In Vienna it was resolved by a council of war, as it was not possible to face the overwhelming numbers of the enemy in the open field, to neutralize, at least as far as possible, the advantages of any positions in the neighbourhood by the sacrifice of the suburbs, and of all buildings within range of fire from the walls. A more timely adoption of this indispensable measure would have obviated much of the violence and misery which attended its hurried execution. The necessity was one which from the end of August, and after the fall of Pesth, had been obviously inevitable. By the 16th of November the whole neighbourhood was swarming with the bands of Michael Oglou, who spared neither age nor sex; children, old people, and pregnant women were murdered with every circumstance of cruelty, and those who were spared from the sabre were swept into slavery. A contemporary writer, Peter Stern von Labach, describes these horrors in the following terms: “After the taking of Brück on the Leitha and the castle of Trautmannsdorf, the Sackman and those who went before him, people who have no regular pay, but live by plunder and spoil, to the number of 40,000, spread themselves far and wide over the country, as far as the Ens and into Styria, burning and slaying. Many thousands of people were murdered, or maltreated and dragged into slavery. Children were cut out of their mothers’ wombs and stuck on pikes; young women abused to death, and their corpses left on the highway. God rest their souls, and grant vengeance on the bloodhounds who committed this evil.” The peasantry fled either to the depths of the forests, or to the city, and increased by their narratives the consternation there prevailing. By the 20th September every road which led from east and south towards the city was crowded with fugitives endeavouring to save themselves and their moveables. As however the Eastern horsemen were familiar with all difficulties of ground, and overcame all impediments of morass, or forest, or mountain, few of the fugitives escaped. A few fortified towns and castles only held out. A chronicle of the time asserts that scarcely a third part of the inhabitants of Upper Austria survived the invasion. It was only on the 22nd September, when the enemy was at the gates of Vienna, that the resolution we have mentioned was finally adopted, to sacrifice to the general security the entire suburbs and the many sumptuous buildings which they included. The most valuable of the moveable property was first conveyed into the city, and the work of destruction commenced. It was soon, however, found that it had commenced too late for its orderly and deliberate execution. It was left to the proprietors to save hastily what they could; the rest was given up for the soldiery to glean, and the torch was applied to all the buildings. Disorders and excesses such as might be expected were the result, and the inhabitants were little better treated by