s May.

Ere the noble falcon to the Jaeger yields,
Casts he nest and offspring down into the fields.

Ere our arms or ankles should be locked in chains,
Lot us fall as heroes, die as free Roumains.

Ah! the days of heroes surely now are fled,
When, at duty's summons, Roumains nobly bled.

[Footnote 129: His full title was 'Mircea, D.G. Voivode of Wallachia,
Duke of Fogaras and Omlas, Count of Severin, Despot of the lands of
Dobrudscha and Silistria,' and, making allowance for the exaggerations
of a conqueror, it is clear that he must have ruled over an extended
territory.]

[Footnote 130: The substance of this treaty, which was reaffirmed in
later ones, will be found in Appendix II., with some data concerning its
history, for which, along with much other valuable information, we are
indebted to Prince Jon Ghika, the Roumanian Ambassador at St. James's,
and to Mr. White, our own Minister at Bucarest.]

[Footnote 131: The word 'boyard' originally meant soldier or warrior.]

[Footnote 132: One of his corps of cavalry were called 'Scutelnici' (or
substitutes), a term which we shall find applied to government serfs
later on; and Vaillant (vol. i. p. 185) says the term 'scutage' in
England was derived from the same source (_scutum_, a shield).]

IV.

Before referring to the events which were passing in Moldavia during the
period, it may not be out of place to say a few words here concerning
another hero, who, although he ruled in Transylvania, was a Wallachian
by birth, led the Wallachian armies against the Turks, and for a time
succeeded in checking their advance in Europe. This was John Corvinus,
as he is known to English readers, or, more correctly, Johann Corvin von
Hunniad, Prince of Siebenbuergen, who was born about the year 1368 in the
village of Corvin, in the Wallachian Carpathians. His father was a
Wallachian, some say of ancient family, and his mother a Greek, to whom
also a high ancestry is attributed. As his history was written by
flatterers in order to gain the favour of his son and successor, these
statements as to his high ancestry must be taken _cum grano salis_.
Johann was at first the captain of a small party of adventurers, having
served, as was the custom in those days, with a troop of twelve horse,
first under Demetrius, Bishop of Agram, and then for two years in Italy
under Philip, Duke of Milan. There he met Sigismund, King of Hungary,
who induced him to join his st