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!

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