cis's bounty, adopted their encomiums, and even added to them. The appellation of Father of letters bestowed upon Francis, hath rendered his memory sacred among historians; and they seem to have regarded it as a sort of impiety to uncover his infirmities, or to point out his defects. Thus Francis, notwithstanding his inferior abilities, and want of success, hath more than equalled the fame of Charles. The good qualities which he possessed as a man, have entitled him to greater admiration and praise than have been bestowed upon the extensive genius, and fortunate arts of a more capable, but less amiable rival.

ROXALANA.

THIS Woman was a Russian captive, and soon gained the heart of Sultan Solyman. Though distinguished by many accomplishments from the other Ottoman princes, he had all the passions peculiar to that violent and haughty race. He was jealous of his authority, sudden as well as furious in his anger, and susceptible of all that rage of love, which reigns in the east, and often produces the wildest and most tragical effects. His favourite mistress was a Circassian slave of exquisite beauty, who bore him a son called Mustapha, whom, both on account of his birthright and his merit, he destined to be the heir of his crown. Roxalana supplanted the Circassian. Having the address to retain the conquest which she had made, she kept possession of his love without any rival for many years, during which time she brought him several sons and one daughter. All the happiness, however, which she derived from the unbounded sway that she had acquired over a monarch whom one half of the world revered

or dreaded, was embittered by perpetual reflections on Mustapha's accession to the throne, and the certain death of her sons, who, she foresaw, would be immediately sacrificed, according to the barbarous jealousy of Turkish policy, to the safety of the new emperor. By dwelling continually on this melancholy idea, she came gradually to view Mustapha as the enemy of her children, and to hate him with more than a stepmother's ill will. This prompted her to wish his destruction, in order to secure for one of her own sons the throne which was destined for him. Nor did she want either ambition to attempt such a high enterprise, or the arts requisite for carrying it into execution. Having prevailed on the Sultan to give her only daughter to Rustan the grand Visier, she disclosed her scheme to that crafty minister, who, perceiving that it was his own interest to co-operate with her, readily promised his assistance towards aggrandizing that branch of the royal line to which he was so nearly allied. As soon as Roxalana had concerted her measures with this able confident, she began to affect a wonderful zeal for the Mahometan religion, to which Solyman was supersti tiously attached, and proposed to found and endow a royal mosque, a work of great expense, but deemed by the Turks meritorious in the highest degree. The Mufti whom she consulted, appro ved much of her pious intention, but, having been gained and instructed by Rustan, told her, that she being a slave could derive no benefit herself from that holy deed; for all the merit of it would accrue to Solyman, the master whose property she was. Upon this she seemed to be overwhelmed with sor row, and to sink into the deepest melancholy, as if she had been disgusted with life and all its enjoyments. Solyman, who was absent with the army, being informed of this dejection of mind,

and of the cause from which it proceeded, discovered all the solicitude of a lover to remove it, and by a writing under his hand declared her a free woman. Roxalana having gained this point, proceeded to build the mosque, and reassumed her usual gaiety of spirit. But when Solyman on his return to Constantinople, sent an eunuch, according to the custom of the seraglio, to bring her to partake of his bed, she seemingly with deep regret, but in the most peremptory manner, declined to follow the eunuch, declaring that what had been an honour to her while a slave, became a crime as she was now a free woman, and that she would not involve the Sultan or herself in the guilt that must be contracted by such an open violation of the law of their prophet. Solyman, whose passion this difficulty, as well as the affected delicacy which gave rise to it, heightened and inflamed, had recourse immediately to the Mufti for direction. He replied, 'agreeable to the Koran, that Roxalana's scruples were well founded; but added artfully, in words which Rustan had taught him to use, that it was in the Sultan's power to remove these difficulties by espousing her as his lawful wife. The amorous monarch closed eagerly with the proposal, and solemnly married her, according to the form of the Mahometan ritual, though by so doing he disregarded a maxim of policy which the pride of the Ottoman blood had taught all the Sultans since Bajazet I. to consider as inviolable. From his time, none of the Turkish monarchs had married, because, when he was vanquished and taken prisoner by Tamerlane, his wife had been abused with barbarous insolence by the Tartars. That no similar calamity might again subject the Ottoman family to the same disgrace, the Sultans admitted none to their beds but slaves, whose dishonour could not bring any such stain upon their house.

But the more uncommon the step was, the more it convinced Roxalana of the unbounded influence which she had acquired over the Sultan's heart; and emboldened her to prosecute, with greater hopes of success, the scheme that she had formed in order to destroy Mustapha. This young prince, having been intrusted by his father, according to the practice of the Sultans in that age, with the government of several different provinces, was at that time invested with the administration in Diarbequir, the ancient Mesopotamia, which Solyman had wrested from the Persians, and added to his empire. In all these different commands, Mustapha had conducted himself with such cautious prudence as could give no offence to his father, though at the same time he governed with so much moderation, as well as justice, and displayed such valour and generosity, as rendered him equally the favourite of the people, and the darling of the soldiery. There was no room to lay any folly or vice to his charge, that could impair the high opinion which his father entertained of him. Roxalana's malevolence was more refined; she turned his virtues against him, and made use of these as engines for his destruction. She often mentioned in Solyman's presence, the splendid qualities of his son; she celebrated his courage, his liberality, his popular arts, with malicious and exaggerated praise. As soon as she perceived that the Sultan heard these encomiums, which were often repeated, with uneasiness, that suspicion of his son began to mingle itself with his former esteem, and that by degrees he came to view him with jealousy and fear, she introduced as by accident some discourse concerning the rebellion of his father Selim, against Bajazet his grandfather; she took notice of the bravery of the veteran troops under Mustapha's command, and of the neighbour. hood of Diarbequir to the territories of the Persian

Sophi, Solyman's mortal enemy. By these arts, whatever remained of paternal tenderness was gradually extinguished, and such passions were kindled in the breast of the Sultan, as gave all Roxalana's malignant suggestions the colour not only of probability but of truth. His suspicion and fear of Mustapha settled into deep-rooted hatred. He appointed spies to observe and report all his words and actions; he watched and stood upon his guard against him as his most dangerous enemy.

Having thus alienated the Sultan's heart from Mustapha, Roxalana ventured upon another step. She entreated Solyman to allow her own sons the liberty of appearing at court, hoping, that by gaining access to their father, they might by their good qualities and dutiful deportment, insinuate themselves into that place in his affections which Mustapha had formerly held; and though what she demanded was contrary to the practice of the Ottoman family in that age, the uxorious monarch granted her request. To all these female intrigues, Rustan added an artifice still more subtile, which completed the Sultan's delusion, and heightened his jealousy and fear. He wrote to the bashaws of the provinces adjacent to Diarbequir, instructing them to send him regular intelligence of Mustapha's proceedings in his government; and to each of them he gave a private hint, flowing in appearance from his zeal for their interest, that nothing would be more acceptable to the Sultan, than to receive favourable accounts of a son whom he destined to sustain the glory of the Ottoman name. The bashaws, ignorant of his fraudulent intention, and eager to pay court to their sovereign at such an easy price, filled their letters with studied but fatal panegyrics of Mustapha, representing him as a prince worthy to succeed such an illustrious father, and as endowed with talents which might enable him to