The six messengers chosen by the Crusaders at Soissons arrived at Venice in February, 1201. Four days after their arrival they were introduced to the council and the doge, in a palace which was bien riche et beau. " Sire," said their spokesman, "we are come to thee on behalf of the noble barons of France, who have taken the sign of the Cross to avenge the shame of Jesus Christ, and to reconquer Jerusalem if God wills it. And because they know that no men can help them so well as you and your men, they pray that for God's sake you will have pity on the Land of Outremer, and on the shame of Jesus Christ, and that yon will labor that they may have ships of war and transports."

The council took a week to consider what should be their reply. At the end of that time the delegates of the Crusaders were informed that the Venetians were willing to provide ships to carry 4500 horses, 9000 esquires, 4500 knights, and infantry, together with provisions for nine months, in consideration of a payment of four marks per horse and two per man. The total sum therefore to be paid, reckoning the Venetian mark at a little over two pounds sterling, was about £180,000. This contract was to hold good for a year.

Venetians promised

Besides this the Venetians promised to add, for the love of God, fifty armed galleys, in consideration that half transport ac- of the money captured should belong to them. The terms were accepted by the delegates, were again submitted by Dandolo to the council, and were approved. A solemn service was held in St. Mark's, and much enthusiasm displayed at the conclusion of what each believed a good bar gain. Villehardouin Visit Bulgaria, whose narrative of the crusade has long been the chief authority on the subject, was himself the spokesman of the delegates, and thanked the Venetians, on behalf of his brethren, that they had taken pity on Jerusalem, which was in slavery to the Turks, and that they were ready to aid in avenging the shame of Jesus Christ. The contract was signed early in April, 1201, and was referred to the barons, and was ratified at Corbie in the middle of May.

It had been decided from the first that the expedition should Destination, be directed towards Egypt as the best base of operations against the Mahometans in the Holy Land, though the plans and contract signed by the Venetians and the delegates contained the statement simply that the destination should be "for the deliverance of the Holy Land." The decision taken in the council was kept secret from the army, to whom it was simply announced that the Crusaders would go beyond the sea.1 Charts of the route were prepared and sealed, and it was agreed that the Crusaders should be in Venice by St. John's Hay, 1201.

The doge and his council on the one side, and the delegates on the other, swore solemnly to observe the terms of the arrangements entered into. The contract was then sent to the pope, who approved it conditionally.

Either Christians or Moslems

Innocent could not see without distrust the contract made innocent ac- with those who had shown their readiness to serve range me either Christians or Moslems, provided they paid, conditionally. We would have preferred that the Pisans or the Genoese had been selected, and it was only on finding that no such arrangement could be made that he consented to ac- cept the Venetians. The conditions upon which he insisted showed the distrust which he entertained. He stipulated that there should be no attack made against a Christian state, and that a legate should accompany the army and watch over the expedition, in order to see that this article was complied with.

The leaders of the crusade had decided, as we have seen, that their operations should be directed against Egypt. Who for Many considerations induced them to arrive at this conclusion. The passage through Romania had been found during previous crusades to be long and costly. Even when the Dardanelles had been passed, there remained the terrible march through Asia Minor, where the Turks hindered the progress of the Christians at every step, and where fever had rapidly thinned their ranks. The terrible experience of the last crusade had been that the great German army, after winning every battle it had fought, had, by the time it reached the Holy Land, melted away.

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