A.D. 1203.] THE CRUSADERS EMBARK AT SCUTARI. 551 and we ourselves will intercede, that he may be permitted to live in affluence and security. But let him not insult us by a second message; our reply will be made in arms, in the palace of Constantinople." On the tenth day of their encampment at Scutari, the crusaders prepared themselves, as soldiers and as Catholics, for the passage of the Bosphorus. Perilous indeed was the adventure; the stream was broad and rapid; in a calm the current of the Euxine might drive down the liquid and unextinguishable fires of the Greeks; and the opposite shores of Europe were defended by seventy thousand horse and foot in formidable array. On this memorable day, which happened to be bright and pleasant, the Latins were distributed in six battles or divisions; the first, or vanguard, was led by the count of Flanders, one of the most powerful of the Christian princes in the skill and number of his cross-bows. The four successive battles of the French were commanded by his brother Henry, the counts of St. Pol and Blois, and Matthew of Montmorency, the last of whom was honoured by the voluntary service of the marshal and nobles of Champagne. The sixth division, the rear-guard and reserve of the army, was conducted by the marquis of Montferrat, at the head of the Germans and Lombards. The chargers, saddled, with their long caparisons dragging on the ground, were embarked in the flat palanders,* and From the version of Vigenere, I adopt the well-sounding word palander, which is still used, I believe, in the Mediterranean. But had I written in French, I should have preferred the original and expressive denominations of vessiers, or huissiers, from the huis, or door, which was let down as a drawbridge, but which at sea, was closed into the side of the ship. See Ducange au Villehardouin, No. 14, and Joinville, p. 27, 28, edit. du Louvre. [Palandrea was the Turkish name for these vessels (Ducange, 3. 1243). By the Europeans they were generally termed huissers, usseria, vessiers, ursers, or wisers. Hus was the original Gothic word which the Germans have formed into haus, the Dutch into huys, and the English into house. In France alone, the entrance was made equivalent to the whole dwelling, and the door designated by the word huis, from which the term huissier (usher), is derived. Unless these vessels, therefore, were of French invention, Ducange's etymology will not hold good. France had no marine, and these very means of transport were supplied by Venice. According to Spelman (Gloss. 580), the huissers owed their origin to the Normans of Sicily. They were a kind of Noah's ark, or floating house, and it was from this that their name was 552 PASSAGE OF THE BOSPHORUS. [CH. LX. the knights stood by the side of their horses, in complete armour, their helmets laced, and their lances in their hands. Their numerous train of serjeants* and archers occupied the transports; and each transport was towed by the strength and swiftness of a galley. The six divisions traversed the Bosphorus, without encountering an enemy or an obstacle; to land the foremost was the wish, to conquer or die was the resolution, of every division and of every soldier. Jealous of the pre-eminence of danger, the knights in their heavy armour leaped into the sea, when it rose as high as their girdle; the serjeants and archers were animated by their valour; and the squires, letting down the drawbridges of the palanders, led the horses to the shore. Before the squadrons could mount, and form, and couch their lances, the seventy thousand Greeks had vanished from their sight; the timid Alexius gave the example to his troops; and it was only by the plunder of his rich pavilions that the Latins were informed that they had fought against an emperor. In the first consternation of the flying enemy, they resolved, by a double attack, to open the entrance of the harbour. The tower of Galata,† in the suburb of Pera, was attacked and stormed by the French, while the Venetians assumed the more difficult task of forcing the boom, or chain, that was stretched from that derived. The door was probably in the side, as described, but not a sufficiently marked feature to give a name to the whole structure. Wilken (5. 117), places it in the stern, which is very improbable. Villehardouin, describing the embarkation of the horses in the vissiers, uses the phrases, ouvrir les portes, giter les pons fors; he would surely have employed the word huis, if that had been the distinguishing mark from which those vessels were denominated.—ED.] To avoid the vague expressions of followers, &c., I use, after Villehardouin, the word serjeants, for all horsemen who were not knights. There were serjeants-at-arms, and serjeants-at-law; and if we visit the parade and Westminster Hall, we may observe the strange result of the distinction. (Ducange, Glossar. Latin. Servientes, &c. tom. vi. p. 226–231. [In this article, Ducange was much assisted by Spelman, whose Glossary (p. 512) shows how the "Servientes ad legem," from being mere ministri doctorum" (doctors' clerks or apprentices), rose in English courts as "serjeants-at-law," to hold the highest rank next to the representatives of the crown.-ED.] 66 It is needless to observe, that on the subject of Galata, the chain, &c Ducange is accurate and full. Consult likewise the proper chapters of the C. P. Christiana of the same author. The inhabitants T '' A.D. 1203.] THE PORT ENTERED. 553 tower to the Byzantine shore. After some fruitless attempts, their intrepid perseverance prevailed; twenty ships of war, the relics of the Grecian navy, were either sunk or taken; ed the enormous and massy links of iron were cut asunder by the shears, or broken by the weight, of the galleys;* and the Venetian fleet, safe and triumphant, rode at anchor in the port of Constantinople. By these daring achievements, a remnant of twenty thousand Latins solicited the licence of besieging a capital which contained above four hundred thousand inhabitants,† able, though not willing, to bear arms in the defence of their country. Such an account would indeed suppose a population of near two millions; but whatever abatement may be required in the numbers of the Greeks, the belief of those numbers will equally exalt the fearless spirit of their assailants. In the choice of the attack, the French and Venetians were divided by their habits of life and warfare. The former affirmed with truth, that Constantinople was most accessible on the side of