REMARKABLE SIEGES. SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE-1453. FROM the time of Constantine, who built it anew, to that of its capture by the Turks, the city of Constantinople (ancient Byzantium) experienced more calamities than perhaps ever befell any city within the same period. In 446 it was visited by plague and famine, the horrors of which were aggravated by a sedition of the people, when many were massacred; in the following year it was partly destroyed by earthquake; in 465 it was almost ruined by a conflagration; in 557 another earthquake completed its destruction, after which it was rebuilt with increased magnificence. It was besieged by the Huns unsuccessfully in 559; by the Saracens in 670, and 672, also unsuccessfully. It was taken by Constantine Copronymus in 744, and by the French Crusaders, under Baldwin in 1203, and again recovered from the Frankish invaders by Michael Paleologus, in 1261. Finally, under Constantine Paleologus, surnamed "Dracoses," it was besieged and taken by Mahomet II., fourth sultan of the Turks, in the year of the Hegira, 857,-A.D. 1453. It was under the reign of Orkan, in the middle of the fourteenth century, that the Turks first crossed the Dardanelles, and commenced laying the foundations of their empire in Europe. His son and successor Amurath took Adrianople, the second capital in the Byzantine Empire, together with all Thrace in 1360; fixed his residence in that city, and commenced the conquest of Bulgaria, which his successor Bajazet completed, at the battle of Nicopoli, 1396. Under subsequent sultans the victorious Turks extended their conquests over nearly the whole of the Eastern Empire, both in Europe and Asia; at times threatening the very gates of the capital. It was reserved, however, for Mahomet II. to complete the subjugation of the Greek Christians by the capture of that magnificent city. Bajazet, when meditating an attack upon the imperial city, had built a strong fortress on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. Mahomet resolved to construct another opposite to it on the European shore, and thus to command the channel to the Black Sea. Alarmed at this intelligence, Constantine dispatched ambassadors to the Sultan, offering him tribute, and beseeching him to abstain from his threatened design. The haughty Ottoman replied, that no one had a right to interfere with him to prevent the execution of any works which he thought proper to undertake within his own territory; boldly avowed his right over both shores of the Bosphorus, and dismissed the trembling ambassadors with a threat, that if the Greek Emperor sent any more to him, on a similar errand, he would have them flayed alive. The castle was completed with extraordinary rapidity, six thousand labourers being employed upon it, and its plan was traced in the form of the Arabic letters composing the name of Mahomet the Prophet. After massacring and pillaging the unfortunate Greek husbandmen in the villages along the shore of the Bosphorus, as if to show to the utmost his contempt for the powerless race he had already resolved upon subjugating, Mahomet retired to Adrianople, where, during two years, he busied himself with the preparations for the siege of Constantinople. He availed himself of the services of a Hungarian, who had fled from Constantinople, to construct cannons of such colossal dimensions, that the largest of them was held capable of carrying a mile distance a stone bullet weighing 600 pounds; the bore measuring twelve palms. Let us look back to the aspect of the devoted city in those days. Situated at the extremity of the European shore of the Bosphorus, ancient Byzantium, like Rome, is built upon seven hills. The town was triangular in shape; two sides being washed by the sea, both of which were considered protected against invasion, the one by nature, the other by art; whilst the landside, about six miles in length, was protected by a double wall, and a ditch one hundred feet deep. Three towers stood at the extreme points of the city: the first, the Acropolis, which stood at the point now known as Seraglio Point, was called after St. Demetrius; the second, which stood at the Western Rampart, on the Propontis, was called the Cyclobion, or Pentapyrgion, which means five towers (the site of the present Castle of Seven Towers); the third, standing at the inland extremity of the port, or Golden Horn, was Cynegion, being used by the degenerate Greeks as the arena for the combats of wild beasts. Between the Acropolis and the Castle of the Five Towers were two basins, the ports of Theodosius and of Julian, which have now long since been filled up with sand. As Disconcerted at the enormous preparations of Mahomet, and feeling a fatal presentiment of the event impending, the unhappy inhabitants of Constantinople recalled to mind certain sinister predictions, which had long since passed current amongst them, "portending the fall of their state and race. an instance: it had been prophesied that through two gates, the Golden Gate, and that of the Cercoporta, the conquerors should one day enter the city, who were destined to destroy the empire; and, in ages gone by, three gates had been built up, as if to avert the evil destiny. But still the prediction was now thought of, and, together with others of a like kind, had a demoralising effect upon the population, and the garrison, which was a weak one, not exceeding probably 8000 fighting men. On the other hand, the Mussulmans bore in mind, and repeated in triumph, the words, said to have been spoken by the Prophet Mahomet to his disciples:-"Have you heard speak of a city, of which one side looks toward the land, and the other two towards the sea? Yes! Messenger of God. The hour of the last judgment shall not arrive until that city shall have been conquered by seventy thousand descendants of Ishak. They will not fight with their arms, nor with balista, or catapulta, but only with these words-La illah, illalah, Allahou ekbor,' (There is no God except Allah! and Allah is a great God!) At these words the ramparts shall crumble away, and the conquerors shall enter the city." Under such opposite influences the two nations came to contest the possession of the ancient capital of the Eastern Empire. On the 9th of April, 1453, Mahomet II. appeared before Constantinople with an army, which the best authorities reckon to have been 400,000 in number. He caused fourteen batteries to be constructed against the wall on the land side, in which he planted his cannon, including that enormous piece we lately described. Two months had been consumed in conveying this cannon from Adrianople; a hundred oxen being employed to draw it, and four hundred men to balance it by the way, the whole being preceded by a guard of two hundred and fifty pioneers. It was aimed against one of the gates of the city, and fired, but burst with the explosion, killing the Hungarian engineer who had constructed it. It is probable, if this accident had not occurred, that this monstrous piece of ordnance would not have proved of service equivalent to the labour and time required to fire it; two hours were employed in loading it; so that, under any circumstances, it would not have been discharged more than seven or eight times in the course of a day. In addition to the newly discovered explosive artillery, the ancient mechanical artillery, and all the ancient modes of attack, were also used in this memorable siege; cannons were intermingled with mechanical engines for casting stones and darts; the bullet and the battering ram were directed against the same wall; and wooden towers of the largest size, moving upon wheels, were brought, filled with soldiers and armed with every weapon and means of offence, to the very walls of the city; the ditches having been previously filled up with fascines, hogsheads, trunks of trees, in addition to bodies innumerable of the slain, so as to bring the surfaces to the required level. On the 15th of April, the Turkish fleet, consisting of four hundred vessels of various sizes, appeared at the southern extremity of the Bosphorus, its object being effectually to blockade the port, and prevent the possibility of supplies or relief being thrown into it by the neighbouring Christian states, who sympathised with the besieged. But, in this branch of the service, the conqueror was not more fortunate than with his great gun. Five large ships, four of which were manned by Genoese, the other bearing the Imperial flag, came from Chios with supplies; and, favoured by a southern breeze, after a smart conflict, broke the line of the Ottoman ships, dispersed them with considerable loss, and succeeded in entering the harbour. Mahomet, who, sitting on his charger, witnessed the ignominious defeat of his navy from the shore, rushed impetuously into the water, vainly hoping by his cries to encourage his sailors, and recover the victory. He revenged himself upon his unfortunate admiral, Balta Oghlou, by inflicting upon him a hundred strokes with a mace; after which, to finish his disgrace, an azab cast a stone in his face, which knocked out one of his eyes. The impetuous tyrant would even have had the unhappy admiral impaled, but abstained at the intercession of the Janissaries. To return, however, to the action on the land-side. The Emperor Constantine, after making the necessary dispositions |