the khan
in person, poured forth from the Moslem lines, and thundered upon the
right of the Poles, only to recoil in disorder before the lances of
Iablonowski and the Lithuanians, who pushed in pursuit close to a deep
ravine, which covered the redoubts of the Turks. But the khan had
recognized in the melee the well-known figure of Sobieski, whose
personal presence had been as yet uncertain. "By Allah!" said he to the
vizir on his return from his unsuccessful charge, "the heavens have
fallen upon us; for the ill-omened _kral_ of the _Leh_ (Poles) of a
truth is with the infidels!"

The Turks were now every where driven within their lines, and the battle
appeared over for the day; but the Poles, with cries of triumph,
demanded to be led to the attack of the camp, and Sobieski exclaiming,
"Not unto us, O Lord, but to thy name be the praise!" directed the
assault. In a moment the Polish chivalry spurred up the steep side of
the ravine in the teeth of the Turkish artillery--a redoubt in the
centre of the lines was stormed through the gorge by Maligny,
brother-in-law of the king--the Pashas of Aleppo and Silistria, whose
prowess sustained the fainting courage of their troops, were slain in
the front of the battle--and, after a conflict of less than an hour, the
whole vast array of the Osmanlis, pierced through the centre by the
onset of the Polish lances, gave way in hopeless, irremediable
confusion, and, abandoning their camp, artillery, and baggage, fled in
wild confusion on the road to Hungary. By 6 P.M. the Polish King reached
the tent of the vizir; but Kara-Mustapha had not awaited the arrival of
the victor. In an agony of despair at the mighty ruin which he now saw
to be inevitable, he gave the barbarous order (which was but partially
executed) for the massacre of the women of his harem, to prevent
their falling into the hands of the enemy; and, seizing the
Sandjak-shereef,[H] mounted an Arabian camel of surpassing swiftness,
and accompanied, or perhaps preceded, the flight of his army. Such was
the panic haste of the rout, that, before sunset the next day, the whole
host swept past the walls of Raab, the garrison of which thus gained the
first tidings of the catastrophe--nor have the crimson banners of the
crescent been ever again seen on the soil of Germany.

From the desultory character of the action, in which little use was made
of artillery, and the headlong dismay in which the Turks at last took to
flight, not m