Vlad The Impaler and The Ottoman Invasion 1462.

Voivode Vlad III Dracula

Introduction.

Following Dracula's audacious and vicious attack south of the Danube in the winter of 1461 to 1462 a swift and deadly response form the Ottoman empire was inevitable.

According to the Byzantine Greek historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles, who wrote an eyewitness account,  Sultan Mehmed II had assembled a force of approximately 150,000 (although more likely to be approximately 80,000 to 100,000) men to march north on Wallachia. The only Ottoman army of this size in recent memory had been the one assembled to lay siege to Constantinople in 1453. The size of this army suggests that Mehmed was not taking any chances, regime change was coming and the Sultan's favourite, Vlad's brother, Radu the Handsome would be Voivode at Targoviste.

Sultan Mehmed II

The plan was to land a force at Braila, situated on the Danube, this was the principal port of Wallachia. The main army would cross the Danube near Giurgiu and press home the attack on Targoviste, skirting the Transylvanian border the army would head east to Braila. Terminating Vlad Dracula as quickly as possible and securing Radu as Voivode. Hopefully not entering Transylvania would stop any Hungarian aggression and a huge Ottoman army moving east would negate any Moldavian interference.

On the Wallachian side Dracula's army numbered between 20,000 and 30,000, a mixture of peasant levies, conscripts, mercenaries, the retinues of loyal Boyars and a small standing army of professional soldiers. They did possess a small amount of firepower, handguns and small culverins, nothing like the bombards and siege guns the Ottomans were dragging north.

A chronicler serving under Vlad II Dracul (Dracula's father) stated that Sultan Murad II (Mehmed II father) went hunting with more retainers than Vlad had in his army, this could easily be said of the 1462 invasion. To oppose the Ottomans in a set piece battle would be suicide, Dracula had to plan a different campaign and hope for Hungarian intervention, the pressure was not only on Vlad, it was also weighing on King Matthias Corvinus.

Reaping The Whirlwind.

The war began late in May, an Ottoman fleet sailed up the Danube and successfully attacked Braila, holding that town for future needs.

Meanwhile to the south west the Ottoman army was nearing the Danube, Dracula's men had destroyed many of the crossing places and Giurgiu was in Wallachian hands. 

The crossing was made at Nikopol on the 4th June, local boatmen who were no friends of Dracula attempted to ferry Ottoman troops to the far bank, the Wallachians fired into the oncoming host repulsing them with heavy casualties. The second attempt was done at night and a landing was forced, the fighting was brutal, the Ottomans even dug trenches to counter the Wallachian cavalry, but eventually Ottoman fire support came into play and the Wallachians were soon forced to withdraw under a barrage of arrows and cannon shot.

The Ruins of Turnu Fortress

A bridgehead was soon established and Turnu castle taken, the castle had been built in 1417 by Mircea The Old (Dracula's grandfather) but had soon fallen into Turkish hands, they in turn had lost it during the battle of Nikopol in the winter campaign of 1461 to 1462.

With the Ottomans on Wallachian soil the tactics had to change, Sultan Mehmed wanted to drive straight for the capital Targoviste, a journey of 173km (approx 107.5 miles) across bad roads and forest, although remarkably flat terrain it would still be a trial of stamina to get a huge amount of armoured men and the artillery train through. Also it was June and the temperature was rising.

The citadel of Bucharest came under attack as the invaders drove north, quite a new fortification, it is first mentioned in documents from 1459 and it was mentioned to be a residence of Vlad Dracula. The Ottomans failed to take Bucharest, they also failed in their attempt to take the island fortress at Snagov, the main prize was always Targoviste, nothing else really mattered. 

For Mehmed and his men this was turning into a living nightmare, the guerrilla tactics of Dracula were terrifying. Hit and run skirmishes were becoming more brazen, the Ottomans did not know from where the next attack would come.

Every village and hamlet was deserted, the wells poisoned with animal carcasses, crops were burned and livestock driven off, nothing was left for the invaders. 

People suffering with tuberculosis, leprosy and bubonic plague were inserted into the Ottoman camps, an early version of germ warfare that was partially successful as bubonic plague did spread within their ranks.

Water became a premium in the scorching heat, and at night the inhospitable landscape belonged to Dracula.

On the road to Targoviste evidence of Dracula's favourite pastime dotted the landscape, impaled Turkish captives or their sympathisers reminded the Ottomans of the awful fate of failure in this campaign, could it possibly get any worse. A Wallachian soldier captured by the Turks was at first bribed to give information, then tortured, he gave nothing away, Sultan Mehmed then said to the soldier "If your master had many soldiers like yourself, in a short time he could conquer the world."

