Part 40

In a similar way to that in which he addressed Meseli he also wrote to Yúsuf Páshá, who had been ketkhodá to Oveis Páshá of Aydin, Sarúkhán, and Mantesha. This Yúsuf Páshá was at the head of a body of rebels which amounted to four thousand armed men, beside some cavalry. The letter which Murád Páshá sent to this rebel-chief was couched in these terms: “My son, I have heard of some of your virtues and high talents, which I esteem very much. Although you have such a considerable number of men under you, yet no rumour of any injustice practised by you is any where heard. The reverse of injustice in you must be the case. Still, however innocent though you appear to be, you are considered a rebel; free yourself, then, if you are a man, from the odious imputation. You are a person every way fit for taking part in the war against the Persians: it may even be proper to give you the command of troops for this purpose. If you show that you have regretted your former conduct, you may depend on obtaining the emperor’s favour. Those men who have rebelled against the benign Ottoman government have met with no pity. Jánbulát Oghlí, Kalander Oghlí, and Karah Seyed, were the most conspicuous of rebels; but what is become of them? Attend to my counsel, and be my son here and hereafter (_i.e._ in both worlds). In order to persuade you to do so, I swear, in the most solemn manner, that you shall suffer no injury whatever from our most gracious monarch. I, an old, frail man, am ordered to march against the Persians, and I ask you to accompany me. You may, perhaps, chance to acquire great wealth, and at all events you will be put in possession of Magnesia: you will thus have an opportunity of acquitting yourself in the eye of the emperor, and securing his favour. If, in rejecting the counsel I have now tendered to you, you decline going to the Persian war, then I am free of the oath I have made to you. I need not say any thing more to you. You are safe if you come to Scutari. There you can remain a few days and look about you, when afterwards you shall have the honour, along with me, of kissing the emperor’s hand. Come to what conclusion you think best, but remember what will be the result if you now neglect to follow my advice. Answer this letter at any rate.”

When this letter reached Yúsuf Páshá, he called his friends together and read the contents of it in their hearing. “Why,” said his rebel-associates, “whoever may be so foolish as to give credit to the vain and deceitful words of this letter, will find, to his experience, that he will have to part with his precious life. It is altogether preposterous to put any faith in that old man’s oath. In answer to the question, ‘whether we shall be able to stand our own ground, should he, when he finds us obstinate, come against us?’ we would shortly say, ‘Anatolia is a wide country, and we have no necessity to meet him; let us go to some distance out of his way. The winter will soon arrive, and he and his army will then be obliged to retire into winter-quarters, when we may rest in safety.’” Others replied, “That a decree affecting their life might, in the event of proving obstinate, be issued against them, when the whole country would rise up to be revenged on them. Better,” said they, “that we agree to follow the advice given in the letter from the commanding-general, and return to our obedience. Let us, however, use every precaution: he cannot kill us before our time come. What a terrible rebel was Zulfekár once, and he did not kill him! He called him his son. Turkijeh Bilmaz Hasan and others after the days of Karah Yazijí (Scrivano) were not trampled under foot and murdered. Was not Tekelí Mohammed Páshá a notorious rebel? and when he fell into his hands he did not murder him.” Such was the way these wise men reasoned among themselves, and at last agreed to send the following answer: “You have invited us to come to you, and we are no way disposed to resist your will. Your oath has inspired us with confidence, and as soon as your excellency arrives at Scutari we shall show you our sincerity.” This answer was sent with the person who had brought Murád Páshá’s communication to Yúsuf Páshá, as before mentioned.

We must now return to Murád’s own operations. After having transported his troops and baggage to the Asiatic side, he took up his lodgings in his own pavilion, which had been previously erected for him. The emperor himself also visited the city of Scutari, and took up his residence in the gardens of that city, whither his council was summoned to attend. His vezír (Murád) told him it was not the custom of his illustrious progenitors to do so: that Istámbol was the place where a council should properly be held. “Gúrjí Mohammed Páshá,” continued his vezír, “is káímakám, let him attend to the affairs of the faithful. As soon as the lord high treasurer, Ahmed Páshá, settles the pecuniary affairs of his department let him come over, when I shall hand in to your majesty a report how matters stand.” This advice of the vezír pleased his majesty, at least it appeared to do so, for he did not urge the meeting of his council any more. Not long afterwards, however, the emperor wrote to Murád to hasten his departure for the Persian war, and to delay no longer. Murád Páshá, on receiving this imperial notice, waited on his majesty, and said, he had something particular to say to him. They both retired into a private apartment, when the grand vezír addressed him thus, premising, however, that what he had to say to him must be kept a secret, which the other faithfully promised to observe. “Be it known, therefore, to your majesty,” said the premier, “that though we have been ostensibly engaged in preparing for the Persian war, it has been, in fact, for a different object that we have been so engaged. The notorious rebel, Meseli Chávush, is in possession of six or seven fortresses or places of strength in the mountainous part of Anatolia. It would not be safe to send an army into the mountains after him, because by hurling down stones he might destroy numbers of our orthodox believers”—here he related the steps he had taken in writing to Meseli. The asylum of the world appeared surprised, and asked him if he was capable of murdering a person who, in the faith of his promises, put himself in his power? His excellency, the grand vezír, replied: “If, in obedience to your orders, we march against Persia, how will you act with the rebel-chief of Aydin and Sarúkhán, Yúsuf Páshá?” “By God,” said his majesty, “you have remarked well; that rebel had totally escaped my memory; his case has not been attended to.” The grand vezír then informed him of the steps he had pursued with regard to him, and of the result, which we need not again repeat, and added: “if these two notorious rebels are once in our power, the whole of the province of Anatolia will not only be regained, but peace and tranquillity will also be restored. Let your majesty keep what I have been saying to you a perfect secret: let nothing of it transpire.” His majesty ejaculated a short prayer, wished him God-speed, and dismissed him.

