hemselves with ordering prayers and ringing the
Turkish bells, as they were called. The people were as supine as their
princes. He did, however, succeed, by the aid of his earnest eloquence,
in gathering a force of a few thousands of peasants, priests, scholars,
and the like; a motley host who were chiefly armed with iron flails and
pitchforks, but who followed him with an enthusiasm equal to his own.
With this shadow of an army he joined Hunyades, and the combined force
made its way in boats down the Danube into the heart of Hungary, and
approached the frontier fortress which Mahomet II. was besieging with a
host of one hundred and sixty thousand men, and which its defender, the
brother-in-law of John Hunyades, had nearly given up for lost.

On came the flotilla,--the peasants with their flails and forks and
Hunyades with his trained soldiers,--and attacked the Turkish fleet with
such furious energy that it was defeated and dispersed, and the allied
forces made their way into the beleaguered city. Capistrano and his
followers were full of enthusiasm. He was a second Peter the Hermit,
his peasant horde were crusaders, fierce against the infidels,
disdaining death in God's cause; neither leader nor followers had a
grain of military knowledge or experience, but they had, what is
sometimes better, courage and enthusiasm.

John Hunyades _had_ military experience, and looked with cold disfavor
on the burning and blind zeal of his new recruits. He was willing that
they should aid him in repelling the furious attacks of the Turks, but
to his trained eyes an attack on the well-intrenched camp of the enemy
would have been simple madness, and he sternly forbade any such suicidal
course, even threatening death to whoever should attempt it.

In truth, his caution seemed reasonable. An immense host surrounded the
city on the land side, and had done so on the water side, also, until
the Christian flotilla had sunk, captured, and dispersed its boats. Far
as the eye could see, the gorgeously-embellished tents of the Turkish
army, with their gilded crescents glittering in the sun, filled the
field of view. Cannon-mounted earthworks threatened the walls from every
quarter. Squadrons of steel-clad horsemen swept the field. The crowding
thousands of besiegers pressed the city day and night. Even defence
seemed useless. Assault on such a host appeared madness to experienced
eyes. Hunyades seemed wise in his stern disapproval of such an ide