zekeli in the confusion of battle, and reconquered the country.
During all this time wretched Hungary was ravaged with incessant wars
between the Turks and Austrians. Army after army swept to and fro over
the smoldering cities and desolated plains. Neither party gained any
decisive advantage, while Hungary was exposed to misery which no pen can
describe. Cities were bombarded, now by the Austrians and now by the
Turks, villages were burned, harvests trodden down, every thing eatable
was consumed. Outrages were perpetrated upon the helpless population by
the ferocious Turks which can not be told.

The Hungarians lost all confidence in Rhodolph. The bigoted emperor was
so much engaged in the attempt to extirpate what he called heresy from
his realms, that he neglected to send armies sufficiently strong to
protect Hungary from these ravages. He could have done this without much
difficulty; but absorbed in his hostility to Protestantism, he merely
sent sufficient troops to Hungary to keep the country in a constant
state of warfare. He filled every important governmental post in Hungary
with Catholics and foreigners. To all the complaints of the Hungarians
he turned a deaf ear; and his own Austrian troops frequently rivaled the
Turks in devastation and pillage. At the same time he issued the most
intolerant edicts, depriving the Protestants of all their rights, and
endeavoring to force the Roman Catholic religion upon the community.

He allowed, and even encouraged, his rapacious generals to insult and
defraud the Protestant Hungarian nobles, seizing their castles,
confiscating their estates and driving them into exile. This oppression
at last became unendurable. The people were driven to despair. One of
the most illustrious nobles of Hungary, a magnate of great wealth and
distinction, Stephen Botskoi, repaired to Prague to inform the emperor
of the deplorable state of Hungary and to seek redress. He was treated
with the utmost indignity; was detained for hours in the ante-chamber of
the emperor, where he encountered the most cutting insults from the
minions of the court. The indignation of the high-spirited noble was
roused to the highest pitch. And when, on his return to Hungary, he
found his estates plundered and devastated by order of the imperial
governor, he was all ready to head an insurrection.

CHAPTER XIII.

RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS.

From 1604 to 1609.

Botskoi's Manifesto.--Horrible Suffering in Tra