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STORMING OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

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against the same point. Showers of arrows, stones, and darts swept the defenders from the wall; the bridges were lowered from the floating towers; the Doge, in complete armour, gave the signal for the grand assault, and, ordering his own ship to press forward and secure its bridge to the ramparts, he walked himself steadily across it, and was among the first enemies who planted their feet on the pride of the city of Constantine. In an instant a dozen bridges rested on the walls, and the banner of St Mark waved on the loftiest towers that overlooked the port. Twenty-five towers were captured by the Venetians before they advanced to take possession of the city. But when they began to push onward through the narrow streets, the Greeks were enabled, by their situation, to make a vigorous defence, and often to cause their assailants severe loss by attacks on the flanks. To protect their advance, the Venetians set fire to the houses before them, and the fire soon extended from the foot of the hill of Blachern to the monastery of Evergetes and to the Devteron. But the victory of the Byzantine forces over the Crusaders, on the land side, enabled the Greek army to follow up their advantage by attacking the Crusaders in their camp. Dandolo no sooner heard of the danger to which his allies were exposed than he nobly abandoned his own conquests, and repaired with all his force to their assistance. Night terminated the various battles of this eventful day, in which both parties had suffered great loss, without securing any decided advantage. The event was decided by the cowardice of the emperor, Alexius III., who abandoned Constantinople during the night. His brother Isaac was led from the prison in which he had been confined, and placed again on the throne, and negotiations were opened with the Crusaders. The treaty of Zara was ratified with fresh stipulations; and on the 1st of August, Alexius IV. made his public entry into the city, riding between Count

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CHAP. III. Baldwin of Flanders and the old Doge, Henry Dandolo, and was crowned as his father's colleague.

§ 3.

Isaac and Alexius soon became sensible that they had entered into engagements with the Crusaders which it was impossible for them to perform. Quarrels commenced. The disorderly conduct of the Frank soldiers, the rapacity of the feudal chiefs and of the Venetians, who deemed the wealth of the Greeks inexhaustible, and the strong feelings of religious bigotry which inflamed both parties, quickly threatened a renewal of hostilities. While things were in this state, a second conflagration, more destructive than the first, was caused by a wilful act of incendiarism committed by some Flemings. A party of soldiers, after drinking with their countrymen who were settled at Constantinople, proposed in a drunken frolic to burn the Turkish mosque, and plunder the warehouses of the Turkish merchants established in the neighbouring quarter. Their pillage was interrupted by the Greek police officers of the capital, who assembled a force to preserve order and compel the drunken Franks to respect the Byzantine laws. The Flemings, beaten back, set fire to some houses in their retreat in order to delay the pursuit; and the fire, aided by a strong wind, spread with frightful rapidity, and devastated the city during two days and nights. This conflagration traversed the whole breadth of Constantinople, from the port to the Propontis, passing close to the church of St Sophia, and laying everything in ashes for the breadth of about a mile and a half. The wealthiest quarter of the city,

Gibbon, chap. lx. vol. xi. 222, says the conflagration lasted eight days and nights; and Daru, Histoire de Venise, and Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, both repeat the error. The mistake seems to have originated in copying Cousin's French translation of Nicetas. Buchon has given additional currency to the blunder, by reprinting the inaccurate translation without correction in his notes to Villehardoin. We possess two contemporary witnesses. Nicetas says the fire continued the first day, all the night, the following day and the evening, p. 356. Villehardoin says it lasted two days and nights, and extended half a league in front, p. 82, Buchon's edit. The text of Ducange has une lieue de terre.

CONFLAGRATION AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

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including the richest warehouses and the most splendid palaces of the Byzantine nobility, filled with works of ancient art, Oriental jewelery and classic manuscripts, were destroyed. Constantinople never recovered from the loss inflicted on it by this calamity. Much that was then lost could never be replaced even by the most favourable change in the circumstances of the Greeks; but the occasion was never again afforded to the inhabitants of the city to attempt the restoration of that small portion of the loss which wealth could have replaced.

