The emperor hoped that fortune, so long adverse, was now turning in his favor.  He collected a large force on the frontiers of Turkey, and intrusted the command to General Seckendorf.  The general hastened into Hungary to the rendezvous of the troops.  He found the army in a deplorable condition.  The treasury being exhausted, they were but poorly supplied with the necessaries of war, and the generals and contractors had contrived to appropriate to themselves most of the funds which had been furnished.  The general wrote to the emperor, presenting a lamentable picture of the destitution of the army.

“I can not,” he said, “consistently with my duty to God and the emperor, conceal the miserable condition of the barracks and the hospitals.  The troops, crowded together without sufficient bedding to cover them, are a prey to innumerable disorders, and are exposed to the rain, and other inclemencies of the weather, from the dilapidated state of the caserns, the roofs of which are in perpetual danger of being overthrown by the wind.  All the frontier fortresses, and even Belgrade, are incapable of the smallest resistance, as well from the dilapidated state of the fortifications as from a total want of artillery, ammunition and other requisites.  The naval armament is in a state of irreparable disorder.  Some companies of my regiment of Belgrade are thrust into holes where a man would not put even his favorite hounds; and I can not see the situation of these miserable and half-starved wretches without tears.  These melancholy circumstances portend the loss of these fine kingdoms with the same rapidity as that of the States of Italy.”

The bold Commander-in-chief also declared that many of the generals were so utterly incapable of discharging their duties, that nothing could be anticipated, under their guidance, but defeat and ruin.  He complained that the governors of those distant provinces, quite neglecting the responsibilities of their offices, were spending their time in hunting and other trivial amusements.  These remonstrances roused the emperor, and decisive reforms were undertaken.  The main plan of the campaign was for the Russians, who were already on the shores of the Black sea, to press on to the mouth of the Danube, and then to march up the stream.  The Austrians were to follow down the Danube to the Turkish province of Wallachia, and then, marching through the heart of that province, either effect a junction with the Russians, or inclose the Turks between the two armies.  At the same time a large Austrian force, marching through Bosnia and Servia, and driving the Turks out, were to take military possession of those countries and join the main army in its union on the lower Danube.