Turks attacked, and twice been driven off in utter discomfiture, when he shouted at them his angry reproaches, and insisted on a renewal of the conflict. It was all in vain; again his vessels were scattered in disorderly flight, while the brave little relieving squadron rounded the point of St. Demetrius, and entered the harbour in triumph. It seemed, indeed, thus early in their history, as if God had denied to the Turks the empire of the sea, and reserved it for the unbelievers, as they themselves, even in the days of their power, have been ready to confess. Mahomet would have impaled his admiral on the spot, but for the resolute intervention of the janissaries. He had to satisfy his wrath by laying a hundred strokes on the man's back with a ponderous golden rod. The Greeks meanwhile became hopeful, and counted on further and more powerful aid. But nothing more was done for them. It may be that the indifference of Christendom was in some degree due to a superstitious belief said to have been in the air, that the Turkish conquests would end with Constantinople. It admits, however, as we have seen, of another and an adequate explanation.
The sultan, with all his resolution, was seriously discouraged by the discomfiture of his fleet, and had half a mind to relinquish the siege. Fate, it seemed, was against him. The Turks were dismayed by vague rumours of aid said to be advancing from Hungary and from Italy to the rescue of the Greeks. Terror and rage provoked them to say that they had been dragged from their homes to a hopeless enterprise by a despot who
