Читать книгу The Sieges of Vienna by the Turks - Karl August Schimmer - Страница 3

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The narrative specified in the Title from which the following pages are in general borrowed, and in great part translated, is the work of a gentleman resident in Vienna, and enjoying as such access to the numerous and valuable sources of information extant in the archives of that city. The other sources to which I have adverted in the title-page, and which I have used for purposes of addition and verification, are principally the well-known Turkish ‘History of Von Hammer;’ ‘The Life of Sobieski, by the French Abbé Coyer;’ the ‘History of Poland, by Monsieur de Salvandy;’ and the invaluable volume of ‘John Sobieski’s Letters, translated from the Polish by the Count Plater.’ I may add that, as many of the rarer printed tracts of the time, cited by Mr. Schimmer, are to be found in the British Museum, I have not failed to avail myself of the assistance of my friend Mr. Panizzi for their examination. Towards the close of my labour, and in fact through the narrative of the second siege, I have been less faithful as a translator than in the earlier portion. The introduction of such a character as Sobieski on the scene will be my apology to Mr. Schimmer for this divergence, and for the insertion of such matter as I have ventured to embroider on the ground of his narrative. Of the letters of John Sobieski I have spoken my opinion in the text. The style of the Abbé Coyer seems to me such as might entitle his biography of Sobieski to take rank with Voltaire’s Charles XII. and other standard works as a class book for students of the French language. I am indebted to Monsieur de Salvandy for some details of the great battle for the relief of Vienna which have escaped the notice of Ulric and the other German narrators.