Thus died Nicolas Zrinyi[6] the younger, his country's greatest poet and bravest son.
[6] It is not without reason that Jókai alludes to Zrinyi as "the hero." He was one of the greatest warriors of his day (1618-1666), and his victories over the Turks were many and brilliant. As a poet he stands high, even judged by a modern standard. His chief works are his great epic, Szigeti veszedelem, and his religious poems, Keresztre, "On the Cross!"
Thus died the man whom Fortune always respected, the darling, the bulwark, the ornament of his fatherland.
In vain will you now seek for his hunting-box or his castle. All has perished—the name, the family, nay, the very remembrance of the hero.
The general and the statesman are forgotten; only one part of him still survives, only one part of him will live eternally—the poet.
CHAPTER II.
THE HOUSE AT EBESFALVA.
And now we too will go "a kingdom further on."
Let us go one kingdom forward and four years backward. We are in Transylvania; the year is 1662.