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diff --git a/old/68578-0.txt b/old/68578-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9aa691f..0000000 --- a/old/68578-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4286 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of John Sobieski, by Edward H. R. Tatham - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: John Sobieski - Lothian prize essay for 1881 - -Author: Edward H. R. Tatham - -Release Date: July 21, 2022 [eBook #68578] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN SOBIESKI *** - - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes - have been moved to the end of the essay. - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Sidenotes, also in italics in the original, are surrounded - by ♦diamonds♦. - - Text in small caps has been converted to ALL CAPS. - - Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have - been standardized. Obvious typographical errors have been - corrected. Proper names, French language, and "reproch" in - the diary entry, have been retained as published in the - original publication. - - - - - JOHN SOBIESKI. - - LOTHIAN PRIZE ESSAY - - FOR - - 1881. - - BY - - EDWARD H. R. TATHAM, B.A. - - BRASENOSE COLLEGE. - - “Non perchè re sei tu, si grande sei, - Ma per te cresce e in maggior pregio sale - La maesta regale.” - - VINCENZIO DA FILICAIA, _Canzone_. - - OXFORD: - A. THOMAS SHRIMPTON & SON, BROAD STREET. - LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. - 1881. - - - - -JOHN SOBIESKI. - - -♦Strangeness of Polish history.♦ The Kingdom or Republic of -Poland has always seemed a strange phenomenon in European -history, partly from the aboriginal character of its population, -and partly from its exceptional constitution. The ancient -Sarmatians, who occupied the same territory, had no share in -the old Roman civilisation, but rather, by their constant -irruptions upon the empire, were mainly instrumental in its -downfall. Christianity was introduced in the tenth century; but, -until recent times, no other civilising force has ever effected -a permanent conquest of the country. ♦Aboriginal character of -the Poles,♦ During the eight following centuries the Poles, -surrounded by enemies--on the north and east by more barbarous -tribes, on the south and west by a superior civilisation--were -exclusively confined to the defensive and so missed those -humanising influences to which a conquering nation has so often -had to submit. As late as the eighteenth century they might truly -be called the lineal descendants in race, in character, and -almost in habits, of the hunters and shepherds of the ancient -North. ♦Seen in their social system.♦ Throughout their history -there were two great classes in the State; the so-called noble -class--the heirs of the savage in their desire for equality, and -of the nomad in their love of freedom--and the peasant class--the -descendants of captives taken in war--whose lives and properties -were at the absolute disposal of their masters. Only in the -western portion of the kingdom was there a burgher class, and -this was on the same[1] political footing with the serfs. The -union of two great evils arising from such a system--licence -and servitude--made the Polish constitution as disastrous as it -was unique. Poland thus differed so widely, both socially and -politically, from every other European state, that it would be -impossible to examine any important period of her history without -explaining alike her position in Europe and some of her internal -peculiarities. - -♦European position of Poland,♦ Although considerably[2] larger -than France, Poland took scarcely any part in the general -history of Europe before the end of the sixteenth century. Once -only, just before the taking of Constantinople, we find her -with Hungary striving to check the advance of the Turks, when -she lost in battle her king Wladislas VI. (1444). ♦At first -inconsiderable,♦ As she was the north-eastern outpost of the -Church, the Popes took care that she should always be remarkable -for her submission to the Holy See. But it was beyond their -power to check the turbulence of the nobles or to instil any -love for a higher civilisation. During the sixteenth century, -chiefly through the enterprise of foreigners, commerce made rapid -advances in the country. English and Italian merchants, favoured -by treaties between the king and queen Elizabeth, settled in -the prosperous town of Dantzic, and spread a moderate knowledge -of Poland in western countries. That this knowledge was only -moderate may be judged from a valuable geographical work[3] -published in London early in the seventeenth century, in which we -are told that the Lithuanians still worshipped idols, and that in -another province they had not learned the use of the plough. The -reformed doctrines were widely disseminated before the year 1600; -but their progress was checked by the activity of the Jesuits. -♦Owing to exclusiveness,♦ The Papal Nuncio of that time[4] -complains of the exclusiveness of the Poles and their distrust -of foreign nations. They used commonly to boast that alliances -were of no service to them, for, if the country were conquered, -they could, like their ancestors, recover in winter what they had -lost in summer. Yet very early in their history they had lost -the rich province of Prussia[5] by neglect and mis-government. -When, in 1573, they allied themselves with France by electing -as their king Henry of Valois, they bound him by such a crowd -of onerous restrictions that he fled the country in disgust at -their wild and barbarous freedom. ♦Anarchy,♦ During the next -three quarters of a century (1573-1648), under three princes of -conspicuous ability, Poland began to rank among the second-rate -powers of Europe; but her internal condition was all the while -frightful. Unceasing struggles between the greater and lesser -nobility, and the cruel oppression of the peasants by both alike, -distracted the kingdom. ♦And foreign wars,♦ Then followed thirty -years of desolating war, in which the country was several times -on the brink of final subjugation by a foreign invader. The Poles -themselves attributed their survival to God alone[6], who had -preserved them to form a barrier against the Turks. - -♦Then suddenly most prominent,♦ At the close of this period, -instead of finding Poland exhausted almost to death, we see -her occupying the proud position of the saviour of Europe. At -a most critical moment, when the last great wave of barbarian -invasion was rolling over Europe, and seemed likely to overwhelm -the ancient empire of the Hapsburgs, this little republic stood -firmly in the gap, and became the bulwark of Christendom against -the infidel. Nay more, by her own sacrifices no less than by her -opportune intervention, she was the main instrument in setting -the final limit to the Ottoman advance. ♦Owing to John Sobieski.♦ -This extraordinary result is to be ascribed almost solely to -the personal character and exploits of her patriot king, John -Sobieski. Rising to the throne by his personal merits alone in -spite of the most malignant envy, he was the first native king -unconnected with the old royal line. ♦His difficulties mainly -caused by the constitution.♦ It may be said that his life from -his early manhood is at no time the history of a private man; it -rather comprises the whole contemporary annals of his country. -Yet it forms the most destructive comment on her institutions, -both social and political, and on the character of the national -nobility. While we must admire a conservative constitution which -admits of the supremacy of the best man, we cannot but deplore -those faults in its working which had the effect of nullifying -his authority. In Poland there was neither a republic nor a -monarchy, but the sovereignty of one man under the control of an -unrestrained class, which mistook licence for freedom. In order -to understand the position of Sobieski and the difficulties -with which he had to contend, a short account of the Polish -constitution is indispensable. - -♦Monarchy generally becomes elective.♦ The authority of the king -was originally absolute, but in a nation of fierce warriors he -was easily controlled by armed assemblies of his subjects. His -consulting them, though at first only a mark of favour, was soon -looked upon as a right; and in course of time they even claimed -the disposal of his dignity. Two great dynasties successively -reigned in Poland. During the first, founded by Piast, a native -Pole (850-1386), the dignity was hereditary; during the second, -that of Jagellon (1386-1573), though in practice hereditary, -it was in theory elective. ♦Election of the king.♦ After the -latter period the whole nobility met in arms to elect a king, -and, though a relation of the old line was preferred, he was -considered to have no claim. This assembling of the Pospolite, -as it was called, was in an emergency the prerogative of the -king, and during an interregnum of the Primate, the Archbishop of -Guesna, who acted as interrex. The election was not legal unless -it was unanimous; and when this was accomplished, seldom without -violence, the republic imposed upon the new monarch a contract -styled “pacta conventa,” the conditions of which he swore -faithfully to observe. ♦His privileges.♦ His privileges were -few. He always presided in the national assembly, and he might -if he chose command[7] the army. But his most important function -was the appointment of officers of state. These are said to have -amounted in all branches to the astounding number of 20,000; ♦The -Senate.♦ but only the most important, about 140, composed the -Senate, which was the middle estate of the realm and the real -executive. - -♦How composed.♦ Besides the bishops there were three great orders -in the administration, of which only the first two had seats -in the Senate. These were the palatines, the castellans, and -starosts. Each palatine, like a Norman baron, was the military -commander and supreme judge in his province or palatinate; he -was also its recognised political head. The castellans were -his deputies, who discharged the same functions in a more -confined area. The starosts were inferior magistrates, with -military and judicial duties, whose chief privilege was the -high value of their benefices. ♦The officers of state.♦ There -were twelve great dignitaries who were entrusted with the -higher executive,--six for the kingdom of Poland, viz., the -Grand Marshal, the Grand General,[8] the Second General, the -Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, and the Grand Treasurer, and six -parallel officers for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The latter, -when incorporated with Poland in 1386, had insisted on a distinct -administration; but the arrangement proved most unfortunate, -for the Polish magnate had no authority over his Lithuanian -compeer. In the army, as in the administration, they might act -quite independently of each other, and the very equality made a -collision inevitable. Over the Senate as a whole the king had no -real power, but the Diet exercised a rigid supervision. - -This body--the third estate of the realm--had originally been -composed of the whole adult nobility. So jealous were the Poles -of their privileges that it was not till 1466--two hundred -years after the foundation of the House of Commons--that they -consented to form a representative system. ♦The Diet.♦ A Diet of -400 deputies met every two years, and was liable to be summoned -on extraordinary occasions. The members of this assembly were -absolutely without discretionary powers. They were elected in -the dietines or provincial assemblies, and received minute -instructions as to their course of action. After the dissolution -of the Diet they had to appear again before their constituents -and give an account of their stewardship. Those who had offended -found their lives in peril. ♦Its dependence upon the nobility.♦ -Thus the Diet took its stamp from the prevailing temper of -the nobility, and, as this was almost always quarrelsome, the -place of meeting often resounded with the clang of sabres. -♦Results of this dependence.♦ During the period which we shall -have to consider, this dependence will explain the constant -neglect of proper means for the national defence. The cavalry -of the nobles--the flower of the troops--displayed all the -disadvantages, and none of the merits, of a standing army. They -were always under arms, and ready to use them in any feud; but -they could not brook strict discipline, and as they grew more -luxurious their disinclination[9] to a long campaign was duly -reflected in the ranks of the Diet. The national haughtiness -found its vent in intestine strife. ♦The veto.♦ A most disastrous -provision made it necessary for every resolution of the Diet -to be unanimous. Any deputy might, without reason assigned, -pronounce his veto upon the subject under discussion; nay, more, -by a refinement of this privilege,[10] he might by withdrawing -declare the Diet dissolved, and until he was induced or compelled -to return public business was suspended. This power, though very -ancient, was not exercised till 1652, but was afterwards repeated -with increasing frequency. It would once have been dangerous -for an individual to defy the mass, but when the republic was -in a state of anarchy it was easy to find supporters, and the -gold of France or Austria often proved a powerful incentive. -♦Obstruction.♦ Another mode of obstruction was called drawing out -the Diet, which could not[11] sit for more than six weeks. This -consisted in the proposal and tedious discussion of irrelevant -matter, until the day of dissolution arrived. In this state of -things a resort to force was very common, and the public streets -were often the scenes of a sanguinary fray. - -♦Confederations.♦ When the Diet was not sitting, the Senate, -with the king as its president, was responsible for the -government. But if the nobles were dissatisfied with their -measures, or if the veto had hopelessly clogged the wheels of -state, recourse was had to an extraordinary assembly called a -“confederation.” ♦Convocations.♦ This was formed sometimes to -resist, sometimes to enforce the established law; and in the -latter case it often took the shape of a “convocation,” which -exactly resembled the Diet except that the veto was inadmissible. -The Poles were always more happy in organising anarchy than -in organising their institutions. Of course, the authority of -a confederation depended upon the number and weight of its -adherents; and it frequently happened that several of these -bodies were sitting at the same time. We sometimes find in -Polish history the Senate at variance with the Diet, the Diet -with the king, the king with the grandees, the greater with the -lesser nobles, and the whole nobility with their armed serfs. -♦Strife among the nobles--how caused.♦ Among the nobles religious -inequality was the principal cause of dissension. Although none -but Catholics could hold offices of state, a large number of -the poorer nobles were “Dissidents,” and belonged to the Greek -or Protestant persuasion. ♦Their three main classes.♦ They were -thus naturally jealous of the official families; for, though -all were theoretically equal, the differences of wealth and -prestige tended to divide them into three classes: first, a few -princely families who owned whole provinces and aspired to the -posts of the supreme executive; secondly, the average gentry, -who scrambled for the lesser offices, or were indignant at their -religious disabilities; and thirdly, the poorer freemen, who made -up for their lack of power by a spirit of captious disaffection. -In stormy times the confusion was increased by half the middle -gentry taking part with the grandees and half with the freemen. - -♦Ancestry of John Sobieski.♦ From the highest of these classes -was sprung John Sobieski. He belonged to that group of families, -whose ancestral device was the Buckler--the most illustrious of -the rude Polish coats of arms. Far back in the mist of ages are -placed the exploits of Janik--the Polish Hercules--the founder -of his house. His immediate ancestors had gained less doubtful -laurels. His grandfather, Mark Sobieski, palatine of Lublin, -had so great a military reputation that King Stephen Bathori -(1575-1586) was wont to say that he would not fear to entrust -to his single arm the defence of the fortunes of Poland. His -father, James Sobieski, was not only an able general, but a man -of cultivated mind, and of some diplomatic skill. To him belonged -the real credit of the famous victory of Kotzim in 1621 over a -vast host of Turks and Tartars, although the nominal commander -of the Poles was the young Prince Wladislas, son of Sigismund -III. His success in negotiating the treaty that followed was -so conspicuous that he was afterwards sent on several foreign -embassies to the Western Powers. Such eminence in peace as -in war doubtless procured for him the post of castellan of -Cracow[12]--the first secular senator of Poland, inferior only -to the archbishop of Guesna. He had also been four times elected -Marshal of the Diet--an office resembling that of Speaker of -the House of Commons. In or about 1620 he married Theophila -Danilowiczowna, grand-daughter[13] of the famous Zolkiewski. That -heroic general, after taking Moscow (1610), and carrying off to -Poland the Czar Basil VI., met his death (October 5th, 1620) at -Kobylta on the Dniester, with a band of 8,000 men, at the hands -of 70,000[14] Turks and Tartars. Thus on both sides the ancestors -of Sobieski were worthy of his subsequent fame. ♦Birth.♦ The -circumstances of his birth are romantic; but they rest on no less -an authority than a manuscript in his own hand. On the 17th of -June, 1624,[15] his father’s castle of Zloçkow in the palatinate -of Red Russia[16] was visited by a storm of unprecedented -violence. The old mansion, which stood exposed on the bare -summit of a vast “mohila” or Slavonic tumulus, was shaken to its -foundations, and some of the attendants were rendered deaf for -life. Amid the raging of the elements was born John Sobieski, in -the presence of the widow of the conqueror of Moscow; and the -respect for prodigies,[17] which distinguishes the Poles above -all other modern nations, must have marked him out in their -eyes for an exceptional career. Yet his youth was singularly -peaceful. Except for the war against Gustavus Adolphus, which -was terminated by the peace of Altmark (September 15th, 1629), -and an incursion of the Tartars (1636), successfully repelled -by Wladislas VII., Poland enjoyed from the time of his birth an -unexampled respite of more than twenty years. - -♦Education.♦ During this period John and his elder brother Mark -were enjoying all the benefits of a careful education. Their -father chiefly resided at his princely estate of Zolkiew, which -had come to him through his wife--a domain as large as some of -our English counties, and embracing a hundred and fifty villages. -He had engaged as their tutor the learned Stanislas Orchowski; -but he himself superintended their more important studies. The -treatise which he has left upon education is alone enough to show -how well the task must have been performed. Besides instructing -them in several languages he imparted to them his own skill in -music, painting, and the other fine arts; and they had the rare -advantage of a home in which to the barbaric splendour of a -Polish noble were added some of the refined tastes of an Italian -court. Ardent and robust by nature, John early distinguished -himself by his activity in hunting, and in the use of the small -sword; and the traditions of his family soon taught him against -whom his strength was to be employed. The inscription[18] on his -great grandfather’s tomb in the neighbouring Dominican chapel, -erected by his mother, aroused in his mind what may be called his -life-purpose--to curb at all hazards the advance of the Turkish -power. - -♦His travels.♦ At length in 1643 the castellan sent his two sons -to travel in the West. Their longest stay was made in France--at -that time closely united to Poland by the marriage of Wladislas -with a French princess[19]--but they also visited England[20] -and Italy. At Paris they frequented the salon of the Duchesse de -Longueville, sister of the great Condé; and it was here that an -intimacy sprang up between John Sobieski and the French general, -who, though only three years his senior, was already crowned with -the laurels of Rocroi. The prince procured for his friend the -honour of a commission in the king’s Grands Mousquetaires, and -continued in correspondence with him during the remainder of his -life. Quitting France before the disturbances of the Fronde, the -brothers took the measure of the Ottoman power at Constantinople, -and were preparing to pass into Asia, when news arrived which -called them home to defend not only their country but their -own fireside. It was to the effect that the Cossack serfs had -revolted, and were carrying all before them. - -♦Cossack revolt caused by the oppression of the serfs.♦ Of the -grinding oppression under which the serf class laboured we have -already spoken. Some efforts had been made by Casimir the Great -(1347) to give them a legal footing in the state; and he had -even succeeded so far as to provide that the murderer of a serf -should pay a fine of ten marks.[21] But his regulations were -soon broken, and the condition of the peasants in the outlying -districts became more hopeless than before. ♦The Cossacks.♦ The -situation of the Cossacks was peculiar. Inhabiting a wild though -fertile country on the borders of Poland and Muscovy called the -Ukraine (Slavonic for “borderland,” exactly the French “marche”), -they had long retained their independence, and had only been -incorporated in the kingdom by the wise measures of Stephen -Bathori (1582). ♦Under Stephen Bathori.♦ Originally deserters -from the armies of the republic, they had betaken themselves to -the almost inaccessible isles of the Borysthenes, where they -led a life of plunder in defiance of their neighbours. Their -piratical skiffs were an object of terror even to the dwellers -on the Golden Horn. Bathori did all that lay in his power to -conciliate a people who, in spite of their savage habits, were -noted for their fidelity. He gave them the city of Tretchimirow -in Kiowia, and formed them into regiments, for the defence of -Poland against the Tartars. They were granted the power of -electing their own hetman, or Grand General, who, on doing homage -to the king, received as the symbols of his office a flag, a -horsetail, a staff, and a looking-glass. James Sobieski in his -historical work[22] notices the value to a retreating Polish army -of their waggon-camps, which they called “Tabors,”[23] and which -they seem to have drawn up after the fashion of a Dutch “laager.” -Unfortunately their independence was confined to the period of -military service. The Ukraine, like other parts of the kingdom -of Poland, was divided into estates of crown land, which, like -fiefs,[24] were held by the nobles on condition of furnishing the -state with troops. But this condition was seldom fulfilled even -in Great Poland, and never in a distant province, such as the -Ukraine, where all the nobles were absentees. - -♦Their grievances.♦ There was thus no tie except that of -gratitude for their honourable position in war to bind the -Cossacks to Poland; and this was soon broken by the outrageous -rapacity of the Jewish stewards to whom the nobles entrusted -their lands. Complaints were lodged in the Diet by the Cossack -chiefs, who claimed to send thither their own representatives; -but the nobles, whose love of domination was as strong as their -love of liberty, turned a deaf ear; and Wladislas VII., seeing -the fatal tendency of this policy, had the hardihood to remind -the Cossacks that they still possessed their sabres.[25] ♦Success -of their revolt.♦ At length, in 1648, a dastardly outrage by -a steward on Bogdan Chmielniçki, one of their chiefs, forced -them to follow this hint; and electing the injured man as their -hetman, they poured into Poland with the Tartars as their allies. -Bogdan was an experienced soldier. He completely defeated -Potoçki, the Grand General of Poland, at Korsun (May 26th, 1648); -and numbers of disaffected Poles--Arian nobles, Calvinistic -burghers, outlawed serfs--at once flocked to his standard. ♦Death -of Wladislas VII.♦ Six days before this disaster Wladislas VII. -expired at Warsaw; and his death at this moment blighted the -hopes of the moderate party. James Sobieski, who had done all he -could to save Bogdan from oppression, had died in March (1648) -when the king was on the point of naming him the representative -of Poland at the congress in Westphalia. ♦Danger of Poland.♦ -The nobility in general were bent on revenge. Assembling their -forces in haste, they suffered an ignominious defeat at Pilawiecz -(September 23rd); and Poland was left exposed to the Cossacks. -Madame Sobieska, with her two daughters, and many others of -the nobility, took refuge within the walls of Zamosç, and was -soon joined by her sons, who had evaded without difficulty the -undisciplined besiegers. - -♦Election of John Casimir.♦ At this crisis the nobles assembled -at Warsaw to elect a king. They chose (November 20th) Cardinal -John Casimir, brother of the late king, who put off the purple -to assume the crown. The new prince saw the necessity of -conciliation, and had the courage, in spite of the opposition -of the nobles, to open a negotiation with the rebels. Bogdan, -who had been deserted by the Tartars, was not disinclined for -peace, and, in order to show his respect for the king, retired -thirty leagues from Zamosç. ♦His peace violated by the nobles.♦ -But the treachery of the nobles frustrated the intentions of -their sovereign. Jeremiah Wiesnowiesçki, the harsh oppressor -of the serfs, fell suddenly upon the unsuspecting Cossacks, -and routed them with great slaughter. After this the war broke -out afresh. Bogdan sought and obtained the alliance of Isla, -khan of the Crim Tartars, and in an engagement at Zbaraz, in -Volhynia (June 30th, 1649) he gained another great victory. -♦Sobieski joins the army,♦ At this news the king hastened to join -the remnants of the defeated army, and was accompanied by John -Sobieski in command of a select troop. The young noble had been -prevented taking part in the events of the past six months by a -wound which he had received in a duel with one of the family of -Paz, the most powerful clan in Lithuania; and he afterwards had -cause to regret the quarrel. His presence with the king at this -juncture was destined to be of some importance. No sooner had -Casimir assembled the discomfited Poles, than half his available -force, terrified at the enemy’s numbers, insisted on retreat, -and proceeded to put their threat into execution. ♦And quells a -mutiny.