He crossed the sea, landed a powerful army and established twenty thousand men, strongly garrisoned, at Otranto, and supplied with provisions for a year.

All Italy was in consternation, for a passage was now open directly from Turkey to Naples and Rome.

Mahomet boasted that he would soon feed his horse on the altar of St.Peter's.

The pope, Sextus IV., in dismay, was about abandoning Rome, and as there was no hope of uniting the discordant States of Italy in any effectual resistance, it seemed inevitable that Italy, like Greece, would soon become a Turkish province.

And where then could it be hoped that the ravages of the Turks would be arrested?
In this crisis, so alarming, Providence interposed, and the sudden death of Mahomet, in the vigor of his pride and ambition, averted the danger.
Bajazet II.