id succeed in blinding Godfrey, and possibly Bohemond, who was
coming toward Constantinople through Macedonia. He obtained pledges from
both for the integrity of his empire, and apparent submission. Alexius
used money because he could not use force, to create dissensions and to
win over the venial. His temporary success would be astonishing were it
not almost always the case that the craft of an old civilization at
first befools the inexperience of more youthful, more rugged, and more
trusting nations. Alexius finally got all to the other side of the
Bosporus, but failed to wheedle all who came near his throne.

[Sidenote: _On the Track of Peter_]

[Sidenote: _The Crusaders' Discipline_]

At this point, as the army marched through Bulgaria, traces of Peter and
his army begin to appear. Refugees who had hidden in the woods came to
the camps in rags and emaciation. The castle where Rinaldo sought refuge
was pointed out to the new comers as the tomb of all his companions. The
mountain at the foot of which Walter's army had died was indicated with
tears. The site of the camp where Walter had left the women and the
sick, and which was captured by the Turks at the supreme moment of the
mass, only that the venerable might be slain and the women and children
carried into slavery, roused the indignation of the Crusaders beyond any
other spot. It had one good effect. In bringing on a much needed unity,
it brought also a discipline enforced by the calamities whose evident
cause was the lack of it.

[Sidenote: _Arrive at Nicea_]

The spring brought the opportunity of battle to the Crusaders, and a
strong foe met them in the person of the Turk David and his army. He had
fortified Nicea, a city famous for two Councils and now the capital of
David's kingdom. Nature defended it by high mountains and a lake, and
art by walls, towers, and flooded ditches. Garrisoned by the best of
David's troops, one hundred thousand more waited near by to their help.
Five hundred thousand foot-soldiers and one hundred thousand horsemen
came at length in sight of the city for the first real battle of their
Crusade against the infidel. These, in camping before the city, divided
their allotments by walls piled from the bones of the Crusaders who had
fallen on that field. Nineteen languages were heard in the camp, and
each nation fought as it would. Clash and clang soon came, and the
Turks, routed, fled to the hills, only to return the next day and to b