♦ Sobieski galloped into their midst, and, exerting that -native eloquence of which he possessed no common share, succeeded -in restoring them to their allegiance. His efforts were rewarded -by the starosty of Javarow--a military post which had been -previously held by his father and by the great Zolkiewski. ♦Peace -of Zborow.♦ One of the immediate results of the bold front now -presented by the Poles, was the conclusion of the peace of Zborow -(August 18th), in which the Cossack chief displayed remarkable -moderation. He consented to do homage to the king and to forego -his just demands for vengeance upon his oppressors, on condition -that all his adherents should receive a free pardon. - -♦Broken by the Poles. June 30th, 1651.♦ But the Polish nobility -were incapable of learning any lesson from their recent -reverses. War was again declared by the Diet in 1650; and the -next year Bogdan was defeated by Casimir at Berestezko, owing -principally to the desertion of the Tartars. In this battle, -John Sobieski received a wound in his head, from the effects -of which he suffered constantly until his death. A transitory -peace which followed this success was again broken by the Poles, -who attacked Bogdan’s son Timothy at Batowitz (June 2nd, 1652), -but were surrounded and annihilated. ♦Death of Mark Sobieski.♦ -The prisoners, among whom was Mark Sobieski,[26] were all -massacred after the battle by the Tartar khan. Another duel wound -fortunately prevented John from being among the victims. But he -had the pain of seeing that his folly had made his mother despair -of the name of Sobieski. Overwhelmed with grief at the loss of -her favourite son, and auguring ill from the headstrong passions -of John, she quitted Poland and took refuge in Italy. - -♦Lessons of the Cossack War.♦ The Cossack war, which had -now lasted with little intermission for four years, demands -considerable attention. It throws a lurid light on the vices -of the Polish constitution, and its bitter lessons cannot have -been lost upon a thoughtful mind like that of John Sobieski. By -oppression the Polish nobility had converted faithful subjects -into deadly foes; and their pride and treachery contrast most -unfavourably with the moderation of the Cossack chief. Although -we have little information about this period of Sobieski’s life, -his ardent temper makes it probable that he joined at first with -the most uncompromising of the nobles. But their independence -of the regal authority, their disregard for treaties with the -serf class, and, above all, their unprecedented employment of -the fatal veto (1652), must have soon convinced him that the -discipline of self-restraint was the only means left to save his -country. Hereafter we shall see him nobly practising this lesson -under the most fearful provocation. - -♦Anarchy.♦ At this period (1654) Poland was distracted by -anarchy at home, and in the next six years she suffered all the -usual consequences of civil strife. Henceforward the Cossack war -loses its character of a struggle between the republic and her -rebellious subjects. ♦The Cossacks call in Muscovy.♦ Its natural -result was to draw into the contest those neighbouring nations -who might hope to gain advantage from the distracted state of -Poland. Bogdan, despairing of concluding any definitive peace -without foreign aid, persuaded the Czar Alexis to declare war -against Poland, and, on the frivolous pretext that his titles had -not received due respect, that monarch invaded Lithuania and took -Smolensko (Sept. 10th, 1654). - -♦War with Sweden.♦ But a greater enemy was arising in the north; -Charles X. of Sweden, the “Pyrrhus of the North,” succeeding to -the throne on the abdication of Christina in June 1654, had set -his mind on the conquest of Poland. The Polish vice-chancellor, -Radzejowski, who had been expelled from the kingdom by Casimir -on some private quarrel, took care that Charles should be well -acquainted with the weakness to which his country had been -reduced. He gave the welcome advice that no apology which -Casimir might make as to his assumption of the title of king of -Sweden[27] should receive any attention. The king of Poland was -anxious to send Sobieski to Stockholm to avert the impending -storm; but he declined the hopeless mission. Charles eagerly -took advantage of the anarchy caused by the Russian war, and -invaded Pomerania and Great Poland in August, 1655. He gained -an easy victory over the divided forces of the republic, and -entered Warsaw at the end of the month. Cracow surrendered -early in October, and, as Casimir had fled into Silesia, the -whole country lay at his feet. ♦Charles X. conquers Poland,♦ -Surrounded by such a host of enemies, the nobles seemed to have -no choice but to offer the crown to Charles X.; and the standing -army, called Quartians,[28] among whom Sobieski commanded a -troop, took the oath to the king of Sweden. ♦But alienates -it.♦ But Charles was not inclined to keep faith with a people -whom he had conquered in three months. Contrary to his express -promises hereditary monarchy was proclaimed, heavy contributions -were levied, and the Catholics were openly persecuted by the -Swedes. The national spirit was deeply wounded by the haughty -demeanour of the conquerors. ♦Resumption of the war.♦ During the -absence of Charles in Prussia, a confederation was formed in the -palatinate of Beltz under the auspices of the absent Casimir, to -which Sobieski attached himself, and with him the able generals -Lubomirski and Czarnieçki. When Charles returned he found that -he had the greater part of Poland to re-conquer. ♦Successes of -Sobieski.♦ In conveying his army through the marshes of Little -Poland, he was blocked up between the Vistula and the San by -Sobieski’s cavalry, and was only extricated by the prompt arrival -of reinforcements. Soon after, while he was superintending the -siege of Dantzic, Casimir and the valiant Czarnieçki recaptured -Warsaw; but they lost it again on his return after a battle -of three days, in which Sobieski, who commanded a troop of -Tartars[29] trained by himself, performed prodigies of valour. -But other nations had looked on with jealousy at the brilliant -career of the king of Sweden. The Czar, resenting the manner -in which he had been baulked of his prey, declared war against -Sweden; and the emperor Ferdinand III., just before his death -(May 30th, 1657), concluded an offensive and defensive alliance -with the king of Poland. ♦Charles attempts a partition,♦ -Meanwhile Charles was using all his efforts to carry out a scheme -for the partition of Poland between himself, the Czar, the Great -Elector of Brandenburg,[30] and Ragoczy, prince of Transylvania. -But her time had not yet come. Almost at the same moment Denmark -declared war against Charles, the Elector deserted him, and -Austria prepared to send troops in support of her new ally (June, -1657). ♦But is obliged to retire.♦ In July Charles evacuated -Poland in all haste, and began his wonderful campaigns in -Denmark. Another stroke of good fortune was the death of Bogdan -Chmielniçki (August 27th), and the return of a large number of -Cossacks to their allegiance. ♦Gradual recovery of Poland,♦ -Though sorely shaken by the terrible ordeal through which she had -passed, Poland gradually recovered her independence. Treaties -were concluded with the Elector, and with Prince Ragoczy, with no -more serious loss than the suzerainty of ducal Prussia (1658); -and two years later, shortly after the death of Charles X., a -peace was signed with Sweden at Oliva (May 3rd, 1660). ♦Sobieski -rewarded.♦ Casimir re-established his authority throughout -the kingdom; and in distributing rewards to his most faithful -subjects, conferred upon Sobieski the post of Korongy, or -standard-bearer of the crown.[31] - -♦War with Muscovy.♦ There still remained, however, the war with -Muscovy. The ever-active Czar Alexis, now that he could take -his own measures with Poland, overran Lithuania, and captured -Wilna, its capital. But his general, Sheremetieff, suffered a -serious defeat, and shut himself up in his fortified camp at -Cudnow to await the arrival of a large reinforcement of Cossacks. -♦Victories of Sobieski at Slobodyszcza and Cudnow.♦ Sobieski -was detached with a small force from the investing army to -confront this new enemy. Finding them encamped on the heights -of Slobodyszcza, he carried the position by assault, and gained -a victory so complete that the Cossacks laid down their arms -(Sept. 17th, 1660). He then hastened back to Cudnow, and joined -in the attack on the Muscovite camp, which was so successful that -the whole army, with their ammunition and stores, fell into the -hands of the Poles. Such a brilliant campaign astonished Europe. -Sobieski, whose reputation was already high in his own country, -was justly credited with giving her breathing time to recover -from her misfortunes. - -♦Anarchy in Poland.♦ She employed it, according to her wont, in -internal dissensions. It is difficult to trace the true origin of -the deplorable state of Poland during the next six years; but it -may be attributed, in the first instance, to the foolish conduct -of the queen, Louise de Nevers. Though a woman of masculine -spirit, and exercising a great ascendancy over the uxorious -Casimir, she was herself entirely governed by the Jesuits. -♦1661.♦ They persuaded her, and through her the king, to violate -that article of the _pacta conventa_ by which he pledged -himself not to tamper with the succession to the crown. The -person for whom they designed it was her nephew, the young Duc -d’Enghien, son of the great Condé. ♦1662-3.♦ The power of French -gold soon converted the majority of the senate. But the lesser -nobles were not so easily cajoled, and they possessed a secret -though powerful supporter in Lubomirski, Grand Marshal and Second -General of the crown. To this main grievance was added another, -which pressed heavily on the poorer nobles. Large arrears of pay -were, as usual,[32] owing to the army, who accordingly formed -themselves into a confederation, and demanded the diminution -of the immense revenues of the clergy. This brought upon them -all the thunders of the Church; and the fearful spectacle was -presented of a country divided into hostile camps, in which the -senate was at enmity with the diet, the clergy with the army, the -larger with the lesser nobility. Sobieski and other patriotic -spirits tried to strike at the root of the evil, and furnished -funds from their private resources for the payment of arrears. As -this did not allay the complaints of the army, the senate opened -a negotiation with the malcontents from Sobieski’s “court”[33] at -Zolkiew, which was so far successful that the king was able to -lead them against Muscovy. ♦Campaign against Muscovy.♦ But the -campaign, though not disastrous, was not especially fortunate; -and the absence of Lubomirski, who had been kept at home by the -king’s suspicions, created general discontent. - -On his return the king summoned Lubomirski to trial on a -charge of high treason. He did not appear, and was condemned to -perpetual banishment and the loss of his honours and estates. -♦Sobieski, Grand Marshal and Second General.♦ His office of Grand -Marshal was bestowed on Sobieski, and that of Second General on -Czarnieçki; but the latter dying shortly after, this post was -also conferred on Sobieski. The appointments were most politic, -for Sobieski was a great favourite with the army. His duties -having kept him constantly on the Cossack frontier, he had not -compromised himself with either party. - -♦Marriage of Sobieski.♦ These signs of the royal favour were -followed by another which bound him still more to the interests -of the court. On his visit to Warsaw to assume the insignia -of his offices, he became enamoured of a French lady in the -retinue of the queen, Mary Casimira d’Arquien, who had lately -become a widow by the death of the rich Prince Zamoyski. ♦His -wife.♦ She was daughter to the Marquis d’Arquien; captain of -the guards to the Duke of Orleans, and had attended the queen -from France nineteen years before. Though over thirty years -of age, she still possessed in a remarkable degree all those -fascinations which usually belong to extreme youth. Dr. South, -who saw her seven years later, says that even then she did not -look more than twenty.[34] To these advantages she united a -piquant vivacity which had a peculiar charm for Sobieski. His -passion was so strong[35] that he besought the queen’s consent -to their immediate union. Scarcely four weeks had elapsed since -the death of Zamoyski, to whom she had borne several children; -but so necessary was it to conciliate the new officer that the -queen gave way, and the marriage was celebrated, according to -the Polish fashion, by a festival of three days. ♦July 5-7, -1665.♦ Sobieski was hereafter to receive severe punishment for -this indecent haste in the conduct of his wife. ♦Rebellion of -Lubomirski.♦ In the midst of the marriage _fêtes_ tidings arrived -that Lubomirski, who had entered Poland with a large army, was -ungenerously plundering his estate at Zolkiew, and carrying off -his stud of horses. The proscribed general, who was a prince of -the empire, had received secret support from Leopold of Austria, -and was now in open rebellion. - -The whole kingdom was divided against itself. The palatinates -of the west, gained over by Austria, resented the predominance -of France at court, and joined Lubomirski. ♦Sobieski tries -arbitration.♦ An effort was made by Sobieski to get the decision -of the Diet on Lubomirski’s claims, but the assembly was -dissolved by the fatal veto, and the two armies advanced to the -struggle. Contrary to the earnest advice of Sobieski, Casimir -made his attack in the marshes of Montwy (July 11th, 1666), -and his troops, entangled in the difficult ground, were easily -defeated. ♦Peace with Lubomirski.♦ But Lubomirski was anxious to -come to terms, and, having extracted a promise from Casimir that -he would not interfere in the succession, he waived his personal -claims, and retired to Silesia, where he died six months after. - -His faction, however, was not silenced. Bands of hungry soldiers, -clamouring for pay, levied black-mail upon the provinces; and the -central authority seemed powerless to restrain them. ♦Invasion of -the Tartars.♦ At this juncture news arrived that 80,000 Tartars -were plundering Volhynia, and that the Cossacks under Doroscensko -were preparing to join them. The utmost consternation prevailed -at Warsaw; a peace was hastily patched up with Muscovy, and -efforts were made to raise fresh troops. But the treasury was -empty; the republic had only 10,000 men under arms; and many of -these were most imperfectly equipped. Casimir applied vainly for -help at the principal European courts; Brandenburg alone sent a -few companies of infantry. At this crisis Potoçki, the aged Grand -General, died, and the king at once appointed the Grand Marshal -to the post. - -♦Sobieski Grand General,♦ Never before had any Polish subject -united in his own person these two offices. As Grand General -Sobieski had absolute control over military affairs, and could -quarter his army where he pleased; ♦As well as Grand Marshal.♦ -as Grand Marshal he was at the head of the administration, -received foreign ambassadors, and could inflict death without -appeal. In most points, as in the last, his power was really -greater than that of the king; for although the king could confer -these honours, he could not revoke them. No higher testimony -could have been paid to the prudence and ability of Sobieski -than the readiness with which these unusual powers were granted, -and the very transitory murmurs that they provoked amongst an -exceptionally jealous nobility. His rise, though fortunate at -its close, had not been so rapid as to be out of proportion to -his merits. The gravity of the crisis doubtless operated in -his favour; and he took pains at once to relieve all suspicion -by his temperate and vigorous action. His persuasive eloquence -silenced the clamours for pay, and he hesitated not to drain -his private coffers in raising new levies. ♦His bold plan of -the campaign.♦ By this means he doubled his original forces, -and then prepared to execute a grand plan for the destruction -of the Tartars. Throwing his army into the fortified camp of -Podhaic, a small town in Red Russia, he detached several large -bodies of cavalry to act in the vicinity. These had orders on a -given day, when the enemy had worn himself out by the assault, to -close round the vast host and help their general to assume the -offensive. To divide so small a force seemed hazardous in the -extreme,[36] and the soldiers murmured openly that their lives -were to be thrown away. The cool courage of Sobieski made them -blush for shame. “He gave all cowards liberty to depart; as for -himself, he was determined to remain with all those who loved -their country.” ♦Sept. 28th-Oct. 15th, 1667.♦ The enemy appeared; -and for seventeen days in succession this heroic band withstood -their most determined assaults. Finally Sobieski, whose troops -had suffered far less loss than they inflicted, gave the signal -to his outlying parties, and attacked the Tartars in front and -rear. ♦Great victory of Podhaic.♦ The battle was hotly contested; -but at length victory declared for the Poles. Galga, the Tartar -khan, found his troops so severely handled that he was forced -to sue for peace, and concluded an alliance with the republic. -Doroscensko, on the part of the Cossacks, agreed to restore to -the nobles their estates in the Ukraine. - -♦Gratitude of Poland.♦ Poland had been saved almost by a miracle; -and multitudes flocked to the churches to return thanks to God. -When the danger was at its height, so inert and feeble was -the body-politic that Casimir had found it impossible to arm -the Pospolite for the relief of their devoted general. Their -gratitude was now the greater that their sacrifices had been -few. When Sobieski on his return detailed in modest language the -success of the campaign, and ascribed his victory to the mercy of -God, the Diet rose with one accord and answered that the republic -knew who had saved her, and would remember to thank him. ♦Birth -of a son.♦ The tidings reached his wife, who was staying with -her relatives in France, just after she had borne him a son; and -such was the general admiration that Louis XIV. and Henrietta -Maria, the mother of Charles II., were willing to answer for the -child at the font. He was named James Louis, in honour of his -grandfather and his illustrious sponsor. - -No successes against the invader could allay the internal broils -of Poland. Although Casimir had lost his queen in the spring of -the year 1667, the outcry against the French influence continued -unabated. On one occasion the king so far forgot himself as to -exclaim, in full diet, “If you are weary of me, I am no less -weary of you.” ♦Abdication of John Casimir.♦ At length, bowed -down by domestic sorrow, tormented by scruples of conscience,[37] -and disgusted at the turbulence of the nobles, he came to the -resolution, which those words seemed to imply, of laying aside -the crown. He took farewell of the Diet in a dignified speech, -in which he asked only for six feet of earth, where his bones -might rest in peace. If he had offended any, he begged them to -forgive him as freely as he forgave those who had offended him. -The assembly was profoundly affected; but, although Sobieski -and others from motives of gratitude besought him to retain the -crown, it does not appear that this was the wish of the nation. -We are told that on the day after his abdication the people -hardly paid him the respect due to a gentleman;[38] and much -ill-feeling was shown in the Diet, when the question of his -pension came before it. After remaining in Poland too long for -his own credit[39] he retired to France, where Louis XIV. gave -him the Abbey of St. Germain. He was the last of the dynasty of -Jagellon,[40] which had reigned in Poland nearly three hundred -years. - -♦Candidates for the throne.♦ The number of aspirants to the vacant -throne was, as usual, considerable. The Czar Alexis massed 80,000 -troops on the frontier in support of the candidature of his son, -but the Poles took little notice either of him or his manœuvres. -The Prince of Condé was supported by Sobieski and many of the -Senate, but the prejudice against a Frenchman was universal among -the lesser nobles. The two candidates most in favour were Prince -Charles of Lorraine, secretly supported by Austria, and Philip, -Duke of Neuberg, who, though sixty years of age, was set up as -the real choice alike of the King of France and the Emperor. The -personal advantages of the former were far superior to those of -his rival; he was young, courageous, and affable; but he had -neither money nor lands, while the offers of the Duke of Neuberg -were most advantageous to the state. ♦Disorder on the field of -election.♦ The nobles, fully alive to the value of their votes, -postponed their decision till May, 1669; and meanwhile the field -of election was as usual a scene of wild confusion. A large party -clamoured for the exclusion of the Prince of Condé, and, although -Sobieski protested against such a measure as interfering with -the freedom of the proceedings, it was carried through by the -violence of its promoters. At length the tumult rose to such a -height that Sobieski, as Grand Marshal, threatened to fire upon -the rioters. Order was thus partly restored; and soon the cry -of a Piast! a Piast! was heard among the crowd. Sobieski might -well suppose that no Piast (or native Pole) would be thought so -worthy as himself to wear the crown, but perhaps he had made -himself too unpopular during the election. The cry was followed -by the proposal of Michael Wiesnowiesçki--a young noble barely -thirty years of age, who had neither virtues, nor abilities, nor -riches to recommend him to their suffrages. ♦Proclamation of King -Michael.♦ Yet such was the fickle excitability of the assembly -that he was chosen by acclamation; and, although he implored -to be spared the honour, and even attempted to escape, he was -dragged to the throne, and invested with the supreme authority. - -The reign of such a king could scarcely be prosperous. Ere long -the nobles had cause to regret that they had not chosen the -man who of all native Poles was worthiest to hold the sceptre. -Michael himself, when mounted upon the throne, could not but -see that he was far from being the first man in the republic. -The thought wounded his pride, which was soon to become as -conspicuous as his previous humility. ♦His hatred of Sobieski,♦ -He hated Sobieski with a hatred the more violent that he was -unable to abridge his powers. He refused the grand coach-and-six -which it was the established custom for the general to present to -the new sovereign.[41] He plotted with Christopher and Michael -Paz, respectively chancellor and grand general of Lithuania, -against the man with whom they had a long-standing family -feud.[42] ♦Who was popular with the army.♦ But Sobieski, besides -having the army at his back, was zealously supported by the -greater nobles, and although a struggle appeared imminent the -king’s party forbore for a time. Efforts were made to promote a -reconciliation by marrying Michael to the daughter of Sobieski’s -sister;[43] but the plan was overthrown by the arrival of an -ambassador from Leopold to offer him the hand of the Arch-Duchess -Eleanor. ♦Marriage of Michael.♦ The honour was too tempting for -the weak-minded king; he accepted from the emperor the order of -the Golden Fleece, and hastily concluded the marriage without the -sanction of the republic. Loud were the complaints against this -breach of the constitution,[44] even among his own supporters, -the lesser nobles. Austria had always been distrusted by the -Poles, but at this moment there was a special reason for her -unpopularity. - -♦Siege of Candia. Designs of Ahmed Köprili.♦ On the 2nd of -September, 1669, after a most memorable defence of more than -twenty years, the city and island of Candia surrendered to the -Turkish fleet, commanded by the Grand Vizier, Ahmed Köprili. The -vast designs of this able minister were the terror of Europe. -Five years earlier (1664) he had concluded with Austria a twenty -years’ peace, on terms most favourable to the Turks; and it was -well known that he only awaited the fall of Candia to resume -his schemes against Italy and the empire. That result was now -achieved, a peace was concluded with Venice, and he was free to -turn the Ottoman arms towards the west and north. ♦Terror in -Europe at♦ The Marquis de St. André,[45] who had commanded in -Candia, wrote into France that Köprili had opened the way to -Rome, and by what he knew of that general’s humour, he doubted -not but he had a design to turn St. Peter’s church into the Grand -Signor’s stables. ♦The rise of Turkey.♦ It is even said that Pope -Clement IX. died of grief at the Turkish successes. These fears -were doubtless in part well founded. During the Thirty Years’ -War, and the intestine struggles which succeeded it in many of -the Christian states, the Turkish power had steadily increased. -Two Grand Viziers of consummate ability, Mahommed Köprili and his -son Ahmed, had strengthened the empire by numerous fortresses, -had sternly quelled the frequent revolts, and had introduced -a spirit of order and activity hitherto seldom seen among the -Turks. If the jealousies of France and Austria were to continue, -a wise vizier might well hope ere long to make a tremendous -onslaught upon Christendom. It is not surprising therefore that, -after the fall of Candia, the Poles should resent the Emperor’s -crafty aim to secure their taking up arms in his defence. - -♦Revolt of the Cossacks.♦ But the danger was nearer than they -imagined. It threatened them as usual from the quarter of -the Cossacks, who had never since their first revolt in 1648 -preserved a real peace with Poland. They viewed with dismay the -accession to the throne of a son of their former oppressor, -Jeremiah Wiesnowiesçki, and imagining that his first object would -be to recover his lost estates, they rushed to arms. ♦Sobieski’s -campaign of 1670.♦ Immediately after the coronation of Michael -(October, 1669) Sobieski was called to the frontiers. Acting -with his usual vigour, he sowed discord in the enemy’s ranks, -and drove them beyond the Dniester. So unexpected were these -victories that the Vice-Chancellor, writing to him in the king’s -name, says: “Envy itself is compelled to confess that, after God, -you alone, though at the head of so small a force, have once -more saved Poland.” ♦Michael refuses a policy of concession.