LAST DAYS OF EMPIRE: SULTAN AGAIN HESITATES; MESSAGE INVITING
SURRENDER; TURKISH COUNCIL CALLED; DECIDES AGAINST RAISING
SIEGE; PROCLAMATION GRANTING THREE DAYS’ PLUNDER; SULTAN’S
FINAL PREPARATIONS; HIS ADDRESS TO THE PASHAS AND LAST ORDERS
TO GENERALS. PREPARATIONS IN CITY: RELIGIOUS PROCESSIONS:
CONSTANTINE’S ADDRESS TO LEADERS AND TO VENETIANS AND GENOESE;
LAST CHRISTIAN SERVICE IN ST. SOPHIA: DEFENDERS TAKE UP
THEIR FINAL STATIONS AT WALLS, AND CLOSE GATES BEHIND THEM:
EMPEROR’S LAST INSPECTION OF HIS FORCES.
[Sidenote: Last days.]
By May 25 it was well understood both by besiegers and besieged that
the crisis of the struggle had come and that a general attack by
land and sea and by all the forces which the sultan possessed was at
hand and would result in a contest which would probably decide the
fate of the city. Mahomet was able to choose his own time and make
characteristic preparations. The differences in the final preparations
of besiegers and besieged arose from two causes: first, from the
disparity in numbers between the huge host of the besiegers and the
small army defending the city; second, from the fact that the Turkish
army consisted exclusively of men, while the population of the city was
largely composed of women and children, of priests, monks, and nuns. On
one side was a large host without non-combatants; on the other a small
but valiant army worn out by wearisome work, unrelieved, and encumbered
with a great number of useless non-combatants. While the descriptions
of what was done during the last days by the besiegers give us mainly
military preparations with a day devoted to fasting and rest, those
of the besieged are crowded with accounts of religious processions,
of sensuous ceremonies, of penitents, of churches filled with people
endeavouring to appease the wrath of an offended God and beseeching the
aid of the Virgin and saints. But notwithstanding this colouring of the
conduct of the defenders--and it must always be remembered that the
descriptions are written by Churchmen--the soldiers were not unmindful
of their duty. Constantine and the leaders neglected no precautions for
defence, carefully noted that their orders were obeyed, and were now
engaged in making a final disposition of their small force. All had
their allotted task: even the women and children were called upon day
and night to aid in repairing the damage done by the guns; natives and
foreigners vied with each other in zeal for the defence.
Whether the leaders realised that their struggles were hopeless may
be doubted, though it is difficult to believe that they could feel
confidence in the result. It is certain that they all recognised
that the final struggle would be for life or death. The population
generally were buoyed up with the knowledge of the failure of the Turks
to capture the city in 1422, within the recollection of many of the
citizens, and possibly--though not, I think, to any great extent--by
the hope of miraculous intervention on their behalf. The faith which
accepted the legend of an advance being permitted as far as St. Sophia
and of an angel who would then descend and hand over the government of
the city to the emperor may have existed among the women and monks, but
it is not of the kind which soldiers, and still less even religious
military commanders, possess. The leaders, from the emperor downwards,
knew the weakness of the city, the insufficiency of men to defend
fourteen miles of walls, and the overwhelming superiority in numbers of
the Turkish army. The bad news brought on the 23rd by the brigantine
sent to search for the Venetian fleet had almost dispelled hope of
timely aid from the West, though many still clung to the belief that
they might welcome a few more Italians who were reported to have been
seen at Chios on their way to the capital.[368]
On Thursday, May 24, Barbaro notes that there were music and feasting
and other signs of rejoicing among the Turks because they had learned
that they were about to make a general attack.[369]
On the 25th and the 26th the great guns were constantly at work in the
Lycus valley and at the two other places already described. On the
evening, however, of the 26th, at one hour after sunset, the Turks made
a great illumination along the whole length of their line. Every tent
in the enemy’s camp could be seen. The fires were so great as to show
everything as clearly as if it were day. They lasted till midnight. The
shouts from the Turks rent the heavens. The archbishop states that a
Turkish edict or _Iradè_ had given notice that for three days praise
should be offered to God, but that on one day there should be fasting.
