CHAPTER XIII.
To preserve the narrative of the siege unbroken down to the critical period at which it has now arrived, it has been necessary to withhold our attention from the proceedings of the Duke of Lorraine and the army of the Empire. We left them in the early part of July unable to cope with the tenfold numbers of the Turkish host, and compelled to await at safe distance, and scarcely in a threatening attitude, the accession of German levies and of the promised succour of the Poles. The former mustered with somewhat of the slowness and circumspection which have in all ages characterized the motions of the Germanic body. Distance retarded the junction of the Poles, whose contingents had in many instances to march from the Ukraine. The first care then of Lorraine, was to bring together the troops of the Empire, and Crems, with its bridge over the Danube, was the main position chosen for that purpose. In the first instance, indeed, the Duke had proposed to make a stand in the Leopoldstadt, and by means of têtes-du-pont at the several bridges of the arms of the river, to keep up a direct communication with the city, virtually, in fact, to make his force a part of the garrison. The danger of such an expedient, however, became instantly palpable. The summer was a dry one, and the small arm of the river nearest the city was fordable in several places. To place 10,000 cavalry in a position so acceptable to the attack of the whole Turkish army, and which also from its relative level was commanded from the whole extent of the opposite banks, would have been certain destruction. The army of Tekeli, also, coming over the March field, threatened the rear of the Imperialists, and gave them much anxiety. The Duke therefore selected a series of positions the best calculated to prevent the enemy from occupying the left bank of the Danube, and shifted his head-quarters as circumstances indicated, between Jedlesee and Stockerau, till he finally fixed them at Crems. His next care was to arm and garrison as extensively as possible the fortified and tenable places of Lower Austria. He confided Crems to the care of the generals Dunnewald and Leslie, Tuln to the Baron d’Orlique; and even Closterneuburg, scarcely five English miles from Vienna, which had beaten off an attack of the Turks, under its commandant, Marcel Ortner, was supplied with a garrison. Count Herberstein covered with a corps the avenues to Styria, already threatened by the enemy. Neustadt was sufficiently garrisoned; and in several instances from these strongholds successful sallies were directed against the marauding bands of the enemy. Measures, late indeed, but energetic, were also adopted for the internal defence of the Austrian provinces. Otho, Count of Traun, in Lower, and Wolf, Count of Weissenthurn, in Upper Austria, directed these with much judgment and activity. The forest passes were guarded with abattis; the fords, especially those of Ybbs and Ens, with palisaded works; and the peasantry summoned and organised for the defence of the castles and convents. Many more instances of courage and conduct occurred in the defence of places than it would be possible here to particularize. The inhabitants of Closterneuburg, commanded by the Sacristan of their convent, Marcellin Ortner, on three occasions beat off the assault of many thousand Turks. Gregory Müller, Abbot of Mölk, exchanged the crosier for the sword, and at the head of the armed burghers, by the skilful use of this irregular force, kept the Turks at a distance, though they had encamped on the Steinfeld between St. Polten and Wilhelmsburg, and had burnt the suburbs of St. Polten. 2000, however, of the vassals of that rich abbey were dragged into captivity, 120 houses on its estates were burnt, and 5000 head of cattle carried off. After the retreat of the Turks from before Vienna, the people of St. Polten found a number of deserted children, of whom they kindly took and kept charge, without ever discovering their parents. The defence of the abbey of Lilienfeld forms a brilliant episode in the history of the time. Many of the inhabitants of the adjacent districts, and among them a large portion of the gentry, had taken refuge from the Tartar cavalry in this place. On the nearer approach, however, of the dreaded marauders, the greater part of these fugitives continued their retreat, and sought a more assured refuge in Salzburg or the Tyrol. Not so the brave abbot, Matthew Kolbries. He rallied round him his clergy and vassals, fortified his convent, and prepared to defend it to the last. He did a great deal more than this; for though deserted by all but a small body of devoted adherents, after repelling several assaults, instead of leaving his enemy to rally at leisure, he fell upon him in a series of well-planned sallies and ambuscades, which by their success elevated the courage of his adherents to the highest pitch of daring. Following up these first