er, the Viennese would show themselves on top of
their redoubts and challenge the cohorts of Mohammed IV.

Mohammed IV was deposed after losing the battle, and Kara Mustapha was
executed for leaving the stores--particularly the sacks of coffee
beans--at the gates of Vienna; but Vienna coffee and Vienna _kipfel_ are
still alive, and their appeal is not lessened by the years.

[Illustration: THE FIRST COFFEE HOUSE IN THE LEOPOLDSTADT

From a cut so titled in Bermann's _Alt und Neu Wien_]

The hero Kolschitzky was presented with a house by the grateful
municipality; and there, at the sign of the Blue Bottle, according to
one account, he continued as a coffee-house keeper for many years.[65]
This, in brief, is the story that--although not authenticated in all
its particulars--is seriously related in many books, and is firmly
believed throughout Vienna.

It seems a pity to discredit the hero of so romantic an adventure; but
the archives of Vienna throw a light upon Kolschitzky's later conduct
that tends to show that, after all, this Viennese idol's feet were of
common clay.

It is said that Kolschitzky, after receiving the sacks of green coffee
left behind by the Turks, at once began to peddle the beverage from
house to house, serving it in little cups from a wooden platter. Later
he rented a shop in Bischof-hof. Then he began to petition the municipal
council, that, in addition to the sum of 100 ducats already promised him
as further recognition of his valor, he should receive a house with good
will attached; that is, a shop in some growing business section. "His
petitions to the municipal council", writes M. Bermann[66], "are amazing
examples of measureless self-conceit and the boldest greed. He seemed
determined to get the utmost out of his own self-sacrifice. He insisted
upon the most highly deserved reward, such as the Romans bestowed upon
their Curtius, the Lacedaemonians upon their Pompilius, the Athenians
upon Seneca, with whom he modestly compared himself."

At last, he was given his choice of three houses in the Leopoldstadt,
any one of them worth from 400 to 450 gulden, in place of the money
reward, that had been fixed by a compromise agreement at 300 gulden. But
Kolschitzky was not satisfied with this; and urged that if he was to
accept a house in full payment it should be one valued at not less than
1000 gulden. Then ensued much correspondence and considerable haggling.
To put an end to the acrimonious di