It is clearly
stated by several independent chroniclers, and is carefully established in
the Ballad that we have quoted above.[31] We shall see repeatedly in the
course of this Book how uncertain are the transcriptions of dates in Roman
numerals, and in the present case the LXXXXVI is as certainly a mistake
for LXXXXIV as is Boniface VI. in the same quotation a mistake for
Boniface VIII.
But though we cannot accept the statement that Polo was taken prisoner at
Ayas, in the spring of 1294, we may accept the passage as evidence from
a contemporary source that he was taken prisoner in some sea-fight with
the Genoese, and thus admit it in corroboration of the Ramusian Tradition
of his capture in a sea-fight at Curzola in 1298, which is perfectly
consistent with all other facts in our possession.
[1] In this part of these notices I am repeatedly indebted to Heyd.
(See supra, p. 9.)
[2] On or close to the Hill called Monjoie; see the plan from Marino
Sanudo at p. 18.
[3] "Throughout that year there were not less than 40 machines all at work
upon the city of Acre, battering its houses and its towers, and
smashing and overthrowing everything within their range. There were at
least ten of those engines that shot stones so big and heavy that they
weighed a good 1500 lbs. by the weight of Champagne; insomuch that
nearly all the towers and forts of Acre were destroyed, and only the
religious houses were left. And there were slain in this same war good
20,000 men on the two sides, but chiefly of Genoese and Spaniards."
(Lettre de Jean Pierre Sarrasin, in Michel's Joinville, p. 308.)
[4] The origin of these columns is, however, somewhat uncertain.
[See Cicogna, I. p. 379.]
[5] In 1262, when a Venetian squadron was taken by the Greek fleet in
alliance with the Genoese, the whole of the survivors of the captive
crews were blinded by order of Palaeologus. (Roman. ii. 272.)
[6] See pp. 16, 41, and Plan of Ayas at beginning of Bk. I.
[7] See Archivio Storico Italiano, Appendice, tom. iv.
[8] Niente ne resta a prender
Se no li corpi de li legni:
Preixi som senza difender;
De bruxar som tute degni!
* * * *
Como li fom aproximai
Queli si levan lantor
Como leon descaenai
Tuti criando "Alor! Alor!"
This Alor! Alor! ("Up, Boys, and at 'em"), or something similar,
appears to have been the usual war-cry of both parties. So a
trumpet-like poem of the Troubadour warrior Bertram de Born, whom
Dante found in such evil plight below (xxviii. 118 seqq.), in which he
sings with extraordinary spirit the joys of war: -
"Le us die que tan no m'a sabor
Manjars, ni beure, ni dormir,
Cum a quant ang cridar, ALOR!
D'ambas la partz; et aug agnir
Cavals voits per l'ombratge...."
"I tell you a zest far before
Aught of slumber, or drink, or of food,
I snatch when the shouts of ALOR
Ring from both sides: and out of the wood
Comes the neighing of steeds dimly seen...."
In a galley fight at Tyre in 1258, according to a Latin narrative, the
Genoese shout "Ad arma, ad arma! ad ipsos, ad ipsos!" The cry of the
Venetians before engaging the Greeks is represented by Martino da
Canale, in his old French, as "or a yaus! or a yaus!" that of the
Genoese on another occasion as Aur! Aur! and this last is the shout
of the Catalans also in Ramon de Muntaner. (Villemain, Litt. du Moyen
Age, i. 99; Archiv. Stor. Ital. viii. 364, 506; Pertz, Script.
xviii. 239; Muntaner, 269, 287.) Recently in a Sicilian newspaper,
narrating an act of gallant and successful reprisal (only too rare) by
country folk on a body of the brigands who are such a scourge to parts
of the island, I read that the honest men in charging the villains
raised a shout of "Ad iddi! Ad iddi!"
[9] A phrase curiously identical, with a similar sequence, is attributed
to an Austrian General at the battle of Skalitz in 1866. (Stoffel's
Letters.)
[10] E no me posso aregordar
Dalcuno romanzo vertade
Donde oyse uncha cointar
Alcun triumfo si sobre!
[11] Stella in Muratori, xvii. 984.
[12] Dandulo, Ibid. xii. 404-405.
[13] Or entram con gran vigor,
En De sperando aver triumpho,
Queli zerchando inter lo Gorfo
Chi menazeram zercha lor!
And in the next verse note the pure Scotch use of the word bra: -
Siche da Otranto se partim
Quella bra compagnia,
Per assar in Ihavonia,
D'Avosto a vinte nove di.
[14] The island of Curzola now counts about 4000 inhabitants; the town
half the number. It was probably reckoned a dependency of Venice at
this time. The King of Hungary had renounced his claims on the
Dalmatian coasts by treaty in 1244. (Romanin, ii. 235.) The gallant
defence of the place against the Algerines in 1571 won for Curzola
from the Venetian Senate the honourable title in all documents of
fedelissima. (Paton's Adriatic, I. 47.)
[15] Ma se si gran colmo avea
Perche andava mendigando
Per terra de Lombardia
Peccunia, gente a sodi?
Pone mente tu che l'odi
Se noi tegnamo questa via?
No, ma piu! ajamo omi nostrar
Destri, valenti, e avisti,
Che mai par de lor n' o visti
In tuti officj de mar.
[16] In July 1294, a Council of Thirty decreed that galleys should be
equipped by the richest families in proportion to their wealth. Among
the families held to equip one galley each, or one galley among two or
more, in this list, is the CA' POLO. But this was before the return of
the travellers from the East, and just after the battle of Ayas.
(Romanin, ii. 332; this author misdates Ayas, however.) When a levy
was required in Venice for any expedition the heads of each contrada
divided the male inhabitants, between the ages of twenty and sixty,
into groups of twelve each, called duodene.
