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"Well, sir," again replied Chrysolaras.

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'They, my lord, I am sorry to say, were not to be persuaded: I thought that as you feel an interest, doubtless, in their welfare, and are probably acquainted with their plans, you would perhaps do them the only good turn which circumstances put in your power, by informing me who this audacious accomplice was. You will probably save their lives by so doing."

"If I could," replied Chrysolaras, "by so horrid an ingratitude, GOD be my witness, I would not! But I know not who might have helped them. I know that they attempted to escape, and I hoped that they had succeeded; but GOD's will be done!"

"Then I may tell the Sultan, my lord, that you are absolutely ignorant—”

I send no message, sir: what I have told you, it is, of course, in your power to use as you please."

At this moment another officer came in. "The Sultan

has been informed," said he, "of the escape of that girl and the rest of the prisoners-"

The lieutenant had in vain tried to stop him. "Hush! hush!" he said.

"Have they escaped ?" said Chrysolaras.

"Eh! how? have they? why all the Castle knows that."

"It is useless to deny it now," said the lieutenant ; "but what says the Sultan ?"

"I never saw him so moved-you must to him directly."

Allah preserve me!" cried he in consternation, as he hurried to Mahomet.

"Now GoD and All Saints be praised," cried Chrysolaras. "It matters little what becomes of me!"

CHAPTER XV.

"But oh!

What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop! Thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature!

Thou, that dost bear the bag of all my counsels,
That know'st the very bottom of my soul,

That almost might'st have coined me into gold,
Would'st thou have practised on me for thy use?"

King Henry V.

THE great meteor had excited the most intense consternation in Constantinople. Its passage through the sky was slow enough to allow many of the inhabitants to view it for themselves; and the report with which it exploded was enough almost to awaken the dead. Doors opened; tradesmen, half clad, poured out; patricians swarmed from the gaming-house, officers from the messroom; all was terror and confusion.

"Saw ye ever the like of this ?" said Theodosius, the wheelwright, to his gossip, the butcher at the corner of S. Irene's lane.

"Once, neighbour, once," said he; "and that was the year before the accursed Council of Florence."

"Ah! ah! it is clear enough!" cried Peter the sacristan; "it is the damnable doctrine of these Latins, that the sky itself rebukes. Mercy on us! mercy on us! what have we lived to see!"

"Oh, infamous Azymites! Oh, blasphemous Doubleprocessionists!" sighed Pattelari, the schoolmaster; "the Turks, the Turks, say I, a thousand times rather than the Pope!"

"Ay, my masters; and this spawn of hell, this Car

dinal Isidore, is to celebrate next week in the Great Church," cried the butcher.

"Now GOD and All Saints forbid!" said Peter. "Twenty meteors were not so terrible !"

The bell of S. Irene pealed forth, and at the same moment a servant of the palace approached, crying, "Form! form, good people! The most holy Archbishop of Chalcedon will go in procession from the Great Church to the Tower of S. Romanus, incontinently, to implore the defence of the Panaghia. The Protectress; and the ever illustrious Cæsar will walk in it barefoot."

And a gorgeous procession it was that passed half-anhour afterwards from the square of S. Sophia. First, with tapers and crucifixes, were the servants of the church, and a large body of the aristocracy of the imperial city; then came the deacons of its countless churches, two and two, the silver censers flashing in the dim light, and the sweet smell rising to heaven; then the Priests, in their gorgeous robes,-the Bishops, of whom so many resided in the city; then the Metropolitan of Chaleedon, a venerable old man, his white beard sweeping over his mandyas; and the Cæsar, barefoot and clad in mean attire, at his right hand, but a little behind him.

And wildly and plaintively that Litany rose, through the darkness and stillness of the night, as they passed through the echoing streets. They had now nearly reached the goal, the tower of S. Romanus,-of which we shall have to write so much when we come to speak of the great siege, when Sir Edward de Rushton, hurrying along after the procession came up with the Emperor, and falling on one knee, addressed a few words to him in a low voice.

"Mother of GOD, I thank thee!" cried Constantine Palæologus. "Most holy Prelate, GOD hears your

prayers. Let them be guarded well, Lord Acolyth. Follow on, my lords!" And the procession again moved forwards.

Sir Edward de Rushton lost no time in returning to the ship, and caused the prisoners, under a safe guard, to be carried to the palace. The Turks were confined by themselves near the quarters of the Varangians, Redschid Pasha being treated suitably to his rank. The Christians were led to the Emperor's private suite of apartments, and secured in different rooms, in order that there might be no collusion between them when put upon their trial.

It appeared that the most important of the traitors were the Great Duke Leontius, the Emir Neophytus, and the monk Joasaph. The other three were officers connected with the native forces, and under the immediate command of the Great Domestic. Phranza was summoned, according to the directions left by the Cæsar; and the Archimandrite of the Studium was hastily called from the procession,-as, in a matter so nearly concerning the privileges of the Church as the arrest of Joasaph, it was deemed imprudent to act without his concurrence, or at least his privity. The Abbat and the Great Protovestiare were, accordingly, in attendance when the Cæsar returned from the midnight procession; and Sir Edward de Rushton had kept them company during the weary and melancholy hour which had elapsed between their being summoned to the palace, and the notice that Constantine was ready to receive them.

They were accordingly ushered into the room of audience, where the Palæologus was about to examine into the details of the conspiracy. He seemed pale, and worn out with anxiety; for, in truth, with one or two exceptions, he knew not on whom he might depend in that corrupt court. One of those on whom he had placed

most reliance, Manuel Chrysolaras, was gone; another, the Great Duke, had proved a traitor; Sir Edward de Rushton, his chief stay, was a foreigner; and Phranza, by whose counsel he was principally guided in civil affairs, was so overwhelmed with grief, as to be of little use in suggesting remedies to an ill that truly seemed irremediable. Two secretaries were present; one or two of the Emperor's servants; and there was a strong guard of the Varangians at the door. It was Constantine's wish that the inquiry should be as strictly private as circumstances allowed.

"My lord," he said to the Archimandrite of the Studium, “we much regret that treason of the most flagrant and palpable kind should have been brought home to one of your monks,—as we hear, a man of learning,—as we can testify, a preacher much approved and followed of the people,-named Joasaph. Nevertheless, such and so great is our veneration for that Church whereof we are but an unworthy son, though a crowned monarch, that we were willing to take no steps herein, as to his condemnation and punishment, till we had the benefit of your counsel. The evidence on which we proceed you shall hear, and shall then be able equally with ourselves to judge."

"The evidence," said the old man, sorrowfully, "I have, so please your majesty, already heard; and it is conclusive. The Caloire Joasaph deserves death; yet I trust that the Cæsar will show such respect for the Church in the first place, and for the Angelic Habit in the second, as to be content with perpetual imprisonment." "Sire," said De Rushton, "from all that I saw and heard, this man Joasaph is the prime mover of the conspiracy-its life and soul. Consider therefore, with what justice others can be punished, if he escape. And you,

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