Turks. He felt that he had in
fact gained the battle of Varna, which was only lost through the
jealous humor of a youthful king; that it behoved him not to stop half
way; that it was his duty to continue offensive operations. But in so
doing he had to rely upon his own proper forces. It is true that he
was governor of the country, but for the purpose of offensive warfare
beyond the frontier he could not gain the consent of the great nobles.

Luckily his private property had enormously increased by this time.
The Hungarian Constitution ordered the king to bestow the estates of
such noblemen, as died without male heirs or had been condemned for
any offence, on such noblemen as had approved themselves valiant
defenders of the country. Now where could be found a more worthy
recipient of such estates than Huniades, to whom the public treasury
was besides a debtor on account of the sums he disbursed for the
constant warfare he maintained against the Turks? Especially in the
south of Hungary a whole series of lordly estates, many of them
belonging to the crown, had come into Huniades' hands, either as
pledges for the repayment of the money he had paid his soldiers, or as
his own private property.

The yearly revenue arising from these vast estates was employed by
Huniades not in personal expenditure but in the defence of his
country. He himself lived as simply as anyone of his soldiers, and
recognized no other use of money than as a weapon to be used for the
defence of Christendom against Islam. In the early morn while all his
suite still slept he passed hours in prayer before the altar in the
dimly lighted church, imploring the help of the Almighty for the
attainment of his sole object in life--the destruction of the Turkish
power. At last (1448) he set out against the Sultan with a picked army
of 24,000 of his most trusty soldiers.

This time it was on the frontier of Servia, on the so-called Field of
Blackbirds, that Huniades encountered Sultan Murad, as before with an
army of 150,000 men--more than five times the number of the
Christians. Huniades at first withdrew himself into his intrenched
camp, but in a few days felt himself strong enough to engage with the
enemy on the open field. The battle lasted without interruption for
two days and a night. Huniades himself was several times in deadly
peril. Once his horse was shot under him. He was to be found wherever
assistance, support, encouragement were needed. At last o