at a time. Twenty-four hours had paffed in this J.C. 1697. Heg.1108. manper, and still there was more than half the & 1109. army remaining on the other fide of the Teiffe, when they heard the drums of the Germans, and prefently all the plain was covered with their troops. The vizier immediately ftopped the paffage of the foldiers, and covered the bridge with baggage. The grand feignior, transported with rage, fent repeated orders to pafs over the janissaries, spahis, and all the best troops, and to abandon the baggage to the enemy. The grand vizier stopped these meffengers, faying, that the man, who was refolved to die, could not fear the fultan, and that he had no other thought than to fell his life dearly. He had fent for all the bashaws and viziers, who were already on the other fide of the river, immediately on his perceiving at a great distance the duft occafioned by the marching of the enemy, under pretence of confulting with them. He carefully concealed Muftapha's orders, talking of nothing but fighting and gaining the victory by prodigies of valour, or meriting the crown of martyrdom. He lamented the fault which the fultan had just committed in dividing his forces, and repeated several times that they were fufficient of brave fellows to gain the victory, if they did their duty. Every one repaired to his poft in filence; a rampart of waggons and fafcines defended the battalions of janiffaries: what remained of these troops was of great confequence to the grand vizier. J.C. 1697 vizier. Luckily for his defigns, several waggons Heg.1108, & 1109. and beafts of burden had, through the confufion and diforder, fallen over the bridge, which, forming a fort of bank, increased the violence of the current, and caufed the bridge to be foon broken down, and all communication between the two divifions of the Ottoman army cut off. Battle of Zenta. Immediately the charge of the Austrians began the waggons being presently broken to pieces laid open the Turks, badly ranged, who neither attended to the voice of their commanders, nor fired together, and only presented their bodies to the blows of the Germans. Those who were able to flee threw themselves into the Teiffe, where most of them met death; for the multitude which filled the bed of the river at one time, prevented thofe who could fwim from making use of their art to gain the other fide: Elmas bafhaw, fure of the fate which attended him, if he efcaped the carnage, threw himself into the middle of the Auftrian battalions, where he fell pierced with wounds; a foldier carried the feal of the empire to prince Eugene, which he found tied about the prime minifter's neck. All the bashaws, who had been recalled from the other fide of the Teiffe, fell likewife. The lofs of this day was estimated at twenty thousand men killed on the field of battle, and ten thousand drowned; this was much more than the half of what engaged. It is likely the slaughter would have been much greater, if a very dark night had not & 1109. not fucceeded this bloody day. The booty was .C. 1697. Heg.1108, immenfe; the Auftrians found the tent of the grand feignior ftill ftanding, as likewife thofe of most of the bashaws. They were full of that Afiatic luxury which the Turks never fail of displaying, and which always impedes their march by the weight that it adds to the baggage. Among this booty they found a great number of waggons loaded entirely with chains and manacles, intended for the prifoners which the Turks had expected to make in the course of this campaign. This fight tranfported the Auftrians with indignation. They immediately loaded three thousand prifoners, that they had taken, with thefe ignominious irons; but prince Eugene, defirous of adding humanity to fo many other incitements to glory, would not permit thefe unfortunate men to continue long in that fituation. One single bashaw, called Mamut Ben Ögli, had the good fortune to make his horfe cross the Teiffe, and to efcape the fate of his comrades; but he did not find Mustapha in the other army. flees in difguife. This prince, having changed all at once from The emthe most violent rage to terror and defpair, re-peror fire. folved to flee in difguife. In vain did his attendants reprefent to him that he had as many men with him as there had been on the other fide of the Tieffe; that his troops, joined to the broken remains of the beaten army, would form a corps more confiderable than that of the Auftrians; that the latter, tired with fo many forced marches, H VOL. IV. and J.C. 1697 and with the fatigues of their victory, were not Heg.1108, & 1109. in a fituation to purfue him; and that he had more time than was neceffary to fecure his troops and put a stop to the general confufion. Muftapha would hear nothing; and as one of the officers of his chamber, who was more anxious than the reft for the glory of his master, perfifted in his intreaties notwithstanding his being repeatedly told to hold his tongue, this furious, timid prince shot him dead with a pistol, after which he took off the egrets, which are the marks of royalty, and every thing by which he could be known, and, mounting the best horfe in his ftud, rode off in the dark, followed by two fervants only. Muftapha found himself at break of day in the very place where the year before eight thousand Germans had withstood forty-five thousand Turks. As foon as he could difcover the roads he took that of Temefwar. The fultan himfelf having entered this town, had much difficulty to the fangiac make himself known to the fangiac, who had war, and feldom feen him, but who believed him at laft on the repeated affurances which he received. defeated The grand feignior ordered the fangiac carefully lies at that to conceal his arrival. Three days after, they He makes known to of Temel. keeps in cognito 'till the army ral. place. faw the Turkish army arrive under the ramparts of Temeswar, full of confufion, and again confiderably diminished by the mifery which the foldiers had experienced fince the loss of the battle. The major part of them had been three days and a half without meat; for all the pro vifions Heg.1108, vifions were in the poffeffion of the enemy, and J.C. 1697. the army had hardly found any refources in the &1109. country which they had come through. Mamut Ben Ogli, who commanded these troops, more refembling a crowd of forlorn wretches than an army, at length found means to get provifions for them in the neighbourhood of Temefwar. As they received news that the Auftrians had turned their arms towards Bosnia, the terror of the Turks fubfided by degrees. felf again head of and returns nople. After fome days, the fultan went out of Te- The grand feignior mefwar with the egrets and the vest of ceremony, puts himmounted on a fuperb horfe, and furrounded by at the the principal officers of the feraglio; for there his was but one bafhaw left, and he commanded the to Adria army. When Muftapha reappeared, the foldiers, who began to forget what they had fuffered, were greatly rejoiced; for they thought they had left the fultan dead on the field of battle.. Notwithflanding the difafters which the prince had just experienced by his own fault, he was generally esteemed. His return would have re-, fembled a triumph, if the remembrance of the recent loffes had not ftamped a fort of melancholy on the earnestness which the foldiers fhewed to run out to meet him. The grand feignior brought back his army towards Belgrade. He made Huffain bafhaw, the governor of that place, grand vizier, and then took the road to Adrianople, after having diftributed his troops in the frontier towns. He there learned that prince Eugene VOL. IV. Ha |