by Lew Wallace
CHAPTER V
COUNT CORTI RECEIVES A FAVOR
"Gracious Princess, the Italian, Count Corti, is at the door. He praysyou to hear a request from him."
"Return, Lysander, and bring the Count."
It was early morning, with February in its last days.
The visitor's iron shoes clanked sharply on the marble floor of thereception room, and the absence of everything like ornament in hisequipment bespoke preparation for immediate hard service.
"I hope the Mother is keeping you well," she said, presenting her handto him.
With a fervor somewhat more marked than common, he kissed the whiteoffering, and awaited her bidding.
"My attendants are gone to the chapel, but I will hear you--or will youlend us your presence at the service, and have the audience afterwards?"
"I am in armor, and my steed is at the door, and my men biding at theAdrianople Gate; wherefore, fair Princess, if it be your pleasure, Iwill present my petition now."
In grave mistrust, she returned:
"God help us, Count! I doubt you have something ill to relate. Sincethe good Gregory fled into exile to escape his persecutors, but moreespecially since Cardinal Isidore attempted Latin mass in SanctaSophia, and the madman Gennadius so frightened the people with hissenseless anathemas, [Footnote: The scene here alluded to by thePrincess Irene is doubtless the one so vividly described by Gibbon ashaving taken place in Sancta Sophia, the 12th of December, 1452, beingthe mass celebrated by Cardinal Isidore in an attempt to reconcile theLatin and Greek factions.
Enumerating the consequences of the same futile effort at compromise,Von Hammer says: "Instead of uniting for the common defence, the Greeksand Latins fled, leaving the churches empty; the priests refused thesacrament to the dying who were not of their faith; the monks and nunsrepudiated confessors who acknowledged the _henoticon_ (decreeordaining the reunion of the two churches); a spirit of frenzy tookpossession of the convents; one _religieuse_, to the great scandal ofall the faithful, adopted the faith and costume of the Mussulmans,eating meat and adoring the Prophet. Thus Lent passed." (Vol. II., p.397.)
To the same effect we read in the Universal History of the CatholicChurch (Vol. XXII., p. 103): "The religious who affected to surpassothers in sanctity of life and purity of faith, following the advice ofGennadius and their spiritual advisers, as well as that of thepreachers and laity of their party, condemned the decree of union, andanathematized those who approved or might approve it. The commonpeople, sallying from the monasteries, betook themselves to thetaverns; there flourishing glasses of wine, they reviled all who hadconsented to the union, and drinking in honor of an image of the Motherof God, prayed her to protect and defend the city against Mahomet, asshe had formerly defended it against Chosroes and the Kagan. We willhave nothing to do with assistance from the Latins or a union withthem. Far from us be the worship of the _azymites_."] I have been besetwith forebodings until I startle at my own thoughts. It were gentle,did you go to your request at once."
She permitted him to lead her to an armless chair, and, standing beforeher, he spoke with decision:
"Princess Irene, now that you have resolved finally to remain in thecity, and abide the issue of the siege, rightly judging it an affairdeterminable by God, it is but saying the truth as I see it, that noone is more interested in what betides us from day to day than you; forif Heaven frowns upon our efforts at defence, and there comes anassault, and we are taken, the Conqueror, by a cruel law of war, has atdisposal the property both public and private he gains, and everyliving thing as well. We who fight may die the death he pleases;you--alas, most noble and virtuous lady, my tongue refuses the wordsthat rise to it for utterance!"
The rose tints in her cheeks faded, yet she answered: "I know what youwould say, and confess it has appalled me. Sometimes it tempts me tofly while yet I can; then I remember I am a Palaeologus. I rememberalso my kinsman the Emperor is to be sustained in the trial confrontinghim. I remember too the other women, high and low, who will stay andshare the fortunes of their fighting husbands and brothers. If I haveless at stake than they, Count Corti, the demands of honor are morerigorous upon me."
The count's eyes glowed with admiration, but next moment the light inthem went out.
"Noble lady," he began, "I hope it will not be judged too great afamiliarity to say I have some days been troubled on your account. Ihave feared you might be too confident of our ability to beat theenemy. It seems my duty to warn you of the real outlook that you maypermit us to provide for your safety while opportunities favor."
"For my flight, Count Corti?"
"Nay, Princess Irene, your retirement from the city."
She smiled at the distinction he made, but replied:
"I will hear you, Count."
