r some time disputed the throne with
him; there was some bloodshed, but Hunyadi John eventually submitted, and
became the faithful captain of Ulaszlo, notwithstanding that the Turk
offered to assist him with an army of two hundred thousand men.

_Myself_. Go on.

_Hungarian_. To what? Tche Drak, to the Mohacs Veszedelem. Ulaszlo
left a son, Lajos the Second, born without skin, as it is said, certainly
without a head. He, contrary to the advice of all his wise
counsellors,--and amongst them was Batory Stephen, who became eventually
King of Poland--engaged, with twenty-five thousand men, at Mohacs,
Soliman the Turk, who had an army of two hundred thousand. Drak! the
Magyars were annihilated, King Lajos disappeared with his heavy horse and
armour in a bog. We call that battle, which was fought on the 29th of
August, 1526, the destruction of Mohacs, but it was the destruction of
Hungary.

_Myself_. You have twice used the word drak, what is the meaning of it?
Is it Hungarian?

_Hungarian_. No! it belongs to the mad Wallacks. They are a nation of
madmen on the other side of Transylvania. Their country was formerly a
fief of Hungary, like Moldavia, which is inhabited by the same race, who
speak the same language and are equally mad.

_Myself_. What language do they speak?

_Hungarian_. A strange mixture of Latin and Sclavonian--they themselves
being a mixed race of Romans and Sclavonians. Trajan sent certain
legions to form military colonies in Dacia; and the present Wallacks and
Moldavians are, to a certain extent, the descendants of the Roman
soldiers, who married the women of the country. I say to a certain
extent, for the Sclavonian element both in blood and language seems to
prevail.

_Myself_. And what is drak?

_Hungarian_. Dragon; which the Wallacks use for "devil." The term is
curious, as it shows that the old Romans looked upon the dragon as an
infernal being.

_Myself_. You have been in Wallachia?

_Hungarian_. I have, and glad I was to get out of it. I hate the mad
Wallacks.

_Myself_. Why do you call them mad?

_Hungarian_. They are always drinking or talking. I never saw a
Wallachian eating or silent. They talk like madmen, and drink like
madmen. In drinking they use small phials, the contents of which they
pour down their throats. When I first went amongst them I thought the
whole nation was under a course of physic, but the terrible jabber of
their tongues soon undec