All is prepared--the chambers of the mine
Are cramm'd with the combustible, which, harmless
While yet unkindled, as the sable sand,
Needs but a spark to change its nature so,
That he who wakes it from its slumbrous mood,
Dreads scarce the explosion less than he who knows
That 'tis his towers which meet its fury.
ANONYMOUS.
When the sky is darkened suddenly, and the atmosphere grows thick and
stifling, the lower ranks of creation entertain the ominous sense of a
coming tempest. The birds fly to the thickets, the wild creatures
retreat to the closest covers which their instinct gives them the habit
of frequenting, and domestic animals show their apprehension of the
approaching thunderstorm by singular actions and movements inferring
fear and disturbance.
It seems that human nature, when its original habits are cultivated and
attended to, possesses, on similar occasions, something of that
prescient foreboding, which announces the approaching tempest to the
inferior ranks of creation. The cultivation of our intellectual powers
goes perhaps too far, when it teaches us entirely to suppress and
disregard those natural feelings, which were originally designed as
sentinels by which nature warned us of impending danger.
Something of the kind, however, still remains, and that species of
feeling which announces to us sorrowful or alarming tidings, may be
said, like the prophecies of the weird sisters, to come over us like a
sudden cloud.
During the fatal day which was to precede the combat of the Caesar with
the Count of Paris, there were current through the city of
Constantinople the most contradictory, and at the same time the most
terrific reports. Privy conspiracy, it was alleged, was on the very eve
of breaking out; open war, it was reported by others, was about to
shake her banners over the devoted city; the precise cause was not
agreed upon, any more than the nature of the enemy. Some said that the
barbarians from the borders of Thracia, the Hungarians, as they were
termed, and the Comani, were on their march from the frontiers to
surprise the city; another report stated that the Turks, who, during
this period, were established in Asia, had resolved to prevent the
threatened attack of the crusaders upon Palestine, by surprising not
only the Western Pilgrims, but the Christians of the East, by one of
their innumerable invasions, executed with their characteristic
rapidity.
Another report, approaching more near to the truth, declared that the
crusaders themselves, having discovered their various causes of
complaint against Alexius Comnenus, had resolved to march back their
united forces to the capital, with a view of dethroning or chastising
him; and the citizens were dreadfully alarmed for the consequences of
the resentment of men so fierce in their habits and so strange in their
manners. In short, although they did not all agree on the precise cause
of danger, it was yet generally allowed that something of a dreadful
kind was impending, which appeared to be in a certain degree confirmed
by the motions that were taking place among the troops. The Varangians,
as well as the Immortals, were gradually assembled, and placed in
occupation of the strongest parts of the city, until at length the
fleet of galleys, row-boats, and transports, occupied by Tancred and
his party, were observed to put themselves in motion from Scutari, and
attempt to gain such a height in the narrow sea, as upon the turn of
the tide should transport them to the port of the capital.
Alexius Comnenus was himself struck at this unexpected movement on the
part of the crusaders. Yet, after some conversation with Hereward, on
whom he had determined to repose his confidence, and had now gone too
far to retreat, he became reassured, the more especially by the limited
size of the detachment which seemed to meditate so bold a measure as an
attack upon his capital. To those around him he said with carelessness,
that it was hardly to be supposed that a trumpet could blow to the
charge, within hearing of the crusaders' camp, without some out of so
many knights coming forth to see the cause and the issue of the
conflict.
The conspirators also had their secret fears when the little armament
of Tancred had been seen on the straits. Agelastes mounted a mule, and
went to the shore of the sea, at the place now called Galata. He met
Bertha's old ferryman, whom Godfrey had set at liberty, partly in
contempt, and partly that the report he was likely to make, might serve
to amuse the conspirators in the city. Closely examined by Agelastes,
he confessed that the present detachment, so far as he understood, was
despatched at the instance of Bohemond, and was under the command of
his kinsman Tancred, whose well-known banner was floating from the
headmost vessel. This gave courage to Agelastes, who, in the course of
his intrigues, had opened a private communication with the wily and
ever mercenary Prince of Antioch. The object of the philosopher had
been to obtain from Bohemond a body of his followers to co-operate in
the intended conspiracy, and fortify the party of insurgents. It is
true, that Bohemond had returned no answer, but the account now given
by the ferryman, and the sight of Tancred the kinsman of Bohemond's
banner displayed on the straits, satisfied the philosopher that his
offers, his presents, and his promises, had gained to his side the
avaricious Italian, and that this band had been selected by Bohemond,
and were coming to act in his favour.
