Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	age_n	die_v	year_n	6,258	5	4.9578	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43757	The history of Isuf Bassa, captain general of the Ottoman army at the invasion of Candia	Higgons, Thomas, Sir, 1624-1691.	1684 (1684)	Wing H1957; ESTC R34466	47,910	219

victorious and unresistible Army Otherwise expect me in the Spring with my Troops more numerous than the sands of the Sea in the bowels of thy Kingdom That shall succeed which is determined from eternity The destruction of Camels and beasts of burden had been so great in this march that there were scarce enough remaining to carry home the Baggage to Constantinople whither Amurat was now hastning to solace himself after his fatigues and to refresh his Souldiers The Sultana's and all the Ministers vied with one another who should get the richest Regalo's to present their Monarch which with those which were sent him by the Queen-Mother were in all computed at above a Million of Gold Upon the way his Majesty was seized with so violent a Head-ach that he could not stand whereupon his Physicians were sent for The next day he was taken with a trembling which at first was looked upon as the effect of a Fever but continuing they apprehended it might turn to a Palsie or Apoplexy With this he had so great a swelling in his legs that he could hardly sit on horse-back the state of his health being utterly destroyed by his excesses of Wine and Women The Sultana Favourite came before him into Constantinople with six Gallies and the Queen-Mother attended by all the Grandees went out to meet him and then he made his entry with a number of Coaches cover'd with cloth of Gold At the end of the Cavalcade Amurat himself appeared dressed in a Persian habit with two and twenty Slaves of the chief men of that Nation whom he had taken Prisoners at Babylon His treasure carried by ten Gallies was landed at the Seraglio and that which he brought home was calculated to be more than what he took out when he began his Journey Christian Princes grow rich by Peace but the Turk by War who repairs his expences out of the Avanies which he lays upon his rich Subjects and out of the Spoils of the Nations which he conquers Being now returned home the first thing he did was to shew that rage which he had so long hidden for the indignity which was done him in his absence in saving Ibrahim when he had commanded his death And therefore he gave orders that those Sultana's and all their women who had a hand in that action should be strangled leaving the unfortunate Ibrahim alive but till he had a Son born to inherit the Empire And now Amurat elated with his Victories seemed to be above Fortune and to despise all things even his own Law and his own Religion and to care neither for man nor God He put his Mufti to death which the most tyrannical of his Predecessors had never attempted laughed at all Devotion would not fast at the Ramasan but abandoning himself to all kind of dissolution one night he made so great a debauche that they were fain to carry him to bed though but a little before he had made a Vow being very sick that he would never drink Wine more and caused all the Cups and Glasses with which he had made his debauches to be broke though some of them were of Crystal of the Rock and others of Stones of great price But this last debauch put an end to all his extravagancies for being seized upon by an unintermitting Fever his Physicians were in that fear that they durst not direct any Remedies lest if they failed to give him Life they should procure their own Deaths But being pressed by the Queen-Mother and the great Ministers to do something they agreed to let him blood which had an ill effect for he died presently after in the flower of his age having lived thirty three years and reigned fifteen Amurat being dead the chief Visir with all the Grandees of the Court repaired to the Prison where Ibrahim was kept the onely surviving Prince of the Royal Family When they came to the door to salute him Emperour he suspected it an artifice of his Brother to take away his life and lifting his hands to Heaven prayed to God to preserve the King his Brother for the prosperity and glory of the Ottoman Empire But they all confirming to him with protestations the death of Amurat and the change of Ibrahims Fortune which translated him from the Grave to the Throne after some resistance he let them into his Chamber where they found him almost stifled with stench and putrefaction the Negro-woman who attended him being dead in the Room and no order taken to carry the Corpse away But still being jealous that the news which they brought him was not true he declared to the company that if it were so as they told him that God had taken to himself the Emperour his Brother he would not stir out of his Chamber till he had seen his body They seeing him resolute to comply with his pleasure fetched the Corpse of Amurat to the prison and lay'd it down before him At the sight of which Ibrahim had that horrour that he seemed to be affraid of the very carcass and not trusting to his eyes would feel with his hands if he were alive who had kept him so many years in a kind of perpetual death Nor yet satisfied with feeling the body cold and stiff he kneeled down and put his mouth to the mouth of the Corpse to try if he could perceive it breathe At last finding that great Monarch dead and unmovable who had held in motion so long a great part of the world he rose up and said these words becoming the Majesty of a free Prince There lies the greatest King and the greatest Tyrant that ever was And then walking out they cloathed him in purple and proclaimed him Emperour with loud acclamations of the Souldiers and the People And so he began his Reign auspiciously and had made his Subjects happy if he had continued as he began for he confirmed the Peace with the State of Venice entred into an allyance with France and had a fair Correspondency with all the great Potentates of Europe And to give the world an opinion of the clemency of his nature he commanded the Grand Visir that he should put no man to death but for just and urgent reason The Grand Visir thinking this mildness of Ibrahim to proceed from his simplicity began to govern as despotically as if he had been Emperour himself He removed from the Court all the great Ministers and Servants of Amurat upon pretence of giving them Governments and Charges and filled the Family of Ibrahim with his own Dependants Onely the Selectar Bassa he had not power to displace nor to employ any where else in regard of the nature of his Office which kept him always about the person of the Emperour Yet he prevailed so far with his arts and cunning that he at last got his head and so remained Arbiter of all affairs During these changes in the Court as Ibrahim one day was enjoying the pleasure of his Gardens which till then he

