From August 1 to August 22.
As far as feats of arms were concerned, the garrison had as yet
maintained its own with undaunted resolution and with a success
unimpaired by any material discomfiture; but by the middle of August
the inevitable consequences of so close an investment of a large town
began to show themselves in the shapes of sickness and scarcity. The
use of dried and salted meat produced a dysentery, which was often
mortal both among the soldiery and the townspeople. Other forms of
disease were attributable to the use of beer ill-brewed and hastily
consumed, and to the accumulation of impurities in the streets. Among
the victims were the Burgomaster Liebenberg, the Bishop’s Vicar of
Vienna, the Provost of St. Stephen’s, the Rector of the University,
and many other officials and ecclesiastics. The Commandant himself was
attacked by the epidemic, but, for the good fortune of Christendom,
recovered. The disease yielded at length, a result due in great
measure to the exertions of the admirable Kollonitsch, who visited the
hospitals daily; and to the sanatory regulations of the authorities,
who carried a stricter supervision into the proceedings of the bakers
and the brewers, particularly into the brewery which supplied the
Burg Hospital. The provisions specially productive of the dysentery,
such as herrings, which were much sought after by the soldiers, were
confiscated. The sick townspeople were carefully separated from the
healthy, and conveyed into temporary hospitals. The sick and wounded of
the soldiers were distributed among the convents, and the city provided
for their use 500 measures of wine and 4500 ells of linen. Cesspools
were dug to supply the place of the ordinary outlets and transport of
the filth of the city; the kennels were irrigated, and proper officers
appointed under the direction of Kollonitsch to carry these systematic
measures into effect, and made responsible for their execution. The
Vizier, whose confidence, possibly somewhat abated by the course of
military events, had been revived by the reports of the condition of
the garrison, is said to have vowed vengeance against the prelate who
had thus assumed the noble attitude of the Prophet between the people
and the plague; and to have destined his head as a present to the
Sultan. He did not foresee from whose shoulders such a peace-offering
would ultimately be culled. Coupled with these sanatory regulations,
others were put in force to prevent premature exhaustion of the means
of subsistence in the city, which fortunately were so ample as only to
require good economy to make them sufficient. Twenty hand-mills and
five horse-mills were established under regulation of the authorities
for the supply of flour. Lists of prices of the principal articles of
subsistence are given in the records of the time, which, in themselves,
would convey little information to readers not familiar with the
measures in use, and with the current prices of the day, but which
indicate considerable abundance as still existing at this period of
the siege, and which also show that prices were quadrupled before
the siege was raised. The price of wine, in particular, appears to
have been low even in comparison with the ordinary prices of the time
and locality. The great cellars of the city were reported to contain
169,000 eimers, of which 32,000 belonged to the three colleges of the
Jesuits, and other ecclesiastical establishments possessed a large
portion of the remainder. The stock of the numerous private traders,
and the wine-growers of the neighbourhood was not, it would appear,
included in this return. The military measures of defence, meanwhile,
were carried on, as was well needed, with unabated vigour. The Captain,
Elias Kühn, a Silesian gentleman, gained great credit by his services
as an engineer. The citizens showed the greatest alacrity. While 1300
of their body were required for daily service at various posts, they
furnished, in addition, from thirty to forty waggons for the daily
transport of every necessary article to the works, and many of their
horses were sacrificed in this service. In contemplation of the last
extremity, chains were furnished from the arsenals to be drawn across
the streets. The rings for these are still to be seen in the walls
in various parts of the city. To watch the motions of the enemy,
two Jesuits were constantly stationed on the tower of Saint Stephen
provided with telescopes, who furnished written reports of their
observations to the Commandant. The latter took up his residence in
the outer court of the Burg, in the immediate neighbourhood of the
principal point of attack, and on his own punctual and conspicuous
performance of his duties, established his claim to exact the same from
others, and to punish or rebuke every instance of neglect or failure.
A lieutenant in command of the watch at the most dangerous part of the
Löbel bastion neglected to prevent the enemy from forming by night a
timber defence against sallies. A court-martial sentenced him to death.
The Commandant pardoned him on condition that he would conduct a sally
with 29 men and destroy the defences so thrown up. He succeeded, but
perished in the execution. Two soldiers, who, upon some dispute as
to their pay, rose upon and maltreated an officer, were compelled to
throw dice for the life of one, and the loser underwent the penalty.
A population so numerous could not but comprise some faint hearts.
