160

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

LXVII.

The car-dinal Ju-lian.

tumultuous crowd of the victors and vanquished;, and the last efforts of his courage and conductwere exerted to save the remnant of his Walla-ehian cavalry. Ten thousand Christians wereslain in the disastrous battle of Warna : the lossof the Turks, more considerable in numbers,bore a smaller proportion to their total strength;yet the philosophic sultan was not ashamed toconfess, that his ruin must be the consequenceof a second and similar victory. At his com-mand a column was erected on the spot whereLadislaus had fallen; but the modest inscription,instead of accusing the rashness, recorded thevalour, and bewailed the misfortune, of the Hun-garian youth.*

Before I lose sight of the field of Warna , I amtempted to pause on the character and story oftwo principal actors, the cardinal Julian and JohnHuniades. Julian f Caesarini was born of a no-ble family of Rome: his studies had embracedboth the Latin and Greek learning, both the

' Besides some valuable hints from .Eneas Sylvius, which are dili-gently collected by Spondanus , our best authorities are three histo-rians of the fifteenth century, Philippas Callimachus (de Rebus aVladislao Polonorum atque Hungarorum Rege gestis, libri iii, in Bel.Script. Rerum Hungaricarum, tom. i, p. 433-518), Bonfinius (decadiii, 1. v, p. 460-467),.and Chalcocondyles (1. vii, p. 165-179). The twofirst were Italians, but they passed their lives in Poland and Hungary (Fabric. Bibliot. Latin , med. et infimae Etatis, tom. i, p. 324. Vos-siusdc Hist. Latin. 1. iii, c. 8, 11. Bayle, Dictionaire, Bonfinius ). Asmall tract of Faalix Petancius, chancellor of Segnia (ad calcem Cus-pinian. de Cmsaribus, p. 716-722), represents the theatre of the warin the fifteenth century. t

f M. Lenfant has described the origin (Hist, du Concile de Basle,tom. i, p. 247, &c.), and Bohemian campaign (p. 315, &c.), of cardi-nal Julian. His services at Basil and Ferrara, and his unfortunateend, are occasionally related by Spondanus and the continuator ofFleury.