The illuminations in which the Turks indulged and the nightly feasting
are what take place usually during the month of Ramazan. But as this
was not Ramazan, every one rightly conjectured that they indicated that
the Turks had received the welcome news of a general and immediate
attack.
[Sidenote: Sultan hesitates to attack.]
Even, however, in these last days of the siege the sultan appears
to have seriously hesitated whether to make the attack or abandon
the attempt to capture the city. Many of the Turks really appear
to have lost heart. They had been seven weeks before the city and
had accomplished nothing. The pashas themselves were divided in
opinion. Various rumours were current in the camp which increased
their hesitation. Western Europe would not allow Constantinople to
be captured. The princes of the West were leagued together to drive
the Turks out of Europe. John Hunyadi, with a large force of infantry
and cavalry, was on his way to relieve the city.[370] A great fleet
prepared at the request and with the aid of the pope, the head of
Christendom, was on its way out, and its van had already been heard of
at Chios.[371] There were not wanting many in Mahomet’s camp who were
opposed to a continuation of the siege and who urged him to abandon it.
The sultan, according to Phrantzes, was influenced and depressed by the
rumours of the interference of Western Europe, especially by the news
of the arrival of a fleet at Chios,[372] by the want of success which
had so far attended his efforts to enter the city, by the stubbornness
of the defence and the strength of the walls, and, lastly, by omens
deduced from flashes of lightning which had played over the city, or
from some atmospheric effect which had lighted up the dome of St.
Sophia--omens which, at first interpreted as a sign of God’s vengeance
on the Constantinopolitans, were a little later construed by some of
the Turks to be a token that it was taken under Divine protection.[373]
[Sidenote: Sends Ismail to inquire as to possibility of surrender.]
It was probably in consequence of this depression that even at this
late stage Mahomet made one more effort to induce the Greeks to
surrender the city. A certain Ismail, the son of Alexander who had
obtained the rule over Sinope by accepting the suzerainty of the Turks,
came into the city at the request of the sultan and endeavoured to
persuade the Greeks to make terms. He spoke of his own influence with
Mahomet and promised, if they would appoint a messenger, to use it to
procure for him a favourable hearing. He declared that unless terms
were made the city would certainly be captured, the men killed, and
their wives and daughters sold as slaves.
Upon Ismail’s suggestion a messenger, but a man of no particular name
or family, went with Ismail to Mahomet. According to Chalcondylas, the
answer sent to the Greeks was that they should pay an annual tribute
of ten myriads or one hundred thousand gold bezants, and if this
condition were not accepted Mahomet would permit as an alternative that
all the inhabitants should leave the city, taking with them their own
property, with leave to go whither they wished. He would be content to
receive the deserted city. The Greeks, though with some difference of
opinion, decided that they could not and would not accept either of the
conditions offered. Possibly not a few of them were of the opinion of
Chalcondylas, that the offer was not serious on the sultan’s part--that
is, that he did not believe that there was any chance of its being
accepted--but that it was rather an attempt to learn what the feeling
was among the Greeks in regard to their chance of success. Mahomet had
nothing to lose by his offer. He knew that the inhabitants could not
pay the amount of tribute demanded. If, on the other hand, they had
been willing to desert the city in order to save their lives, he would
have gained an easy victory without bloodshed--a victory which he was
by no means certain he could gain after a general assault. If the story
of Chalcondylas is to be believed, then additional doubt is thrown on
the statement of Ducas that the emperor on a previous occasion had
voluntarily offered to pay any tribute which might be demanded. I
am disposed to give credence to Chalcondylas.[374] Ismail was a very
likely man to be employed by Mahomet. The sultan rightly judged that
the besieged would be willing to accept conditions, and would desire to
learn what his conditions were. The answer convinced him, however, that
his only chance of gaining the city was by fighting for it.[375]
On Friday, May 25, and Saturday the Turks continued their cannonading
against ‘our poor walls’ even harder than ever. Greeks and Italians
busied themselves in repairing the damages as fast as they were made,
and this in such good fashion, says Barbaro, that even after all that
the great guns could do ‘we made them as strong as they were at first.’