"It is for you to consider, O Princess--if reports of the Sultan'spreparation are true--this assault in one feature at least will beunparalleled. The great guns for which he has been delaying are said tobe larger than ever before used against walls. They may destroy ourdefences at once; they may command all the space within those defences;they may search every hiding-place; the uncertainties they bring withthem are not to be disregarded by the bravest soldier, much less theunresisting classes.... In the next place, I think it warrantable fromthe mass of rumors which has filled the month to believe the city willbe assailed by a force much greater than was ever drawn together underher walls. Suffer me to refer to them, O Princess... The Sultan is yetat Adrianople assembling his army. Large bodies of footmen are crossingthe Hellespont at Gallipolis and the Bosphorus at Hissar; in the regionof Adrianople the country is covered with hordes of horsemen speakingall known tongues and armed with every known weapon--Cossacks from thenorth, Arabs from the south, Koords and Tartars from the east,Roumanians and Slavs from beyond the Balkans. The roads from thenorthwest are lined with trains bringing supplies and siege-machinery.The cities along the shores of the Black Sea have yielded to Mahommed;those which defied him are in ruins. An army is devastating Morea. Thebrother whom His Majesty the Emperor installed ruler there is dead or awanderer, no man can say in what parts. Assistance cannot be expectedfrom him. Above us, far as the sea, the bays are crowded with ships ofall classes; four hundred hostile sail have been counted from thehill-tops. And now that there is no longer a hope of further aid fromthe Christians of Europe, the effect of the news upon our garrison isdispiriting. Our garrison! Alas, Princess, with the foreigners come toour aid, it is not sufficient to man the walls on the landward sidealone."
"The picture is gloomy, Count, but if you have drawn it to shake mypurpose, it is not enough. I have put myself in the hands of theBlessed Mother. I shall stay, and be done with as God orders."
Again the Count's face glowed with admiration.
"I thought as much, O Princess," he said warmly; "yet it seemed to me aduty to advise you of the odds against us; and now, the duty done, Ipray you hear me as graciously upon another matter.... Last night,seeing the need of information of the enemy, I besought His Majesty toallow me to ride toward Adrianople. He consented, and I set outimmediately; but before going, before bidding you adieu, noble Princessand dear lady, I have a prayer to offer you."
He hesitated; then plucking courage from the embarrassment of silence,went on:
"Dear lady, your resolution to stay and face the dangers of the siegeand assault fills me with alarm for your safety."
He cast himself upon his knees, and stretched his hands to her.
"Give me permission to protect you. I devote my sword to you, and theskill of my hands--my life, my soul. Let me be your knight."
She arose, but he continued:
"Some day, deeds done for your country and religion may give me courageto speak more boldly of what I feel and hope; but now I dare go nofurther than ask what you have just heard. Let me be your protector andknight through the perils of the siege at least."
The Princess was pleased with the turn his speech had taken. Shethought rapidly. A knight in battle, foremost in
the press, her name aconquering cry on his lips were but the constituents of a right womanlyambition. She answered:
"Count Corti, I accept thy offer."
Taking the hand she extended, he kissed it reverently, and said:
"I am happy above other men. Now, O Princess, give me a favor--a glove,a scarf--something I may wear, to prove me thy knight."
She took from her neck a net of knitted silk, pinkish in hue, and largeenough for a kerchief or waist sash.
"If I go about this gift," she said, her face deeply suffused, "in away to provoke a smile hereafter; if in placing it around thy neck withmy own hands"--with the words, she bent over him, and dropped the netoutside the hood so the ends hung loosely down his breast--"I overstepany rule of modesty, I pray you will not misunderstand me. I amthinking of my country, my kinsman, of religion and God, and theservice even unto noble deeds thou mayst do them. Rise, Count Corti. Inthe ride before thee now, in the perils to come, thou shalt have myprayers."
The Count arose, but afraid to trust himself in further speech, hecarried her hand to his lips again, and with a simple farewell, hurriedout, and mounting his horse rode at speed for the Adrianople Gate.
Four days after, he reentered the gate, bringing a prisoner, andpassing straight to the Very High Residence, made report to theEmperor, Justiniani and Duke Notaras in council.
"I have been greatly concerned for you, Count," said Constantine; "andnot merely because a good sword can be poorly spared just now."
The imperial pleasure was unfeigned.
"Your Majesty's grace is full reward for my performance," the Countreplied, and rising from the salutation, he began his recital.
"Stay," said the Emperor, "I will have a seat brought that you may beat ease."
