so for that time he retired a little from the Walls But night being come certain busie heads among the common people and they not a few secretly meeting together gave him knowledge that about midnight when as all the Citizens were asleep and the Watchmen in security he should come unto the Walls where they would be ready with Ropes to draw him up unto the top of the Bulwarks which done the matter as they said was as good as dispatched for that they were perswaded that the Citizens so soon as they should once see him in the midst of the City amongst them would forthwith all revolt unto him So he according to this appointment about midnight approaching the Walls found there no such matter as he had well hoped for the receiving of him into the City But contrariwise the Watchmen carefully watching all alongst the Wall and calling one unto another Wherefore finding there no hope he with Catacuzenus and Synadenus his chief Counsellors leaving the South side of the City in a little Boat rowed softly all along the Wall that is toward the Sea if happily they might there find their Friends and so be received in but there the Watchmen also descrying them from the Walls and calling unto them but receiving no answer began to cast stones at them and to make a noise so that deceived of their purpose and out of hope they were glad to get them further off and to depart as they came But the evil success of this Exploit was shortly after with his better Fortune recompenced for by and by after secret Letters were sent unto him from Thessalonica requesting him with all speed to come thither assuring him in the name of the Bishop with divers of the Nobility and the good liking of the people in general at his coming to open the Gates of the City unto him Whereupon he leaving a great part of his Army with Synadenus to keep short the Constantinopolitans he himself with the rest of his Power set forward towards Thessalonica where he in the habit of a plain Country man entred the City unsuspected but being got within the Gate and there casting off that simple attire wherewith he had covered his Rich and Royal Garments and presently known to be the young Emperor the people came flocking about him and with many joyful Acclamations received him as their Lord and Soveraign yet some few more favouring the old Emperor fled into the Castle and there stood upon their Guard which after they had for a space notably defended was at length taken from them Thessalonica thus yielded Demetrius Andronicus and Asan Michael the old Emperors chief Captains then lying with their Army not far off and not well trusting one another fled most of whose Souldiers presently went over unto the young Emperor who departing from Thessalonica came to Serre which by composition was delivered unto him also but not the Castle for that was by Basilicus Nicephorus the Captain thereof still holden for the old Emperor This Basilicus was a man honourably descended but of no great Capacity or Wit as the finer sort supposed and therefore not of them much regarded or thought fit for the taking in hand of any great matter whom yet the old Emperor for his plain sincerity more than for any thing else had made Captain of that Castle and Governor of the Country thereabouts which he yet still held and in these most troublesome times shewed himself wiser than all that had so thought of him of whom some died in despair some fled some were taken Prisoners and so suffered a thousand evils the rest with the loss of their Honour traiterously revolting from the old Emperor to the young whereas he alone looking but even forward upon his Allegiance with his trust in God so long as the old Emperor lived opposed himself against these troubles and stood fast for him and was not to be moved with any fair Promises or cruel Threats of the young aspiring Emperor whereof he lacked none But having strongly fortified the Castle committed to his Charge there kept himself until that hearing of the death of the old Emperor he then reconciling himself to the young as unto his right Soveraign delivered up unto him the Castle who in reward of his Fidelity gave it him again to hold for him in as ample manner as he had before held it for his Grandfather For wise men honour Vertue even in their Enemies as did King Philip in Demosthenes when as he said If any Athenian living in Athens doth say that he preferreth me before his Country him verily would I buy with much money but not think him worthy my friendship but if any for his Countries-sake shall hate me him will I impugne as a Castle a strong Wall or a Bulwark and yet admire his vertue and reckon the City happy in having such a man. And so in few words to conclude a long discourse the young Emperor in short time having roamed through all Macedonia and without resistance taken all the strong Towns and Cities therein he there took also Demetrius the Despots Wife and Children with all his Treasure as also the Wives of Andronicus and Asanes and of all the Senators that followed them after whom the great Commanders their Husbands were also for the most part taken and cast into prison some at Thessalonica some at Didâ—motichum some of the rest afterward most miserably perishing in exile Wherewith the old Emperor discouraged was about to have sent his Embassadors unto his Nephew for Peace whilst he was yet thus busied in Macedonia and had indeed so done had not another hope arising in the mean time quite altered that his better purpose It fortuned at the same time whilst the old Emperor was thus thinking of Peace that Michael the Bulgarian Prince in hope of great profit thereof to arise secretly offered his Aid unto him against the young Emperor his Nephew of which his Offer the old Emperor gladly accepted and Embassadors were sent to and fro about the full conclusion of the matter no man being acquainted therewith more than two or three of the Emperor his most secret friends and trusty Counsellors Yet in the mean time disdaining to be so coupt up as he was by Synadenus one of his Nephews Captains even in the Imperial City sent out one Constantinus Assan with the greatest part of his strength against him who encountering him at the River Maurus was there by him in plain battel overthrown and taken Prisoner the rest of his discomfited Army flying headlong back again to Constantinople All things thus prosperously proceeding with the young Emperor and the Countries of Macedonia and Thracia now almost all at his Command he returned in hast with all his Power unto Constantinople to prevent the coming of the Bulgarians thither as fearing lest that they finding the City weakly manned should treacherously kill the old Emperor with such as were about him and so seize upon the City themselves
great Spirit and yet exceeding proud which was the cause that he was both the less beloved and feared of his Subjects in general but especially of the Janizaries and other his Souldiers and men of War who scorning his loose Government and griev'd to see even the greatest Affairs of his State not only imparted to Women but by them managed and over-ruled also as by his Mother the Sultaness his Wife and others not only rebelled against him but were oftentimes in their Rages about to have deposed him He was altogether given to sensuality and voluptuous pleasure the marks whereof he still carried about with him a foul swoln unwealdy and overgrown Body unfit for any Princely Office or Function and a Mind thereto answerable wholly given over unto Idleness Pleasure and Excess no small means for the shortning of his days which he ended with Obloquy unregarded of his Subjects and but of few or none of them lamented He had Issue four Sons and three Daughters married unto three of the great Bassaes. His first and eldest Son was called Mahomet after his own Name whom he caused to be strangled in his own sight upon suspicion of aspiring to the Empire and conspiring with the Rebels in Asia but afterward finding him guiltless caused his Body to be buried in his own Sepulchre and hanged the Bassa that had misinformed him His second Son died a natural Death being yet very young His third Son was Sultan Achmat who succeeded his Father and came to the Empire by the untimely Death of Mahomet his eldest Brother His fourth Son being then a Youth of about sixteen Years old was carefully kept within the Seraglio with such a strait Guard set over him as that his Name was not to be learned even by a good understanding Friend of mine of late lying above three Months together at Constantinople who most curiously enquired after the same having very good means to have learned it He was reported to have been long since murthered howbeit that he of late lived but looking every day to be by his Brothers cruel Commandment strangled which is accounted but a matter of course and a Death hereditary to all the younger male Children of the Othoman Emperours the Policy for the maintenance of their great Empire entire and whole so requiring His dead Body lieth buried at Constantinople in a fair Chappel of white Marble near unto the most famous and beautiful Church of S. Sophia for that only purpose by himself most sumptuously built about fifty foot square with four high small round Towers about the which are certain small round Galleries of Stone from which the Turkish Priests and Church-men at certain hours use to call the People every day to Church for they use no Bells themselves neither will they suffer the Christians to use any But the top of this Chappel is built round like unto the ancient Temples of the Heathen Gods in Rome In the midst of this Chappel being indeed nothing else but this great Sultan's Sepulchre standeth his Tomb which is nothing else but a great Urn or Coffin of fair white Marble wherein lieth his Body covered with a great covering of the same Stone over it made rising in the midst and stooping on each sidâ— not much unlike to the Coffins of the ancient Tombs of the Saxon Kings which are to be seen on the North side of the Quire of S. Paul's Church and in other Places of this Land but that this Coffin of the Great Sultan is much greater and more stately than are those of the Saxon Kings it being above five foot high at the end thereof and by little and little falling toward the feet covered with a rich Hearse of Cloth of Gold down to the ground his Turbant standing at his Head and two exceeding great Candles of white Wax about three or four Yards long standing in great brass or silver Candlesticks gilded the one at his Head the other at his Feet which never burn but there stand for shew only all the Floor of the Chappel being covered with Mats and fair Turky Carpets upon them And round about this his Tomb even in the same Chappel are the like Tombs for his Wives and Children but nothing so great and fair Into this Chappel or any other the Turks Churches or Chappels it is not lawful for either Turk or Christian to enter but first he must put off his Shoes leaving them at the Church or Chappel Gate or carrying them in his hand Near unto this Chappel and the great Temple of Sophia are divers other Chappels of the other great Turks as of Sultan Selim this Man 's Grand father with his seven and thirty Children about him of Sultan Amurath this Man's Father with his five and forty Children entombed about him Anâ— in other places not far from them are the Chappels and Sepulchres of the rest of the Great Sultans as of Sultan Mahomet the Great of Sultan Bajazet Sultan Selim the first Sultan Solyman all by these great Mahometan Emperours built whose Names they bear And being all of almost one form and fashion have every one of them a fair Hospital adjoyning unto them wherein a great multitude of poor People are daily still relieved Some others of the great Bassaes have their Chappels and Sepulchres with their great and stately Alms-houses also not much inferiour unto those of the great Sultans as namely Ibrahim Bassa of all the Bassaes that ever were amongst the Turks the most magnificent hath his stately Chappel Sepulchre and Alms-Houses near both in Place and Beauty unto that of Solyman's The Turks bury not at all within their Churches neither are any at all buried within the Walls of the City but the great Turkish Emperours themselves with their Wives and Children about them and some few other of their great Bassaes and those only in Chappels by themselves built for that purpose All the rest of the Turks are buried in the Fields some of the better sort in Tombs of Marble but the rest with Tomb-stones laid upon them or with two great Stones the one set up at the head and the other at the feet of every Grave the greatest part of them being of white Marble brought from the Isle of Marmora They will not bury any man where another hath been buried accounting it Impiety to dig up another man's Bones by reason whereof they cover all the best Ground about the City with such great white Stones which for the infinite number of them are thought sufficient to make another Wall about the City But not to stand longer upon the manner of the Turks Burials leaving this great Sultan to rest with his Ancestors let us now prosecute the course of our History Christian Princes of the same time with Mahomet the Third Emperours of Germany Rodolph the Second 1577. Kings Of England Queen Elizabeth 1558. 47. Of France Henry the Fourth 1589. Of Scotland James the Sixth 1567. Bishops of Rome Clement the
