Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/422

 404 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. foundly regretted this result, he was forced to acquiesce in it, and even to authorize Baldwin to retain the Crusaders in Con- stantinople whom he had previously ordered to leave for the Holj Land. In the spring of 1205 the new emperor was at- tacked by Greeks, Bulgarians, and Comans, and it was in one of these attacks that the latter succeeded in luring a consider- able body of Crusaders into an ambuscade, where they killed three hundred knights, captured the emperor, and took him prisoner to Tirnova. It was at this verj^ time that the great body of Venetians, amounting to 7000, left Constantinople. The Crusaders were obliged to withdraw to the capital, and nearly the whole of the country was abandoned to the enemy. Still less success awaited them in Asia Minor, where the Greeks were able to hold their own after the first surprise caused by the capture of the capital, and where the invaders found themselves glad, in 1206, to make a truce with Theo- dore Lascaris. The story of the following years is one of struggle with the people whom they had conquered, of reck- less disregard of their rights, of raids over the country in search of plunder, of attacks from the Bulgarians and Comans, and of almost incessant warfare until, sixty years after the conquest, the Greeks again obtained possession of the capital, and the Latin Empire of the East came to an ignominious end. Venice obtained the richest rewards and the fullest pay- The gains of n^Gut for her share in the conquest of Constantino- veuice. pig^ jj^j, acquisition of territory and of commerce made her for a time the undisputed mistress of the Mediter- ranean. Dandolo had stipulated that she should receive three out of the eight portions into which it had been agreed that Romania should be divided. He appears to have been allowed to take his choice of the portions of territory which were to be allotted as the share of the republic. He naturally chose lands adjacent to those already possessed by Venice on the Adriatic, and such ports, islands, or sea-boards as she could readily defend with her fiieet. Dandolo retained the rank which had already been given him of Dcs^M^ and was allowed to wear the imperial buskins. In addition, he took the cu-