So a council was held, and many words were spoken this way and that,
but in the end it was settled that Adrianople and Demotica, with all
their appurtenances, should be bestowed on Vernas and the empress his
wife, who was sister to the King Philip of France, and that they
should do service therefor to the emperor and to the empire. Such was
the convention made and concluded, and so was peace established
between the Greeks and the Franks.
Johanizza, the King of Wallachia and Bulgaria, who had sojourned long
in Roumania, and wasted the country during the whole of Lent, and for
a good while after Easter (2nd April 1206), now retired towards
Adrianople and Demotica, and had it in mind to deal with those cities
as he had dealt with the other cities of the land. And when the Greeks
who were with him saw that he turned towards Adrianople, they began to
steal away, both by day and by night, some twenty, thirty, forty, a
hundred, at a time.
When he came to Adrianople, he required of those that were within that
they should let him enter, as he had entered elsewhere. But they said
they would not, and spoke thus: "Sire, when we surrendered to thee,
and rebelled against the
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Franks, thou didst swear to protect us in all good faith, and to keep
us in safety. Thou hast not done so, but hast utterly ruined Roumania;
and we know full well that thou wilt do unto us as thou hast done unto
others.
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