For Dracula the campaign wasn't going very well, desertions were commonplace and he was losing ground fast. Even though he was picking them off there was just too many, he needed to think of something spectacular, something to shake the Ottoman morale and have them scurrying back over the Danube. Word had it that the Hungarians were finally on the move after pleadings from the Venetian ambassador, the Black Army was coming, but would they be in time.

Night Attack.

The battle with torches by Theodor Aman (1891)

On the night of the 17th June Dracula executed one of the most incredible attacks of his reign, an assault on the Ottoman camp with the intention of killing Sultan Mehmed II.

Vlad did his own reconnoiter within the camp, dressed as an Ottoman he walked around observing where the different parts of the army were, and also where the tent of the Sultan was.

That night "three hours after sunset" torches were lit and bugles sounded as 7,000 to 10,000 horsemen thundered towards the camp. 

There were several attacks from various directions, however, a second wave failed to materialise, a Boyar called Gales fled into the night taking with him all hope of an Ottoman rout.

The Sultan was not killed, the Ottomans did not run, but they were shaken to the core.

According to an Ottoman Janissary called Konstantin Mihailovic, a veteran of the battle who wrote of his experience that night;

"Although the Romanian Prince had a small army, we always advanced with great caution and fear and spent nights sleeping in ditches. But even in this manner we were not safe; for during one night the Romanians struck at us. They massacred horses, camels, and several thousand Turks. When the Turks had retreated in the face of the enemy, we (the Janissaries) repelled the enemy and killed them. But the Sultan had incurred great losses."

Sultan Mehmed II

The Janissaries pursued the Wallachians and killed many, the attack was over by four the next morning. That day the Ottomans broke camp gathered their shattered nerves and marched on to Targoviste.

The Forest of the Impaled.

When the Ottomans finally reached the city of Targoviste on the 21st June they found it deserted with the gates wide open. But, Dracula had left them a little surprise, there were the rotting cadavers of 20,000 impaled people. 

On the highest stake, still in his now tattered fine clothing was Hamza Bey, Mehmed's friend and chief envoy who had been captured by Dracula just before his Bulgarian invasion. 

Such a high ranking execution may have been in revenge for the execution by the Ottomans of Michael Szilagyi, Vlad's friend and ally in the wars with the German Transylvanians. Szilagyi had been captured in Serbia in 1460, his men slaughtered and Szilagyi taken to Constantinople and sawn in half.

So large was this execution site that the Ottoman army marched for half an hour through rows and rows of stinking corpses.

Chalkokondyles mentions the Sultans response to this horror;

"The Sultan's army entered into the area of the impalements.....There were large stakes there on which, as it was said, about twenty thousand men, women, and children had been spitted, quite a sight for the Turks and the Sultan himself.

The Sultan was seized with amazement and said that it was not possible to deprive of his country a man who has done such great deeds, who had such a diabolical understanding of how to govern his realm and it's people. And he said that a man who has done such things was worth much.

The rest of the Turks were dumbfounded when they saw the multitude of men on the stakes. There were infants too afixed to their mothers on the stakes, and birds had made nests in their entrails."

That night, his nerves at breaking point, the Sultan ordered a camp made, with a very deep trench dug around it. The next day the Turks broke camp and began the long march to Braila, but Vlad had already moved to the east as any hopes that Stephen the Great of Moldavia would be coming to Dracula's aid were dashed, he had laid siege to the Wallachian fortress of Chilia, a fortress on the Danube east of Braila.

Chilia Fortress

Stephen the Great was acting in his own interests, had Chilia fallen to the Ottomans it would have been disastrous for Moldavia, as it happened the Wallachians defeated the Moldavians, Stephen the Great was even wounded in the foot by a piece of shrapnel, he left before Vlad arrived.

Vlad had left 6,000 men hidden in the forests to harass any unwary Ottoman forces, as the army moved out from Targoviste the rearguard was attacked and severely beaten but reinforcements arrived and drove off the Wallachians who lost approximately 2,000 men.

After his victory over the Moldavians Vlad turned his army of 7,000 around and marched west back towards Targoviste. It was on this march that the two armies met at Buzau, the Wallachians attacked the worn out Ottomans but were repulsed with heavy casualties. 

The Ottomans carried on as planned and reached Braila on the 29th June, the town was torched, locals were rounded up as slaves, livestock was taken and the Ottomans left Wallachia. They reached Adrianople on the 11th July and had a great victory celebration on the 12th.

