There was little time for reflection on the precariousness of his existence, however, for Mahomet began his campaign at once. That very month, March 1452, he visited the mausoleum of Othman, and there, before the muftis and the commanders of the Janissaries, he affixed round his waist the sword of Othman, the traditional symbol that the Emir was going to war. The Janissaries raised a mighty shout of joy.
Then Mahomet took personal command of a force of workmen on the European shore of the Bosphorus, together with a protecting army of five thousand men, and began the building of Roumelia-Hissar.
Anthony soon realised that this was to be an immensely strong fortification. Even the Castel Nuovo in Naples paled into insignificance as the massive inner keep took shape, dominated by its high tower and surrounded by curtain walls which divided the bailey into a series of smaller sections which were easily defendable, should an enemy ever manage to enter it. But that was unlikely, since the outer walls rose twenty feet out of the rock. These were also twenty feet wide, and there was a thirty-foot-high watchtower set at every hundred feet. The outer walls ran right down to the sea, to enclose a spacious harbour into which the galleys from the Asian shore could discharge their cargoes of men and grain.
If Roumelia-Hissar was perhaps not as powerful as Constantinople itself, there was no prospect of it falling to an assault while the Ottoman sipahis and Janissaries dominated the surrounding country.
The Byzantines sent envoys to inspect the works; they were clearly impressed. They called it Cut-Throat Castle.
But Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire had just signed a peace treaty, so the envoys went away again, unprotesting.
*
The great castle took several months to build. Meanwhile the Ottoman army slowly began to cross the strait, in all its ponderous majesty. First the bashi-bazouks swarmed over the countryside; then the Anatolians; then came the Janissaries and the sipahis.
Last of all came the artillery. Anthony had returned to Brusa to assist his father in this gigantic logistical exercise. All the cannon were difficult to move, but the giant bombard required sixty oxen to drag it, two hundred men to march beside it and keep it in position, and another two hundred men to smooth down the ground over which it had to pass. Almost an entire year was needed to transport it to the Bosphorus, and then came the most difficult task of all: loading it on board a galley for transportation to the European shore. Mahomet himself rode down to the beach to watch, chewing his lip in anxiety as reinforced ramps were run out from the ship — creaking and groaning and threatening to crack beneath such enormous weight. As men shrieked orders and ran about in the shallow water, Anthony himself sweated with apprehension. But even though never trained as an engineer, John Hawkwood had worked out the stresses to be surmounted; and slowly — the muscles of the slaves attached to the ropes bulging with effort, the seamen turning the windlasses with sweat pouring down their bodies — the monstrosity was dragged on board. This caused the galley to tilt dangerously, and water rushed in at the lower oar ports. John Hawkwood shouted rapid commands, and every available man ran to the far side of the ship to counteract the huge weight. The cannon was gradually dragged amidships, and the ship cast off. The oars dipped into the water, and the slow passage began. On the European side, the unloading offered the same chances of catastrophe, but John Hawkwood remained in total control, and the cannon was landed safely.
The Byzantines were fully aware of the enormous force being gathered on their very doorstep, but they had to believe this Turkish armament was directed towards the Danube, and Drakul of Wallachia.
That was until the castle was completed. For then Mahomet took his personal guard of Janissaries and his sipahis — some fifteen thousand men — and with all his pashas, including the Hawkwoods, rode slowly along the land walls of the city, at a distance of some three miles. The Ottoman army presented a splendid array, the reds and blues of the Janissaries vying with the white and steel of the sipahis, while Mahomet himself, wearing golden armour and riding a pure white stallion, stood out gloriously at their head.
Certainly the sheer noise of their progress — the shouting of the Turks amplified by the beating of their drums, called the tabalcans, the clashing of their cymbals, and the blaring of their bugles — attracted a good deal of nervous attention. Anthony watched the walls of the mighty city slowly fill with its inhabitants. Perhaps Anna and Catherine were standing there, he mused. He wondered what they were now thinking. Because no sane man could now doubt that Mahomet was about to attack Constantinople itself.
