Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/371

 CAPTURE OF THE CITY. 353 enemy was in siglit, and Theodore himself had to fly. The Crusaders had expected, according to the marslial, another day's lighting, and knew nothing of the fliglit of Mourtzou- phlos. To their surprise they encountered no resistance. The day was occupied in taking possession of their conquest. The Byzantine troops, including also the Warings, laid down their arms on receiving assurances of personal safety. The Italians who had been expelled took advantage of the entry of their fi-iends, and appear to have retaliated upon the population for their expulsion. Two thousand of the inhabitants, says Gun- ther,' were killed, and mostly by these returned Italians. As the victorious Crusaders passed through the streets, women, old men, and children, who had been unable to flee, met them, and, placing one flnger over another so as to make the sign of the Cross, hailed the Marquis of Montferrat as Montferrat 2 1 .1 ^ -, hailed as kmg, while a hastily gathered procession, with the Cross and the sacred emblems of Christ, greeted him in triumph. The people had known him as the guar- dian of Alexis. Besides those who yet believed that all the chano^e which would be made would be that of the sovereiirn, there were some among the number who had been the parti- sans of young Alexis, and who believed that they were there- fore entitled to share in the favor, or, at least, in the clemency, of Boniface. It was, therefore, natural that he should be hailed as king. The marquis had led his division along the shore of the Horn round to the palace of Bucoleon. The occupants sur- rendered it. The ladies of the court, including one who had been the sister of the King of France, and another the sister of the King of Hungary, had fled to the fortress of this pal- ace on the capture of the city. While Boniface took posses- sion of the Bucoleon, Henry, brother of Baldwin, occupied the Blachern. Then began the plunder of the city. The imperial treasury Plunder of '^"^ ^^'^ arscual wcrc placed under guard ; but with the city. thesc exceptions the right to plunder was given in- ^ C. xviii. ' Guntlicr, c. xviii. 23