[Sidenote: Sultan calls council to consider desirability of raising
siege.]
Meantime it was necessary for the sultan to put an end to all
hesitation as to the commencement of the general attack. A council was
held for this purpose on Saturday the 26th or Sunday the 27th, in which
the arguments in favour of and against the siege were fully discussed.
Halil Pasha, the grand vizier and the man of greatest reputation,
declared himself in favour of abandoning it. He reminded his master
that he had always been opposed to it and had foretold failure from
the outset. The strong position of the city made it invincible, now
that the Latins were aiding the citizens. He urged that sooner or later
Christian kings and people would be provoked by its capture and would
intervene. The Genoese and Venetians, against their wish, would become
enemies of the Turks if the war went on. He therefore advised retreat
while this could be done in safety.[376] Halil Pasha’s rival and enemy
was the Albanian Zagan Pasha, who was next him in rank. While Halil
was always favourable to the Christians,[377] Zagan was their enemy.
Zagan, seeing the Sultan downcast at having to raise the siege, boldily
advocated an attack. He urged that the appearance of the light over
Hagia Sophia, which had been taken by some of the Turks to indicate
that the city was under divine protection, really meant that it would
be delivered into the sultan’s hands. He reminded his young master that
Alexander the Great had conquered the world with a much smaller army
than was now before the city. As to the coming of fleets from the West,
he neither believed nor feared it. The division among its princes would
bring anarchy into any fleet they might get together. There was and
could be no concert among them. Besides, even if such a fleet arrived,
there were three or four times as many Turks as any fleet could
bring. He recommended, therefore, that the attack should be pushed on
vigorously: that the cannons should be kept constantly going, so as to
make new breaches or widen those already made in the walls, and that
all thought of retreat should be abandoned. The younger members of
the council agreed with him, as did also the leader of the Thracian
troops--that is, the Bashi-bazouks--and strongly urged an attack. This
advice stiffened the sultan’s own determination. Mahomet ordered Zagan
Pasha to go himself that very night among the troops and learn what
was their mind on the subject.[378] Zagan obeyed the order, returned,
and reported that he had visited the army, which desired orders for
an immediate attack. He assured the sultan that he could fight with
confidence and be certain of victory.[379]
[Sidenote: Decides upon attack.]
Upon this report the sultan announced his intention to make a general
assault forthwith, and from this time devoted himself solely to
completing his final preparations.[380] He ordered that during the
following nights fires should be lighted and torches burned, that the
soldiers should fast during the following day, should go through their
ceremonial ablutions seven times and ask God’s aid in capturing the
city.
[Sidenote: Makes final arrangements for general attack.]
The sultan rose early on the morning of Sunday the 27th. He called
those in charge of the guns and ordered them to concentrate the fire
of their cannon against the walls of the stockade. He disposed his
bodyguard, according to the arms they carried, into regiments--some
of which contained upwards of a thousand men--and directed that when
the order was given they should be sent forward in succession; that
after one division had fought it should retire and rest while another
took its place. In so doing he intended that the general attack should
continue until it ended in victory without giving the besieged any time
for rest. It was perhaps the best way to take advantage of his enormous
superiority in numbers.
Then he visited the other troops from sea to sea, repeating his orders
to the leaders, encouraging all by his presence, and seeing that all
arrangements had been made as he had directed.
Mahomet sent a message to Galata insisting that the Genoese should
prevent help being sent clandestinely to the city.
[Sidenote: Proclaims three days of plunder.]
He caused his heralds to proclaim through the camp that his soldiers
would be allowed to sack the city during three days: to announce that
the sultan swore by the everlasting God, by the four thousand prophets,
by Mahomet, by the soul of his father, and by his children, that the
whole population, men, women, and children, all the treasure and
whatever was found in the city should be given up freely by him to his
warriors. The proclamation was received with tumultuous expressions of
triumph.[381] ‘If you had heard the shouts raised to heaven with the
cry, ‘There is one God, and Mahomet is his prophet,’ you would indeed
have marvelled,’ adds Leonard.