Aftermath.

Radu the Handsome

Mehmed II had left a sizeable Ottoman force with Radu The Handsome at Buzau, many boyars were now flocking to his standard as the prospect of another Ottoman invasion was unthinkable.

Even though Vlad had given the Ottomans a bloody nose he was losing control of what was left of his army.

So much for the Papal crusade, all that money poured into the Hungarian coffers was for nothing, after the slowest march in military history the Hungarians had barely moved through Transylvania.

As the new Viovode Radu now took up the anti Vlad banner and began to route out his supporters, Vlad's megre forces managed to defeat Radu twice at this time but the game was up.

View of Arges River From Poenari

Dracula, on the run in the Carpathian mountains is the stuff of legend, in one story it is said that his men tricked the Ottomans by shoeing their horses backwards, making them look in the wrong direction.

The fortress of Poenari is also mentioned during the search for Dracula, Radu's men laid siege to the castle and spread the rumour of Vlad's death, some say an arrow was shot through the window with a message tied to it, but that really is quite far fetched! Vlad's wife in a fit of grief threw herself off the battlements into the river Arges below.

In another legend Poenari is besieged and Vlad uses a secret route through the mountains to escape to the town of Arefu, where he is assisted to safety by the locals.

Poenari Castle

Colourful as these stories are the truth of the matter is that Radu was on the throne and Vlad was a fugitive.

Vlad entered Transylvania in the hope of joining forces with the Hungarians, unfortunately for him the Burghers of Brasov had recognised Radu as Viovode, in return Radu had payed 15,000 ducats in compensation for his brothers war. Vlad was arrested by King Matthias's men near Rucar, where he had executed Dan III two years before.

Matthias Corvinus with his Black Army

His arrest caused outrage in the Papal States, Matthias Corvinus needed a watertight excuse for locking up such a crusader, so three letters were forged. The letters were allegedly written by Vlad to Sultan Mehmed II, Mahmud Pasha, and Stephen The Great stating that he would join forces with the Ottomans and give them Transylvania if they put him back on the throne.

This was obviously nonsense, but it did the trick, Vlad Dracula was about to enter a confinement at the Hungarian court that would last for thirteen years.

Vlad The Impaler and the Bulgarian War 1461 - 1462.

Introduction.

It is 1461. With his northern border with Transylvania now secure, and the trade war with Brasov over, Vlad Dracula turned his attention to the Ottoman question. What would a war with the Sultan look like, how could a small principality like Wallachia take on the giant Turkish war machine with any chance of success.

Vlad III Dracula

Vlad and his brother Radu had grown up in the court of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II. They had been handed over by their father Vlad Dracul as hostages to make sure he stayed loyal to the Sultan. 

Both boys knew Murad's son Mehmed, they played, trained and were educated together. It was Mehmed as Sultan who put Vlad on the throne of Wallachia after the murders of his father and older brother Micrea in 1448.

 Even though this reign only lasted a couple of months he was only in this position due to his friendship with Mehmed.

Because of this time he spent with the Ottomans, and in particular Mehmed II, he knew how they thought and also how they fought. 

It was obvious that Vlad did not enjoy his six years with the Turks, he finally gained the throne properly in 1456 with Hungarian support. In 1460 a treaty was drawn up with the Turks restricting their entry into Wallachia, and any Wallachian adopting Islam would have to revert to Christianity when crossing back over the border, he had already stopped the yearly tribute payment to the Sultan in 1458. 

Sultan Mehmed II

This frustrated Mehmed, he ordered Vlad to come to Constantinople and pay homage to him, Vlad refused saying that his throne was at risk if he was to stay away from it for any length of time.

Part of the 1460 treaty was for the Turkish envoy to travel north from Giurgiu to Târgoviște to receive the tribute, when, in 1461, the tribute was still not forthcoming three envoys were sent to Dracula's court. 

While these envoys were in Vlad's presence he asked why they did him the dishonour of not removing their turbans, they remarked that they could only bare their heads in front of God, this, of course he knew all too well. 

Flying into a rage he executed his plan, the envoys were seized and their turbans were nailed to their heads, the message to Mehmed was loud and clear. 

Invasion.

Over the winter relations soured even further, Sultan Mehmed II sent his chief envoy Admiral Hamza Bey and Byzantine Turkophile Thomas Katabolenos with approximately 1,500 soldiers to Giurgiu on the Danube. Giurgiu was a border fortress built by Vlad's grandfather Mircea Cel Batran (The Old), it had been conquered by the Ottomans in 1419.

