heart of the city before the Latins were conscious of their
danger. After some debate, the Caesar resigned himself to the faith
of the volunteers; they were trusty, bold, and successful; and in
describing the plan, I have already related the execution and success.
[61] But no sooner had Alexius passed the threshold of the golden gate,
than he trembled at his own rashness; he paused, he deliberated; till
the desperate volunteers urged him forwards, by the assurance that in
retreat lay the greatest and most inevitable danger. Whilst the Caesar
kept his regulars in firm array, the Comans dispersed themselves on
all sides; an alarm was sounded, and the threats of fire and pillage
compelled the citizens to a decisive resolution. The Greeks of
Constantinople remembered their native sovereigns; the Genoese merchants
their recent alliance and Venetian foes; every quarter was in arms; and
the air resounded with a general acclamation of "Long life and victory
to Michael and John, the august emperors of the Romans!" Their rival,
Baldwin, was awakened by the sound; but the most pressing danger could
not prompt him to draw his sword in the defence of a city which he
deserted, perhaps, with more pleasure than regret: he fled from the
palace to the seashore, where he descried the welcome sails of the
fleet returning from the vain and fruitless attempt on Daphnusia.
Constantinople was irrecoverably lost; but the Latin emperor and the
principal families embarked on board the Venetian galleys, and steered
for the Isle of Euba, and afterwards for Italy, where the royal fugitive
was entertained by the pope and Sicilian king with a mixture of contempt
and pity. From the loss of Constantinople to his death, he consumed
thirteen years, soliciting the Catholic powers to join in his
restoration: the lesson had been familiar to his youth; nor was his last
exile more indigent or shameful than his three former pilgrimages to the
courts of Europe. His son Philip was the heir of an ideal empire;
and the pretensions of his daughter Catherine were transported by her
marriage to Charles of Valois, the brother of Philip the Fair, king of
France. The house of Courtenay was represented in the female line by
successive alliances, till the title of emperor of Constantinople, too
bulky and sonorous for a private name, modestly expired in silence and
oblivion. [62]

[Footnote 58: Some precautions must be used in reconciling the
discordant numbers; the 800 so