" Thus was agreement made. Much was it
contested by those who wished that the host should be broken up.
Nevertheless the agreement was accepted and ratified.
THE DOGE AND A NUMBER OF VENETIANS TAKE THE CROSS
Then, on a Sunday, was assemblage held in the church of St. Mark. It
was a very high festival, and the people of the land were there, and
the most part of the barons and pilgrims.
Before the beginning of High Mass, the Doge of Venice, who bore the
name of Henry Dandolo, went up into the reading-desk, and spoke to the
people, and said to them:" Signors, you are associated with the most
worthy people in the world, and for the highest enterprise ever
undertaken; and I am a man old and feeble, who should have need of
rest, and I am sick in body; but I see that no one could command
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and lead,you like myself, who am your lord. If you will consent that I
take the sign of the cross to guard and direct you, and that my son
remain in my place to guard the land, then shall I go to five or die
with you and with the pilgrims."
And when they had heard him, they cried with one voice: "We pray you
by God that you consent, and do it, and that you come with us! "
Very great was then the pity and compassion on the part of the people
of the land and of the pil-rims; and many were the tears shed, because
that worthy 0and good man would have had so much reason to remain
behind, for he was an old man, and albeit his eyes were unclouded, yet
he saw naught, having lost his sight through a wound in the head.
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