1.C.1482. all others, know how to carefs their fubjects Heg. 887. when it is neceffary. Bajazet, who was but an indifferent warrior, forgot nothing to attach to him this vizier, whofe talents he ftood fo much in need of. They marched together againft Zizim and Caraman, and had no difficulty to difperfe an army fo much weaker and fo inferior in difcipline. After a great flaughter, which happened at the foot of mount Taurus, the two vanquished princes feparated from each other, the better to hide their flight. Acomat enThe Turks deavoured to pen them up in the defilés; he army of divided his foldiers into parties, in order to try & Zizim to surprise Caraman, and particularly Zizim. to flight. Bajazet, tired of a war which fatigued his effeminacy, offered his brother a province in foveprovince, reignty, with a confiderable penfion. "I will which his « have an empire, and not money," replied put the Caraman Zizim re.. fufes a brother of and when by his mis fers him; Zizim haughtily. However, no one endeavoured overcome to reftore him this empire which he fancied befortunes, longed to him. The foudan of Egypt he no ling to ac- longer relied upon; and as to Caraman, his ally, the empe- he had loft the little which remained of his he is wil cept of it, ror, in his fes to grant it. turn, refu- eftates, and faw himself reduced, like the prince whom he had protected, to hide from the search of the Turks. The deepest caves were the lurking holes of these two fugitives, of him especially, who aimed at becoming one of the moft powerful potentates in the world. Some trembling fervants, who could not refolve to aban Heg. 887. don Zizim, composed at the fame time his court, J.C. 1482. his guard, and his army. In this extremity he refolved on asking in his turn for the province and penfion which Bajazet had offered him; but that which the fultan would have granted voluntarily to his rival at the head of a party, he unmercifully refused to an unfortunate prince, without friends, without money, and without troops. Zizim's only remaining refource was in the knights of Rhodes. prived of fource,afks the knights He difpatched one of his moft zealous con- Zizim, defidents to the grand master Aubuffon, to request every reof him an afylum. This man was arrested by a retreat of the emiffaries of the Turkish emperor, as he was of Rhodes. going to embark. Bajazet II. having feen, by the letters of his brother, that he thought of retiring among the Christians, had the coast more ftrictly guarded, and the most secret retreats fearched. Zizim foon learned the fate of his envoy; he dispatched two others at different times and by different ways, in hopes that one of them at least might efcape the fearch, and bring him back the teftimonies of protection which he expected. Both were more fortunate than the first had been; they remitted their dispatches to the grand mafter and council affembled. These generous knights faw, with pleasure, a Mahometan prince folicit fuccours of them, against his brother and country; they promised themfelves great things from this divifion in the Cc Ottoman Heg. 887. J.C. 1482. Ottoman family, and, without lofs of time, equipped a fleet to go in search of Zizim in the place which he had pointed out to them. This prince was gotten near the fea; the parties, spread along the coast and over the country, made him anxiously wish for an answer from the knights of Rhodes, and the efcort which he had folicited of them. At laft he was difcovered by a troop of cavalry, and pursued so closely, that he had only time to get into a fifhing-bark, and push off, before the arrival of the party from which he had fled. When Zizim had quitted the fhore, he faftened a letter to an arrow, which he threw at the foldiers, greatly disappointed at having miffed this important prey. Inftead of the prifoner, whom they flattered themselves with delivering to Bajazet, they carried him the following letter. Zizim, Emperor, to his moft cruel brother Bajazet. "I demanded of thee what was juft, and thou "hast paid me with inhumanity. I should have "at length bounded my defires to living peace"ably on the frontiers; but thy deteftable am"bition would not permit thy brother to remain "quiet in a fmall portion of fo great an empire. I am then obliged, in order to fave my life, СС to have recourfe to the Chriftian name, and "to the greatest enemies of our powerful house, "not through contempt for the religion of my Heg. 887. "my ancestors, but forced by thy cruelty; for J.C. 1482. my greatest defire would be, to ferve God "according to the ceremonies of our holy law. "It is true that I have no occasion to speak to "thee of God, or of our holy prophet; for thou " contemnest the law of both; and art deftitute "of all humanity. Our father laboured all his "life to raise the house of Ottoman, and thou << takest pleasure in destroying it. But the "divine juftice will avenge me one day of thy "wickedness, and permit, that, when thou fhalt "have reigned fome time by tyranny, the end "of thy empire fhall be more. fatal, than the "commencement of it has been fortunate. Be "affured, that what thou art now attempting against me and my pofterity, will be one day "made use of against thee and thy children." It is faid that Bajazet fhed tears, on reading these complaints; but, nothwithstanding that, he still pursued Zizim the fame. This prince made towards Rhodes, tormented with the greateft inquietude. His bark, unarmed, and almoft without fails, in faving him from the hands of the fpahis, expofed him to all the dangers of the fea. The smallest Turkish brigantine which he should have met with, could have delivered him to his brother. In this extremity he perceived a numerous fleet; his failors, ter- honorably rified, made vain efforts to bear off, but prefently the ifle of the fleet, fwelling its fails, diftinctly fhewed them Zizim is received in Rhodes. Heg. 887. J.C. 1482. the Rhodian flag. Some fignals informed the knights, that this miferable bark contained the prince whom they were feeking. Don Alvar de Zuniga, grand prior of Caftile, admiral of the fleet, immediately fent a boat to Zizim. It was filled with the principal knights. The prince came on board the admiral galley; he was received at Rhodes with all the honors due to fovereigns. The grand mafter Aubuffon neglected nothing that could foften the misfortunes with which he had been oppreffed. The Ottoman haughtiness was confounded with fo much refpect and generofity. Though Zizim ftiled himself emperor of the Turks, he refused to take place of the grand mafter of Rhodes, who obliged him to it; and as they made in his prefence a trial of the meat ferved up to him, more, without doubt, through parade than precaution, he faid to the knights around him: "I have placed my life in your hands, and I don't believe that any of you have an intention to take it from me. As "for the reft, I am under your protection, and "not your fovereign." Bajazet had no fooner learned that his brother was in the ifle of Rhodes, than he would fain know with what fort of intereft Zizim infpired these knights, whom he dreaded. After the emperor had reduced that part of Cilicia which as yet belonged to Caraman Ogli, and had taken from that prince the last remains of fovereignty left |