have
routed the armies of Amurath and Mahomed the Second.

_Myself_. How was it that he had an opportunity of displaying his
military genius?

_Hungarian_. I can hardly tell you, but his valour soon made him famous;
King Albert made him Ban of Szorenyi. He became eventually waivode of
Transylvania, and governor of Hungary. His first grand action was the
defeat of Bashaw Isack; and though himself surprised and routed at St.
Imre, he speedily regained his prestige by defeating the Turks, with
enormous slaughter, killing their leader, Mezerbeg; and subsequently, at
the battle of the Iron Gates, he destroyed ninety thousand Turks, sent by
Amurath to avenge the late disgrace. It was then that the Greeks called
him Achilles.

_Myself_. He was not always successful.

_Hungarian_. Who could be always successful against the early Turk? He
was defeated in the battle in which King Vladislaus lost his life, but
his victories outnumbered his defeats three-fold. His grandest
victory--perhaps the grandest ever achieved by man--was over the terrible
Mahomed the Second; who, after the taking of Constantinople in 1453,
said, "One God in Heaven--one king on earth;" and marched to besiege
Belgrade at the head of one hundred, and fifty thousand men; swearing by
the beard of the prophet, "That he would sup within it ere two months
were elapsed." He brought with him dogs, to eat the bodies of the
Christians whom he should take or slay; so says Florentius; hear what he
also says: The Turk sat down before the town towards the end of June,
1454, covering the Dunau and Szava with ships: and on the 4th of July he
began to cannonade Belgrade with cannons twenty-five feet long, whose
roar could be heard at Szeged, a distance of twenty-four leagues, at
which place Hunyadi had assembled his forces. Hunyadi had been able to
raise only fifteen thousand of well-armed and disciplined men, though he
had with him vast bands of people, who called themselves Soldiers of the
Cross, but who consisted of inexperienced lads from school, peasants, and
hermits, armed with swords, slings, and clubs. Hunyadi, undismayed by
the great disparity between his forces and those of the Turk, advanced to
relieve Belgrade, and encamped at Szalankemen with his army. There he
saw at once, that his first step must be to attack the flotilla; he
therefore privately informed Szilagy, his wife's brother, who at that
time defended Belgrade, that it was his intention