twenty years, and being, if we believe his biographers, already close upon ninety years of age. It devolved upon him, therefore, to receive the six ambassadors of the Crusaders. But he had no power to do more than listen to their proposals, entertain them hospitably, and refer them first to the Council of Six, then to the Forty composing the Council of State, and lastly to the legislative assembly of Four hundred and fifty, who were annually chosen in the six quarters of the city. What the Crusaders asked was that they might be allowed to assemble at Venice on the Feast of St. John in the ensuing year; that the Republic should find vessels for the conveyance of 4,500 horses, 9,000 squires, 4,500 knights, and 20,000 foot; that this army should be found in provisions and stores for the period of nine months; that they should be transported in Venetian ships to whatever shore the service of God and Christendom might require; and that the Republic should join them with fifty galleys.
Having announced their request, Villehardouin, who acted as speaker, summed up by declaring that they had received from the barons of France the order to entreat of the Venetians their succour in the enterprise of venging the tomb of the Saviour, to cast themselves at the feet of the Doge, and not to rise until they had obtained a favourable answer, and the Venetians had taken pity on the Holy Land outre mer. Thereupon the deputies, as they had been enjoined, fell upon their knees before Dandolo, with tears in their eyes and outstretched hands. And all the assembly with one accord cried out, "We grant the prayer! We grant the prayer!"
