Zapolya overlooked the distinction that Ferdinand’s object was to establish peace, while his own was to kindle a desolating war of race and religion. So soon as his resolution was adopted, Laski undertook in person a journey to Constantinople, accompanied by a renegade Venetian, Ludovico Gritti, who served him as interpreter. He found ready audience from the Sultan, who asked for nothing better than pretext and opportunity to lead his hitherto unconquered forces into the heart of Christendom. The Sultan had also been highly irritated by the injudicious behaviour of Ferdinand’s envoy, a Hungarian named Hobordansky, who had chosen this unpropitious juncture to demand not merely the unconditional recognition of Ferdinand as king of Hungary, but also to insist with violence on the restoration of Belgrade and Jaicza. Demands such as these, addressed in peremptory language to a sovereign flushed with recent conquest, produced their immediate and natural consequences in facilitating the designs of Zapolya. A treaty was without delay concluded, by which Soliman undertook to effect his restoration to the throne of Hungary. Zapolya, by secret articles of this compact, engaged in return not merely to pay an annual tribute in money, but to place every ten years at the disposal of the Sultan a tenth part of the population of Hungary, of both sexes, and to afford for ever free passage through the kingdom to the Ottoman forces. At the same time Soliman dismissed the envoys of Ferdinand with the menace “that he would soon come to drive the latter out of a kingdom which he had unjustly acquired; that he would look for him on the field of Mohacs, or even in Pesth; and should Ferdinand shrink from meeting him at either, he would offer him battle under the walls of Vienna itself.” It was thus that through treason in one quarter, ill-timed audacity in another, and the restless spirit of conquest and progression which the Turks derived from their Tartar origin, the crisis arrived so pregnant with evil consequences to an important portion of Christian Europe. FOOTNOTES: [1] It is difficult to illustrate the very peculiar institutions of Hungary by reference to those of any other state, as I know of none which presents any near analogy to the office of Palatine. He is chosen by the king out of four magnates presented for election by the states of the kingdom. He represents the king, and is the constitutional mediator between him and his subjects in all matters at issue between them. As President of the highest court of appeal, he resembles our Lord Chancellor, and, like him, takes precedence of all subjects except the primate, the Archbishop of Gran. From 1765 to Joseph II.’s death in 1790 the office remained vacant. It has since been usually filled by an Austrian Archduke.—E. CHAPTER II. From 1527 to September 11, 1529.