ther consented, and both set
out, taking the child with them. On their way, the woman, wanting to
wash her clothes, laid the child down, giving it the king's ring to play
with. A raven, who saw the glittering ring, came flying, and plucking it
out of the child's hand, carried it up into a tree; the child suddenly
began to cry, and the mother, hearing it, left her washing, and running
to the child, forthwith missed the ring, but hearing the raven croak in
the tree she lifted up her eyes, and saw it with the ring in its beak.
The woman, in great terror, called her brother, and told him what had
happened, adding that she durst not approach the king if the raven took
away the ring. Gaspar, seizing his cross-bow and quiver, ran to the
tree, where the raven was yet with the ring, and discharged an arrow at
it, but, being in a great hurry, he missed it; with his second shot he
was more lucky, for he hit the raven in the breast, which, together with
the ring, fell to the ground. Taking up the ring, they went their way,
and shortly arrived at Buda. One day, as the king was walking after
dinner in his outer hall, the woman appeared before him with the child,
and, showing him the ring, said, "Mighty lord! behold this token! and
take pity upon me and your own son." King Sigmond took the child and
kissed it, and, after a pause, said to the mother, "You have done right
in bringing me the boy; I will take care of you, and make him a
nobleman." The king was as good as his word; he provided for the mother,
caused the boy to be instructed in knightly exercises, and made him a
present of the town of Hunyad, in Transylvania, on which account he was
afterwards called Hunyadi, and gave him, as an armorial sign, a raven
bearing a ring in his beak.

Such, O young man of Horncastle! is the popular account of the birth of
the great captain of Hungary, as related by Florentius of Buda. There
are other accounts of his birth, which is, indeed, involved in much
mystery, and of the reason of his being called Corvinus, but as this is
the most pleasing, and is, upon the whole, founded on quite as good
evidence as the others, I have selected it for recitation.

_Myself_. I heartily thank you, but you must tell me something more of
Hunyadi. You call him your great captain; what did he do?

_Hungarian_. Do! what no other man of his day could have done. He broke
the power of the Turk when he was coming to overwhelm Europe. From the
blows inf