Vishégrade is taken by the enemy.
After the reduction of Osterghún the enemy surrounded the fortress of Vishégrade, a place of considerable strength, not far from the above, and which, through the treachery of one Osmán, who had been degraded from the rank of an ághá of the Janissaries, was delivered over to the enemy; but the inhabitants and the garrison were allowed to retire to Buda. The above-mentioned apostate Osmán, in order to ingratiate himself with the King of Hungary, went and pointed out the vaults in which the Moslems had preserved their gunpowder, and which till then had not been discovered. The enemy carried the whole away in boats.
The Grand Vezír deposed.—Lála Mohammed Páshá made Grand Vezír.
When accounts of the ill fate of the expedition conducted by the grand vezír into Valachia, of the pusillanimity of his son, who permitted Osterghún to fall into the enemy’s hands; and who was the first who fled from the field of battle, and shut himself up within the fortress of Buda, were received at Constantinople, the whole of the Moslem population and the grandees of the state were roused to madness and indignation; and when the emperor was formally informed of these disgraceful circumstances, he immediately ordered the grand vezír, Sinán Páshá, to be deposed and to go to Mulghura. On the 16th of Rabia II. the seals were transferred to Lála Mohammed Páshá, but who, on account of his bad state of health, was never able, with the exception of the day he had the honour of kissing the emperor’s hand, to attend to his duties in the diván. He died shortly after his elevation to the premiership.
Sinán Páshá is made Grand Vezír a fifth Time.
The káímakám of Constantinople, Ibrahím Páshá, of whom frequent though not honourable mention has been made, expected that on the death of Lála Mohammed Páshá, as well as on some former occasions, when a prime minister was degraded, that the emperor would confer the seals upon him. He was mistaken, and of course disappointed. The fact was, that the emperor had discovered before then that he was the principal cause of Ferhád Páshá’s murder, and was seized with a kind of horror and remorse, and therefore dismissed him from office and from his presence.
The friends of Sinán, lately deposed and banished, were not idle. They threw a cloak over his faults, and represented his virtues and high qualifications for government in such a light as to induce his majesty to recall him from his exile, and to reinstate him (a fifth time) in his former office. He took his place in the diván about the end of Rabia II.
A circumstance took place about this time which is worthy of being recorded. A great dispute having taken place between Ibrahím Páshá and his father-in-law, Sinán Páshá, the former accused the latter, in the presence of the diván, of maladministration, and charged him with being the cause of all the insurrections which had happened, by his having given places of trust and responsibility to men who were unfit to hold these offices. On another occasion Ibrahím spoke in the same strain in presence of the emperor, which so enraged Sinán that he said: “I am represented to your majesty as a person every way unfit to hold office, and though it be Ibrahím who has thought fit to do so, I challenge him to go down to the court, and there let us try the edge and strength of our daggers.” Thus saying, he seized him by his robes and thrust him out of the presence of the emperor. These were times in which rebellion and disorder, hatred and envy, reigned without; rudeness and asperity within; and had the effect of marring the tranquillity of all ranks and conditions.
Sinán Páshá’s counsel to the Emperor.
One day when the grand vezír was sitting with his imperial majesty he offered him the following counsel. “Sire,” said he, “it is inconsistent with sound policy to have a commander-in-chief in hostile countries, and it is incompatible for two to hold that office. In having a commander-in-chief, or a person of this description, it falls either to the grand vezír, or some other one of the vezírs, to hold it. If the grand vezír exercise this function, then the káímakám, in order to get himself into the vezírship, will throw all the hindrances he possibly can in his way, and no good will be effected. On the other hand, if it be a vezír who shall exercise that high office, then the grand vezír, for fear his services should, perchance, recommend him to hold the premiership, will, from mere envy, seek to hide what glory he may acquire in the service of his country. For how many years have ambition and envy of this kind been the cause of the ruin of our armies, and the wasting of our treasures, without producing the least benefit to the state, but, on the contrary, misfortune and disgrace! Do you, therefore, Sire, imitate the example set before you by Sultán Suleimán, and declare that you will, in person, take the chief command of the army in the present war with the infidels on the north of our frontiers. Do this, that, after you have gained victories, and restored the fading glory of the Ottomans, you may then have it in your power to make peace on honourable terms. The presence of the royal warrior in the midst of his camp will inspire the enemies of our religion and of our country with dread, and paralyze their efforts against us.” Khoja Sa’d-ud-dín Effendí, being of one mind with the grand vezír, confirmed his sentiments by an appeal to the practice of former emperors, who all commanded in person, and who, by their valour and heroism, extended the dominions of the Ottomans. The result was, that the grand sultán determined on joining his army, and on conducting it to battle in person.