Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/311

Rh Rhodes. A sense of relief pervaded every bosom. Now that their potent and implacable enemy was no more, they felt that the crisis of their danger had passed away. From that moment, therefore, they prosecuted their labours of restoration with an energy much stimulated by the auspicious occurrence. Public thanksgivings were offered up in the conventual church for the death of the most formidable foe against whom the Order of St. John had ever been called on to combat. It was on that occasion recorded, with feelings of very natural exultation, that in spite of all his power and all his efforts this conqueror of so many provinces had never, during the whole course of his reign, succeeded in wresting one single island or even fort from the possession of the Hospitallers.

Mahomet’s sudden death brought with it the result so common in newly-organized empires, a disputed succession. He had originally been the father of three Sons, Mustapha, Bajazet, and Djem, Zaim, or Zisim, for by all three of these names has the youngest been called. His eldest son, Mustapha, had been strangled for having violated the wife of his favourite minister, Achmet pasha, thus leaving Bajazet and Diem to dispute the empire between them. Bajazet, the elder of the two, had been born prior to his father’s elevation to the imperial dignity. He was of quiet and sedate demeanour, mild in character, and gentle in disposition. For him the excitement of the camp and the tumult of war had no charms. Although sufficiently ambitious to be desirous of ascending his father’s throne, which he justly considered his birthright, his was not the mind to have contemplated any further extension of empire. Djem, on the contrary, young, ardent and ambitious, bred in a camp and delighting in war, sought to usurp his father’s sceptre, more that he might make it the instrument for further conquests than for the quiet enjoyment of its actual dignities. Although a Mahometan he was by no means bigoted, and having during his youth been thrown in contact with the knights of Rhodes whilst arranging a truce on behalf of his father, he had conceived a warm admiration for the fraternity, and more especially for its Grand-Master, D’Aubusson. As he was born after Mahomet’s assumption of the imperial