OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

53

into Georgia the sword of persecution, and re-spected the holy warfare of Bajazet, was not dis-posed to pity or succour the idolaters of Europe .The Tartar followed the impulse of ambition;and the deliverance of Constantinople was theaccidental consequence. When Manuel abdica-ted the government, it was his prayer , rather thanhis hope, that the ruin of the church and statemight be delayed beyond his unhappy days; andafter his return from a western pilgrimage, he ex-pected every hour the news of the sad catas-trophe. On a sudden, he was astonished and re-joiced by the intelligence of the retreat, the over-throw, and the captivity of the Ottoman. Ma-nuel 1 immediately sailed from Modon in the Mo-rea; ascended the throne of Constantinople ; anddismissed his blind competitor to an easy exilein the isle of Lesbos . The ambassadors of theson of Bajazet were soon introduced to his pre-sence; but their pride was fallen, their tone wasmodest; they were awed by the just apprehen-sion, lest the Greeks should open to the Mogulsthe gates of Europe . Soliman saluted the em-peror by the name of father; solicited at hishands the government or gift of Romania ; andpromised to deserve his favour by inviolablefriendship, and the restitution of Thessalonica ,

edition), that lover of exotic virtue. After the conquest of Russia , &c.and the passage of the Danube, his Tartar hero relieves,visits, admires,and refuses, the city of Constantine. His flattering pencil deviates inevery line from the truth of history *, yet his pleasing fictions are moreexcusable than the gross errors of Cantemir' For the reigns of Manuel and John, of Mahomet I, and Amurath 1%see the Othman history of Cantemir (p. 70 95), and the three Greeks,Chalcondyles, Phranea, and Ducas, who is still snpeiior to his rivals.

CHAP.

LXV.