shed to bribe their
stay, the delay of a year, by undertaking to defray their expense, and
to satisfy, in their name, the freight of the Venetian vessels. The
offer was agitated in the council of the barons; and, after a repetition
of their debates and scruples, a majority of votes again acquiesced in
the advice of the doge and the prayer of the young emperor. At the
price of sixteen hundred pounds of gold, he prevailed on the marquis of
Montferrat to lead him with an army round the provinces of Europe; to
establish his authority, and pursue his uncle, while Constantinople
was awed by the presence of Baldwin and his confederates of France and
Flanders. The expedition was successful: the blind emperor exulted
in the success of his arms, and listened to the predictions of his
flatterers, that the same Providence which had raised him from the
dungeon to the throne, would heal his gout, restore his sight, and watch
over the long prosperity of his reign. Yet the mind of the suspicious
old man was tormented by the rising glories of his son; nor could his
pride conceal from his envy, that, while his own name was pronounced
in faint and reluctant acclamations, the royal youth was the theme of
spontaneous and universal praise. [71]

[Footnote 68: Compare, in the rude energy of Villehardouin, (No.
66, 100,) the inside and outside views of Constantinople, and their
impression on the minds of the pilgrims: cette ville (says he) que
de toutes les autres ere souveraine. See the parallel passages of
Fulcherius Carnotensis, Hist. Hierosol. l. i. c. 4, and Will. Tyr. ii.
3, xx. 26.]

[Footnote 69: As they played at dice, the Latins took off his diadem,
and clapped on his head a woollen or hairy cap, to megaloprepeV kai
pagkleiston katerrupainen onoma, (Nicetas, p. 358.) If these merry
companions were Venetians, it was the insolence of trade and a
commonwealth.]

[Footnote 70: Villehardouin, No. 101. Dandolo, p. 322. The doge affirms,
that the Venetians were paid more slowly than the French; but he owns,
that the histories of the two nations differed on that subject. Had he
read Villehardouin? The Greeks complained, however, good totius Graeciae
opes transtulisset, (Gunther, Hist. C. P. c 13) See the lamentations and
invectives of Nicetas, (p. 355.)]

[Footnote 71: The reign of Alexius Comnenus occupies three books in
Nicetas, p. 291--352. The short restoration of Isaac and his son is
despatched in five chapters, p. 352--362.]

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