The Cavaliers of Fortune; Or, British Heroes in Foreign WarsGrant, James
History
The Cavaliers of Fortune; Or, British Heroes in Foreign Wars
Grant, James
British -- Foreign countries; Great Britain -- History, Military
Oczakow, or _Dziar Cremenda_, had then about 5000 houses, a mosque,
a palace, with a number of tombs of the Crimean khans, which stood
among their gardens and orchards. It had a castle, built by Vitolaus,
Duke of Lithuania, and therein a Turkish garrison had been established
since 1644. Munich and Lacy assailed the town and castle on the
landward side; but towards the sea they were attacked by the cannon
of eighteen galleys. The Muscovites carried all their approaches with
such impetuosity and perseverance, that, in a few days, the Turks and
Tartars became filled with terror.
Among those who distinguished themselves particularly in this service
were, General the Honourable James Keith (brother of the exiled Earl
Marischal of Scotland), who was dangerously wounded in the thigh, and
another Jacobite exile, Colonel Count Brown, a brave Irishman--"A
Catholic," says Tooke, "who was compelled to seek his fortune in
foreign countries, by the exertion of those talents which he would
willingly have dedicated to the service of his _own_."
The garrison, which consisted of 3000 Janissaries and 7000 Bosniacs,
stoutly defended themselves; but Oczakow was carried by assault. A bomb
set fire to the town, and blew up its magazine; Lacy and Munich seized
this opportunity to lead on their stormers, and, pressed by the foe
before them and the flames behind, the Mussulmans were nearly all cut
to pieces; but not before they had slain 11,000 regular troops and 5000
Cossacks by bayonet and scimitar.
The rapid success of these two generals against the Crim Tartars
awakened the restless ambition of Austria; and the Emperor believing
that, if he assailed the Porte by the Hungarian frontier while the
Czarina pressed her victorious arms along the shores of the Black Sea,
the Empire of the Osmanlies would be finally subverted, declared war,
and to co-operate with his troops, the Count Brown[11] left Lacy and
Munich, and marched into Hungary at the head of a Russian column. But
the hopes of the Emperor were frustrated! The Turks turned all their
vengeance against him, defeated his generals, and besieged Belgrade.
The Austrian Field-Marshal Wallace was defeated at Crotska, and the
gallant Earl of Crawford who served under him as a volunteer, received
a wound from which he never recovered. The troops of Brown were also
routed, and he was taken prisoner. The barbarous Osmanlies stripped
him quite naked, and bound him back to back with another prisoner for
forty-eight hours. He was four times exposed for sale as a slave in the
common market-place, and four times was bought by different masters,
who treated him with the greatest cruelty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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