So
envoys were chosen: one was
46
Matthew of Montmorency, and Geoffry the Marshal of Champagne was the
other, and two Venetians on the part of the Doge of Venice.
The envoys were conducted to the gate, and the gate was opened to
them, and they dismounted from their horses. The Greeks had set
Englishmen and Danes, with their axes, at the gate and right up to the
palace of Blachernae. Thus were the envoys conducted to the great
palace. There they found the Emperor Isaac, so richly clad that you
would seek in vain throughout the world for a man more richly
apparelled than he, and by his side the empress, his wife, a most fair
lady, the sister of the King of Hungary; and of great men and great
ladies there were so many, that you could not St' ir foot for the
press, and the ladies were so richly adomed that richer adornment
might not be. And all those who, the day before, had been against the
emperor were, on that day, subject in everything to his good pleasure.
THE EMPEROR ISAAC RATIFIES THE COVENANTS ENTERED INTO BY HIS SON
The envoys came before the Emperor Isaac, and the emperor and all
those about him did them great honour. And the envoys said that they
desired to speak to him privily, ,on the part of his son, and of the
barons of the host. And he rose and entered into a chamber, and took
with him only the empress, and his chancellor, and his dragoman
(interpreter) and the four envoys.
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