The Chronicles of a Virgin Fortress [i.e. Widdin] . Being some unrecorded chapters of Turkish and Bulgarian history

Preface

There exist, undoubtedly, a good many fastnesses upon which the laudatory title " Virgin Fortress," or some other term implying, more or less boast fully, the same assertion, has, at one time or another, been bestowed by the rhymsters and chroniclers of a grateful nation, or, in excusable pride, by the citizens and defenders themselves, in com memoration of some splendidly successful achieve ment in valour, perseverance, and heroic endurance of sufferings. Widdin, on the Danube, up to 1878 the pride and hope of the fast-decaying Ottoman Empire, the support of its exposed north-westerly corner, since then no less the pride of autono mous Bulgaria, is the town which I have called by that honourable name in the title of the present volume, and which I have ventured to constitute its object, pivot, and purport.

The suggestion for the title was made to me by a former comrade in Widdin, now residing in Australia ; and as in his letter he emphasised the two words by capitals and VI inverted commas, it would appear that he quoted some author — whom, I do not know. That the title is thoroughly deserved is my task to prove in these pages. My original project was to write a brief history of the remarkable siege of Widdin by the Rouman ians in December 1877 and January 1878, which intention I announced in note 119 on page 466 of my Defence of Plevna. I beg leave to quote the passage in extenso : — " The siege of Widdin does not belong to the scope of this work ; but being interested in the fate of this town, I collected much material, the greater part of which has never been published before, and hope to address my readers on this subject in a future volume.

I shall here only mention that it was an affair creditable to both sides. The Turks behaved splendidly and showed themselves in the best light. Probably the town would have remained unconquered ; in any case it would have held out for weeks longer, had not the armis tice put an end to the operations. In accordance with the terms of the latter, the Roumanians occupied the place, and the Turks retreated with arms, baggage, and full honours of war to Bielo gradchik. Before the opposing forces parted company there was a significant exchange of civilities, the relations between Russia and her

PREFACE.

VII ally having meanwhile become extremely strained. The Ottoman soldiers paraded before the Rouman ian general, and the latter's troops before the Pasha ; the leaders and officers entertained each other, and the Roumanians cheered and presented arms as their late opponents marched off. In connection with the splendid behaviour of the troops of Widdin I must mention the equally fine conduct of the weak garrisons who defended the frontier against Servia. From the moment that Milan crossed the boundary (14th December) in order to share in the spoil gained by the Russian and Roumanian soldiers, he had to fight his way inch by inch, notwithstanding his enormous numeri cal superiority. Step by step the Turks defended their soil against this fresh invader with wonderful obstinacy. The garrisons left by Suleiman Pasha on the Montenegrin frontier are also deserving of praise on the same score.

Altogether, the minor actions in the West towards the end of the war show the Turkish soldier to the best advantage ; and in estimating his conduct we must not forget that these engagements were fought after Plevna had fallen — that is, after the country had received what was intended to be, and bade fair to be, its death-blow. I doubt whether there is anywhere in history a finer display of vitality, patriotism, and dogged perseverance under similar circumstances." a Gradually I came to extend the sphere of my labour, as the knowledge grew upon me that at least one other chapter of modern history in con nection with that much -fought -for town is un recorded: the attacks of the Servians in 1885 and the heroic defence of the Bulgarian garrison. That, after I had decided to include this event, I had to make my work comprehend also the Turco- Servian War of 1876 was almost a matter of necessity.

From this to brief accounts of the part which Widdin and Calafat played in the Oriental War, 1853 and 1S54, and in the Russo-Turkish campaign of 1828 and 1829, and of Pasvan Oglu's remarkable rebellion in the beginning of the present century — all episodes practically unknown to the average reader — it was but a few steps more ; and a general, though unavoidably sketchy, retrospect of the history of the town, since its foundation by the Romans, followed in natural sequence. This is the evolution of the present work. The greater part of what I have stated anent the abortive attempts to subdue Widdin in 1877, 1878, and 1885 has not been recorded before in any volume existent, and is founded on material which I alone possess, obtained, partly from an officer in the Turkish service who stayed behind in Widdin in July 1877, when Osman Pasha marched with the bulk of his forces on Plevna, and who took part in

PREFACE.

