FOOTNOTES:
[163] M. du Cange says, that this chapter must be compared with Phrantzes.
This chapter, containing the hearsay account of transactions which took place at a considerable distance from the kingdom of France abounds, as it might be expected, with errors, the correction of which, as they occur, would be a task equally laborious and unprofitable. Whoever wishes to make himself acquainted with the details of the siege and capture of Constantinople by Mahomet II. may peruse the 68th chapter of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
[164] Morbesan. Mahomet II. son to Amurath or Morad II.
[165] Palendrins,—Palendric,—a flat boat.——Du Cange's Glossary.
[166] Sangombassa. Q.
[167] Melse Mondagarin. Q, the sea of Marmora?
[168] Albitangoth. Q.
[169] Colombassa. Q.
[170] Siglardy. Q.
[171] Galigaria. Q. Galata?
[172] 'Constantinople had long been aimed at by the turkish power; but the diversions formed by Huniades and George Castriot had retarded an event, which the effeminacy and profligacy of both rulers and people had rendered inevitable. Constantine Drakoses, the last emperor, merited a better fate, if there could be a better, than dying for his country. When he found Mohammed determined to besiege his city, he raised what force he could, which amounted to no more than three or four thousand men; nor could the imperial treasury afford to continue in its pay a celebrated german engineer, who, on his stipend being lessened, went in disgust to the Turks, and cast those immense pieces of cannon which are still the wonder of the Dardanelles.
'To Giustiniani, a Genoese, who, with five hundred men, came to defend the city, Constantine gave the chief command, promising to make him prince of Lemnos if he drove off the Turks. Meanwhile the citizens sat like ideots determined to suffer the extremities of war, and expose their wives and children to violation and slaughter, rather than support an emperor who they knew wished to unite the greek with the latin church.
'Mohammed had four hundred thousand men in arms around the city; but though his fleet was large, he could not approach the walls by the harbour, and had even been witness to the success of five ships from Genoa, who had forced their way through his numerous navy. To remedy this, he contrived by engines, and an immense strength of hands, to draw a vast detachment of galleys over a peninsula into the harbour, and then the blockade was complete. The cannoneers, too, of the Turks were instructed by an hungarian ambassador (moved by a foolish prophecy that Christendom would never thrive until Constantinople was taken,) how to do the most damage to the old and ruinous fortifications of the devoted city.
'When all was ready for an assault, Mohammed sent to offer lives, liberty, and goods, to the emperor and people, with settlements in Greece, if they would give up the place,—but in vain. The Turks were at first gallantly repulsed, Constantine defending the breach, and Giustiniani bravely seconding his efforts: unhappily the latter being seized with a panic, on receiving a slight wound, and quitting his post, the Italians, who were the strength of the besieged, followed, and the enemy burst in with hardly any opposition. The wretched emperor saw that all was lost,—and was only heard to say, 'Alas! is no Christian here to strike off my head?' A Turk performed that office; and Mohammed with his army rushing in, every bar to slaughter, rapine, and violence, gave way.
'Meanwhile numbers of the Greeks stood calmly around the church of Santa Sophia, while others coolly employed themselves in a solemn procession, deluded by a fanatic, who had foretold, that as soon as the infidels should force their way to a certain part of Europe, and enriched every province, but particularly Italy, with their science.
'The whimsically superstitious are fond of a silly remark, that as the western empire began and ended with an Augustus so did that of the east begin and end with a Constantine; but a much more useful speculation from the dreadful fate of this metropolis, and still more from that of Rome in 1527, presents itself to the rich and indolent citizen, viz. that opulence, far from securing its owners, only holds out a bait to the destroyer; and that no wealthy city should think itself secure without union, good government, and military exertions, among its inhabitants.'
Andrews' Hist. of Great Britain.
[173] Totaldi. Q.
[174] John la Rendour. Q. Giacopo Loredan? He sailed from Venice with only five galleys, and was to take up five more in the ports of Dalmatia and Candia.
Storia della Repubblica di Venezia.—Laugier.—Tom. vii. p. 63.
[175] Megara. This must be a mistake: indeed, the whole chapter is exceedingly confused.
[176] Sagripoch. Q.
[177] John Waiwoda. Q.