Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/342

 324 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. his subjects hated him on account of his having been brought there by the Crusaders, and would kill him if he were left without their help, he probably told the truth. Nicetas says that the new emperor had changed the ancient faith, and had renounced the ancient rites of the Komans to follow the new laws of the pope. The Crusaders had probably been cajoled into the belief that to bring the Greeks into subjection to Eome would be a success which would insure for them the pope's absolution. The hint of such an intention had become known, and was of itself sufficient to arouse the hostility of every member of a Church as jealous of foreign interference as that of Home. But the great cause of hatred towards Alexis was, no doubt, because he was associated with the en- emy. So long as the question had been merely one of a change of ruler, public opinion had hardly existed. There is no rea- son to suppose that the citizens had known of the agreement which had been made by Alexis. Now, however, that he was on the throne, and had made unheard-of demands for money with which to pay his supporters, now that the process of robbing the churches and extorting large sums from the wealthy citizens had commenced, and now that one of the conditions wdiicli this youth had accepted was that he was to place the Church of the New^ under that of the Elder Eome, popular sentiment was altogether against him. If the invad- ers were to be bought off at once, it would have to be with money raised in the city itself. If the payment could be postponed, a large portion might be raised in the provinces. It is possible, also, that Boniface saw that he had blundered Boniface and ^^ conscuting to allow Alcxis to enter the city. f^iSriail^^ The latter was a weak youth, who, so long as he had opie. i^ggj^ ^^j|.]^ |.jjg Crusaders, had been under the influ- ence of his guardian. Now that he had become emperor, Mourtzouphlos and a few others, who took the lead among the citizens, became his advisers. From them he soon learned how difficult was the execution of the contract which he had signed. It became important to Boniface to place the young emperor again under his own guardianship and influence. Af- ter all, Isaac was weak, blind, and old. He could not last