*
But there remained a great deal of preparations to be made. The huge army was still accumulating from all over the empire, and it had to be fed. Turkish galleys sped constantly back and forth to lands around the Black Sea to bring in the necessary corn.
The artillery had still to be augmented, because despite all his new bombards, Mahomet intended to use also the old-fashioned slinging weapons — mangonels and trebuchets — which had served besieging armies for so many centuries.
The Emir’s headquarters had been established at Adrianople. From there he persisted in sending envoys to Constantinople, assuring the Emperor of his continuing friendship, and that his preparations were indeed directed against Drakul of Wallachia. It was his way to attempt to deceive until the last possible moment.
John Hawkwood had a heavy task in preparing his gunners for their supreme test. If he had calculated the rewards of success, by now he knew his master well enough to understand the certain penalty of failure.
Anthony worked with him twelve hours in every day, but was happy to do so. It seemed as if all normal life must come to a halt until Constantinople was taken.
In Adrianople, Mahomet had established his harem as well as his court, and he encouraged his pashas and chief officers to do likewise. Thus the provincial capital swelled into a huge city, and Piri Pasha was beside himself with excitement and worry.
Anthony and John duly brought along their own small household, but there was little joy in it for them. Mary was too worried by the impending conflict, and Laila still grieved for her father.
“You should beat her,” Mahomet recommended impatiently.
“I cannot blame her.”
Mahomet regarded him for a moment. “You will have another wife when the city is ours,” he promised.
And what then? Anthony wondered. There was no word of the Emir Valideh, nor dare he ask again. He had always felt that Mara had promoted his career with the Emir. What would happen when she died?
*
The ever more obvious Turkish preparations for besieging the city provoked increasing reactions in the West. George Brankovich, Janos Hunyadi and even Drakul kept to their promises, and barred any intervention by land. But the Pope, at last deciding to do some service for his fellow Christians, despatched a legate, one Isidore, former Metropolitan of Kiev, in Russia, with two hundred soldiers. He arrived in the city in November.
Mahomet was amused. “Two hundred men,” he scoffed. “And I have heard there has already been a riot.”
This was true. When Isidore attempted to hold a service in St Sophia, to celebrate the union of the two churches — as agreed between the Pope and Constantine — the Byzantines broke out in virtual revolt, and the cardinal had to be protected from mob violence.
His arrival might have caused amusement in the Turkish camp, but the next news was no laughing matter.
In January 1453, two huge Genoese carracks entered the Golden Horn. On board was one of the foremost soldiers of the age, Giovanni Giustiniani, and with him were seven hundred armoured fighting men, and a German artillerist, Johann Grant.
John Hawkwood had at last been replaced in the city.
“By Allah,” Mahomet said, “the infidels are gathering. It is time to move against them before they grow too strong.”
*
He commenced action against the Byzantine outposts. The small fortresses of Therapia and Studium on the Bosphorus were surrounded and summoned to surrender.
This the garrisons did readily enough, when confronted with such overwhelming force. But then Mahomet commanded that every man of them be impaled within sight of the main city.
“But they surrendered voluntarily, O Padishah,” Anthony protested in great distress.
“They will serve as a warning to the Byzantines,” Mahomet replied darkly.
Next the castle on the island of Prinkopo was reduced by the use of burning sulphur, to gas out the garrison. They too died to a man.
“He is a monster,” John Hawkwood commented gloomily.
A monster who is going to take Constantinople, Anthony thought. Mara had called him Hunkar: “Drinker of Blood”. He would have a lot of blood to drink when the city finally fell.
The following week Hawkwood received the command to advance his artillery. Surrounded by the entire Turkish army, some hundred and fifty thousand men, the cannon slowly rolled forward, as yet hidden from the watchers on the walls.
These rapidly grew in numbers as the Ottoman host approached. If they had been alarmed at the sight of fifteen thousand men the previous autumn, Anthony wondered what they felt as they saw the entire plain before them covered with men and horses and flags. And they did not know the worst yet.
