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vifits the city,

St. Sophia,

From the first hour" of the memorable twenty- CHA P. ninth of May, diforder and rapine prevailed in Conftantinople, till the eighth hour of the fame Mahomet II. day; when the fultan himself paffed in triumph through the gate of St. Romanus. He was at the palace, tended by his vizirs, bashaws, and guards, each etc, of whom (fays a Byzantine hiftorian) was robust as Hercules, dextrous as Apollo, and equal in battle to any ten of the race of ordinary mortals. The conqueror gazed with fatisfaction and wonder on the ftrange though fplendid appearance of the domes and palaces, fo diffimilar from the ftyle of Oriental architecture. In the hippodrome, or atmeidan, his eye was attracted by the twisted column of the three ferpents; and, as a trial of his ftrength, he fhattered with his iron mace or battle-axe the under jaw of one of these monfters' which in the eyes of the Turks were the idols or talifmans of the city. At the principal door of St. Sophia, he alighted from his horfe, and entered the dome: aud fuch was his jealous regard for that monument of his glory, that on obferving a zealous Mufulman in the act of breaking the marble pavement, he admonifhed him with his fcymetar, that, if the fpoil and captives were granted to the foldiers, the public and private buildings had been referved for the prince. By his command, the metropolis of the Eaftern church was transformed into a mofch: the rich and portable inftruments of fuperftition had been removed; the croffes were thrown down; and the walls, which were covered with images

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CHA P. and mosaics, were washed and purified, and reLXVIII. ftored to a state of naked fimplicity. On the

fame day, or on the enfuing Friday, the muezin or crier afcended the most lofty turret, and proclaimed the czan, or public invitation in the name of God and his prophet; the imam preached; and Mahomet the second performed the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving on the great altar, where the Chriftian myfteries had fo lately been celebrated before the laft of the Cæfars". From St. Sophia he proceeded to the auguft, but defolate, manfion of an hundred fucceffors of the great Constantine; but which in a few hours had been stripped of the pomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection on the viciffitudes of human greatness, forced itself on his mind; and he repeated an elegant diftich of Perfian poetry: "The spider "has wove his web in the Imperial palace; and "the owl hath fung her watch-fong on the towers " of Afrafiab".'

Yet his mind was not fatisfied, nor did the victory feem complete, till he was informed of the fate of Conftantine; whether he had efcaped, or been made prifoner, or had fallen in the battle. Two Janizaries claimed the honour and reward of his death: the body, under an heap of flain, was discovered by the golden eagles embroidered on his fhoes the Greeks acknowledged with tears the head of their late emperor; and, after exposing the bloody trophy", Mahomet bestowed on his rival the honours of a decent funeral. After his deceafe, Lucas Notaras, great duke "

and firft minifter of the empire, was the most c HA P. important prifoner. When he offered his perfon LXVIII. and his treasures at the foot of the throne, " And "why," faid the indignant fultan, "did you "not employ these treasures in the defence of your prince and country?" "They were yours,' anfwered the flave, "God had referved them for your hands." "If he referved them for me, replied the defpot, "how have you prefumed to "with hold them so long by a fruitlefs and fatal "refiftance?" The great duke alleged the obftinacy of the ftrangers, and fome fecret encouragement from the Turkish vizir; and from this perilous interview, he was at length difmiffed with the affurance of pardon and protection. Mahomet condefcended to vifit his wife, a venerable princefs oppreffed with fickness and grief; and his confolation for her misfortunes was in the most tender ftrain of humanity and filial reverence. A fimilar clemency was extended to the principal officers of ftate, of whom several were ranfomed at his expence; and during fome days he declared himself the friend and father of the vanquished people. But the fcene was foon changed; and before his departure, the hippodrome ftreamed with the blood of his nobleft captives. His perfidious cruelty is execrated by the Chriftians: they adorn with the colours of heroic martyrdom the execution of the great duke and his two fons; and his death is afcribed to the generous refufal of delivering his children to the tyrant's luft. Yet a Byzantine hiftorian has dropt

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CHAP. an unguarded word of confpiracy, deliverance LXVIII. and Italian fuccour: fuch treafon may be glorious; but the rebel who bravely ventures, has juftly forfeited, his life; nor fhould we blame a conqueror for destroying the enemies whom he can no longer truft. On the eighteenth of June, the victorious fultan returned to Adrianople; and fmiled at the bafe and hollow embaffies of the Christian princes, who viewed their approaching ruin in the fall of the Eastern empire.

He repeoples and adorns Conftantino.

ple.

Conftantinople had been left naked and defolate, without a prince or a people. But she could not be defpoiled of the incomparable fituation which marks her for the metropolis of a great empire; and the genius of the place will ever triumph over the accidents of time and fortune. Burfa and Adrianople, the ancient feats of the Ottomans, funk into provincial towns; and Mahomet the fecond established his own refidence, and that of his fucceffors, on the fame commanding fpot which had been chofen by Conftantine". The fortifications of Galata, which might afford a shelter to the Latins, were prudently deftroyed; but the damage of the Turkish cannon was foon repaired; and before the month of August, great quantities of lime had been burnt for the restoration of the walls of the capital. As the entire property of the foil and buildings, whether public or private, or profane or facred, was now transferred to the conqueror, he first feparated a space of eight furlongs from the point of the triangle for the establishment of his feraglio or palace. It is here, in the bofom

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of luxury, that the grand fignor (as he has been CHA P. emphatically named by the Italians) appears to reign over Europe and Afia; but his perfon on the fhores of the Bofphorus may not always be fecure from the infults of an hoftile navy. In the new character of a mofch, the cathedral of St. Sophia was endowed with an ample revenue, crowned with lofty minarets, and furrounded with groves and fountains, for the devotion and refreshment of the Moflems. The fame model was imitated in the jami or royal mofchs; and the first of these was built, by Mahomet himself, on the ruins of the church of the holy apostles and the tombs of the Greek emperors. On the third day after the conqueft, the grave of Abu Ayub or Job, who had fallen in the firft fiege of the Arabs, was revealed in a vifion; and it is before the fepulchre of the martyr, that the new fultans are girded with the fword of empire Conftantinople no longer appertains to the Roman historian; nor fhall I enumerate the civil and religious edifices that were profaned or erected by its Turkish mafters: the population was speedily renewed; and before the end of September, five thousand families of Anatolia and Romania had obeyed the royal mandate, which enjoined them, under pain of death, to occupy their new habitations in the capital. The throne of Mahomet was guarded by the numbers and fidelity of his Moflem fubjects: but his rational policy afpired to collect the remnant of the