♦ -But the king and his general could not agree as to the measures -to be taken with the subdued Cossacks. Sobieski was most anxious -for a policy of concession. He had seen signs among them of a -disposition to call in the Turks, which they had attempted to -do in 1651, and he hoped to avert such a disaster. But Michael -was wholly deaf to argument. Finding that the Diet was likely to -declare against him, he easily procured its dissolution by the -veto (April 17th); and the event which Sobieski dreaded came to -pass. ♦The Cossacks apply to the Porte.♦ Doroscensko, the Cossack -chief, losing all hope of justice from Poland, and persuaded by -his metropolitan that he would find it at the patriarchate of the -East, went to Constantinople to throw himself at the feet of the -Sultan. - -♦Köprili prepares for war with Poland.♦ Fortune seemed to play -into the hands of Ahmed Köprili. The restless janissaries needed -employment, and he preferred a gradual advance upon Austria to -a premature declaration of war with her. Poland seemed to offer -a splendid field. Proclaiming the Sultan the champion of the -oppressed, he prepared a great armament against the oppressor, -and created Doroscensko hospodar of the Ukraine. But his plans -required time to be fully matured, and in the meanwhile he -encouraged the Tartars to burst into Poland (1671). - -♦Austrian influence in Poland.♦ The republic was at this moment -torn in pieces by the violence of the Austrian and French -factions. Leopold had followed up his success in the marriage -of his sister by surrounding the weak Michael with creatures -of his own, who used all their arts to persuade him that the -French monarch had been guilty of bringing in the Tartars against -him. Great efforts were made to include Sobieski in these -accusations. His second general, Demetrius Wiesnowiesçki, the -king’s cousin, who had long been jealous of him, actually put -Tartar captives to the torture to obtain evidence, but without -success. Sobieski, though deeply indignant, contented himself -with publishing a scornful manifesto, and then hastened to defend -the frontiers. At the meeting of the Diet (September 20th) the -deputies demanded the dismissal of the Austrian courtiers; and -the primate Prazmowski vehemently accused the king of treachery -to the nation, and of breaking his coronation oaths. ♦Michael -calls out the Pospolite.♦ Terrified at this attack, Michael -called out the Pospolite, which was devoted to his interests; but -he paid no attention to the entreaties of Sobieski that he would -use it against the invader. He could not bring himself to save -his kingdom at the expense of strengthening his rival. - -♦“Miraculous campaign” of Sobieski.♦ Sobieski determined to -act without him. Equipping the regular army at his own cost, -he appeared to be covering Kaminiec, the key of south-eastern -Poland, but when the Tartar hordes had passed into Volhynia, -he marched with surprising celerity through Podolia, and cut -them off from their allies, the Cossacks. Trembling for their -retreat the barbarians broke up their camp, and hurried out -of the country as fast as they could, while Sobieski made a -triumphant progress through the Ukraine, capturing several -towns which had not seen a Polish army for twenty years, and -re-establishing communications with the friendly Moldavians. -Europe justly termed this “the miraculous campaign;” yet it was -accomplished almost solely by the strenuous exertions of the -commander. His troops were in the worst possible condition, -the Lithuanian army had disbanded without joining him, and the -jealousies of the different palatinates had prevented their -sending him any succours. He now begged for reinforcements to -enable him to dictate peace to the Tartars, and to fortify Poland -against the Turks; but the infatuated malice of the king made -it difficult for him even to keep together the troops under -his orders. ♦December, 1671. He falls sick.♦ At this juncture -fatigue, and perhaps chagrin at the treatment which he received, -laid Sobieski on the bed of sickness at Zolkiew; and the king -redoubled his efforts to separate him from the army. The attempt -recoiled upon his own head. That body at once moved their winter -quarters to the Palatinate of Russia, and formed themselves into -a confederation to protect their beloved general. - -♦The Sultan declares war against Poland.♦ But the king’s -attention was soon most unpleasantly diverted elsewhere. In -the same month (December) an envoy from the Porte arrived at -Warsaw, and announcing that the Cossacks had been taken under -the protection of the Sublime Porte, demanded reparation for -the injuries which they had suffered. No resource was left to -the king’s party but to treat this as a mere blind intended to -conceal from Austria the Turkish advance on the side of Hungary. - -♦Confederation against the king.♦ The patience of the great -nobles was now completely exhausted. Under the leadership of -Prazmowski they entered into a confederation to dethrone the -king. The advice of the primate was that they should take the -emperor and the Polish queen into their counsels, and provide -some candidate who would be ready to accept the queen’s hand. -Eleanor was consulted, and professed herself devoted to the -plan, if they would choose Charles of Lorraine, to whom she -was deeply attached. ♦Joined by Sobieski.♦ Sobieski, now -convalescent, was at length made acquainted with these projects. -He strongly opposed any scheme which would place the country -under the espionage of Austria; but being firmly convinced of -the necessity of a revolution, he exhorted them to choose the -brave Duke of Longueville, nephew of Condé. Prazmowski, nothing -daunted, sent the queen the duke’s portrait, and was assured of -her acquiescence. Everything seemed favourable for the _coup -d’état_; the Diet went out in a body to meet Sobieski; and -the rejoicings at his recovery were universal, when suddenly -news arrived that the Duke of Longueville had been slain at the -passage of the Rhine (June 12th, 1672). The party of the king, -and the Lithuanians, who had trembled at the coming storm, took -fresh courage, while the confederates were proportionately -disconcerted. Michael began to negotiate for Austrian troops to -employ against the Grand General; ♦Invasion of the Sultan.♦ but -in the midst of the confusion it was announced that Mahomet IV. -in person, with the Grand Vizier and 200,000 men, was advancing -upon Kaminiec. The king’s party loudly averred that this was a -fabrication of their opponents; the Lithuanians swore to defend -him to the death; ♦Sobieski proscribed.♦ and Sobieski, with -others of the leading nobles, was proscribed. This violence -raised a similar storm in the Polish army in Russia, who -surrounded their general, and swore to follow him to the end of -the earth. “I accept your oaths,” was his answer, “and the first -thing I require of you is to save Poland.” - -Yet Poland seemed lost beyond all hope. Sobieski’s troops -scarcely amounted to 30,000 men, and there was now no chance of -uniting them to the Pospolite. ♦The Sultan takes Kaminiec,♦ The -Grand General flew to Kaminiec to reinforce and provision the -garrison; but he was obliged to leave it to its fate, for the -governor, who belonged to the king’s party, refused to admit any -of his force. Kaminiec was the only great fortress which Poland -possessed. Its natural position--defended on one side by the -river Smotrycz, and on the other by an inaccessible cliff--was -very strong; and the Poles constantly boasted that God, who built -it, would alone be able to take it. Yet so skilful were the -Turkish miners, after their long experience in Candia, that it -surrendered within a month. - -The consternation at Warsaw was fearful. The king assembled -the Pospolite at Golemba, near the capital; but his one aim -was to conclude peace on any terms. ♦And advances on Leopol.♦ -The Sultan, sending on an advanced guard to besiege Leopol, -the capital of Russia, encamped at Buczacz, where amongst the -Podolian mountains he enjoyed his favourite pastime of hunting. -Meanwhile Sobieski had not been idle. A large body of Tartars had -passed into Volhynia in support of the Turks, and, after loading -themselves with spoil and with a vast train of captives, prepared -to beat a retreat. Hovering always on their rear, Sobieski struck -a blow whenever it was practicable, and finally caught them in -a defile at Kalusz, in the Carpathian mountains. ♦Victory of -Sobieski over the Tartars.♦ After a great carnage he dispersed -them, recovered the spoil, and liberated nearly 30,000 Polish -captives. ♦His attack upon the Sultan’s camp.♦ He then formed -the daring plan of a night attack on Mahomet’s camp. By swift -and silent marches he approached unperceived, and burst with his -cavalry on the imperial tents. For a moment the quarters of the -Sultanas were in imminent danger; but the arrival of succours put -an end to the raid. - -♦Peace of Buczacz.♦ With his small force Sobieski could do no -more than harass the Turkish army, yet it was with indignation -that he heard that the king had concluded a peace at Buczacz -(October 18th). Michael concealed the terms as long as he could; -and this increased the suspicions of the Grand General that they -were dishonourable to the country. At length it was found that -Podolia, the Ukraine, and Kaminiec had been ceded to the Porte, -and that the king had consented to pay an annual tribute of -22,000 ducats. In return for this the Vizier withdrew his army -from Polish soil; but he established a vast military camp with -80,000 men at Kotzim, on the Dniester, to overawe the vanquished -nation. By this treaty, which he had no power to make without the -sanction of the republic, the king of Poland reduced himself to -the condition of a vassal of the Sultan. - -♦Hostility of the Pospolite to Sobieski.♦ Yet the leaders -of the Pospolite at Golemba, who dreaded nothing so much as -a long campaign, were loud in his defence. Suspecting that -Sobieski would not accept the peace, they renewed against him -the sentence of proscription, and confiscated his estates. On -receiving intelligence of these attacks, Louis XIV. offered him -a French dukedom and a marshal’s bâton; but Sobieski would not -forsake his country. Indeed his position did not justify it; -for his party grew stronger day by day, while the Pospolite, -ill-furnished with provisions, and rent in pieces by faction, -gradually melted away. At length the queen took on herself the -part of a mediator, and she was seconded by the Lithuanians, -who were weary of anarchy. It then appeared how strong a hold -Sobieski had upon the affections of the people. ♦Popularity of -Sobieski.♦ When his exploits during the war became generally -known there was an immense reaction in his favour. ♦Plot -against him.♦ His personal enemies, among whom may be reckoned -the king, viewed this with the utmost uneasiness, and a few of -them concocted an atrocious plot against him. They suborned -a poor noble, named Lodzinski, to come forward in the Diet -and declare that Sobieski had sold Kaminiec to the Turks for -1,200,000 florins, and that this money had been seen in waggons -on the way to its destination. This calumny raised the Diet to -the highest pitch of excitement, and they would have put the -slanderer in irons but for the intervention of the king. The -army declared that they would wash out the insult with blood; -but Sobieski calmed them, and proceeded to Warsaw to demand a -trial. He was welcomed with acclamations; the palace of Wiasdow, -decorated with all the trophies of Zolkiewski, was placed at his -disposal; and Michael sent the Grand Chamberlain to pay him his -compliments. ♦Discovered and punished.♦ Lodzinski, when brought -before a tribunal of senators and deputies, lost all courage, and -confessed that he had invented the story for the sum of 1,000 -francs--promised him by certain of the nobles. He was condemned -to death; but the sentence could not be carried out without the -consent of the Grand Marshal, and he was therefore suffered to -live. The nobles who had been his instigators had to ask pardon -on their knees. - -♦He persuades the Diet not to accept the peace.♦ The first -object of Sobieski in this sudden blaze of his popularity was -to procure the rupture of the peace of Buczacz. He at once -published a memorandum, setting forth necessary reforms in the -administration and the army, and promising that their adoption -would ensure a successful struggle against the Turks. The Diet -sent him a message in high-flown Polish rhetoric, in which they -begged for the presence of that hero “who, if the system of -Pythagoras be true, seems to unite in his own frame the souls -of all the great captains and good citizens of the past.” He -took his seat amid great enthusiasm (March 14th), and easily -persuaded the deputies to follow his advice. They did not now -dream of paying the tribute. They decreed an army of 60,000 men, -the establishment of a war-tax, and the despatch of embassies -for foreign aid, and finally placed in the hands of Sobieski -full powers both for peace and war. This was in effect to put -aside the king, and make the Grand Marshal Regent; but no voice -was raised against the proposal. ♦Their confidence in him.♦ -Since there was only a trifling sum remaining in the exchequer, -Sobieski persuaded the Diet to use the treasure stored up as a -reserve in the castle of Cracow. This, with an opportune subsidy -which arrived from the Pope, was deposited with him instead of -the Grand Treasurer, as the person most likely to use them to -advantage. - -♦His difficulties.♦ Such unbounded confidence carried with it a -responsibility which few men would have dared to face. Sobieski -accepted it cheerfully, yet at the outset of the campaign he -had to meet two difficulties, which he had not foreseen. His -old enemy, Michael Paz, caused much delay by arriving late with -his Lithuanians (Sept. 16th); and at the last moment the king -announced that he should put himself at the head of the force. -He came, and reviewed the troops; but during the ceremony he -was seized with illness; and the next morning the Poles raised -a hurra on seeing the “bonzuk,” or long lance, in front of the -Grand General’s tent in an upright position--a sure sign that -the king had quitted the army. The next day (October 11th), with -a force of nearly 40,000 men, and forty small field-pieces, -Sobieski began his march. - -♦His plan of the campaign.♦ His plan of the campaign, though -simple, was boldly conceived. Having heard that Caplan Pacha, -with 30,000 men, was advancing through Moldavia to reinforce -the camp at Kotzim, he proposed to cut him off upon his march, -and then to turn upon the camp itself. If he should succeed in -capturing it, he hoped to isolate Kaminiec, and so to take it by -blockade, and recover all that had been ceded to the Porte. He -was not dismayed at the lateness of the season; for he trusted -that on this account the Turks would be less willing to fight. - -♦March of the army.♦ The banks of the Dniester were reached after -three weeks’ march, and here a mutiny broke out among the troops, -which was industriously fomented by Michael Paz. They clamoured -for rest and provisions; Sobieski promised them both under the -tents of the barbarians. “My resolution,” said he, “is not to be -shaken. I intend to bury myself here or to conquer. You must do -the same, or nothing can save you.” His firmness had the desired -effect. They crossed the Dniester and penetrated into the forest -of Bucovina; but Sobieski was obliged to alter his original -plans. It would have been madness to wait for Caplan Pacha and -so give him time to join the camp; and yet his undisciplined -soldiery shrank from the inclement plains of Moldavia. He -therefore turned aside, and advanced at once on the entrenchments -at Kotzim. - -♦Castle and camp of Kotzim.♦ The castle of that name was -strongly situated on the right bank of the Dniester, about twelve -miles from Kaminiec. Between this and the advancing Poles, at -the height of twenty feet from the plain, was the vast fortified -camp, unassailable on the side of the river, where the rocks were -steep, and surrounded on the other sides by a broad ravine. The -ground immediately in front of the entrenchments was marshy, and -broken up by rapid streams, and the Turks could sweep it from -end to end with their admirable artillery. Within the lines were -ranged 80,000 men, the flower of the Turkish army, most of them -spahis and janissaries, under the command of the Seraskier[46] -Hussein. - -♦Insubordination of Paz.♦ The day after the Poles arrived -(November 10th) Paz declared an assault to be impracticable, -and announced his intention to retire. Sobieski replied with -truth that flight was not in their power except at the risk of -extermination. The enterprise indeed seemed superhuman; but the -Grand General ranged his troops in order of battle with full -confidence of success. During the day a large body of Moldavians -and Wallachians,[47] who occupied a spot on the left of the -Turkish camp, deserted to the Poles, and greatly raised their -drooping spirits. When night came on, the troops were still kept -under arms, although the weather was most severe. The snow fell -thickly, but Sobieski visited all the posts, and animated the men -by his cheerful manner. At length he reclined on the carriage of -a cannon and waited for the dawn. - -♦Crisis in Sobieski’s life.♦ It was the crisis of his great -career; yet he could not but regard the scene as one of happy -omen. On this spot, more than fifty years before, his father had -gained a splendid victory over the Turks, which was followed by -a long peace. Then indeed the Poles were the defenders instead -of the assailants of the entrenchments; but that only made the -victory in prospect seem a more glorious prize. - -♦He attacks the entrenchments.♦ At length the day broke, and -Sobieski observed the enemy’s lines much thinner than before. -Many of the Turks, exhausted by the unwonted cold, had sought -their tents, not dreaming for one moment that the Poles would -dare to attack them in daylight. “This is the moment that -I waited for,” cried Sobieski to his staff, and ordered at -once a general assault. After galloping down the lines with -a few encouraging words, he alighted from his horse, and led -the infantry and his own dismounted dragoons against the -entrenchments. The Turks, whose attention was distracted by a -false attack on another side, left a weak point in his front, -and Sobieski, though somewhat bulky, was the first to scale the -parapet. He was splendidly supported by his dragoons; and the -battle now raged in the midst of the tents. The infantry might -possibly have been surrounded, had not Jablonowski, Palatine of -Russia, dashed up a steep place with the best of the cavalry, and -rushed to the rescue. ♦Rout of the Turks,♦ Sobieski was supplied -with a horse, and the Turks now began to give way on all sides. -Soliman Pacha, at the head of the janissaries, tried to retreat -in good order to the plain; but he was charged by the Lithuanians -in front and by the Poles in the rear, and his fine troops were -cut to pieces. He is said to have himself fallen by the hand -of Sobieski, who despoiled him of his jewelled scimitar.[48] -The Turks fled in confused masses to the bridge leading to the -castle; but Sobieski had provided against this by sending his -brother-in-law, Radziwill, with a large detachment to seize -it. The only retreat now left them was the steep rock on the -river-side, from which thousands precipitated themselves into -the stream; ♦And complete victory of the Poles.♦ but the Polish -cavalry dashed in after them, and completed their destruction. -The carnage lasted more than three hours, during which half the -Turkish force was slain, and a large number taken prisoners. A -remnant of the original force succeeded in escaping to Kaminiec, -among whom was the Seraskier Hussein.[49] - -♦Question of the prisoners.♦ It is difficult to credit the -statement of some historians, none of whom are contemporaries, -that Sobieski put all the prisoners to the sword.[50] Such an act -would have been opposed alike to his natural disposition and to -his defensive policy. Plain facts are against it; for some days -later the commander at Kaminiec, delighted at the generous terms -which he granted to the garrison of the castle (November 13th,), -released fifty prisoners without ransom. Had such an enormity -been committed, it must certainly have reached his ears, and -would have met with a prompt revenge. - -♦Joy of the Poles.♦ Immediately after the victory, the Jesuit -confessor of Sobieski erected an altar in the pavilion of the -Seraskier, and the whole army, with tears of joy, attended -a thanksgiving service. The occasion was indeed affecting, -especially to their commander. Ere long Christendom was -resounding with the praises of one who had obtained the greatest -victory over the infidel since the battle of Ascalon. Sobieski -was most anxious to follow up his success. Honour forbade him -to desert the Moldavians and Wallachians, who had come over to -him at considerable risk; and he wished to cut off from the -Turks all chance of return. ♦Their advance upon the Danube.♦ He -put his cavalry in motion towards the Danube with the hope of -encountering Caplan Pacha. But that general, on hearing of the -disaster at Kotzim, retreated in all haste, and took with him the -Turkish garrisons on the left bank of the Danube. Such was the -panic in Turkey that the Sultan, who had advanced to Silistria, -hurried back to his capital. But the victorious advance of the -Poles was stopped, as they were entering Wallachia, by the news -of the death of their king. - -♦Death of Michael.♦ On the night before the battle of Kotzim -(November 10th), Michael breathed his last at Leopol. His death -was caused by disease of the kidneys, but he had hastened his -end by the gluttonous voracity of his appetite, which passed all -bounds. He is said to have devoured in a few hours a thousand -Chinese apples, presented to him by the municipality of Dantzic. -His last hours were embittered by the fruits of his pusillanimous -submission to the Turks. A few days before his death a Turkish -Aga[51] arrived, bearing the caphtan, or robe of vassalage, -which the Sultan sends to his tributaries. The king was too -ill to receive him, and he had to depart without executing his -commission. - -♦His character.♦ The incapacity of Michael deserves our pity, -because the crown was thrust upon him against his will. But he -was worse than incapable. Envy and fear alternately gained the -mastery over his despicable nature. His evil genius pursued -him to the end. Such was the general exultation at the victory -of Kotzim that there was no pretence of mourning for him; and -his body was conveyed to Warsaw, almost unnoticed, beneath the -triumphal arches erected in honour of his rival. - -♦Exultation in Poland.♦ Three weeks elapsed after Michael’s -death before the news of the Grand General’s victory arrived at -Warsaw (December 4th), and in the interval the Poles had given up -the army for lost. It is somewhat surprising that in a nation so -excitable the sudden revulsion of feeling did not result at once -in the proclamation of Sobieski. Madame de Sevigné,[52] writing -just after the news arrived in Paris (December 22nd), says that -there no one doubted that he would be elected. The official -journals of France speak of him as “worthy of the throne which he -had saved.” But the Grand General himself was aware what a stormy -opposition his candidature would raise among the Lithuanians. It -was thus with unfeigned sorrow that he received the orders of the -primate-interrex to bring back his victorious troops. Everything -remained to be done towards reaping the benefits of his glorious -success. The Turks were still in Kaminiec; Moldavia and Wallachia -were yet to be freed; and the Cossacks who had sent in their -submission had to be confirmed in their allegiance. ♦Return of -the Polish army.♦ He did all he could. Though his men deserted -him daily by hundreds for the more profitable field of election, -he left a garrison in Kotzim, and detached 8,000 men for the -defence of his two allies. Then, with a heavy heart, he retraced -his steps to Leopol. He was here met by deputies from the most -distant palatinates, who showered upon him their congratulations; -but he showed no disposition to proceed to Warsaw. He knew -too well the activity of his enemies in the Diet, and he was -quite content that it should appear that he had no personal -pretensions.[53] - -♦Projects of the queen.♦ While her late husband was still lying -in state the queen had resumed her favourite project of retaining -the crown by a marriage with Charles of Lorraine. That prince -left the army of the Rhine and appeared upon the frontiers; -and the emperor massed troops for his support on the borders -of Little Poland. ♦Candidates.♦ Sixteen[54] other candidates -appeared in the field, but many of these were Protestant -princes, whose chances were small; and the contest seemed to -lie between Lorraine and the young Duke of Neuberg, the son of -his old antagonist. The latter, though a German prince, was -supported by Louis XIV. as the heir of the Elector Palatine, and -therefore an important ally. ♦Preparations for the election.♦ No -artifice was spared by the queen’s party to prevent the proposal -of Sobieski. The Pazes brought forward a measure in the Diet -for the exclusion of a Piast on account of the misfortunes of -the late reign; and when this was unfavourably received, they -insisted that the new king must be unmarried.[55] The Diet -refused to sanction any measures of exclusion, and wrote to -press for Sobieski’s presence. But the hero was now at Zolkiew -attending his wife in a dangerous illness, upon the origin of -which various rumours were afloat. His enemies averred that he -had poisoned her himself to secure the queen’s hand; his friends -hinted that the queen had done so to be sure of the crown at all -hazards. These speculations were set at rest by the recovery -of Madame Sobieska; but her husband still delayed to appear in -public. He wrote, however, to the Diet, strongly urging that the -threatening attitude of the Turks rendered any delay dangerous; -and it was decided on this advice that the election should not be -made by the whole Pospolite, but by a representative Diet. But -the regulation was practically ineffective; for the Diet being -held in the open air, the nobles attended as usual to watch the -conduct of their deputies. - -♦The field of election.