cession--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.

It must be mentioned that Transylvania, which the Earl of Meldritch,
accompanied by Captain Smith, set out to relieve, had long been in a
disturbed condition, owing to internal dissensions, of which the Turks
took advantage. Transylvania, in fact, was a Turkish dependence, and
it gives us an idea of the far reach of the Moslem influence in Europe,
that Stephen VI., vaivode of Transylvania, was, on the commendation of
Sultan Armurath III., chosen King of Poland.

To go a little further back than the period of Smith's arrival, John II.
of Transylvania was a champion of the Turk, and an enemy of Ferdinand
and his successors. His successor, Stephen VI., surnamed Battori, or
Bathor, was made vaivode by the Turks, and afterwards, as we have said,
King of Poland. He was succeeded in 1575 by his brother Christopher
Battori, who was the first to drop the title of vaivode and assume that
of Prince of Transylvania. The son of Christopher, Sigismund Bat