ATTACKS FROM SICILY. 141 would lead us to believe. Hatred of rich foreigners and favorites; hostility to those who had been alternately threat- ening and coaxing them to betray their religion, by acknowl- edging the supremacy of the Bishop of the Elder Komc, led to savage and brutal outrages. The Latins expected or feared an attack as soon as they learned that the protosebastos had been captured. Some knew, says AVilliam of Tyre, that there was a plot. But it is unnecessary to assume the existence of any organized scheme for plunder. They belonged to a de- feated party, at a time when " the spoils to the victors " was the universally recognized rule. Most tried to escape from the capital. A band of Latins seized forty -four galleys which they found in the harbor, while another took ])os- session of ships, of which there were a great number in the Golden Horn, and fled. The sick, the aged, and those who did not believe that a massacre was likely, remained behind. Of these some fought in the defence of their property, but were soon overpowered. Four thousand of both sexes, says William of Tyre, were sold by the Greeks to the Turks and to other infidel peoples.' Few were spared. Women and children fell victims to an indiscriminate and reckless fury. The forces of Andronicos joined the mob and took part in a general pillage of the Latin quarter. The priests were struck down in the churches which Manuel had allowed them to build. The sick in the hospital of St. John were dragged from their beds or were burned in the building. The Latin quarters, after being pillaged, were destroyed. Cardinal John, who had been sent to negotiate for the union of the churches, was beheaded. His head was tied to a dog's tail and sent spinning about the streets. The reports of the Western writers are doubtless exaggerated, but it is evident that the massacre was an insensate outbreak of mob violence, and caused a great amount of just anger in Italy and Sicily, and it was natural that the countrymen of the sufferers should be ready to avenge their death. 1 William of Tyre, xxii. c. 12, 1083, " Recueil," vol. ii. ; and East. c. 28- 30, ed. Migne.
