In golden arms spurs a Tartarian barb
Into the gap, and with his iron mace
Directs the torrent of that tide of men.
And seems—he is—Mohamet.
[54] According to the eminent Austrian historian, Von Hammer-Purgstall, the city sustained, from the time of its foundation until its capture by Mohammed II, no fewer than twenty-nine sieges. Histoire de l’Empire Ottoman, Tom. II, pp. 428, 521–523 (Paris, 1835).
[55] Op. cit. p. 251.
According to Augier de Busbecq, the scholarly Flemish diplomat, who, in the middle of the sixteenth century, spent eight years at the Ottoman Court, Constantinople “is a city which nature herself has designed to be the mistress of the world. It stands in Europe, looks upon Asia, and is within reach by sea of Egypt and the Levant on the south and the Black Sea and its European and Asiatic shores on the north.” Letters, Vol. I, p. 123 (trans. by D. Forster, Paris, 1881).
[56] Frederic Harrison, The Fortnightly Review, June, 1919, pp. 840, 841.
[57] Became a Greek by ceding to the Pastor. Paradiso, XX, 57.
[58] Frederic Harrison, The Fortnightly Review, April, 1894, pp. 439, 440.