ptured him in a pitched battle, had him put to death. He also
mounted the throne only to be cast down from it. His brother Alexius
deposed him, and to incapacitate him from reigning, put out his eyes, and
shut him up in a dungeon. Neither was Alexius III. allowed to remain in
peaceable possession of the throne; the son of the unhappy Isaac, whose
name also was Alexius, fled from Constantinople, and hearing that the
Crusaders had undertaken the siege of Zara, made them the most magnificent
offers if they would afterwards aid him in deposing his uncle. His offers
were, that if by their means he was re-established in his father's
dominions, he would place the Greek Church under the authority of the Pope
of Rome, lend the whole force of the Greek empire to the conquest of
Palestine, and distribute two hundred thousand marks of silver among the
crusading army. The offer was accepted, with a proviso on the part of some
of the leaders, that they should be free to abandon the design, if it met
with the disapproval of the pope. But this was not to be feared. The
submission of the schismatic Greeks to the See of Rome was a greater bribe
to the Pontiff than the utter annihilation of the Saracen power in
Palestine would have been.

The Crusaders were soon in movement for the imperial city. Their
operations were skilfully and courageously directed, and spread such
dismay as to paralyse the efforts of the usurper to retain possession of
his throne. After a vain resistance, he abandoned the city to its fate,
and fled no one knew whither. The aged and blind Isaac was taken from his
dungeon by his subjects, and placed upon the throne ere the Crusaders were
apprised of the flight of his rival. His son Alexius IV. was afterwards
associated with him in the sovereignty.

But the conditions of the treaty gave offence to the Grecian people, whose
prelates refused to place themselves under the dominion of the See of
Rome. Alexius at first endeavoured to persuade his subjects to admission,
and prayed the Crusaders to remain in Constantinople until they had
fortified him in the possession of a throne which was yet far from secure.
He soon became unpopular with his subjects; and breaking faith with regard
to the subsidies, he offended the Crusaders. War was at length declared
upon him by both parties; by his people for his tyranny, and by his former
friends for his treachery. He was seized in his palace by his own guards
and thrown into prison, w