| Transcript |
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE. XV ^ V
battering cannon, capable of projecting balls of 800 pounds weight, which have been
the wonder and terror of future ages. They still lie at the fortresses which line the
Dardanelles; and the English fleet, under Admiral Duckworth, in modern times,
experienced their tremendous efficacy.
The Greek empire, at this time, was confined to a limited space. The emperor Atha-
nasius had, some years before, betrayed his weakness by his apprehension. A rude and
fierce people from the shores of the Volga, and thence called Bolgarians, had crossed the
Balkan mountains, and carried their inroads to the walls of the city. As a protection
against their incursions, a wall was commenced at Derkon on the Euxine, and continued
across the peninsula to Heraclea, on the Propontis, enclosing an area of about 140 miles
in circumference, called " the Delta of Thrace," and beyond which the feeble Byzantine
power could hardly be said to extend. The Turks trampled it down, and, to cut off
all communication by sea, seized upon and rebuilt the castles of the Bosphorus,
and then beleaguered the city with an army of 200,000 men. Where were now the
fanatics of the Cross, to uphold it in its utmost need ? they were applied to, and they
affected to sympathize with their brethren in the East; but not one came to support this
great bulwark of that faith, which the Osmanli had every where suppressed, to establish
the intolerant creed of the Koran. The sovereign pontiff had predicted the fall of the
heretic Eastern church, and withheld his aid till his predictions were accomplished. The
whole force, therefore, to defend the walls, a circuit of twelve miles, and oppose the
countless numbers that surrounded them, was 8000 men.
The invincible courage of this handful of Christians repulsed the Turks in all
their fierce assaults. The fortifications on the land-side were formed of a double
wall, with an interval between. In vain did the enormous artillery of Mahomet batter
large breaches in the outside; there was still another, to which the defenders retired,
and from which they could not be dislodged; and after fruitless attempts to penetrate
this last retreat, Mahomet was about to abandon the siege in despair, when he
thought of an expedient as incredible as apparently hopeless. The city had been
defended on the sea-side by a series of iron chains, drawn across the mouth of the
harbour, which effectually excluded the Turkish fleet. He now conceived the idea
of conveying his ships by land, from the Bosphorus, across the peninsula; and this he
effected. Having prepared every thing, as soon as it was dark his machinery was laid—
the ships were hauled up the valley of Dolma-Bactche and across the ridge which
separated it from the harbour; and the next morning the astonished Greeks, instead of
their own, beheld the Turkish fleet under their walls. A general assault was now commenced on all sides, the good and gallant Palaeologus, the last and best of the Greek
emperors, was killed in one of the breaches, and the Turks poured in over his body.
The Greeks now rushed in despair to the church of Saint Sophia. They were here
assured that an angel would descend from heaven with a sword, and expel their enemies
from the city, and they waited for the promised deliverance; but the Turks, armed
with axes, battered down the outer gates, and rushed in among the infatuated multitude.
The city was given up to plunder, and those who escaped the carnage were sold
as slaves. Among them were 60,000 of the first families—females distinguished |