The Unfortunate Turkish Envoys.

Hamza Bey's mission was, on the face of it, a diplomatic entreaty to persuade Vlad to pay homage to Mehmed and smooth over their differences, in reality their mission was to capture the Impaler and take him to Constantinople in chains. Vlad found out their true purpose and came up with a plan that would shake the Ottoman empire to its core.

A meeting was arranged between Dracula and the Turkish envoy near Giurgiu, knowing this to be an ambush Dracula turned the tables, the Turkish force was decimated in a surprise attack, Hamza Bey and Thomas Katabolenos were captured along with many soldiers.

Chindia Tower, Targoviste.

They were taken as prisoners to Targoviste, there they were all impaled, Hamza Bey was impaled on a taller stake as became his exalted position as chief envoy. Meanwhile Vlad and his men had taken the uniforms and clothes of the Ottoman soldiers and rode for Giurgiu.

At the gates Vlad used his experience at the Ottoman court to trick the guards into thinking they were talking to an Ottoman officer and his men returning from the Hamza Bey expedition, they opened the gates and the garrison was slaughtered in a short sharp battle.

Through the January and February of 1462 in the freezing cold temperatures on both sides of the Danube Vlad's army went on the rampage. The fortress at Turnu fell just like Giurgiu, it had been in Ottoman hands since 1417. Splitting into smaller groups of raiders they spread terror across approximately 800 kilometres of Ottoman held territory. 

Singling out Ottoman settlements and garrisons the army laid waist to town after town, burning, mutilating and impaling all they could capture and recording their gruesome death tolls to specially appointed officials.

They raided the southern bank of the Danube from Giurgiu to Nicopolis, and laid siege to the fortress of Zishtova. They destroyed potential crossing points for any Ottoman army in pursuit, many Christian Bulgarians were given sanctuary in Wallachia while all Ottoman sympathisers and soldiers were impaled.

Soon the Wallachian army was back on home ground and preparations were made for the inevitable Ottoman attack. Vlad Dracula was very satisfied with his campaign, he had struck a blow for Christianity against the dreaded Ottomans, surely this must show the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus and the Kings and Emperors of Europe that the long awaited and Papal financed crusade had finally begun.

King Matthias Corvinus

A letter sent to King Matthias from Dracula, dated the 11th February 1462 states;

"At Giurgiu the Turks opened the gates at the shouts from our men, thinking that only their men would get inside, but ours, mixing together with them, entered and conquered the fortress, which we burned down. 

..... and we killed the men and women, old and young, who lived from Oblucita to Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, to Rahova, which is near Chilia, down to the villages of Samovit and Ghigen, 23,884 Turks and Bulgarians in all, not including those who were burned in their houses and those whose heads were not presented to our officials."

Next Dracula lists the death toll for each place visited by his Wallachian host;

"First, in the places called Oblucita and Novoselo there were killed 1,350 and 6,840 at Darstor, Cartal and Dridopotrom; likewise, 343 at Orsova and 840 were killed at Vectrem; 630 were killed at Turtucaia; likewise, 210 were killed at Marotin; 6,414 were killed at Giurgiu on both sides of the river, and the fortress taken.

An Artists Impression Of Guirgui

The commander of the fortress was killed and Hamza Beg was captured, the commander of Nicopolis was captured and beheaded and most of the Turks there were killed with him.

Likewise, 384 were killed at Turnu, Batin and Novigrad; at Shistov and in two other villages near it 410 were killed, the crossing point at Nicopolis was burned and completely destroyed, the same at Samnovit; and at Ghighen 1,138 were killed; at Rahova 1,460 were killed, and the crossing point destroyed.

All the above places where there were crossing points, they were burned and destroyed, the people, men, women, and children, and babies were killed, and in all these places nothing remained. And in the above are included only those whose heads or signs were brought to our officials who were everywhere, but those who were not presented to them, or who were burned in their houses, could not be counted, because there were so many."

Sultan Mehmed II the conqueror of Constantinople in 1453 had set his eye on an invasion of Italy, the Papal States had grave concerns and by 1462 they were convinced an invasion was imminent. Money was pouring into the war coffers of King Matthias II, the black army of Hungary was one of the most up to date forces in the world at that time. 

Now that the Sultan had been distracted by Vlad Dracula the Italians could breathe a little easier, this would be the optimum time for a crusade, Dracula was depending on it, the Ottoman war machine now had its sights on Wallachia.

