At last the fugitives reached the forest, the Mongols were left behind, and the King then happily gained a castle in the mountains, where for a while he remained.
But when he looked upon his devoted followers, how many were missing! how many had laid down their lives to save his!
Among the dozen or more who had fallen by the way was Jolánta's father, Stephen Szirmay; his brother Peter, though he had not come off scathless, had escaped without any mortal wound.
Having no army, the King was for the present helpless, and as soon as he could do so, he made his way to Pressburg, where he sent for the Queen and his children to join him, they having taken refuge in Haimburg, on the other side of the Austrian frontier.
But instead of the Queen, appeared Duke Friedrich, who persuaded the King that it would be much wiser for him too to come to Austria, and had no sooner got him in his clutches than he made a prisoner of him, and refused to let him go until he had refunded the large sum of money with which Friedrich had purchased peace from him four or five years previously.
Béla gave up all the valuables which he and the Queen had with them, but as the Duke was still not satisfied, he had to pawn three Hungarian counties in order to regain his liberty.
Once more free, he sent the Queen to Dalmatia for safety, and despatched ambassadors to Pope and Emperor, and the King of France, praying for their help against the terrible foe who threatened all Europe with destruction. But the Emperor was fighting Rome, and the Pope was bent upon reducing him to obedience. Poland was fighting the Mongols on her own account; Bohemia was in momentary danger of being herself attacked; and the shameless Duke Friedrich availed himself of Hungary's defenceless condition to invade and plunder the counties nearest him, and even to rob such fugitives as had fled to Austria for refuge from the Mongols.
Béla meantime had borrowed a little money where he could, and had gone south to await the answers to his appeal, and to raise what troops he could for a campaign. But he waited in vain. No help came! and without an army or the means of raising one, he was helpless.
His brother Kálmán had reached Pest, and after urging the terrified inhabitants to abandon the city, cross the Danube, and hide wherever they could, he continued his journey to Slavonia (then Dalmatia and Croatia), his dukedom, where he soon after died of his wounds.
Before the people of Pest could remove their goods to a place of safety, they were hemmed in by the Mongols. Thousands from the surrounding country had taken refuge here with their families and treasures, and the numbers had been further increased by the arrival of fugitives from the army. They resolved to defend themselves to the last man; but they little knew the enemy with whom they had to deal. Three days' battering with catapults was enough to make breaches in the walls; the Mongols stormed and burnt the town, and murdered all who fell into their hands.