OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 303 ima<Tination may suggest the nature of their sufferings and their resources. The remains of treasure or spoil were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilest nourishment ; and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, since, after paying three marks of silver for a goat, and fifteen for a lean camel,^'^^ the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner, and duke Godfrey to borrow an horse. Si.ty thousand horses had been reviewed in the camp ; before the end of the siege they were diminished to two thousand, and scarcely two hundred fit for service could be mustered on the day of battle. Weakness of body and terror of mind extinguished the ardent enthusiasm of the pilgrims ; and everj' motive of honour and religion was sub- dued by the desire of life.^'^^ Among the chiefs three heroes may be found without fear or reproach : Godfrey of Bouillon was supported by his magnanimous piety ; Bohemond by ambition and interest ; andTancred declared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that, as long as he was at the head of forty knights, he would never relinquish the enterprise of Palestine. But the count of Toulouse and Provence was suspected of a voluntary indisposi- tion ; the duke of Normandy was recalled from the sea-shore by the censures of the chui'ch ; Hugh the Great, though he led the vanguard of the battle, embraced an ambiguous opportunity of returning to France : and Stephen, count of Chartres, basely deserted the standard which he bore, and the council in Avhich he presided. The soldiers were discouraged by the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed the Carpenter, from the weighty strokes of his axe ; and the saints Avere scandalized by the fall of Peter the Hermit, who, after arming Europe against Asia, attempted to escape from the penance of a necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant warriors, the names (says an his- torian) are blotted from the book of life ; and the opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was applied to the deserters who dropt in the night from the walls of Antioch. The emperor Alexius,!^^ who seemed to advance to the succour of the Latins, i"! The value of an ox rose from five solidi (fifteen shillings) at Christmas to two marks (four pounds), and afterwards much higher : a kid or lamb, from one shilling to eighteen of our present money : in the second famine, a loaf of bread, or the head of an animal, sold for a piece of gold. More examples might be pro- duced ; but it is the ordinary, not the extraordinary, prices that deserve the notice of the philosopher. '^'f^ Alii multi quorum nomina non tenemus ; quia, deleta de libro vita?, praesenti operi non sunt inserenda (Will. Tyr. 1. vi. c. v. p. 715). Guibert (p. 518-523) attempts to excuse Hugh the Great, and even Stephen of Chartres. I'-'See the progress of the crusade, the retreat of Alexius, the victory of Antioch, and the conquest of Jerusalem, in the Alexiad, 1. xi. p. 317-327 [c. 3-6]. Anna was so prone to exaggeration that she magnifies the exploits of the Latins.
