fealty to them, partly by rewards and presents, partly by their own power and intimidation, in order to retain the greater number of followers, and to engage their service and applause at public meetings. It would be wonderful to relate with what pomp and ceremony, and with what a crowd of armed horsemen, they entered Buda, preceded by trumpeters, as if it were a kind of triumph.
Moreover, when they went to, or returned from court, they proceeded with so large an escort of attendants and guards, that the streets and passages could scarcely contain the crowd. When a banquet was to be held, the trumpets sounded at each man's house throughout the city, the same as in a camp, and the dinners were protracted for many hours, to the prevention of all sleep and rest; while, by way of contrast, there was a kind of solitude about the king's palace, and the frontiers of the kingdom were the while left destitute of the necessary garrisons, and were laid waste by the enemy with impunity. Bishoprics and all the higher offices of the state were conferred promiscuously, without consideration of merit; and the greater the power that any man obtained, the greater was the right he was considered to have. Thus justice suffered, and the weak were oppressed; and everything like good order being removed and upset, a new plan was invented to bring a stain upon the commonwealth, with an injury to the people. This was the licence of bringing in a silver money, by which the former good money being melted down, an inferior coin began from time to time to be struck; and these again being withdrawn, another better kind was issued, which, nevertheless, could not retain its just value, but was sometimes considered worth more, and sometimes less, according to the cupidity of the wealthy; and was even almost openly adulterated with impunity by certain private persons. At length, the decline, or rather confusion, of all things throughout Hungary, was such, that any one who had the least experience could see