♦ The field of Wola, close to Warsaw, -was the scene of this unique spectacle. On the day when the Diet -of election met (April 20) all the orders of the state attended -a grand service at the cathedral, and then set out on horseback -for the field. In the midst of the plain was pitched the “szopa,” -or grand pavilion of the Senate, surrounded by a ditch to keep -off intruders, and carefully closed to the public. Not far off, -under the open sky, sat the “kolo” or circle of deputies from -the palatinates. Round it were ranged 100,000 of the nobility, -jealously watching each turn of their deliberations. Every -human passion found vent in this motley assemblage. Riots were -frequent, and seldom ended without effusion of blood. Each -noble was attended by as many valets as he could muster, who -were generally a worse element of disorder than their lords. To -these must be added a crowd of mercenaries from neighbouring -nations, all eagerly intriguing for their national candidate. -Long tables were set up as the head-quarters of each faction, -and at these was heard an unceasing babel of noisy tongues. In -the vacant spaces of the arena jousts were frequent, for which -each palatinate brought out a splendid cavalcade. This was the -occasion when all gratified the national craving for display. -Many a poor noble would readily sell his vote, perhaps to more -than one candidate, for the pleasure of donning a brilliant -attire. Costly furs adorned their persons, and were almost -hidden beneath a profusion of jewels. The same reckless display -of the precious metals was seen in their accoutrements. Nor -were the bishops outdone by the cavaliers. Green, broad-brimmed -hats, with yellow or red pantaloons, were the common ornaments -of the soldiers of the Church. Every kind of merchandise was -represented. The Jews, who were ordinarily interdicted from -appearing in Warsaw, made the most of the short period when -the restriction was removed. The plain around the “szopa” -was dotted with an immense multitude of tents, most of them -devoted to buying and selling, but all decorated in the most -gorgeous style. Several pavilions of superb workmanship and -oriental magnificence, containing a large suite of luxurious -chambers, attracted special attention. They were the quarters -of the Seraskier Hussein--transported entire from the camp at -Kotzim--and were now surmounted by the shield of Sobieski. - -♦Absence of Sobieski.♦ Nothing more was wanting to kindle the -liveliest enthusiasm for the absent general. His name was in -every mouth, and his non-appearance caused much surprise. The -“kolo” elected as their marshal the Lithuanian Sapieha, a -personal friend of the Grand General; and when Michael Paz pushed -his hatred so far as to revive his proposal for the exclusion of -a Piast (April 15), the attempt was so invidious that a party -began to form in Sobieski’s favour, though their designs were at -first studiously concealed. - -♦His arrival.♦ On the 2nd of May it was announced that Sobieski -was approaching Warsaw. His arrival on the plain created the most -unbounded enthusiasm; the Diet rose and went to meet him; and his -progress for miles resembled a triumph. Sixty-six banners--the -spoil of Kotzim--were carried before him, to be his present, -as he said, to his future king; and behind him marched a corps -of captive janissaries, who were enrolled as his body-guard. -Like his countrymen, he did not disdain ostentation; for on the -croup of his horse hung a shield of gold, embossed with scenes -from his great career. Nature had gifted him with handsome -features and a dignified mien.[56] Though stout, he was tall and -erect; and his full flashing eye marked him at once as a man of -frankness, bravery, and powers of observation. Yet along with his -military air his face wore a sweetness of expression, which was -indescribably attractive. Few of the Pules could have witnessed -his entry without feeling that he was the fittest person to be -their king. - -♦He proposes the Prince of Condé.♦ Two days after (May 4) the -Senate forsook the “szopa” and took their seat in the “kolo;” -and Sobieski, rising in his place, proposed the Prince of Condé, -whose military qualities, he said, made him the proper choice of -a nation which would have to struggle for its existence. This -unexpected event caused an immense commotion. The vast multitude -was split into the old factions of France and Austria, and for -days it seemed as if there was no solution but civil war. At -length (May 19) Sobieski consented to withdraw the name of Condé -if the queen would consent to marry the Duke of Neuberg. Hoping -against hope for the success of her party, Eleanor rejected this -offer with disdain; and the Lithuanians, who were encamped on the -other side of the Vistula, assumed a menacing attitude towards -the Polish Pospolite. At this crisis the Bishop of Cracow, who -was discharging the functions of interrex,[57] gave orders -for the singing of the canticles with which the debates were -accustomed to close. The familiar chant and its associations -produced a dead calm in the tempestuous assembly, and at -its conclusion the prelate ordered each palatinate to range -itself round the banner of its palatine. ♦Jablonowski proposes -Sobieski.♦ While his orders were being obeyed, Jablonowski, -palatine of Red Russia, the home of Sobieski, took advantage of -the silence to address all those within hearing. He represented -Lorraine as too devoted to the empire, Neuberg as too young, -Condé as too old, to command their armies with vigour. The times, -he said, required a prince who was well acquainted alike with -them and with their military system. He was here interrupted with -loud shouts of “A Piast!” a sound which soon collected round the -speaker all the surging masses of the Pospolite. The palatine -continued, “Among ourselves is a man whose sacrifices for his -country have caused him to be everywhere considered the first -of the sons of Poland. In placing him at our head we shall do -no more than consecrate his own glory; fortunate to be able to -honour by one title the more the remainder of a life, of which -every day has been dedicated to the republic. We know that such -a king will maintain our nation in the rank which it occupies in -the world. Such a man as he is will never make himself a vassal -of the infidel. Poles, if we are deliberating here in peace on -the election of a king, if the most illustrious dynasties are -courting our suffrages, if our liberty remains secure, if even -we have a country left to us, to whom do we owe it? Remember the -marvels of Slobodyszcza, of Podhaic, of Kalusz, above all, of -Kotzim, and take for your king John Sobieski!”[58] - -A tempest of applause followed this speech, and as it subsided -the voice of one of the castellans was heard calling upon the -Poles to elect that man whom the Turks would be most anxious to -exclude. Then from the midst of the host rose loud shouts of -“Long live King John Sobieski!” and thirteen palatinates at once -took up the cry. The regular soldiers pressed forward towards -the szopa, exclaiming, “We will all perish together, or have for -our king John Sobieski!” It was already late in the evening, but -the Polish nobility crowded round the interrex, and besought him -to take the votes. ♦He postpones the voting.♦ One voice alone -was raised against the proposition; it was that of Sobieski. He -firmly declared that he could not accept the crown if it was -offered at the fall of night, and in a manner so sudden that no -one could have time to recollect himself. “If,” said he, “there -is no other protest against the election being made this night, I -shall oppose my veto.” This disinterested advice was unwillingly -followed, and Sobieski left the plain to encounter the reproaches -of his wife. - -Several writers--principally the later Polish historians, who -treat him with marked disfavour--endeavour to detect in his -conduct throughout the proceedings the signs of crafty intrigue. -♦And shows his fair dealing.♦ Yet by this last step he allowed -his enemies time to combine against him, and gave the queen’s -party a fair opportunity of reviving their scattered energies. -But such generosity is often the best policy. The succeeding -night and day (May 20th) were spent in a general effort to secure -unanimity; and the riches and influence of his brother-in-law, -Radziwill, were of much service to Sobieski in the Lithuanian -camp. But his own popularity was still more effectual. It had -ever been the privilege of the Grand General of Poland to quarter -his army where he pleased, and pay nothing for their maintenance. -Bribes had formerly been freely taken from those districts that -desired exemption,[59] but Sobieski, unwilling to exercise such -tyranny, had always quartered his army on the frontiers. This -was now remembered with gratitude. ♦His offers to the republic.♦ -His promises to the republic also became the topic of admiring -conversation. He engaged to pay the pension to the queen dowager, -to redeem the crown jewels, to found a military school for the -young nobility, to build two fortresses wherever the Diet should -appoint, and to furnish the regular army with six months’ pay. -Early in the day two of the family of Paz came to register their -opposition with the interrex, but before night fell they had been -persuaded to forego it. ♦Proclamation of Sobieski.♦ The next -morning Sobieski was proclaimed king amid the acclamations of -both Principalities, and took the name of John III. The same day -a vast crowd attended him to the cathedral of St. John to return -thanks for his election. - -♦Opinion of Europe.♦ Europe in general was less astonished at -his elevation than Poland. At Constantinople and at Vienna alone -the news was received with disfavour. Köprili saw less chance of -recovering his conquests; and the emperor was bitterly mortified -to see upon the throne one who had always belonged to the faction -of France. Poland was daily becoming of greater importance in -the struggle between Louis and Leopold. When the republic was -bleeding from the shocks of her barbarous neighbours, and from -a succession of internal troubles, it mattered little to these -great potentates who filled the throne; but now that she had -proved herself strong enough to withstand the dreaded Turk, and -wise enough to offer the crown to her victorious general, she -was looked upon with a respect to which she had hitherto been a -stranger. This was fully appreciated at the Papal Court. Clement -X., besides his benediction, sent assurances of friendship to -the new king; and Oliva, the general of the Jesuits, wrote his -joyful congratulations to “the pillar of the republic and the -avenger of Christendom.” It is difficult to discover how far -the court of France had a hand in his election. Its ambassador, -Forbin-Janson, bishop of Marseilles, arrived somewhat late (May -8th), and certainly brought instructions to support the Duke -of Neuberg. But he probably discovered ere long which way the -tide was setting, and, adapting himself to circumstances with a -Frenchman’s ready wit, he caused it to be supposed that he had -used his influence in favour of Sobieski. Louis XIV. followed the -same course; and in an official note of the same summer claimed -this election as one more instance of the universal triumph of -his policy. - -♦Schemes of the king’s enemies.♦ The machinations of the enemies -of Sobieski did not cease with the withdrawal of their veto. -Their first move was to give notice of a law which should oblige -him to divorce his wife and marry the queen dowager. But on this -point the king was firm. “I have not yet finally promised,” said -he, “to accept the royal functions. If this is the price of your -sceptre, you need not offer it.” The proposal was soon dropped; -and Eleanor, after receiving a visit from the king, retired to -Thorn, whence she still exercised a baneful influence upon the -course of affairs. Four years later (1678) she gave her hand to -her old suitor, the Prince of Lorraine. - -Whilst the Diet was drawing up the _pacta conventa_, -Sobieski discovered from an examination of his revenues that -he could not fulfil his promise of paying the army for six -months. Without delay he frankly owned his inability; and his -opponents made this a pretext for inserting in the contract -new restrictions on the military authority of the king. They -also wished to bind him to an eternal alliance with the court -of Vienna. It was soon known that the king would not yield to -these terms; and several stormy scenes took place in the Diet. -At length the obnoxious articles were struck out; and on the 5th -June the king received the instrument of his election from the -hands of the interrex. - -There now remained only the ceremony of coronation--which was -a necessary prelude to the exercise of the royal functions. -♦Danger from the Turks.♦ But the steady advance of the Turks grew -daily more disquieting. Caplan Pacha had rallied the remnants -of the defeated force, and the Sultan was already marching with -a great army through Bulgaria. John saw that the delay would be -dangerous, and had the courage to disappoint the queen[60] and -the whole court by deferring the ceremony. He told the Senate -that at such a time a helmet became his forehead better than a -diadem. “I know well,” said he, “that I have been elected, not to -represent the republic, but to fight for her. I will first fulfil -my mission.” Touched by his magnanimity, the Diet resolved to -place in his hands at once all the powers of a king. - -♦They invade the Ukraine.♦ Meantime the Turks, accompanied by -the Tartars, had appeared in great force before the camp at -Kotzim. The Polish commander, terrified at their numbers, soon -surrendered, and the whole garrison was put to the sword. But -instead of advancing into the heart of Poland, Köprili turned to -the right into the Ukraine, where the Muscovites, who also laid -claim to that territory, now lined the Borysthenes with 100,000 -men. Hearing that he was occupied in besieging small places -in the Ukraine, John promised to render a good account of him -before the close of the campaign. He kept his word. ♦Campaign of -1674.♦ While the Turks drove the Muscovites beyond the river, -he suddenly appeared in Podolia and besieged Bar. The Sultan, -who was distracted by news of intrigues at his capital and the -advance of the Sophy upon Babylon, suddenly broke up his camp, -and made for Silistria. The Tartars disappeared at the sound of -“the Polish hurricane,” as they called Sobieski; and John was -left to deal with the hapless country which had but just suffered -from the Ottoman invasion. ♦John winters in the Ukraine.♦ He -could see no mode of protecting its peasants from the yoke of -the nobility but to place his army in winter quarters in the -neighbourhood, and to teach the cavalry by his own example what -clemency and what self-sacrifice they ought to show towards a -subject people. Resistance was only to be expected; for his -haughty hussars had never before passed a winter away from their -estates. But when they saw their king take up his abode in the -miserable town of Braclaw, where the scarcity of forage increased -the hardships of the season, the Polish cavalry submitted without -a murmur. - -♦The Lithuanians desert him.♦ Not so, however, did the -Lithuanians. The king had assigned to Paz the town of Bar, the -most comfortable post on the frontiers. Yet that general did -not approve of the innovation, and taking the law into his own -hands marched home with his army. This defection was a great blow -to the king. He had begun to invest Kaminiec, and had opened -negotiations for an alliance with Muscovy. He now saw himself -obliged to narrow his plans, and to confine himself to the -defensive. The desertion of Paz aroused the strongest indignation -in Poland, and he was forced to ask the king’s pardon; but he -could not now repair the mischief. His disbanded troops were -amusing themselves with pillaging their own country,[61] and -there was no chance at present of rallying them round their -standards. - -♦Campaign of 1675.♦ The winter passed without any important -success; and early in April another large Turkish army, commanded -by Ibrahim Pacha,[62] nicknamed “Schischman” from his enormous -bulk, advanced into Volhynia. John hastily quitted the Ukraine -and disposed his small forces for the defence of Russia in a -vast arc, of which Leopol was the centre. So completely was -he outnumbered that his only chance of success seemed to lie -in procuring allies. He continued to treat with the Czar, and -received at Leopol with ostentatious pomp an ambassador from the -Sophy of Persia; but he could hope little from the latter, except -the chance of terrifying the Sultan by a supposed coalition with -his Asiatic enemy. - -♦Lethargy of the Poles.♦ Meanwhile Ibrahim had copied the fault -of the preceding year by wasting time in small sieges, and it -was not till he received a threatening message from Köprili that -he began to advance upon the Polish force covering Leopol, which -hardly amounted to 15,000 men. No exertions on the part of the -king could awaken Poland to a sense of its danger. Servitude had -numbed the senses of the peasants, and the nobles were wearied -with the length of the war. Ibrahim seemed unwilling to trust his -fortune against that of Sobieski. Sitting down before Trembowla, -a strong fortress in Podolia, he sent on the Tartar Noureddin -with 40,000 men “to bring the king before him dead or alive.” - -♦Battle of Leopol.♦ It was late in August when this -detachment[63]--the flower of the Turkish army--arrived at -Leopol, and began to burn the suburbs. The Poles besought the -king to retire, and not risk his life in so deadly a combat. -“You would despise me,” said he, “if I were to follow your -advice.” The ground in the vicinity was undulating and covered -with vineyards, and John carefully made his dispositions in -order to conceal from the enemy the smallness of his force. He -planted several hills, which he could not occupy, with the spare -lances of his hussars, and concealed squadrons in the valleys -near the point of attack. Then, on the 24th of August, amidst -a storm of snow and hail which beat in the faces of the enemy, -he suddenly charged the infidels at the head of 5,000 cavalry, -repeating thrice the name of Jesus. The impetuous bravery of the -Poles spread terror in the Turkish ranks, and before nightfall -the whole force, though at least eight times the number of their -assailants, had fled in disorder. The storm was so unusual -for the time of year that contemporary memoirs speak of it as -miraculous; and it appears that this battle, more than any other, -contributed to cause the superstitious fear with which the -Turkish troops subsequently regarded John Sobieski. - -♦Siege of Trembowla.♦ Ibrahim was dismayed at the king’s success. -He had captured the position of Podhaic, but he could not reduce -the garrison of Trembowla, commanded by Chrasonowski, a man -of determined courage. He now redoubled his assault upon that -place, which must have fallen but for the arrival of John with -the Polish army. The king posted his troops to advantage and -prepared for the attack; but during the night (Oct. 6th) Ibrahim -intercepted a letter to the besieged, which informed him that -the king in person was at the head of the Poles. ♦Retreat of -the Turks.♦ He at once raised the siege, and without striking -a blow retreated precipitately to Kaminiec, and thence across -the Danube. John would have pursued him beyond the outskirts of -Podolia, but the Polish vanguard, dreading a winter’s campaign in -the enemy’s country, set fire to the bridges, and compelled their -king to suspend his march. - -♦Return of the king.♦ The whole country clamoured for his -return, and the Diet was impatient to return thanks to its -deliverer. The Vice-chancellor declared in the Senate that the -king moved like a tortoise towards the throne, but like an -eagle towards the enemies of the republic. He was now ready to -gratify the general wish, and returning to Zolkiew received a -number of foreign ambassadors sent to congratulate him upon his -election,--among them Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester,[64] -whom Dr. South was attending as domestic chaplain. The French -ambassador solicited John’s alliance against Brandenburg and the -empire, and held out hopes of persuading the Turks to make peace. -But the king deferred all fresh engagements for the present; his -grand aim in life was to save Poland from the Ottoman grasp. - -Cracow was, as usual, the scene of the coronation, which was -fixed for the 2nd of February (1676). ♦Burial of the two last -kings.♦ Two days earlier, according to the Polish custom, John -followed to the grave the body of Michael, and the interest of -the ceremony was deepened on this occasion by the obsequies of -Casimir. The ex-king had died three years before, of grief, it -was said, at the fall of Kaminiec.[65] The reigns of the two -deceased kings, so fruitful in misfortunes to Poland, comprised -the whole of Sobieski’s wonderful career, and it was fitting -that their royal mourner should be he to whose prowess they were -chiefly indebted for retaining the crown. ♦Coronation.♦ The -coronation took place amid general rejoicings, broken only by a -few murmurs when the crown was set upon the queen’s head. It was -not long before she showed her unfitness to wear it. - -♦Diet of 1676.♦ Two days later (February 4th) the Diet met, and -was conspicuous for its loyal enthusiasm. The king was entreated -not to lay down the office of Grand General, but he wisely -refused a privilege so invidious, and conferred the post upon -his old enemy, Demetrius Wiesnowiesçki. He displayed the same -generous spirit in his other appointments, offering the primacy -to Olzowski, the favourite of Eleanor, and the Grand Marshalate -to Lubomirski, son of his old rival. The brave Jablonowski -was rewarded with the post of Second General. His elevation -caused some trouble. The Diet proposed to make these dignities -triennial, which, in the present reign at least, would have been -a salutary enhancement of the royal power; but the queen, out of -gratitude to Jablonowski, worked hard in secret to defeat the -proposal. The king, though he favoured it at heart, appeared -neutral; and the project fell through. - -John availed himself of the favourable temper of the Diet -to take exceptional measures for the national defence. He -proposed a capitation subsidy upon all alike, clergy as well as -laity, and strongly urged the necessity of forming a permanent -infantry. Hitherto this branch of the service had been fixed -at one-third of the regular army (16,000), but it had never -reached this standard, and being composed only of the peasants -and poorer nobles, commanded by foreign officers, its equipment -was disgracefully inefficient.[66] The Diet voted that the army -should be raised to 73,000 men, thus augmenting it by 25,000,[67] -and that of these 35,000 should be infantry. No king had ever -obtained such concessions from the nobility, but they were not -granted without a violent opposition. The old expedient was tried -of drawing out the Diet, but John defeated it by submitting to -a continuous sitting, and presiding upon the throne for forty -consecutive hours. He was able to announce that the Great Elector -had promised him succours, and that he hoped for an alliance with -Muscovy. The Diet did not rise before paying him the unusual -compliment of a decree that all the starosties which he had held -should remain hereditary in his family.[68] - -♦The king fails to levy troops.♦ Unfortunately their good -resolutions were not carried into effect. Although the Dietines -ratified their proceedings, it was beyond the king’s power -to overcome the inertness and lethargy of the nobility. The -patriotic spirit died out at once when the magic of his personal -influence was withdrawn. Seizing upon a rumour which was -industriously raised by Austria, that the king was treating -in secret with the Turks and would use the money for his own -purposes, they refused to pay the subsidy, and threw every -obstacle in his way. John hastily assembled at Leopol those -troops which had not been disbanded; but, although their number -is variously stated, some even placing it as low as 10,000, it -probably did not amount to one-half of the force that the Diet -had decreed. - -♦Armament of the Turks.♦ Meanwhile, Köprili had not been idle. -He assembled an army of 100,000 Turks, to be accompanied by a -vast host of Tartars. But his aim was more pacific than in the -former campaigns. He was beset by the proffered mediation of the -European powers, especially of Louis XIV., who wished to evade -his promise of sending armed assistance to Poland. Moreover, the -condition of Asiatic Turkey distracted his attention; his allies, -the Cossacks and the Tartars, inspired him with distrust; and he -felt that his fortune was outshone by the star of John Sobieski. -The name of the Polish hero was such a terror in the Ottoman -ranks that threats alone could induce many of the officers to -serve against him. Köprili looked out anxiously for a competent -general. He chose Ibrahim, Pacha of Damascus, called “Shaitan” -(Satan), from his combined bravery and cunning, and gave him -instructions to procure an honourable peace. - -♦Invasion of Galicia.♦ Ibrahim secretly hoped to do more than -this, for he was confident that he could drive the king to -extremities. He pushed on at once into Galicia and crossed the -Dniester, expecting that John would attack him; but finding -that the king lay inactive at Zurawno, a small town on the left -bank, he advanced against him without delay. John called in -his squadrons of horse, which had been harassing the Tartars, -and prepared to improve his position. It had been chosen with -admirable judgment. He lay with the Dniester and the mountains -behind it covering his rear, while his left rested on the town -of Zurawno, and his right was protected by woods and marshes. In -front of his lines ran a rapid torrent, called the Swiczza, which -was easily fordable, and offered facilities for the construction -of entrenchments. On this task John employed his whole army, and -collected all the provisions within reach. When the seraskier -appeared on the heights in his front, he left his lines and -offered him battle (September 25th); but this was declined, for -all the Turkish troops had not yet come up. ♦Siege of Zurawno.♦ -Ibrahim, when he had assembled them, formed them into a vast arc, -including the town of Zurawno, the Polish army, and the wood on -its right, with each of his wings resting on the river. He then -commenced a regular siege. His artillery was splendidly handled; -and his miners rapidly approached the Polish entrenchments. -John at once employed counter-mines, but the experience of the -Turks in Candia gave them a vast superiority. The king was -anxious to bring on a general action, and in a skirmish on the -29th of September the Poles had the advantage, but they lost -heavily. John’s situation was becoming desperate; the Tartars -who commanded the river prevented the arrival of provisions by -that route; and the Turkish artillery made frightful havoc in his -ranks. - -♦Proposals of peace.