Turkish costume, save that he wore the
leather jerkin of a German horseman, into
the high-street, and waving a white cloth, he
called out in the Hungarian language, to those
of us who were in the fortress, that if we
would ask for grace, both we and ours should
be protected, and a safe conduct (salva quartia)
given to us that should be our future defence.
Thereupon we held honest council together,
citizens and neighbours then present, and in
the meantime gave reply, translated also into
Hungarian, that if we should agree thereto,
we would set up a white flag upon the tower
as a sign of our submission. Early on the
morning of the nineteenth of July, there came a
Pacha from the camp at Vienna, at the head of a
great army, and with him the same Turk who
had on the previous day made the proposal to
us. And the Pacha sat himself down upon a
red carpet spread on the bare ground, close by
the house of Herr Streninger, till we should
agree to his terms. It was five o'clock in
the morning before we could make up our
minds.

"Then, when we were all willing to
surrender, our enemies demanded, in the first
place, that two of our men should march
out of the fortiess as hostages, and that
two Turks should take their places with us;
and that a maiden, with loose streaming
hair, and a wreath upon her forehead, should
bring forth the key of the town, seeing
that this place had never till then been
taken by an enemy. Further, they demanded
six thousand florins ransom from us, which,
however, we bated to four thousand, handing
to them two thousand florins at once, upon
three dishes, with the request that the
remainder should be allowed to stand over
till the forthcoming day of John the Baptist.
As soon as this money had been paid over to
them, the Pacha called such of our faithful
garrison as were in the church to come out
and arrange themselves in the square, that he
might see how many safe-conducts were
required; but, as each armed man came to the
door, his musket was torn out of his hand,
and such as resisted were dragged by the hair
of the head into the square by the Turks,
and told that they would need no weapons,
seeing that to those who sought for mercy
the passes would be sufficient protection.
And thus were our arms carried away
from us.

"As soon as the whole garrison, thus
utterly defenceless, were collected in the
public square, there sprung fifty Turks from
their horses, and with great rudeness began
searching every one of them for money or
other valuables; and the citizens began
already to see that they were betrayed into a
surrender, and some of them tried to make
their escape—among others, Herr Streninger,
the town-justice; but he was struck down
immediately, and he was the first man
murdered. Upon this, the Pacha stood up, and
began to call out with a loud, clear voice to
his troops, and as they heard his words, they
fell upon the unarmed men in the market-
place, and hewed them down with their
scimetars without pity or remorse—sparing
none in their eagerness for the butchery, and
which, in spite of their haste, was not ended
till between one and two o'clock in the
afternoon. Of all our citizens, only two escaped
the slaughter, and they contrived to hide
themselves in the tower, but those who fled
out of the town were captured by the
Tartars, and instantly dispatched. Then, having
committed this cruel barbarism, they seized
the women and children who had been left
for safety in the church, and carried them
away into slavery, taking care to burn and
utterly destroy the fortress ere they departed.
And when Vienna was relieved, and the good
people there came among the ruins of
Bertholdsdorf, they gathered together the
headless and mangled remains of our murdered
citizens to the number of three thousand
five hundred, and buried them all in one
grave."

In " eternal remembrance " of this
catastrophe, the worthy town-justice, Trinksgeld,
in seventeen hundred ordered a painting to be
executed, representing the fearful scene
described. It occupies the whole of one side of
the Town-hall, and in its quaint minuteness
of detail, and defiance of perspective—
depicting, not merely the slaughter of the
betrayed Bertholdsdorfers, but the concealment
of the two who were fortunate enough to
escape, and who are helplessly apparent
behind some loose timber—would be
ludicrous, were it not for the sacred gravity of the
subject.

As it is, we quit the romantic little town
with a sigh, and turning our faces towards
Vienna, wonder what the Young Turks of
eighteen hundred and fifty-four may possibly
think of the Old Turks of one hundred and
thirty years ago.

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