s moments of relaxation, was often
heard to deride the religion of his country as an imposture. His doubts
in that particular were, however, compensated for by his determination
to carry out the intention of so many of his Mohammedan
predecessors--the seizure of Constantinople.

[Sidenote: The siege of Constantinople.] At this time the venerable city
had so greatly declined that it contained only 100,000 inhabitants--out
of them only 4970 able or willing to bear arms. The besieging force was
more than a quarter of a million of men. As Mohammed pressed forward his
works, the despairing emperor in vain looked for the long-promised
effectual Western aid. In its extremity, the devoted metropolis was
divided by religious feuds; and when a Latin priest officiated in St.
Sophia, there were many who exclaimed that they would rather see the
turban of the sultan than the tiara of the pope. In several particulars
the siege of Constantinople marked out the end of old ages and the
beginning of new. Its walls were shaken by the battering rams of the
past, and overthrown by cannon, just then coming into general use. Upon
a plank road, shipping was passed through the open country, in the
darkness of a single night, a distance of ten miles. The works were
pushed forward toward the walls, on the top of which the sentinels at
length could hear the shouts of the Turks by their nocturnal fires. They
were sounds such as Constantinople might well listen to. She had taught
something different for many a long year. "God is God; there is none but
God." In the streets an image of the Virgin was carried in solemn
procession. Now or never she must come to the help of those who had done
so much for her, who had made her a queen in heaven and a goddess upon
earth. The cry of her worshippers was in vain.

[Sidenote: Fall of the city.] On May 29th, 1453, the assault was
delivered. Constantine Palaeologus, the last of the Roman emperors,
putting off his purple, that no man might recognize and insult his
corpse when the catastrophe was over, fell, as became a Roman emperor,
in the breach. After his death resistance ceased, and the victorious
Turks poured into the town. To the Church of St. Sophia there rushed a
promiscuous crowd of women and children, priests, monks, religious
virgins, and--men. Superstitious to the last, in this supreme moment
they expected the fulfilment of a prophecy that, when the Turks should
have forced their way to the square bef