And then more relics were found and disposed of. There was the baby
linen of our Lord; there was the lance which pierced his side; there
was the sponge with which they gave him to drink; there was the chain
with which his hands had been fettered: all these things, priceless,
inestimable, wonder-working, Baldwin sent to Paris in exchange for
marks of silver. And then there were relics of less holiness, but
still commanding the respect and adoration of Christians; these also
were hunted up and sent. Among them were the rod of Moses, and a
portion--alas! a portion only--of the skull of John the Baptist.
Thirty or forty thousand marks for all these treasures! And it seems
but a poor result of the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins that
all which came of it was the transferrence of relics from the East to
the West--nothing else. Such order as the later Greek emperors had
preserved, changed into anarchy and misrule; such commerce as
naturally flowed from Asia into the Golden Horn, diverted and lost; a
strange religion imposed upon an unwilling people; the break-up of the
old Roman forms; the destruction by fire of a third of the city; the
disappearance of the ancient Byzantine families; the ruin of the
wealthy, the depression of the middle classes; the impoverishment of
the already poor; the decay and loss of learning: these were the
things which the craft and subtlety of Dandolo, working on the Franks'
lust of conquest, had brought about for the proud city of the East.

But the end was drawing daily nearer. Vatatces of Nicæa died. He was
succeeded by his son Theodore, on whose death the crown of Nicæa
devolved upon an infant. The child was speedily, though not
immediately, openly dethroned by the regent, Michael Palæologus. When
at length the imperial title was assumed by the latter, Baldwin
thought it advisable to attempt negotiations with him. His ambassadors
were received with open contumely; Michael would give the Latins