n the morning
of the third day as the Turks who had received reinforcements were
about to renew the attack, the Voyvode of Wallachia passed over to the
side of the Turks. The voyvode belonged to the Orthodox Eastern
Church. He had joined Huniades on the way, and his desertion
transferred 6,000 men from one side to the other, and decided the
battle in favor of the Turks. The Hungarians, worn out by fatigue,
fell into a discouragement, while Huniades had no fresh troops to
bring up to their support. The battle came to a sudden end. Seventeen
thousand Hungarian corpses strewed the field, but the loss of the
Turks was more than 30,000 men.

Huniades again left to himself had again to make his escape. At first
he only dismissed his military suite; afterwards he separated from his
faithful servant in the hope that separately they might more easily
baffle their pursuers. Next he had to turn his horse adrift, as the
poor animal was incapable of continuing his journey. Thus he made his
way alone and on foot toward the frontiers of his native land. After a
while looking down from the top of a piece of elevated ground he
perceived a large body of Turks from whom he hid himself in a
neighboring lake. He thus escaped this danger, but only to encounter
another. At a turn of the road he came so suddenly upon a party of
Turkish plunderers as to be unable to escape from them, and thus
became their prisoner. But the Turks did not recognize him, and
leaving him in the hands of two of their number the rest went on in
search of more prey. His two guards soon came to blows with one
another about a heavy gold cross which they had found on the person of
their captive, and, while they were thus quarrelling, Huniades
suddenly wrenched his sword out of the hand of one of the two Turks
and cut off his head, upon which the other took to flight, and
Huniades was again free.

In the meantime, however, George, the Prince of Servia, who took part
with the aristocratic malcontents, and out of pure hatred to Huniades
had, in spite of his being a Christian, gone over to the side of the
Turks, had given strict orders that all Hungarian stragglers were to
be apprehended and brought before him. In this way Huniades fell into
the hands of some Servian peasants who delivered him to their prince.
Nor did he regain his liberty without the payment of a heavy ransom,
leaving his son, Ladislaus, as hostage in his stead.

He thus returned home amid a thousand pe