he crews were
allowed to depart. This is an improbable story, and that of the Genoese
ballad seems more like truth. Doria, it says, held a council of his
captains in the evening at which they all voted for attack, whilst the
Venetians, with that overweening sense of superiority which at this time
is reflected in their own annals as distinctly as in those of their
enemies, kept scout-vessels out to watch that the Genoese fleet, which
they looked on as already their own, did not steal away in the darkness. A
vain imagination, says the poet:--

"Blind error of vainglorious men
To dream that we should seek to flee
After those weary leagues of sea
Crossed, but to hunt them in their den!"[18]

[Sidenote: The Venetians defeated, and Marco Polo a prisoner.]

35. The battle began early on Sunday and lasted till the afternoon. The
Venetians had the wind in their favour, but the morning sun in their eyes.
They made the attack, and with great impetuosity, capturing ten Genoese
galleys; but they pressed on too wildly, and some of their vessels ran
aground. One of their galleys too, being taken, was cleared of her crew
and turned against the Venetians. These incidents caused confusion among
the assailants; the Genoese, who had begun to give way, took fresh heart,
formed a close column, and advanced boldly through the Venetian line,
already in disorder. The sun had begun to decline when there appeared on
the Venetian flank the fifteen or sixteen missing galleys of Doria's
fleet, and fell upon it with fresh force. This decided the action. The
Genoese gained a complete victory, capturing all but a few of the Venetian
galleys, and including the flagship with Dandolo. The Genoese themselves
lost heavily, especially in the early part of the action, and Lamba
Doria's eldest son Octavian is said to have fallen on board his father's
vessel.[19] The number of prisoners taken was over 7000, and among these
was Marco Polo.[20]

[Illustration: Marco Polo's Galley going into action at Curzola.

"il sembloit que la galie volast, par les nageurs qui la contreingnoient
aux avirons, et sembloit que foudre cheist des ciex, au bruit que les
pennoncians menoient, et que les nacaues les tabours et les cors
sarrazinnois menoient, qui estoient en sa galie"

(_Joinville_, vide _ante_, p. 40)]

[Illustration: Scene of the Battle of Curzola.]

The prisoners, even of the highest rank, appear to have been chained.
Dandolo, in despair at