forces in the holy war, on condition that the French should secure to the republic one half of all the conquests to be made by the conjoint expedition. The Pope, however, who appeared to apprehend that Dandolo might not consider as his enemies those only who were the acknowledged enemies of the church and the faith, in giving his blessing and his sanction to the undertaking, affixed to them the provision that no incursions should be made into the territories of any Christian power, and that the crusaders should not draw their swords in any other cause than that to which he had consecrated them. The moment now arrived which Dandolo may be supposed to have anticipated, from the precaution used by the Pope in giving his sanction to the undertaking. When every thing had been performed according to stipulation by the Venetians, the French were unable to furnish the sum agreed upon, and the enterprise seemed on the point of failing thus at the outset. This moment Dandolo seized for the development of his plans. “If,” said he, “France cannot pay us, let her fight for us. To us belongs the city of Zana, falsely taken from us, and given to the king of Hungary. Let, then, those who are enriched by us, requite us with their services; let France recover to our rule the city which of right is ours, and cordially, with one heart, one hand, one purpose, will we proceed to the land of the Infidel, to fight side by side with our Christian brethren, in the cause of Christ and of his faith." The French, moved by his enthusiasm, or perhaps because they had no alternative, agreed to the condition proposed, and prepared to depart in the cause of Christendom against the enemies of Christianity, under the very ban and anathema of the Christian church; for no sooner was the design of the crusaders against Zara made known at Rome, than the threat of unrelenting excommunication was denounced against all who should have the hardihood to proceed in the unhallowed design-a design doubly sacrilegious, as it was to convert to the purposes of worldly ambition, a sword which the prayers and blessings of the church had devoted to the service of the Lord. The whole armament was now on the point of embarkation, when Dandolo, already far advanced in years, presented himself to the people, and implored that he might be permitted to assume the cross. "I pant," exclaimed the aged veteran, "once again to gather laurels in the field of fame, or to die in the tumult and the glory of arms." Kneeling down at the moment of uttering this brief address, he received the sign of the cross, and declared himself its soldier and servant. As soon as it was known at Zara that the Venetians had decreed its fall, all measures were taken for its defence; but when unexpectedly the army of the crusaders, headed by the fierce old soldier, appeared beneath its walls, the stoutest heart quailed, and the most resolute began to shake in his hope of successful resistance. Resistance was, however, finally resolved upon, and at the same moment the assailants extended their line beneath the fortifications. The attack was commenced by Dandolo with an impetuosity that put to shame the youngest of his followers; if these for an instant seemed to yield, the noble person of their aged Doge was seen in the midst of danger-his voice, and his actions, and his eye, all chiding, and encouraging, and rallying, and making good the fight. Incredible as it may seem, for five days the unabated vigor of his onset continued, and for all that time the carnage increased in the trenches, on the water, on the walls, and in the streets. On the sixth the flag of the republic floated over the dismantled battlements of the unfortunate city. An indiscriminate slaughter had followed its occupation by the crusaders, and the fate of Zara was made a warning and an example of wrath to all the Venetian dependencies which should venture to dispute the supremacy of the Senate. To this conquest followed the anathema denounced against the violation of that which the supreme Pontiff had chosen to consider the obligation of the crusaders; but if this denunciation weighed little against the positive gain to the state in the eyes of Dandolo, still less did it seem to him in comparison with the prospect which the affairs of the empire seemed to unfold to him. To comprehend the nature of this prospect, it becomes necessary to turn from our proper subject, and bestow a few moments' attention on the condition of affairs at Constantinople. Manuel had ascended the throne, which still affected the imperial honors, and bestowed the name of Cæsar on its occupant, by usurpation and wrong. After a period he had the poisoned chalice commended to his own lips, and a bolder usurper succeeded to his honors and his throne. This series of crime and punishment was fated to have its course, and the successor of Manuel was destined to find in his own brother (another Manuel) a rival and a conqueror. His throne did not, however, satisfy the cravings of this brother's appetite; security became an object of as earnest solicitude as possession, when once possession was obtained, and the eyes of the deposed prince were extruted by the command of the conqueror. In the mean time, Alexius, his son, who by singular fortune had escaped the jealousy of the new emperor, appeared as a supplicant before the German court. Here