reek empire, the last feeble bulwark
of Europe, and paved the way for those ultimate successes of the
Asiatic conquerors, which a timely union of strength might have
prevented. Stephan Dushan was the little Napoleon of his day; he
conquered, but did not consolidate: and his scourging wars were
insufficiently balanced by the advantage of the code of laws to which
he gave his name.

His son Urosh, being a weak and incapable prince, was murdered by one
of the generals of the army, and thus ended the Neman dynasty, after
having subsisted 212 years, and produced eight kings and two emperors.
The crown now devolved on Knes, or Prince Lasar, a connexion of the
house of Neman, who was crowned Czar, but is more generally called
Knes Lasar. Of all the ancient rulers of the country, his memory is
held the dearest by the Servians of the present day. He appears to
have been a pious and generous prince, and at the same time to have
been a brave but unsuccessful general.

Amurath, the Ottoman Sultan, who had already taken all Roumelia,
south of the Balkan, now resolved to pass these mountains, and invade
Servia Proper; but, to make sure of success, secretly offered the
crown to Wuk Brankovich, a Servian chief, as a reward for his
treachery to Lasar.

Wuk caught at the bait, and when the armies were in sight of each
other, accused Milosh Kobilich, the son-in-law of Lasar, of being a
traitor. On the night before the battle, Lasar assembled all the
knights and nobles to decide the matter between Wuk and Milosh. Lasar
then took a silver cup of wine, handed it over to Milosh, and said,
"Take this cup of wine from my hand and drink it." Milosh drank it, in
token of his fidelity, and said, "Now there is no time for disputing.
To-morrow I will prove that my accuser is a calumniator, and that I am
a faithful subject of my prince and father-in-law."

Milosh then embraced the plan of assassinating Amurath in his tent,
and taking with him two stout youths, secretly left the Servian camp,
and presented himself at the Turkish lines, with his lance reversed,
as a sign of desertion. Arrived at the tent of Amurath, he knelt
down, and, pretending to kiss the hand of the Sultan, drew forth his
dagger, and stabbed him in the body, from which wound Amurath died.
Hence the usage of the Ottomans not to permit strangers to approach
the Sultan, otherwise than with their arms held by attendants.

The celebrated battle of Kossovo then took place. The wing