In Poland as well as in Austria time was required to bring into the field the forces promised on all hands; and in the mean time the Austrian frontier was uncovered, for the Imperial army under command of the brave and experienced Duke Charles of Lorraine, stationed in the neighbourhood of Presburg, scarcely amounted to 33,000 men. From this scanty force garrisons were to be drawn for Raab, Komorn, Leopoldstadt, and Presburg—two flying corps to be furnished against the first advance of the enemy on the Raab and the Mur, and with the overplus the Austrian monarchy was to be upheld till the promised succours should appear. Austria was fortunate in the leader upon whom these difficult and complicated duties devolved. Trained to arms against the Turks under Montecuculi, and against Condé under William of Nassau, Charles Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, had matured his military talents, in independent command, against the armies of France, through several scientific campaigns on the Rhine and in Flanders. He was now in a situation which required him to call forth all the resources acquired in such schools as these, and which demanded a cautious and patient application of strategical and tactical lore to retrieve the disadvantages of vast disparity of numbers and great local difficulties of position. To make any serious stand against the first rush of the invaders with the small force at his command was impossible, and his first duty was to save from destruction an army outflanked and nearly surrounded, upon the extrication of which the ultimate preservation of the capital depended. It was manifest, under these circumstances, that Vienna must again bide the brunt of the storm. The shape of the city was nearly what it had been in 1529, and what it still continues, but the defences had been improved under Ferdinand III. and Leopold I. The entire population of the neighbouring country were now summoned by Imperial edict to labour on the outworks, and to fell trees for palisades. On the fortifications themselves 3000 labourers were daily employed, and the families in the suburbs were called upon to furnish a man from each house for two months for the same object. Elevated spots within range of the walls, and the nearer houses, as in 1529, were levelled, and upwards of 30,000 palisades of solid oak prepared and disposed. On the 20th March the labourers mustered from all sides, and the work of fortification went on from that date with regularity, but slowly, from the insufficient supply of tools and materials. By another edict every citizen was summoned under heavy penalties to furnish himself with provisions, for a year’s consumption, within the space of a month. Those clearly unable to do so were directed to quit the city.