71. From that time there appeared in the man new qualities, foreign to his normal behaviour. I am speaking from personal observation, as I was pretty familiar with his character. He became more haughty to such an extent that he held everyone else in contempt. In fact, he treated his own relatives just like the others, and his brother,**214 whenever he approached the outer entrances to the palace, at once dismounted from his horse, in accordance with the emperor’s express command, and there was nothing whatever to distinguish him from the rest when he had audience with Isaac.
Indeed he was the finest gentleman I ever met, and he accepted the change of attitude without rancour, and far from showing irritation at this new state of affairs, he obeyed the emperor’s commands and treated him with due respect. He was generally unobtrusive, an example to other men to change their demeanour in like manner.
Skill in the art
72. With this change in the emperor’s character the second period of his reign came to an end. Now begins the third. Isaac was passionately devoted to hunting. No one was ever more fascinated by the difficulties of this sport. It must be admitted, moreover, that he was skilled in the art, for he rode lightly and his shouts and halloos lent wings to the dogs, besides frightening the coursing hare. On several occasions he even caught the quarry in full flight with his hand. He was, too, a dead shot with a spear.
But crane-hunting attracted him more, and when the birds were flying high in the air he still refused to give up the hunt. He would shoot them down from the sky, and truly his pleasure at this was not unmixed with wonder. The wonder was that a bird so exceptionally big, with feet and legs like lances, hiding itself behind the clouds, should, in the twinkling of an eye, be caught by an object so much smaller than itself. The pleasure he derived from the bird’s fall, for the crane, as it fell, danced the dance of death, turning over and over, now on its back now on its belly.
73. The emperor took delight in both kinds of chase. However, to avoid reducing the number of animals kept in special reserves by hunting them down, he used to go out, when the fancy took him, to find beasts in their natural habitat, hunting them both on horseback and with the falcon, at his leisure.
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