the Relief thereof he raised his Siege and retired as he did also next year after having in vain attempted the strong Castle of Mont-Royal on the further side of Iordan In like manner also the third year he came again into the Holy Land and spoiled the Country beyond Iordan but hearing of the Kings coming against him he forthwith returned again into Egypt All these light Expeditions this politique Prince made not so much for hope of Victory or to prove his Enemies strength as to train his Souldiers especially the effeminate Egyptians and to make them fitter to serve him in his greater designs year 1173. Shortly after died Noradin Sultan of Damasco and in his time a most notable Champion of the Turks after he had reigned nine and twenty years Upon whose death Almericus forthwith besieged the City of Paneale in hope to have again recovered the same but he was by the Widow of the late dead Sultan for a great sum of money and the delivery of certain noble Prisoners intreated to raise his Siege and depart So having sent away his Army and traveling with his ordinary Retinue to Tyberias where he had the Summer before been sick of the Flux feeling himself not well he returned on Horse-back by Nazareth and Neapolis to Ierusalem where his old Disease increasing upon him he was also taken with a Fever wherewith after he had been some few days grievously tormented he requested his Physitians with some gentle potion to loose his Belly which was now somewhat stayed which they refusing to do he commanded the potion to be given him upon his own peril hap thereon what hap should which being given him and his Belly again loosed he seemed therewith to have been at the first well eased but his wonted Fever with great vehemency returning before his weak and spent Body could be with convenient meats refreshed he suddenly died the tenth of Iuly in the year 1173. when he had reigned about ten years His dead Body was with the great lamentation of all his Subjects solemnly buried by his Brothers He was a most wise Prince and withall right valiant amongst many most fit for the Government and Defence of that troublesome Kingdom so hardly beset with the Infidels if it had pleased God to have given him longer life Four days after the death of Almericus was Baldwin his Son then a Youth about thirteen years old by the general consent of the Nobility chosen King and by Almericus the Patriarch in the Temple with great Solemnity Crowned in the year 1173. unto whom as not yet by reason of his tender age fit himself to manage the weighty Affairs of the Kingdom Raymond Count of Tripolis was by the whole consent of the Nobility appointed Tutor to supply what was wanting in the young King. Noradin Sultan of Damasco dead as is aforesaid left behind him Melechsala his Son yet but a Youth to succeed him in his Kingdom Whose Government the Nobility disdaining sent secretly for Saladin Sultan of Egypt unto whom at his coming they betrayed the City of Damasco the Regal Seat of the Turks in Syria Whereof Saladin possessed and entring into Coelosiria without Resistance took Heliopolis Emissa with the great City of Caesarea and in fine all the whole Kingdom of Damasco the City of Arethusa only excepted But thus to suffer Melechsala the young Prince to be wronged and the Kingdom of Damasco to be joyned to the Kingdom of Egypt was of the wiser sort thought not to stand with the safety of the Kingdom of Ierusalem lying in the middle betwixt them both Wherefore the Count of Tripolis Governor of that Kingdom made out certain Forces to have hindred his proceedings At which time also Cotobed Prince of Parthia and Melechsala Uncle sent certain Troops of Parthian Horse-men to have aided his distressed Nephew who were by Saladin overthrown and almost all slain near unto Aleppo where Melechsala lay As for the Count of Tripolis and the other Christian Princes with whom Saladin in the newness of his Kingdom had no desire to fall out he appeased them with fair Intreaty and Rewards unto the Count he sent freely the Hostages which yet lay for his Ransome at Emissa unto the other Princes he sent rich Presents and therewith so contented them all that they returned without any thing doing against him After which time three or four years passed in great quietness to the great strengthening of him in those new gotten Kingdoms At length upon the coming over of Philip Earl of Flanders the Christian Princes of Syria encouraged consulted of an Expedition to be made into Egypt whereof Saladin having Intelligence drew down into that Country the greatest part of his strength But Philip disliking of that Expedition and the rather for that he saw no great chearfulness in the Count of Tripolis and the rest thereunto they with one consent changed their Purpose for Egypt and turning their Forces a quite contrary way miserably and without resistance wasted the Country about Emissa and Caesarea Whilst the Christians wâ—re thus busied in Coelosiria Saladin on the other side took occasion out of Egypt to invade the Kingdom of Ierusalem of whose coming King Baldwin having intelligence with such small Forces as he had left hastned himself to Ascalon In the mean time Saladin with a great Army was entred into the Holy Land where burning the Country before him and raging in the blood of the poor Christians he came and encamped not far from Ascalon and struck such a fear upon the whole Country that they which dwelt in Ierusalem were about to have forsaken the City as for the King himself he lay close within the City of Ascalon not daring to adventure upon so strong an Enemy Wherewith Saladin encouraged and out of fear of his Enemies dispersed his Army some one way some another to forrage the Country Which the King perceiving secretly with all his Power issued out of the City if happily so he might overtake the Sultan unawares neither was he deceived in his expectation for coming suddenly upon him and secretly charging him he had with him for a good space an hard and doubtful battel until that the Victory by the Power of God at length inclining to the Christians Saladin with his Turks fled overthrown with a great slaughter most part of his great Army being either there slain or lost afterward with hunger and cold This Victory fell unto the Christians the 25 th day of November in the year 1177. not without the Almighty Hand of God year 1177. the Turk having in his Army above six and twenty thousand Horse-men and the King not past four hundred Horse with some few Foot-men After which Victory Baldwin in great Triumph returned to Ierusalem and there shortly after with great care and diligence repaired the decayed Walls of the City Saladin in revenge of this Overthrow made divers Incursions into the Frontiers of the Christians and did great harm specially in
the setting forward of the Emperor Fredericks Son-in-Law for the recovery of his Wives Right to the Kingdom of Ierusalem which although he solemnly vowed at such time as he with all Princely Magnificence married the said Lady at Rome yet otherwise letted with troubles nearer home performed not the same untill almost seven years after all which time the Christians in Syria enjoying the fruit of the late concluded Peace for eight years lived in great rest and quietness where so leaving them until the arising of new troubles let us in the mean time return again unto the troubled affairs of the Turks Greeks and Latines at Constantinople and in the lesser Asia Henry the Second Emperor of the Latines at Constantinople after he had as is aforesaid with much ado repressed the Fury of the Bulgarians and Scythes his barbarous Enemies and so given peace to the miserable Country of Thracia died having reigned a most troublesome Reign about the space of eleven years Afteâ— whom succeeded Peter Count of Ausserre his Son-in-Law third Emperor of the Latines in Constantinople who in the beginning of his Empire willing to gratifie the Venetians and to revenge himself of Theodorus Angelus a great Prince of Epirus Competitor of his Empire besieged him in Dirrachium which strong City the said Theodorus had but a little before surprised belonging unto the Venetian Seigniory At which Siege Peter the Emperor lying was so cunningly by the wilie Greek used that a Peace was upon most honourable conditions betwixt them concluded and a familiar kind of Friendship joyned Insomuch that the Emperor at his request not well advised came unto him as his Guest who now of his Enemy became his Host entertaining him with all the formalities that feigned Friendship could devise But having him now in his power and fearing no harm regarding neither the Laws of Fidelity or Hospitality he most traiterously slew him as he was yet in the midst of his Banquet Of whose end some others yet otherwise report as that he should by the same Theodorus have been intercepted about the pleasant Woods of Tempe in Thessalia as he was travelling from Rome to Constantinople and so afterwards to have been by him cruelly put to death Of whose misfortune Tepulus Governour of Constantinople understanding for the more safety of the State in that vacancy of the Greek Empire made peace with Theodorus for five years and the Turks for two Shortly after came Robert the Son of the aforesaid unfortunate Emperor Peter with his Mother to Constantinople and there in his Fathers stead was solemnly saluted Emperor but not with much better luck than was his Faâ—her before him for shortly after his coming he took to Wife a fair young Lady the Daughter of a great rich and noble Matron of the City but before betrothed unto a gallant Gentleman a Burgundian born with whom the old Lady broke her promise and more careful of her Daughters preferment than fidelity gave her in marriage unto the new Emperor The joy of which so great an Honour was in short time converted not into a deadly heaviness but even into death it self for the young Burgundian more enraged with the wrong done him than discouraged with the greatness and power of the Emperor consorted himself with a company of lusty tall Souldiers acquainted with his purpose and awating his time when the Emperor was absent by night entred the Court with his desperate Followers and first meeting with the beautiful young Empress cut off her Nose and her Ears and afterward threw her old Mother into the Sea and so fled out of the City into the Woods and Mountains with those desperate cut-throats the ministers of his barbarous cruelty The Emperor pierced to the heart with this so great a disgrace shortly after went to Rome to what purpose was not certainly known but in returning back again through Achaia he there died leaving behind him his young Son Baldwin yet but a Child begotten by his first Wife to succeed him in the Empire who by the name of Baldwin the Second was crowned the fifth and last Emperor of the Latines in Constantinople And for because he was as yet but young and unfit for the Government he was by the consent of the Nobility affianced and afterward married unto Martha the younger Daughter of Iohn Brenne King of Ierusalem a worthy old Captain but as then Governour of Ravenna which City he being certain years before sent for out of France for that purpose by Honorius the Pope he notably defended against the Emperor Frederick his Son-in-Law but that affinity was before broken off by the death of the said Emperors Wife who now sent for out of Italy unto Constantinople had committed to his charge and protection both the Person and Empire of the young Emperor Baldwin now his Son-in-Law Which great and heavy charge he for certain years after worthily and faithfully discharged until such time as that Baldwin was himself grown able to take upon him the government Now although the Imperial City of Constantinople with the Countries of Thracia Thessalia Macedonia Achaia Peloponesus and the rest of the Provinces of Greece were all or for the most part under the Government of Baldwin the Emperor the Venetians or other the inferior Latine Princes yet were the oppressed Greeks the natural Inhabitants thereof in heart not theirs as abhorring nothing more than that their forreign government but wholly devoted to their own natural Princes Theodorus Lascaris and Alexius Comnenus the one reigning at Nice in Bithynia the other at Trapezond in Pontus both called by the Greeks Emperors and so of them generally reputed Lascaris of the two the better beloved and by far of greatest power had during the time of his Government fought many an hard Battel as is in part before declared and strongly fortified his chief Cities against the invasion of his Enemies as well the Turks as the Latines and so having as it were erected a new Empire in Asia and there reigned eighteen years died leaving behind him one Iohn Ducas Batazes that had married the fair Lady Irene his Daughter and Heir to succed him in the Greek Empire in Asia This Iohn was a man of a great Wit and Spirit and of more gravity for his years than was Theodorus his Father-in-Law never undertaking any thing before he had thereof well considered and once resolved not omitting or neglecting any thing for the performance thereof So that it was not unfitly said of the Greeks The planting of this new Empire to have required the celerity of Lascaris but the stay thereof to have been the gravity of Ducas He in the beginning of his Reign in very short time having set all things in good order greatly augmented his Legions and shooting at a fairer mark than the Empire he held even the Imperial City it self and the recovery of all Thracia and Grecia out of the hands of the Latines which could not be done
