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 436 THE DECLINE AND FALL he complied with their Pagan rites : a dog was sacrificed be- tween the two armies ; and the contracting parties tasted each other's blood, as a pledge of their fidelity.**^ In the palace or prison of Constantinople, the successor of Augustus demolished the vacant houses for winter-fuel, and stripped the lead fi-om the churches for the daily expenses of his family. Some usurious loans were dealt with a scanty hand by the merchants of Italy ; and Philip, his son and heir, was pawned at Venice as the security for a debt/- Thirst, hunger, and nakedness are positive evils ; but wealth is relative ; and a prince, who would be rich in a private station, may be exposed by the in- crease of his wants to all the anxiety and bitterness of poverty. The holy But in this abject distress the emperor and empire were still thSms"' possessed of an ideal treasure, which drew its fantastic value from the superstition of the Christian world. The merit of the true cross was somewhat impaired by its frequent division ; and a long captivity among the infidels might shed some sus- picion on "the fragments that were produced in the East and West. But another relic of the Passion was preserved in the Imperial chapel of Constantmople ; and the crown of thorns, which had been placed on the head of Christ, was equally precious and authentic. It had formerly been the practice of the Egyptian debtors to deposit, as a security, the mummies of their parents ; and both their honour and religion were bound for the redemption of the pledge. In the same manner, and in the absence of the emperor, the barons of Romania borrowed the sum of thirteen thousand one hundred and thirty -four pieces of gold,'^3 on the credit of the holy crown ; they failed in the performance of their contract ; and a rich Venetian, Nicholas Querini, undertook to satisfy their impatient creditors, on con- dition that the relic should be lodged at Venice, to become his absolute property if it were not redeemed within a short and definite term, the barons apprised their sovereign of the hard treaty and impending loss ; and, as the empire could not af- ford a ransom of seven thousand pounds sterling, Baldwin was Gijoinville p. 104, 6dit. du Louvre. A Coman prince, who died without baptism, was buried at the gates of Constantinople with a live retinue of slaves and horses. 62Sanut. Secret. Fidel. Crucis, 1. ii. p. iv. c. 18, p. 73. 6^ Under the words Perfarus, Perpera, Hyperperum, Ducange is short and vague: MonetcB genus. From a corrupt passage of Guntherus (Hist. C. P. c. 8, P- ^o)' , I guess that the Perpera was the nummus aureus, the fourth part of a mark ot silver, or about ten shillings sterling in value. In lead it would be too con- 1 temptible. I