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to 1448.

to 851.

the little neighbouring princes had taken advan- J.C. 14449 tage of the circumftance to endeavour to aggran- Heg. $48, dize themselves, whilft the Ottoman arms were engaged elsewhere. Conftantine, defpot of the Morea, had entered the Turkish dominions and taken feveral places. Amurath, after having quieted the troubles at home, fent a hundred and twenty thousand men towards the Hexamilium, threatening to reduce it to afhes. It extended from one end to the other of the isthmus of Corinth. The father of the hiftorian Calcondilus was fent as ambaffador to afk peace of the Turks; but his propofals were infufficient to fatisfy Amurath. This prince fent him back to his master, bound hand and foot, and attacked with cannon the wall which defended the ifthmus. This was the firft time that the Turks employed thefe deftructive arms. The Greeks were foon defenceless, and furrendered every thing that they had ufurped.

ry of Scan

Thus far almost every thing had been profpe- The hiftorous to the emperor Amurath; but in his latter der beg. years he had to fight against an enemy more formidable than any he had yet met with, and who had been brought up in his bofom. This was the famous Scanderbeg, fo adored by the Chriftians, and of whom the hiftorians report prodigies. This warrior, called George Caftriot, was the fon of John Caftriot, prince of Epirus, who, like all the Greek defpots, had fubmitted to

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J.C.1444, the conqueror. John Caftriot had not only paid

to 1448.

Heg. 848, a tribute to Amurath, but his four fons had also to 851.

been conducted as hoftages to the court of that prince. Three died in infancy. The youngest, called George, pleased the emperor by his fine figure, and by features which announced an elevated foul. Amurath, either through inclination or policy, had young Caftriot circumcifed, and educated in the Mahometan religion; but he always remained a Christian in the bottom of his heart. Amurath carried him to the war when he was very young. The courageous actions and bodily ftrength of young Caftriot, got him the name of Alexander, which in the Turkish language is Scander, to which they added the fyllable beg, which fignifies prince. It was under this name of Scanderbeg, which George Caftriot received from the Ottomans, that he fignalized against them thofe martial talents, which he had received and cultivated in their school and army. When John Caftriot, prince of Epirus, died, Amurath never once thought of rendering to his ward, the dominions of which nature and the death of his brothers had made him fovereign. He established a bafhaw there, and conftantly employed young Scanderbeg in war. This injuftice fenfibly offended that warrior. An outrage which Scanderbeg's youth and beauty drew on him from Amurath, abandoned to every species of debauchery, completed his abhorrence of

the

the man, who pretended to be his benefactor, but J.C. 1444, was only his tyrant.

to 1448. Heg. 848, to 851.

penetrates

nia, and

waits for

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geous post.

Scanderbeg bore this in his heart when he went to the firft Hungarian war, in which the Amurath Turks were obliged to raise the fiege of Bel- into Albagrade, and to retreat before Hunniade, who pur- Scanderbeg fued them. The bad fuccefs of that war had him in an induced the Emperor to leave the command of his army to a bafhaw, who had the misfortune to be made prifoner. Scanderbeg took advantage of this circumftance; he invited to his tent the reis effendi, a fort of fecretary of state who guards the fmall feal of the empire, and, with his cimeter at his throat, forced him to fign and feal a letter to the bafhaw of Epirus, commanding him to remit Croia the capital of that province, and all the countries its dependencies, to the faid Scanderbeg, who was to govern them in the name of Amurath, instead of the bashaw depofed by this pretended order. As foon as the feal was affixed to it, Scanderbeg killed the reis effendi with his own hand, and interred him on the spot, in order to deftroy every trace of the action. This done, he made his efcape to Croia, and, by virtue of his falfe order, which no one fufpected, took poffeffion of the place. He had no difficulty to detach the Albanians from their obedience to the Turks. He endeavoured to fupply his province with provifions, fortify the towns, raise national troops, and win the gar

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J.C. 1444, rifons which had formerly ferved Amurath.

to 1448.

to 8516

In

Heg. 848. fine, he employed all his ability to maintain himfelf in this fovereignty, which had been unjuftly wrefted from his family, and which he had fo recently recovered by a perfidy. The Venetians, fecret enemies of the Ottomans, without daring openly to oppofe them, affifted Scanderbeg with a confiderable fum of money. This fugitive was already a redoubtable enemy, when the fultan undertook to reduce him. He began by befieging Fetigrade, Scanderbeg's frontier town; he took it by affault, and unmercifully maffacred all the men capable of carrying arms, because every one had contributed to the defence of the place. This example, far from intimidating the Albanians, irritated them ftill more against the Turkish yoke. The prince of Epirus, with ten thousand men, undertook to make head against fixty thousand horfe and forty thousand janiffaries. Croia, his capital, was provifioned and fortified to fuftain a long fiege. Far from defending the narrow paffes which led to it, Scanderbeg would not attempt it, 'till the enemy had. penetrated as far as a kind of bafon formed by a chain of mountains circularly difpofed, in which he flattered himself with finding great advantages, as his troops, encamped on these fteep rocks, could batter all thofe, who fhould pafs below, with the artillery which he had gotten half way up; and the Albanians, and

all

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to 1448.

all the moutaineer foldiers, were used to climb J.C. 1444, these heights, to attack the enemy, and to escape Heg. 848, their pursuit.

to 851.

Croia.

The Chriftian prince could hope for fuccefs, Siege of only from furprizes, and the fuperiority which he J.C. 1448. knew he poffeffed over the generals of Amurath. Heg. 851. He permitted them to lay fiege to Croia, which nature and art had made one of the strongest places in the Weft. He had garrifoned it with fix thousand men under the command of the count of Uruena his lieutenant general. As to himself he remained in the mountains at the head of his troops, which became every day more numerous, as the Venetians had disbanded nearly all the forces in the fervice of their republic, and furnished Scanderbeg with the money neceffary to engage them. The Turks tempted in vain the fidelity of the count of Uruena; immenfe offers were infufficient to make him defert his

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prince. He cannonaded the befiegers' camp
with a numerous and well ferved artillery.
Whenever he made a fally, Scanderbeg attacked
the fame quarter on the oppofite fide. All the
hiftorians agree in reporting prodigies of this
fiege; never did the union of valour and ability
better fupply the want of number. The inde-
fatigable Scanderbeg fhewed himself day and
night to the befiegers, and forced them to in-
trench themselves. He picked from his army
foldiers like himself, for the night expeditions ;

he

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