Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/392

350 DESTRUCTION OF THE GREEK EMPIRE At this moment the emperor, who had been called off to the northern end of the valley to learn the meaning of the display of the Turkish flags and to resist the inrush of the invaders who had entered by the Kerkoporta, returned. Spurring his horse, he galloped down the Enclosure to the stockade where the Turks were crowding in, 1 and tried to rally the remainder of the defenders. Calling upon his men to follow him, he threw off his imperial insignia, drew his sword, sprang into the thick of the fight, and attempted to Death of drive the invaders back. 2 With Don Francisco of Toledo Constan- tine. on his right, Theophilus Palaeologus and John Dalmata on his left, his own sword broken, he endeavoured to check the advancing crowd. Theophilus shouted that he would rather die than live. The four checked for a moment the inrush of the Turks, slew some of them, and cut their way to the wall where the Turks were pouring in. But they were hopelessly outnumbered. The emperor was lost sight of amid the crowd. He and his companions fell fighting, and the enemy continued to pour through the breaches. 3 Once the enemy had obtained entrance into the Enclosure the defenders were in a trap. The only exit into the city open to them was by the small gate through which Justiniani had passed. The Military Gate of St. Eomanus, the Gate of the Assault, remained locked. A heap of slain, Genoese and Greeks, 4 near it made escape impossible. The defeat of 'City the survivors of the gallant band which Justiniani had led May U 29. d was forthwith completed by a body of the Janissaries who entered the Enclosure across the broken stockade, formed themselves in regular order, and swept everything before them. 5 Their overwhelming numbers soon enabled them to kill all opponents who had not escaped into the city. The great wall being partly broken down and without 1 Phrantzes, p. 285. 2 Montaldo, xxiii. : ' insigniis positis.' 3 Montaldo (ch. xxiii.) incidentally confirms the version of Ducas. He states that the emperor determined on death only after he had learned that the enemy had entered the city and had occupied the palace and other places. 4 Leonard, p. 99. In Dethier's edition a note states that one of the MSS. reads eighty Latins ' sine Graecis,' p. 608. 5 Leonard, 99, says that they formed a cuneus or phalanx.