Postscript.

In 2019 an archeological dig at Zishtova Fortress in Svishtov, Bulgaria uncovered several cannon balls dated to the siege in 1462, these balls were fired from small culverine cannons that typically saw service in the 15th century.

The Battle of Saragarhi 1897.

Introduction.

Fort Saragarhi was basically a blockhouse with a signalling tower situated between the far more substantial Fort Lockhart and Fort Gulistan. It was a relay station passing and receiving heliograph messages, as it was mountainous and the two forts could not see each other.  The forts were built to dominate the area as the local tribes were still attacking the British and their Indian allies now and again.

The Siege, London Graphic on 23 October 1897

The Northwest Frontier was, and still is, a very volatile area. In the August and September of 1897 the local Pashtun tribes conducted an uprising against British and Indian troops attacking various locations. This became known as the Tirah Campaign, the campaign would go on until April 1898. 

Tirah is a mountainous region in the Kyber district in what is now modern Pakistan close to the Afghan border.

That August saw the 36th Sikh Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Haughton deploy into the area, their arrival as reinforcements was fortuitous as tribesmen attacked Fort Gulistan on the 3rd and 9th of September, and were repulsed by the Sikhs. At this time it was thought prudent to reinforce Saragarhi also which saw it's garrison increase to three NCO's (None Commissioned Officers) and 18 Sepoys (Privates).

On the 12th September approximately 24,000 tribesmen were seen heading between Forts Gulistan and Lockhart, in their path was Fort Saragarhi.

The Battle.

A Heliograph Section.

Because this was a signals relay station orders were very clear and concise, this is thanks to Sepoy Gurmukh Singh up in the tower, who sent this message to Lieutenant Colonel John Haughton at Fort Lockhart using his heliograph.

Gurmukh Singh - Enemy approaching main gate.....need reinforcement.

Lt Col Haughton - Unable to breakthrough.....hold position.

Gurmukh Singh - Understood.

Haughton counted 14 tribal standards moving on Saragarhi, each represented 1,000 warriors.

The Sikhs were armed with .303 Martini-Henry rifles, volley after volley decimated the front ranks of tribesmen but they were up against impossible odds. Casualties started to build up, the Pashtun command sent out entreaties to surrender to no avail.

The front picket outside the wall became untenable, so the Sikhs retreated inside, several attempts to rush the gate were repulsed. The Sikhs were running low on ammunition and men, most were wounded by bullets and sabre slashes, but they made the tribesmen pay for every inch. The wall and gate were eventually breached in a two pronged attack, the enemy were unstoppable. The Sikhs withdrew to the inner portion of the fort, fixed bayonets and fought on.

Eventually after hours of intense combat the soldiers of the 36th Sikhs were overwhelmed, the last messages sent by Sepoy Gurmukh Singh were;

Gurmukh Singh - low on ammo.....need ammo.....urgently.

Again Haughton tried to break through, but it was impossible. With the fort now burning the last 5 men put up a brave fight.

Haughton - Enemy approaching.....the breach.

Sepoy Gurmukh Singh - Main gate breached.....down to one.....permission to dismount and join the fight.

Haughton - Permission granted.

Sepoy Gurmukh Singh carefully put away the heliograph, picked up his rifle, rushed down the burning tower crying "Jo boley so nihaal! Sat sri akaal! (One will be blessed eternally, who says that God is the ultimate truth). 

He was the youngest of the garrison at 19 years old, it is said he killed between 20 and 40 tribesmen before he died, he was the last man.

Aftermath.

The Ruins of Saragarhi

The bravery of those 21 men facing at least 14,000 enemy cannot be understated, it is probably the most extreme odds in military history. Each and every one of them received the Indian Order Of Merit, that is the equivalent of 21 Victoria Crosses, and they were all well deserved.

Those men were;

Havildar (Sergeant) Ishar Singh                                 Sepoy Narayan Singh

Naik (Corporal) Lal Singh                                            Sepoy Gurmukh Singh 

Lance Naik (Lance Corporal) Chanda Singh            Sepoy Jivan Singh

Sepoy (Private) Sundar Singh                                     Sepoy Gurmukh Singh

Sepoy Ramm Singh                                                       Sepoy Ram Singh

Sepoy Uttam Singh                                                        Sepoy Bhagwan Singh

Sepoy Sahib Singh                                                         Sepoy Bhagwan Singh

Sepoy Hira Singh                                                            Sepoy Buta Singh

Sepoy Daya Singh                                                          Sepoy Jivan Singh

Sepoy Jivan Singh                                                          Sepoy Nand Singh

Sepoy Bhola Singh                                             

                                                                            
                                                                            

Within days the battle was being reported in the press, the Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore) Wednesday 15th September;

"News has just been received that....the enemy attacked the forts of Samana in great force, and captured Saragarhi, held by 21 men of the 36th Sikhs, killing all the Sikhs, who gallantly died at their posts, attempting to defend the fort against overwhelming numbers."

