Then came Henry Dandolo, the Doge of Venice, who was an old man and saw
naught. And he brought with him as many people as he had, and these
were quite as many as the Emperor Baldwin and Count Louis had brought,
and he encamped before one of the gates. On the morrow they were joined
by a troop of mounted sergeants, but these might well have been better
men than they proved themselves to be. And the host* had small store of
provisions, because the merchants could not come with them; nor could
they go foraging, because of the many Greeks that were spread
throughout the land.
[Note: meaning here a little obscure. I think, however, the intention
of the original is to state that the host, and not only the sergeants,
lacked supplies]
Johannizza, King of Wallachia, was coming to succour Adrianople with a
very great host; for he brought with him Wallachians and Bulgarians,
and full fourteen thousand Comans who had never been baptised.
Now because of the dearth of provisions, Count Louis of Blois and
Chartres went foraging on Palm Sunday. With him went Stephen of Perche,
brother of Count Geoffry of Perche, and Renaud of Montmirail, who was
brother of Count Hervée of Nevers, and Gervais of Châtel, and more than
half of the host. They went to a castle called Peutace, and found it
well garrisoned with Greeks, and assailed it with great force and fury;
but they were able to achieve nothing, and so retreated without taking
any spoils. Thus they remained during the week of the two Easters (Palm
Sunday to Easter Day), and fashioned engines of divers sorts, and set
such miners as they had to work underground and so undermine the wall.
And thus did they celebrate Easter (10th April) before Adrianople,
being but few in number and scant of provisions.