The fury of the people after this dreadful misfortune knew no bounds, and all the Latins who had previously dwelt within the walls of Constantinople were compelled to emigrate, and seek safety with their wives and families at Galata, where they enjoyed the protection of the crusading army. Fifteen thousand souls are said to have quitted the capital at this time.

The Emperor Isaac II. soon died. Alexius IV. was dethroned and murdered by Alexius V., called Mourzouphlos. The Crusaders and Venetians, glad of a pretext for conquering the Byzantine empire, laid siege to Constantinople, and it was taken by storm on the 12th April 1204. But before the Crusaders could make themselves masters of the immense circuit of the city, whose ramparts they had conquered, they thought it necessary to clear their way through the heart of the dense buildings by a third conflagration, which, Villehardoin informs us, lasted through the night and all the next day. It destroyed the whole of the quarter extending from the monastery of Evergetes to the Droungarion.1 These three fires which the Franks had lighted in Constantinople destroyed more houses than were then contained in the three largest cities in France.

This conquest of Constantinople effected greater changes in the condition of the Greek race than any event that

1 Nicetas, 366.

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1204.

§ 3.

CHAP. III. had occurred since the conquest of Greece by the Romans. It put an end to the reign of Roman law and civil order in the East; and to it we must trace all the subsequent evils and degradations of the Byzantine empire, the Orthodox Church, and the Greek nation. Yet society only avenged its own wrongs. The calamities of the Greeks were caused more by the vices of the Byzantine government, and by the corruption of the Greek people, than by the superior valour and military skill of the Crusaders. The lesson is worthy of attentive study by all wealthy and highly civilised nations, who neglect moral education and military discipline as national institutions. No state, even though its civil organisation be excellent, its administration of justice impartial, and its political system popular, can escape the danger of a like fate, unless skill, discipline, and experience in military and naval tactics watch constantly over its wealth. Except men use the means which God has placed in their hands with prudence for their own defence, there can be no safety for any state, as long as kings and emperors employ themselves incessantly in drilling troops, and diverting men's minds from honest industry to ambitious projects of war.1

1 Universal peacemakers in the present state of society should inquire where lies the savour of truth in the Satanic observation of Voltaire, that the God of justice is always on the side of powerful armies. Divine Providence has ordained that order and science, united with a feeling of moral responsibility, give men additional force by increasing their powers of action and endurance. Military organisation has hitherto combined these qualities more completely than education has been able to infuse them into civil society. The self-respect of the individual soldier has prevented his falling so low, with reference to the military masses, as the citizen falls in the mass of mankind. Discipline and tactics have concentrated power in a higher degree than laws and education; consequently, until the political constitution of society educates the feeling of moral responsibility in the citizen as perfectly as in the soldier, and renders him as amenable to moral and political discipline as the soldier is to military, the destructive classes will look down on the productive. But when the maximum of civil education and discipline is obtained in the local communities of free governments, then the God of justice will invariably be found on the side of the citizen armed in defence of political order.

CHAPTER IV.

LATIN EMPIRE OF ROMANIA

SECT. I.-ELECTION OF THE FIRST LATIN EMPEROR OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE CRUSADERS AND VENETIANS

BEFORE the Crusaders made their last successful attack on Constantinople, they concluded a treaty partitioning the Byzantine empire and dividing the plunder of the capital. This singular treaty is interesting to the general history of Europe, from the proof it affords of the facility with which the people of all the feudally constituted nations amalgamated into one political society, and formed a separate state; while it displays also in a strong point of view the marked difference that prevailed between feudal society, and the people subjected to the free institutions of the republic of Venice.1

This treaty was entered into by the Frank Crusaders on the one part, and the citizens of the Venetian republic on the other, for the purpose of preventing disputes and preserving unity in the expedition.

Both Crusaders and Venetians engaged to obey the chiefs appointed by the council of the army, and to bring all the booty captured to one common stock, to be divided in the following manner. The Venetians were to receive

1 This treaty is given in the Gesta Innocentii III., xcii. tom. i. p. 55, edit. Baluze; and in Muratori's notes to Andrea Dandolo's Chronicle Scrip. Ital. xii. 336. It is translated in Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, Pièces Justific. ii. 595, and Buchon's Villehardoin, 90.

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