emperors were helped “by one Astras, in many things a clever man, but especially in building, and by John, surnamed Peralta, one of the Latin subjects of the emperor.”[212] The church was necessarily much neglected in the last days of the Empire. Clavijo, who gave a careful account of the church in 1403 (see Chapter IX.), says “the outer gates by which the church was approached were broken and fallen.” He notes that “the Greeks do not call Constantinople as we name it, but speak of it as _Escomboli_.” This clearly proves that the derivation of the Turkish name Istambul from εἰς τὴν πόλιν, “to the city,” is correct.[213] The Florentine Bondelmontius, who was there in 1422, says that “only the dome of the church remained, as everything is fallen down and in ruins.” This exaggeration is probably explained by a story given by the Chevalier Bertrandon de la Brocquière, who visited the city eleven years later, in the course of his remarkable ride from Damascus to Dijon along the route of the present Oriental express. He attended service in the church, and writes:--“There the patriarch resides, with others of the rank of canons. It is situated near the eastern point, is of a circular shape, and formed of three different parts, one subterranean, another above the ground, and a third over that. Formerly it was surrounded by cloisters, and was, it was said, three miles in circumference.[214] It is now of smaller extent, and only three cloisters remain, all paved and inlaid with squares of white marble, and ornamented with large columns of various colours. The gates are remarkable for their breadth and height, and are of bronze.”[215] The visit of the Chevalier Bertrandon brings us within twenty years of the fall of the great city. The incidents of the later years of the empire, the vain efforts to get help from Europe, and the schemes for uniting the Greek and Latin churches, are described by Chedomil Mijatovich.[216] In the year before the Fall the negotiations with the West had proceeded so far, that, on the 12th of December 1452, a _Te Deum_ after the Latin rite was sung by Cardinal Isidore in S. Sophia, but this did not meet with favour from the populace. Ducas speaks of the church after that time as being nothing better than a Jewish synagogue or heathen temple. Five months later, on the 28th of May 1453, the last Christian service was held within its walls. At the vesper service on that solemn evening, the emperor, after praying with great fervour, left his imperial chair, and, approaching the iconostasis, prostrated himself before the figures of Christ and the Madonna on either side of the great central door. He then asked for pardon from any whom he might have offended, and the ritual proceeded.