250 A Dissertation on Beards, [MARCH, 



decoration of their beards. Whenever they have, or fancy that they 

 have, any motive for hatred, they let them grow, and do not clip or dress 

 them, till they have satisfied it. At the commencement of the present 

 struggle for the liberation of Greece,, one of their Papas was held to have 

 done good service to his country, in persuading them to cut off their 

 beards, to deposit them in the ground, and to bury with them their 

 mutual animosities, until the destruction of their common enemy, the 

 Turk, had left them at full liberty to turn their weapons once more 

 against the bosoms of each other. 



But it was not merely among the Greeks of the Lower Empire that 

 this absurd and extravagant attachment to the beard prevailed. The 

 records of the Crusades shew that it glow r ed with an ardour equally 

 ridiculous in the bosom of the Greek princes of Syria. The instances of 

 it, which I have already quoted, are so very extraordinary, that I have 

 thought it necessary to refer to the chapter and verse where they may be 

 found, in order to prove that I have not invented them < ' for the nonce ;" 

 and yet I have another instance still in petto, which makes larger draughts 

 on the reader's powers of belief than any which I have hitherto men- 

 tioned. It is Willerm of Tyre that tells the story ; and as I wish it to 

 rest entirely upon his authority, I quote it at large from his Eleventh 

 Book, where it may be found among the other " Gestes of God through 

 the agency of the Franks." It is interesting, not merely as a picture of 

 the manners of the age, but also as a specimen of the principles of honour, 

 which prevailed at that time among the flowers of Christian chivalry. 

 The author, who, I ought to add, was an archbishop, appears to enjoy 

 the stratagem of his brother crusader very highly, and no where 

 expresses the slightest disapprobation of its meanness and dishonesty. 

 But to my tale. 



" About this time (A.D. 1109)" continues the saintly historian 

 <c Baldwin, Count of Edessa, obtained his release from captivity. As he 

 kept a large body of men at arms, and had no means of rewarding their 

 valour and fidelity, he determined, for reasons with which they were 

 satisfied, to take them with him to Meletania, where he was going to 

 visit his father-in-law Gabriel, who was a very wealthy nobleman. On 

 his arrival at that place, he was received with great hospitality, and was 

 treated by his father-in-law as kindly and as magnificently as if he had 

 been his own son. Late one evening, as the Count and his father-in-law 

 were employed in conversing upon family affairs, the Count's men at 

 arms, as had been previously arranged, burst into the palace, and insisted 

 upon speaking with the Count. ' You know, my lord' said one of 

 them, who acted as spokesman for the rest e You know, my lord, as 

 well as I do, the gallantry and loyalty with which the brave men, now here, 

 have served you for years; you know the fatigue and watching, the 

 hunger and thirst, the cold and heat, which they have endured to save 

 the kingdom, which heaven has committed to your government, from 

 the outrages of your enemies, and to repel the attacks of the infidels 

 who dwell around it, and are enemies to the cross of Christ. If you 

 knew them not, I should advise you to appeal for information to these 

 knights, who offer themselves to prove the truth of my assertions. You 

 know, too, how long we have served under your command, without 

 receiving any pay ; how often our necessities have driven us to demand 

 our arrears ; and how repeatedly we have, 011 your entreaty, indulged 

 you with further time for paying them. Our poverty, however, is now 



