whom God could not bless.  They arraigned his appointment as impious, and declared that, in consequence, nothing was to be expected but divine indignation.  Immediately upon his arrival in Vienna the emperor ordered his arrest.  A strong guard was placed over him, in his own house, and articles of impeachment were drawn up against him.  His doom was sealed.  Every misadventure was attributed to negligence, cupidity or treachery.  He could offer no defense which would be of any avail, for he was not permitted to exhibit the orders he had received from the emperor, lest the emperor himself should be proved guilty of those disasters which he was thus dishonorably endeavoring to throw upon another.  The unhappy Seckendorf, thus made the victim of the faults of others, was condemned to the dungeon.  He was sent to imprisonment in the castle of Glatz, where he lingered in captivity for many years until the death of the emperor.

Charles now, in accordance with the clamor of the priests, removed all Protestants from command in the army and supplied their places with Catholics.  The Duke of Lorraine, who had recently married Maria Theresa, was appointed generalissimo.  But as the duke was young, inexperienced in war, and, as yet, had displayed none of that peculiar talent requisite for the guidance of armies, the emperor placed next to him, as the acting commander, Marshal Konigsegg.  The emperor also gave orders that every important movement should be directed by a council of war, and that in case of a tie the casting vote should be given, not by the Duke of Lorraine, but by the veteran commander Konigsegg.  The duke was an exceedingly amiable man, of very courtly manners and winning address.  He was scholarly in his tastes, and not at all fond of the hardships of war, with its exposure, fatigue and butchery.  Though a man of perhaps more than ordinary intellectual power, he was easily depressed by adversity, and not calculated to brave the fierce storms of disaster.

Early in March the Turks opened the campaign by sending an army of twenty thousand men to besiege Orsova, an important fortress on an island of the Danube, about one hundred miles below Belgrade.  They planted their batteries upon both the northern and the southern banks of the Danube, and opened a storm of shot and shell upon the fortress.  The Duke of Lorraine hastened to the relief of the important post, which quite commanded that portion of the stream.  The imperial troops pressed on until they arrived within a few miles of the fortress.  The Turks marched to meet them, and plunged into their camp with great fierceness.  After a short but desperate conflict, the Turks were repulsed, and retreating in a panic, they broke up their camp before the walls of Orsova and retired.