betwixt two so great Armies But Techellis by his speedy coming frustrated these designs of the Viceroy for marching with all speed he was upon Caragoses before he was well aware of his coming near unto the Mountain Hormynus as he was then taking up of more Souldiers and daily expected the coming of others as if he had been going against some puissant Enemy The Viceroy seeing the Rebels approach although he had before not purposed to have encountred them before he had raised far greater Forces thought it not now to stand with his honour to refuse to give them Battel although his Army for the most part consisted of the rude Country Pesants taken up upon the suddain out of Paphlagonia Galatia Pontus and Bithynia raw Souldiers and for most part unarmed as commonly they are which in those Countries are pressed against their Wills out of the Towns and Villages and are of the Turks called Asapi who of the Janizaries are scarcely accounted for men But his greatest confidence he reposed in the approved Valour of his ancient Horsemen by whose means he doubted not in safety to retire out of the Battel and to save himself if any thing should fall out otherwise than well making no great account of the common Souldiers more than by them if he could to weaken the Force of the Rebels who on the other side their greatest Force consisting of Footmen had no hope to save themselves by Flight but only by plain Valor and dint of Sword. Which Techellis well considering exhorted his Souldiers to remember into what Country they were come and that there was no Cities of refuge no new power no other gods of defence to flie unto if they should not that day play the men Wherefore let us couragiously said he set forward against our Enemies and by Victory defend our Lives together with the Truth of our Religion for which we have vowed both our Souls and Bodies He had scarcely said thus much but that his whole Army in token of chearfulness gave a most terrible shout and without further stay set upon their Enemies The Viceroy had placed his Footmen in the main Battel in the middle and his Horsemen in the Wings thereby to have compassed his Enemies but Techellis had set all his Footmen in one great square Battel and his Persian Horsemen for a refuge But the Viceroy his fresh-water Souldiers could scarcely abide the sight of Techellis his Army for in the front of the Battel stood Souldiers throughly armed and all the rest of his Army with red Hats upon their Heads as if they had been imbrued with Blood which wonderfully terrified the Bassaes cowardly and unskilful Souldiers so that having indured the Fight scarcely half an hour they all turned their Backs and fled The Turkish Horsemen which had valiantly assailed the Rebels Army on both sides although they had slain many with their Arrows and Lances and somewhat disordered the Battel for that the Footmen were inforced to leave their places and to press still on forward against them yet when Techellis his Souldiers having overcome the Footmen and dividing themselves into divers Squadrons began with their long Pikes to kill their Horses and to lay hardly unto them they likewise betook themselves to Flight also Then the Persian Horsemen which all this while had stood still as lookers on left their standings and following the chase slew many of the Turks in their disordered Flight and following fast on inclosed the Viceroy as he was staying of his Horsemen and could not for the thickness of the dust well discorn his Enemies so that he had been there taken if he had not been speedily rescued by his Guard and so delivered from that danger The rest of the Turks Horsemen saved themselves by flight In this Battel seven thousand of the Turks Footmen were slain and all their Ensigns taken with great store of Provision After which Victory Chasan and Techellis resting their Army one day marched to the City of Cutaie near unto the mountain Horminius This City is situated as it were in the midst of Asia the less and is the Seat of the Turkish Emperors Viceroy in Asia as Sophia in Moesia is for his other Vceroy in Europe for it was reported that the Country People had for fear of the present War conveied thither the greatest part of their Wealth and the Rebels well knew that the Viceroy himself with his chief Horsemen were fled thither also neither doubted they but that all the Army might be greatly inriched by the Wealth of that City if they should without delay imploy their whole Forces for the gâ—ining thereof their Enemies now altogether discouraged with their late overthrow Techellis also deeming that enterprise of so much worth as whereon to gage his whole Forces coming before the City placed such Field Pieces as he had before taken in the Battel and his Archers in such fit places as might most annoy the Defendants afterward he caused scaling Ladders to be set up and Proclamation made through all his Camp That the whole Spoil of the City should be the Souldiers if they could take it with promise of greater rewards to them that should first recover the top of the Walls Filled with this hope the rebellious multitude approached the Wall fearing neither Enemies Force multitude of Shot or danger of Death striving who should first mount the Ladders and some climbing one in the neck of another so to get up by the ruins of the Wall. The Defendants in the mean time from above casting down upon them great Stones Timber Fire scalding Water Lime Sand and such like without measure wherewith although many were overthrown and crusht to death or spoiled yet others presently stept up in their place neither was any of them seen for fear of the present danger to shrink back or be discouraged for the Viceroy on the one side and Techellis on the other were both Eye-witnesses of every mans Valor in that hot service the one prickt forward with doubtful hope for fear to be enforced to give over the Assault so begun and the other with the due regard of his Honour Life and State all subject to that danger and therefore in person himself performed all the parts of a worthy Chieftain and couragious Souldier But at length the Defendants wearied with the fierce Assault of the Enemy and for most part wounded Techellis continually sending in fresh men and withdrawing such as were hurt by plain force brake into the City in two places over the heaps of the dead bodies and having repulsed the Defendants burst open one of the Gates and thereby brought in his whole Army Then began a miserable Slaughter of the Souldiers and poor Citizens in every House and Corner of the City At which instant the Palace whither the Viceroy had retired himself with his Family was also taken the Viceroy himself with his Wives and Children were there also taken Prisoners and the stately Palace
difficulty by steep and broken ways clamber up the high Mountains as oftentimes it falleth out that both the strength of mens legs and other their wonted forces fail them most when surprised and overcome with suddain fear they desire to run and fly fastest The Turks having them in chase had the killing of them until the going down of the Sun. The Horsemen with the King upon their swift Horses well acquainted with those Rocks and rough Ways with little loss retired themselves into the further and stronger places of the Mountains Aladeules after this discomfiture finding himself in all things far inferior to his Enemy thought it best by protracting the War to weary him out wherefore as the Turks pursued him and burnt the poor Country Cottagess standing in their way he still fled from Mountain to Mountain never offering Battel or shewing himself but in places of great disadvantage and therefore Selymus fearing lest in that barren rough and unknown Country he should either want Victual or by some other means be entrapped if he should still with his whole Army follow after his strong Enemies upon the seventh day left off to pursue them any further And encamping himself in the most convenient place of that Country sent Sinan Bassa with his light Horsemen who carrying with them certain days Victuals should still at the heels follow the Enemy and with all speed and policy possible hunt after the King himself Selymus in the mean time curiously inquiring of the Country Captives after the strength of Aladeules and what means he had to maintain the War found that he had taken with him his best men both Horse and Foot and had commanded the Country People to forsake the Villages of purpose to leave all desolate to the Enemy and having surely intrenched himself upon a certain strong Rock whither he had before conveied great store of Provision was resolved not to give Battel unto his Enemies until he had drawn them into the impregnable Straits of the Mountains where their huge multitude should little avail them but to increase their own loss Another cause there was also as they said for that he feared to be betrayed by Alis Beg his Kinsman General of his Horsemen who first fled in the late Battel whose unfaithfulness and hatred might seem to proceed of a just ground for that Aladeules had in former time treacherously murthered his Father upon a jealous suspition of his aspiring to the Kingdom Selymus understanding all this caused the Captives to have their Irons struck off and instead of their Gyves lading them with Gifts and Promises sent them to Alis Beg with secret Letters and Rewards to perswade him in so fit a time to revenge his Fathers death which thing if he would perform by some notable exploit upon Aladeules he should both purchase unto himself great credit with Selymus and also the Kingdom These homely Messengers according as was given them in charge having imparted the matter to Sinan Bassa within few days had so wrought that Alis Beg whom the desire of a Kingdom together with Selymus his Rewards prickt forward to seek revenge was easily drawn to joyn hands with Selymus And when he could no other way hurt Aladeules who mistrusting all things warily looked unto himself he found the means to go over to Sinan Bassa carrying after him a great part of Aladeules his best Horsemen by whose means the rest also which remained being with Rewards corrupted one Company after another came at last all over unto the Bassa Aladeules circumvented with this unexpected Treachery which never before thought it possible that his Men should all so suddainly have forsaken him and revolted to the Turks was now glad to repose all his hope in secret flight But Sinan Bassa and Alis Beg hardly pursuing him as he fled through the Mountains hiding himself in Rocks and the thick Woods at last drew him out of a Cave being betraied by the Country Peasants Aladeules being brought to Selymus was within a few days after put to death and his head in great derision afterwards carried about through all Asia the less and afterwards by way of barbarous ostentation sent by Selymus to the Senate of Venice as a loathsome testimony of his Victory Aladeules thus dead Selymus reduced all his Kingdom to the form of a Province which he divided into three parts and after the manner of the Turkish Government appointed to every paâ—t a Sanzack yet so that Alis Beg should be chief over the rest with such Sovereignty as that he wanted nothing