Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/145

THE BYZANTINES. 12 3 rallied. " If," says Paparregopoulos, speaking of the first crusade, " the Emperor Alexis had been able to employ against the Turks the land and sea forces which he at length found himself com- pelled to turn against his pretended allies, and the troops which he had been obliged to send with them into Asia Minor and Syria ; if he had been able to reserve for the struggle against Mo- hammedanism the resources of which he was plundered by the looting and extortions of the crusaders, he would have been able to get rid of all danger from the unbelievers far more effec- tively than was done by the ephemeral success of the Latins." History has yet to treat the attitude of the crusaders in the East from a point of view of judicial impartiality. The images of these events are still shown to us through the glass of Western prejudices. "The Latins," says Fin- lay, " would not allow that their disasters were caused by their own misconduct and imprudence, they persisted in attributing all their misfortunes to the treachery of the Greeks; and though Alexis delivered many from captivity, the cru- saders generally regarded him as an enemy. According to these accounts, it was always the Byzantines who were in the wrong ; they were