ks, and
the mining operations at Blachern were discovered and defeated by Johann
Grant, still the superior number and indefatigable perseverance of the
Ottomans at last filled up the ditch, and the fire of their guns ruined
the walls. A visible change in the state of the fortifications encouraged
the assailants, and showed the besieged that the enemy was gradually
gaining a decided advantage. At the commencement of the siege, the
Ottoman engineers had displayed so little knowledge of the mode of using
artillery to effect a breach that a Hungarian envoy from John Hunyady,[1]
who visited Mahomet's camp, ridiculed the idea of their producing any
effect on the walls of Constantinople. This stranger was said to have
taught the Turks to fire in volleys, and to cut the wall in rectangular
sections, in order to produce a practicable breach.

The batteries at length effected a practicable breach at the gate of St.
Romanus. Before issuing his final orders for the assault, Mahomet
II summoned the Emperor to surrender the city, and offered him a
considerable appanage as a vassal of the Porte elsewhere. Constantine
rejected the insulting offer, and the Sultan prepared to take
Constantinople by storm. Four days were employed in the Ottoman camp
making all the arrangements necessary for a simultaneous attack by land
and sea along the whole line of the fortifications, from the modern
quarter of Phanar to the Golden Gate. The Greeks and Latins within the
walls were not less active in their exertions to meet the crisis. The
Latins were sustained by their habits of military discipline, and their
experiences of the chances of war; the Greeks placed great confidence in
some popular prophecies which foretold the ultimate defeat of the Turks.
They felt a pious conviction that the imperial and orthodox city would
never fall into the hands of infidels. But the emperor Constantine was
deceived by no vain hopes. He knew that human prudence and valor could do
no more than had been done to retard the progress of the besiegers.

Time had been gained, but the Greeks showed no disposition to fight for a
heretical emperor, and no succors arrived from the Pope and the western
princes. Constantine could now only hope to prolong the defence for a
few hours, and, when the city fell, to bring his own life to a glorious
termination by dying on the breach.

On the night before the assault, the Emperor rode round to all the posts
occupied by the garrison, an