* * * * 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 Imperial
proclamation, the combat between the Caesar and Count Robert of Paris
was appointed to take place. This was a circumstance in a great measure
foreign to the Grecian manners, and to which, therefore, the people
annexed different ideas from those which were associated with the same
solemn decision of God, as the Latins called it, by the Western
nations. The consequence was a vague, but excessive agitation among the
people, who connected the extraordinary strife which they were to
witness, with the various causes which had been whispered abroad as
likely to give occasion to some general insurrection of a great and
terrible nature.
By the Imperial order, regular lists had been prepared for the combat,
with opposite gates, or entrances, as was usual, for the admittance of
the two champions; and it was understood that the appeal was to be made
to the Divinity by each, according to the forms prescribed by the
Church of which the combatants were respectively members. The situation
of these lists was on the side of the shore adjoining on the west to
the continent. At no great distance, the walls of the city were seen,
of various architecture, composed of lime and of stone, and furnished
with no less than four-and-twenty gates, or posterns, five of which
regarded the land, and nineteen the water. All this formed a beautiful
prospect, much of which is still visible. The town itself is about
nineteen miles in circumference; and as it is on all sides surrounded
with lofty cypresses, its general appearance is that of a city arising
out of a stately wood of these magnificent trees, partly shrouding the
pinnacles, obelisks, and minarets, which then marked the site of many
noble Christian temples; but now, generally speaking, intimate the
position of as many Mahomedan mosques.
These lists, for the convenience of spectators, were surrounded on all
sides by long rows of seats, sloping downwards. In the middle of these
seats, and exactly opposite the centre of the lists, was a high throne,
erected for the Emperor himself; and which was separated from the more
vulgar galleries by a circuit of wooden barricades, which an
experienced eye could perceive, might, in case of need, be made
serviceable for purposes of defence.
The lists were sixty yards in length, by perhaps about forty in
breadth, and these afforded ample space for the exercise of the combat,
both on horseback and on foot. Numerous bands of the Greek citizens
began, with the very break of day, to issue from the gates and posterns
of the city, to examine and wonder at the construction of the lists,
pass their criticisms upon the purposes of the peculiar parts of the
fabric, and occupy places, to secure them for the spectacle. Shortly
after arrived a large band of those soldiers who were called the Roman
Immortals. These entered without ceremony, and placed themselves on
either hand of the wooden barricade which fenced the Emperor's seat.
Some of them took even a greater liberty; for, affecting to be pressed
against the boundary, there were individuals who approached the
partition itself, and seemed to meditate climbing over it, and placing
themselves on the same side with the Emperor. Some old domestic slaves
of the household now showed themselves, as if for the purpose of
preserving this sacred circle for Alexius and his court; and, in
proportion as the Immortals began to show themselves encroaching and
turbulent, the strength of the defenders of the prohibited precincts
seemed gradually to increase.
There was, though scarcely to be observed, besides the grand access to
the Imperial seat from without, another opening also from the outside,
secured by a very strong door, by which different persons received
admission beneath the seats destined for the Imperial party. These
persons, by their length of limb, breadth of shoulders, by the fur of
their cloaks, and especially by the redoubted battle-axes which all of
them bore, appeared to be Varangians; but, although neither dressed in
their usual habit of pomp, nor in their more effectual garb of war,
still, when narrowly examined, they might be seen to possess their
usual offensive weapons. These men, entering in separate and straggling
parties, might be observed to join the slaves of the interior of the
palace in opposing the intrusion of the Immortals upon the seat of the
Emperor, and the benches around. Two or three Immortals, who had
actually made good their frolic, and climbed over the division, were
flung back again, very unceremoniously, by the barbaric strength and
sinewy arms of the Varangians.
The people around, and in the adjacent galleries, most of whom had the
air of citizens in their holyday dresses, commented a good deal on
these proceedings, and were inclined strongly to make part with the
Immortals. "It was a shame to the Emperor," they said, "to encourage
these British barbarians to interpose themselves by violence between
his person and the Immortal cohorts of the city, who were in some sort
his own children."
Stephanos, the gymnastic, whose bulky strength and stature rendered him
conspicuous amid this party, said, without hesitation, "If there are
two people here who will join in saying that the Immortals are unjustly
deprived of their right of guarding the Emperor's person, here is the
hand that shall place them beside the Imperial chair."
"Not so," quoth a centurion of the Immortals, whom we have already
introduced 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 the
circus. Thou knowest that on this occasion it is one of these Counts,
or western Franks, who undertakes the combat; and the Varangians, who
call these people their enemies, have some reason to claim a precedency
in guarding the lists, which it might not at this moment be convenient
to dispute with them. Why, man, if thou wert half so witty as thou art
long, thou wouldst be sensible that it were bad woodmanship to raise
the hollo upon the game, ere it had been driven within compass of the
nets."
