Page images
PDF
EPUB

J.C.1716.
Heg.1128.

18 again against the enemy; but experience had taught him to avoid coming to a pitched battle with prince Eugene. The fiege, which was very bloody on both fides, lafted from the 5th of Auguft to the 13th of October, the feraskier, who was encamped near the Imperialists, not daring to give battle. The refiftance of the befieged was fuch, that, notwithstanding the efforts and the conquefts which the Imperialists daily made of fome work, prince Eugene, difgufted by the continual rains, was thinking of raifing the fiege, when he faw the white flag hung out. The garrifon had yet twelve thousand men left; the Auftrian general granted them the honors of war without hefitation. He had loft more than eight thousand foldiers before the ramparts of Temeswar; but this important conquest did not appear to him to be bought too dear. Walachia fubmitted immediately, almost without ftriking a blow, to the authority of Charles VI. The prince, called Mauro Cordato, whom we have seen druggerman of the Porte, and employed at the last peace, was made prifoner and treated with great rigour by the Imperialists, who fufpected him of having endeavoured to raise up the malecontents of Hungary.

The Turks were not more fortunate against the republic of Venice. The captain bafhaw had made à descent upon the ifle of Corfu, and befieged the capital. The news of the victory of prince Eugene so discouraged him, that he raised

the

Thefe J.C.1716.
Heg.1128.

the fiege and re-embarked precipitately. misfortunes, which were foon known at Adrianople, grieved the fultan to the very heart and covered him with fhame. He vented his rage on the khan of the Tartars, whom he depofed, for having, as he faid, given bad advice to the grand vizier.

thefe mif.

the continuation of

on.

The ferafkier, who had been almost an idle J.C. 1717. Heg.1129. fpectator of the fiege of Temefwar, and who faw Notwiththat prince Eugene quartered his troops near his standing new conqueft, thought it beft to bring back the fortunes, broken remains of his army into the inner part the war is of the empire. Trembling left he should be refolved made the victim of the fultan's rage, he never durft return to Adrianople, notwithstanding the repeated orders which he received, always pretending that his prefence was abfolutely neceffary near the troops: he fixed his head quarters at Guifanda. The confternation was fo great at Adrianople, that Ibrahim bafhaw, the caimacan, forbade, under pain of death, to write to Conftantinople any news of the battle, or rather rout, of - Peterwaradin. The grand feignior, under the first impreffions of terror, proposed to return to Conftantinople; but the plague, which then ravaged that great city, and which was more rife and destructive than it had been known for a long time, diverted him from this defign. His minifters made him comprehend, that having a numerous army and places well defended between the Imperialists and Adrianople, the conqueft of fo much country could not be the work of one Hh winter.

VOL. IV.

J.C. 1717. winter. Several members of the divan and ulema Heg.1129. would fain take advantage of this panic to raise a defire for peace. But, not only after fuch an unfortunate campaign the moment was not favorable to enter on a treaty, twelve thousand five hundred pounds fterling, which the marquis of Bonac, the French ambaffador, diftributed in the divan by order of his court, made thofe change their fentiments who had at first maintained that an unjust war muft neceffarily be unfortunate, They hoped, or feigned to hope, that France, which interested itself fo ftrongly in the war, would make a diverfion to employ the Germans; but the regent of the kingdom was defirous of raising up enemies against the emperor, only to prevent him from having any intention to attack France. They fent for count Ragotski to the Porte, who was then retired into France, and count Berchiny, an Hungarian lord, who had been driven from his country as a rebel, and whom the court of Vienna had had the credit to oblige to leave Poland, which he had chofen for an afylum; but neither fufficient money nor troops were given them to enable them to make a diverfion of any confequence.

There was no grand vizier yet, and no one prefumed to folicit that dignity, more dangerous even than honorable. Ibrahim bafhaw, the caimacan, who had fucceeded the laft grand vizier in his afcendency over the fultan, would rather cultivate at court the favor and confidence of his

mafter,

[ocr errors]

Heg.1129.

is made

zier.

mafter, than go into Hungary to be beaten by J.C. 1717. prince Eugene, and rifk his life and favor. He got the bafhaw of Belgrade, Aftchi Ali, to be Aftchi Ali appointed grand vizier. This officer had made grand vithe greatest preparations, both around his town and in the avenues, to defend that bulwark of the Ottoman dominions, which he faw on the point of being attacked, and he had raised an intrenchment of fix miles of ground, defended by a ditch eighteen feet deep. From this ditch to the Danube the diftance was fufficient to contain a hundred thousand men ranged in battle; these confiderable works, which fhewed that the contriver of them was not void of understanding or military skill, procured Aftchi Ali bafhaw the dignity of grand vizier, which he had no way defired, but that he durft not refuse.

Meanwhile prince Eugene, who flattered himself with a campaign as favorable as the preceding one, haftened to reaffemble his army, which was increafed by the auxiliary troops of the duke of Bavaria and of feveral fovereigns of the empire. A great number of young princes or lords, whom the general peace between the Christian powers left at leifure, were come to learn the art of war under fo great a master. Among these were the count of Charollois, the prince of Dombs, the princes of Bevern, Culmbach, Wurtemburg, Lichtenstein, and Anhalt, and feveral Frer.ch lords, fuch as the prince of Pons, the prince of Marfillac, and the marquis Hh 2

VOL. IV.

of

J.C.1717 of Alincourt. The Auftrian army amounted to Heg.1129. a hundred and forty thousand well difciplined troops, in high spirits.

Prince Eu

gene be

grade, and

the new

grand vi.

zier earneftly en

to fuccour

it.

The 15th of May prince Eugene, after having feges Bel- difpofed detachments to cover Tranfylvania and the country of Temefwar, laid fiege to Belgrade. This place is fituated on a little hill, at the foot deavours of which the Save joins the Danube, and on the fummit was a citadel that commanded the town. Belgrade is very populous: the streets are narrow, people walk there almost always fheltered from the intemperature of the air by large trees planted on the right and left. A very confiderable commerce is carried on there; and the Save, the Danube, the Drave, the Moravia, and the Teiffe, furnish the warehouses with all forts of European, Afiatic, and Indian merchandife. The town was then furrounded with a fingle rampart: prince Eugene proposed this attack, because, as Belgrade was not fortified equal to its riches, he hoped to make himself mafter of it before the Turks fhould be able to fuccour it. Six veffels of war and fix demi-galleys were launched on the Danube to enable the Austrians to build their bridges, destroy thofe of the enemy, and provifion the army. In effect, a bridge being made in hafte with eighty-four boats at about eight miles below Belgrade, a hundred thousand men croffed the river, the rest of the army being employed to cover Tranfylvania and the province of Temefwar.

[ocr errors]

Meanwhile

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »