BALDWIN MARCHES AGAINST MOURZUPHLES

The Emperor Mourzuphles had not yet removed more than four days'
journey from Constantinople; and he had taken with him the empress who
had been the wife of the Emperor Alexius, who aforetime had fled, and
his daughter. This Emperor Alexius was in a city called Messinopolis,
with all his people, and still held a great part of the land. And at
that

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time the men of note in Greece departed, and a large number passed
over the straits towards Turkey; and each one, for his own advantage,
made himself master of such lands as he could lay hands upon; and the
same thing happened also throughout the other parts of the empire.

The Emperor Mourzuphles made no long tarrying before he took a city
which had surrendered to my lord the Emperor Baldwin, a city called
Tchorlu. So he took it and sacked it, and seized whatever he found
there. When the news thereof came to the Emperor Baldwin, he took
counsel with the barons, and with the Doge of Venice, and they agreed
to this, that he should issue forth, with all his host, to make
conquest of the land, and leave a garrison in Constantinople to keep
it sure, seeing that the city had been newly taken and was peopled
with the Greeks.

So did they decide, and the host was called together, and decision
made as to who should remain in Constantinople, and who should go in
the host with the Emperor Baldwin. In Constantinople remained Count
Louis of Blois and Chartres, who had been sick, and was not yet