sterile Sclavonia, he found his way to Gratz,
in Styria, the residence of the Archduke Ferdinand, afterwards Emperor
of Germany. Here he met with an Englishman and an Irish Jesuit, by whose
assistance he was enabled to join a regiment of artillery, commanded by
Count Meldritch, whom he accompanied to Vienna, and thence to the seat
of war. At this time, 1601, there was a bloody war going on between
Germany and the Turks, and the latter had gained many signal advantages,
and the Crescent, flushed with victory, was rapidly encroaching upon the
confines of Christendom. Canissia having just fallen, it was at the
siege of Olympach, beleaguered by the Turks, that Smith first had an
opportunity of displaying the resources of his military genius, for
which he was put in command of two hundred and fifty horse.

That siege being raised, after some interval of suspended hostilities,
the Christian forces, in their turn, besieged Stowle Wessenburg, which
soon fell into their hands. Mahomet the Third, hearing of this disaster,
dispatched a formidable army to retrieve or avenge it; and in the bloody
battle that ensued on the plains of Girke, Smith had a horse shot under
him, and was badly wounded. At the siege of Regal he encountered and
slew, in a tournament, three several Turkish champions, Turbashaw,
Grualgo, and Bonny Mulgro. For these exploits he was honored with a
triumphal procession, in which the three Turks' heads were borne on
lances. A horse richly caparisoned was presented to him, with a cimeter
and belt worth three hundred ducats; and he was promoted to the rank of
major.

In the bloody battle of Rottenton, he was wounded and made prisoner.
With such of the prisoners as escaped massacre, he was sold into slavery
at Axiopolis, and fell into the hands of the Bashaw Bogall, who sent
him, by way of Adrianople, to Constantinople, a present to his youthful
mistress, Charatza Tragabigzanda. Captivated with her prisoner, she
treated him tenderly; and to prevent his being sold again, sent him to
remain for a time with her brother, the Tymour Bashaw of Nalbritz, in
Tartary, who occupied a stone castle near the Sea of Azof. Immediately
on Smith's arrival, his head was shaved, an iron collar riveted on his
neck, and he was clothed in hair-cloth. Here long he suffered cruel
bondage; at length one day, while threshing in a barn, the Bashaw having
beaten and reviled him, he turned and slew him on the spot, with the
threshing bat; then p