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This barren expanse of naked rock is called the Szekler Stone, and was formerly surmounted by the castle of a Hungarian vice-voivode. Its ruins are still to be seen there. The lower slopes of this mountainside are cultivated now, and the ploughshare is gradually forcing one terrace after another to yield sustenance to the farmer.
From the valley below came up the bleating of goats and the flute-like notes of the blackbird. "Are you really in earnest, Aaron, about defending the town from this position in case of an attack?" asked Manasseh. "Wasn't it from the Szekler Stone that our fathers repulsed the whole Mongolian horde?" was the rejoinder. "But that was in the old days, in old-fashioned warfare."
And what can be done when the Magyar will not hold with the Saxon, and the Saxon cannot away with the Szekler? Are not the ever-increasing Wallacks getting numerically ahead of the rest, while the Southern Slavs threaten the integrity of the empire? Prosperity is the best solvent for disaffection.
It is a splendid garden of wild flowers, and there you will see the cave of the famous Balyika, he was Francis Rakoczy's general. Thence it is only a step to the Szekler Stone, and we are at home. Do you like to walk in the woods?" "Nothing better!" Here Manasseh pulled his brother's sleeve. "Do you really mean to take us by the way of Torda Gap?" he whispered.
The thrifty Saxon was very much there, intent on making a good bargain; the neatly-dressed Szekler walked about holding his head on his shoulders with an air of resolute self-respect they are unmistakable, are these proud rustics.
Manasseh closed his portfolio, picked up his things, and followed the path taken by the others. Yet there was no mischievous intent in Aaron's mind. He conducted Anna and Blanka to the verge of the gorge that separates the so-called Hidas Peak of the Szekler Stone from the Louis Peak.
Aaron, with forty other men, clambered up the steep slope of the Szekler Stone to repulse the enemy from this commanding height, forty men against as many hundred. They would have laughed at their own folly had they but stopped to think. Toward noon the sturdy little band of defenders was increased by the coming of fugitives from St. George. For these, too, there were arms enough in Toroczko.
George, and now came Toroczko's turn. That the latter place was offering a spirited resistance could be inferred from the lively firing that was to be plainly heard. But how would it be when the attack in the rear should begin, from the direction of the Szekler Stone? Could Aaron and his forty men offer any effectual opposition to the invaders? Night must have fallen ere this.
"Well, the Wallachians are now no further advanced in military science than were the Tartars then." "Yes, but at that time the Szekler Stone was in a condition for defence," objected Manasseh. "And how do you know I haven't put it in such a condition again?" asked the other. "I should like to see how you have accomplished it."
You know that soon after the Wallachian mass-meeting at Balazsfalva came the Szekler muster at Agyagfalva, and presently we found ourselves like an island in the midst of the sea. A Wallachian army ten thousand strong, under Moga's command, beset us on all sides, while we had but three hundred armed men all told, just the number that Leonidas had at Thermopylæ.
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