throw off, little by little, the bonds which connected her with Byzantium. At this time she was stronger than before or after, though not so rich as she was destined to become. She had almost a monopoly of the great Eastern trade; she commanded an enormous fleet; she kept up commercial relations with Constantinople; she had never acquired the slavish deference to the popes which characterized the Western nations; and her government, absolutely unique, partook in no degree of the feudal system of the West or the despotism of the East. In all her transactions she studiously regarded her own interests and nothing else. She let the ambitious and aggressive Westerns struggle for the sovereignty, content if she could establish her trading stations in safety. She regarded with a sort of contempt the blind enthusiasm of French and English for holy cities, in which she only saw so many emporiums and depots for her wares.
At this time their Doge was the great Henry Dandolo, who is said to have been a hundred years of age at the time of his death, five years later, in 1205. We need not accept this statement as literally true. It is, however, beyond a doubt that he was extremely old, and possessed of extraordinary vigour. Thirty years before he had been deprived of sight by the Emperor Manuel Comnenus. A misfortune which would have deprived most men of desire to take any further part in politics only stimulated his ambition. He learned to see with others' eyes, and to fight with others' hands. In A.D. 1192 he was elected Doge, having then been blind for
