or arm of St. George, the conquests
and reign of Soliman extended thirty days' journey in length, and in
breadth about ten or fifteen, between the rocks of Lycia and the Black
Sea. [56] The Turkish ignorance of navigation protected, for a while,
the inglorious safety of the emperor; but no sooner had a fleet of two
hundred ships been constructed by the hands of the captive Greeks, than
Alexius trembled behind the walls of his capital. His plaintive epistles
were dispersed over Europe, to excite the compassion of the Latins,
and to paint the danger, the weakness, and the riches of the city of
Constantine. [57]

[Footnote 52: Such is the description of Roum by Haiton the Armenian,
whose Tartar history may be found in the collections of Ramusio and
Bergeron, (see Abulfeda, Geograph. climat. xvii. p. 301-305.)]

[Footnote 53: Dicit eos quendam abusione Sodomitica intervertisse
episcopum, (Guibert. Abbat. Hist. Hierosol. l. i. p. 468.) It is odd
enough, that we should find a parallel passage of the same people in the
present age. "Il n'est point d'horreur que ces Turcs n'ayent commis,
et semblables aux soldats effrenes, qui dans le sac d'une ville, non
contens de disposer de tout a leur gre pretendent encore aux succes
les moins desirables. Quelque Sipahis ont porte leurs attentats sur la
personne du vieux rabbi de la synagogue, et celle de l'Archeveque Grec."
(Memoires du Baron de Tott, tom. ii. p. 193.)]

[Footnote 54: The emperor, or abbot describe the scenes of a Turkish
camp as if they had been present. Matres correptae in conspectu filiarum
multipliciter repetitis diversorum coitibus vexabantur; (is that the
true reading?) cum filiae assistentes carmina praecinere saltando
cogerentur. Mox eadem passio ad filias, &c.]

[Footnote 55: See Antioch, and the death of Soliman, in Anna Comnena,
(Alexius, l. vi. p. 168, 169,) with the notes of Ducange.]

[Footnote 56: William of Tyre (l. i. c. 9, 10, p. 635) gives the most
authentic and deplorable account of these Turkish conquests.]

[Footnote 57: In his epistle to the count of Flanders, Alexius seems to
fall too low beneath his character and dignity; yet it is approved by
Ducange, (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 335, &c.,) and paraphrased by the Abbot
Guibert, a contemporary historian. The Greek text no longer exists;
and each translator and scribe might say with Guibert, (p. 475,) verbis
vestita meis, a privilege of most indefinite latitude.]

But the most interesting conquest o