| Transcript |
60 CONSTANTINOPLE AND ITS ENVIRONS;
robbers. The usual legal process of inquiry was taken by the Austrian internuncio, and
the conclusion formed from the proceedings was, that the assassin was no other than the
voung Sultan himself, who had caused him and his attendant to be executed in the
palace of the Capitan Pasha, and the bodies laid where they were found; and the
property was not taken from them, that it might not be supposed they fell victims to
common assassins, but to that terrible, mysterious vengeance, which suffered no man to
escape that once excited it. The Turkish ministry, however, affected to believe it was
a common death by midnight murderers in a dangerous place; and to prevent the
recurrence of such accidents, a small edifice was built, and a guard established on the
spot, which yet remain, A guard-house here is not like one in Europe, from whence a
passenger is rudely repulsed. Beside it is a small caffinet, with benches, on which he is
invited to repose; and while he partakes of the refreshments offered him, some hoary-
headed sentinel enters into conversation with him, and tells him the melancholy fate of
Lorenzo the Hakim Bashi.
On the right of Cassim Pasha begin the suburbs of Piri Pasha, so called from a very
distinguished event in Turkish history. When the knights of the holy sepulchre were
driven from Palestine, they took refuge in the island of Rhodes, where they fortified
themselves, still lingering in the vicinity of that holy place, which they vainly attempted
to hold, and in the hope of keeping alive the expiring spark of Christianity in the Mast.
But Soliman the Magnificent was resolved to extinguish it utterly, and made stupendous
preparations to dislodge its gallant defenders from their last strong-hold. An army of
150,000 men was embarked in a fleet of 400 ships, and proceeded to exterminate this
devoted community, shut up on their insulated rock. The first notice they received of
their intended fate, was from fires lighted on the opposite coast of Lycia. A galley a
despatched, to ascertain the cause of these unusual beacons, when a packet was thrown
on board directed to the grand master. It was opened, and found to contain a summons
of unconditional submission, and the surrender of the place. To oppose the countless
multitudes who rushed to this unexpected attack, 6000 men alone were found on the
island, and they prepared to defend it. With incredible efforts they resisted every
assault, and the great Sultan himself, impatient of delay, hastened from Constantinople,
to animate his troops by his presence. It was fruitless. The assailants, under the eye
of their sovereign, were repulsed, leaving the bodies of 20,000 of their companions
weltering on the rocks. The commanders were deposed and punished, and the enraged
and disappointed Sultan conferred the whole direction of the siege on his favourite Piri
Pasha. He desisted from sanguinary and ineffectual assaults, and proceeded by sapping the fortress. The most distinguished engineers in Europe were invited by the magnificent Sultan, and the island was perforated by fifty-five mines, sufficient to blow the
fortress and the rock on which it stood, into the air; but they were met by counter-mines,
and harmlessly exploded. At length, worn out by famine and fatigue, exhausted but
not subdued, the gallant garrison were incapable of further resistance, and this handful of
Christians, the last and only valuable remnant of the insane Crusaders, retired to another
island, farther west, still destined for two centuries more to defend the cause of the Gospel |
