ABSTRACT
At night a certain Pudilus, a Vlach nobleman, came in and reported that the Comans were crossing the Danube, so the Emperor judged it wise to assemble the leading men among his relations and officers at dawn of day and consult on the steps to be taken. In this manner then like a good pilot the Emperor had breasted the successive assaults of the waves and washed from himself much worldly brine, and arranged church matters satisfactorily, and after that he was carried on to fresh seas of wars and disturbances. And verily this trouble was an addition to the Emperor's misfortunes, just as if Fate were adding tragic play about this wretched fellow for the Emperor. The Emperor paid not the slightest heed to this talk. But as this gutter-snipe did not cease talking this nonsense in streets and by-ways, it came to the ears of Theodora, the Emperor Alexius' sister, and wife of that dead son of Diogenes.
