So they
took messengers, and sent them by sea, telling them to travel night
and day, and to advise those in the city not to be anxious about
them-for they had escaped-and that they would repair back to
Constantinople as soon as they could.
SEVEN THOUSAND PILGRIMS LEAVE THE CRUSADERS
At the time when the messengers arrived, there were in Constantinople
five ships of Venice, very large and very good, laden with pilgrims,
and knights and sergeants, who were leaving the land and returning to
their own countries. There were at least seven thousand men at arms in
the ships, and one was William the advocate of B?thune, and there were
besides Baldwin of Aubigny, and John of Virsin, who be-
99
longed to the land of Count Louis, and was his liegeman, and at least
one hundred other knights, whom the book does not here name. Master
Peter of Capua, who was cardinal from the Pope of Rome, Innocent, and
Conon of B?thune, who commanded in Constantinople, and Miles the
Brabant, and a great number of other men of mark, went to the five
ships, and prayed those who were in them, with sighs and tears, to
have mercy and pity upon Christendom, and upon their liege lords who
had been lost in battle, and to remain for the love of God. But they
would not listen to a single word, and left the port. They spread
their sails, and went their way, as God ordained, in such sort that
the wind took them to the port of Rodosto; and this was on the day
following that on which those who had escaped from the discomfiture
came thither.
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