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302 DESTRUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIEE design, and they promised, and faithfully kept their promise, to defend the city until the end of the war. 1 But although ultimately these various differences were sufficiently overcome to prevent any considerable number of men withdrawing from the defence of the city, discord always smouldered and occasionally burst into flame, Leonard men- tions an incident which illustrates the bitterness of feeling which existed between the leaders respectively of Latins and Greeks. In the very last days of the siege, when a general attack was daily expected, Justiniani asked from Notaras the Grand Duke, who was the noble highest in rank, that such cannon as the city possessed should be given to him for use in the Lycus valley. The demand was haughtily refused. ' You traitor ! ' said Justiniani ; ' why should I not cut you down ? ' The quarrel went no further, but Notaras is said to have been less zealous in his work for the defence of the city. The Greeks, according to Leonard, resented the insult and became sullen at the treatment of the Grand Duke, because they believed that the glory of saving the city would be gained by the Latins alone. 2 On the day preceding the final assault the old jealousy again showed itself. Barbaro relates that he and the other Venetians made ' mantles ' — some kind of wooden contrivance for giving cover to the soldiers on the wall. They were made at the Plateia, possibly near the end of the present Inner Bridge. The Venetian bailey gave orders to the Greeks to carry them to the landward walls. The Greeks refused unless they were paid. Ultimately the difficulty of payment was got over, but when the mantles reached the wall it was already night ; and thus, says Barbaro, on account of the greediness of the Greeks we had to stand at the defence without them. 3 The dissensions were further increased by discord be- tween the Italian colonists themselves. We have already seen that the emperor had been compelled to intervene to prevent dangerous recriminations between the Venetians and the Genoese. The former affected to despise the Genoese, 1 Leonard, p. 92. 2 Ibid. p. 95. 3 Barbaro, under May 28.