OF THE ROltlAN EMPIRE.

! -; 9

beheld the flight of his squadrons, he despaired ch vp.of his fortune and that of the empire: a veteran Lxvu -janizary seized his horse’s bridle; and he hadmagnanimity to pardon and reward the soldierwho dared to perceive the terror, and arrest theflight, of his sovereign. A copy of the treaty,the monument of Christian perfidy, had been dis-played in the front of battle; and it is said, thatthe sultan in his distress, lifting his eyes andhis hands to heaven, implored the protection ofthe God of truth; and called on the prophetJesus himself to avenge the impious mockery ofhis name and religion.' With inferior numbersud disordered ranks, the king of Hungary rush-ed forwards in the confidence of victory, till hiscareer was stopped by the impenetrable phalanxof the janizaries. If we may credit the Ottomanannals, his horse was pierced by the javelin ofAmurath; d he fell among the spears of the in-fantry; and a Turkish soldier proclaimed witha loud voice, “ Hungarians , behold the head of“ your king!” The death of Ladislaus was the Dca(Il pfsignal of their defeat. On his return from an Ladi,lansintemperate pursuit, Iluniades deplored hiserror and the public loss: he strove to rescuethe royal body, till he was overwhelmed by the

* Some Christian writers affirm, that he drew from his bosom thehost or wafer on which the treaty had not been sworn. The Moslems suppose, with more simplicity, an appeal to God and his prophet Jesus ,which is likewise insinuated by Callimachus (1. iii, p. S1G. Spondan.

A. D. Hit, No. S).

‘ A critic will always distrust these spolia opima of a victorious ge-neral, so difficult for valour to obtain, so easy for flattery to invent(Cantemir, p. 90, 91). Callimachus (I. iii, p. 517) more simply andprobably affirms, supervenientibns janizaris, telorum multitudine, nontarn confossus est, quam obrutus.