ded over them.
From Raab the invading army advanced some hundred miles further to the
very walls of Vienna. Ferdinand, conscious of his inability to meet the
foe in the open field, was concentrating all his available strength to
defend his capital.

At Cremnitz the Turks met with the first serious show of resistance. The
fortress was strong, and the garrison, inspired by the indomitable
energy and courage of their commandant, Nicholas, Count of Salm, for a
month repelled every assault of the foe. Day after day and night after
night the incessant bombardment continued; the walls were crumbed by the
storm of shot; column after column of the Turks rushed to the assault,
but all in vain. The sultan, disappointed and enraged, made one last
desperate effort, but his strong columns, thined, mangled and bleeding,
were compelled to retire in utter discomfiture.

Winter was now approaching. Reinforcements were also hastening from
Vienna, from Bohemia, and from other parts of the German empire.
Solyman, having devastated the country around him, and being all
unprepared for the storms of winter, was compelled to retire. He struck
his tents, and slowly and sullenly descended the Danube, wreaking
diabolical vengeance upon the helpless peasants, killing, burning and
destroying. Leaving a strong garrison to hold what remained of Buda and
Pest, he carried thousands with him into captivity, where, after years
of woe, they passed into the grave.

"'Tis terrible to rouse the lion,
Dreadful to cross the tiger's path;
But the most terrible of terrors,
Is man himself in his wild wrath."

Solyman spent two years in making preparation for another march to
Vienna, resolved to wipe out the disgrace of his last defeat by
capturing all the Austrian States, and of then spreading the terror of
his arms far and wide through the empire of Germany. The energy with
which he acted may be inferred from one well authenticated anecdote
illustrative of his character. He had ordered a bridge to be constructed
across the Drave. The engineer who had been sent to accomplish the task,
after a careful survey, reported that a bridge could not be constructed
at that point. Solyman sent him a linen cord with this message:

"The sultan, thy master, commands thee, without consideration of the
difficulties, to complete the bridge over the Drave. If thou doest it
not, on his arrival he will have thee strangled with this cord."

With a large army, tho