no necessity to detract from what was clearly as gallant a fight as was ever fought, but heroic proportions which are credible and possible are more likely to be accepted than those which belong only to a giant. Nor was his success limited to the rout of the army, for the citizens, encouraged by their flight, attacked the ships, and succeeded in dragging five and twenty of them within the port. It would appear that the Bulgarians renewed their attempt in the following year, and were again defeated by the old emperor. It would have been well for the Latins had his age been less. He died in the year 1237, and young Baldwin, who was married to his daughter Martha, became sole emperor. John de Brienne made so great a name, that he was compared with Ajax, Odin the Dane, Hector, Roland, and Judas Maccabæus. Baldwin, who came after him, might have been compared with any of those kinglings who succeeded Charlemagne, and sat in their palaces while the empire fell to pieces.
His incapacity is proved, if by nothing else, by his singular and uniform ill-luck. If after the fight of life is over, no single valiant blow can be remembered, the record is a sorry one indeed. Baldwin's difficulties were, it must be owned, very great: they were so great, that for a considerable portion of the four and twenty years during which he wore the Roman purple his crown was left him by sufferance. And his manner of reigning was to travel about Europe begging for money. The pope proclaimed a Crusade for him, but it was extremely difficult to awaken general enthusiasm for a Courtenay in danger of being overthrown by a Lascaris; and the
