ee a man who he thought
could serve him--however low his station--than he clutched the unfortunate
subject and placed him in high and responsible position.

In vain did the wretched man protest his unfitness for such an honor.

The Grand Vizier was next in authority to the Sultan himself, and was
treated like a king. But a favorite form of curse was, "May you be Grand
Vizier to the Sultan!"

When great European Ambassadors were presented to the Sultan at
Constantinople, each one was taken separately, and, with a courtier
holding him by the arm on each side, he was led like a prisoner into the
great presence in awful silence.

There was the Sultan cross-legged on his divan, his turban and his robes
blazing with jewels. He did not deign to speak nor even to look at the
Ambassador, gazing away fixedly and with stony indifference as he was
presented.

One of the first acts of a new Sultan was to kill all of his brothers, if
he had any, or any one else who could possibly conspire to get his throne.

It was an effectual way of destroying conspiracies in the germ, as we do
disease, and was a custom much honored.

An amiable English historian describes one of the Sultans as being an
exalted character, pure, upright, and virtuous. He regrets that this
admirable man did blind his only son and have three brothers bowstringed
(strangled). But it was "the only blemish on his character"! Happy Turkey,
to have such an historian!

* * * * *

When "Suleyman the Magnificent" was Sultan in 1550, the Ottoman Empire had
reached its zenith. Its eastern frontier was in the heart of Asia, it held
Egypt and the Northern Coast of Africa, and its European frontier reached
that of Austria and Russia. It included, with the exception of Rome, every
city famous in biblical or classical history.

Europe was dismayed at this advancing and irresistible power.

But there is a moment in the history of empires when they reach a climax.
Then comes a decline,--a time when conquest ceases, and they are content
to defend what they already possess; and finally are glad if they be
permitted to exist at all!

Such a moment of climax arrived to the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth
century. The three centuries which have followed have been a gradual and
sure decline.

The growth of a New Power beyond the Black Sea,--of Russia,--and brilliant
combinations by leaders in Hungary, Poland, and Austria, arrested the
fatal adv