Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/257

 armed standing army was an impossibility for them. Domestic feuds, too, continually divided and distracted them, and only a king or chief of exceptional vigour could handle such material with much effect. They were able and willing to defend themselves against an invader, but it could hardly have been reasonable to expect that they would follow up and crush the invader on his own ground and rescue distant cities and countries from his grasp. For this they had not sufficient discipline and organisation. Their best arm was their light cavalry, conspicuous for its reckless dash; with this alone and unsupported they would have been no match for the strength and cohesion of such an army as Amurath could bring into the field. They had, however, at this time a brave young soldier-king in Ladislaus, and under him Poles and Hungarians were united. They had, too, a far greater man in the famous hero, John Huniades, the terror of the Turks, who has earned the everlasting gratitude of all Christian nations by his rescue of Belgrade from the clutches of the terrible conqueror of Constantinople. Christendom, shocked and dismayed by the fall of the capital of the East, and by the subsequent triumphs of the infidel, could after that achievement breathe more freely. But the resources of these Poles and Hungarians did not allow them to raise anything more than what the Romans called a "tumultuary" army, and such a force alone would clearly not have been equal to the occasion. There still remained the rich and powerful republics of Venice and Genoa. These maritime powers could do much, if they chose, and