2.36

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

LXVIII.

His belia.

viourtothe

Greeks.

performeil the namaz of prayer and thanksgiv-ing on the great altar, where the Christian mys-teries had so lately been celebrated before the lastof the Ca;sars. e From St. Sophia he proceededto the august, but desolate mansion of an hun-dred successors of the great Constantine, butwhich, in a few hours, had been stripped of thepomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection onthe vicissitudes of human greatness forced itselfon his mind; and he repeated an elegant distichof Persian poetry: “The spider has wove his“ web in the imperial palace; and the owl“ hath sung her watch-song on the towers of“ Afrasiab.” h

Yet his mind was not satisfied, nor did thevictory seem complete, till he was informed ofthe fate of Constantine; whether he had escaped,or been made prisoner, or had fallen in the battle.Two janizaries claimed the honour and rewardof his death: the body, under an heap of slain,was discovered by the golden eagles embroider-ed on his shoes; the Greeks acknowledged withtears the head of their late emperor; and, afterexposing the bloody trophy,* Mahomet bestowedon his rival the honours of a decent funeral.

* We are obliged to Canterair (p. 102) for the Turkish account ofthe conversion of St. Sophia, bitterly deplored by Phranza and Ducas.It is amusing enough to observe, in what opposite lights the same ob-ject appears to a mussulman and a Christian eye.

h This distich, which Cantemir gives in the original, 'derives newbeauties from the application. It was thus that Scipio repeated, inthe sack of Carthage , the famous prophecy of Homer. The same ge-nerous feeling carried the mind of the conqueror to the past or thefuture.

1 1 cannot believe with Ducas (see Spondanus , a . d. 1455? No. 13),that Mahomet sent round Persia , Arabia, &c. the head of the Greekemperor: he would surely content himself with a trophy less inhuman.