Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/402

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

360 DESTEUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIEE despair from the walls ; others surrendered in hope of saving their lives. The walls were abandoned. 1 Once the Turks had succeeded in effecting their entry through the stockade in the Lycus valley, followed as such entry was by the marching in of the divisions through the ordinary gates, the defence of the city was hopeless. Probably among the earliest from the fleet to effect an entry were men who appear to have landed at the Jews' quarter, which was near the Horaia Gate on the side of the Golden Horn. 2 The two brothers Paul and Troilus Bocchiardi in the highest part of the Myriandrion, near the Adrianople Gate, maintained their resistance for some time after they had observed that the Turks were pouring in on their left. Seeing that further resistance was useless, they determined to look after their own safety and to make for the ships. In doing so they were surrounded, but fought their way through the enemy and escaped to Galata. 3 Greeks and Latins alike, who were defending the walls on the Marmora and Golden Horn, judged that it was now impossible to hold them. From the latter position they could see that the Venetian and imperial flags which had waved over the towers from the Adrianople Gate down to the sea had been replaced by the Turkish ensigns. They were, indeed, soon attacked in the rear. The crews of the Turkish ships, likewise learning from the hoisting of the Turkish flags in lieu of those of St. Mark and the empire that their comrades were already within the city, made more strenuous efforts than before to scale the walls, and in doing so met with little resistance when the defenders saw the Turks on their rear. 4 The church of St. Theodosia — now known as Gul Jami, or the Mosque of the Kose, still a prominent building a short dis- tance to the west of the present inner bridge — was crowded 1 Crit. lxiii. 2 The Horaia Gate occupied the site of the present Stamboul Custom House. The Valide Mosque, at the end of the present outer bridge, is built on part of the Jewish quarter. See the subject fully discussed by Professor van Millingen, p. 221 and elsewhere. 3 Leonard, 99 ; Phrantzes, 287. 4 Barbaro, pp. 55, 56.