IX the defence of the town against the Roumanians, partly from a civilian resident, an Austrian Jew, who lived in Widdin during the eventful years 1875 t0 1885, and died there in 1887. Much also of what I have narrated concerning the campaigns of Pasvan Oglu in 1801, Hussein Pasha in 1828, and Omar Pasha in 1854 is, I believe, new to English readers, and part of it is based on information collected on the spot in 1877. I have included, by way of epilogue, a brief account of the Rustchuk rebellion of 1887. My reason for so doing will be apparent to the reader, and demands, I hope, no justification. That I may have thrown a little light on a badly illumined, but fascinating by-way of history, and may have rendered this path pleasant to the pursuer, is my sincere wish. I have thought to write an entertaining and unassuming book, meant for the average reader, not a volume claiming to be abstrusely scientific, ostentatiously learned, or start lingly novel.

For I maintain that a book may be good history and, at the same time, be readable. If it be held that I have failed to demonstrate this by the present humble effort, I shall be dis appointed. W. V. H. London, 1896. PAGE 1 16 22 34 CONTENTS

Introduction

Classic and Mediæval Being a cursory chronicle of the Virgin Fortress, from its Roman foundation until the Turkish Conquest, a.d. ioo to 1398

Chapter I

Preliminary Being a brief account of the warlike events in and around Widdin, from the Turkish Conquest to the end of the eighteenth century. 1398 to 1797 ........

Chapter II

The Last of the Janissaries Being an account of the janissary rebellion of Pasvan Oglu, Pasha of Widdin ; of the warlike doings, at Widdin and Calafat, of Hussein Pasha, Grand Vizier and exterminator of the janissaries ; and generally of events in and around Widdin during the first half of the nineteenth century. 1797 to 1853 ....

Chapter XVI

The Curse of Compulsory Idleness Dealing with the first period of the Russo-Turkish War — from the outbreak of hostilities to Osman Pasha's departure for the scene of action — so far as it concerns the Widdin army. April to July 1877

Chapter XVII

The Fight for the Petticoat Being a record of heroic struggle and brilliant conquest. June 1877

Chapter XVIII

A Spell of Fair Weather Dealing with the second period of the Russo-Turkish War — from Osman Pasha's departure for the scene of action until the investment of Plevna, — so far as it concerns the town and garrison of Widdin. July to November 1877 ...... CONTENTS XV PACE 192 197 224 233 241

Chapter XIX

The Cloud on the Horizon Dealing with the third period of the Russo-Turkish War — ending in the fall of Plevna — so far as it concerns the towns of Rahova, Lom Palankah, and Widdin. November and December 1S77 .

Epilogue

Atonement Being a tragedy enacted at Rustchuk on the four days 3rd to 6th March 1S87 290 APPENDICES i. Notes . . . . . . . .311 2. Authorities ....... 323 3. Glossary of Terms ...... 326 4. Chronology ....... ,2g INDEX LIST OF MAPS Flags of the Balkan Peninsula . . . Frontispiece I. Mœsia. a.d. 250 To face page I 2. Bulgaria in the Tenth Century . . „ „ 11 3. Pashalik of Widdin, about 1870 . . ,, ,,125 4. Widdin during the Roumanian Siege, 1877-78 „ 197 5. Bulgaria in 1885 .....„,, E" S Wilier .F.R.GJS MŒSIA AD 250. Zoadon-, OsgoocL, M? ILvcurw/ Sr Co 4-» ..Alherruxr-le, Stre*L.W. 1333.

INTRODUCTION.

CLASSIC AND MEDIÆVAL Being a cursory chronicle of the Virgin Fortress, from its Roman foundation until the Turkish Conquest. A.D. ioo to 1398. Love thou thy land, with love far brought From out the storied past." Tennyson. It is a safe and a trite thing to say of almost any town in Europe that it is of Roman origin, and I know of no worse beginning to a work which humbly claims to be entertaining, and proudly repulses the reproach of learnedness. I wish I could commence with a startling announcement, such as that of the discovery that the city which makes its bow to the reader of these pages is a Chinese foundation, or one of a colony of Green landers gone astray on an iceberg in ages long past. But my manifold researches have not resulted in any such stirring find : stern necessity compels me to climb down from the pedestal of the successful B investigator to the level of the dry chronicler, and state that, undoubtedly, Widdin was founded by the Romans in the first century of our era, not unlikely already during the reign of the Emperor Augustus.