Slowly, and still concealing the guns, the army took up its allotted positions.
Zagan Pasha’s corps moved to the north, to guard against any counter-attack across the Golden Horn from Galata. Zagan’s men immediately commenced building a bridge across the inner harbour, watched helplessly by the small Byzantine fleet.
Caraja Pasha’s corps took its place next to Zagan’s, opposite the Xylo Porta and the Adrianople Gate.
Isaac Pasha marched his corps to the south, and deployed it facing the wall from the St Romanus Gate to the sea.
And in the centre, where the Lycus river flowed beneath the walls of the city, Halil Pasha drew up the main Turkish body.
To leave no one in any doubt that this was where he intended to launch his main assault, Mahomet had his own red and gold headquarters tent pitched immediately to the rear of Halil’s men.
Offshore the Turkish fleet, now numbering a hundred and fifty galleys, waited in the harbour of Prinkopo to prevent any seaborne reinforcements from reaching the city. With the Byzantines’ corn supply now cut off by the Turkish control of the Bosphorus, Constantinople was entirely beleaguered.
*
At dawn, on 12 April 1453, the muezzins, who were mounted on specially constructed towers in front of each section of the huge army, called the faithful to prayer. Anthony had heard the words often during the preceding two years, but today they seemed more meaningful than ever before:
Allah is most great.
Allah is most great.
Allah is most great.
Allah is most great.
I testify there is no god but Allah.
I testify there is no god but Allah.
I testify that Mahomet is the Prophet of Allah.
I testify that Mahomet is the Prophet of Allah.
Come to prayer.
I have no power or strength but from Allah most High and Great.
Come to prayer.
I have no power or strength but from Allah most High and Great.
Come to salvation.
Allah willeth what will be: What He willeth not will not be.
Come to salvation.
What Allah willeth will be: What He willeth not will not be.
Allah is most Great.
Allah is most Great.
There is no god but Allah.
When the prayers ended, the army gave a huge shout which could be heard fifty miles away. Then the screen of cavalry moved to either side, and the watchers on the wall gazed for the first time at the giant bombard.
“Is your cannon loaded, Hawkwood?” asked Mahomet.
“It is loaded and ready, O Padishah,” John said.
Mahomet pointed his horsetail wand at the city.
“Let the siege begin,” he said.
John put his match to the touchhole, the army held its breath…the great bombard roared, and hurled the first shot of the battle at the Wall of Theodosius.
5
Hawk Pasha
The huge stone ball flew through the air. It was so accurately ranged that it struck the base of the upper wall, before disintegrating into a thousand splinters, but also opening a crack in the structure.
The Ottomans gave a tremendous yell, while the Byzantines replied by shrieking their defiance.
Mahomet slapped his thigh in glee. “That was good shooting, Hawkwood,” he shouted. “Smite them again.”
“We need to elevate the cannon,” John decided, and gave the orders. Then the bombard began to be loaded, and this took all of two hours. Meanwhile Mahomet walked his horse impatiently to and fro, giving orders for the smaller cannon and the trebuchets to be advanced to within firing distance of the walls. But this took them within range of the Byzantine guns, and soon an artillery duel raged the entire length of the land wall.
It was an impressive sight. Even the smaller cannon, on each side, took some time to load, and they were seldom ready to fire together. Minutes of silence would be followed by a sudden explosion and a cloud of smoke. As the stone balls struck walls or earth, they flew apart; the splinters, inches in length, were highly dangerous to anyone standing close by; Anthony saw several Ottomans struck down, with blood erupting from shattered limbs.
Every second hour the huge bombard itself spoke, its tone deeper and more resonant than any of the others, its effect far more devastating as well.
By evening — by which time the great cannon had only been fired seven times — cracks in the walls were becoming more obvious, and there was evidence, too, of subsidence.
Mahomet was now in high good humour, and entertained both the Hawkwoods to dinner in his tent. “A week,” he said enthusiastically. “Only a week and the city will be ours.” He turned to John. “As of this moment you are Hawk Pasha, General of Artillery.”
