]86 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER." 



great empire that bears their name, were a branch 

 of the Turkman stock. Othman, the first of their 

 dynasty, was the chief of a small horde, a mere 

 handful of men ; his grandson Amurath I, was he who 

 conquered Adrianople. The first conquests of the 

 Turks were achieved by freemen; but, after the taking 

 of Constantinople, a new military institution was 

 established ; and the relation between the commander 

 and his warlike servants resembled much more the 

 personal subjection of the Mamelukes to their Beys, 

 than the free allegiance owned by the bands of the 

 west to their Condottieri. The invincible army of 

 the Sultan the terrible cavalry of whom it was pro- 

 verbial, that 



" where the Spain's hoof hath trod, 

 The verdure flies the bloody sod " 



and the Janissaries, who boasted that they had never 

 fled in battle, were all slaves ; torn from their Christian 

 parents in childhood, and reared up under a system of 

 discipline, admirably adapted to the end proposed. 

 It combined the hardihood of the Spartans, the 

 strictness and decorum of the monastic rule, with every 

 encouragement that could nurture the aspiring spirit, 

 and confirm the devoted fidelity of the young soldier. 

 The youths thus brought up, forgot their childhood, 

 their parents, their homes ; knew no native land, but 



