luntary abdication. At the command of his
abbot, he observed the rule of St. Basil, and executed the most servile
offices of the convent: but his latent vanity was gratified by the
frequent and respectful visits of the reigning monarch, who revered in
his person the character of a benefactor and a saint. If Constantine the
Eleventh were indeed the subject most worthy of empire, we must pity the
debasement of the age and nation in which he was chosen. In the labor
of puerile declamations he sought, without obtaining, the crown of
eloquence, more precious, in his opinion, than that of Rome; and in the
subordinate functions of a judge, he forgot the duties of a sovereign
and a warrior. Far from imitating the patriotic indifference of the
authors of his greatness, Ducas was anxious only to secure, at the
expense of the republic, the power and prosperity of his children. His
three sons, Michael the Seventh, Andronicus the First, and Constantine
the Twelfth, were invested, in a tender age, with the equal title of
Augustus; and the succession was speedily opened by their father's
death. His widow, Eudocia, was intrusted with the administration; but
experience had taught the jealousy of the dying monarch to protect his
sons from the danger of her second nuptials; and her solemn engagement,
attested by the principal senators, was deposited in the hands of the
patriarch. Before the end of seven months, the wants of Eudocia, or
those of the state, called aloud for the male virtues of a soldier; and
her heart had already chosen Romanus Diogenes, whom she raised from
the scaffold to the throne. The discovery of a treasonable attempt had
exposed him to the severity of the laws: his beauty and valor absolved
him in the eyes of the empress; and Romanus, from a mild exile, was
recalled on the second day to the command of the Oriental armies.

Her royal choice was yet unknown to the public; and the promise which
would have betrayed her falsehood and levity, was stolen by a dexterous
emissary from the ambition of the patriarch. Xiphilin at first alleged
the sanctity of oaths, and the sacred nature of a trust; but a whisper,
that his brother was the future emperor, relaxed his scruples, and
forced him to confess that the public safety was the supreme law. He
resigned the important paper; and when his hopes were confounded by the
nomination of Romanus, he could no longer regain his security, retract
his declarations, nor oppose the second nu