1390.

Turks in 1312 consummated the ruin of the Seven A. D. Churches of Asia, though Rhodes, defended by the Knights of St. John, resisted the Turks for two centuries. In 1346 the Sultan Orchan marrying Theodora, a princess of Constantinople, the Turks gained a footing in Europe. In 1360 Amurath I. might easily have conquered Constantinople; but satisfied with the servile homage of its princes, he turned his arms against the Sclavonian tribes, ever threatening that city, and taking many of their rude soldiers prisoners, formed them into a militia, under the name of Janizaries or new soldiers," the terror of nations, and often of the sultans themselves. 1389-1403. Bajazet I. is victorious from the Euphrates to the Danube: and now Constantinople, by its corruption and weakness, would have anticipated its doom by fifty years, had not the great Tamerlane appeared to divert the arms of Bajazet and his Turks from that city.

66

Timour, or Tamerlane, prince of Samarcand in Bockharia, was one of the greatest of oriental conquerors. At an early age, made chief of the Tartars, he conquered Persia, invaded Russia, and burned Astrachan; but the great campaign of Tamerlane was the invasion of Hindostan. The Indus he crossed at Attok, and followed the footsteps of Alexander the Great into the Punjab, or five streams of the Indus. Passing the Hyphasis, where Alexander halted, Tamerlane advanced and

A. D. 1403.

fought his way into Delhi, the capital of Hindostan, then for three centuries in the hands of Mahometan princes. Thence he retreated, and enjoyed repose at Samarcand at the age of sixtythree, and there planned another campaign against Bajazet and the Turks in Western Asia. And now the Mogul and Ottoman sovereigns endeavour to alarm each other by recounting their respective conquests. Tamerlane, leaving Bajazet before Constantinople, turns aside to invade Syria, and in 1400, sacks Aleppo, Damascus, and Bagdad; and at the battle of Angora, Tamerlane takes Bajazet prisoner, and afterwards reduces Smyrna, though it had been successfully defended against Bajazet by the Knights of Rhodes. Tamerlane in all his marches carried Bajazet, rather for safety, perhaps, than for insult, in an iron cage on a waggon; an incident which has been often quoted as a striking illustration of those reverses of fortune from which even kings are not exempt.

In 1403, from the Irtish and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from the Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, Asia was in the power of Tamerlane. Still, with myriads of warriors, Tamerlane had not a single ship, and the two passages into Europe, of the Bosphorus and Hellespont, were possessed the former by the Christians of Constantinople, and the latter by the Turks. But they wisely forgot their differences, and made common cause in refusing the transports which Tamerlane demanded of either nation under pretence of attack

ing their enemy. At the same time, such was the A. D. fear of Tamerlane, though the sea roared between 1403. that conqueror and his victims, that both the sultan of the Turks and the Greek emperor in Constantinople, conciliated him by tribute and pretended submission; and even the sultan of Egypt was much alarmed lest Tamerlane should execute a suspected design of subduing Egypt and Africa, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic, entering Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar, and then, after reducing the kingdoms of Christendom, returning home by the deserts of Russia and Tartary. A giraffe and nine ostriches represented, at Samarcand, the homage of Africa.

Tamerlane next meditates the conquest of China, before conquered by Zenghis, though his successors were afterwards driven out by the Chinese. Gibbon then relates how, on the throne of Samarcand, the conqueror enjoyed two months of repose, receiving the ambassadors of Egypt, Arabia, India, Tartary, Russia, and even Spain, which last presented the finest tapestry. Now six of his grandsons celebrated their nuptials; forests of wood fell to supply the kitchen, and the plain was spread with pyramids of meat and vases of wine for thousands of happy guests. Masquerades and illuminations testified the general joy; the trades of Samarcand passed in review with some quaint device, some marvellous pageant, with the materials of their peculiar art. Nine times, in oriental fashion, were the happy pairs dressed

G

1405

A. D. and undressed; while at every change of apparel pearls and rubies were showered on their heads, and contemptuously abandoned to their attendants. A general indulgence was proclaimed, every law relaxed and pleasure allowed, the people were free, the sovereign was idle, and the historian of Timour may remark that, after devoting fifty years to empire, the only happy two months of his life were when he ceased to exercise his power. But Tamerlane was soon awakened to the cares of government and war. Some 200,000 men, with 500 waggons, and beasts of burthen innumerable, were ready for the invasion of China. The journey from Samarcand to Pekin commonly occupied a caravan six months. But the frosts of winter, and of three-score years and ten, cut short the mortal pilgrimage of Tamerlane. Thirty-five years after he ascended the throne of Samarcand, his designs were frustrated, his armies disbanded, and China saved; and fourteen years after his death the most powerful of his children sent an embassy of friendship and commerce to the court of Pekin.

The Mogul emperor was, in plain truth, rather a freebooter than a conqueror, spreading rapine and desolation, instead of civilisation and order, and crushing whole nations beneath his feet. The ground occupied with flourishing cities he left marked with pyramids of thousands of human heads, the usual trophy of the Moguls! and covered with the ruins and ashes of once happy habitations. More than one of the successors of Tamer

1405.

lane were qualified to arrest the dissolution of a.d. this empire of the great Moguls, but it gradually declined, and its provinces revolted to other masters after the death of him who first united them.

CHAP. XLII.

CHARLEMAGNE-HIS EMPIRE.

772.

PEPIN died 768 A.D. He was succeeded by Char- A. D. lemagne, a man of a powerful body and enlightened mind. He carried on thirty-three years war with the Saxons, who were continually making incursions into the territory of the Franks, and obstinately persevered in their heathen worship. In the year 772 A.D., Charlemagne compelled the Saxons to accept terms of peace, and to send hostages as security against its infringement. While, however, in the year 774 A.D., Charlemagne was engaged in destroying the power of the Lombards in Italy, and subduing the northern provinces, the Saxons attacked him again. In 775 A.D., they made another incursion for the purposes of plunder. Charlemagne was now greatly incensed, and ordered fortresses to be built in the enemies' territory. Numbers now took alarm, and presented themselves to be baptized into the Christian faith, with