We have already noticed that Karah Omar Aghá, after the páshá had augmented his party, was ordered to pursue the fugitive enemy. He did so. As many of the enemy as had succeeded in reaching the ford of Paulet were totally panic-struck, when they perceived Karah Omar with his party of men pressing towards them. They threw away what heavy baggage had yet remained to them, crossed the ford in the utmost hurry and confusion, and took with them what they esteemed most valuable. The Moslem pursuers slackened not their pace, crossed the ford after them, and coming up to them, slew many of them. The fugitives were now obliged, in order to escape with their lives, to throw away every thing by which they had been encumbered, and even their arms, and took to their heels as fast as they were able. It was not known how many of them had perished, but about six thousand of the better sort of them fell by the hands of their valiant pursuers. Several of their captains were conveyed back to the páshá; but as the number of the prisoners which were thus brought were too many to be retained, the páshá gave orders to cut off the heads of all who were afterwards brought in on the ditches, and to throw their bodies into the river. Some of the prisoners, when they were asked the cause of their signal defeat and dispersion, attributed it to the effect which the letters that had been conveyed into their camp had had on their minds. A fearful terror, said they, seized us, and we began to imagine we saw nothing but troops of Turks with green turbans coming to your aid, and attacking us in conjunction with you.
In this memorable retreat, Don Juan, Hersog of Malta, finding it impossible to escape the danger of being taken prisoner, stripped off his clothes, wrapped himself up in a shabby coverlet, and lay four days in a ditch, pretending he was wounded. On the fifth day of the retreat, some men belonging to Zerín Oghlí, who had come from Mekomúriah to inquire into the state of matters, chanced to pass the ditch where this helpless Hersog lay. He implored them to extricate him, which they did, and carried him to Zerín Oghlí, who, when he learned who he was, showed him great respect, and sent him away to his own country.
The loss sustained by the enemy in this campaign was truly great: seventy or eighty thousand infidels, at the very least, must have perished. Those Italian and German foot soldiers who escaped the sword of the victorious Moslems, fell down on the roads benumbed with cold, and remained there. The few naked and weeping wretches who had been so fortunate as to reach their own countries, did so only with their lives.
Karah Omar Aghá of Petcheví relates the following story: “When we were in pursuit of the infidels, flying before us, we sometimes came up to ten or fifteen of them sitting and warming themselves before fires which they had made; but, when they saw us approaching, they started up upon their legs, took off their hats, and made obeisance to us. The fact is, we were weary of cutting and slashing the poor wretches, and therefore did not think it manly to kill men who were thus vanquished and suffering like those just now mentioned. The like of these creatures we passed, and went on slaughtering and hewing down all such as still had the hardihood to carry arms. The vast quantity of articles of value, as well as of arms, which the fugitives threw away, in their hurry to escape, strewed the roads every where, and it required two months’ time before they could be all collected and brought to Kaniza.”
Karah Omar Aghá was rewarded for his services in this campaign with the sanják of Petcheví.
Some further account of the affairs relative to Kaniza.—The arrival of the Commander-in-chief at Sigetwar.
The commander-in-chief, Yemishjí Hasan Páshá, notwithstanding the opposition which had been manifested against his marching towards Kaniza, during the cold season, forced his way as far as Sigetwar. After the weather had become more intensely cold, a spirit of envy and insubordination began to manifest itself among his troops. They assembled together in a tumultuous manner, and attacked the Commander-in-chief’s tent with stones; and three days afterwards, when order seemed to have been restored, they broke loose and set off for Belgrade. This took place on the 12th of Jemadi II. However, the commander-in-chief received a letter from Hasan which announced to him the success which had been obtained over the enemy in their expulsion from Kaniza, and which gave him great joy. On the same day, towards evening, he received another from the same quarter, intimating the complete dispersion and defeat of the whole of the enemy’s army, a copy of which he immediately transmitted to Constantinople. He afterwards issued orders to the various troops to go into winter-quarters. He himself remained at Shuklúshka. On the 15th of the above month, one division of the troops, on its return, reached the bridge of Usk, and passed over in safety; but the next division was not quite so fortunate. Owing to the great and severe frost which had commenced, the river Drave was frozen over, and on the 20th, when the next division was crossing this bridge, it fell. All that were on it, at the time, perished. It was repaired, however, in two or three days afterwards.
Hasan Páshá, the celebrated governor of Kaniza, went to Shuklúshka to pay his respects to the commander-in-chief, who, in return, showed to the heroic Páshá every mark of esteem, and granted a favourable reception to every request he made to him. The government of Kústandil was conferred on Meseli Beg, and Korah Omar Aghá was confirmed in the sanjakship of Petcheví. To each of the veteran soldiers who sustained the siege along with him five pieces of money were allowed, besides the provisions which were due. Hasan Páshá dispatched his lieutenant, Iskender Páshá, to court, whose arrival there gave the emperor the sincerest joy. He approved of the distribution and appointments which had been made, and raised Hasan to be one of his favourite vezírs. Three robes of honour, a richly ornamented sword, and three beautiful horses, were sent as presents to the celebrated páshá. The commander-in-chief, in like manner, conferred marks of esteem upon him, and sent his lieutenant, Mustafa Khetkodá, to Petcheví, to furnish provisions for Kaniza, and then set out for Belgrade.
In consequence, however, of the violence of the mountain-like masses of ice which drifted down the Save, the bridges on that river were broken down, and the returning troops had to cross it in boats. In this journey they suffered great hardship, and had to overcome many difficulties before they reached Belgrade. About this time the ághá of the janissaries, Alí Aghá, was sent to Constantinople in order to negotiate a marriage between Yemishjí Hasan Páshá, the commander-in-chief and prime minister to the Ottoman emperor, and the sultana, the widow of the late prime minister, Ibrahím Páshá.
The following is a copy of a letter from the grand sultán to Hasan Páshá in reference to his brave and wise conduct during the siege of Kaniza. After having referred to the great glory which had accrued this year, by his instrumentality, to the Ottoman empire, he says, that the celebrated name of his choice servant, his prudent vezír, the beglerbeg of Kaniza, Hasan Páshá, was to be inserted among the other great and celebrated names recorded in the annals of the empire. He then proceeds: “I have appointed you a vezír; and may my servants who were with you in the siege of Kaniza, and who, in a peculiar sense, are my children, receive a benediction; who, beyond all conception, exemplified the most strenuous courage, not regarding their own lives in their faithfulness to their religion and to us; who in the most arduous struggle of human exertion never once flinched from the dangers of either fire or water; who manfully and heroically maintained their ground on the batteries of Kaniza; who in open battle, on the field of blood, discomfited, routed the hateful enemy, and hewed them down whenever they attempted to rally; who caused the iron-cased host to fly, leaving all their valuables a prey to their pursuers; and, in one word, who acquired peculiar glory by their unexampled heroism. We therefore request that in every thing they continue to manifest towards you the most implicit obedience, which will secure to them our approbation. You will read this letter, which contains the expression of our will, in the presence of our brave veterans, and cause them to understand it. We sanction, by our royal authority, the distribution of money, &c. to be made to our servants at Kaniza under your command. We commend you all to the true God.”