against the common danger, but the proud array of mail-clad
knights were swept away like chaff before the steady ranks of the
janissaries.

And herewith began the long series of desolating inroads into Hungary,
for the Turk was wont to suck the blood of the nation he had marked
down as his prey. He took the country by surprise, secretly, suddenly,
like a summer storm, appearing in overwhelming numbers, burning,
murdering, robbing, especially, men in the hopes of a rich ransom, or
children whom they might bring up as Mohammedans and janissaries. This
body, the flower of the Turkish armies, owed its origin for the most
part to the Christian children thus stolen from their parents and
their country. This infantry of the janissaries was the first standing
army in Europe. Living constantly together under a common discipline,
like the inmates of a cloister, they rushed blindly forward to the cry
of "God and his Prophet" like some splendid, powerful wild beast,
eager for prey. The Turkish sultans published the proud order:
"Forward, let us conquer the whole world, wheresoever we tie up our
horses' heads that land is our own."

To resist such a nation, that would not listen to negotiation, but
only thirsted for war and conquest, seemed already an impossibility.
Europe trembled with fear at the reports of the formidable attacks
designed against her, and listened anxiously for news from distant
Hungary which lay, so to say, in the lion's very mouth.

Against such an enemy a soldier of the modern type was useless, one
who slays only in defence of his own life and at the word of command,
whose force consists in the high development of the military art and
the murderous instruments of modern technical science. What was wanted
was an heroic soul, inspired by a burning faith like to that which
impelled the Mohammedan soldier.

This heroic soul, this burning faith, united to the tenacious energy
of youth, were all found united in the greatest Hungarian hero, John
Huniades, accompanied withal by a singular talent for leadership in
war. He could not rely for support upon the haughty magnates who could
trace their descent back for centuries and despised the parvenu with a
shorter pedigree and a smaller estate. He was consequently obliged to
cast in his lot with the mass of the lesser nobility, individually
weaker, it is true, but not deficient in spirit and a consciousness of
their own worth. Of this class he soon became the idolized