They landed in fight of Mustapha and Gallipoli; two thousand Italians, armed with lances and battle-axes, attended Amurath to the conqueft of Adrianople; and this venal fervice was foon repaid by the ruin of the commerce and colony of Phocæa. If Timour had generously marched at the requeft, and to the relief, of the Greek emperor, he might be entitled to the praise and gratitude of the Chriftians 79. But a Musulman, who carried into Georgia the fword of perfecution, and refpected the holy warfare of Bajazet, was not difpofed to pity or fuccour the idolaters of Europe. The Tartar followed the impulfe of ambition ; and the deliverance of Conftantinople was the accidental confequence. When Manuel abdicated the government, it was his prayer, rather than his hope, that the ruin of the church and state might be delayed beyond his unhappy days; and after his return from a western pilgrimage, he expected every hour the news of the fad catastrophe. On a fudden he was aftonished and rejoiced by the intelligence of the retreat, the overthrow, and the captivity of the Ottoman. Manuel " 80 im 79 The writer who has the moft abused this fabulous generofity, is our ingenious Sir William Temple (his works, vol. iii. p. 349, 350. octavo edition), that lover of exotic virtue. After the conqueft of Ruffia, &c. and the paffage of the Danube, his Tartar hero relieves, vifits, admires, and refuses the city of Conftantine. His flattering pencil deviates in every line from the truth of hiftory: yet his pleasing fictions are more excufable than the grofs errors of Cantemir. 80 For the reigns of Manuel and John, of Mahomet I. and Amurath II. fee the Othman hiftory of Cantemir (p. 70-95.), and the three Greeks, Chalcondyles, Phranza, and Ducas, who is Atill fuperior to his rivals. CHAP. LXV. State of the Greek empire, A. D. 1402 1425. LXV. and CHAP. mediately failed from Modon in the Morea; afcended the throne of Conftantinople; difmiffed his blind competitor to an eafy exile in the ifle of Lefbos. The ambaffadors of the fon of Bajazet were foon introduced to his prefence; but their pride was fallen, their tone was modeft; they were awed by the just apprehenfion, left the Greeks fhould open to the Moguls the gates of Europe. Soliman faluted the emperor by the name of father; folicited at his hands the government or gift of Romania; and promised to deferve his favour by inviolable friendship, and the reftitution of Theffalonica, with the most important places along the Strymon, the Propontis, and the Black Sea. The alliance of Soliman expofed the emperor to the enmity and revenge of Moufa: the Turks appeared in arms before the gates of Conftantinople; but they were repulfed by fea and land; and unless the city was guarded by fome foreign mercenaries, the Greeks must have wondered at their own triumph. But, instead of prolonging the divifion of the Ottoman powers, the policy or paffion of Manuel was tempted to affist the most formidable of the fons of Bajazet. He concluded a treaty with Mahomet, whofe progrefs was checked by the infuperable barrier of Gallipoli; the fultan and his troops were tranfported over the Bof phorus; he was hofpitably entertained in the capital; and his fuccefsful fally was the first step to the conqueft of Romania, The ruin was fufpended by the prudence and moderation of the conqueror he faithfully difcharged his own obligations LXV. obligations and those of Soliman, refpected the CHA P. laws of gratitude and peace; and left the emperor guardian of his two younger fons, in the vain hope of faving them from the jealous cruelty of their brother Amurath. But the execution of his laft teftament would have offended the national honour and religion: and the divan unanimoufly pronounced, that the royal youths fhould never be abandoned to the cuftody and education of a Christian dog. On this refufal, the Byzantine councils were divided: but the age and caution of Manuel yielded to the prefumption of his fon John; and they unfheathed a dangerous weapon of revenge, by difmiffing the true or false Mustapha, who had long been detained as a captive and hoftage, and for whofe maintenance they received an annual penfion of three hundred thousand afpers 1. At the door of his prifon, Muftapha fubfcribed to every propofal; and the keys of Gallipoli, or rather of Europe, were