volume one

44 niSTOEY OF THE CEUS.U3ES.
East, "who had been banished from their conntiy, and \\ andered
over Europe, subsisting on charity. Peter the Hermit
presented them to the people, as lining evidences of the
barbarity of the infidels ; and pointing to the rags "with
Mliicli they "were clothed, he burst into torrents of invectives
against their oppressors and persecutors. At the sight oi
these miserable "uretches, the faitlifid. felt, by tiu'ns, the
most lively emotions of pitv, and the fury of vengeance ;
deploring in their hearts the miseries and the disgrace of
Jerusalem. The people raised their voices to"wards heaven,
to entreat Grod to deign to cast a look of pity upon his
beloved city ; some offering their riches, others their prayers,
but all promising to lay down their lives for the deliverance
of the holy places.
In the midst of this general excitement, Alexius Comnena,
"who "uas threatened by the Turks, sent ambassadors to the
pope, to solicit the assistance of the Latins. Some time
before this embassy he had addressed letters to the princes
of the "West, in -which he had described to them, in a most
lamentable manner, the conquests of the Turks in Asia
Ivlinor. These savage hordes, in their debauches and in the
intoxication of victory, had outrag^ed both nature and
humanity.* They were now at the gates of Byzantium,
and, "without the prompt assistance of all the Christian
states, Constantinople must fall under the most frightful
domination of the Turks. Alexius reminded the princes of
* This letter of Alexius, quoted in extract by the Abbe Guibert, and
the whole of it by Robert the Monk. M. Heeren, in his learned Latin
commentary on the Greek historians, doubts its authenticity. The
principal reason he gives for his opinion is, that this letter differs too
strongly from the known character of the Greek emperors. This reason
does not appear to me sufficient : we know very well that the Greek
emperors affected great haughtiness in their correspondence, but we know
also that they spared no prayers when ther were in any danger, or
•wanted assistance : nothing suits better with vanity than servility. Some
critics cannot believe tliat Alexius should have spoken in his letters of the
beautiful women of Greece ; the thing may, however, well be beUeved,
when we recollect that t'tie Turks, who were invading the empire of
Byzantium, sought with great eagerness to obtain Greek women. Montesquieu
remarks it, when speaking of the decline of the empire. It
seems then very natural that Alexius should speak of the beautiful women
of Byzantium, when addressing the Franks, whom the Greeks considered
barbarians, and governed by the same tastes as the Turks.
all