was sensibly weakened by the incessant attacks, and provisions as well as ammunition began to fail. Besides the assaults above ground, the Turks made great preparations of mining; and, to add to the usual horrors of a siege, a rumour one day spread that traitors were at work under ground, digging a passage to admit the enemy. Upon this an order was issued for the inhabitants to keep watch in the cellars of their dwellings; and this accession of duty, by depriving them of the few hours of repose they had heretofore enjoyed, was near putting the finishing stroke to an apparently hopeless struggle.

It is the opinion of some writers that if the siege had been pushed with even more vigour, the exertions of the defenders would have been altogether vain, and that the city might have been taken in a general assault. Mignot in his " History of the Turkish Empire," distinctly asserts as much, and suggests a reason for it in "the avarice, or rather avidity, of the grand vizier, who was persuaded that the city contained immense riches, and who was afraid that if it should be taken by assault it would be pillaged;"—he believed likewise that "the number of men in Vienna would only famish the garrison, and that all the horrors of war would soon join him in the siege of this multitude, which he did not expect would receive any succour."

However correct this view of the case may be, certain it is the siege went on during six weeks without result, marked by continual struggles such as have been described; the grand vizier from time to time summoning the city to surrender under pain of all the inhabitants being put to the sword, without distinction of age or sex; and Count Staremberg sending to the camp of the Duke of Lorraine messengers in disguise, who passed by swimming several arms of the Danube, to inform him of the desperate condition of affairs. In his last letters the gallant commander wrote that the breaches grew larger, that every day he lost men, that ammunition began to fall short, and that, if the Turks should at length risk an assault, it was possible that the town would be carried in spite of the valour of the besieged, who could do no more than die in the breach. The Duke of Lorraine, too weak to undertake anything, wrote to the Emperor Leopold in order to hasten the succours; and the latter, who considered the safety of the Western Empire as depending on that of Vienna, wrote in his turn to the King of Poland the most pressing and humble letters, lavishing on him the title of Majesty, which the German haughtiness had till then refused an elective king; and telling him, that if his troops were retarded in their march, he conjured him to make

more diligence than his army, in order to succour Vienna at least with his military talents and the good fortune that had ever accompanied him.

Sobieski hastened to obey the call, with what troops he could collect. Too prudent, however, to attempt with twenty-five or thirty thousand men to pass the bridges of Vienna in presence of such a numerous army as that of the Turks, he learned that about twelve miles from thence, near a village called Tuln, there was a very large bridge, which the grand vizier had not taken the precaution to destroy. The King of Poland took advantage of this neglect and thought it a good omen. "This man," said he publicly, "is an ignorant fool or a blunderer; we shall beat him certainly." This prince had joined the Austrian army at the head of two thousand horse only; but his army had followed him at a short distance, as likewise the reinforcements from the circles of the electors of Bavaria and Saxony. At length on the 5th of September, when all the Austrian forces were united, they counted seventy-four thousand effective men under the command of Sobieski, three sovereigns, and twenty-three princes of sovereign families. The Polish cavalry, less incumbered with ornaments than that of the Turks, was neat, brilliant, and well mounted; the infantry, though badly clothed, did not appear the less formidable. As one regiment, the soldiers of which were almost naked, was filing off before the King of Poland in presence of the princes, the latter, who seemed astonished at this apparent misery, suggested that they should be made to march to their post by night. But Sobieski replied, "Look well at those fellows they are an invincible troop, who have sworn never to clothe themselves but with the vestments of the enemy; last war they were all dressed like Turks."

The cannon, which thundered continually on the ramparts of Vienna, were heard at the camp of Tuln, and they learned that the besieged were so afflicted with an epidemic dysentery, that it was with difficulty the number of men sufficient to guard the ramparts could crawl thither; that provisions became scarcer every day, and that a great many men were already dead with fatigue and hunger. The Duke of Lorraine had just received a note from Count Staremberg, which contained these words only: "There is no more time to be lost, my lord, no more time to be lost." The King of Poland could not conceive how the enemy remained idle, whilst the smallest efforts would make him master of this important place. As the Austrian army was separated from the Turks by a tract of hills only,

there were two roads to march to Vienna: the one over the hills, and the other round under them. It is easy to conceive how dangerous the first must be for the passage of an army. Sobieski made choice of it contrary to the advice of his council. "The moments are too precious," said he, "to think of sparing men; here the shortest road is the best." As soon as the Christian forces were assembled, the besieged were informed by signals that they should soon be succoured. It was to be feared that the arrival of the Poles would determine the grand vizier to make an assault; he would have had time, seeing the numerous obstacles which this army encountered at every step, obstacles that exposed them a whole day from the top of the hills to the view of the Turks, but the grand vizier's obstinacy prevented his seeing what all his lieutenants earnestly endeavoured to point out to him. The contempt which he affected for the Austrian army served him for a pretext; and he again forbade the assault which the pashas were desirous of making. In his opinion the town was on the point of surrendering, and the troops arrived too late for its succour, could not fail of being beaten. As soon as the Poles perceived, from the heights, the camp of the enemies whom they had to fight with, they felt the joy experienced by labourers at the prospect of a plentiful harvest. Asiatic luxury and the greatest disorder reigned at the same time over this vast extent of ground; the troops being encamped on both banks of some arms of the Danube, and in islands lying in the middle of this great river, without there being sufficient communication for squadrons or even battalions to pass with expedition; and neither lines of circumvallation nor redoubts. "What an ignorant fellow this vizier is," repeated Sobieski continually, "how we shall beat him!"

