The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 06: (From Barbarossa to Dante)
Dante Alighieri · en
The leaders of both crusaders and Venetians withdrew their forces to
the Galata side. The assault had failed, and it became necessary at
once to determine upon their next step. The same evening a parliament
was hastily called together. Some advised that the next attack should
be made on the walls on the Marmora side, which were not so strong as
those facing the Golden Horn. The Venetians, however, immediately took
an exception, which everyone who knew Constantinople would at once
recognize as unanswerable. On that side the current is always much too
strong to allow vessels to be anchored with any amount of steadiness
or even safety. There were some present who would have been very well
content that the current or a wind--no matter what--should have
dispersed the vessels, provided that they themselves could have left
the country and have gone on their way.
It was at length decided that the two following days, the 10th and
11th, should be devoted to repairing their damages, and that a second
assault should be delivered on the 12th. The previous day was a
Sunday, and Boniface and Dandolo made use of it to appease the
discontent in the rank and file of the army. The bishops and abbots
were set to work to preach against the Greeks. They urged that the war
was just; that the Greeks had been disobedient to Rome, and had
perversely been guilty of schism in refusing to recognize the
supremacy of the Pope, and that Innocent himself desired the union of
the two churches. They saw in the defeat the vengeance of God on
account of the sins of the crusaders. The loose women were ordered out
of the camp, and, for better security, were shipped and sent far away.
Confession and communion were enjoined, and, in short, all that the
clergy could do was done to prove that the cause was just, to quiet
the discontented, and to occupy them until the attack next day.
The warriors had in the mean time been industriously repairing their
ships and their machines of war. A slight, but not unimportant, change
of tactics had been suggested by the assault on the 9th. Each
transport had been assigned to a separate tower. The number of men who
could fight from the gangways or platforms thrown out from the tops
had been found insufficient to hold their own against the defenders.
The modified plan was, therefore, to lash together, opposite each
tower to be attacked, two ships, containing gangways to be thrown out
from their tops, and thus concentrate a greater force against each
tower. Probably, also, the line of attack was considerably shorter
than at the first assault.