to have been, and no doubt was expected to have been. One wonders how much of this money ever reached Western Europe.
As for the people, the sacking and the plunder once over, they went on with their usual work. The misfortunes of the city fell chiefly on the rich; there was some comfort in witnessing the impoverishment of those who had fattened on their leanness. They were always poor; their poverty was not likely to be much worse under the Latins than it had been under their own chiefs; if a man has nothing he can lose nothing. Nor was their indignation at the insults offered to their religion much greater than their indignation at the national disgraces. These insults affected the clergy, and between clergy and people a great gulf had gradually grown up, widening year by year.
The conquest of Constantinople meant nothing less than the overthrow of the old Roman Empire of the East; for although the Latins remained in possession for no more than sixty years, when the Greeks came back, the old things were either gone, or survived but as a shadow of what they had been. There comes a time in the history of old monarchies when things which are but shadows, such as court ceremonies, court titles, court dignities, seem like things real and substantial; but when they go they can never be revived. A shadow may seem to be real, seen in certain lights; but when its shadowy character has been apprehended, it can never again, in any light, appear to be what it is not. All the antiquated forms, the empty ceremonials, which had surrounded the
