Memoirs | Page 4

wheresoever we may be, for a year, reckoning from the day on
which we sail from the port of Venice in the service of God and of
Christendom. Now the sum total of the expenses above named amounts
to 85,000 marks.

"And this will we do moreover. For the love of God, we will add to the
fleet fifty armed galleys on condition that, so long as we act in
company, of all conquests in land or money, whether at sea or on dry
ground, we shall have the half, and you the other half. Now consult
together to see if you, on your parts, can accept and fulfil these
covenants."
7
The envoys then departed, and said that they would consult together
and give their answer on the morrow. They consulted, and talked
together that night, and agreed to accept the terms offered. So the next
day they appeared before the Doge, and said: " Sire, we are ready to
ratify this covenant." The Doge thereon said he would speak of the
matter to his people, and, as he found them affected, so would he let the
envoys know the issue.
On the morning of the third day, the Doge, who was very wise and
valiant, assembled his great council, and the council was of forty men
of the wisest that were in the land. And the Doge, by his wisdom and
wit, that were very clear and very good, brought them to agreement and
approval. Thus he wrought with them; and then with a hundred others,
then two hundred, then a thousand, so that at last all consented and
approved. Then he assembled well ten thousand of the people in the
church of St. Mark, the most beautiful church that there is, and bade
them hear a mass of the Holy Ghost, and pray to God for counsel on the
request and messages that had been addressed to them. And the people
did so right willingly.
CONCLUSION OF THE TREATY, AND RETURN OF THE
ENVOYS
When mass had been said, the Doge desired the envoys to humbly ask
the people to assent to the proposed covenant. The envoys came into
the church. Curiously were they looked upon by many who had not
before had sight of them.
Geoffry of Villehardouin, the Marshal of Champagne, by will and
consent of the other envoys, acted as spokesman and said unto them: "
Lords, the barons of France, most high and puissant, have sent us to
you; and they cry to you for mercy, that you take pity on Jerusalem,
which is in bondage to the Turks, and that, for God's sake, you help to
avenge the shame of Christ Jesus. And for this end they have elected to

come to you, because they know full well that there is none other
people having so great power on the seas, as you and your people. And
they commanded us to fall at your feet, and not to rise till you consent
to take pity on the Holy Land which is beyond the seas."
8
Then the six envoys knelt at the feet of the people, weeping many tears.
And the Doge and all the others burst into tears of pity and compassion,
and cried with one voice, and lifted up their hands, saying: " We
consent, we consent I " Then was there so great a noise and tumult that
it seemed as if the earth itself were falling to pieces.
And when this great tumult and passion of pity - greater did never any
man see-were appeased, the good Doge of Venice, who was very wise
and valiant, went up into the reading-desk, and spoke to the people, and
said to them: "Signors, behold the honour that God has done you; for
the best people in the world have set aside all other people, and chosen
you to join them in so high an enterprise as the deliverance of our Lord!
All the good and beautiful words that the Doge then spoke, I cannot
repeat to you. But the end of the matter was, that the covenants were to
be made on the following day; and made they were, and devised
accordingly. When they were concluded, it was notified to the council
that we should go to Babylon (Cairo), because the Turks could better
be destroyed in Babylon than in any other land; but to the folk at large
it was only told that we were bound to go overseass. We were then in
Lent (March 1201), and by St. john's Day, in the following year-which
would be twelve hundred and two years after the Incarnation of Jesus
Christ-the barons and pilgrims were to be in Venice, and the ships
ready against their coming.
When the treaties were duly indited and sealed,