Iskander; Or, the Hero of Epirus. Or, the Hero of Epirus (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. " I do not think a braver gentleman, More active valiant, or more valiant young, More daring, or more bold, is now alive, To grace this later age with noble deeds." While he thus pursued his studies under the venerable Alhammah, manly exercises were not forgotten. The use of the bow, the javelin, and the cimeter, were successively entered upon, and successfully acquired. In equestrian exercises his skill and courage were alike conspicuous, and he emulated the rider of Bucephalus in breaking the most restive and spirited horses. Sometimes, with a troop of young associates, he would chase thethe savage beasts of the forest, penetrate the wildest recesses, and stem the most rapid currents, in pursuit of the fleet antelope or ferocious boar. When eighteen summers had burnished his cheek with the glow of manhood, he was called from the exercises and studies of youth to the active duties of a military life, for which his ardent spirit had long sighed. The Turkish kingdom, which for a few years had enjoyed comparative peace (except when disturbed by inroads from some of its neighbours, or when the sultan detached small foraging parties into their territories), was now alarmed in Asia by the invasion of Muhameth, the king of Cara- mania, on one side, and the hostilities of the prince of Smyrna, Zunites, on another. In Europe also, where his power was more vulnerable, Amurath found himself attacked by the united forces of Hungary and Poland; and in orderorder to secure his newly-acquired dominions on the western shore of the Bos- phorus, the Turkish sultan was obliged to forego the desire he had of chastising the Asiatic invaders in person. Hamanzah, the bashaw of Anatolia, was succoured by the large body of forces despatched for that purpose by Amurath, who ...