In 1552 Solyman besieged Temesvar, which was defended by the brave Lasonczy. The wife of the latter led an army to the relief of her husband, and attacked the Turkish camp, but she was soon defeated. The revolt of the German garrison soon after compelled Lasonczy to surrender. The town of Erlau, besieged at the same time, withstood gallantly the repeated assaults of a numerous army. Its fortifications were of the poorest description, and the garrison small, but the valour, the patriotism of the townspeople supplied every deficiency. Old men and young girls, sword and spear in hand, aided in the defence. One woman was fighting beside her husband when he fell, pierced by a Turkish bullet. Her mother, who was also assisting to defend the wall, now wished to remove the body, and suggested that they should devote themselves to seeing it honourably interred. But the young widow refused to leave the scene of action. "May God," she cried, "never suffer the earth to cover my husband's corpse, till his death has been amply avenged. This is the hour of battle, not a time for funeral and for tears." She seized the shield and sword of her dead husband, and rushing upon the Turks, refused to leave the breach, till by the slaughter of three infidels she had satisfied her thirst for revenge. Then she raised the corpse of her lord, and bore it to the principal church in the town, where she paid to it the last honours with great splendour. When the Turks were besieging Alba, several women, whose husbands had been slain, volunteered to defend the walls. The Turks were amazed at the cool bravery with which these female warriors defended the various posts assigned to them. For several hours they held a bastion, the possession of which was deemed highly important by both Turks and Christians. Every Turk who endeavoured to scale the bastion had his head struck with a scythe. For more than three months, thanks to the valour of the women, the town of Valpon set the Mussulman power at defiance, backed though the latter was by all the appliances of war. The same resistance met them at Agria, not far from Valpon, where the wives and daughters of the citizens carried oil, pitch, boiling water, molten lead, etc., to pour on the heads of the Turks. One woman was struck down by a cannon ball just as she was about to hurl a big stone on the skulls of the infidels. Her daughter, seeing her fall, was filled with the thirst for revenge. Rushing to the breach, she fought with the desperate bravery of a lioness deprived of her cubs, slaying and wounding on all sides. At last she was herself slain. One of the citizens fighting on the ramparts observed his son-in-law struck dead by a musket-ball. Turning to his wife, he asked her to carry away the corpse and render to it the last offices. "There is another duty more pressing," replied she. "That of defending our religion and our country comes before love. To them I will give the last drop of my blood."