THE LIFE OF 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 
 
 [OHN SOBIESKI
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 !UriiiiVii;KoiTY of CALii'UKisiA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 UBRARY
 
 JOHN SOBIESKI or JOHN HI 
 KING OF POLAND
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 
 
 John the Third of Poland 
 
 A CHRISTIAN KNIGHT 
 THE SAVIOR OF CHRISTENDOM 
 
 BY 
 
 COUNT JOHN SOBIESKI 
 
 Author of A Soldier of Freedom, The Adventures of a 
 
 Polish Nobleman While Fighting Under the 
 
 Flag of Two Republics, and The 
 
 Life of President Juarez. 
 
 BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED 
 
 145592
 
 Copyright, 1915, by John Sobieski 
 
 All rights reserved, including the right of 
 translation in all Foreign Tongues. 
 
 The GoEHAat Pbess, Boston, U. S. A.
 
 ^31 
 
 To 
 
 THE NOBLE POLISH PATRIOTS 
 
 who for morp than a Century have struggled, 
 
 suffered and died in their endeavor to regain 
 
 their lost nation and restore to Poland what She 
 
 was in the days of the Casmers, and the Sobie- 
 
 skis, and to those Noble Patriots who will finally 
 
 BUccecd in their patriotic design of placing 
 
 Poland where she justly belongs 
 
 this book is dedicated.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE seventeenth century was one of the 
 i^reat centuries of the world aloufj; all lines 
 of human activities. In art, in science 
 and in religious thought there was more 
 advancement than there had been for centuries be- 
 fore. The Reformation had obtained such dimen- 
 sions that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy had become 
 acutely aware that it must, henceforth, fight for its 
 existence. The Thirty Years' War is a proof of this 
 statement. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, the Snow King, of Sweden, 
 had made the Catholic Powers tremble by his won- 
 derful victories and had he not met his death so early, 
 on the field of battle, in all probability the reformed 
 religion would have advanced to the front immedi- 
 ately and have become the dominant faith of the 
 Continent; but while the Catholic and Protestant 
 chiefs were fighting terrific battles for supremacy, 
 there suddenly ap]>eared a mutual enemy which 
 threatened to destroy Christendom itself, for it had 
 been the dream of each successor of the great 
 Mohammed that the Mohammedan religion should lye- 
 come the world's universal faith. And so, in compli- 
 ance with the military spirit of that religion, this 
 
 V
 
 vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 desire began to manifest itself very early, and so, 
 after becoming firmly established upon the Asiatic 
 Continent, the Mohammedans entered Europe, win- 
 ning victory after victory until they were finally 
 checked by Charles Martel at Tours, France, in the 
 eighth century; but they were only checked, for 
 they gathered their forces and were not long in con- 
 quering the fairest portion of Europe. 
 
 In the year 1453, the Greek, or Byzantine, Em- 
 pire fell before the Mohammedans and they captured 
 Constantinople, making it the capital of their Turk- 
 ish or Ottoman Empire, but all their attempts to push 
 farther West had failed. 
 
 But the seventeenth century seemed to be their 
 opportunity, for the Christian nations had become 
 hopelessly divided into bitter antagonisms between 
 the followers of the Pope of Rome and the followers 
 of Martin Luther, the reformed monk, who were 
 fighting bloody battles to destroy each other. 
 
 The Sultan of Turkey recognized in this condi- 
 tion of affairs in Europe a long cherished opportu- 
 nity and began making preparations, at once, for the 
 invasion of western Europe. It was then that the 
 eastern hordes were met by the Grand Marshal of 
 Poland and he exhibited such military genius as 
 had never been equalled, nor since surpassed, in the 
 world's history. Though largely outnumbered in 
 every battle, Sobieski's victories were overwhelming
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 and crushing and the Turks were compelled to re- 
 turn to their own homes. The Grand Marshal 
 (John Sobieski) then ascended the throne of Poland 
 as John the Third. 
 
 In the spring of 1683 the King of Poland was re- 
 ported to be suffering from an incurable disease 
 which would prevent him ever taking to the field 
 of battle again at the head of his troops, and, as 
 cited above, the Christian nations were at swords 
 points. To make matters still more serious, Hun- 
 garia, suifering from the oppression of Austria, stood 
 ready to furnish fifty thousand of its best troops 
 (in order to avenge herself) to assist the Porte in his 
 operations against Austria, so that a very great army 
 was assembled, and marched triumphantly to the 
 very gates of Vienna and the Porte laid siege to that 
 city, and in the very hour when victory seemed sure, 
 Sobieski suddenly appeared with an army of only 
 seventy thousand men and struck the Turks like a 
 whirlwind. The Turks were so dumbfounded and 
 bewildered by his sudden movement that they fled, 
 panic-stricken, so that the proud, exultant foe was 
 scattered to the winds, leaving behind them all of 
 their war materials, and never stopping until they 
 had reached the borders of Ilungaria. Thus ended 
 forever the Mohammedan Power as a military force. 
 
