ment to be
touched off. Nevertheless, during this time they went about their usual
tasks, digging iron out of the bowels of the earth, sowing their grain,
planting and weeding their gardens, spinning their flax, tanning their
hides, sending their children to school, and all betaking themselves to
church on Sunday morning. The Sunday afternoon diversions, however, were
suspended, and in their stead the entire male population practised
military drill. Even the twelve-year-old boy cried if he was not allowed
to take part. All were determined to shed their last drop of blood
rather than let the enemy set foot inside their town. Even the women
busied themselves sharpening axes and scythes, resolute in their purpose
to defend their little ones or, if need were, to put them to death with
their own hands and then slay themselves. No woman, no child, should
fall into the enemy's clutches alive.

It was the very last day of July. The fields were dotted with sheaves of
grain, and the farmers were hastening to gather them in. They had been
surprised by countless numbers of crows and ravens which invaded the
valley and filled the air with their hoarse, discordant cries. Those
experienced in war knew that these birds were the usual attendants and
heralds of armies.

More definite tidings were not long in coming. Messengers from St.
George arrived breathless with the report that Diurbanu's troops were
rapidly approaching. But no one was disconcerted by the news; all were
ready for the enemy. Throwing scythes and pitchforks aside, they
snatched up their firearms. Each battalion of the national guard had its
assigned position. The streets were barricaded with wagons, and the road
toward Borev was laid under water by damming the brook, to prevent a
surprise from that direction. Aaron, with forty other men, clambered up
the steep slope of the Szekler Stone to repulse the enemy from this
commanding height,--forty men against as many hundred. They would have
laughed at their own folly had they but stopped to think.

Toward noon the sturdy little band of defenders was increased by the
coming of fugitives from St. George. For these, too, there were arms
enough in Toroczko. The effective force now in the village amounted to
nearly four hundred.

Manasseh was at home with the women of the family. They had declined
Aaron's offer to conceal them in Csegez Cave, preferring to remain under
the family roof and there await what God had appointed