Page:Busbecq, Travels into Turkey (1744).pdf/177

 could not get Food, or the other Provender. When the rest of the Bashaws heard this Story, they laugh'd heartily, and from that Time held it fruitless to think of terrifying me with such frivolous Vexations as the shutting my Doors.

a while after that Chiaux was removed, and then we had more Liberty. Rustan himself was satisfied how vain his Menaces were by this Story, I shall now relate.

came a certain aged Sancto, of great Esteem among them for his Piety, to pay his Court to him; and, among other Discourses, he asked Rustan why, since the Sultan's Children were at Discord one with another, which was likely to occasion great Troubles in their Empire, he did not make Peace with the German Emperor, that Solyman might be secure from Danger on that side? I desire nothing more, says Rustan; but how can I bring it about? His Demands I cannot yield to, and my Demands he will not accept, nor can I compel him so to do. I have tried all Ways to bring him to my Terms; I have kept him in the nature of a Prisoner these many Years, I have dealt coarsely enough with him; and yet, alas! he is but hardened the more thereby. When I would shut him up as a close Prisoner in his own House, then he bars his Door on the Inside, that no body can come at him; thus all my Labour is in vain. If another Man had been so hardly dealt with, to avoid the Durance, he would have turned to our Religion; as for him, he cares not a Rush.

was Rustan's Discourse, as some present thereat informed me.

reason of their surly Carriage, is this: The Turks are very suspicious, that the Agents of Christian Princes have a great Latitude in their