Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/312

290 THE DECLINE AND FALL Giiiscard was lodged and entertained, and served with Imperial pomp : one day, as he passed through the gallery of the palace, a door was carelessly left open to expose a pile of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of curious and costly furniture, that was heaped in seeming disorder from the floor to the roof of the chamber. "What conquests," exclaimed the ambitious miser, "might not be achieved by the possession of such a treasure I " " It is your own,'" replied a Greek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul ; and Bohemond, after some hesitation, condescended to accept this magnificent present. The Norman was flattered by the assurance of an independent principality ; and Alexius eluded, rather than denied, his daring demand of the office of great domestic, or general, of the East. The two Roberts, the son of the conqueror of England and the kinsman of three queens,"" bowed in their turn before the Byzantine throne. A private letter of Stephen of Chartres attests his admiration of the emperor, the most excellent and liberal of men, who taught him to believe that he was a favourite, and promised to educate and establish his youngest son. In his southern province, the count of St. Giles and Toulouse faintly recognised the supremacy of the king of France, a prince of a foreign nation and language. At the head of an hundred thousand men, he declared that he was the soldier and servant of Christ alone, and that the Greek might be satisfied with an equal treaty of alliance and friend- ship. His obstinate resistance enhanced the value and the price of his submission ; and he shone, says the princess Anne, among the barbarians, as the sun amidst the stars of heaven. His disgust of the noise and insolence of the French, his sus- picions of the designs of Bohemond, the emperor imparted to his faithful Raymond ; and that aged statesman might clearly discern that, however false in friendship, he was sincere in his enmity. "1 The spirit of chivalry was last subdued in the person ofTancred; and none could deem themselves dishonoured by the imitation of that gallant knight. He disdained the gold and flattery of the Greek monarch ; assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician ; escaped to Asia in the habit of a private soldier ; and yielded with a sigh to the authority of Bohemond and the interest of the Christian cause. The best and most ostensible reason was the impossibility of passing the sea and accomplishing their vow, without the licence and the vessels of 70 After his return, Robert of Flanders became the man of the King of England, for a pension of 400 marks. See the first act in Rymer's Foedera. '■iSensit vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia non fingere. Tacit, vi. 44. I