he had sent ambassadors and gained the consent of Amurath,
the Turkish Sultan. From this fact, Ducas, the historian, counts
Paleologus as the last Greek emperor--for he did not consider as such, a
prince who did not dare to reign without permission of his enemy. Amurath
died and was succeeded in the empire, in 1451, by MAHOMET II., who set his
heart on Constantinople, and made preparations for besieging the city. The
siege commenced on the 6th of April, 1453, and ended in the taking of the
city, and death of the last of the Constantines, on the 16th of May
following, when the eastern city of the Caesars became the seat of the
Ottoman empire; and its "religion was trampled in the dust by the Moslem
conquerors." Thus the two-horned beast (13:11), became merged in, and
identified with the false prophet, 16:13, and 19:20.

The description of the horses, and those who sat on them (v. 17), is
strikingly emblematic of the Turkish warriors who subjugated
Constantinople. Says Dr. Keith: "The breast-plates of the horsemen, in
reference to the more destructive implements of war, might then, for the
first time, be said to be fire, and jacinth, and brimstone. The musket had
recently supplied the place of the bow. _Fire_ emanated from their
breasts. _Brimstone_, the flame of which is _jacinth_, was an ingredient
both of the _liquid fire_ and of gunpowder.... A new mode of warfare was
at that time introduced, which has changed the nature of war itself, in
regard to the form of its instrument of destruction; and sounds and sights
unheard of and unknown before, were the death-knell and doom of the Roman
empire. Invention outrivalled force, and a new power was introduced, that
of musketry as well as of artillery, in the art of war, before which the
old Macedonian phalanx would not have remained unbroken, nor the Roman
legions stood. That which JOHN saw 'in the vision,' is read in the history
of the times."

By these three, the fire, smoke, and brimstone, were the third part of men
killed (v. 18), and by these was the conquest of Constantinople effected.
Says Gibbon: "At the request of Mahomet II., Urban produced a piece of
brass ordnance of stupendous and almost incredible magnitude. A measure of
twelve palms was assigned to the bore, and the stone bullet weighed about
six hundred pounds. A vacant place before the new palace was chosen for
the first experiment; but to prevent the sudden and mischievous effects of
astonishment and fear,