ore that church, their progress
would be arrested, for an angel with a sword in his hand would descend
from heaven and save the city of the Lord. The Turks burst into the
square, but the angel never came.

More than two thirds of the inhabitants of Constantinople were carried
prisoners into the Turkish camp--the men for servitude, the women for a
still more evil fate. The churches were sacked. From the dome of St.
Sophia its glories were torn down. The divine images, for the sake of
which Christendom had been sundered in former days, unresistingly
submitted to the pious rage of the Mohammedans without working a single
miracle, and, stripped of their gems and gold, were brought to their
proper value in the vile uses of kitchens and stables. On that same day
the Muezzin ascended the loftiest turret of St. Sophia, and over the
City of the Trinity proclaimed the Oneness of God. The sultan performed
his prayers at the great altar, directing the edifice to be purified
from its idolatries and consecrated to the worship of God. Thence he
repaired to the palace, and, reflecting on the instability of human
prosperity, repeated, as he entered it, the Persian verse: "The spider
has woven his web in the imperial palace; the owl hath sung her watch
song on the towers of Afrasiab."

This solemn event--the fall of Constantinople--accomplished, there was
no need of any reconciliation of the Greek and Latin Churches. The sword
of Mohammed had settled their dispute. Constantinople had submitted to
the fate of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage. [Sidenote: Terror
of Christendom at the fall of Constantinople.] Christendom was struck
with consternation. The advance of the Turks in Europe was now very
rapid. Corinth and Athens fell, and the reduction of Greece was
completed. The confines of Italy were approached A.D. 1461. The
Mohammedan flag confronted that peninsula along the Adriatic coast. In
twenty years more Italy was invaded. Otranto was taken; its bishop
killed at the door of his church. At this period, it was admitted that
the Turkish infantry, cavalry, and artillery were the best in the world.
Soliman the Magnificent took Belgrade A.D. 1520. [Sidenote: Progress of
the Turks.] Nine years afterwards the Turks besieged Vienna, but were
repulsed. Soliman now prepared for the subjugation of Italy, and was
only diverted from it by an accident which turned him upon the
Venetians. It was not until the battle of Lepanto that the Turki