CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT-4
When the sun of the new day rose and attempted to rake through the cloudy sky, the Janissaries and their auxiliaries marched toward the Danube valley. Suleyman rode Tugra, with Ibrahim and Zapolya at his side. The rain beat down upon them. Ibrahim voiced his concern as men, horses and camels slipped and stumbled in the muddy conditions—an apprehension that Suleyman shared. When they reached the Danube, it roared within its banks—brown and full of debris from flooding upstream. They followed its thunderous course well into the night, before the Grand Vizier ordered the troops to establish camp on a high plateau. Still, the rain fell. The royal pavilion was hurriedly erected. Its canopy and sides were dank, water soaking through to drip and stream down the supporting poles. The carpets an
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