190

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap. “ your hands, I submit without a murmur to his

I YVTTI *

.“ holy will. But until the Judge of the earth

“ shall pronounce between us, it is my duty to“ live and die in the defence of my people.” Thesultan’s answer w'as hostile and decisive: hisfortifications were completed; and before hisSept l; departure for Adrianople , he stationed a vigi-lant Aga and four hundred janizaries to levy atribute on the ships of every nation that shouldpass within the reach of their cannon. A Ve-netian vessel, refusing obedience to the new lordsof the Bosphorus , was sunk with a single bullet.The master and thirty sailors escaped in theboat; but they were dragged in chains to the por/c:the chief was impaled; his companions were be-headed ; and the historian Ducas 8 beheld, at De-motica, their bodies exposed to the wild beasts.The siege of Constantinople was deferred till theensuing spring; but an Ottoman army marchedinto the Morea to divert the force of the brothersa. d. 1453 of Constantine. At this era of calamity, one ofa ‘ ’ these princes, the despot Thomas, was blessedor afflicted with the birth of a son; “the last“ heir,” says the plaintive Phranza, “ of the last“ spark of the Roman empire.” 8Prepan- The Greeks and the Turks passed an anxiousth°e siege of and sleepless winter: the former were keptBopie tantl " awa ke by their fears, the latter by their hopes;both by the preparations of defence and attack;

* Ducas, c. 35 Phranza (1. iii, c. 3), who had sailed in his vessel,commemorates the Venetian pilot as a martyr.

1 Auctum est Palseoiogorum genus, et imperii successor, parvaeqogRomanorum scintilla 1 lucres natus, Andreas, &c. (Phranza, 1. iii, c. 7)The strong expression was inspired by his feelings.