Then came tidings that in a certain valley, three leagues distant from
the host, were the men and women whom Johannizza was leading away
captive, together with all his plunder, and all his chariots. Then did
Henry appoint that the Greeks from Adrianople and Demotica should go
and recover the captives and the plunder, two battalions of knights
going with them; and as had been arranged, so was this done on the
morrow. The command of the one battalion was given to Eustace, the
brother of the Emperor Henry of Constantinople, and the command of the
other to Macaire of Sainte-Menehould.
So they rode, they and the Greeks, till they came to the valley of
which they had been told; and there they found the captives. And
Johannizza’s men engaged the Emperor Henry’s men, and men and horses
were killed and wounded On either side; but by the goodness of God, the
Franks had the advantage, and rescued the captives, and caused them to
turn again, and brought them away.
And you must know that this was a mighty deliverance; for the captives
numbered full twenty thousand men, women, and children; and there were
full three thousand chariots laden with their clothes and baggage, to
say nothing of other booty in good quantity. The line of the captives,
as they came to the camp, was two great leagues in length, and they
reached the camp that night. Then was the Emperor Henry greatly
rejoiced, and all the other barons; and they had the captives lodged
apart, and well guarded, with their goods, so that they lost not one
pennyworth of what they possessed. On the morrow the Emperor Henry
rested for the sake of the people he had delivered. And on the day
after he left that country, and rode day by day till he came to
Adrianople.
There he set free the men and women he had rescued; and each one went
whithersoever he listed, to the land where he was born, or to any other
place. The booty, of which he had great plenty, was divided in due
shares among the host. So the Emperor Henry sojourned there five days,
and then rode to the city of Demotica, to see how far it had been
destroyed, and whether it could again be fortified. He encamped before
the city, and saw, both he and his barons, that in the state in which
it then was, it were not well to refortify it.
PROJECTED MARRIAGE BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE DAUGHTER OF BONIFACE—THE
CRUSADERS RAVAGE THE LANDS OF JOHANNIZZA
Then came to the camp, as envoy, a baron, Otho of La Roche by name,
belonging to the Marquis Boniface of Montferrat. He came to speak of a
marriage that had been spoken of aforetime between the daughter of
Boniface, the Marquis of Montferrat, and the Emperor Henry; and brought
tidings that the lady had come from Lombardy, whence her father had
sent to summon her, and that she was now at Salonika. Then did the
emperor take council, and it was decided that the marriage should be
ratified on either side. So the envoy, Otho of La Roche, returned to
Salonika.
The emperor had reassembled his men, who had gone to place in safe
holding the booty taken at Veroi. And he marched day by day from
Adrianople till he came to the land of Johannizza, the King of
Wallachia and Bulgaria. They came to a city called Ferme, and took it,
and entered in, and won much booty. They remained there for three days,
and overran all the land, got very much spoil, and destroyed a city
called Aquilo.
On the fourth day they departed from Ferme, which was a city fair and
well situated, with hot water springs for bathing, the finest in the
world; and the emperor caused the city to be burned and destroyed, and
they carried away much spoil, in cattle and goods. Then they rode day
by day till they came back to the city of Adrianople; and they sojourned
in the land till the feast of All Saints (1st November 1206), when they
could no longer carry on the war because of the winter. So Henry and
all his barons, who were much aweary of campaigning, turned their faces
towards Constantinople; and he left at Adrianople, among the Greeks, a
man of his named Peter of Radinghem, with ten knights.