300 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. chartered for a year, and half of that is already past." * Their duty was clear; they had not left home for plunder but for pilgrimage, and upon pilgrimage they would go. The same author gives the reply of the party of Philip : " What shall we do in Babylon or in Alexandria, when we have no provisions or means of getting them ? Surely it is better to take the raisnauvle acoison to obtain meat and means for our journey than to go there and die of hunger." The bishops were asked whether it would be a sin to go to Constantinople, and, as they were on the side of the marquis, replied that it would not, because, as they had the lawful heir, they could help him to conquer his own and to be avenged of his ene- mies.^ ISTothing was said at Corfu of the union of the church- es. This pretext had only been put forward so long as it was hoped that the pope might be won over. The malcontents, however, united together, and decided to leave the army and join Count Gautier de Brienne, who then held Brindisi. Yillehardouin mentions by name twelve great chiefs who joined the popular party, and he asserts that there were many others who had secretly agreed to join them, and that they had with them more than half the army.^ The mal- contents had formed a parliament of their own, had separated from their brethren, and occupied a valley at some distance from the rest of the army. Their cry was ^'Ire Accaron^^ * a cry which probably indicates that the leaders of the dissen- tients recognized that with their diminished numbers it might be safer to go to Syria than to Egypt. The danger was great. There was every appearance that the expedition would be broken up. The Marquis of Mont- ferrat and the barons who were in his counsels were greatly troubled. " If," said the marquis, " these men leave us, after those who have already gone on many occasions, our army will be ruined and we can conquer nothing. Let us go to
- Robert do Clari, xxxiii. ^ Ibid, xxxiii. and xxxix.
' Villehardouin, xxiv.
- " Inter nos fuit magna dissensio et ingcns tumultus : omnes enim clama-
bant Ire Accaron."— '^Epist. H. S. Pauli," Tafel and Thomas, i. 304..