♦ The liveliest alarm prevailed in Poland. -The Senate called out the Pospolite and placed Prince Radziwill -at its head; but the assembling of such a body was necessarily -slow. Meantime another engagement took place at Zurawno (October -8th), in which 2,000 Turks were slain; but John failed to break -through the enemy’s lines, and was once nearly surrounded and -cut off from his men by a body of janissaries. When however the -siege had lasted nearly twenty days, the Tartan khan, whose -dominion was menaced by the Muscovites,[69] pressed Ibrahim to -conclude a peace. The Seraskier knew the straits to which the -Poles were reduced, and he therefore sent an envoy to propose the -ratification of the treaty of Buczacz and an offensive alliance -against Muscovy. ♦Refused by the king.♦ John replied shortly that -he would hang the next man who brought him such a message. The -bombardment recommenced, and the soldiers murmured against their -king’s obstinacy. Paz repaired to the royal tent and announced -his intention to desert. “Desert who will,” cried John, “the -Turks shall not reach the heart of the republic without passing -over my corpse.” He then rode down the ranks, and reminding the -soldiers that he had extricated them from many a worse plight, he -gaily asked them if his head were enfeebled by the weight of a -crown. Yet he passed the night in the gravest anxiety, and when -morning broke (October 14th) he quitted his lines and drew up his -whole force in order of battle. - -♦Ibrahim proposes fairer terms.♦ The Turks were astounded; and -the Tartars cried out that there was magic in his boldness. Brave -though he was, Ibrahim dared not face the chances of a defeat. He -knew that the Pospolite was approaching; he suspected that the -Tartars had been bought over; and he saw winter rapidly closing -in. Above all, he remembered that his instructions were pacific, -and that a serious reverse might cost him his head. ♦Peace of -Zurawno.♦ Before the armies engaged, he proposed a peace upon -honourable terms. No mention was now made of tribute. The Porte -was to retain only Kaminiec and a third of the Ukraine; the -question of Podolia was referred to a subsequent conference; -each army was to restore its prisoners of war. It is said that -Sobieski, with the sentiments of a Christian knight, inserted -an article to provide for the establishment of a Latin guard at -the Holy Sepulchre.[70] After witnessing the release of 15,000 -captives, and the departure of the Turks (October 16th), John -retraced his steps to Zolkiew. He soon encountered the Pospolite, -which was advancing to his relief, and the two armies celebrated -the conclusion of peace with a grand flourish of trumpets. - -♦Great services of the king.♦ Though satisfactory, the terms -were not glorious; but that they should have been obtained at all -by a handful of men in the direst extremities was cause enough -for rejoicing. A moral triumph like this, following so close upon -a crisis so dreadful, carries with it an air of romance. Yet, -making every allowance for good fortune and the earnest mediation -of his allies, we must regard it as due in the first instance -to the potency of the name of Sobieski. With an insignificant -force at his back he had conducted to a favourable issue five -successive campaigns against the Turks--four of them on Polish -ground--and had previously many times repulsed the hordes of -Tartars which they had poured into the country. By thus foiling -the aggression of the Turks when at the height of their power -John III. had rendered a signal service to Europe. - -♦Death of Köprili.♦ The minister whose vast designs he had -thwarted was now upon his death-bed. Seven days after the peace -of Zurawno (October 23rd), Köprili expired at Constantinople. Had -it not been for Sobieski this able vizier would have extended -the dependencies of Turkey from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and -would have found a golden opportunity for his attack upon the -empire. His successor Mustapha, called “Kara,” or “the Black,” -was a man of a different calibre. He owed his advancement to -the intrigues of the seraglio; he had married a daughter of the -Sultan and possessed great influence over his master; and he -inherited the ambitious dreams of Köprili without his ability to -realise them. - -♦Enthusiasm of Europe.♦ All Europe, with the exception perhaps -of Austria, rejoiced at the peace of Zurawno. Madame de Sevigné, -writing on the 18th of November, 1676, expresses the general -admiration for the hero of Poland;[71] and Condé sent a special -messenger to congratulate his friend. Louis XIV. eagerly sought -his alliance. He commissioned his ambassador in Poland, the -Marquis of Bethune, brother-in-law of the king, to invest him -with the order of the Holy Ghost. John imprudently accepted the -honour, and thus, in spite of the enthusiasm with which he had -been received, excited general murmurs. He was accused of wearing -the livery of France, and binding the republic to follow her -interests. In the Diet which assembled the next year (January, -1677,) his opponents were clamorous. They complained that, -besides part of the Ukraine, he had given up Kaminiec, the key -of the realm; and that instead of striving to recover them, he -was meditating war against Brandenburg and Austria. They also -accused him of aiming at absolute power by the secret help of -the French monarch. The majority of the Diet, however, did not -forget the dangers from which they had been rescued; and Gninski, -palatine of Kulm, was sent to Constantinople to ratify the peace -of Zurawno. - -♦He supports the designs of France.♦ No notice was taken of the -other charges; yet John was undoubtedly conniving at the designs -of France. Louis XIV. had promised assistance to the insurgents -in Hungary against the emperor, and was encouraging Sweden to -attack the Great Elector. It is said that he gained over Sobieski -by the promise of ducal Prussia and a larger frontier on the -Baltic. At any rate the Marquis of Bethune was allowed to raise -troops destined for Hungary in the starosties of the king, -while secret permission was given to the Swedes to pass through -Courland to attack the Elector.[72] Frederic William naturally -resented the attitude of Poland, and in revenge fomented some -disturbances which had arisen in Dantzic. - -This prosperous centre of commerce enjoyed, as a Hanse town, a -large share of independence. Though belonging to the republic of -Poland, it was governed by its own magistrates and its own laws. -♦Disturbances in Dantzic,♦ A religious struggle had broken out -between the magistrates, who were Calvinists, and the people, who -were headed by an eloquent Lutheran preacher. ♦Quieted by the -king.♦ John at once visited the city and mediated between the -contending parties (September, 1677), and the unusual spectacle -was presented of a Catholic acting as arbiter in a Protestant -dispute. His moderation won all hearts, and tranquillity was -soon restored. The astronomer Hevelius, who was one of the chief -citizens, entertained the king in his house, and entitled his -newly-found constellation, “Scutum Sobieski.”[73] - -♦Activity of the Turks.♦ John was recalled from Dantzic by the -serious intelligence that the new Grand Vizier was placing -every obstacle in the way of the conclusion of peace. He kept -the Polish envoy for months at the gates of Constantinople; and -when at length he gave him an audience, his tone was haughty -and unconciliatory. The Austrian court, fearing for itself, had -done its utmost to persuade the Porte that the peace of Zurawno -was disgraceful to Turkey, and Mustapha, who longed for military -glory, encouraged the idea. His first blow, however, was to fall -on Muscovy. The Czar Feodor hastened to conclude the treaty with -Poland, which had long been pending, but he could look for no -assistance from the republic. He was worsted in the campaign -which followed, but the vizier, disgusted at the rigour of the -climate, looked out for a more alluring prey. His first thought -was to reopen the war with Poland; and he announced that he -should keep her envoy as a hostage until Podolia was ceded to the -Porte (September, 1678). - -♦Coldness of John towards France.♦John now saw clearly that -the danger from Turkey was still pressing. He therefore at -once withdrew his support from the French designs in the west, -and prepared to confront his old enemy. ♦Reasons.♦ This change -in his policy is reasonable enough. He saw that the Hungarian -insurgents would probably call in the Porte, and in that case -his natural ally would be Austria, while from France he could -expect no material help. His judgment was most sagacious; but it -was not uninfluenced by personal reasons. He was offended at the -pride of the French king, who had refused him on his accession -the coveted title of “Majesty,” and had lately treated his queen -with some contempt. Immediately after her coronation, his queen -had set out for France to take the waters of Bourbon,[74] and to -display her dignity in her native country; but on her way she -encountered the French ambassador, who delicately hinted that his -master could not receive an elective queen with full honours. The -“Grand Monarque” could not stoop to receive on equal terms the -daughter of the captain of his brother’s Swiss Guards. The queen -retraced her steps in great indignation, which subsequent events -only tended to increase. Through her husband she begged a dukedom -for her father, the Marquis d’Arquien, but Louis, though his -language was fair, deferred compliance.[75] Moreover, John could -not but regard with disgust the scarcely concealed efforts of -France to set the Turks in motion against the house of Austria. -The king himself had throughout his life distrusted Austria and -counteracted her influence in Poland, but his chivalrous spirit -would have revolted from bringing the infidel against her. He now -perceived that it was his policy to make common cause with her. - -♦His designs upon Kaminiec.♦ He was anxious to strike the first -blow against the Turks by surprising Kaminiec, which was poorly -guarded; but for this the consent of the Diet was necessary. He -had to publish his universals[76] to the Dietines describing his -projects, and to debate the question in the Diet when assembled. -This year (1679) it was convened at Grodno, in Lithuania, and so -stormy was the session that it was four months before the king’s -proposal passed. The Turks were thus enabled to strengthen and -re-victual the town at their leisure; and nothing was left to the -king but to send ambassadors to the European courts to propose a -general league against the Sultan. - -♦Arming of the Turks.♦ A vast armament was in preparation at -Constantinople, and no one in Europe knew against whom it would -first be directed. Troops were daily arriving from the interior -of Asia, and Greece was made subject to a searching levy. It was -plainly time for the European powers to show themselves united -against the common enemy, but there was little prospect of such a -combination. Louis had lately concluded a peace with the Emperor -at Nimeguen (1679), but it was scarcely more than a suspension of -hostilities. - -♦Polish Embassies in Europe.♦ The Polish ambassador, Radziwill, -had no success at the court of Vienna. He could not persuade -Leopold that he was in greater danger than Poland. But his -proposals were not merely defensive. He urged the formation -of a league, “which should hurl back the monster into his -native deserts, and revive from its ruins the ancient empire of -Byzantium.”[77] But when he arrived at Rome (July, 1680) he found -the Pope very favourably disposed towards a crusade. The chair -was now filled by Innocent XI., an Austrian by birth, who feared -that Vienna was the object of attack, and saw at once that Italy -must stand or fall with it. He had been formerly Papal Nuncio in -Poland, and in that capacity had bestowed his blessing on the -marriage of Sobieski. He now promised his hearty aid to the king, -whom he styled, “The invincible lieutenant of the God of armies, -that brazen wall against which all the efforts of the barbarians -have been dashed in pieces.” He agreed forthwith to furnish a -large subsidy. - -♦Alliance with the Pope.♦ This close alliance with the Pope -widened the breach between Sobieski and the court of France. -There could be no peace between such haughty characters as -Innocent XI. and Louis XIV., and they were often at open enmity -about the Gallican clergy. Louis hated the Pope above all -things for his sympathy with the Austrian court. He now sought -to counteract his influence by sending as ambassador to Warsaw -Forbin-Janson, at this time bishop of Beauvais, who was to be -assisted by Vitry, a man of great resource. - -♦Diet of 1681.♦ When the king assembled the next Diet at Warsaw -(Jan. 1681) he found the French party for the first time arrayed -against him. He had to report that his embassies had met with -complete success only at Rome, but that Savoy and Portugal had -sent him their good wishes. The majority of the Diet supported -him in his schemes against the Porte; but French intrigue -protracted the session for months, and finally dissolved it by -the veto on a frivolous pretext. Indignant at these proceedings, -Innocent XI., during his lifetime, withheld from Forbin-Janson -the Cardinal’s hat, which had been promised him at the accession -of Sobieski. ♦Peace with Turkey.♦ Fortunately, however, the Grand -Vizier suddenly assumed a peaceful attitude towards Poland, and -sent an envoy with conditions which she could honourably accept. -Mustapha was evidently bent on some more vast design; but though -he studiously concealed its nature, John seems to have divined it -from the first. - -♦1681-2.♦ He spent the two succeeding years in strengthening and -disciplining his army, and in those peaceful employments to which -he was so much attached. At a wild spot, six miles from Warsaw, -he constructed his palace of Willanow, and introduced on his -estate the Dutch system of farming. For a time all the clamours -of faction were hushed; but it was only the calm which heralds -the approaching storm. - -♦Designs of Louis XIV.♦ Louis XIV. had never abandoned his -encroachments upon the empire. At the end of 1681 he availed -himself of a legal fiction, created by his own “Chambers of -Reunion,” to occupy Strasburg, Casale, and other important -towns on the imperial frontier. The Diet of Ratisbon vehemently -protested against this spoliation, but in vain. They did not dare -to provoke him to open war; for it was known that his envoys were -strongly urging the Turks to invade Austria. His plan seems to -have been to acquire the glory of saving the Empire after the -fall of its capital, and to exact in return for his services -large territorial concessions. His ambition was to have the -Dauphin proclaimed king of the Romans. - -♦The Turks protect Hungary.♦ At length his policy seemed on -the point of success. Kara Mustapha threw off the mask (1682), -and declaring Hungary tributary to the Sultan, announced his -intention of protecting the new province. Count Emeric Tekeli, -who had ably headed its revolt since 1678, was invested with -the caphtan as hospodar. ♦Schemes of Leopold.♦ Leopold vainly -endeavoured, by his minister Caprara, to obtain a renewal of the -peace made with the Turks in 1664; but the influence of France in -the divan was too strong for him. He then turned to the Diet at -Ratisbon;[78] but its counsels were divided, the western electors -being in favour of war with France. His only hope seemed to be an -alliance with Poland, yet his relations with the king were not -cordial, and he had lately refused his offer of a league. He made -the attempt, however, and succeeded beyond his hopes. John was -convinced that the peace which he had concluded with the Turks -was merely temporary. It therefore seemed his duty to strike at -once while he could be sure of an ally. Such a course was in -keeping with his life-long purpose to curb the Ottoman power. It -also agreed well with the hatred which his queen had conceived -against the court of France, and the promise of an archduchess -for his son was not to be despised. - -♦Offers of France to the king.♦ Louis left no stone unturned -to divert him from his resolution. He tempted him with the -provinces of Silesia and Hungary, to become the property not of -the republic but of the king and his heirs, if he would join him -against the Empire; ♦French conspiracy against him.♦ and finding -him proof against his offers he began a conspiracy to dethrone -him. On the assembling of the next Diet (January 27th, 1683) -the heat of parties was tremendous. When Leopold’s ambassador, -the Count of Walstein, and Palaviccini, the Papal Nuncio, had -stated their proposals of alliance, the deputies in the pay of -France put in their protest. Besides placing every obstacle in -the way of public business, they appealed to the outside public. -Pamphlets appeared daily in which the policy of the king was -warmly condemned. The selfish cabinet of Austria, which had -refused to save Poland, was declared her eternal enemy, and the -nobles were warned that the king could not ally himself with such -a court without imbibing its despotic views. - -♦Discovered by the king.♦ The opposition gathered strength, -and the consequences might have been serious had not the king -fortunately intercepted some letters of the French ambassador, -which disclosed the details of his plot (March). He read these -letters in full Diet, and their contents excited the utmost -indignation. The ambassador boasted that through Morstyn, the -Grand Treasurer, he knew all the secrets of the cabinet, that he -had bought over numbers of the principal nobles, whose names he -gave, and that the nation was so venal that he felt certain of -destroying the league. He added that the king had rejected all -his offers, but that he trusted to make him powerless. Among the -nobles mentioned were Jablonowski, now Grand General of Poland, -and Sapieha, who, since the death of Michael Paz, had been Grand -General of Lithuania. The latter belonged to a family upon which -the king had showered his favours. - -♦His tact.♦ John used this information with wonderful tact. He -at once declared that the ambassador, to show his zeal to his -master, had evidently slandered the grandees; Morstyn alone, -whose guilt was proved by a letter in his own hand, deserved -the punishment of treason. The king concluded by saying that he -trusted the Diet would help him to show the French king that the -Polish nation was not altogether venal. The speech was received -with shouts of applause, and the suspected nobles were now -foremost in supporting the king. A similar change took place -in the nation, and the French ambassador found it unsafe to go -abroad without an escort. The Grand Treasurer would have been -brought to trial if he had not escaped to France. - -♦Alliance with the empire.♦ The immediate result of this -discovery was the conclusion of an alliance, offensive and -defensive, with Austria (March 31st). Leopold bound himself to -bring 60,000 men into the field; the republic was to furnish -40,000. There was an express stipulation that neither party -should apply to the Pope for leave to break his oaths. The Papal -Nuncio procured the addition of a clause, by which John bound -himself to command his troops in person.[79] Leopold in return -conceded to him that title of “Majesty” which he had so long -withheld. - -♦Exertions of Sobieski.♦ This treaty was a serious blow to the -policy of Louis XIV. Forbin-Janson, who soon quitted Poland in -disgust, comforted his master by the assurance that John was -far too unwieldy to take the field. The same idea prevailed -throughout Europe, and especially in the Turkish camp. He was -now so stout that he required aid to mount his horse; but he -had not lost one spark of his youthful fire. His army needed -complete reorganisation, and he spent several hours each day in -the field. He did not neglect measures of policy. He proposed to -the Emperor the extension of the league, and confided to him his -favourite scheme of reviving a republic in Greece. By that means -alone, he thought, the Turkish empire could be confined within -bounds. He sent an embassy to the Sophy of Persia, but could not -persuade him to declare war against the Porte.[80] He then tried -to mediate between the Emperor and the insurgents in Hungary, and -succeeded so far as to obtain a promise from Tekeli that Moravia -should be left untouched.[81] Finally he tried to promote a good -understanding between France and Austria, but Louis sullenly -refused his mediation. - -♦The Vizier’s forces.♦ The preparations of the Grand Vizier were -now complete, and in the spring he advanced his vast host to -Essek, in Hungary. He had under his standards at least 300,000 -combatants[82] and 300 pieces of artillery. He was accompanied -by Selim Gieray, the terrible Tartar khan, and by a crowd of his -nomad horsemen. - -♦Rapid advance of the Turks upon Vienna.♦ The Emperor could -scarcely realize the peril in which he stood. He reckoned that -his frontier fortresses would detain the Turks for at least two -campaigns. Fortunately Sobieski, by means of a letter which -his Cossack spies intercepted[83] in Bulgaria, was enabled to -assure him that Vienna would be the first point of attack. This -intelligence was soon put beyond a doubt. The Duke of Lorraine, -general of the Imperial forces, who with scarcely 30,000 men -was covering Upper Hungary, was compelled to retreat. The whole -Turkish army continued to advance by forced marches, leaving the -fortresses in their rear; and Lorraine had barely time to throw -8,000 infantry into Vienna and retreat beyond the Danube, before -50,000 Tartars, the advanced guard of Mustapha, appeared at the -gates (July 9). Leopold had profited by Sobieski’s warning to -demolish the extensive suburbs where the nobility resided, but -the city was wholly unprepared for defence. - -♦Panic at Vienna.♦ The night before Lorraine’s arrival the -Emperor himself with his court fled precipitately to Linz, -and thence to Passau. The peasants of the southern plain were -flocking into the city by hundreds, while many of the citizens -followed the Emperor in his flight. ♦Measures for defence.♦ -It was left to Lorraine, with the governor, the intrepid -Count Stahremberg, to concert measures of resistance. The -fortifications were hastily repaired, and the counterscarp -protected by thick palisades, but it was doubtful whether they -could stand an assault, owing to the neglect of a long security. -A body of 5,000 citizens was formed to assist the garrison, which -did not amount to 14,000 men. A week later (July 14) the Grand -Vizier occupied the plain, and opened the trenches before the -city. - -♦Terror of Europe.♦ Meanwhile all Europe, and especially Italy, -was seized with consternation at the rapid march of the Turks. -The plans of the King of France, who had advanced his army to the -Rhine, were somewhat disconcerted. Finding himself pointed at as -the cause of the invasion of Christendom,[84] he made a show of -magnanimity, and suspended his threatened blow. It is even said -that he offered the Emperor a contingent of 80,000 men, which was -rejected with becoming scorn; but the statement seems improbable. - -♦Sobieski urged to hasten his march.♦ The Pope sent pressing -messages to Sobieski to bring his succours before it was too -late. The Emperor also, writing with unwonted deference, begged -him to place himself at the head of the Imperial troops. “However -inferior we are in number,” he says, “your name alone, so -terrible to the enemy, will ensure a victory.” He added that his -troops were waiting at Tuln, fifteen miles north-west of Vienna, -and that at that point a bridge had been constructed over the -Danube.[85] Lorraine, generously forgetting their old rivalry for -the crown of Poland, wrote that he should be proud to serve under -such an hero. His own skill had given some hope to a declining -cause. Assisted by some Polish cavalry, he had captured the -bridge of Presburg from Tekeli, but his force was too small to do -any damage to the besiegers. - -♦Siege of Vienna.♦ It is indeed a marvel that Vienna did -not fall almost at once. Within a week of the opening of -the trenches, the besiegers had reached the palisade of the -counterscarp, and, as cannon could not be used for its defence, -many of the garrison lost their lives in a hand-to-hand combat. -On the 7th of August the counterscarp was captured after an -engagement in which both sides suffered great loss. The besieged -especially lost many officers, and the brave governor was -seriously wounded. From this time forward the city must have -succumbed if the Vizier had ordered a general assault. Mustapha -knew this, but he imagined that the booty would be enormous, and -he did not wish it to fall into the hands of his soldiers. He had -pitched his vast pavilion in the gardens of the Emperor’s palace, -called the Favourite, and here he passed his days in the pursuit -of pleasure. His miners advanced steadily, but in other respects -he was inactive. - -♦Measures of Sobieski.♦ At the first news of the danger of Vienna -Sobieski hastened to Cracow, where his army was assembling. His -hussars answered his summons with alacrity, but the Lithuanians -were slow to take the field. He had no intention of waiting for -them, although the troops under his orders were scarcely half the -complement of 40,000. He sorely needed funds for their equipment; -but as the Papal subsidies had not arrived,[86] he gave lavishly -from his private treasury. He had not intended to take his -Turkish body-guard; but they begged leave to accompany him, and -offered to give hostages.[87] - -♦His rapid march to the Danube.♦ On the 15th of August he quitted -Cracow, accompanied by his son James, and having reviewed his -troops at Tarnowitz, in Silesia (August 18), pushed on for the -Danube. Leaving his main body at the head of 2,000 horse, he -traversed like a whirlwind the plains of Moravia, and arrived at -Tuln on the 2nd of September. The prince who was reported too -infirm to take the field, had covered on horseback 350 miles -in little more than ten days. Finding the bridge unfinished -and scarcely half the Imperial forces assembled, he could not -restrain his impatience. “Does the Emperor take me for an -adventurer?” he exclaimed angrily. “I have left my army to -command his. It is not for myself, but for him I fight.” Three -days later (September 5th) the Polish army under Jablonowski -appeared, and soon afterwards the succours from Bavaria and -Saxony. - -♦Forces of the allies.