1 LXVII. CHAP. traitor and apoftate. In the eyes of the Christians, the rebellion of Scanderbeg is juftified by his father's wrongs, the ambiguous death of his three brothers, his own degradation, and the flavery of his country; and they adore the generous, though tardy, zeal, with which he afferted the faith and independence of his ancestors. But he had imbibed from his ninth year the doctrines of the Koran; he was ignorant of the Gofpel; the religion of a foldier is determined by authority and habit; nor is it eafy to conceive what new illumination at the age of forty" could be poured into his foul. His motives would be lefs expofed to the fufpicion of intereft or revenge, had he broken his chain from the moment that he was fenfible of its weight: but a long oblivion had furely impaired his original right; and every year of obedience and reward had cemented the mutual bond of the fultan and his fubject. Scanderbeg had long harboured the belief of Christianity and the intention of revolt, a worthy mind muft condemn the base diffimulation, that could ferve only to betray, that could promife only to be forefworn, that could actively join in the temporal and fpiritual perdition of fo many thoufands of his unhappy brethren. Shall we praise a fecret correspondence with Huniades, while he If 3 Since Scanderbeg died A. D. 1466, in the lxiiid year of his age (Mariņus, 1. xiii. p. 370.), he was born in 1403; fince he was torn from his parents by the Turks, when he was novennis (Marinus, 1. i. p. 1. 6.), that event must have happened in 1412, nine years be fore the acceffion of Amurath II. who must have inherited, not acquired, the Albanian flave... Spondanus has remarked this inconfiftency, A. D. 1431, N°31. 1443, N° 14. commanded LXVII. His revolt from the A. D. 1443, commanded the vanguard of the Turkish army? CHAP. fhall we excufe the defertion of his ftandard, a treacherous defertion which abandoned the victory to the enemies of his benefactor? In the confufion of a defeat, the eye of Scanderbeg was fixed on the Reis Effendi or principal fecretary: Nov. 23. with a dagger at his breast, he extorted a firman or patent for the government of Albania; and the murder of the guiltlefs fcribe and his train prevented the consequences of an immediate difcovery. With fome bold companions, to whom he had revealed his defign, he efcaped in the night, by rapid marches, from the field of battle to his paternal mountains. The gates of Croya were opened to the royal mandate: and no fooner did he command the fortrefs, than George Caftriot dropt the mask of diffimulation; abjured the prophet and the fultan, and proclaimed himself the avenger of his family and country. The names of religion and liberty provoked a general revolt: the Albanians, a martial race, were unanimous to live and die with their hereditary prince; and the Ottoman garrisons were indulged in the choice of martyrdom or baptifm. In the affembly of the ftates of Epirus, Scanderbeg was elected general of the Turkish war; and each of the allies engaged to furnish his refpective proportion of men and money. From thefe contributions, from his patrimonial eftate, and from the valuable faltpits of Selina, he drew an annual revenue of two hundred thousand ducats 39; and the entire fum, 39 His revenue and forces are luckily given by Marinus (1. ii. P. 44.). exempt LXVII. His valour, CHAP. exempt from the demands of luxury, was ftrictly appropriated to the public use. His manners were popular; but his difcipline was fevere; and every fuperfluous vice was banished from his camp: his example ftrengthened his command; and under his conduct, the Albanians were invincible in their own opinion and that of their enemies. The braveft adventurers of France and Germany were allured by his fame and retained in his fervice; his standing militia confifted of eight thoufand horfe and feven thousand foot; the horses were fmall, the men were active: but he viewed with a difcerning eye the difficulties and refources of the mountains; and, at the blaze of the beacons, the whole nation was diftributed in the ftrongeft pofts. With fuch unequal arms, Scanderbeg refifted twenty-three years the powers of the Ottoman empire; and two conquerors, Amurath the fecond, and his greater fon, were repeatedly baffled by a rebel, whom they pursued with feeming contempt and implacable refentment. At