It was in the reign of Sigismund that the Turks first regularly invaded Hungary; and the young Hunyadi soon distinguished 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 churchyard, dressed of course in their bravery, and a very goodly show they made.  They were the finest Wallacks I had seen anywhere; they were superior looking in physique, and many of them must really have been well off, if one may judge a man’s wealth by the richness of the wife’s dress.

Some of the young girls were very pretty, and wore their silver-coin decorations with quite a fashionable coquettish air.  The Wallack women, whether walking or standing, never have the spindle out of their hands:  the attitude is very graceful, added to which the thread must be held daintily in the fingers.  They are very industrious, making nearly all the articles of clothing for the family.