No attempt was made on the Saturday, Sunday, or Monday to capture the
city, but the guns were steadily pounding away during all these three
days.
On Sunday the great cannon fired three times at the stockade, and at
the third shot a portion of it came down. According to the Muscovite,
Justiniani was wounded by a splinter from the ball and had to be led
or carried into the city. He, however, recovered during the night and
superintended once more the repairs of the walls.[382]
On the Sunday also every Turk was busy in completing preparations for
the final attack.[383] Every man had been ordered under pain of death
to be at his post.
The Turks were observed to be fetching earth, crates of vine-cuttings
and other materials to level a passage across the foss, making
scaling-ladders, and generally to be bringing forward all the engines
for assault. When the sun set, fires and torches were lighted as on the
previous night. The illuminations were accompanied by such terrible
shouts that Barbaro, with not unnatural exaggeration, asserts that they
were heard across the Bosporus. The soldiers, in high spirits at the
thought of the coming attack, were once more feasting, after their
day’s fast. The besieged, hearing the shouts, the sound of the trumpets
and guitars, of pipes, fifes, and drums, and the usual din, ran to the
walls, for the illumination was so great that they were in hopes that
the fires were devouring tents and provisions; but, says Ducas, when
they recognised that there was no alarm among their enemies, they could
only pray to be delivered from the imminent danger. The illuminations
continued until midnight, and then, more suddenly than they had
appeared, the fires were extinguished and the camp was left in complete
obscurity.
The leaders on both sides had now but few final arrangements to
make for attack or for defence. The sultan, as usual, personally
superintended the making of those on the Turkish side.
On Monday morning Mahomet accompanied by a large following of horsemen,
which Barbaro estimates at about ten thousand, rode over to the
Double Columns and arranged for the co-operation of the fleet while
the general bombardment and attack were being made by the rest of his
forces.[384] Admiral Hamoud, the successor of Baltoglu, was to spread
out his ships on the Marmora side from St. Eugenius Gate to that of
Psamatia, to prepare to enter the city by scaling-ladders from the
ships, if entrance were possible, and at all events by his preparations
and feigned attacks to draw off as many men as possible from the
defence of the landward walls.[385]
Mahomet returned in the afternoon from the Double Columns. On the same
day, and possibly on his return, the sultan summoned to him the heads
of the Genoese community in Galata and confirmed the strict injunction
he had already given them that on no account were they to render aid to
the Greeks.[386]
[Sidenote: Mahomet addresses the pashas,]
After crossing the Golden Horn he once more rode along the whole line
of the walls from the Horn to the Marmora, to inspect his troops and
see that all was ready. He passed before his three great divisions:
Europeans, under Caraja; the select troops, including the Janissaries,
before the Myriandrion and the Mesoteichion, and the Asiatic division,
between Top Capou and the sea, each of about fifty thousand men, and
saw that all was ready. After having thus inspected his fleet and his
army, he summoned the pashas and chief military and naval officers once
more to his tent. Critobulus gives us an account of what was said which
probably represents fairly what passed. The decision was taken. The
city was to be attacked. Before the assault began it was necessary for
Mahomet to explain his plan of assault, give his final orders, and hold
out to his followers every possible inducement to fight bravely.
The sultan began by recalling to his hearers that in the city there
was an infinite amount and variety of wealth of all kinds--treasure
in the palaces and private houses, churches abounding in furniture of
silver, gold, and precious stones. All were to be theirs. There were
men of high rank and in great numbers who could be captured and sold as
slaves; there were great numbers of ladies of noble families, young and
beautiful, and a host of other women, who could either be sold or taken
into their harems. There were boys of good family. There were houses
and beautiful gardens. ‘I give you to-day,’ said Mahomet, ‘a grand and
populous city, the capital of the ancient Romans, the very summit of
splendour and of glory, which has become, so to say, the centre of the
world. I give it over for you to pillage, to seize its incalculable
treasures of men, women, and boys, and everything that adorns it. You
will henceforward live in great happiness and leave great wealth to
your children.’ The chief gain for all the sons of Othman would be the
conquest of a city whose fame was great throughout the whole world.
