1541.]
SOLWAY MOSS.
495
broken out among the German troops before the fortress could be taken. They attempted to retreat across the Danube into Pesth; but the operation was a critical one, and before it was half accomplished they were attacked by an overwhelming force. Those who were left beyond the river were cut in pieces on the spot; the remainder fled in panic, leaving their artillery, their military chests and stores. The Turks passed the Danube in pursuit, seized Pesth, and hung in the rear of the retreating army till the remnant were sheltered in Vienna. Twenty thousand men were reported to have been killed, and the whole of Hungary was lost.[1]
The defeat was a victory for France. September.It was followed by another yet more considerable. Algiers, since the capture of Tunis, had become the stronghold of the Mediterranean pirates, and the head-quarters of the Sultan's corsair-admiral, Barbarossa. If Algiers could be destroyed it would compensate in some measure for the disasters in Hungary, and might at least prevent the dominancy of a Turko-gallic fleet in the Mediterranean in the ensuing summer. The season was late. October.It was not till October that Charles was able to sail; but he gathered- ↑ 'There remained of twenty-five thousand footmen of Ferdinand's but five thousand, all his artillery lost; quick there was taken six bundled, most part of them gentlemen, which being brought afore the Turk, he caused them to be headed, whereat all the noblemen of his host took great displeasure, saying that he should have ransomed them as the custom of the war is to do. The Turk then being angry with them, said these words, 'See how these dogs be now come witty.''—Howard to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. viii. p. 614; and see Heidcck to Henry VIII.: ibid. p. 625.
