Siege, Reign and Character of Mahomet the Second. THE fiege of Conftantinople by the Turks c A P. H Mahomet E attracts our first attention to the perfon and LXVII. B : CAP. haram of the fultan. His firft education and fentiLXVIII. ments were thofe of a devout Mufulman; and as often as he converfed with an infidet, he purified his hands and face by the legal rites of ablution. Age and empire appear to have relaxed this narrow bigotry his afpiring genius difdained to acknowledge a power above his own; and in his loofer hours he prefumed (it is faid) to brand the prophet of Mecca as a robber and impoftor. Yet the fultan perfevered in a decent reverence for the doctrine and difcipline of the Koran: his private indifcretion must have been facred from the vulgar ear; and we fhould fufpect the credulity of ftrangers and fectaries, so prone to believe that a mind which is hardened against truth, must be armed with fuperior contempt for abfurdity and error. Under the tuition of the moft fkilful maf ters, Mahomet advanced with an early and rapid progrefs in the paths of knowledge; and befides his native tongue, it is affirmed that he spoke or understood five languages, the Arabic, the Perfian, the Chaldæan or Hebrew, the Latin, and the Greek. The Perfian might indeed contribute to his amusement, and the Arabic to his edification; and fuch ftudies are familiar to the Oriental youth In the intercourfe of the Greeks and Turks, a conqueror might wish to converfe with the people over whom he was ambitious to reign: his own praifes in Latin poetry or profe' might find a paffage to the royal ear; but what use or merit could recommend to the ftatefman or the fcholar the uncouth dialect of his Hebrew flaves? 4 LXVIII. The history and geography of the world were CHAг. familiar to his memory: the lives of the heroes of the Eaft, perhaps of the Weft, excited his emulation his skill in aftrology is excufed by the folly of the times, and fuppofes fome rudiments of mathematical fcience; and a profane tafte for the arts is betrayed in his liberal invi tation and reward of the painters of Italy'. But the influence of religion and learning were employed without effect on his favage and licentious nature. I will not tranfcribe, nor do I firmly believe, the ftories of his fourteen pages, whose bellies were ripped open in fearch of a stolen melon; or of the beauteous flave, whofe head he fevered from her body, to convince the Janizaries that their mafter was not the votary of love. His fobriety is attefted by the filence of the Turkish annals, which accufe three, and three only, of the Ottoman line of the vice of drunkenness. But it cannot be denied that his paffions were at once furious and inexorable; that in the palace, as in the field, a torrent of blood was fpilt on the flightest provocation; and that the nobleft of the captive youth were often dishonoured by his unnatural luft. In the Albanian war, he studied the leffons, and foon furpaffed the example, of his father; and the conqueft of two empires, twelve kingdoms, and two hundred cities, a vain and flattering account, is ascribed to his invincible fword. He was doubtless a foldier, and poffibly a general; Conftantinople has fealed his glory; but if we compare the means, the ( CHAP. obftacles, and the atchievements, Mahomet the LXVIII. fecond must blush to fuftain a parallel with Alexander or Timour. Under his command, the Ottoman forces were always more numerous than their enemies; yet their progrefs was bounded by the Euphrates and the Adriatic; and his arms were checked by Huniades and Scanderbeg, by the Rhodian knights and by the Perfian king. His reign, A. D. 1451, February 9 July 2. In the reign of Amurath, he twice tafted of royalty, and twice defcended from the throne: his tender age was incapable of oppofing his father's restoration, but never could he forgive the vizirs who had recommended that falutary meafure. His nuptials were nuptials were celebrated with the daughter of a Turkman emir; and, after a festival of two months, he departed from Adrianople with his bride, to refide in the government of Magnefia. Before the end of fix weeks, he was recalled by a fudden meffage from the divan, which announced the decease of Amurath, and the mutinous fpirit of the Janizaries. His fpeed and vigour commanded their obedience: he paf fed the Hellefpont with a chofen guard; and at the diftance of a mile from Adrianople, the vizirs and emirs, the imams, and cadhis, the foldiers and the people, fell proftrate before the new fultan. They affected to weep, they affected to rejoice; he afcended the throne at the age of twenty-one years, and removed the caufe of fedition by the death, the inevitable death, of his infant brothers". The ambaffadors of Europe and Afia foon appeared to congratulate his acceffion and folicit his friendship; and to all he cHA P. fpoke the language of moderation and peace. The LXVIII. confidence of the Greek emperor was revived by the folemn oaths and fair affurances, with which he fealed the ratification of the treaty and a rich domain on the banks of the Strymon was affigned for the annual payment of three hundred thoufand afpers, the penfion of an Ottoman prince, who was detained at his requeft in the Byzantine court. Yet the neighbours of Mahomet might tremble at the feverity with which a youthful monarch reformed the pomp of his father's household: the expences of luxury were applied to thofe of ambition, and an ufelefs train of feven thousand falconers was either difmiffed from his fervice or enlisted in his troops. In the first fummer of his reign, he vifited with an army the Afiatic provinces; but after humbling the pride, Mahomet accepted the fubmiffion, of the Caramanian, that he might not be diverted by the smallest obstacle from the execution of his great design *°. tions of Ma. 1 The Mahometan, and more especially the Turk- Hoftile intenish cafuifts, have pronounced that no promise homet, can bind the faithful against the interest and duty A. D. 1452. of their religion; and that the fultan may abrogate his own treaties and thofe of his predeceffors. The juftice and magnanimity of Amurath had fcorned this immoral privilege; but his fon, though the proudeft of men, could ftoop from ambition to the baseft arts of diffimulation and deceit. Peace was on his lips, while war was in his heart: he inceffantly fighed for the poffeffion of |