They called the newly-built stronghold Bononia, and it was situated on the right bank of the Ister (Danube), iof millia passuum (13 miles), as the crow flies, upwards of Ratiaria (the present Artzar), the capital of the province of Mœsia Superior. On its site and with its stones the Bulgars built, eight centuries later, the castle which has survived a thousand years of wars and sieges, batteries and assaults, and is to-day as good as ever ; and the euphonious Latin name has apparently lived, through the Bidyn or B'dyn of the Middle Ages, to the Bodun of the modern Bulgarians, and the Widdin — pronounced V'dln — of the Moslems. A long line of forts protected the frontier — that is, the Ister — of the remote Hæmus provinces against the northern barbarians. Under the good Emperor Trajan the Transisterian country became incorporated with the mighty empire under the name of Dacia (about a.d. 100) ; but the wild men pressed from the north and the north-east, the colonisers sought shelter behind the great river, Dacia was lost to Latin civilisation, and the Danube fastnesses, Bononia among them, became once more the last outposts of Western culture and militarism

INTRODUCTION.

3 against the unknown and terrible North, forming the border line also between the rapidly-growing religion of the Jewish Messiah and dark Paganism. This happened in 270, the first year of Aurelian's reign. The Romans knew their business in almost any occupation or emergency — in none better than in the building of forts. The position on the Ister bend, facing the broad river, backed by low -lying marsh-lands, impervious to assault, was such as if it had been specially created for the erection of a stronghold. The lapse of ages has not diminished its importance : it was the same to the early Romans, to the later Greeks, to the mediæval Bulgars, to the Turks during five centuries, as it is to the Bulgarians of these latter days. Here I am placed in the singular position of having to refute my own argument.

I mentioned the low-lying marsh-lands which surround Widdin in a semicircle ; and I must add that it is quite possible that these did not exist at the time of the Romans, but are a later creation by the hand of man. From some observations I made in 1877, and from information locally collected, I do not think it improbable that the two Danube tributaries, the Delenska and the Topolovitza, were, at no very remote period, led out of their courses for the purpose of strengthening the defences of the western approaches to the town, and thus formed the swamps and marshes which now protect it. I oner this hypothesis, fully prepared to encounter the wrath of some great man, learned in humanities, wise in his generation, and rich in suffixes, who, after the manner of his tribe, will probably send forth, from the safe precincts of his arm-chair by the fireside, the royal edict that my supposition is utterly false, that the marsh-lands of Widdin have existed from times immemorial and are a natural formation, although he has likely never been in Widdin, and has never known anybody who has been there.

However, the position of Widdin is strong without the belt of low-lying, oft-flooded meadows, and I need not detain the reader in this territory of fever-haunted swamps. A great post road, practicable to the Roman legions, led from the mouth of the Ister, closely hugging its right bank, to where the Dravus of old, the Drave of to-day, joins it. From this point the track followed the right bank of the latter river, through the modern Austrian provinces of Slavonia, Croatia, and Carinthia, thence across the Alps into Italy. In this wise the city of Rome was connected with the Black Sea by an unbroken road 1200 miles long. Bononia formed one of the numerous stations on

INTRODUCTION.

5 this highway ; 10 millia above was Dorticum, not far from the site of modern Rakovitza, near which the Timok river flows into the Danube, farther down Florentiana (Flortin) ; below were Ad Malum (Vidbol), Ratiaria (Artzar), Remetodia (half-way between Artzar and Lom Palankah), Almus (Lom Palankah), Ciabrus (Chibritzi), Variana (Rahova), Œscus (Ghigen), and so forth. But the sites of these ancient strongholds cannot always be identi fied with those of the modern towns, the names of which are suffixed in parentheses ; the former were in many cases destroyed during the countless migra tions of barbaric tribes in the fourth and fifth centuries, and not until half a millennium afterwards did the Bulgars commence to rebuild the towns, during the first supremacy of their race (864 to 969). In doing so they invariably employed the solid stones of the ruins bequeathed to them by the Roman colonisers, but not always on the spot ; for instance, the remnants of Ratiaria and Remetodia were undoubtedly requisitioned, in addition to those of Bononia, to erect the Bulgar castle of Widdin.

