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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 465 soldiers. As an hostage, the doubtful author was confined, with the assurance of death or an ample recompense ; and the court was left some hours in the anxiety of hope and fear, till the mes- sengers of Alexius arrived with the authentic intelligence, and displayed the trophies of the conquest, the sword and sceptre, ^^ the buskins and bonnet,-'^ of the usurper Baldwin, which he had dropt in his precipitate flight. A general assembly of the bishops, senators, and nobles was immediately convened, and never per- haps was an event received with more heartfelt and universal joy. In a studied oration, the new sovereign of Constantinople congratulated his own and the public fortune. " There was a time," said he, " a far distant time, when the Roman empire ex- tended to the Adriatic, the Tigris, and the confines of Ethiopia. After the loss of the provinces, our capital itself, in these last and calamitous days, has been wrested from our hands by the barbarians of the West. From the lowest ebb, the tide of pros- perity has again returned in our favour ; but our prosperity was that of fugitives and exiles ; and, when we were asked. Which was the country of the Romans .'' we indicated with a blush the climate of the globe and the quarter of the heavens. The Divine Providence has now restored to our arms the city of Constantine, the sacred seat of religion and empire ; and it will depend on our valour and conduct to render this important acquisition the pledge and omen of future victories." So eager was the im- Eetnrnofthe patience of the prince and people that Michael made his trium- peror. a.d. phal entry into Constantinople only twenty days after the ex- pulsion of the Latins. The golden gate was thrown open at his approach ; the devout conqueror dismounted from his horse ; and a miraculous image of Mary, the Conductress, was borne before him, that the divine Virgin in person might appear to conduct him to the temple of her Son, the cathedral of St. Sophia. But, after the first transport of devotion and pride, he sighed at the dreary prospect of solitude and ruin. The palace was defiled with smoke and dirt, and the gross intemperance of the Franks ; whole streets had been consumed by fire, or were decayed by the injuries of time ; the sacred and profane edifices ^ This sceptre, the emblem of justice and power, was a long staff, such as was used by the heroes in Homer. By the latter Greeks it was named Dicanice, and the Imperial sceptre was distinguished as usual by the red or purple colour. 2^ Acropolita affirms (c. 87) that this bonnet was after the French fashion ; but from the ruby at the point or summit Ducange (Hist, de C. P. 1. v. c. 28, 29) believes that it was the high-crowned hat of the Greeks. Could Acropolita mistake the dress of his own court ? VOL. VI. 30