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He did not recover from those common and frequent tortures. But that captive showed the same foresight towards Synadene as well, who had been inhumanly tortured to the point of death and thrown naked into that prison. For all of them, the charge was their former goodwill towards the emperor Kantakouzenos and knowing where his hidden money was, which they were being forced to reveal. 2.299 Nor, indeed, did they refrain from torturing the more noble people so inhumanly. For having hung up by ropes Asanina, the wife of Michael Asan, the first of the sons of the despot Asan, they flogged her for a considerable time, accusing her of being privy to letters sent from Kantakouzenos to Byzantium for the corruption of certain people, which they ordered her to reveal to them. These, then, are a few things said out of many, on account of which the leading men of the cities throughout the land of the Romans came to such a state of fear that they did not even trust their closest associates, fearing betrayal. And a certain incident of this sort frightened them even more. For the prisoners who were in the palace of Constantine the Great, since the days of the fasts had come and it was necessary to commit their affairs to a spiritual father and make a confession of their sins, since it was not permitted for them to bring in those whom they trusted, they asked the authorities to allow whomever they themselves might wish to enter. But they, having dressed a certain man named Glykas, a vile person occupied with drunkenness and some other rather unseemly things, in the robes of a monk and having put on him the so-called great habit, sent him to the prisoners, as if he were a spiritual father; and they ordered him to search out the thoughts of the men, what they were thinking concerning Kantakouzenos and if they knew any others who had chosen the same side as them. And he, having gladly undertaken the pretense for the sake of profit and having come to the prisoners, 2.300 asked each one privately for a confession of their sins and what they intended to do concerning the emperor Kantakouzenos. But they, suspecting not what was the case, but that he was truly a spiritual father, but adhered to the faction of the patriarch and the megas doux Apokaukos, out of fear refrained entirely from confessing even their sins. But that impostor, since he gained nothing from his wickedness, went out from there, took off the garments he had put on for a wicked purpose, and wearing secular clothing, went about again doing his usual things. And this drama greatly frightened everyone and persuaded all to distrust alike. The empress was aware of none of these things which they were doing, but everything was managed mostly at the command of the megas doux