256 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Meantime the leader of the expedition, the Marquis Boni- face of Montferrat, who had left Venice during Julj, returned to the city. Probably the treaty with the Venetians was con- cluded in the middle of August. The cardinal again pro- tested, and, having committed the German pilgrims to the care of Bishop Conrad and the Abbot Martin, the latter of whom had avoided Venice when he learned the proposal of the doge, left for Kome. The cardinal, however, seems to The cardinal havo vacillated. He protested, but yielded. When yields. ^^q found that the Venetians would not give way unless the Crusaders would go to Zara, he seems, according to Gunther, to have considered it more venial and less inex- pedient to accept the Zara proposal than to allow the expe- dition to be abandoned.' He, therefore, insisted on the promise that the Venetians would not only transport the army to Alexandria after the Zara expedition, but would themselves join in the crusade. The author of the Halberstadt MS. confirms the version of the cardinal's conduct. The cardinal, in reply to Bishop Conrad, declared that the pope would rather the terms of the Venetians were accepted than the expedition should be aban- doned. He advised Conrad to bear with the insolence of the Venetians, and appointed him, together with four Cistercian abbots, to go with the army to represent the pope. In the same way Abbot Martin was advised by the cardinal to re- main with the army. Gunther says that when the abbot saw that the expedition would necessitate the shedding of Christian blood, he was at a loss what to do. He begged the cardinal to absolve him from his vow and to allow him to retire to the quiet of his cloister. The cardinal, however, flatly refused, and ordered him, in the pope's name, to take charge of the German pilgrims. He was further enjoined by the cardinal to go with the army wdierever it went, and to use his influence, with that of the other religious leaders, to prevent all attacks upon Christians and their territory. On Sunday, the 25th of August there was an imposing ^ Gunther.
