ere already at the bank and now crossed
noiselessly. Some of the Bedouins on the ground still groaned and
sighed.

"Knock their skulls in, so they will not betray us by their noise."

"Shall we not wait for Veer's troops?" asked the standard-bearer.

"We cannot, we have no time," said Banfy, directing his glance toward
the reddened horizon, and the little band moved quietly across fields
and thickets. Soon there was the sound of a distant roar and when they
had reached the top of a height before them Banfy-Hunyad came in
sight. The leader breathed more easily. It was not the town that was
on fire but only some hay-ricks. The roofs of the houses had been
taken off by the inhabitants in advance, so that the enemy could not
set fire to them. Church and bell-tower too were stripped of their
roofs, and one could see by the glare of the fire that they were
surrounded by the Turkish army, while from the top of the tower
brimstone and pitch with heavy beams fell like a rain of fire on the
assailants and crowded them from the walls.

Ali Pasha had not waited for his artillery which had been detained by
the bad roads, because he thought he could take by storm in a single
attack a place defended only by peasants and women; but it is well
known that despair makes soldiers of everybody and axes and scythes
are good weapons in the hands of the resolute.

At this spectacle Banfy's face suddenly glowed; he thought he saw a
woman's figure on the battlement of the tower. At once he put spurs to
his horse and rushed forward like a whirlwind, calling back to his
men:

"Do not count the foe now; time enough for that when he is down."

And within a quarter of an hour the small band reached the camp before
the town. There everybody was asleep. While one part of the army made
the attack there was time for the other to rest. Even the guards had
let their heads droop in sleep; there they lay by their staked horses,
and were only roused from their dreams when Banfy had already ridden
wildly through their ranks in every direction. The Baron, who intended
to hasten on alone to the relief of the besieged, in a trice ran down
the confused troops who, startled from their sleep, seized horse and
lance and mistaking one another the enemy crowded together and cut
down their own troops. In vain did the Turkish leaders strive to
control the frantic men.

Meanwhile, Banfy appeared boldly and unexpectedly in the midst of the
Turkish army storming t