issaries wavered for a moment under this new and
unexpected attack, but soon perceiving that they had to do with the
King of Hungary they closed round his band which had penetrated far
into their ranks. The king's horse was first hamstrung, and, as it
fell, the king's head was severed from his body, stuck upon the point
of a spear and exposed to the view of both armies. The Hungarians,
shocked at the unexpected sight, wavered and, feeling themselves lost,
began to fly. All the entreaties and exhortations of Huniades were in
vain. Such was the confusion that he could be neither seen nor heard,
and in a few minutes the whole Hungarian army was in confused flight.

Huniades, left to himself, had too to seek safety in flight. Alone,
deserted by all, he had to make his way from one place of concealment
to another till after some weeks' wandering he arrived in Hungary. The
bad news had preceded him; and in consequence everything was in
confusion. Again arose that difficult question: Who should be the new
king under such difficult circumstances? The Sultan's army had,
however, suffered so much in the battle of Varna that for the time he
left the Hungarians unmolested.

The nation was disposed to choose for its king the child, Ladislaus,
son of King Albert, the predecessor of Vladislaus. The child, however,
was in the power of the neighboring prince, Frederick, the Archduke of
Austria, who was not disposed to let him go out of his hands without a
heavy ransom. Under these circumstances the more powerful nobles in
Hungary took advantage of the confusion to strengthen each his own
position at the expense of the nation. At first the government of the
country was entrusted to a number of captains, but this proved so
evidently disastrous that the better sort of people succeeded in
having them abolished and Huniades established as sole governor. For
all that, however, Huniades had a good deal of trouble with the chief
aristocrats, Garay, Czillei, Ujlaki, who, envying the parvenu his
sudden promotion and despising his obscure origin, took up arms to
resist his authority. Thus Huniades, instead of blunting the edge of
his sword upon foreign foes, had to bridle the insubordination of his
own countrymen. Luckily it did not take long to force the discontented
to own the weight of his arm and his superiority as a military leader.

Order being thus to some extent re-established at home, Huniades was
again able to turn his attention to the