Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/297

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 275 Between the frontiers of Austria and the seat of the Byzan- Their deatmc. tine monarchv, the crusaders were compelled to traverse angary and " Asia A D interval of six hundi'ed miles ; the wild and desolate countries loee ' of Hungary *'^ and Bulgaria. The soil is fruitful^ and intersected with rivers ; but it was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his dominion over the earth. Both nations had im- bibed the rudiments of Christianity ; the Hungarians were ruled by their native princes ; the Bulgarians by a lieutenant of the Greek emperor ; but on the slightest provocation, their ferocious nature was rekindled, and ample provocation was afforded by the disorders of the first pilgrims. Agriculture must have been unskilful and languid among a people, whose cities were built of reeds and timber, which were deserted in the summer- season for the tents of hunters and shepherds. A scanty supply of provisions was rudely demanded, forcibly seized, and greedily consumed ; and, on the first quarrel, the crusaders gave pn servia] a loose to indignation and revenge. But their ignorance of the country, of war, and of discipline exposed them to eveiy snare. The Greek praefect of Bulgaria commanded a regular force ; at the trumpet of the Hungarian king, the eighth or the tenth of his martial subjects bent their bows and mounted on horse- back ; their policy was insidious, and their retaliation on these pious robbers was unrelenting and bloody. ^^ About a third of the naked fugitives, and the hermit Peter was of the number, escaped to the Thracian mountains ; and the emperor, who respected the pilgrimage and succour of the Latins, conducted them by secure and easy journeys to Constantinople, and advised [Arrival at them to wait the arrival of their brethren. For a while they p'^- ^^- ^ remembered their laults and losses ; but no sooner were they ■*" See the contemporary description of Hungary in Otho of Frisingen [Gesta Friderici], 1. ii. c. 31, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, torn. vi. p. 665, 666. [This work of Otto, along with the continuation by Rahewin, has been edited in Pertz, Mon. xx. p. 347 sgj. ; and (by G. Waitz) in Scr. rer. Germ. 1884.] ^ The old Hungarians, without excepting Turotzius, are ill informed of the first crusade, which they involve in a single passage. Katona, like ourselves, can only quote the writers of France ; but he compares with local science the ancient and modern geography. Ante por tarn, Cyperon, is Sopron, or Poson ; Mallevilla, Zemlin ; Fluvius ^faroe, Savus ; Lintax, Leith ; Mesebroch, or Marseburg, Guar, or Moson ; Tollenbiirg, Pragg (De Regilaus Hungarise, tom. iii. p. 19-53). [The Hungarian king Caloman treated the pilgrims well. But a few stragglers belong- ing to the host of Walter were plundered at Semlin, and their arms were hung up on the wall. The army of Peter the Hermit, arriving later, saw the arms of their forerunners, and took vengeance by attacking and occupying the town. Both the host of Peter and that of Walter lost a great many men in conflicts in Bulgaria.]