OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

vian despot, had been honourably restored to herparents: on the fame of her beauty and merit,she was recommended by the ambassador as themost worthy object of the royal choice; andPhranza recapitulates and refutes the speciousobjections that might be raised against the pro-posal. The majesty of the purple would enno-ble an unequal alliance; the bar of affinity mightbe removed by liberal alms and the dispensationof the church; the disgrace of Turkish nuptialshad been repeatedly overlooked; and, thoughthe fair Maria was near fifty years of age, shemight yet hope to give an heir to the empire.Constantine listened to the advice, which wastransmitted in the first ship that sailed from Tre-bizond; but the factions of the court opposedhis marriage; and it was finally prevented by thepious vow of the sultana, who ended her daysin the monastic profession. Reduced to the firstalternative, the choice of Phranza was decidedin favour of a Georgian princess; and the vanityof her father was dazzled by the glorious alli-ance. Instead of demanding, according to theprimitive and national custom, a price for hisdaughter, 8 he offered a portion of fifty-six thou-sand, with an annual pension of five thousand,ducats; and the services of the ambassador wererepaid by an assurance, that as his son had beenadopted in baptism by the emperor, the establish-ment of his daughter should be the peculiar careof the empress of Constantinople . On the re-year 1424 It will not eaiily be believed,that in six-and-twenty yearscohabitation, the sultan corpus ejus non tetigit. After the taking ofConstantinople, she fled to Mahomet II . (Phranza, 1. iii, c. 22)

* The classical reader will recollect the offers of Agamemnon (Iliad ,i. y, 144), and the general practice of antiquity.

175

CHAP.

LXVII.