♦ Before the king’s arrival there had been -divisions of opinion among the imperial generals; now all men -cheerfully obeyed his orders. The whole force amounted to 70,000 -men, of whom 21,000 were from Austria, 18,000 from Poland, and -31,000 from Bavaria, Saxony, and the Circles. Of these at least -38,000 were cavalry. John had never commanded an army of nearly -this strength, and he was confident of success. He bade the -Imperialists consider not the vast numbers of the enemy but the -incapacity of their general. “Would any of you,” he asked, “have -suffered the construction of this bridge within five leagues of -your camp? The man cannot _fail_ to be beaten.” - -♦Exertions of the king.♦ In his letters to the queen, which have -most fortunately been preserved,[88] we can follow the inmost -thoughts of the great commander during these most anxious days. -He twice remarks with evident pleasure that the German troops -obey him better than his own. At the same time he is disgusted -with the trifling squabbles over etiquette which occupy so much -of his time. Even his necessary duties allow him no leisure. -“Continual harangues, my interviews with the Duke of Lorraine -and the other chiefs, innumerable orders to be given, prevent -me not only from writing, but from taking food and rest.”[89] -Yet his unreasonable consort, for whom his devoted fondness -appears in almost every line,[90] complains that he does not read -her letters. “I must complain of you, my dear, my incomparable -Mariette.... Can you say seriously that I do not read your -letters? The fact is that I read each of them three times at -least; first, when they arrive, secondly, as I go to bed, when -at last I am free, and, thirdly, when I set myself to answer -them.... If sometimes I fail to write at length, can you not -explain my haste without the help of injurious suppositions? The -armies of two continents are but a few miles from each other. I -must think of everything; I must provide for the smallest detail.” - -♦Passage of the Danube.♦ On the 6th of September the army -crossed the Danube. The splendid equipment of the king’s hussars -attracted universal admiration; and his ill-clad infantry looked -especially mean by contrast. His officers entreated him to allow -it to cross by night, but he would not consent. Whilst one of the -worst regiments was passing over, “Look at this well,” he cried -to the spectators; “it is an invincible body which has sworn -never to be clothed but with the spoils of the enemy.” At these -words the men, who had hung their heads in shame, marched on -erect with cheerful confidence. During the crossing of the bridge -a note arrived from Stahremberg with the simple words, “No more -time to lose.” The miners were already under the Emperor’s city -palace, and numbers of the garrison were dying of dysentery. - -♦Ascent of the Kahlemberg.♦ John called a council of war to -decide the route which should be taken. Between him and Vienna -rose the lofty ridge called the Kahlemberg; and it was necessary -either to go round it by the main road, which was flanked by the -Turkish cannon, or to climb direct to the summit. John chose the -latter route; but it proved more difficult than he had supposed. -Three days were consumed in the ascent. All the heavy baggage had -to be left behind, and of the artillery only the Polish light -guns could be dragged up. At length, on the evening of the 11th, -the Polish hussars lighted their fires among the woods which -crowned the heights, and were answered by joyful signals from -the cathedral of St. Stephen. ♦Apprehension of the Turks.♦ The -Turks were struck with consternation. The Grand Vizier, though he -had certain intelligence of the ascent,[91] neglected to oppose -it, partly because he despised the Christian army, and partly -because he wished to take Vienna before their eyes. But he could -not inspire his troops with his own braggart assurance. During -the night John’s prisoners, whom he had set free by design, came -into the camp and spread the news that the king of Poland was -commanding in person. Mustapha loudly expressed his disbelief; -but he could not prevent the spread of a panic. At break of day -he determined to lead the janissaries to a general assault, while -he detached the spahis and auxiliaries to confront the relieving -force. - -♦Confidence of Sobieski.♦ From the castle of Leopoldsberg about -sunset Sobieski surveyed the scene with mixed feelings. He saw -that he would have to make his advance over most precipitous and -difficult ground; but his experienced eye was not dismayed either -by the imposing array of the Turkish tents or by the multitude -of their occupants. Writing to the queen the same night he shows -his old confidence: “Humanly speaking, and while putting all our -hope in God, one must believe that a general, who has not thought -of concentrating or entrenching himself, but is encamped as if -we were a hundred miles off, is predestined to be beaten.” He -complains, however, that he had not been warned of the steepness -of the descent, and must change his order of battle. During the -night the noise of the Turkish cannon was such that “we could not -close an eye,” and the wind was so high that “it seemed as if the -Vizier, who is reputed a magician, had unchained against us the -powers of the air.” - -♦Advance of the allies.♦ When day dawned on Sunday, the memorable -12th of September, the wind fell, and the heat was most severe. -John attended mass with the Duke of Lorraine in the old church -of Leopoldsberg, and received the sacrament. ♦Their order of -battle.♦ He then mounted his horse, and ordered the advance. The -right wing was occupied by the Poles, under Jablonowski; the -centre by the Germans, under the Prince of Waldeck; the left wing -by the Imperial troops, under the Duke of Lorraine.[92] The king -directed the whole; but his post was in the right wing. - -♦Battle of Vienna.♦ The ground in their front was broken by -gullies and rough eminences, and here and there by rude parapets -of earth, which served as the boundaries of the vineyards. -The Turks in vain attempted to defend these positions; they -were driven from point to point by the impetuous hussars, and -the Polish artillery, dexterously handled by Konski, did such -execution that by midday the army had reached the plain. After -an interval of rest the advance was continued, and the villages -of Nussdorf and Heligenstadt were carried by the hussars at the -lance’s point, not without some loss. At five o’clock the order -was given for a halt, and John proposed to rest his wearied -troops before the final struggle. - -Meanwhile the Vizier, who had been gallantly repulsed by the -besieged, had hastened to check the retreat of the Turks. He saw -with uneasiness the horse-tails on the Polish lances, and feared -that after all the king might be present. At a conspicuous point -in the lines he caused the hoisting of a red pavilion, which was -surmounted by the standard of the Prophet, and tried to raise the -spirits of his troops by his own cool assurance. Seating himself -under its shade with his two sons and the Tartar khan he ordered -coffee to be served. - -The Polish cavalry had advanced so near that John could -detect these movements with his field-glass. Provoked at this -ostentatious contempt, he bade his artillerymen aim exclusively -at the red pavilion, and offered fifty crowns for each successful -volley. He also detached a body of hussars to seize a position -from which they could fire with more effect. The cavalry dashed -forward with the cry of “Sobieski for ever,” and drove the Turks -headlong from the spot. “By Allah,” exclaimed the Tartar khan, -as he heard their shouts, “the king is really among them.” The -Turks had also heard the dreaded name; and all at once a terrible -panic arose throughout the camp.[93] “They are defeated,” cried -Sobieski, as he saw them waver, and ordering a general advance, -he put himself at the head of the Poles with the words, “Non -nobis, non nobis, Domine exercituum, sed nomini tuo da gloriam!” -♦Rout of the Turks.♦ The shock of the charge was tremendous, and -none but the spahis resisted it. These brave horsemen, surrounded -by the rout, stood their ground, but were cut in pieces. The -Vizier, weeping like a child, besought the Khan to save him. “I -know the King of Poland,” answered Selim; “I told you that we -should have to make way before him.”[94] Joining in the flight -they effected their escape, although the Vizier was almost -captured. - -Night had now come on, and John was anxious to secure the camp -in case the enemy should return. He therefore discouraged the -pursuit, and forbade pillage on pain of death. ♦The Vizier’s -quarters.♦ He passed the night, like his soldiers, in the open -air, although he took possession of the Vizier’s quarters. In the -morning he inspected this vast bazaar of Eastern luxury, which he -describes as occupying a space “as large as Warsaw or Leopol.” -Mustapha had come, in fact, prepared for a triumph. He is said to -have contemplated creating an empire by making himself emperor -of the French. He had brought every requirement for making -Vienna a Turkish arsenal, and had not omitted the materials for -his mosques.[95] Writing to the queen on September 13th, the -king says: “The Vizier has taken nothing but his horse and the -clothes on his back. He has left me his heir.... His jewels alone -are worth some thousands of ducats.... You cannot say to me, my -heart, as the Tartar women often say to their husbands, ‘You are -not a man, for you have brought me no booty.’... The town could -not have held out more than five days. The imperial palace is -riddled with bullets; those immense bastions, split in pieces and -half falling, look terrible.” - -♦Losses of the two armies.♦ The losses of the two armies in -the action have been variously stated. Talenti, whom John sent -to the Pope with what was believed to be the standard of the -Prophet, informed his Holiness that at least 40,000 Turks had -perished.[96] Voltaire, with as little truth, states the number -at 600.[97] It is evident from the letters of the king, which -speak of the slain as making the neighbourhood unhealthy, that -nearly 10,000 must have been slain.[98] The loss of the Poles -alone was estimated at more than 1,000, and the allies probably -lost in proportion. - -♦Entry of Sobieski into Vienna.♦ About midday the king entered -Vienna through the breach. He was received with acclamations. -Multitudes thronged his horse, and in spite of the frowns of -their superiors openly compared him with their fugitive monarch. -He entered the church of the Augustine Friars, and, as there was -no priest at hand, he himself chanted the _Te Deum_. Passing -on to the cathedral of St. Stephen, he remained long prostrate -before the altar, while the same ceremony was performed with -greater pomp. Then a discourse was preached to the assembled -crowds from the text--“There was a man sent from God, whose -name was John.” On leaving the building, he could scarcely pass -through the masses of men who pressed upon him, and begged to -kiss his victorious hands. Afterwards he dined in public with -Count Stahremberg, and then returned to his quarters, declaring -with truth that this was the happiest day of his life. - -♦Joy of all Europe, excepting the French king.♦ He took an -almost malicious pleasure in writing at once to inform Louis -XIV. of his success. He told him that he felt it his particular -duty to report to the most Christian king “the victory which -had been gained, and the safety of Christianity.” So disgusted -was Louis at the collapse of his plans that he could not trust -himself to answer the letter. The French civil journals, in -noticing the raising of the siege, speak slightingly of the King -of Poland, and try to attribute all the credit to the Count of -Stahremberg.[99] But no one was deceived by these manœuvres. -All Europe resounded with the praises of Sobieski. From every -Catholic pulpit he was eulogised as the bravest defender of -the Church. Filicaia and other Italian poets sang of his glory -in rapturous strains. Innocent XI. received his envoys with -the highest honours, and ordered the standard of the Prophet -to be borne in triumph throughout Italy. Queen Christina, who -was then resident at Rome, after complimenting the Pope, wrote -Sobieski a remarkable letter, in which she declared that she -now felt for the first time the passion of envy; she calls him -emphatically the greatest king in the world, and displays by -other insinuations her hatred for Louis XIV.[100] ♦Ingratitude -of Leopold.♦ It is painful to relate the conduct of the Emperor. -He, who should have been the first to thank and congratulate his -deliverer, was in no hurry to meet him face to face. Entering the -city on the 14th, he contrasted with anger the coolness of his -reception with the enthusiasm shown to the King of Poland; and -it was only when he heard that John was about to continue the -pursuit that he was prevailed on to consent to the interview. -His punctilious scruples as to his demeanour towards an elective -sovereign disgusted his German allies, and the Duke of Lorraine -declared that he ought to receive the king with open arms. At -length it was agreed, on the proposition of Sobieski, that they -should meet on horseback a few paces in front of the Polish army. -♦His interview with Sobieski.♦ Let us hear the king’s own account -to the queen. “I will not draw you the portrait of the Emperor, -for he is well known. He was mounted on a bay horse of Spanish -breed; he had a close coat richly embroidered, a French hat with -a clasp and white and red feathers, a belt mounted with sapphires -and diamonds, and a sword to match. We saluted each other with -politeness; I made him my compliments in a few words of Latin; -he answered in the same tongue in choice terms. Being thus face -to face I presented my son, who approached and saluted him. The -Emperor merely raised his hand to his hat; I was astounded at -it. He did the same with the senators and generals, and even -with his connection, the Palatine of Beltz.[101] To avoid the -scandal and the carping of the public, I addressed a few more -words to the Emperor; after which I turned my horse, we saluted -each other, and I rode back to the camp.” John here evidently -conceals as far as possible the chagrin he felt at the awkward -silence of the Emperor, and his distance towards Prince James, -his prospective son-in-law. Another account says that he sternly -reproved a Palatine, who advanced to kiss the Emperor’s foot, -and that he said significantly as he turned away, “Brother, I am -glad to have done you this small service.”[102] After the Grand -General had shown him the Polish troops, the Emperor returned to -Vienna; and two days later sent a jewelled sword to Prince James, -and explained that his grateful emotions had deprived him of the -power of speech. - -♦Shameful treatment of the Poles.♦ But the Emperor’s ingratitude -did not stop here. A day or two after the battle, the Poles (like -the French after the battle of St. Gothard) found it difficult to -obtain forage or provisions, and they were not allowed to bury -even their most illustrious dead in the cemeteries of the city. -The king notices bitterly that, since the arrival of the Emperor, -everyone shunned them as if they had the plague.[103] The Poles -were furious at this studied neglect, and besought John to lead -them back at once to Poland. “Our subalterns regret that we have -succoured the Emperor; they wish now that the proud race had -perished beyond hope of resurrection.”[104] - -So seldom had the army served beyond the frontiers, that its -discipline, never strictly enforced, was now scarcely regarded; -and numbers left the ranks and took the nearest road to their -homes. John sympathised with his soldiers, but he had the ardour -of a crusading hero, and he felt himself bound by his oath to -pursue the infidel, and “strike a second decisive blow.”[105] -♦John’s anxiety to follow up the victory.♦ His letter of the 13th -of September to the Marquis of Grana, shows the high hopes with -which his glorious victory had inspired him. He expresses his -belief that the time had come for the collapse of the Sultan’s -power, and urges that further successes in Hungary might produce -revolts in the heart of his empire.[106] John has been most -unjustly accused of finding a Capua in the Vizier’s tents.[107] -The fact is, that during the whole of the campaign, the Poles -were in the van. The king was disgusted at the backwardness of -the imperial court, though his high and simple nature failed to -discern its motive. “It is enough to make one die a thousand -times a day,” he says, “to see so many opportunities slip -away.”[108] - -♦Suspicions of the Emperor.♦ The fact was that Leopold shrank -from sending his victorious neighbour into a rebellious province -of his empire. Yet he dared not stop him. His suspicions -were increased when John received overtures from Tekeli, the -Hungarian leader, and attempted to intercede for him. The -Emperor’s coldness had so far alienated his German allies, that -the Elector of Saxony withdrew his troops, and the Elector of -Bavaria threatened to do the same. He did nothing to recognise -the services of the Duke of Lorraine. He coveted the spoil, and -even had the assurance to suggest, through his head groom, that -John should present him with some of the Vizier’s horses. The -gift was made and received as a due. The king also made such -handsome presents to many of the German princes, that he gaily -tells the queen she will have to be content with the buffaloes -and camels.[109] His general distrust of the Austrians was such -that he deposited his part of the spoil with the Jesuits.[110] - -♦John advances into Hungary.♦ At length (September 17), weary -of waiting for the Imperial troops, he started for the Danube. -His design was to attack Lower Hungary, which had been a Turkish -province for a hundred and fifty years, and to invest Buda, its -capital. Thither the Vizier had retired to rally the remains -of his army, and was avenging his defeat by the execution of -a crowd of pachas. The Turks could hardly believe that the -Christians would retaliate at once by invading their territory, -and Sobieski’s advance created the utmost alarm. But he was -unhappily delayed at Presburg by a fever[111] which attacked his -troops and produced such distress as to shake his resolution -to proceed. ♦Intrigues of the queen.♦ Another cause of his -chagrin was the scarcely concealed intriguing of the queen among -the troops to force him to return. She tried to persuade him -that she was in constant fear of the troops of Tekeli. In two -admirable letters[112] he tells her the powerful motives which -induce him to continue the campaign. He shows her that the Poles -are crushing their national enemy without the cost of one sou -to the republic, and declares that, since the Christian armies -have elected him their generalissimo, he will remain even if his -countrymen desert him to finish the campaign. “I have devoted my -life,” he says, “to the glory of God and to this holy cause, and -to that I will adhere.” - -After a few days his troops were able to resume their march, -and they were joined by the Imperialists on the 2nd of October. -They crossed the second arm of the Danube, and followed its -course on the left bank. The first Turkish fortress in their way -was Strigonia, called by the Hungarians Gran, a place of great -strength on the right bank, communicating by a bridge with the -fortified suburb of Parkan on the opposite side. The vanguard of -the Polish cavalry, always a march in advance of the infantry and -the Imperialists, had descended the hills to reconnoitre this -fort, when suddenly a large Turkish force issued from the works -and appeared in their front (October 7th.) ♦He is defeated at -Parkan.♦ Before the Poles could form in line they had to sustain -a tremendous charge, and were put to flight. The king, who was -close behind with the main body, could not rally the fugitives, -and found himself obliged, with his 4,000 hussars, to charge the -enemy in his turn. His onset was unsuccessful. The Turks opened -their lines to enclose the Poles, and this caused a panic which -ended in a rout. The king and his personal escort strove in vain -to stem the rush of the Turks; they were swept along in the -_mêlée_. The pursuit was hot; and the king, who was one of -the last to turn his horse, was in great danger. A spahi raised -his scimitar to strike him, but was hewn down before his blow -fell. John was hurried along breathless, scarcely able to hold -the reins, and jostled by the mad haste of his flying troops. At -length the Imperialists appeared, and the Turks desisted from the -pursuit. The king lay down upon a bundle of hay, sorely bruised, -but more afflicted in mind than in body. It was the first -defeat he had sustained, and it was embittered at first by the -supposed loss of his son, who however escaped unwounded. When the -Austrians came up, with sorrow in their faces and joy at their -hearts, he raised himself with dignity, and said, “Gentlemen, I -have been well beaten, but I will take my revenge _with_ you -and _for_ you.” His Cossack infantry, who heard that he had -perished, bewailed him as a father; and he was deeply touched by -their devotion.[113] Several historians have asserted that he -brought on this engagement in order to crown himself with glory -before the arrival of his allies; but his letter to the queen -after the battle shows beyond a doubt that his cavalry had orders -not to fight, and that the vanguard were taken unawares.[114] - -The Poles hastily buried their dead in order to conceal their -losses, and were so dispirited that the king could scarcely -persuade them to wipe out the defeat. ♦Great victory of Sobieski -at Parkan.♦ Although three days after he says that his body -is “as black as a coal,”[115] his exertions were unremitting -to prepare his army for a grand attack. The Turks, as he had -expected, were elated at their victory. A report spread widely -among them, which even reached the European courts, that the -hero had been slain; and they took a fresh lease of courage. -The Vizier sent them reinforcements; and when, two days later -(October 9th), the Christian army defiled into the plain of -Parkan, they found a large force drawn up to receive them. The -same morning the Turks commenced the attack, and repeatedly -charged the left wing commanded by Jablonowski. They were beaten -back with splendid courage; the steady advance of the king with -the right wing upon the fort of Parkan threw them into confusion; -and when the Christians charged in their turn, the Turks gave -way on all sides. ♦Storming of the fort.♦ The fort was taken by -storm, and no quarter was given;[116] numbers of fugitives were -drowned in the Danube; several pachas were captured, and at least -40,000 Turks perished. - -Writing to the queen on the following day, John speaks of -the victory as “even greater than that of Vienna.” ♦Flight -of the Vizier.♦ The Vizier was seized with dismay, and fled -precipitately to Belgrade. His flight enabled the king to -exclaim with pride that now at last, after two hundred years -of slavery, Hungary was delivered from the infidel. He adds, -“This has surpassed my expectation, and I believe that of my -contemporaries.”[117] - -♦Capture of Strigonia.♦ John was anxious at once to lay siege to -Buda, which he regarded as the goal of the campaign, but the Duke -of Lorraine persuaded him to begin with Strigonia. This was one -of the strongest fortresses in Hungary, and had been occupied -by the Turks for a hundred and forty years. Yet the place -surrendered in a fortnight, although the garrison was composed of -5,000 janissaries. Well might the Turkish pachas exclaim to the -Poles that their king was raised up by God to be the scourge of -Islam.[118] - -John could now no longer resist the eagerness of his nobles to -return to Poland. ♦Return of the Poles.♦ Early in November the -armies separated, and the Poles retraced their steps through -Hungary. Before their departure the king had endeavoured to -mediate between Tekeli and the commissioners of the Emperor, but -the sole favour which he could obtain for the insurgents was the -promise of a general amnesty, and his disinterested efforts only -resulted in increasing Leopold’s suspicions of his motive. ♦His -efforts on behalf of the Hungarians.♦ Yet he could not give up -the attempt; he longed to establish the strong barrier of a free -people against the Turkish advance; and as a last resource he -begged for the help of the Holy See. In his instructions to his -minister at Rome,[119] he claims this favour from the Imperial -Court as his due, and indignantly disowns the unworthy motives -imputed to him. “The sole interest of his Sacred Majesty is to -rally the nations against the pagans. For that end he demands -that the nation which he has re-conquered for Christendom -should be treated after a Christian fashion.” But the Pope was -so closely bound to the policy of Leopold that he cared not to -interfere; and nothing was done to restore the ancient liberties -of Hungary. John was deeply indignant, but his conscience would -not permit him to insist on this concession as the price of his -sworn alliance. - -♦Their hostility to his army.♦ His friendly relations with Tekeli -were broken off by the rapine of the Lithuanians, who, on hearing -of the spoils of which their tardiness had deprived them, had -set off in haste towards the south, and were plundering Upper -Hungary. The inhabitants, regarding John as responsible for these -reckless freebooters, and knowing nothing of his efforts in -their behalf, shut themselves up in their towns and treated him -as an enemy. Though he could scarcely obtain provisions for his -troops, he was loth to relinquish his design of quartering them -in Hungary. But the queen had hit on a new method of preventing -him, which was more effective than the murmurs of his men. She -suddenly ceased to answer his letters. “For five weeks,” he -complains, “I really have not known whether there is a Poland in -the world.”[120] - -♦Triumphal entry into Cracow.♦ He closed the campaign gloriously -on the anniversary of Kotzim (November 11th), by capturing -Schetzin after a few hours’ siege, and then returned home through -the Carpathian Mountains. The ground was frozen so hard that -the tents could not be pitched, and it was Christmas-eve before -the victorious army, laden with the spoils of the East, entered -Cracow in triumph. A few days later the Grand Vizier received -with resignation his sentence of death from the Sultan, and ere -long the head which had dreamed of the conquest of Europe was -adorning the gates of the seraglio. - -♦General results of the campaign.