Here is a specimen of the magnificence with which this historical butcher
treated his fellow-creatures:--
Among the many distinctions of Soliman's reign must be noticed the
increased diplomatic intercourse with European nations. Three years after
the capture of Rhodes, appeared the first French ambassador at the Ottoman
Porte; he received a robe of honour, a present of two hundred ducats, and,
what was more to his purpose, a promise of a campaign in Hungary, which
should engage on that side the arms of Charles and his brother, Ferdinand.
Soliman kept his promise. At the head of 100,000 men and 300 pieces of
artillery, he commenced this memorable campaign. On the fatal field of
Mohacs the fate of Hungary was decided in an unequal fight. King Lewis, as
he fled from the Turkish sabres, was drowned in a morass. The next day the
sultan received in state the compliments of his officers. The heads of
2,000 of the slain, including those of seven bishops and many of the
nobility, were piled up as a trophy before his tent. Seven days after the
battle, a tumultuous cry arose in the camp to massacre the prisoners and
peasants--and in consequence 4,000 men were put to the sword. The keys of
Buda were sent to the conqueror, who celebrated the Feast of Bairam in the
castle of the Hungarian kings. Fourteen days afterwards he began to
retire--bloodshed and devastation marking the course of his army. To
Moroth, belonging to the Bishop of Gran, many thousands of the people had
retired with their property, relying on the strength of the castle; the
Turkish artillery, however, soon levelled it, and the wretched fugitives
were indiscriminately butchered. No less than 25,000 fell here; and the
whole number of the Hungarians destroyed in the barbarous warfare of this
single campaign amounted to at least 200,000 souls.--_Foreign Quarterly
Review._
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