An order was issued that any one who, from cowardice, should absent
himself from his appointed duty should be hanged from his own window. A
commission was appointed to undertake a search for delinquents through
the four quarters of the city. We hear of no executions in consequence,
but the menace is said to have produced a considerable and welcome
accession of able-bodied defenders to the walls, who were encouraged
to their duty by a bounty of three rix-dollars and ample rations of
bread and wine. During the entire siege, indeed, the fighting men
were liberally provided for, and clergy as well as laity opened their
cellars for their refreshment. The besiegers meanwhile pushed forward
their works with unwearied activity. It is, however, unaccountable
that their leaders, who usually showed so much eagerness to possess
themselves of every commanding position in the neighbourhood of a
besieged fortress, should have neglected to establish themselves on
the adjacent heights of the Kahlenberg. These acclivities presented
not only a cover to the motions of an army advancing to raise the
siege, but a post of the utmost importance if once occupied, and the
assemblage of the army of the Empire at Crems could be no secret to the
Turks. The latter nevertheless contented themselves with the useless
destruction of the Camalduline Convent and the desecration of the tomb
of the Margrave in its chapel, and then abandoned the position without
leaving either garrison or corps of observation, an error which was
certainly the main cause of the ultimate catastrophe.
For several days the offer had been promulgated of a considerable
reward to the man who would brave the adventure of endeavouring to
make his way with dispatches to the camp of the Duke of Lorraine,
when on the 6th of August a trooper of Count Gotz’s regiment made his
appearance in the city, having swum the various arms of the Danube, and
bearing a letter well secured in wax. The hearts of the besieged were
thus gladdened with the tidings of the assemblage and daily increase of
the Christian army, and with the assurance of early relief. The safe
arrival of this messenger was announced to the yet distant army by a
discharge of rockets. The messenger was less fortunate in his attempt
to return. He was taken by the Turks and brought before the Vizier.
The dispatch with which he was intrusted being written in cypher, he
was closely interrogated as to its contents and as to the condition of
the city. He cunningly invented a tale of despair, and described the
defenders of the place as depressed in spirits, exhausted in resources,
and on the verge of surrender. The invention saved his life. The Vizier
proclaimed these tidings through the camp, and caused the cypher
dispatch to be shot back into the city attached to an arrow, with an
appendix to the purport that it was needless to write in cypher, for
the wretched condition of those who had sent it was well known to
the world, and was but the just punishment of men who had awakened
the wrath of the Sultan. Soon after this transaction Christopher von
Kunitz, a servant of Caprara, who had been detained in the Turkish
camp, found means to escape into the city. He brought an account
that the Vizier fully expected to have Vienna in his power within a
few days, and that many of the Magnates of Hungary, considering the
cause of Austria as desperate, had come into the camp to do homage to
the Vizier. He gave also a dismal confirmation of the ravage of the
surrounding country, of which the Viennese had partial evidence in
their own observation. On the 9th of August, Michael Gregorowitz, a
Greek by birth, once a Lieutenant in the Heister regiment, leaving the
city in a Turkish disguise, crossed the Danube with dispatches for
the Duke of Lorraine. A fire signal from the crest of the Bisamberg
conveyed the intelligence of the safe accomplishment of his enterprise,
and he was rewarded with promotion to the rank of Captain. He did not,
however, succeed in effecting his return. The condition of affairs in
the city began to be serious: the enemy made daily progress in his
approaches, and no more volunteers came forward for the dangerous task
of conveying intelligence to the army of the increasing pressure. At
last George Francis Kolschitzki, a partisan officer whose name deserves
honourable record for the importance of his services, and the courage
and dexterity with which they were executed, stepped forward. A Pole
by birth, and previously an interpreter in the service of the Oriental
merchants’ company, he had become a citizen of the Leopoldstadt, and
had served since the siege began in a free corps. Intimately conversant
with the Turkish language and customs, he willingly offered himself
for the dangerous office of passing through the very camp of the
Turks to convey intelligence to the Imperial army. On the 13th of
August, accompanied by a servant of similar qualifications, he was
let out through a sally-port in the Rothenthurm, and escorted by an
aide-de-camp of the Commandant as far as the palisades. He had scarcely
advanced a hundred yards, when he became aware of a considerable body
of horse which advanced at a rapid pace towards the place of his exit.
Being as yet too near the city to escape suspicion, he hastily turned
to the left and concealed himself in the cellar of a ruined house of
the suburb near Altlerchenfeld, where he kept close till the tramp
of the passing cavalry had died away. He then pursued his course,
and, singing a Turkish song, traversed at an idle pace and with an
unembarrassed air the streets of Turkish tents. His cheerful mien and
his familiar strain took the fancy of an Aga, who invited him into his
tent, treated him with coffee, listened to more songs and to his tale
of having followed the army as a volunteer, and cautioned him against
wandering too far and falling into Christian hands. Kolschitzki thanked
him for the advice, passed on in safety through the camp to beyond
its verge, and then as unconcernedly made for the Kahlenberg and the
Danube. Upon one of its islands he saw a body of people, who, misled
by his Turkish attire, fired upon him and his companion. These were
some inhabitants of Nussdorf, headed by the bailiff of that place,
who had made this island their temporary refuge and home. Kolschitzki
explained to them in German the circumstances of his mission, and
entreated them to afford him an immediate passage over the river. This
being obtained, he reached without further difficulty the bivouac of
the Imperial army, then on its march between Angern and Stillfried.
