CONSTANTINE ALLEGED TO HAVE SUED FOR PEACE; ATTEMPT TO DESTROY TURKISH SHIPS IN THE GOLDEN HORN POSTPONED; MADE AND FAILS; MURDER OF CAPTIVES; REPRISALS; OPERATIONS IN LYCUS VALLEY; BRIDGE BUILT OVER GOLDEN HORN; SENDING TO SEEK VENETIAN FLEET; PROPOSAL THAT EMPEROR SHOULD LEAVE CITY; ATTACKS ON BOOM; JEALOUSY BETWEEN VENETIANS AND GENOESE; NEW ASSAULTS FAIL BOTH AT WALLS AND BOOM; ATTEMPTS TO UNDERMINE WALLS; CONSTRUCTION OF A TURRET; DESTROYED BY BESIEGED; FAILURE OF VESSEL SENT TO FIND VENETIAN FLEET; UNLUCKY OMENS. [Sidenote: Constantine alleged to have asked for peace.] Ducas relates that about this time, when the emperor found that the walls which had resisted the Arabs and other invaders were not strong enough to support the attack of Mahomet’s cannon, he sent an offer to pay any amount of tribute which might be imposed on condition that the siege should be abandoned. His narrative would imply that the offer was made immediately after the transport of the fleet overland.[318] Mahomet replied to the emperor that it was too late: that he meant to obtain the city or die in the attempt. He, however, made a counter proposal. If the emperor would leave it, he would give him the Morea, would appoint his brother to rule over other provinces, and thus sultan and emperor might live at peace with each other. If this counter proposal were rejected, he declared his intention of putting the emperor and all his nobles to the sword, of allowing his soldiers to take captive the people and to pillage their houses. He himself would be content with the deserted city. Ducas adds that of course the offer of Mahomet was refused, because in what place could the emperor have appeared without meeting the scorn, not only of all Christians, but of Jews and even of the Turks themselves? This proposal is not mentioned by Phrantzes. Gibbon suggests that he is silent regarding it because he wished to spare his prince even the thought of a surrender. Ducas, however, is constantly inaccurate, and it may well be that he was merely relating an unfounded report which was current after the capture of the city, when he himself was but a boy. It is difficult to believe that if any proposal of the kind had been made at the time indicated it would not have been known to Leonard, Barbaro, Pusculus, Tetaldi, or others who were present at the siege, and if known that it would not have been mentioned. Phrantzes, writing in defence of the emperor, says that it is certain that he could have fled from the city if he had so desired and that he deliberately preferred the fate of the Good Shepherd who is ready to lay down his life for his sheep.[319] The same testimony is borne by Critobulus,[320] who says that although Constantine realised the peril which threatened the city, and although he could have saved his own life as many counselled him to do, yet he refused, and preferred to die rather than see the city captured.