And indeed he had been long-suffering, for many in his place would have
borne less; and if he persuaded the Crusaders on false pretences to
leave his capital and push on into Asia, he did so as the only means of
saving his own people from robbery and violence.
Though the King and the court only were lodged within the walls, while
the main force of fighting men was encamped without, yet the guard at
the gates was not over-strictly kept, and many knights went in with
their squires to see the great sights and, if possible, to get a
glimpse of the Emperor himself. Gilbert did like the rest and gave the
captain of the Second Military Gate a piece of silver to go in.
At the first glance he saw that there was little safety for any
stranger who should chance to wander from the chief streets. Safe-
conduct and security had been proclaimed for every soldier who wore a
cross, and the fear of a cruel death was enough to enforce the imperial
edict wherever watchmen or soldiers were present to remind men of it;
but there was no rigorous counter-rule on the Crusaders' side, and if
the rough Burgundian men-at-arms and the wild riders of Gascony who
were in Eleanor's train had been admitted in numbers, they would hardly
have withheld their hands from such desirable things as they chanced to
find in their way. The Greeks stood watching in their doorways and
their women sat huddled together in the small low balconies above, or
at narrow windows whence they could see the street.
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