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310 DESTEUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIEE The stockade was probably about four hundred yards long and occupied only the lower part of the valley, shutting in the portion of the Inner Enclosure and being thus a substitute for the Outer Wall. The usual entrance to thi& enclosure or Peribolos was by the Military Gate of St. Komanus — formerly known as the Pempton — which, indeed, had been constructed solely for this purpose, and by two small gates or posterns at its respective ends, one at the Adrianople Gate, the other at Top Capou. Another postern had, however, says Critobulus, been opened by Justiniani to give easier access to the stockade from the city. The construction of the stockade had been commenced immediately after the destruction of the tower near the Komanus Gate, on April 21. 1 As the attention of the enemy had been principally directed to the attack on the walls in this part of the city, so the stockade which replaced the Outer Wall continued to the end to be the focus on which wa& concentrated nearly the entire strength of his attack. No one could say what would be Mahomet's plan of battle, but no one doubted that the stockade covering the St. Eomanus Gate — or, as it is called in old Turkish maps, the ' Gate of the Assault ' — would at least be one of the chief places against which he would direct an assault. Behind it and between it and the great Inner Wall was the flower of the defending army. The emperor himself had his camp quite near, though within the city, while Justiniani, standing for all time as the most conspicuous figure on the Christian side, was in command within the stockade. His energy and his courage had called forth the unqualified admiration of friend and foe. The jealousy of the Venetians at his appointment had long since been overcome. While Barbaro launches his recriminations against the Genoese generally, and even sometimes against Justiniani himself, even he is constrained to repeat that the presence of the great Genoese captain was per benefitio de la Chris tianitade et per honor de lo mundo. His example communicated itself to his troops, and he 1 Barbaro, Puseulus, and Leonard agree with Critobulus in their description of the stockade.