The Turks being defeated at the fords of the Euphrates in the manner I have described, Ussun Cassano was incited by his sons and by the whole army to follow on, so as not to lose the fruits of so great a victory; since the Persians, who had proved the force of the enemy, despised them, and expected to come off victorious in every encounter. Therefore, the king followed the Turks on the other bank, to see what was their design; but when the Persians saw that they kept away from the Euphrates, they called on Ussun Cassano with great importunity, to cross the river, as they plainly saw the Turk was in flight. He gave way to this, although against his will (as, being a clever, practical, and veteran soldier, he remembered that noble precept of military science, “that one ought to pave the roads with gold and make bridges of silver for a flying enemy”), and acceded to the wishes of his men, to see how so much ardour and longing for battle would succeed. Thus, having chosen forty thousand of his most skilful and daring soldiers, he crossed the Euphrates, and began, with forced marches, to pursue the hostile army, having left Calul, his eldest son, on the other side of the river with all the Georgians, Tartars, and many other soldiers in charge of the baggage. By the end of August he reached the top of some mountains, from the summits of which he saw the Turkish army in the valley leading in the direction of Trebizond. Thinking, from his recent victory, that he could easily overcome them and put them to flight, he arrayed himself for battle.
The Turks, seeing the road closed to them, and knowing that they must either open it sword in hand or, to their great disgrace, be routed and cut to pieces, as happens when inspired by desperation, made a virtue of necessity, and also arrayed themselves with great ardour for the battle.[237] The Turk then having left Ustrefo with a considerable garrison in charge of his camp, set out to scale the mountain on another side, which was not occupied by the Persian troops. Ussun Cassano, seeing them leave the camp, sent Unghermaumet, his son, with a squadron of ten thousand cavalry to oppose Ustrefo, and to cut off all hope of safety from the Turk. And having made three other large divisions, he gave the right wing to Pirameto,[238] the Caramanian Prince, and the left to Ezeinel, his son, commanding in person the centre with all the infantry, which was in magnificent condition. And the battle having begun at the fourteenth hour, the action lasted eight hours continuously, the Persians resisting that great army with such valour, that their personal prowess was wonderful to see; and if Mustafà, the son of the Turk, had not attacked with a fresh squadron the right flank of the Caramanian, the victory would have remained uncertain still longer; as, when the Caramanian gave way before the fresh assault of Mustafà, everything was thrown into confusion in that quarter.[239] Thus it was, that in his retreat he disordered the flank of the line of battle of Ussun Cassano, who, on account of the confusion of his troops and the attack of the enemy in front, saw himself so pressed that he was afraid of being surrounded. Therefore, seized with no small fear on account of the uncertainty of affairs, he jumped off his horse and mounted a swift mare, which he always kept ready for such emergencies; and seeing himself pressed more and more every hour and driven in on the right wing, he turned round and fled. His son Ezeinel seeing this, threw himself with great courage into the midst of the infantry and endeavoured to make head, so that the whole army might not be routed by one charge of the enemy; but, however much this gallant young man might sustain the fury of the Turks, being at length killed by them, the Persians were routed and put to flight. Unghermaumet, who had gone to attack the camp of the Turks guarded by Ustrefo, met with great resistance, but nevertheless hoped to have taken it in time; but, seeing the rout of his father, withdrew little by little, and was in great danger of being made prisoner; since, before his retreat, the Turks had occupied all the plain. However, by making great exertions, he escaped and rejoined his father. The latter not considering himself safe in his camp, which was ten miles distant from the field of battle, crossed the Euphrates, and retired with the rest of his men to the interior of his country. This fight took place in the year 1473, in which ten thousand Persians and fourteen thousand Turks fell.
Mahomet, thus remaining conqueror, decided to follow up this good fortune, and in the course of war to make himself master of some place of the enemy’s. Therefore, having mustered his army, he marched a second time towards the city of Baibret,[240] and the Acangi[241] who preceded him were cut to pieces by the people of the country in great numbers. After this feat the inhabitants, warned by scouts, that the Turk was marching up in haste with the rest of his army, fled to the mountains, having, so to speak, given vent to their fury on their enemies. The Turks having arrived at the ford of the river Euphrates, where the first battle had taken place, crossed without any resistance, the Acangi still in advance.
