preached, written, and diffused, and which agrees with the word of God, I will keep, and seal with my death." When they heard this, they clasped their hands together, and rode off. Soon after, the executioners lighted the fire, which caught quickly, because there was much straw between the wood. When Huss saw the smoke, he sang, in a clear voice, "Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me." But when he was about to say, the third time, Christ, son of God, born of a pure Virgin," the flame reached his face, and deprived him of speech, so that he could not pronounce, "Have mercy upon me;" but he prayed, and nodded with his head, as long as it takes one to repeat the Lord's prayer, upon which he died. When the wood was burnt, but the body, not entirely consumed, yet hung upon the stake, the executioners pushed it down with poles, and threw more wood upon it. They then broke the bones with the poles, that they might burn the sooner. The head, too, they beat to pieces; but the heart, which was found among the entrails, they put on the end of a pointed pole, and roasted it.

When Duke Lewis was informed that one of the executioners had the cloak, girdle, and other articles of clothing, belonging to Huss, he ordered them "to burn every thing, or" (as certainly would have happened,) "the Bohemians would keep them, as relics." The executioner, at first, refused; but, when a stipulated sum of money was promised him, he threw every thing into the fire. At length, when every thing was consumed, they put the ashes, together with the earth, which they dug out to the depth of some feet, upon a cart, and threw it into the Rhine. The place, where this happened, is between the gardens of the suburb, by the road leading to Gottleben. Some, who have been at the place, say, that, to this day, no grass will grow on the spot. Whether this true, I know not.

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Before Huss suffered, the Council had wreaked a tardy vengeance on his forerunner and preceptor, Wiclif, whose body was ordered "to be taken from the ground,

and thrown far away from the burial of any church." After the lapse of thirteen years, the sentence was executed, by disinterring and burning the Reformer's body, and casting the ashes into a neighboring brook. The often quoted words of Fuller, on this occasion, may be equally well applied to the good man, whose history has just been related: "The brook did convey his ashes into Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; they into the main ocean. And thus, the ashes of Wiclif are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over."

Jerome of Prague has been already mentioned, as the most distinguished among Huss's followers, and his coadjutor in preaching. He was summoned to Constance, in the Spring of 1415, before Huss had suffered martyrdom; and it was probably in consequence of witnessing his companion's sufferings, that he was induced to retract, to condemn, in the strongest terms, as blasphemous and seditious, the tenets which, in his heart, he still continued to hold, and to profess his entire adherence to all the doctrines of the Roman Church. Fortunately, he was not left to endure, through life, the reproaches of conscience; for the continued enmity and mistaken persecution of his adversaries conferred a benefit on him, which they were far from intending. He was still retained in confinement, and harassed with fresh charges, though his retractation had been ample and complete. At last, he obtained a public audience before the Council, on the twenty-third of May, 1416; when he recalled his former recantation, confessing that it had been dictated only by the fear of a painful death. Poggio, the Florentine, who was a witness of the whole course of Jerome's trial, has left a long and interesting account of it, in a letter to Leonardo Aretino ; from which, it appears that his sympathy had been strongly excited, by the constancy of the sufferer. Though connected with the highest dignitaries of the Church, he writes in such a strain of admiration, that his friend thought. it necessary to warn him of the danger which he might incur, by speaking of a condemned heretic in such terms.

THE CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

BY GIBBON.

EDWARD GIBBON was born in 1737, at Putney, in England, and died in 1794. The biography of this great historian, of the Decline and final Fall of the Roman Empire, may be found in so many works, accessible to every one, and in a form so much more complete than it would be possible to give it here, that readers will not expect from us, even a hasty outline. Whatever Gibbon's faults may be, for instance, his peculiar skepticism, still his work is a truly-great one; and I may be permitted to repeat, here, what I have stated in another place, at great length, that Mew works are more instructive to a reflecting man. For it shows the protracted disease and corruption of an emieire; the anatomy of a body politic laid bare; and is full f warning to every one, disposed to heed the grave lessons furnished by that period.

