Twv Evyeva (Alexias, 1. x. p. 301.). What a title of noblesse of the xith century, if any one could now prove his inheritance! Anna relates, with visible pleasure, that the swelling Barbarian, AɑTIVOS TETUPWμEVvoç, was killed, or wounded, after fighting in the front in the battle of Dorylæum (1. xi. p. 317.). This circumftance may justify the fufpicion of Ducange (Not. p. 362.), that he was no other than Robert of Paris, of the district moft peculiarly styled the Duchy or Inland of France ( L'Ile de France ). 72 With the fame penetration, Ducange difcovers his church to be that of St. Draufus, or Drofin, of Soissons, quem duello dimicaturi the refort of those who are defirous of approv ing their valour in fingle combat. Till an "enemy appears, they address their prayers to "God and his faints. That church I have fre quently vifited, but never have I found an "antagonist who dared to accept my defiance." Alexius difmiffed the challenger with fome prudent advice for his conduct in the Turkish warfare; and history repeats with pleasure this lively example of the manners of his age and country. 73 The conquest of Afia was undertaken and atchieved by Alexander, with thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks "3; and his best hope was in the strength and discipline of his phalanx of infantry. The principal force of the crufaders consisted in their cavalry; and when that force was mustered in the plains of Bithynia, the knights and their martial attendants on horfeback amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men, completely armed with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of thefe foldiers deferved a ftrict and authentic account; and the flower of European chivalry might furnish, in a first effort, this formidable body of heavy horse. A part of the infantry might be enrolled for the service of dimicaturi folent invocare: pugiles qui ad memoriam ejus (his tomb) pernoctant invictos reddit, ut et de Burgundiâ et Italia tali neceffitate confugiatur ad eum. Joan. Sariberienfis, epift. 139. 73 There is fome diversity on the numbers of his army: but no authority can be compared with that of Ptolemy, who ftates it at five thousand horse and thirty thousand foot (see Ufher's An, males, p. 152.). CHAP. LVIII. Their review and numbers. A. D. 1097, May. LVIII. CHAP. fcouts, pioneers, and archers; but the promifcuous crowd were loft in their own diforder; and we depend not on the eyes or knowledge, but on the belief and fancy, of a chaplain of count Baldwin", in the estimate of fix hundred thoufand pilgrims able to bear arms, befides the priests and monks, the women and children, of the Latin camp. The reader ftarts; and before he is recovered from his furprife, I fhall add, on the fame teftimony, that if all who took the cross had accomplished their vow, above SIX MILLIONS would have migrated from Europe to Afia. Under this oppreffion of faith, I derive fome relief from a more fagacious and thinking writer 75, who, after the fame review of the cavalry, accufes the credulity of the priest of Chartres, and even doubts whether the Cifalpine regions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were fufficient to produce and pour forth fuch incredible multitudes. The cooleft fcepticism will remember, that of thefe religious volunteers great numbers never beheld Conftantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm the influence is irregular and tranfient: many were detained at home by reafon or cowardice, by poverty or weakness; and many were repulsed 74 Fulcher. Carnotenfis, p. 387. He enumerates nineteen nations of different names and languages (p. 389.); but I do not clearly apprehend his difference between the Franci and Galli, Itali and Apuli. Elfewhere (p. 385.) he contemptuously brands the deferters. 75 Eibert, p. 556. Yet even his gentle opposition implies an immen multitude. By Urban II. in the fervour of his zeal, it is only rated at 300,000 pilgrims (epift. xvi, Concil. tom. xii. P, 731.). by LVIII. by the obstacles of the way, the more infuperable CHAP. as they were unforeseen to these ignorant fanatics. The favage countries of Hungary and Bulgária were whitened with their bones: their vanguard was cut in pieces by the Turkish fultan; and the lofs of the first adventure by the fword, or climate, or fatigue, has already been stated at three hundred thoufand men. Yet the myriads that furvived, that marched, that preffed forwards on the holy pilgrimage, were a fubject of aftonifh ment to themselves and to the Greeks. The copious energy of her language finks under the efforts of the princess Anne": the images of locufts, of leaves and flowers, of the fands of the fea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly represent what she had feen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius exclaims, that Europe was loofened from its foundations, and hurled against Afia. The ancient hofts of Darius and Xerxes labour under the fame doubt of a vague and indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to believe, that a larger number has never been contained within the lines of a fingle camp than at the fiege of Nice, the first operation of the Latin princes. Their motives, their characters, and their arms, have been already difplayed. Of their troops, the most numerous portion were natives of France: 76 Alexias, 1. x. p. 283. 305. Her faftidious delicacy complains of their strange and inarticulate names, and indeed there is scarcely one that she has not contrived to disfigure with the proud ignorance, fo dear and familiar to a polished people. I fhall felect only one example, Sangeles, for the count of St. Giles. LVIII. CHAP. the Low Countries, the banks of the Rhine, and Apulia, fent a powerful reinforcement: fome bands of adventurers were drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and England"; and from the diftant bogs and mountains of Ireland or Scotland 7 iffued fome naked and favage fanatics, ferocious at home but unwarlike abroad. Had not fuperftition condemned the facrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest Christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with mouths but without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek empire, till their companions had opened and fecured the way of the Lord. A small remnant of the pilgrims, who paffed the Bofphorus, was permitted to vifit the holy fepulchre. Their northern conftitution was scorched by the rays, and infected by the vapours, of a Syrian fun. They confumed, with heedlefs prodigality, their ftores of water and provifion; their numbers exhaufted the inland country; the fea was remote, the Greeks were 77 William of Malmsbury (who wrote about the year 1130) has inferted in his history (l. iv. p. 130-154.) a narrative of the firft crufade: but I wish that, instead of liftening to the tenue mur, mur which had paffed the British ocean (p. 143.), he had confined himself to the numbers, families, and adventures of his countrymen. I find in Dugdale, that an English Norman, Stephen earl of Albemarle and Holdernesse, led the rear-guard with duke Robert, at the battle of Antioch (Baronage, part i. p. 61.). 78 Videres Scotorum apud fe ferocium alias imbellium cuneos (Guibert, p. 471.): the crus intectum, and hifpida chlamys, may fuit the Highlanders; but the finibus uliginofis, may rather apply to the Irish bogs. William of Malmbury exprefsly mentions the Welsh and Scots, &c. (1. iv. p. 133.) who quitted, the former venationem faltuum, the latter familiaritatem pulicum, un |