Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/328

 310 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. port, the army took up its position opposite the palace of Blachern, which was at the northwest corner of the walls, facing on one side towards the Horn, on another landwards/ This was the one position where fleet and army could bring their forces to act simultaneously on contiguous portions of the de- fences. The palace occupied the corner, had many outworks, and, though it had no fosse, it was strongly fortified. The position taken up by the army was at Gyrolemna. No camp- ing-ground could have given the Crusaders a better idea of the wealth and strength of the capital. The hill behind thtfm enabled them to have, perhaps, the most picturesque view of the beautiful city they were about to attack. Point beyond point stretched out, under the July sun, into the blue waters of the Golden Horn. In the immediate foreground were the new walls which Manuel had built to fortify Blachern." Be- hind these walls rose the superb palace of the emperors, which had now, rather than the palace of Bucoleon, or, as the Cru- saders called it, the Lion's Mouth, on the side of the Marmora, become their favorite dwelling-place. Churches, the great law courts, columns, and towers rose one behind the other in infinite confusion, until, on the last hill, was the Church of the Divine Peace, adjoining that which was at once the richest and most beautiful building of all, the great temple dedicated to the Divine Wisdom of the Incarnate Word. The strength of the city might be judged from its landward walls, which were immediately before them. The wide moat, except on the immediate descent to the Golden Horn, was well filled with water, though this had to be kept up by a long series of dams, while a wall immediately behind it could only be assailed from the bed or the waters of the moat itself. Wlien these obstacles were passed, there remained a second and a third wall, each higher than the former. The short distance between the towers w^ith which each of these walls are studded enabled the occupants to liave an enemy well within range even of the simple machines with which, in that age, stones could be hurled upon an invader. All that the best mechanical sci- » Nicetas, p. 729. ' Ibid. p. 311.