Free The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II - Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire by John Freely

on the city. This was exactly what Mehmet wanted to hear, and on 27 May he sent heralds around the Turkish camp to announce that a general assault on the city would be made in a few days’ time. According to Archbishop Leonard of Chios, Halil Pasha, who was probably in the pay of the Byzantines, sent a message to Constantine telling him of Mehmet’s decision, urging him to hold out for two or three days longer and ‘not to be frightened by the follies of an intoxicated youth’. At dawn on 28 May Mehmet ordered his troops to take their assigned positions for the assault the following day, and some 2,000 ladders were brought up before the walls. Mehmet then rode to Diplokionion to give orders to the new admiral, Hamza Bey. He instructed him to sail his fleet down to the Golden Horn and station some of his ships outside the chain, while the rest would form a cordon around the Marmara shore of the city, thus diverting some of the defenders to guard the sea walls there.
    As Mehmet rode back to the Golden Horn he stopped outside the upper gate of Galata, where he was met by the podesta and other officials of what the Genoese called the Magnificent Community of Pera. Mehmet said that they should maintain their neutrality, and he warned them that if they attempted to aid the Greeks in Constantinople the following day they would pay with their lives.
    Later that day Mehmet rode along the whole line of the Theodosian walls, checking the positions of his troops and talking to his officers. He then summoned his generals to his tent and reviewed their assignments, saying, according to Kritoboulos, that he himself would be directing the main attack and would see what each of them did. The Greek chronicler Melissourgos, who wrote a continuation of the work of George Sphrantzes, says that Mehmet promised his officers and men that when they conquered Constantinople they would be free to sack the city for three days, which was in any event established Muslim practice.
    Following the meeting with his commanders, according to Kritoboulos, Mehmet consulted with his gunners and the cavalry and infantry units of the royal guard, after which he rode round the camp to rally all his troops before retiring.
    Meanwhile, the clergy and townspeople again formed a procession, holding aloft the icon of the Virgin Hodegitria and holy relics from all their churches, singing hymns as they walked through the city and out to the Theodosian walls. Doukas writes of the repeated cries of supplication that were heard throughout the city, as the townspeople implored Christ and the Virgin to save them from the Turks: ‘Spare us, O Lord, from Thy just wrath and deliver us from the hands of the enemy!’
    When the procession ended Constantine addressed his officers and the notables of the city, as well as the leaders of his Genoese and Venetian allies. Archbishop Leonard of Chios quotes Constantine’s exhortation to those who were defending the city in its most desperate hour: ‘Finally, my fellow soldiers, show obedience to your superiors in all things, and know that this is the day of your glory. If but a drop of your blood is shed, you will earn for yourselves the crown of martyrdom and everlasting renown.’
    That evening everyone who was not on duty along the walls began congregating in Haghia Sophia, praying for the city’s salvation. Melissourgos, writing as if he were George Sphrantzes, describes how Constantine prayed in Haghia Sophia and then stopped at the Palace of Blachernae, where he ‘asked to be forgiven by all. Who can describe the wailing and tears that arose in the palace at that hour? No man, even if he were made of wood and stone, could have held back his tears.’
    After leaving the palace, Constantine and Sphrantzes rode to the nearby Gate of the Caligaria. They dismounted there and Sphrantzes waited while Constantine ascended a tower beside the gateway, listening to the ominous sounds of the Turkish army preparing for the final assault.