Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/224

 other point, the submission of Constantinople to Rome in things ecclesiastical, could not be said to touch the popular sentiment at all. The Pope, however, supplemented his exhortation by bestowing upon the indigent emperor a treasure of indulgences, which he no doubt sold at their marketable value, whatever that was. One fears that it was not much. From England he obtained, after an open insult at Dover, the sum of 700 marks, which, at the purchasing value we have estimated roughly, represents about £12,500, a small contribution towards the maintenance of an empire. Louis IX. of France would have rendered him substantial assistance, but for the more pressing claims of the Holy Land and his project for delivering the Holy Places by a new method. His brother-in-law, Frederick II., excommunicated by the Church, was not likely to manifest any enthusiasm for an ecclesiastical cause; and those allies from whom he might have expected substantial aid, the Venetians, were at war with the Genoese; the Prince of Achaia was in captivity, and the feeble son of Boniface, King of Thessalonica (the sons of all these sturdy Crusaders were feeble, like the Syrian pullani, sons of Godfrey's heroes) had been deposed. Yet money and men must be raised, or the city must be abandoned. A wise man would have handed over the empire to any who dared defend it. Baldwin was not a wise man. He proceeded to sell the remaining lands of Courtenay and the marquisate of Namur, and by this and other expedients managed to return with an army of 30,000 men.