To mention another example, there were in 1877, two miles to the south of Plevna, ruins which I, in my youthful ignorance, took to be of Roman origin, and stated to be such in my work on the historic defence of that town by Osman the Victorious ; but since its publication a gentleman learned in many things has informed me that it is not a Roman relic at all, simply the wreck of a mediæval Bulgar fort, built of stones transported thither from the remnants of Roman Melta, the modern Lovdcha or Lovatz.1 Of the great Danube road no trace remains as regards the stretch between Artzar and Rakovitza, which is the only portion that concerns us. It has probably been washed away by the river or covered with the sediment of its waters. True, there is a road between Artzar and Widdin ; but, whatever it may be to-day, it was in 1877 in such a poverty stricken condition that no patriotic Roman would have owned to it, — not a bad road, certainly, for the Turks of the nineteenth century, but utterly below the Roman standard of a.d. 100 or thereabouts.

Well I remember tramping it in 1877, on April 23rd, to Widdin, and on July 13th, during Osman Pasha's world - famed march to the imperishable glory of Plevna defence ; it did not strike me as in the least classic, only sordidly, brutally Turkish, indicative of thorough-paced Ottoman slovenliness, squalor, and impecuniosity. To my thinking it lies at least 300 yards inland of the old Roman highway. To the north of Widdin the present road to Flortin — a short cut, avoiding the river bend — undoubtedly does not follow the direction of the more tortuous 1 These small figures throughout refer to Notes at end of volume.

INTRODUCTION.

7 Latin predecessor, of which no solid trace remains. In connection with roads I shall add that the stretch Storgosia (Plevna)-Œscus (Ghigen) which existed in the second century, according to the best authorities, has absolutely disappeared, — a significant occurrence this, that every communication should cease where once a much -trodden highway bound important communities together ; there was in 1877 not even a path between those places, as I remember but too well in my campaign experience. The half-way stage, Putei of the ancient geo graphers, appears also to have vanished ; its site cannot have been far from the present hamlet Demirkiui. What terrible vicissitudes the country must have undergone — of a broad highway, built with Roman care, solidity, and lavishness, not a footpath is left to give evidence of prosperous periods lapsed into brutality and decay !

With this digression I shall relieve the grateful reader of further disquisitions on roads, Roman or rotten, and conclude the classical part of my history. On the division of the Empire in 395, Bononia fell naturally to the share of Byzantium. In the fourth and fifth centuries the vast westward migration of Asiatic millions flooded also Mœsia. Whence came these awful hordes ? To the excited fantasy of the ponderer over this terrible episode, it would almost seem as if there had existed, somewhere in the deep dark wilds of mystic Serica, a pregnant caldron, seething and broiling, which bore, in whirling swiftness and dizzy fecundity, countless units of crude humanity, tribes and nations entire, predestined to be God's lash for Occidental corruption. Visigoths and Ostrogoths, Huns and Avars, followed each other in rapid and murderous succession, leaving death and desolation in their wake ; and only the last of the new comers settled in the country permanently towards the middle of the seventh century : a tribe of Slavs, who styled themselves Slovenes, and gave the name of Sclavinia to the province, under which appellation it appears henceforth in the chronicles of the Byzantine Empire.

To the latter they became tributary, since some of the ancient strongholds, Bononia among them, had bravely withstood the stupendous rush of the barbaric hordes for the fabulous wealth reported to be amassed in the countries toward the setting sun.2 But only a generation later, in 679, an event happened which imparted a fresh and powerful element into the heterogeneous crew of the Hæmus provinces, shaped the course of the Balkan history anew and lastingly, and even gave a name to a nameless nation of bastards. A small tribe, called the Bulgars, from their original domicile on the Volga,3 of Finno- Ugrian origin (Mongolic stock) — who had on

INTRODUCTION.

9 previous occasions invaded and devasted the peninsula, and caused severe anguish and bloody sacrifice to senile Byzantium — crossed the lower Danube from ancient Dacia,4 and spread over Sclavinia as conquerors. They found the Slovenes tilling the fertile soil and breeding cattle ; and, being them selves not addicted to, or accomplished in, peaceful pursuits, they had the good sense to leave the subjected majority undisturbed in their wealth producing vocations. Not only that : they adopted the language of the vanquished, and the Bulgarian of to-day is a Slav tongue pure and simple, with few traces of the Finno-Ugrian conquest. They intermarried, and the descendants of the wise alliance inhabit the land this day. Thus the modern Bulgarian has retained only the name of the victorious invaders : language, physiognomy, racial characteristics, habits, and occupation, are those of the defeated.

