Edward Gibbon, an English historian, published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. This is Chapter 68 of that work. He follows Rome from the prosperous age of Trajan and the Antonines, around the year 100, through the fall of the West and on to the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Chapter 68 takes up reign and character of Muhammad the Second—Siege, assault, and final conquest of Constantinople by the Turks—Death of Constantine Palaeologus—Servitude of the Greeks—Extinction of the Roman Empire in the East—Consternation of Europe—Conquests and death of Muhammad the Second. The footnotes are not in this reading; what you have is the narrative.