Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/384

 366 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. allowed as a compensation for the fulfilment of the Cru- sader's vow. That knight was grievously afflicted that he could not go to the Holy Land, and earnestly prayed God to show him how he could execute some other task equivalent to that which he had sworn, but failed, to accomplish. His first thought was to take relics to his own country. He con- sulted the two cardinals who were then in Constantinople, who approved his idea, but charged him not to buy these relics, because their purchase and sale were forbidden. He accordingly determined to steal them, if such a word may be applied to an act which was clearly regarded as praiseworthy. The knight, in order to discover something of especial value, remained in Constantinople until Palm Sunday in the follow- ing year. A French priest pointed out to him a church in which the head of St. Clement was preserved.^ He went there in the company of a Cistercian monk, and asked to see the relics. While one kept the persons in charge speaking with him, the other stole a portion of the relic. On leaving, the knio^ht was diso^usted to find that the whole head had not been taken, and, on the pretext that he had left his gauntlet behind, a companion regained admittance to the church, while the knight again kept the monk in charge in conversa- tion at the door. Dalmatius went to the chest beliind the altar where the relic had been kept, stole the remainder, went out, mounted his horse and rode away. The head was placed with pious joy in the chapel of his house. He re- turned, disguised, some days after to the church, in order, as he pretended, to do reverence to the relic, in order reall}^ to as- certain that he had taken the right head, for there had been two in the chest. He was informed that the head of St. Clement had been stolen. Then, being satisfied as to its au- thenticity, he took a vow that he would give the relic to the Church of Cluny in case he should arrive safely. He era- ' The church was popularly Rose, from the name, still common among the Greeks, of the former owner of the land, TpiaKovTacpvWov. The Turks preserve the name, and call the mosque occupying the same site Guljami. It was dedicated to St. Theodosia.