J.C. 1452 him. The priests shut their churches against thofe that had affifted in St. Sophia's at the celebration of the myfteries, the day on which cardinal Ifidore had proposed to verify the union: no one would enter the metropolitical church, which was thought prophaned this falfe zeal had paffed even among the dregs of the people the public-houses were full of artificers, who, with their glaffes in their hands, pronounced anathemas against the pope and the Latins, drank in honor of the miraculous virgin, whofe wor ship was performed in the city, and conjured her, with tears in their eyes, produced by the wine, to protect Conftantinople from the enter prifes of the pope, and to deliver, without his affiftance, a people, whofe only hope was in her.. Thefe cries reached the ears of the legate, who wrote to Rome all the teftimonies of hatred with. which he was loaded. Nicholas V. took care how he employed his credit, ftill more his forces, for fuch inveterate enemies; he readily abandoned them to him, whom he looked upon as the inftrument of the decrees of God... Meanwhile, Mahomet's troops laid waste that part of the Morea which the Greeks had til left, and of which the two brothers of Conftantine, Thomas and Demetrius, had divided the government. The Turks had defolated the country; they were in poffeffion of all the forts and most of the towns. The two defpots, who с had takes the Five Ge fels enter the port of Conftanti of the ef hundred fail of prevent had taken refuge in Sparta, now called Mifitra, J.C. 1452. Heg. 856. were in momentary expectation of fetters. Conftantine, too certain of the ftorm which he faw Mahomet ready to break on him, thought of provifioning greatest his city; he asked fuccours of the Genoefe. The part of the latter had never prefumed to declare themselves noefe vefagainst the Turks, but they wished more than any other people to fee their power balanced. They fent to Conftantinople five large veffels, forts of a loaded with every kind of provifion, and five hundred chofen men. Though this convoy did Turks to not carry the Genoefe flag, Mahomet was very them. certain of his being betrayed by thefe pretended allies; but he remitted his vengeance to a more favorable opportunity, and loft not a moment to endeavour to take thefe five veffels, or at least to prevent them from entering the port of Conftantinople. Whether Mahomet received intelligence too late, or that, in advancing as far as the ftraits of Gallipoli to oppofe the paffage of the five Genoefe veffels, he was afraid of being attacked in the rear by thofe which were in the port of Conftantinople, he waited for them at the entrance of this port at the head of a hundred fail, all barks or galleys, badly conftructed or badly commanded. This occafion demonftrates what judgment, addrefs, and valour, can do against number. The hiftorians don't mention any thing of the Genoefe cannon's replying to that of the Turks; without doubt they R 2 were 1.C. 1452 were not yet in ufe on the fea. Ducas and CalHeg. 856. condilus fpeak only of war engines, which broke the oars and fhattered the veffels. The darts which obfcured the air killed but few Genoefe. At length their five veffels entered the port across this immenfe Turkish fleet. Mahomet was fo enraged at this humiliation, that he ftruck with his hand the captain bafhaw, admiral of the fleet, who had not been able to make his orders understood, or was incapable of giving them. J.C. 1453. Mahomet to Con ftantino ple. Situ city. This unsuccessful attempt no way abated the ardour with which the preparations for the fiege lays fiege were made. Mahomet transported his artillery, at an immense expence, to the neighbourhood of tion of Conftantinople. The fables which the Greek that great and Turkifh hiftorians have copied from each other refpecting this artillery, teach us but too clearly, how faulty the recitals of antiquity are. Mahomet, they fay, drew, with fixty pair of oxen, a fingle cannon that was nine feet in diameter, and which carried bullets of eleven hands breadth in circumference.§t Be that as it may, in the beginning of the fpring of the year 1453, Mahomet II. appeared at the head of three hundred 2.12.195,0. The impoffibility of the thing demonftrates the falfhood of it. The volume of powder requifite to carry this enormous bullet, could not have been inflamed in the fame time, and confequently could not have produced its effect. The numerous artillery that might have been formed of the metal of this immenfe cannon, would have been more useful in the fiege, and mora formidable to the enemy, than a machine without proportion, the first trial of which must have demonftrated its inutility. dred thousand men before a city, certainly well JC. 1453-Heg. 857fortified both by art and nature, but which at moft did not contain above eight thoufand fighting men, even if we count the citizens who had armed through zeal, and mixed with the Venetians and Genoefe, who were come to fecond the few regular troops that Conftantine yet kept in pay. This was all that remained of that Roman empire, which, during fo many ages, had governed the world. Conftantinople was at that time eighteen miles in compass; this great city formed, and ftill forms, an acute angle, the point of which is fituated eaft, advancing towards the fea, and faces the Bofphorus of Thrace. This is where the grand feignior's feraglio is at present. The weft fide, which forms the base of the angle, joins the continent: it was defended by a double wall, provided with a large ditch filled with falt water; for all that fide of the angle, facing the fouth, is watered by the Propontis, and that to the north by another arm of the sea, which enters the land, and forms an immense bason between the ramparts of Conftantinople, and a neck of land on which Galata is built. The whole together prefents to the fight the most magnificent port in the whole world. The entrance, which is fix hundred paces broad, was at that time shut by a staccado, the middle of which was defended by two iron. chains, and by the yeffels in the port. The Venetians J.C.1453. Venetians had forced this defence with their Heg. 857. veffels in 1203, when, in conjunction with the French, they took this city; but fuch a work was not to be expected from Turkish pilots and failors, who were nothing near fo good feamen as the Europeans. And indeed, the fea would have been an impenetrable rampart for Mahomet, if invention, courage, and money, had not made up for the talent in which his pilots were deficient. conveys fels. Mahomet, after having established fourteen batteries on the land fide, which kept up a continual fire, determined to penetrate into the port, in order to be able to attack the place on the Mahomet maritime quarter. He firft took poffeffion of overland Galata, which he effected without difficulty, as fixty vef- the befieged had given up its defence. As foon as he was master of this bank, he had a road made overland, on which he conveyed, by means of horfes, oxen, ftrength of arms, and machines, fixty veffels, which were launched and mafted during the night in this very port which the Greeks had neglected to guard, because they thought it impregnable. The next day the confternation was general, when the befieged, who thought they had only to guard the double wall next the continent, faw, clofe to their ramparts, barks and galleys, in which war engines and battering rams were already preparing; wooden towers, difpofed at equal diftances, contained fol |