"The garrison held out for 6 1/2 hours. There is no hope for the garrison. The enemy are also attacking the other posts in large numbers."

"Further particulars have been received regarding the fall of Saragarhi. The garrison sustained three determined assaults by an overwhelming force of Afridis....One Sikh defended the guard room alone, killing twenty of the enemy and was finally burnt alive at his post. The signaller kept up communication to the last."

The Burnt Out Interior.

Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore) 19th September;

"With reference to your criticisms of the 15th instant the post at Saragarhi was fully garrisoned by the 21 men of the 36th Sikhs.

The fort seemed impregnable unless reduced by failure of ammunition, food, or water, and these had three days previously been fully supplied. The retention of the fort was absolutely necessary as a transmitting signalling station between Gulistan and Lockhart.

The fort only fell by the assault of overwhelming numbers, reckoned by the onlookers at Gulistan and Lockhart at several thousands. A hole was picked in the wall at the dead angle of the flanking tower, the corner fell, and an entrance was effected.

The number of the enemy killed as reported by friendlies was 180."

The 12th September is still commemorated as Saragarhi Day.

36th Sikhs in the Ruins.

Fort Gulistan

The Saragarhi Monument.

The Saragarhi Monument Inscription.

Tiganiada - The Camp Of The Gypsies, a Romanian Epic Poem.

An English translation of one of Romania's epic poems. Published in 1800 the Tiganiada looks back on a Romanian hero and his struggle with the Ottoman Turks. At the time of publication Romania was being pulled this way and that by Russians, Austro-Hungarians and the Ottomans, after a series of revolutions Romania finally became a recognised country in 1859, although Transylvania still remained part of Hungary, and would do until 1918, Moldavia and Wallachia were united.

During the years of upheaval Romania looked for a national identity, homegrown heroes such as Mircea the Old, Stephen the Great and Michael the Brave were once again lauded, as was an almost forgotten Viovode, Vlad the Impaler. Tiganiada is set during that long hot summer of 1462 with the Ottoman army set to invade, and the only warrior to oppose them, Vlad Tepes and his army of Gypsies.

                          TIGANIADA - THE GYPSIAD
                         or The Camp Of The Gypsies.
                               by Ion Budai-Deleanu

The Argument

"For Vlad Voivode arms the gypsies,
The Fury goads Satan upon them,
Who wishes them evil.
In this way, taking bread for their journey,
From Hungry mirthfully leave
The Gypsy folk straight towards full hearted.

1

Muse! who once to Homer
Sang the Vatrachomyomachia [sic] (Battle Of The Frogs)
Be a bit kind, sing to me, too,
When Vlad Voivode gave theme liberty,
Arms and at length, a farmstead,
Of all the things the gypsy kind did do.

2

[Sing] how the gypsies wished to choose
A Voivode in their country and a helm;
How, forgetting the good life,
They bravely took up arms.
Not only this, but at last dared even to do battle
With the pagan (Ottoman) coltish rabble.


Vlad Viovode

3

How then, by means of a bitter squabble
(Fore they wouldn’t have picked up the bad habit all at once),
They all took flight, each whereto,
Leaving behind country, Voivode, and crown.
But all these things were done
By means of that devilish stupor.

4

For, tho’ he without likeness,
The worst spirit of all, Satan,
Has his dwelling everlastingly in hell
As sustenance for the unextinguished fire,
Yet, furtively, at times, still
Overturning the world, he delects himself.

5

And this particular time, he was goaded
By the cursed Fury (as I say),
Who seeing our gypsy kind
Armed with scythes and bars,
Decided to ruin them by all and any means,
Bringing enmity and strife amongst them.

6

Oh! You, much patient paper, (as paper is always patient)
That on your back, with much good will,
All the wisdom found under the sun
And all the madness carry jointly,
Carry these mine verses, too,
As I give them to you, good and bad.



7

Then let those who know say what they will,
I, along with proud Solomon will say:
Everything is vanity and madness!
For only he of that kind is happy
Who begins to know himself
And the nature of things he perceives.

