CHAPTER THE TWENTY-NINTH.
* * * * O, Conspiracy! Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, When evils are most free? O, then, by day, Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, Conspiracy; Hide it in smiles and affability; For if thou path thy native semblance on, Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention. JULIUS CAESAR
The important morning at last arrived, on which, by the Imperialproclamation, the combat between the Caesar and Count Robert of Pariswas appointed to take place. This was a circumstance in a great measureforeign to the Grecian manners, and to which, therefore, the peopleannexed different ideas from those which were associated with the samesolemn decision of God, as the Latins called it, by the Westernnations. The consequence was a vague, but excessive agitation among thepeople, who connected the extraordinary strife which they were towitness, with the various causes which had been whispered abroad aslikely to give occasion to some general insurrection of a great andterrible nature.
By the Imperial order, regular lists had been prepared for the combat,with opposite gates, or entrances, as was usual, for the admittance ofthe two champions; and it was understood that the appeal was to be madeto the Divinity by each, according to the forms prescribed by theChurch of which the combatants were respectively members. The situationof these lists was on the side of the shore adjoining on the west tothe continent. At no great distance, the walls of the city were seen,of various architecture, composed of lime and of stone, and furnishedwith no less than four-and-twenty gates, or posterns, five of whichregarded the land, and nineteen the water. All this formed a beautifulprospect, much of which is still visible. The town itself is aboutnineteen miles in circumference; and as it is on all sides surroundedwith lofty cypresses, its general appearance is that of a city arisingout of a stately wood of these magnificent trees, partly shrouding thepinnacles, obelisks, and minarets, which then marked the site of manynoble Christian temples; but now, generally speaking, intimate theposition of as many Mahomedan mosques.
These lists, for the convenience of spectators, were surrounded on allsides by long rows of seats, sloping downwards. In the middle of theseseats, and exactly opposite the centre of the lists, was a high throne,erected for the Emperor himself; and which was separated from the morevulgar galleries by a circuit of wooden barricades, which anexperienced eye could perceive, might, in case of need, be madeserviceable for purposes of defence.
The lists were sixty yards in length, by perhaps about forty inbreadth, and these afforded ample space for the exercise of the combat,both on horseback and on foot. Numerous bands of the Greek citizensbegan, with the very break of day, to issue from the gates and posternsof the city, to examine and wonder at the construction of the lists,pass their criticisms upon the purposes of the peculiar parts of thefabric, and occupy places, to secure them for the spectacle. Shortlyafter arrived a large band of those soldiers who were called the RomanImmortals. These entered without ceremony, and placed themselves oneither hand of the wooden barricade which fenced the Emperor's seat.Some of them took even a greater liberty; for, affecting to be pressedagainst the boundary, there were individuals who approached thepartition itself, and seemed to meditate climbing over it, and placingthemselves on the same side with the Emperor. Some old domestic slavesof the household now showed themselves, as if for the purpose ofpreserving this sacred circle for Alexius and his court; and, inproportion as the Immortals began to show themselves encroaching andturbulent, the strength of the defenders of the prohibited precinctsseemed gradually to increase.
There was, though scarcely to be observed, besides the grand access tothe Imperial seat from without, another opening also from the outside,secured by a very strong door, by which different persons receivedadmission beneath the seats destined for the Imperial party. Thesepersons, by their length of limb, breadth of shoulders, by the fur oftheir cloaks, and especially by the redoubted battle-axes which all ofthem bore, appeared to be Varangians; but, although neither dressed intheir usual habit of pomp, nor in their more effectual garb of war,still, when narrowly examined, they might be seen to possess theirusual offensive weapons. These men, entering in separate and stragglingparties, might be observed to join the slaves of the interior of thepalace in opposing the intrusion of the Immortals upon the seat of theEmperor, and the benches around. Two or three Immortals, who hadactually made good their frolic, and climbed over the division, wereflung back again, very unceremoniously, by the barbaric strength andsinewy arms of the Varangians.
