Venice

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

The Crusaders returned to Scutari, and made their plans for attacking the city. So serious a matter as was now in hand overcame all disaffections; their task seemed hopeless, and every man realized that he must fight for the cause and not for himself. The priests urged the confession on all, advised the making of wills, and held solemn services, praying to all the saints for protection, and promising generous returns for such assistance.

When all was ready for action, the French undertook an assault by land. The knights with their horses embarked on the transports, which could be opened in such a way as to permit the mounted men to ride across the gangways. The foot-soldiers followed on the larger ships. Alexius went with the barons, attended with all the state possible. The crossbowmen and archers were so placed as to clear a landing; the impatient knights leaped into the water while it was still up to the waist, and, lance in hand, reached the shore. The landing was made without opposition, and the army encamped in the Jewish quarter.

The Tower or Castle of Galata was taken next morning with little opposition; by this means the immense chain which closed the harbor, or the entrance to the Golden Horn, was loosened and the Venetians were able to enter with their ships. They surprised the Greek galleys, captured a part of them, and sunk others. Four days were now spent in preparations for the grand attack by sea and land; and on the fifth day, which was the 17th of July, the terrible struggle was begun.

The French conducted the land attack with vigor, and had the Greeks been their only opponents they would have been easily overcome. But the brave English and Danes,—the Varangians, as they were called,—although the hired soldiers of the Emperor, drove back the invaders, and bravely defeated the attack.

Meantime the Doge placed a fleet in the Golden Horn, in line along the eastern wall of the city, and began his attack in earnest. Wherever the danger was greatest there was the Doge; and his achievements are almost beyond belief, when his great age and weak sight are remembered. Gibbon was not over-fond of the Venetians; let us quote his tribute to them on this proud day:—

"On the side of the harbor the attack was more successfully conducted by the Venetians; and that industrious people employed every resource that was known and practised before the invention of gunpowder. A double line, three bowshots in front, was formed by the galleys and ships; and the swift motion of the former was supported by the weight and loftiness of the latter, whose decks and poops and turrets were the platforms of military engines that discharged their shot over the heads of the first line. The soldiers who leaped from the galleys on shore immediately planted and ascended their scaling-ladders, while the large ships, advancing more slowly into the intervals and lowering a drawbridge, opened a way through the air from their masts to the rampart.

"In the midst of the conflict the Doge's venerable and conspicuous form stood aloft in complete armor on the prow of his galley. The great standard of St. Mark was displayed before him; his threats, promises, and exhortations urged the diligence of the rowers; his vessel was the first that struck; and Dandolo was the first warrior on shore. The nations admired the magnanimity of the blind old man, without reflecting that his age and infirmities diminished the price of life and enhanced the value of immortal glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand (for the standard-bearer was probably slain), the banner of the Republic was fixed on the rampart, twenty-five towers were rapidly occupied, and, by the cruel expedient of fire, the Greeks were driven from the adjacent quarter."

Fearful for the fate of the French, Dandolo now hastened to their relief with his troops. The Emperor Alexius had made a sally, but the aspect of his foes terrified him more and more. At evening he withdrew his forces, and in the darkness of the night, taking £10,000 and many rich jewels with him, by the way of the Bosphorus he reached obscurity in Thrace. He deserted his throne and his people, his wife and his children, taking with him his daughter Irene alone.

The chief eunuch of the palace, Constantine, prefect of the treasury, first discovered this flight, and sagely warned the most noble of the Greeks, that they might arrange for the safety of the throne at once. The old Isaac was released from his dungeon, taken to the palace of Blachernæ, dressed in royal apparel, and seated on the throne of which he had been so treacherously deprived. His nobles jostled each other in their haste to protest devotion and loyalty; and when day dawned, messengers were sent to the allies announcing his peaceful restoration, his impatience to see his son, and his desire to reward his "generous deliverers." These last did not forget their rights in their generosity. They would not release the young Alexius until his promises had been made good, and a number of ambassadors were sent to the palace, among whom was our friend, Villehardouin, the scribe.