 This defeat was so final that it was the very end 
 of the Oriental dream of supremacy in Europe, and
 
 viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 by this victory Sobieski's name stands with the high- 
 est in military annals. His ability certainly ex- 
 ceeded Marlborough of England, Frederick of 
 Prussia, and was only equaled by Napoleon, never 
 excelled, for he never was defeated in any great bat- 
 tle. 
 
 The purpose of this volume is to introduce this 
 great Christian warrior and king more thoroughly 
 to the English-speaking world, that he may be known 
 and appreciated as the great ruler who, more than 
 any other, saved Europe to Christian civilization. 
 
 John Sobieski. 
 
 Los Angeles, Calif. 
 February, 1915.
 
 THE LIFE OF KING JOHN SOBIESKI
 
 THE LIFE OF KING 
 JOHN SOBIESKI 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IN the year sixteen twenty-nine (1629), when 
 Sigismund the Third reigned in Poland, Louis 
 the Thirteenth in France, Charles the First in 
 England, and the Snow King, so called in his- 
 tory, the celebrated Gustavus Adolphus in Sweden, 
 was born John Sobieski in the castle of Olensko, a 
 town in the palatinate of Russia. Sobieski was 
 descended from two of the greatest families of Po- 
 land whose origin the Polish genealogists have placed 
 far back in the obscure ages of antiquity. It is a 
 truth of greater, or much easier proved, certainty 
 that these families were renowned for their virtue 
 and patriotism. 
 
 The renowned Zolkiewski, grandfather of Sobieski 
 on the mother's side, defeated the Muscovites in 
 1610, and the Czar was made a prisoner and was 
 brought to the capital of Cracow. Monuments of 
 this victory are still seen upon the ceilings of the 
 
 castle at Wai'saw. When Czar Peter was called 
 
 1
 
 2 THE LIFE OF 
 
 into Poland to defend King Augustus against Charles 
 the Twelfth, the Czar thought proper to destroy 
 them, but the testimony of time cannot be suppressed. 
 In the year 1620 Zolkiewski forced his way through 
 a hundred thousand Turks and Tartars, who sur- 
 rounded him in Moldavia, and was retreating before 
 this great host which pursued and harassed him dur- 
 ing a march of almost a hundred leagTies. Having 
 reached the frontiers of Poland upon the banks of 
 the Niester, his cavalry, now completely exhausted, 
 was apparently looking into the face of certain de- 
 struction, so they took the first opportunity of escape, 
 which was to swim across the river, thus deserting 
 their general and his infantry. Zolkiewski' s son, who 
 was with him in the army, begged him to consider 
 his own safety, but he replied that the Republic had 
 entrusted its entire army to him and he could not 
 desert it. The infantry that remained was utterly 
 annihilated before his eyes; his brave son expired 
 in his sight. He himself was covered with wounds 
 and lived but a short time. His head was severed 
 by the Turkish general and sent to the Sultan to 
 revive the spirits of the Ottoman Empire, but was 
 afterwards redeemed and the renowned father and 
 son buried in the same grave. Upon their tomb was 
 this inscription : " May our avenger rise out of our 
 ashes." 
 
 The work of avenging these two noble souls was
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 3 
 
 reserved for one Sobieski, their descendant from 
 the female line, who never read without emotion that 
 inscription which exhorted to vengeance. 
 
 John Sobieski's father's father, Mark Sobieski, 
 palatine of Lublin, left his grandson many great 
 exploits to copy. Came to him the happy event of 
 tlio battle in which Michael, hospodar of Moldavia, 
 was defeated. Also he had his grandfather's ex- 
 ample in the part he took in the defeat of the rebel- 
 lious Dantzickers in 1577, when he threw himself 
 into the waters of the Vistula in pursuit of their 
 lender, and when he came upon him slew him with 
 his own hands in the midst of the river; which action 
 was performed in the presence of the King, who 
 declared that if it should ever be necessary to risk 
 the fate of Poland in a single combat, as the fortunes 
 of Rome were once entrusted to Iloratius, he should 
 not for a single moment hesitate to choose the pala- 
 tine of Lublin as her defender. The brave palatine 
 was killed at the attack of Sokol, a Russian fortress, 
 which the Poles took by storm, and such was the 
 grandfather of John Sobieski and the military heri- 
 tage ho was enriched with. 
 
