Baldwin of Flanders, was mounting guard over the engines of war before
the gate of Blachernae, together with Matthew of Wallincourt, and
Baldwin of Beauvoir, and their followers. Against their encampment the
Emperor Alexius had made ready a great number of his people, who were
to issue by three gates, while he himself should fall upon the host
from another side.

Then the six divisions issued from our camp as had been

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devised, and were marshalled in ranks before the palisades: the
sergeants and squires on foot behind the horses, and the archers and
crossbowmen in front. And there was a division of the knights on foot,
for we had at least two hundred who, were without horses. Thus they
stood still before the palisades. And this showed great good sense,
for if they had moved to the attack, the numbers of the enemy were
such that they must have been overwhelmed and (as it were) drowned
among them.

It seemed as if the whole plain was covered with troops, and they
advanced slowly and in order. Well might we appear in perilous case,
for we had but six divisions, while the Greeks had full forty, and
there was not one of their divisions but was larger than any of ours.
But ours were ordered in such sort that none could attack them save in
front. And the Emperor Alexius rode so far for-ward that either side
could shoot at the other. And when the Doge of Venice heard this, he
made his people come forth, and leave the towers they had taken, and
said he would live or die with the pilgrims. So he came to the camp,
and was himself the first to land, and brought with him such of his