Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/277

 CHAPTER X. DEPARTURE TO, CONQUEST OF, AND STAY IN ZARA. The expedition against Zara left Venice in two divisions, one which started on the 1st and the other on the 8th of Oc- tober. The whole fleet consisted of four hundred and eighty sail. The departure of the second and great division, con- taining the army of Crusaders, was one of the most pictur- esque sights which even Venice can ever have seen. The republic of the lagoons has always cherished a love of artistic display^and nowhere can any spectacle be set amid surround- ings which more completely enhance its beauty than amid the waters where the Queen of the Adriatic rises from the sea. The time had not yet come when her rulers thought it necessary to check lavish display of color and undue extrava- gance. The dwellings and storehouses of her people were al- ready palaces. Her citizens had already grouped themselves into guilds, each with its own characteristic dress, so that brill- iancy of color was already a striking feature of a Venetian crowd. The silks and velvets of the East were set oif with precious stones and jewelry, while over all the Southern sun shed a light which, reflected from the waters, did not make their gorgeousness seem out of place. Robert de Clari de- scribes with evident enjoyment the scene as Dandolo and the Crusaders left. Each of the nobles had a ship for himself and his esquires, while attending it was the sailing barge for the horses. Each ship was girt around by the bucklers of the knights, and looked as if it had a belt of steel. The doge had fifty galleys, which had been fitted out at his own cost or at that of the city. The one in which Dandolo voyaged was vermilion colored, like that of an emperor. Four trumpeters with trumpets of silver attended him from his vermilion tent to his galley, and with the bearers of cymbals contributed to