Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/157

 were despatched as quickly as possible across the Bosporus, where they were at once cut to pieces before Nicæa. But then came the great armies under Hugh de Vermandois, Robert Duke of Normandy, Robert Count of Flanders, Stephen Count of Blois, Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond, son of the dreaded Robert Guiscard, Tancred, and Raymond Count of Toulouse. These came prepared to march through the city as through a conquered state; to fight their way through, or to treat with the emperor. Alexius dissembled his fears, received them with friendship, witnessed without reproach their lamentable ignorance of the court ceremonials, listened to their incessant talk, which seemed strangely undignified to the slow and deliberate Byzantine, who spoke as if his words carried weight, and were not to be heedlessly uttered; and at last, after agreeing to supply the Crusaders with provisions at reasonable prices, to give them an auxiliary force, and to protect all pilgrims, had the satisfaction of seeing them depart across the narrow seas. Probably, from long experience with Asiatic deserts, Asiatic summers, and Mohammedan warriors, it appeared more than probable to the emperor that most of these gallant soldiers would never be able to come back again. This, indeed, proved the event. Of course, Alexius never carried out any portion of the treaty.

One is tempted to ask what the future of Constantinople might have been, had such a monarch as Romanus IV. or Basil II. been on the throne, and had the emperor, instead of distrusting and betraying, frankly joined his troops with those of the Franks, and taken his