The Byzantine empire had gradually dwindled in extent, as well as internal power, so that nothing could restore its Vigor. The Greeks had become grossly corrupt, in morals and politics, and had given themselves up to the most wayward folly, in religion, while they still were puffed up by the recollection of former grandeur and early civilization. Degenerated, as they were, in almost every respect, and to so frightful a degree, nothing, according to the experience we derive from history, could resuscitate that country and establish a better order of things, but a total regeneration, by a fresh admixture from foreign nations,—a conquest by a better race. Such was not their fate. An Asiatic race, which, out of the many tribes which profess Islamism, is one of those least susceptible of civilization,the Turks, were the conquerors of this tottering empire. Nor is this the only melancholy reflection which forces itself upon our mind, in regarding this conquest. It happened, in this case, as in so many others recorded in history, that those, who would have been worthy of better days, and who would not have caused or promoted the general degeneracy, were nevertheless often obliged to bear its frightful consequences, and the ultimate ruin brought on by it.

Thus, too, Louis the Sixteenth, a better man than either of his three predecessors, was destined to mount the scaffold; mainly in consequence of their vicious government.

At present, centuries after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, our mind is relieved by the consideration, tha the very barbarity of the victorious Turks, at that tim was attended with some advantageous consequences. Ma. learned Greeks, inheriting a large share of the civilizatio. of their forefathers, emigrated to the west of Europe, (fo instance, to Florence,) where they rekindled an ardor for the study of the ancients, gave an impulse to the revival of letters, diffused a new taste, and awakened a spirit of sound criticism; in short, contributed, most powerfully, to the preparation of the European mind for that great event, the Reformation.

WHILE Mohammed* threatened the capital of the East, the Greek Emperor implored, with fervent prayers, the assistance of earth and Heaven. But the invisible powers were deaf to his supplications; and Christendor beheld, with indifference, the fall of Constantinople, whil she derived, at least, some promise of supply from th jealous and temporal policy of the Sultan of Egypt Some states were too weak, and others too remote; by some, the danger was considered as imaginary; by others, as inevitable: the western princes were involved in their endless and domestic quarrels; and the Roman Pontiff was exasperated by the falsehood or obstinacy of the Greeks. Instead of employing, in their favor, the arms and treasures of Italy, Nicholas the Fifth had foretold their approaching ruin, and his honor was engaged in the accomplishment of his prophecy. Perhaps he was softened by the last extremity of their distress; but his compassion was tardy; his efforts were faint and unavailing; and Constantinople had fallen, before the squadron, of Genoa and Venice could sail from their harbors. Ever the princes of the Morea and of the Greek islands affected a cold neutrality; the Genoese colony of Galata ne gotiated a private treaty; and the Sultan indulged them

*Mohammed II., Sultan of the Turks, who began to reign, A. D 1451. The siege of Constantinople began, April 6, A. D. 1453.

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in the delusive hope, that, by his clemency, they might survive the ruin of the Empire. A plebeian crowd, and some Byzantine nobles, basely withdrew from the danger their country; and the avarice of the rich denied the peror, and reserved for the Turks, the secret treasures ch might have raised in their defence whole armies mercenaries.

f The indigent and solitary prince prepared, however, to sustain his formidable adversary; but, if his courage was equal to the peril, his strength was inadequate to the ⚫ontest. In the beginning of the Spring, the Turkish inguard swept the towns and villages, as far as the gates Constantinople: submission was spared and protect!; whatever presumed to resist, was exterminated with e and sword. The Greek places on the Black Sea, Mesembria, Acheloum, and Bizon, surrendered, on the first summons; Selybria, alone, deserved the honors of a biege or blockade; and the bold inhabitants, while they ere invested by land, launched their boats, pillaged the pposite coast of Cyzicus, and sold their captives in the public market. But on the approach of Mohammed, ' himself, all was silent and prostrate he first halted at the distance of five miles; and from thence advancing, in battle array, planted before the gate of St. Romanus the Imperial standard; and, on the sixth day of April, formed the memorable siege of Constantinople.

The troops of Asia and Europe extended, on the right and left, from the Propontis to the harbor; the Janizaries in the front were stationed before the Sultan's tent; the Ottoman line was covered by a deep intrenchment; and a subordinate army enclosed the suburb of Galata, and watched the doubtful faith of the Genoese. The inquisitive Philelphus, who resided in Greece, about thirty years before the siege, is confident, that all the Turkish forces, of any name or value, could not exceed the number of sixty thousand horse, and twenty thousand foot; and he upbraids the pusillanimity of the nations, who had tamely yielded to a handful of barbarians. Such, indeed, might be the regular establishment of the Capiculi, the troops of the Porte, who marched with the prince, and