Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/335

 INDIFFERENCE WITHIN THE CITY. 3 17 tion of tilings than had existed, there was no public sentiment on the matter. In 1203 the frequent dynastic troubles and the inlluenccs of Asia had brouglit the people to the same in- difference to any mere change of government. The inhabi- tants in the besieged city knew that a few years before Isaac Angelos, who was still in prison, though his eyes had been put out, had been deposed by the present ruler, Alexis, just as the Turks of to-day know that a deposed sultan is imprisoned somewhere on the Bosphorus, but in neither case did they regard the matter as of any consequence. The besieged in 1203 knew that the son of Isaac, the young Alexis, had per- suaded the Venetians and a body of Latins, through the in- fluence of his sister's husband, Philip, to assist him to regain possession of the empire, and that he and his friends were now outside the city walls. The Latins did not wish to capture the cit3 Even if they did, stronger armies than this had tried to do so and had failed. If the invader won there would be a new emperor — that was all. Indeed, why should the citizens care ? They had no love for the reigning sovereign nor he for them. When he heard that young Alexis was coming with a band of Yenetian pirates,* he made no i3repara- tions for resistance. He was a mere idle lover of luxury, an Eastern Charles the Second, who thought only of the ills of to-day ; an essentially weak man, too sentimental to be a suc- cessful ruler. He shrank from inflicting the cruelty of ordi- nary punishments, and still more from that which was neces- sary to make him a strong despot. Though he had not hesitated to depose his brother, he was either conscience- stricken or pretended to be so, and continually upbraided him- self. The eunuchs, says Nicetas, who guarded the royal forests with as much care as the Destroying Angel guarded Paradise, threatened to kill any one who ventured to cut timber for the construction of vessels. The emperor's brother- in-law had sold all the navy stores. Those who thus robbed the public seemed rather thereby to gain in the estimation of their sovereign. The emperor appeared more amused than ^ Nicetas calls them mipaTiKoi^ p. 715.