Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/90

 72 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. day. The most noteworthy amours of Andronicos were car- ried on with members of the imperial family. Eudocia, his second cousin, was his first mistress. As a marriage between the two was regarded by the Church as incestuous, her brother and other relations did their utmost to separate the offenders. When their efforts failed, her brother John, with others, plot- ted to assassinate Andronicos. The members of the imperial family had encamped in luxurious tents at Pelagonia. Eudo- cia was known to be in the habit of receiving her lover at un- seasonable hours, and a number of men were employed to kill him as he left her tent. Her spies, however, gave warning of the danger, and, while her attendants were noisily engaged in bringing lights, Andronicos escaped by cutting a slit in the tent and creeping between the sentries. Shortly afterwards he was imprisoned by Manuel in consequence of his political intrigues with the King of Hungary, but under pretext of his conduct with Eudocia. He was loaded with chains and con- fined in a tower built of brick. There he found a passage partly walled up. He enlarged the hole, laid up a stock of provisions, entered the passage, and from within walled up the entrance. The guards, finding the tower emptj^, in great alarm reported the escape of Andronicos to the emperor. Eu- docia, who was suspected of having aided in the escape, was captured and sent to the same tower, and when the guards had withdrawn was surprised to see her lover break through the wall covered with lime and dust. He subsequently es- caped, but was soon afterwards recaptured and again loaded with chains and imprisoned. A second time he escaped. He had succeeded in obtaining an impression of the keys of his prison in wax. From this his son had new keys made, which he conveyed to his father, together with a coil of rope, in an amphora of wine. Choosing a dark and stormy night, he let himself out and reached a boat which a confederate had read3 In order to elude the guards he pretended to be unable to understand Greek, and passed himself off as the slave of the boatman. He reached his liouse, made himself known to a servant, and escaped to the frontier. There, however, he was captured by the Wallachs and sent back to the emperor. Al-