 His father, James Sobieski, was not unworthy of 
 such a noble sire, as subsequent history of valorous 
 deeds tells us. One of the most glorious victories in 
 all the annals of Poland was the famous battle of 
 Choczin, in 1622, in which the young Prince Uladis-
 
 4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 las, son of King Sigismund III, had the title of 
 commander-in-chief, but the one who was entitled to 
 the glory of the victory was James Sobieski, who 
 had taken command in the absence of the Grand- 
 General. Two hundred thousand Turks and Tartars 
 Avere defeated in that battle by sixty-five thousand 
 Poles, and the hero of the day, being as able a ne- 
 gotiator or diplomat as he was a general on the field, 
 was sent by the King as his ambassador to sign the 
 treaty which the Porte was compelled to accept. By 
 his (James Sobieski's) marriage with the daughter 
 of the great Zolkiewski, and heiress of the vast estates 
 in the possession of that powerful family, palatinate 
 of Russia, he had two sons, Mark and John, whose 
 education he considered encumbered upon himself, 
 and held definite ideas regarding the education of 
 young people which were not shared by all his con- 
 temporaries. He instructed them in the principles 
 of justice, beneficence and respect for the established 
 laws of the land, holding that a knowledge of these 
 things was as important as a knowledge of military 
 tactics, and as unsurpassed, even, by military glory 
 in which each and every one hoped to shine. He 
 gradually led them up to the vital interests of their 
 native land, their beloved Poland, and instructed 
 them to defend these interests by written as well as 
 spoken words, all of which would be useless under an 
 absolute form of government but necessary in a re-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 5 
 
 public. James Sobieski labored to instill in his sons 
 that habit of application which he, himself, pos- 
 sessed and without which there can never be great 
 men. 
 
 The eldest son, Mark, was of mild temper and 
 docile disposition, his mother's favorite, and, had he 
 lived, would have been compelled to occupy a sub- 
 ordinate place to his younger brother, John Sobieski. 
 
 John Sobieski was of a lively, ardent and impetu- 
 ous temper, with great executive ability and will 
 power, determined to accomplish that which he un- 
 dertook to do. If there were in existence any ade- 
 quate history of his childhood, we should, undoubt- 
 edly, be able to discover the characteristics which 
 afterwards made him the gi-eatest king and soldier 
 of his day. 
 
 There is one characteristic of the Polish people 
 which has existed from the dawn of their history 
 and that is that a Pole does not believe that he pos- 
 sesses, exclusively, everything of value or that he 
 can learn nothing outside his own country, so that 
 the Poles stand out in strong contrast to other na- 
 tionalities of that day; consequently, to receive an 
 education that should be complete in every detail, 
 the two sons, Mark and John, started out upon ex- 
 tensive travels which took them first to France, for 
 even at that early day France, in matters of culture 
 and refinement, stood at the head of the world. The
 
 6 THE LIFE OF 
 
 boys, almost young men now, remained in France 
 long enough to become thoroughly versed in the 
 language of that country. The younger brother be- 
 came such a master of languages, eventually, that 
 he spoke six, each of which might have been taken 
 for his mother tongue. After visiting the great capi- 
 tals of Europe, the last place they visited was Con- 
 stantinople, that they might become better acquainted 
 with that power. Little did the Porte imagine that 
 a day would come when his army was to flee before 
 the younger of these brothers. 
 
 Being now conversant with what knowledge they 
 could collect in Europe and in Constantinople, the 
 gateway to Europe, they determined to penetrate 
 into Asia, but just as they were setting forth upon 
 this journey they learned that a war had broken out 
 on the frontier of Poland. They returned at once 
 to tender their services in behalf of their country 
 but, alas, they had not the satisfaction of being re- 
 ceived in the embrace of a father who had cared 
 for them and educated them, for he had passed away, 
 leaving his sons, however, the memory of a noble 
 father as a splendid inheritance. 
 