successes, he fell by surprise on a column of the Tartars near Mariazell, destroyed them almost to a man, and brought back in triumph 200 rescued Christians, a mule load of money, and forty heads of Tartars, whose bodies he had left for example exposed on the roads. Three Turkish prisoners of distinction were ransomed at from 2000 to 3000 ducats each. The casual accession of a Bavarian officer and five troopers to his small force enabled him to introduce into it something of military science and discipline. Military genius was evidently not wanting to the man who, at the age of sixty-three, could perform such exploits. Some Polish troops, who also joined him, gave him more trouble by their indiscipline than assistance by their military experience. With this motley band, however, he struck some more severe blows on the parties of the enemy; and by holding Lilienfeld till the Vizier was compelled to withdraw his light troops from the country, and thus guarding the main pass into Styria, he saved that province from all the horrors of Tartar invasion. The value of that exemption may be gathered from the calculations made by contemporary writers of authority, of the number of those who were carried off into slavery from Austria, which amounts to 6000 men, 11,000 women, 19,000 girls, and 56,000 children. Among the girls were 200 of noble extraction. The example of the Abbot of Lilienfeld, though eminently conspicuous, is not the only one which shows how much might have been done to check the brave and rapacious, but undisciplined, horsemen of the East, if the Austrian gentry had not, in a moment of general consternation and depression, emigrated so largely to the Tyrol and other places of safety. Many tales are related of troops of marauders put to flight by the firm countenance of individual men, and even women. No one of these stories can, perhaps, be so strictly relied upon as to justify its insertion in the page of serious history; and it is certain that in other instances the Tartar cavalry, by their skill in horsemanship and individual daring, were found formidable antagonists. Troops, however, whose occupation is plunder, and engaged in a difficult country, are never safe from such a man as the Abbot of Lilienfeld, and a few more such would at least have caused them to concentrate their numbers, and to include a far less extent of country within their ranges. On the 13th August, the Bavarian forces, 13,000 in number, were ferried over the Danube near Mölk. They were received with salvos of artillery and military music from the fortified abbey. The Margrave of Bareuth crossed the river on the following day with 6000 men. The presence of this respectable force on the right bank of the Danube freed the upper provinces from that of the invaders.
CHAPTER XIV.
From the end of July to September 11.
The corps of Tekeli had meanwhile prosecuted its operations in Upper Hungary. As he was approaching Tyrnau, the Duke of Lorraine reinforced the citadel of Presburg with some regiments of cavalry, and put the remainder of his army in motion across the March field. Learning that the town of Presburg was already occupied, and the citadel threatened by the adherents of Tekeli, and also that 20,000 Turks and 20,000 Hungarians were encamped in the neighbourhood, he pushed on towards the city. He succeeded in flinging an additional force into the fortress, and, after some resistance, drove the enemy out of the suburbs and town. The citizens, excusing their defection on the ground of compulsion, renewed their fealty to the Emperor. The advanced guard of the Polish army, under Prince Lubomirski, had meanwhile arrived, and with their assistance the Duke on the following day gained a victory which cleared the left bank of the Danube, and re-established the communication with Komorn and Raab. The hostile camp fell entirely into the victors’ hands. The Turks and Tekeli threw mutual blame upon each other. To whichever it was due, their united forces, after ravaging the March field, were overtaken by Lorraine near Stammersdorf, and again completely defeated. The Pacha of Erlau with 1200 men were left dead on the field, many more perished in attempting to swim the Danube, 22 standards were taken, and a body of 600 Hungarians deserted to the enemy. Meanwhile the troops of the Empire were flocking in from all quarters. The Bavarians have been already mentioned. The Elector of Saxony, John George III., marched out of Dresden on the 22nd July with 12,000 men and 18 guns, and reached Crems on the 28th August. Sobieski writes to his wife in great admiration of the Saxon troops, as well dressed, complete in numbers, and well disciplined. “We may say of the Germans what has been said of the horse, they do not know their own strength.” The King of Poland left Cracow early in August. The Emperor had undergone the humiliation of imploring the personal presence of a sovereign whose policy and interests he had