[587] Phr., I. 14, p. 60; Chalc., II, p. 83; Ducas, 14, p. 53.
[588] Venice contemplated action against the Osmanlis with the aid of France, Hungary, and Genoa. Cf. Secr. Cons. Rog., E iii. 137-44.
[589] Epp., v. 26, 99, 293-5.
[590] Edition of Seville, 1582, fol. 16 v°-17 r°.
[591] My account of this expedition is taken from MS. Bibl. Nat., Paris, fonds fr., No. 11432, Livre des faicts du bon messire Jean le Maingre, dit Bouciquaut. For printed editions, see Bibliography.
[592] The chronicler makes the most astonishing assertions as to these raids, saying that the chevaliers reached Ak-Seraï! He evidently had no idea of local geography. I have been unable to identify several of the places mentioned.
[593] I have walked in one day from Riva to a point on the Bosphorus not many miles above Constantinople. When one reads the history of the Osmanlis in the country of their origin, the fact that from the very beginning of their history they were practically within sight of the imperial city is vividly impressed upon one.
[594] The Byzantine historians give little attention to Boucicaut, and are in contradiction with his chronicler on this point. Phr., 15, p. 61, says that John, who had been in the court of Bayezid, fled to his uncle because he had been slandered to Bayezid, and was afraid for his life; and Chalc., II, p. 84, that it was John who commanded the 10,000 Osmanlis against the city, and that Manuel shared the throne with him in order to save the city. Muralt, ii. 762, is a year in advance of the actual date.
[595] Chron. de Saint-Denis and Juvenal d’Ursins. But these are really the same source, according to Lacabane, Bibl. de l’École des Chartes, ii. 62.
[596] Foglieta and Stella, in Muralt, ii. 778, No. 61.