Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/336

 318 TPIE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. frightened with the preparations of which he heard, and it was onlj after he learned of the proclamation of his nephew which had been made at Corfu — and this he could only have learned a few days before the arrival of the expedition in the Bosphorus — that he concerned himself with the means of de- fence. But even then the voluptuary and the drunkard could not set himself with sufficient energy to meet the danger. When the expedition had arrived and the Crusaders were en- camped opposite the imperial palace, he wished to withdraw from the city. Ilis relatives, however, and the ring which always surrounds an Eastern despot urged him to resist on their account. It was they who forced him to make a show of defence. The bravest among them was the emperor's son- in-law, Theodore Lascaris. When, as we have seen, the sea- ward towers around Blachern were taken, and a part of the city set on fire, his subjects openly reproached him with cowardice, and it was then, probably, that the threats of wdiicli Robert de Clari speaks were uttered. Perhaps it was under the influence of these threats that he had been induced to lead his army outside the walls on the occasion mentioned. Las- caris begged hard to be allowed to attack the Crusaders.^ The emperor, however, was either afraid or possibly believed that as the city never had been captured it never could be.'* The retreat, according to Nicetas, encouraged the Latins. It strengthened the party of Isaac within the city. ieavet"th?°^ Evcu indifferent men argued that if there were no ^' ^* arrangement there should at least be lighting, and if an army more numerous than the invaders had yet been for- bidden to attack, it was time to change their sovereign. The cowardly voluptuary had, however, no intention of making resistance. The same night he fled ignominiously from the city. He told Irene, his daughter, and several other women of his intention ; took ten thousand pieces of gold, a number ^ Nicctas, p. 722. 2 Nicctas charges the emperor with cowardice, and is probably right; but he is so continually unfair, not only to Alexis but to all the Comneni, that his account has to be received with caution.