Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/254

 232 THE DECLINE AND FALL the beauteous Maria, a French or Latin princess of Antioch. The only daughter of his first wife was destined for Bela an Hungarian prince, who was educated at Constantinople, under the name of Alexius ; and the consummation of their nuptials might have transferred the Roman sceptre to a race of free and warlike barbarians. But, as soon as Maria of Antioch had given a son and heir to the empire, the presumptive rights of Bela were abolished, and he was deprived of his promised bride ; but the Hungarian prince resumed his name and the kingdom of his fathers, and displayed such virtues as might excite the regret and envy of the Greeks. The son of Maria was named Alexius ; and at the age of ten years he ascended the Byzantine throne, after his fathers decease had closed the glories of the Comnenian line. The fraternal concord of the two sons of the great Alexius had been sometimes clouded by an opposition of interest and passion. By ambition, Isaac the Sebastocrator was excited to flight and rebellion, from whence he was reclaimed by the firm- ness and clemency of John the Handsome. The errors of Isaac, the father of the emperors of Trebizond, were short and venial ; but John, the elder of his sons, renounced for ever his religion. Provoked by a real or imaginary insult of his uncle, he escaped from the Roman to the Turkish camp ; his apostacy was rewarded with the sultan's daughter, the title of Chelebi, or noble, and the inheritance of a princely estate ; and in the fifteenth century Mahomet the Second boasted of his Imperial descent from the Comnenian family. Andronicus, younger brother of John, son of Isaac, and grandson of Alexius Comnenus, is one of the most conspicuous characters of the age ; and his genuine adventures might form the subject of a very singular romance. To justify the choice of three ladies of royal birth, it is incumbent on me to observe that their fortunate lover was cast in the best pro- portions of strength and beauty ; and that the want of the softer graces was supplied by a manly countenance, a lofty stature, athletic muscles, and the air and deportment of a soldier. The preservation, in his old age, of health and vigour was the reward of temperance and exercise. A piece of bread and a draught of water were often his sole and evening repast ; and, if he tasted of a wild boar, or a stag, which he had roasted with his own hands, it was the well-earned fruit of a laborious chase. Dexterous in arms, he was ignorant of fear; his per- suasive eloquence could bend to every situation and character of life ; his style, though not his practice, was fashioned by the