Corti declined: "The Arabs have a saying, Your Majesty--'A nest for asetting bird, a saddle for a warrior.' The jaunt has but rested me, andthere was barely enough danger in it.... The Turk is an oldacquaintance. I have lived with him, and been his guest in house andtent, and as a comrade tempted Providence at his side under countlessconditions, until I know his speech and usages, himself scarcelybetter. My African Berbers are all Mohammedans who have performed thePilgrimage. One of them is a muezzin by profession; and if he can butcatch sight of the sun, he will never miss the five hours of prayer.None of them requires telling the direction to Mecca.... I issued fromYour Majesty's great gate about the third hour, and taking the road toAdrianople, journeyed till near midday before meeting a human being.There were farms and farmhouses on my right and left, and the fieldshad been planted in good season; but the growing grain was wasted; andwhen I sought the houses to have speech with their tenants they wereforsaken. Twice we were driven off by the stench of bodies rottingbefore the doors."
"Greeks?"
"Greeks, Your Majesty.... There were wild hogs in the thickets whichfled at sight of us, and vultures devouring the corpses."
"Were there no other animals, no horses or oxen?" asked Justiniani.
"None, noble Genoese--none seen by us, and the swine were spared, Iapprehend, because their meat is prohibited to the children ofIslam.... At length Hadifah, whom I have raised to be a Sheik--YourMajesty permitting--and whose eyes discover the small things with whichspace is crowded as he were a falcon making circles up near thesun--Hadifah saw a man in the reeds hiding; and we pursued the wretch,and caught him, and he too was a Greek; and when his fright allowed himto talk, he told us a band of strange people, the like of whom he hadnever seen, attacked his hut, burned it, carried off his goats and shebuffaloes; and since that hour, five weeks gone, he had been huntingfor his wife and three girl-children. God be merciful to them! Of theTurks he could tell nothing except that now, everything of value gone,they too had disappeared. I gave the poor man a measure of oaten cakes,and left him to his misery. God be merciful to him also!"
"Did you not advise him to come to me?"
"Your Majesty, he was a husband and father seeking his family; with allhumility, what else is there for him to do?"
"I give your judgment credit, Count. There is nothing else."
"I rode on till night, meeting nobody, friend or foe--on through a widedistrict, lately inhabited, now a wilderness. The creatures of theSultan had passed through it, and there was fire in their breath. Wediscovered a dried-up stream, and by sinking in its bed obtained waterfor our horses. There, in a hollow, we spent the night.... Nextmorning, after an hour's ride, we met a train of carts drawn by oxen.The groaning and creaking of the distraught wheels warned me of theencounter before the advance guard of mounted men, quite a thousandstrong, were in view. I did not draw rein"--
"What!" cried Justiniani, astonished. "With but a company of nine?"
The Count smiled.
"I crave your pardon, gallant Captain. In my camp the night before, Iprepared my Berbers for the meeting."
"By the bones of the saints, Count Corti, thou dost confuse me themore! With such odds against thee, what preparations were at thycommand?"
"'There was never amulet like a grain of wit in a purse under thy cap.'Good Captain, the saying is not worse of having proceeded from aPersian. I told my followers we were likely at any moment to beovertaken by a force too strong for us to fight; but instead of runningaway, we must meet them heartily, as friends enlisted in the samecause; and if they asked whence we were, we must be sure of agreementin our reply. I was to be a Turk; they, Egyptians from west of theNile. We had come in by the new fortress opposite the White Castle, andwere going to the mighty Lord Mahommed in Adrianople. Beyond that, Ibade them be silent, leaving the entertainment of words to me."
The Emperor and Justiniani laughed, but Notaras asked: "If thy Berbersare Mohammedans, as thou sayest, Count Corti, how canst thou rely onthem against Mohammedans?"
"My Lord the High Admiral may not have heard of the law by which, ifone Arab kills another, the relatives of the dead man are bound to killhim, unless there be composition. So I had merely to remind Hadifah andhis companions of the Turks we slew in the field near Basch-Kegan."
Corti continued: "After parley with the captain of the advance guard, Iwas allowed to ride on; and coming to the train, I found the cartsfreighted with military engines and tools for digging trenches andfortifying camps. There were hundreds of them, and the drivers were amultitude. Indeed, Your Majesty, from head to foot the caravan wasmiles in reach, its flanks well guarded by groups of horsemen atconvenient intervals."
This statement excited the three counsellors.
"After passing the train," the Count was at length permitted to resume,"my way was through bodies of troops continuously--all irregulars. Itmust have been about three o'clock in the afternoon when I came uponthe most surprising sight. Much I doubt if ever the noble CaptainJustiniani, with all his experience, can recall anything like it.
