OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

death released Palaeologus from an earthly mas-ter. It is not easy to pronounce whether theservitude of Demetrius, or the exile of his bro-ther Thomas , 11 be the most inglorious. On theconquest of the Morea, the despot escaped toCorfu, and from thence to Italy , with somenaked adherents: his name, his sufferings, andthe head of the apostle St. Andrew, entitled himto the hospitality of the Vatican ; and bis mi-sery was prolonged by a pension of six thou-sand ducats from the pope and cardinals. Histwo sons, Andrew and Manuel, were educatedin Italy ; but the eldest, contemptible to his ene-mies and burthensome to his friends, was de-graded by the baseness of his life and marriage.A title was his sole inheritance; and that in-heritance he successively sold to the kings ofFrance and Arragon. y During his transientprosperity, Charles the eighth was ambitious ofjoining the empire of the East with the kingdomof Naples; in a public festival, he assumed theappellation and the purple of Augustus : theGreeks rejoiced, and the Ottoman already trem-bled at the approach of the French chivalry/

* Spondanus (from Gobelin Comment. Pii II , 1. v) relates tbe arri-val and reception of the despot Thomas at Rome (a. n. 1461, No. 3.

J By an act, dated a. d. 1494, Sept. 6, and lately transmitted fromthe archives of the Capitol to the royal library of Paris , the despotAndrew Palteologus, reserving the Morea, and stipulating some pri-vate advantages, conveys to Charles VIII. king of France , the empire*of Constantinople and Trebizond (Spondanus , a d. 1495, No. 2). M.de Foncemagiie (Mem. de l'Academic des Inscriptions, tom. xvii,p.539-578) has bestowed a Dissertation on this national title, of whichne had obtained a copy from Rome .

1 See Philippe de Comines (1. vii, e. 14), who reckons with pleasurethe number of Greeks who were prepared to rise, 00 miles of an easy

. navigation.

245

CHAP.

LXVIII.