Saracens, and rescue the Holy Sepulchre from the defiling hands of the Moslem. This is the only extensive bay along the whole course of the Bosphorus, with the exception of the narrow inlet of the Golden Horn, which cannot be called a bay. Here and there, however, the shores curve and twine, and the openings between the hills exhibit entrancing vistas. Across one valley, above Therapia, on the European side, the remains of a gigantic aqueduct are visible, giving to the view a distinctive character, and awakening reflections concerning the greatness of the city in olden times.

So deep are the waters of the Bosphorus that large vessels may not only proceed in the middle of the stream, but in almost any part of it, without fear. The sides dip many fathoms within a few yards from the shore. For ten miles above Constantinople, and for five or six miles above Scutari, good roads have been constructed along the very margin of the water. People may walk or drive on these roads, and, in any place, call a caique, step directly in, and finish the journey by water. Two English vessels were once steaming up the Bosphorus, endeavouring to outstrip each other, and one of them, near the Asiatic shore, to lessen the distance, ran finely round one of the bends of the stream. The master had correctly calculated the movement of the ship, but not the consequences of that movement to a pacha's harem that stood directly over the tide. The projecting yardarm entered the window of the harem, and the force of the moving vessel tore out the intervening masonry between one window and another, and then another, and then another-revealing the luxurious apartment, and the flying figures of several females who had been terrified by the unwonted and dangerous intrusion. The ship freed herself, and hove to in deep water altogether undamaged, although she had steamed so close to the brink as to nearly destroy the residence of a pacha, and almost kill his wives. Of course, the race proved rather an expensive one, for the harem had to be repaired at the cost of the owners of the vessels.

The Anatoli Hissar, or Castle of Asia, and the more curiously built, and larger, Roumeli Hissar, or Castle of Europe, about five miles from Constantinople, are certain to attract the attention of any visitor to the Bosphorus. The Castle of Asia was built by the Ottoman Sultan, Mohammed I., after he had won the Asiatic lands as far as the Bosphorus; and the Castle of Europe was built by his grandson, Mohammed II., surnamed the Great, the conqueror of the royal city. Amurath, the father of Mohammed the Great, was a man of deep religious convictions. He had a sound sense of honour. He fought bravely when he had to fight, and he faithfully observed his treaties when the fighting was over. But not so Mohammed. Without consulting the Greeks, and in defiance of a well-known understanding, and against all protestations, he gathered a thousand masons at Asomaton, opposite the Anatoli Hissar, and two thousand labourers to assist them, and commenced the erection of the fortress, which was so direct a menace to Constantinople as to be in itself a declaration of war. By fortifying the two castles, he could close the Bosphorus, and starve the city. Ambassadors from the Imperial Court waited upon the inexorable sultan, to try to persuade him from the execution of his designs. He threatened to flay alive the next who should come, and sent these back with the insolent message that "the Empire of Constantinople is measured by her walls. Return, and inform your king that the present Ottoman is far different from his predecessors: that his resolutions surpass their wishes; and that he performs more than they could resolve." The work proceeded. The walls of the fortress, built in curious angles, were twenty-two feet thick, and the walls of the three towers thirty feet thick; and when the fortress was finished, he mounted heavy cannon on the walls and towers nearest the sea, similar to the cannon mounted on the fortress opposite, and levied taxes on all vessels passing to and from the Euxine. The first vessel that refused to obey the mandate of these new masters of the Bosphorus, a Venetian, was sunk by a cannon ball, and her crew were only rescued from drowning to be barbarously slain. The fierce Ottoman sultan had fully made up his mind to capture Constantinople, and remove thither the seat of his empire; and the building of Roumeli Hissar was one important step toward the accomplishment of his design, and neither by persuasion nor threats could he be dissuaded from taking that step, and afterwards investing with his troops and fleet the city of the Cæsars.