In fact, considering that the Slovenes must have outnumbered the Bulgars by at least ten to one, it is not too much to say that the latter were virtually exterminated by force of assimilation to the majority, and that the Bulgarians of to-day bear that name wrongfully. How the small tribe succeeded in conquering the vast nation is not recorded. The latter were peace able, and spread over a large area ; the former were warriors by desire, vocation, and practice, and attacked in solid columns scattered settlements : divide et impera. The amalgamated peoples made themselves independent of Byzantium in many a sanguinary campaign. In 864 they embraced Christianity, having up to that year confessed to a curious mongrel blend of much paganism, a little Islam, and the crude faith of some of the Slovenes previously converted by Byzantine missionaries.

The man who worked this wonder, Cyril the apostle, gave the Bulgarians also the characters called after him, which they, in common with the Servians and Russians, use this day. In the same year (864) the chief, Michael Boris, founded the first Bulgarian empire. His son and successor, Symeon, called himself Cæsar (Czar) of the Bulgars and Autocrat of the Eastern Romans (Roumanians). Bononia, too, had fallen to the young race, probably about 700, and from this moment the history of Widdin is identical with that of the Bulgarians, — a history of cruelty and horrors almost unequalled in the blood-stained annals of the fates of nations, but which gives the regenerated people of to-day a tremendous impulse towards a high development, in the memory of a mighty past, distinguished in conquest and solid unity under strong personalities, as well as a solemn warning, BULGARIA IN THE 10TH CENTURY. Lnndntx , (),y„..,/, Mr llv,,,.,, rfst> F SftWWlUi-.FR.GS

INTRODUCTION.

11 embodied in the records of civic strife, disruption, dismemberment when the thrones were foul and quaking, and final craven subjugation to an alien race. The first Bulgar empire lasted one century (864 to 969). Under Symeon, the typical hero czar of the nation (888 to 927), it reached its greatest strength and prestige ; it extended from the Danube in the north to the actual Turco-Greek frontier in the south, from the Black Sea in the east to the Adria in the west. The country between the Karpathians and the Danube (the present Roumania, Transylvania, and part of Hungary), which had at one time belonged to the Bulgarians, had been lost at an early stage of the supremacy of their race to the rush of the invading Magyars. The whole period is crowded with endless, senseless, resultless wars against Byzantium, the Magyars, and the Servians, full to repletion of horrors, cruelties, and miseries incredible, the record of which can find no place in these pages, since Bononia, now called Bidyn, played no in dividual role in the long and bloody drama.

The split of the Bulgar empire into two parts (963) caused the eastern portion to be subjugated, first by the Russians (967), then by the Greeks (971); whilst the western part found a powerfully guiding hand in the person of the Czar Samuel (977 to 1 01 4), the Napoleon of the nation, who restored Bulgarian splendour, prestige, prosperity, and success in conquest, and founded the second supremacy of his race (977 to 10 18). It ended four years after his death, when the Greek Emperor Basilios subjected the whole peninsula once more to Byzantine sway. This monarch had taken Widdin already in 1002, after a siege of eight months, and lost it again in the same year, but recovered it sixteen years later. For 170 years Bulgaria was a province of the great Greek Empire, was gagged and held in bondage by rigour and terror.

In 11 86 the brothers Azen, Peter, and Joannes guided a racial revolt to the goal of success ; the former was crowned Czar, and became founder of the third and last Bulgarian independence (1186 to 1398), which withstood the onslaughts of Byzan tium, of the Servians — a nation newly aroused to the glory of freedom and conquest, and growing in power stupendously — and, lastly, of the warlike and fanatical Osmanlis, the constantly increasing danger to the safety of Europe, whose aim was clearly to spread Islam over the entire world, and before whose astounding bravery and impetuosity all Christendom, united for once, if only in fear, trembled. In the first and second Bulgar empire

INTRODUCTION.

13 Preslav 5 had been the capital ; in the third, Tirnova was raised to the splendour of a czar's city, and to this day the Bulgarians look upon the picturesque town as hallowed by the memory of a glorious past, when their country was the bulwark of Christianity against the terrific aggression of the false faith. Unhappily the Eastern Christians were divided when, in face of the daily growing danger, they should have been united and strong. The Bulgars were beaten by the Servians in 1330 near Kustendil, in a bloody and barbarous battle, and had to yield to the victors the supremacy in the Hæmus countries, although they did not actually come under Servian sway; but in 1356 the death of the great Serb-Czar Stephan Dushan Zilni broke the heterogeneous Serb empire into splinters, and Bulgaria recovered her position and prestige in the peninsula.

