Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/446

 424 THE DECLINE AND FALL brother, with a supply of twenty thousand Armenians, he might have encountered the invader with equal numbers and a decisive March Superiority of arms and discipline. But the spirit of chivalry could seldom discriminate caution from c(jwardice ; and the Em- peror took the field with an hundred and forty knights, and their train of archers and Serjeants. The marshal, who dis- suaded and obeyed, led the vanguard in their march to Hadria- nople ; the main body was commanded by the count of Blois ; the aged doge of Venice followed with the rear ; and their scanty numbers were increased on all sides by the fugitive Latins. They undertook to besiege the rebels of Hadrianople ; and such was the pious tendency of the crusades that they em- ployed the holy week in pillaging the country for their sub- sistence, and in framing engines for the destruction of their fellow-Christians. But the Latins were soon interrupted and alarmed by the light cavalry of the Comans, who boldly skir- mished to the edge of their imperfect lines ; and a proclama- tion was issued by the marshal of Romania, that on the trumpet's sound the cavalry should mount and form, but that none, under pain of death, should abandon themselves to a desultory and dangerous pursuit. This wise injunction was first disobeyed by the count of Blois, who involved the emperor in his rashness and ruin. The Comans, of the Parthian or Tartar school, fled before their first charge ; but, after a career of two leagues, when the knights and their horses were almost breath- less, they suddenly turned, rallied, and encompassed the heavy Defeat and squadrons of the Franks. The count was slain on the field ; the Baldwin. A.D. empcror was made prisoner ; and, if the one disdained to fly, if the other refused to yield, their personal bravery made a poor atonement for their ignorance or neglect of the duties of a general. ^^ Proud of his victory and his royal prize, the Bulgarian ad- vanced to relieve Hadrianople and achieve the destruction of the Latins. They must inevitably have been destroyed, if the marshal of Romania had not displayed a cool courage and consummate skill, uncommon in all ages, but most uncommon in those times, when war was a passion rather than a science. Retreat of His ffHef and fears were poured into the firm and faithful bosom oi the doge ; but in the camp he diiiused an assurance of safety, ^2 Nicetas, from ignorance or malice, imputes the defeat to the cowardice of Dandolo (p. 383) ; but Villehardouin shares his own glory with his venerable friend, qui viels home 6re et gote ne veoit, mais mult 6re sages et preus at vigueros (No. 193)- the Latins