an apoplectic fit. They carried him away, thinking him dead.
He was afterward successfully cured; but, being informed of his
accident I went to replace him, and the fort was taken. The Prince of
Dombes narrowly escaped being killed at my side by a bullet which made
my horse rear. Marcilly was killed in bravely defending a post which I
had charged him to intrench. He demanded succor from Rudolph Heister,
who refused him, and who was deservedly killed as a punishment for his
cowardice, by a cannon-ball which reached him behind his
chevaux-de-frise. I arrived, accidentally at first, with a large escort;
I sent for a large detachment; I halted, and completely beat the
janizaries, leaving, indeed, five hundred men killed upon the field,
Taxis, Visconti, Suger, etc. The Pacha of Roumelia, the best officer of
the Mussulmans, lost his life also.

On July 22d my batteries were finished. I bombarded, burned, and
destroyed the place so much that they would have capitulated if they had
not heard that the grand vizier had arrived at Missa, on the 30th, with
two hundred fifty thousand men.

On August 1st we saw them on the heights which overlooked my camp,
extending in a semicircle from Krotzka as far as Dedina. The Mussulmans
formed the most beautiful amphitheatre imaginable, very agreeable to
look at, excellent for a painter, but hateful to a general. Enclosed
between this army and a fortress which had thirty thousand men in
garrison, the Danube on the right, and the Save on the left, my
resolution was formed. I intended to quit my lines and attack them,
notwithstanding their advantage of ground: but the fever, which had
already raged in my army, did not spare me. Behold me seriously ill, and
in my bed, instead of being at the head of my troops, whom I wished to
lead the road to honor.

I can easily conceive that this caused a little uneasiness at the court,
in the city, and even in my army. It required boldness and good-fortune
to extricate one's self from it. The general who might have succeeded me
would, and indeed, almost must, have thought that he should be lost if
he retreated, and be beaten if he did not retreat. Every day made our
situation worse. The numerous artillery of the Turks had arrived on the
heights of which I have spoken. We were so bombarded with it, as well as
with that from the garrison, that I knew not where to put my tent, for,
in going in and out, many of my domestics had been killed. In the small
skirmi