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THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP.LX VIII.
CHAP. LXVIII.
Reign and character of Mahomet the Second .—Siege, assaidt, and final conquest, of Constan-tinople by the Turks.—Death of ConstantineRalceologus.—Servitude of the Greeks. — Ex-tinction of the Roman empire in the East. — Con-sternation of Europe.—Conquests and death ofMahomet the Second.
THE siege of Constantinople by the Turks at-tracts our first attention to the person and cha-racter of the great destroyer. Mahomet the se-cond 1 was the son of the second Amurath; andthough his mother has been decorated with thetitles of Christian and princess, she is more pro-bably confounded with the numerous concubineswho peopled from every climate the harain of thesultan. His first education and sentiments werethose of a devout mussulman; and as often as heconversed with an infidel, he purified his handsand face by the legal rites of ablution. Age andempire appear to have relaxed this narrow bigo-try; his aspiring genius disdained to acknow-ledge a power above his own; and in his looser
* For the character of Mahomet II , it is dangerous to trust eitherthe Turks or the Christians. The most moderate picture appears to bedrawn by Phranza (1. i, c. 32), whose resentment had cooled in age andsolitude: see likewise Spondamss (A. D. 1451, No. 11), and the con-tinuator of Fleury (tom. xxii, p. 652,) the Elogia of Paulus Jovius (l. iii,p. 101-1 GO), and the Dictionaire de Bayle (tom. iii, p.272-279).