The Prince of India; Or, Why Constantinople Fell - Volume 01

ount Corti, is at the door. He pra

nder, and bri

ing, with Februar

the reception room, and the absence of everything like ornament

ing you well," she said, p

than common, he kissed the white

ll hear you-or will you lend us your presence a

biding at the Adrianople Gate; wherefore, fair Princess,

istrust, s

ss in Sancta Sophia, and the madman Gennadius so frightened the people with his senseless anathemas, [Footnote: The scene here alluded to by the Princess Irene is doubtless the one so vividl

the sacrament to the dying who were not of their faith; the monks and nuns repudiated confessors who acknowledged the henoticon (decree ordaining the reunion of the two churches); a spirit of frenzy took pos

union, and anathematized those who approved or might approve it. The common people, sallying from the monasteries, betook themselves to the taverns; there flourishing glasses of wine, they reviled all who had consented to the union, and drinking in honor of an image of the Mother of God, prayed her to protect and defend the city

an armless chair, and, standing b

ore interested in what betides us from day to day than you; for if Heaven frowns upon our efforts at defence, and there comes an assault, and we are taken, the Conqueror, by a cruel law of war, has at disposal the p

remember I am a Palaeologus. I remember also my kinsman the Emperor is to be sustained in the trial confronting him. I remember too the other women, high and low, who w

admiration, but next moment

bled on your account. I have feared you might be too confident of our ability to beat the enemy. It seems my du

light, Co

ene, your retirem

distinction he m

hear you

greater than was ever drawn together under her walls. Suffer me to refer to them, O Princess... The Sultan is yet at Adrianople assembling his army. Large bodies of footmen are crossing the Hellespont at Gallipolis and the Bosphorus at Hissar; in the region of Adrianople the country is covered with hordes of horsemen speaking all known tongues and armed with every known weapon-Cossacks from the north, Arabs from the south, Koords and Tartars from the east, Roumanians and Slavs from beyond the Balkans. The roads from the northwest are lined with trains bringing supplies and siege-machinery. The cities along the shores of the Black Sea have yiel

my purpose, it is not enough. I have put myself in the hands of t

's face glowed

r me as graciously upon another matter.... Last night, seeing the need of information of the enemy, I besought His Majesty to allow me to ride toward Adr

g courage from the embarra

face the dangers of the siege and assa

his knees, and stretc

e my sword to you, and the skill of my hand

, but he

boldly of what I feel and hope; but now I dare go no further than ask what you have ju

dly. A knight in battle, foremost in the press, her name a conquering cry on

i, I accept

xtended, he kissed it

ess, give me a favor-a glove, a scarf-som

ted silk, pinkish in hue, and large

im, and dropped the net outside the hood so the ends hung loosely down his breast-"I overstep any rule of modesty, I pray you will not misunderstand me. I am thinking of my country, my k

arried her hand to his lips again, and with a simple farewell, hurri

, and passing straight to the Very High Residence, made rep

t," said Constantine; "and not merely becaus

pleasure wa

performance," the Count replied, and risin

"I will have a seat brough

ch and usages, himself scarcely better. My African Berbers are all Mohammedans who have performed the Pilgrimage. One of them is a muezzin by profession; and if he can but catch sight of the sun, he will never miss the five hours of prayer. None of them requires telling the direction to Mecca.... I issued from Your Majesty's great gate about the third hour, and taking th

eek

hogs in the thickets which fled at sight o

nimals, no horses or o

s up near the sun-Hadifah saw a man in the reeds hiding; and we pursued the wretch, and caught him, and he too was a Greek; and when his fright allowed him to talk, he told us a band of strange people, the like of whom he had never seen, attacked his hut, burned it, carried off his goats and she buffaloes; and since

advise him to

ther seeking his family; with all humi

t credit, Count. The

reath. We discovered a dried-up stream, and by sinking in its bed obtained water for our horses. There, in a hollow, we spent the night.... Next morning, after an hour's ride, we met a train of car

ni, astonished. "With

ount

in. In my camp the night before, I

dost confuse me the more! With such odds agains

strong for us to fight; but instead of running away, we must meet them heartily, as friends enlisted in the same cause; and if they asked whence we were, we must be sure of agreement in our reply. I was to be a Turk; they, Egy

"If thy Berbers are Mohammedans, as thou sayest, Count

the relatives of the dead man are bound to kill him, unless there be composition. So I had me

ghted with military engines and tools for digging trenches and fortifying camps. There were hundreds of them, and the drivers were a multitude.

excited the thr

inuously-all irregulars. It must have been about three o'clock in the afternoon when I came upon the most surpris

, there came up next sixty oxen yoked in pairs. Your Majesty can in fancy measure the space they covered. On the right and left of each yoke strode drivers with sharpened goads, and their yelling harmonized curiously with the thunder of the drum. The straining of the brutes was pitiful to behold. And while I wondered yet more, a log of bronze

exclaimed

the gun said to be th

see any of

to my inquiry what the stones were for, I was told they were bullets twelve sp

n the construction of walls report to me in the morning. There is work for them which they must set about at once. I will furnish the money." [Footnote: Before the siege by the Turks, two monks, Manuel Giagari and Neophytus of Rhodes,

nnon, two others somewhat smaller were brought up in the same careful manner. I counted seventeen

more?" Justi

iding, I gained the rear of the train. At sunrise on the third day, I set out in return.... I have

is

n of the ad

me you

ent time gave his bridle rein to Hadifah. In his boyhood the Sheik was trai

midst of the merriment, he was dismissed. The prisoner was then brought in, and put

en Towers, and ending at the Cynegion. Of the harbor front he made one division, with the Grand Gate of Blacherne and the Acropolis or Point Serail for te

ough it may be well to add how the Papal Legate, Cardinal Isidore, doffing his frock and donning armor, voluntarily accepted chief dire

, and its two auxiliary towers, Bagdad and St. Romain, the former on the ri

hing them, the gallant Emperor next brought up his

eld a review in the Hippodrome, whence the s

d warlike tricking, Constantine took heart, and told how Amurath, the pe

ed greater than his

sponded, crossing himse

derous Gate St. Romain. All that could be done h