ftipulated as the price of his deliverance. But no fooner was he feated on the throne of Romania, than he difmiffed the Greek ambaffadors with a fmile of contempt, declaring, in a pious tone, that, at the day of judgment, he would rather answer for the violation of an oath, than for the furrender of a Mufulman city into the hands of the infidels. The emperor was at once the enemy of the two rivals; from whom he had sustained, 81 The Turkish afper (from the Greek acpos) is, or was, a piece of white or filver money, at prefent much debated, but which was formerly equivalent to the 54th part, at least, of a Venetian ducat or sequin; and the 300,000 afpers, a princely allowance or royal tribute, may be computed at 2500l. fterling (Leunclav. Pandect. Turc. p. 406–408.). E 4 and LXV. CHAP. and to whom he had offered, an injury; and the victory of Amurath was followed, in the enfuing fpring, by the fiege of Conftantinople 2. Siege of nople by Amurath II. A. D. 1422, 82 The religious merit of fubduing the city of the Cæfars, attracted from Afia a crowd of volunteers, who afpired to the crown of martyrdom; their military ardour was inflamed by the promise June 1o- of rich fpoils and beautiful females; and the Auguft 24. fultan's ambition was confecrated by the prefence and prediction of Seid Bechar, a defcendant of the prophets, who arrived in the camp, on a mule, with a venerable train of five hundred difciples. But he might blufh, if a fanatic could blufh, at the failure of his affurances. The ftrength of the walls refifted an army of two hundred thoufand Turks: their affaults were repelled by the fallies of the Greeks and their foreign mercenaries; the old refources of defence were opposed to the new engines of attack; and the enthusiasm of the dervish, who was fnatched to heaven in vifionary converfe with Mahomet, was anfwered by the credulity of the Chriftians, who beheld the Virgin Mary, in a violet garment, walking on the rampart and animating their courage 84. After a fiege of two months, Amurath was recalled to Bourfa by a domestic revolt, 82 For the fiege of Conftantinople in 1422, fee the particular and contemporary narrative of John Cananus, published by Leo Allatius, at the end of his edition of Acropolita (p. 188-199.). 83 Cantemir, p. 8o. Cananus, who defcribes Seid Bechar without naming him, fuppofes that the friend of Mahomet affumed in his amours the privilege of a prophet, and that the fairest of the Greek nuns were promised to the faint and his disciples. 84 For this miraculous apparition, Cananus appeals to the Mufulman saint; but who will bear teftimony for Seid Bechar? The em peror læologus I. which had been kindled by Greek treachery, and CHAP. LXV. was foon extinguished by the death of a guiltlefs brother. While he led his Janizaries to new conquefts in Europe and Afia, the Byzantine John Pa empire was indulged in a fervile and precarious respite of thirty years. Manuel funk into the grave; and John Palæologus was permitted to July 21reign, for an annual tribute of three hundred thousand afpers, and the dereliction of almost all October that he held beyond the suburbs of Constantinople. A.D.· 1425, A. D. 1448, 31. fy fuccefmerit of fion and the Otto mans. In the establishment and restoration of the Heredita Turkish empire, the firft merit muft doubtlefs be affigned to the perfonal qualities of the fultans; fince, in human life, the most important fcenes will depend on the character of a fingle actor. By some shades of wisdom and virtue, they may be difcriminated from each other; but, except in a fingle instance, a period of nine reigns and two hundred and fixty-five years, is occupied, from the elevation of Othman to the death of Soliman, by a rare feries of warlike and active princes, who impreffed their fubjects with obedience and their enemies with terror. Instead of the flothful luxury of the feraglio, the heirs of royalty were educated in the council and the field: from early youth they were entrusted by their fathers with the command of provinces and armies; and this manly inftitution, which was often productive of civil war, must have effentially contributed to the difcipline and vigour of the monarchy. The Ottomans cannot style themfelves, like the Arabian caliphs, the defcendants or fucceffors of the apoftle of God; and the kindred |