Once more Alexius sent deputies to induce Godfrey to enter the city, and his refusal was followed by a second prohibition of traffic, and by further acts of retaliation on the part of the Crusaders. A body of troops then issued from the town, and attacked the camp of the Latins. The Greeks from the walls hurled darts and shot arrows upon the soldiers below, but the Crusaders, who were protected by their coats of mail, inflicted great damage upon their assailants before night closed in and put an end to the combat. Alexius was compelled, by the sufferings of his people, to give up all thoughts of hostile measures, and traffic and intercourse were resumed between the inhabitants and the Army of the Cross. Hugh of Vermandois, upon whom the blandishments of Alexius had produced their impressions, exerted himself to establish peace, and to prevail upon Godfrey to take the oath of fealty to the emperor. The Lord of Lorraine at first refused to bend the knee before this treacherous prince, but at length the arguments of Hugh produced their effect, and a son of Alexius having been sent to the Latin camp as a hostage, Godfrey entered Constantinople with his friends. Since the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity (A.D. 323), a city of spacious squares, gorgeous palaces, and churches had been gradually growing up upon the site of the little town of Byzantium. This place was selected by Constantine as the seat of his empire, and the removal may be regarded as one of the causes which hastened the fall of Rome. After the death of Constantine, the vast empire over which his sway had extended was separated into distinct sovereignties for his sons and nephews. That portion of the Roman territory of which Constantinople was the capital gradually acquired strength and importance, and became an empire which has since been known as the _Greek_, _Eastern_, or _Byzantine_ empire. Of those splendours of the Byzantine court which had exerted so marked an influence upon the mind of the Count of Vermandois, and were now employed to dazzle the eyes of his companions in arms, we have full records in the writings of that period. Benjamin of Tudela, a Spanish Jew, who travelled through the East in the twelfth century (1159 or 1160), has given a description of what he saw at Constantinople, and speaks in glowing terms of the magnificence of the buildings and the wealth and luxury of the inhabitants.