Innocent, but thirty-six years old, ambitious and energetic, soon brought to his allegiance all the powers of Europe except the Republics of Pisa and Venice. Dandolo, with his bravery and inflexibility of purpose, was a formidable opponent, and when at last his concurrence was sought, he was asked to aid the Crusade for gain and not as a subject of the Pope.
In France the preaching of Foulkes of Neuilly attracted thousands to his standard. Hazlitt says:—
"The streets of Paris, the banks of the Marne, and the plains of Champagne were deserted. Doctors left their patients; lovers forsook their mistresses. The usurer crept from his hoard; the thief emerged from his hiding-place. All joined the holy phalanx. The joust and the tourney, the love of ladies, the guerdon of valor, were alike forgotten in the excitement, the tilters taking the vow and assuming the emblem of sanctity; in a short time the flower of French chivalry, from Boulogne to the Pyrenees, was assembled under the banners of Theobald, Count of Champagne, and his cousin Louis, Count of Blois and Chartres."
Remembering the terrible disasters that had attended the former Crusades in reaching the Holy Land, these leaders resolved to invite the Venetians to furnish shipping to transport soldiers and horses to Palestine.
An embassy of six French noblemen was sent to Venice, which city they reached on Feb. 15, 1201. Among them was one gratefully remembered by us for his record of events which tells us much that the Venetian writers quite ignored; in fact, some of them make no pretence of regarding the whole affair as anything but an opportunity to increase the glory of the Venetians.
The French ambassadors did not attempt to ignore the vast power of the Venetians to aid or hinder them in the prosecution of the Crusade. Men and money they had in plenty, but with prayers and tears they entreated Venice to furnish them with ships. Indeed, according to Villehardouin, the Crusaders were accomplished in weeping, and shed tears copiously on all occasions of joy, sorrow, or devotion.
There were repeated assemblies of the various councils, and after each of these Dandolo required some days for reflection; but at length it was agreed that the Crusaders should assemble at Venice on the 22d of June in the following year, when they should be provided with transports for thirty-five thousand men and forty-five hundred horses; it was also promised that these men and horses should be supplied with provisions for a year, and be taken wheresoever the service of God required. Then, with true Venetian magnificence, the armament was to be increased by fifty galleys at the expense of the Republic. For all this the French promised to pay eighty-five thousand marks (£170,000) in four instalments.
These conditions being settled, a grand convocation was called in San Marco, where ten thousand of the people, after the Mass, were humbly entreated to assent to the wishes of the ambassadors,—a harmless deceit of these so-called Republicans. Villehardouin made a moving appeal, watered with tears, and declared that the ambassadors would not rise from their knees until they had obtained consent to their wishes.
"With this the six ambassadors knelt down, weeping. The Doge and the people then cried out with one voice, 'We grant it, we grant it!' And so great was the sound that nothing ever equalled it. The good Doge of Venice, who was most wise and brave, then ascended the pulpit and spoke to the people. 'Signori,' he said, 'you see the honor which God has done you, that the greatest nation on earth has left all other peoples in order to ask your company, that you should share with them this great undertaking, which is the conquest of Jerusalem.'"