Thus was the system carefully kept clear of all the human material that seemed to endanger its working or threaten its unity. There was no sympathy for weakness, no accepting of excuses, no suspension of sentence, no mercy. Suleiman did not always have the heart to execute promptly; but in the end he had no alternative, so remorseless was the system. Even his best friend, Ibrahim, went too far and had to be removed. Two of his sons, the oldest and ablest, threatened the system in turn, and one after the other suffered the bow-string. Small wonder that Suleiman’s soul was not filled with joy at the victory of Jerbé. “Those who saw Solyman’s face in this hour of triumph,” says Busbecq, “failed to detect in it the slightest trace of undue elation. I can myself positively declare, that when I saw him two days later on his way to the mosque, the expression of his countenance was unchanged; his stern features had lost nothing of their habitual gloom; one would have thought that the victory concerned him not, and that this startling success of his arms had caused him no surprise. So self-contained was the heart of that grand old man, so schooled to meet each change of fortune however great, that all the applause and triumph of that day wrung from him no sign of satisfaction.”[281] Arbiter of the destinies of so many men, compelled to be remorseless as fate, Suleiman could allow joy no place in his soul. He who wielded as severe a rod as ever man held must maintain over himself the sternest discipline of all. CHAPTER IV THE RULING INSTITUTION: AS AN ARMY THE MILITARY ASPECT