The Romany Rye Part 27

_Myself_. Another word. Did Matyas leave a son?

_Hungarian_. A natural son, Hunyadi John, called so after the great man.

He would have been universally acknowledged as King of Hungary but for the illegitimacy of his birth. As it was, Ulaszlo, the son of the King of Poland, afterwards called Ulaszlo the Second, who claimed Hungary as being descended from Albert, was nominated king by a great majority of the Magyar electors. Hunyadi John for some time disputed the throne with him; there was some bloodshed, but Hunyadi John eventually submitted, and became the faithful captain of Ulaszlo, notwithstanding that the Turk offered to a.s.sist him with an army of two hundred thousand men.

_Myself_. Go on.

_Hungarian_. To what? Tche Drak, to the Mohacs Veszedelem. Ulaszlo left a son, Lajos the Second, born without skin, as it is said, certainly without a head. He, contrary to the advice of all his wise counsellors,--and amongst them was Batory Stephen, who became eventually King of Poland--engaged, with twenty-five thousand men, at Mohacs, Soliman the Turk, who had an army of two hundred thousand. Drak! the Magyars were annihilated, King Lajos disappeared with his heavy horse and armour in a bog. We call that battle, which was fought on the 29th of August, 1526, the destruction of Mohacs, but it was the destruction of Hungary.

_Myself_. You have twice used the word drak, what is the meaning of it?

Is it Hungarian?

_Hungarian_. No! it belongs to the mad Wallacks. They are a nation of madmen on the other side of Transylvania. Their country was formerly a fief of Hungary, like Moldavia, which is inhabited by the same race, who speak the same language and are equally mad.

_Myself_. What language do they speak?

_Hungarian_. A strange mixture of Latin and Sclavonian--they themselves being a mixed race of Romans and Sclavonians. Trajan sent certain legions to form military colonies in Dacia; and the present Wallacks and Moldavians are, to a certain extent, the descendants of the Roman soldiers, who married the women of the country. I say to a certain extent, for the Sclavonian element both in blood and language seems to prevail.

_Myself_. And what is drak?

_Hungarian_. Dragon; which the Wallacks use for "devil." The term is curious, as it shows that the old Romans looked upon the dragon as an infernal being.

_Myself_. You have been in Wallachia?

_Hungarian_. I have, and glad I was to get out of it. I hate the mad Wallacks.

_Myself_. Why do you call them mad?

_Hungarian_. They are always drinking or talking. I never saw a Wallachian eating or silent. They talk like madmen, and drink like madmen. In drinking they use small phials, the contents of which they pour down their throats. When I first went amongst them I thought the whole nation was under a course of physic, but the terrible jabber of their tongues soon undeceived me. Drak was the first word I heard on entering Dacia, and the last when I left it. The Moldaves, if possible, drink more, and talk more than the Wallachians.

_Myself_. It is singular enough that the only Moldavian I have known could not speak. I suppose he was born dumb.

_Hungarian_. A Moldavian born dumb! Excuse me, the thing is impossible,--all Moldavians are born talking! I have known a Moldavian who could not speak, but he was not born dumb. His master, an Armenian, snipped off part of his tongue at Adrianople. He drove him mad with his jabber. He is now in London, where his master has a house. I have letters of credit on the house: the clerk paid me money in London, the master was absent; the money which you received for the horse belonged to that house.

_Myself_. Another word with respect to Hungarian history.

_Hungarian_. Drak! I wish to say nothing more about Hungarian history.

_Myself_. The Turk, I suppose, after Mohacs, got possession of Hungary?

_Hungarian_. Not exactly. The Turk, upon the whole, showed great moderation; not so the Austrian. Ferdinand the First claimed the crown of Hungary as being the cousin of Maria, widow of Lajos; he found too many disposed to support him. His claim, however, was resisted by Zapolya John, a Hungarian magnate, who caused himself to be elected king.

