200 THE DECLINE AND FALL goddess : ^ though wounded by an arrow, she stood her ground, and strove, by her exhortation and example, to rally the flying troops.^^ Her female voice was seconded by the more powerful voice and arm of the Norman duke, as calm in action as he was magnanimous in council : "Whither," he cried aloud, "whither do ye fly ? your enemy is implacable ; and death is less grievous than servitude." The moment was decisive : as the Varangians advanced before the line, they discovered the nakedness of their flanks ; the main battle of the duke, of eight hundred knights, stood firm and entire ; they couched their lances, and the Greeks deplore the furious and irresistible shock of the French cavalry. ^^ Alexius was not deficient in the duties of a soldier or a general ; but he no sooner beheld the slaughter of the Varangians and the flight of the Turks, than he despised his subjects and despaired of his fortune. The princess Anne, who drops a tear on this melancholy event, is reduced to praise the strength and swiftness of her father's horse, and his vigorous struggle, when he was almost overthrown by the stroke of a lance, which had shivered the Imperial helmet. His desperate valour broke through a squadron of Franks who opposed his flight ; and, after wandei'ing two days and as many nights in the mountains, he found some repose of body, though not of mind, in the walls of Lychnidus. The victorious Robert reproached the tardy and feeble pursuit which had suffered the escape of so illustrious a prize ; but he consoled his disappointment by the trophies and standards of the field, the wealth and luxury of the Byzantine camp, and the glory of defeating an army five times ^^naka.<i aAr) Kau fxr] 'Afliji')) [Anna Comn. , iv. c. 6], which is very properly trans- lated by the president Cousin (Hist, de Constantinople, torn. iv. p. 131 in i2mo), qui combattoit comme une Pallas, quoiqu' clle ne fiit pas aussi savante que celle d'Atlienes. The Grecian goddess was composed of two discordant characters, of Neith, the workwoman of .Sais in Egypt, and of a virgin Amazon of the Tritonian Lake in Libya (Banicr, Mythologie, torn. iv. p. 1-31 in i2rao). "-Anna Comnena (1. iv. p. 116 [c. 6]) admires, with some degree of terror, her masculine virtues. They were more familiar to the Latins ; and, though the Apulian (1. iv. p. 273) mentions her presence and her wound, he represents her as far less intrepid. U.xor in hoc bello Roberti forte sagitta Quddam lassa fuit ; quo vulnere territa nullam Dum sperabat opem se poene subegerat host!. The last is an unlucky word for a female prisoner. "^ 'Atto T09 [f^-eTa] tou 'Po;a7rt'pTOU TrpoTj-yrjcra^ei//]? )na,)9, yti'u'xruo}!' t^i' 7rp.'JT7]i' Kara twc ivavTluiv LTvaaiTiav twv K^Xtmv oi'uVoio-toi' (Anna, 1. V. p. 133 [c. 3]), and elsewhere Ka yap Ke'Aro? arrjp n-a? fiTOovnei'0'; fjiei' ai'VTTOKTros t'yiv bpixriv (cai rrji' Oc'ar eurCv (p. I40 [c. 6] ). The pedantry of the princess in the choice of classic appellations encouraged Ducange to apj)ly to his countrymen the characters of the ancient Gauls.
