volume one

HISTORY OF THE CFvUSADES. 255
Such are tlie principal events of tlie first crusade, the
commencement and the end of which were marked by the
greatest disasters, and which deprived Europe of more than
a milUon of men. When we reflect on the energies displayed
and the forces employed in this expedition hy the
West, we are at first astonished that it did not succeed.
It has often been repeated, when speaking of this holy
war, in which the East beheld an army of six hundred thousand
men brought against it, " that Alexander conquered
Asia Avith thirty thousand men." It is more than probable
that the Grreeks who wrote the life of Alexander have diminished
the number of his forces in order to heighten the
splendour of his victories ;* but, be that as it may, it must
be admitted that the expedition of the Macedonian conqueror
did not present the same dangers, or the same obstacles
that the Crusaders had to encounter. The armies
which left Greece for Asia had less to suffer from change of
climate, or the length and difficulties of the voyage than
those who came from the extremities of the West. The
Macedonians, in their invasion of the East, had scarcely any
nation to contend with but the Persians, an efieminate people,
previously several times vanquished by the Greeks
whilst the Crusaders had to pass through a crowd of unknown,
barbarous hordes, and when arrived in Asia, foimd,
as enemies, several nations of conquerors.
The Greeks of Alexander's expedition did not go into Asia
to introduce new laws, or change the manners and religion
of the people ; they even adopted something of the costumes
and usages of the Persians, which very much facilitated their
conquests.t In the crusades, on the contrary, Ave behold two
presents nothing but scenes of carnage and reverses, without glory or
results. We shall be obliged to return to it hereafter.
* Alexander, say the Greek historians, had thirtj'^ thousand infantry
and five thousand horse. A single historian, Anaximenes, makes the
Macedonian army amount to forty-eight thousand men.
t The Turks, thirty years before the taking of Jerusalem by the Christians,
had scarcely met with any resistance to their invasions of some of
the richest provinces of Asia, because the Mussulman religion, which
they had recently embraced, was that of the countries against which they
directed their arms. If the Tartars at different epochs have invaded
several countries of the globe, and have maintained themselves in them,
it was because on issuing from their deserts they had almost no religic i,
;