The greater its renown, the greater would be the glory of taking it
by assault. A great city which had always been their enemy, which had
always looked upon them with a hostile eye, which in every way had
sought to destroy the Turkish power, would come into their possession.
The door would be open to them by its capture to conquer the whole of
the Greek empire.
To this promise recorded by Critobulus may be added what is said by
the Turkish historian, that Mahomet urged that the capture would be
an augmentation of the glory of their faith, and that it was clearly
predicted in the ‘Sacred Traditions.’[387]
The sultan further urged them not to believe that capture was
impossible. You see, he remarked, that the foss is filled and that the
walls have been so destroyed by the guns in three places that they
may be crossed not only by infantry, but even by cavalry. They form
no longer an impregnable barrier, for the way has been made almost as
level as a race course.
He declared that he knew the defenders to be so weak that he believed
the reports of deserters who stated that there were only two or three
men to garrison each tower, so that a single man would have to defend
three or four crenellations; and the men themselves were ill-armed and
unskilled in warfare. They had been harassed day and night and were
worn out, were short of provisions, and could not maintain resistance
against a continuous attack. He had decided to employ the great number
of his followers in making a continuous assault, day and night,
sending up fresh detachments one after the other, until the enemy from
sheer weariness would be forced to yield or be incapable of further
resistance.
Mahomet pretended once more to be uncertain what the conduct of the
Italians would be during the coming assault. The cause was not theirs.
They would not sacrifice their lives where there was nothing to gain.
The mixed crowd, gathered from many places, had no intention of dying
for the city, and when they saw the waves of his men succeeding each
other at the attack they would throw down their arms and turn their
backs. Even if, from any cause, they did not run away, they were too
few to resist his army. The city, both by land and sea, was surrounded
as in a net and could not escape.
Mahomet concluded by urging all to fight valiantly, assuring his
hearers that he would be at their head and would see all that passed.
He finished his address by charging his hearers to return to their
posts, to order all under their commands to take food, and then to lie
down for a few hours’ rest. Silence was everywhere to be observed. They
were enjoined to draw up their men in battle array at an early hour in
the morning, and when they heard the sound of the trumpet summoning
them to battle and saw the standard unfurled, then ‘to the work in
hand.’
[Sidenote: and the leaders of divisions.]
The leaders of divisions remained, after the departure of the larger
assembly, in order to receive their final orders. Hamoud, with
his fleet, was to keep near the seaward walls and the archers and
fusiliers[388] should be so ready to shoot, that no man dare show his
head at the battlements. Zagan was to cross the bridge, and with the
ships in the harbour to attack the walls on the Golden Horn. Caraja was
to cross the foss--probably between Tekfour Serai and the Adrianople
Gate, where was one of the three roads that Mahomet had opened into the
city--and to try to capture the wall. Isaac and Mahmoud, at the head of
the Asiatic division, were charged to attempt the walls near the Third
Military Gate. Halil and Saraja, who were in command of the troops
encamped around the sultan, opposite the third and most important
breach--that, namely, at the Romanus Gate, defended by Justiniani--were
to follow the lead which the sultan would himself give them.
Having thus made his final dispositions, Mahomet dismissed his inner
council, and each leader went away to his own tent to sleep and await
the signal for attack.
The speech to his leaders, which I have summarised in the preceding
paragraphs from the report given by Critobulus,[389] is also recorded
by Phrantzes, though at much less length. He describes it as having
been made at sunset of the 28th,[390] and makes the sultan remind his
leaders, with the usual voluptuous details, of the glories of paradise
promised to the true believer who dies in battle.[391]
[Sidenote: Preparations within the city.]
