outward manifestations of their complaints until the disease assumed a virulence that amounted practically toa pestilence. Everything they touched was tainted, and it became dangerous to handle any portion of their weapons or their clothing. Solomon and his companion, though offered frequent hospitality in expectation of services, perémptorily declined to accept food prepared by other hands than their own. Numerous accessions of Magyars and nondescripts continually reached the camp; and crowds of noisy, greedy marauders of the most repulsive type accompanied these troops, bringing with them moire clumsy wagons.
Wives and children filled the wagons and the camp assumed the appearance of a migrating nation. The sheepskin cap and coat predominated as the style of uniform. The lance was the principal weapon of the mounted men, but every trooper also carried a knife, and many possessed also a species of long dirk, the handle of which was set cross-ways to the blade and protected by a double guard extending much above the wrist at each side. After Don Abraham’s retirement Solomon and Pietro walked freely among this rabble. In the babel of tongues the names “Rudolph” and “Otakar” continually recurred. Towards Otakar a fierce resentment had been created, and in alluding to him the wildest excitement arose. In speaking, men stood up and brandished their knives and daggers, plunging them into unseen enemies, and then indicating with fierce gestures the licking of blood from the reeking blades.
