Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/452

 430 THE DECLINE AND FALL church without the walls, lest he should seem to imply, or to bestow, any right of sovereignty over the ancient capital of the empire. The 'enetians had engaged to transport Peter and his forces bej'ond the Adriatic, and the empress, with her four chil- dren, to the Byzantine palace ; but they required, as the price of their service, that he should recover Durazzo from tlie despot of Epirus. Michael Angelus, or Comnenus, the first of his dyn- [A.D. 1214] asty, had bequeathed the succession of his poAver and ambition to Theodore, his legitimate brother, who already threatened and invaded the establishments of the Latins. After discharging his debt by a fruitless assault, the emperor raised the siege to prose- cute a long and perilous journey over land from Durazzo to Thes- salonica. He was soon lost in the mountains of Epirus ; the passes were fortified ; his provisions exhausted ; he was delayed His captivity and dcccivcd by a treacherous negotiation; and, after Peter of A°D. m? 1219 Courtenay and the Roman legate had been arrested in a banquet, the French troops, Avithout leaders or hopes, were eager to ex- change their arms for the delusive promise of mercy and bread. The Vatican thundered ; and the impious Theodore was threat- ened with the vengeance of earth and heaven ; but the captive emperor and his soldiers were forgotten, and the reproaches of the pope are confined to the imprisonment of his legate. No sooner was he satisfied by the deliverance of the priest and a promise of spiritual obedience, than he pardoned and protected the despot of Epirus. His peremptory commands suspended the ardour of the Venetians and the king of Hungary ; and it was only by a natural or untimely death ■^^ that Peter of Courtenay Avas released from his hopeless captivity.** Robert, Em- The long ignorance of his fate, and the presence of the lawful st^^tinopi^'^ sovereign, of Yolande, his wife or widow, delayed the proclama- tion of a new emperor. Before her death, and in the midst of her grief, she was delivered of a son, who was named Baldwin, the last and most unfortunate of the Latin princes of Constanti- nople. His birth endeared him to the barons of Romania ; but his childhood Avould have prolonged the troubles of a minority, and his claims were superseded by the elder claims of his breth- naxaCpas yeveaOci) ; but from his dark expressions, I should conclude a previous capacity, w? Travra'; ap&i)i' SecrixuiTa<; Troirjo-at <rvi' wa<Ti (TKevacn. The Chronicle Of Auxerre delays the emperor's death till the year 1219 ; and Auxeire is in the neigh- bourhood of Courtenay. ■i-»See the reign and death of Peter of Courtenay in Ducange (Hist, de C. P. 1. ii. c. 22-28), who feebly strives to excuse the neglect of the emperor by Honorius III, A.D. 1221-:i228
 * 3Acropolita (c. 14) affirms that Peter of Courtenay died by the sword (epyov