8

From the northmost bound further out,
High up, in the darkening vault,
There is a place (as it is written)
That the philosophers call chaos,
Where the perpetual battle
Makes elements out of the wild waste.

9

A wicked faerie rules that land,
Who will stand no good thing,
But everything ruins and divides,
Everything shatters, pulverizes that
Which she comes upon, and Fury she is called,
Wicked offspring of father and mother.


A Wicked Fury

10

From thence, looking askance at all,
The Fury sees the villainous
Mob of gypsies armed
With hatchets, hammers, and bars.
Perceiving then what was to happen,
Well-nigh she faints with anger!

The Fury descends to Hell and speaks to Satan, her Father. She tells him that the Gypsies have abandoned their wandering ways and have settled in Wallachia to help Vlad Dracula, to whom they have pledged their allegiance.

Thanking his daughter Satan then ascends from Hell and assumes the guise of a raven. He then pledges his support to the invading Ottomans (pagans).

29

There, from all of the country,
Had gathered the gypsies, big and small,
Abandoning their wandering life
And committing to new circumstances:
No longer to walk from country to country,
Nor to be subject to others’ abasement.

30

For, with this covenant, Vlad Voivode
Had given them land for domains,
So that from this day forward they, too, may be
Like other men and live in order;
And they long counseled among themselves
How these things best should be settled.




31

This time, as well, it was a day of counsel,
The sum of their most learned boyars (irony)
Had gathered all together,
Speaking much words and noisily.
At last, Drăghici made plain the cause
And addressed the gathering in this manner:

32

“Good men! Having lived in this here world,
Much has befallen me, both bad and good,
Much I have seen and done, on purpose and as jokes,
But (I tell you truly) of all those there things,
A thing like this, done either on purpose or for fun,
I have never seen in my whole life.

33

To have a little country! Us, the gypsies . . .
Where we would’a be only us with us!
To have villages, houses, gardens, and fields
And then to have plenty of everything, like others have?
Truly! Beholding things as rare as this,
It’s though I dreamt while wakin’ . . .

34

Well, and what more do we really need
To have us a happy life?
Truly, nothing! Only how much it eats at me
Oh, the thought! Meaning the notion
Of that little moment, the last in my life,
For it would’a woe to die now!

35

I fear only that I’ll never come
To see the gypsies put to order.
Oh! The sweet and dear spring
Of my days, how has it set!
Now would’a be the time to live in that world
As you best please, as your nature invites you!

36

You, youths, take heed
What Old Man Drăghici tells you now:
Make yourself good settlements
And dwell together here;
Be always of one mind and will,
More heartily in time of need.

37

For, if you do not join up hands,
Loving to cleave and come together,
A foreign tongue will soon oppress you,
And you will’a be lost without deliverance.
Nore will you make a folk for yourselves in that world,
But you will be without a country and name.

38

Not only this, but you’ll a be as you was,
As are the cursed Jews, behold! . . .
Who have no country, but live on th’road…
Be the country as poor as it may,
It is sweet when someone can say:
This is my county, I’m from ‘ere! . . .”

I owe a huge debt of thanks to Asymptote and their translation by Carla Baricz.

An Interview With Hamilton Deane - The Definition of Terror in the Theatre.

This interview is taken from The Era theatrical newspaper of the 19th February 1930, at this time Deane's stage play version of Frankenstein was playing at the Little Theatre Club in Garrick Yard, London.

Hamilton Deane as Frankenstein's Monster.

I cannot understand the attitude of those who regard as lamentable the public's fondness for horrors in the theatre. Would these super sensitive folk like to scatter the crowds of wide-eyed children who collect in front of Punch and Judy booths?

For, remember, these youthful playgoers are probably enjoying the thrill of seeing Punch beat Judy, throw the baby out of the window, and suffer an ignominious and protracted hanging in retribution.

And do our squeamish friends want to go round at Christmas time breaking up the happily trembling groups who gather at the fireside for the purpose of frightening eachother with ghost stories?

Specialists In The Macabre.

To me, a taste for having one's hair raised and one's blood curdled seems perfectly natural and innocent. Last year I had long talks with two specialists in the macabre, Mr Russell Thorndike (author of the Dr Syn novels) and Mr Todd Slaughter, and I can assure you that there was nothing sinister or unhealthy about them.

Hamilton Deane

Then the other day I met Mr Hamilton Deane, whose speciality for the last three years has been the presentation of a play depicting the peculiar habits of Count Dracula, and who now is spreading consternation every night among audiences at the Little Theatre with his haunting portrayal of the monster in Frankenstein.

