The Golden Age in Transylvania

by Mór Jókai

Meantime, one of the six Bedouin horsemen on guard noticed the three riders, and the leader called out to them to stand. Banfy tried to retreat, but three Bedouins sprang on him from behind and three more rushed toward him, lances in rest.

"Bend down on your horses' necks and seize your spear in your left hand," Banfy shouted to his men, and drew his sword against the assailants; so in the darkness of the night they fell upon one another silently. Banfy was in the middle. The lances of the three Bedouins whizzed through the air at the same time. Banfy's comrades fell on both sides from their horses, while he with his left hand skilfully wrested the lance from one of the guards and with the right hand dealt him a blow that cleft his skull. When Banfy saw that he was alone he turned at once on his two foes and struck one down with his lance and the other with his sword. Three more horsemen came furiously toward him from the bank. "Come on," growled Banfy, with that grim humor so characteristic of certain warriors in the moment of danger. "I'll teach you how to handle the spear," he added, with a smile; shielded on the rear by a group of trees, he thrust his sword into its sheath, grasped his spear with both hands and within two minutes all three lay stretched on the ground. Then he looked round and saw with joy that the enemy at the bridge were too far away to notice the fight, and his two hundred horsemen were already at the bank and now crossed noiselessly. Some of the Bedouins on the ground still groaned and sighed.

"Knock their skulls in, so they will not betray us by their noise."

"Shall we not wait for Veer's troops?" asked the standard-bearer.

"We cannot, we have no time," said Banfy, directing his glance toward the reddened horizon, and the little band moved quietly across fields and thickets. Soon there was the sound of a distant roar and when they had reached the top of a height before them Banfy-Hunyad came in sight. The leader breathed more easily. It was not the town that was on fire but only some hay-ricks. The roofs of the houses had been taken off by the inhabitants in advance, so that the enemy could not set fire to them. Church and bell-tower too were stripped of their roofs, and one could see by the glare of the fire that they were surrounded by the Turkish army, while from the top of the tower brimstone and pitch with heavy beams fell like a rain of fire on the assailants and crowded them from the walls.

Ali Pasha had not waited for his artillery which had been detained by the bad roads, because he thought he could take by storm in a single attack a place defended only by peasants and women; but it is well known that despair makes soldiers of everybody and axes and scythes are good weapons in the hands of the resolute.

At this spectacle Banfy's face suddenly glowed; he thought he saw a woman's figure on the battlement of the tower. At once he put spurs to his horse and rushed forward like a whirlwind, calling back to his men:

"Do not count the foe now; time enough for that when he is down."

And within a quarter of an hour the small band reached the camp before the town. There everybody was asleep. While one part of the army made the attack there was time for the other to rest. Even the guards had let their heads droop in sleep; there they lay by their staked horses, and were only roused from their dreams when Banfy had already ridden wildly through their ranks in every direction. The Baron, who intended to hasten on alone to the relief of the besieged, in a trice ran down the confused troops who, startled from their sleep, seized horse and lance and mistaking one another the enemy crowded together and cut down their own troops. In vain did the Turkish leaders strive to control the frantic men.

Meanwhile, Banfy appeared boldly and unexpectedly in the midst of the Turkish army storming the church. The front ranks gave way in terror at his unexpected onset but at once an advancing brigade made up of Ali Pasha's chosen Mamelukes, brought the fugitives to a stand. A giant Moor stood at the head of the troops. His horse too was an unusually tall one, sixteen hands high. He himself was seven feet tall; his great swollen muscles shone like steel in the fiendish light of the burning hay-ricks; his broad mouth bled from the blow of a stone and the whites of his eyes shone in a ghastly fashion from his black face.