of a King but the name only And for the better Government of all things in that new gained Kingdom he left Sinan Bassa there all the rest of that Summer with commandment that after he had set all things in good order he should winter at Iconium and he himself with a small Train returned to Constantinople for he had heard that whilst he was busied in his Wars against Hysmael and Aladeules in Armâ—nia that the Hungarians had made divers incursions into Servia and spoiled that Country Wherefore for fear of losing Samandria which standing near to Danubius for the convenient situation thereof is reputed the Bulwark of Servia and Thracia he sent Ionuses Bassa then Governor of Bosna with eight thousand Horsemen who passing the River Savus entred into Croatia as far as Catinum and at the same time transported another Army over Danubius into Hungary to the intent that the Hungarians at one instant beset with double danger should be inforced to fear their own State and withall to shew unto the World of what Strength and Power the Othoman Emperors were Deeming it to concern much both for the present and the time to come to the daunting of the Christians if he should by his happy Attempts make it known that he could at once easily and readily maintain so many and so puissant Armies and wage so great Wars in divers parts of the World and so far distant one from another In the end of the year when he had thus with double invasion repressed the Hungarians he spent the Winter following at Hadrianople and Constantinople in making of greater preparation for War than ever he had before from the beginning of his Reign For he was advertised that the great Monarchs of the North his Neighbours namely Maximilian the Emperor Uladislaus King of Hungary and Sigismundus King of Polonia with the Princes of Germany had combined themselves together to make War upon him But after he had learned by his sure Intelligencers whom he had with great charge sent into all parts of Europe diligently to observe what was done in the Courts of those great Princes that all the great meetings of the Christian Princes proved nothing but glorious Words and sumptuous Banquets he being rid of that vain fear God so appointing turned himself and all those his wonderful preparations again toward the East to the great quiet of Christendom in general Yet lest
part Mariners able Bodies who in the time of the Siege did great service encouraged by their Sea Captains the Island People which repaired into the City served to little other purpose but to dig and carry Earth unto the Rampiers and the Citizens except it were some few of the better sort were for the most part weak and of small Courage not able to indure any labour or pains and yet hardly to be kept in order and governed great speakers but small doers greater in shew than in deed The Great Master having carefully provided and ordered all things needful for the defence of the City and fearing nothing more than the faint Hearts of the Citizens caused them all to be called together for incouragement of whom he spake unto them as followeth Valiant Gentlemen and worthy Citizens we hear that the Turk our mortal Enemy is coming against us with a huge Army raised of divers Nations from whose natural cruelty and wonted perjury except we defend our selves by force one and the self same danger is like to befal me my Knights and you all For we have with common consent and hand grievously spoiled him both by Sea and Land and you are by booties taken by strong hand out of his Dominions inriched and at this day we keep his People in grievous servitude and he ours but he injuriously and we most justly For his Ancestors weary of the dark Dens and Caves of the Mountain Caucasus their natural Dwelling without Right Title or Cause incited only with Covetousness Ambition and the hatred of our most sacred Religion have driven the Christians out of Syria and afterwards oppressed the Grecians in Grecia where not contâ—nted to have destroyed the People with one simple kind of death as Barbarism is ever cruel and merciless they have with most exquisite and horrible Torments butchered many thousands of that Nation All whom this wicked proud youth whose mischief exceedeth his years an evil Neighbour to all men not contented with the Dominions of Arabia Syria Egypt the greatest part of Asia and of many other places more seeketh in Tyranny Murther Spoil Perjury and Hatred against Christ and Christians far to excel and forceth himself to the uttermost of his power to take from us our Islands and to subdue the Christian Countries that so at length being Lord of all and Commander of the World he may at his pleasure overthrow the Christian Cities kill the Christians and utterly root out the Christian name which he so much hateth For the repulsing of which intollerable injury we have especially chosen this Island of the Rhodes for our dwelling place because the same seemed more commodious than any other for the annoying of this barbarous Nation We have done what in us lay holpen by you we know by proof your great Valour and Fidelity which we now have not in any distrust Wherefore I will not use many words to perswade you to continue in your Fidelity and Loyalty neither long circumstances to encourage you to play the men sithence worthy minds are not with words either encouraged or dismayed But concerning my self and my Knights of the Order I will speak a few words I with them with whom as I hope the Christian Princes and other my Knights of the West will in good time joyn their Forces are most ready and prest to defend your selves your Children your Wives your Goods the Monuments of your Ancestors and sacred Temples dedicated to the service of our God. Which opinion that it may remain firm and fixt in your minds if nothing else my Faithfulness in your Wars my Body not yet altogether spent but able enough to endure pains and travel the Nobility of these worthy Knights of the Order their Love towards you and their Hatred towards your Enemies were sufficient to confirm but beside this the strength of this City which this noble Order hath with infinite charges so notably fortified with Ditches Walls Towers and Bulwarks against all the force and fury of Artillery is such as that no City may worthily be compared much less preferred before the same It is wonderfully stored with all kind of Weapons and Warlike Provision we have laid up plenty of Wine Flesh and Corn in vaults so that neither wet Weather nor Worms can attaint the same of Wood and wholesome Water not to be taken from us things necessary for men besieged we have plenty and able men enough for the defence of the City All which things promise unto us assured Victory and such end of the War as we wish for Besides this Necessity which giveth Courage even unto Cowards will enforce us to fight Yet standeth on our side true Religion Faith Conscience Devotion Constancy the Love of our Country the Love of our Liberty the Love of our Parents Wives Children and whatsoever else we hold dear Whereas they bring with them the proud command of their Captains Infidelity Impiety Unconstancy a wicked desire of your Bondage of your Blood and the Blood of your Parents Wives and Children Out of doubt beloved Citizens our good God will not suffer so many good vertues to be overcome by their foul vices Wherefore be you in mind quiet and secure and trouble not your selves with forboding fear of your Enemies only continue in the Fidelity and Loyalty which you have always kept inviolate and unspotted toward this sacred and honourable Fellowship in most dangerous Wars and hardest chances of Fortune and if need shall so require with couragious band shew your Valour against your Enemies and make it known unto the Spaniards French Italians Hungarians and English That the Rhodians are of power to daunt the Turkish Pride and to avert their Fleets and Armies from Italy which they have so many years threatned with Fire and Sword and will no doubt thither with all speed hasten and come if that which my mind abhorreth to speak they should here prevail Neither will his ambitious youth in Courage Falshood and cruelty exceeding Hannibal imitate him in that that having overthrown the Romans in the great Battel at Cannas knew not to use his Victory but he will presently with more than Caesars celerity bring forth the Treasures his Father got in Egypt and with great Fleets and huge Armies invade Apulia Calabria and Scicilia from whence he will forthwith break into France and afterwards into Spain and other Christian Countries raging through them with all kind of cruelty But I am carried away further than I purposed and than need is For your Fidelity and Valour most worthy Citizens to endure the Siege and repulse the Enemy is such as needeth not my perswasion and of greater resolution than that it can be shaken with the dangers incident to men besieged yet the greatest and most forcible miseries of all which is Hunger and Thirst I assure you you shall never feel which pinching calamities for all that some People in Faithfulness Courage and Valor nothing comparable to you have nevertheless most
and thirty Paces hindred by the Blocks we have laid in his way and will not cease continually to lay if we be wise Men and mindful of our former Valour Destroy me you heavenly Powers before I see with these Eies these sacred Knights to yield up this famous City of the Rhodes the ancient Bulwark of Christian Religion unto our merciless Enemies polluted with the infamous Superstition of Mahomet who besides the insatiable thirst they have of our Blood how faithless and mischievous they are by Nature if we know not we need not make example of our selves but we may take example by the calamity of Constantinople the late misery of Euboea and that which later was of Methone as also by the Mamalukes at Caire miserably slain contrary to the League contrary to the Faith and Promise by the Turkish Emperor himself before given What do you â—ot remember how the Death of the most noble Captains at Belgrade was of late procured by the falshood craft and deceit of the same faithless Miscreants Let us then being Men of Wit and Understanding trust these mad Beasts let us give our selves into their power which hâ—ve no regard of right or reason of Religion or any thing else whose Covetousness and Cruelty it is hard to say which it greater which for these many years have plotted and laboured nothing more than how by policy or force they may utterly root out the Name of the Rhodians which they so deadly hate They keep us shut up and besieged now the sixth Month feeling together with us extream dangers and endless labour slain by heaps before our Walls and Fortresses and cannot be removed hence with Thunder Lightning Storms Tempâ—sts and all the Calamities of Winter a time which giveth intermission to all War both by Sea and Land so desirous they are of Revenge and greedy of our Blood and that not altogether without cause for we have also shed theirs and gladly would still so do if it lay in our power But seeing it seemeth good unto God otherwise and that we are surprized with inevitable necâ—ssity yet let us whilst we are at liberty and have power our selves by honourable death amongst the Christian Ensigns eschew the Torments and Reproaches which our cruel Enemies hope to inflict upon us so shall we enjoy eternal Fame and Glory prepared both in Heaven and Earth for such as honourably die in defence of their Prince and Country which Honour it becometh not them to envy unto thy most noble Name and Vertue worthy Grand Master which having for many years enjoyed the commodity and profit of Peace and greatly enriched by Bounty of this sacred Military Order refuse now to bear this last burden of War. At these words an ancient Greek for his Wisdom and Discretion of great Reputation both with the Greeks and Latins perceiving his Countrymen wrongfully touched and the desperate holding out of the City vainly perswaded took hold and interrupting this young Gallant in answer of that he had said spake as followeth That grief of mind and desperation can make Men rather Eloquent than Wise as you have many times heard before this so you might this day perceive also most valiant Gentlemen for advised modesty never falleth into obloquy neither confoundeth falshood with truth it desireth not the slaughter of the Citizens it perswadeth not fury nor exhorteth Men to madness but it is by nature so engraffed in many that when they cannot by their own Wisdom and Policy deliver themselves from their troubles they yet seek to draw others into the fellowship of the same danger so greedy have malice and misery always been of company But if you worthy Commander will give me also leave to speak a