But Thierri of Loos heard of it, for Mourzuphles' flight was revealed
to him, and he took Mourzuphles and brought him to the Emperor Baldwin
at Constantinople,. And the Emperor Baldwin rejoiced thereat, and took
counsel with his men what he should do with a man who had been guilty
of such a murder upon his lord.
And the council agreed to this: There was in Constantinople, towards
the middle of the city, a column, one of the highest and the most
finely wrought in marble that eye had ever seen; and Mourzuphles
should be taken to the top of that column and made to leap down, in
the sight of all the people, because it was fit that an act of justice
so notable should be seen of the whole world. So they led the Emperor
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Mourzuphles to the column, and took him to the top, and all the people
in the city ran together to behold the event. Then they cast him down,
and he fell from such a height that when he came to the earth he was
all shattered and broken.
Now hear of a great marvel! On that column from which he fell were
images of divers kinds, wrought in the marble. And among these images
was one, worked in the shape of an emperor, falling headlong; for of a
long time it had been prophesied that from that column an emperor of
Constantinople should be cast down. So did the semblance and the
prophecy come true.
It came to pass, at this time also, that the Marquis Boniface of
Montferrat, who was near Salonika, took prisoner the Emperor
Alexius-the same who had put out the eyes of the Emperor Isaac-and the
empress his wife with him.
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