Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/337

 STEANGE PHENOMENA 297 as the procession continued on its way, there happened a violent storm of thunder and lightning, followed by torren- tial rain. The priests could not make headway against the flood. The incident was manifestly supernatural. On the following day the impression was still further accentuated by the very unusual occurrence in Constantinople at the end of May of a thick fog, which lasted till evening. The cloud of fog gave complete confirmation of the impression that God had abandoned the city, because, as Critobulus remarks, the Divinity hides His presence in the clouds when He descends upon the earth. 1 But the phenomenon of a light which appeared to settle over Hagia Sophia alarmed both sides. The sultan himself appears to have considered it an unfavourable omen, until the braver or more sceptical of his followers, without denying the evident fact that it was a heaven-sent omen, turned the difficulty by declaring that it was unfavourable to the Greeks. Within the city the besieged were even more alarmed than the Turks. It is difficult to say what the phenomenon was. Men in that age expected omens and signs in the heavens and ex- pressed their disappointment if none were vouchsafed to them. Writing, as all the narrators did, after the siege, they would look back to recall what were the signs of the divine displeasure, and they did not fail to find them. Around the story of some atmospheric phenomenon there grew a large myth, until we find The Moscovite recording that the light of heaven illuminated all the city; that the inhabitants, believing it to be the reflection of a fire caused by the Turks, 1 Crit. xlvi. ; Pusculus, iv. 889, says : Candida completo cum Phoebe surgeret orbe Moesta prodit, fati miseri cladisque propinquae Nuntia ; nam tristis faciem velamine nubis Tecta atrae, mediaque latens plus parte sereno Incedit coelo. Barbaro seems to describe an eclipse of the moon on May 22. The elder Dr. Mordtmann states that there was no full moon and consequently no eclipse on the 22nd, but that there was on the 24th. Dethier's note on The Moscovite, p. 1100. Phrantzes, p. 264, speaks of a light flashing from the sky settling- over the city, and remaining during the whole night. See note, post p. 316.