and drink. During many nights he could not obtain any
repose, and was obliged to indulge in an unrefreshing sleep upon his
throne, with his head resting on his hands. Even this slumber was
continually disturbed by the appearance and harangues of some
newly-arrived rude knights. When all the courtiers, wearied out by the
efforts of the day and by night-watching, could no longer keep
themselves on their feet, and sank down exhausted--some upon benches
and others on the floor--Alexius still rallied his strength to listen
with seeming attention to the wearisome chatter of the Latins, that
they might have no occasion or pretext for discontent. In such a state
of fear and anxiety, how could Alexius comport himself with dignity and
like an Emperor?"

Alexius, however, had himself to blame, in a great measure, for the
indignities he suffered: owing to his insincerity, the crusaders
mistrusted him so much, that it became at last a common saying, that
the Turks and Saracens were not such inveterate foes to the Western or
Latin Christians as the Emperor Alexius and the Greeks.[Wilken] It
would be needless in this sketch, which does not profess to be so much
a history of the Crusades as of the madness of Europe, from which they
sprang, to detail the various acts of bribery and intimidation,
cajolery and hostility, by which Alexius contrived to make each of the
leaders in succession, as they arrived, take the oath of allegiance to
him as their Suzerain. One way or another he exacted from each the
barren homage on which he had set his heart, and they were then allowed
to proceed into Asia Minor. One only, Raymond de St. Gilles, Count of
Toulouse, obstinately refused the homage.

Their residence in Constantinople was productive of no good to the
armies of the Cross. Bickerings and contentions on the one hand, and
the influence of a depraved and luxurious court on the other, destroyed
the elasticity of their spirits, and cooled the first ardour of their
enthusiasm. At one time the army of the Count of Toulouse was on the
point of disbanding itself; and, had not their leader energetically
removed them across the Bosphorus, this would have been the result.
Once in Asia, their spirits in some degree revived, and the presence of
danger and difficulty nerved them to the work they had undertaken. The
first operation of the war was the siege of Nice, to gain possession of
which all their efforts were directed.

Godfrey of Bouillon and the