The Christian soldiers fled in disorder, and being hard pressed by Bajazet’s troops, many were killed on the mountain, one of the heights near Nicopolis, as they hurried to the Danube, many others being drowned in their unsuccessful efforts to reach the shipping—probably some of the vessels of the Venetian blockading squadron, under the command of Giovanni Mocenigo, on board of which, Sigismund, and Philibert de Noillac, Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, were received; the latter being conveyed to Rhodes, whence the ships sailed for Dalmatia to land the king. It seems pretty clear, from Schiltberger’s narrative, that the battle of Nicopolis was fought in the immediate vicinity of the city on the Danube, and therefore at a considerable distance from the ancient Nicopolis, the city of Trajan. Details of the action will be found in Aubert de Vertot d’Aubeuff’s _Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitaliers de St. Jean de Jerusalem_, etc., 1726. There is no evidence that Schiltberger set foot in Shistova, but the name had doubtlessly become familiar to him, both before and after his capture, at a time that he was totally unacquainted with the language of the people amongst whom he had fallen. If the incidents of his eventful career were indeed dictated from memory, his statement that the Infidels knew Nicopolis as “Schiltaw”, for Shvishtov, Shishtovo, may be accounted for, by the accidental confusion of names.—ED. (4.) “Werterwaywod.”—Schiltberger evidently alludes here to John Mirca (John Mirtcha), prince or voyevoda of Walachia, called John, by Mme. de Lusson (Engel, _Gesch. d. U. R._, iv, 160: iii, 5), and Marcus, by the Byzantines (L. Chalco, 77). He was the son of the voyevoda, J. Radul, and having succeeded his elder brother, J. Dan, added the Dobroudja to his domains after the short reign of Ivanko or Iuanchus, “filius bonæ memoriæ magnifici domini Dobrdize”, as he is styled in the treaty concluded with the Genoese in 1387 (_Not. et Extr._, etc., xi, 65; and _Mem. de l’Inst. de France_, vii, 292–334). There is no difficulty in recognising the Bulgarian despot, Dobrotitch, in the person of the father, who, after the death of Alexander, declared his independance in the Dobroudja, whence, in all probability, its name. (Bruun, _Journ. du Minis. de l’Instruc. Pub._, St. Petersburg, Sept. 1877.)—BRUUN. (5.) “he had come a great distance with six thousand men.”—The force commanded by the Comte de Nevers, son of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, consisted of 1000 knights, 1000 soldiers, and 6000 mercenaries. The Count was supported by the flower of the French nobility. Aschbach (_Gesch. K. Sigmund’s_, i, 98) places the total at 10,000 men.—ED.