the musical
cadence of the solemn chant of the call to prayers showed the Greeks the
immense numbers and the strict discipline of the host.

Before the dawn of day, on the morning of May 29, 1453, the signal was
given for the attack. Column after column marched forward, and took up
its ground before the portion of the wall it was ordered to assail. The
galleys, fitted with towers and scaling-platforms, advanced against the
fortifications of the port protected by the guns on the bridge. But the
principal attack was directed against the breach at the gate of St.
Romanus, where two flanking towers had fallen into the ditch and opened
a passage into the interior of the city. The gate of Charsias and the
quarter of Blachern were also assailed by chosen regiments of janizaries
in overwhelming numbers. The attack was made with daring courage, but for
more than two hours every point was successfully defended. In the port,
the Italian and Greek ships opposed the Turkish galleys so effectually
that the final result appeared to favor the besieged. But on the land
side, one column of troops followed the other in an incessant stream. The
moment a division fell back from the assault, new battalions occupied its
place. The valor of the besieged was for some time successful, but they
were at last fatigued by their exertions, and their scanty numbers were
weakened by wounds and death. Unfortunately, Justiniani, the protostrator
or marshal of the army, and the ablest officer in the place, received a
wound which induced him to retire on board his ship to have it dressed.
Until that moment he and the Emperor had defended the great breach with
advantage; but after his retreat Sagan Pacha, observing that the energy
of the defenders was relaxed, excited the bravest of the janizaries to
mount to the assault. A chosen company led by Hasan of Ulubad, a man of
gigantic frame, first crossed the ruins of the wall, and their leader
gained the summit of the dilapidated tower which flanked the breach.
The defenders, headed by the emperor Constantine, made a desperate
resistance. Hasan and many of his followers were slain, but the
janizaries had secured the vantage-ground, and, fresh troops pouring in
to their aid, they surrounded the defenders of the breach. The Emperor
fell amid a heap of slain, and a column of janizaries rushed into
Constantinople over his lifeless body.

About the same time another corps of the Ottomans forced an entrance into
th