ン J.C. 1533. Charles V. on his fide, affembled at a great expence a combined army from all the circles of the empire, and came to take the command of it in the plains of Vienna, where Solyman had published that he meant to try his forces with those of his enemy. But these two haughty rivals menaced one another only at a great distance: The grand feignior's army appeared rather late on the confines of Hungary; it was stopped at the fiege of Guntz, where eight hundred Germans effectually withstood an army of more than a hundred thousand men. At length, after keeping the trenches open a month, despairing of taking this paltry town, he was obliged to leave it. He was not more fortunate at the fiege of Strigonia. Some authors pretend that the grand vizier Ibrahim, who longed to make war in Perfia, wanted to disguft his mafter with that of Hungary; and that he had' alfo been corrupted by Ferdinand's gold. Be that as it may, the Turks, after having loft fifteen thousand men before the place, feeing the winter coming on, and new intrenchments behind those which the cannon had beaten down, retreated towards Adrianople. Charles V. who had been waiting in the plains of Vienna, made no advantage of the retreat of the Turks: taken up with objects more interesting both for him and his pofterity, he repaffed into Italy, leaving his brother Ferdinand ten thousand Italians only, who mutinied foon after. The Germans, who Heg. 939. between kings of who followed the king of the Romans, had J.C.1533. likewife thefe new enemies to fight. The kingdom of Hungary, confumed by the pretenfions of these two kings, became the conqueft of neither: both being deprived of the fuccours of Agreement their protectors, were constrained to divide what the two neither could take by force. They agreed, that Hungary. both should retain the title of king of Hungary; that each fhould remain in poffeffion of what he occupied at the time of the treaty; and that, after the death of John Zapoli, the whole kingdom should belong to Ferdinand and his pofterity, except Tranfylvania, which fhould remain in full sovereignty to king John's eldest fon. Solyman and the emperor of the Weft acceded to the treaty. The Ottoman monarch feemed to re. nounce his intereft and policy; but we fhall foon see that he did not confider himself bound by the agreement which two Chriftians had made between themselves. During the Hungarian war, or rather whilft the two emperors were deliberating if they should march against each other, Doria, Charles V.'s admiral, took Coron from the Turks. This town was given up at the peace in order to get Solyman to accede to the treaty. In the beginning of the year 1534, a war J.C.1534, with Perfia was refolved on. Ibrahim was deter- Heg. 940. mined to divert the emperor from the wars of the Weft, gained, as it is faid, by the gold of the house of Austria, and retaining in the bottom of Heg. 940. Intrigues raglio. J.C. 1534 his heart an ancient refpect for the Chriftian religion, which he had once profeffed. He made a in the fe- pretext of fome hoftilities which the Perfian governors had committed on the confines of the empire. Though Solyman was always equally docile to the advice of his grand vizier, this powerful minister had enemies in the feraglio, and in the very heart of his master. The one was Zulema, the mother of the emperor, and the other Roxalana, the favorite fultanefs. These two women, jealous of the minister's credit, often made ufe of the rights of nature and love, in oppofition to the blind confidence which Solyman devoted to him. Though their difcourse at first made but little impreffion, it was more than could be expected that the fultan would confent to hear them. Roxalana had still greater intereft than Zulema to ruin Ibrahim, because this minifter fhewed an open attachment to Muftapha, the eldeft of the princes, whom Solyman had had by another woman. The favourite fultanefs was burning with defire of feeing one day one of her fons poffefs the throne of his father, to the prejudice of Muftapha his eldeft, whom the particularly hated because he was born of her mortal enemy. The mother of Mustapha, whom hiftory calls only the Circaffian, had been paffionately beloved by the emperor. This woman, imperious and jealous, perceiving that Roxalana attracted the eyes of Solyman, Heg. 940. Solyman, forbade the young flave, a Ruffian by J.C. 1534. birth, whom she thought fhe had a right to command, to dare appear again before the fultan. Roxalana, well knowing that the mafter's favor alone regulates rank in the haram, took no notice of her rival's orders. The Circaffian punished her by tearing her face in fuch a manner, that the Ruffian durft not appear again before the emperor. Solyman, aftonifhed at no longer feeing the young flave whom he already loved, inquired the cause of her abfence; he had no fooner difcovered it, than he fell into a violent rage, and having had the Circaffian punished in her turn, he confined her in the old feraglio, which, fince that time, is become the refidence of the difgraced fultaneffes, and, in general, of all the women who are no longer capable of pleafing the fultan. From this day, Roxalana poffeffed alone the heart of her master, and fhe conceived a violent hatred for the fon of the woman who had injured her. The Turks ris. The intrigues of the feraglio, which Ibrahim war with could not be ignorant of, induced him to exert Perfia. all his intereft to get his mafter away from Con- take Tauftantinople, and particularly to make use of his credit against the wishes of the fultaneffes, who were unceasingly repeating to the fultan, that the Perfian wars had always been fatal to the Ottomans. There was at the Porte an old Perfian fatrap, who had been obliged to leave Perfia in confequence Zz2 Heg. 940. J.C. 1534 confequence of fome mifdemeanor, and whose vindictive foul fought to carry the flames of war into his country. The vizier presented this man to Solyman; the Perfian exaggerated the facility of conquering this rich kingdom, and promised the monarch to fhew him how it might be easily effected. A magician, whom Ibrahim caused likewise to be liftened to, declared, from the rules of his art, that the expedition would be attended with the greateft fuccefs. The mufti faid, that it would be a meritorious work to fubjugate these corrupters of the Mahometan law, in order to punish them, or bring them back to the true belief. At length, Ibrahim made all, but the mother and the miftrefs of the emperor, fpeak to his wishes. The war was foon determined on. The fultan detached Calaman, the Perfian governor who had offered to fhew the way, at the head of thirty thousand men. This traitor, incited by his hatred, after having prepared the troops on the road that were to join Ibrahim who followed him, arrived before Tauris, which the governor prefently abandoned, not thinking himself fufficiently ftrong to refift an army which fear increased in his eyes. Ishmael was dead: the throne of Perfia was poffeffed by Tachmas his fon. This prince knew, that the deferts which furround Perfia are the most powerful fortifications against the invafion of the Turks. He ordered the few habitations that were there to be destroyed, and fent |