Meanwhile, within the city preparation of a different kind had been
made. After the meeting of the council of Turkish nobles, the besieged,
who seem always to have been well informed of what went on in the
enemy’s camp, learned at once that it had been decided to make a
general assault forthwith. All day long during the last day of agony
the alarm bell was ringing to call men, women, and children to their
posts. Each man had his duty allotted to him for the morrow, while
even women and children were employed to carry up stones to the walls
to be hurled down upon the Turks.[392] The bailey of the Venetian
colony issued a final appeal, calling upon all his people to aid in
the defence, and urging them to fight and be ready to die for the
love of God, the defence of the country, and ‘per honor de tuta la
Christianitade.’ All honest men, says the Venetian diarist, obeyed the
bailey’s command, and the Venetians, besides aiding in the defence of
the walls, took charge of the ships in the harbour and were guardians
of the boom. Barbaro and his fellow citizens occupied the day in making
mantles for the protection of the soldiers upon the walls.
The silence during the Monday before the landward walls was more
impressive than the noise of previous warlike preparations. The Turks
were keeping their fast. Probably during the afternoon they were
allowed to sleep in order that they might be fresh for the attack on
the following morning, for, says Critobulus, the Romans were surprised
at the quietness in the camp. Various conclusions were drawn from the
silence. Some thought that the enemy was getting ready to go away;
others that preparations were being completed which were less noisy
than usual.[393]
The reader of the original narratives gets weary of the constant lament
of their authors over the sins of the people, the principal one, if the
writer is a Catholic, being the refusal to be sincerely reconciled with
Rome; if Orthodox, it is the neglect to give due honour to the saints.
The deprecation of ‘the just anger’ of God was on every one’s lips,
and priests of both Churches speak confidently as to the cause of this
anger. But assuredly, if the invocation of the celestial hierarchy were
ever desirable, it was so on this last evening of the existence of the
city as the Christian capital of the East.
[Sidenote: Last religious procession in city.]
A special solemn procession took place in the afternoon through the
streets of the city. Orthodox and Catholics, bishops and priests,
ordinary laymen, monks, women, children, and indeed every person whose
presence was not required at the walls, took part in it, joined in
every _Kyrie Eleeson_, and responded with the sincerity of despair to
prayers imploring God not to allow them to fall into the hands of the
enemy. The sacred eikons and relics were brought from the churches,
were taken to the neighbourhoods where the walls were most injured, and
paraded with the procession in the hope--to people of Northern climes
and the present century inexplicable and almost unthinkable--that their
display would avert the threatening danger.
It would be a mistake, however, to think that, because these
processions and the veneration of the sacred relics are alien to modern
modes of thought, they were not marked with true religious sentiment,
or even that they were useless. They encouraged the fighters to go more
bravely forth to battle against tremendous odds, and they comforted
both them and non-combatants with the assurance that God was on their
side. The archbishop concludes his account of this last religious
procession in the Christian city, on the eve of the great struggle, by
declaring that ‘we prayed that the Lord would not allow His inheritance
to be destroyed, that He would deign in this contest to stretch forth
His right hand to deliver His faithful people, that He would show that
He alone is God and that there is none else beside Him [no Allah of the
Moslems] and that He would fight for the Christians. And thus, placing
our sole hope in Him, comforted regarding what should happen on the day
appointed for battle, we waited for it with good courage.’
[Sidenote: Funeral oration of empire.]
When the procession had completed its journey, the emperor addressed a
gathering of the nobles and military leaders, Greeks and foreigners.
Phrantzes gives at considerable length the speech delivered by
Constantine. Gibbon, while describing it as ‘the funeral oration of
the Roman empire,’ suggests that the fullest version which exists of
it, that namely of Phrantzes, ‘smells so grossly of the sermon and the
convent’ as to make him doubt whether it was pronounced by the emperor.
We have, however, the other summary given by Archbishop Leonard, who
also was probably present. Each account is given in the pedantic form
which is characteristic of mediaeval churchmen, Greeks or Latins. The
reporter always seems to think it necessary to introduce classical
allusions, to enlarge on the religious aspect of the coming struggle,
and to report in the first person. But, bearing in mind this fashion
of the time, and recalling the fact that the accounts of Phrantzes and
the archbishop are independent, their records of the funeral oration
are substantially identical and do not vary more than would do two
independent reports written some months after the delivery of a speech
in our own time.
