Despite this reverse, for the moment, the situation on the Golden Horn was a stalemate. The Christian fleet was still intact and Mohammed was reluctant to risk a major battle. But he now threatened a great new expanse of the city's wall and Constantine was unable to man it adequately. Not only that, trade from Galata dwindled to nearly nothing. The Greeks could not even now safely fish in the harbor. All this for Mohammed was an important victory.

Supplies in the city were running low. Once again a mood of bloom settled over Constantinople. For the next week, Mohammed contented himself with the relentless bombardment of the land walls and occasional feints by his fleet in the Golden Horn. The declining morale of the defenders was becoming a major concern to Constantine. As each day passed the relief armada from the West became more vital. It had long been promised, yet where was it?

By, the beginning of May there were some people in the city actually going hungry. Soldiers on the wall were continually demanding leave to visit their families and find them food. Constantine finally imposed a new tax on the churches and all those who could pay, bought up all the provisions he could find and set up a system of rationing. This proved a satisfactory solution. But still the question remained - how soon would relief come?

One night a swift Venetian brigantine, its twelve volunteer crew members disguised as Turks, crept out of the Golden Horn. Its mission: locate the relief armada.

During the first days of May Urban's cannon had been out of commission. It resumed its relentless work on May 6th. This seemed to be a signal for an intensification of the bombardment. And the Turkish ships in the Golden Horn seemed to be preparing for some major enterprise.

The strain was beginning to tell on the defenders. Throughout the siege Constantine had slept only in snatches. He now looked pole and haggard. Several times his aides had urged him to flee the city, to raise a relief army in Greece. He refused to consider this. Meanwhile the bid enmities between the Venetians and Genoese were being aggravated by weariness and short tempers. Constantine was continually obliged to intervene in their quarrels.

Four hours after sunset on May 7th, the Turks again attacked the Mesoteichion. This battle lasted some three hours before it ended in a Turkish defeat. Just as the defenders were wearily reorganizing themselves, at midnight, a sudden attack fell on the badly damaged Blachernal wall. This attack, too, was eventually repulsed. The bombardment continued.

On the 14th of May Mohammed recalled all his guns from Galata Point and the headlands of the Golden Horn. He concentrated all of them on the Mesoteichion. On the 16th and 17th the main Turkish fleet from the Double Columns made feints against the boom. They were curious maneuvers. In neither attack was a single shot fired. The Turkish fleet swarmed up to the Christian ships, and just beyond range sheered off and retired. In Constantinople they were thought to be either maneuvers to unnerve the populace or training exercises. Another similar feint was made a few days later.

At dawn of the 18th the sentinels on the Mesoteichion were horrified to see standing before them a great wooden tower on wheels. It was a wooden framework of heavy beams protected by layers of bullock and camel hides. An interior stairway led up to a hinged platform controlled by pulleys and ropes twenty-five feet above the ground - the height of the city Is Outer Wall. This contraption stood on the very edge of the moat opposite the St. Romanus tower which had been largely destroyed. Much rubble had spilled into the moat from the shattered tower.

All that day the Turks labored to complete a causeway across the moat despite strenuous harassment by the defenders along the wall. By dusk the work was almost completed. The Turks had even edged their vehicle onto the causeway to test its solidity. This was a potent threat. Both Constantine and Giustiniani directed the countermeasures. That night volunteers from the city crept into the moat. They placed kegs of powder into the fill of tree trunks and bundles of twigs. When these exploded, everything burst into flames, including the wooden tower.

The next morning Mohammed stared in astonishment at the ashes of his vehicle, at the nearly cleared moat, and at the rebuilt tower of St. Romanus. He swore aloud, claimed he only believed it because he saw it with his own eyes. He said even the thirty-seven thousand prophets could never have convinced him the Christians had completed so much work in one night.

Mohammed built several more wooden towers, but none of them was a success. Eventually the towers that were not Destroyed were withdrawn from the siege. The Sultan also attempted at several sites to mine under the walls. Each of these projects was thwarted by Greek counter-mines. One mine might have succeeded. Its entrance was craftily concealed by one of the wooden towers. fortunately for the defenders, some Turkish miners captured in another mine were forced under torture to reveal the existence of the unknown mine, which was duly destroyed. Mining was another activity eventually abandoned. By now the defenders were weary beyond endurance. Food, powder, javelins, arrows and shot were all running out. Of the 7,000 defenders many had suffered wounds, although so far remarkably few had been killed. Only their successes kept aflame a flickering optimism, and even this was to be buffeted by bad tidings and evil Portents.