On the morning of the 9th the ships, drawn up in the order described, passed over from the north to the south side of the harbor.  The crusaders landed in many places, and attacked from a narrow strip of the land between the walls and the water.  Then the assault began in terrible earnest along the whole line.  Amid the din of the imperial trumpets and drums the attackers endeavored to undermine the walls, while others kept up a continual rain of arrows, bolts, and stones.  The ships had been covered with blanks and skins so as to defend them from the stones and from the famous Greek fire, and, thus protected, pushed boldly up to the walls.  The transports soon advanced to the front, and were able to get so near the walls that the attacking parties on the gangways or platforms, flung out once more from the ships’ tops, were able to cross lances with the defenders of the walls and towers.

The attack took place at upward of a hundred points until noon, or, according to Nicetas,[41] until evening.  Both parties fought well.  The invaders were repulsed.  Those who had landed were driven back, and amid the shower of stones were unable to remain on shore.  The invaders lost more than the defenders.  Before night a portion of the vessels had retired out of range of the mangonels,[42] while another portion remained at anchor and continued to keep up a continual fire against those on the walls.  The first day’s attack had failed.

The leaders of both crusaders and Venetians withdrew their forces to the Galata side.  The assault had failed, and it became necessary at once to determine upon their next step.  The same evening a parliament was hastily called together.  Some advised that the next attack should be made on the walls on the Marmora side, which were not so strong as those facing the Golden Horn.  The Venetians, however, immediately took an exception, which everyone who knew Constantinople would at once recognize as unanswerable.  On that side the current is always much too strong to allow vessels to be anchored with any amount of steadiness or even safety.  There were some present who would have been very well content that the current or a wind—­no matter what—­should have dispersed the vessels, provided that they themselves could have left the country and have gone on their way.

It was at length decided that the two following days, the 10th and 11th, should be devoted to repairing their damages, and that a second assault should be delivered on the 12th.  The previous day was a Sunday, and Boniface and Dandolo made use of it to appease the discontent in the rank and file of the army.  The bishops and abbots were set to work to preach against the Greeks.  They urged that the war was just; that the Greeks had been disobedient to Rome, and had perversely been guilty of schism in refusing to recognize the supremacy of the Pope, and that Innocent himself desired the union of the two churches.  They saw in the defeat the vengeance of God on account of the sins of the crusaders.  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.