And be it known to you, that any one must perforce
pass that chain before he could enter into the port. Well did our
barons then perceive that if they did not take the tower, and break
the chain, they were but as dead men, and in very evil case. So they
lodged that night before the tower, and in the Jewry that is called
Stenon, where there was a good city, and very rich.
Well did they keep guard during the night; and on the morrow, at the
hour of tierce, those who were in the tower of Galata made a sortie,
and those who were in Constantinople came to their help in barges; and
our people ran to arms. There came first to the onset James of Avesnes
and his men on foot; and be it known to you that he was fiercely
charged, and wounded by a lance in the face, and in peril of death.
And one of his knights, whose name was Nicholas of Jenlain, gat to
horse, and came to his lord's rescue, and succoured him right well,
and so won great honour.
Then a cry was raised in the host, and our people ran together from
all sides, and drove back the foe with great fury, so that many were
slain and taken. And some of them did not go back to the tower, but
ran to the barges by which they had come, and there many were drowned,
and some escaped.
39
As to those who went back to the tower, the men of our host pressed
them so hard that they could not shut the gate. Then a terrible fight
began again at the gate, and our people took it by force, and made
prisoners of all those in the tower.
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