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ous, and invincible. The sultan himself, on horseback, with an iron mace in his hand, was the spectator and judge of their valor. He was surrounded by ten thousand of his domestic troops, whom he reserved for the decisive occasions; and the tide of battle was directed 5 and impelled by his voice and eye. His numerous ministers of justice were posted behind the line, to urge, to restrain, and to punish; and, if danger was in the front, shame and inevitable death were in the rear of the fugitives. The cries of fear and of pain were drowned in the 10 martial music of drums, trumpets, and atabals; and experience has proved that the mechanical operation of sounds, by quickening the circulation of the blood and spirits, will act on the human machine more forcibly than the eloquence of reason and honor. From the lines, the 15 galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides, and the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman Empire.

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The immediate loss of Constantinople may be ascribed to the bullet or arrow which pierced the gauntlet of John Justiniani. The sight of his blood and the exquisite pain appalled the courage of the chief, whose arms and counsels were the firmest rampart of the city. As he with- 25 drew from his station in quest of a surgeon, his flight was perceived and stopped by the indefatigable emperor. "Your wound," exclaimed Palæologus, "is slight; the danger is pressing. Your presence is necessary, and whither will you retire?"

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"I will retire," said the trembling Genoese, “by the same road which God has opened to the Turks," and at these words he hastily passed through one of the breaches of the inner wall. By this pusillanimous act he stained 5 the honors of a military life, and the few days which he survived in Galata, or the Isle of Chios, were embittered by his own and the public reproach. His example was imitated by the greatest part of the Latin auxiliaries, and the defense began to slacken when the attack was 10 pressed with redoubled vigor.

The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps a hundred, times superior to that of the Christians; the double walls were reduced by the cannon to a heap of ruins; in a circuit of several miles, some places must be found 15 more easy of access, or more feebly guarded; and if the besiegers could penetrate in a single point, the whole city was irrecoverably lost.

The first who deserved the sultan's reward was Hassan the janizary, of gigantic stature and strength. With his 20 scimitar in one hand and his buckler in the other he ascended the outward fortification; of the thirty janizaries who were emulous of his valor, eighteen perished in the bold adventure. Hassan and his twelve companions had reached the summit; the giant was precipi25 tated from the rampart; he rose on one knee, and was again oppressed by a shower of darts and stones. But his success had proved that the achievement was possible; the walls and towers were instantly covered with a swarm of Turks, and the Greeks, now driven from the vantage 30 ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes.

Amid these multitudes the emperor, who accomplished all the duties of a general and a soldier, was long seen, and finally lost. The nobles, who fought round his person, sustained, till their last breath, the honorable names of Palæologus and Cantacuzenus; his mournful exclama- 5 tion was heard, "Can not there be found a Christian to cut off my head?" and his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the infidels. The prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple; amid the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under 10 a mountain of the slain. After his death, resistance and order were no more; the Greeks fled toward the city, and many and many were pressed and stifled in the narrow pass of the gate of St. Romanus.

The victorious Turks rushed through the breaches of 15 the inner wall, and, as they advanced into the streets, they were soon joined by their brethren, who had forced the gate Phenar on the side of the harbor. In the first heat of the pursuit about two thousand Christians were put to the sword; but avarice soon prevailed over cruelty, 20 and the victors acknowledged that they should immediately have given quarter if the valor of the emperor and his chosen bands had not prepared them for a similar opposition in every part of the capital. It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople, which had 25 defied the power of Chosroes, the Chagan, and the Caliphs, was irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mohammed II. Her empire only had been subverted by the Latins; her religion was trampled in the dust by the Moslem conquerors.

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HERVÉ RIEL.

The battle of La Hogue, alluded to in the following lines, was fought May 19, 1692, resulting in the total defeat of the French fleet by the combined forces of the English and the 5 Dutch. Several of the French ships were captured or destroyed; others escaped, as narrated in the poem. The story is in the main a true

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10 one.

On the sea and at the Hogue,

sixteen hundred ninety-two,

Did the English fight the French
woe to France!

And the thirty-first of May,

helter-skelter through the blue,

Robert Browning.

Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue, Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Rance, With the English fleet in view.

'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full

chase;

First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Dam

freville;

Close on him fled, great and small,

Twenty-two good ships in all;

And they signalled to the place,

"Help the winners of a race!

Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick; or,

quicker still,

Here's the English can and will!”

Then the pilots of the place put out brisk, and leaped on board;

"Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to

pass?" laughed they :

"Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred and scored,

Shall the Formidable here, with her twelve-and-eighty

guns,

Think to make the river mouth by the single narrow

way,

Trust to enter where 'tis ticklish for a craft of twenty

tons,

And with flow at full beside?

Now 'tis slackest ebb of tide.

Reach the mooring? Rather say, While rock stands, or water runs, Not a ship will leave the bay!"

Then was called a council straight:
Brief and bitter the debate.

"Here's the English at our heels: would you have them take in tow

All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and

bow;

For a prize to Plymouth Sound? Better run the ships aground!"

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