The Turkish vanguards soon swept away the towns and villages as far as the gates of the city and Mohammed and his army halted at the distance of five miles. Thence ordering the final disposition of his vast army he marched in battle array, planted the imperial standard before the gate of St. Romanus and on the 6th of April, 1453, formed the memorable siege of Constantinople.
The colossal cannon of Adrianople and some others of very great size were trained upon this single gate, while eighteen other batteries were placed in a continuous line along the main wall. On the morning of the 7th at break of day the fire opened from all these volcanoes and the first great siege conducted with the help of heavy artillery had begun.
The tactics of the Hungarian officer were first to batter over a large area the ramparts of the gate of St. Romanus and then to shatter the center with the fire of the great guns. The charge of the great cannon of Urban was five hundred pounds of powder—the ball like a mass of rock hurled from a crater on fire made the very ground tremble beneath the walls. The entire facings of the towers and the bastions crumbled into the moat.
Thus during ten days, while keeping his soldiers behind the eminences of the ground only as necessary to work the batteries, did Mohammed watch the breaches being made by the cannon of Urban in the walls, towers and gates of Constantinople. But two hours and tons of oil were scarce sufficient to cool the bronze gun, and only seven or eight shot could be discharged a day: but each of these rent the walls like an earthquake. On the tenth day the great gun burst with terrific force, hurling the dismembered bodies of its inventor and the gunners far over the walls into the doomed city.
Explaining the Inflammatory Placards.
Sapping and mining were now resorted to, and movable towers that could be pushed against the walls were provided, having grappling irons and drawbridges to let down upon the battlements, across which the fierce Janizaries could rush in hand to hand encounter with the defenders on or behind the ramparts.
The hope and heart of Constantine were cheered at last by the sight of an approaching squadron of fourteen sail—among them five stout and lofty ships guided by skillful pilots and manned by the veterans of Italy and Greece long practiced in the arts and perils of the sea. The Emperor however fearing to open the harbor of the Golden Horn to the fleet of Mohammed, kept his own ships safely anchored behind the chains that protected the harbor and left these ships to fight out the battle alone.
The ramparts, the camp, the coasts of Asia and Europe were lined with multitudes of spectators as these ships with joyful shouts sailed down upon the hostile fleet of three hundred vessels. Most of these however were huge boats crowded with troops but without artillery. Those who have in their eye the situation of city, harbor and shore, can easily conceive the scene and admire the grandeur of the spectacle.
On came the ships in proud defiance. Their artillery swept the waters. Bullets, rocks and Greek fire were showered from these floating fortresses upon the huge flat galleys of the Turks. The weight of the Venetian vessels crushed them like seashells beneath their planks. Wielding their helms and sails as skillfully as the Turks did their horses, they spread death, disorder and flight among the hostile fleet and strewed the two beaches of Asia and Europe with their wrecks that burned as they drifted to the shore.