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Rh the most critical moment, Justiniani the general was wounded. Soon after this final misfortune, seeing that all was lost, and refusing to survive his empire, Constantine dashed into the thick of the fight and perished amid the multitude of the slain.

Mohammed now gave the city up to plunder; but he ordered the buildings to be spared, reserving them for himself. St. Sophia was found to be crowded with fugitives, who had shut themselves up in their beloved cathedral, vainly expecting a miracle of deliverence to spring from its sanctity. They were caught in a trap. The barred door soon yielded to the battle-axes of the Turks. The old people were killed on the spot; the young men and women were led off in strings of captives for a worse fate. The Latins had wantonly hacked to pieces many a work of art; now the Turks destroyed much that they had left. It is a significant fact, however, that, as Critobulus tells us, many books were sold at low prices. This suggests the hope that scattered treasures from the Constantinople libraries may yet be found in out of the way parts of the Turkish Empire.

St. Sophia was now converted into a mosque. Mohammed called for an imaum, who ascended the pulpit and there recited the Mohammedan Creed. Still he did not desire the city to be deserted by the Greeks, and he invited them back, sanctioned their worship, and ordered them to elect a patriarch. Accordingly, a local synod was held, and George Scholarius—also known as Gennadius—was appointed to the unenviable post. The sultan received him at his seraglio and presented him with a pastoral cross of silver and gold, saying, "Be patriarch and be at peace. Count upon our friendship as long as thou desirest it, and thou shalt enjoy all the privileges of thy predecessors."