28 THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST. 



doubt the Emperor Constantine Intended that it should 

 when he erected the golden milestone from which all 

 the distances of the eastern world were in future to 

 be measured — an indelible reputation as the very eye 

 and centre of the world. 



There is no need for apology, then, in admitting 

 that, as I was borne rapidly towards the city on the 

 Bosphorus, of which with far more reason than of 

 Venice might it be said that — 



" Once did she hold the gorgeous East iu fee, 

 And was the safeguard of the West " — 



the views presented by the frost - bound lands of 

 Central Europe and the rugged mountains of the 

 Turkish highlands sank into insignificance before the 

 varying scenes of the ever-changing mental picture 

 which unrolled itself before me. Visions of the early 

 days of splendour of a city standing proud and alone, 

 " with all Europe behind and all Asia before," a home 

 of prodigal magnificence and luxury, despite disastrous 

 inroads from time to time of the legions of Persia, 

 Greece, and Macedon ; of the gloomy days of depres- 

 sion when the dark shadow of the great Power which 

 had arisen in the West stole over the kingdoms of 

 the East ; of the rise of a fallen city to a height of 

 power and magnificence hitherto unknown, as the 

 capital of the east Koman empire under Constantine 

 and his successors ; of gradual decay with the decline 

 and fall of the power of Kome, passing into the final 

 collapse of the longest lived empire that Christendom 

 has known when the Emperor Constantine XIV. fell 

 gallantly fighting in the breach of the walls of his 

 city ; and of a new era of barbaric splendour ushered 

 in from the time when an Osmanli Sultan seized 

 upon the city, and the cry " God is great and 