_Yúsuf Páshá arrives at Scutari._

About a month after the grand vezír had the above interview with the emperor, Yúsuf Páshá’s followers arrived at Scutari, and he himself in three days after them, when he ordered them to erect their tents. The grand vezír showed him every mark of esteem and friendship, and permitted him, when he appeared in his presence, to be seated at his side. “Be my son,” said the vezír, “here and hereafter,” presented him with a double suit of robes, and ordered robes to be given to a hundred of his men. A few days afterwards he presented him to his majesty, to whom Yúsuf had brought some very important and valuable presents; and on this occasion he was honoured with another robe from his sovereign.

About this time, the grand vezír, Murád Páshá, received an answer to his communication to Zulfekár, which informed him that Meseli Chávush had arrived. The vezír wrote back to assure him that he would not fail in his promises, and urged him to do the work assigned him. Another month passed away, and Yúsuf Páshá became impatient to be employed against the Persians, for whose wealth and property he thirsted. The grand vezír, however, found means to put him off from day to day, for Meseli was not yet disposed of, and on this, in a great measure, his own fate depended.

In the mean time, in consequence of some representation made to the emperor from some quarter or other, Murád Páshá was again ordered to set out on his march to the frontiers of Persia, and that too without delay, unless he wished another to supersede him in the chief command. This order was peremptory; within the space of three days he must be on his march. The grand vezír, on receiving this intimation, again waited on his majesty and said to him, “Sire, your slave explained to your majesty how matters stood, the last time I had the honour of speaking with you: it certainly must have escaped your blessed memory.” “No, by no means,” answered his majesty, “I have perfect recollection of it; nor have I intimated a syllable of it to any one.” “Why,” replied the vezír, “if you approved of what I at that time proposed to your majesty, wherefore is it that you have ordered me to march? We have Yúsuf Páshá in our power. If we despatch him just now, Mesli Chávush will, when he hears of it, make his escape from Zulfekár, and become more formidable than ever: it will be no easy matter to get hold of him again. As soon as we set out for the Persian campaign, he will come and attack Scutari. Pay no regard, sire, to the speeches of your cazís, for they are unacquainted with the state of matters; they will be brought to understand things better afterwards. Leave me to act as I think proper.” The emperor was again overcome by the reasoning of his vezír, and left him to do as he thought best, and dismissed him.

_Mesli Chávush and Yúsuf Páshá are murdered._

Mesli Chávush, who had joined Zulfekár, lived with the latter on terms of apparent intimacy and friendship, but which, on the part of Zulfekár, could not have been sincere, whatever he might have manifested to the contrary. His apparent friendship had the effect he wished, and that was to disarm Mesli of all fear and suspicion as to his own safety.

One day he proposed that both should pay a visit in company to the country or sanják which had been promised to Mesli, to which Mesli agreed. On this journey they spent a month: they went from Iconium to Larenda, and visited the fortresses of Mút, Mirah, Kúnis, and Tumrak, each of which was so impregnably situated among rocks, that an Osmánlí army would have found it next to impossible to reduce it. Such were the places which Mesli commanded, and which had rendered him formidable to the Osmánlí government.

