Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/79

 that cavern, which is also called Pathmos, it is usual in Germany, to call a cavern, or a hollow, a Pathmos. Oriential travellers, if visiting the island, may still see the cavern.

St. Gothard’s Mountain. A high mountain in Switzerland, from which may be seen one of the most awfully grand spectacles in nature.

“The valiant Skanderbeg.” The surname of George Castriot, king of Albania, a province of Turkey, in Europe, dependant on the Ottoman Empire. He was delivered up, with his three sons, as hostages, by their father to Amurath the Second, Sultan of the Turks, who poisoned his brothers, but spared him on account of his youth, being likewise pleased with his juvenile wit and amiable person. In a short time he became one of the most renowned generals of the age, and, revolting from Amurath, he joined Huniad Corvin, a most formidable enemy to the Ottoman Power. He defeated the Sultan’s army, took Amurath’s secretary prisoner, obliged him to sign and seal an order to the governor of Croia, the capital of Albania, to deliver up the citadel and city to the bearer of that order, in the name of the Sultan. With this forged order he repaired to Croia; and thus recovered the throne of his ancestors, and maintained the independency of his country against the numerous armies of Amurath and his successor Mahommed the Second, who was obliged to make peace with this hero in 1460. He then went to the assistance of Ferdinand of Arragon, at the request of Pope Pius the second, and by his assistance Ferdinand gained a complete victory over his enemy, the Count of Anjou.