accommodation but upon the basis of the surrender of Belgrade. The Turks
carried their point in every thing. The emperor surrendered Belgrade,
relinquished to them Orsova, agreed to demolish all the fortresses of
his own province of Media, and ceded to Turkey Servia and various other
contiguous districts. It was a humiliating treaty for Austria. Already
despoiled in Italy and on the Rhine, the emperor was now compelled to
abandon to the Turks extensive territories and important fortresses upon
the lower Danube.

General Schmettan, totally unconscious of these proceedings, was
conducting the defense of Belgrade with great vigor and with great
success, when he was astounded by the arrival of a courier in his camp,
presenting to him the following laconic note from Count Neuperg:

"Peace was signed this morning between the emperor, our master, and the
Porte. Let hostilities cease, therefore, on the receipt of this. In half
an hour I shall follow, and announce the particulars myself."

General Schmettan could hardly repress his indignation, and, when Count
Neuperg arrived, intreated that the surrender of Belgrade might be
postponed until the terms had been sent to the emperor for his
ratification. But Neuperg would listen to no such suggestions, and,
indignant that any obstacle should be thrown in the way of the
fulfillment of the treaty, menacingly said,

"If you choose to disobey the orders of the emperor, and to delay the
execution of the article relative to Belgrade, I will instantly dispatch
a courier to Vienna, and charge you with all the misfortunes which may
result. I had great difficulty in diverting the grand vizier from the
demand of Sirmia, Sclavonia and the bannat of Temeswar; and when I have
dispatched a courier, I will return into the Turkish camp and protest
against this violation of the treaty."

General Schmettan was compelled to yield. Eight hundred janissaries took
possession of one of the gates of the city; and the Turkish officers
rode triumphantly into the streets, waving before them in defiance the
banners they had taken at Crotzka. The new fortifications were blown up,
and the imperial army, in grief and shame, retired up the river to
Peterwardein. They had hardly evacuated the city ere Count Neuperg, to
his inexpressible mortification, received a letter from the emperor
stating that nothing could reconcile him to the idea of surrendering
Belgrade but the conviction that its defense was utterly