ded him, but was
murdered after a very short reign by his uncle Andronicus, who seized
upon the throne. His reign also was but of short duration. Isaac
Angelus, a member of the same family, took up arms against the usurper,
and having defeated and captured him in a pitched battle, had him put
to death. He also mounted the throne only to be cast down from it. His
brother Alexius deposed him, and to incapacitate him from reigning, put
out his eyes, and shut him up in a dungeon. Neither was Alexius III.
allowed to remain in peaceable possession of the throne; the son of the
unhappy Isaac, whose name also was Alexius, fled from Constantinople,
and hearing that the crusaders had undertaken the siege of Zara, made
them the most magnificent offers if they would afterwards aid him in
deposing his uncle. His offers were, that if by their means he was
re-established in his father's dominions, he would place the Greek
church under the authority of the Pope of Rome, lend the whole force of
the Greek Empire to the conquest of Palestine, and distribute two
hundred thousand marks of silver among the crusading army. The offer
was accepted, with a proviso on the part of some of the leaders, that
they should be free to abandon the design, if it met with the
disapproval of the Pope. But this was not to be feared. The submission
of the schismatic Greeks to the See of Rome was a greater bribe to the
Pontiff, than the utter annihilation of the Saracen power in Palestine
would have been.

The crusaders were soon in movement for the imperial city. Their
operations were skilfully and courageously directed, and spread such
dismay as to paralyse the efforts of the usurper to retain possession
of his throne. After a vain resistance, he abandoned the city to its
fate, and fled no one knew whither. The aged and blind Isaac was taken
from his dungeon by his subjects, and placed upon the throne ere the
crusaders were apprized of the flight of his rival. His son Alexius IV.
was afterwards associated with him in the sovereignty.

But the conditions of the treaty gave offence to the Grecian people,
whose prelates refused to place themselves under the dominion of the
See of Rome. Alexius at first endeavoured to persuade his subjects to
submission, and prayed the crusaders to remain in Constantinople until
they had fortified him in the possession of a throne which was yet far
from secure. He soon became unpopular with his subjects; and breaking
faith wi