In the first consternation of the flying enemy, they resolved, by a double attack, to open the entrance of the harbor.

The tower of Galata, [62] in the suburb of Pera, was attacked and stormed by the French, while the Venetians assumed the more difficult task of forcing the boom or chain that was stretched from that tower to the Byzantine shore.

After some fruitless attempts, their intrepid perseverance prevailed: twenty ships of war, the relics of the Grecian navy, were either sunk or taken: the enormous and massy links of iron were cut asunder by the shears, or broken by the weight, of the galleys; [63] and the Venetian fleet, safe and triumphant, rode at anchor in the port of Constantinople.

By these daring achievements, a remnant of twenty thousand Latins solicited the license of besieging a capital which contained above four hundred thousand inhabitants, [64] able, though not willing, to bear arms in defence of their country.

Such an account would indeed suppose a population of near two millions; but whatever abatement may be required in the numbers of the Greeks, the _belief_ of those numbers will equally exalt the fearless spirit of their assailants.
[Footnote 60: From the version of Vignere I adopt the well-sounding word _palander_, which is still used, I believe, in the Mediterranean.
But had I written in French, I should have preserved the original and expressive denomination of _vessiers_ or _huissiers_, from the _huis_ or door which was let down as a draw-bridge; but which, at sea, was closed into the side of the ship, (see Ducange au Villehardouin, No.