LXVIII. CHA P. Conftantinople; and the Greeks, by their own indifcretion, afforded the first pretence of the fatal rupture Inftead of labouring to be forgotten, their ambassadors purfued his camp, ta demand the payment, and even the increase, of their annual ftipend: the divan was importuned by their complaints, and the vizir, a fecret friend of the Chriftians, was constrained to deliver the Tenfe of his brethren. "Ye foolish and miferable "Romans," faid Calil, "we know your devices, and ye are ignorant of your own danger! the fcrupulous Amurath is no more; his throne is oc"cupied by a young conqueror, whom no laws "can bind and no obstacles can refift: and if you efcape from his hands, give praife to the divine cle ce mency, which yet delays the chastisement of your "fins. Why do ye feek to affright us by vain and "indirect menaces? Releafe the fugitive Orchan, Сс crown him fultan of Romania; call the Hungarians from beyond the Danube; arm against "us the nations of the Weft: and be affured, that you will only provoke and precipitate • your ruin." But, if the fears of the ambaffadors were alarmed by the ftern language of the vizir, they were foothed by the courteous audience and friendly fpeeches of the Ottoman prince; and Mahomet affured them that on his return to Adrianople he would redress the gricvances, and confult the true intereft, of the Greeks. No fooner had he repaffed the Hellefpont than he iffued a mandate to fupprefs their penfion, and to expel their officers from the banks of the Strymon in this measure he betrayed an hoftile mind; and the fecond order announced, and in CHA P. fome degree commenced, the fiege of Conftantin LXVIIL ople. In the narrow pafs of the Bofphorus, an Afiatic fortrefs had formerly been raised by his grandfather in the oppofite fituation, on the European fide, he refolved to erect a more formidable castle; and a thousand mafons were commanded to affembie in the fpring on a spot named Afomaton, about five miles from the Greek metropolis ". Perfuafion is the refource of the feeble; and the feeble can feldom perfuade: the ambas fadors of the emperor attempted, without fuccefs, to divert Mahomet from the execution of his defign. They reprefented, that his grandfather. had folicited the permiffion of Manuel to build a castle on his own territories; but that this double fortification, which would command the ftreight, 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 fubfiftence of the city. "I form no enterprize,' replied the perfidious fultan, against the city; but the empire of Conftantinople 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 "Hellefpont was occupied by the French gallies? "Amurath was compelled to force the paffage "of the Bosphorus; and your strength was not "equal to your malevolence. I was then a child at Adrianople; the Moflems trembled; and for С НА Р. a while the Gabours" infulted our difgrace. "But when my father had triumphed in the "field of Warna, he vowed to erect a fort on "the western fhore, and that vow it is my duty પર 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 fhores of the Bofphorus, Afia is inhabited แ by the Turks, and Europe is deferted by the "Romans. Return, and inform your king that "the prefent Ottoman is far different from his predeceffors; that his refolutions surpass their wifhes; and that he performs more than they "could refolve. Return in fafety - but the next "who delivers a fimilar meffage may expect to "be flayed alive." After this declaration, Conftantine, the first of the Greeks in fpirit as in rank, had determined to unfheathe the fword, and to refift the approach and establishment of the Turks on the Bofphorus, He was disarmed by the advice of his civil and ecclefiaftical minifters, who recommended a fyftem lefs generous, and even lefs prudent, than his own, to approve their patience and long-fuffering, to brand the Ottoman with the name and guilt of an aggreffor, and to depend on chance and time for their own fafety and the deftruction of a fort which could not long be maintained in the neighbourhood of a great and populous city. Amidft hope and fear, the fears of the wife and the hopes of the credulous, the winter rolled away; the proper business of each man, and each hour, was poftponed; and the Greeks fhut their eyes against the im- CHA P. pending danger, till the arrival of the fpring and LXVIII. the fultan decided the affurance of their ruin.. 16 fortress on the Bofpho March. Of a master who never forgives, the orders He builds a are feldom disobeyed. On the twenty-fixth of March, the appointed spot of Afomaton was rus, covered with an active fwarm of Turkifh artifi- A. D. 1452, cers; and the materials by fea and land, were diligently transported from Europe and Afia ". The lime had been burnt in Cataphrygia; the timber was cut down in the woods of Heraclea and Nicomedia; and the ftones were dug from the Anatolian quarries. Each of the thoufand mafons was affifted by two workmen; and a measure of two cubits was marked for their daily talk. The fortrefs ** was built in a triangular form; each angle was flanked by a strong and maffy tower; one on the declivity of the hill, two along the fea-fhore: a thickness of twentytwo feet was affigned for the walls, thirty for the towers; and the whole building was covered with a folid platform of lead, Mahomet himself preffed and directed the work with indefatigable ardour: his three vizirs claimed the honour of finishing their refpective towers; the zeal of the cadhis emulated that of the Janizaries; the meanest labour was ennobled by the fervice of God and the fultan; and the diligence of the multitude was quickened by the eye of a defpot, whofe fmile was the hope of fortune, and whofe frown was the messenger of death. The Greek emperor beheld with terror the irrefiftible progrefs of the LXVIII. CHA P. work; and vainly strove, by flattery and gifts, to affuage an implacable foe, who fought, and fecretly fomented, the flightest occafion of a quarrel. Such occafions muft foon and inevitably be found. The ruins of ftately churches, and even the marble columns which had been confecrated to St. Michael the archangel, were employed without fcruple by the profane and rapacious Moflems; and fome Chriftians, who prefumed to oppofe the removal, received from their hands the crown of martyrdom. Conftantine had folicited a Turkish guard to protect the fields and harvests of his fubjects: the guard was fixed; but their first order was to allow free pafture to the mules and horfes of the camp, and to defend their brethren if they fhould 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 infult was resented; and several of both nations were flain in a tumultuous conflict. Mahomet liftened with joy to the complaint; and a detachment was com manded to exterminate the guilty village: the guilty had fled; but forty innocent and unfuß pecting reapers were maffacred by the foldiers. The Turkish Till this provocation, Conftantinople had been open to the vifits of commerce and curiofity: on the first alarm, the gates were fhut; but the emperor, ftill anxious for peace, releafed on the third day his Turkish captives ; and expreffed, in a laft meffage, the firm refignation of a Chrif tian and a foldier. "Since neither oaths, por war, June; 17. |