“Immediately after ordering the Tartars to put to death all their prisoners, 30,000 in number, a butchery worthy such a chief, he gave command to march toward the mountain, and at the same time make a general attack upon the city. The latter order came too late: the besieged had recovered courage, and the irritated janissaries had lost theirs.
“Meanwhile the Christians continued to descend, and the Turks advanced towards them. The battle began. The first line of the Christians, entirely composed of infantry, charged with such impetuosity, that it cleared the way for a line of cavalry which took its station in the intervals between the battalions. The king, the princes and generals advanced to the front, now fighting with the infantry, now with the cavalry; while the artillery fired langridge at very small distance. The scene of the first encounter was broken by vineyards, elevations, and small hollows, at the entrance of which the enemy had left his own guns, and he suffered severely from those of the Christians. The combatants spread over this uneven ground, fought obstinately till noon; when the Comte de Maligni, brother to the King of Poland, established himself on a hill which commanded the Turkish flank; and they, driven from height to height, retreated into the plain, keeping along their entrenchments.[18]
“The whole army, and especially the left wing, highly inspirited, and shouting victory, wished to press on the retreating enemy without intermission: but the king checked this ardour, which he considered dangerous. The German cavalry was heavily mounted, and their horses would soon have been blown in the extent of plain which was to be crossed. Another and a stronger reason was, that the great inequalities of ground had entirely broken the order of battle. Some time was allowed to re-establish it; and the plain then became the theatre of a triumph which posterity will scarcely believe. Seventy thousand men rushed to encounter two hundred thousand. In the Turkish army, the Pacha of Diarbekir commanded the right, the Pacha of Buda the left wing; the Vizir was in the centre, with the Aga of the Janissaries, and the general of the Spahis.
“The armies remained motionless for a while; the Christians in silence, the Turks redoubling their cries to the clang of trumpets. At that awful moment, a red flag rose in the centre of the infidels, and beside it the great standard of Mahomet, hallowed by the Mussulman creed. This charm, which at other times has given as much courage to those who fought under it, as the truth of their cause to the Christians, did not play its part now: the Vizir had deprived it of its efficacy.
“Sobieski gave the word to charge: the Polish cavalry sword in hand bore right upon the Vizir, whose station was pointed out by the standard. They dashed in the enemy’s foremost ranks, and penetrated to the numerous squadrons which surrounded him. None but the Spahis disputed the victory; the rest, Walachians, Transylvanians, Moldavians, Tartars, even the Janissaries, showed no good will to the cause, the result of that hatred and contempt of their general which all felt. He would have re-established their confidence by showing kindness and courage; it was then too late. He addressed the Pacha of Buda, and other chiefs; they kept silence in despair. ‘And you,’ he said to the Tartarian chief, ‘will not you help me?’ The Khan replied that he knew the King of Poland, and that there was no safety with him but in flight, of which he immediately set the example. The Spahis were now in extremity. The Poles broke and overthrew them, the grand standard disappeared, and the Vizir ran away and communicated his own fears to all. The dismay spread rapidly to the wings, which were assailed at once by the various nations of the Christian army, the king animating all by his example and his orders. Terror took away all thought and power from this multitude of Turks, who, in so large a plain, ought under an able leader to have surrounded and smothered up their enemies; and but for night, the rout would have been complete; as it was, the result was only a precipitate retreat.
“Sobieski turned rapidly against the janissaries who remained in the works of the besiegers. They had disappeared, however, and Vienna was free. The conquering soldiery wished to rush into the Turkish camp, in which vast treasures had been abandoned,—a dangerous temptation while there remained a chance of the enemy’s rallying and returning under cover of the darkness: and to prevent this hazard the troops were ordered to remain under arms all night on pain of death. The Duke of Lorraine wished for an immediate pursuit, but the king declined it; a step which the length of the previous march, the fatigue of the battle, and the want of baggage, which had all been left behind, and would not arrive for three days, may justify. His enemies, however, have not hesitated to assert that the choice of the plunder had some influence on his calculations.
“At six o’clock in the morning the Turkish camp was thrown open, but the avidity of the soldiers was checked by a dreadful sight: women every where lay slaughtered on the ground, some with their infants yet clinging to them. These were of a class very different from the camp followers of a Christian army. The Turks had slain their wives rather than suffer them to fall into the hands of the enemy. The children they had spared, and five or six hundred were collected and brought up in the Christian faith by the Bishop of Neustadt. A vast booty rewarded the victors, for the Turks, economical in peace, were magnificent in war, and rich armour, valuable dresses and furniture, and splendid tents were found in abundance; and a crowd of merchants were there who had converted the camp into a mart for all the luxury of Asia. A golden stirrup which the Vizir had lost was brought to Sobieski. ‘Carry it to the queen,’ he said, ‘and tell her, that he to whom it belonged is vanquished.’ One striking circumstance occurred amid the general misbehaviour of the Turks. Twenty-three janissaries were left in charge of the Vizir’s magazines, which were lodged in a villa belonging to the Emperor. They fled not with the rest, and were found there on the 14th, two days after the battle, when they slew those who first attempted to force the place, and only surrendered to the king in person, retaining their arms and baggage.”[19]
There is extant an original letter from Sobieski to his queen, on the evening after the battle, which cannot but be interesting.
“From the Vizir’s Tent, Midnight, Sept. 13.