the head of fixty thousand horfe and forty thousand Janizaries, Amurath entered Albania; he might ravage the open country, occupy the defenceless towns, convert the churches into mofchs, circumcife the Chriftian youths, and punish with death his adult and obftinate captives, but the conquefts of the fultan were confined to the petty fortress of Sfetigrade; and the garrifon, invincible to his arms, was oppreffed by a paltry artifice and a fuperftitious fcruple *°. Amurath 40 There were two Dibras, the upper and lower, the Bulgarian and Albanian: the former, 70 miles from Croya (1. i. p. 17.), was contiguous LXVII. Amurath retired with fhame and lofs from the CHAP. walls of Croya, the caftle and refidence of the. Caftriots; the march, the fiege, the retreat, were haraffed by a vexatious, and almoft invisible, adverfary"; and the difappointment might tend to embitter, perhaps to fhorten, the laft days of the fultan 42. In the fulness of conqueft, Mahomet the second still felt at his bofom this domeftic thorn his lieutenants were permitted to negociate a truce; and the Albanian prince may juftly be praised as a firm and able champion of his national independence. The enthusiasm of chivalry and religion has ranked him with the names of Alexander and Pyrrhus; nor would they blush to acknowledge their intrepid countryman: but his narrow dominion, and flender powers, muft leave him at an humble diftance below the heroes of antiquity, who triumphed over the Eaft and the Roman legions. His fplendid atchievements, the bashaws whom he encountered, the armies that he discomfited, and the three thousand Turks who were flain by his fingle hand, must be weighed in the scales of fufpicious criticifm. Against an illiterate enemy, and in the dark folitude of contiguous to the fortress of Sfetigradę, whose inhabitants refused to drink from a well into which a dead dog had traiterously been caft (1. v. p. 139, 140.). We want a good map of Epirus. 41 Compare the Turkish narrative of Cantemir (p. 92.) with the pompous and prolix declamation in the ivth, yth, and vich books of the Albanian prieft, who has been copied by the tribe of strangers and moderns. 42 In honour of his hero, Barletius (1. vi. p. 188-192.) kills the sultan, by disease indeed, under the walls of Croya. But this audacious fiction is difproved by the Greeks and Turks, who agree in the time and manner of Amurath's death at Adriapople. Epirus, LXVII. CHAP. Epirus, his partial biographers may fafely indulge the latitude of romance: but their fictions are expofed by the light of Italian hiftory; and they afford a strong prefumption against their own truth, by a fabulous tale of his exploits, when he paffed the Adriatic with eight hundred horfe to the fuccour of the king of Naples 43. Without difparagement to his fame, they might have owned that he was finally oppreffed by the Ottoman powers: in his extreme danger, he applied to pope Pius the fecond for a refuge in the ecclefiaftical ftate; and his refources were almost exand death, haufted, fince Scanderbeg died a fugitive at Liffus on the Venetian territory". His fepulchre was Jan. 17. foon violated by the Turkish conquerors; but the Janizaries, who wore his bones enchafed in a bracelet, declared, by this fuperftitious amulet, their involuntary reverence for his valour. The inftant ruin of his country may redound to the hero's glory; yet, had he balanced the confequences of fubmiffion and refiftance, a patriot A.D. 1467, 43 See the marvels of his Calabrian expedition in the ixth and xth books of Marinus Barletius, which may be rectified by the teftimony or filence of Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. xiii. p 291.), and his original authors (Joh. Simonetta de Rebus Francifci Sfortiæ, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. xxi. p. 728. et alios). The Albanian cavalry, under the name of Stradiots, foon became famous in the wars of Italy (Memoires de Comines, 1. viii. c. 5.). 44 Spondanus, from the beft evidence and the most rational cri ticifm, has reduced the giant Scanderbeg to the human fize (A. D. 1461, N° 20. 1463, N° 9. 1465, N° 12, 13. 1467, N° 1.). His own letter to the pope, and the testimony of Phranza (1. iii. c. 28.), a refugee in the neighbouring ifle of Corfu, demonftrate his Batt diftrefs, which is awkwardly concealed by Marinus Barletius (1. x.). perhaps |