Panayoti,[21] the dragoman of the Porte, to confer with
them; and the articles were settled without much difficulty. Peace was
concluded between the Porte and the Republic. Candia and the whole of
Crete was ceded to the Sultan, with the exception of the harbours of
Grabusa, Suda, and Spinalonga, which the Venetians were allowed to
retain for purposes of commerce; the garrison and inhabitants of Candia
were to embark with their arms, baggage, and a certain proportion of
artillery, and the Ottomans were not to enter the town till the
embarkation was completed. These conditions were scrupulously observed
by the victors; till the 27th of September, the evacuation being
effected, the standard of the cross was at length lowered from the
walls; and the vizir, standing on the breach of the St Andrew's bastion,
(thence called by the Turks the _Fort of Surrender_,) in the midst of a
crowd of pashas and generals, received the keys of the city in a silver
basin. A body of Turkish troops immediately entered by the breaches, and
mounted guard on the principal posts; but it was not till the 4th of
October that the vizir made his triumphant entry at the head of his
army, (now reduced to about 15,000 regular troops, and 11,000 pioneers
and irregulars,) and proceeded, bearing in his hand the sacred standard
of the Prophet, to the cathedral, which was purified from the dead
bodies interred within its walls, and re-consecrated as a mosque. All
the other churches underwent the same transformation, with the exception
of two which Panayoti purchased for the use of the Greeks; for so
completely was the town deserted, that there remained only, in the words
of an anonymous eyewitness, "two Greeks, three Jews, and eight other
strangers, whom the vizir would also have suffered to depart; but they
chose rather to change their religion than their quarters."

[21] The appointment of the _Greek_ Panayoti marks an important
change in the system of Ottoman diplomacy; as previously the
Porte had disdained to employ the _rayahs_ in places of trust,
depending wholly, in their intercourse with foreign ambassadors,
on the interpreters attached to the suite of the latter.

Thus ended this famous siege, the longest, and one of the most
memorable, recorded in history. During its continuance, the Venetians
and their allies lost 30,000 men, and the Turks more than 100,000;
fifty-six assaults were made on the town above ground, and the same
n