always thwarted, even should he arrive without his army. This homage to his military talents was doubtless grateful, but John Sobieski needed no stimulus when the Turk was in the field. While the French ambassador was exerting all his influence to detain him, and writing to Louis XIV. that he was too corpulent for active service, he took leave of his wife, and, after making his will, set out, accompanied by his son, a boy sixteen years of age, in advance of his army. His march lay through a country exposed to the incursions of Tartars and Hungarians, but he performed it on horseback with an escort of some 2000 cavalry, and reached the head-quarters of Lorraine in safety. He found them at Tuln, on the right bank of the river, the force weak in numbers, and still employed in the construction of the bridge which the Emperor in his letters had announced as finished. Many of the German troops had not yet arrived. Lorraine spake with anxiety of the condition of affairs. “Be of good cheer,” replied Sobieski; “which of us at the head of 200,000 men would have allowed this bridge to be constructed within five leagues of his camp? The Vizier is a man of no capacity.” The Polish army, under Field Marshal Jablonowski, reached the bank of the Danube opposite Tuln early in September. It amounted to about 26,000 men of all arms, but with a very small proportion of infantry. After passing them in review, the leaders held a council of war, in which Lorraine suggested that the march for the relief of the city should be directed over the Kahlenberg. The King gave an immediate assent, observing, that he had left his royal dignity at Warsaw, and was prepared to act with the Duke as with a friend and brother. On the other hand, no jealousies would seem to have interfered to prevent an immediate and frank acknowledgment of the authority of Sobieski as Commander-in-chief of the assembled forces. It is not to be forgotten that the Duke of Lorraine had been competitor with Sobieski for the crown of Poland. Sobieski’s letters contain some graphic details of their first meeting, which seems to have passed off at table with more joviality than was consistent with the ordinary habits of Lorraine, who was free from the German vice of drinking, but who on this occasion, beginning with the lighter vintage of Moselle, passed on to the stronger wines of Hungary. Sobieski describes him as modest and taciturn, strongly marked with the small-pox, le nez trez aquilin, et presque en peroquet; stooping, plain, and negligent in his attire. Avec tout ça, il n’a pas la mine d’un marchand mais d’un homme comme il faut, et même d’un homme de distinction. C’est un homme avec qui je m’accorderais facilement. It was further decided that the Poles should cross the river at Tuln and the Germans at Crems, so as to effect their junction at the former place on the 5th September. The junction did not however take place till the 7th. Three thousand Poles were detached towards the March field to keep the Hungarians in check. The Christian army now consisted of 85,000 men, Austrians, Poles, Bavarians, Saxons, Swabians, and Franconians, with 186 pieces of artillery. Of this number, some 7000 were detached for the occupation of various posts, leaving about 77,000 effectives for field operations against the Turks. This force, small in numbers if we consider the greatness of the stake at issue, counted among its leaders four sovereigns and twenty-two other princes of sovereign houses. The electoral houses of Germany were worthily represented by Saxony and Bavaria. John George III., Elector of Saxony, had seen much service in the cause of Austria, and had been the first of the German princes to give a frank adhesion to her cause. Sobieski describes him as speaking neither Latin nor French, and little German; not addicted to harangues or compliments, étourdi, drunken, simple, and good-natured. The man thus satirically painted was however a sturdy specimen of the German race, and could deal hard blows in the field. Maximilian Emanuel, of Bavaria, conspicuous in after years for the misfortunes entailed upon him by his alliance with France against Austria, and the principal victim of Marlborough’s success at Blenheim, came forward now at the age of twenty-one, to save from destruction the sovereign who, after rewarding him with the hand of a daughter, lived to expel him for awhile from his dominions. He had the good sense now to consign the conduct of his troops to experienced hands, and served himself as a volunteer. Among the others were the Dukes of Sachsen Lauenburg, Eisenach, and Weissenfels, of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Wirtemberg and Holstein, Pfalzneuburg and Croy, the Margrave of Baireuth and Louis of Baden afterwards so famous; the Landgrave of Hesse, the Princes of Waldeck, Hohenzollern, Anhalt, and Salm; last and youngest, Eugene of Savoy. The Prince of Waldeck commanded the troops of the Circles.