The emperor called attention to the impending assault, reminded his
hearers that it had always been held the duty of a citizen to be ready
to die either for his faith, his country, his sovereign, or his wife
and children, and pleaded that all these incentives to heroic sacrifice
were now combined. He dwelt upon the importance of the city and their
attachment to it. It was the city of refuge for all Christians, the
pride and joy of every Greek and of all who lived in Eastern lands. It
was the Queen of Cities, the city which in happier times had subdued
nearly all the lands under the sun. The enemy coveted it as his chief
prize. He had provoked the war. He had violated all his engagements in
order to obtain it. He wished to put the citizens under his yoke, to
take them as slaves, to convert the holy churches, where the divine
Trinity was adored and the most holy Godhead worshipped, into shrines
for his blasphemy, and to put the false prophet in the place of Christ.
He urged them as brothers and fellow soldiers to fight bravely in the
defence of all that was dear to them, to remember that they were the
descendants of the heroes of ancient Greece and Rome, and so to conduct
themselves that their memory should be as fragrant in the future as
that of their ancestors. He entrusted the city with confidence to their
care. For himself he was determined to die in its defence. He recalled
to them that he and they put their trust in God and not, as did their
enemy, in the multitude of his horsemen and his hordes.
Both the reporters of this speech state that Constantine concluded by
addressing the Venetians and Genoese separately, and, indeed, give the
substance of what he said. He recalled to each group their valiant
services and the aid they had rendered in times past and expressed his
confidence in their assistance on the morrow.
The emperor endeavoured to infuse hope and confidence into all the
leaders by pointing out that hitherto the defenders had been able to
hold the walls, that the invaders were like wild animals and fought
without intelligence, that the shouts, the fires, and the great noise
were a barbarous attempt to frighten them, but that, protected by
the walls, he and his people with their brave Italian allies would
be more than a match for the invaders. ‘Do not lose heart,’ said he,
‘but comfort yourselves with bright hopes, because, though few in
number, you are skilled in warfare; strong, brave and noble, and proved
in valour.’ He concluded by urging them once more to be daring and
steadfast, and promised that in such a cause, by the grace of God, they
would win.[394]
We have nothing to enable us to judge whether the emperor possessed the
power of utterance which at various periods in the world’s history has
enabled great soldiers to kindle the enthusiasm of their followers. If
ever occasion demanded such power, beyond doubt it was the present. One
advantage at least the orator possessed: he had an audience entirely in
sympathy with him. Whether he succeeded or not in inspiring them with
a confidence which he can hardly have himself felt may be doubted. But
that all were determined to follow the emperor and to sacrifice ‘wives
and children and their own lives’ in defence of him and their ancient
city is attested by both reporters. The leaders, after the fashion
still prevalent in Eastern Europe, embraced and asked forgiveness
of each other, as men who were ready to die, and, solemnly devoting
themselves to the cause of the emperor, repaired to the great church of
Hagia Sophia, ‘to strengthen themselves by prayer and the reception of
the Holy Mysteries, to confirm their vows to fight, and, if need be,
unmindful of all worldly interests, to die for the honour of God and of
Christianity.’
[Sidenote: Last Christian service in Hagia Sophia.]