Man amongst his Countrymen not of meanest Place and Authority which thing both the present Calamity and urgent Necessity might of you easily obtain I would alledge such reasons and lay down such matter as should not only refel the copious and glorious words of this sharp witted Orator scrap'd together of purpose to flourish out the matter but also such as might stir your mind to that which is honest profitable and necessary expulsing hatred fear trouble or despair This Gentleman whom we all know not only to be a vehement Orator but somtime a Man most terrible whereas for all his great words he is by nature mild and so mild that he never had the heart to kill nay not so much as lightly to wound any one of them whom he calleth barbarous mad cruel whose perfidious dealing he detesteth whose cruelty he accurseth whose manner of living he exclaimeth against as altogether without Law without Reason without Order without Regard and now in time of Truce and whilst the Showers of Arrows Iron Bullets Fire and Stones doth cease creeping out of his Cave maketh much ado and keepeth a great stir and not knowing in what danger he is doth now with glorious words call upon death whereof he hath hitherto shewed himself too much afraid and all forsooth as he said lest he should be enforced to endure the mocking and scorning of the Enemy But this is meer Pride not Christian Fortitude or Humility But our Enemy neither threatneth nor purposeth any such matter nothing so perfidious or cruel as he would make him rubbing up the slaughter at Caire Euboea Methone and Constantinople Cities taken either by Force or warlike Policy and not yielded by composition upon faith given betwixt the besieger and the besieged who because he would spare us will not suffer us to do that whereby we should undoubtedly perish But whereof proceedeth this new found Clemency This unwonted favour toward the People of the Rhodes I am not of the Tyrants Privy-Counsel neither ever curiously sought after the reason of another Mans Bounty but am glad to receive it when I need it Yet for all that I will not dissemble w hat I think in a matter so doubtful he is willing as I suppose in this Siege and Conquest of the Rhodes to shew unto other Nations whom he purposed to invade both his Power and his Patience lest always satisfying his cruel Nature he should make desolation in places he would Reign over and so for ever alienating the Minds of Men he inforced to fight with all Men with Fire and Sword by which Rigour he hath not so much hurt his Enemy as himself For this cause as I suppose he leaveth unto us life and goods lâ—st whilst he in going about to take them from us by force and we seeking to keep them by desperatness we should both fall into great destruction no less lamentable unto the Conqueror than to the vanquished Besides that if he should kill all here truly he might then enter the Breaches of the City on the Bodies of the dead no Men now left alive to resist him But Lerus is shut up Arangia is strongly Fortified Lyndus is by Situation impregnable here he knoweth are Weapons Armor and Men here he must begin
if it had been but to look to his charge when he was come as near as he could to Alis without mistrust thought good to assay if he could by policy bring that to pass which he was otherwise with great danger to attempt by force Wherefore feigning himself to be extream sick he sent Embassadors to Alis requesting him as a friend to vouchsafe to come unto him being at the point of death unto whom he had many things of importance from the great Emperor to impart and would if he should die leave with him all his charge until Solyman should otherwise dispose thereof Alis who from his youth had always honoured the Turkish Emperors and faithfully served them mistrusting no harm came to the Bassa accompanied with his four Sons whom the faithless Bassa without regard of infamy caused presently to be put to death with their Father and so reducing all that Country into the manner of a Province under Solymans obeisance came to him with twenty thousand Men about the time that the City of the Rhodes was yielded up This is the faithless dealing of the Turks not with the Christians only but with them of their own superstition also using it as no small policy utterly to extinguish the Nobility of all Countries subject to their servile Tyranny Solyman after he had thus subdued the Rhodes and disposed of the Island as he liked best returning to Constantinople brake up his Army and for the space of three years after followed his pleasure not doing any thing worthy of remembrance During which time and many years after the rich and flourishing Country of Italy sometime Mistress of the World was miserably afflicted and rent in pieces by Charles the Fifth then Emperor and Francis the French King the one envying unto the other the glory of the Empire and he not content therewith seeking with immoderate ambition to make himself Lord of all Italy most of the other Christian Princes and States being at the same time either by the one or by the other drawn into the fellowship of that War to the great trouble and sore weakning of the Christian Common-weal Whereupon Solyman waiting all occasions that might serve for the enlarging of his Empire and annoying of the Christians thought it not a fit time for him to set his foot into Hungary whereunto he had already laied open a way by the taking of Belgrade He knew right well that Lewis then King of Hungary was but young altogether unacquainted with the Wars commanding over his headstrong Subjects especially his rich Prelates and Nobility no otherwise than pleased themselves being himself rather by them altogether overruled besides that he was in good hope that the other Christian Princes near unto him either carried away with regard of their own Estate would not or else before unto himself by League fast bound could not afford unto him any great aid or succour the Germans he knew would make small hast unto such Wars as should yield them much danger and but small pay As for the Princes of the House of Austria Charles the Emperor and Ferdinand his Brother although they were joyned unto the young King with the nearest bonds of Alliance Lewis having Married Mary their youngest Sister and Ferdinand Ann King Lewis his Sister yet was there as he thought small help to be expected from them Charles having his hands full in Italy and Ferdinand altogether careful of himself and that Sigismund King of Polonia would for the young Kings sake break the ancient League he had with the Turkish Emperors he could hardly be perswaded As for other Christian Princes farther off he stood not in any great doubt year 1526. Thus having with himself singled out this young Prince the Hungarian King whom he had in his greedy mind already devoured he set forward from Constantinople and was come on his way as far as Sophiâ— in Servia with a mighty Army of two hundred thousand men before that the Hungarians had any knowledge of his coming so blind and senseless was that State which now sleeping in security had long before lost those Eies which ever watcht and never spared cost or pains to keep the same in safety in stead of whom were others come in place sharp of sight and too too provident for that concerned their own advancement but blind as Beetles in foreseeing this great and common danger wherewith they were shortly after all quite overwhelmed until it was now brought home unto their own Doors The young King of himself but weak by reason of his youthful years and nothing strengthned by them for whom he had most done and should have been his greatest stay was wonderfully dismaied with the fame of the approach of so mighty an Enemy yet the better to withstand him he sent Embassadors with all speed unto the Christian Princes his Neighbours requesting their Aid against the common Enemy but all in vain In the mean time after the ancient manner of his Country he gave out general Summons for the Assembly of his Counsel for the Wars whether his great stipendary Prelates of duty bound to appear came with their Troops of evil appointed Horsemen and not half full who also delivered in less sums of Mony by far than of right they should have done towards the maintenance of the charge of that common War. And the temporal Nobility forgetting the warlike Discipline of their famous Ancestors as fresh-water Souldiers which had seen the Turkish Emperor in his strength and but little acquainted with some light skirmishes or small invasions in their vain bravery made light account of the Turks proudly vaunting That although they were in number but few yet they would easily overthrow the great numbers of them if ever they came to handy strokes But above all the rest one Paulus Tomoreus Archbishop of Colossa sometimes a Minorite who had before been in divers light skirmishes against the Turks with great insolency did so confidently brag and boast of the Victory he vainly dreamed of that in his Sermons unto the Souldiers and in open talk with the Nobility if he could have done so much as he vaunted of it should seem that he himself had been enough to have overthrown the Turks whole Army But when all the Kings Army was assembled and a general muster taken there was hardly found five and twenty thousand men in all horse and foot So that the foolish hardiness of Tomoreus and others so forwards to give the Turks battel was of most wise men disliked The old Souldiers and men of great experience said plainly That it was meer folly and madness with such a handful of men to give battel unto the Enemy who would bring eight times so many more into the Field as they were Wherefore some wished that the young King should be withdrawn from the eminent danger among whom Stephanus Verbetius a noble Captain of all the rest best acquainted with the Turkish Wars gave Counsel
hardly escaped unspoiled had they not been rescued by the Kings Souldiers lying in Garrison in the Castles as they passed along the Country The few which remained after many troubles came at last to Vienna more like Ghosts than Men. Solyman entring quietly into the City first visited the Sepulchers of the Hungarian Kings and gave out Proclamation That the Hungarians should fear of him no harm for that he was not come to conquer them but to deliver them from the Bondage of the Germans and so to restore again that entire Kingdom unto Stephen the right Heir of King Iohn But within three or four days after he called out the chief Citizens into a Field not far off wherein the Bodies of condemned men were wont to be buried as if he would have there taken an Oath of their Fidelity whither after they were all assembled in the best manner they could as to some solemn Feast the cruel Tyrant without regard of his Faith or Promise caused them all to be slain Howbeit some report that he caused them only to be put to death which bare office in the City at such time as they revolted from the Obedience of the Queen and the Infant King unto Ferdinand and had then brought in German-Souldiers and that he sent the rest into exile to Buda and Belgrade So Solyman leaving Balibeius Governor of Alba Regalis and Mahometes sometime Governour of Belgrade his Lieutenant General for the whole Government of that Kingdom returned again toward Constantinople Winter now beginning to approach after he had that Summer won Strigonium and Alba Regalis two of the chiefest Cities of Hungary All this while King Ferdinand had raised no Power worth the speaking of to withstand so mighty an Enemy only at Vienna lay seven thousand Germans and four thousand Italians at such time as Solyman departed from Alba Regalis which were shortly after discharged Whiles Solyman thus lay at the Siege of Alba Regalis he sent his Tartarian Horsemen which served him to small purpose in the Siege to spoil the Country round about these savage People doing much harm were in divers places circumvented by the Hungarians and about three thousand of them slain one of them being taken Prisoner had found in his Knapsack half a Child of about two years old the loathsome remainder of his barbarous feeding Barbarussa all this while lying with his Fleet as we have before said at Marseilles fretted exceedingly that he had to his dishonour undertaken so long a Voyage by Sea to pleasure him which was not able as he said to direct his own designs to any certain resolution but shamefully suffered the best time of the year for service negligently to pass away without any thing doing the blame whereof would as he said be imputed to him at Constantinople and that Solyman who desired to aid the King his Friend and Confederate and by all means to annoy his Enemies would take in evil part to have it reported that he â—ad with so