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THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
everywhere except in Dalmatia. Ancona had been relieved. The Serbians had been driven back. Their own fleet had been shattered. They accordingly sued once more for peace. Manuel, who was being hard pressed by the Turks, was, on his side, willing to make terms. He agreed to restore the republic to its privileges as they existed in 1171, and to pay fifteen hundred pounds' weight of gold as compensation for the Venetian property which he had seized. It is doubtful whether any considerable portion of this sum was ever paid. Certain buildings in Constantinople were delivered to the Venetians in 1189, probably in part payment.
Relations between Venice and Constantinople. As the century closed, the relations of the republic with Constantinople appeared to have improved. In 1198 an alliance was concluded by two envoys, sent for that purpose by Henry Dandolo, now become doge, and was followed by an imperial bull promising an indemnity to the Venetians, and binding them on their side not to assist Alexis, the son of the deposed Emperor Isaac. The old soreness, however, still remained. The jealousy of the favors heaped on the Pisans, the non-payment of the indemnity for the property seized in 1171, and, above all, perhaps, the bitterness of Dandolo, which had increased with his age, all tended to make Venice hostile. She had, indeed, recovered the territory which had been taken from her by the empire, and her citizens had now as many commercial privileges as were possessed by the subjects of the empire themselves. She recognized, however, that she held these privileges on a precarious tenure, and that the empire no longer cared to give to the republic exclusive rights; and the recollection of these facts and of her grievances, joined with the knowledge of her own strength and of the imperial weakness, combined to make her hostile. The very closeness of the alliance which had existed between the empire and Venice had weakened the former where she had the most need of strength. Constantinople had had such powerful opponents against her in the east, the north, and the southwest, that most of her attention had been concentrated on her armies. She had never altogether neglected her fleet, as the Venetians themselves had learned