The last Palæologus, Constantine XI., fell by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under a mountain of the slain. The siege had lasted fifty-three days. Besides the multitudes that fell in fight, about 60,000 of the unhappy Greeks were reduced to the condition of slaves. Most of those were soon dispersed in remote servitude through the provinces of the Ottoman empire. The church of St. Sophia was speedily stripped of all its pictures and images, and before the lapse of many hours, the _muezzin_, or crier, ascended the most lofty turret and proclaimed the _ezan_, or public invitation, in the name of God and his prophet; the Imam preached; and Mahomet the Second performed the _namaz_ of prayer and thanksgiving on the great altar, where the Christian mysteries had so lately been celebrated before the last of the Cæsars. From St. Sophia he proceeded to the august but desolate mansion of a hundred successors of the great Constantine; but which, in a very short time, had been stripped of the pomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection on the vicissitudes of human greatness forced itself on his mind, and he repeated an elegant distich of Persian poetry--“The spider has wove his web in the imperial palace; and the owl has sung her watch-song on the towers of Afrasiab.” [Illustration: ABDUL MEDJID, SULTAN OF TURKEY.] Mahomet removed the seat of his government to Constantinople; a city so obviously marked out by nature for the metropolis of a vast empire. The population was speedily renewed. Before the end of September, five thousand families of Anatolia and Romania had obeyed the royal mandate, which enjoined them, under pain of death, to occupy their new habitations in the capital. The Sultan’s throne was guarded by the numbers and fidelity of his Moslem subjects; but he strove by a rational policy to collect the scattered remnant of the Greeks. These returned in crowds as soon as they were assured of their lives, their liberties, and the free exercise of their religion. The churches were shared between the two religions; their limits were marked; and, till it was infringed by Selim, the grandson of Mahomet, the Greeks enjoyed above sixty years the benefit of this equal partition. After effecting many other triumphs of his arms, Mahomet died in 1480, in the midst of great projects he was devising against Rome and Persia. His grandson soon dethroned and murdered his own father, and commenced a vigorous reign under the title of Selim I. He defeated the Mamelukes, and in 1517 conquered Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. During fifty years the arms of the Ottomans, both by sea and land, were the terror of Europe and Asia. Especially was this the case during the government of Selim’s son, Soliman I., surnamed the Magnificent. His term of power extended from 1519 to 1566. This energetic tyrant took Belgrade, the island of Rhodes (from the knights of St. John), and Buda. He also subdued half of Hungary. He exacted a tribute from Moldavia, and so far mastered the