Only a few companions were with him,
while around him crowded the dense columns of the foe. In a few minutes
more he would have been overpowered and destroyed, had not the German
cavalry perceived his peril and come at full gallop to his rescue,
scattering with the vigor of their charge the turbaned assailants, and
snatching him from the very hands of death.
So sudden and fierce was the assault, so poorly led the Turkish
horsemen, and so alarming to them the war-cry of Sobieski's men, that in
a short time they were completely overthrown, and were soon in flight
in all directions. This, however, was but a partial success. The main
body of the Turkish army had taken no part. Their immense camp, with its
thousands of tents, maintained its position, and the batteries continued
to bombard the city as if in disdain of the paltry efforts of their
foes.
Yet it seems to have been rather rage and alarm than disdain that
animated the vizier. He is said to have, in a paroxysm of fury, turned
the scimitars of his followers upon the prisoners in his camp,
slaughtering thirty thousand of these unfortunates, while bidding his
cannoneers to keep up their assault upon the city.
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