After this event, in 1684, began the ebb. Hungary was
lost to the Porte, and six years afterwards thirty-seven thousand
Servian families emigrated into that kingdom; this first led the way
to contact with the civilization of Germany: and in the attendance on
the Austrian schools by the youth of the Servian nation during the
eighteenth century, were sown the seeds of the now budding
civilization of the principality.
Servia Proper, for a short time wrested from the Porte by the
victories of Prince Eugene, again became a part of the dominions of
the Sultan. But a turbulent militia overawed the government and
tyrannized over the Rayahs. Pasvan Oglou and his bands at Widdin were,
at the end of last century, in open revolt against the Porte. Other
chiefs had followed his example; and for the first time the Divan
thought of associating Christian Rayahs with the spahis, to put down
these rebels, who had organized a system which savoured more of
brigandage than of government. They frequently used the holiday
dresses of the peasants as horse-cloths, interrupted the divine
service of the Christian Rayahs, and gratified their licentious
appetites unrestrained.
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