"First there was a great company of pioneers with tools for grading thehills and levelling the road; then on a four-wheeled carriage two menstood beating a drum; their sticks looked like the enlarged end of agalley oar. The drum responded to their blows in rumbles like dullthunder from distant clouds. While I sat wondering why they beat it,there came up next sixty oxen yoked in pairs. Your Majesty can in fancymeasure the space they covered. On the right and left of each yokestrode drivers with sharpened goads, and their yelling harmonizedcuriously with the thunder of the drum. The straining of the brutes waspitiful to behold. And while I wondered yet more, a log of bronze wasdrawn toward me big at one end as the trunk of a great plane tree, andso long that thirty carts chained together as one wagon, were requiredto support it laid lengthwise; and to steady the piece on its rollingbed, two hundred and fifty stout laborers kept pace with itunremittingly watchful. The movement was tedious, but at last I saw"--
"A cannon!" exclaimed the Genoese.
"Yes, noble Captain, the gun said to be the largest ever cast."
"Didst thou see any of the balls?"
"Other carts followed directly loaded with gray limestones chiselledround; and to my inquiry what
the stones were for, I was told they werebullets twelve spans in circumference, and that the charge of powderused would cast them a mile."
The inquisitors gazed at each other mutely, and their thoughts may begathered from the action of the Emperor. He touched a bell on a table,and to Phranza, who answered the call, he said: "Lord Chamberlain, havetwo men well skilled in the construction of walls report to me in themorning. There is work for them which they must set about at once. Iwill furnish the money." [Footnote: Before the siege by the Turks, twomonks, Manuel Giagari and Neophytus of Rhodes, were charged withrepairing the walls, but they buried the sums intrusted to them forthese works; and in the pillage of the city seventy thousand pieces ofgold thus advanced by the Emperor were unearthed.--VON HAMMER, Vol.II., p. 417.]
"I have but little more of importance to engage Your Majesty'sattention.... Behind the monster cannon, two others somewhat smallerwere brought up in the same careful manner. I counted seventeen piecesall brass, the least of them exceeding in workmanship and power thebest in the Hippodrome."
"Were there more?" Justiniani asked.
"Many more, brave Captain, but ancient, and unworthy mention.... Theday was done when, by sharp riding, I gained the rear of the train. Atsunrise on the third day, I set out in return.... I have a prisonerwhom this august council may examine with profit. He will, at least,confirm my report."
"Who is he?"
"The captain of the advance guard."
"How came you by him?"
"Your Majesty, I induced him to ride a little way with me, and at aconvenient time gave his bridle rein to Hadifah. In his boyhood theSheik was trained to leading camels, and he assures me it is mucheasier to lead a horse."
The sally served to lighten the sombre character of the Count's report,and in the midst of the merriment, he was dismissed. The prisoner wasthen brought in, and put to question; next day the final preparationfor the reception of Mahommed was begun.
With a care equal to the importance of the business, Constantinedivided the walls into sections, beginning on the landward side of theGolden Gate or Seven Towers, and ending at the Cynegion. Of the harborfront he made one division, with the Grand Gate of Blacherne and theAcropolis or Point Serail for termini; from Point Serail to the SevenTowers he stationed patrols and lookouts, thinking the sea and rockssufficient to discourage assault in that quarter.
His next care was the designation of commandants of the severaldivisions. The individuals thus honored have been already mentioned;though it may be well to add how the Papal Legate, Cardinal Isidore,doffing his frock and donning armor, voluntarily accepted chiefdirection along the harbor--an example of martial gallantry which oughtto have shamed the lukewarm Greeks morosely skulking in their cells.
Shrewdly anticipating a concentration of effort against the Gate St.Romain, and its two auxiliary towers, Bagdad and St. Romain, the formeron the right hand and the latter on the left, he assigned Justiniani toits defence.
Upon the walls, and in the towers numerously garnishing them, thegallant Emperor next brought up his guns and machines, with profusesupplies of missiles.
Then, after flooding the immense ditch, he held a review in theHippodrome, whence the several detachments marched to their stations.
Riding with his captains, and viewing the walls, now gay with bannersand warlike tricking, Constantine took heart, and told how Amurath, thepeerless warrior, had dashed his Janissaries against them, and rued theday.
"Is this boy Mahommed greater than his father?" he asked.
"God knows," Isidore responded, crossing himself breast and forehead.
And well content, the cavalcade repassed the ponderous Gate St. Romain.All that could be done had been done. There was nothing more but towait.
