LXI. the fkull of St. John the baptift. For the recep- CHAP. tion of these spiritual treasures, twenty thousand marks were expended by St. Louis on a ftately foundation, the holy chapel of Paris, on which the muse of Boileau has bestowed a comic immortality. The truth of fuch remote and ancient relics, which cannot be proved by any human testimony, must be admitted by thofe who believe in the miracles which they have performed. About the middle of the laft age, an inveterate ulcer was touched and cured by an holy prickle of the holy crown ": the prodigy is attefted by the most pious and enlightened Chriftians of France; nor will the fact be eafily difproved, except by those who are armed with a general antidote against religious credulity 54. 53 55 Progress of the The Latins of Conftantinople "s were on all fides encompaffed and preffed: their fole hope, the last delay of their ruin, was in the divifion of their Greek and Bulgarian enemies; and of this- 1261. 53 It was performed A. D. 1556, March 24, on the niece of Pascal, and that fuperior genius, with Arnauld, Nicole, &c. were on the spot to believe and atteft a miracle which confounded the Jefuits, and faved Port Royal (Oeuvres de Racine, tom. vi. p. 176-187 in his eloquent History of Port Royal). 54 Voltaire (Siecle de Louis XIV. c. 37. Oeuvres, tom. ix. p. 178, 179.) Atrives to invalidate the fact: but Hume (Effays, vol. ii. p. 483, 484.), with more skill and fuccess, seizes the battery, and turns the cannon against his enemies. 55 The gradual loffes of the Latins may be traced in the third, fourth, and fifth books of the compilation of Ducange: but of the Greek conquefts he has dropped many circumftances, which may be recovered from the larger history of George Acropolita, and the three first books of Nicephorus Gregoras, two writers of the Byzantine feries, who have had the good fortune to meet with learned editors, Leo Allatius at Rome, and John Boivin in the Academy of Infcriptions of Paris. A. D. 1237 hope LXI. CHAP. hope they were deprived by the fuperior arms and policy of Vataces emperor of Nice. From the Propontis to the rocky coast of Pamphylia, Afia was peaceful and profperous under his reign: and the events of every campaign extended his influence in Europe. The ftrong cities of the hills of Macedonia and Thrace, were rescued from the Bulgarians; and their kingdom was circumfcribed by its present and proper limits, along the fouthern banks of the Danube. The fole The fole emperor of the Romans could no longer brook that a lord of Epirus, a Comnenian prince of the Weft, fhould prefume to dispute or share the honours of the purple; and the humble Demetrius changed the colour of his bufkins, and accepted with gratitude the appellation of defpot. His own fubjects were exasperated by his baseness and incapacity: they implored the protection of their fupreme lord. After fome refiftance, the kingdom of Theffalonica was united to the empire of Nice; and Vataces reigned without a competitor from the Turkish borders to the Adriatic gulph. The princes of Europe revered his merit and power; and had he subscribed an orthodox creed, it should feem that the pope would have abandoned without reluctance the Latin throne of Constantinople. But the death of Vataces, the short and bufy reign of Theodore his fon, and the helpless infancy of his grandfon John, fufpended the restoration of the Greeks. In the next chapter I shall explain their domestic revolutions; in this place, it will be fufficient to obferve, that the young prince was oppreffed by the ambition of his guar LXI. Palæolo Greek emperor, A. D. 1259, Dec. I. dian and colleague Michael Palæologus, who dif- CHAP. played the virtues and vices that belong to the founder of a new dynasty. The emperor Bald- Michael win had flattered himself, that he might recover gus, the some provinces or cities by an impotent negociation. His ambaffadors were difmiffed from Nice with mockery and contempt. At every place which they named, Palæologus alleged some special reason, which rendered it dear and valuable in his eyes: in the one he was born; in another he had been first promoted to military command; and in a third he had enjoyed, and hoped long to enjoy, the pleasures of the chace. " And On " what then do you propose to give us?" faid 56 George Acropolita, c. 78. p. 89, 90. edit. Paris. wars, LXI. CHAP. wars, the command of the fea and the commerce of the Eaft. Pride and intereft attached the Venetians to the defence of Conftantinople: their rivals were tempted to promote the defigns of her enemies, and the alliance of the Genoese with the fchifmatic conqueror provoked the indignation of the Latin church 57. Conftantinople recovered by the Greeks, A. D. 1261, July 25. Intent on this great object, the emperor Michael vifited in perfon and ftrengthened the troops and fortifications in Thrace. The remains of the Latins were driven from their laft poffeffions: he affaulted without fuccefs the fuburb of Galata; and correfponded with a perfidious baron, who proved unwilling, or unable, to open the gates of the metropolis. The next fpring, his favourite general, Alexius Strategopulus, whom he had decorated with the title of Cæfar, paffed the Hellefpont with eight hundred horfe and fome infantry 5, on a fecret expedition. His inftructions enjoined him to approach, to liften, to watch, but not to risk any doubtful or dangerous enterprife against the city. The adjacent territory between the Propontis and the Black Sea was cul 58 57 The Greeks, afhamed of any foreign aid, disguise the alliance and fuccour of the Genoefe; but the fact is proved by the teftimony of J. Villani (Chron. 1. vi. c. 71. in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xiii. p. 202, 203.) and William de Nangis (Annales de St. Louis, p. 248. in the Louvre Joinville), two impartial foreigners; and Urban IV. threatened to deprive Genoa of her archbishop. 58 Some precautions must be used in reconciling the discordant numbers; the 800 foldiers of Nicetas, the 25,000 of Spandugino (apud Ducange, l. v. c. 24.); the Greeks and Scythians of Acropolita, and the numerous army of Michael, in the Epistles of Pope Urban IV. (i. 139.). tivated LXI. tivated by an hardy race of peasants and outlaws, CHAP. exercised in arms, uncertain in their allegiance, but inclined by language, religion, and prefent advantage, to the party of the Greeks. They were ftyled the volunteers", and by their free fervice, the army of Alexius, with the regulars of Thrace and the Coman auxiliaries", was augmented to the number of five-and-twenty thoufand men. By the ardour of the volunteers, and by his own ambition, the Cæfar was stimulated to difobey the precife orders of his master, in the juft confidence that fuccefs would plead his pardon and reward. The weaknefs of Conftantinople, and the diftrefs and terror of the Latins, were familiar to the obfervation of the volunteers and they represented the prefent moment as the moft propitious to surprise and conqueft. A rafh youth, the new governor of the Venetian colony, had failed away with thirty gallies, and the best of the French knights, on a wild expedition to Daphnufia, a town on the Black Sea, at the distance of forty leagues; and the remaining Latins were without ftrength or fufpicion. They were informed that Alexius had paffed the Hellefpont; but their apprehenfions were lulled by the fmallnefs of his original numbers; and their imprudence had not watched the subsequent encrease of his army. If he left his main body to fecond 59 μrTapios. They are defcribed and named by Pachymer (1. ii. c. 14.). Go It is needlefs to feek thefe Comans in the deferts of Tartary, or even of Moldavia. A part of the hord had fubmitted to John Váta. ces, and was probably fettled as a nursery of foldiers on fome wafte lands of Thrace (Cantacuzen, 1. i. c. 2.). and |