Ferhád Arrives on the Banks of the Danube
The grand vezír, Ferhád Páshá, reached Rusjuk towards the end of Shevál, and immediately commenced preparations for erecting a bridge across the Danube. Artificers, brought from Nicopolis, were set to the work. From some prisoners who had been brought to the commander-in-chief he learned that the wicked and mischievous Michael had received a reinforcement, from Transylvania and Hungary, of about 70,000 troops, and that he was posted at Bekrish. About the commencement of Dhu’l Kadah, the Beglerbeg of Romeili, Hasan Páshá, joined the royal camp with four thousand troops, and brought along with him five hundred Valachian and Hungarian prisoners. The grand vezír and commander-in-chief, Ferhád Páshá, sat under a canopy supported by eight pillars, and superintended the erections which were carried on. The whole might have been completed in five or six days had it not been found necessary to extend the bridge to an island in the river, opposite Yerkok. To accomplish this object, the Sanjak chiefs were ordered to cut down trees suitable for the purpose, and to transport them to the spot where they were needed. Whilst these erections were going forward, arrangements were also made to pay four divisions of troops which remained in the garrison of Belgrade; the Serdár himself intending, after he had chastised the rebel Michael, to remove to that city.