Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1909-07-15
BLGEN ZACHAPYT SWEENEY
OT0R1zEP CONSUL GHNERAL AT
COWST

VltSch, rode to
the Ottoman center and claimed to be a deserter and
having important secrets to reveal to Amurath in person.
On being led to the Turkish sovereign he knelt as if to
pay him homage, and then stabbed Amurath with a sud-
den and mortal stroke of his dagger. Milosch sprang
from his knees, and being gifted with great activity and
strength, cleared himself of the enemies that thronged
around him, and found his way to where his horse had
been left, but before he could remount the Janissaries
overpowered him and hacked him to pieces. Amurath
realized that his wound was mortal, but had sufficient
presence of mind to give orders for a charge of his re-
serves, which decided the victory in favor of the Otto
mans. He died pronouncing the death doom of King
Lazarus, who was conquered. But that was not the
saddest death of the day. When Prince Bajazet realized
that the victory over the Christians was accomplished,
and he was acknowledged by his fathers generals as
their sovereign, he Immediately ordered his brother,
Yacoub, who had fought so valiantly by his side, to be
seized and put &c death. He justified the act by saying
that "Sedition is worse than murder" a saying that has
caused so many Ottoman sultans to commit acts of
cruelty since that time.
Bajazet commenced his reign upon a battlefield, and
followed up the war against the Servans with such
vigor and success that he was named Yilderim, or
"Thunderbolt." After completing the Servian war, Baja-
yet returned to Asia and increased the territory of the
sultan by conquest of several adjoining states. Cara
mania, which had long held out as an independent state,
acknowledged Bajazet as sovereign. Glutted with vic
tory and rapidly augmented power, Bajazet gave him
self over to sensual excuses of the foulest kind. He
was the first of the Ottoman princes who violated the
prohibition of the koran against the use of wine. Ali
Pasha, his favorite general, set his master the example
of drunkenness, and the infamy of these two lives sully
the pages of Oriental history. Bajazet was startled from
his revels by a crusade of Christian chivalry of Franks
tan. The Christian army marched against the Ottomans
down through Pennsylvania, Wallachia and Servia. They
captured Widdin, orsoca, and invested Nicopolis, but
Bajazet marched against them and ingloriously dispersed
them. After the conflict Bajazet pitched his tent In front
of Nicopolis and rode over the field of battle. When he
saw the number of his dead soldiers it enraged him so
that he said: 81 will have this slaughter well avenged
on the prisoners" The next morning the Christian pris-
oners. to the number of ten thousand, were led out with
their hands bound behind them and with halters around
their necks. After allowing "a Christian mobiles from
among the prisoners their liberty the sultan gave the
signal for the slaughter to commence, and the unhappy
captives fell in front of his tent.
The battle of Nicopolis was the high-water mark in
the power of Bajazet. He soon made preparations to
invest Constantinople. The Byzantine king searched all
Europe for assistance, and even descended to the humili-
alton of asking aid from his oldtime enemy, the pope of
Rome, but all in vain. Just at the moment when it
seemed that Bajazet was on the point of entering Con
stantinople| a cluOd arose in the eastern horizon in the
shape of Tamerlane, the Tartar, who, though 20 years Of
age, had succeeded in uniting a number Of conquered
provinces into a strong empire, and had marched against
the dominion of the Ottoman empire, captured the
ancient city of Sivas, and put the inhabitants to the
sword, killing among others Prince Ertoghrul, the son of
Bajazet, who, when he heard of the death of his son,
hurried at the head oil his veteran troops against Tanner
lane. He seemed, however, to have lost his usual eau
ton and sagacity; with only 10000 men he swept for
ward against an army of 100000, and, to show his reck,
lessness, engaged in a grand hunt in the neighborhood
of Angora until they were entirely exhausted. Return
ing to his quarters, he found that the willy Tartar had
taken possession of his camp and poisoned the stream,
and his weary and thirsty troops had to spend the night
without water. The next day he led the dispirited army
to battle, and while many of them gave q good account
of themselves, others were so exhausted that they gave
themselves over to the enemy, and on the field of
Angora, where his ancestor, Ertoghrul, nearly two hun.
dred years previous had laid the foundations Of the Otto
man empire, he was overthrow, and his empire shat
tered to fragments. Bajazet, with one of his sons, was
captured, and made a show in the triumphal pageant OF
his conqueror. He was carried in a latticed litter, and
there arose a current story that he had been placed in
an iron cage. Thus the empire Of the ottomans, that
had swept over Asia and a large part Of Europe, till II
had earned the title. Wrath Of God" suddenly termi
mated, and the Ottoman power seemed gone forever.
Nothing so characterizes the rule Of the Turk as Its
recuperative power. often has it. been seemingly over
thrown and swept from the face of the earth, but imme
diately there arises again a mighty power having the
same spirit as it's predecessor. Mohammed l., the son OF
Bajazet, took the shattered fragments which his father
had left and began the work of building up the Ottoman
power. The Greeks said of him that he was "as perse
vering as a camel" He was the youngest son, and