Ibrahim, to Constantinople.

In this city by the sea there had taken place a tragedy which, although
it only involved the death of a single man, was nevertheless
far-reaching in its consequences; for the man was none other than that
great statesman Ibrahim, Grand Vizier, and the only trusted counsellor
of the Padishah. He who had been originally a slave had risen step by
step in the favor of his master until he arrived at the giddy eminence
which he occupied at the time of his death. It is a somewhat curious
commentary on the essentially democratic status of an autocracy that a
man could thus rise to a position second only to that of the autocrat
himself; and, in all probability, wielding quite as much power.

Ibrahim had for years been treated by Soliman more as a brother than as
a dependent, which, in spite of his Grand Viziership, he was in fact.
They lived in the very closest communion, taking their meals together,
and even sleeping in the same room, Soliman, a man of high intelligence
himself, and a ruler who kept in touch with all the happenings which
arose in his immense dominions, desiring always to have at hand the man
whom he loved; from whom, with his amazing grip of political problems
and endless fertility of resource, he was certain of sympathy and sound
advice. But in an oriental despotism there are other forces at work
besides those of _la haute politique_, and Ibrahim had one deadly enemy
who was sworn to compass his destruction. The Sultana Roxalana was the
light of the harem of the Grand Turk. This supremely beautiful woman,
originally a Russian slave, was the object of the most passionate
devotion on the part of Soliman; but she was as ambitious as she was
lovely, and brooked no rival in the affections of Soliman, be that
person man, woman, or child. In her hands the master of millions, the
despot whose nod was death, became a submissive slave; the undisciplined
passions of this headstrong woman swept aside from her path all those
whom she suspected of sharing her influence, in no matter how remote a
fashion. At her dictation had Soliman caused to be murdered his son
Mustafa, a youth of the brightest promise, because, in his intelligence
and his winning ways he threatened to eclipse Selim, the son of Roxalana
herself.

This woman possessed a strong natural intelligence, albeit she was
totally uneducated; she saw and knew that Ibrahim was all-powerful with
her lover, and this roused her jealousy to f