THE CASTLES OF EUROPE AND ASIA       21

Plate: STRAITS OF THE BOSPHORUS

The Traitor's Gate is the only seaward entrance to the fortress; and through its low wide arch the bodies of the strangled Janissaries were dragged by the heels, and flung into the Bosphorus. There are four principal towers, one of which is occasionally served as a state prison for persons of distinction; that immediately above it, is called the Tower of Blood, where the Agas, or chiefs of Janissaries, were put to death privately, and their bodies conveyed to the Bosphorus through a tunnel excavated beneath the foundations of the fortress; it being considered unsafe and impolitic to dishonour their remains in the eyes of that formidable body, in the public manner in which the corses of their less distinguished comrades were mutilated and insulted.

The Janissaries' Tower is built upon the highest point of land within the walls, and commands one of the finest views in the world; having on one hand the whole stretch of the channel to the opening of the island-studded Propontis; and on the other, the entrance of the Black Sea, with the "blue symplegades" in the dim distance, looking as if they were indeed fulfilling the ancient superstition, and wandering over the waters of the "storm-vexed Euxine."

The instrument to which the fatal cord used in strangling Janissaries was attached, is an old Roman bow of extraordinary strength; and the place of execution was a portion of the covered way that connects the towers throughout the fortress and the beauty of nature, and to remember how many have so looked for the last time ! The blue, sun lighted sky - the sparkling water - the fantastic and changeful shadows cast by the broad leaves of the wild fig-trees upon the earth - the song of the wild-birds from the underwood beneath the ramparts - all seem to conspire in investing the world with a dearer charm, and in lending to life a value which must enchance tenfold the bitterness of death.

The few houses built within the walls of the fortress are in good repair, and are surrounded by pleasant gardens. their tenants marry and intermarry continually, not permitted to form any alliance with families unconnected with the Castle; and, altogether, the celebrated Roumeli Hissari, (a sealed book, save in one recent instance, to all European travellers,) possesses a great moral interest, as well as extreme picturesque beauty.