246

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap. Manuel Palaeologus, the second son, was tempt*lxyhi e( j rev j s it hj s na tive country: his return mightbe grateful, and could not be dangerous, to theporte: he was maintained at Constantinople insafety and ease; and an honourable train ofChristians and Moslems attended him to thegrave. If there be some animals of so gener-ous a nature that they refuse to propagate in adomestic state, the last of the imperial race mustbe ascribed to an inferior kind; he acceptedfrom the sultan’s liberality two beautiful females;and his surviving son was lost in the habit andreligion of a Turkish slave.

uIrorof d The importance of Constantinople was felt andEurope , magnified in its loss: the pontificate of Nicholas

A. D 1153. , °, , , „ ;

the fifth, however peaceful and prosperous, wasdishonoured by the fall of the Eastern empire:and the grief and terror of the Latius revived,or seemed to revive, the old enthusiasm of thecrusades. In one of the most distant countriesof the West, Philip duke of Burgundy entertain-ed, at Lisle in Flanders, an assembly of his no-bles; and the pompous pageants of the feastwere skilfully adapted to their fancy and feel-ings .' 1 In the midst of the banquet, a giganticSaracen entered the hall, leading a fictitiouselephant with a castle on his back; a matron ina mourning robe, the symbol of religion, was seen

navigation, eighteen days journey from Valona to Constantinople , &c.On this occasion the Turkish empire was saved by the policy ofVenice.

* See the original feast in Oliver de la Marche (Memoirts, p. i, c. 2s>30), with the abstract and Observations of M. de Ste Palaye (Me-moires sur la Clicvalerie, tom. i, p. iii, p. 182-185). The peacock andthe pheasant were distinguished as royal birds.