volume one

96 HISTORY or THE CRUSADES.
tlie East, whicli tliey beheld for the first time, vras calculated
to corrupt them. The Christian knights, according to the
report of the historians of the times, were never vreary of
acbiiiring the palaces, the splendid edifices, the riches, and
perhaps the heautitiil Greek women, of whom Alexis had
spoken in liis letters addressed to the princes of the AYest.
Tancred alone, inflexible to all solicitations, would not expose
his ^irtue to the seductions of Byzantium. He deplored
the weakness of his companions, and, followed by a smaU
number of knights, hastened to quit Constantinople, without
ha^-ing taken the oath of fidelity to the emperor.
The departure and resistance of Tancred disturbed the
joy which the success of his policy had given Alexis. He
applauded himself for ha^'ing softened, by his presents, the
principal leaders of the crusade ; but he did not so entirely
depend upon his means of corruption as to be perfectly free
ii-om apprehension. Every day brought new Crusaders,
whom he must seduce and load with presents ;
the xery riches
he displayed to them might, in the end, awaken their
ambition, and inspire them with most fatal designs. He
felt by no means secure against their enter]^)rizes until all
the annies of the AVest were on the other side of the Bosphorus.
There, "without the power of insulting the capital
of the empire, they turned all their attention to their
preparations for the war against the Saracens.
-:\-S the Crusaders advanced across the plains of Bithynia,
they saw, seeking refuge in their tents, several soldiers of
Peter's army, who having escaped from the sword of the
Saracens, had lived concealed in the mountains and forests.
They were clothed in the rags of niiser\', and with lamentations
and tears related the disasters of the first army of the
Christians. On the east they pointed to the fortress in
which the companions of Einaldo, pressed by hunger and
thirst, had surrendered to the Turks, who had massacred
them all. Xear to that they showed them the mountains,
* - - _
at the foot of which had perished "Walter and his whole
army. Everywhere the Crusaders encountered the remains
evers-where they found reason to deplore
of their brethren ;
the imprudence and disasters of the first soldiers of the
cross ; but nothing aflected them so deeply as the sight of
the camp in wliich Walter had left the women and the sick,