first apprehension of a siege, Constantine had negotiated, in the
isles of the Archipelago, the Morea, and Sicily, the most indispensable
supplies. As early as the beginning of April, five [42] great ships,
equipped for merchandise and war, would have sailed from the harbor of
Chios, had not the wind blown obstinately from the north. [43] One of
these ships bore the Imperial flag; the remaining four belonged to the
Genoese; and they were laden with wheat and barley, with wine, oil, and
vegetables, and, above all, with soldiers and mariners for the service
of the capital. After a tedious delay, a gentle breeze, and, on the
second day, a strong gale from the south, carried them through the
Hellespont and the Propontis: but the city was already invested by sea
and land; and the Turkish fleet, at the entrance of the Bosphorus, was
stretched from shore to shore, in the form of a crescent, to intercept,
or at least to repel, these bold auxiliaries. The reader who has present
to his mind the geographical picture of Constantinople, will conceive
and admire the greatness of the spectacle. The five Christian ships
continued to advance with joyful shouts, and a full press both of sails
and oars, against a hostile fleet of three hundred vessels; and the
rampart, the camp, the coasts of Europe and Asia, were lined with
innumerable spectators, who anxiously awaited the event of this
momentous succor. At the first view that event could not appear
doubtful; the superiority of the Moslems was beyond all measure or
account: and, in a calm, their numbers and valor must inevitably have
prevailed. But their hasty and imperfect navy had been created, not by
the genius of the people, but by the will of the sultan: in the height
of their prosperity, the Turks have acknowledged, that if God had given
them the earth, he had left the sea to the infidels; [44] and a series of
defeats, a rapid progress of decay, has established the truth of their
modest confession. Except eighteen galleys of some force, the rest of
their fleet consisted of open boats, rudely constructed and awkwardly
managed, crowded with troops, and destitute of cannon; and since courage
arises in a great measure from the consciousness of strength, the
bravest of the Janizaries might tremble on a new element. In the
Christian squadron, five stout and lofty ships were guided by skilful
pilots, and manned with the veterans of Italy and Greece, long practised
in the arts and perils of the sea. Their weight was directed to sink or
scatter the weak obstacles that impeded their passage: their artillery
swept the waters: their liquid fire was poured on the heads of the
adversaries, who, with the design of boarding, presumed to approach
them; and the winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest
navigators. In this conflict, the Imperial vessel, which had been almost
overpowered, was rescued by the Genoese; but the Turks, in a distant
and closer attack, were twice repulsed with considerable loss. Mahomet
himself sat on horseback on the beach to encourage their valor by his
voice and presence, by the promise of reward, and by fear more potent
than the fear of the enemy. The passions of his soul, and even
the gestures of his body, [45] seemed to imitate the actions of the
combatants; and, as if he had been the lord of nature, he spurred
his horse with a fearless and impotent effort into the sea. His loud
reproaches, and the clamors of the camp, urged the Ottomans to a third
attack, more fatal and bloody than the two former; and I must repeat,
though I cannot credit, the evidence of Phranza, who affirms, from their
own mouth, that they lost above twelve thousand men in the slaughter of
the day. They fled in disorder to the shores of Europe and Asia,
while the Christian squadron, triumphant and unhurt, steered along the
Bosphorus, and securely anchored within the chain of the harbor. In the
confidence of victory, they boasted that the whole Turkish power must
have yielded to their arms; but the admiral, or captain bashaw, found
some consolation for a painful wound in his eye, by representing that
accident as the cause of his defeat. Balthi Ogli was a renegade of the
race of the Bulgarian princes: his military character was tainted with
the unpopular vice of avarice; and under the despotism of the prince or
people, misfortune is a sufficient evidence of guilt. [451] His rank and
services were annihilated by the displeasure of Mahomet. In the royal
presence, the captain bashaw was extended on the ground by four slaves,
and received one hundred strokes with a golden rod: [46] his death had
been pronounced; and he adored the clemency of the sultan, who was
satisfied with the milder punishment of confiscation and exile. The
introduction of this supply revived the hopes of the Greeks, and accused
the supineness of their Western allies. Amidst the deserts of Anatolia
and the rocks of Palestine, the millions of the crusades had buried
themselves in a voluntary and inevitable grave; but the situation of
the Imperial city was strong against her enemies, and accessible to her
friends; and a rational and moderate armament of the marine states might
have saved the relics of the Roman name, and maintained a Christian
fortress in the heart of the Ottoman empire. Yet this was the sole and
feeble attempt for the deliverance of Constantinople: the more distant
powers were insensible of its danger; and the ambassador of Hungary, or
at least of Huniades, resided in the Turkish camp, to remove the fears,
and to direct the operations, of the sultan. [47]
[Footnote 42: It is singular that the Greeks should not agree in the
number of these illustrious vessels; the _five_ of Ducas, the _four_of
Phranza and Leonardus, and the _two_ of Chalcondyles, must be extended
to the smaller, or confined to the larger, size. Voltaire, in giving one
of these ships to Frederic III., confounds the emperors of the East and
West.]