After an excursion of one and twenty days of pleasure they returned to Iconium, whence, in a day or two afterwards, they went to Miram, having taken their respective followers and equipages along with them. Here also they went about together in the greatest apparent friendship, visited together the different spectacles which were to be seen there, and went together to the different places of amusement. Zulfekár was seeking all this while a fit opportunity for accomplishing Murád Páshá’s wishes, and it was not long before such an opportunity offered itself. Mesli was sitting one day with a turban or tiara on his head, and like a prince was enjoying his pleasures, without fear or suspicion of any thing, when some of the men of his ostensible friend, who had been previously instructed how to act, fell upon him and despatched him. One of these came secretly behind him, and secured his head in a sort of noose with one hand, and with the other stabbed him with his dagger. The rest of the assassins, when they saw the struggle which ensued, came hastily forward, and after strangling him, cut off his head. Whatever valuables were found in his possession were seized by Murád’s lieutenant, for the purpose of being afterwards confiscated. Zulfekár Páshá and the defterdár of Caramania, Yúnus Effendí, went to take an account of the property he possessed in the fortresses which he had taken; and his head, under the charge of ten men, was sent off to Scutari, to Murád Páshá. The men who had the charge of Mesli’s head reached the place of their destination in five days, and communicated secretly to the grand vezír the purport of their visit to Scutari. He immediately waited on the emperor and communicated to him the news of the fate of Mesli; and added, that the head of the rebel Yúsuf Páshá would not be much longer on his shoulders. We ought to have mentioned, however, that the head of Mesli was, after having been fixed on the point of a spear and carried publicly through the camp, placed before the grand vezír’s tent. When the grand vezír announced to his majesty, that the head of a formidable enemy had been brought into the camp, and as we have already observed, that the head of Yúsuf Páshá would not remain long on his shoulders, he started up from his sofa in surprise, and said “May God, my dear father, reward you for your many services to me,” and desired him to do as he thought fit.

On the following morning he sent a messenger to invite Yúsuf Páshá to come and take a cup of coffee with him. The messenger, whilst on his way, met Yúsuf Páshá, and delivering to him the invitation, conducted him to the vezír’s tent. On going into the tent his excellency addressed him in the most gracious and flattering terms, calling him his son, and so forth. “How could I drink my coffee without you, my son: you know how much I esteem you; come, let us retire to the back part of the tent, where we shall not be disturbed, and where we shall be at liberty to converse with more freedom. God willing, you shall have permission tomorrow to march against the Kizilbáshes.” After sitting down, and just as one of the domestics was handing Yúsuf a cup of coffee, and before he had time to lay hold of it, an officer announced to his lordship, Murád Páshá, that Hasan Beg, beg of Avlonia, had arrived. His lordship affected surprise, and said, it was a hard case to be so much oppressed with business as to have no time to enjoy himself for a few moments. “But there is no help for it,” said he; “I must step out for a little, but do you, sir,” (addressing Yúsuf Páshá) “make yourself comfortable.” The grand vezír no sooner went out of the tent, than he desired three or four of his officers to enter the tent and take a dish of coffee with his son Yúsuf Páshá. These men accomplished the vezír’s wishes. As the unfortunate Yúsuf Páshá was in the act of receiving a cup of coffee into his hand, he was tripped up by one of these assassins, when the rest, pouncing upon him, cut off his head, and placed it on a table. On the vezír’s re-entering, he ordered his body to be thrown out, and sent word to the defterdár to seize on the whole of his property. When some of the soldiery heard of the fate of Yúsuf Páshá, they ran into his tent and seized on all the spoil they could find in it. Yúsuf Páshá’s deputy and some of his principal followers were also put to death, and the rest of his associates fled.

After these things, the grand vezír waited on his majesty and informed him of what had taken place. “Let this suffice,” said the vezír; “we need now proceed no farther. Even here, at Scutari, your majesty has been avenged on two of your most formidable enemies, to each of whom great forbearance has been shown. The province of Anatolia will now enjoy peace and quietness, and now the war with Persia may again be renewed.” The emperor bestowed great praise on his vezír: the whole of the property that belonged to Yúsuf Páshá’s followers, who had been put to death, was ordered to be confiscated; the beasts of burden, and several packages of valuable articles which had belonged to his lieutenant, or which were in his possession, were all sent over to the tulip-garden in Constantinople. The whole of the articles which had belonged to the rebels were afterwards sold, and the price of them put into the imperial coffers. The head of Mesli and the body of Yúsuf Páshá remained exposed for two days in the Maidán. The sanják which had been promised to Mesli was conferred on Mohammed Beg, son of Zulfekár.