Hungary was for a long time devastated by wars between the partisans of Zapolya and Ferdinand. At last Zapolya called in the Turk. Soliman behaved generously to him, and after his death befriended his young son, and Isabella his queen; eventually the Turks became masters of Transylvania and the greater part of Hungary. They were not bad masters, and had many friends in Hungary, especially amongst those of the reformed faith, to which I have myself the honour of belonging; those of the reformed faith found the Mufti more tolerant than the Pope. Many Hungarians went with the Turks to the siege of Vienna, whilst Tekeli and his hors.e.m.e.n guarded Hungary for them. A gallant enterprise that siege of Vienna, the last great effort of the Turk; it failed, and he speedily lost Hungary, but he did not sneak from Hungary like a frightened hound.

His defence of Buda will not be soon forgotten, where Apty Basha, the governor, died fighting like a lion in the breach. There's many a Hungarian would prefer Stamboul to Vienna. Why does your Government always send fools to represent it at Vienna?

_Myself_. I have already told you that I cannot say. What became of Tekeli?

_Hungarian_. When Hungary was lost he retired with the Turks into Turkey. Count Renoncourt, in his Memoirs, mentions having seen him at Adrianople. The Sultan, in consideration of the services which he had rendered to the Moslem in Hungary, made over the revenues of certain towns and districts for his subsistence. The count says that he always went armed to the teeth, and was always attended by a young female dressed in male attire, who had followed him in his wars, and had more than once saved his life. His end is wrapped in mystery, I--whose greatest boast, next to being a Hungarian, is to be of his blood--know nothing of his end.

_Myself_. Allow me to ask who you are?

_Hungarian_. Egy szegeny Magyar Nemes ember, a poor Hungarian n.o.bleman, son of one yet poorer. I was born in Transylvania, not far to the west of good Coloscvar. I served some time in the Austrian army as a n.o.ble Hussar, but am now equerry to a great n.o.bleman, to whom I am distantly related. In his service I have travelled far and wide, buying horses. I have been in Russia and in Turkey, and am now at Horncastle, where I have had the satisfaction to meet with you, and to buy your horse, which is, in truth, a n.o.ble brute.

_Myself_. For a soldier and equerry you seem to know a great deal of the history of your country.

_Hungarian_. All I know is derived from Florentius of Buda, whom we call Budai Ferentz. He was professor of Greek and Latin at the Reformed College of Debreczen, where I was educated; he wrote a work ent.i.tled "Magyar Polgari Lexicon," Lives of Great Hungarian Citizens. He was dead before I was born, but I found his book, when I was a child, in the solitary home of my father, which stood on the confines of a puszta, or wilderness, and that book I used to devour in winter nights when the winds were whistling around the house. Oh! how my blood used to glow at the descriptions of Magyar valour, and likewise of Turkish; for Florentius has always done justice to the Turk. Many a pa.s.sage similar to this have I got by heart; it is connected with a battle on the plain of Rigo, which Hunyadi lost:--"The next day, which was Friday, as the two armies were drawn up in battle array, a Magyar hero riding forth, galloped up and down, challenging the Turks to single combat. Then came out to meet him the son of a renowned bashaw of Asia; rus.h.i.+ng upon each other, both broke their lances, but the Magyar hero and his horse rolled over upon the ground, for the Turks had always the best horses." O young man of Horncastle! if ever you learn Hungarian--and learn it a.s.suredly you will after what I have told you--read the book of Florentius of Buda, even if you go to Hungary to get it, for you will scarcely find it elsewhere, and even there with difficulty, for the book has been long out of print. It describes the actions of the great men of Hungary down to the middle of the sixteenth century; and besides being written in the purest Hungarian, has the merit of having for its author a professor of the Reformed College of Debreczen.

_Myself_. I will go to Hungary rather than not read it. I am glad that the Turk beat the Magyar. When I used to read the ballads of Spain I always sided with the Moor against the Christian.

