These missiles of Smith’s invention were flung at midnight, when the alarum was given, and “it was a perfect sight to see the short flaming course of their flight in the air, but presently after their fall, the lamentable noise of the miserable slaughtered Turkes was most wonderful to heare.”

While Smith was amusing the Turks in this manner, the Earl Rosworme planned an attack on the opposite suburb, which was defended by a muddy lake, supposed to be impassable.  Furnishing his men with bundles of sedge, which they threw before them as they advanced in the dark night, the lake was made passable, the suburb surprised, and the captured guns of the Turks were turned upon them in the city to which they had retreated.  The army of the Bashaw was cut to pieces and he himself captured.

The Earl of Meldritch, having occupied the town, repaired the walls and the ruins of this famous city that had been in the possession of the Turks for some threescore years.

It is not our purpose to attempt to trace the meteoric course of Captain Smith in all his campaigns against the Turks, only to indicate the large part he took in these famous wars for the possession of Eastern Europe.  The siege of Alba Regalis must have been about the year 1601—­Smith never troubles himself with any dates—­and while it was undecided, Mahomet III.—­this was the prompt Sultan who made his position secure by putting to death nineteen of his brothers upon his accession—­raised sixty thousand troops for its relief or its recovery.  The Duc de Mercoeur went out to meet this army, and encountered it in the plains of Girke.  In the first skirmishes the Earl Meldritch was very nearly cut off, although he made “his valour shine more bright than his armour, which seemed then painted with Turkish blood.”  Smith himself was sore wounded and had his horse slain under him.  The campaign, at first favorable to the Turks, was inconclusive, and towards winter the Bashaw retired to Buda.  The Duc de Mercoeur then divided his army.  The Earl of Rosworme was sent to assist the Archduke Ferdinand, who was besieging Caniza; the Earl of Meldritch, with six thousand men, was sent to assist Georgio Busca against the Transylvanians; and the Duc de Mercoeur set out for France to raise new forces.  On his way he received great honor at Vienna, and staying overnight at Nuremberg, he was royally entertained by the Archdukes Mathias and Maximilian.  The next morning after the feast—­how it chanced is not known—­he was found dead His brother-inlaw died two days afterwards, and the hearts of both, with much sorrow, were carried into France.

We now come to the most important event in the life of Smith before he became an adventurer in Virginia, an event which shows Smith’s readiness to put in practice the chivalry which had in the old chronicles influenced his boyish imagination; and we approach it with the satisfaction of knowing that it loses nothing in Smith’s narration.