LXVIII.

CHAP. Instead of labouring to be forgotten, their ambassadors pursued his camp, to demand the payment, and even the encrease, of their annual stipend: the divan was importuned by their complaints, and the vizir, a secret friend of the Christians, was constrained to deliver the sense of his brethren. "Ye foolish and miserable Romans," said Calil," we "know your devices, and ye are ignorant of your own danger! the scrupulous Amurath is no more; his throne is (6 occcupied by a young conqueror, whom no laws can bind "and no obstacles can resist: and if you escape from his "hands give praise to the divine clemency, which yet de"lays the chastisement of your sins. Why do ye seek to "affright us by vain and indirect menaces? Release the fu"gitive Orchan, crown him sultan of Romania; call the Hungarians from beyond the Danube; arm against us the "nations of the West; and be assured, that you will only "provoke and precipitate your ruin." But, if the fears of the ambassadors were alarmed by the stern language of the vizir, they were soothed by the courteous audience and friendly speeches of the Ottoman prince; and Mahomet assured them that on his return to Adrianople he would redress the grievances, and consult the true interest, of the Greeks. No sooner had he repassed the Hellespont than he issued a mandate to suppress their pension, and to expel their officers from the banks of the Strymon: in this measure he betrayed an hostile mind; and the second order announced, and in some degree commenced, the siege of Constantinople. In the narrow pass of the Bosphorus, an Asiatic fortress had formerly been raised by his grandfather: in the opposite situation, on the European side, he resolved to erect a more formidable castle; and a thousand masons were commanded to assemble in the spring on a spot named Asomaton, about five miles from the Greek metropolis.12 Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade: the ambassadors of the emperor attempted, without success, to divert Mahomet from the execution

12 The situation of the fortress, and the topography of the Bosphorus, are best learned from Peter Gyllius (de Bosphoro Thracio, l. ii. c. 13), Leunclavius (Pandect. p. 445), and Tournefort (Voyage dans le Levant, tom. ii. lettre xv. p. 443, 444); but I must regret the map or plan which Tournefort sent to the French minister of the marine. The reader may turn back to vol. ii. ch. 17. of this History.

of his design. They represented that his grandfather had CHAP. solicited the permission of Manuel to build a castle on his LXVIII. own territories; but that this double fortification, which would command the streight, could only tend to violate the alliance of the nations; to intercept the Latins who traded in the Black Sea, and perhaps to annihilate the subsistence of the city. "I form no enterprise," replied the perfidious sultan, “against the city; but the empire of Constantinople "is measured by her walls. Have you forgot the distress "to which my father was reduced, when you formed a league "with the Hungarians: when they invaded our country by "land, and the Hellespont was occupied by the French gal"lies; Amurath was compelled to force the passage of the "Bosphorus; and your strength was not equal to your "malevolence. I was then a child at Adrianople; the "Moslems trembled; and for a while the Gabours 13 insult"ed our disgrace. But when my father had triumphed in "the field of Warna, he vowed to erect a fort on the western shore, and that vow it is my duty to accomplish. Have "ye the right, have ye the power, to control my actions on my own ground? For that ground is my own: as far as "the shores of the Bosphorus, Asia is inhabited by the "Turks, and Europe is deserted by the Romans. Return, "and inform your king that the present Ottoman is far dif"ferent from his predecessors; that his resolutions surpass "their wishes; and that he performs more than they could "resolve. Return in safety.....but the next who delivers a "similar message may expect to be flayed alive." After this declaration, Constantine, the first of the Greeks in spirit as in rank,14 had determined to unsheathe the sword, and to resist the approach and establishment of the Turks on the Bosphorus. He was disarmed by the advice of his civil and ecclesiastical ministers, who recommended a sys

66

13 The opprobrious name which the Turks bestow on the Infidels, is expressed Kaßoug by Ducas, and Giaour by Leunclavius and the moderns. The former term is derived by Ducange (Gloss. Græc. tom. i. p. 530.) from Kaßougov in vulgar Greek, a tortoise, as denoting a retrogade motion from the faith. But, alas! Gabour is no more than Gheber, which was transferred from the Persian to the Turkish language, from the worshippers of fire to those of the crucifix (d'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 375).

14 Phranza does justice to his master's sense and courage. Calliditatem hominis non ignorans Imperator prior arma movere constituit, and stigmatises the folly of the cum sacri tum profani proceres, which he had heard, amentes spe vâna pasci. Ducas was not a privy-counsellor.

CHAP. tem less generous, and even less prudent, than his own, to LXVIII. approve their patience and long-suffering, to brand the Ot

fortress on

toman with the name and guilt of an aggressor, and to depend on chance and time for their own safety and the destruction of a fort which could not long be maintained in the neighbourhood of a great and populous city. Amidst hope and fear, the fears of the wise and the hopes of the credulous, the winter rolled away; the proper business of each man, and each hour, was postponed; and the Greeks shut their eyes against the impending danger, till the arrival of the spring and the sultan decided the assurance of their ruin. He builds a Of a master who never forgives, the orders are seldom the Bos- disobeyed. On the twenty-sixth of March, the appointed phorus, spot of Asomaton was covered with an active swarm of A. D.1452, March. Turkish artificers; and the materials by sea and land, were diligently transported from Europe and Asia.15 The lime had been burnt in Cataphrygia; the timber was cut down in the woods of Heraclea and Nicomedia; and the stones were dug from the Anatolian quarries. Each of the thousand masons was assisted by two workmen; and a measure of two cubits was marked for their daily task. The fortress1 was built in a triangular form; each angle was flanked by a strong and massy tower; one on the declivity of the hill, two along the sea-shore: a thickness of twenty-two feet was assigned for the walls, thirty for the towers; and the whole building was covered with a solid platform of lead. Mahomet himself pressed and directed the work with indefatigable ardour: his three vizirs claimed the honour of finishing their respective towers; the zeal of the cadhis emulated that of the Janizaries; the meanest labour was ennobled by the service of God and the sultan; and the diligence of the multitude was quickened by the eye of a despot, whose smile was the hope of fortune, and whose frown was the messenger of death. The Greek emperor beheld with terror the irresistible progress of the work; and vain

