volume one

84 niSTOEY OF THE CRUSADES.
the hands of the sovereign pontiff, repaired to Itoine, with
the other princes, to visit the tombs of St. Peter and St.
Paul. The capital of the Christian world was then the
theatre of a civil war. The soldiers of Urban, and those of
the anti-pope Gruibert, disputed, arms in hand, for the church
of St. Peter, and by turns carried off the offerings of the
faithfid. "WTiatever some modem historians may say, the
Crusaders took no part in the troubles which divided the
city of Rome ; and what is still more astonishing. Urban did
not call to the defence of his own cause one of the warriors
whom his appeal had induced to take up arms. Por the rest,
the spectacle which presented itself in the city of St. Peter
must have been a subject of scandal to the greater part of
the Prench knights. Some, satisfied with having saluted
the tomb of the apostles, and perhaps cured of their holy
enthusiasm by the sight of the violences which profaned the
sanctuary, abandoned the standard of the cross, and returned
into their own country. Others pursued their march towards
Apulia ;
but when they arrived at Pari, the winter beginning
to render the navigation dangerous, they were forced to wait
duiing several months for a lavoui'able moment to embark.
The passage of the Prench Crusaders, however, had
awakened the zeal of the Italians. Bohemond, prince of
Tarentiim, was the first who resolved to associate himself
with their fortunes, and to partake of the glory of the holy
expedition. He was of the family of those knights who had
founded the kingdom of Xaples and Sicily. Pifty years
before the crusade, his father, Pobert Gruiscard (the subtle)
had quitted the castle of Hauteville, in jSTormandy, with thirty
foot-soldiers and five horsemen. Seconded by some of his
relations and compatriots, who had preceded him into Italy,
he fought ^^ith advantage against the G-reeks, the Lombards,
and the Saracens, who disputed Apulia and Calabria with
him. He soon became sufficiently powerful to be by turns
the enemy and the protector of the popes. He beat the
armies of the emperors of the East and the "West, and when
he died he was engaged in the conquest of G-reece.
Boliemond had neither less cunning nor less talents than
his father, Pobert Guiscard. Contemporary authors, who
never fail to describe the physical qualities of their heroes,
inform us that his height was so great that it exceeded by a