As Agelastes turned to go off, he almost jostled a person, as much
muffled up, and apparently as unwilling to be known, as the philosopher
himself. Alexius Comnenus, however--for it was the Emperor
himself--knew Agelastes, though rather from his stature and gestures,
than his countenance; and could not forbear whispering in his ear, as
he passed, the well-known lines, to which the pretended sage's various
acquisitions gave some degree of point:--
"Grammaticus, rhetor, geometres, pictor, aliptes,
Augur, schoenobates, medicus, magus; omnia novit.
Graeculus esuriens in caelum, jusseris, ibit." [Footnote: The
lines of Juvenal imitated by Johnson in his _London_--
"All sciences a fasting Monsieur knows,
And bid him go to hell--to hell he goes."]
Agelastes first started at the unexpected sound of the Emperor's voice,
yet immediately recovered presence of mind, the want of which had made
him suspect himself betrayed; and without taking notice of the rank of
the person to whom he spoke, he answered by a quotation which should
return the alarm he had received. The speech that suggested itself was
said to be that which the Phantom of Cleonice dinned into the ears of
the tyrant who murdered her:--
"Tu cole justitiam; toque atque alios manet ultor." [Footnote: "Do
thou cultivate justice: for thee and for others there remains an
avenger."--_Ovid. Met._]
The sentence, and the recollections which accompanied it, thrilled
through the heart of the Emperor, who walked on, however, without any
notice or reply.
"The vile conspirator," he said, "had his associates around him,
otherwise he had not hazarded that threat. Or it may have been
worse--Agelastes himself, on the very brink of this world, may have
obtained that singular glance into futurity proper to that situation,
and perhaps speaks less from his own reflection than from a strange
spirit of prescience, which dictates his words. Have I then in earnest
sinned so far in my imperial duty, as to make it just to apply to me
the warning used by the injured Cleonice to her ravisher and murderer?
Methinks I have not. Methinks that at less expense than that of a just
severity, I could ill have kept my seat in the high place where Heaven
has been pleased to seat me, and where, as a ruler, I am bound to
maintain my station. Methinks the sum of those who have experienced my
clemency may be well numbered with that of such as have sustained the
deserved punishments of their guilt--But has that vengeance, however
deserved in itself, been always taken in a legal or justifiable manner?
My conscience, I doubt, will hardly answer so home a question; and
where is the man, had he the virtues of Antoninus himself, that can
hold so high and responsible a place, yet sustain such an interrogation
as is implied in that sort of warning which I have received from this
traitor? _Tu cole justitiam_--we all need to use justice to
others--_Teque atque alios manet ultor_--we are all amenable to an
avenging being--I will see the Patriarch--instantly will I see him; and
by confessing my transgressions to the Church, I will, by her plenary
indulgence, acquire the right of spending the last day of my reign in a
consciousness of innocence, or at least of pardon--a state of mind
rarely the lot of those whose lines have fallen in lofty places."
So saying, he passed to the palace of Zosimus the Patriarch, to whom he
could unbosom himself with more safety, because he had long considered
Agelastes as a private enemy to the Church, and a man attached to the
ancient doctrines of heathenism. In the councils of the state they were
also opposed to each other, nor did the Emperor doubt, that in
communicating the secret of the conspiracy to the Patriarch, he was
sure to attain a loyal and firm supporter in the defence which he
proposed to himself. He therefore gave a signal by a low whistle, and a
confidential officer, well mounted, approached him, who attended him in
his ride, though unostentatiously, and at some distance.
In this manner, therefore, Alexius Comnenus proceeded to the palace of
the Patriarch, with as much speed as was consistent with his purpose of
avoiding to attract any particular notice as he passed through the
street. During the whole ride, the warning of Agelastes repeatedly
occurred to him, and his conscience reminded him of too many actions of
his reign which could only be justified by necessity, emphatically said
to be the tyrant's plea, and which were of themselves deserving the
dire vengeance so long delayed.
When he came in sight of the splendid towers which adorned the front of
the patriarchal palace, he turned aside from the lofty gates, repaired
to a narrow court, and again giving his mule to his attendant, he stopt
before a postern, whose low arch and humble architrave seemed to
exclude the possibility of its leading to any place of importance. On
knocking, however, a priest of an inferior order opened the door, who,
with a deep reverence, received the Emperor so soon as he had made
himself known, and conducted him into the interior of the palace.
Demanding a secret interview with the Patriarch, Alexius was then
ushered into his private library, where he was received by the aged
priest with the deepest respect, which the nature of his communication
soon changed into horror and astonishment.