[Footnote 43: In bold defiance, or rather in gross ignorance, of
language and geography, the president Cousin detains them in Chios with
a south, and wafts them to Constantinople with a north, wind.]
[Footnote 44: The perpetual decay and weakness of the Turkish navy
may be observed in Ricaut, (State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 372--378,)
Thevenot, (Voyages, P. i. p. 229--242, and Tott), (MÈmoires, tom. iii;)
the last of whom is always solicitous to amuse and amaze his reader.]
[Footnote 45: I must confess that I have before my eyes the living
picture which Thucydides (l. vii. c. 71) has drawn of the passions and
gestures of the Athenians in a naval engagement in the great harbor of
Syracuse.]
[Footnote 451: According to Ducas, one of the Afabi beat out his eye with
a stone Compare Von Hammer.--M.]
[Footnote 46: According to the exaggeration or corrupt text of Ducas,
(c. 38,) this golden bar was of the enormous or incredible weight of 500
librÊ, or pounds. Bouillaud's reading of 500 drachms, or five pounds,
is sufficient to exercise the arm of Mahomet, and bruise the back of his
admiral.]
[Footnote 47: Ducas, who confesses himself ill informed of the affairs
of Hungary assigns a motive of superstition, a fatal belief that
Constantinople would be the term of the Turkish conquests. See Phranza
(l. iii. c. 20) and Spondanus.]
It was difficult for the Greeks to penetrate the secret of the divan;
yet the Greeks are persuaded, that a resistance so obstinate and
surprising, had fatigued the perseverance of Mahomet. He began to
meditate a retreat; and the siege would have been speedily raised,
if the ambition and jealousy of the second vizier had not opposed
the perfidious advice of Calil Bashaw, who still maintained a secret
correspondence with the Byzantine court. The reduction of the city
appeared to be hopeless, unless a double attack could be made from the
harbor as well as from the land; but the harbor was inaccessible: an
impenetrable chain was now defended by eight large ships, more than
twenty of a smaller size, with several galleys and sloops; and, instead
of forcing this barrier, the Turks might apprehend a naval sally, and
a second encounter in the open sea. In this perplexity, the genius of
Mahomet conceived and executed a plan of a bold and marvellous cast, of
transporting by land his lighter vessels and military stores from the
Bosphorus into the higher part of the harbor. The distance is about ten
[471] miles; the ground is uneven, and was overspread with thickets; and,
as the road must be opened behind the suburb of Galata, their free
passage or total destruction must depend on the option of the Genoese.
But these selfish merchants were ambitious of the favor of being the
last devoured; and the deficiency of art was supplied by the strength
of obedient myriads. A level way was covered with a broad platform of
strong and solid planks; and to render them more slippery and smooth,
they were anointed with the fat of sheep and oxen. Fourscore light
galleys and brigantines, of fifty and thirty oars, were disembarked
on the Bosphorus shore; arranged successively on rollers; and drawn
forwards by the power of men and pulleys. Two guides or pilots were
stationed at the helm, and the prow, of each vessel: the sails
were unfurled to the winds; and the labor was cheered by song and
acclamation. In the course of a single night, this Turkish fleet
painfully climbed the hill, steered over the plain, and was launched
from the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbor, far above the
molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. The real importance of
this operation was magnified by the consternation and confidence which
it inspired: but the notorious, unquestionable fact was displayed before
the eyes, and is recorded by the pens, of the two nations. [48] A similar
stratagem had been repeatedly practised by the ancients; [49] the Ottoman
galleys (I must again repeat) should be considered as large boats; and,
if we compare the magnitude and the distance, the obstacles and the
means, the boasted miracle [50] has perhaps been equalled by the industry
of our own times. [51] As soon as Mahomet had occupied the upper harbor
with a fleet and army, he constructed, in the narrowest part, a bridge,
or rather mole, of fifty cubits in breadth, and one hundred in length:
it was formed of casks and hogsheads; joined with rafters, linked
with iron, and covered with a solid floor. On this floating battery he
planted one of his largest cannon, while the fourscore galleys, with
troops and scaling ladders, approached the most accessible side, which
had formerly been stormed by the Latin conquerors. The indolence of the
Christians has been accused for not destroying these unfinished works;
[511] but their fire, by a superior fire, was controlled and silenced; nor
were they wanting in a nocturnal attempt to burn the vessels as well as
the bridge of the sultan. His vigilance prevented their approach; their
foremost galiots were sunk or taken; forty youths, the bravest of Italy
and Greece, were inhumanly massacred at his command; nor could the
emperor's grief be assuaged by the just though cruel retaliation, of
exposing from the walls the heads of two hundred and sixty Mussulman
captives. After a siege of forty days, the fate of Constantinople could
no longer be averted. The diminutive garrison was exhausted by a double
attack: the fortifications, which had stood for ages against hostile
violence, were dismantled on all sides by the Ottoman cannon: many
breaches were opened; and near the gate of St. Romanus, four towers
had been levelled with the ground. For the payment of his feeble and
mutinous troops, Constantine was compelled to despoil the churches with
the promise of a fourfold restitution; and his sacrilege offered a new
reproach to the enemies of the union. A spirit of discord impaired the
remnant of the Christian strength; the Genoese and Venetian auxiliaries
asserted the preeminence of their respective service; and Justiniani
and the great duke, whose ambition was not extinguished by the common
danger, accused each other of treachery and cowardice.