The literature of modern Europe, rich as it is in the correspondence of eminent persons of both sexes, perhaps contains no collection of letters of such engrossing interest as those written at this period by John Sobieski to his wife, which have lately found an eminent translator and commentator in the Count Plater. The familiar correspondence of such a man as Sobieski, even if devoted to ordinary occurrences and insignificant events, would derive an interest from the character and fame of the writer which few such collections could claim. In the case of these, however, the circumstances of the time combine with the character of the man to enhance that interest to the highest degree. They are the letters of an absent lover, pledged to punctual and familiar correspondence, and consequently rich in minute details. They are the military dispatches of one of the greatest soldiers who ever lived, penned in moments snatched from hard-earned repose, often when the night-lamp of his tent was growing pale before the twilight of morning, and dealing with the hourly progress of one of the greatest military transactions in history. Some passages of these documents escaped at the time, and have been quoted by all writers on the subjects concerned, from Voltaire and Madame de Sévigné to the gazette writers of the day; but these passages, principally relating to the great and notorious result, are not of greater interest, and are of less historical value, than the remainder more lately rescued from the obscurity of the Polish language which was the medium of his most familiar intercourse with his absent wife. It is a singular trait of ability in this mischievous woman, especially when we consider the habitual distaste of her countrymen and countrywomen for the acquisition of foreign languages, that she should have so completely mastered the difficulties of a Sclavonic dialect as to speak and write it with fluency and correctness. It is embarrassing to quote from these letters, because there is scarcely a passage in them which does not present the temptation. The series commences from the 29th August, the first evening after taking leave of his wife at Cracow. This and the five following letters carry him through the fatigues of the march, the tedious ceremonies of his reception at Olmutz and other halting-places; and the seventh, of the 9th September, is written from Tuln, the great rendezvous, and one of the points of passage for the collected forces of Poland and Germany. At every step the interest thickens; fresh intelligence is announced of the desperate condition of the city; the figures of men then, or afterwards, famous in history, are briefly and graphically introduced to our notice; observations on the busy present, and speculations on the doubtful future, are interwoven with lively sketches of character and costume. At Tuln commenced the main difficulties of the great operation on which the eyes of Europe were concentered, difficulties which nothing but the gross negligence of the Turks could have enabled the allies to surmount. The Tartar cavalry, properly directed, might alone have rendered impossible the three days’ march, by forest paths, through a country destitute of provisions, and scarcely practicable for artillery or carriages, which intervened between the banks of the river and the heights of the Kahlenberg. Baggage and commissariat were of necessity left behind, in the neighbourhood of Tuln. It was necessary to weaken the fighting strength of the army by a strong guard to protect these depôts from the Tartars, and by heavy escorts for the transport of provisions from this base of operation.
It was hardly to be expected that the heights of the Kahlenberg themselves would be found unguarded; and to explore the condition of this crowning post, the key to the main operation, was in itself a task of the utmost hazard and delicacy. It was performed on the night of the 10th by the king and the other principal commanders in person, and this service separated him so far and so long from his army then struggling up the precipices and through the forests behind, that the greatest alarm was excited for his safety. The crest of the Kahlenberg, with its castle and chapel, were found unoccupied; but the Turks, too late aware of its importance, were moving towards it in the course of the 11th, when, by great exertion, the first troops which came to hand, five Saxon battalions of the left wing, with three guns, were brought up to the summit. The Turks, finding themselves anticipated, retired without a serious struggle, and the Saxon guns opening upon their rear, gave signal to the city of its approaching salvation. The king and the other commanders rejoined their several corps about midday of the 11th, and the principal difficulties of the march having been now overcome, the army was enabled to arrange itself in nearly the order which was preserved through the following day of battle.[14] This operation was conducted without disturbance from the enemy, except on the extreme left, where General Leslie experienced some opposition in the establishment of a battery. The report of this skirmish roused Sobieski, not from slumber, which, as he states, was rendered unattainable by the thunder of the Turkish batteries against the city, but from the occupation of writing a long and detailed letter to his wife. Disturbed in this enjoyment, the indefatigable man, described by the French ambassador as too corpulent to ride, was again in the saddle at three A. M. He appears to have ridden along the whole position, from his tent on the extreme right to the Leopoldsberg on the left. This exertion had the advantage of bringing him once more into personal communication with Lorraine before that final issue which took place on the following day, contrary indeed to the expectation or intention of either, for neither contemplated at this moment the possibility of bringing so vast an operation as the relief of the city within the compass of a single day.
Nothing seems to have given Sobieski so much annoyance at this period as the non-appearance of some Cossack levies, which his agents had been despatched to raise. He writes of them in their absence in a strain which might have been used by a Russian commander of our own day, and which shows that the admirable qualities of the real Cossack for the duty of light troops, especially against the Turk, had fully displayed themselves in the seventeenth century. It is certain that down to the latest period, the Vizier had no belief, or even suspicion, that Sobieski had taken the field in person, or that any strong Polish force had joined the army. The reported appearance of Polish troops was accounted for by the known arrival of Lubomirski’s partisan corps.