During this period Bidyn seems to have be longed for some little time to the Servians (between 1292 and 1324), having been ceded to them in exchange for some Rhodope districts, lost in warfare and recovered by barter. But in a more important sense, also, the town played an individual role : it gave the Bulgarians their last emperors. A grandee named Shisman, residing in Bidyn, rendered him self independent of the Tirnova Czar (1291), adopted the princely dignity, and made Bidyn capital of a West Bulgarian kingdom. In the following year he was beaten by the Servians, and had to accept the terms of peace dictated to him in his own city. But Michael, his son, was crowned in Tirnova Czar of once more united Bulgaria (13 24), and his dynasty, known as the Widdin Shismanides, reigned until the fall of the empire (1393).

The stupendous onward rush of the Crescent held Europe in thrall. Vain were the alliances of kingdoms and nations, foes from time im memorial, friends for once in face of the daily growing danger: the banner of the halfmoon was irresistible. A united Servo- Bulgarian army was beaten on the Maritza near the site of the modern town Chirmen in 1371, Adrianople fell and became the capital of Sultan Murad, the seem ingly invincible, and on the 15th June 1389 the Turks annihilated the vast army composed of the whole of the arms-carrying Christian population of the peninsula — Servians, Bulgarians, Greeks — in a battle of giants fought on the Amselplain of Kosovo, near the modern town Pristina. Once more Bulgaria split in two — Tirnova and Widdin — facilitating the completion of conquest to the victorious Turks: Tirnova fell in 1393; in 1394 the Osmanlis abolished the Bulgarian Church, and in 1398 Widdin, the last stand of the nation, succumbed to the Crescent.

INTRODUCTION.

15 Constantinople held out for 55 years longer. In 1453 the capital of the moribund Christian Empire in the East became the residence of Sultan Mohammed II., who, on entering the ruined city, deeply stirred by the momentous event, cited the words of a Persian poet : — " The spider has woven her web in the mighty imperial palace, Whose loftiest towers resound with the owl's inglorious cry."

Chapter I Preliminary

Being a brief account of the warlike events in and around Widdin, from the Turkish Conquest to the end of the eighteenth century. 1398 to 1797. " Ever waging war Each upon other, wasted all the land." Tennyson. The imperial cities, Tirnova and Widdin, had fallen, and the banner of the Crescent floated over the Bulgar castles. The proud czardom of Boris and Samuel was dead. For nearly five centuries Bulgaria was a province of the Turkish Empire. During half a millennium the people were crushed, down-trodden, gagged, isolated from the progress of culture and civilisation, kept ignominiously in bondage, material and spiritual. In those 480 years of Bulgarian thraldom and inglorious subjugation of the Cross, the ever spreading Ottoman supremacy came into frequent collision with the powers of the West.

First with PRELIMINARY 17 the Magyars, now definitely settled in Hungary ; these being vanquished, with Austria and the German Empire. Twice (1529 and 1683) the Turks stood before the gates of Vienna. Both sieges were unsuccessful. The latter marked the turning - point in the career of the Crescent. Hungary was lost to Islam, and the Osmanlis had to content themselves with Servia, Wallachia, and Moldavia as their westernmost and northernmost possessions. The history of this period — an almost unbroken record of slaughter — can concern us only in so far as Widdin is drawn into the vortex of warfare. To do full justice to the Virgin Fortress — which constitutes the purpose of the present volume — we must make a retrograde digression, to the holocaust on the Amselplain, where the rivalry between Cross and Crescent in the Peninsula was finally decided in favour of the latter.

The last czar of the Bulgar empire was Joannes Stracimir, of the dynasty of the Widdin Shismanides, and his residence, after the catastrophe of the year 1389, was Widdin. Him the Magyars, previous to the battle, had kept prisoner for four years. In 1394 Sultan Bayazid I. occupied Widdin; in 1395 he was driven away by the Magyars, who bestowed upon the luckless town the doubtful blessing of a strong alien garrison ; in the next year the Sultan c again captured the much-fought-for city, and was again immediately dispossessed ; until at length, in 1398, Widdin succumbed to the Moslems, apparently for good, and with it fell the remnant of the Bulgar empire. These simple dates will suffice to prove that the town had fought obstinately and had died hard; that, through it, and through it alone, the Bulgarian nation had made a brave last stand.