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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIEE 281 vailed among his provincials,^^ a common name, which included the natives of Auvergne and Languedoc,^* the vassals of the kingdom of Burgmidy or Aries. From the adjacent frontier of Spain he drew a band of hardy adventurers ; as he marched through Lombardy, a crowd of Italians flocked to his standard ; and his united force consisted of one hundred thousand horse and foot. If Raymond was the first to enlist, and the last to depart, the delay may be excused by the greatness of his preparation and the promise of an everlasting farewell. IV. iv. Bohemond The name of Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard, was al- ^ "''^" ready famous by his double victory over the Greek emperor ; but his father's will had reduced him to the principality of Tarentum and the remembrance of his Eastern trophies, till he was awakened by the rumour and passage of the French pil- grims. It is in the person of this Norman chief that we may seek for the coolest policy and ambition, with a small allay of religious fanaticism. His conduct may justify a belief that he had secretly directed the design of the pope, which he affected to second with astonishment and zeal. At the siege of Amalphi, his example and discourse inflamed the passions of a confederate army ; he instantly tore his garment, to supply crosses for the numerous candidates, and prepared to visit Constantinople and Asia at the head of ten thousand horse and twenty thousand foot. Several princes of the Norman race accompanied this veteran general ; and his cousin Tancred ^^ was the partner, rather than the servant, of the war. In the accomplished character of Tancred we discover all the virtues of a perfect knight,^'^' the true spirit of chivalry, which inspired 53 Omnes de Burgundia, et Alvernia, et Vasconia, et Gothi (of Languedoc), provinciales appellabantur cseteri vero Francigenas, et hoc in exercitu ; inter hostes autem Franci dicebantur. Raymond de Agiles, p. 144. ^The town of his birth, or first appanage, was consecrated to St. /Egidius, whose name, as early as the first crusade, Nsas corrupted by the French into St. Gilles, or St. Giles. It is situate in the Lower Languedoc, between Xismes and the Rhone, and still boasts a collegiate church of the foundation of Raymond (Melanges tir^s d'une grande Bibliotheque, tom. xxxvii. p. 51). ^^ The mother of Tancred was Emma, sister of the great Robert Guiscard ; his father, the marquis Odo the Good. It is singular enough that the family and country of so illustrious a person should be unknown ; but Muratori reasonably conjectures that he was an Italian, and perhaps of the race of the marquises of Montferrat in Piedmont (.Script, tom. v. p. 281, 282). [But see below, p. 296, n. 86.] ^ To gratify the childish vanity of the house of Este, Tasso has inserted in his poem, and in the first crusade, a fabulous hero, the brave and amorous Rinaldo (x. 75, xvii. 66-94). He might borrow his name from a Rinaldo, with the .quila bianca Estense, who vanquished, as the standard-bearer of the Roman church,