15 Instead of this clear and consistent account, the Turkish Annals (Cantemir, p. 97.) revived the foolish tale of the ox's hide, and Dido's stratagem in the foundation of Carthage. These annals (unless we are swayed by an antichristian prejudice) are far less valuable than the Greek historians.

16 In the dimensions of this fortress, the old castle of Europe, Phranza does not exactly agree with Chalcondyles, whose description has been verified on the spot by his editor Leunclavius.

ly strove, by flattery and gifts, to assuage an implacable foe, CHAP. who sought, and secretly fomented, the slightest occasion of LXVIIL a quarrel. Such occasions must soon and inevitably be found. The ruins of stately churches, and even the marble columns which had been consecrated to St. Michael the archangel, were employed without scruple by the profane and rapaci ous Moslems; and some Christians, who presumed to oppose the removal, received from their hands the crown of martyrdom. Constantine had solicited a Turkish guard to protect the fields and harvests of his subjects: the guard was fixed; but their first order was to allow free pasture to the mules and horses of the camp, and to defend their brethren if they should be molested by the natives. The retinue of an Ottoman chief had left their horses to pass the night among the ripe corn: the damage was felt; the insult was resented; and several of both nations were slain in a tumultuous conflict. Mahomet listened with joy to the complaint; and a detachment was commanded to exterminate the guilty village: the guilty had fled; but forty innocent and unsuspecting reapers were massacred by the soldiers. Till The Turk this provocation, Constantinople had been open to the visits of commerce and curiosity: on the first alarm, the gates were shut; but the emperor, still anxious for peace, released on the third day his Turkish captives;17 and expressed, in a last message, the firm resignation of a Christian and a soldier. "Since neither oaths, nor treaty, nor submission, can secure peace, pursue, said he to Mahomet, "your "impious warfare. My trust is in God alone: if it should "please him to mollify your heart, I shall rejoice in the hap"py change; if he delivers the city into your hands, I sub"mit without a murmur to his holy will. But until the Judge "of the earth shall pronounce between us, it is my duty to "live and die in the defence of my people." The sultan's answer was hostile and decisive: his fortifications were completed; and before his departure for Adrianople, he Sept. 1. stationed a vigilant Aga and four hundred Janizaries, to levy a tribute of the ships of every nation that should pass within the reach of their cannon. A Venetian vessel, refus

ish war,

June;

17 Among these were some pages of Mahomet, so conscious of his inexorable rigour, that they begged to lose their heads in the city unless they could return before sun-set.

CHAP. ing obedience to the new lords of the Bosphorus, was sunk LXVIII. with a single bullet. The master and thirty sailors escaped

in the boat; but they were dragged in chains to the porte: the chief was impaled; his companions were beheaded; and the historian Ducas 18 beheld, at Demotica, their bodies exposed to the wild beasts. The siege of Constantinople was deferred till the ensuing spring; but an Ottoman army marched into the Morea to divert the force of the brothers A.D. 1453, of Constantine. At this æra of calamity, one of these princes, Jan. 17. the despot Thomas, was blessed or afflicted with the birth of a son; "the last heir," says the plaintive Phranza, "of "the last spark of the Roman empire."19

Preparations for

the siege of

The Greeks and the Turks passed an anxious and sleepless winter: the former were kept awake by their fears, the Constanti- latter by their hopes; both by the preparations of defence nople, and attack: and the two emperors, who had the most to Septem- lose or to gain, were the most deeply affected by the nationA.D.1453, al sentiment. In Mahomet, that sentiment was inflamed by

A.D. 1452,

ber....

April.

the ardour of his youth and temper: he amused his leisure with building at Adrianople 20 the lofty palace of Jehan Numa (the watch tower of the world); but his serious thoughts were irrevocably bent on the conquest of the city of Cæsar. At the dead of night, about the second watch, he started from his bed, and commanded the instant attendance of his prime vizir. The message, the hour, the prince, and his own situation, alarmed the guilty conscience of Calil Basha; who had possessed the confidence, and advised the restoration, of Amurath. On the accession of the son, the vizir was confirmed in his office and the appearances of favour; but the veteran statesman was not insensible that he trod on a thin and slippery ice, which might break under his footsteps, and plunge him in the abyss. His friendship for the Christians, which might be innocent under the late reign, had stigmatised him with the name of Gabour Ortachi, or fos

18 Ducas, c. 35. Phranza (1. iii. c. 3.) who had sailed in his vessel, commemorates the Venetian pilot as a martyr.

19 Auctum est Palæologorum genus, et Imperii successor, parvæque Romanorum scintillæ hæres natus, Andreas, &c. (Phranza, 1. iii. c. 7). The strong expression was inspired by his feelings.

20 Cantemir, p. 97, 98. The sultan was either doubtful of his conquest, or ignorant of the superior merits of Constantinople. A city or a kingdom may sometimes be ruined by the Imperial fortune of their sovereign.