The Enemy Advances to Belgrade
The commander-in-chief, Sinán Páshá, had scarcely reached Belgrade, when the Austrians appeared before it and fought an obstinate battle, but were at last defeated. Many thousands of them perished, and their cannon fell into the hands of the victorious Moslems. After they were repulsed, Hasan Páshá collected all the troops scattered in Buda and Pest, and in the country round about, and advanced to meet the enemy, who had put themselves in order of battle. The enemy’s troops were covered with steel, and had a very singular appearance. Their horsemen had breast-plates of iron to shield them, and even their horses seemed to be bound together by chains of the same metal.
When the enemy perceived the efforts which had been made by the Moslems, and how they were preparing to meet them, they, thinking the moment had arrived when they might easily and without resistance seize on Buda, immediately after the first assault fled towards that city. The brave Hasan, however, pursued them; and falling on them in the rear hewed down a great many of them. The enemy, on perceiving the havoc which Hasan and his heroic associates committed amongst them, marked him out as the chief object of their hatred and vengeance, and their swords were directed against him; but being covered with a coat of mail, he for a while received no injury. Being excessively forward, and impatient in carrying destruction among the enemy, he received at last several wounds and fell from his horse. The commandant of the fortress, Ahmed Aghá, a man of great heroism, handed him another, and though wounded in several places he maintained his ground; and it was only after long and continued acts of the greatest bravery that those around him succeeded in getting him to retire from the scene of action. Those of his followers, and who fought on foot, maintained the struggle till night, and not one of them escaped alive from the field of battle. The rest of his troops fled towards Buda and Pest, and Hasan himself was carried in his wounded condition to Buda, whence he sent a report to the Serdár at Belgrade of what had happened, and requested immediate assistance.