he found that however his fate might have excited commiseration, he should not obtain the desired assistance for the recovery of his father's throne. He therefore, at the suggestion of the German emperor, repaired to the camp of the crusaders, and implored the protection of that host which had assumed the sword in the name and for the cause of truth. Dandolo needed but the shadow of a motive for embracing his cause. The interests of Venice-always, in his mind, the first of cares-and the recollection of his ancient wrongs, were inducement strong enough to counterbalance every suggestion of fear on the part of his followers, and the "Octogenarian Chief" at once declared his resolution to tempt the strength of his fortune against the capital of the east. Constantinople, it is true, had fallen long since from the splendor of her power, but still she had never been at the mercy of a conqueror since he whose name she bore had fixed the seat of universal empire within her walls, and made her queen and regent of the world-still she was the seat of those who claimed descent of name at least, if not of blood, from Cæsar, and "The mighty ones of old;"— still she was holy in the eyes of all-the last remaining pillar of that great edifice, which, with its base upon the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Caspian, had been as it were one vast temple of justice and power, uniting into one the scattered portions of the universe, and blending into one the different races of men. It was, therefore, not unexpected to Dandolo that many should oppose his scheme, nor was it at the same time usual for him to abandon his design for the opposition of many or of all. The timid re-assured by his resolution, and the adventurous fired by his zeal, he very soon found every thing ready for the prosecution of his purpose; and Manuel was unexpectedly called from the enjoyments of his effeminate court, to encounter in the field the sternest enemy that hate, or ambition, or revenge, could have summoned against him from among the soldiers of Europe. All intermediate obstacles had been surmounted, and Dandolo appeared at the head of his crusaders at Scutari, and under the walls of the imperial city. But the emperor of the East could still rally beneath the banner of the empire 400,000 men; and the cry of danger sent from the degraded court, on the approach of the 40,000 free lances of Europe's chivalry, brought in an instant that gigantic power into the field. Manuel, emboldened by the presence of this goodly array, from the interior of his guarded palace sent forth his commands to his captains to lead out this host, and to bring back in chains the insolent marauder who had ventured to violate the sanctity of the imperial residence. Confident of victory, the captains replied with certainty to the command, and stretched the broad front of their forces in ostentatious show before the city, between the walls and the leaguering army of the Franks. Dandolo was not daunted at this display, but his prudence would have bought the victory, if possible, without a waste of that blood which might be wanted on the plains of Palestine. He therefore presented to the Greeks the person of the young Alexius, and offered to withdraw his forces on the recognition of that prince as emperor of the East. The Greeks bore no great affection to their sovereign, but with them hatred of the Latin name was a paramount feeling; and while they knew themselves incapable of contending with the disciplined soldiers of the West, they were yet unprepared to accept a monarch dictated to them under their very walls, by an enemy whom they contemned for what they considered a degrading superstition, even while they feared them for their acknowledged and desperate valor. This only means of adjustment, cast away, nothing now remained but the fortune of war to decide in the issue; and boldly and fearlessly did the forty thousand, under the conduct of their invicible chief, advance to the contest with an army which, for every one of theirs, could number ten, and which fought with all the confidence of superiority, under the very eyes of their children, their parents, and their wives. Short and bloody was the contest that ensued; the gates of the city would not receive the fugitives, who, flying before the conquering crusaders, thronged for protection to the walls, beneath which they were destined to fall by the unsparing sword of the victorious Franks. To confidence now succeeded gloom and despondency in the city, while 14 VOL. IV. every thing breathed hope and victory among the besiegers. The last attack only remained to be made on the city, and for this, preparations were immediately commenced. While the French were to begin the contest by land, the Venetians were to second it on the side of the water. This part of the enterprise was to be conducted by Dandolo, in whose victorious person we have heretofore not recognised the soldier of eighty years and as many wars, nor remembered the maimed and blinded victim of that imperial pride, which he was now to tread beneath his feet. As soon as the towers were prepared, which were to be built upon the decks of the vessels in such a manner as to place the assailants upon a level with the battlements, the assault was commenced; and never did the Greeks distinguish themselves as on that memorable day. The