He told me that his favourite forms of recreation were camping out in the open air and going to see musical comedies. He laughed at the idea that purveyors  of horror must necessarily be the processors of morbid minds.

"Why, look at Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula!" he said to me, "He was an Irishman like myself, and as big and breezy and bluff a man as you'd meet anywhere."

The Desire to be Horrified.

Mr Hamilton Deane also dismissed the notion that thrillers in the theatre are harmful and degrading. 

"Deep down in everybody's consciousness," he said "is a strange desire to be horrified. This is perhaps stronger today than it has ever been before, for the majority of us lead sheltered, unexciting lives in which nothing occurs to awaken the primordial emotion of terror.

And if one supplies this stimulent in an artificial form, I fail to see that the result is to be deplored. The after effects of a good genuine horrific play cannot possibly be as pernicious as those of a highly salacious French farce."

Deane as Sherlock Holmes

The Art of Staging Thrillers.

"Where did you study the technique of the thriller?" I asked Mr Deane.

"What first got me interested in the manufacture of stage shockers was the Grand Guignol in New York. When I was over there I was a constant visitor at the theatre where it was given. There they put over some of the most amazing thrills I have ever seen. By studying their methods, and particularly those of Mr Holbrook Blinn - well known over here for his work with Martin Harvey - I learned a fair amount about the craft of staging thrillers.

The subtler points of a thriller may not always be appreciated by professional critics; but believe me, the general public responds to them extraordinarily quickly. As an experienced purveyor of 'shockers,' I think I can say emphatically that it is the public which can be best left to produce plays of this type

In touring the provinces and presenting pieces in different towns I have discovered that audiences everywhere react to the same emotions, and that the same patches fail to appeal to their imagination. These, I realise, have no practical value, and they are weeded out."

The Process of Suggestion.

"Members of the audience infect each other with fear and so help to build up the necessary atmosphere for a thriller, don't they?" I asked.

"Exactly. And the best way to get this leaven of terror working in an audience is through a process of suggestion. In Dracula we did nothing actually scarifying on the stage; we merely suggested something horrible, and that suggestion, once it had soaked into the minds of the audience, caused a bigger reaction than the placing of a mechanical thrill before them could have done.

At the beginning of Frankenstein the preparation of the audience for the shock we wish to give them has to be effected gradually. If the inert figure of the monster came to life a few moments after the rise of the curtain, the proper 'punch' would be lacking.

But by using a few of the legitimate tricks of the theatre, of which the chief one is suspense, we manage, I think, to build up that atmosphere in which it is possible to create the maximum sensation."

Deane as Dracula

Cumulative Effects.

I confessed to Mr Hamilton Deane that after two vague forebodings and suspicions of the earlier part of Frankenstein had taken tangible shape in the monster, I expected to lose most of my interest in the play. 

That I had not done so was due, I told him, to his own wonderful acting as the creature which gradually, before our eyes, takes on the more rudimentary human attributes.

He smiled the compliment away and said; "Naturally, you have to sustain your effect once you have reached it. If you lose it for a moment, you would have to begin all over again and prepare for a number of lesser shocks, each one of which would be less startling than the last.

The whole of Frankenstein works up cumulatively to the end of the last act where Henry is killed. That is the climax of the play, and when it comes it is not unexpected. It is very wrong to attempt to fool your audience. If you lead them to expect a certain climax, you must give it to them."

The Thriller of the Future.

"Is it possible to fashion a thrill play out of suggestion alone?" I asked.

"The thriller of the future will be entirely on the mental plain I think." said Mr Deane. "The public taste is for subtler methods.

In the best Grand Guignol, the horror always comes from the minds of the audience, and very seldom from actual happenings on the stage. Scenes of torture, imitation blood, and other clap trap of the Parisian Grand Guignol don't thrill the average intelligent playgoer; they are more inclined to make him laugh.

But get at his imagination, set it working along certain lines, and you stand a better chance of awakening terror within him."

The literature of Fear.

"Have you made a study of the literature of fear?"

"I have always been interested in it. I carried Dracula round with me for twenty years before I made a play of it. And ever since my dramatisation was produced, books of the same type have come pouring in on me from everywhere. Thus I think I must have read every scrap of morbid literature that had ever been written."

During the greater part of this conversation with him - which occured in his dressing room - Mr Deane was making up, with his back to me. When at last he turned round, I nearly jumped out of my seat. Visitors to the Little Theatre will know why.