volume one

HISTORY OF THE CEUSADES. 347
the Germans arrived in Bulgaria and Thrace, they were not
long in perceiving that they must not reckon upon the promises
that had been made them.
At the time of the first crusade, Constantinople was in
great dread of the Turks, which was of service to the
Franks ;
but from that period the capital of the Greeks had
experienced no alarms, and no longer feared the attacks of
the Mussulmans. An opinion likewise had spread through
all the provinces of the empire, that the warriors of the
AYest entertained the project of taking possession of Constantinople.
This report, probable in itself, and strengthened
by the threats of the Crusaders, was very little calculated
to reestablish peace and harmony between people who
despised each other reciprocally, and, perhaps with equal
reason, exchanged accusations of violations of the faith of
treaties.
Manuel Comnenus, whom Odo de DeuH will not even
name, because, he says, his name is not written in the book
of life, was the grandson of Alexius I., who reigned at the
time of the first crusade. Paithful to the policy of his an-
cestor, more able, and above all more artful and hypocritical
than he, he neglected no means to annoy and ruin the army
of the Germans. In his councils the warriors of the West
were considered as men of iron, whose eyes darted flames,
and who shed torrents of blood with the same indifference
as they would pour out the same quantity of water. At
the same time that he sent them ambassadors, and furnished
them with provisions, Manuel formed an alliance with the
Turks, and fortified his capital. The Germans, in the course
of their march, had often to repulse the perfidious attacks of
the Greeks, and the latter had, more than once, cause to complain
of the violence of the Crusaders. A relation of Conrad,
who had remained siciv in a monastery at Adrianople, was
slain by the soldiers of Manuel ; Frederick, duke of Suabia,
gave the monastery in which this crime had been committed,
up to the flames ; and torrents of blood flowed to avenge an
assassination, . .
Upon approaching Constantinople, the Germans had set
up their tents in a rich valley watered by the river Melas.
All at once a violent storm burst over the neighbouring
mountains ; the river, increased by the torrents, inundated