Selim the Sot died not long after the recovery of Tunis; and the manner of his death befitted the manner of his life. He had drunk off a bottle of Cyprus wine at a draught, and on entering the bath-room with the fumes of his favourite beverage in his head, he slipped and fell on the marble floor, receiving an injury of the skull which brought on a fatal fever (1574). He showed once a spark of the true Othman, by the zeal with which he aided his officers in restoring the Turkish navy after Lepanto. He then contributed gave up part of the

his private treasures liberally, and pleasure-gardens of the Serail for the site of the new docks. Except this brief flash of patriotism or pride, his whole career, both as Prince and Sultan, is unrelieved by a single merit; and it is blackened by mean treachery, by gross injustice and cruelty, and by grovelling servitude to the coarsest appetites of our

nature.

CHAPTER XII.

AMURATH III-RAPID DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE-CONQUESTS FROM PERSIA-PROGRESS OF CORRUPTION AND MILITARY INSUBORDINATION-WAR WITH AUSTRIA-MAHOMET III. -BATTLE OF CERESTES-ACHMET I-PEACE OF SITVATOROK -UNSUCCESSFUL WARS WITH PERSIA-REVOLTS-MUSTAPHA I. DEPOSED-OTHMAN I.-VIOLENCE OF THE TROOPSOTHMAN MURDERED MUSTAPHA RESTORED AND AGAIN DEPOSED-WRETCHED STATE OF THE EMPIRE.*

-

THERE is an Eastern Legend, that when the great King and Prophet Solomon died, he was sitting on his lion-throne, clad in the royal robes, and with all the insignia of dominion round him. The lifeless form remained in the monarch's usual attitude; and the races of men and beasts, of genii and demons, who watched at respectful distance, knew not of the change, but long with accustomed awe, paid homage, and made obeisance before the form that sat upon the throne; until the staff on which Solomon had leaned, holding it in both hands towards the mouth, and on which the body had continued propped, was gnawed by worms and gave way, letting the corpse fall to the ground. Then and not till then the truth was known; and the world was filled with sorrow and alarm.

This fable well images the manner in which the

* Von Hammer, books 37-39.

empire of Sultan Solyman remained propped on the staff of the Vizierate, and retained its majesty after his death and during the reign of Selim, so long as the power of Solyman's Grand Vizier Sokolli remained unimpaired. When Sokolli's authority was weakened and broken by the corrupt influence of favourites and women at the court of Selim's successor Amurath III., the shock of falling empire was felt throughout the Ottoman world; spreading from the court to the capital, from capital to the provinces, and at last becoming sensible even to foreign powers.

*

Amurath III. was summoned at the age of twentyeight from his government at Magnesia to succeed his father at Constantinople. He arrived at the capital on the night of the 21st of December, 1574, and his first act was to order the execution of his five brothers. In the morning the high officers of state were assembled to greet their master, and the first words of the new Sultan were anxiously watched for, as ominous of the coming events of his reign. Amurath, who had retired to rest fatigued with his voyage, and literally fasting from all but sin, turned to the Aga of the Eunuchs and said, "I am hungry; bring me something to eat." These words were considered to be prophetic of scarcity during his reign; and the actual occurrence of a famine at Constantinople in the following year did much to confirm the popular superstition.

Sokolli retained the Grand Vizierate until his death, in 1578, but the effeminate heart of Amurath was ruled by courtiers who amused his listless melancholy; and

* Von Hammer, vol. ii. p. 439.

by four women, one of whom was his mother, the dowager Sultana, or (as the Turks term her) the Sultana Validé, Nour Banou: the next was Amurath's first favourite Sultana, a Venetian lady of the noble house of Baffo, who had been captured by a Turkish corsair in her early years. The fair Venetian so enchanted Amurath, that he was long strictly constant to her, slighting the other varied attractions of his harem, and neglecting the polygamous privileges of his creed. The Sultana Validé, alarmed at the ascendancy which the Sultana Safiye (as the Venetian lady was termed) was acquiring over Amurath, succeeded in placing such temptation in her son's way, as induced him no longer to make his Venetian love his only love; and he thenceforth rushed into the opposite extreme of licentious indulgence even for a Mahometan prince. Such was the demand created for the supply of the imperial harem, that it is said to have raised the price of beautiful girls in the slave-market of Constantinople. One of this multitude of favoured fair, a Hungarian by birth, obtained considerable influence over her lord; but his first love, Safiye, though no longer able to monopolise Amurath's affections, never lost her hold on them; and it was her will that chiefly directed the Ottoman fleets and armies during his reign; fortunately for her native country Venice, which she prevented Turkey from attacking, even under circumstances of great provocation, caused by the outrages and insolence of some of the cruisers of the Republic of St. Mark. The fourth lady who had sway in Amurath's councils, did not owe it to her own charms, but to the adroitness with which

she placed before him the charms of others. This was Djanfeda, who was Kiaya (or grand mistress) of the harem. These were the chief ladies who interposed and debated on all questions how the power bequeathed by the great Solyman should be wielded, and with whom the House of Othman should have peace or war.

Generals and admirals trained in the camps and fleets of Solyman still survived; and the hostilities in which the Turkish empire was involved during the reign of Amurath III., were marked by more than one victory, and were productive of several valuable acquisitions of territory. War between Turkey and Persia broke out again soon after Amurath's accession, and was continued for several years. The death of the Shah Tahmasp, and the tyranny and misgovernment of his successors, had thrown Persia into a state of anarchy and weakness, which greatly favoured the progress of the Ottoman arms; though the fortune of the war was often chequered, and the losses of the Turks by the sword, and by fatigue and privation were numerous aud severe. In this war the Turkish armies attacked and conquered Georgia, which had been in alliance with Persia, and they penetrated as far as Daghestan and the shores of the Caspian sea. The Turkish troops from the Crimea and their Tartar auxiliaries took an important part in those campaigns in the regions of the Caucasus. The Bey of Azoph was, in 1578, rewarded for the alacrity with which he had led the vanguard of an army round the north of the Euxine, with the sounding title of Kapitan Pacha of the Caspian sea.