News that Suvorov and Saxe-Coburg won the Battle of Rymnik on 22 September 1789 discouraged the garrison. Harassed by Austrian freikorps, Abdy Pasha's relief army halted without coming to grips with Clerfayt's covering force. Orthodox Bishop Dionisios Papagiannousis provided moral and spiritual support to the besiegers. The Austrians soon dug themselves trenches to protect their gains and their sappers dug a siege parallel close to Belgrade's covered way. The Ottomans launched four sorties in an attempt to delay the besiegers. For the next few days, Laudon emplaced his artillery batteries closer to the city. On the west bank of the Sava, the Prince of Ligne set up a battery at a position called the Sauspitz from which his artillery directed an effective fire against the Ottoman defenses. Recovering from a severe bout of fever and dosing himself with quinine, Ligne had to be half-carried by two junior officers in his inspections of the trenches. He later boasted that his guns fired 5,662 round shot and 6,083 bomb shells during the siege. Two other high-ranking generals involved in the siege were Joseph Maria von Colloredo, an artillerist, and Karl Clemens von Pellegrini, an engineer.