Apokaukos, and after him, by the other conspirators. And the patriarch, during that period of the fasts, on the Great Friday that was at hand, on which my Christ was seized by the Jews, himself handed over many who had fled for refuge to the church of the Wisdom of God because of the right of asylum, and being arrested they were led to prisons and endured many and harsh things. Because of all these things, when it was reported that at that time the emperor Kantakouzenos, having been left alone by his own people, was coming to the holy mountain in order to take up the monastic habit, all ran on foot past the sanctuary of the Hodegetria to offer thanks for his downfall. 2.301 51. But the emperor Kantakouzenos, when he returned from Pherai and came to Edessa, which the Kral was besieging with his army encamped around it, found the town had gone over to him, after he had corrupted those within with money. And reminding him of the oaths and the treaties with him, in which it had been written that if he should subdue any city of the Roman subjects, even in the emperor's absence, either by arms or by any other means, he was to give it back to the emperor, he asked for the town. And the Kral readily granted it, saying that he would do all that he had promised and would fight as an ally with arms and money and with all his power. But the emperor at that time, seeing it was unprofitable for him to remain at the town, for all his haste was about the return to Didymoteichon, and being unable to leave a respectable garrison from his own men, since they were few

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οὐ τῆς τυχούσης καὶ τῶν πολλῶν ἐκείνων ἀνεκτήσατο αἰκισμῶν. τὴν ὁμοίαν δὲ ὁ δοριάλωτος ἐκεῖνος πρόνοιαν καὶ πρὸς Συναδηνὴν ἐπεδείξατο, ἀπανθρώπως κἀκείνην αἰκισθεῖσαν ἐγγὺς θανάτου καὶ γυμνὴν εἰς ἐκεῖνο τὸ δεσμωτήριον ἀποῤῥιφεῖσαν. πᾶσι δὲ ἦν ἔγκλημα ἡ περὶ βασιλέα τὸν Καντακουζηνὸν προτέρα εὔνοια καὶ τὸ χρή 2.299 ματα ἐκείνου κρυπτόμενα εἰδέναι, ἃ ἠναγκάζοντο φανεροῦν. οὐ 2.299 μὴν οὐδὲ τῶν εὐγενεστέρων ἀπείχοντο οὕτως αἰκίζειν ἀπανθρώπως. Ἀσανίναν γὰρ τὴν Ἀσάνη τοῦ Μιχαὴλ γαμετὴν τοῦ πρώτου τῶν Ἀσάνη τοῦ δεσπότου υἱῶν σχοινίοις αἰωρήσαντες, ἐμάστιξαν ἐφ' ἱκανὸν, ἐπικαλοῦντες, ὡς συνειδείη εἰς Βυζάντιον παρὰ Καντακουζηνοῦ ἐπὶ διαφθορᾷ τινων γράμματα ἀφιγμένα, ἃ ἐκέλευον δῆλα καὶ αὐτοῖς ποιεῖν. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐκ πολλῶν ὀλίγα εἴρηται, δι' ἃ εἰς τοσοῦτον ἦλθον φόβου οἱ ἁπανταχοῦ τῆς Ῥωμαίων γῆς ἄριστοι τῶν πόλεων, ὡς μηδὲ τοῖς οἰκειοτάτοις ἄγαν θαῤῥεῖν τὴν προδοσίαν δεδοικότες. συμβὰν δέ τι καὶ τοιοῦτον μᾶλλον ἐξεφόβησεν. οἱ γὰρ ἐν Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ μεγάλου τοῖς βασιλείοις ὄντες δεσμῶται, ἐπεὶ τῶν νηστειῶν παρῆσαν αἱ ἡμέραι καὶ ἔδει ἀναθέσθαι τὰ κατ' αὐτοὺς ἀνδρὶ πνευματικῷ καὶ ἐξομολόγησιν ποιήσασθαι τῶν