that was assigned to him with plunder and had the treasure
guarded; and the others who were scattered through the city also had
their share of spoil. And the booty obtained was so great that it is
impossible for me to estimate it,--gold and silver and plate and
precious stones,--rich altar cloths and vestments of silk and robes of
ermine, and treasure that had been buried under the ground. And truly
doth testify Geoffrey of Ville-Hardouin, Marshal of Champagne, when he
says that never in the whole of history had a city yielded so much
plunder. Every man took as much as he could carry, and there was
enough for every one.

[Footnote 6: One of the districts into which the city was divided.]

Thus fared the Crusaders and the Venetians, and so great was the joy
and the honor of the victory that God had given them, that those who
had been in poverty were rich and living in luxury. Thus was passed
Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday in the honor and joy which God had
granted them. And they had good cause to be grateful to our Lord, for
they had no more than twenty thousand armed men among them all, and by
the grace of God they had captured four hundred thousand or more, and
that in the strongest city in the world (that is to say, city of any
size), and the best fortified.

Then it was announced throughout the whole army by the Marquis
Boniface of Montferrat, who was head of the army, and by the barons
and the Doge of Venice, that all the booty should be collected and
assessed under pain of excommunication. And the places were chosen in
three churches; and they put over them as guards French and Venetians,
the most loyal that they could find, and then each man began to bring
his booty and put it together. Some acted uprightly and others not,
for covetousness which is the root of all evil, prevented them; but
the covetous began from this moment to keep things back and our Lord
began to like them less. Oh God, how loyally they had behaved up to
that moment, and the Lord God had shown them that in everything He had
honored and favored them above all other people, and now the righteous
began to suffer for the wicked.

The plunder and the booty were collected; and you must know that it
was not all equally divided, for there were a number of those who
retained a share in spite of the dread of Papal excommunication.
Whatever was brought to the churches was collected and divided between
the French and Venetians equally as had been arrang