Saxe-Lauenburg and Eisenach. By eight A.M.
the action had become warm along the skirts of the Kahlenberg--the
Turks, who were principally horse, dismounting to fight on foot behind
hastily-constructed abattis of trees and earth, as the nature of the
ground was unfavourable to cavalry, and keeping up a heavy fire on the
enemy while they were entangled in the ravines. The ardour of the
Christians, however, speedily overcame these obstacles; and by ten A.M.,
their van was debouching from the defiles into the plain with loud
shouts of battle; and the Turks, though from time to time receiving
reinforcements from the camp, were gradually obliged to give ground. The
vizir, meanwhile, remaining immovable in his tent, directed a fresh
cannonade to be directed against the city, under cover of which a
general assault was to be made; but the long files of camels laden with
the spoils of Austria, which were sent off in haste on the road to
Hungary, revealed his secret disquietude--and the troops in the
trenches, effectually disheartened by the delay and privations of the
siege, showed little inclination again to advance against the shattered
bastions. The towers and steeples of Vienna were thronged with anxious
spectators, who with throbbing hearts watched the advance of their
deliverers, who pressed on at all points, "making the Turks give way"
(says the diary above quoted) "whenever they came to a shock." The
villages of Nussdorff and Heiligenstadt on the Danube, where several
_odas_ of janissaries, with heavy cannon, were posted, checked for some
time the progress of the Austrians on the left; the Duc de Croye, a
gallant French volunteer, fell in leading the attack, but a body of
Polish cuirassiers were at last sent to their aid, who, levelling their
lances, and dashing with loud shouts against the flank of the Turkish
batteries, carried the position, and put the defenders to the sword. It
was not so much a battle, as a series of desperate but irregular
skirmishes scattered over wide extent of ground--the Turkish troops (who
were almost all cavalry, as most of the regulars and artillery were
still in the camp) gradually receding before the heavy advancing columns
of the Christians. By four P.M. they were driven so close to their
intrenchments, that Sobieski could descry the vizir, seated in a small
crimson tent, and tranquilly drinking coffee with his two sons. At this
moment, a torrent of the wild cavalry of the Tartars, headed by