ABSTRACT
ON the following Sunday which was the 28th of October the Emperor [Manuel] sent for us the Ambassadors, and we passed over [the Golden Horn] from Pera to Constantinople in a boat. On landing we found many officers awaiting us, and horses for our accommodation to carry us up to the Palace [of the Blachernæ].1 Here on arrival we learnt that the Emperor with his attendants had just come from hearing Mass, who forthwith received us very graciously in his private chamber. The Emperor was seated on a raised dais, carpeted with small rugs, on one of which was spread a brown lion skin and at the back was a cushion of black stuff embroidered in gold. After conversing for some considerable time with us, the Emperor at length dismissed us, and we returned to our lodgings, whither later on his Highness sent us a stag, which his huntsmen had just brought in to the palace. With the Emperor at our audience had been present the Empress [Irene] his wife, with three young princes his sons [namely John Theodore and Andronicus],2 the eldest of whom may have been eight years old. On the Monday following the Emperor sent to us some gentlemen of his household, and these brought an answer to the various questions concerning matters on which we had spoken with him at our audience.
