more than twenty thousand of his men left dead upon the
field.

It was a signal victory. Miraculous almost, when one considers the great
disproportion of numbers. The works of the invaders, mounted with three
hundred cannon, and their camp, which contained an immense booty, fell
into the hands of the Christians, and the power of Mahomet II. was so
crippled that years passed before he was in condition to attempt a
second invasion of Europe.

The victors were not long to survive their signal triumph. The valiant
Hunyades died shortly after the battle, from wounds received in the
action or from fatal disease. Capistrano died in the same year (1456).
Hunyades left two sons, and the King of Hungary repaid his services by
oppressing both, and beheading one of these sons. But the king himself
died during the next year, and Matthias Corvinus, the remaining son of
Hunyades, was placed by the Hungarians on their throne. They had given
their brave defender the only reward in their power.

If the victory of Hunyades and Capistrano--the nobleman and the
monk--had been followed up by the princes of Europe, the Turks might
have been driven from Constantinople, Europe saved from future peril at
their hands, and the tide of subsequent history gained a cleaner and
purer flow. But nothing was done; the princes were too deeply interested
in their petty squabbles to entertain large views, and the Turks were
suffered to hold the empire of the East, and quietly to recruit their
forces for later assaults.

_LUTHER AND THE INDULGENCES._

Late in the month of April, in the year 1521, an open wagon containing
two persons was driven along one of the roads of Germany, the horse
being kept at his best pace, while now and then one of the occupants
looked back as if in apprehension. This was the man who held the reins.
The other, a short but presentable person, with pale, drawn face, lit by
keen eyes, seemed too deeply buried in thought to be heedful of
surrounding affairs. When he did lift his eyes they were directed ahead,
where the road was seen to enter the great Thuringian forest. Dressed in
clerical garb, the peasants who passed probably regarded him as a monk
on some errand of mercy. The truth was that he was a fugitive, fleeing
for his life, for he was a man condemned, who might at any moment be
waylaid and seized.

On entering the forest the wagon was driven on until a shaded and lonely
dell was reached, seemingly a fitting pla