 The throne of Poland was, at that time, 1648, 
 filled by Casimir V, who had risen from a cardinal 
 to a king. He was now upon the point of seeing 
 the scepter wrested from his hands. Gloomy indeed 
 was that age for the crowned heads of Europe. The
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 7 
 
 Thirty Years' War, the greatest strife in which 
 Europe had been embroiled since the days of the 
 Roman invasions, had just ended and the fact that 
 the Thirty Years' War was not only a religious war 
 which had grown out of the foment which Martin 
 Luther had caused to start, but that it was a war to 
 preserve a certain balance of power with the great 
 principalities eying, enviously and greedily, no 
 doubt, the very evident plan of Austria to make of 
 Vienna a religious power which had known no equal 
 save that of Rome, is a truth which must be remem- 
 bered, for upon that, beyond the question of a doubt, 
 was one of the gravest reasons for continuing the 
 power of the Catholic faith as against the Protestant 
 and of adding to that faith against the invasions of 
 the Turks who were, at that time, a very powerful 
 foe. So we repeat, that the age was indeed a gloomy 
 one for the rulers of Europe. Philip the Fourth 
 had lost Portugal and the most of his possessions in 
 Asia. In France the mother of Louis the Fourteenth 
 had been forced out of Paris with her children. In 
 England, after a long struggle with his parliament, 
 Charles the First had died upon the scaffold. The 
 inglorious flight ,of the Polish army at Pilawiecz 
 was but recent, when the two Sobieskis arrived in 
 Poland. Their mother, a woman of noble spirit, ex- 
 claimed as soon as she saw them — " Are you come to 
 avenge your country ? I renounce you forever as
 
 8 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 
 
 my sons if you behave like the combatants at Pila- 
 wiecz ! " How well they fought the records attest. 
 The Poles were defeated in two pitched battles, and 
 in the last of these Mark, the younger Sobieski, was 
 slain in the very flower of his age.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 WHAT had been done by John Sobi- 
 eski, now at the head of his family 
 (1649), was but a prelude to his 
 future exploits in war. All that 
 had been observed in him, up to this time, was an 
 impetuous ardor which made him reckless of danger 
 and which carried him where the mere sense of 
 duty would not require his presence. A single 
 event displays the credit which he had acquired in 
 so short a time. When the Polish army mutinied 
 in the camp at Sborow, a city of Little Poland up 
 on the borders of Podolia, and every method, such 
 as persuasion to which was added menace and even 
 cannon of the Lithuanian troops, had been tried in 
 vain by the commanding general, and the attempt 
 given up as hopeless, John Sobieski asked that he 
 might tr>' what ho could do in inducing the men to 
 return to their duties. The temerity of extraordi- 
 nary men is never justified but by the success that 
 attends it. It is easy to understand what address 
 and eloquence are needed to pursuade men who had 
 aiTns in their hands. It is not only a matter of 
 personal pride, but it is a racial pride which every 
 true Pole feels when we find that Sobieski, a very
 
 10 THE LIFE OF 
 
 young man as we look upon men today, with his 
 grace of eloquence carried his point and thus early 
 showed that empire over the minds of men which 
 would have done credit to a consummate general and 
 this feat advanced to the height of glory a youth who 
 had, as yet, held no public office. He not only, by 
 his wondrous eloquence, persuaded those mutineers 
 to return to their duty, but he filled them with a new 
 spirit of loyalty and enthusiasm for their country 
 and its cause. 
 
 The army advanced now upon the foe in a spirit 
 that can never fail of victory. The battle lasted 
 seven days and the loss of the enemy was twenty 
 thousand men. A peace was obtained that was in 
 every way satisfactory to the Republic, which had 
 become embroiled, through her weak and vacillating 
 king, in so much useless slaughter. The immediate 
 result to Sobieski was that he was rewarded by being 
 made the great Standard-bearer of the Crown, an 
 ofiicer of the Court and of the army, who carries the 
 banner of the Republic at the coronations and at the 
 funerals of the Kings of Poland. This was a re- 
 markable rise in a republic which, at this critical 
 time in its national history, must be, or should have 
 been, careful how it proceeds and should confer re- 
 wards rather than favors. However, the promotion 
 of Sobieski was both in the nature of a reward and 
 was also one of those marks of favor which fate had
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 11 
 
 reserved for him. 
 
 Poland now saw, as she had not seen for a long 
 time, a great number of enemies united (1655) to 
 conspire her ruin. Christiana of Sweden had re- 
 signed her crown and had gone to Rome to spend 
 Vie rest of her days in arts and letters in preference 
 lo remaining with her own people and endeavoring 
 to further the happiness of her kingdom. She was 
 succeeded by her cousin, Charles Gustavus, who 
 made the same mistake that' so many others have 
 made, and that was in thinking that the most effec- 
 tive way of showing his ability to reign was tojenter 
 upon a war of conquest, a part of which is due to the 
 period in which he lived when the conscience that 
 Europe found living within itself and her growing 
 pains of reformation, were, after all, secondary to the 
 old race idea that might makes right. In a brief 
 time, with the aid of allies, Charles Gustavus, had 
 made himself master of a great part of Poland and 
 proceeded to make war upon Prussia. 
 
