Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/251

 port; but he acknowledged that he could not make any promise for the Tatars if we fell into their hands, but said that he should be cut in pieces with us himself, for the Tatars did not even spare a Turk, but when they fall upon them by tens or twenties, and are more than a match for them, they sabre them, and plunder them of everything, without paying the least regard to any orders. For this reason we took a guide with us, and, after bidding adieu to the ambassador of the English queen, and thanking him for his great kindness, as soon as the Sultan moved from Zolnak towards Erlau we turned, with great terror, towards Buda, in the name of God.

As we went on our way we kept continually looking back, with a timid and terrified heart, to see whether they were pursuing us, and were in constant expectation of being cut to pieces, since we were obliged to travel through the most dangerous localities, where Turks. Tatars, and Christians were skirmishing, it being impossible, as our guide informed us, to go by any other road. Nevertheless, it pleased a merciful God so to order it that during the whole day, from morning dawn to evening twilight, we never met a single human being; only on arriving, when it was almost twilight, at a large Hungarian village, we saw about a hundred Tatars moving about the vineyards. Filled with terror, we hastened to the village, which was entirely surrounded by a moat, and besought the inhabitants to protect us against the Tatars and admit us into the village, which they did. The poor peasants threw a little bridge over the moat, bade us sorrowfully welcome, and informed us what excessive ill-treatment they were compelled to