'I need more than your counsel, Signor. I need your leadership. None of my men knows the Turks as you do, nor can they rally men as you did today. I want you to take command of the defence.'
'But My Lord, for all that I love Constantinople, I am foreign to these lands,' Longo protested. 'Surely your people would be more willing to follow one of their own. If none of your men are able, then you should lead them. It is your right and duty as their emperor.'
Constantine shook his head. 'I am a soldier, Longo, but I am no strategist. I will take my place on the wall and lead my men in battle. I will die defending this city if I must. But I am not the one to organize its defence. The one siege that I led was a disaster. My men were slaughtered and I barely escaped with my life. I do not wish to see the same happen to Constantinople.'
'And what of the megadux, Lucas Notaras?' Longo asked.
'Ah yes, Notaras,' Constantine sighed. 'He is brave, it is true, but also rash and headstrong. I fear he would sacrifice this city if it meant saving his own honour.'
'I too am a man of honour, Emperor.'
'Yes, I know,' Constantine said. 'But you understand that sometimes true honour requires sacrificing one's pride for a greater good. I am not sure that Notaras does. And besides, he bears little love for the Latins. They will never follow him the way that they would follow you. You, Longo, are our best hope. God has sent you to us for a reason.'
'If it is truly your will, then I accept,' Longo said.
'It is settled then.' Constantine clapped Longo on the back. 'You will stay nearby, close to the walls. One of the Venetian merchants who fled the city left a fine house. You shall have it. And once we are victorious, you shall have the island of Lesbos as your reward.'
'Thank you, Emperor.'
'Now come. Let us introduce my people to the new commander of Constantinople.'
Chapter 15
TUESDAY 17 APRIL 1453, CONSTANTINOPLE: DAY 17 OF THE SIEGE
Mehmed stood outside his tent, watching the artillery flash in the pre-dawn light as he did each morning. He saw a cannonball strike the base of a tower along the Mesoteichion. The tower shook, then toppled forward, and Mehmed smiled. He had been to look at the walls the previous day, and the amount of damage was even greater than he had hoped. The outer wall along the Mesoteichion had been almost entirely reduced to rubble. The time to strike had come.
'Your Excellency seems pleased,' Halil remarked, stifling a yawn as he joined Mehmed. 'Is it good news, then, that you wish to discuss with me at this ungodly hour?'
'Very good news, Halil. Tomorrow night, under the cover of darkness, we will attack. You will distribute ladders and torches and make sure that the men have everything they need.'
'Do you think an attack wise, Your Excellency? Perhaps another week of bombardment, as we had agreed, would make success more certain. Patience is, after all, the principal virtue in siege warfare.'
'Patience will not feed my men, Halil,' Mehmed said. 'You know better than anyone how difficult it is to keep an army of this size in the field. I had thought that you would be happy to finish the siege early. It will mean an end to your ceaseless search for supplies.'
'I would be only too happy, your Excellency. But the walls of Constantinople, even weakened, will not be easy to take. We must be patient and allow your other plans to bear fruit. After all, think of what a defeat now might do to the morale of the army.'
'There will be no defeat,' Mehmed said curtly. 'I am not a fool or a child who you need lecture, Halil. The walls of Constantinople are only lightly manned at night. We will strike quickly, sending the bazibozouks north and south to distract the defence while the janissaries focus their attack near the Lycus, where the walls are weakest. They will overrun the defenders before they are able to rally more troops, and Constantinople will be ours.'
'I was here when your father besieged the city. The walls of Constantinople will not fall so easily, I fear,' Halil said. Then, after a long pause, he bowed and added: 'But may it be as you say, great Sultan. I defer to your greater wisdom.'
Mehmed frowned. He did not like Halil's tone, nor did he understand why his grand vizier was so eager to delay the attack.
'Excuse me, Sultan,' Ulu said as he appeared at Mehmed's side. 'Zaganos has come from the mines.'
'Very good, Ulu. Bring him to me.' Zaganos was Mehmed's chief miner. He appeared a few seconds later, his face and clothes black with dirt.
'We found something, Sultan,' Zaganos said. 'A tunnel near the gate of Caligaria, where you directed us to focus our efforts. It leads towards the walls, but it hits a dead end before it reaches them. It appears to have been filled in.'
'Take me to it,' Mehmed ordered. 'I shall see for myself.'
He followed Zaganos towards the rear of camp. Mehmed had ordered the tunnels to be started here, far out of sight of the walls of Constantinople. It had meant a long, laborious dig, but the tunnels were finally nearing the moat beyond the Blachernae walls. Still passing underneath the moat and walls would take several more weeks. It would be much easier if they could find one of the passages that Mehmed had read about in the Russian's description of Constantinople.
They reached the tunnel's entrance — a hole some five feet high, braced with wood and dug into a hillside. 'Are you sure you want to enter?' Zaganos asked. 'The mines aren't entirely stable.'
'I want to see,' Mehmed insisted.
'Very well. Mind your head, Sultan,' Zaganos said as he led the way into the tunnel. The passage was narrow, only slightly broader than Mehmed's shoulders. Frequent wooden braces held up the ceiling, and lamps hanging from some of the braces offered a weak, flickering light. The ceiling was black dirt, as were the walls halfway down. Below that, the rest of the walls and the floor were made of fine grey clay. As they walked, the ceiling grew lower until Mehmed had to walk bent at the waist. Zaganos, a powerfully built but short man, only had to duck his head.
'The tunnel we discovered was beneath where we have been digging,' Zaganos explained as they walked. 'That is why we didn't find it earlier.' He pointed to a side tunnel as they passed. 'We've run side tunnels like this out to either side of the main tunnel, but we were digging too high. It was only luck that led us to the tunnel. One of our diggers was pushing a cart full of clay through one of these side tunnels when he fell through the floor, and into another tunnel below.' Zaganos stopped before a dark side passage. 'This is it.'
Zaganos took a lamp from the wall and led them into the side tunnel. After about fifteen feet there was an irregular hole in the floor, with a ladder leading down. 'I'll go first to light the way, Your Excellency,' Zaganos said. He clambered down the ladder, and Mehmed followed. When he reached the bottom, Mehmed found that he could stand up straight. The tunnel was at least seven feet tall. The walls were of stone, leading up to an arched ceiling, also of stone. The floor was dirt. The tunnel that the Russian had described was made entirely of stone — ceiling, walls and floor. This must be a different tunnel.
'This way towards the walls,' Zaganos said. They followed the tunnel for some thirty feet before it ended suddenly in a pile of rubble.
'Perhaps this is just a cave-in,' Mehmed suggested. 'Have you tried to dig around it?'
'We have, Your Excellency,' Zaganos said. 'There's no way through. The tunnel has been collapsed for as far as we can see.'
'And what about the other direction? Where does it lead?'
'The tunnel is collapsed in that direction, too. My guess is that somebody used charges to bring the tunnel down. Somehow, the section that we're standing in escaped the destruction.'