OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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concluded; and the followers of Jesus and Ma- cf 4 i\hornet, who swore on the gospel and the koran,^ XV11,attested the word of God as the guardian oftruth and the avenger of perfidy. In the placeof the gospel, the Turkish ministers had pro-posed to substitute the eucharist, the real pre-sence of the catholic deity; but the Christians refused to profane their holy mysteries; and asuperstitious conscience is less forcibly boundby the spiritual energy, than by the outward andvisible symbols, of an oath. 2

During the whole transaction, the cardinal le-Violationgate had observed a sullen silence, unwilling to peace,approve, and unable to oppose, the consent of Al D ' l414-the king and people. But the diet was not dis-solved before Julian was fortified by the wel-come intelligence, that Anatolia was invaded bythe Caramanian, and Thrace by the Greek em-peror; that the fleets of Genoa, Venice, andBurgundy, were masters of the Hellespont ; andthat the allies, informed of the victory, and ig-norant of the treaty of Ladislaus , impatientlywaited for the return of his victorious army.

“ And is it thus,” exclaimed the cardinal, 2 “ that“ you will desert their expectations and your

1 See the origin of the Turkish war, and the first expedition of La-dislaus, in the fifth and sixth books of the third Decad of Bonfinius ,who, in his division and style, copies Livy with tolerable success.Callimachus (1. ii, p. 487-496) is still more pure and authentic.

a I do not pretend to warrant the literal accuracy of Julian’s speech,which is variously worded by Callimachus (1. iii, p. 505-507), Bonfi-nius (Dec. iii, 1. vi, p. 457, 458), and other historians, who might in-dulge llieir own eloquence, while they represent one of the orators ofthe age. But they all agree in the advice and arguments for perjury,which in the field of controversy are fiercely attacked by the protes-tauts, and feebly defended by the catholics. The latter are discou-raged by the misfortune of Warna .