[Footnote 471: Six miles. Von Hammer.--M.]?
[Footnote 48: The unanimous testimony of the four Greeks is confirmed by
Cantemir (p. 96) from the Turkish annals; but I could wish to contract
the distance of _ten_ * miles, and to prolong the term of _one_ night.
Note: Six miles. Von Hammer.--M.]
[Footnote 49: Phranza relates two examples of a similar transportation
over the six miles of the Isthmus of Corinth; the one fabulous, of
Augustus after the battle of Actium; the other true, of Nicetas, a
Greek general in the xth century. To these he might have added a bold
enterprise of Hannibal, to introduce his vessels into the harbor of
Tarentum, (Polybius, l. viii. p. 749, edit. Gronov. *
Note: Von Hammer gives a longer list of such transportations, p. 533.
Dion Cassius distinctly relates the occurrence treated as fabulous by
Gibbon.--M.]
[Footnote 50: A Greek of Candia, who had served the Venetians in a
similar undertaking, (Spond. A.D. 1438, No. 37,) might possibly be the
adviser and agent of Mahomet.]
[Footnote 51: I particularly allude to our own embarkations on the
lakes of Canada in the years 1776 and 1777, so great in the labor, so
fruitless in the event.]
[Footnote 511: They were betrayed, according to some accounts, by the
Genoese of Galata. Von Hammer, p. 536.--M.]
During the siege of Constantinople, the words of peace and capitulation
had been sometimes pronounced; and several embassies had passed between
the camp and the city. [52] The Greek emperor was humbled by adversity;
and would have yielded to any terms compatible with religion and
royalty. The Turkish sultan was desirous of sparing the blood of his
soldiers; still more desirous of securing for his own use the Byzantine
treasures: and he accomplished a sacred duty in presenting to the
_Gabours_ the choice of circumcision, of tribute, or of death. The
avarice of Mahomet might have been satisfied with an annual sum of one
hundred thousand ducats; but his ambition grasped the capital of the
East: to the prince he offered a rich equivalent, to the people a free
toleration, or a safe departure: but after some fruitless treaty, he
declared his resolution of finding either a throne, or a grave, under
the walls of Constantinople. A sense of honor, and the fear of universal
reproach, forbade PalÊologus to resign the city into the hands of
the Ottomans; and he determined to abide the last extremities of war.
Several days were employed by the sultan in the preparations of the
assault; and a respite was granted by his favorite science of astrology,
which had fixed on the twenty-ninth of May, as the fortunate and fatal
hour. On the evening of the twenty-seventh, he issued his final orders;
assembled in his presence the military chiefs, and dispersed his heralds
through the camp to proclaim the duty, and the motives, of the perilous
enterprise. Fear is the first principle of a despotic government; and
his menaces were expressed in the Oriental style, that the fugitives and
deserters, had they the wings of a bird, [53] should not escape from his
inexorable justice. The greatest part of his bashaws and Janizaries were
the offspring of Christian parents: but the glories of the Turkish name
were perpetuated by successive adoption; and in the gradual change of
individuals, the spirit of a legion, a regiment, or an _oda_, is kept
alive by imitation and discipline. In this holy warfare, the Moslems
were exhorted to purify their minds with prayer, their bodies with seven
ablutions; and to abstain from food till the close of the ensuing day. A
crowd of dervises visited the tents, to instil the desire of martyrdom,
and the assurance of spending an immortal youth amidst the rivers and
gardens of paradise, and in the embraces of the black-eyed virgins.
Yet Mahomet principally trusted to the efficacy of temporal and visible
rewards. A double pay was promised to the victorious troops: "The city
and the buildings," said Mahomet, "are mine; but I resign to your valor
the captives and the spoil, the treasures of gold and beauty; be rich
and be happy. Many are the provinces of my empire: the intrepid soldier
who first ascends the walls of Constantinople shall be rewarded with
the government of the fairest and most wealthy; and my gratitude shall
accumulate his honors and fortunes above the measure of his own hopes."
