a proclamation was issued that the cannon would be
discharged the ensuing day. The explosion was felt or heard in a circuit
of a hundred furlongs; the ball, by the force of the gunpowder, was driven
about a mile, and on the spot where it fell, it buried itself a fathom
deep in the ground. For the conveyance of this destructive engine, a frame
or carriage of thirty wagons was linked together, and drawn along by a
train of sixty oxen; two hundred men, on both sides, were stationed to
poise or support the rolling weight; two hundred and fifty workmen marched
before to smooth the way and repair the bridges, and near two months were
employed in a laborious journey of a hundred and fifty miles.

"In the siege, the incessant volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied
with the smoke, the sound, and the fire of their musketry and cannon.
Their small arms discharged at the same time five or even ten balls of
lead of the size of a walnut, and according to the closeness of the ranks,
and the force of the powder, several breast-plates and bodies were
transpierced by the same shot. But the Turkish approaches were soon sunk
into trenches, or covered with ruins. Each day added to the science of the
Christians, but their inadequate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the
operation of each day. Their ordnance was not powerful either in size or
number, and if they possessed some heavy cannon, they feared to plant them
on the walls, lest the aged structure should be shaken and overthrown by
the explosion. The same destructive secret had been revealed to the
Moslems, by whom it was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches,
and despotism. The great cannon of MAHOMET was flanked by two fellows
almost of equal magnitude: the long order of the Turkish artillery was
pointed against the walls: fourteen batteries thundered at once on the
most accessible places, and of one of these it is ambiguously expressed
that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns, or that it
discharged one hundred and thirty bullets."

The conquest of Constantinople being accomplished, they were to have power
to kill men during an hour, day, month, and year of prophetic time--_i.e._
three hundred and ninety-one years, fifteen days. If reckoned from the
conquest of the city, this would extend to June 1844. Whether any
particular act has transpired to mark the precise point of its
termination, may not be important; but it is interesting to consider that
within