he castle, whence in
bygone days the Turks had driven out his ancestors, and whence, in their
turn, throwing off the yoke of the conquerors, his ancestors had driven
out the Turks, little Prince Andras found again examples before him in
the giants in semi-oriental costumes, glittering in steel or draped
in purple, who looked down upon him from their frames; smoke-blackened
paintings wherein the eagle eyes and long moustaches of black hussars,
contemporaries of Sobieski, or magnates in furred robes, with aigrettes
in their caps, and curved sabres garnished with precious stones and
enamel, attracted and held spellbound the silent child, while through
the window floated in, sung by some shepherd, or played by wandering
Tzigani, the refrain of the old patriotic ballad 'Czaty Demeter', the
origin of which is lost in the mist of ages--

Remember, oh, yes! remember our ancestors! Brave, proud Magyars,
when you left the land of the Scythians, brave ancestors, great
forefathers, you did not suspect that your sons would be slaves!
Remember, oh, yes! remember our ancestors!

Andras did remember them, and he knew by heart their history. He knew
the heroism of Prince Zilah Sandor falling in Mohacz in 1566 beside his
wife Hanska who had followed him, leaving in the cradle her son Janski,
whose grandson, Zilah Janos, in 1867, at the very place where his
ancestor had been struck, sabred the Turks, crying: "Sandor and Hanska,
look down upon me; your blood avenges you!"

There was not one of those men, whose portraits followed the child with
their black eyes, who was not recorded in the history of his country for
some startling deed or noble sacrifice. All had fought for Hungary: the
greater part had died for her. There was a saying that the deathbed of
the Zilahs was a bloody battleground. When he offered his name and his
life to Maria Theresa, one of the Zilah princes had said proudly to the
Empress: "You demand of the Hungarians gold, they bring you steel.
The gold was to nourish your courtiers, the steel will be to save your
crown. Forward!" These terrible ancestors were, besides, like all the
magnates of Hungary, excessively proud of their nobility and their
patriarchal system of feudalism. They knew how to protect their
peasants, who were trained soldiers, how to fight for them, and how to
die at their head; but force seemed to them supreme justice, and they
asked nothing but their sword with which to defend their rig