ried his victorious
arms from the Danube to the Euphrates, and the Roman world became
contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black
Sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth, a space of
ground not more extensive than the lesser principalities of Germany or
Italy, if the remains of Constantinople had not still represented the
wealth and populousness of a kingdom.

Under Manuel (1391-1425), the son and successor of John Palteologus,
Constantinople would have fallen before the might of the Sultan Bajazet
had not the Turkish Empire been oppressed by the revival of the Mogul
power under the victorious Timour, or Tamerlane. After achieving a
conquest of Persia (1380-1393), of Tartary (1370-1383), and Hindustan
(1398-1399), Timour, who aspired to the monarchy of the world, found
himself at length face to face with the Sultan Bajazet. Bajazet was
taken prisoner in the war that followed. Kept, probably only as a
precaution, in an iron cage, Bajazet attended the marches of his
conqueror, and died on March 9, 1403. Two years later, Timour also
passed away on the road to China. Of his empire to-day nothing remains.
Since the reign of his descendant Aurungzebe, his empire has been
dissolved (1659-1707); the treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a
Persian robber; and the riches of their kingdom is now possessed by the
Christians of a remote island in the northern ocean.

Far different was the fate of the Ottoman monarchy. The massive trunk
was bent to the ground, but no sooner did the hurricane pass away than
it again rose with fresh vigour and more lively vegetation. After a
period of civil war between the sons of Bajazet (1403-1421), the Ottoman
Empire was once more firmly established by his grandson, Amurath II.
(1421-1451).

One of the first expeditions undertaken by the new sultan was the siege
of Constantinople (1422), but the fortune rather than the genius of the
Emperor Manuel prevented the attempt. Amurath was recalled to Asia by a
domestic revolt, and the siege was raised.

While the sultan led his Janizaries to new conquests, the Byzantine
Empire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of thirty years.
Manuel sank into the grave, and John Palaeologus II. (1425-1448) was
permitted to reign for an annual tribute of 300,000 aspers and the
dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of
Constantinople.

On November 1, 1448, Constantine, the last of the Roman emp