CHAP. riors. In the speed and secrecy of his march, in the order and LXIV. evolutions of the battle, his enemies felt and admired the mi 64 litary talents of Bajazet. They accuse his cruelty in the use of victory. After reserving the count of Nerves, and four and twenty lords, whose birth and riches were attested by his Latin interpreters, the remainder of the French captives, who had survived the slaughter of the day, were led before his throne; and, as they refused to abjure their faith, were successively beheaded in his presence. The sultan was exasperated by the loss of his bravest Janizaries; and if it be true, that on the eve of the engagement, the French had massacred their Turkish prisoners, they might impute to themselves the consequences of a just retaliation. A knight, whose life had been spared, was permitted to return to Paris, that he might relate the deplorable tale, and solicit the ransom of the noble captives. In the meanwhile, the count of Nevers, with the princes and barons of France, were dragged along in the marches of the Turkish camp, exposed as a grateful trophy to the Moslems of Europe and Asia, and strictly confined at Boursa, as often as Bajazet resided at his capital. The sultan was pressed each day to expiate with their blood the blood of his martyrs; but he had pronounced that they should live, and either for mercy or destruction his word was irrevocable. He was assured of their value and importance by the return of the messenger, and the gifts and intercessions of the kings of France and of Cyprus. Lusignan presented him with a gold saltcellar of curious workmanship, and of the price of ten thousand ducats; and Charles VI despatched by the way of Hungary a cast of Norwegian hawks, and six horse loads of scarlet cloth, of fine linen of Rheims, and of Arras tapestry, representing the battles of the great Alexander. After much delay, the effect of distance rather than of art, Bajazet agreed to accept a ransom of two hundred thousand ducats for the count of Nevers and the surviving princes and barons: the marshal Boucicault, a famous warrior, was of the number of the fortunate; but the admiral of France had been slain in the battle; and the constable, with the sire de Coucy, died in the prison of Boursa This heavy demand, which was doubled by incidental costs, fell chiefly on the duke of Burgundy, or rather on his Flemish subjects, who were bound by the feudal laws to contribute for the knighthood and captivity of the eldest son of their lord. For the faithful discharge of the debt, some merchants of Genoa gave security to the amount of five times the sum; a lesson to those warlike times, that commerce and credit are the links of the society of nations. It had been stipulated in the treaty, that the French captives should swear never to bear arms 64 For this odious fact, the Abbé de Vertot quotes the Hist. Anonyme de St. Denys, l. xvi. c. 10, 11, (Odre de Malthe, tom. ii. p. 310.) against the person of their conqueror; but the ungenerous CHAP. restraint was abolished by Bajazet himself. "I despise," said LXIV. he to the heir of Burgundy, "thy oaths and thy arms. Thou art young, and mayest be ambitious of effacing the disgrace or misfortune of thy first chivalry. Assemble thy powers, proclaim thy design, and be assured that Bajazet will rejoice to meet thee a second time in the field of battle." Before their departure, they were indulged in the freedom and hospitality of the court of Boursa. The French princes admired the magnificence of the Ottoman, whose hunting and hawking equipage was composed of seven thousand huntsmen and seven thousand falconers.65 In their presence, and at his command, the belly of one of his chamberlains was cut open, on a complaint against him for drinking the goat's-milk of a poor woman. The strangers were astonished by this act of justice ; but it was the justice of a sultan who disdains to balance the weight of evidence, or to measure the degrees of guilt. ror Joha Palmologus, Jan. 8, After his enfranchisement from an oppressive guardian, The empe John Palæologus remained thirty-six years the helpless, and pl as it should seem, the careless, spectator of the public ruin.66 A. D. 1355, Love, or rather lust, was his only vigorous passion; aud in A. D. 1391. the embraces of the wives or virgins of the city, the Turkish slave forgot the dishonour of the emperor of the Romans. Andronicus, his eldest son, had formed, at Adrianople, an intimate and guilty friendship with Sauzes, the son of Amurath; and the two youths conspired against the authority and lives of their parents. The presence of Amurath in Europe soon discovered and dissipated their rash counsels; and, after depriving Sauzes of his sight, the Ottoman threatened his vassal with the treatment of an accomplice and an enemy, unless he inflicted a similar punishment on his own son. Palæologus trembled and obeyed; and a cruel precaution involved in the same sentence the childhood and innocence of John the son of the criminal. But the operation was so mildly, or so unskilfully performed, that the one retained the sight of an eye, and the other was afflicted only with the infirmity of squinting. Thus excluded from the succession, the two princes were piscord of confined in the tower of Anema; and the piety of Manuel, the second son of the reigning monarch, was rewarded with the gift of the Imperial crown. But at the end of two years, the turbulence of the Latins and the levity of the Greeks pro 65 Sherefeddin Ali (Hist. de Timour Bec, l. v. c. 13,) allows Bajazet a round number of 12,000 officers and servants of the chase. A part of his spoils was afterward displayed in a bunting-match of Timour: 1, hounds with satin housings; 2, leopards with collars set with jewels; 3, Grecian greyhounds; and, 4, dogs from Europe, as strong as African lions (idem, 1. vi. c. 15.) Bajazet was particularly fond of flying his hawks at cranes (Chalcondyles, l. ii. p. 35.) 