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VUE DEI:].INK AND FALL

CM A F.LWILI.

operation of sounds, by quickening the circula-tion of the blood and spirits, will act on the hu-man machine more forcibly than the eloquenceof reason and honour. From the lines, the gal-lies, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thun-dered on all sides; and the camp and city, theGreeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloudof smoke, which could only be dispelled by thefinal deliverance or destruction of the Roman em-pire. The single combats of the heroes of his-tory or fable amuse our fancy and engage ouraffections; the skilful evolutions of war may in-form the mind, and improve a necessary, thoughpernicious science; but in the uniform and odi-ous pictures of a general assault, all is blood, andhorror, and confusion: nor shall I strive, at thedistance of three centuries and a thousand miles,to delineate a scene of which there could be nospectators, and of which the actors themselveswere incapable of forming any just or adequateidea.

The immediate loss of Constantinople may beascribed to the bullet, or arrow, which piercedthe gauntlet of John Justiniani. The sight ofhis blood, and the exquisite pain, appalled thecourage of the chief, whose arms.and counselswere the firmest rampart of the city. As he with-drew from his station in quest of a surgeon, hisflight was perceived and stopped by the indefa-tigable emperor. “ Your wound,” exclaimedPalaeologus , “is slight; the danger is pressihg;“ your presence is necessary; and whither will“ you retire?”. “ I will retire,” said the trem-bling Genoese, “ by the same road which God