slem floating over the
castles of eastern Hungary, became alarmed for the kingdom, and sent
ambassadors from court to court to form a crusade against the invaders.
He was eminently successful, and an army of one hundred thousand men was
soon collected, composed of the flower of the European nobility. The
republics of Venice and Genoa united to supply a fleet. With this
powerful armament Sigismond, in person, commenced his march to
Constantinople, which city the Turks were besieging, to meet the fleet
there. The Turkish sultan himself gathered his troops and advanced to
meet Sigismond. The Christian troops were utterly routed, and nearly all
put to the sword. The emperor with difficulty escaped. In the confusion
of the awful scene of carnage he threw himself unperceived into a small
boat, and paddling down the Danube, as its flood swept through an almost
uninhabited wilderness, he reached the Black Sea, where he was so
fortunate as to find a portion of the fleet, and thus, by a long
circuit, he eventually reached his home.

Bajazet, the sultan, returned exultant from this great victory, and
resumed the siege of Constantinople, which ere long fell into the hands
of the Turks. Amurath, who was sultan at the time of the death of
Sigismond, thought the moment propitious for extending his conquests. He
immediately, with his legions, overran Servia, a principality nearly the
size of the State of Virginia, and containing a million of inhabitants.
George, Prince of Servia, retreating before the merciless followers of
the false prophet, threw himself with a strong garrison into the
fortress of Semendria, and sent an imploring message to Albert for
assistance. Servia was separated from Hungary only by the Danube, and it
was a matter of infinite moment to Albert that the Turk should not get
possession of that province, from which he could make constant forays
into Hungary.

Albert hastily collected an army and marched to the banks of the Danube
just in time to witness the capture of Semendria and the massacre of its
garrison. All Hungary was now in terror. The Turks in overwhelming
numbers were firmly intrenched upon the banks of the Danube, and were
preparing to cross the river and to supplant the cross with the crescent
on all the plains of Hungary. The Hungarian nobles, in crowds, flocked
to the standard of Albert, who made herculean exertions to meet and roll
back the threatened tide of invasion. Exhausted by unremitting toil,