treacherous, drew his sword, cut his way with his five hundred, and reached his own camp in safety. What soldiers can withstand the charm of personal courage? Leo's could not. They forced the Saracens to raise the siege of Amorium, and then, following that evil fashion of the time which Leo and his successors were to change, they proclaimed their general emperor of the East.
He accepted the position; he marched upon the capital; he defeated the son of Theodosius III.; he placed the fallen sovereign in a monastery; he made a triumphant entry into the capital; and he was crowned by the patriarch in the church of St. Sophia.
The siege of Amorium was raised and the successful general was on the throne, but the caliph could not believe that the city of Constantinople was any stronger. His brother Moslemah proceeded to attempt that final conquest which should enable the Moslems to attack Europe simultaneously at the east and the west—from Spain and from the Golden Horn. He got together 1,800 vessels of all kinds. He divided his fleet into two portions, of which one was designed to intercept supplies from the Archipelago, and the other from the cities of Cherson and Trebizond. Mean time he passed 180,000 men across the straits, and so prepared to invest Leo by land and sea. Very few details of this siege have been preserved, but it would appear as if the defence was so skilful and so successful that it gave a glory to the name of the Isaurian, which lasted for four generations at least. What is certain is that the Saracens in an attempt to carry the place by assault were hopelessly
