Now the Emperor in his great prudence reflected that if they joined Godfrey and related what had happened to them, the latter would be enraged against him, so he gladly received their request, put them on boats and transported them by sea to the Saviour’s tomb, at their own urgent request. To the Counts who were expected he sent envoys carrying messages of kindly greeting and holding out great expectations, consequently on arrival they willingly fulfilled all his orders. This is sufficient about Count Raoul.
After him came another innumerable, heterogeneous crowd, collected from nearly all the Frankish countries, together with their leaders, kings, dukes, counts and even bishops. The Emperor sent men to receive them kindly and to convey promises of reasonable help, for he was always clever at providing for the future, and in grasping at a glance what was expedient for the moment.
Approach Constantinople
He also gave orders to men specially appointed for this purpose to supply them with victuals on their journey, so that they might not for any reason whatsoever have a handle for a quarrel against him. And they (the Crusaders) hastened on to the capital. One might have likened them to the stars of heaven or the sand poured out along the edge of the sea. For these men that hurried on to approach Constantinople were ‘as many as there are leaves and flowers in the spring time,’ as Homer says. Though I much desire to do so, I cannot detail the names of the leaders.
For my speech is paralysed partly because I cannot articulate these strange names which are so unpronounceable, and partly because of the number of them. And, why indeed should we endeavour to recount the names of such a multitude, when even the men who were present were soon filled with indifference at the sight ? When they finally reached the capital they disposed their armies at the Emperor’s bidding close to the Monastery of Cosmidium and they extended right up to the Hieron.
It was not nine heralds, as formerly in Greece, who controlled this army by their shouts, but a large number of brave hoplites who accompanied them and persuaded them to yield to the Emperor’s orders. Now the Emperor was anxious to force them all to take the same oath as Godfrey had taken, so he invited them separately and conversed with them privately about his wishes, and made use of the more reasonable ones as intermediaries with the more recalcitrant.
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