The Lady for Ransom by Alfred Duggan

Author:Alfred Duggan [Duggan, Alfred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2012-07-18T23:00:00+00:00

10. Mount Sophon

Because of the sack of Chrysopolis the Caesar feared to lead us within the walls of Nicomedia. But for the moment we were rich, and there were no complaints when we occupied a camp in the foothills of Mount Sophon, overlooking the town. It was a large fortified bailey, where in the old days the Emperors mustered their men for campaigns in Asia; there were excellent entrenchments, and a plentiful water supply; even the latrines, in a special quarter of the camp, emptied into a stone conduit which carried the filth right away to the bottom of the hill. We commanded the main road to Nicomedia, and could ravage its suburbs and farms; so the burgesses, though they disliked us, sent in plentiful supplies. The weather was very hot, for it was now about the Feast of Transfiguration, and for Franks the open-air life was really more enjoyable than being cooped within the walls of a town.

But there was no disguising that we had lost popular support. Romans take these rebellions very lightly; there is nearly always one going somewhere, but the populace do not expect it to affect their lives. Great nobles may wager their eyes to win power, and nobody thinks worse of them; but they are not expected to devastate the countryside during their operations. Our sack of Chrysopolis was a breach of the customs of civil war; now every Roman who was not too firmly committed to the Caesar to draw back saw us as unprincipled barbarians, little better than Turks. My lord grew alarmed for the safety of his family.

The camp was comfortable and strongly fortified, but too large for our numbers to hold against a serious siege. Luckily there was in the neighbourhood a small castle named Metabole; there my lady and her children were installed with a small guard. We had collected a very rich treasure, from Chrysopolis and the estates of the Comneni; this was not to be divided until the end of the campaign, and meanwhile it also was stored in the castle.

The Turks approached slowly, ravaging as they came; but there was no point in marching against them, for they could always outride us if they were unwilling to give battle. We decided to await them where we were. But the Caesar was worried. He had retreated, and that is normally fatal to a pretender. He decided that to hearten his followers he must have himself crowned. A coronation by the Archbishop of Nicomedia lacked the prestige of the real ceremony in Holy Wisdom, but it was better than nothing; on the Feast of the Assumption a rather depressing ceremony took place. I was there, and I enjoyed the singing and the splendour of the vestments; afterwards there was a great breakfast, with plenty of wine; but the whole thing emphasised that our advance against the city had ended in failure. No recruits came in, and the Caesar’s Roman forces grew less every day.

Next morning our camp was in turmoil.

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