'Neath the Hoof of the Tartar
OR
THE SCOURGE OF GOD

BY
BARON NICOLAS JÓSIKA

Abridged from the Hungarian by
SELINA GAYE
WITH PREFACE BY R. NISBET BAIN

And Photogravure Portrait of the Author

LONDON
JARROLD & SONS, 10 & 11, WARWICK LANE, E.C.
[All Rights Reserved]
1904

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

Baron Miklós Jósika, the Walter Scott of Hungary, was born at Torda, in Transylvania, on April 28th, 1796. While quite a child, he lost both his parents, and was brought up at the house and under the care of his grandmother, Anna Bornemissza, a descendant of Jókai's heroine of the same name in "'Midst the Wild Carpathians." Of the young nobleman's many instructors, the most remarkable seems to have been an emigré French Colonel, who gave him a liking for the literature of France, which was not without influence on his future development. After studying law for a time at Klausenberg to please his friends, he became a soldier to please himself, and in his seventeenth year accompanied the Savoy dragoon regiment to Italy. During the campaign of the Mincio in 1814, he so distinguished himself by his valour that he was created a first lieutenant on the field of battle, and was already a captain when he entered Paris with the allies in the following year. In 1818, at the very beginning of his career, he ruined his happiness by his unfortunate marriage with Elizabeth Kalláy. According to Jósika's biographer, Luiza Szaák,