The great ceremony of the evening and one that must always stand out
among the world’s historic spectacles was the last Christian service
held in the church of Holy Wisdom. The great church had not been
regularly used since the meeting of December 12, which had led to so
much heart-burning and ill-will. Now, at the moment of supreme danger
for Constantinople, the fairest monument of Eastern Christendom was
again opened. The emperor and such of the leaders as could be spared
were present and the building was once more and for the last time
crowded with Christian worshippers. It requires no great effort of
imagination to picture the scene. The interior of the church was the
most beautiful which Christian art had produced, and its beauty was
enhanced by its still gorgeous fittings. Patriarch and cardinal,
the crowd of ecclesiastics representing both the Eastern and Western
Churches; emperor and nobles, the last remnant of the once gorgeous
and brave Byzantine aristocracy; priests and soldiers intermingled,
Constantinopolitans, Venetians and Genoese, all were present, all
realising the peril before them, and feeling that in view of the
impending danger the rivalries which had occupied them for years were
too small to be worthy of thought. The emperor and his followers
partook together of ‘the undefiled and divine mysteries,’ and said
farewell to the patriarch. The ceremony was in reality a liturgy of
death. The empire was in its agony and it was fitting that the service
for its departing spirit should be thus publicly said in its most
beautiful church and before its last brave emperor. If the scene so
vividly described by Mr. Bryce of the coronation of Charles the Great
and the birth of an empire is among the most picturesque in history,
that of the last Christian service in St. Sophia is surely among the
most tragic.[395]
The solemn ceremony concluded, all went to take up their respective
stations. The Greeks, says Leonard, who is by no means a witness
partial to them, went to their posts strengthened in their manly
resolve to put aside all private interests and acted together for the
common safety steadily and cheerfully.
[Sidenote: Defenders close gates behind them.]
Italians and Greeks returned to their stations at the landward walls
for the defence of the Outer Wall and with the Inner Wall behind them.
In order to prevent any of their number withdrawing from the fight the
gates leading from the city into the Peribolos, where they stood, were
closed and locked. They thus voluntarily cut themselves off from all
chance of retreat. It was done, says Cambini the Florentine, writing
while the siege was within the memory of persons still living, so that
in taking from the defenders any means of retreat they should resolve
to conquer or die.[396]
During the night the defenders, and especially those between the
stockade and the Inner Wall, heard the noise of great preparations
among the enemy.
The emperor rode from Hagia Sophia to the palace of Blachern, which
he had occupied during all the time of the siege. Phrantzes, who was
in company with him, asks who could remain unmoved while the emperor
during his last and short stay in the palace demanded pardon of all
there present. ‘If a man had been made of wood or stone he must have
wept over the scene.’
Depression is naturally the constant note of all the narratives of
those present in the city during May 28. The Venetian closes the day’s
entry by recording in a quaint passage that the fasting and rejoicing
among the Turkish army went on until midnight, and that then the fires
were extinguished, but that these pagans all day and night continued
to beseech Mahomet that he would grant them victory and help them to
capture this city of Constantinople; ‘while we Christians all day
and night prayed God and St. Mary and all the saints in heaven and
with many tears devoutly besought them that they would not grant such
victory, that the besieged should not become victims of this accursed
pagan,’ and thus ‘each side having prayed to its God, we to ours and
they to theirs, the Lord Almighty with his mother in heaven decided
that they must be avenged in this battle of the morrow for all the sins
committed.’
[Sidenote: Emperor’s last inspection of defenders.]
Shortly after midnight of the 28th-29th the emperor, accompanied by
Phrantzes, left the palace of Blachern on horseback to inspect the
various stations and to see that all were on the watch. The walls and
towers were occupied; the gates from the city into the Peribolos were
safely closed, so that none might enter or leave.[397]
When they came to Caligaria,[398] probably on their return, they
dismounted. They went up together into a tower from which, assuming it
to be the one at the corner where the wall begins to descend towards
the Golden Horn, which would be that most suitable for their purpose,
they would have an uninterrupted view of the road and a considerable
stretch of ground on both sides of it leading to the Adrianople or
Chariseus Gate, while, looking in the other direction, they could see
the outside of a large portion of the walls towards the Golden Horn and
of the hill in front where the Crusaders had encamped in 1203 and near
or upon which Caraja was at the head of the Bashi-bazouks. They heard
the murmur of many voices and the noise of many preparations and were
told by the guards that these sounds had continued during all the night
and were caused by the transport of guns and other machines nearer to
the ditch.[399] It was probably between one and two of the morning of
the 29th when Phrantzes and his imperial master separated; and in all
likelihood they never met again.