Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/199

 of this hussar, who was a gallant knight of Hungary, and had defended himself valiantly, killing many of the Turks, had kept both these prisoners in Constantinople, in the house of a Hungarian renegade, who bought them a handsome horse each, and gave them clothes and money to make their way to Hungary. When they rode, like soldiers, out of Galata, they had no knapsacks, and therefore, to their misfortune, dismounted and bought them in a shop. Just then a servant of the aga who had been hung happened to recognize the hussar Matthew, and cried out, “This is the hussar Mathyas, who got out of the Black Tower.” The Turks, hearing this, immediately ran after them by hundreds, and seized them both. They alleged, in their defence, that they were Turkish hussars from Buda, bidding them leave them alone, and saying that they had been to see after their own affairs at court, and even naming the commander under whom they were serving, and appealing to the aga of the janissaries. And when they were brought to him, they spoke so craftily before him, and made out their case so well, that the aga rebuked the Turks, and ordered them to let them go their way.

Both these men had been captured in Hungary in childhood, had been circumcised, and become Turks, and had learnt the Turkish language well. When they grew up they returned to Christendom, forsook the Mahometan error, and, being taken prisoners a second time, were sent to the Black Tower. When they were just going to mount their horses again, a spahi, or cavalry soldier, from the Black Sea, met them, immediately recognized them both perfectly, called them by