OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

205

rather behold in Constantinople the turban of chapMahomet, than the pope’s tiara or a cardinal’s LXVIirh;t(. m A sentiment so unworthy of Christians and patriots, was familiar and fatal to theGreeks:the emperor was deprived of the affection andsupport of his subjects; and their native cowar-dice was sanctified by resignation to the divinedecree, or the visionary hope of a miraculousdeliverance.

Of the triangle which composes the figure of siege ofConstantinople , the two sides along the sea were nopie bymade inaccessible to an enemy; the Propontis n* hometby nature, and the harbour by art. Between ^priie^ 5 *’the two waters, the basis of the triangle, the land > Ia y 29-side was protected by a double wall, and a deepditch of the depth of one hundred feet. Againstthis line of fortification, which Phranza, an eye-witness, prolongs to the measure of six miles,”the Ottomans directed their principal attack;and the emperor, after distributing the serviceand command of the most perilous stations, un-dertook the defence of the external wall. In thefirst days of the siege, the Greek soldiers de-scended into the ditch, or sallied into the field;but they soon discovered that, in the proportionof their numbers, one Christian was of more valuethan twenty Turks; and, after these bold pre-ludes, they were prudently content to maintain

m <t>axioX(ov, xaXitfrrpa, may be fairly translated a cardinal s bat. Thedificicnce of the Greek and Latin habits embittered the schism.

» We are obliged to reduce the Greek miles to the smallest mea-sure which is preserved in the wersts of Russia, of 517 French toise$ tand of 104 three-fifths to a degree. The six miles of Phranza do notexceed four English miles (d’Anville, Mesures Itineraires, p. 61-123,