Many of the pilgrims had only left home between Easter and Whitsuntide, 1202. The ordinary road taken was over the Mont Cenis and through Lombardy to Venice.

Meantime a fleet had left Flanders for the Mediterranean Non-arrival with a great number of Crusaders. The leaders of able number" detachment had sworn to Baldwin that they saderesven would join the division coming from Venice at the ice' first convenient place after hearing of its wliereabouts. Baldwin and the other leaders of the crusade who had already arrived at Venice soon learned with dismay that many pilgrims had gone by other routes to other ports, and that thus it would be impossible to provide the number for whose passage the delegates had undertaken to pay the Venetians. Those present were unable to raise the amount agreed upon. They did their best, by sending messengers here and there, to persuade the pilgrims to come to Venice, and to point ont to them that Venice was the only port from which they could start with a fair prospect of success. Villehardouin was himself sent on such an expedition, and succeeded in persuading Count Louis with a great number of knights and men-at-arms to come to Venice from Padua, where they had been encountered.

Others were also brought in to Venice; but a considerable number had already left by other routes before they could be overtaken. Never, says Villehardouin Visit Bulgaria, has a finer army collected than that which was at length gathered at St. Nieolo di Lido, the island where the Crusaders were lodged by the Venetians. No man had seen a finer fleet than the Venetians had prepared. The only fault to be found with it was that it could take an army three times as large as that which had assembled. The Venetians had kept their part of the bargain. "What a misfortune," exclaims the marshal, "that so large a portion of the Crusaders had sought other ports! Had they come to Venice the Turks would have been put down ; Christendom would have been exalted."

The Venetians, having done their part, now asked for pay Hient of the passage money according to the terms able to pay. This, however, could not be raised. Many pilgrims had come without money ; others were already sick of the enterprise, and, according to Villehardouin, hoped that the money would not be found. Baldwin of Flanders, Earl Louis, and the Marquis and the Earl of St. Paul did their utmost, by borrowing, to raise the amount promised. But when all was done, when many a beautiful vessel of silver and of gold had been taken to the doge's palace, when two collections had been made, 34,000 marks out of the 85,000 stipulated for were still wanting.

So far we are on safe ground. All contemporary accounts agree that the contract with the Venetians was broken; that a large amount was wanting to complete the sum agreed upon to be paid as freight; and that, even after every effort had been made to raise this sum, about 35,000 marks still remained due. From this time forward we are upon doubtful ground, official and The authorities upon whom we have to rely differ versions of widely.

Geoffrey of Ville the crusade

The account given by Geoffrey of Ville the crusade. hardollin, Marshal of Champagne, may be taken as the type of what has been aptly called the official versions of the expedition, and of these it ranks undoubtedly the first. Besides these versions, the labors of a number of historians, from Du Cange in the seventeenth century down to Count Biant, who has ransacked, and is ransacking, the libraries of Europe in search of evidence relating to the fourth crnsade, have brought a large amount of evidence to light which may be conveniently classed as that of the unofficial versions.

The official version of what passed in Venice is that which has been generally received by modern historians until our own time. Villehardouin states in few words that the doge, when it had become clear that the Crusaders could not pay the stipulated sum, proposed that they should agree to assist the Venetians in recapturing Zara, in Dalmatia, from the King of Hungary ; that the Crusaders were divided as to whether this proposition should be accepted; that those who were tired of the enterprise opposed, hut that the majority accepted it.

Villehardouin and followed by others

So far the official account given by Villehardouin and followed by others. The diversion of the enterprise was due solely, according to these writers, to the simple fact that the Crusaders could not pay 34,000 marks. Villehardouin, whose history of the crusade is much longer than that of any other contemporary writer, skips over, in a few short paragraphs, the events which happened between the arrival in June and the alliance to attack Zara. The transaction was, according to him, the simplest possible.

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