πεπλημμελημένων, ἐπεὶ μὴ ἐξῆν αὐτοῖς εἰσάγειν οἷς ἐθάῤῥουν, ᾐτοῦντο παρὰ τῶν ἀρχόντων εἰσελθεῖν, ὃν ἂν βούλοιντο αὐτοί. οἱ δέ τινα Γλύκαν ὄνομα, φαῦλον ἄνθρωπον καὶ περὶ μέθας ἠσχολημένον καὶ ἕτερα ἀτοπώτερά τινα, ἱμάτια μοναχῶν ἐνδύσαντες καὶ τὸ λεγόμενον μέγα σχῆμα περιθέντες, προσέπεμπον τοῖς δεσμώταις, οἷα πνευματικόν· ἐκέλευόν τε τοὺς λογισμοὺς τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἀνερευνᾷν, ὅ,τι περὶ Καντακουζηνοῦ διανοοῦνται καὶ εἰ συνίσασί τινας καὶ ἄλλους τὰ αὐτὰ ἐκείνοις ᾑρημένους. ὁ δὲ τὴν ὑπόκρισιν κέρδους ἕνεκα ὑπελθὼν ἡδέως καὶ γενόμενος 2.300 πρὸς τοὺς δεσμώτας, μετὰ τῶν πλημμελημάτων τὴν ἐξομολόγησιν ἠρώτα ἕκαστον ἰδίᾳ καὶ περὶ Καντακουζηνοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως ὅ,τι διανοοῦνται πράττειν. ἐκεῖνοι δὲ ὑποπτεύσαντες, οὐχ ὅπερ ἦν, ἀλλὰ πνευματικὸν μὲν εἶναι ἀληθῶς, τῷ μέρει δὲ προσέχειν τῆς περὶ πατριάρχην καὶ Ἀπόκαυκον τὸν μέγαν δοῦκα φατρίας, δείσαντες ἀπέσχοντο παντάπασι τοῦ καὶ τὰ πεπλημμελημένα ἐξομολογεῖσθαι. ὁ ἐμπαίκτης δὲ ἐκεῖνος ἐπεὶ μηδὲν ἀπώνατο τῆς πονηρίας, ἐκεῖθεν ἐξελθὼν, ἅ τε κακῶς ἐνέδυ ἀπεδύσατο ἐνδύματα, καὶ κοσμικὴν ἔχων ἐσθῆτα, τὰ συνήθη πάλιν περιῄει δρῶν. τὸ δρᾶμα δὲ τοῦτο λίαν πάντας ἐξεφόβησε καὶ πᾶσιν ἔπεισεν ὁμοίως ἀπιστεῖν. τούτων δὲ ἡ βασιλὶς οὐδὲν τοῖς πράττουσι συνῄδει, ἀλλὰ πάντα διῳκεῖτο μάλιστα μὲν Ἀποκαύκου τοῦ μεγάλου ἐπιτάττοντος δουκὸς, μετ' ἐκεῖνον δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν συνωμοτῶν. πατριάρχης δὲ κατ' ἐκείνην τὴν περίοδον τῶν νηστειῶν, τῆς μεγάλης ἐνεστηκυίας παρασκευῆς, ἐν ᾗ ὁ ἐμὸς Χριστὸς ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων συνελαμβάνετο, αὐτὸς πολλοὺς τοὺς τῷ νεῷ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ Σοφίας διὰ τὴν ἀσυλίαν προσπεφευγότας παρεδίδου, καὶ συλληφθέντες ἤγοντο εἰς δεσμωτήρια καὶ πολλὰ καὶ δυσχερῆ ὑπέμενον. δι' ἃ δὴ πάντα, ἐπεὶ ἠγγέλλετο καὶ τότε Καντακουζηνὸν τὸν βασιλέα καταλειφθέντα μόνον ὑπὸ τῶν οἰκείων, εἰς ὄρος ἔρχεσθαι τὸ ἱερὸν ἐπὶ τῷ μοναχῶν ὑποδῦναι σχῆμα, πάντες ἔθεον πεζοὶ παρὰ τὸ τῆς Ὁδηγητρίας τέμενος, εὐχαριστίας ἀποδώσοντες τῆς ἐκείνου καταλύσεως. 2.301 ναʹ. Βασιλεὺς δὲ ὁ Καντακουζηνὸς ἐπεὶ ἐκ Φερῶν ἀνέστρεφεν εἰς Ἔδεσσαν ἐλθὼν, ἣν περιεστρατοπεδευμένος ὁ Κράλης ἐπολιόρκει, τὴν μὲν πολίχνην εὗρε προσχωρήσασαν ἐκείνῳ χρήμασι διαφθείραντι τοὺς ἔνδον. ἀναμιμνήσκων δὲ τῶν ὅρκων καὶ τῶν συνθηκῶν τῶν πρὸς αὐτὸν, οἷς ἐνεγέγραπτο, εἰ πόλιν τινὰ τῶν Ῥωμαίοις ὑπηκόων, καὶ ἀπόντος βασιλέως, ἢ ὅπλοις ἢ τρόπῳ δή τινι ὑποποιήσαιτο, ἀποδιδόναι βασιλεῖ, ᾔτει τὴν πολίχνην. ὁ Κράλης τε παρείχετο ἑτοίμως, φάσκων πάντα τὰ ὑπεσχημένα πράξειν καὶ ὅπλοις καὶ χρήμασι καὶ πάσῃ δυνάμει συμμαχήσειν. βασιλεὺς δὲ τότε πρὸς τὴν πολίχνην μένειν αὐτὸς ἀλυσιτελὲς ὁρῶν, περὶ γὰρ τῆς εἰς ∆ιδυμότειχον ἐπανόδου πᾶσα ἦν αὐτῷ ἡ σπουδὴ, ἔκ τε τῶν οἰκείων φρουρὰν ἀξιόλογον μὴ δυνάμενος καταλείπειν, ὀλίγων τε ὄντων