While these measures were in progress hostilities had commenced in Upper Hungary. The Pacha of Neuhaüsel received orders under pain of the bowstring to make himself master of the Schütt island of the Danube. He attempted in the middle of February to pass the river for this purpose on the ice, but it broke, and he was compelled to retire with a loss of 90 men. On the 8th of March he repeated the attempt with 2000 men, but after a partial success, was driven back into the fortress with loss by the Imperialist, Colonel Castelli. Other places, however, of small note fell into the hands of the Turks, and the tide of war rolled steadily on towards Vienna. On the 6th of May the Emperor reviewed the army near Kitsee, but it had as yet received no material accession to its strength. Hungary, although at a Diet held in Oedenburg it had promised a levy en masse, had as yet scarcely furnished 3000 men, under the Palatine Esterhazy, a number insufficient to protect the shores of the Raab and the Danube from the predatory excursions of the Turkish garrison of Pesth. The Emperor, accompanied by such of the princes of the empire as were present, inspected the army, distributed 500,000 florins among the troops, and caused the Pope’s indulgence to be read to them by the Primate of Hungary, the Archbishop of Gran. In a council of war, in which it is probable the Lorraine was overruled by the influence of the court, it was determined to adopt the course, difficult if not impossible, of taking the initiative of hostilities in Hungary, on the reliance that the main army of the Turks could not be in presence before July, and in the hope of encouraging the troops by some preliminary success. It was first proposed to lay siege to Gran; but as it was found impossible to close the passage of its supplies by the Danube, and 20,000 men were moving from Pesth to its relief, this enterprise was abandoned, and the army encamped on the 3rd of June before Neuhaüsel. The Pacha made answer to a summons that the Imperialists should learn to what kind of men the Sultan confided his fortresses, and he was as good as his word. The Imperialists had carried the suburbs and attacked the body of the place when they were driven back by a successful sally with the loss of two young volunteers of distinction, the Counts Taxis and Kazianer. The report also reached them of the approach of the Turkish main army, and of the wide-spread irruption of its forerunners, the Tartar cavalry, which threatened their line of retreat. On the 10th June this siege without an object was raised, and the army withdrew along the Danube, but not without loss from sallies of the enemy. Garrisons were hastily flung into Raab, Komorn, and Leopoldstadt, sufficient for their defence should the enemy leave them in his rear. The army, reduced by this draft on its numbers to about 12,000 foot and 11,000 horse, took up the best position it could find between the Raab and Raduitz, and there awaited the approach