When the besieged Christians heard the Turks outside their walls chanting their prayers, they knew that the city would be assaulted the next day, and late at night Constantine called his friends together, and said, “Though my heart is full, I can speak to you no longer.  There is the crown which I hold from God.  I place it in your hands; I entrust it to you.  I fight to deserve it still, or to die in defending it.”  They wept and wailed so that he had to wait to be heard again, and then he said, “Comrades, this is our fairest day;” after which they all went to the Cathedral of St. Sophia, and received the Holy Communion together.  There was a crowd around as he came out, and he stood before them, begging them to pardon him for not having been able to make them happier.  They answered with sobs and tears, and then he mounted his horse and rode round the defences.