and that he had not Seamen ready to man so great a Fleet as was necessary for such an Expedition and above all they minded him of the strength of the place which he would besiege which was not onely admirably fortified both by Art and Nature but defended by the most expert men of all Christendom who having no imployment but to fight were bred Souldiers from their infancy and with a few Galleys kept the whole Levant in awe Upon which Ibrahim who would not be contradicted as knowing no reason but his own will grew into that fury that he had like to have put them to death who made this remonstrance to him so that for some time no man durst open his mouth to him any more upon this matter At last one of the Visirs who had more courage than the rest said None of us know what Malta is having never been there but it would be fit before your Highness resolve upon so great an enterprize that you had exact information from some one who hath been upon the place and then told him that he knew an Aga lately come from thence who had been a slave there four years and could give a perfect account of all things if it were his pleasure to command him Upon which the Aga being called Ibrahim bad him faithfully and freely relate to him the state of that Island The Aga with profound obeisance assured him that the strength of Malta was considerable that besides the advantage of the scituation and double fortifications which made it almost impregnable it was defended by men of high resolution that all the Campagne round the Town was nothing but a hard rock without earth to work on so that it was almost impossible to make any Approches that the Fleet which should bring an Army there could not stay before the place by reason of want of Ports and the furious winds which reigned in those Chanels that Italy and Sicily were so near that the place would continually receive succours and last of all that Malta was so far from Constantinople that his Army could not arrive there time enough it being necessary for whoever would besiege that place to be there in June since in three months time they of necessity must retire the tempests in those Seas were so violent about the beginning of September These reasons so contrary to the designs of Ibrahim instead of satisfying him did but inflame his anger But however that he might know all that the Aga could tell him he asked him what People those Maltese were who made the Conquest of Malta so difficult The Aga answered that they were a body of Nobility drawn from all parts of Christendom and naming the Knights Nation by Nation told him that the major part of them were Frenchmen that their Prince the great Master who commanded them was a Frenchman and that to make the enterprize easie it would be best for his Highness to try if he could prevail with the King of France to call home the Knights of that Nation without which it would be almost impossible to take Malta At these words Ibrahim was so incensed that he storm'd as if he had been mad and hardly knowing what he said or did commanded them immediately to bring him the French Ambassadour's head which had certainly been done but that the Chizlar Aga a black Eunuch who was there diverted him This Aga being a grave man and of great reputation for his Judgment as well as Zeal for the Grand Seigniors Service remonstrated to him how that for above these threescore years in which he had had the honour to serve five Emperours he had seen many Wars and great calamities had befallen the Monarchy but in all the Consultations of his time he had never known so much as mention made of cutting off an Ambassadours head that such an indignity could not be done to so potent a Monarch as the King of France but it would be revenged and if the Galleys of Malta could give his Highness such disturbance what might the King of France do with the mighty Forces of his Kingdom That this action was contrary to all Reason of State and good Government and would redound much to the prejudice of his Empire which his Ancestors had maintained from time to time as well by prudence as by power This discourse was heard with applause by all the Council but Ibrahim who measured the reason of all things by his own caprice was so offended with him who made it that in a rage he commanded the unfortunate Eunuch to be put to death The Council though they were sensible of the danger to which they exposed themselves were so touched at the injustice of this sentence and had that respect for the Chizlar Aga that they interceded for him But all they could obtain was to have the Judgment of Death changed into Exile And so the poor man was banished to Gallipoli and in an instant despoiled of all which he had been getting in the service of threescore years The enterprize of Malta being found not advisable and Ibrahim still breathing hate and revenge against the Christians proposed in Council to fall upon Sicily which if they were once Masters of Malta could not long resist since from thence it had all its provisions Some Sicilian Bandito's who commonly are the most mortal enemies of their own Country had suggested this to the Grand Visir perswading him that they would put Syracusa into his hand which he being once possessed of might with little difficulty subdue the rest of that Kingdom Others advis'd an expedition into the Kingdom of Naples But both these Propositions being rejected they fell into discourse of Candia when Isuf Selectar Bassa to whom Fortune now presented an occasion to be revenged of the Venetians represented to them that in his opinion that business was the most feasible of any thing that had yet been thought of And that it was just too since the Maltese who took the Grand Seigniors Gallion after this exploit landed first in Candia and were courteously received there by the Inhabitants who bought their Prizes of them But for the present this was secretly diverted by the Grand Visir who was a friend to the Republick of Venice and condemned by the Mufti as contrary to their Law which will not allow a War to be made against Christians when they are in War amongst themselves for fear they should unite together against Believers Besides the Mufti said that it would be unjust to invade any Prince before they had declared War against him Upon which there was nothing at that time concluded But Ibrahim in his own mind determined now to turn his Arms upon Candia which was a Secret he would deposit no-where but in the bosom of the Selectar and therefore kept it from the knowledge even of the Grand Visir for fear he should discover his design to the Venetians with whom he suspected that he kept intelligence In a few