The beauty, talents, and valour of the youngest son,
saved him, however, from the fate of his poisoned brothers. Iskander
was educated at Adrianople, in the Moslemin faith, and as he, at a very
early age, exceeded in feats of arms all the Moslemin warriors, he
became a prime favourite of the Sultan, and speedily rose in his
service to the highest rank.
At this period the irresistible progress of the Turkish arms was the
subject of alarm throughout all Christendom.
Constantinople, then the capital of the Greek Empire, had already been
more than once besieged by the predecessors of Amurath, and had only
been preserved by fortunate accidents and humiliating terms. The
despots of Bosnia, Servia, and Bulgaria, and the Grecian princes of
Etolia, Macedon, Epirus, Athens, Phocis, Boeotia, and indeed of all the
regions to the straits of Corinth, were tributaries to Amurath, and the
rest of Europe was only preserved from his grasp by the valour of the
Hungarians and the Poles, whom a fortunate alliance had now united
under the sovereignty of Uladislaus, who, incited by the pious
eloquence of the cardinal of St.
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