LXIII. his daughter with an infidel, the captivity of many thousand CHAP. Christians, and the passage of the Ottomans into Europe, the last and fatal stroke in the fall of the Roman empire. The inclining scale was decided in his favour by the death of Apocaucus, the just, though singular, retribution of his crimes. A crowd of nobles or plebeians, whom he feared or hated, had been seized by his orders in the capital and the provinces; and the old palace of Constantine was assigned for the place of their confinement. Some alterations in raising the walls, and narrowing the cells, had been ingeniously contrived to prevent their escape, and aggravate their misery; and the work was incessantly pressed by the daily visits of the tyrant. His guards watched at the gate, and as he stood in the inner-court to overlook the architects, without fear or suspicion, he was assaulted and laid breathless on the ground, by two resolute prisoners of the Paleologian race,30 who were armed with sticks, and animated by despair. On the rumour of revenge and liberty, the captive multitude broke their fetters, fortified their prison, and exposed from the battlements the tyrant's head, presuming on the favour of the people and the clemency of the empress. Anne of Savoy might rejoice in the fall of an haughty and ambitious minister, but while she delayed to resolve or to act, the populace, more especially the mariners, were excited by the widow of the great duke to a sedition, an assault, and a massacre. The prisoners (of whom the far greater part were guiltless or inglorious of the deed) escaped to a neighbouring church: they were slaughtered at the foot of the altar; and in his death the monster was not less bloody and venomous than in his life. Yet his talents alone upheld the cause of the young emperor; and his surviving associates, suspicious of each other, abandoned the conduct of the war, and rejected the fairest terms of accommodation. In the beginning of the dispute, the empress felt and complained, that she was deceived by the enemies of Cantacuzene: the patriarch was employed to preach against the forgiveness of injuries; and her promise of immortal hatred 30 The two avengers were both Palæologi, who might resent, with royal indignation, the shame of their chains. The tragedy of Apocaucus may deserve a peculiar reference to Cantacuzene (l. iii. c. 86.) and Nic. Gregoras (1. xiv. c. 10). CHAP. was sealed by an oath, under the penalty of excommunica LXIII tion.31 But Anne soon learned to hate without a teacher: stantino she beheld the misfortunes of the empire with the indiffer ence of a stranger: her jealousy was exasperated by the competition of a rival empress; and on the first symptoms of a more yielding temper, she threatened the patriarch to convene a synod, and degrade him from his office. Their incapacity and discord would have afforded the most deci sive advantage; but the civil war was protracted by the weakness of both parties; and the moderation of Cantacuzene has not escaped the reproach of timidity and indolence. He successively recovered the provinces and cities; and the realm of his pupil was measured by the walls of Constanti nople; but the metropolis alone counterbalanced the rest of the empire; nor could he attempt that important conquest till he had secured in his favour the public voice and a private correspondence. An Italian, of the name of FaccioHe re-en- lati,32 had succeeded to the office of great duke: the ships, ters Con- the guards, and the golden gate, were subject to his command; but his humble ambition was bribed to become the instrument of treachery; and the revolution was accomplishJanuary 8. ed without danger or bloodshed. Destitute of the powers of resistance, or the hope of relief, the inflexible Anne would have still defended the palace, and have smiled to behold the capital in flames, rather than in the possession of a rival. She yielded to the prayers of her friends and enemies; and the treaty was dictated by the conqueror, who professed a loval and zealous attachment to the son of his benefactor. The marriage of his daughter with John Palæologus was at length consummated: the hereditary right of the pupil was acknowledged; but the sole administration during ten years was vested in the guardian. Two emperors and three empresses were seated on the Byzantine throne; and a general amnesty quieted the apprehensions, and confirmed the property, of the most guilty subjects. The festival of the coronation and nuptials was celebrated with the appearances ple. A. D. 1347, 31 Cantacuzene accuses the patriarch, and spares the empress, the mother of his sovereign (1. iii. 33, 34), against whom Nic. Gregoras expresses a particular animosity (l. xiv. 10, 11. xv. 5). It is true, that they do not speak exactly of the same time. 32 The traitor and treason are revealed by Nic. Gregoras (1. xv.c. 8): but the name is more discreetly suppressed by his great accomplice (Cantacuzen. 1. iii. c. 99). LXIII. of concord and magnificence, and both were equally falla- CHAP. cious. During the late troubles, the treasures of the state, and even the furniture of the palace, had been alienated or embezzled: the royal banquet was served in pewter or earthen-ware; and such was the proud poverty of the times, that the absence of gold and jewels was supplied by the paltry artifices of glass and gilt-leather.33 tacuzene, 1347, A. D. 1355, January. I hasten to conclude the personal history of John Canta Reign of cuzene.34 He triumphed and reigned; but his reign and John Cantriumph were clouded by the discontent of his own and the A. D. adverse faction. His followers might style the general am- Jan. 8... nesty, an act of pardon for his enemies, and of oblivion for his friends:35 in his cause their estates had been forfeited or plundered; and as they wandered naked and hungry through the streets, they cursed the selfish generosity of a leader, who, on the throne of the empire, might relinquish without merit his private inheritance. The adherents of the empress blushed to hold their lives and fortunes by the precarious favour of an usurper; and the thirst of revenge was concealed by a tender concern for the succession, and even the safety, of her son. They were justly alarmed by a petition of the friends of Cantacuzene, that they might be released from their oath of allegiance to the Palæologi; and entrusted with the defence of some cautionary towns; a measure supported with argument and eloquence; and which was rejected (says the Imperial historian) “by my sublime, "and almost incredibile, virtue." His repose was disturbed by the sound of plots and seditions; and he trembled lest the lawful prince should be stolen away by some foreign or domestic enemy, who would inscribe his name and his wrongs in the banners of rebellion. As the son of Andronicus advanced in the years of manhood, he began to feel 33 Nic. Greg. 1. xv. 11. There were however some true pearls, but very thinly sprinkled. The rest of the stones had only παντοδαπην χροιαν προς το διαυγες. 