On the shores of the Bosphorus there are numerous cemeteries, crowded with gravestones in every state of neglect and decay. Cypress groves are planted in and about these burial places. Mile after mile these groves clothe the hill-sides with their dark green spires, and invest some of the views with a quiet and almost sombre look which is only partially relieved by the white-domed mosque, and the column-like minaret tapering toward the sky. The cemeteries are much more extensive on the Asiatic than on the European side. The cemetery at Scutari is one of the largest in the world. The Turks prefer to be buried in Asia. They belong to Asia. They never forget the fact that they obtained their European possessions by conquest, and that the Giaours may unite to drive them again across the Bosphorus, whence they came. There is a prevailing impression in the Turkish mind that they will have to quit Europe some day, and this impression determines their wishes to be laid at rest in their mother-soil beyond the waters, where there is less likelihood of their graves being trodden upon, and desecrated, by the feet of the infidels.

The Princes' Islands already mentioned, and Scutari, and the long line of kiosks and palaces, with the smaller clustering dwellings, that lie along both sides of the Bosphorus, are suburbs of Constantinople. They are all intimately connected with the city. Many steamers, and launches, and caiques converge from all quarters toward the mouth of the Golden Horn. From this centre Constantinople stretches out its arms in all directions. The centre is crowded, congested, unhealthy; and it must be a pleasant escape, for those who can afford it, to get away, when business is over, to the cool breezes of Therapia, or the quiet shores of Vanikeui, or the lovely islands of Antigoné and Prinkipo. Nothing is more striking, perhaps, than to see

"The European and the Asian shore
Sprinkled with palaces."

The smaller houses are built of wood, with red tiles, and verandahs, and large overhanging eaves, in the midst of luxuriant gardens, where roses grow to perfection, and the air is laden with their delicate perfume. But the palaces are of gleaming white marble, most elegant in their architectural construction, ornamented not with sculptured representation of animal life-for that a strict Mohammedanism will not concede-but with the graceful and involved tracery which, from its Mohammedan source, has become known as arabesque. Mohammedanism could not subdue the fertile fancy of the Arabian mind. It found a substitute for the animal face and form in the endless curves of the plant and flower. Some of these palaces are visions of beauty. The Sultan's kiosk, near the "sweet waters of Asia," for elegance of design, structural compactness, and harmonious ornamentation, cannot be surpassed. The effect of these palaces is doubtless heightened by their surroundings. Pure white marbles, built into splendid architectural forms, and embellished with delicate tracery, would look beautiful anywhere; and the beauty must be enhanced by the lovely flowers around them, and the transparent waters beneath them, and the dark green wooded hills behind them, and a sky above them of the deepest azure and without a cloud.

CHAPTER V.

THE CITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

Moonlight view-Suggestions-Morning-Origin-Situation-General description-Population-Old seraglio-Armoury and MuseumSt. Sophia: its construction Byzantine model - Ecclesiastical furniture and service-Mosque-The bloody hand-External appearance-The Achmedie-The Suliemanie-The Pigeon Mosque -Mosque of Ortakeui-Palace of Dolma Bagtché-The Sultan's life-Church of the Fountain-Pera-Galata-Hamals-Old round tower-Genoese-Fires-Atmeidan: its obelisk-Meta-Twisted serpents-The Nika sedition-Triumph of Belisarius-Revolutions, and destruction of the Janizaries-Burnt column-Galata bridge-Mosque of the Sultana Validé-Women-Dogs-Beggars -Bazaars-Walls-Latin siege-Arab sieges-Turkish designs Bajazet and Tamerlane - Turkish siege - Golden Horn Caiques-Story of an English seaman-Leander's tower-Scutari -Selimie barracks and English cemetery.

Ат midnight, beneath a full moon, we let go the anchor off Scutari. Constantinople lay before us, solemn and quiet; the ample domes and slender minarets of its numberless mosques standing forth with almost supernatural clearness; the Golden Horn, like a polished silver mirror, running far between, and separating the solid mass of buildings into two parts; the gleaming water of the Bosphorus stretching away as far as the eye could see, with a long succession of marble palaces rising upon its shores, and bearing on its bosom the anchored and sleeping ships of all nations; the picturesque Seraglio Point, its old crumbling walls, its clustering cypress groves, its almost prison-like, many-windowed, lofty build