y succour, offering to cede to him his rights upon Hungary if he
could preserve his Austrian capital; but the zeal of the Polish hero
needed no stimulus. Though so disabled by the gout as to be unable to
mount his horse without help, he was indefatigable in his exertions to
hasten the march of his troops, to whom he gave the rendezvous, "Under
the counterscarp at Vienna." On his march into Germany, he was every
where received as a deliverer; the Jesuits of Olmutz erected, at his
entrance into the town, a triumphal arch, with the inscription,
"Salvatorem expectamus;" and all hailed, as a sure omen of victory, the
presence of the champion whose very name had become a byword of terror
among the Turks. The beleaguered garrison was, meanwhile, cheered by
frequent messages promising speedy relief from the Duke of Lorraine,
whose emissaries, selected for their knowledge of the Turkish language,
contrived to pass and re-pass securely; but an epidemic disease, in
addition to the sword and the bombardment, was rapidly thinning their
numbers; and Callonitz, bishop of Neustadt, who, in his younger days,
had gained distinction against the Turks in Candia, now acquired a
holier fame by his pious care of the sick and wounded, who crowded the
hospitals and houses. The siege had been languidly carried on during the
greater part of August, but at the end of the month fresh symptoms of
activity were observed in the Ottoman lines; several mines were sprung
on the 27th and 28th, and the fire from the batteries was so warmly kept
up, that on the 29th the garrison, conjecturing that the anniversary of
the battle of Mohacz had been chosen for the general assault, stood to
their arms in anxious suspense. But the day passed over without any
alarm, and it was not till September 4, that, having blown up great part
of the right face of the court bastion by a powerful mine, 5000 of the
_elite_ of the janissaries sprang, sword in hand, with loud shouts and
the clangour of martial music, into the breach thus made, and forcing
their way, with the fanatic valour which had in their best days
characterized the sons of Hadji-Bektash, into the interior of the
bastion, planted their _bairahs_, or pennons, on the ruined ramparts.
Stahrenberg himself, with his officers and guards, was fortunately going
the rounds at the menaced point at the moment of the explosion and
assault, but the Osmanlis held firm the ground they had gained; and
Stahrenberg, seeing the ene