Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/340

 322 THE FALL OE CONSTANTINOPLE. Third had fled on the night of the ISth of July. ISText day Isaac had been placed on the throne, and had again been al- lowed to see his son. Daring the next ten or eleven days there appear to have been many negotiations between the em- peror and his son on the one side, and the leaders of the expe- dition on the other. The great result which Boniface obtained was that Alexis should be associated with his father as emper- or, and as a joint occupant ' of the throne. Apparently, before this decision was accepted by Isaac, and probably as a condi- tion precedent, it was arranged that the Crusaders and Vene- tians should retire across the Golden Horn. On the 1st of August, 1203, young Alexis was crowned emperor, together with his father Isaac, in the Great Church with the usual pomp. He at once set about the payment of the 200,000 marks promised to the Venetians and Crusaders. Enough was received to enable each Crusader to pay back the price that had been paid for his passage at Venice.^ The treas- ury, howev-er, was empty. The drain upon the resources of the population in order to pay the foreign army was naturally unpopular. The young emperor was not secure of his throne, itisfonndim- H^ accordingly proposed to the barons a new ar- pay^the^expe- rangemcut. The agreement between the Venetians Srarstipuiar. and the army was to terminate at Michaelmas. The ^^^' new emperor declared with simple truth that he could not pay within so short a term ; that he would lose his throne if the Crusaders left him, and would be killed by his own subjects ; and that the Greeks hated him on account of his friends, the Crusaders. If they would stay till the follow- ing Easter he would bear their expenses up to that time, and would pay the Venetians their freight for the fleet for a year. If these terms were accepted, his revenues, after harvest, would have come in from the provinces, he would be able to pay what he had promised, to preserve his throne, and to go with them, or, at least, to send an army. Then the old trouble once more broke out. The party of the marquis recognized, says Villehardouin, that the emper- 1 Villeliardouin, sec. 193. ^ Ibid.