Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/183

 Flanders, brother of Baldwin; the Counts of Blois and St. Pol; Geoffrey, Count de Perche; Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat; and Geoffrey de Villehardouin, who was to be the chronicler of the adventure.

The chiefs began by sending deputies to ask the Venetians what they would charge for taking them across the water. This was business-like and prudent. They profited by the lessons of the past. They would have none of that long and toilsome march through Europe, and that unequal contest with Greek chicanery; they would avoid the perilous journey across the sands and deserts, through the marshes, and over the passes of Asia Minor, exposed to the perils of pestilence, the torments of thirst, the daily harassing of the innumerable Saracenic cavalry. Their best and safest route would be to march over the rich plains of Italy to Venice, then to take ship, and so, if the saints sent good weather, straight to the shores of the Holy Land. It will be remembered that Richard of England started with a like sensible resolve. His mistake was in being diverted from his purpose by the temptation of Cyprus; that of his successors would be the temptation of Constantinople.

It was the boast of Venice in the days of her splendour that she had never owned the yoke of any master from the days when her people fled from Attila and established themselves on their chain of low-lying islands. It was not a claim which bears the test of historical inquiry. Venice formed at one time part of the Greek empire; nor was it till Constantinople grew weak, and the city of the Adriatic strong, that she was able to