The people around, and in the adjacent galleries, most of whom had theair of citizens in their holyday dresses, commented a good deal onthese proceedings, and were inclined strongly to make part with theImmortals. "It was a shame to the Emperor," they said, "to encouragethese British barbarians to interpose themselves by violence betweenhis person and the Immortal cohorts of the city, who were in some sorthis own children."
Stephanos, the gymnastic, whose bulky strength and stature rendered himconspicuous amid this party, said, without hesitation, "If there aretwo people here who will join in saying that the Immortals are unjustlydeprived of their right of guarding the Emperor's person, here is thehand that shall place them beside the Imperial chair."
"Not so," quoth a centurion of the Immortals, whom we have alreadyintroduced to our readers by the name of Harpax; "Not so, Stephanos;that happy time may arrive, but it is not yet come, my gem of thecircus. Thou knowest that on this occasion it is one of these Counts,or western Franks, who undertakes the combat; and the Varangians, whocall these people their enemies, have some reason to claim a precedencyin guarding the lists, which it might not at this moment be convenientto dispute with them. Why, man, if thou wert half so witty as thou artlong, thou wouldst be sensible that it were bad woodmanship to raisethe hollo upon the game, ere it had been driven within compass of thenets."
While the athlete rolled his huge grey eyes as if to conjure out thesense of this intimation, his little friend Lysimachus, the artist,putting himself to pain to stand upon his tiptoe, and look intelligent,said, approaching as near as he could to Harpax's ear, "Thou maysttrust me, gallant centurion, that this man. of mould and muscle shallneither start like a babbling hound on a false scent, nor become muteand inert, when the general signal is given. But tell me," said he,speaking very low, and for that purpose mounting a bench, which broughthim on a level with the centurion's ear, "would it not have been betterthat a strong guard of the valiant Immortals had been placed in thiswooden citadel, to ensure the object of the day?"
"Without question," said the centurion, "it was so meant; but thesestrolling Varangians have altered their station of their own authority."
"Were it not--well," said Lysimachus, "that you, who are greatly morenumerous than the barbarians, should begin a fray before more of thesestrangers arrive?"
"Content ye, friend," said the centurion, coldly, "we know our time. Anattack commenced too early would be worse than thrown away, nor wouldan opportunity occur of executing our project in the fitting time, ifan alarm were prematurely given at this moment."
So saying, he shuffled off among his fellow-soldiers, so as to avoidsuspicious intercourse with such persons as were only concerned withthe civic portion of the conspirators.
As the morning advanced, and the sun took a higher station in thehorizon, the various persons whom curiosity, or some more decidedmotive, brought to see the proposed combat, were seen streaming fromdifferent parts of the town, and rushing to occupy such accommodationas the circuit round the lists afforded them. In their road to theplace where preparation for combat was made, they had to ascend a sortof cape, which, in the form of a small hill, projected into theHellespont, and the butt of which, connecting it with the shore,afforded a considerable ascent, and of course a more commanding view ofthe strait between Europe and Asia, than either the immediate vicinityof the city, or the still lower ground upon which the lists wereerec
ted. In passing this height, the earlier visitants of the listsmade little or no halt; but after a time, when it became obvious thatthose who had hurried forward to the place of combat were lingeringthere without any object or occupation, they that followed them in thesame route, with natural curiosity, paid a tribute to the landscape,bestowing some attention on its beauty, and paused to see what auguriescould be collected from the water, which were likely to have anyconcern in indicating the fate of the events that were to take place.Some straggling seamen were the first who remarked that a squadron ofthe Greek small craft (being that of Tancred) were in the act of makingtheir way from Asia, and threatening a descent upon Constantinople.
"It is strange," said a person, by rank the captain of a galley, "thatthese small vessels, which were ordered to return to Constantinople assoon as they disembarked the Latins, should have remained so long atScutari, and should not be rowing back to the imperial city until thistime, on the second day after their departure from thence."
