we can't help. So all the young men of Toroczko enlisted in
the militia,--every mother's son of them,--and they are now serving in
the eleventh, the thirty-second, and the seventy-third battalions. You
ask me, perhaps, why we mountain folk must needs take the field when
already we are fighting for our country all our life long in the bowels
of the earth. You say it is enough for us to dig the iron in our
mountains without wielding it on the battle-field; else what do the
privileges mean that were granted us by Andreas II. and Bela IV., by
which we are exempted from military service? It's no use your talking,
Manasseh; you've been away from home. But had you been here and seen
and heard your brother David when he stood up in the middle of the
marketplace, made a speech to the young men around him, and then buckled
on his sword and mounted his horse, you would certainly have mounted and
followed him. How can you quench the flames when every house is ablaze?
All the young men were on fire and it was out of the question to dampen
their ardour. Besides, this is no ordinary war; freedom itself is at
stake, and that is a matter that concerns Toroczko. All the Wallachians
around us, stirred up by imperial officers sent from Vienna, took up
arms against us, and nothing was left us but to defend ourselves. The
people took such a fancy to our brothers that there was no other way but
to make them officers. You cry out against the good folk for letting
their commanders be taken prisoners. But don't make such a noise about
it." (Manasseh had thus far not once opened his mouth.) "You shall soon
see that your brothers were no fools, and did not rush into danger
recklessly. You know that soon after the Wallachian mass-meeting at
Balazsfalva came the Szekler muster at Agyagfalva, and presently we
found ourselves like an island in the midst of the sea. A Wallachian
army ten thousand strong, under Moga's command, beset us on all sides,
while we had but three hundred armed men all told,--just the number that
Leonidas had at Thermopylae. Our eldest brother, Berthold, who, since he
turned vegetarian, can't bear to see a chicken killed for dinner, and is
dead set against all bloodshed, advised us to make peaceful terms with
the enemy. So we drew lots to see who should go out and parley with
them, and it fell to our brother Simon. He took a white flag and went
into the enemy's camp; but they held him prisoner and refused to let him
go. Then David