OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

bed by the hand of the royal lover. u A deedthus inhuman cannot surely be expiated by thetaste and liberality with which he released aGrecian matron and her two daughters, on re-ceiving a Latin ode from Philelphus, who hadchosen a wife in that noble family.* The prideor cruelty of Mahomet would have been mostsensibly gratified by the capture of a Roman le-gate; but the dexterity of cardinal Isidore elud-ed the search, and he escaped from Galata in aplebeian habit/ The chain and entrance of theoutward harbour was still occupied by the Ita-lian ships of merchandise and war. They hadsignalised their valour in the siege: they em-braced the moment of retreat, while the Turkish mariners were dissipated in the pillage of thecity. When they hoisted sail, the beach wascovered with a suppliant and lamentable crowd;but the means of transportation were scanty:the Venetians and Genoese selected their coun-trymen; and, notwithstanding the fairest pro-mises of the sultan, the inhabitants of Galata

“ Sec Phranza, 1. in, c. 20, 21. His expressions are positive: Anie-ns su5 raanu jugulavit.volebat enim eo turpiter et nefarie abuti.

Me miserum et infeliceoi. Yet he could only learn from report thebloody or impure scenes that were acted in the dark recesses of theseraglio.

x See Tiraboschi (tom. vi, p. i, p. 290) and Lancelot (Mem. derAcademie des Inscriptions, tom. x, p. 718). I should be curious tolearn how he could praise the public enemy, whom he so often revilesas the most corrupt and inhuman of tyrants.

r The Commentaries of Pius II . suppose that he craftily placed hiscardinal’s hat on the head of a corpse, which was cut off and exposedin triumph, while the legate himself was bought and delivered, as acaptive of no value. The great Belgic Chrcaicle adorns his escapewith new adventures, which he suppressed (says Spondanus , A. i>.1453, No. 15) in his own letters, lest he should lose the merit and re-ward of suffering for Christ.

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LXVIII.