Although Alexius was supposed by many of his own court, and
particularly by some members of his own family, to be little better
than a hypocrite in his religious professions, yet such severe
observers were unjust in branding him with a name so odious. He was
indeed aware of the great support which he received from the good
opinion of the clergy, and to them he was willing to make sacrifices
for the advantage of the Church, or of individual prelates who
manifested fidelity to the crown; but though, on the one hand, such
sacrifices were rarely made by Alexius, without a view to temporal
policy, yet, on the other, he regarded them as recommended by his
devotional feelings, and took credit to himself for various grants and
actions, as dictated by sincere piety, which, in another aspect, were
the fruits of temporal policy. His mode of looking on these measures
was that of a person with oblique vision, who sees an object in a
different manner, according to the point from which he chances to
contemplate it.
The Emperor placed his own errors of government before the Patriarch in
his confession, giving due weight to every branch of morality as it
occurred, and stripping from them the lineaments and palliative
circumstances which had in his own imagination lessened their guilt.
The Patriarch heard, to his astonishment, the real thread of many a
court intrigue, which had borne a very different appearance, till the
Emperor's narrative either justified his conduct upon the occasion, or
left it totally unjustifiable. Upon the whole, the balance was
certainly more in favour of Alexius than the Patriarch had supposed
likely in that more distant view he had taken of the intrigues of the
court, when, as usual, the ministers and the courtiers endeavoured to
make up for the applause which they had given in council in the most
blameable actions of the absolute monarch, by elsewhere imputing to his
motives greater guilt than really belonged to them. Many men who had
fallen sacrifices, it was supposed to the personal spleen or jealousy
of the Emperor, appeared to have been in fact removed from life, or
from liberty, because their enjoying either was inconsistent with the
quiet of the state and the safety of the monarch.
Zosimus also learned, what he perhaps already suspected, that amidst
the profound silence of despotism which seemed to pervade the Grecian
empire, it heaved frequently with convulsive throes, which ever and
anon made obvious the existence of a volcano under the surface. Thus,
while smaller delinquencies, or avowed discontent with the Imperial
government, seldom occurred, and were severely punished when they did,
the deepest and most mortal conspiracies against the life and the
authority of the Emperor were cherished by those nearest to his person;
and he was often himself aware of them, though it was not until they
approached an explosion that he dared act upon his knowledge, and
punish the conspirators.
The whole treason of the Caesar, with his associates, Agelastes and
Achilles Tatius, was heard by the Patriarch with wonder and
astonishment, and he was particularly surprised at the dexterity with
which the Emperor, knowing the existence of so dangerous a conspiracy
at home, had been able to parry the danger from the crusaders occurring
at the same moment.
"In that respect," said the Emperor, to whom indeed the churchman
hinted his surprise, "I have been singularly unfortunate. Had I been
secure of the forces of my own empire, I might have taken one out of
two manly and open courses with these frantic warriors of the west--I
might, my reverend father, have devoted the sums paid to Bohemond and
other of the more selfish among the crusaders, to the honest and open
support of the army of western Christians, and safely transported them
to Palestine, without exposing them to the great loss which they are
likely to sustain by the opposition of the Infidels; their success
would have been in fact my own, and a Latin kingdom in Palestine,
defended by its steel-clad warriors, would have been a safe and
unexpugnable barrier of the empire against the Saracens, Or, if it was
thought more expedient for the protection of the empire and the holy
Church, over which you are ruler, we might at once, and by open force,
have defended the frontiers of our states, against a host commanded by
so many different and discording chiefs, and advancing upon us with
such equivocal intentions. If the first swarm of these locusts, under
him whom they called Walter the Penniless, was thinned by the
Hungarians, and totally destroyed by the Turks, as the pyramids of
bones on the frontiers of the country still keep in memory, surely the
united forces of the Grecian empire would have had little difficulty in
scattering this second flight, though commanded by these Godfreys,
Bohemonds, and Tancreds."
The Patriarch was silent, for though he disliked, or rather detested
the crusaders, as members of the Latin Church, he yet thought it highly
doubtful that in feats of battle they could have been met and overcome
by the Grecian forces.
"At any rate," said Alexius, rightly interpreting his silence, "if
vanquished, I had fallen under my shield as a Greek emperor should, nor
had I been forced into these mean measures of attacking men by stealth,
and with forces disguised as infidels; while the lives of the faithful
soldiers of the empire, who have fallen in obscure skirmishes, had
better, both for them and me, been lost bravely in their ranks,
avowedly fighting for their native emperor and their native country.
