Among people whose political education

Amid the follies of the empress and her lover, it was natural that the inhabitants of the capital should turn their thoughts to this adventurer. His very vices had been those which, among a people whose political education is but slightly advanced, help to make a prince popular. lie was believed to be fearless and resolute. He was known ostentatiously to despise luxury. He disregarded the ordinary pleasures of the table, was sober and abstemious. His rule could hardly be expected to be worse than that of a child emperor and his foolish, if not profligate, mother. His foolhardiness and hie wild adventures were regarded as the faults of youth, which by this time had probably passed away.

As soon as Andronicos heard of the divisions in the court he saw that his chance was come. Apparently on his last submission he had taken the oath which he had refused on a former occasion. The terms of this oath bound him to oppose with all his power anything which tended to the dishonor or was against the interest of the emperor.

He was careful to keep the letter of his oath and scrounge intrigueslously anxious to seem to regard it, but he was also for the throne. crafty enough to avail himself of its terms to compass his own purpose. He wrote to the young emperor, to the patriarch, and to others in authority, that, in honor of the memory of Manuel, he wished to put an end to the open profligacy of the court and to get rid of the protosebastos. Nicetas says that as his letters were full of quotations from St. Paul, and gave the impression that he was sincere, they produced a very marked effect, and caused many to believe that he was anxious mainly for the salvation of the state and the welfare of the young prince.

Journey to Constantinople

On his journey to Constantinople he everywhere made the same professions, and was in consequence welcomed by the people, was received with imperial honors, and increased the number of his followers. Pew were found to resist the patriotic professions of one who seemed to burn with zeal for the public weal, and who professed to have no other design than that of setting the child emperor free. His first check was at Nicsea, a city which is about seventy miles from the capital.