Towards the middle of August an envoy from the Sultan reached the camp, charged ostensibly with the conveyance of rich presents of honour to the Vizier, furs and jewelled aigrettes, but secretly commissioned to ascertain and report upon the progress of the siege. He remained a fortnight, and returned with a most unfavourable report. On the 15th August the Imperial Ambassador, Caprara, arrived in the Turkish camp after a long compulsory detention at Pesth. He was escorted by a Tschauch, or officer of the body guard, and 300 men. He fell in on his dismal march with many of his unhappy countrymen, a few only of whom he was able, at an exorbitant price, to ransom from hopeless slavery. Among these was a girl ten years of age, of noble birth and singular beauty, whose name however has not reached us. On his arrival in the camp, the Vizier, by special order of the Sultan, released him at Tuln, into the hands of the Imperialists. It has been said that he brought a proposal from the Vizier to abandon the siege of Vienna, and negotiate a peace on the sole condition of the surrender of the fortress of Raab. If this report be founded, as Wagner in his Historia Leopoldi Magni supposes, it would show how far the projects of the Vizier had been checked by the noble resistance of the garrison. If this or any proposal was intrusted to Caprara, it remained unanswered. CHAPTER XI. From August 1 to August 22. As far as feats of arms were concerned, the garrison had as yet maintained its own with undaunted resolution and with a success unimpaired by any material discomfiture; but by the middle of August the inevitable consequences of so close an investment of a large town began to show themselves in the shapes of sickness and scarcity. The use of dried and salted meat produced a dysentery, which was often mortal both among the soldiery and the townspeople. Other forms of disease were attributable to the use of beer ill-brewed and hastily consumed, and to the accumulation of impurities in the streets. Among the victims were the Burgomaster Liebenberg, the Bishop’s Vicar of Vienna, the Provost of St. Stephen’s, the Rector of the University, and many other officials and ecclesiastics. The Commandant himself was attacked by the epidemic, but, for the good fortune of Christendom, recovered. The disease yielded at length, a result due in great measure to the exertions of the admirable Kollonitsch, who visited the hospitals daily; and to the sanatory regulations of the authorities, who carried a stricter supervision into the proceedings of the bakers and the brewers, particularly into the brewery which supplied the Burg Hospital. The provisions specially productive of the dysentery, such as herrings, which were much sought after by the soldiers, were confiscated. The sick townspeople were carefully separated from the healthy, and conveyed into temporary hospitals. The sick and wounded of the soldiers were distributed among the convents, and the city provided