Now, and as the matter stands, I shall be handed down to posterity as a
wily tyrant, who engaged his subjects in fatal feuds for the safety of
his own obscure life. Patriarch! these crimes rest not with me, but
with the rebels whose intrigues compelled me into such courses--What,
reverend father, will be my fate hereafter?--and in what light shall I
descend to posterity, the author of so many disasters?"
"For futurity," said the Patriarch, "your grace hath referred yourself
to the holy Church, which hath power to bind and loose; your means of
propitiating her are ample, and I have already indicated such as she
may reasonably expect, in consequence of your repentance and
forgiveness."
"They shall be granted," replied the Emperor, "in their fullest extent;
nor will I injure you in doubting their effect in the next world. In
this present state of existence, however, the favourable opinion of the
Church may do much for me during this important crisis. If we
understand each other, good Zosimus, her doctors and bishops are to
thunder in my behalf, nor is my benefit from her pardon, to be deferred
till the funeral monument closes upon me?"
"Certainly not," said Zosimus; "the conditions which I have already
stipulated being strictly attended to."
"And my memory in history," said Alexius, "in what manner is that to be
preserved?"
"For that," answered the Patriarch, "your Imperial Majesty must trust
to the filial piety and literary talents of your accomplished daughter,
Anna Comnena."
The Emperor shook his head. "This unhappy Caesar," he said, "is like to
make a quarrel between us; for I shall scarce pardon so ungrateful a
rebel as he is, because my daughter clings to him with a woman's
fondness. Besides, good Zosimus, it is not, I believe, the page of a
historian such as my daughter that is most likely to be received
without challenge by posterity. Some Procopius, some philosophical
slave, starving in a garret, aspires to write the life of an Emperor
whom he durst not approach; and although the principal merit of his
production be, that it contains particulars upon the subject which no
man durst have promulgated while the prince was living, yet no man
hesitates to admit such as true when he has passed from the scene."
"On that subject," said Zosimus, "I can neither afford your Imperial
Majesty relief or protection. If, however, your memory is unjustly
slandered upon earth, it will be a matter of indifference to your
Highness, who will be then, I trust, enjoying a state of beatitude
which idle slander cannot assail. The only way, indeed, to avoid it
while on this side of time, would be to write your Majesty's own
memoirs while you are yet in the body; so convinced am I that it is in
your power to assign legitimate excuses for those actions of your life,
which, without your doing so, would seem most worthy of censure."
"Change we the subject," said the Emperor; "and since the danger is
imminent, let us take care for the present, and leave future ages to
judge for themselves.--What circumstance is it, reverend father, in
your opinion, which encourages these conspirators to make so audacious
an appeal to the populace and the Grecian soldiers?"
"Certainly," answered the Patriarch, "the most irritating incident of
your highness's reign was the fate of Ursel, who, submitting, it is
said, upon capitulation, for life, limb, and liberty, was starved to
death by your orders, in the dungeons of the Blacquernal, and whose
courage, liberality, and other popular virtues, are still fondly
remembered by the citizens of this metropolis, and by the soldiers of
the guard, called Immortal."
"And this," said the Emperor, fixing his eye upon his confessor, "your
reverence esteems actually the most dangerous point of the popular
tumult?"
"I cannot doubt," said the Patriarch, "that his very name, boldly
pronounced, and artfully repeated, will be the watchword, as has been
plotted, of a horrible tumult."
"I thank Heaven!" said the Emperor; "on that particular I will be on my
guard. Good-night to your reverence! and, believe me, that all in this
scroll, to which I have set my hand, shall be with the utmost fidelity
accomplished. Be not, however, over-impatient in this business;--such a
shower of benefits falling at once upon the Church, would make men
suspicious that the prelates and ministers proceeded rather as acting
upon a bargain between the Emperor and Patriarch, than as paying or
receiving an atonement offered by a sinner in excuse of his crimes.
This would be injurious, father, both to yourself and me."
"All regular delay," said the Patriarch, "shall be interposed at your
highness's pleasure; and we shall trust to you for recollection that
the bargain, if it could be termed one, was of your own seeking, and
that the benefit to the Church was contingent upon the pardon and the
support which she has afforded to your majesty."
"True," said the Emperor--"most true--nor shall I forget it. Once more
adieu, and forget not what I have told thee. This is a night, Zosimus,
in which the Emperor must toil like a slave, if he means not to return
to the humble Alexius Comnenus, and even then there were no
resting-place."
So saying, he took leave of the Patriarch, who was highly gratified
with the advantages he had obtained for the Church, which many of his
predecessors had struggled for in vain. He resolved, therefore, to
support the staggering Alexius.