a fiery speech, telling them that the fortress was his, and that he claimed their obedience, and threatening them with his own troops. Finally, he took possession of the keys, and compelled the soldiers to take the oath of allegiance. Not for long, however, was he suffered to remain in undisturbed possession of either bride or castle. The latter was taken from him by force, and the family caused him, after lengthy litigation, to be divorced from his wife on the ground that the consanguinity of the contracting parties made the marriage invalid.
The violent proceedings of Balassa in contriving his marriage were equalled by the merciless hatred of his relatives, who even accused him of having become a Mussulman, and of bringing up his son in that faith.
After estranging the affections of his relatives, Balassa left his Fatherland. For a long time he wandered about aimlessly in Poland, and at length went to Dantzig. Some years later he returned to Hungary, and, like his great successor, Alexander Petőfi, died on the battlefield. A few days before the fortress of Esztergom was retaken from the Turks by the Hungarians, Balassa fell, mortally wounded. How can the life of this violent, quarrelsome man possess any interest for us? Because Valentine Balassa was the only real poet to be found in Hungary during the sixteenth century, and remained her best lyric poet until Alexander Petőfi appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century.
The range of Balassa's poems is not wide, but they are instinct with feeling. In some of his verse he reveals his restless and stormy soul, distraught with the pangs of love. In others, he praises the life of a soldier, which in those days was a very different thing from modern garrison life, and chiefly meant camping in the open air,
