"That's enough," said the king. "Meantime I too shall see what I can do. I shall give Mr. Samson the chance of mending his ways if he will. God be with you on your journey, Miska."
Then putting his hand on the boy's shoulder, he said kindly, "Good-bye, then, till we meet in Buda."
CHAPTER III.
"TOUCH ME AT YOUR PERIL!"
King Matthias had been elected to the throne of Hungary in 1457, when he was at most but eighteen years old. But if any of the great nobles fancied that they were going to do just as they liked with him because he was so young, they soon found themselves very much mistaken.
He speedily dismissed the governor who had been appointed to look after him and the kingdom for the first five years; and having once taken the reins into his own hands, held them firmly as long as he lived.
And he had no easy, idle life of it: for what with the Turks and other enemies, he was very frequently, almost constantly, at war with external foes; and there was also very much to be done to bring things into order within the kingdom. He was by no means satisfied to let things go on as they had been doing. He wanted his people to be educated and cultivated; for he was highly educated himself, and delighted to surround himself with learned men and distinguished artists.
He wanted to have a grand library, a large university, and a learned society of scholars in Buda, that Hungary might take her place among the other nations of Europe in the matter of learning. But he wanted also to improve the condition of trade, arts, and manufactures; and, regardless of expense, he sent to foreign lands, especially Italy, for master-craftsmen to come and train the apprentices, whenever he saw that they needed better teaching than was to be had just then from their fellow-countrymen.
Clocks were by no means common articles at this time in other lands, and the first clock that kept good time in England is said to have been that set up at Hampton Court many years later—that is, in 1530. But in the reign of Matthias, clocks made their appearance on many of the castle towers in Hungary; and, thanks to the king's encouragement and the energetic measures he took, it was not long before Hungarian craftsmen became so famous that the Grand Duke of Moscow asked to have goldsmiths, gun-founders, land-surveyors, miners, architects, and others sent to him from Hungary.
But where is the use of arts, crafts, and manufactures—how indeed can they flourish—where there is a dearth of food?