Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/107

 DYNASTIC TROUBLES. S9 his son Manuel. The proposal was treated with scorn. The mob answered that they would liave neither him nor his son. Every kind of opprobrious epithet was hurled at him. His appearance had only added to the popular fury. The popu- lace, no longer content with declaring for Isaac, determined to revenge itself upon their enemy. An attack was made upon the palace. A small gate called Karea was broken open, and the mob rushed through in pursuit of their victim. Andronicos saw that resistance was useless, and that the only chance of saving his life lay in flight. Hastily throwing aside a cross which he usually wore, and by which he might have been recognized, taking off his purple buskins, and ex- changing the imperial hat for a common Kussian cap, he re- entered the galley which had brought him from his summer palace, and, taking his young wife and a concubine with him, he fled the capital with all speed, in order, if possible, to take refuge among the Russians. Meantime the populace was pouring into the palace with Isaac at its head. All resistance seems to have been IStinc pro- claimed em- at an end with the fli2:ht of the emperor, and in a Dcror short time Isaac had obtained entire possession of the imperial dwelling. The mob was wild with excitement. Discipline there was none. Isaac was again hastily pro- claimed emperor, and immediately gave orders for the pur- suit of his enemy. The mob meantime swept through the various rooms of the palace, and helped itself to a large amount of treasure. According to ISTicetas, it carried off not only all the coins which were there, but twelve hundred pounds' weight of gold, three thousand pounds of silver, two hundred pounds' weight of copper, and, indeed, almost every- thing else that was portable. Even the chapel, perhaps, with the exception of that in the other palace at Blachern, the richest in the world, was not spared, and among other objects pillaged on the occasion was the reliquary, which was said to contain the letters written by Jesus Christ to King Abgarus.^ ^ In the Greek Church the reliquaries are usually of ver}^ great value. At Mount Athos, where the Virgin's girdle and a great number of other