174 DESTEUCTION OF THE GEEEK EMPIEE thousand men, 1 occupied three days in crossing the Sitnitza, a small river which runs through the plain into the Vardar. Hunyadi, for some reason which is not evident, left his entrenchment and crossed the stream, apparently with no other object than of forcing on the fight. Why he should have done so, since he was hourly expecting the arrival of a detachment of Albanians under Iskender Bey, it is impossible to understand. The battle commenced on October 18, 1448. The Turks Second battle of were drawn up m the same order as at Varna, the Janis- po{ S i448. saries in the centre surrounded by a trench, behind which were ranged the camels, and behind them again a belt of shields or bucklers fixed in the ground. To the right of the Janissaries was the European, and to the left the Asiatic, division of Murad's army. On the other side, the centre of the Christian army was occupied by the German and Bohe- mian arquebusers and some of the best troops of Transyl- vania. The right wing was formed of Hungarians with a few Sicilian auxiliaries, while the Wallachs were on the left. The first day's fight was not general. But at noon on the second, the whole lines on both sides were engaged, and continued till sunset, when, in spite of the superiority in numbers on the Turkish side, no advantage had been gained. Hunyadi, indeed, believed that during the night his enemy intended to break up his camp and commence a retreat. For this reason, he determined upon a night attack — one of the measures, as General Skobeleff testified after fighting in Central Asia under somewhat similar circumstances, in which the best-disciplined army almost necessarily wins. All the valour of the Hungarian army was powerless to break through the line of the Janissaries, and the attack consequently failed. On the morning of the third day, the fight was again renewed, and victory appeared doubtful. But the Wallachs turned traitors, and in the midst of the fight, their leader having obtained terms from Murad, passed over to the Turkish side. The army of Hunyadi was now 1 Aeneas Sylvius gives the number at 200,000 ; Chalcondylas at 15,000, which Von Hammer reasonably suggests is an error for 150,000.
