assumed the highest military command. Instead of seeking how to revenge
himself after the manner of ordinary men, he only thought of the great
enemy of his country, the Turk. And indeed, as it was, threatening clouds
hung over the horizon in the southeast.

A new sultan had come to the throne, Mahomet II, one of the greatest
sovereigns of the house of Othman. He began his reign with the occupation
of Constantinople, 1453, and thus destroyed the last refuge of the
Byzantine empire. At the news of this event all Europe burst into a
chorus of lamentation. The whole importance of the Eastern question at
once presented itself before the nations of Christendom. It was at once
understood that the new conqueror would not remain idle within the
crumbling walls of Constantinople.

And, indeed, in no long time was published the proud _mot d'ordre_, "As
there is but one God in heaven, so there shall be but one master upon
earth."

Hunyady looked toward Constantinople with heavy heart. He foresaw the
outburst of the storm which would in the first place fall upon his own
country, threatening it with utter ruin. Hunyady, so it seemed, was again
left alone in the defence of Christendom.

The approaching danger was delayed for a few years, but in 1456 Mahomet,
having finally established himself in Constantinople, set out with the
intention of striking a fatal blow against Hungary. On the borders of
that country, on the bank of the Danube, on what was, properly speaking,
Servian territory, stood the fortress of Belgrad. When the danger from
the Turks became imminent, the kings of Hungary purchased the place from
the despots of Servia, giving them in exchange several extensive estates