_Hungarian_. It was a drawn fight after all, for the terrible horse of the Turk presently flung his own master, whereupon the two champions returned to their respective armies; but in the grand conflict which ensued, the Turks beat the Magyars, pursuing them till night, and striking them on the necks with their scymetars. The Turk is a n.o.ble fellow; I should wish to be a Turk, were I not a Magyar.

_Myself_. The Turk always keeps his word, I am told.

_Hungarian_. Which the Christian very seldom does, and even the Hungarian does not always. In 1444 Ulaszlo made, at Szeged, peace with Amurath for ten years, which he swore with an oath to keep, but at the instigation of the Pope Julian he broke it, and induced his great captain, Hunyadi John, to share in the perjury. The consequence was the battle of Varna, of the 10th of November, in which Hunyadi was routed, and Ulaszlo slain. Did you ever hear his epitaph? it is both solemn and edifying:--

Romulidae Cannas ego Varnam clade notavi; Discite mortales non temerare fidem: Me nisi Pontifices jussissent rumpere foedus Non ferret Scythic.u.m Pannonis ora jugum."

"Halloo!" said the jockey, starting up from a doze in which he had been indulging for the last hour, his head leaning upon his breast, "what is that? That's not high Dutch; I bargained for high Dutch, and I left you speaking high Dutch, as it sounded very much like the language of horses, as I have been told high Dutch does; but as for what you are speaking now, whatever you may call it, it sounds more like the language of another kind of animal. I suppose you want to insult me, because I was once a d.i.c.ky-boy."

"Nothing of the kind," said I; "the gentleman was making a quotation in Latin."

"Latin, was it?" said the jockey; "that alters the case. Latin is genteel, and I have sent my eldest boy to an academy to learn it. Come, let us hear you fire away in Latin," he continued, proceeding to re-light his pipe, which, before going to sleep, he had laid on the table.

"If you wish to follow the discourse in Latin," said the Hungarian, in very bad English, "I can oblige you; I learned to speak very good Latin in the college of Debreczen."

"That's more," said I, "than I have done in the colleges where I have been; in any little conversation which we may yet have, I wish you would use German."

"Well," said the jockey, taking a whiff, "make your conversation as short as possible, whether in Latin or Dutch, for, to tell you the truth, I am rather tired of merely playing listener."

"You were saying you had been in Russia," said I; "I believe the Russians are part of the Sclavonian race."

_Hungarian_. Yes, part of the great Sclavonian family; one of the most numerous races in the world. The Russians themselves are very numerous; would that the Magyars could boast of the fifth part of their number!

_Myself_. What is the number of the Magyars?

_Hungarian_. Barely four millions. We came a tribe of Tartars into Europe, and settled down amongst Sclavonians, whom we conquered, but who never coalesced with us. The Austrian at present plays in Pannonia the Sclavonian against us, and us against the Sclavonian; but the downfall of the Austrian is at hand; they, like us, are not a numerous people.

_Myself_. Who will bring about his downfall?

_Hungarian_. The Russians. The Rysckie Tsar will lead his people forth, all the Sclavonians will join him, he will conquer all before him.

_Myself_. Are the Russians good soldiers?

_Hungarian_. They are stubborn and unflinching to an astonis.h.i.+ng degree, and their fidelity to their Tsar is quite admirable. See how the Russians behaved at Plescova, in Livonia, in the old time, against our great Batory Stephen; they defended the place till it was a heap of rubbish, and mark how they behaved after they had been made prisoners.

Stephen offered them two alternatives:--to enter into his service, in which they would have good pay, clothing, and fair treatment; or to be allowed to return to Russia. Without the slightest hesitation they, to a man, chose the latter, though well aware that their beloved Tsar, the cruel Ivan Basilowits, would put them all to death, amidst tortures the most horrible, for not doing what was impossible--preserving the town.

_Myself_. You speak Russian?

_Hungarian_. A little. I was born in the vicinity of a Sclavonian tribe; the servants of our house were Sclavonians, and I early acquired something of their language, which differs not much from that of Russia; when in that country I quickly understood what was said.

_Myself_. Have the Russians any literature?