Mourtzouphlos had drawn up his troops before his tents, but they were unused to contend with men in heavy armor, and after a fairly obstinate resistance the imperial troops fled. The emperor, says Nicetas who is certainly not inclined to unduly praise the emperor, who had deprived him of his post of Grand Logothete—did his best to rally his troops, but all in vain, and he had to retreat towards the palace of the Lion's Mouth. The number of the wounded and dead was " sans fin et sans mesure."

An indiscriminate slaughter commenced. The invaders spared neither age nor The third sex. order to render themselves safe they set fire fire* to the city lying to the east of them, and burned e very- thing between the monastery of Everyetis and the quarter known as Droungarios. So extensive was the fire, which burned all night and until the next evening, that, according to the marshal, more houses were destroyed than there were in the three largest cities of France. The tents of the emperor and the imperial palace of Blachern were pillaged, the conquerors making their headquarters on the same site at Pantepoptis.

It was evening, and already late, when the Crusaders had entered the city, and it was impossible for them to continue their work of destruction through the night. They therefore encamped near the walls and towers which they had captured. Baldwin of Flanders spent the night in the vermilion tent of the emperor, his brother Henry in front of the palace of Blachern, Boniface, the Marquis of Montferrat, on the other side of the imperial tents in the heart of the city.

The city was already taken. The inhabitants were at length The city cat awakened out of the dream of security into which rued seventeen unsuccessful attempts to capture the New Nome had lulled them. Every charm, pagan and Christian, had been without avail.

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