"I pray to Heaven," said another of the same profession, "that theseseamen may come alone. It seems to me as if their ensign-staffs,bowsprits, and topmasts were decorated with the same ensigns, or nearlythe same, with those which the Latins displayed upon them, when, by theEmperor's order, they were transported towards Palestine; so methinksthe voyage back again resembles that of a fleet of merchant vessels,who have been prevented from discharging their cargo at the place oftheir destination."
"There is little good," said one of the politicians whom we formerlynoticed, "in dealing with such commodities, whether they are importedor exported. Yon ample banner which streams over the foremost galley,intimates the presence of a chieftain of no small rank among theCounts, whether it be for valour or for nobility."
The seafaring leader added, with the voice of one who hints alarmingtidings, "They seem to have got to a point in the straits as high aswill enable them to run down--with the tide, and clear the cape whichwe stand on, although with what purpose they aim to land so closebeneath the walls of the city, he is a wiser man than I who pretends todetermine."
"Assuredly," returned his comrade, "the intention is not a kind one.The wealth of the city has temptations to a poor people, who only valuethe iron which they possess as affording them the means of procuringthe gold which they covet."
"Ay, brother," answered Demetrius the politician, "but see you not,lying at anchor within this bay which is formed by the cape, and at thevery point where these heretics are likely to be carried by the tide,six strong vessels, having the power of sending forth, not merelyshowers of darts and arrows, but of Grecian fire, as it is called, fromtheir hollow decks? If these Frank gentry continue directing theircourse upon the Imperial city, being, as they are,
------'propago Contemptrix Superum sane, saevaeque avidissima caedis Et violenta;' [Footnote: Ovid, Met.]
we shall speedily see a combat better worth witnessing than thatannounced by the great trumpet of the Varangians. If you love me, letus sit down here for a moment, and see how this matter is to end."
"An excellent motion, my ingenious friend," said Lascaris, which wasthe name of the other citizen; "but bethink you, shall we not be indanger from the missiles with which the audacious Latins will not failto return the Greek fire, if, according to your conjecture, it shall bepoured upon them by the Imperial squadron?"
"That is not ill argued, my friend," said Demetrius; "but know that youhave to do with a man who has been in such extremities before now; andif such a discharge should open from the sea, I would propose to you tostep back some fifty yards inland, and thus to interpose the very crestof the cape between us and the discharge of missiles; a mere childmight thus learn to face them without any alarm."
"You are a wise man, neighbour," said Lascaris, "and possess such amixture of valour and knowledge as becomes a man whom a friend might besupposed safely to risk his life with. There be those, for instance,who cannot show you the slightest glimpse of what is going on, withoutbringing you within peril of your life; whereas you, my worthy friendDemetrius, between your accurate knowledge of military affairs, andyour regard for your friend, are sure to show him all that is to beseen without the least risk to a person, who is naturally unwilling tothink of exposing himself to injury. But, Holy Virgin! what is themeaning of that red flag which the Greek Admiral has this instanthoisted?"
"Why, you see, neighbour," answered Demetrius, "yonder western hereticcontinues to advance without minding the various signs which ourAdmiral has made to him to desist, and now he hoists the bloodycolours, as if a man should clench his fist and say, If you perseverein your uncivil intention, I will do so and so."
"By St. Sophia," said Lascaris, "and that is giving him fair warning.But what is it the Imperial Admiral is about to do?"
"Run! run! friend Lascaris," said Demetrius, "or you will see more ofthat than perchance you have any curiosity for."
