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PEEPAEATIONS FOE THE SIEGE 211 For the present we must be content to note that the young sultan was a man of unusual intelligence, who as a boy had accepted responsibility with eagerness ; that he still had in 1452 the alternate confidence and hesitancy of youth ; that he was of great energy, of studious habits, of nervous temperament, painstaking in the formation of his designs, ready to obtain the judgment of others, but other- wise quick in arriving at a decision. His maxim in later years was that in warfare secrecy and rapidity are the main elements of success. In reply to an officer of high rank who asked why great warlike preparations were being made he answered, ' If a hair of my beard knew, I would pluck it out and burn it.' 1 His ambition was great. He proposed to attack Naples, dreamed of leading his armies to the elder Eome, and regarded his conquests as stages in a great design of conquering the world. 2 These objects were how- ever in the future. The immediate one before him was the capture of the city, and to its accomplishment he directed all his thoughts and all his energy without wavering until he had attained it. Within a few weeks of Mahomet's arrival in Europe Gon- from Magnesia ambassadors were sent to his court at embassies Adrianople from Constantine and other rulers in Europe and Asia Minor who were under his suzerainty to congratu- late him on his accession. As his first care was to make •sure of his own position and to gain time, Mahomet received them all with apparent cordiality and promised to observe the treaties made by his father. At the request of the representatives of the emperor he not merely confirmed the existing treaties, but declared his willingness to pay an annual sum of three hundred thousand aspers chargeable upon the produce of the Strymon Valley for the maintenance of Orchan. 3 Then he returned to Caramania, where Ibrahim Bey, who 1 Von Hammer, iii. 68. 2 Zorzo Dolfin, p. 986. 3 Orchan was the Turkish member of the house of Othman who still remained in Constantinople and was either the son or grandson of Suliman, brother of Mahomet I. p 2