Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/429

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 407 most suitable to his temper and situation. Of the treasures which trade and luxury had accumulated, the silks^ velvets, furs, the ^ems, spices and rich moveables, were the most precious, as they could not be procured for money in the ruder countries of Europe. An order of rapine was instituted ; norcivisionof was the share of each individual abandoned to industry or ^^^° chance. Under the tremendous penalties of perjury, excom- munication and death, the Latins were bound to deliver their plunder into the common stock : three churches were selected for the deposit and distribution of the spoil ; a single share was allowed to a foot soldier ; two for a Serjeant on horseback ; four to a knight ; and larger proportions according to the rank and merit of the barons and princes. For violating this sacred en- gagement, a knight, belonging to the count of St. Paul, was hanged, with his shield and coat of arms round his neck : his example might render similar offenders more artful and discreet ; but avarice was more powerful than fear ; and it is generally believed that the secret far exceeded the acknowledged plunder. Yet the magnitude of the prize surpassed the largest scale of experience or expectation.!'^^ After the whole had been equally divided between the French and Venetians, fifty thousand marks were deducted to satisfy the debts of the former, and the demands of the latter. The residue of the French amounted to four hundred thousand marks of silver,^ about eight hun- dred thousand pounds sterling ; nor can I better appreciate the value of that sum in the public and private transactions of the age than by defining it at seven times the annual revenue of the kingdom of England. i*^*^ In this great revolution, we enjoy the singular felicity of Misery of the comparing tlie narratives of Villehardouin and Xicetas, the op- posite feelings of the marshal of Champagne and the Byzantine 1"* Of the general mass of wealth, Gunther observes, ut de pauperibus at advenis cives ditissimi redderentur (Hist. C. P. c. 18) ; Villehardouin (No. 132 [250]), that since the creation, ne fu tant gaaigni^ dans [/eg. enj une ville ; Baldwin (Gesta, c. 92), ut lantum tota non videatur possidere Latinitas. '"•''Villehardouin, No. 133-135. Instead of 400,000, there is a various reading of 500,000. The Venetians had offered to take the whole booty, and to give 400 marks to each knight, 200 to each priest and horseman, and 100 to each foot- soldier : they would have been great losers (Le Beau, Hist, du Bas-Empire, torn. .x. p. 506 : — 1 know not from whence). '""At the council of Lyons (a.d. 1245) the English ambassadors stated the revenue of the crown as below that of the foreign clergy, which amounted to 60,000 marks a year (Matthew Paris, p. 451 ; Hume's History of England, vol. ii. p. 170).