great charge set out so great a Fleet and so far off to help his Friend hardly beset with his Enemies and to have done nothing besides that he took on like a Turk that he who in time of service never used negligently to let slip the least opportunity should now blemish his former credit and estimation by lying still all that Summer in the Harbor of Marseilles where his Souldiers grew lazy with doing nothing Wherefore Polinus going to the King told him of the proud Turks great discontentment for lack of em-employment and returning to Barbarussa brought order from the King that he should â—ay Siege to Nice a City of Provence then holden by the Duke of Savoy This City standing upon the Sea was by one of the French Kings for a great sum of Mony pawned unto the Duke which Mony King Francis had many times offered to have repaid but could never get the City out of the Dukes hands Unto which service the French King sent also his Fleet of two and twenty Gallies and eighteen Ships wherein were embarked eight thousand Footmen and Victual for many days This Fleet departing from Marceilles keeping close by the Shore came to the Port called Mâ—noc whither two days after came Barbarussa also with an hundred and fifty Gallies From thence Polinus by commandment from the King writ to the State of Genoa That they should not fear of that great Fleet any Hostility which was not to hurt any but them of Nice and not them neither if they would yield themselves For more assurance whereof he obtained of the Turks divers Genoa Captives which had long time been chained in their Gallies and courteously set them at liberty and sent them home without ransom After that he friendly exhorted the Citizens of Nice to yield themselves again unto their ancient and lawful Princes renowned for his Bounty and Power rather than to adventure their State to all extremities for that poor and distressed Duke who between the Emperor and the French King dispoiled of the greatest part of his Dominions saw no other end of his miseries but to leave that little which yet remained as a Prey to the one or to the other that should first lay hand thereon Whereunto the Magistrates of the Town answered That they knew no other Prince or Sovereign but Charles their Duke wherefore he should desist farther to solicite them by Letters or Messengers whom they would make no other account of but as of their Enemies Wherefore the Frenchmen and Turks landing their Forces laid Siege to the Town in three places The Citizens had but a little before newly fortified their Walls by the direction of Paulus Simeon Captain of the Castle and one of the Knights of the Rhodes a man of great experience who long before taken at Sea by Pyrats had sometime served Barbarussa and therefore perswaded the Citizens as resolute men to withstand the Turks Which that they should more constantly perform he took their Wives and Children and weaker sort of the People into the Castle and from thence furnished the Citizens with all things necessary for their defence The City was at once in divers places battered by the Turks and French both by Sea and Land so that at last the Turks had beaten down one of the new built Bulwarks and made so fair a Breach that with their Ensigns displaied they attempted to have entred whose forwardness Leo Strozza then serving the French King with a Band of Italians imitating sought to have entred also but the Citizens standing valiantly upon their defence manfully repulsed both the Turks and Italians and caused them with loss to retire In this Assault were slain about an hundred Turks and of Strozza his Souldiers two and twenty Presently after Barbarussa with all his force began a fresh Battery in such terrible manner that the Citizens seeing their Walls in divers places opened and the few Souldiers they had sore wounded and no hope to
unto him divers honourable Presents forbidding him nevertheless to invade Moldavia for fear of raising a new and dangerous War against the Polonians also under whose Protection and the Turks the Palatine thereof then rested According unto which Command the Vayvod stayed his intended Expedition yet sending some good part of his Forces unto the Frontiers of Moldavia for fear of Sigismund whom he heard to be hatching some mischief in Polonia and even then to lie upon the Frontiers of that Country Some few months thus passing Husraim Aga a grave reverend old man and much employed by the Turkish Sultan with five other Turks of good account Ambassadors from the great Sultan and a great Retinue following him came to Gronstat in Transilvania where the Vayvod then lay Of whose coming the Vayvod hearing with four thousand Horsemen most bravely mounted went half a mile out of the City to meet them the Foot-men in the mean time on both sides of the Street standing in good order from the Gate of the City whereby they were to enter even unto the Vayvod's Lodging where stood also his Guard all in red and white Silk So meeting in the field they both alighted from their Horses with great reverence saluting the one the other when presently the Ambassador embracing the Vayvod ungirt his Scimiter and in the Name of the great Sultan put another about him so richly garnished with Gold and precious Stones as that no part of the Scabbard was therefore to be seen besides this he presented him with a fair Plume of black Hearns Feathers mixed with some white a right goodly Ornament in form of a great bush which the Vayvod would not in the Field put upon his Head although he were thereunto by the Ambassador most earnestly requested but caused it to be carried before him he also presented him with two very fair red Ensigns in token of the Turks favour and protection the one for himself and the other for his Son Petrasco moreover he gave unto him two exceeding fair Horses richly furnished with four others and a most fair Faulcon The Vayvod himself was most bravely mounted and after the manner of his Country had ten very fair spare Horses led before him At whose Entrance into the Town all the great Ordnance was discharged with great Vollies of small Shot and so the Ambassador still riding on the left hand of the Vayvod being brought to his Lodging had six of his chief Followers every one of them presented with a rich Robe of Cloth of Gold in requital whereof the Ambassador rewarded an hundred of the Vayvod's Followers every one of them with a good suit of Apparel with this Ambassador of the Turks was also the Polonian Ambassador whom the Vayvod in like manner honourably entertained These Ambassadors as was thought did what they might to have drawn this worthy and renowned Man together with the Countries of Transilvania and Valachia from the Emperour unto the Turks Obeisance howbeit he seldom or never spake with them but that either before or after he had Conference with the Lords Vngnad and Zeckel the Emperour's Commissioners concerning their Requests always protesting unto them not to yield to any thing without the Emperour's Consent and good-liking Whereof Mahomet advertised and that he was not by any thing yet said or done to be removed from the Emperour gave him by the same Ambassadors to understand How that he was in some Speech with the Emperour concerning Peace as indeed he then was by Messengers from the Bassaes at Presburg which if it sorted to effect that then it should be well but if not that then it should be good for him whilst yet he had time wisely to consider of his own Estate and to submit himself unto his Protection who was able to defend him rather than for the vain praise of a certain foolish Constancy to adventure himself with all that he had unto most certain Danger and Destruction promising him in recompence of that his Loyalty to give unto him for ever the Countries of Transilvania Valachia and Moldavia and at his need to furnish him both with Men and Money offering moreover to make him a great Commander in his Army in Hungary and the Bassa of Temeswar as his Friend to be at all times ready with fifty thousand Horse and Foot as need should be to assist him against the Emperour reserving unto himself whatsoever he should more win for him for all which Bounty and Kindness requiring only to have him unto him loyal All which his large offers the Vayvod little regarding declared the same unto the Emperours Commissioners yet still protesting never to start but to stand fast for the Christian Emperour Notwithstanding as a man desirous to better his estate he took hereupon occasion to request of the Emperour the Country of Transilvania by him so lately taken in unto him and his Son in Inheritance for ever with such frontier Towns as in former time belonged unto Transilvania and that whatsoever he should win from the Turks might be his and his Sons He also requested that all the Preferments and Dignities in former time granted by his Imperial Majesty unto Sigismund the late Prince might now be bestowed upon himself and for his Service done to be furnished with Money for the payment of his Souldiers And that the Emperour with the other Princes of the Empire should assure him That if he were taken by the Turk they should ransome him but in case he were by the great power of the Turk driven out of those Countries then by the Emperours appointment to have some convenient Place allotted for him in the upper Hungary to live in with the yearly pension of an hundred thousand Dollars All which his requests if it would please him to grant he promised this year to do so much against the Turk as had not been done in an hundred years before with vaunt that if he had had the Employment of the Money which was spent in the time of this War he would not have doubted but to have brought all the Countries from the Euxine or black Sea to Buda Alba-Regalis and Solnock under the Emperours Obeisance A large promise indeed but hardly to have been performed by a far greater Prince than he Thus whilst things stood in discourse after the Cardinals Death Sigismund the late Prince in the mean time supported by the Polonians with the Aid of the Turks the Tartars and the Moldavians was ready to have invaded Transilvania yea the Tartars as the forerunners of his great power were already entered the Country and had out of the Frontiers thereof carried away some booty Whereof the Vayvod understanding in great haste assembled his forces out of all places which in short time was grown to some good head the Country People together with the free Haiducks an adventurous and resolute kind of Souldiers in great number daily resorting unto him So being now eight thousand strong and most of them
Device again well prospering in their hand For the Lord Russworm with the Fleet upon the River making a great shew as if he would even presently on that side have entered had with the stir by him raised drawn down most part of the Garrison Souldiers unto that side of the Town where most shew of danger was whilst in the mean time County Sultze with the Governour of Althem before undiscovered upon the sudden by Land sealed the other side of the City and gained the Walls the Turks yet dreaming of no such matter But hereupon began a terrible Out-cry the Turks standing as men astonished especially now feeling the Christians Weapons in their Bodies before they knew they were got into the City In this so great an Amazement such of them as could fled into the strongest Towers the rest hid themselves in Cellaâ—s and other the most secret corners they could find out of which they were afterwards by the Christians drawn and slain They which were retired also into the Towers and other strong places of the City seeing the great Oâ—dnance bent upon them and now out of all hope of Relief offered to yield requesting only that they might with their Wives and Children with Life depart promising for that favour so shewed them to persuade them of Buda also in like manner to yield Upon which Promise that their poor Request was granted and the Lord Nadasti with certain other Captains sent with some of these Citizens of Pesth with their Wives and Children to Buda who coming thither according to their Promise most earnestly requested them of Buda to yield for that they were not now to expect any farther help and that by their foolish Obstinacy they should be the cause of the death of them their Friends their Wives and Children Unto whom also to move them the more the Lord Nadasti promised in the Name of General That they should all excepting some of their chief Commanders in safety depart Howbeit they of Buda would not hearken thereunto but stood still upon their Guard. In this City of Pesth well inhabited with Turkish Merchants the Christians found great store of Wealth which all became a Prey unto the Souldiers with a thousand Horses for