Romania -- Description and travel; Romania -- History
still to be found on the maps, on the line of railway from Giurgevo to
Bucarest; and it only differed from Thermopylæ in the fact that the
enemy was not alone checked in his career, but for the time the little
army of Roumanians and their allies were completely victorious.
Nothing could have exceeded the astonishment of Sinan Pasha when he
found Michael ready to give him battle with his handful of patriots; but
as he proceeded to make his dispositions for the onslaught, he found
that his adversary possessed in his favourable position much to
compensate him for his inferior numbers. The nature of the ground was
such that Sinan could not employ the whole, nor even the major part, of
his forces, and Michael and his allies were protected by a morass and
river, which rendered it necessary for the Turks to concentrate their
whole attack upon a single road and bridge crossing the latter. At this
bridge the battle was practically fought. Michael and his forces for a
long time sustained the attack of the Ottomans, who had posted their
guns so as to commit havoc in the ranks of the allies, until these,
fighting hand to hand, were obliged to retreat. The Turks followed and
had made sure of their victory, when Albert Kiraly succeeded in bringing
two guns into a favourable position, and by a flank fire threw the enemy
into confusion. Of this circumstance Michael availed himself once more
to renew the attack, this time with the most happy results. The enemy
retreated in disorder over the bridge, and by the furious onslaught of
the allies his hosts were driven helter-skelter into the morass. On the
one hand Michael is said to have performed prodigies of valour, whilst
on the other Sinan Pasha, who fought with equal bravery, was unhorsed
and thrown into the bog, from which he only escaped with his life
through the fidelity of one of his followers, who was afterwards known
as the 'Marsher.' Michael recovered his own guns, which had been
captured early in the fight, as well as many of the enemy's, along with
a great booty comprising many Turkish standards, and including the
sacred standard of Mohammed, which was believed to be invincible. Thus
ended a struggle of which to this day Roumanians are proud, and which
they associate with the memory of their greatest hero. This battle was
fought and won at some indefinite date between August 13 and 26, 1595.
The rest of the campaign may be dismissed in a few sentences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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