The summary describes the Siege of Vienna in 1683. The Ottoman Empire, led by Kara Mustafa, laid siege to the city, employing tactics such as mining tunnels and using grenades to attack the defenders. The defenders, led by Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, built earthworks and used counter-mining tactics to slow the Ottoman advance. Despite being outnumbered, the defenders held their ground, but the city was on the brink of collapse with food running low and disease spreading. A breach in the wall on September 4th led to intense fighting, but the defenders managed to hold off the Ottomans. However, with the city on the verge of falling, the defenders were anxiously waiting for a relief force led by Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and Emperor Leopold I. The outcome of the siege hangs in the balance, with the defenders' fate uncertain.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Ottoman engineers were digging tunnels under the city of Vienna.
2. The engineers used pickaxes and twine to measure distance.
3. The Ottomans were creating trench works and throwing boards on top for a roof.
4. They were also setting up sandbag positions for the artillery.
5. A teenage boy, possibly an actor or a saboteur, threw burning wood and straw into the city's arsenal.
6. The arsonist was caught and torn apart by a crowd of citizens.
7. The Ottomans had offered Vienna a choice: surrender and live in peace, or resist and face death and slavery.
8. The city's commander, Startenberg, chose resistance.
9. The Ottomans were led by Kara Mustafa.
10. The city had an old medieval wall with defensive towers and triangular fortress islands in the dry moat.
11. Georges Rimpler, an engineer, had augmented the defenses by building an earthen rampart and a spiked palisade.
12. The Ottomans had problems with their forces, including levies instead of professional soldiers and lack of control over the Tartar horsemen.
13. The Ottomans had left their heaviest cannons and mortars behind due to bad roads.
14. The gunpowder sent from the frontier territories was poor and couldn't be used when it rained.
15. The Ottomans detonated two mines at the end of the line and tried to storm the broken palisade.
16. The defenders had built a new defensive line, including a spiked obstacle.
17. The Ottomans had breached the wall and were preparing for a general assault.
18. The defenders had only 4,000 men left and were fortifying the city to fight street by street.
19. The city's commander, Stochenberg, was sending letters to Lorena and Leopold's court, saying a relief force was coming.
20. The defenders were running out of food and were eating household pets.
21. The city was overcrowded, and flux and dysentery were spreading among the garrison.
22. The defenders had taken Ottoman prisoners and decapitated them, filling their skins and hanging them on the city wall.
23. A mine had collapsed 30 feet of medieval wall, and the Ottomans had breached the wall.
24. The defenders had built a barricade of sandbags and cotton bales to hold off the Ottomans.
25. The Ottomans were preparing for a general assault, and the defenders were running out of time.