Let us now return from this digression to the siege of the castle of Kostantín. Sultán Mohammed Khán having taken the daughter of the King of France out of the booty of the captured fleet, and by the advice of the captors, placed the rest in the hands of Ak-Shémsu-d-dín to be divided among the army, continued to encourage the besiegers. At length the fiftieth day came. It was manifest that all was terror and confusion within the city, and these graceless Christian infidels planting a white flag on the ramparts, cried out, “Quarter, O chosen House of ’Osmán! we will deliver up the city.” A respite of one day was therefore given to all the unbelievers, to go by land or sea to any country that they would. The Sultán then having the pontifical turban on his head, and sky-blue boots on his feet, mounted on a mule, and bearing the sword of Mohammed in his hand, marched in at the head of 70,000 or 80,000 Muselmán heroes, crying out, “Halt not, conquerors! God be praised! Ye are the vanquishers of Kostantaniyyeh!” He led them directly to the palace of Constantine (Takfúr Seráï), where he found some thousands of infidels assembled and prepared to defend it resolutely. A great battle ensued, and in that contest Kostantín, the king, was slain, and buried with the rest of the faithless (káfirs) in the Water Monastery (Súlú Menastir). The treasures in the king’s palace were so great that God only knows their amount. They were amassed by this Kostantín, who was a merchant, and as rapacious as a griffin (’anká), and had rebuilt Islámbúl the ninth time. Mohammed proceeded to the church of Ayá Sófiyah in order to express his thanks by saying a prayer, accompanied by two inclinations of the head (_rik’at_). Twelve thousand monks who dwelt within and all around it, having closed its doors, threw from the roof, towers, turrets, and belfries, arrows and burning pitch, and naptha on the Moslems. Mohammed having invested the church with the armies of Islám, like a swarm of hornets, for three days and three nights, at length took it on the fifty-third day. He then having slain a few monks, entered the church, bearing the standard of the Prophet of God in his hand, and planting it on the high altar (_mihráb_), chaunted, for the first time, the Mohammedan ezán (call to prayers). The rest of the Muselmán victors having put the monks to the edge of the sword, Ayá Sófiyah, was deluged with the blood of the idolaters. Mohammed, in order to leave them a memorial of his skill in archery, shot a four-winged arrow into the centre of the cupola, and the trace of his arrow is still shown there. One of the archers of the Sultán’s guard having killed an infidel with his left hand, and filled his right with his blood, came into the Sultán’s presence, and clapping his hand red with blood on a white marble column, left the impression of a hand and fingers, which is still seen near the turbeh-kapú-sí. It is on the opposite corner as one enters, at the height of five men’s