The Komnenoi still had very few troops with them, as the rest were dispersed throughout the city in looting. Boril realised the opportunity this presented, and drew up the Varangians, with some fresh troops from Choma, in good order from the Milion to the Forum of Constantine. But Nikephoros III had no interest in fighting. Kosmas I the patriarch advised him not to start a bloody civil war but to renounce the world and become a monk: this advice may have been inspired by Ioannes the kaisar, who was an old friend of Kosmas. In his confusion, Nikephoros forgot, as he left the palace for Hagia Sophia with downcast eyes, that he was still wearing imperial robes. He himself took off his crimson shoes, and Boril tore an embroidered panel from his arm with a mocking comment