CHAPTER III.

S

SOLD INTO SLAVERY.

O intoxicated with joy was the army, and

so deeply affected with gratitude were the

generals, at these successive victories of our hero, that a pageant of six thousand men was ordered to escort him through the camp. The three heads of his enemies were borne on uplifted spears before the three captured horses, and Smith was marched in this style of an ancient conqueror into the tent of the prince. The latter embraced him with ardor, bestowed on him a great deal of praise for his bravery and skill, and presented him with a splendid steed, gorgeously caparisoned, a bright and flashing scimetar, and a costly belt. He likewise received additional rewards from the Earl of Meldritch, and was forthwith promoted in his service. Subsequently, also, when the Prince Sigismund came into the camp

to review the army, hearing of his distinguished courage, he presented him with his portrait framed in gold, settled on him a pension of three hundred ducats for every year he lived, and gave him of his own accord a patent of nobility, which was afterwards recorded, as such things usually are, in what is called the Herald's College, in England. By the gift of this patent, therefore, Smith at once became a nobleman.

The preparations for opening the assault on the walls of the tower of Regall being finally completed, the work was begun by the discharge of twenty-six cannon, that kept up a perpetual fire for about two weeks. Perseverance had been the watchword of the commander from the beginning; and, with perseverance, the muchdesired object was attained at last. Two wide breaches were effected by the fire of the guns, through which the troops were commanded to enter. For a while the Turks resisted with all their well-known bravery, fighting the besiegers fiercely hand to hand, and selling their lives at the dearest possible rate. But a prolonged resistance promised nothing but a speedier death than they might otherwise find, and they soon

beat a retreat to the castle, or citadel. Here they shut themselves up, secure for the time in the refuge which it offered.

But the enemy speedily brought their guns to bear on this last fortress, eager to get at the hated foes to which it gave shelter. It was to little purpose now that the hard-pressed inmates sent out a flag-of-truce, or that they offered to capitulate on any terms that might be submitted. Their conquerors felt that they had them already in their power, and the recollection of former wrongs it was exceedingly difficult to wipe out. They neither heard nor heeded, therefore, the prayers and petitions that were borne on every breath of the mountain air to their ears. The moment they had caused a breach in the castle's walls, they sprang in and commenced an indiscriminate slaughter, such as makes one's blood run cold to relate. All were put to the sword in a spirit of the most barbarous cruelty. Their heads were cut off and stuck around the walls of the town,-horrible proofs to those who saw them of the bloody havoc that had been going on within. It was a dreadful massacre, from which none escaped to their friends to tell the sorry tale.

Prince Moyses left the place soon after in the keeping of a sufficient garrison, and set out with the rest of his army upon other and more distant expeditions. Cities were sacked, and town after town was carried by assault. In all these revolting experiences of the army, Smith, of course, took a very active part; but he has confessed, in the Narrative of his own life, how little his inner and better feelings approved of the terrible scenes through which he was compelled to pass. The enemy, to be sure, would no doubt in all cases have been guilty of the same cruelties, had it but fallen within their power; yet that is but a poor extenuation, we must allow, of the conduct of those whose better fortune made them the conquerors.

About this time Prince Sigismund, of Transylvania, finding that he could never hope successfully to make head against both the German emperor and the Turks combined, so far bethought himself of the unhappy condition of his subjects as to accept the terms of peace which the emperor offered him, and, by retiring with the title and the ample fortune of a nobleman, gave over his rule to the former altogether.

He saw that his country was fast falling in pieces, in consequence of these two wars, and he had the good of his subjects too much at heart to persist in a course that was now little less than downright folly, and must surely lead to their ultimate destruction. But the Prince Moyses, who held command under him, would not yield on any terms to the demands of the In this determination he was supemperor. ported by his troops, and soon after led them on to an encounter with the forces of the Germans. He was beaten, and obliged to flee to his old enemies, the Turks, for refuge and succor. Smith, however, did not happen to be in his service in this unlucky emergency, but still remained near his old friend, the Earl of Meldritch. The latter was simply waiting for another brush with the common foe, the Turks, for which an opportunity was not long in coming. It would have been folly for him to have attempted anything now on his own account, and he therefore turned over both his arms and his allegiance to the emperor at the same moment.

Jeremias was at that time the governor of the Turkish province called Wallachia, whose dis