fortune, however, of Dandolo prevailed; in the midst of the discharge of slingers and spearsmen, enveloped in the flames which the defenders cast upon the decks of the galleys, and which the galleys hurled again upon the citizens, the figure of the old man was seen with the standard of St. Mark above his head; and as he rung his nation's battle-cry, amid the shouts and acclamations of the assembled hosts below, he planted it upon the hostile walls, and pealed out the shout of victory to the thousands, who returned it with the cry of "St. Mark! St. Mark!" In a few moments the same sound burst from the quarter of the French, and Constantinople was taken. The occupation of the city, however, did not end the labors of Dandolo. Difficulties, frauds, and treachery, of which the history of the empire at this period is but an uninterrupted tissue, called him back to duties and dangers nothing less than those over which he had but just obtained so signal a triumph. Alexius, scarcely fixed upon his throne by the army of the Franks, became the victim of the faithlessness of his countrymen, and the disloyalty of the traitor was rewarded with the throne of his assassinated prince. In these domestic troubles, it was quite impossible for any of the pretenders to the throne to fulfil the engagements of the unfortunate Alexius with the crusaders. Enraged at the withholding of the promised supplies, and indignant at the fate of the individual for whom they had undertaken, and endured, and dared so much, they determined to return to the scene of their former labors-with the less reluctance, perhaps, that the death of Alexius now removed all check to the plunder of the city, when it again should fall into their hands. Yet we may believe that Dandolo was not actuated by this unworthy consideration, and that an honest indignation moved him to reject the peace, which, almost upon any terms, the usurper, at once a coward and a murderer, was ready to purchase. But the new emperor was a very different enemy from Manuel; and as Dandolo was well aware that still greater exertions would, in this second attempt, be required, with his wonted energy of character, he put himself to the task. On Monday-the 9th April, 1104-the galleys being all prepared, the admiral gave the signal of battle, and the vessels were brought up securely under the walls, so that the combatants were opposed hand to hand from the commencement of the engagement. The obstinacy of the resistance caused no astonishment to the assailants, who remembered the comparative ease with which they had succeeded before, for they well comprehended, from what was passing in their own bosoms, that the besieged were engaged in that which they knew to be the defence of property and kindred devoted to sack and to slaughter. In this first struggle the Greeks were so far victorious, as to withstand the assault; but its repetition, eight days afterwards, was crowned with a different and more successful result to the Venetians. The city was taken, its wealth distributed among the victors, and the empire, of which it had continued the capital through so many vicissitudes of fortune and misfortune, became the property of a handful of adventurers. Thus was attained the dearest object of the Doge's desires. He had urged the participation of Venice in the affairs of the crusaders with a single view to her aggrandizement, and he had braved the denunciations of the church, by espousing the cause of the exiled Alexius, with similar views. These views were now on the point of being crowned, and their realization entitled Dandolo to the praise of a far-sighted policy, not common in those days of impulse and passion. The fruits of this conquest to Venice were the sovereignty of the islands of the Archipelago, the Morea, many ports upon the Bosphorus, and a part of Constantinople itself. However vain the denunciations of Rome had proved already against tho determination of Dandolo, Pascal resorted to them again, and fulminated all his thunders against the violated faith of those whom he had devoted to the single service of the church; but finding that his weapons were likely to prove of as little avail to punish, as they had formerly been to restrain, he next condescended to treat, and to offer conditions of pardon. Dandolo, now more than ninety years of age, unwearied by the wars which he had waged for his country, beheld with indignation the attempt to wrest from it a part of its conquests made by his arms, and at the cost of his blood, and declared that he was ready to enter upon this new contest against the ambitious prelate, who, not satisfied with the dominion granted to him over the souls of men, would also exercise authority over their temporal rights. The senate listened to his expostulations, and resisted the demands of the Pope. The triumph of Dandolo was thus complete; and in the enjoyment of his country's prosperity, beholding her navies covering the seas which he had reduced to her sway, her territory doubled by his valor, and her fortunes ascendant over all the chances of war, and the combinations of envy or jealousy, in his ninetieth year, full of honors as of age, the old man closed his life of honorable toil, and died as he had lived, the wonder and admiration of his age. "Such were thy children, Venice! Shame descend, Why roll the eternal waters to the sea?- |