d salt?'
'About twenty years,' answered the Turk. 'Well, then,' said his friend,
'out of gratitude I will give thee a word of counsel.' 'Speak,' said
Ali. 'Do not stay in this city until three or four o'clock; neither
remain in Giurgevo, but hasten thee as speedily as possible to Rustchuk'
(on the opposite bank of the Danube). 'But wherefore?' enquired the
Turk. The Wallachian walked away, but, turning round and seeing his
friend still undecided, he called out: 'Forget not what I have told
thee!' Wandering on in the city, the Turk could not help noticing
greater activity than usual in the streets; suspecting mischief, but
without saying a word to any person, he ordered his horses to be
harnessed and fled to Giurgevo. The interior of Wallachia having been
thus cleared of the Turks, Michael proceeded to attack their positions
on the Danube. First he stormed Giurgevo and compelled the Turks to
leave it, some crossing over the Danube, and others taking refuge in the
fortress which was situated on an island in the river; but this latter
he was unable to capture, as troops, ammunition, and provisions were
sent into it from the Bulgarian side. Content, therefore, with his
victory, he retired to Bucarest.

[Footnote 138: Teutschlaender, from whose excellent little treatise,
_Michael der Tapfere_ (Wien, C. Graeser, 1879), these details are taken,
mentions many customs as existing in the time of Michael which were in
all probability only introduced at a later period. The tobacco-tax is
clearly one of them.]

[Footnote 139: The reader will find full accounts of the officials and
their various duties, as well as a description of the investiture of the
princes, in Raicevich, p. 62. In Wilkinson, p. 55, he will find that in
his day there had been a great multiplication of the offices; there were
second and third Logothets, second and third Vestiars, &c.]

[Footnote 140: Reissenberger, p. 39, in part quoting Engel.]

[Footnote 141: Some modern Roumanian historians affirm that Mircea
already had a regular army, but Roesler and others treat the assertion
with ridicule. As to Michael, the reader will judge for himself whether
or not it would have been possible to accomplish what he did without a
disciplined force.]

[Footnote 142: Siebenbuergen was so called from seven forts erected
there.]

II.

Shortly afterwards a conspiracy against Michael was set on foot by
adherents of the Turks, and under the pretence of desiring simply