the sobriquet of Shaitan Ogblu, _son of Satan_--nor was he
unknown as a gay and gallant visitor to the more polished and voluptuous
courts of the west. In his elevation to the throne of his native
country, he was said to have been materially assisted by the criminal
favour of the consort of his predecessor, the Princess Ducas:--but in
the camp before Vienna he assumed the guise of extraordinary piety--a
lofty cross was erected before his tent, where the rights of the Greek
Church were daily celebrated with extraordinary pomp, and the priests of
that communion offered up prayers for the success of the Ottoman arms
against the schismatics of the Western Church![G]

On the 23d of July, two mines were fired under the counterscarp of the
Loebel bastion, and though from the want of skill in the Turkish
engineers, they did little damage, the alarm caused among the garrison,
who called to mind the formidable use made of this species of approach
in the siege of Candia, was such, that Stahrenberg issued orders that
one person should be constantly on the watch in each house, to prevent
the Turks from making their way into the city by these subterraneous
passages. No more than forty mines, however, were sprung during the
whole siege, and their effect, from the industry with which they were
countermined by the garrison, was far less destructive than at
Candia:--but the fire from the batteries continued without cessation,
till the counterscarp and ravelin between the two bastions were reduced
to a heap of ruins, and the covered approaches of the Turks, in spite of
the constant sorties of the besieged, were pushed so close to the outer
works that the defenders could reach the pioneers employed on the
galleries by thrusting at them through the palisades with the long
German pikes, the efficiency of which had been so severely experienced
in the former siege. The first assault on the ravelin was made July
25--but the explosion of a mine at the instant threw the attacking
column into disorder, and they were repulsed after a severe conflict, in
which Stahrenberg himself was wounded. The attack was not repeated in
force till the night of Aug. 3, when the troops of the pasha of
Temeswar, and a select body of janissaries under their _houlkiaya_ or
lieutenant-general, rushed with such fury upon the ruined rampart, that
though four times driven back, they at last succeeded in effecting a
lodgement in the ravelin, and threw up parapets to screen