242 THE REPUBLIC OF RAGUSA
by the Turks, and a large part of the inhabitants made prisoners, including the very envoys who had brought the charter of the truce from Constantinople. The news of the fall of Bobovac caused the most widespread dismay throughout the land, and the Turkish advance was almost unopposed, many of the Bogomil nobles going over to the enemy. In eight days about eighty towns had surrendered. The King fled from Jajce to Kljuc, where he was pursued by Mohammed Pasha and besieged. On a promise that his life would be spared if he surrendered, he gave himself up, and was brought as a prisoner before the Sultan at Jajce, which had also opened its gates to him on the understanding that its inhabitants should be unmolested. The craven King helped to make the conquest all the easier by authorising his governors and officers to surrender (June 1463). The Sultan now wished to complete his conquests by annexing the Herzegovina. Stephen Kosaca at first meditated flight to Ragusa, but then determined to hold out for a time, and sent his son, Vladislav, to levy troops on the coast. The Turkish advance through the bare and rocky Karst mountains of the Duchy proved more difficult than was anticipated. Mohammed besieged Blagaj, the Duke’s residence, in vain, captured Kljuc (not the Bosnian town of that name) and Ljubuski, but soon lost them again.1 A few weeks later he abandoned the scheme and returned to Constantinople. The Bosnian kingdom had collapsed entirely; 100,000 prisoners had been taken, and 30,000 youths enrolled in the corps of Janissaries. The Sultan was in doubt as to what to do
1 Racki, ibid.