66 For the reigns of John Palæologus and his son Manuel, from 1354 to 1402, see Ducas, c. 9-15. Phranza, l. i. c. 16-21, and the first and second books of Chalcondyles, whose proper subject is drowned in a sea of episode. the Greeks. CHAP. duced a revolution; and the two emperors were buried in the LXIV. tower from whence the two prisoners were exalted to the throne. Another period of two years afforded Palæologus and Manuel the means of escape: it was contrived by the magic or subtlety of a monk, who was alternately named the angel or the devil they fled to Scutari; their adherents armed in their cause; and the two Byzantine factions displayed the ambition and animosity with which Cesar and Pompey had disputed the empire of the world. The Roman world was now contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black Sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth; a space of ground not more extensive than the lesser principalities of Germany or Italy, if the remains of Constantinople had not still represented the wealth and populousness of a kingdom. To restore the public peace, it was found necessary to divide this fragment of the empire; and while Palæologus and Manuel were left in possession of the capital, almost all that lay without the walls was ceded to the blind princes, who fixed their residence at Rhodosta and Selybria. In the tranquil slumber of royalty, the passions of John Palæologus survived his reason and his strength; he deprived his favourite and heir of a blooming princess of Trebizond; and while the feeble emperor laboured to consummate his nuptials, Mauuel with a hundred of the noblest Greeks, was sent on a peremptory summons to the Ottoman porte. They served with honour in the wars of Bajazet; but a plan of fortifying Constantinople excited his jealousy he threatened their lives; the new-works were instantly demolished; and we shall bestow a praise, perhaps above the merit of Palæologus, if we impute this last humilia. tion as the cause of his death. 'The empo --1435. July 25. The earliest intelligence of that event was communicated to ror Manuel, Manuel, who escaped with speed and secrecy from the palace of Boursa to the Byzantine throne. Bajazet affected a proud indifference at the loss of this valuable pledge; and while he pursued his conquests in Europe and Asia, he left the emperor to struggle with his blind cousin John of Selybria, who, in eight years of civil war, asserted his right of primogeniture. At length the ambition of the victorious sultan pointed to the conquest of Constantinople; but he listened to the advice of his vizir, who represented, that such an enterprise might unite the powers of Christendom in a second and more formidable crusade. His epistle to the emperor was conceived in these Distress of Words: "By the divine clemency, our invincible scimitar has nople, reduced to our obedience almost all Asia, with many and large A1395 countries in Europe, excepting only the city of Constantino Constanti --102. ple; for beyond the walls thou hast nothing left. Resign that city; stipulate thy reward; or tremble for thyself and thy unhappy people, at the consequences of a rash refusal." But his ambassadors were instructed to soften their tone, and to propose a treaty, which was subscribed with submission and gratitude. A truce of ten years was purchased by an annual CHAP. tribute of thirty thousand crowns of gold; the Greeks deplored LXIV. the public toleration of the law of Mahomet, and Bajazet enjoyed the glory of establishing a Turkish cadi, and founding a royal mosque in the metropolis of the Eastern church.67 Yet this truce was soon violated by the restless sultan; in the cause of the prince of Selybria, the lawful emperor, an army of Ottomans again threatened Constantinople; and the distress of Manuel implored the protection of the king of France. His plaintive embassy obtained much pity and some relief; and the conduct of the succour was intrusted to the marshal Boucicault, whose religious chivalry was inflamed by the desire of revenging his captivity on the infidels. He sailed with four ships of war, from Aiguesmortes to the Hellespont; forced the passage, which was guarded by seventeen Turkish galleys; landed at Constantinople a supply of six hundred men at arms and sixteen hundred archers; and reviewed them in the adjacent plain, without condescending to number or array the multitude of Greeks. By his presence, the blockade was raised both by sea and land; the flying squadrons of