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.Truly it seems that if you will not do as they order, they will setthemselves against you."Very many big words were then spoken; but, in the end, the council agreed that the emperor had no wish tolose the friendship of the Doge of Venice, and Count Louis, and the others who were in Constantinople; andthe emperor replied to the envoys: " I will not promise to refer the quarrel to those who sent you, but I will goto Constantinople without doing aught to injure the marquis." So the Emperor Baldwin journeyed day by daytill he came to Constantinople, and the barons, and the other people, went to meet him, and received him astheir lord with great honour.RECONCILIATION OF BALDWIN AND BONIFACEOn the fourth day the emperor knew clearly that he had been ill-advised to quarrel with the marquis, and thenthe Doge of Venice and Count Louis came to speak to him and said: "Sire, we would pray you to refer thismatter to us, as the marquis has done." And the emperor said he would do so right willingly.Then wereenvoys chosen to fetch the marquis, and bring him thither.Of them envoys one was Gervais of Chatel, and thesecond Renier of Trit, and Geoffry, Marshal of Champagne the third, and the Doge of Venice sent two of hispeople.BALDWIN'S REPLY TO THE MESSAGE OF THE CRUSADERS 47 Villehardouin: Memoirs or Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of ConstantinopleThe envoys rode day by day till they came to Demotica, and they found the marquis with the empress hiswife, and a great number of right worthy people, and they told him how they had come to fetch him.Then didGeoffry the Marshal desire him to come to Constantinople, as he had promised, and make peace in such wiseas might be settled by those in whose hands he had remitted his cause; and they promised him safe conduct, asalso to those who might go with him.The marquis took counsel with his men.Some there were who agreed that he should go, and some whoadvised that he should not go.But the end of the debate was such that he went with the envoys toConstantinople, and took full a hundred knights with him; and they rode day by day till they came toConstantinople.Very gladly were they received in the city; and Count Louis of Blois and Chartres, and theDoge of Venice went out to meet the marquis, together with many other right worthy people, for he was muchloved in the host.Then was a parliament assembled, and the covenants were rehearsed between the Emperor Baldwin and theMarquis Boniface; and Salonika was restored to Boniface, with the land, he placing Demotica, which he hadseized, in the hands of Geoffry the Marshal of Champagne, who undertook to keep it till he heard, byaccredited messenger, or letters duly sealed, that the marquis was seized of Salonika, when he would giveback Demotica to the emperor, or to whomsoever the emperor might appoint.Thus was peace made betweenthe emperor and the marquis, as you have heard.And great was the joy thereof throughout the host, for out ofthis quarrel might very great evil have arisen.THE KINGDOM OF SALONIKA IS RESTORED TO BONIFACE DIVISIONOF THE LAND BETWEEN THE CRUSADERSThe marquis then took leave, and went towards Salonika with his people, and with his wife; and with himrode the envoys of the emperor; and as they went from castle to castle, each, with all its lordship, was restoredto the marquis on the part of the emperor.So they came to Salonika, and those who held the place for theemperor surrendered it.Now the governor, whom the emperor had left there, and whose name was Renier ofMons, had died; he was a man most worthy, and his death a great mischance.Then the land and country began to surrender to the marquis, and a great part thereof to come under his rule.But a Greek, a man of great rank, whose name was Leon Sgure, would in no wise come under the rule of themarquis, for he had seized Corinth and Napoli, two cities that lie upon the sea, and are among the strongestcities under heaven.He then refused to surrender, but began to make war against the marquis, and a very greatmany of the Greeks held with him.And another Greek, whose name was Michael, and who had come with themarquis from Constantinople, and was thought by the marquis to be his friend, he departed, without any wordsaid, and went to a city called Arthe (? Durazzo) and took to wife the daughter of a rich Greek, who held theland from the emperor, and seized the land, and began to make war on the marquis.Now the land from Constantinople to Salonika was quiet and at peace, for the ways were so safe that all couldcome and go at their pleasure, and from the one city to the other there were full twelve long days' journey.And so much time had now passed that we were at the beginning of September (1204)
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