Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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Chapter LXVII: Schism Of The Greeks And Latins. -- Part II.
It was on this fatal spot, that, instead of finding a confederate fleet
to second their operations, they were alarmed by the approach of Amurath
himself, who had issued from his Magnesian solitude, and transported the
forces of Asia to the defence of Europe. According to some writers, the
Greek emperor had been awed, or seduced, to grant the passage of the
Bosphorus; and an indelible stain of corruption is fixed on the Genoese,
or the pope's nephew, the Catholic admiral, whose mercenary connivance
betrayed the guard of the Hellespont. From Adrianople, the sultan
advanced by hasty marches, at the head of sixty thousand men; and when
the cardinal, and Huniades, had taken a nearer survey of the numbers and
order of the Turks, these ardent warriors proposed the tardy and
impracticable measure of a retreat. The king alone was resolved to
conquer or die; and his resolution had almost been crowned with a
glorious and salutary victory. The princes were opposite to each other
in the centre; and the Beglerbegs, or generals of Anatolia and Romania,
commanded on the right and left, against the adverse divisions of the
despot and Huniades. The Turkish wings were broken on the first onset:
but the advantage was fatal; and the rash victors, in the heat of the
pursuit, were carried away far from the annoyance of the enemy, or the
support of their friends. When Amurath beheld the flight of his
squadrons, he despaired of his fortune and that of the empire: a veteran
Janizary seized his horse's bridle; and he had magnanimity to pardon and
reward the soldier who dared to perceive the terror, and arrest the
flight, of his sovereign. A copy of the treaty, the monument of
Christian perfidy, had been displayed in the front of battle; and it is
said, that the sultan in his distress, lifting his eyes and his hands to
heaven, implored the protection of the God of truth; and called on the
prophet Jesus himself to avenge the impious mockery of his name and
religion. ^26 With inferior numbers and disordered ranks, the king of
Hungary rushed forward in the confidence of victory, till his career was
stopped by the impenetrable phalanx of the Janizaries. If we may credit
the Ottoman annals, his horse was pierced by the javelin of Amurath; ^27
he fell among the spears of the infantry; and a Turkish soldier
proclaimed with a loud voice, "Hungarians, behold the head of your
king!" The death of Ladislaus was the signal of their defeat. On his
return from an intemperate pursuit, Huniades deplored his error, and the
public loss; he strove to rescue the royal body, till he was overwhelmed
by the tumultuous crowd of the victors and vanquished; and the last
efforts of his courage and conduct were exerted to save the remnant of
his Walachian cavalry. Ten thousand Christians were slain in the
disastrous battle of Warna: the loss of the Turks, more considerable in
numbers, bore a smaller proportion to their total strength; yet the
philosophic sultan was not ashamed to confess, that his ruin must be the
consequence of a second and similar victory. ^* At his command a column
was erected on the spot where Ladislaus had fallen; but the modest
inscription, instead of accusing the rashness, recorded the valor, and
bewailed the misfortune, of the Hungarian youth. ^28
[Footnote 26: Some Christian writers affirm, that he drew from his bosom
the host or wafer on which the treaty had not been sworn. The Moslems
suppose, with more simplicity, an appeal to God and his prophet Jesus,
which is likewise insinuated by Callimachus, (l. iii. p. 516. Spondan.
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