Crowds filled the streets, and reports of all sorts were flying aboutthe city.
The Archbishop had met the enemy and defeated him!
Some watchman on one of the towers had seen the Archbishop cut down aMongol leader, and great part of the Mongols were lying dead on theground!
More important still, he had felled Batu Khan himself with one blow ofhis battle-axe!
So it went on all day till late in the evening, when suddenly the newsspread that the Archbishop was coming back, but--with only three or fourof his men with him! And while the people in the streets were talkingtogether with bated breath, a man rushed into their midst, covered withblood and dust.
"What has happened? Where are you from?" they asked, not at firstrecognising the furrier, a man belonging to Pest, and well known there.
"Water!" whispered the new-comer, bowing his head on his breast. "Water!I don't know how I got here! Water, quick!"
Several of the crowd hurried off for water, and when he had quenched histhirst, some of them began to wash the blood from his face and to bindup his wounds.
"Ah! they are no matter!" he gasped, "one may get such cuts as these anyday in a tavern brawl, but--I'm--done for!"
By the help of a wooden flask of wine the man presently revived enoughto satisfy the curiosity of the bystanders, though he still lookedterrified.
"I have come straight from VAicz--my horse fell down under me. I waspursued by Tartars--a score of arrows hit the poor beast--three wentthrough my cap and tore the skin off my head!"
"But what is going on in VAicz? they have beaten off the Tartars, eh?"
"There _is_ no VAicz!" said the man, with an involuntary shudder throughall his limbs.
All were too dumfounded to utter even an exclamation. They had believedthat their troops had but to show themselves, and the Mongols would bescattered.
"The walls of VAicz stand staring up to heaven, as black as soot," theman went on. "The people defended themselves to the last, ay, to thelast, for hardly a hundred out of them all have escaped!"
"But the church--there are moats to it, and new walls----" began one ofthe bystanders.
"There _were_!" said the furrier, "there were! there is nothing leftnow! The clergy, and the old men, with the women and children, tookrefuge there, and all the valuables were taken there; even the womenfought--but it was no good!"
"Did the Tartars take it?" inquired several at once, beneath theirbreath.
"They stormed it, took it, plundered it, murdered every soul and thenset fire to it; it may be burning still! Their horrible yells! they areringing in my ears now!" and the furrier shuddered again.
But at that moment the attention of the crowd was diverted from him by acommotion going on at a little distance, and they pressed forward to seewhat it meant, but soon came back, making all the haste they could toget out of the way of some heavy cavalry, armed from head to foot, andpreceded by six trumpeters, who were advancing down the street.
"The Austrians!" said some of the more knowing, as Duke Friedrich andhis brilliant train passed on straight to the King's palace, where hisarrival was so unexpected that no one was in readiness to receive him.
Events and rumours had followed one another so quickly that day, thatthe whole population was in a state of excitement; but there was more tocome, and the Duke was hardly out of sight, when a Magyar horsemangalloped up, the foam dropping from his horse, which was covered withblood. Its rider seemed to be so beside himself with terror as not toknow what he was doing, and as the crowd flocked round him, he shouted,"Treachery! the King has left us in the lurch! Ugrin and histroops--overwhelmed by the Tartars!"
With that he galloped on till he reached the bank of the Danube, wherehis horse fell under him, and when they hastened to the rider'sassistance, they found only a dead body.
In spite of the King's commands, Ugrin had led his troops out, and haddaringly attacked the bands of Mongols who had approached Pest toreconnoitre. Many of them he had cut down with his own hand, and therest he had put to flight and was pursuing, when, just as he came upwith them, the Mongols reached a morass. This did not stop them,however, with their small, light horses. On they went at breakneckspeed, and he followed, without guessing that he was already on the edgeof the marshy ground until the treacherous green surface gave waybeneath the heavy Hungarian horses, which floundered, lost theirfooting, and sank helplessly up to their knees, up to their ears, unableto extricate themselves.
And then the Mongols turned upon them, as was their wont, and poured aperfect storm of arrows upon the defenceless troopers. Ugrin and fourothers managed to dismount and cast away their heavy armour; and, withonly their battle-axes in their hands, they succeeded at last bysuperhuman efforts in wading through the marsh, and so reached Pest,pursued by the Mongols, and leaving corpses to mark their track all theway, almost to the gate.
The people were aghast at the intelligence, and they set to work toblame the King!
He was blamed by Ugrin in the first place--Ugrin, who had nothing buthis own madness to thank for the disaster! He was blamed by the mob, whowere ready to see treachery everywhere; and above all, he was blamed byDuke Friedrich, surnamed the "Streitbare," for his valour!
The King bore all, and worked on. All night he was on horseback, seeingto the fortifications, urging the workmen to redoubled vigour.
And while he was thus engaged, what was going on in the army?
It is hardly credible, but is nevertheless a fact, that blindself-confidence, whether real or feigned, held possession of the camp.The troops and their leaders spent the night for the most part inrevelry, while the sentries on the walls mocked at such of the Mongolsas came near enough and let fly their arrows at them.
Early in the morning Duke Friedrich was on horseback, after a previousargument with the King, in which he had made light of the invasion, andcalled it mere child's play, easily dealt with, and then he led thesmall body of men he had brought with him out of the city. A small bodyit was, to BA(C)la's bitter disappointment. He had expected something likean army, and the Duke had brought about as many men in his train as hewould have done if he had come to a hunting party!
Such as they were, he led them forth on this eventful morning to have abrush with the Mongols, whose advance guard retired, according tocustom, as soon as they caught sight of the well-armed, well-mounted,well-trained band. The Duke was cautious. He meant to do something, ifonly to show Pest how easy it was; and when he presently returned with acouple of horses and one prisoner, he had his reward in the acclamationswith which the populace received him. The success of the valorous Dukewas belauded on all sides, and some compared the daring warrior with theprudent King, not to the advantage of the latter.
The prisoner was taken before the King, and, as ill-luck would have it,he proved to be a Kun; worse still, he said among other things, thatthere were many Kunok in Batu's camp.
They had been forced to join him; but the news spread through the town,exciting the people more than ever, and it was openly asserted by manythat the Kunok were in league with the Mongols, and that Kuthen was atraitor, who had managed to ingratiate himself with King BA(C)la only thathe might prepare the way for the enemy.