Such various and potent motives diffused among the Turks a general
ardor, regardless of life and impatient for action: the camp reechoed
with the Moslem shouts of "God is God: there is but one God, and Mahomet
is the apostle of God;" [54] and the sea and land, from Galata to the
seven towers, were illuminated by the blaze of their nocturnal fires. [541]
[Footnote 52: Chalcondyles and Ducas differ in the time and
circumstances of the negotiation; and as it was neither glorious nor
salutary, the faithful Phranza spares his prince even the thought of a
surrender.]
[Footnote 53: These wings (Chalcondyles, l. viii. p. 208) are no more
than an Oriental figure: but in the tragedy of Irene, Mahomet's passion
soars above sense and reason:--
Should the fierce North, upon his frozen wings.
Bear him aloft above the wondering clouds,
And seat him in the Pleiads' golden chariot--
Then should my fury drag him down to tortures.
Besides the extravagance of the rant, I must observe, 1. That the
operation of the winds must be confined to the _lower_ region of the
air. 2. That the name, etymology, and fable of the Pleiads are purely
Greek, (Scholiast ad Homer, S. 686. Eudocia in Ioni‚, p. 399. Apollodor.
l. iii. c. 10. Heyne, p. 229, Not. 682,) and had no affinity with the
astronomy of the East, (Hyde ad Ulugbeg, Tabul. in Syntagma Dissert.
tom. i. p. 40, 42. Goguet, Origine des Arts, &c., tom. vi. p. 73--78.
Gebelin, Hist. du Calendrier, p. 73,) which Mahomet had studied. 3. The
golden chariot does not exist either in science or fiction; but I much
fear Dr. Johnson has confounded the Pleiads with the great bear or
wagon, the zodiac with a northern constellation:--
''Ark-on q' hn kai amaxan epiklhsin kaleouein. Il. S. 487.]
[Footnote 54: Phranza quarrels with these Moslem acclamations, not for
the name of God, but for that of the prophet: the pious zeal of Voltaire
is excessive, and even ridiculous.]
[Footnote 541: The picture is heightened by the addition of the wailing
cries of Kyris, which were heard from the dark interior of the city. Von
Hammer p. 539.--M.]
Far different was the state of the Christians; who, with loud and
impotent complaints, deplored the guilt, or the punishment, of their
sins. The celestial image of the Virgin had been exposed in solemn
procession; but their divine patroness was deaf to their entreaties:
they accused the obstinacy of the emperor for refusing a timely
surrender; anticipated the horrors of their fate; and sighed for the
repose and security of Turkish servitude. The noblest of the Greeks, and
the bravest of the allies, were summoned to the palace, to prepare them,
on the evening of the twenty-eighth, for the duties and dangers of the
general assault. The last speech of PalÊologus was the funeral oration
of the Roman empire: [55] he promised, he conjured, and he vainly
attempted to infuse the hope which was extinguished in his own mind. In
this world all was comfortless and gloomy; and neither the gospel nor
the church have proposed any conspicuous recompense to the heroes who
fall in the service of their country. But the example of their prince,
and the confinement of a siege, had armed these warriors with the
courage of despair, and the pathetic scene is described by the feelings
of the historian Phranza, who was himself present at this mournful
assembly. They wept, they embraced; regardless of their families and
fortunes, they devoted their lives; and each commander, departing to
his station, maintained all night a vigilant and anxious watch on the
rampart. The emperor, and some faithful companions, entered the dome of
St. Sophia, which in a few hours was to be converted into a mosque; and
devoutly received, with tears and prayers, the sacrament of the holy
communion. He reposed some moments in the palace, which resounded with
cries and lamentations; solicited the pardon of all whom he might have
injured; [56] and mounted on horseback to visit the guards, and explore
the motions of the enemy. The distress and fall of the last Constantine
are more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine CÊsars. [561]
[Footnote 55: I am afraid that this discourse was composed by Phranza
himself; and it smells so grossly of the sermon and the convent, that I
almost doubt whether it was pronounced by Constantine. Leonardus assigns
him another speech, in which he addresses himself more respectfully to
the Latin auxiliaries.]
[Footnote 56: This abasement, which devotion has sometimes extorted
from dying princes, is an improvement of the gospel doctrine of the
forgiveness of injuries: it is more easy to forgive 490 times, than once
to ask pardon of an inferior.]
[Footnote 561: Compare the very curious Armenian elegy on the fall of
Constantinople, translated by M. BorÈ, in the Journal Asiatique for
March, 1835; and by M. Brosset, in the new edition of Le Beau, (tom.
xxi. p. 308.) The author thus ends his poem: "I, Abraham, loaded with
sins, have composed this elegy with the most lively sorrow; for I have
seen Constantinople in the days of its glory."--M.]