Ferdinand, in inexpressible alarm, sent
ambassadors to Solyman, hoping to avert the storm by conciliation and
concessions. This indication of weakness but increased the arrogance of
the Turk.
He embarked his artillery on the Danube in a flotilla of three thousand
vessels. Then crossing the Save, which at Belgrade flows into the
Danube, he left the great central river of Europe on his right, and
marching almost due west through Sclavonia, approached the frontiers of
Styria, one of the most important provinces of the Austrian kingdom, by
the shortest route. Still it was a long march of some two hundred miles.
Among the defiles of the Illyrian mountains, through which he was
compelled to pass in his advance to Vienna, he came upon the little
fortress of Guntz, garrisoned only by eight hundred men. Solyman
expected to sweep this slight annoyance away as he would brush a fly
from his face. He sent his advance guard to demolish the impudent
obstacle; then, surprised by the resistance, he pushed forward a few
more battalions; then, enraged at the unexpected strength developed, he
ordered to the attack what he deemed an overwhelming force; and then, in
astonishment and fury, impelled against the fortress the combined
strength of his whole army.
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