OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

steered along the Bosphorus , and securely an-chored within the chain of the harbour. In theconfidence of victory, they boasted that thewhole Turkish power must have yielded to theirarms; but the admiral, or captain bashaw, foundsome consolation for a painful wound in his eye,by representing that accident as the cause of hisdefeat. Baltha Ogli was a renegade of the raceof the Bulgarian princes; his military characterwas tainted with the unpopular vice of avarice;and under the despotism of the prince or peo-ple, misfortune is a sufficient evidence of guilt.H is rank and services were annihilated by thedispleasure of Mahomet. In the royal presence,the captain bashaw was extended on the groundby fouT slaves, and received one hundred strokeswith a golden rod: 1 his death had been pro-nounced; and he adored the clemency of thesultan, who was satisfied with the milder punish-ment of confiscation and exile. The introduc-tion of this supply revived the hopes of theGreeks, and accused the supineness of theirWestern allies. Amidst the deserts of Anatolia and the rocks of Palestine, the millions of thecrusades had buried themselves in a voluntaryand inevitable grave; but the situation of the im-perial city was strong against her enemies, andaccessible to her friends; and a rational andmoderate armament of the maritime states mighthave saved the relics of the Roman name, and

* According to the exaggeration or corrupt text of Ducas (c. 38),this golden bar was of the enormous and incredible weight of 500libra 1 , or pounds. Bouillaud’s reading of 500 drachma, or five pound*,is sufficient to exercise the arm of Mahomet, and bruise the hack ofbis admiral.

213

CHAP.

LXVIII.