rt _con amore_ in remembrance of
the massacre of their ancestors, and in conformity with the customs of
the period. But amongst them were brave, religious, charitable, and
learned men, who contributed to raise the Roumanians from a condition of
barbarism to one of comparative civilisation. Of this we have evidence
in the law reforms, imperfect as they were, introduced by Constantine
Mavrocordato; in the buildings and charitable foundations of Ypsilanti
and Gregory Ghika in both Principalities (between 1768-1778); in the
courage of the latter, who paid with his life the penalty of serving his
adopted country; and of Nicholas Mavrojeni (1786-1790), whose boyards
were too cowardly to follow him in the defence of their country against
a Russian invasion.

The last-named is rather a notorious incident in Roumanian history, and
some writers have devoted pages to the narrative. It appears that
Nicholas had received instructions from the Porte to raise a force and
set himself in motion against the combined Russians and Austrians who
menaced Wallachia. He thereupon assembled the boyards and called upon
them to take up arms. Too cowardly, in the opinion of certain writers,
or distrusting the prince, according to others, each excused himself on
some flimsy pretext, whereupon Nicholas, indignant and furious, called
upon one of his attendants to bring forth thirty horses, which were soon
standing caparisoned in the court-yard. The prince invited his boyards
to descend, and when they were arrived below, 'Now,' he cried, 'to
horse!' They maintained a sullen silence, however, and no one moved.
Casting a look of contempt upon them, he turned round to the horses,
and, addressing one after the other, he cried, 'I make you Ban; you,
Grand Vornic; you, Grand Logothet;' and so on, until he had exhausted
all the offices of the State. Then, turning again to his cowardly
boyards, he reminded them of the deeds of their ancestors, of Mircea,
Vlad, and Michael, and denounced them as women, puppets, worse than
eunuchs. Several he ordered into exile; while others, stung with shame
by his taunts, mounted and followed him to victory.

This is the story of how Nicholas Mavrojeni is said to have ennobled his
horses; but, if the reader wishes to hear how, after disputing every
yard of ground with the invaders, he was rewarded by the Porte with an
ignominious death, we must refer him to the pages of the historian.

[Footnote 159: Vaillant, at vol. ii, p