Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/318

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296 THE DECLINE AND FALL savages of Europe. In the moment of victorj^, or at least of hope, the crusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder, were awed by the Imperial banner that streamed from the citadel, and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance this important conquest. The murmurs of the chiefs were stifled by honour or interest ; and, after an halt of nine days, they directed their march towards Phrygia, under the guidance of a Greek general, whom they suspected of secret connivance with the sultan. The consort and the principal servants of Soliman had been honourably restored without ransom, and the emperor" s generosity to the miscreants^^ was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause. Soliman was rather provoked than dismayed by the loss of his capital ; he admonished his subjects and allies of this strange invasion of the western barbarians ; the Turkish emirs obeyed the call of loyalty or religion ; the Turkman hordes encamped round his standard ; and his whole force is loosely stated by the Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty thousand horse. Yet he patiently waited till they had left be- hind them the sea and the Greek fi-ontier, and, hovering on the flanks, observed their careless and confident progress in two columns, beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they could reach Dorylaeum in Phrygia, the left and least numei-ous division was surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish cavaliy.^^ The heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and the barbarous onset overAvhelmed the crusaders ; they lost their order and confidence, and the fainting fight was sustained by the personal valour, rather than by the military conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, and Robert of Nor- mand)^ They were revived by the welcome banners of duke Godfrey, who flew to their succour, with the count of Verman- dois and sixty thousand horse, and was followed by Raymond of Toulouse, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the sacred army. Without a moment's pause they formed in new order, and advanced to a second battle. They were received with ^^ M^criant, a word invented by the French crusaders, and confined in that language to its primitive sense. It should seem that the zeal of oui- ancestors boiled higher, and that they branded every unbeliever as a rascal. A similar preju- dice still lurks in the minds of many who think themselves Christians. 8G Baronius has produced a very doubtful letter to his brother Roger (a.D. 1098, No. 15). The enemies consisted of Medes, Persians, Chaldeans ; be it so. The first attack was, cum nosiro incommodo ; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon and Hugh brothers f Tancred is styledy?/?/^ ; of whom ? certainly not of Roger, nor of Bohemond. [Tancred was a nephew of Bohemond, and a grand- nephew of Roger. His mother was Emma, Robert Guiscard's daughter ; his father Marchisus (Gest. Fr. iv. 2 Marchisi filius), which conceivably does not mean a western Marquis but refers to the name of a Saracen emir, as P. Paris suggests, Chanson d'Antioch, ii. 372 ; but it is not easy to find a likely name.]