While the athlete rolled his huge grey eyes as if to conjure out the
sense 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 mayst
trust me, gallant centurion, that this man. of mould and muscle shall
neither start like a babbling hound on a false scent, nor become mute
and inert, when the general signal is given. But tell me," said he,
speaking very low, and for that purpose mounting a bench, which brought
him on a level with the centurion's ear, "would it not have been better
that a strong guard of the valiant Immortals had been placed in this
wooden citadel, to ensure the object of the day?"
"Without question," said the centurion, "it was so meant; but these
strolling Varangians have altered their station of their own authority."
"Were it not--well," said Lysimachus, "that you, who are greatly more
numerous than the barbarians, should begin a fray before more of these
strangers arrive?"
"Content ye, friend," said the centurion, coldly, "we know our time. An
attack commenced too early would be worse than thrown away, nor would
an opportunity occur of executing our project in the fitting time, if
an alarm were prematurely given at this moment."
So saying, he shuffled off among his fellow-soldiers, so as to avoid
suspicious intercourse with such persons as were only concerned with
the civic portion of the conspirators.
As the morning advanced, and the sun took a higher station in the
horizon, the various persons whom curiosity, or some more decided
motive, brought to see the proposed combat, were seen streaming from
different parts of the town, and rushing to occupy such accommodation
as the circuit round the lists afforded them. In their road to the
place where preparation for combat was made, they had to ascend a sort
of cape, which, in the form of a small hill, projected into the
Hellespont, and the butt of which, connecting it with the shore,
afforded a considerable ascent, and of course a more commanding view of
the strait between Europe and Asia, than either the immediate vicinity
of the city, or the still lower ground upon which the lists were
erected. In passing this height, the earlier visitants of the lists
made little or no halt; but after a time, when it became obvious that
those who had hurried forward to the place of combat were lingering
there without any object or occupation, they that followed them in the
same route, with natural curiosity, paid a tribute to the landscape,
bestowing some attention on its beauty, and paused to see what auguries
could be collected from the water, which were likely to have any
concern in indicating the fate of the events that were to take place.
Some straggling seamen were the first who remarked that a squadron of
the Greek small craft (being that of Tancred) were in the act of making
their way from Asia, and threatening a descent upon Constantinople.
"It is strange," said a person, by rank the captain of a galley, "that
these small vessels, which were ordered to return to Constantinople as
soon as they disembarked the Latins, should have remained so long at
Scutari, and should not be rowing back to the imperial city until this
time, on the second day after their departure from thence."
"I pray to Heaven," said another of the same profession, "that these
seamen may come alone. It seems to me as if their ensign-staffs,
bowsprits, and topmasts were decorated with the same ensigns, or nearly
the same, with those which the Latins displayed upon them, when, by the
Emperor's order, they were transported towards Palestine; so methinks
the voyage back again resembles that of a fleet of merchant vessels,
who have been prevented from discharging their cargo at the place of
their destination."
"There is little good," said one of the politicians whom we formerly
noticed, "in dealing with such commodities, whether they are imported
or exported. Yon ample banner which streams over the foremost galley,
intimates the presence of a chieftain of no small rank among the
Counts, whether it be for valour or for nobility."
The seafaring leader added, with the voice of one who hints alarming
tidings, "They seem to have got to a point in the straits as high as
will enable them to run down--with the tide, and clear the cape which
we stand on, although with what purpose they aim to land so close
beneath the walls of the city, he is a wiser man than I who pretends to
determine."
"Assuredly," returned his comrade, "the intention is not a kind one.
The wealth of the city has temptations to a poor people, who only value
the iron which they possess as affording them the means of procuring
the 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 the
very point where these heretics are likely to be carried by the tide,
six strong vessels, having the power of sending forth, not merely
showers of darts and arrows, but of Grecian fire, as it is called, from
their hollow decks? If these Frank gentry continue directing their
course 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 that
announced by the great trumpet of the Varangians. If you love me, let
us sit down here for a moment, and see how this matter is to end."
"An excellent motion, my ingenious friend," said Lascaris, which was
the name of the other citizen; "but bethink you, shall we not be in
danger from the missiles with which the audacious Latins will not fail
to return the Greek fire, if, according to your conjecture, it shall be
poured upon them by the Imperial squadron?"
"That is not ill argued, my friend," said Demetrius; "but know that you
have to do with a man who has been in such extremities before now; and
if such a discharge should open from the sea, I would propose to you to
step back some fifty yards inland, and thus to interpose the very crest
of the cape between us and the discharge of missiles; a mere child
might thus learn to face them without any alarm."
