rs as having induced the Emperor to
this treacherous and imprudent proceeding. By every writer he has been
condemned for so flagrant a breach of hospitality and justice. The most
probable reason for his conduct appears to be that suggested by Guibert
of Nogent, who states that Alexius, fearful of the designs of the
crusaders upon his throne, resorted to this extremity in order
afterwards to force the Count to take the oath of allegiance to him, as
the price of his liberation. The example of a prince so eminent as the
brother of the King of France, would, he thought, be readily followed
by the other chiefs of the Crusade. In the result he was wofully
disappointed, as every man deserves to be who commits positive evil
that doubtful good may ensue. But this line of policy accorded well
enough with the narrowmindedness of the Emperor, who, in the enervating
atmosphere of his highly civilized and luxurious court, dreaded the
influx of the hardy and ambitious warriors of the West, and strove to
nibble away by unworthy means, the power which he had not energy enough
to confront. If danger to himself had existed from the residence of the
chiefs in his dominions, he might easily have averted it, by the simple
means of placing himself at the head of the European movement, and
directing its energies to their avowed object, the conquest of the Holy
Land. But the Emperor, instead of being, as he might have been, the
lord and leader of the Crusades, which he had himself aided in no
inconsiderable degree to suscitate by his embassies to the Pope, became
the slave of men who hated and despised him. No doubt the barbarous
excesses of the followers of Gautier and Peter the Hermit made him look
upon the whole body of them with disgust, but it was the disgust of a
little mind, which is glad of any excuse to palliate or justify its own
irresolution and love of ease.

Godfrey of Bouillon traversed Hungary in the most quiet and orderly
manner. On his arrival at Mersburg he found the country strewed with
the mangled corpses of the Jew-killers, and demanded of the King of
Hungary for what reason his people had set upon them. The latter
detailed the atrocities they had committed, and made it so evident to
Godfrey that the Hungarians had only acted in self-defence, that the
high-minded leader declared himself satisfied and passed on, without
giving or receiving molestation. On his arrival at Philippopoli, he was
informed for the first time of