and furnished with further supplies of grain, wine, sheep, &c. When, in 1463, Pope Pius II. proclaimed a crusade, Skanderbeg was induced to violate the truce—as indeed Mohammed would have done had it suited him—and joined the expedition. On August 4, 1464, he gained a splendid victory at Ochrida, but twelve days later Pius II. died, and the crusade collapsed, and Skanderbeg found himself alone, exposed to the full fury of the Turks. But he again routed them, and sent envoys to Italy to ask for assistance. Mohammed in person led a large army into Albania and laid siege to Kroia. Skanderbeg remained outside the town, as he had done in the previous siege, with a few thousand warriors, and repeatedly fell upon the enemy, inflicting heavy losses on them. Mohammed, hearing that his northern frontiers were threatened by the King of Hungary, and his Asiatic provinces by the Prince of Caramania, departed from Albania, leaving Balaban Pasha to continue the siege with 19,000 men (he had lost 30,000 already). Skanderbeg himself went to Rome to obtain further help from the Powers. But although he was received with great splendour, he obtained no material assistance save a little money. Venice, however, sent him some troops, and on the death of Balaban Pasha the siege of Kroia was raised. In 1466 the Sultan returned in person with 130,000 men to attack Durazzo and Kroia, but failed in both attempts, and returned discomfited to Constantinople. Further contingents arrived from Venice and Naples, and Skanderbeg summoned another conference of chiefs at Alessio to discuss defensive measures. But on January 17, 1467, the Athlete of Christendom died of fever. The Persian war continued to give the Albanians a short respite, but the end of their independence was not far off. Skanderbeg had not had time to consolidate his country so that it would remain united after his death, and his disappearance was followed by complete anarchy. [Illustration: THE ORLANDO COLUMN]