course, and the conviction that all must now be safe. The messenger
from Croia that informed Hunniades of the escape of his daughter, also
solicited his aid in favour of Epirus against the impending invasion of
the Turks, and stimulated by personal gratitude as well as by public
duty, Hunniades answered the solicitation in person at the head of
twenty thousand lances.

Hunniades and Iskander had mutually flattered themselves, when apart,
that each would be able to quell the anxiety of the other on the
subject of Iduna. The leader of Epirus flattered himself that his late
companions had proceeded at once to Transylvania, and the Vaivode
himself had indulged in the delightful hope that the first person he
should embrace at Croia would be his long-lost child. When, therefore,
they met, and were mutually incapable of imparting any information on
the subject to each other, they were filled with astonishment and
disquietude. Events, however, gave them little opportunity to indulge
in anxiety or grief. On the day that Hunniades and his lances arrived
at Croia, the invading army of the Turks under the Prince Mahomed
crossed the mountains, and soon after pitched their camp on the fertile
plain of Kallista.

As Iskander, by the aid of Hunniades and the neighbouring princes, and
the patriotic exertions of his countrymen, was at this moment at the
head of a force which the Turkish prince could not have anticipated, he
resolved to march at once to meet the Ottomans, and decide the fate of
Greece by a pitched battle.

The night before the arrival of Iduna at the famous fountain, the
Christian army had taken up its position within a few miles of the
Turks. The turbaned warriors wished to delay the engagement until the