Service many great Pieces of Artillery and much other warlike Provision Pesth thus won and a strong Garrison left therein they returned again over the River to besiege the Castle and upper City of Buda which they attempted by undermining the same as also by Battery having placed some of their great Ordnance so high that they could at their pleasure shoot into the midst of the Streets of the City wherewith they much troubled the Turks not a little before discouraged with the loss of Pesth thundring also at the same time with their other Batteries in divers places of the Walls both of the Castle and of the City Where understanding that the Turks Garrisons of the frontier Towns and Castles thereabouts hearing of the Siege were coming to the relief of their distressed Friends they sent out their Horsemen with some part of their Foot-men against them who meeting with them gave them a great Overthrow and so with Victory returned again unto the rest of the Army lying at the Siege being still in hope either by Force or Composition to become Masters of the City But whilst they lay in this hope and having the twelfth of October brought their Approaches nearer unto the Walls had there planted certain notable pieces of Battery with purpose the next day with all their Power to have assaulted the City behold the Visier Bassa hearing by the way as he was going to Belgrade and so to Constantinople that the City of Pesth was won and Buda besieged changing his Mind returned in haste with such Forces as he had yet left and so unlooked for came and sat down before Pesth being not then above five and twenty thousand strong but those all for the most part old and expert Souldiers But whilst the Bassa thus lay at the Siege of Pesth on the one side of the River and the Imperials at the Siege of Buda on the other divers brave Attempts were in both Places given both on the one side and the other The Christians in Pesth besieged by the Turks having amongst them divers brave Captains and desirous of Honour one day under their Conduct sallied out of the City to skirmish with the Turks and coming with them to the Sword by plain Valour disordered them and inforced them to fly and so allured with the sweetness of the Victory pursued them even to the Trenches from whence a great Squadron of the Turks Horse-men and Harquebusiers at the same instant issuing out and with their Multitude overcharging the Imperials constrained them of force to retire in which Retreat County Maximilian Martinengo one of these Adventurers doing what he might both with his Valour and Direction to have stayed the disordered Retreat of the Christians was with many others slain wherewith the rest discouraged took their Refuge towards the City Which they of the Garrison beholding sent out certain Companies to relieve them by whose coming out the fury of the Turks was not only repressed but they also even unto their Trenches again repulâ—ed Shortly after which hot Skirmishes the Lord Russworm with the other Christian Captains on the other side of the River having with continual Battery made such a breach into the Castle as that the same seemed to be now assaultable in good order came on with certain Companies of their Foot-men appointed for that Service and so courageously assailed the Breach where the Turks who before had expected this Assault having in best sort they could repaired the Breach and on both sides thereof placed divers murthering Pieces with great store of dangerous Fire-works at such time as the first Companies of the Christians sought courageously to have entred the breach overwhelmed them with that deadly Fire and so rent them with their murthering shot that they no faster entered but that they were forthwith cut off and slain with the sight whereof they which were appointed to second them nothing discouraged but seeking desperately to have entered and with the taking of the Castle and slaughter of the Turks to have requited the death of their Fellows were themselves in like sort welcomed So that now a thousand of them being lost the Captains considering how much the loss of so many brave Souldiers concerned the whole Enterprise taken in hand and that the breach could not be gained without the loss of the greatest part of them they caused a Retreat to be sounded and so the Assault for that time to be given over But long it was not that the Visier Bassa thus retired as aforesaid had lain before Pesth but that by reason of his sudden Return great Wants began to arise in his Camp his Souldiers for want of Food being glad to eat their dead Horses a pound of Bread being sold for two
Marquess Villa presented him with a Bason of Gold valued at six thousand Ducats together with a Patent recounting at large the many famous Exploits which he had performed in their Service which they expressed with a stile so generous and obliging as may serve for a Record to transmit the Fame of his Merits to all Posterity Marquess Villa being departed from Candia the Captain-General recalled all his Forces from divers parts of the Archipelago which he had sent thither with the Soldiers wounded in the last Battle and being returned they brought with them great numbers of Pioniers and Workmen to labour in the Fortifications and Mines at the same time also the Captain-Pasha arrived at Canea bringing two thousand Janisaries withhim The Marquess St. Andrea Montbrun a Gentleman of the French Nation was transported to Candia by the General Proveditor Cornaro where being entred into the Charge and Office of Marquess Villa wanted nothing of the vigilance and circumspection of his Predecessour And therefore in the first place having visited all the Forts Out-works and Retrenchments of the Town ordered what was necessary for repair of the breaches and amended what was deficient in the most distressed Fortifications And though the Turks fired a Mine the 22 th of August at the point of the Fort St. Andrea which made a most dangerous breach yet it was so valiantly defended and so speedily repaired that the Enemy gained little or no advantage and all by the extraordinary diligence of this Marquess St. Andrea who passed whole months without uncloathing himself and as his nights were without sleep so his days consumed without repose applying himself personally to all places where was most of danger especially at the Fort of St. Andrea where he took up his constant Quarters The Turks now daily pressing the Town more nearly than before Skirmishes and Sallies were more frequent and more bloody so that about this time the Proveditor General Bernardo Nani applying himself with all earnestness in the performance of his Charge was slain by a Musket-shot in his head his death was much lamented by all being a Gentleman who was born as may be said in the Fleet having had his Education there and passed his youth in Wars and dangers for the safety and honour of his Country Girolamo Bataglia was elected by the Republick to succeed him in the Office whose death was also seconded by that of Francesco Bataglia Brother of the Duke of Candia being shot in the breast with a Musket-bullet and though he was sent thither to administer Justice to the People yet his zeal and courage carrying him to Martial Acts beyond his duty made a grave for him amongst the other Heroes and Worthies of that place The Turk approaching daily nearer with their Works infested very much the passage of Vessels to the Town and shot so directly into the Port that no Ship Galley or Bark could remain in any security from their Cannon to remedy which a small Redoubt was raised at Tramata which being well and strongly fortified served for a small Port under the shelter of which the lesser Vessels found some protection and was of great relief to the distressed City About this time the Popes Gallies with those of Malta arrived commanded by Fra. Vincenzo Rospigliosi the Popes Nephew who having not brought a greater number of people than what served to man their Gallies they were not able to spare many for defence of the Town The long continuance of this Siege and the same thereof noised through the whole World moved the heroick and gallant Spirits of our Age to descend into this Campus Martius this Field of War and give proofs of their Prowess and Valour in defence of the Christan Cause some being moved by a principle of vain-glory proceeding from the briskness of a youthful and aery Spirit and others from the sense of Devotion and fervour towards Religion amongst which none were more forward than some Gentleman of the French Nation as namely Monsieur La Fueillade alias Duke of Roanez with the Count St. Paul a young Cavalier to forward which design taking first the Licence and Benediction of their King they appointed their Rendezvous at Tolon where they listed two hundred Gentleman Cadets or younger Brothers who went in quest of Honour and not of Pay with four hundred ordinary Souldiers who expected their maintenance from the bounty of their Leaders The chief of whom was Monsieur La Fueillade and his Lieutenant the Chevalier De Tresmes Their whole Body was divided into four Bridgades The first commanded by Count St. Paul. The second by the Duke Dâ— Cardâ—â—ousse The third by the Count De Villa Maur. And the fourth by the Duke De Cheateau Tiery When these Persons of Honour and Courage arrived at Candia they found the City hardly beset and reduced to a strait and difficult condition for the Turks were advanced so near to the Fort of St. Andrea that the Souldiers within and without could cross their Muskets and reach Tobaco one to the other howsoever this breach was so well repaired with a good Palissado fortified with several Bonnets and a double Retrenchment on the Bastion it self and a third Retrenchment of squared stone withal that the courage of the Besieged being nothing abated by the many and furious assaults of the Enemy the Town still remained in a defensible posture and still capable with good Succours and Supplies to yield matter of imployment for several years to the Ottoman Forces These worthy Champions as I said being arrived moved with the sense of Religion and desire of glory to themselves challenged the priviledge of mounting the Guard of St. Andrea but that being already prepossessed by the Knights of Malta and other Officers of the place was refused to them Howsoever the Captain-General Morosini was pleased to gratifie them with the Guard of a small Chapel over that Bastion on the right hand of the breach a place of no less danger and therefore of no less honour than the other with which the Cavaliers being satisfied Monsieur St. Paul mounted the Guard one day at six a clock in the morning and continued there â—â—til the same hour of the day following during which time he lost his Major Dupre and Monâ—ieur De Marenval the latter of which had his brains knocked out with so violent a blow of a great shot that some pieces of his skull dangerously wounded the Sieurs De Chamilly and De Lare who were near to him and more maliciously did the Turks ply the stations of these new-come Guests than any others throwing Bomboes Granadoes Stink-pots and other sorts of artificial Fire without cessation into their Quarters notwithstandiug which this young Prince and Monsieur La Fueillade exposed themselves like common Souldiers animating their men more with their example than their words And now by this time by so many Works and removals of Earth by so many Traverses and Mines under ground and throwing up the