After delivering and receiving dispatches, the adventurous pair set out
on their return, and after some hairbreadth escapes from the Turkish
sentries, passed the palisades and re-entered the city by the Scottish
gate, bearing a letter from the Duke to the following purport:—“He had
received with deep emotion the intelligence of the loss of so many
brave officers and soldiers, and of the sad condition of the city
consequent both on this loss in action and on the epidemic. He retained
his hopes that the defenders of a place so important would never relax
in their noble efforts for its preservation. A considerable army was
already collected for its relief. Reinforcements were daily arriving
from Bavaria, Franconia, and Saxony, and the Duke was only waiting the
arrival of the numerous forces of Poland, commanded by their king in
person, which was to be expected by the end of August at the latest,
to put the united mass in motion for the raising of the siege.” As an
appendix to these assurances was added the consolatory intelligence of
the surrender of Presburgh to the Imperialists, and of the defeat of
Tekeli in two actions. The safe return of the bearer of this dispatch
was announced as usual by rockets as night signals, and in the day by a
column of smoke from St. Stephen’s spire. On the 21st August the daring
Kolschitzki was on the point of repeating his adventurous undertaking,
when a deserter, who had been recaptured, and was standing under the
gallows with the halter adjusted, confessed that he had furnished to
the Turks an accurate description of Kolschitzki’s person. He was
himself deterred by this warning, but his gallant companion, George
Michailowich, found means twice to repeat the exploit, with the same
safety and success as in the first instance. On his second return he
displayed a remarkable presence of mind and vigour of arm. Having all
but reached the palisades, he was joined by a Turkish horseman, who
entered into familiar conversation with him. As it was, however,
impossible for him to follow further his path towards the city, in such
company, by a sudden blow he struck his unwelcome companion’s head
from his shoulders, and springing on the riderless horse, made his
way to the gate. He did not, however, after this success, tempt his
fortune again. He brought on this occasion an autograph letter from
the Emperor, full of compliments and promises, which was publicly read
in the Rathhaus.[11] In contrast to so many examples of patriotism and
self-exposure, there were not wanting instances of treason. A youth of
sixteen, who had twice ventured into the Turkish camp and brought back
intelligence which proved to be unfounded, was arrested and put to the
question. He had been apprentice to a distiller, or vender of strong
liquors (in the vulgar tongue of Vienna, called a water-burner). In his
confession, extorted by torture, he stated that the severity of his
master had driven him from his employment, and, having no other refuge,
he had found means to escape to the camp. Promises of reward had
induced him to undertake to procure for the Turks accurate information
of the weak points of the defences, the strength of the garrison, the
state of its supplies, &c. He at the same time accused a man of the
cavalry stables as having instigated him to these courses. Being,
however, confronted with this man, he totally failed in maintaining
the charge. He was executed with the sword. The audacity of a younger
traitor, a boy ten years of age, was still more extraordinary. He
was arrested on the 10th August, while entering the city at a slow
pace. When questioned as to the cause of his having ventured into the
Turkish camp, he alleged that his parents, having been inhabitants
of the suburb, had been detained by the Turks; that his father was
compelled to work in the trenches, and his mother to sew sand-bags for
the sappers. While they were conducting him for his subsistence and
safe custody to the Burger Hospital, the unfortunate urchin was met
by his mother, who flew at him with reproaches for his long absence,
and from her it was soon ascertained that she had never been in the
Turkish camp, and that the boy’s father was dead. After this unlucky
meeting the boy, taken before the authorities, confessed that he had
carried to the enemy intelligence that several guns on the defences had
been rendered unserviceable; that the wheaten loaves were no longer
so white nor so heavy as they had been, that the commissariat bread
was become black and scarcely eatable; that many soldiers had died of
such victual, and that the garrison had lost all courage for fighting.
After endeavouring, with cunning beyond his years, but in vain, to fix
on others the guilt of having instigated his treason, this precocious
criminal, for whom whipping would have answered every legitimate
purpose of punishment, was beheaded. Two soldiers, taken in the act
of deserting, suffered with him. The practice of straying beyond the
lines for the real, or alleged, purpose of seeking for plunder, in the
ruins of the suburb, had become frequent, and it was thought necessary
to check proceedings so favourable to desertion and treason by this
example, and by severe edicts.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] Kolschitzki’s services would appear to have made a deep impression
on the public mind. Several narratives of his adventures were published
at the time; and his portrait, in his Turkish costume, figures in the
frontispiece of most of them.—E.