Pass. Here, however, they fell
into an ambuscade arranged by the men of Herrmannstadt, headed by their
burgomaster, the brave George Hecht. At a concerted signal the Saxons
rushed upon the despoilers with such a fierce and sudden onslaught, that
though the Turks far exceeded them in number, they were completely
overpowered. Many a turbaned corpse lay that day on the green margin of
the classical Aluta, and few, very few, of the hated Turks, it is said,
escaped over the frontier to tell the tale of their disaster. How many a
home must have been gladdened by the sight of the rescued children after
that happy victory!

These abductions are not altogether a thing of the past. In the autumn
of 1875, the very date of my tour, a paragraph appeared in a Pest
newspaper stating that a young girl of great beauty in the neighbourhood
of Temesvar, in the Banat of Hungary, had been secretly carried off into
Turkey without the knowledge or consent of her parents. It was further
stated that these scandalous proceedings were of very frequent
occurrence in the border provinces. For some years past the supply of
beautiful Circassians has been deficient, it is said, so doubtless the
harems of Constantinople are supplied with Christian maidens to make up
the numbers. The late Sultan--I mean the one who committed suicide--was
considered a moderate man, and he had eight hundred women in his harem,
at least so a relative of mine was credibly informed at Constantinople.

CHAPTER XVII.

Magyar intolerance of the German--Patriotic revival of the Magyar
language--Ride from Herrmannstadt to Kronstadt--The village of
Zeiden--Curious scene in church--Reformation in
Transylvania--Political bitterness between Saxons and Magyars in
1848.

My horse being all right again, I thought it high time to push on to
Kronstadt, which is nearly ninety miles from Herrmannstadt by road.
There is railway communication, but not direct; you have to get on the
main line at the junction of Klein Koepisch--in Hungarian, Kis Kapus--and
hence to Kronstadt, called Brasso by the non-Germans. This confusion of
names is very difficult for a foreigner when consulting the railway
tables. I have often seen the names of stations put up in three
languages. Herrmannstadt is Nagy Szeben. The confusion of tongues in
Hungary is one of the greatest stumbling-blocks to progress; and
unfortunately it is considered patriotic by the Magyar to speak his own