144 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS Ladislaus as an Austrian prince was then staying, with the intention of waylay- ing and murdering him. But Huniadesgot wind of the whole plot, and, when he arrived at the place of ambush, it was at the head of 2,000 picked Hungarian warriors. Thus it was Czillei who fell into the snare. " Wretched creature ! " exclaimed Huniades; " thou hast fallen into the pit thou diggedst for me; were it not that I regard the dignity of the king and my own humanity, thou shouldst suffer a punishment proportioned to thy crime. As it is, I let thee off this time, but come no more into my sight or thou shalt pay for it with thy life." Such magnanimity, however, did not disarm the hostility of those who sur- rounded the king. On the pretence of treason against the king Huniades was deprived of all his offices and all his estates. The document is still to be seen in the Hungarian State Archives, in which the king, led astray by the jealousies that prevailed among his councillors, represents every virtue of the hero as a crime, and condemns him to exile. Fortunately Czillei himself soon fell into disfavor ; the Germans themselves overthrew him ; and the king, now better informed, replaced Huniades in the post of Captain-General of the Kingdom. ' Huniades, who had been living meanwhile retired in one of his castles, now complied with the king's wish without difficulty or hesitation, and again assumed the highest military command. Instead of seeking how to revenge himself after the manner of ordinary men, he only thought of the great enemy of his coun- try, the Turk. And indeed, as it was, threatening clouds hung over the horizon in the southeast. A new sultan had come to the throne, Mohammed II., one of the greatest sovereigns of the house of Othman. He began his reign with the occupation of Constantinople (1453), and thus destroyed the last refuge of the Byzantine Empire. At the news of this event all Europe burst into a chorus of lamenta- tion. The whole importance of the Eastern Question at once presented itself before the nations of Christendom. It was at once understood that the new conqueror would not remain idle within the crumbling walls of Constantinople. And indeed in no long time was published the proud mot cTordre " As there is but one God in heaven, so there shall be but one master upon earth." Huniades looked toward Constantinople with heavy heart. He foresaw the outburst of the storm which would in the first place fall upon his own country, threatening it with utter ruin. Huniades, so it seemed, was again left alone in the defence of Christendom. The approaching danger was delayed for a few years, but in 1456 Moham- med, having finally established himself in Constantinople, set out with the inten- tion of striking a fatal blow against Hungary. On the borders of that country on the bank of the Danube, on what was, properly speaking Servian territory, stood the fortress of Belgrade. When the danger from the Turks became im- minent, the kings of Hungary purchased the place from the despots of Servia, giving them in exchange several extensive estates in Hungary, and had at great expense turned it into a vast fortress, at that time supposed to be impregnable.
