The loose women were ordered out
of the camp, and, for better security, were shipped and sent far away.
Confession and communion were enjoined, and, in short, all that the
clergy could do was done to prove that the cause was just, to quiet
the discontented, and to occupy them until the attack next day.
The warriors had in the mean time been industriously repairing their
ships and their machines of war. A slight, but not unimportant, change
of tactics had been suggested by the assault on the 9th. Each
transport had been assigned to a separate tower. The number of men who
could fight from the gangways or platforms thrown out from the tops
had been found insufficient to hold their own against the defenders.
The modified plan was, therefore, to lash together, opposite each
tower to be attacked, two ships, containing gangways to be thrown out
from their tops, and thus concentrate a greater force against each
tower. Probably, also, the line of attack was considerably shorter
than at the first assault.
On Monday morning, the 12th, the assault was renewed. The tent of the
Emperor[43] had been pitched near the monastery of Pantepoptis,[44]
one of many which were in the district of the Petrion, extending along
the Golden Horn from the palace of Blachern, about one-fourth of its
length.
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