lf_. I have already told you that I cannot say. What became of
Tekeli?

_Hungarian_. When Hungary was lost he retired with the Turks into
Turkey. Count Renoncourt, in his Memoirs, mentions having seen him at
Adrianople. The Sultan, in consideration of the services which he had
rendered to the Moslem in Hungary, made over the revenues of certain
towns and districts for his subsistence. The count says that he always
went armed to the teeth, and was always attended by a young female
dressed in male attire, who had followed him in his wars, and had more
than once saved his life. His end is wrapped in mystery, I--whose
greatest boast, next to being a Hungarian, is to be of his blood--know
nothing of his end.

_Myself_. Allow me to ask who you are?

_Hungarian_. Egy szegeny Magyar Nemes ember, a poor Hungarian nobleman,
son of one yet poorer. I was born in Transylvania, not far to the west
of good Coloscvar. I served some time in the Austrian army as a noble
Hussar, but am now equerry to a great nobleman, to whom I am distantly
related. In his service I have travelled far and wide, buying horses. I
have been in Russia and in Turkey, and am now at Horncastle, where I have
had the satisfaction to meet with you, and to buy your horse, which is,
in truth, a noble brute.

_Myself_. For a soldier and equerry you seem to know a great deal of the
history of your country.

_Hungarian_. All I know is derived from Florentius of Buda, whom we call
Budai Ferentz. He was professor of Greek and Latin at the Reformed
College of Debreczen, where I was educated; he wrote a work entitled
"Magyar Polgari Lexicon," Lives of Great Hungarian Citizens. He was dead
before I was born, but I found his book, when I was a child, in the
solitary home of my father, which stood on the confines of a puszta, or
wilderness, and that book I used to devour in winter nights when the
winds were whistling around the house. Oh! how my blood used to glow at
the descriptions of Magyar valour, and likewise of Turkish; for
Florentius has always done justice to the Turk. Many a passage similar
to this have I got by heart; it is connected with a battle on the plain
of Rigo, which Hunyadi lost:--"The next day, which was Friday, as the two
armies were drawn up in battle array, a Magyar hero riding forth,
galloped up and down, challenging the Turks to single combat. Then came
out to meet him the son of a renowned bashaw of Asia; rushing upon each
ot