married a Wife, since the Days of Bajazet the Elder; the Reason was, because the said Bajazet, being overthrown by Tamerlane, was, with his Wife, taken Prisoner by him, where he suffered many Indignities, but none affected him more, than the Uncivilities and Reproaches which he saw offered to his Sultaness, before his Face. The Memory of which Affronts made such a deep Impression on all those that succeeded Bajazet in the Empire, that, to this very Day, none of them will marry a Wife, that so, whatever Chance should happen, they might never fall into the like Indignity; so that, ever since, they beget Children on Women of a servile Condition, in whose Misfortunes they may be less concerned, than if they were their lawful Wives. And yet the Children begot on such Concubines, are as much esteemed by the Turks, as if they were born in lawful Wedlock, and they have as much right to their Fathers Estates.
So then, Mustapha, being of a promising Ingenuity, and in the Flower of his Age; and besides, being the Darling of the Soldiers, and the common People too, having so many favourable Circumstances attending him, he, after his Father's Death, was by the Votes of all degsined for his Successor in the Empire.
On the other Side, his Stepmother, Roxalana, with Might and Main, laboured to prevent it, and to secure the Empire for the Children begotten on her own Body, and thereupon presuming on her Marriage-Relation, she ceased not to disparage Mustapha, and to prefer a younger Son of her own before him. In this Design Rustan was both her Counsellor, and Assistant; they drew both in one Yoke, for Rustan having married a Daugh-
