The Slaves of the Padishah Part 59

Long ago the Divan had wished to profit by this blind belief, and countless emba.s.sies had been sent to the youthful hermit in his solitude announcing the fall of generals, the loss of battles, the pressure of peril.

Nothing could move Feriz. To all these tidings he replied:

"Thus it must come to pa.s.s! Doves do not spring from serpents' eggs.

Your rulers are those who took it upon them to wipe out a sacred oath from the patient pages, who tore up and burnt and scattered to the winds the vow that was made before G.o.d, and now ye likewise shall be wiped from the page of history and your memory shall be laden with reproaches.

Learn ye, therefore, that it is dangerous to play with the name of Allah, and though many of you grow so high that his head touches the Heavens--yet he is but a man, and the earth moves beneath his feet, and presently he shall fall and perish."

The men perceived that these words were not so bad as they seemed to be at first sight, and after every fresh defeat, more and more of his old acquaintances came to see him and begged and prayed him to seize his sword once more and let himself be chosen leader of the host.

He sternly rejected every offer. No allurement was capable of making him change his resolution.

"When the time comes for me to draw my sword," he said, "I will come without asking. That time will come none the quicker for anyone's beseeching, but come it will one day and not tarry."

And, indeed, the advent of that time had become a matter of necessity for the Ottoman Empire. The banners of the German Empire were waving in the very heart of Turkey; the Poles had recovered Podolia, the Venetians were on the Turkish islands, and at last Transylvania also broke with the Porte and opened her fortresses to the enemies of the Padishah.

The new Sultan collected fresh armies, military enthusiasm was stimulated by great rewards, fresh alliances were formed, and among the new allies the one who enjoyed the greatest confidence was Emeric Tokoly, who was proclaimed Prince of Transylvania, and orders were given to the Tartar Khan and the Prince of Moldavia to support him with their forces.

Tokoly, always avid of fame and glory, threw himself heart and soul into this new enterprise, but it was only when he saw the army with which he was to conquer Transylvania that he had misgivings. His soldiers were good for robbing and burning, they had been used to that for a long time, but when it came to fighting there was no power on earth capable of keeping them together. What could he make of soldiers whose sole knowledge of the art of warfare consisted in running backwards and forwards, whose most sensible weapon was the dart, and who, whenever they heard a gun go off, stuffed up their ears and bolted like so many mice? And with these ragam.u.f.fins he was expected to fight regular, highly-disciplined troops.

Suddenly an idea occurred to him. He sat down and wrote a letter and delivered it to a swift courier, enjoining him not to rest or tarry till he had placed it in the proper hands.

This letter was addressed to Feriz Beg. In it Tokoly informed him of the course of events in Transylvania, and it concluded thus:

"Behold, what you prophesied has come to pa.s.s, those who began the war along with us now continue the war against us. Remember that you held out the promise of joining us when such a time came; fulfil your promise."

Feriz Beg got this letter early in the morning, and the moment after he had read it he ordered his stableman instantly to saddle his war-charger, he chose from among his swords those which smote the heaviest, exchanged his grey mantle for a splendid and costly costume, gave a great banquet to all his retainers, and bade them make merry, for in an hour's time, he would be off to the wars.

The imperial army was making itself quite at home in Albania. Beautiful scenery and beautiful women smiled upon the victors; there was money also and to spare. And soon came the rumour that a gigantic Tartar host was approaching the Albanian mountains, in number exceeding sixty thousand. The imperial army was no more than nine thousand; but they only laughed at the rumour, they had seen far larger armies fly before them. The pick of the Turkish host, the Spahis, the Janissaries, had cast down their arms before them in thousands; while it was the talk of the bazaars that all that the Tartars were good for was to devastate conquered territory. Besides, reinforcements were expected from Hungary, where the Prince of Baden was encamped beneath Nandor-Fehervar with a numerous army.

The leader of the Albanian forces was the Prince of Hanover.

He was a pupil of the lately deceased Piccolomini, and though he inherited his valour he was scarcely his equal in wisdom.

On hearing of the approach of the Tartar army he a.s.sembled his captains and held a council of war. The enemy was a.s.sumed to be the old mob which used to turn tail at the first cannon-shot, and could not be overtaken because of the superior swiftness of its horses. And indeed it was the old mob, but a new spirit now inspired it; it followed a new leader whom the enemy had never put to flight or beaten, and that leader was Feriz Beg.

Tokoly's letter had speedily brought the young hero all the way from Syria to Stambul to offer his sword and his genius to the new Sultan, and the Sultan had charged him to lead the Tartar hordes against the imperial army.

When Feriz, from the top of a hill, saw the forces of the Prince of Hanover all wedged together in a compact ma.s.s on the plain before him like a huge living machine only awaiting a propelling hand to set it in motion, he quickly sent the Tartars who were with him back into the fir-woods that they might well cover their darts with the tar and turpentine exuding from the trees, and this done, he sent them to gallop round the Prince's camp and take up their position well within range.

