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 SUGGESTED EETIEEMENT OF EMPEEOE 287 touched by the proposal and shed tears ; thanked the chiefs for their advice, but declared that, while he recognised that his departure might be of advantage to himself, he would never consent to abandon the people, the clergy, the churches, and his throne in such a moment of danger. ' What,' he adds, ' would the world say of me ? Ask me to remain with you. I am ready to die with you.' It was probably on this occasion that the emperor declared, as already mentioned, that he preferred ' to follow the example of the Good Shep- herd who lays down his life for his sheep.' Determined if possible to destroy the Christian fleet and New apparently caring very little about resistance from Galata, ships k at the Turks placed two of their guns on the slope of Pera 5^5. Hill and on May 5 commenced once more to fire over the corner of Galata at the ships lying at the boom. They took care, however, according to Barbaro, to aim at the Venetian vessels. Firing went on all day. A ball of two hundred pounds weight struck a Genoese merchant ship of three hundred tons burden, which was laden with a valuable cargo of silk and other merchandise, and sank her. The Turks continued firing all day long, and in consequence ships left the boom and retired to the shelter of the Galata walls. 1 The Genoese went to complain to the Turkish vizier of the unfriendly act of firing on and sinking one of their vessels. They reminded him that they were neutrals and were most anxious to preserve peace. According to Ducas, they declared that if they had not been friendly, the Turks would never have succeeded in transporting their ships overland, as they, the Genoese, could have burnt them. There are two versions of the reply given by the Turkish leaders. According to Ducas, they pleaded that they did not know that the owner of the sunken ship was a Genoese, and believed it to belong to the enemy. They urged the Genoese to wish them success in their efforts to capture the city and promised, in such case, full compensation to the owner of the sunken ship and cargo. According to Phrantzes, the sultan himself answered that the ships were 1 Barbaro, 36 ; Phrantzes, 250.