er who desired an interview with him was refused access; he listened
with the utmost patience to the long-winded harangues which their
loquacity or zeal continually wearied him with; he endured, without
expressing any impatience, the unbecoming and haughty language which they
permitted themselves to employ towards him, and severely reprimanded his
officers when they undertook to defend the dignity of the imperial station
from these rude assaults, for he trembled with apprehension at the
slightest disputes, lest they might become the occasion of greater evil.
Though the counts often appeared before him with trains altogether
unsuitable to their dignity and to his--sometimes with an entire troop,
which completely filled the royal apartment--the emperor held his peace.
He listened to them at all hours; he often seated himself on his throne at
day-break to attend to their wishes and requests, and the evening twilight
saw him still in the same place. Very frequently he could not snatch time
to refresh himself with meat and drink. During many nights he could not
obtain any repose, and was obliged to indulge in an unrefreshing sleep
upon his throne, with his head resting on his hands. Even this slumber was
continually disturbed by the appearance and harangues of some
newly-arrived rude knights. When all the courtiers, wearied out by the
efforts of the day and by night-watching, could no longer keep themselves
on their feet, and sank down exhausted--some upon benches and others on
the floor--Alexius still rallied his strength to listen with seeming
attention to the wearisome chatter of the Latins, that they might have no
occasion or pretext for discontent. In such a state of fear and anxiety,
how could Alexius comport himself with dignity and like an emperor?"

[4] M. Wilken's _Geschichte der Kreuzzuege_.

Alexius, however, had himself to blame, in a great measure, for the
indignities he suffered: owing to his insincerity, the Crusaders
mistrusted him so much, that it became at last a common saying, that the
Turks and Saracens were not such inveterate foes to the Western or Latin
Christians as the Emperor Alexius and the Greeks[5]. It would be needless
in this sketch, which does not profess to be so much a history of the
Crusades, as of the madness of Europe, from which they sprang, to detail
the various acts of bribery and intimidation, cajolery and hostility, by
which Alexius contrived to make each of the leaders in succes