any grant of savour or dispensation The Mahometan Religion tolerates Christian Churches and Houses of Devotion in places where they have been anciently founded but admits not of holy Buiâ—dings on new foundations they may repair the old Coverings and Roofs but cannot lay a Stone in a new place Consecrated to Divine Service nor if Fire or any accident destroy the Superstructure may a new strength be added to the foundation wherewith to underprop for another Building so that at last the Christian Churches in those Dominions must necessarily come to ruin as many already have submitted to the common fate of time And as it happened in the great and notable Fires of Galata first and then of Constantinople in the year 1660 that many of the Christian Churches and Chapels were brought to Ashes and afterwards by the Piety and Zeal of Christians scarce re-edified before by publick order they were thrown down again into their former heaps being judged contrary to the Turkish Law to permit Churches again to be restored of which no more remained than the meer foundation CHAP. III. The Arts wherewith the Turkish Religion is propagated THE Turks though they offer the specious outside of the foregoing toleration yet by their Law are authorized to enforce Mens Consciences to the profession of their Faith and that is done by various arts and niceties of Religion For if a man turn Turk his Children under the age of 14 years though educated with other Principles must be forced to the same persuasion Men that speak against the Mahometan Law that have rashly promised at a time of distraction or drunkenness to become Turks or have had a carnal knowledge of a Turkish Woman must either become Martyrs or Apostates besides many other subtilties they have to entrap the Souls of Christians within the entanglements of their Law. It is another Policy wherewith the Mahometan Sect hath been encreased the accounting it a Principle of Religion not to deliver a City or Fortress by consent or voluntary surrender where Mosques have been once built and Mahometanism professed And therefore the Turk no sooner enters a Town by Conquest but immediately lays foundation for his Temples thereby imposing an obligation of an obstinate and constant resolution on the conscience of the defendants which many times hath been found to have been more forcible and prevalent on the spirits of men than all the terrours and miseries of Famine Sword or other calamities It is well enough known upon what different interests Christianity and Mahometanism were introduced into the World the first had no other enforcements than the persuasions and Sermons of a few poor Fishermen verified with Miracles Signs and Inspiration of the Holy Ghost carrying before it the promises of another life and considerations of a glorified spirituality in a state of separation but the way to it was obstructed with the opposition of Emperours and Kings with scorn and contempt with persecution and death and this was all the encouragement proposed to Mankind to embrace this Faith but Mahometanism made its way with the Sword what knots of Argument he could not untie he cut and made his spiritual power as large as his temporal made his precepts easie and pleasant and acceptable to the fancy and appetite as well as to the capacity of the vulgar representing Heaven to them not in a spiritual manner or with delights unexpressible and ravishments known onely in part of illuminated Souls but with gross conceptions of the beauty of Women with great Eyes of the duration of one act of Carnal copulation for the space of sixty years and of the beastly satisfaction of a gluttonous Palate things absurd and ridiculous to wise and knowing Men but yet capable to draw multudes of its professours and carnal defenders of its verity And this Doctrine being irrational to the better sort of judgments causes the Lawyers who are men of the subtilest capacities amongst the Turks to mistrust much of the truth of the Doctrine of Mahomet especially the assertions relating to the condition of the other life For the representation of the delights of the next World in a corporeal and sensual manner being inconsistent with their reason leads them to doubt the truth of that point and so wavering with one scruple proceed to a mistrust of the whole System of the Mahometan Faith. One would think that in such men a way were prepared for the entertainment of a Religion erected on more solid principles and foundations and that the Jews might gain such Proselytes to their Law from which a great part of the Mahometan superstition was borrowed or that the Christians might take advantage in so well disposed subjects to produce something of the Mystery of Godliness But the first are a people so obnoxious to scorn and contempt esteemed by the Turks to be the scum of the World and the worst of men that it is not probable their Doctrine can gain a reputation with those to whom their very persons and bloud are vile and detestable nor is it likely the Christians will ever be received by them with greater Authority and more favourable inclination untill they acquit themselves of the scandal of Idolatry which the Images and Pictures in their Churches seem to accuse them of in the eyes and judgment of the Turks who are not versed in the subtile distinctions of Schoolmen in the limitations and restrictions of that Worship and the evasions of their Doctours matters not onely sufficient to puzzle and distract the gross heads of Turks but to strain the wits of learned Christians to clear them from that imputation But to return to our purpose The propagation of the Mahometan Faith having been promoted wholly by the Sword that persuasion and principle in their Catechism that the Souls of those who die in the Wars against the Christians without the help of previous acts of performance of their Law or other Works are immediately transported to Paradise must necessarily whet the Swords and raise the Spirits of the Soldiers which is the reason that such Multitudes of them as we read in History run evidently to their own Slaughter esteeming their Lives and Bodies at no greater price than the value of Stones and Rubbish to fill Rivulets and Ditches that they may but erect a Bridge or Passage for their fellows to assault their Enemieâ— The success of the Mahometan Arms produced another argument for the confirmation of their Faith and made it a Principle That whatsoever prospers hath God for the Authour and by how much more successfull have been their Wars by so much the more hath God been an owner of their Cause and Religion And the same argument if I am not mistaken in the times of the late Rebellion in England was made use of by many to intitle God to their Cause and make him the Authour of their thriving Sin because their wickedness prospered and could trample on all holy and humane Rights with impunity And I have known that
Christians taken and sacked The Turks for fear forsake the Castle of Boulouvenar The Turks fled out of the Castle of Boulouvenar surprised and overthrown Moyses by Basta overthrown flyeth unto his strong Castle of Solomose He with his Wife and Family flieth unto the Turks Basta besiegeth the Turks in the Castle Solomose The Castle of Solomose by the Turks yielded up to Basta Basta's Admonitions to them of Transilvania The Answer of the Transilvanians unto the Admonitions of Basta New Enterprises by the Rebel Moises in Transilvania He with Ensigns display'd entreth into Transilvania Wiscebourg besieged by Moises Wiscebourg yielded to Moises Moises in great favour with Mahomet A General besieged loseth his Reputation Basta prayeth Aid of the Governour of Cassovia The Vayvod of Valachia sendeth Aid to the Relief of Basta Moises raiseth his Siege The Bassa of Temeswar calleth home his Turks out of Transilvania for the repressing of the Haiducks Claudinople besieged by Moises Claudinople yielded to Moises Moises sendeth for his Wife and Family to Temeswar The Janizaries of Temeswar refuse to deliver Moises's Wife and Family The Valachians by Moises put to flight Moises with his Army by the Valachians overthrown and himself slain Moises's Head upon a Lance set up at Carolstad New Rebels in Transilvania discomfited An honourable Present by the L. Basta sent unto the Emperour County Solmes surprising Wiscenbourg is himself taken Prisoner A great Army of the Christians The Turks Army of 100000 men in Field The shameful â—light of certain of the Garrison Souldiers of Pesth unto the Turks at Buda Pesth victualled The Suburbs of Alba-Regalis by the Christians sacked and burnt Anoâ—her Convoy of Victuals by Land put into Pesth The Castle of Adom upon a vain fear forsaken by the Haiducks who had the keeping thereof Sultan Mahomet among his greatest Pleasures perplexed Mahomet in vain seeketh to makePeace with the Rebels in Asia Mahomet seeing his Offers rejected by the Rebels of Asia covertly seeketh for Peace with the Christians The Letters of Achmet Bassa to Collonitz concerning a Treaty of Peace to be had The Emperour advertised of the Turks motion for Peace giveth order to Collonitz for the entertaining thereof The Turks unreasonable demands break off all the Treaty of Peace A notable Enterprise of Collonitz upon the Avaunt-guard of the Turks Army Collonitz in good time relieved by the Haiducks The Turks Affairs and Designs made known unto the Christians by Saxar Beg by them taken Prisoner The Negligence of certain Christian Souldiers forgetful of divers Duties The great and brave Indeavour of Collonitz to have obtained the Victory over the Turks A great and rich Booty lost through the negligence of the Christians The Lord Russworm General of the Christian Army by his Espials certainly informed of the estate of the Turks Army The Turks overthrown by the Garrison of Strigonium The Turks defeated by Collonel Sultze The General of the Christian Army providently fortifieth upon the River of Danubius The Turks assailing one of the Forts of the Christians with loss repulsed The Turks made a Bridge over the River of Danubius A great Ambush laid for the intercepting of the Turks The Turks falling into the Ambuâ—h laid for them by the Christians receive a notable overthrow Sultan Mahomet much troubled in his Affairs The doings of the Rebels in Asia The great City of Tauris besieged and taken by the Persian King. Sultan Mahomet perplexed with the evil Success of his Affairs falleth to his superstitious Devotions A great fight of a Flemish Ship with the Gallies of Amurat Rais. The Turks in a Skirmish by the Christians overthrown Eghty Italian Renegades hanged The Turks Army greatly diminished and discouraged The Christians with their Army follow the Turks The Christians resolve to give the Turks Battel The Turks seek to draw the Christians into the danger of their Ambush A Conflict betwixt the Turks and the Christians The Turks refuse to come to a general Battel with the Christians Erasbles what manner of Souldiers they are among the Turks Collonitz in governing about to surprise the Turks with loss repulsed and himself indangered The Bridge of Lamascin taken and broken by the Governour of Stiria The Christians offer the Turks Battel The Turks â—â—â—use to â—â—â—ept of 〈…〉 them 〈…〉 The great Bassa having victualled Buda secretly by Night riseth with his Army and retireth out of Hungary The Christians after the departure of the Turks resolve to besiege Hatwan Hatwan taken and dismantled by Maxamilian the Arch-duke in the year 1594. Hatwan again fortified by the Turks Hatwan besieged by the Christians Grasold General of the Italians slain The Turks in Hatwan crave Parley Hatwan yielded unto the Christians The Lord Russworm breaks up his Army and sendeth the Ensigns gained from the Turks for a present to the Archduke Matthias Insolent Souldiers justly punished The Souldiers of the Regiment of the Reingrave evil billited by Extremities driven to provide for themselves The Peasants of Austria seek by force to stay the Passage of the Souldiers of the Reingraves Regiment into their Country The Churles of Austria overthrown Divers happy Conflicts of the Christians with the Turks and Tartars Beged Bassa thinking to have surprised the Lord Basta is himself by him surprised and overthrown Bethlin Habor chosen chiâ—f of the Rebels in Transilvania Basta's scornful Answer to the Messenger of Bethlin Basta sendâ—â—h for new Supplies unto the Emperour for the keeping of Transilvania Zellaly cometh into Bosna By Policy overthroweth Zeffer Bassa the Governour and possesseth it himself Sultan Mahomet sendeth for Zellaly to come unto him to Constantinople Zellaly refuseth to come to Constantinople at the great Sultan's sending for Commissioners appointed to confer upon a Peace to be made betwixt the Christians and the Turks The Causes which moved the Turks to encline to Peace The Bassa of Buda faileth to meet the Christian Commissioners according to his Promise An evil Presage of the future Peace The Christian Commissioners courteously entertained at Buda A Truce for twelve days agreed upon betwixt the Turks and the Christians Presents by the Turks given to the Christian Commissioners The true and just Commendation of the Lord Nadasti The Death of the Lord Nadasâ—i The Turks overthrown by the Vayvod of Valachia The small time of Truce yieldeth great contentment both unto the Christians and Turks in Hungary The Death of the Great Sultan Mahomet Mahomet why he was not regarded of his men of War Mahomet's Issue Mahomet how he lieth buried at Constantinople The Turks bury not in their Churches neither within the Walls of theirCities but in the Fields Achmat by excessive bounty procureth the favour of his great Courtiers and men of War. Achmat Crowned Emperour of the Turks at Constantinople Achmat removeth his Grandmother from dealing with matters ofState 1604 The Turks diversly conceited of their new Emperour The Treaty for Peace in Hungary continued The Turks honourably feasted by the Christianâ— near Pesth The Turks by Treachery seek