himself by a series of
victories over the Moslems. To him Europe is indebted for the check he
gave the Turks. He forced them to relinquish Servia and Bosnia, and in
his time both provinces were placed under the vassalage of Hungary. We
may go further and say that had Hunyadi's plans for hurling back the
Moslem invaders been seconded by the other Christian powers, we should
not have the Eastern Question upon our hands in this our day. But, alas!
all the solicitations of this great patriot were met with short-sighted
indifference by the Courts of Europe. It is true that the Diet of
Ratisbon, summoned by the Emperor Frederick, voted 10,000 men-at-arms
and 30,000 infantry to assist in repelling the Turks; and it is true
that the Pope in those days was anti-Turkish, and vowed on the Gospels
to use every effort, even to the shedding of his blood, to recover
Constantinople from the infidels. The old chronicles give a curious
account of the monk Capestrano, who, bearing the cross that the Pope had
blessed, traversed Hungary, Transylvania, and Wallachia, to rouse the
people to the danger that threatened them from the intrusion of the
Moslem into Europe. Special church services were instituted; and at noon
the "Turks' bell" was daily sounded in every parish throughout these
border-lands, when prayers were offered up to arrest the progress of the
common enemy of Christendom.

Hunyadi's son, Matthias Corvinus, rivalled his father as a champion
against the Turks. He was elected King of Hungary, and after reigning
forty-two years, passed away; and the people still say, "King Matthias
is dead, and justice with him."

[Footnote 14: A Short Trip in Hungary and Transylvania, p. 242.]

CHAPTER XV.

Hunting for a guide--School statistics--Old times--Over the
mountains to Herrmannstadt--Night in the open--Nearly setting the
forest on fire--Orlat.

I found some difficulty while at Petroseny in getting a guide to convoy
me over the mountains to Orlat, near Herrmannstadt. My Hungarian friend
proposed that, choosing a saint's day, we should ride over to the
neighbouring village of Petrilla, where I would certainly find some
peasant able and willing amongst the numbers who crowd into the village
on these occasions.

Accordingly we went over, and I was very pleased I had gone, for the
rural gathering was a very pretty and characteristic sight. The people
from all the country round were collected together in the chur