Accordingly, to add the strength of example to precept, Demetriushimself girt up his loins, and retreated with the most edifying speedto the opposite side of the ridge, accompanied by the greater part ofthe crowd, who had tarried there to witness the contest which thenewsmonger promised, and were determined to take his word for their ownsafety. The sound and sight which had alarmed Demetrius, was thedischarge of a large portion of Greek fire, which perhaps may be bestcompared to one of those immense Congreve rockets of the present day,which takes on its shoulders a small grapnel or anchor, and proceedsgroaning through the air, like a fiend overburdened by the mandate ofsome inexorable magician, and of which the operation was so terrifying,that the crews of the vessels attacked by this strange weaponfrequently forsook every means of defence, and ran themselves ashore.One of the principal ingredients of this dreadful fire was supposed tobe naphtha, or the bitumen which is collected on the banks of the DeadSea, and which, when in a state of ignition, could only be extinguishedby a very singular mixture, and which it was not likely to come incontact with. It produced a thick smoke and loud explosion, and wascapable, says Gibbon, of communicating its flames with equal vehemencein descent or lateral progress, [Footnote: For a full account of theGreek five, see Gibbon, chapter 53] In sieges, it was poured from theramparts, or launched like our bombs, in red-hot balls of stone oriron, or it was darted in flax twisted round arrows and in javelins. Itwas considered as a state secret of the greatest importance; and forwellnigh four centuries it was unknown to the Mahomedans. But at lengththe composition was discovered by the Saracens, and used by them forrepelling the crusaders, and overpowering the Greeks, upon whose sideit had at one time been the most formidable implement of defence. Someexaggeration--we must allow for a barbarous period; but there seems nodoubt that the general description of the crusader Joinville should beadmitted as correct:--"It came flying through the air," says that goodknight, "like a winged dragon, about the thickness of a hogshead, withthe report of thunder and the speed of lightning, and the darkness ofthe night was dispelled by this horrible illumination."
Not only the bold Demetrius and his pupil Lascaris, but all the crowdwhom they influenced, fled manfully when the commodore of the Greeksfired the first discharge; and as the other vessels in the squadronfollowed his example, the heavens were filled with the unusual andoutrageous noise, while the smoke was so thick as to darken the veryair. As the fugitives passed the crest of the hill, they saw theseaman, whom we formerly mentioned as a spectator, snugly recliningunder cover of a dry ditch, where he managed so as to secure himself asfar as possible from any accident. He could not, however, omit breakinghis jest on the politicians.
"What, ho!" he cried, "my good friends," without raising himself abovethe counterscarp of his ditch, "will you not remain upon your stationlong enough to finish that hopeful lecture upon battle by sea and land,which you had so happy an opportunity of commencing? Believe me, thenoise is more alarming than hurtful; the fire is all pointed in adirection opposite to yours, and if one of those dragons which you seedoes happen to fly landward instead o
f seaward, it is but the mistakeof some cabin-boy, who has used his linstock with more willingness thanability."
Demetrius and Lascaris just heard enough of the naval hero's harangue,to acquaint them with the new danger with which they might be assailedby the possible misdirection of the weapons, and, rushing clown towardsthe lists at the head of a crowd half-desperate with fear, they hastilypropagated the appalling news, that the Latins were coming back fromAsia with the purpose of landing in arms, pillaging, and burning thecity. The uproar, in the meantime, of this unexpected occurrence, wassuch as altogether to vindicate, in public opinion, the reported cause,however exaggerated. The thunder of the Greek fire came successively,one hard upon the other, and each, in its turn, spread a blot of blacksmoke upon the face of the landscape, which, thickened by so manysuccessive clouds, seemed at last, like that raised by a sustained fireof modern artillery to overshadow the whole horizon.
The small squadron of Tancred were completely hid from view in thesurging volumes of darkness, which the breath of the weapons of theenemy had spread around him; and it seemed by a red light, which beganto show itself among the thickest of the veil of darkness, that one ofthe flotilla at least had caught fire. Yet the Latins resisted, with anobstinacy worthy of their own courage, and the fame of their celebratedleader. Some advantage they had, on account of their small size, andtheir lowness in the water, as well as the clouded state of theatmosphere, which rendered them difficult marks for the fire of theGreeks.
