Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/160

 142 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Tancred, the cousin of King William, was appointed leader of an expedition against the empire, having among pokfted "^ its objects that of avenging the outrages of 11S2. In 1185 he seized Dnrazzo, which we have already seen attacked by the grandfathers of the present invaders. More successful than Bohemund, he captured it, and then pushed boldly across the peninsula to Salonica. Aided by Sick of saio- ^^^s fleet, he took the city by assault after a siege of ^^^^- nine days. The slaughter of the Greeks was great, while the loss of the Sicilians was not more than 3000. The city was sacked in the fashion for which the Normans had ob- tained an unenviable renown. Great numbers of the inhabi- tants were put to the sword. The churches were robbed and defiled with every indignity that a brutal soldiery could devise against a people of a different religion. The sacred vessels were used by the soldiers for the ordinary purposes of life, or destroyed for the sake of their metal. The wealth of the city and the neighboring country made them regard the occasion, says a contemporary, as Paradise open for them to loot. Ever}^ form of insult and torture was used to compel the inhabitants to discover their wealth, and the most gross and wanton cruelties were inflicted upon the Eomans simply for the sake of insult. The soldiers polluted the wells, and in pure wan- tonness mixed filth with the food of those whom they met. When the Greek priests intoned the liturgy of their Church, the Sicilian soldiers howled in mockery. The hymns of the Church were sung down by indecent songs. The impression created by the account of the two Greek historians of these events is, that the barbarous soldiers took a malicious pleasure in outraging a people whom they felt to be superior to them- selves in civilization and inferior in physique. The sack was followed by the ravaging of Macedonia and Thrace. An- dronicos, driven to his wits' end to meet the attacks just then made upon the empire from all sides, entered into an arrange- ment with Saladin, by which the latter was to be allowed to conquer Palestine on condition that the Saracen should hold it as a fief of the empire. Saladin, on the other hand, was to aid the emperor in capturing Iconium from the Turks.