_Hoxton_. T. WARD.

* * * * *


TAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE TURKS.[1]

[1] From the time of Alcibiades to the reign of Mahommed II.,
Constantinople has undergone twenty-four sieges.

(_For the Mirror_.)


Mahomet II., soon after he mounted the Turkish throne, resolved to
achieve some glorious action, that he might surpass the fame of his
predecessors; and nothing appeared so compatible with his ambition as
the gaining of Constantinople, and the total subversion of the Greek
empire, which at that period was in a very precarious condition. The
sultan, therefore, made vast preparations, which the Greek emperor,
Constantine VIII., perceiving, he solicited the aid of several Christian
princes, especially of Pope Nicholas V. and the king of Naples; but they
_all_, in a most unaccountable manner, excused themselves. Being thus
disappointed, the emperor laid an embargo on all vessels within his
ports, so that he added about three thousand veterans of different
nations to the garrison of his imperial city, which before consisted
of only six thousand Greeks.

In the spring of 1453, Mahomet set forward, with an army of three
hundred thousand men, for Constantinople, which city, on the ninth day