LXVIII. was safely deposited in Italy; and that the mecha- CHAP. nics of a German town had invented an art which derides the havock of time and barbarism. 11. visits the city, St Sophia, the palace, From the first hour of the memorable twenty- Mahomet ninth of May, disorder and rapine prevailed in Constantinople, till the eighth hour of the same day; when the Sultan himself passed in triumph &c. through the gate of St Romanus. He was attended by his vizirs, bashaws, and guards, each of whom (says a Byzantine historian) was robust as Hercules, dextrous as Apollo, and equal in battle to any ten of the race of ordinary mortals. The conqueror † gazed with satisfaction and wonder on the strange though splendid appearance of the domes and palaces, so dissimilar from the style of Oriental architecture. In the hippodrome, or atmeidan, his eye was attracted by the twisted column of the three serpents; and, as a trial of his strength, he shattered with his iron. mace or battle-axe the under jaw of one of these monsters, which in the eye of the Turks were the idols or talismans of the city. At the principal door of St Sophia, he alighted from his horse, and entered the dome; and such was his jealous regard for that monument of his glory, that on observing The Julian Calendar, which reckons the days and hours } from midnight, was used at Constantinople. But Ducas seems to understand the natural hours from sun-rise. See the Turkish Annals, p. 329. and the Pandects of Leunclavius, p. 448. I have had occasion (vol. iii. p. 22.) to mention this curious relic of Grecian antiquity. LXVIII. CHA P. observing a zealous Mussulman in the act of breaking the marble pavement, he admonished him with his scymetar, that, if the spoil and captives were granted to the soldiers, the public and private buildings had been reserved for the Prince. By his command the metropolis of the Eastern church was transformed into a mosch; the rich and portable instruments of superstition had been removed; the crosses were thrown down; and the walls, which were covered with images and mosaics, were washed and purified, and restored to a state of naked simplicity. On the same day, or on the ensuing Friday, the muezin or crier ascended the most lofty turret, and proclaimed the ezan, 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 Christian mysteries had so lately been celebrated before the last of the Cæsars*. From St Sophia he proceeded to the august but desolate mansion of an hundred successors of the great Constantine; but which, in a few hours, had been stripped of the pomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection on the vicissitudes of human greatness, forced itself on his mind; and he repeated an elegant distich of Persian poetry, "The spider has "wove his web in the Imperial palace; and the ❝ owi *We are obliged to Cantemir (p. 102.) for the Turkish account of the conversion of St Sophia, so bitterly deplored by Phranza and Dacas. It is amusing enough to observe, in what opposite lights the same object appears to a Mussulman and a Christian eye. "owl had sung her watch-song on the towers of CHAP. "Afrasiab *." LXVIII. viour to Greeks. Yet his mind was not satisfied, nor did the victory is behaseem complete, till he was informed of the fate of the Constantine; whether he had escaped, or been made prisoner, or had fallen in the battle. Two Janizaries claimed the honour and reward of his death. The body, under a heap of slain, was discovered by the golden eagles embroidered on his shoes. 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 decease, Lucas Notaras, great Duke ‡, and first minister of the empire, was the most important pri soner. When he offered his person and his treasures at the foot of the throne," And why," said the indignant Sultan, " did you not employ these "treasures in the defence of your prince and coun "try?" They were yours," answered the slave, "God had reserved them for your hands." "If "he reserved them for me," replied the despot, VOL. XII. R “ " how * This distich, which Cantemir gives in the original, derives new beauties from the application. It was thus that Scipio repeated, in the sack of Carthage, the famous prophecy of Homer. The same generous feeling carried the mind of the conqueror to the past or the future. + I cannot believe, with Ducas, (see Spondanus, A. D. 1453, No. 13.), that Mahomet sent round Persia, Arabia, &c. the head of the Greek Emperor; he would surely content himself with a trophy less inhuman. Phranza was the personal enemy of the great Duke; nor could time, or death, or his own retreat to a monastery, extort a feeling of sympathy or forgiveness. Ducas is inclined to praise and pity the martyr; Chalcondyles is neuter; but we are indebted to him for the hint of the Greek conspiracy. LXVIII. CHAP. "how have you presumed to with-hold them so "long by a fruitless and fatal resistance?" The great Duke alledged the obstinacy of the strangers, and some secret encouragement from the Turkish vizir; and from this perilous interview, he was at length dismissed with the assurance of pardon and protection. Mahomet condescended to visit his wife, a venerable princess, oppressed with sickness and grief;. and his consolation for her misfortunes was in the most tender strain of humanity and filial reverence. A similar clemency was extended to the principal officers of state, of whom several were ransomed at his expence; and during some days he declared himself the friend and father of the vanquished people. But the scene was soon changed; and before his departure, the hippodrome streamed with the blood of his noblest captives. His perfidious cruelty is execrated by the Christians. They adorn with the colours of heroic martyrdom the execution of the great Duke and his two sons; and his death is ascribed to the generous refusal of delivering his children to the tyrant's lust. Yet a Byzantine historian has dropt an unguarded word of conspiracy, deliverance, and Italian succour. Such treason may be glorious; but the rebel who bravely ventures, has justly forfeited his life nor should we blame a conqueror for destroying the enemies whom he can no longer trust. On the eighteenth of June, the victorious Sultan returned to Adrianople; and smiled at the base and hollow embassies of the Christian princes, who viewed their approaching ruin in the fall of the Eastern empire. Constantinople LXVIII. Constanti nople. Constantinople had been left naked and desolate, CHAP. without a prince or a people. But she could not be despoiled of the incomparable situation which He repeoples marks her for the metropolis of a great empire; and adorns and the genius of the place will ever triumph over the accidents of time and fortune. Boursa and Adrianople, the ancient seats of the Ottomans, sunk into provincial towns; and Mahomet the Second established his own residence, and that of his successors, on the same commanding spot which had been chosen by Constantine. The fortifications of Galata, which might afford a shelter to the Latins, were prudently destroyed; but the damage of the Turkish cannon was soon 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 soil and buildings, whether public or private, or profane or sacred, was now transferred to the conqueror, he first separated a space of eight furlongs from the point of the triangle for the establishment of his seraglio, or palace. It is here, in the bosom of luxury, that the Grand Signor (as he has been emphatically named by the Italians) appears to reign over Europe and Asia; but his person on *For the restitution of Constantinople and the Turkish foundations, see Cantemir (p. 102-109.), Ducas (c. 42.), with Thevenot, Tournefort, and the rest of our modern travellers. From a gigantic picture of the greatness, population, &c. of Constantinople and the Ottoman empire, (Abrégé de l'Histoire Ottomane, tom. i. p. 16-21.), we may learn, that in the year 1586, the Moslems were less numerous in the capital than the Christians, or even the Jews. |