Then marching towards Erseagan,[242] they found the country and towns everywhere abandoned; and four days after they reached Carascar,[243] a fortress posted on the top of a mountain; the Turks preparing to attack it, dragged some pieces of artillery up another mountain[244] which commanded the fortress, and thence bombarded it fifteen days continuously. At last a captain named Darap, a vassal of Ezeimel, the son of Ussun Cassano, who was in command, hearing of the death of his master, surrendered it. From Carascar, the army marched to Coliasar,[245] a city which, not wishing to essay its strength against so daring an enemy, also yielded. At that time news came to the Turk that Ussun Cassano was restoring his army with the design of driving, if possible, the enemy out of the country, and on this account he did not think it right to advance further, that he might not run into dangers from which he might not afterwards be able to extricate himself. Then, having faced about, he returned in great haste to Sevas, and thence to Tocat,[246] where was the ambassador of the King of Hungary, whom he had cajoled with many dissembling words in this way, saying to him that he wished first to free himself from the war with Persia, and that he would then conclude a peace with his king who was in treaty for one. All this he did with the object in this crisis not to be molested by the Hungarian arms. But after his victory he dismissed him without any conclusion of the affair, by which artifice the Hungarian king was deceived, to his great hurt and to that of all Christendom; as there is little reason to doubt that if he had availed himself of this opportunity, he would, even with very small forces, have driven the Turks from Greece, and also have terrified the whole of Asia.
And the Persian war having been concluded in the manner narrated above, the Turk returned in great triumph to Constantinople, leaving Mustafà in his Sangiacato,[247] where he soon afterwards died. And Acomat[248] Pasha went with a large army towards Laranto, a city of the Caramanian monarch, situated near Mount Taurus, where, pretending to have peaceable intentions towards the inhabitants, he gradually gained over the chiefs by inviting now this one and now that, with courtesy and familiarity, to eat with him. By using these arts for some time, so as to rid them of all suspicion of him and of the army, he fixed a certain day for his departure, before which he made a solemn feast for all these lords, who, while they were eating and drinking merrily with him, were made prisoners by some of his men told off for the purpose, and strangled in some secret places; then, having entered the mountainous country without difficulty, he took away the people and sent them to Greece, putting others in their stead to inhabit the country. While these things came to pass in the Caramanian dominions, Ussun Cassano, who had had in a short space of time, first the best fortune and then the most adverse he had ever experienced, found himself in great distress of mind on account of his recent defeat; as the reputation of being invincible, which he had acquired in so many wars, seemed to disappear at one blow. For this reason, having at his court two ambassadors—one a Pole and the other an Hungarian—he dismissed them both, that they might not witness his misery, and, by so doing, increase it.[249]
And as his greatest hope was in the Christian princes, and as he saw that they had the same interests as himself, he despatched M. Caterino with letters written to all the kings of Europe, to beg assistance of them, urging the danger that both parties ran, and that he had taken up arms against the Ottoman, principally at the instigation of our Republic and the other Christian powers.
And thus all these ambassadors, setting out in company from the king, passed into Gorgora; and M. Caterino having left the other two to continue their journey, arrived at Salvatopolo on the Greater Sea, whence he crossed to Cafa[250] in a ship of Lugi da Pozzo, a Genoese; who, having heard on the voyage that he was ambassador to Ussun Cassano, wished to take him to Constantinople to the Turks, as Cafa obeyed the latter and paid tribute. Therefore, they sent a proclamation under severe penalties, that no one should lodge, receive, or assist him in any way. However, Andrea Scaranelli, an honest citizen of our Republic, without thinking of the penalties he would incur, esteeming the favour of our Government more than life or fortune, came alongside the ship secretly by night in a boat, and having told him wherefore he was come, took him off and brought him safely to land, hiding him in his house. M. Caterino not finding any money here was in great difficulty about his affairs, when a servant of his, named Martin, persuaded him with many words to sell him by auction, and to use the money. M. Caterino, although he admired the peculiar liberality and fidelity of Martin, still pressed by the want in which he found himself, had him sold, as he proposed, by auction, making use of the money he got for the sale: a rare example of a faithful servant, and worthy of being compared with any other in ancient times, when they say there were such devoted servants, that they would offer to be killed to save the lives of their masters. Nor did our Republic fail to recognise such a service done to so worthy a citizen, as, in addition to his ransom, they gave him a pension, on which he lived: an example for others to see of what value it is to serve the State faithfully.
