Then, after flooding the immense ditch, he held a review in the Hippodrome, whence the several detachments marched to their stations.
Riding with his captains, and viewing the walls, now gay with banners and warlike tricking, Constantine took heart, and told how Amurath, the peerless warrior, had dashed his Janissaries against them, and rued the day.
"Is this boy Mahommed greater than his father?" he asked.
"God knows," Isidore responded, crossing himself breast and forehead.
And well content, the cavalcade repassed the ponderous Gate St. Romain. All that could be done had been done. There was nothing more but to wait.
CHAPTER VI
MAHOMMED AT THE GATE ST. ROMAIN
In the city April seemed to have borrowed from the delays of Mahommed; never month so slow in coming. At last, however, its first day, dulled by a sky all clouds, and with winds from the Balkans.
The inertness of the young Sultan was not from want of will or zeal. It took two months to drag his guns from Adrianople; but with them the army moved, and as it moved it took possession, or rather covered the land. At length, he too arrived, bringing, as it were, the month with him; and then he lost no more time.