The Prince observed the movement but left them alone; oftentimes had the Turks attempted a simple a.s.sault upon the German camp; oftentimes had their threefold superior forces surrounded the small, well-ordered camp and a.s.saulted it from every side, and the Germans used always politely to allow them to come within range of their guns and then discharge all their artillery at once--and generally that was the end of the whole affair.

Feriz, however, made no a.s.sault upon them, but got his Tartars to surround them, commanding them to set their darts on fire and discharge them into the air so that they might fall down into the German camp.

According to this plan they could fire at the enemy at a much greater distance off than the enemy could fire upon them, for the dart, flying in a curve could reach further than the straight-going musket b.a.l.l.s of those days, and wherever it fell its sharp point inflicted a wound, whereas the bullet was often spent before it reached its mark.

Suddenly a flaming flood of darts darkened the air and the burning resinous bolts fell from all sides into the crowded ranks of the imperial army; the points of the darts fastened in the backs of the horses, the burning drops fell upon the faces and garments of the warriors, burning through the texture and inflicting grievous wounds; the horses began to rear violently at this unexpected attack; the gunners, cursing and swearing, began to discharge their guns anyhow at the enemy; n.o.body paid any attention to the orders of the general, discipline was quite at an end; the burning darts were destructive of all military tactics, for there was no refuge from them, and every dart struck its man.

Then Feriz Beg blew with the trumpets, and suddenly the imperial troops were attacked from all sides. They were unable to repel the attack in the regular way, but intermingled with their a.s.sailants, fought man to man. The picked German troopers quitted themselves like men, not one of them departed without taking another with him to the next world, but the Turks outnumbered them, and just when the Prince's army was exhausted by the attacks of the Tartars, Feriz brought forward his well-rested reserves, who burned with the desire to wash out the shame of former defeats. The Prince of Hanover fell on the battle-field with the rest of his army. Not one escaped to tell the tale.

This was the first victory which turned the fortunes of war once more in favour of the Turks after so many defeats.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

THE LAST DAY.

It was well known in Transylvania that the Porte had proclaimed Tokoly Prince and given into his hands armies wherewith he might invade the Princ.i.p.ality and conquer it, so General Heissler gave orders to the counties and the Szeklers to rise up in defence of the realm, which they accordingly did.

The Hungarian forces were commanded by Balthasar Mackasi and Michael Teleki himself; the leader of the Germans was Heissler, with Generals Noscher and Magni, and Colonel Doria under him, all of them heroic soldiers of fortune, who, all the way from Vienna to Wallachia, had never seen the Turks otherwise than as corpses or fugitives.

When Tokoly was approaching through Wallachia with his forces, Heissler quickly closed all the pa.s.ses, and placed three regiments at the Iron Gates, while he himself took up a position in the Pa.s.s of Bozza, and there pitched his camp amidst the mountains.

The encamped forces were merry and sprightly enough, there was lots to eat and drink of all sorts, and the Szeklers were quite close to their wives and houses, so that they did not feel a bit homesick--only Teleki was perpetually dissatisfied. He would have liked the forces to be marching continually from one pa.s.s to another and sentinels to be standing on guard night and day on every footpath which led into the kingdom.

The third week after the camp had been pitched at Bozza he suddenly said to the general with a very anxious face:

"Sir, what if Tokoly were to appear at some other gate of the kingdom while we are lying here?"

"Every avenue is closed against him," answered Heissler.

"But suppose he got in before we came here?"

"The trouble then would not be how he got in but how he could get out again."

But Teleki wanted to show that he also knew something of the science of warfare, so he said with the grave face of an habitual counsellor:

"I do not think it expedient that we worthy soldiers should be crammed up into a corner of the kingdom. In my opinion it would be much safer if, after guarding every pa.s.s, we took up a position equi-distant between Torcsvar and Bozza."

Now for once Teleki was right, but for that very reason Heissler was all the more put out. It was intolerable that a lay-general should suggest something to him which he could not gainsay.

And the worst of it was Teleki would not leave the general alone. "I am partic.i.p.ating in nothing here," said he, "make use of me, give me something to do, and I will do it--occupation is what I want."

"I'll give it you at once," said Heissler, and putting his arm through Teleki's he led him to his tent, there made him sit down beside him at a round table, sent one of the yawning guards to summon Noscher, Magni, Doria and the other generals, made them sit down by the side of Teleki, sat down at the table himself, and drawing a pack of cards from his pocket, gave it to Teleki with the words:

"Here's some occupation for you--you deal!"

"What, sir!" burst forth Teleki, quite upset by the jest, "play at cards when the enemy stands before us?"

"How can we be better employed when the enemy is _not_ before us? Do you know how to play at landsknecht?"

"I do not."

"Then we'll teach you."

And they did teach him, for in a couple of hours they had won from him a couple of hundred ducats, whereupon Teleki, on the pretext that he had no more money, retired from the game.