up in successful revolt,
the Bulgarians, accompanied by a savage band of fourteen thousand
Comans, invaded the country, mad for pillage and revenge.

The position was one of extreme peril. Baldwin sent messengers to his
brother, ordering him to return in all haste, and then made such hasty
preparations as were possible, and sallied forth to the siege of
Adrianople. Had he waited for Henry's return, all might have gone well
with him, but he would not wait. It was the rule of the crusaders
never to refuse battle, whatever the odds, a rule to which their
greatest victories as well as their greatest disasters were chiefly
due. What Godfrey did before Ascalon, Baldwin was ready to do before
Adrianople. He had with him no more than a hundred and forty knights,
with three trains of archers and men-at-arms--say two thousand men in
all. The gallant Villehardouin, Marshal of Romania, who was destined
to survive this day and write its story, led the vanguard.

The main body, with whom was Baldwin, was commanded by the Count of
Blois; the rear was brought up by old Dandolo. The slender ranks of
the little army were continually being recruited by the accession of
the fugitive remains of the garrisons. On the way to Adrianople they
met the light cavalry of the Comans. Orders were given not to pursue
these light horsemen, who fought after the manner of the Parthians. In
a solid phalanx the western knights were able to face any odds, but
scattered and dispersed they would fall beneath the weight of numbers.

The order insisted on by Dandolo, who knew this kind of enemy, was
broken by no others than the Emperor himself and the Count of Blois.
The Comans, as usual, fled at the first charge of the heavily armed
knights, who spurred after them, regardless of the order, and led by
the Emperor. When they had ridden a mile or so, when their horses were
breathed, then the Comans closed in upon the little band of knights,
and the unequal contest began of a hundred and forty against fourteen
thousand. Some few struggled out of the _melee_ and found their way
back to the rest of the army. Most fell upon the field. Among these
was the Count of Blois. A few were taken prisoners, among whom was the
Emperor. No one ever knew his fate. The wildest stories were told of
this unfortunate Prince. His hands and feet, it was said, were cut
off, and he was exposed, mutilated, to the wild animals; he was
beheaded; he enacted the part of Joseph--Potiphar's w