_Treachery in some of the grand vezír’s domestics discovered._

The grand vezír, Murád Páshá, had also premeditated the death of the lord high treasurer, Ahmed Páshá, usually called Etmekjí Zádeh, and, with this view, asked the emperor’s consent to assassinate him. The emperor, though very reluctantly, yielded to the wish of his vezír, who immediately gave directions to his domestics and officers how to act in this matter when Ahmed Páshá, who was then expected from Constantinople, should arrive. He placed a sentinel on the shore, who, so soon as he saw Ahmed Páshá arrive, was to give him notice: the executioners put themselves in readiness. It was not long before the sentinel above-mentioned announced the approach of Ahmed Páshá; and informed Murád, that at the moment he was stepping on shore, a young man came sailing up to him in a boat, and put a sealed note into his hand. Ahmed Páshá no sooner read the contents of this note, the sentinel said, than he immediately sailed back for Constantinople. This information necessarily awakened surprise and doubt in the mind of the grand vezír, who secretly set about employing persons to find out the boatman who had been commissioned to convey the bearer of the note. The boatman, on his discovery, related to the grand vezír all the particulars as to the manner in which he had been hired, and the trouble he had endured before he met with Ahmed Páshá at the pier. The vezír asked him if he thought he should be able to recognize the young man who had delivered the note to Ahmed Páshá, and whose dress he had already described. He replied in the affirmative: stating, that he, the young man, on delivering the note, had gone directly towards the camp. The vezír immediately caused the boatman to change his clothes, and despatched him, with some of his officers, to the camp, to commence the search. The whole camp, from tent to tent, was minutely examined for several days without success, when a mere accident discovered the delinquent. Two of the vezír’s domestics had fallen into a violent dispute, in which they mutually accused each other of treachery to their master. The treasurer, Hasan Aghá, overheard them, and resolved to chastise them; when one of them whispered something into his ear. This induced the treasurer to conduct him into the presence of the vezír, when he confessed that he and four others of his fellow-domestics had been in the practice of receiving daily a pecuniary remuneration from Ahmed Páshá for giving him information of every thing they knew relative to their master’s administration or conduct. The boatman was again called and confronted with this person, and immediately recognized him as being the very man who had given the note to Ahmed Páshá. His four accomplices were instantly executed, but he himself was not only pardoned, but rewarded with a spahilik and a handsome sum of money, for having disclosed the fact. He was, however, dismissed the vezír’s service.

_The arrival of Yúsuf Páshá’s and Mesli Chávush’s wealth.—A display of ill will and malevolence._

The persons who had been sent to take possession of the property of Yúsuf Páshá and Mesli returned, two hundred camel-loads of property which had belonged to these two men having been regularly registered and taken possession of. The emperor, on hearing of this, remarked to Murád Páshá, the grand vezír, how successful they had been; not only in vanquishing the two potent enemies above alluded to, but in being also able to replace, in a great measure, the funds which had been expended in fitting out the expedition, by the spoil which had fallen into their hands. But the grand vezír, notwithstanding all he had done, had still many enemies. Mustafa Aghá, ághá of the palace; the lord high treasurer, Ahmed Páshá, or Etmekjí Zádeh; and Mustafa Páshá, who had formerly been governor of Constantinople, took every opportunity they could to injure him. They talked amongst themselves, and in the presence of others, that Murád Páshá was entirely averse to his being employed against the Persians. “He is an old frail man,” they said (sneeringly), “and the emperor will not force him.” A hint of this conversation was communicated to his majesty by Muftí Mohammed Effendí. The emperor was displeased at the liberty they had taken with his vezír, and said, “He was a warrior, a most worthy hájí, and a most active and useful vezír: he restored all Anatolia to peace and tranquillity: he overcame and defeated the rebels, and delivered the country of the two formidable rebel-chiefs mentioned at the head of this section: he performed and achieved great deeds; and nothing but envy,” continued his majesty, “could have induced them so to speak of him. That he was by no means pleased with the liberty they had taken, and that the vezír might either go or stay, as he himself saw fit.” This strong expression of his majesty’s disposition silenced, for the time at least, the vezír’s enemies.

After a stay of four complete months at Scutari, the troops returned to Constantinople just about the time of the full moon of the following or fifth month, and seven days before the commencement of autumn, or the time for entering into winter-quarters. Preparations for commencing hostilities against Persia in the following spring were immediately begun and attended to during the interval.

_Concerning the naval operations of the lord high admiral, Khalíl Páshá.—Karah Jehennem taken._

When Kapúdán (or lord high admiral of the Turkish fleet) Khalíl Páshá sailed this year for the Mediterranean, and after he had cruised round the largest cape or promontory of Silivria, the second station from the metropolis, an Algerine vessel, commanded by a Genoese, met a Spanish pinnace, which had on board the son of the infidel viceroy of Sicily, a relative of the king of Spain, and about five hundred soldiers. This pinnace was destined to convey the young man to see his high relative, the king of Spain, and to carry certain valuable presents to the same. The soldiers, of course, were sent as a guard to both. When this pinnace met with the Algerine vessel, a most desperate battle ensued, which terminated in the capture of the former. Every living infidel found in this vessel, and the whole of the presents before mentioned, were according to custom distributed amongst the conquerors. The youth referred to was carried and delivered as a present to his majesty the Ottoman emperor. The person who had brought him to the admiral of the Turkish fleet received handsome rewards for having done so; and the young slave, after he was carried to Constantinople, and actually presented before the emperor, was instructed in the Moslem religion, which he readily embraced, and was placed in a special chamber of the palace.