bers; and the unfortunate Sultan, afflicted with the gout in his
hands and feet, was transported from the field on the fleetest of his
horses. He was pursued and taken by the titular Khan of Zagatai; and,
after his capture and the defeat of the Ottoman powers, the kingdom of
Anatolia submitted to the conqueror, who planted his standard at
Kiotahia, and dispersed on all sides the ministers of rapine and
destruction. Mirza Mehemmed Sultan, the eldest and best beloved of his
grandsons, was despatched to Bursa, with thirty thousand horse; and such
was his youthful ardor that he arrived with only four thousand at the
gates of the capital, after performing in five days a march of two
hundred and thirty miles. Yet fear is still more rapid in its course;
and Solyman, the son of Bajazet, had already passed over to Europe with
the royal treasure. The spoil, however, of the palace and city was
immense; the inhabitants had escaped; but the buildings, for the most
part of wood, were reduced to ashes. From Bursa, the grandson of Timur
advanced to Nice, even yet a fair and flourishing city; and the Mongol
squadrons were only stopped by the waves of the Propontis. The same
success attended the other mirzas and emirs in their excursions, and
Smyrna, defended by the zeal and courage of the Rhodian knights, alone
deserved the presence of the Emperor himself. After an obstinate
defence, the place was taken by storm; all that breathed was put to the
sword; and the heads of the Christian heroes were launched from the
engines, on board of two caracks, or great ships of Europe, that rode at
anchor in the harbor. The Moslems of Asia rejoiced in their deliverance
from a dangerous and domestic foe and a parallel was drawn between the
two rivals, by observing that Timur, in fourteen days, had reduced a
fortress which had sustained seven years the siege, or at least the
blockade, of Bajazet.

The "iron cage" in which Bajazet was imprisoned by Timur, so long and so
often repeated as a moral lesson, is now rejected as a fable by the
modern writers, who smile at the vulgar credulity. They appeal with
confidence to the Persian history of Sherefeddin Ali, according to which
has been given to our curiosity in a French version, and from which I
shall collect and abridge, a more specious narrative of this memorable
transaction. No sooner was Timur informed that the captive Ottoman was
at the door of his tent than he graciously stepped forward to receive
hi