When the ransom had been settled, the three French and Burgundian envoys
who had been treating with Bayezid, embarked for Lesbos, escorted by
Francesco and Nicolò and accompanied by one of the ransomed prisoners,
who took with him to Burgundy a natural son of Francesco, destined to
become the grandfather of Giuliano Gattilusio, the terrible corsair
of the next century[547]. The rest of the prisoners followed early in
July, and remained for six weeks the guests of Francesco and his lady,
a noble dame of gentle breeding and European accomplishments, acquired
at the court of Marie de Bourbon, titular Empress of Constantinople and
Princess of Achaia, in whose society she had been educated. Feeling
herself highly honoured at the presence of the Comte de Nevers and his
companions in the castle of Lesbos, she clothed them with fine linen and
cloth of Damascus, according to the fashion of the Levant, not forgetting
to replenish the wardrobe of their retainers, while her husband and his
uncle rendered them every honour and assisted them in their necessity.
The visit terminated in the middle of August, when two galleys, equipped
by the Knights of Rhodes, transported them to that island, their next
stage on the homeward voyage. Their generous host stood on the shore
till the Rhodian galleys had sunk beneath the horizon[548]. A few hours
earlier he had obtained the signature of a treaty which might confer a
solid advantage upon his own family and give an illusory hope of future
glory to his departing guests. His daughter Eugenia had just married John
Palaiologos, Despot of Selymbria, the Emperor Manuel II’s nephew and
rival. Through the agency of Francesco this potentate ceded his claims to
the Empire to King Charles VI of France in return for a French castle and
a perpetual annuity of 25,000 gold ducats[549]. Thus in Lesbos, on the
morrow of Nikopolis, the French could dream of re-establishing the long
extinct Latin Empire of Romania!