_All to the magic of that world-sung song,_ _That god-breathed legend dost thou owe thy fame;_ _The golden weft the blind man wove so long,_ _Hath linked to immortality thy name._ _His tale to many another’s lyre hath given_ _Its stirring echoes; and in every age_ _What story more than of thy woes hath riven_ _Their hearts who dream upon the poet’s page._ _And though for long thou in the dust hast lain,_ _Still, still the visions of the mighty past,_ _The memory of thy struggle, and thy pain,_ _Thy god-built turrets,--these forever last._ CHAPTER V THE CRADLE OF THE OSMANLIS _Have Time’s stern scythe, man’s rage and flood and fire_ _Left naught for curious pilgrims to admire?_ _A few poor footsteps may now cross the shrine,_ _Cell, long arcade, high altar, all supine;_ _Bound with thick ivy broken columns lie,_ _Through low rent circles winds of evening sigh,_ _Rough brambles choke the vaults where gold was stored,_ _And toads spit venom forth where priests adored._ NICOLAS MICHEL. Our next side trip, after visiting Troy, was a short excursion to Brusa which--partly by steamer and partly by rail--is easily accessible from Constantinople. I was especially eager to see this famous place, for its historic associations are numerous and varied. It was to Brusa--anciently Prusa--that Hannibal fled after his defeat by the Romans. There are indeed, some authorities who maintain that the great Carthaginian general was the founder of Brusa. It was from this city, which was once large and prosperous, that Pliny the Younger, while governor of Bithynia, wrote his celebrated letter to Trajan, in which he asked for instructions concerning the policy to be pursued regarding “the stubborn sect of Christians” who were then rapidly increasing in numbers and who, by refusing to offer sacrifices to the gods and by persistently avoiding all pagan rites and observances, had made themselves specially obnoxious to Roman officialdom. This letter[82] is remarkable as being one of the first notices in Roman writers respecting the members of that incipient Church which was eventually to become mistress of the capital of Cæsars.