 Any other than the weak king who ruled Poland 
 would have seen his mistake in antagonizing some 
 who should have been his friends rather than ene- 
 mies. 
 
 Sobieski, although he served in an army that was 
 everywhere defeated, was yet learning to conquer. 
 If Casimir had had many Sobieskis he might have 
 escaped the sad extremity to which he was reduced.
 
 12 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Gustavus was already advancing upon him from 
 Prussia. Sobieski blocked him up between the Vis- 
 tula and the Sanus, hindered him being supplied 
 with provisions and harassed him with continual 
 skirmishes. Receiving information that one Swe- 
 dish general was approaching with six thousand men 
 to relieve the King, Sobieski left his little army to 
 continue the blockade while he marched with his 
 cavalry to meet Douglas, the Swedish general. He 
 forded the Pilcza, a river much swollen by the melt- 
 ing snows, and with that alacrity which characterized 
 all of his movements and was, in reality, the secret 
 of his success, he surprised Douglas, delivered a 
 crushing defeat to that general, and followed his 
 fleeting army to the very suburbs of Warsaw. 
 
 Some parts of the Polish army which had been de- 
 pended upon to do their duty in this emergency failed 
 entirely, so that it was necessary to make another 
 division to meet and oppose Ragotski, the Prince 
 of Transylvania, who advanced in concert with the 
 Swedish forces with the intention of depriving Casi- 
 mir of the throne. Surrounded by so many enemies, 
 it is not surprising that some blunders were made 
 and less surprising that the King of Sweden should 
 take advantage of them, which he did and succeeded 
 in extricating himself from the position where Sobi- 
 eski had placed him. He now advanced toward War- 
 saw where a general engagement took place. The
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 18 
 
 battle lasted three days and it was a battle well 
 fought, with tremendous energy on both sides, so that 
 the field was red with blood and covered with the 
 mangled bodies of the slain, but still again the arms 
 of the King of Sweden were victorious. The Re- 
 public of Poland would have been utterly ruined by 
 these stunning defeats but that, at this juncture, the 
 allied forces, led by the King of Sweden, were de- 
 prived of that great leader by death. Thus ended 
 the career of Charles Gustavus, one of the most bril- 
 liant men of his time. He was but little, if any, in- 
 ferior to the great Gustavus Adolphus, his uncle, 
 and doubtless, had he been spared, he would have 
 been recorded as one of the world's greatest generals, 
 for a longer life might, and no doubt would, have 
 given him the opportunity to restore the exchequer 
 of his country to an adequacy of demands. 
 
 Ragotski, who succeeded Charles Gustavus, was a 
 man of great ambition, but an ambition that was not 
 equaled in talents. He disregarded the advice of 
 Charles Gustavus to follow and annihilate Lubomir- 
 ski, one of the generals of the Polish army, and So- 
 bieski made an incursion into his territory where he 
 committed the same hostilities that had afflicted Po- 
 land. Ragotski succeeded in defending himself no 
 better than he had done in attacking others, and was 
 glad to accept of a humiliating peace after which 
 he never disturbed his neighbors. Sweden, herself,
 
 14 TH]E LIFE OF 
 
 no longer financially able to carry on an exhausting 
 war, was glad to make the peace for which her late 
 King was also more than willing, as there had been 
 no perceptible gain for all the terrible cost and the 
 awful sacrifice of men. 
 
 Poland still had two near enemies with whom to 
 deal: the Muscovites and Cossacks, the latter 
 of whom she had needlessly animated to a degree of 
 animosity by cruel oppression. It was of the utmost 
 importance to prevent the Muscovites and the Cos- 
 sacks joining forces, but to prevent this there was 
 needed a man of great ability. Sobieski was selected, 
 and, with the celerity of lightning, he moved upon 
 them and attacked them upon their arrival at the 
 Ukraine, where he delivered them a stunning blow 
 and a terrible defeat. His victory was complete in 
 every detail. The Cossack general was taken pris- 
 oner, put in chains and sent to the Polish King. 
 This brilliant victory over the Cossacks very natu- 
 rally filled the Muscovites with fear and trembling, 
 and they surrendered their army without fighting. 
 
