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 gg THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. ble number of the mob before the troops sent by the emperor could disperse it and restore tranquillity. The riot had con- tinued all night. While the Emperor Isaac Angelos was contending with Isaac of cy- Wallachs and Bulgarians, with Sicilians, and with P^"^- the Pretender Branas, Isaac Comnenos still retained the possession over Cyprus which he had seized during the reign of Andronicos. He imitated the latter in one respect — that of cruelty — with great success. The emperor endeavored to buy his submission, and suggested that, as he had been justi- fied in resisting Andronicos, he had come fairly into the pos- session of the island, but that now the tyrant was dead, he should give it up to the lawful emperor ; if he did so he would be rewarded. Isaac, however, refused, and there followed im- perial decrees, which were as fruitless as the offers of reward. The emperor accordingly prepared a fleet of seventy vessels for the conquest of the island. The command was given to John Contostephanos, wdio was an old man, and to Alexis, the nephew of the emperor, who had been blinded by Androni- cos. The expedition was a failure. It arrived safely, the troops landed, but a storm dispersed the ships, which were in great part taken possession of by Sicilian vessels.^ The troops were defeated, the leaders captured and sent prisoners to Sic- ily. Isaac of Cyprus offered service in his army to some of the rank and file of his captives. Those who refused were subjected to horrible cruelties. This defeat was in 1186. In 1190 our English Hichard the Lion-hearted left Sic- Engiknd seizes jly with a hundred and fifty ships and fifty galleys, ^^'"^* landed in Cyprus, defeated the force which opposed him, and on the following day surprised the rest of Isaac's army and utterly routed it. The inhabitants hastened at once to throw off the rule of their tyrant and to accept that of an English king. Richard took possession of all the island, capt- ured Isaac, loaded him with chains, and sent him to Palestine. The captor drew his stores from Cyprus as long as he re- mained in the Holy Land. 1 Nicetas, " Isaac," i. 5 ; " Annalcs Rciclicrspergcnses," quoted by Mu- ralt, p. 225.