♦ The result of this grand -campaign was to change the course of history. Hitherto, as at -Lepanto and at St. Gothard, the Ottoman arms had never received -more than a temporary check; from henceforward we find the empire -of the Sultan constantly losing ground in Europe. John Sobieski -had recovered in two months more than had been gained in a -hundred years. The chief explanation of this decline is doubtless -internal decay; but the glory of the Polish hero consists in the -singleness of aim which enabled him in a moment of supreme danger -to disregard old enmities, and to fly to the defence of Western -Christendom, then too disunited to defend itself. - -♦Advantages to Poland.♦ Poland gained more by this campaign -than she was ready to confess. The Turks had for ever lost the -offensive, and were so much engaged in their conflict with the -Empire, that they could not think of revenging themselves upon -the republic. But they still retained the fortress of Kaminiec; -and until this sore was closed, the danger seemed ever present. -The Cossacks however, from whom that danger had first arisen, now -acknowledged the king’s authority, and falling upon the Tartars -as they returned from Vienna, routed them with immense slaughter. -But the renown procured by the victories of the king was more -advantageous still. Venice and Muscovy besought the honour of -an alliance with Poland; and she never stood higher among the -nations than at this moment. - -♦Campaign of 1684.♦ Civil troubles prevented John taking the -field early the next year (1684).[121] In August, however, he -marched into Podolia, and after taking Jaslowicz, approached -the walls of Kaminiec. Since he could not hope to reduce it -by blockade, his only resource was to erect a fort in the -neighbourhood; and this he effected in the face of the enemy, who -dared not risk a battle. - -He returned to Zolkiew in November, dissatisfied with the -results of the campaign. ♦Jealousy of John’s generals.♦ At -its outset he had been attended by numbers of distinguished -foreigners, anxious to serve under so great a prince, but he -had found himself enfeebled by the lukewarm support of his two -Grand Generals, Jablonowski and Sapieha. Both were jealous of his -monopolising the glory by commanding in every campaign; but each -of them had ulterior reasons. Jablonowski was the chief of the -faction of Louis XIV., who was straining every nerve to gain over -Poland; Sapieha dreamed of separating Lithuania from Poland, and -becoming sovereign of the Grand Duchy. In the ensuing Diet the -faction of each had its complaints against the king. The former -blamed him for his ill-success against Kaminiec; the latter -accused him of depriving Lithuania of her rights by summoning -the Diet to meet at Warsaw instead of at Grodno. The Lithuanians -at first refused to attend it, but they yielded on the king’s -proposal that it should be called the Diet of Grodno. Their -opposition to his plans, however, was relentless, and one of the -family of Paz[122] carried his abuse so far as to threaten to -make him feel the weight of his arm. Such was the treatment that -was reserved for the saviour of Europe at the hands of his own -subjects! - -♦Unsuccessful campaign of 1685.♦ His health had now become so -feeble that in the next campaign (1685) he was able to gratify -Jablonowski by leaving him in command. His loss was at once -keenly felt. Skilful though he was, the Grand General allowed his -army to be caught in a defile in the forest of Bucovina, and it -required all his ability to rescue it from utter annihilation. -Ashamed at his own pride no less than at his reverse he shunned -the royal presence.[123] - -♦Perfidy of Leopold.♦ The zeal of the king for the cause of -the Emperor was cooled about this time by the marriage of the -archduchess, who had been promised to Prince James, to the -Elector of Bavaria. The queen[124] was impelled by her resentment -to join the French party, and Leopold had too much cause to fear -that she would induce John to make a separate peace. ♦Father -Vota.♦ He therefore sent a Jesuit named Vota as his secret -agent to the court of Warsaw. The mission of the holy father -was not openly political; his journey was supposed to have -been undertaken to convert the heretics of the Greek church; -but the Emperor trusted that his literary and social talents -would procure him an ascendancy over the king of Poland. He is -described as a man of wide knowledge and wonderful powers of -conversation; and his religious habits and unobtrusive demeanour -preserved him from suspicion. He devoted himself to the king’s -pleasure, and often slept on the floor of an ante-chamber in -order to be at hand to entertain his weary hours. He easily kept -him faithful to the league against the infidel, and hinted that -the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia might, if subdued by his -arms, become hereditary in his family. John knew well that they -would merely become provinces of Poland; but he was anxious to -extend her frontiers to the shores of the Black Sea. ♦The king -tries to revive commerce.♦ In spite of the opposition of the -nobles he wished to revive her commerce; and a mercantile treaty -which he contemplated with Holland would have been assisted by -the acquisition of a double sea-front. - -♦Treaty with Muscovy.♦ By a treaty with Muscovy in this year -(1686) he gave up Kiow and Smolensko, which had been long in -her possession, for a large indemnity, and obtained promises of -co-operation in his schemes of conquest. Posterity has blamed -him for these concessions; but in his time such was the national -contempt for the Muscovites that no danger was apprehended on -their side. - -♦Campaign of 1686.♦ His chances of success were excellent. The -Emperor promised his aid on the side of Hungary; and a great -army of Muscovites was to push forward to the Black Sea. After -arranging his plans with the Imperial generals, John assembled -his forces at the Dniester, but he found all alike, officers and -men, indisposed to a campaign beyond the borders of Poland. But -he could not now draw back. He advanced through the deserts of -Moldavia to the Pruth, passing on his way the fatal spot where -Zolkiewski met with a hero’s death. Descending the river he -entered Yassy, the capital, on the 15th of August, and found that -the hospodar had fled with his troops, but had left provisions -for the invading force, thinking by this means to secure his -immunity from punishment, whatever might be the result of the -campaign. After two days of rest John pushed on towards the -Black Sea. But the heat, the scarcity of water, and the terrible -solitude[125] broke the spirit of his army, and suddenly the -Tartars appeared in his front. News also arrived that the Turks -were within a march of him, and there was no sign either of -Muscovite or Austrian succours. Leopold had again deceived him, -and had profited by John’s demonstration to capture the city of -Buda. There was nothing left but to retreat, and this the king -successfully accomplished, through a most difficult country, -in the face of the enemy. The Tartars poisoned the rivers and -springs, and set fire to the vegetation, while searching clouds -of dust and ashes distressed the retiring Poles. At length they -reached the frontiers of Poland; and the only person who had -reaped any benefit from their sufferings was the Emperor Leopold. - -♦Deposition of the Sultan.♦ In the following year a revolution at -Constantinople, provoked by continued disasters, deprived Mahomet -IV. of his throne; and had there been a complete accord between -the members of the Christian league, the Ottoman empire might -have tottered to its fall. No soldier of the Church had laboured -more steadily towards this end than John Sobieski; and if it -was not realised, the fault lay not with him but with his more -powerful allies. - -♦Polish anarchy.♦ As his reign drew near its close, the internal -disorders of his kingdom increased. The Emperor never ceased to -intrigue with the Lithuanian grandees against his faithful ally, -and the French party opposed him for this fidelity to the league. -The lesser nobility was devoted to him; but the Senate was now -the hotbed of faction. All the grandees wished for the end of -his reign, the French party because they disliked his policy, -and the Lithuanians because they hated his person. Besides this, -every ambitious senator looked to an interregnum as a means of -realising his dreams of power. - -♦Diet of Grodno.♦ In the Diet of Grodno in 1688 the king was -assailed on all sides. The senators[126] in the pay of France -clamoured for peace with the Porte; the Lithuanians, at a hint -from the Emperor, accused him of personal aims in his attempt -upon Moldavia. Before any subsidy could be voted the Diet was -dissolved by the veto; and when the king assembled a convocation -he met with the same stormy opposition. Hastily dismissing the -assembly, he submitted to a period of inaction; but he had the -consolation of finding, on a visit to Wilna in the same year, -that even in the Grand Duchy he was regarded by the people with -admiration. - -♦John refuses peace with the Turks.♦ A fresh outburst from the -French party occurred in the same summer, when he refused to make -peace with the Sultan, although he was offered the restoration of -Kaminiec. He had bound himself by oath never to make a separate -peace without the consent of his allies; but to keep strictly to -this article was detrimental to the republic, so sorely in need -of reforms, and he had abundant excuse for breaking it in the -conduct of the Emperor. - -♦Tries to establish hereditary succession.♦ His scruples were not -suggested by a desire for further glory, or by a blindness to the -true interests of Poland. His days of warfare were past for ever. -He saw only too clearly the failure of the old constitution, and -he was anxious before his death to witness the establishment of -hereditary monarchy. In striving to have his son declared his -successor he was not actuated by merely selfish motives, for when -a subject he had held the same principles.[127] But the grandees -considered such a proposal as a direct infringement of their -privileges; and they were encouraged by Leopold, who found it his -interest to preserve Poland in a state of fermentation. - -♦Affecting scene in the senate.♦ The king intended to ask this -of the republic at the Diet of Grodno; but his intention becoming -known, he was assailed with the utmost virulence in the senate. -The Grand Treasurer termed him despot, tyrant, and destructor -of the public liberty; a palatine spoke of him as the enemy of -his country. At length the king rose and addressed the senate. -He recalled the patriotism and services of his ancestors, and -protested his devotion to the cause of liberty. But he begged his -hearers to pause, and reflect on the consequences of intestine -strife. “Oh, what will be one day the sad surprise of posterity -to see that at the summit of our glory, when the name of Poland -was filling the universe, we have allowed our country to fall -in ruins, to fall, alas! for ever! For myself I have now and -then gained you a few battles; but I confess myself deprived of -all power to save you. It only remains for me to resign, not -to destiny, for I am a Christian, but to the great and mighty -God, the future of my beloved country.... I seem to hear already -resounding over our heads the cry of the prophet: ‘Yet forty -days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.’ Your most illustrious -Dominations know that I do not believe in auguries. I do not -search out oracles; I give no credence to dreams; it is not -an oracle, it is faith which teaches me that the decrees of -Providence cannot fail to be accomplished.” - -During this prophetic speech the voice of the old king trembled -with emotion, and the senate was deeply touched. The primate -knelt at the foot of the throne, and assured him of the loyalty -of Poland; and a cry of assent arose from all present. The -subsidies were voted by acclamation; but it was only a transient -gleam of concord. ♦Continued disturbances.♦ Next year there were -rumours of a conspiracy to dethrone the king; and amid the storms -of the Diet a bishop named Opalinski said to him haughtily, “Be -equitable, or cease to reign!” The insult was soon followed by -an apology; but the tumult continued in the assembly, and sabres -were freely used before the veto terminated the disgraceful -scene.[128] ♦Intended abdication of Sobieski.♦ The king felt -himself unable to cope with these terrible disorders, and he -instructed his chancellor to prepare an act of abdication (1689); -but the unfeigned sorrow of all classes persuaded him to withdraw -it. There was little improvement, however, in the temper of -future Diets; and the veto was employed as freely as before. - -♦Discord in his family.♦ John was not more happy in his domestic -than in his public life. His imperious queen was ever his evil -genius. Not content with diminishing his popularity by mixing -too freely in public affairs,[129] she sowed dissension round -his own fireside. The king evidently designed for his successor -his eldest son James; for, besides giving him a high command -in the army, he allowed him to sit by his side in the senate. -But the queen favoured Alexander, her second son, who was -more handsome and popular[130] than his brother, and her open -partiality produced a fierce hatred between the two brothers. -When the Emperor, reminded of the value of John’s friendship by -the victories of Mustapha Köprili, gave the Princess of Neuberg -in marriage to Prince James[131] (1690), the queen took a violent -dislike to her daughter-in-law; and the family breach was widened. - -♦His last campaign, in 1691.♦ Next year the king took the -field for the last time, nominally to chastise the Tartars for -an invasion in the winter, but really perhaps to escape the -miseries of his court. He took with him for the first time -his son Alexander, and this so exasperated Prince James that -he threatened to leave the country. The king told him that if -he went he would take with him a father’s curse, and he was -persuaded to repent and ask pardon for his violence. His father -said openly that in the ensuing campaign he should more easily -get the better of the enemy than of his own sons. He gained -a victory at Pererita (August 6), and took a few places in -Moldavia, and then returned to his kingdom never to leave it more. - -♦His love of retirement.♦ He spent his last years in retirement, -and seldom appeared in public except in the Diet. His palace of -Willanow was his favourite residence, and from thence in the -summer he would roam from castle to castle, sometimes pitching -his tent, like his nomad forefathers, wherever a picturesque -spot or a noble landscape attracted his fancy. The queen would -have preferred the gaieties of Warsaw; but she followed him into -his solitude, and took care that balls, operas, and the other -amusements of a court should be going on around him. - -♦His literary tastes.♦ His chief recreation now, as in his -most difficult campaigns, was the study of the sciences. He -complains to the queen, after the battle of Vienna, that with -all his love of reading he has not had a book in his hand for -more than three weeks.[132] When he read he always had a pencil -in his hand, and his marginal notes displayed uncommon powers -of mind. Dr. South--no mean judge--pronounces him to be “very -opulently stored with all polite and scholastical learning.” -He was fond of writing Polish poetry, and when his daughter -Theresa married the Elector of Bavaria he presented her with a -copy of verses on the event.[133] Like many others of the Slav -race, he was an accomplished linguist. He could converse with -ease in six languages, including Latin,[134] and learnt Spanish -when he was past fifty. His delight was to assemble around him -cultivated men like Father Vota, the French Ambassador Cardinal -Polignac, and his physicians, Connor and Jonas, and to “set them -very artfully by the ears”[135] on some question of philosophy -or natural science.[136] Nor was theology forgotten. He used to -give audiences to the schismatic bishops, and listen patiently to -their arguments for their respective creeds. - -♦Patron of learning.♦ Such a prince was of course an ardent -patron of learning. During his reign more books issued from the -Polish press than in the two centuries preceding; and his liberal -views led him to reprimand the Catholic clergy for not admitting -into their schools the philosophy of Descartes. ♦Spite of the -nobles.♦ The great nobles, many of them wholly unlettered, could -not sympathise with these literary tastes, and they showed their -spite towards the king in various ways. On one occasion, when -illness kept him away from the Diet, the Sapiehas demanded that -he should be summoned to attend; and when their motion was lost, -they broke up the assembly with the veto. A Jew named Bethsal, -who collected his revenues, was condemned to death by the Diet -on an unproved charge of sacrilege,[137] and John could hardly -prevail to save his life. ♦Charge of covetousness unproved.♦ Many -imputed his love of retirement to covetousness, and asserted that -he laid up £100,000 a year for the benefit of his sons.[138] The -accusation has been often repeated, although his life abounds in -instances of his draining his private[139] coffers to serve a -pressing public need. - -The disorders of the kingdom grew more frightful as John became -less able to restrain them. Street brawls between political -parties had always been of common occurrence, but the rioters now -began to use firearms,[140] and the king had to publish an edict -prohibiting the shedding of blood on pain of death. He often -sent for the chief nobles, and adjured them by the love of their -country to aid him in restoring order.[141] In 1695 the Tartars, -tempted by Polish anarchy and by a report of the king’s death, -invaded Russia, and besieged Leopol; but they disappeared as -quickly as they had come on the approach of Sobieski. - -♦His feeble health.♦ Reports of his death were common in Europe, -partly from his feeble health and partly from the interest -which many sovereigns felt in the event.[142] He had long been -afflicted with dropsy; and a wound in his head, which he had -received long before in the Cossack war, now caused serious alarm. - -♦Schemes of the queen.♦ The queen was most anxious that he should -make his will, and she deputed her Chancellor, Bishop Zaluski, -to make the proposal. The king received it with disfavour. “I -am surprised,” he said, “that a man of your sense and worth -should thus waste your time. Can you expect anything good of -the times in which we live? Look at the inundation of vice, the -contagion of folly; and should we believe in the execution of -our last wishes? In life we command and are not obeyed. Would -it be otherwise in death?” Soon after the queen entered, and -read in the face of the bishop the failure of her plan. Zaluski -tells us that the next day the king complained bitterly to him -of the bodily sufferings brought on by a dose of mercury which -she had given him. His frame was shaken by convulsive sobs, and -he exclaimed wildly, “Will there be no one to avenge my death?” -This was probably only the raving of a distempered brain; but the -queen has never been exempt from suspicion, and her conduct after -his death only served to confirm it. - -♦His illness,♦ On the 17th of June, 1696, his seventy-second -birthday,[143] he lay at Willanow in a state of dreadful -weakness. He asked the news from Warsaw, and was told that -multitudes were flocking to the churches to pray for his -recovery. The intelligence affected him deeply, and he passed -the day in cheerful conversation; but towards evening he was -seized with an attack of apoplexy.[144] The chief officers -hastened to his chamber, and when he awoke to a short interval of -consciousness he showed how eager he was to depart by pronouncing -the words “Stava bene.” ♦And death.♦ Soon afterwards, about -sunset, he breathed his last, and his death, like his birth, was -followed by a sudden and frightful storm. - -♦Sorrow of the nation.♦ Only a few of the nobles welcomed -his decease; the mass of the nation remembered his glory, and -sincerely mourned his loss. The Chancellor Zaluski thus expresses -the general sorrow: “With this Atlas has fallen, in my eyes at -least (may I prove a false prophet!), the republic itself. We -seem not so much to have lost him as to have descended with him -into the tomb. At least I have but too much cause to fear that it -is all over with our power. At this news the grief is universal. -In the streets men accost each other with tears, and those who do -not weep are yet terrified at the fate which is in store for us. -Terror apart, what grief was ever more natural? He is, perhaps, -the first king in whose reign not one drop of blood has been shed -in reparation of his own wrongs. He had but one single fault--he -was not immortal.” - -♦Quarrels of his family.♦ Amidst such heartfelt sorrow the -behaviour of his family alienated from them all public sympathy. -Prince James at first refused to admit the queen with the royal -corpse to the castle of Warsaw, and when at length he yielded, -he hurried away to Zolkiew to seize his father’s treasures. The -queen hastened after him to put in her claim, but he turned the -cannon of that fortress against her. Burning with indignation, -she exerted all her influence before she left the country[145] -to destroy his chances of the crown. Such was the magic of his -father’s name that at first there was a large party in his -favour; but the family quarrels weakened and dispersed it. The -Austrian party elected Augustus of Saxony; and the French party -thought it necessary to protest by seizing the remains of the -late king. The Elector, resolved not to be out-manœuvred, erected -a cenotaph to the memory of John III.; and it was not till the -next reign, thirty-six years later, that his body received -interment.[146] - -♦His sons.♦ The history of his three sons deserves a word of -remark. Charles XII., who as a boy was a devoted admirer of John -Sobieski,[147] invaded Poland in 1705, and would have offered -the crown to Prince James; but the prince, being then in Germany -with his brother Constantine, was seized by the Saxon troops, and -honourably confined at Leipsic; and, as his brother Alexander -nobly refused to profit by his misfortune, the opportunity passed -by. Alexander died at Rome as a capuchin, and his two brothers -resided in Poland on their estates. James Sobieski had two -daughters, of whom the younger, Maria Clementina, was married to -the Chevalier St. George, called the “Old Pretender,” and became -the mother of the unhappy Charles Edward. - -♦Character of John Sobieski,♦ The life and exploits of John -Sobieski have in modern times scarcely received their due meed -of attention. Born in a country half civilized, half barbarous, -whose independence has now been completely effaced, his glory -has not proved so enduring as that of less remarkable men who -have figured on a more conspicuous stage. As general, as patriot, -and as Christian hero, he will bear comparison with the greatest -names in any age. ♦As general.♦ No man ever won so many battles -in the most desperate situations; no man ever achieved such deeds -with forces often insignificant and always unruly. His fertility -of resource was amazing; yet it was only equal to the swiftness -of his execution. His chief glory is that, unlike any other great -conqueror, his grandest triumphs were obtained in defensive -warfare, and that all his efforts were directed either to the -salvation of his country or to the honour of his religion. ♦As -patriot.♦ His individual greatness appears most striking in the -ascendancy which he early acquired in his own country. His frank -and simple bearing, his noble mien, and his stirring eloquence, -enabled him, while he was still a subject, to sway the minds and -wills of his fellow-countrymen as if by an irresistible charm. -♦As Christian hero.♦ He laboured for the safety of Poland with -a perfect singleness of aim; and when that was fully secured, -he strove with a like fixity of purpose for the destruction of -the Ottoman power. To us his crusading ardour may seem to have -been out of date, but we must remember that in the seventeenth -century the Turks still inspired a lively alarm, and that if at -the present day we regard them with pity or contempt, the first -step towards this change was accomplished by the sword of John -Sobieski. - -♦As king.♦ As a king, he is not entitled to the same high praise. -In a land of peace and order he might have ranked as a benefactor -to his people, but in the home of licence and anarchy his temper -was too gentle and refined to employ the severity which was -needed. A king of Poland, if he was to heal the disorders of -his realm, must first have made himself feared; the natural -temperament of Sobieski made him prefer to be loved. Clemency and -generous forgiveness were parts of his disposition;[148] and the -necessary result upon his policy was that he resigned himself too -easily to bear the vexations which surrounded him. When he did -act, his method was most unwise; for in his principal attempt at -reform--when he aimed at establishing hereditary succession--he -exposed himself to the charge of a grasping self-interest. - -♦As head of his family.♦ But we cannot acquit him of deplorable -weakness in the management of his own family. A hasty passion -had thrown him into the power of an unscrupulous and despotic -woman, and his uxorious fondness left her only too much scope for -the activity of her caprice. We have seen more than once that he -could oppose her when his duty seemed clearly marked out for him; -but, for the sake of his own peace, he allowed her to intermeddle -without ceasing in the affairs of Poland. The only result of his -indulgence was that very misery in his domestic circle which he -had sought to avoid. Of the charge against him of avarice we -have already spoken. His chivalrous enthusiasm and cultivated -intelligence would have gone far to disprove it, even if the -treasure which he left behind him had not been found to be only -moderate. - -♦His great services,♦ His services to his country were -extraordinary, although he himself confessed that he could not -arrest her fall. He found her at the opening of his career -plunged in civil strife and beset with foreign enemies; he left -her at its close with peace fully assured to her, and with -her glory at its zenith. Within two years of his death the -peace of Carlowitz was signed with the Turks, by which they -renounced all claim to Kaminiec, Podolia, and the Ukraine. The -fruit of his victories was thus fully reaped; but his efforts -to revive commerce and to form an infantry among the serfs, -which would have been the first step to their emancipation, -were never afterwards renewed. ♦Could only retard the fall of -Poland.