The Poles hastily buried their dead in order to conceal their losses, and were so dispirited that the king could scarcely persuade them to wipe out the defeat. ♦Great victory of Sobieski at Parkan.♦ Although three days after he says that his body is “as black as a coal,”[115] his exertions were unremitting to prepare his army for a grand attack. The Turks, as he had expected, were elated at their victory. A report spread widely among them, which even reached the European courts, that the hero had been slain; and they took a fresh lease of courage. The Vizier sent them reinforcements; and when, two days later (October 9th), the Christian army defiled into the plain of Parkan, they found a large force drawn up to receive them. The same morning the Turks commenced the attack, and repeatedly charged the left wing commanded by Jablonowski. They were beaten back with splendid courage; the steady advance of the king with the right wing upon the fort of Parkan threw them into confusion; and when the Christians charged in their turn, the Turks gave way on all sides. ♦Storming of the fort.♦ The fort was taken by storm, and no quarter was given;[116] numbers of fugitives were drowned in the Danube; several pachas were captured, and at least 40,000 Turks perished. Writing to the queen on the following day, John speaks of the victory as “even greater than that of Vienna.” ♦Flight of the Vizier.♦ The Vizier was seized with dismay, and fled precipitately to Belgrade. His flight enabled the king to exclaim with pride that now at last, after two hundred years of slavery, Hungary was delivered from the infidel. He adds, “This has surpassed my expectation, and I believe that of my contemporaries.”[117] ♦Capture of Strigonia.♦ John was anxious at once to lay siege to Buda, which he regarded as the goal of the campaign, but the Duke of Lorraine persuaded him to begin with Strigonia. This was one of the strongest fortresses in Hungary, and had been occupied by the Turks for a hundred and forty years. Yet the place surrendered in a fortnight, although the garrison was composed of 5,000 janissaries. Well might the Turkish pachas exclaim to the Poles that their king was raised up by God to be the scourge of Islam.[118]