empire and taking possession at once of Byzantium; but Godfrey rejected the proposal, with the reminder that he had come only to fight the infidels.  The emperor, fully informed of the greediness as well as ambition of Bohemond, introduced him one day into a room full of treasures.  “Here,” said Bohemond, “is wherewith to conquer kingdoms.”  Alexis had the treasures removed to Bohemond’s, who at first refused, and ended by accepting them.  It is even said that he asked the emperor for the title of Grand Domestic or of General of the Empire of the East.  Alexis, who had held that dignity and who knew that it was the way to the throne, gave the Norman chieftain a present refusal, with a promise of it on account of future services to be rendered by him to the empire and the emperor.

The chiefs of the crusade were not alone in treating with disdain this haughty, wily, and feeble sovereign.  During a ceremony at which some French princes were doing homage to the emperor, a Count Robert of Paris went and sat down free-and-easily beside him; when Baldwin, count of Hainault, took the intruder by the arm, saying, “When you are in a country you must respect its masters and its customs.”  “Verily,” answered Robert, “I hold it shocking that this jackanapes should be seated, whilst so many noble captains are standing yonder.”  When the ceremony was over, the emperor, who had, no doubt, heard the words, wished to have an explanation; so he detained Robert, and asked him who and whence he was.  “I am a Frenchman,” quoth Robert; “and of noble birth.  In my country there is, hard by a church, a spot repaired to by such as burn to prove their valor.  I have been there often without any one’s daring to present himself before me.”  The emperor did not care to take up this sort of challenge, and contented himself with replying to the warrior, “If you there waited for foes without finding any, you are now about to have what will satisfy you.  I have, however, a piece of advice to give you; don’t put yourself at the head or the tail of the army; keep in the middle.  I have learned how to fight with Turks; and that is the best place you can choose.”  The crusaders and the Greeks were mutually contemptuous, the former with a ruffianly pride, the latter with an ironical and timid refinement.

This posture, on either side, of inactivity, ill-will, and irritation, could not last long.  On the approach of the spring of 1097, the crusader chiefs and their troops, first Godfrey de Bouillon, then Bohemond and Tancred, and afterwards Count Raymond of Toulouse, passed the Bosphorus, being conveyed across either in their own vessels or those of the Emperor Alexis, who encouraged them against the infidels, and at the same time had the infidels supplied with information most damaging to the crusaders.  Having effected a junction in Bithynia, the Christian chiefs resolved to go and lay siege to Nicaea, the first place, of importance, in possession of the Turks.  Whilst