Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/424

 402 THE DECLINE AND FALL senator the deadly garment was repulsed ; the contest lasted three days ; and we may learn from the historian Nicetas, one of the members of the assembly, that fear and weakness were the guardians of their loyalty. A phantom, who vanished in oblivion, was forcibly proclaimed by the crowd ; '■"' but the author of the tumult, and the leader of the war, was a prince of the house of Ducas ; and his common appellation of Alexius must be discriminated by the epithet of Mourzoufle,-'^ which in the vulgar idiom expressed the close junction of his black and shaggy eye-brows. At once a patriot and a courtier, the perfidious Mourzoufle, who was not destitute of cunning and courage, op- posed the Latins both in speech and action, inflamed the passions and prejudices of the Greeks, and insinuated himself into the favour and confidence of Alexius, who trusted him with the office of Great Chamberlain and tinged his buskins with the colours of royalty. At the dead of night he rushed into the bed-chamber with an affrighted aspect, exclaiming that the palace was attacked by the people and betrayed by the guards. Starting from his couch, the unsuspecting prince threw himself into the arms of his enemy, who had contrived his escape by a private staircase. But that staii'case terminated in a prison ; Alexius was seized. Alexins 3Jid stripped, and loaded with chains ; and, after tasting some days his father de- r,^ ' p i i i i i i i posed by the bittcmess or death, he was poisoned, or strauffled, or beaten Monrzoufle. iii i ii i n Feb. 8 with clubs, at the command, and in the presence, of the tyrant. The emperor Isaac Angelus soon followed his son to the grave, and Mourzoufle, perhaps, might spare the superfluous crime of hastening the extinction of impotence and blindness. Second siege. The death of the emperors, and the usurpation of Mourzoufle, January- jt ' i ■' Apru had changed the natui-e of the qu.irrel. It was no longer the disagreement of allies who over-valued their services or neglected theu- obligations : the French and Venetians forgot their com- plaints against Alexius, dropt a tear on the untimely fate of their companion, and swore revenge against the perfidious nation who had crowned his assassin. Yet the prudent doge was still in- clined to negotiate ; ^^ he asked as a debt, a subsidy, or a fine, ^ His name was Nicholas Canabus : he deserved the praise of Nicetas, and the vengeance of Mourzoufle (p. 362 [c. 4]). "1 Villehardouin (No. 116) speaks of him as a favourite, without knowing that he was a prince of the blood, Angelus and Ducas. Ducange, who pries into every corner, behaves him to be the son of Isaac Ducas Sebastocrator, and second cousin of young Alexius. ■•■-[From this time, Boniface, having lost his /;v//.f^ Ale.xius, was no longer in cordial co-operation with the Doge. Dandolo carried out the rest of his plan him- self. Cp. Pears, Fall of Constantinople, p. 334.]