aps of ten thousand soldiers, but he was astonished by
the approach of so many potent chiefs and fanatic nations. The emperor
fluctuated between hope and fear, between timidity and courage; but
in the crooked policy which he mistook for wisdom, I cannot believe, I
cannot discern, that he maliciously conspired against the life or honor
of the French heroes. The promiscuous multitudes of Peter the Hermit
were savage beasts, alike destitute of humanity and reason: nor was it
possible for Alexius to prevent or deplore their destruction. The
troops of Godfrey and his peers were less contemptible, but not less
suspicious, to the Greek emperor. Their motives might be pure and pious:
but he was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond,
[651] and his ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs: the courage of the
French was blind and headstrong; they might be tempted by the luxury and
wealth of Greece, and elated by the view and opinion of their
invincible strength: and Jerusalem might be forgotten in the prospect of
Constantinople. After a long march and painful abstinence, the troops of
Godfrey encamped in the plains of Thrace; they heard with indignation,
that their brother, the count of Vermandois, was imprisoned by the
Greeks; and their reluctant duke was compelled to indulge them in some
freedom of retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the submission
of Alexius: he promised to supply their camp; and as they refused, in
the midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters were assigned
among the gardens and palaces on the shores of that narrow sea. But an
incurable jealousy still rankled in the minds of the two nations, who
despised each other as slaves and Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of
suspicion, and suspicion was inflamed into daily provocations: prejudice
is blind, hunger is deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starve
or assault the Latins in a dangerous post, on all sides encompassed with
the waters. [66] Godfrey sounded his trumpets, burst the net, overspread
the plain, and insulted the suburbs; but the gates of Constantinople
were strongly fortified; the ramparts were lined with archers; and,
after a doubtful conflict, both parties listened to the voice of peace
and religion. The gifts and promises of the emperor insensibly soothed
the fierce spirit of the western strangers; as a Christian warrior, he
rekindled their zeal for the prosecution of their holy enterprise, which
he enga