To preserve the narrative of the siege unbroken down to the critical
period at which it has now arrived, it has been necessary to withhold
our attention from the proceedings of the Duke of Lorraine and the army
of the Empire. We left them in the early part of July unable to cope
with the tenfold numbers of the Turkish host, and compelled to await at
safe distance, and scarcely in a threatening attitude, the accession
of German levies and of the promised succour of the Poles. The former
mustered with somewhat of the slowness and circumspection which have
in all ages characterized the motions of the Germanic body. Distance
retarded the junction of the Poles, whose contingents had in many
instances to march from the Ukraine. The first care then of Lorraine,
was to bring together the troops of the Empire, and Crems, with its
bridge over the Danube, was the main position chosen for that purpose.
In the first instance, indeed, the Duke had proposed to make a stand in
the Leopoldstadt, and by means of têtes-du-pont at the several bridges
of the arms of the river, to keep up a direct communication with the
city, virtually, in fact, to make his force a part of the garrison.
The danger of such an expedient, however, became instantly palpable.
The summer was a dry one, and the small arm of the river nearest the
city was fordable in several places. To place 10,000 cavalry in a
position so acceptable to the attack of the whole Turkish army, and
which also from its relative level was commanded from the whole extent
of the opposite banks, would have been certain destruction. The army of
Tekeli, also, coming over the March field, threatened the rear of the
Imperialists, and gave them much anxiety. The Duke therefore selected
a series of positions the best calculated to prevent the enemy from
occupying the left bank of the Danube, and shifted his head-quarters
as circumstances indicated, between Jedlesee and Stockerau, till he
finally fixed them at Crems. His next care was to arm and garrison
as extensively as possible the fortified and tenable places of Lower
Austria. He confided Crems to the care of the generals Dunnewald and
Leslie, Tuln to the Baron d’Orlique; and even Closterneuburg, scarcely
five English miles from Vienna, which had beaten off an attack of
the Turks, under its commandant, Marcel Ortner, was supplied with a
garrison. Count Herberstein covered with a corps the avenues to Styria,
already threatened by the enemy. Neustadt was sufficiently garrisoned;
and in several instances from these strongholds successful sallies
were directed against the marauding bands of the enemy. Measures, late
indeed, but energetic, were also adopted for the internal defence of
the Austrian provinces. Otho, Count of Traun, in Lower, and Wolf,
Count of Weissenthurn, in Upper Austria, directed these with much
judgment and activity. The forest passes were guarded with abattis;
the fords, especially those of Ybbs and Ens, with palisaded works; and
the peasantry summoned and organised for the defence of the castles
and convents. Many more instances of courage and conduct occurred in
the defence of places than it would be possible here to particularize.
The inhabitants of Closterneuburg, commanded by the Sacristan of their
convent, Marcellin Ortner, on three occasions beat off the assault
of many thousand Turks. Gregory Müller, Abbot of Mölk, exchanged the
crosier for the sword, and at the head of the armed burghers, by the
skilful use of this irregular force, kept the Turks at a distance,
though they had encamped on the Steinfeld between St. Polten and
Wilhelmsburg, and had burnt the suburbs of St. Polten. 2000, however,
of the vassals of that rich abbey were dragged into captivity, 120
houses on its estates were burnt, and 5000 head of cattle carried off.
After the retreat of the Turks from before Vienna, the people of St.
Polten found a number of deserted children, of whom they kindly took
and kept charge, without ever discovering their parents. The defence
of the abbey of Lilienfeld forms a brilliant episode in the history of
the time. Many of the inhabitants of the adjacent districts, and among
them a large portion of the gentry, had taken refuge from the Tartar
cavalry in this place. On the nearer approach, however, of the dreaded
marauders, the greater part of these fugitives continued their retreat,
and sought a more assured refuge in Salzburg or the Tyrol. Not so the
brave abbot, Matthew Kolbries. He rallied round him his clergy and
vassals, fortified his convent, and prepared to defend it to the last.
He did a great deal more than this; for though deserted by all but a
small body of devoted adherents, after repelling several assaults,
instead of leaving his enemy to rally at leisure, he fell upon him
in a series of well-planned sallies and ambuscades, which by their
success elevated the courage of his adherents to the highest pitch of
daring. Following up these first successes, he fell by surprise on
a column of the Tartars near Mariazell, destroyed them almost to a
man, and brought back in triumph 200 rescued Christians, a mule load
of money, and forty heads of Tartars, whose bodies he had left for
example exposed on the roads. Three Turkish prisoners of distinction
were ransomed at from 2000 to 3000 ducats each. The casual accession
of a Bavarian officer and five troopers to his small force enabled him
to introduce into it something of military science and discipline.
Military genius was evidently not wanting to the man who, at the age of
sixty-three, could perform such exploits. Some Polish troops, who also
joined him, gave him more trouble by their indiscipline than assistance
by their military experience. With this motley band, however, he
struck some more severe blows on the parties of the enemy; and by
holding Lilienfeld till the Vizier was compelled to withdraw his light
troops from the country, and thus guarding the main pass into Styria,
he saved that province from all the horrors of Tartar invasion. The
value of that exemption may be gathered from the calculations made by
contemporary writers of authority, of the number of those who were
carried off into slavery from Austria, which amounts to 6000 men,
11,000 women, 19,000 girls, and 56,000 children. Among the girls were
200 of noble extraction. The example of the Abbot of Lilienfeld, though
eminently conspicuous, is not the only one which shows how much might
have been done to check the brave and rapacious, but undisciplined,
horsemen of the East, if the Austrian gentry had not, in a moment of
general consternation and depression, emigrated so largely to the
Tyrol and other places of safety. Many tales are related of troops of
marauders put to flight by the firm countenance of individual men, and
even women. No one of these stories can, perhaps, be so strictly relied
upon as to justify its insertion in the page of serious history; and
it is certain that in other instances the Tartar cavalry, by their
skill in horsemanship and individual daring, were found formidable
antagonists. Troops, however, whose occupation is plunder, and engaged
in a difficult country, are never safe from such a man as the Abbot
of Lilienfeld, and a few more such would at least have caused them to
concentrate their numbers, and to include a far less extent of country
within their ranges. On the 13th August, the Bavarian forces, 13,000 in
number, were ferried over the Danube near Mölk. They were received with
salvos of artillery and military music from the fortified abbey. The
Margrave of Bareuth crossed the river on the following day with 6000
men. The presence of this respectable force on the right bank of the
Danube freed the upper provinces from that of the invaders.