"You are a wise man, neighbour," said Lascaris, "and possess such a
mixture of valour and knowledge as becomes a man whom a friend might be
supposed safely to risk his life with. There be those, for instance,
who cannot show you the slightest glimpse of what is going on, without
bringing you within peril of your life; whereas you, my worthy friend
Demetrius, between your accurate knowledge of military affairs, and
your regard for your friend, are sure to show him all that is to be
seen without the least risk to a person, who is naturally unwilling to
think of exposing himself to injury. But, Holy Virgin! what is the
meaning of that red flag which the Greek Admiral has this instant
hoisted?"
"Why, you see, neighbour," answered Demetrius, "yonder western heretic
continues to advance without minding the various signs which our
Admiral has made to him to desist, and now he hoists the bloody
colours, as if a man should clench his fist and say, If you persevere
in 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 of
that than perchance you have any curiosity for."
Accordingly, to add the strength of example to precept, Demetrius
himself girt up his loins, and retreated with the most edifying speed
to the opposite side of the ridge, accompanied by the greater part of
the crowd, who had tarried there to witness the contest which the
newsmonger promised, and were determined to take his word for their own
safety. The sound and sight which had alarmed Demetrius, was the
discharge of a large portion of Greek fire, which perhaps may be best
compared to one of those immense Congreve rockets of the present day,
which takes on its shoulders a small grapnel or anchor, and proceeds
groaning through the air, like a fiend overburdened by the mandate of
some inexorable magician, and of which the operation was so terrifying,
that the crews of the vessels attacked by this strange weapon
frequently forsook every means of defence, and ran themselves ashore.
One of the principal ingredients of this dreadful fire was supposed to
be naphtha, or the bitumen which is collected on the banks of the Dead
Sea, and which, when in a state of ignition, could only be extinguished
by a very singular mixture, and which it was not likely to come in
contact with. It produced a thick smoke and loud explosion, and was
capable, says Gibbon, of communicating its flames with equal vehemence
in descent or lateral progress, [Footnote: For a full account of the
Greek five, see Gibbon, chapter 53] In sieges, it was poured from the
ramparts, or launched like our bombs, in red-hot balls of stone or
iron, or it was darted in flax twisted round arrows and in javelins. It
was considered as a state secret of the greatest importance; and for
wellnigh four centuries it was unknown to the Mahomedans. But at length
the composition was discovered by the Saracens, and used by them for
repelling the crusaders, and overpowering the Greeks, upon whose side
it had at one time been the most formidable implement of defence. Some
exaggeration--we must allow for a barbarous period; but there seems no
doubt that the general description of the crusader Joinville should be
admitted as correct:--"It came flying through the air," says that good
knight, "like a winged dragon, about the thickness of a hogshead, with
the report of thunder and the speed of lightning, and the darkness of
the night was dispelled by this horrible illumination."
Not only the bold Demetrius and his pupil Lascaris, but all the crowd
whom they influenced, fled manfully when the commodore of the Greeks
fired the first discharge; and as the other vessels in the squadron
followed his example, the heavens were filled with the unusual and
outrageous noise, while the smoke was so thick as to darken the very
air. As the fugitives passed the crest of the hill, they saw the
seaman, whom we formerly mentioned as a spectator, snugly reclining
under cover of a dry ditch, where he managed so as to secure himself as
far as possible from any accident. He could not, however, omit breaking
his jest on the politicians.
"What, ho!" he cried, "my good friends," without raising himself above
the counterscarp of his ditch, "will you not remain upon your station
long enough to finish that hopeful lecture upon battle by sea and land,
which you had so happy an opportunity of commencing? Believe me, the
noise is more alarming than hurtful; the fire is all pointed in a
direction opposite to yours, and if one of those dragons which you see
does happen to fly landward instead of seaward, it is but the mistake
of some cabin-boy, who has used his linstock with more willingness than
ability."
Demetrius and Lascaris just heard enough of the naval hero's harangue,
to acquaint them with the new danger with which they might be assailed
by the possible misdirection of the weapons, and, rushing clown towards
the lists at the head of a crowd half-desperate with fear, they hastily
propagated the appalling news, that the Latins were coming back from
Asia with the purpose of landing in arms, pillaging, and burning the
city. The uproar, in the meantime, of this unexpected occurrence, was
such 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 black
smoke upon the face of the landscape, which, thickened by so many
successive clouds, seemed at last, like that raised by a sustained fire
of modern artillery to overshadow the whole horizon.
