TURKEY. 
160 
responding with what was formerly called the forlorn hope 
in the European armies. This corps was destined for the 
most perilous enterprises. The new king of Poland, being 
deserted by the Lithunians, was obliged to go into winter- 
quarters, and the operations were suspended on both sides. 
The sultan was meanwhile indulging at Adrianople in the 
display of all the profusion of Eastern magnificence, on 
occasion of the marriage of his daughter, and the circum¬ 
cision of two of his sons. The festivities were interrupted 
by an event which the rvhole empire had reason to deplore. 
At the moment of re-commencing hostilities in 1678, Ki- 
uperly was attacked by a violent and mortal disease, in the 
forty-seventh year of his age, after he had governed fifteen 
years with equal wisdom and success. A longer admini¬ 
stration might perhaps have changed the manners of this 
people, to whom he set an example of virtue. 
Carah-Mustapha, his brother-in-law, who had served 
under him, was appointed his sucesssor. The war in Poland 
was prosecuted with less vigour, and Sobieski, though he had 
but a small number of troops, kept in check the whole Otto¬ 
man force. At length, confined in his camp, in which want 
began to be felt, the king of Poland, who returned no other 
reply to repeated summonses than —Conquer or die —thought 
of cutting his way through the enemy’s army; and he would 
have accomplished his design, had not the Turkish general 
received orders to put an end to the war, in which the Euro¬ 
pean powers threatened to take part. Sobieski concluded 
peace on honourable and advantageous conditions. It took 
but a few days to adjust the terms between the two nations, 
and upwards of six months to settle the ceremonies to be 
observed in regard to the ambassador who brought the ratifi¬ 
cation of the treaty. 
Carah-Mustapha possessed the same power, but not equal 
talents with his predecessor. His intolerable pride and his 
severity alienated the minds of the Cossacks, who had re¬ 
cently become vassals of the Porte. They now placed them¬ 
selves under the protection of Russia. The Turks were 
beaten in several rencounters by the Russians and Cossacks. 
In another quarter, the Hungarians loudly summoned the 
Turks to their aid against the emperor of Germany, who 
treated them as rebels and infringed their privileges. They 
were headed by the young count Tekeli. The divan op¬ 
posed the design of declaring war against Austria. Carah- 
Mustapha nevertheless prevailed upon his master to adopt 
that measure, and dispatched succours to Tekeli. The vizir, 
having gained an accession of power by his marriage with 
one of the emperor’s daughters, set out in 1683 for Adrian¬ 
ople, where the army was assembling. It consisted of Tartars, 
Wallachians, Moldavians and Hungarians, and amounted to 
one hundred and eighty thousand, or according to some his¬ 
torians, two hundred thousand men. It first marched towards 
Belgrade, and after passing the Saave, a council was held. Carah 
Mustapha was for proceeding directly to the Austrian capital. 
Tekeli opposed that plan ; and they were marching towards 
Raab, when news arrived that the imperial family had quitted 
Vienna. It was then decided that they should lay siege to 
that capital. 
The duke of Lorraine, the emperor’s brother-in-law, com¬ 
manded the Austrian army, which was then engaged in the 
siege of Gran, a fortress designed for a bulwark to Germany. 
That prince had time to throw into Vienna eight thousand 
men under the command of count Starhemberg, while he 
himself encamped with his troops in the island of Leopold- 
stadt: but this prudent general, fearful of being shut up in 
the island, quitted it the day before the arrival of the Turks, 
broke down the bridges, and chose a more advantageous 
camp at some distance'from the city, where he waited for the 
reinforcements which he expected from Poland, Bavaria, and 
Saxony, while a corps, which he had detached from his 
army, defeated count Tekeli in Hungary. 
