_ 183 _ notables, and soldiers of his household. When he learnt the bad news he rode with great fury and reached the frontiers of his country, and fortified himself in a town called [Costj], a very strong place. But all the towns behind him were left, with captives and the dead, to the cruel swords of his enemies. This news was kept secret in Constantinople at first, but when it was revealed there was great lamentation because many men from the city itself were captured and killed. Now the Turk is making great preparations, ordering all his provinces and cities and villages to provide many men and food and other necessary things. The Turk wrote to the Signoria of Venice trusting them with two things and reminding them of their old alliance. He sent to a very large city called (Jena) for a large loan from the Christians at the rate of twenty espheras [a gold coin] a head and he ordered this money to be used to raise soldiers, as a result of which all the Christians under his rule are very badly treated. The number of men dead and captured is said to be six thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, eighteen thousand camels and other animals, and in Tabriz they took from the Turk himself one hundred and fifty horses and eighty pieces of artillery apart from many carbines and muskets. The important captains who were killed are these:
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