Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/463

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 441 and bv his own ambition, the Caesar was stimulated to disobey the precise orders of his master, in the just confidence that success would plead his pardon and reward. The weakness of Constantinople, and the distress and terror of the Latins, were familiar to the observation of the volunteers ; and they repre- sented the present moment as the most propitious to surprise and conquest. A rash youth, the new governor of the Venetian colony, had sailed away with thirty galleys and the best of the gf^^o, French knights, on a Avild expedition to Daphnusia, a town on the Black Sea, at a distance of forty leagues ; "' and the remain- ing Latins were without strength or suspicion. They were informed that Alexius had passed the Hellespont ; but their apprehensions were lulled by the smallness of his original numbers, and their imprudence had not watched the subse- quent increase of his army. If he left his main bod}' to second and support his operations, he might advance unperceived in the night with a chosen detachment. While some applied scaling ladders to the lowest part of the walls, they were secure of an old Greek, Avho would introduce their companions through a subterranean passage into his house ; ^^ they could soon on the inside break an entrance through the golden gate, which had been long obstructed ; and the conqueror would be in the heart of the city, before the Latins were conscious of their danger. After some debate, the Caesar resigned himself to the faith of the volunteers ; they were trusty, bold, and successful ; and in describing the plan I have already related the execution and success. ^1 But no sooner had Alexius passed the threshold of the golden gate than he trembled at his own rashness ; he paused, he deliberated, till the desperate volunteers urged him forwards bv the assurance that in retreat lav the greatest and most inevitable danger. Whilst the Caesar kept his regulars in firm array, the Comans dispersed themselves on all sides ; an alarm was sounded, and the threats of fire and pillage compelled the citizens to a decisive resolution. The Greeks of Constan- ^* [Daphnusia, a town on a little island (now desert and named Kefken Adassi) off the coast of Bithynia, about 70 miles east of the mouth of the Bosphorus. Thynias was another name. Cp. Ramsay, Hist. Geography of Asia Minor, p. 182.] ^ [Near the Gate of Selymbria or Pegae (see above, vol. ii., plan opp. p. 149) ; and it was through this gate that the entrance was to be broken.] scribed with more satisfaction by the Greeks : by Acropolita (c. 85), Pachymer (1. ii. c. 26, 27), Nicephorus Gregoras (1. iv. c. i, 2). See Ducange, Hist, de C. P. 1. V. c. 19-27. [It is also described by Phrantzes, p. 17-20, ed. Bonn ; and in an anony- mous poem on the Loss (1204) and Recovery (1261) of Constantinople, composed in A.D. 1392 (published by Buchon, Recherches historiques 2, p. 335 sqq., 1845).]
 * i The loss of Constantinople is briefly told by the Latins ; the conquest is de-