Bajazet were driven to a more respectful distance; and several castles in Europe and Asia were stormed by the emperor and the marshal, who fought with equal valour by each other's side. But the Ottomans soon returned with an increase of numbers; and the intrepid Boucicault, after a year's struggle, resolved to evacuate a country, which could no longer afford either pay or provisions for his soldiers. The marshal offered to conduct Manuel to the French court, where he might solicit in person a supply of men and money; and advised in the meanwhile, that, to extinguish all domestic discord, he should leave his blind competitor on the throne. The proposal was embraced: the prince of Selybria was introduced to the capital; and such was the public misery, that the lot of the exile seemed more fortunate than that of the sovereign. Instead of applauding the success of his vassal, the Turkish sultan claimed the city as his own; and on the refusal of the emperor John, Constantinople was more closely pressed by the calamities of war and famine. Against such an enemy, prayers and resistance were alike unavailing; and the savage would have devoured his prey, if, in the fatal moment, he had not been overthrown by another savage, stronger than himself. By the victory of Timour or Tamerlane, the fall of Constantinople was delayed about fifty years; and this important, though accidental, service, may justly introduce the life and character of the Mogul conqueror. 67 Cantemir, p. 50-53. Of the Greeks, Ducas alone (c. 13. 15,) acknowledges the Turkish cadi at Constantinople. Yet even Ducas disseinbles the mosque. 68 Memoires du bon Messire Jean le Maingre, dit Boucicault, Maréchal de France, partic 1, c. 30--35. CHAP. LXV. Tamerlane. CHAPTER LXV. Elevation of Timour or Tamerlane to the Throne of SamarcandHis Conquests in Persia, Georgia, Tartary, Russia, India, Syria, and Anatolia-His Turkish War-Defeat and Captivity of Bajazet-Death of Timour-Civil War of the Sons of Bajazet Restoration of the Turkish Monarchy by Mahomet the First-Siege of Constantinople by Amurath the Second. THE conquest and monarchy of the world was the first object of the ambition of TIMOUR. To live in the memory and esteem of future ages was the second wish of his magnanimous Histories of spirit. All the civil and military transactions of his reign were Fimour, or diligently recorded in the journals of his secretaries: the authentic narrative was revised by the persons best informed of cach particular transaction; and it is believed in the empire and family of Timour, that the monarch himself composed the commentaries of his life, and the institutions3 of his government. But these cares were ineffectual for the preservation of his fame, and these precious memorials in the Mogul or Persian language were concealed from the world, or at least from the knowledge of Europe. The nations which he vanquished exercised a base and impotent revenge; and ignorance has long repeated the tale of calumny, which had dis 5 1 These journals were communicated to Sherefeddin, or Cherefeddin Ali, a native of Yezd, who composed in the Persian language a history of Timour Beg, which has been translated into French by M. Petis de la Croix (Paris, 1722, in 4 vols. 12mo.) and has always been my faithful guide. His geography and chronology are wonderfully accurate; and he may be trusted for public facts, though he servilely praises the virtue and fortune of the hero. Timour's attention to procure intelligence from his own and foreign countries, may be seen in the Institutions, p. 215. 217. 349. 351. 2 These Commentaries are yet unknown in Europe: but Mr. White gives some hope that they may be imported and translated by his friend Major Davy, who had read in the East this "minute and faithful narrative of an interesting and eventful period." 3 I am ignorant whether the original institution, in the Turkish or Mogul language, be still extant. The Persic version, with an English translation and a most valuable index, was published (Oxford, 1783, in 4to.) by the joint labours of Major Davy and Mr. White the Arabic professor. This work has been since translated from the Persic into French (Paris, 1787) by M. Langles, a learned Orientalist, who has added the life of Timour, and many curious notes. 4 Shaw Allum, the present Mogul, reads, values, but cannot imitate, the institutions of his great ancestor. The English translator relies on their internal evidence but if any suspicions should arise of fraud and fiction, they will not be dispelled by Major Davy's letter. The Orientals have never cultivated the art of criticism; the patronage of a prince, less honourable perhaps, is not less lucrative than that of a bookseller; nor can it be deemed incredible, that a Persian, the real author, should renounce the credit, to raise the value and price, of the work. 5 The original of the tale is found in the following work, which is much esteemed for its florid elegance of style: Ahmedis Arabsiada (Ahmed Ebn Arabshab) Vita et Rerum gestarum Timuri. Arabicæ et Latine, Edidit Samuel Henricus Manger. Franequera, 1767, 2 tom. in 4to. This Syrian author is ever a malicious, and often an ignorant, enemy: the very titles of his chapters are injn |