The small squadron of Tancred were completely hid from view in the
surging volumes of darkness, which the breath of the weapons of the
enemy had spread around him; and it seemed by a red light, which began
to show itself among the thickest of the veil of darkness, that one of
the flotilla at least had caught fire. Yet the Latins resisted, with an
obstinacy worthy of their own courage, and the fame of their celebrated
leader. Some advantage they had, on account of their small size, and
their lowness in the water, as well as the clouded state of the
atmosphere, which rendered them difficult marks for the fire of the
Greeks.
To increase these advantages, Tancred, as well by boats as by the kind
of rude signals made use of at the period, dispersed orders to his
fleet, that each bark, disregarding the fate of the others, should
press forward individually, and that the men from each should be put on
shore 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 in
a great measure covered with raw hides, which hides had also been
recently steeped in water. This vessel contained upwards of a hundred
valiant warriors, several of them of knightly order, who had all night
toiled at the humble labours of the oar, and now in the morning applied
their chivalrous hands to the arblast and to the bow, which were in
general accounted the weapons of persons of a lower rank. Thus armed,
and thus manned. Prince Tancred bestowed upon his bark the full
velocity which wind, and tide, and oar, could enable her to obtain, and
placing her in the situation to profit by them as much as his maritime
skill could direct, he drove with the speed of lightning among the
vessels of Lemnos, plying on either side, bows, crossbows, javelins,
and military missiles of every kind, with the greater advantage that
the Greeks, trusting to their artificial fire, had omitted arming
themselves with other weapons; so that when the valiant Crusader bore
down on them with so much fury, repaying the terrors of their fire with
a storm of bolts and arrows no less formidable, they began to feel that
their own advantage was much less than they had supposed, and that,
like most other dangers, the maritime fire of the Greeks, when
undauntedly confronted, lost at least one-half of its terrors. The
Grecian sailors, too, when they observed the vessels approach so near,
filled with the steel-clad Latins, began to shrink from a contest to be
maintained hand to hand with so terrible an enemy.
By degrees, smoke began to issue from the sides of the great Grecian
argosy, and the voice of Tancred announced to his soldiers that the
Grecian Admiral's vessel had taken fire, owing to negligence in the
management of the means of destruction she possessed, and that all they
had now to do was to maintain such a distance as to avoid sharing her
fate. Sparkles and flashes of flame were next seen leaping from place
to place on board of the great hulk, as if the element had had the
sense and purpose of spreading wider the consternation, and disabling
the few who still paid attention to the commands of their Admiral, and
endeavoured to extinguish the fire. The consciousness of the
combustible nature of the freight, began to add despair to terror; from
the boltsprit, the rigging, the yards, the sides, and every part of the
vessel, the unfortunate crew were seen dropping themselves, to exchange
for the most part a watery death for one by the more dreadful agency of
fire. The crew of Tancred's bark, ceasing, by that generous prince's
commands, to offer any additional annoyance to an enemy who was at once
threatened by the perils of the ocean and of conflagration, ran their
vessel ashore in a smooth part of the bay, and jumping into the shallow
sea, made the land without difficulty; many of their steeds being, by
the exertions of the owners, and the docility of the animals, brought
ashore at the same time with their masters. Their commander lost no
time in forming their serried ranks into a phalanx of lancers, few
indeed at first, but perpetually increasing as ship after ship of the
little flotilla ran ashore, or, having more deliberately moored their
barks, landed their men, and joined their companions.
The cloud which had been raised by the conflict was now driven to
leeward before the wind, and the strait exhibited only the relics of
the combat. Here tossed upon the billows the scattered and broken
remains of one or two of the Latin vessels which had been burnt at the
commencement of the combat, though their crews, by the exertions of
their comrades, had in general been saved. Lower down were seen the
remaining five vessels of the Lemnos squadron, holding a disorderly and
difficult retreat, with the purpose of gaining the harbour of
Constantinople. In the place so late the scene of combat, lay moored
the hulk of the Grecian Admiral, burnt to the water's edge, and still
sending forth a black smoke from its scathed beams and planks. The
flotilla of Tancred, busied in discharging its troops, lay irregularly
scattered along the bay, the men making ashore as they could, and
taking their course to join the standard of their leader. Various black
substances floated on the surface of the water, nearer, or more distant
to the shore; some proved to be the wreck of the vessels which had been
destroyed, and others, more ominous still, the lifeless bodies of
mariners 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 grazed
upon the sand. It was then pitched on the top of that elevated cape
between Constantinople and the lists, where Lascaris, Demetrius, and
other gossips, had held their station at the commencement of the
engagement, but from which all had fled, between the mingled dread of
the Greek fire and the missiles of the Latin crusaders.