ABSTRACT
W e took leave of Sir Ticino Zaccaria and departed from the island of Thasos with the Lord Infante. And the Lord Infante had the best galley after his own, which was called La Espanyola, given up to me. And with his four galleys and m y armed leny and a barge of mine, we set our course for the port of Almyros, which is in the Duchy of Athens, where the Lord Infante had left four
men to make biscuits ; but the people of the country had plundered all. But, if they did plunder, a fine revenge we took for it ; for all that was there we gave up to fire and flame. Then we departed from Almyros and we went to the island of Spoil1 and there we attacked the castle and devastated all the island, and then we went to the island of Negroponte. And the Lord Infante said he wished to pass through the city of Negroponte, but we all told him on no account to do so. And it is true that he had passed through it on entering Romania, and he and the Company were feasted ; and he thought they would do the same now. And so, in spite of us all, he persisted that we should go. And so, in an evil hour, we took that direction and, with our eyes open, put the rope round our necks. Wherefore it is very perilous to go with the young sons of kings ; they are of such high birth that they think no one would, on any account, do them harm. And, assuredly, so it ought to be, if there were knowledge in the world, but the world is so ignorant that, in few things, does it perform its full duty towards anyone. And then, also, they are lords whom no one dares to oppose in anything they wish to undertake. Wherefore it happened to us that we had to consent to our own destruction, and we went to the city of Negro ponte. And so we found that ten Venetian armed galleys and an armed leny had arrived, of which En Juan Teri and En Marco Miyot were captains, and they were sailing for micer Charles of France2 who claimed the Empire of Constantinople, and they were in search of the Company. And there was there, on the side of micer Charles, a French rich hom called micer Thibaut de Chépoi. And so the Lord Infante made them give safe-conducts to
him and all his company. And the lords of Negroponte gave us safe-conducts and so did the captains of the galleys, and they invited the Lord Infante to a banquet. And when he was on shore, the Venetian galleys came against ours, and especially against mine, for there was a rumour that I was bringing the greatest treasures of the world from Romania, and, at the assault they made, they killed over forty men, and they would have killed me if I had been there, but I did not depart one step from the side of the Lord Infante. And so they plundered m y galley and all there was there, which was a great deal,1 and then they took the Lord Infante and ten of the best men who were with him. And when they had done this treacherous deed, micer Thibaut de Chépoi delivered over the Lord Infante to micer Juan de Misi, lord of a third of Negroponte, in order that he should take him to the Duke of Athens, for the Duke to guard him for micer Charles and do what micer Charles would command. And so they took him with eight knights and four squires to the city of Thebes and he had him put into the castle called Saint Omer,8 and had him closely guarded.
