Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/369

 they sent quite a number of the priests of the other sect into exile. Finally, through the interference of the king, the exiles were recalled, the Lutheran officers deposed, and the other two sects celebrated the victory.

The short but fairly successful reign of Louis was ended by an unfortunate expedition against the Turks. In 1526, Sultan Soliman made the long expected and feared attack upon Hungary, having an army of some 300,000. King Louis, with a comparatively small army of Hungarians and Bohemians, took the field, and marched to meet the invading host. A disastrous battle was fought at Muhac, where perished about 20,000 Christians, among them King Louis, being drowned while attempting to escape across an overflooded stream. Soliman mourned the untimely death of the young king, saying that he would rather have humbled the pride of the Hungarians than cut short the life of Louis.

About King Louis it was said that everything in his life was before its time. His birth was premature, his marriage when but sixteen, his beard grew before the usual age, his hair turned gray, and his death came when he was but twenty years of age.