ready at any moment to repel the raids of the Turks; and where his eyes became familiar with fierce foes and deadly weapons.
Such was the childhood of the future hero and bard of battles. At the age of sixteen he went to Italy and visited the papal court. In Rome he became acquainted with the works of the poet, who, next to Virgil, made the deepest impression upon him—Tasso. The whole career of Zrinyi was one of rapid progress. At eight years of age he was one of the bannerets of Hungary, and accordingly had certain official duties to perform. At twenty-one he was the ban of Croatia. He was twenty-six when his grand epic, the Zrinyiász, was published. As a soldier he first greatly distinguished himself in r663. But when, after a long battle, and in spite of the victory of Zrinyi, the Austrian Court agreed to the shameful peace of Vasvár, the terms of which made it seem as though the Turks had won the battle, Zrinyi retired, deeply grieved and indignant, to his fortified castle at Csáktornya. He had consecrated his whole life, his talent as a military writer, as commander and as poet, to one aim, the deliverance of his fatherland from the Turkish yoke. And after all his efforts, he was forced to see Austria withhold justice from Hungary, and to realise that she probably would never do her best to deliver a Christian sister-country from the dominion of the Turk. We must not forget that from the sixteenth century Hungary was divided into three parts. The largest portion was under Turkish rule, the northern belonged to Austria, while the eastern part formed the independent dukedom of Transylvania. Zrinyi saw that he could not trust Austria, and knowing that the continued rule of the Turks meant utter ruin to Hungary,
