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376 order to join in opposing him. Public feeling against the Venetians was strong, and the disaffection towards them was ready at any moment to break out.

The influence of Dandolo.

While, however, Dandolo did not propose to become a candidate himself, his influence over the election was of the utmost Importance. He, indeed, was master of the situation. It had been agreed that the emperor should be elected by six representatives chosen by the Venetians and six chosen by the Crusaders. Dandolo had great and probably absolute influence over the Venetians, and the fact that he had not put himself forward as a candidate probably gave him considerable authority with the rest. There were reasons why he should have used his influence in favor of Boniface of Montferrat. Dandolo and Boniface had been triumphant in their efforts to divert the crusading army from its object : the first in order to carry out the treaty with Malek Adel, the second in order to accomplish the designs of Philip of Swabia his own.

Claims of Boniface.

Their common intrigues at Venice and at Zara, their common struggles with the Crusaders, who wished to be about their lawful business while at Corfu and before Constantinople, and their final success in spite of so much opposition, formed a bond of union between them. Boniface was far more closely allied with. Dandolo than was Baldwin. Whether the assertion of a Venetian writer be true or not, that Boniface had married a daughter of Dandolo — and I see no reason to doubt it — it is at least certain that the relations between them had been of the most intimate kind. Since the capture of the city the breach be- tween the Crusaders and the Venetians appeared to be con- tinually widening. There was great dissatisfaction about the division of the spoil. The Crusaders charged the Venetians with having conveyed plunder by night to their ships instead of having given it up for distribution. Such a charge was more likely to be made by the Flemish and French Crusaders