Читать книгу The Sieges of Vienna by the Turks - Karl August Schimmer - Страница 8

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From September 16 to September 26, 1529.

In Vienna it was resolved by a council of war, as it was not possible to face the overwhelming numbers of the enemy in the open field, to neutralize, at least as far as possible, the advantages of any positions in the neighbourhood by the sacrifice of the suburbs, and of all buildings within range of fire from the walls. A more timely adoption of this indispensable measure would have obviated much of the violence and misery which attended its hurried execution. The necessity was one which from the end of August, and after the fall of Pesth, had been obviously inevitable. By the 16th of November the whole neighbourhood was swarming with the bands of Michael Oglou, who spared neither age nor sex; children, old people, and pregnant women were murdered with every circumstance of cruelty, and those who were spared from the sabre were swept into slavery. A contemporary writer, Peter Stern von Labach, describes these horrors in the following terms: “After the taking of Brück on the Leitha and the castle of Trautmannsdorf, the Sackman and those who went before him, people who have no regular pay, but live by plunder and spoil, to the number of 40,000, spread themselves far and wide over the country, as far as the Ens and into Styria, burning and slaying. Many thousands of people were murdered, or maltreated and dragged into slavery. Children were cut out of their mothers’ wombs and stuck on pikes; young women abused to death, and their corpses left on the highway. God rest their souls, and grant vengeance on the bloodhounds who committed this evil.” The peasantry fled either to the depths of the forests, or to the city, and increased by their narratives the consternation there prevailing. By the 20th September every road which led from east and south towards the city was crowded with fugitives endeavouring to save themselves and their moveables. As however the Eastern horsemen were familiar with all difficulties of ground, and overcame all impediments of morass, or forest, or mountain, few of the fugitives escaped. A few fortified towns and castles only held out. A chronicle of the time asserts that scarcely a third part of the inhabitants of Upper Austria survived the invasion. It was only on the 22nd September, when the enemy was at the gates of Vienna, that the resolution we have mentioned was finally adopted, to sacrifice to the general security the entire suburbs and the many sumptuous buildings which they included. The most valuable of the moveable property was first conveyed into the city, and the work of destruction commenced. It was soon, however, found that it had commenced too late for its orderly and deliberate execution. It was left to the proprietors to save hastily what they could; the rest was given up for the soldiery to glean, and the torch was applied to all the buildings. Disorders and excesses such as might be expected were the result, and the inhabitants were little better treated by the foreign soldiery than they would have been by the Turk. That many wine-casks should have been broken in the cellars, the owners of which at this period cultivated the vine to a great extent, and much store of provisions and other valuables burnt, and that even the churches should have been desecrated and plundered, can scarcely be matter of censure, except so far as it may be conjectured that with better discipline on the part of the soldiery, the articles destroyed might in part have been removed; but the wretched people who were conveying the sole remnants of their property to the city were remorselessly plundered, misused, and even murdered on any attempt at resistance. The example of this unrestrained licence spread its effects even to within the walls. Several houses in the city were broken open and plundered, and even the citadel itself was entered by a band of marauders. A proclamation was speedily issued against these disorders, and put in force by the erection and employment of a gallows at the so-called Lugeck. Eight hundred houses had within four days been burnt. Among the most important of these were—the great City Hospital, dedicated to the Holy Ghost, which stood between the city and the Wien river, the situation of which, till about twenty years ago, was marked by an ancient pillar, bearing an inscription, with the date 1332 (from this building, which also had a fine church, the sick and helpless inmates were transferred first to the convent at the Himmel’s Pforte, and next to the desecrated church of the nunnery of St. Clara)—the Franciscan Convent at St. Theobald’s, the present corn-market—the churches of St. Anthony and St. Coloman, between the city and the Wien river—the great nunnery of St. Nicholas, before the Stuben gate, and that of St. Magdalen, near the Scottish gate—the Closterneuburgerhof, also near the Scottish gate. Finally, in order to deprive the Turks of the advantage of a stronghold, on an eminence near the city, it was unfortunately necessary to destroy the castle on the Kahlenberg (Leopoldsberg), formerly the residence of the Margrave Leopold, who died in the odour of sanctity. The last measure adopted was that of walling up and fortifying all the gates, except the Salz gate, which was left open as a sally-port.

On the 23rd September, while the suburbs were in full conflagration, a strong body of Turks pressed forward as far as St. Mark’s, cut to pieces a number of invalids who had scandalously been left there to their fate, and ventured still further on the high road. This occasioned the first sally from the city of five hundred cuirassiers under Count Hardegg. These having pressed too far forward, the Turks took advantage of the ruins of some of the burnt houses to attack them in flank while the front was also engaged with superior numbers. The cuirassiers fell back in disorder without waiting for a support which was detached to their assistance. They must have had good horses and sharp spurs, for only three were killed, but six, with a cornet, Cornet Christopher von Zedlitz, were taken. The Turks immediately placed the heads of the three killed on the points of lances, and to make the number of the dead equal to that of the prisoners, they beheaded four of the invalids of St. Mark’s, and compelled the prisoners to bear the seven heads to the presence of the Sultan, then on his march from Brück on the Leitha, in order to gladden him as soon as possible with the sight of these grisly trophies of his first success over the defenders of Vienna. He interrogated the prisoners as to the strength of the garrison and the present position of Ferdinand, on both which points they gave him true replies. Upon this Soliman released four of the prisoners, presented each with three ducats, and sent them back to Vienna with the following message:—“If the city would surrender on terms, the conditions should be arranged with its commanders without the walls, none of his people should be allowed to enter the city, and the property and persons of the inhabitants should be secured. It was Soliman’s sole desire to follow the King till he should find him, and then to retire to his own dominions. Should the city, however, venture to resist, he would not retreat till he had reduced it, and then he would spare neither old nor young, not the child in the mother’s womb, and would so utterly destroy the city that men should not know where it stood. He would not rest his head till Vienna and the whole of Christendom were under his subjection, and it was his settled purpose within three days, namely on the feast of St. Michael, to break his fast in Vienna.” The other three prisoners with the cornet he retained about his person. To the latter he showed great favour, caused him to be sumptuously attired in silk and gold, and kept him constantly in his suite. At the close of this narrative will be found the curious and lively account of the prisoner, preserved in the collection of the Baron von Enenkel in the archives of Vienna.

At length, September 29th, the Grand Vizier with the main army appeared before the city. On the 25th, nevertheless, two companies of imperial troops, raised from Nuremberg, effected their entrance through the Salz gate with drums beating and colours flying. They related that between Tuln and Traismauer they had fallen in with a body of 5000 fugitives on foot and 3000 in boats, mostly women, children, and regular clergy, who on the following day had been overtaken and destroyed by the bands of Michael Oglou. On the 26th September, Soliman sent into the city a Bohemian, one of the garrison which had surrendered in Altenburg, with the contemptuous offer that he would send the other Bohemians there taken to strengthen the garrison of Vienna. The man was sent back accompanied by two Turkish prisoners, each of whom was presented with two ducats, with the reply that they had more garrison than enough in Vienna, and that Soliman might keep his Bohemian prisoners. Soon after the arrival of the main army a discharge of arrows, which literally darkened the air, was followed by a first summons to surrender, succeeded by a second and a third. These remaining unanswered, Soliman sent in four prisoners richly dressed, and liberally supplied with presents, with a repetition both of his offer of a favourable capitulation, and of his threats in case of resistance. Officers should be put to death with torture, the site of the city sown with salt and ashes, &c. The stern commanders, however, merely despatched in return a like number of Turkish prisoners, as richly provided with presents and apparel, but without an answer either to his threats or promises.