Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/267

 ARRIVAL IN VENICE. 249 lated sum, proposed that they should ap^rec to assist the Yenc- tiaiis in recapturing Zara, in Dahnatia, from the King of Hun- gary; that the Crusaders were divided as to whether this proposition should be accepted ; that those who were tired of the enterprise opposed, but that the majority accepted it. So far the official account given by Yillehardouin and fol- lowed by others. The diversion of the enterprise was due solely, according to these writers, to the simple fact that the Crusaders could not pay 34,000 marks. Yillehardouin, whose history of the crusade is much longer than that of any other contemporary writer, skips over, in a few short paragraphs, the events which happened between the arrival in June and the alliance to attack Zara. The transaction was, according to him, the simplest possible. The Yenetians had completed their part of the contract ; the Crusaders were unable to pay their fare ; the doge made a proposal which was accepted. At this point it becomes necessary to examine such other tes- timony as exists, in order to learn whether the diversion was due to the simple cause which is assigned for it by the great apologist for the crusade. The intention was, as we have seen, to go to Alexandria. " But this praiseworthy design," says Gunther, " was hindered by the fraud and malice of the Yene- tians." "The Crusaders were received treacherously," says Rostangus, " by those to whom they had come, who would not allow them for a long time to pass beyond sea. They refused to carry them beyond sea or to allow them to leave St. IVicolo di Lido unless they paid the uttermost farthing." The leaders and the Crusaders generally appear, as we have seen, to have done their best to pay. But the number for which the city had furnished transport was largely in excess of that which had been brought together by the end of June. Out of 4000 knights and their attendants, only 1000 had assembled. Of the 100,000 foot soldiers provided for, there were not more than 50,000 or 60,000 on the Lido. The Crusaders argued that those who had come and were ready to pay ought not to be forced to pay for those who had not come. The Yenetians claimed their pound of flesh. Resistance was useless; the Crusaders were prisoners. The doge, according to Robert de