Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/418

 o 96 THE DECLINE AND FALL weeks ; and their disgust of salt meat tempted them to taste the flesh of their horses. The trembUng usurper was supported by Theodore Lascaris, his son-in-law, a valiant youth, who aspired to save and to rule his country ; the Greeks, regardless of that country, Avere awakened to the defence of their religion ; but their firmest hope was in the strength and spirit of the Varangian guards, of the Danes and English, as they are named in the ATi- tersofthe times.-' After ten days' incessant labour the ground was levelled, the ditch filled, the approaches of the besiegers were regularly made, and two hundred and fifty engines of assault exercised their various powers to clear the rampart, to batter the walls, and to sap the foundations. On the first ap- peai-ance of a breach the scaling-ladders were applied ; the num- bers that defended the vantage-ground repulsed and oppressed the adventurous Latins ; but they admired the resolution of fifteen knights and Serjeants, who had gained the ascent, and maintained their perilous station till they were precipitated or [juiyiT] made prisoners by the Imperial guards. On the side of the harbour, the naval attack was more successfully conducted by the Venetians ; and that industrious people employed every resource that was known and practised before the invention of gun-powder. A double line, three bow-shots in front, was formed by the galleys and ships ; and the swift motion of the former was supported by the weight and loftiness of the latter, whose decks and poops and turret were the platforms of military engines, that discharged their shot over the heads of the first line. The soldiers, who leapt from the galleys on shore, immediately planted and as- cended their scaling-ladders, while the large ships, advancing more slowly into the intervals, and lowering a drawbridge, opened a way through the air from their masts to the rampart. In the midst of the conflict, the doge, a venerable and conspicuous form, stood aloft, in complete armour, on the prow of his galley. The great standard of St. Mark was displayed before him ; his threats, promises, and exhortations urged the diligence of the rowers ; his vessel Avas the first that struck ; and Dandolo was the first warrior on the shore. The nations admired the magnanimity of the blind old man, without reflecting that his age and infirmities diminished the price of life and enhanced the value of immortal glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand (for the standard- et Danois avec leurs haches. Whatever had been their origin, a French pilgrim could not be mistaken in the nations of which they were at that time composed,
 * " The guards, the Vaningi, are styled by Villehardouin (No. 89, 95, &c.)Englois