The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-05-26
The Taking Of Constantinople.

For nearly 425 years Constantinople
has renamed undisturbed in the posses
sion of the Turks. On May 30, 1853
the city was then the capital of the By
zantine Empire-it was stormed by the
Turks, the last Byzantine Emperor, Con-
stantine NIL, losing his life in the de-
Tense. The taking of the city is thus
powerfully described by Richard Knolles
in his History of the Turks" published
in 1903, and a second edition in 1910:
" A little before day the Turks ap-
preached the walls and began the as
sault, where shot and stones were deliv-
| cred upon them from the walls as thick
as hail, whereof little fell in vain, by
reason OF the multitude of the Turks,
who, pressing fast unto the walls, could
not see in the dark how to defend them
selves, but were without number wounded
or slain; but these were of the common
and worst soldiers, of whom the Turkish
King made no more reckoning than to
abate the first force of the defendants.
! Upon the first appearance of the day
Mohammed gave the sign appointed for
the general assault, whereupon the
city was in moment, and at
one instant, on every side, most
| turlously assaulted by the Turks; for
Mohammed, the more to distress the de-
PENDANTS, and the better to see the for
wardness of the soldiers, had before ap-
pointed which part of the city every
Colonel with his regiment should assail;
which they valiantly performed, deliver
ing their arrows and shot upon the de-
| fpnIaDts q fhinly hot ho lirrl,t - 4
was Herewith darkened; others in the
meantime courageously mounting the
scaling ladders, and coming even to
hand-strokes with the defendants upon
the wall, where the foremost were for the
most part violently borne forward by
them which followed after On the other
! side, the Christians with no less courage
withstood the Turkish fury, beating them
down again with great stones and weighty
pieces of timber, and so overwhelmed
them with shot, darts and arrows, and
| other hurtful devices from above, that
the Turks, dismayed with the terror
thereof, were ready to retire.
Mohammed, seeing the great slaugh-
ter and discontinue of his men, sent in
fresh supplies of his janissaries and best
men-ot war, whom he had for that pur-
pose reserved as his last hope and refuge;
by whose coming on his fainting soldiers
were again encouraged, and the terrible
assault began afresh. Atwhich time the
barbarous King ceased not to use all pos
siblc means to maintain the assault; by
name calling upon this and that Captain,
promising unto some whom he saw for.
ward golden mountains, and unto others
IN whom he saw any kind of cowardice
threatening most terrible death; by which
means the assault became most dreadful,
death there raging in the midst of many
thousands. And albeit the Turks lay
dead by heaps upon the ground, vet
other fresh men pressed on still in their
places over their dead bodies, and with
divers event either slew or were slain by
their enemies.
" In this sogreat conflict it CHANGED
Justinianus, the General, to be wounded
in the arm, who, losing much blood, cow
ardly withdrew himself from the place
of his charge, not leaving any to supply
his room, and SO got into the city by the
gate called Romano, which he had caused
to be opened in the inner wall; pretend
ing the cause of his departure to be for
the binding up.of his wound, but being,
indeed, man now altogether discour-
aged.
"The soldiers there present, dismayed
with the departure of their General, and
sore charged by the janissaries, forsook
their stations, and in haste fled to the
same gate whereby Justinianus was
entered; with the sight whereof the other
soldiers, dismayed, ran thither by heaps
also. But whilst they violently strove
together to get in at once, they so
wedged one another in the entrance of
the gate that few of so great a multitude
got in; in which so great press and
confusion OF minds 800 persons were
there by them that followed trodden
under foot, or thrust to death The En-
peror himself, for safeguard of his life,
flying with the rest in that press as a
man not regarded, miserably ended his
days, together with the Greek empire.
His dead body was shortly after found
by the Turks among the slain, and
known by his rich apparel, whose head
being cut of was forthwith presented to
the Turkish tyrant, by whose command.
ment it was afterward thrust upon the
point of a lance, and in great derision
carried about as a trophy OF his victory,
first in the camp, and afterward up and
down the city.
" The Turks, encouraged with the
fight of the Christians, presently ad-
vanced their ensigns upon the top of the
uttermost wall, crying Victory; and by
the breach entered as if it had been
great flood, which, having once found
breach in the bank, overfioweth, and
beareth down all before it; so the Turks,
when they had won the outer wall, en-
tered the city by the same gate that was
opened for Justinianus, and by breach
which they had before made with their
great artillery, and, without merely put
ting in pieces all that came in their way,
without further resistance became lords
of that most famous and imperial city.
y In this fury of the barbarians
persisted many thousands of men, women
and children, without respect of age, sex
or condition. Many, for safeguard of
their lives, fled into the temple of Sophia,
where they were all without pity slain,
except some few reserved by barbarous
victors to purposes more grievous than
death itself The rich and beautiful
ornaments and jewels of that most