the sea and the harbour. The latter might assert with honour, that they had long enough trusted their lives and fortunes to a frail bark and a precarious element, and loudly demanded a trial of knighthood, a firm ground, and a close onset, either on foot or horseback. After a prudent compromise, of employing the two nations of Galata were so vain and ignorant, that they applied to themselves + Quatre cens mil hommes ou plus (Villehardouin, No. 134), must be understood of men of a military age. Le Beau (Hist. du Bas Empire, tom. xx. p. 417) allows Constantinople a million of inhabitants, of whom sixty thousand horse, and an infinite number of foot soldiers. In its present decay, the capital of the Ottoman empire may contain four hundred thousand souls (Bell's Travels, vol. ii. p. 401, 402), but as the Turks keep no registers, and as circumstances are fallacious, it is impossible to ascertain (Niebuhr, Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 18, 19) the real populousness of their cities. [Malte Brun and Balbi (p. 609) state the population of Constantinople in 1838, to have been 846,000, of whom there were 500,000 Turks, 200,000 Armenians, 100,000 Jews, 28,000 Greeks, and 18,000 Franks or other strangers. -ED.] 554 FIRST SIEGE AND CONQUEST OF [CH. LX by sea and land, in the service best suited to their character, the fleet covering the army, they both proceeded from the entrance to the extremity of the harbour; the stone bridge of the river was hastily repaired; and the six battles of the French formed their encampment against the front of the capital, the basis of the triangle which runs about four miles from the port to the Propontis. On the edge of a broad ditch, at the foot of a lofty rampart, they had leisure to contemplate the difficulties of their enterprise. The gates to the right and left of their narrow camp poured forth frequent sallies of cavalry and light infantry, which cut off their stragglers, swept the country of provisions, sounded the alarm five or six times in the course of each day, and compelled them to plant a palisade, and sink an intrenchment, for their immediate safety. In the supplies and convoys the Venetians had been too sparing, or the Franks too voracious; the usual complaints of hunger and scarcity were heard, and perhaps felt; their stock of flour would be exhausted in three weeks; and their disgust of salt meat tempted them to taste the flesh of their horses. trembling usurper was supported by Theodore Lascaris, his son-in-law, a valiant youth, who aspired to save and to rule his country; the Greeks, regardless of that country, were awakened to the defence of their religion; but their firmest hope was in the strength and spirit of the Varangian guards, of the Danes and English, as they are named in the writers of the times. After ten days' incessant labour, the ground The * On the most correct plans of Constantinople, I know not how to measure more than four thousand paces. Yet Villehardouin computes the space at three leagues (No. 86). If his eyes were not deceived, he must reckon by the old Gallic league of one thousand five hundred paces, which might still be used in Champagne. + The guards, the Varangi, are styled by Villehardouin (No. 89– 95, &c.), Anglois et Danois avec leurs hâches. Whatever had been their origin, a French pilgrim could not be mistaken in the nations of which they were at that time composed. [The supposed emigrants from England to Constantinople, are never represented to have been inore than a small band. Nearly a hundred and fifty years had elapsed since the period at which they are said to have been infused into the large, previously constituted Varangian guard. In that space of time, their descendants would have assimilated themselves to their companions, and lost their national distinction. It has already been shown (ch. 55, p. 278) who the Angli probably were, that belonged, from the first, to this body; and when Villehardouin, who knew no language A.D. 1203.] CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE LATINS. 555 was levelled, the ditch filled, the approaches of the besiegers were regularly made, and two hundred and fifty engines of assault exercised their various powers to clear the rampart, to batter the walls, and to sap the foundations. On the first appearance of a breach, the scaling-ladders were applied, the numbers that defended the vantage ground, repulsed and oppressed the adventurous Latins; but they admired the resolution of fifteen knights and serjeants, who had gained the ascent, and maintained their perilous station till they were precipitated or made prisoners by the imperial guards. On the side of the harbour, the naval attack was more successfully conducted by the Venetians; and that industrious people employed every resource that was known and practised before the invention of gunpowder. A double line, three bow-shots in front, was formed by the galleys and ships; and the swift motion of the former was supported by the weight and loftiness of the latter, whose decks, and poops, and turret, were the platforms of military engines, that discharged their shot over the heads of the first line. The soldiers, who leaped from the galleys on shore, immediately planted and ascended their scaling-ladders, while the large ships, advancing more slowly into the intervals, and lowering a drawbridge, opened a way through the air from their masts to the rampart. In the midst of the conflict, the doge, a venerable and conspicuous form, stood aloft in complete armour on the prow of his galley. The great standard of St. Mark was displayed before him; his threats, promises, and exhortations, urged the diligence of the rowers; his vessel was the first that struck; and Dandolo was the first warrior on the shore. The nations admired the magnanimity of the blind old man, without reflecting that his age and infirmities diminished the price of life, and enhanced the value of immortal glory. On a sudden, by an invisible hand (for the standard-bearer was probably slain), the banner of the republic was fixed on the rampart; but his own, heard of them, he concluded that they came from England; and he had no means of obtaining more correct information. Battle-axes, as we have seen, were well-known among the German tribes; they do not appear to have been at that time generally used by the English. In a note to the preceding chapter, the Normans and Goths, who joined the third crusade, are described as "gentes bipennibus armatæ."-ED.] |