OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

153

tress and ardour of the Christians beyond the chap.Danube , who would unanimously rise to vindi- ,^*'**,cate their religion and liberty. The Greek em-peror, u with a spirit unknown to his fathers, en-gaged to guard the Bosphorus , and to sally fromConstantinople at the head of his national andmercenary troops. The sultan of Caramania*announced the retreat of Aniurath, and a power-ful diversion in the heart of Anatolia ; and if thefleets of the West could occupy at the same mo-ment the straits of the Hellespont , the Ottomanmonarchy would be dissevered and destroyed.

Heaven and earth must rejoice in the perditionof the miscreants; and the legate, with prudentambiguity, instilled the opinion of the invisible,perhaps the visible aid of the Son of God, andhis divine mother.

Of the Polish and Hungarian diets, a reli-Ladisiam,gious war was the unanimous cry; and Ladis-laus, after passing the Danube , led an army of IIlin « ar . v .his confederate subjects as far as Sophia, the againstcapital of the Bulgarian kingdom. In this ex-pedition they obtained two signal victories,which were justly ascribed to the valour andconduct of Huniades. In the first, with a van-guard of ten thousand men, he surprised theTurkish camp; in the second, he vanquished

* The Greek historians, Phranza, Chalcondyles , and Ducas, do notascribe to their prince a very active part in this crusade, which heseems to have promoted by his wishes, and injured by his fears.

1 Cantemir (p. 88) ascribes to his policy the original plan, and tran-scribes his animating epistle to the king of Hungary . But the Maho-metan powers are seldom informed of the state of Christendom; andthe situation and correspondence of the knights of Rhodes must con-nect them with the sultan of Caramania.