Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/197

 EXCEPTIONAL CONDITION OF THE EMPIRE. I79 Ilcr huge blunder was neglect of her fleet. This neglect left her open to attack by sea, and although such an attack was useless unless it could be combined with a simultaneous attack by an army — although, too, there was but one state in the world which could equip a fleet adequate for the purpose in view, the peculiar position of Constantinople ought to have taught her rulers that she could never be safe unless she could effectually bar the passage of the Dardanelles. When at last the moment came in which her old ally was to lead the attack against the imperial city, it was by means of the Yenetian fleet that the vulnerable point was reached.