volume one

446 HISTORY or the crusades.
IseTO of the Greeks, having been warned by soothsayers
that he would be dethroned by one of his subjects, who bore
the name of Isaac, desired to get rid of Isaac Angelus, and
sent one of his officers to conduct him to prison. Isaac,
animated by despair, instead of obeying, threw himself upon
tlie minister of Andronicus, struck liim to the earth, and
running into the pubhc streets, cried out : " J have killed
the devil! I have killed the devil!'' Upon the report of
this event spreading through the city, the people assembled
in crowds and proclaimed Isaac emperor. In vain Andronicus
endeavoured to quiet the storm ; he was seized by his ovntl
soldiers, and loaded with chains. Dragged through the
streets by an infuriated multitude, he underwent in one day
more torments than he had inflicted upon his enemies during
all his reign, and Constantinople beheld a populace a hundred
times more barbarous than all her tyrants.
It was amidst these bloody and disgusting scenes that
Isaac was clothed with the imperial purple. He did not
possess the savage character of Andronicus, but he was
entirely incapable of defending the empire against its ene-
mies. Instead of raising armies, he gathered together in
his palace a troop of monks, who kept up his sense of security
by their prayers, and turned his attention from the
cares and duties of state by their visions and prophecies.
The mutual hatred of the Greeks and Latins had increased
under his reign and that of Andronicus. The Latins who
inhabited Constantinople were driven from the city, their
houses were given up to the flames, and a great number of
them were put to death. They who escaped the carnage
took refuge in the vessels and galleys, and made sanguinary
reprisals on the islands and shores of the Hellespont, The
monks who surrounded Isaac partook of the blind hatred %
entertained by the people for the Christians of the AYest,
and dreaded their vensreance. Thev adnsed the successor
of Andronicus to mistrust the emperor of Germany, and to
betm}' him if he could not conquer him.
Faithful to their counsels, Isaac promised to entertaru the
Germans in his states, and at the same time formed an
alliance ^^-ith Saladin. He sent orders to liis governors to
harass the Crusaders, and even to attack them by open force.
These imprudent hostilities exposed the weakness of the