Heg. 824.

poftor's ar

difperfed,

and con

Adriano

fultan

has him

put to

death.

As foon as fortune had declared for the legi- J.C.1421. timate prince, he no longer met with refiftance. The fugitive Muftapha had entered Adrianople The imto collect all that he could carry away of his my being treasures; he was no longer there when Amurath he is tak took poffeffion of the place; but these fame ducted to treasures, which were his last resource, ferved to ple, where discover his footsteps. He fhewed as little judg- the fla ment in fecreting himself, as he had courage in the field; fome fpies, who knew him by the magnificence with which he rewarded hofpitality, followed him. They surprised him in Walachia, where he was endeavouring to raise some troops, and to ftir up his remaining partifans. Amurath had offered a fum, to any one that fhould bring him Mustapha alive. The wretched being was conducted to Adrianople, loaded with chains, where the people, who had believed him their mafter, no longer regarded him but as an impoftor. The emperor expofed him to the infults of the foldiery, and the indignation of the populace, after which he was hanged on a gibbet in the grand fquare at Adrianople.

Heg. 825.

felf at the

Amurath had remained at peace with Manuel J.C. 1422all the time that he was engaged in the reduction Amurath of the pretended Muftapha; but he never for- puts himgot, that it was the Greek emperor who had head of an raised him up this rival. The fultan retained at gaint Ma his court the ambaffadors that Manuel had fent to felicitate him on the death of the ufurper.

He

army a

nuel.

1

J.C. 1422, He was unwilling to have thefe Greeks render

to 14.24.

to 827.

Manuel

raifes up

against

Death of

emperor.

Heg. 825, too early an account to their master of the preparations which he was making against him; but, as foon as they were finished, the fultan ordered them to go and tell Manuel, that he fhould fee him himself foon after them. Amurath kept his word in the beginning of the fpring, he marched with a hundred and fifty thousand men to ravage Theffaly, Macedonia, and Thrace. Ducas afferts even that the intention of the fultan was to befiege Conftantinople. Manuel, who had nothing near fo many troops a new rival to oppofe him with, had recourse to his ordinary Amurath. arms, fraud and artifice. He incited by letter one the Greek Helias, governor of the fultan's brothers, to place on the throne the eldest of thefe princes, who was as yet but a child, and to reign in his Perilous and deftitute of every pretext as was this proceeding, Helias found accomplices with the Greek money. He conducted to Nice the young Muftapha (for that was likewife the name of this prince). The fecond Mustapha was inconteftably of the Ottoman race; but his right to the throne notwithstanding was equally illegal. Be that as it may, the news of an infurrection at Nice, put a stop to Amurath's defolating the provinces of his enemy. This was all that Manuel had aimed at. In this interval, J.C.1424. the Greek prince died at Conftantinople in the Heg. 827.

name.

feventy

The

to 1429.

to 832.

has his two

ftrangled.

feventy-feventh year of his age, leaving to John J.C. 1424, Paleologus, to whom he had already given a Heg. 827, fhare in the crown, the broken remains of the Greek empire, and his hatred of the Muffulmen. Amurath only fhewed himself in Afia. No Amurath regular troops had taken part with the rebels, brothers but folely a few freebooters, drawn by the love of pillage, had affembled about Nice. The fultan's approach foon difperfed them. emperor's name alone was fufficient to procure the opening of the gates of a town, which had fo recently acknowledged an ufurper. The principal confpirators were fo troubled, at the small refiftance of their accomplices, that they had not time to look to their own fafety. Helias, all the guards, and all the followers of Muftapha, were unmercifully put to death. The pretended emperor and his brother, though yet too young to be really culpable, (for the eldeft was but nine years old,) were ftrangled in Amurath's prefence, who fent their bodies to Burfa, to be interred in the royal fepulchre. Thefe executions of the younger Ottoman princes, became afterward very frequent.

reduces

This Amurat who, three pro

Amurath had yet one traitor to punish. fame Sineis, ever a perjurer or rebel, after having raised from the dirt the pretended Muftapha, had fince betrayed him for the government of Smyrna and Ephefus, from which he had been first turned out, began to be defirous N

of

vinces.

J.C. 1424, of fhaking off the conditions on which he had

to 1429.

Heg. 827, made his peace; he refused, or at least neglected,

to 832.

to fend to Adrianople the impofts of his pro-
vince. The fultan eagerly feized the opportunity
of chastifing this fcoundrel, and of re-entering a
fine province; he fent against him Kalil, the bro-,
ther-in-law and friend of the vizier Bajazet, whom
Sineis had caused to be cruelly maffacred in the
tent of the pretended Mustapha. Kalil, inspired by
his hatred, marched at the head of fifty thousand
men.
The rebel was defeated, and obliged to
flee with a few followers. It was in vain that
he fought allies among the tributary fovereigns,
whom he fuppofed animated like himself with
a defire of fhaking off the yoke. Several would
have been happy to execute it; but not one
durft put confidence in Sineis. He, who had
feveral times made his mafter tremble at the
head of an army, was taken like a malefactor,
after having wandered a long time, and punished
as he merited. Amurath re-united two pro-
vinces befides this to his empire, without much
bloodshed: that of Sipha or Sinope, (a part of
Natolia,) and Ipfala in Europe. The fovereign
of the firft had excufed himself from paying
the tribute; Ierman, who poffeffed the latter in
Romania, chose rather to declare himself at once
a real fubject, than appear to enjoy fome fove-
reign rights, dependant on the caprice of a
prince always ready to crush him. The emperor

loaded

to 1429,

to 832.

loaded Ierman with prefents, and made him J.C.1424. fangiac of Ipfala. The new governor confidered Heg. 827, his fortune and life fecure whilft he ferved a mafter of whom it was too dangerous to be either the neighbour or the enemy.

emperor

peace with

but Thef

which he

as one of

and the condi

and

tions of the

treaty, foprotection

licits the

of the Venetians.

Amurath did not forget his hatred against the TheGreek Greeks. As foon as he had arranged his Afiatic concludes a affairs, he repaffed the ftraits, and turned his the fultan; arms against the Morea and all the maritime falonica, places towards the mouth of the Strymon in had ceded Macedonia. He took Dercos, Settunion, Mefembria, always taking care to ravage impoverish the country. John Paleologus ear neftly fought peace: in order to obtain it, he confented to abandon all the towns that the Turkish emperor had taken, even Theffalonica, which had not yet furrendered, to erase the wall of fix miles long, built along the isthmus of Corinth in order to fhelter the Morea from the incurfions of the Turks; (it was called Hexamilium, as well as the town at its foot;) and to pay befides an annual tribute of three hundred thousand afpers. These conditions were fufficiently advantageous to content Amurath; but when the fultan thought the peace fettled, John Paleologus pretended, that he had no right to give up Theffalonica, as he had agreed to. During the negociation between the two emperors, the Theffalonians, through fear of becoming flaves, had made an attempt upon the liberty

N 2