Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/291

 can quite understand how it came to be said of a Turk, who had suddenly grown rich, that he had been at the sack of Constantinople. The Genoese of Galata contrived to save themselves and their most valuable property. While the Turks were intent on the pillage of the city, they sailed out of the harbour and made good their escape.

The sultan had now to undo the work of destruction. Constantinople was henceforth to be the capital of his empire. For this honour "the genius of the place" had clearly marked out the city of Constantine. The character of Ottoman dominion was soon impressed on it, yet at the same time the rites of Christian worship were celebrated in several of its churches, and the patriarch was acknowledged by the sultan, and even received from his hand the crosier which symbolised his sacred office. Many a Greek felt that he could return in safety to the city of his fathers, and he was encouraged by the conqueror to do so. From Roumania and Asia Minor as many as five thousand families were summoned by his order to leave their homes and take up their abode in his new capital. What he could, the sultan certainly seems to have done, for the revival of the prosperity of Constantinople.

The fall of the city had long been expected throughout Europe, and Pope Nicholas V. had, as we have seen, actually prophesied it. It would seem, at least in many quarters, to have been anticipated without any excessive dread or sense of disgrace. Yet, when it actually occurred (though some spoke of it as a Divine judgment