des or Tacitus, I
will praise his narrative, (l. i. c. 13--32, l. ii. c. 1--9,) which
pursues the ascent of Palaeologus with eloquence, perspicuity, and
tolerable freedom. Acropolita is more cautious, and Gregoras more
concise.]

[Footnote 15: The judicial combat was abolished by St. Louis in his own
territories; and his example and authority were at length prevalent in
France, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxviii. c. 29.)]

[Footnote 16: In civil cases Henry II. gave an option to the defendant:
Glanville prefers the proof by evidence; and that by judicial combat
is reprobated in the Fleta. Yet the trial by battle has never been
abrogated in the English law, and it was ordered by the judges as late
as the beginning of the last century. * Note : And even demanded in
the present.--M.]

[Footnote 17: Yet an ingenious friend has urged to me in mitigation
of this practice, 1. _That_ in nations emerging from barbarism, it
moderates the license of private war and arbitrary revenge. 2. _That_ it
is less absurd than the trials by the ordeal, or boiling water, or the
cross, which it has contributed to abolish. 3. _That_ it served at least
as a test of personal courage; a quality so seldom united with a
base disposition, that the danger of a trial might be some check to a
malicious prosecutor, and a useful barrier against injustice supported
by power. The gallant and unfortunate earl of Surrey might probably have
escaped his unmerited fate, had not his demand of the combat against his
accuser been overruled.]

It was in the second year of his reign, while he resided in the palace
and gardens of Nymphaeum, [18] near Smyrna, that the first messenger
arrived at the dead of night; and the stupendous intelligence was
imparted to Michael, after he had been gently waked by the tender
precaution of his sister Eulogia. The man was unknown or obscure; he
produced no letters from the victorious Caesar; nor could it easily
be credited, after the defeat of Vataces and the recent failure of
Palaeologus himself, that the capital had been surprised by a detachment
of eight hundred soldiers. As a hostage, the doubtful author was
confined, with the assurance of death or an ample recompense; and the
court was left some hours in the anxiety of hope and fear, till the
messengers of Alexius arrived with the authentic intelligence, and
displayed the trophies of the conquest, the sword and sceptre, [19] the
buskins and bonnet, [20] of the usurper Baldwin, wh