From Cafa M. Caterino wrote letters to the most Illustrious Government, narrating in them all the events of the two recent battles, and how Ussun Cassano had despatched him with secret commissions to all the kings of Europe, to incite them to wage war with spirit against the common enemy, as he intended in the beginning of spring to take the field with all the forces of Persia, and to try afresh the fortune of battle. These letters were most acceptable to the Government on account of their news, none of which had yet reached them from any other source. But, hearing that M. Giosafat Barbaro had not yet arrived in Persia, according to the commission he received when he accepted the embassy, they did not think it was consistent with their dignity to leave a most friendly king, and one most constant to his word, without an ambassador, now that M. Caterino had left him. For this reason, on the 10th September, in the year 1473, the Senate elected M. Ambrosio Contarini as ambassador to Persia, who set out on the 13th of February, as is narrated in his travels. This man, also going through Germany and Poland on the way to Cafa, at last crossed into Persia, where he found M. Giosafat Barbaro already arrived, but was not very well received by the king,—perhaps, because he had found in our other rulers promises and words enough, but few deeds. Our Republic had always kept inviolate all it had promised him, and was again most ready to join him in the same risks. Perhaps, also, because he found his soldiery inferior in strength to the Turkish, as it was not paid, but served the king in war when called out.[251] For this reason, he dismissed him with general words of being willing at some future time to wage war against the enemy; and, on his refusing to return, saying that that was not his commission from the Republic, compelled him by force to leave with another ambassador—the Duke of Burgundy’s; and, M. Ambrosio being indignant with this king, on account of this slight, tried with many words to lower his reputation. M. Caterino, in the meanwhile, with the aid of S. Michele Aman, after having suffered many fatigues and gone through many great dangers, went to Poland, and found the King Casimir[252] waging a desperate war with the Hungarian king. Notwithstanding this, M. Caterino announced his mission from Ussun Cassano, and entreated him, in consideration of the great danger to Christendom, if after the conquest of the mighty sovereigns of the East, Mahomet were to turn his arms towards the West, to make an alliance with this king, and to harass the enemy on his side, as he also would do on the East.
The king heard him graciously, and replied that, on account of the war with Hungary, he could not fight against the Turks with whom he was in league. M. Caterino perceiving from this answer the disposition of this monarch, and that he would not be able to get either ambassadors or a letter written to Ussun Cassano, exhorted him in a long speech to make peace with the Hungarians, saying that since he would not make war on the Turks, at least he ought not to be the reason of Hungary’s not doing her duty by Christendom in this crisis, as she had been accustomed to do in so many other wars with the very same enemy; and so efficacious were his words, that Casimir having given an audience to the Hungarian ambassadors concluded and ratified a peace in three days.
While M. Caterino was in Poland he found M. Paolo Ognibene, who was going as Nuncio from our most Illustrious Government to Ussun Cassano, and gave him letters written to the king, full of encouragement and warm words, exhorting him to persevere boldly in the war he had begun, as, then at any rate, he would be seconded by the Christian princes, when they saw him really begin to act against the Ottoman; and that he himself would not fail by importunity, and all the pains in his power, to express all his commissions to the Europeans from him. With these letters he also wrote in the same tenor to the King of Gorgora and to Melico, King of Mingrelia; and having bidden Ognibene God speed, he set out for Hungary. Being honourably received there by the King Matthias Corvinus,[253] who was the most illustrious sovereign in arms and learning, not only of the Hungarians, but also of all the kings of Christendom, he discoursed to him so powerfully about the commissions he had from Ussun Cassano, that the king, who was of himself much inclined to go to war with the Turks, promised that he would never fail a king who deserved so much from the Christian commonwealth. Then, having conversed more intimately with M. Caterino, and having recognised his valour and virtue, he dubbed him knight with many honours, as may be seen in the special grant made at Buda on the 20th April, 1474, in which are related all his works and exertions in this enterprise.