troops, was compelled to retreat precipitately before
outnumbering foes, and he fled upon the Danube, pursued by the combined
Hungarians and Turks, until he found refuge within the walls of Vienna.
The city was quite unprepared for resistance, its fortifications being
dilapidated, and its garrison feeble. Universal consternation seized the
inhabitants. All along the valley of the Danube the population fled in
terror before the advance of the Turks. Leopold, with his family, at
midnight, departed ingloriously from the city, to seek a distant refuge.
The citizens followed the example of their sovereign, and all the roads
leading westward and northward from the city were crowded with
fugitives, in carriages, on horseback and on foot, and with all kinds of
vehicles laden with the treasures of the metropolis. The churches were
filled with the sick and the aged, pathetically imploring the protection
of Heaven.

The Duke of Lorraine conducted with great energy, repairing the
dilapidated fortifications, stationing in posts of peril the veteran
troops, and marshaling the citizens and the students to cooeperate with
the garrison. On the 14th of July, 1682, the banners of the advance
guard of the Turkish army were seen from the walls of Vienna. Soon the
whole mighty host, like an inundation, came surging on, and, surrounding
the city, invested it on all sides. The terrific assault from
innumerable batteries immediately commenced. The besieged were soon
reduced to the last extremity for want of provisions, and famine and
pestilence rioting within the walls, destroyed more than the shot of the
enemy. The suburbs were destroyed, the principal outworks taken, several
breaches were battered in the walls, and the terrified inhabitants were
hourly in expectation that the city would be taken by storm. There can
not be, this side of the world of woe, any thing more terrible than such
an event.

The emperor, in his terror, had dispatched envoys all over Germany to
rally troops for the defense of Vienna and the empire. He himself had
hastened to Poland, where, with frantic intreaties, he pressed the king,
the renowned John Sobieski, whose very name was a terror, to rush to his
relief. Sobieski left orders for a powerful army immediately to commence
their march. But, without waiting for their comparatively slow
movements, he placed himself at the head of three thousand Polish
horsemen, and, without incumbering himself with luggage, like the