prison; and the manner of his death is variously related by ignorance and credulity. The lovers of a tragic legend will be pleased to hear, that the royal captive was tempted by the amorous queen of the Bulgarians; that his chaste refusal exposed him to the falsehood of a woman and the jealousy of a savage; that his hands and feet were severed from his body; that his bleeding trunk was cast among the carcasses of dogs and horses; and that he breathed three days, before he was devoured by the birds of prey. 29 About twenty years afterwards, in a wood of the Netherlands, a hermit announced himself as the true Baldwin, the emperor of Constantinople, and lawful sovereign of Flanders. He related the wonders of his escape, his adventures, and his penance, among a people prone to believe and to rebel; and, in the first transport, Flanders acknowledged her long-lost sovereign. A short examination before the French court detected the impostor, who was punished with an ignominious death; but the Flemings still adhered to the pleasing error; and the countess Jane is accused by the gravest historians of sacrificing to her ambition the life of an unfortunate father. 30 27 (return) [ The truth of geography, and the original text of Villehardouin, (No. 194,) place Rodosto three days’ journey (trois jornées) from Adrianople: but Vigenere, in his version, has most absurdly substituted _trois heures_; and this error, which is not corrected by Ducange has entrapped several moderns, whose names I shall spare.] 28 (return) [ The reign and end of Baldwin are related by Villehardouin and Nicetas, (p. 386—416;) and their omissions are supplied by Ducange in his Observations, and to the end of his first book.] 29 (return) [ After brushing away all doubtful and improbable circumstances, we may prove the death of Baldwin, 1. By the firm belief of the French barons, (Villehardouin, No. 230.) 2. By the declaration of Calo-John himself, who excuses his not releasing the captive emperor, quia debitum carnis exsolverat cum carcere teneretur, (Gesta Innocent III. c. 109.) * Note: Compare Von Raumer. Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, vol. ii. p. 237. Petitot, in his preface to Villehardouin in the Collection des Mémoires, relatifs a l’Histoire de France, tom. i. p. 85, expresses his belief in the first part of the “tragic legend.”—M.] 30 (return) [ See the story of this impostor from the French and Flemish writers in Ducange, Hist. de C. P. iii. 9; and the ridiculous fables that were believed by the monks of St. Alban’s, in Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 271, 272.]