The siege of Vienna was opened: the fire of the batteries 
did great damage to the ramparts; but the duke of Lorraine 
continually sent out detachments which harrassed the enemy 
and destroyed their works. The siege was protracted through 
the fault of the grand vizir; and this gave Sobieski time to 
arrive with the Bavarian and Saxon contingents, and the be¬ 
sieged were informed by signals that they should soon be 
relieved. Sobieski immediately prepared to give battle to the 
Turks. Accompanied by the duke of Lorraine, he crossed 
with his artillery a chain of mountains which separated him 
from the rich Turkish camp pitched in the plain before 
Vienna, and fell unawares upon the advanced posts, of the 
Ottomans. The duke of Lorraine broke the enemy’s left 
wing and put it to flight. The spahys, with the vizir at their 
head, long maintained their ground, but were finally borne 
down by the torrent of the fugitives, and Sobieski completed 
the rout which he had begun. He marched his army in good 
order to the trenches which surrounded the city, made himself 
master of them, and Vienna was delivered on the 11th of 
September, 1683. The Turkish camp, being given up to the 
soldiers, yielded them an immense booty. Count Starhem¬ 
berg came out at the head of the garrison of Vienna, to thank 
their deliverers, and Sobieski triumphantly entered the city by 
the breach which the Turks had not dared to scale. 
The fugitives reassembled in the camp which they had left 
near Raab. Sobieski pursued them, but he learned that an 
enemy, though beaten, is not always to be despised: the 
Turks charged him vigorously when he least expected it, 
threw his troops into confusion, and the king himself was in 
danger of losing his life or his liberty. Fortunately the duke 
of Lorraine came up to his assistance, and the Ottomans had 
the prudence not to risk the fruit of their victory. Sobieski 
soon had his revenge; he drove the enemy into the Danube, 
and took Gran and Cestlin. The grand vizir found himself 
necessitated to fall back to Belgrade. 
When these disasters and the immense losses which re¬ 
duced so mighty an army to less than half were known in 
Constantinople, the utmost consternation prevailed. Carah- 
Mustapha attempted to justify his conduct; but the divan 
and the whole body of the ulemas, as well as the janissaries, 
were vehement against him ; and the emperor, notwithstand¬ 
ing his attachment to this minister, was constrained to affix 
his khatty-cheryf to the sentence which doomed him to 
perish by the bow-string. Two persons only, the tchaouch- 
bachy and the capydjy-kihaya (thechief officer and lieutenant 
of the guard of the interior of the seraglio) were charged 
with its execution. They went and demanded the head of 
the most absolute minister of the empire, who still had the 
command of eighty thousand men, accustomed to tremble 
in his presence. But Carah-Mustapha was feared only, and 
the troops rejoiced at the arrival of these officers. The vizir 
received with firmness the order to resign the seals; but he 
could not read his condemnation without accusing his so¬ 
vereign of ingratitude, and uttering imprecations against 
fortune. Sensible, however, that resistance would be fruitless 
he ejaculated a short prayer, and put the fatal cord round his 
neck with his own hands. His head was carried to Constan¬ 
tinople, and exposed to the view of the people and of the 
soldiery, who were appeased by this sight. Several great 
officers refused the post of vizir. The caimacam at length 
trembling accepted it, and sought means to withstand the 
enemies of the empire, but he was not successful, and tl e 
Turks by their arrogance brought fresh foes upon themselves. 
The republic of Venice declared war against them. The 
Ottoman fleet was in a wretched state; that of the Venetians, 
under the same Morosini who had defended Candia, reduced 
St. Maura, and placed a garrison in Prevesa, which commands 
the entrance of the gulf of Arta. 
The empire was attacked on all sides. The duke of Lorraine, 
at the very outset of the campaign, took Viugrade. He 
offered an amnesty to all the Hungarians who should abandon 
Tekeli. Several nobles in consequence renewed their allegi¬ 
ance to the house of Austria. Tekeli marched against them, 
and the country suffered equally from both parties. The 
duke of Lorraine, marching towards Buda, received a mo¬ 
mentary check from the Turks. They made head at the 
same time against Sobieski, whose object was to possess him¬ 
self of Kaminieck; but they were soon afterwards beaten, 
b« r and 
