e Ottomans out of
Europe. Amurath defeated them and added new territory to his previous
acquisitions. A peace was made in 1376, but a new though fruitless
attempt of the Slavonic peoples against him gave Amurath a pretext for
further assault upon southeastern Europe. In 1389 he conquered and
annexed Bulgaria and subjugated the Servians. In the same year Amurath
was assassinated.

Bajazet I, the son and successor of Amurath, still further extended
the Turkish conquests. Under Bajazet's son, Mahomet I (1413-1421),
comparative peace prevailed; but his son, Amurath II, rekindled the
flames of war. A strong combination, including, with other peoples,
the Hungarians and Poles, was made against him. In the struggle that
followed, and which for a time promised the complete expulsion of the
Turks from Europe, the great leader was the Hungarian, John Hunyady, born
in 1388. According to some writers, he was a Wallach and the son of a
common soldier. Creasy calls him "the illegitimate son of Sigismund, King
of Hungary, and the fair Elizabeth Morsiney." With him appeared a new
spirit, such as the Ottomans up to that time could not have expected to
encounter in that part of Europe. In Vambery's narrative we have the
authority of Hungary's greatest historian for the leading events in the
life of her greatest hero.

In Europe a new power pulsating with youthful life had arrived from
somewhere in the interior of Asia with the intention of conquering the
world. This power was the Turk--not merely a single nation, but a whole
group of peoples clustered round a nation, inspired by one single idea
which urged them ever forward--"There is no god but God, and Mahomet is
the apostle of God."

The Mahometan flood already beat upon the bounds of Catholic Christendom,
in the forefront of which stood Hungary. Hungary's King, Sigismund, was
able for a moment in 1396 to unite the nations of Europe against the
common danger, but the proud array of mail-clad knights were swept away
like chaff before the steady ranks of the janizaries.

And herewith began the long series of desolating inroads into Hungary,
for the Turks were wont to suck the blood of the nation they had marked
down as their prey. They 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 Mahometans and
janizaries. Th