Bassompierre sets out for Hungary to serve as a volunteer in the Imperial Army against the Turks--His journey to Vienna--He learns that the commander-in-chief of the army is General von Rossworm, a mortal enemy of the Bassompierre family--He is advised by his friends in Vienna to take service in the Army of Transylvania, instead of in that of Hungary, but declines to change his plans--He sups more well than wisely at Gran--His arrival at the Imperialist camp before Buda--Position of the hostile armies--Bassompierre is presented to Rossworm--He narrowly escapes being killed or taken prisoner by the Turks--He takes part in a fierce combat in the Isle of Adon, and has another narrow escape--He is reconciled with Rossworm--Massacre of eight hundred Turkish prisoners--Failure of a night-attack planned by the Imperialist general--Gallant but foolhardy enterprise of the Hungarians--The Turks bombard the Imperialist headquarters--Termination of the campaign--Bassompierre returns with Rossworm to Vienna. Peace having been concluded between France and Savoy, tranquillity reigned for the moment in Europe, except in Hungary, where the eternal conflict between the Cross and the Crescent continued to be waged as bitterly as ever. In those days, war, with very few exceptions, was the only road which led to honour and renown, and when Christians were at peace with one another, the Turks became the objective of all adventurous spirits, who went to fight the Infidel in Hungary, Crete, or Malta as their ancestors flocked to the Crusades. Moreover, it was not without mortification that the German relatives of Bassompierre, who had seen all his family entirely devoted to the profession of arms, beheld him passing his youth at the Court of France in voluptuous idleness, and, to wean him from it, they obtained for him the offer of the command of a regiment of 3,000 men which the Circle of Bavaria had agreed to contribute to the Imperial Army in Hungary for the campaign of 1603. Bassompierre, however, though willing enough to go to Hungary, had the good sense to decline this post, “not deeming it fitting,” he writes, “that, without any knowledge of the country, I should straightway take command of 3,000 men,” and decided to serve as a simple volunteer.