♦ A patriot life like his may be said to have tried the -institutions of his country, and to have found them wanting. -After seventy-five years of anarchy, that dreaded Partition, -which had been mooted in his day[149] but which he had postponed -for a hundred years, was at length carried into effect. Austria, -whom he had saved by his prowess, Prussia, whom he had hoped -to reunite to his country, Russia, whom his ancestor[150] had -laid at her feet--each took a share of the spoil. No other -patriot arose to save Poland from her rapid decline; and John -Sobieski may be called the last, as he was the greatest, of her -independent kings. - - - Oxford: A. Thomas Shrimpton and Son, 23 and 24, Broad Street. - - - - - FOOTNOTES: - - [1] The burghers, however, were under a separate civil -jurisdiction. A tribunal for administering this foreign or -Teutonic law was established in 1347 in six principal towns. - - [2] Poland in the seventeenth century measured 2600 miles in -circumference, while France measured only 2040. - - [3] _Cosmography_, by Peter Heylin, published in 1648, reprinted -from his _Microcosmus_, published in 1621. - - [4] _Relatione di Polonia_ (1598), quoted by Ranke (App. No. 66 -to his _History of the Popes_). The same Nuncio says the Poles -confessed to him that they preferred a weak monarch to an able -one. - - [5] The whole of the country called Prussia once belonged to -Poland. Part of it, after being lost in the eleventh century, -eventually came into the hands of the Elector of Brandenburg, -who acknowledged the nominal suzerainty of Poland; the other -part--Polish Prussia--was not lost till the eighteenth century. - - [6] See Dr. South’s letter to Dr. Edward Pococke, Hebrew lecturer -at Oxford, describing his travels in Poland. (p 71.) He mentions -that he had heard them make this remark: and it is curious that -his letter bears date Dec. 16th, 1677--six years before the -relief of Vienna. - - [7] This is denied by Salvandy, _Histoire du Roi Jean Sobieski_, -vol. ii. p. 52, ed. 1876, though he has elsewhere admitted it by -implication (vol. i. p. 402-3). - - [8] The generals had no seat in the Senate by virtue of their -office, but the king always made them palatines or castellans. -DALEYRAC, _Polish Manuscripts or Secret History of the reign of -John Sobieski_, ch. i. p. 9. - - [9] DALEYRAC, ch. i. p. 34. - - [10] The first was simply “veto,” the second “veto, sisto -activitatem.” - - [11] They were always prolonged, however, when public business -was pressing. - - [12] This castellan ranked even above all the palatines, and -headed the Pospolite. The story is that in an important battle -the palatine of Cracow ran away, while the castellan stood his -ground, and their rank was thus reversed. (COYER, _Histoire de -Sobieski_, p. 69, 8vo ed.) - - [13] The Abbé Coyer makes her his daughter; but he is wrong. The -daughter of Zolkiewski married into the family of Danilowicz, and -was the mother of Theophila. (SALVANDY, vol. i. 145-147.) - - [14] The disparity is said to have been much greater, but it is -necessary to bear in mind throughout the life of Sobieski that -the numbers of the combatants are uncertain, owing to the Polish -habit of exaggeration. - - [15] Most historians (and Salvandy in his first edition, 1827) -follow Coyer in giving the date 1629. Salvandy gives no reason -for the change in his later editions; but Sobieski must have -been older than fourteen when he travelled in France; and it -appears that his manuscript favours the earlier date. Coyer is -most inaccurate until the campaign of Podhaic, where his original -authorities begin, and is untrustworthy afterwards. - - [16] Russia, properly so called, was at this time a province of -Poland. The empire of the Czars was termed Muscovy. - - [17] Sobieski himself was not free from this feeling. See the -collection of his letters by M. le Comte Plater (Letter xvii.). - - [18] It was part of Dido’s dying speech: - - “Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.” - -Theophila is said to have shown her sons the hero’s shield while -repeating the Spartan injunction “with it or upon it.” - - [19] Louise de Nevers. The Sobieskis were in France when the -embassy came to fetch her. She also married Casimir, the next -king. - - [20] We find only the bare statement that they visited England -(Salvandy; Palmer, _Memoirs of John Sobieski_). It is possible -the civil war may have deterred them. - - [21] Of these only five were paid to the family of the murdered -man, the other five going to his lord. - - [22] _Commentariorum Chotimensis belli libri tres._ CRACOW, 1646. - - [23] These were not broken during a march, differing in this from -the laager. See DALEYRAC, ch. i. p. 24. - - [24] It was not a feudal tenure, however, for the nobles did -not acknowledge any vassalage to the king. It was merely a -bargain.--DALEYRAC, ch. i. p. 23. - - [25] Dyer (_Modern Europe_, vol. iii. p. 42, ed. 1864) gives no -authority for his extraordinary statement that Wladislas entered -into an elaborate conspiracy with the Cossacks against his own -kingdom. Nothing could be more foreign to his character. - - [26] Coyer makes Mark Sobieski die four years earlier, but his -account of the Cossack war is so confused, that it is difficult -to tell to what events he refers. - - [27] He was descended from the elder branch of the house of -Vasa--that of his grandfather, John III. of Sweden. His father, -Sigismund III. of Poland, had by his Polish sympathies and -Catholic education, alienated the affections of the Swedes. - - [28] The Polish regular army was so called because a fourth of -the royal revenues was employed to maintain them. SALVANDY, i. p. -404. - - [29] Coyer, who is followed by other writers, says that Sobieski -was once a hostage with the khan of the Tartars at his own -request, and made him a steady friend of Poland. - - [30] Frederic William, the founder of the greatness of the house -of Hohenzollern. - - [31] He only carried the standard in the Pospolite; his office -was a high military command. Coyer makes this the reward of his -quelling the mutiny at Zborow, which seems most improbable. - - [32] Daleyrac (ch. i. p. 28) represents the army as being at the -mercy of the Grand Treasurer, who frequently pocketed the money. - - [33] The mansion of a Polish noble was called his “court.” - - [34] But he says she was then only thirty-three, and she was -certainly six years older. Louise de Nevers would not have taken -away to Poland a child of five years as part of her suite. - - [35] Connor (_Letters on Poland_, Letter iv.) actually represents -that he was unwilling to marry her until tempted by a large dowry. - - [36] A letter of Sobieski, describing this plan to his wife, who -was staying in France, was shown to Condé, who had no hope of its -success. - - [37] He was tormented with remorse for marrying his brother’s -widow. - - [38] Connor (Letter iii.) mentions having heard this from aged -Poles. - - [39] He stayed till the diet of election was opened. - - [40] The next king, though related to it, could hardly be said -to belong to it, as he was descended from Korybuth, uncle of -Jagellon. - - [41] Connor, Letter iv. - - [42] Begun by his duel with one of their clan in 1648. - - [43] Married to Radziwill, the Croesus of Lithuania. - - [44] The king bound himself by the _pacta conventa_ not to marry -without the consent of the republic. - - [45] See Daleyrac, chap. i. p. 39. - - [46] A “seraskier” was a commander-in-chief, who received his -commission direct from the Grand Vizier. - - [47] The chiefs of these principalities, now united under the -name of Roumania, had been offended at the insolence of the -seraskier, and their troops, being Christians, disliked serving -under the Turks. - - [48] _History of the Grand Viziers, Mahomet and Ashmet Cuprogli_, -by F. de Chassepol; Englished by John Evelyn, junior, published -1677. See bk. iv. - - [49] Salvandy (i. 419) says Hussein was cut down by Prince -Radziwill; but most accounts agree that he escaped and died of -his wounds at Kaminiec. - - [50] Coyer appears to have first made this statement. It would -be interesting to know his authority. His mainstay, _Familiar -Letters of the Chancellor Zaluski_, does not support him. - - [51] Coyer says that the Polish army, on their way to Kotzim, met -this envoy. - - [52] Letter 329. “La victoire du Grand Maréchal est si grand -qu’on ne doute point qu’il ne soit élu roi.” She does not however -know much about Sobieski, for a little later (Letter 333) she -represents him as of a different religion from the nation. - - [53] Connor, who is evidently repeating the gossip of the king’s -reign, says that he “worked underhand for himself.” - - [54] Salvandy enumerates them (i. 430), but it can hardly be -supposed that they all sent envoys. Among them were the Duke of -York and his son-in-law, the Prince of Orange. - - [55] Coyer says that Michael Paz, in the council of war after -the battle of Kotzim, burst out with this as a condition of his -supporting any candidate. - - [56] Dr. South describes him as follows: “He is a tall, corpulent -prince, large-faced, and full eyes, and goes always in the same -dress with his subjects, with his hair cut round about his ears -like a Monk, and wears a fur cap, extraordinarily rich with -diamonds and jewels, large whiskers, and no neck-cloth.”--_Letter -to Dr. Pococke_, p. 5. - - [57] Czartoryski, Archbishop of Guesna, had died suddenly at a -banquet given by Sobieski. - - [58] Three contemporary authorities give this eloquent speech _in -extenso_; and the language which is common to all of them, and -which is here quoted, enables us to understand its electrical -effect upon the audience. - - [59] This generally occurred on Church lands, for nobles could -make themselves heard against the general in the Diet. Daleyrac -(chap. i. p. 12) says that he had heard of these officers making -6,000 francs by bribes. - - [60] No queen of Poland was entitled to any allowance from the -republic (or pension in case of widowhood) without having been -crowned. - - [61] Daleyrac (ch. i. p. 11) says that the Lithuanians are a -worse scourge to the country than the Tartars. We shall find them -as barbarous to the friendly people of Hungary. - - [62] Coyer makes the astounding mistake of stating that Köprili -died in 1674, and was succeeded in the command in Poland by Kara -Mustapha. (pp. 210, 216, 8vo ed.) - - [63] The account followed by Salvandy (ii. 29) represents the -whole Turkish army, nearly 200,000 strong, as having been -present. Coyer, following Zaluski, gives the account in the text. - - [64] He had been previously received by John in the camp at -Leopol. The German name for that town is Lemberg. - - [65] He died of apoplexy on receiving the intelligence. - - [66] Daleyrac (ch. i. 22). The infantry formed the rear guard, -and when composed of Cossacks, were useful in a dangerous retreat. - - [67] The regular army, called “Komport,” or sometimes -“Quartians,” was supposed to consist of 48,000 men, of which -12,000 were Lithuanians; but it hardly ever reached this amount. -(Daleyrac, ch. i.) - - [68] This was a most valuable addition to his revenue. - - [69] Coyer says that the Muscovites were advancing into Poland to -the king’s relief, but this seems improbable. - - [70] Coyer implies that the condition was refused, Ibrahim -scornfully remarking that the Greeks, who then held the holy -places, were Christians as well as the Latins. - - [71] Letter 537. “La paix de Pologne est faite, mais -romanesquement. Ce héros, à la tête de quinze mille hommes, -entourés de deux cent mille, les a forcés, l’épée à la main, à -signer la traité. Il s’était campé si avantageusement que depuis -La Calprenède on n’avait rien vu de pareil.” - - [72] The expedition was made and failed ignominiously. - - [73] Palmer, _Memoirs of Sobieski_. See also _Biographie -Universelle_, art. “Hevelius.” - - [74] Bourbon l’Archambault, in the department of Allier. - - [75] He alleged as his reason the poverty of the marquis. -Some scandal was caused by the attempt of the French queen to -secure this honour for a certain Brisacier, her attendant, who -represented himself as the natural son of Sobieski during his -visit to France. John could not remember the circumstances, and -the French queen afterwards denied that she wrote to him upon the -subject. The affair was never explained. - - [76] In which he summoned the Diet and enumerated the agenda. - - [77] Oratio principis Radziwill ad Imperatorem. - - [78] The Diet afterwards sent succours to the relief of Vienna, -and the electors of Bavaria and Saxony each commanded a -contingent. - - [79] DALEYRAC, Preface to _Polish Manuscripts_. - - [80] DALEYRAC, ch. ii. p. 44. - - [81] Salvandy (ii. 161) says that in August Leopold offered to -cede him the kingdom of Hungary, and to guarantee the succession -to his family, and that John answered that he wished for no other -reward but the glory of deserving well of God and man. The offer, -if made, could not have been _bona fide_. - - [82] This is the estimate of Sobieski himself in his famous -letter to the queen after the battle. He bases it on the number -of tents, which he places at nearly 100,000. Daleyrac says that a -list was found in the Grand Vizier’s tent, which gave the number -of the Turks alone as 191,800. - - [83] Daleyrac tells an amusing story of the way in which these -Cossacks brought in their prisoners. The king offered a reward to -those who could catch him a “Tongue” whom he could cross-examine. -A Cossack brought a prisoner to the king’s tent, flung him on -the ground like a sack, and went away without a word. Shortly -afterwards he came back, and putting his head into the tent, -said, “John, they have paid me the money; God restore it thee! -Good-night!” - - [84] “The siege of Vienna had given terror to all Europe, and -the utmost reproch to the French, who ’tis believed brought in -the Turks for diversion that the French king might the more -easily swallow Flanders, and pursue his unjust conquests upon the -empire, while we sat unconcerned and under a deadly charm from -somebody.”--EVELYN’s _Diary_, September 23rd, 1683. - - [85] Letter of the Emperor to the King of Poland from Passau, -August 24th. - - [86] A grand subscription was being raised in Rome. Cardinal -Barberini alone gave 20,000 florins. - - [87] DALEYRAC, chap. i. p. 21, and SALVANDY. - - [88] Published by N. A. Salvandy; translated by M. le Comte -Plater. Paris, 1826. - - [89] SALVANDY, ii. pp. 173, 174, quoted in _Foreign Quarterly -Review_, No. xiv. vol. vii. - - [90] He begins every letter to her, “Seule joie de mon âme, -charmante et bien-aimée Mariette!” He calls himself her faithful -and devoted Celadon, and reminds her that it would soon be her -turn to become the wooer. Yet he was fifty-nine years old, and -she was probably forty-eight. - - [91] His army probably did not know of it; but Daleyrac says he -had the news from a spy. It is inconceivable that he should not -have employed a few scouts. - - [92] His order of battle given in Coyer (pp. 316-318), in which -the Duke of Lorraine commanded the centre, was written previous -to the ascent of the Kahlemberg. - - [93] SALVANDY (ii. 190) says that at this moment there was an -eclipse of the moon, which increased the panic; but Daleyrac, -whose account he follows in other respects, does not mention it. - - [94] Sobieski relates these particulars in Letter ix. - - [95] DALEYRAC (ii. 41). This information he had from some captive -Turks. - - [96] He added that he had travelled for four leagues over Turkish -corpses. Unfortunately for the credibility of his tale, his -journey to Rome lay in the direction opposite to the field of -battle. - - [97] _Annales de l’Empire._ He states the Polish loss at 200. - - [98] This is the number given by the French official gazette at -the time. - - [99] Yet, when shortly afterwards an official at court was -presented with a sword of Sobieski, the interest excited was -intense, and engravings were taken of it. SALVANDY (ii. 420) -says that the sword of Sobieski was the cherished possession of -Napoleon at St. Helena. A French prelate was author of the witty -distich: - - Dignior imperio numne Austrius? anne Polonus? - Odrysias acies hic fugat, ille fugit. - - [100] “Votre Majesté s’est montrée digne non seulement de la -couronne de Pologne, mais de celle de l’univers. L’empire -du monde vous serait dû, si le ciel l’eût reservé à un seul -potentat.” - - [101] Constantine Wiesnowiesçki, cousin of the late king Michael, -the Emperor’s brother-in-law. - - [102] Prince Eugène, who was present, says, “N’étant pas fait -encore aux manières allemandes je m’amusai beaucoup de la fiére -entrevue de l’empereur avec le roi de Pologne.” Sa vie écrite par -lui même. Paris, 1810. - - [103] Letter x. - - [104] Letter xii. - - [105] Letter xv. - - [106] “Si namque ad clangorem memoratae victoriae vel levis -armorum terra marique succedat ostentatio, procul dubio -gemens sub Tyrannide Grecia ac ipsa Constantinopolis perfido -recalcitraret domino, suasque respiceret origines.... Forte -Mahometanum Imperium ad sua devolvatur principia, et ubi satis in -altum surrexerit lapsu graviori ruat.”--Letter of Sobieski from -Vizier’s tent, September 13. - - [107] VOLTAIRE, _Annales de l’Empire_. Curiously enough, -Sobieski, in Letter x. (September 17), after mentioning -Hannibal’s inaction after his victory, says, “To-day we know well -how to profit by ours.” - - [108] Letter x. - - [109] Letter xi. - - [110] Chèvremont (_L’état actuel de Pologne_, 12mo, 1702) talks -of the “vile et mesquin empressement,” which he showed by this -act. He constantly speaks of him as “ce roi avare.” As Chèvremont -was secretary to the Duke of Lorraine, it is to be feared that -the latter was not satisfied with his share of the spoil. - - [111] A kind of dysentery, called the Hungarian fever. - - [112] Letters xx. xxi. - - [113] Letter xvii. - - [114] Letter xvi. Coyer, who had never seen this letter, takes up -his favourite theme of a king pursuing selfish glory; and Coxe -(_House of Austria_, ii. 449) countenances the idea. - - [115] Letter xvii. - - [116] This, as Coyer says, was most discreditable to the -Christians. But Sobieski explains that the Turks had “made no -prisoners” two days before, and that the sight of the bleeding -heads of Poles upon the rampart of the fort maddened his troops. - - [117] Letter xix. - - [118] Letter xxi. The king notices in the same place that the -Turks called him their executioner on account of the number of -men which his victories had cost them. - - [119] Quoted by SALVANDY, ii. 282-284. - - [120] Letter xxix. - - [121] This we learn from a letter of Sobieski to the Pope, dated -from Javarow, August 15th, 1684. Having 60,000 men (two-thirds -of them Cossacks), he started with large hopes. “Me ad Turcarum -regiam [illos] ducturum.... Liberator Orientis rediturus vel pro -Christi fide moriturus.” Sooner than give up the crusade, he -announced that he would resign the crown “tamquam ut humillimus -miles vitam in Hungaricis agminibus funderem.” - - [122] Said to have been the same Paz with whom he fought a duel -in his youth. - - [123] A letter of the king to Jablonowski after this defeat, in -which he gently complains of his coldness, shows his character in -a most amiable light. “Whether I have merited your indifference -or not, come promptly to dissipate the cloud which has covered -our intimate friendship, and believe that your presence will be -more efficacious towards my speedy recovery than all the art of -my physicians.” - - [124] Chèvremont (p. 116) says that both she and the king -received bribes from France, but as secretary to the Duke of -Lorraine he is an Austrian authority. He admits that even on the -morrow of the battle of Vienna the Emperor had no intention of -fulfilling this promise of the hand of the archduchess. - - [125] The dangers of this expedition did not deter John from -antiquarian researches. Passing an ancient mound he ascended it, -and after examination pronounced it to be the work of Decebalus, -king of Dacia. - - [126] All the orders of the realm sat together while the Diet -lasted. - - [127] He seems to have been in favour of John Casimir’s attempt -to name a successor. - - [128] Candles were not allowed in the Diet, and the session -having lasted a long time, a Lithuanian took advantage of the -dusk to smack a bishop in the face, and a tumult ensued. About -the same time Sapieha, the Lithuanian general, had a grave -quarrel with the Bishop of Wilna. One party used excommunication, -and the other violence, and no efforts of the king could -reconcile them. - - [129] She was always intriguing in the Diet, and did her utmost -to dissolve that of Grodno. She was accused of selling offices -of state, and binding the recipient to support one of her sons -at the next election (Connor). She certainly had a control over -the king’s appointments, and he so loved domestic peace that he -generally followed her advice. - - [130] Prince James (born in 1667) was called the son of the Grand -Marshal, and the other two the sons of the king. - - [131] This marriage made him brother-in-law of the sovereigns of -Spain, Portugal, and Austria. - - [132] Letter xi. from Presburg, September 19th. - - [133] CONNOR, _Letters on Poland_. - - [134] The others, besides the Slavonian, were French, Italian, -German, and Turkish. - - [135] SOUTH’s _Letter to Dr. Edward Pococke_, p. 5. - - [136] Connor describes a discussion as to what part of the body -the soul inhabits. - - [137] It is to be feared, however, that Bethsal had sometimes -abused his position. - - [138] CONNOR, Letter iv. - - [139] “The king opened his coffers to the designs of the League -so far that his own family could scarcely believe it.”--DALEYRAC, -Preface. - - [140] DALEYRAC, chap. i. p. 33. - - [141] Connor says that the grandees paid him outwardly the -highest respect, never eating with him at his table, and that -those who most abused him in Parliament showed him great -deference elsewhere. - - [142] BURNET (_History of his Own Time_, iii. 348) asserts that -“he died at last under a general contempt.” This is curious side -by side with the fact that shortly before his death the new Pope, -Innocent XII., proposed to him to mediate between France and -Austria. - - [143] Salvandy (ii. 395) says that it was also the day of his -accession. It certainly was not the day of his election, or of -his signing the “pacta conventa,” or of his coronation. - - [144] Connor says that he died of a dropsy turned into a scirrhus -or hard tumour. The blood being prevented circulating, the -humours were driven to the head, and apoplexy ensued. - - [145] It is said that she attempted to procure the election of -Jablonowski with the intention of marrying him. She soon left -Poland and resided in France, where she died in 1717, at the age -of eighty-two. - - [146] SALVANDY, ii. 409. The fact is almost incredible. - - [147] It is said that he refused to learn Latin until he heard -that the Polish hero was a proficient in that language. When he -was told of his death he exclaimed, “So great a king ought never -to have died.” - - [148] Zaluski relates several instances of his readiness to -own himself in the wrong, and of his unwillingness to avenge a -personal insult. - - [149] By Charles X. of Sweden. It is said that documents are in -existence which prove that Louis XIV. also entertained the idea. - - [150] Zolkiewski. - - - - -“THE OXFORD TRANSLATIONS OF THE CLASSICS.” - - - EURIPIDES: HECUBA, 1/6. } { - EURIPIDES: MEDEA, 1/6. } { With the most difficult - EURIPIDES: ALCESTIS, 1/6. } { words parsed and explained, - SOPHOCLES: ŒDIPUS TYRANNUS, 2/-. } { by a First - SOPHOCLES: AJAX, 2/-. } { Class-man, Balliol College, - SOPHOCLES: PHILOCTETES, 2/-. } { Oxford. - ÆSCHINES IN CTESIPHONTEM, 2/6. } { - - CICERO’S SECOND PHILIPPIC. With Short Notes. 1/6. - - CICERO’S SEX. ROSCIUS AMERINUS. With Short Notes. 1/6. - - PLATO’S APOLOGY OF SOCRATES. Literally translated from the - Text of Baiter and Orelli. Arranged for interleaving (if - desired) with the Fourth Edition, Zurich, 1861. 1/-; cloth, - 1/6. - - PLATO’S MENO. A Dialogue on the Nature and Origin of - Virtue, prepared from the Text of Baiter and Orelli. - Arranged for interleaving (if desired) with the Second - Edition of the Greek Text, Stutgard, 1878. 1/-; cloth, 1/6. - - TERENCE’S ANDRIA. Literally translated from Wagner’s Text. - Arranged for interleaving (if desired) with the Cambridge - Larger and Smaller Editions of Terence. 1/-; cloth, 1/6. - - TERENCE’S HAUTON-TIMORUMENOS; or, Self-Tormentor. Literally - translated from Wagner’s Text. Arranged for interleaving - (if desired) with the Cambridge Larger and Smaller Editions - of Terence. 1/-; cloth, 1/6. - - TERENCE’S PHORMIO. Literally translated from Wagner’s Text. - Arranged for interleaving (if desired) with the Cambridge - Larger and Smaller Editions of Terence. 1/-; cloth, 1/6. - - XENOPHON’S MEMORABILIA OF SOCRATES. A Literal Translation. - Book I., 1/-; II., 1/-; IV., 1/-. The three Books in one - vol., 3/6. Arranged for interleaving with the Oxford Text. - - - CHOPE’S ANALYSIS OF BLACKSTONE ON REAL PROPERTY. A Sheet. - 2/-. - - SYNOPSIS OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By the late Rev. - E. T. GIBBONS, Senior Student of Ch. Ch. A Sheet. - 1/-. - - ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Edited by the Rev. - H. J. TURRELL, M.A., Hertford College. 2/6. - - ---- The same (Abridged). A Sheet. 1/-. - - TRENDELENBURG’S ELEMENTA LOGICES ARISTOTELEÆ. An English - translation. Crown 8vo, 1/-; cloth, 1/6. - - THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF LOGIC, Deductive and Inductive. - Specially adapted for the Use of Candidates for Moderations - at Oxford. 1/-; cloth, 1/6. - - THE OXFORD LOGIC CHART. Notes and Hints, prepared expressly - for “Moderations,” and purposely divided into 24 Sections - or Lessons. [_The Student is advised to prepare and write - out entirely from memory, one section each morning, and one - each night. By this means the main Points of Logic may be - mastered in a fortnight._] 1/-. - - AIDS TO THE “SCHOOLS.” QUESTIONS ON AND EXERCISES IN LIVY, - BOOKS XXI.-XXIV. Selected and Arranged by a Graduate. 1/6. - - AIDS TO THE “SCHOOLS.” QUESTIONS ON AND EXERCISES IN - ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS, BOOKS I.-IV. AND PART OF X. Selected - and Arranged by a Graduate. 2/-. - - AIDS TO THE “SCHOOLS.” QUESTIONS ON THE EXERCISES IN - TACITUS. ANNALS, BOOKS I.-IV. Selected and Arranged by a - Graduate. 1/-. - - KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH, LIVES OF THE PROPHETS. - BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY, &c. A Sheet. By a private Tutor. 1/-. - - - OXFORD: A. 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