The Waverley Novels | Page 3

was inspired by tender regard
for his person, and a laudable zeal to perpetuate his virtues. Conscious
of the just suspicion of her readers, the Princess repeatedly protests,
that, besides her personal knowledge, she had searched the discourses
and writings of the most respectable veterans; and that after an interval
of thirty years, forgotten by, and forgetful of the world, her mournful
solitude was inaccessible to hope and fear: that truth, the naked perfect
truth, was more dear than the memory of her parent. Yet instead of the
simplicity of style and narrative which wins our belief, an elaborate
affectation of rhetoric and science betrays in every page the vanity of a
female author. The genuine character of Alexius is lost in a vague
constellation of virtues; and the perpetual strain of panegyric and
apology awakens our jealousy, to question the veracity of the historian,
and the merit of her hero. We cannot, however, refuse her judicious and
important remark, that the disorders of the times were the misfortune
and the glory of Alexius; and that every calamity which can afflict a
declining empire was accumulated on his reign by the justice of Heaven
and the vices of his predecessors. In the east, the victorious Turks had
spread, from Persia to the Hellespont, the reign of the Koran and the
Crescent; the west was invaded by the adventurous valour of the
Normans; and, in the moments of peace, the Danube poured forth new

swarms, who had gained in the science of war what they had lost in the
ferociousness of their manners. The sea was not less hostile than the
land; and, while the frontiers were assaulted by an open enemy, the
palace was distracted with secret conspiracy and treason.
"On a sudden, the banner of the Cross was displayed by the Latins;
Europe was precipitated on Asia; and Constantinople had almost been
swept away by this impetuous deluge. In the tempest Alexius steered
the Imperial vessel with dexterity and courage. At the head of his
armies, he was bold in action, skilful in stratagem, patient of fatigue,
ready to improve his advantages, and rising from his defeats with
inexhaustible vigour. The discipline of the camp was reversed, and a
new generation of men and soldiers was created by the precepts and
example of their leader. In his intercourse with the Latins, Alexius was
patient and artful; his discerning eye pervaded the new system of an
unknown world.
"The increase of the male and female branches of his family adorned
the throne, and secured the succession; but their princely luxury and
pride offended the patricians, exhausted the revenue, and insulted the
misery of the people. Anna is a faithful witness that his happiness was
destroyed and his health broken by the cares of a public life; the
patience of Constantinople was fatigued by the length and severity of
his reign; and before Alexius expired, he had lost the love and
reverence of his subjects. The clergy could not forgive his application
of the sacred riches to the defence of the state; but they applauded his
theological learning, and ardent zeal for the orthodox faith, which he
defended with his tongue, his pen, and his sword. Even the sincerity of
his moral and religious virtues was suspected by the persons who had
passed their lives in his confidence. In his last hours, when he was
pressed by his wife Irene to alter the succession, he raised his head, and
breathed a pious ejaculation on the vanity of the world. The indignant
reply of the Empress may be inscribed as an epitaph on his tomb,--'You
die, as you have lived--a hypocrite.'
"It was the wish of Irene to supplant the eldest of her sons in favour of
her daughter, the Princess Anna, whose philosophy would not have

refused the weight of a diadem. But the order of male succession was
asserted by the friends of their country; the lawful heir drew the royal
signet from the finger of his insensible or conscious father, and the
empire obeyed the master of the palace. Anna Comnena was stimulated
by ambition and revenge to conspire against the life of her brother; and
when the design was prevented by the fears or scruples of her husband,
she passionately exclaimed that nature had mistaken the two sexes, and
had endowed Bryennius with the soul of a woman. After the discovery
of her treason, the life and fortune of Anna were justly forfeited to the
laws. Her life was spared by the clemency of the Emperor, but he
visited the pomp and treasures of her palace, and bestowed the rich
confiscation on the most deserving of his friends."-- History of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xlviii.
The year of Anna's death is nowhere recorded. She appears