John bowed in gratification as he accepted the ceremonial horsetail wand with its two knots.
But the next morning there was no clear evidence of damage at all; the Byzantines had worked all night to repair the cracks.
“By Allah!” Mahomet shouted. “How can this be?”
“We will need more than a week,” John advised.
“If I may be so bold, O Padishah,” Anthony ventured, “our cannon are each firing at a different section of wall, each causing some damage, but not enough that it cannot be repaired. If we directed our entire artillery at one spot, we might inflict so much harm in a single day as to force a breach.”
“You are right, young Hawk. I should have thought of that.”
Orders were given, and the bombards were all collected in the Lycus valley, in front of the St Romanus Gate. Now it was necessary to protect them with a large force of Janissaries, because their new position might attract a sortie from the city.
The plan worked so well that the damage done to the gate was considerably greater by that night.
“One more day, and we will have a breach,” Mahomet declared.
But next morning most of the cracks had again been sealed.
“This is Giustiniani’s work,” John growled. “He knows siegecraft.”
“What is to be done?” Mahomet demanded.
“We will keep firing,” John said. “We will wear them down.”
“Why do you not use your iron shot?” the Emir wanted to know. “Will that not breach the wall more quickly?”
“I have but six, O Padishah. It is best to keep them to make the breach only when the wall has been sufficiently weakened.”
“And when will that be? Next year?”
He was now in a very bad humour, especially since the shouts of defiance from Constantinople grew ever more contemptuous as the defenders’ confidence returned.
“He has no experience of warfare,” John confided in his son. “He supposes a siege like thi
s can be settled like a joust between two knights, in a matter of a few blows.”
“He will learn patience, Father,” Anthony promised.
But Mahomet’s anger grew and, six days after the cannon had first begun to roar, he ordered a general assault.
*
“On unbroken walls, Padishah?” John asked. “It will not succeed.”
“Bah! It will succeed because I have willed it,” the Emir snapped.
The entire army was ordered into action, and the fleet was commanded to force the boom guarding the Golden Horn.
At dawn on 18 April, after every man had knelt towards Mecca in prayer, the signal was given. The cannon fell silent, and the bashi-bazouks were launched forward, swinging their tulwars, and screaming “Yagma! Yagma! — To the sack! To the sack!”
They swarmed across the once-tilled fields, now trampled into mud, and approached the ditch and the outer wall like a huge, roaring, multi-coloured wave, directing their main effort at the St Romanus Gate.
Behind them advanced the Anatolians, with more measured tread, kept in rough lines by their chaouches, or sergeants, their banners flying and their spearheads glinting in the sun.
Behind the Anatolians the Janissaries formed a compact red and blue mass, white plumes nodding as they waited their turn. For the first time they were carrying their handguns into battle and excitement ran high, but their time was not yet.
These were the very latest design in firearms, procured by the Venetians and sold to the Turks. When handguns had first been invented a hundred years earlier, they had been simple iron tubes, with one end blocked. Into the tube was poured a ration of powder and then a ball, and both well rammed home. Within the blocked end of the tube was a tiny touch-hole, and this too was filled with powder. The gunner then applied a match to the touchhole, and theoretically the powder in the tube would explode and propel the ball for some hundred yards. But it took two men to load and fire each gun, and thus for a generation handguns had been an expensive foible. It was the Spaniards who had made a decisive advance, only a few years past. In place of the haphazard match, they had invented the ‘serpentine’, a long coil of oil-impregnated cloth which, once lit, would burn for a considerable time. With great ingeniousness, they had fitted this serpentine into the barrel, causing it to be withdrawn, fraction by fraction and still alight, through the movement of a lever attached to the top of the gun, and activated by a trigger. This meant that the marksman could concentrate fully on his target, certain that when he pulled the trigger, the glowing serpentine would ignite the powder and explode the charge. To assist him further the gun had been fitted with a curved stock which could be placed against his shoulder to aid in his control.
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