Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/108

 86 THE DECLINE AND FALL of Gepidae, Russians, Bulgarians, and Sclavonians, advanced under the standard of the chagan ; a month was spent in marches and negotiations ; but the whole city was invested on the thirty-first of July, from the suburbs of Pera and Galata to the Blachernge and seven towers ; and the inhabitants descried with terror the flaming signals of the European and Asiatic shores. In the meanwhile the magistrates of Constantinople repeatedly strove to purchase the retreat of the chagan ; but their deputies were rejected and insulted ; and he suffered the patricians to stand before his throne, while the Persian envoys, in silk robes, were seated by his side. " You see," said the haughty barbarian, " the proofs of my perfect union with the Great King ; and his lieutenant is ready to send into my camp a select band of three thousand warriors. Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and inadequate ransom ; your wealth and your city are the only presents worthy of my acceptance. For yourselves, I shall permit you to depart, each with an under-garment and a shirt ; and, at my entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passage through his lines. Your absent prince, even now a captive or a fugitive, has left Constantinople to its fate ; nor can you escape the arms of the Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into air like birds, unless like fishes you could dive into the waves." ^^^ During ten successive days the capital was assaulted by the Avars, who had made some progress in the science of attack ; they advanced to sap or batter the wall, under the cover of the impenetrable tortoise ; their engines discharged a perpetual volley of stones and darts ; and twelve lofty towers of wood exalted the combatants to the height of the neighbouring ramparts. But the senate and people were animated by the spirit of Heraclius, who had detached to their relief a body of twelve thousand cuirassiers ; the powers of fire and mechanics were used with superior art and success in the defence of Constantinople ; and the galleys, with two and three ranks of oars, commanded the Bosphorus, and rendered the Persians the idle spectators of the defeat of their allies. The Avars were repulsed ; a fleet of Sclavonian canoes was destroyed in the harbour ; the vassals of the chagan threatened to desert, his provisions were I'-'' A bird, a frog, a mouse, and five arrows, had been the present of the Scythian king to Darius (Herodot. 1. iv. c. 131, 132]. Substituez une lettre a ces signes (says Rousseau, with much good taste), plus ella sera mena9ante moins elle effrayera : ce ne cera qu'une fanfarronade dont Darius n'eut fait que rire (Emile, torn. iii. p. 146). Yet I much question whether the senate and people of Constanti- nople laughed at this message of the chagan.