walls. Experience or foresight might excuse this timid jealousy;
but the common duties of humanity prohibited the mixture of
chalk, or other poisonous ingredients, in the bread; and should
Manuel be acquitted of any foul connivance, he is guilty of
coining base money for the purpose of trading with the pilgrims.
In every step of their march they were stopped or misled: the
governors had private orders to fortify the passes and break down
the bridges against them: the stragglers were pillaged and
murdered: the soldiers and horses were pierced in the woods by
arrows from an invisible hand; the sick were burnt in their beds;
and the dead bodies were hung on gibbets along the highways.
These injuries exasperated the champions of the cross, who were
not endowed with evangelical patience; and the Byzantine princes,
who had provoked the unequal conflict, promoted the embarkation
and march of these formidable guests. On the verge of the
Turkish frontier Barbarossa spared the guilty Philadelphia, ^17
rewarded the hospitable Laodicea, and deplored the hard necessity
that had stained his sword with any drops of Christian blood. In
their intercourse with the monarchs of Germany and France, the
pride of the Greeks was exposed to an anxious trial. They might
boast that on the first interview the seat of Louis was a low
stool, beside the throne of Manuel; ^18 but no sooner had the
French king transported his army beyond the Bosphorus, than he
refused the offer of a second conference, unless his brother
would meet him on equal terms, either on the sea or land. With
Conrad and Frederic, the ceremonial was still nicer and more
difficult: like the successors of Constantine, they styled
themselves emperors of the Romans; ^19 and firmly maintained the
purity of their title and dignity. The first of these
representatives of Charlemagne would only converse with Manuel on