34 From his return to Constantinople, Cantacuzene continues his history, and that of the empire, one year beyond the abdication of his son Matthew, A. D, 1357 (1. iv. c. 1...50. p. 705...911). Nicephorus Gregoras ends with the synod of Constantinople, in the year 1351 (1. xxii. c. 3. p. 660. the rest to the conclusion of the xxivth book, p. 717. is all controversy); and his fourteen last books are still MSS. in the king of France's library. 35 The emperor (Cantacuzen. 1. iv. c. 1.) represents his own virtues, and Nic. Gregoras (1. xv. c. 11.) the complaints of his friends, who suffered by it's effects. I have lent them the words of our poor cavaliers after the restoration. LXIII. CHAP. and to act for himself; and his rising ambition was rather stimulated than checked by the imitation of his father's vices. If we may trust his own professions, Cantacuzene laboured with honest industry to correct these sordid and sensual ap petites, and to raise the mind of the young prince to a level with his fortune. In the Servian expedition, the two emperors showed themselves in cordial harmony to the troops and provinces; and the younger colleague was initiated by the elder in the mysteries of war and government. After the conclusion of the peace, Palæologus was left at Thessa lonica, a royal residence, and a frontier station, to secure by his absence the peace of Constantinople, and to withdraw his youth from the temptations of a luxurious capital. But the distance weakened the powers of control, and the son of Andronicus was surrounded with artful or unthinking companions, who taught him to hate his guardian, to deplore his exile, and to vindicate his rights. A private treaty with the cral or despot of Servia, was soon followed by an open revolt; and Cantacuzene, on the throne of the elder Andronicus, defended the cause of age and prerogative, which in his youth he had so vigorously attacked. At his request, the empress mother undertook the voyage of Thessalonica, and the office of mediation: she returned without success; and unless Anne of Savoy was instructed by adversity, we may doubt the sincerity, or at least the fervour, of her zeal. While the regent grasped the sceptre with a firm and vigorous hand, she had been instructed to declare, that the ten years of his legal administration would soon elapse; and that after a full trial of the vanity of the world, the emperor Cantacuzene sighed for the repose of a cloyster, and was ambitious only of an heavenly crown. Had these sentiments been genuine, his voluntary abdication would have restored the peace of the empire, and his conscience would have been John Pa- relieved by an act of justice. Palæologus alone was res læologus ponsible for his future government; and whatever might be his vices, they were surely less formidable than the calamigainst him, ties of a civil war, in which the barbarians and infidels were again invited to assist the Greeks in their mutual destruction. By the arms of the Turks, who now struck a deep and everlasting root in Europe, Cantacuzene prevailed in the third contest in which he had been involved; and the takes up arms a A. D. 1352. LXIII. young emperor, driven from the sea and land, was compel- CHAP. led to take shelter among the Latins of the isle of Tenedos. His insolence and obstinacy provoked the victor to a step which must render the quarrel irreconcilable: and the association of his son Matthew, whom he invested with the purple, established the succession in the family of the Cantacuzeni. But Constantinople was still attached to the blood of her ancient princes: and this last injury accelerated the restoration of the rightful heir. A noble Genoese espoused the cause of Palæologus, obtained a promise of his sister, and achieved the revolution with two gallies and two thousand five hundred auxiliaries. Under the pretence of distress, they were admitted into the lesser port; a gate was opened, and the Latin shout of, "long life and victory to "the emperor, John Palæologus !" was answered by a general rising in his favour. A numerous loyal party yet adhered to the standard of Cantacuzene: but he asserts in his history (does he hope for belief?) that his tender conscience rejected the assurance of conquest; that, in free obedience to the voice of religion and philosophy, he descended from the throne, and embraced with pleasure the monastic habit and profession.36 So soon as he ceased to be a prince, his successor was not unwilling that he should be a saint: the remainder of his life was devoted to piety and learning; in the cells of Constantinople and mount Athos, the monk Jo- Abdication asaph was respected as the temporal and spiritual father of of Cantathe emperor; and if he issued from his retreat, it was as the A. D. minister of peace, to subdue the obstinacy, and solicit the pardon, of his rebellious son.37 cuzene, 1355, January. Yet in the cloyster, the mind of Cantacuzene was still Dispute concerning exercised by theological war. He sharpened a controversial the light pen against the Jews and Mahometans;38 and in every state of mount 36 The aukward apology of Cantacuzene (1. iv. c. 39...42), who relates, with visible confusion, his own downfall, may be supplied by the less accurate, but more honest narratives of Matthew Villani (1. iv. c. 46. in the Script. Rerum Ital. tom. xiv. p. 268.) and Ducas (c. 10, 11). 37 Cantacuzene, in the year 1575, was honoured with a letter from the pope (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xx, p. 250). His death is placed by respectable authority on the 20th of November 1411 (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 260). But if he were of the age of his companion Andronicus the Younger, he must have lived 116 years; a rare instance of longevity, which in so illustrious a person would have attracted universal notice. 38 His four discourses, or books, were printed at Basil 1543 (Fabric. Bib. liot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 473). He composed them to satisfy a proselyte who was 3 L VOL. VII. Thabor, |