Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/441

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 419 a law, and among men, whose sole umpire was the sword. Within three months after the conquest of Constantinople, the emperor and the king of Thessalonica drew their hostile fol- lowers into the field ; they were reconciled by the authority of the doge, the advice of the marshal, and the firm freedom of their peers. ^^ Two fugitives, who had reigned at Constantinople, still asserted Revolt of the the title of emperor; and the subjects of their fallen throne 1204, &c. might be moved to pity by the misfortunes of the elder Alexius, or excited to revenge by the spirit of Mourzoufle. A domestic alliance, a common interest, a similar guilt, and a merit of ex- tinguishing his enemies, a brother and a nephew, induced the more recent usurper to unite Avith the former the relics of his power. Mourzoufle was received with smiles and honours in the camp of his father Alexius ; but the wicked can never love, and should rarely trust, their fellow-criminals : he was seized in the bath, deprived of his eyes, stripped of his troops and trea- sures, and turned out to wander an object of horror and contempt to those who with more propriety could hate, and with more justice could punish, the assassin of the emperor Isaac and his son. As the tyrant, pursued by fear or remorse, was stealing over to Asia, he was seized by the Latins of Constantinople, and condemned, after an open trial, to an ignominious death. His judges debated the mode of his execution, the axe, the wheel, or the stake ; and it was resolved that Mourzoufle ^"^ should ascend the Theodosian column, a pillar of white marble of one hundred and forty-seven feet in height.'''^ From the summit he was cast down headlong, and dashed in pieces on the pavement, in the presence of innumerable spectators, who filled the forum of Taurus, and admired the accomplishment of an old prediction, which was explained by this singular event.^^ The fate of Alexius 19 Their quarrel is told by Villehardouin (No. 146-158) with the spirit of freedom. The merit and reputation of the marshal are acknowledged by the Greek historian (p. 387), fifya napa to?? AaTcVoji' Svi'".nevov (TTparevixaa-L : Unlike some modem heroes, whose exploits are only visible in their own memoirs. 2" See the fate of Mourzoufle, in Nicetas (p. 393), Villehardouin (No. 141-145, 163), and Guntherus (c. 20, 21). Neither the marshal nor the monk afford a grain of pity for a tyrant or rebel, whose punishment, however, was more unexampled than his crime. 2' The column of Arcadius, which represents in basso-relievo his victories, or those of his father Theodosius, is still extant at Constantinople. It is described and measured, Gyllius (Topograph, iv. 7), Banduri (ad 1. i. Antiquit. C. P. p. 507, &c.), and Tournefort (Voyage du Levant, tom. ii. lettre xii. p. 231). [Nothing of the column remains now except its base.] ^The nonsense of Gunther and the modern Greeks concerning this columria faiidica is unworthy of notice ; but it is singular enough that, fifty years before the