At length the 12th of September arrived, the day on which Sobieski had resolved to give battle, a day so much desired by the Austrians and especially by the besieged. Kara Mustapha saw what he had never believed possible, the army of the Western Empire descend from the hills, on the declivity of which they had passed the preceding night, form in order of battle as they came down into the plain, and extend their front as the ground enlarged. Twenty-eight pieces of cannon, which the Poles had found means with great difficulty to get across the hills, were at the head of the battalions, and made a heavy fire every time any Turkish or Tartar squadron drew near to reconnoitre their forces. The khan of the Tartars pointed out to the grand vizier from a great distance the guards of

Sobieski, which he knew by the colour of the streamers which ornamented their lances, and he concluded from thence that that prince was at the head of the army. Kara Mustapha instantly ordered all the prisoners to be massacred that were in the camp, both those taken during the siege, and those which Tekli and the khan of the Tartars had brought to his army from the provinces of Hungary which they had recently desolated. All these unfortunate people were put to death notwithstanding their cries for life, their chains not permitting them to hold up their hands in supplication to their executioners.

In the beginning of the battle the Duke of Lorraine, who commanded the right wing, broke and put to flight the enemy's left wing. The Janissaries, who had complained aloud of the numerous faults of Mustapha, fought badly. It was necessary for them to mount from their valley against the main body of the Austrians, defended by several pieces of cannon, the frequent discharges of which, made at a small distance, swept their ranks and soon put them to flight. The advantage of ground rendered it impossible for the Turks to engage on any equality, who vainly attempted to close with the enemy. The magnificence of the chiefs rendered them conspicuous objects for their opponents, who generally marked with success; and the loss of so many officers soon put the infantry to flight. The spahis, at the head of whom the grand vizier had always been, stood a longer time, and alone of all the army shewed the ancient Ottoman valour; but at length they were obliged to yield to the torrent, and, against their inclination, to join in the flight. The grand vizier flattered himself, that his troops would recover in an open place the courage which they had lost in unequal ground. Some troops, that had not engaged, waited for the conquering army at a little distance, who advanced, after having broken the first line; but the route was the same at this second charge as at the first; everything was destined to give way to Sobieski on this day. The vizier perceiving that the battle was irreparably lost, ran to his tent to save the standard of Mahomet, and with tears of rage in his eyes, fled amidst a troop of dispersed horse, who, no longer hearing the voice of any chief thought only of their own safety. The terror was so general, that almost all those who could reach Raab did not stop till they were before the ramparts of that town, situated five and twenty miles from Vienna.

Sobieski, master of the field of battle, would on no account permit his troops to pillage. He marched in good order to the

trenches that surrounded the city, which the Janissaries had abandoned almost at the commencement of the action. Vienna being now free, the citizens resigned themselves to a joy equal to the danger that they had run. Sobieski, fearing the enemy would return, forbade any soldier to quit his colours under pain of death, and he lay on the field of battle with his army. The soldiers were, as one may say, in their ranks, ready to resume their arms on the least alarm. At six o'clock in the morning, Sobieski being quite certain of the total retreat of the Turks, abandoned their camp to the avidity of his soldiers. So great was the booty, that Sobieski wrote to his queen, that the grand vizier had left him his heir, and that he had found several thousands of ducats in his tent, so you won't say to me,' continued he, "what the Tartarian women say to their husbands: you are no men, since you return without booty."

The next day Count Staremberg came at the head of his men to thank the deliverer of Vienna. Sobieski, surrounded by the companions of his glory, entered the town in triumph through the breaches which the Turks had never dared scale. Nothing can be compared to the joy of the people, or the demonstrations of gratitude and admiration which the citizens vied with one another in shewing him whom they called their saviour. Sobieski had frequently to stop, fearing lest his horse should crush the people of all sexes, ranks, and ages, who prostrated themselves before him. They separated him from his officers and guards to dispute the happiness of kissing his garment. When Sobieski had arrived with much difficulty at the metropolitical church of Vienna, which was the end of his journey, "Te Deum" was celebrated to attribute to the Lord of Hosts the glory of which He is the author; but amidst the prayers which the Austrians addressed to the Almighty, they did not forget the instrument which God had made use of. After the "Te Deum," the dean of the metropolitical church mounted the pulpit to exhort the people to acknowledge the hand of God, who had saved them. from the most cruel captivity; he took for the text to his discourse these words from the Gospel of St. John: "Fuit homo missus à Deo, cui nomen erat Joannes." "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John."

The Emperor Leopold, to whom Sobieski had undoubtedly rendered a greater service than to any of his subjects, was the one perhaps of all the Austrians who showed least gratitude for it. As he was returning to Vienna, he heard the firing of the artillery which celebrated the triumph of the King of Poland. His first sentiment was that of jealousy. It was impossible