To increase these advantages, Tancred, as well by boats as by the kindof rude signals made use of at the period, dispersed orders to hisfleet, that each bark, disregarding the fate of the others, shouldpress forward individually, and that the men from each should be put onshore wheresoever and howsoever they could effect that manoeuvre.Tancred himself set a noble example; he was on board a stout vessel,fenced in some degree against the effect of the Greek fire by being ina great measure covered with raw hides, which hides had also beenrecently steeped in water. This vessel contained upwards of a hundredvaliant warriors, several of them of knightly order, who had all nighttoiled at the humble labours of the oar, and now in the morning appliedtheir chivalrous hands to the arblast and to the bow, which were ingeneral accounted the weapons of persons of a lower rank. Thus armed,and thus manned. Prince Tancred bestowed upon his bark the fullvelocity which wind, and tide, and oar, could enable her to obtain, andplacing her in the situation to profit by them as much as his maritimeskill could direct, he drove with the speed of lightning among thevessels of Lemnos, plying on either side, bows, crossbows, javelins,and military missiles of every kind, with the greater advantage thatthe Greeks, trusting to their artificial fire, had omitted armingthemselves with other weapons; so that when the valiant Crusader boredown on them with so much fury, repaying the terrors of their fire witha storm of bolts and arrows no less formidable, they began to feel thattheir own advantage was much less than they had supposed, and that,like most other dangers, the maritime fire of the Greeks, whenundauntedly confronted, lost at least one-half of its terrors. TheGrecian sailors, too, when they observed the vessels approach so near,filled with the steel-clad Latins, began to shrink from a contest to bemaintained hand to hand with so terrible an enemy.
By degrees, smoke began to issue from the sides of the great Grecianargosy, and the voice of Tancred announced to his soldiers that theGrecian Admiral's vessel had taken fire, owing to negligence in themanagement of the means of destruction she possessed, and that all theyhad now to do was to maintain such a distance as to avoid sharing herfate. Sparkles and flashes of flame were next seen leaping from placeto place on board of the great hulk, as if the element had had thesense and purpose of spreading wider the consternation, and disablingthe few who still paid attention to the commands of their Admiral, andendeavoured to extinguish the fire. The consciousness of thecombustible nature of the freight, began to add despair to terror; fromthe boltsprit, the rigging, the yards, the sides, and every part of thevessel, the unfortunate crew were seen dropping themselves, to exchangefor the most part a watery death for one by the more dreadful agency offire. The crew of Tancred's bark, ceasing, by that generous prince'scommands, to offer any additional annoyance to an enemy who was at oncethreatened by the perils of the ocean and of conflagration, ran theirvessel ashore in a smooth part of the bay, and jumping into the shallowsea, made the land without difficulty; many of their steeds being, bythe exertions of the owners, and the docility of the animals, broughtashore at the same time with their masters. Their commander lost notime in forming their serried ranks into a phalanx of lancers, fewindeed at first, but perpetually increasing as ship after ship of thelittle flotilla ran ashore, or, having more deliberately moored theirbarks, landed their men, and joined their companions.
The cloud which had been raised by the conflict was now driven toleeward before the wind, and the strait exhibited only the relics ofthe combat. Here tossed upon the billows the scattered and brokenremains of one or two of the Latin vessels which had been burnt at thecommencement of the combat, though their crews, by the exertions oftheir comrades, had in general been saved. Lower down were seen theremaining five vessels of the Lemnos squadron, holding a disorderly anddifficult retreat, with the purpose of gaining the harbour ofConstantinople. In the place so late the scene of combat, lay mooredthe hulk of the Grecian Admiral, burnt to the water's edge, and stillsending forth a black smoke from its scathed beams and planks. Theflotilla of Tancred, busied in discharging its troops, lay irregularlyscattered along the bay, the men making ashore as they could, andtaking their course to join the standard of their leader. Various blacksubstances floated on the surface of the water, nearer, or more distantto the shore; some proved to be the wreck of the vessels which had beendestroyed, and others, more ominous still, the lifeless bodies ofmariners who had fallen in the conflict.
The standard had been borne ashore by the Prince's favourite page,Ernest of Apulia, so soon as the keel of Tancred's galley had grazedupon the sand. It was then pitched on the top of that elevated capebetween Constantinople and the lists, where Lascaris, Demetrius, andother gossips, had held their station at the commencement of theengagement, but from which all had fled, between the mingled dread ofthe Greek fire and the missiles of the Latin crusaders.