Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/216

 198 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. now existing in the neigliborhood of Constantinople show how largely the nobles led a villa life on the borders of the sea. [N'o city in the world is so largely gifted by nature with the requirements for a happy life. The bright sky, the blue, tideless waters of the Marmora, the vine-producing shores, the forests which even yet have not been so far destroyed as to drive away the nightingale, the flights of quail which pass the city twice every year and still fall occasionally in the streets of Constantinople, the never-failing supply of fish and other food, the presence of birds of beautiful plumage and song, all contributed to the joyous life of this city of pleasure. Leaving out of consideration for the present the childish and effeminate exhibitions of pomp which were di- carefuiiy ' rcct imitations of the barbaric magnificence of East- siudied. . ^ . ern courts, we may yet recognize that the pageants of the imperial court must often have been extremely beauti- ful. In Church and State alike ceremonial had been care- fully studied. Let us suppose that the emperor, having passed out of the Golden Gate, which was near the southern end of the wall running nearly north and south, and forming the base of the triangle within which Constantinople is enclosed, and having inspected his troops along the range of this land- ward wall, finds himself at the Golden Horn termination of the wall on the height above what is now known as Eyoub — on the spot, that is, where tradition asserted that Eyoub, the companion in arms of Mahomet, was killed during the Arab siege of Constantinople in GQS. The view before him is the finest to be had from land of the city. Cape behind cape and dome behind dome arise in picturesque beauty until they ter- minate in what is now known as Seraglio Point. Beneath him were the palace and towers, and beneath them again the prisons of the Blachern. Above him float the imperial ban- ners, with the crescent, the ancient emblem of Constantinople, on some, the imperial eagle or the white lion on others. As he prepares to go down to the Golden Horn the troops are drawn up to do him honor. There are Dalmatians under their national flags, clothed in the brilliantly embroidered dress which even yet is the most picturesque in Europe, and