It is most difficult to make these people practical in their
trade dealings; and as for _time_, they must have come into the world
before it was talked about.
I made a short excursion into the Rothen Thurm Pass, the principal road
across the Southern Carpathians, if we except the Tomoescher Pass from
Kronstadt, which, owing to local circumstances, has become more
important. The Rothen Thurm or Red Tower Pass is extremely picturesque.
It is traversed by the Aluta, which though rising in the Szeklerland in
the north-east, finds its way through the Carpathian range, flowing at
length into the Lower Danube. The red tower stands at the narrowest part
of the defile, an important position of defence; and not far from this
spot signal victory was gained by the Christians over the infidels. In
the year 1493 the Turks made one of their frequent raids into
Transylvania. They had succeeded in collecting a vast amount of booty,
including many fair young maidens and tender youths, and were returning
in long cavalcade through the Red Tower Pass. Here, however, they fell
into an ambuscade arranged by the men of Herrmannstadt, headed by their
burgomaster, the brave George Hecht. At a concerted signal the Saxons
rushed upon the despoilers with such a fierce and sudden onslaught, that
though the Turks far exceeded them in number, they were completely
overpowered. Many a turbaned corpse lay that day on the green margin of
the classical Aluta, and few, very few, of the hated Turks, it is said,
escaped over the frontier to tell the tale of their disaster.
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