 ISTothing now remained but to recapture a few 
 places in Lithuania, one of which was Wilna, one 
 of Poland's most important cities, built entirely of 
 wood for the want of stone. The Muscovite general 
 who commanded the citadel would have put any man 
 to death who would even have talked of surrendering. 
 He had suspicions of a Polish priest and put him
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 15 
 
 into a mortar and discharged this frightful and grue- 
 some bomb upon the besiegers. His brutality, 
 cruelty, and obstinacy, joined to the impossibility of 
 making a long defense, caused the foreign officers in 
 the garrison to rise in mutiny against the Muscovite 
 commander. They surrendered, thus, both the city 
 and the citadel into the hands of the besiegers. The 
 Poles, having gotten the Muscovite barbarian gen- 
 eral into their hands and power, condemned him to 
 die at the hands of a common executioner, but none 
 being found the general's ovm cook offered, no doubt 
 to repay some old grudge, to do the deed and was 
 permitted to cut the head off his master. It is not 
 difficult to realize what manner of man the master 
 was who had in his employ such a servant. 
 
 Lubomirski, being in disgrace, was deposed from 
 royal favor. Czarneski, Palatine of Kiovia, was 
 made petty general and Sobieski, for his brilliant 
 victories, was promoted to the dignity of Grand Mar- 
 shal, a post of high distinction, but a civil position 
 having no military authority or jurisdiction. 
 
 In order to clearly understand the form of govern- 
 ment it may not be unwise to pause for a brief sur- 
 vey. The Pcpublic had four great officers who were 
 entrusted with the four principal, or primary, 
 branches of the administration. The Grand General 
 directed the affairs of the army ; this is similar to the 
 Secretary of War in modern Republics. The Grand
 
 16 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Chancellor presided over the administration of jus- 
 tice and was similar to the Chief Justice of the 
 United States or the Lord Chief Justice of England. 
 The next was the Grand Treasurer, whose position 
 was not synonomous with the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury in the United States, but quite similar. It fell 
 to his lot to devise means of raising revenues for the 
 support of the government both in time of peace and 
 for purposes of warfare. Next was the Grand Mar- 
 shal who was, in fact, a national chief of police. 
 These four personages were called Brachia Eegalia, 
 that is, Arms of the King. 
 
 Lubomirski rebelled at what he considered the in- 
 justice which had been done him, and resolved to 
 obtain justice by dint of arms. He, therefore, en- 
 tered Poland at the head of an army of less than a 
 thousand men, but soon found himself at the head 
 of an army of five thousand strong. The King as- 
 sembled a superior force and detached the Lithuan- 
 ian contingency, commanded by Polubinski, to attack 
 the rebel army, but the rebels defeated the royalists 
 and took a great number of prisoners, Polubinski 
 being among them. The conqueror treated them 
 with all the humanity that could have been expected 
 of a friend and dismissed them without a ransom. 
 But his treatment of Sobieski was not so generous, 
 for he ravished his estates, and carried off his cattle. 
 However, the temptation to crush the rival who has
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 17 
 
 been raised up upon one's own ruin is a temptation 
 that few can resist. 
 
 The success of the rebel leader opened up before 
 him Great Poland and while the royal army was ex- 
 erting every eflFort to stop his passage, the nobility, 
 which had at first either openly opposed him or had 
 simply refused to take sides, now found it convenient 
 to espouse the cause of Lubomirski, and for a while 
 the skies looked dark for the Republic. 
 
 Two Senators, who were bishops, induced the two 
 armies to continue in sight of each other without 
 coming to an engagement until the holding of a 
 special session of the diet which the King had called 
 to meet in Warsaw on the seventeenth of March. 
 This action gave hopes to Lubomirski of his restora- 
 tion and to his army of the pay it required. 
 
 Lubomirski, being of a warm, generous nature, 
 was ready to forgive an injury as soon as satisfaction 
 was made and did not disdain, though victorious, to 
 appear in the form of suppliant. At last the great 
 day which kept both armies in suspense arrived. 
 The Marshal of the Deputies, who acted as speaker, 
 enlarged in vague terms upon the advantages of 
 peace; the moment was suj)posed to be come which 
 would produce Lubormirski and his interests upon the 
 stage, but the orator who kept his eye fixed upon the 
 King had not the courage to enter the subject and a 
 vote, which issued from the midst of the assemblage.
 
 18 THE LIFE OF 
 
 put an end to the address and tlie diet together. 
 
 The King's anger, which grew more and more in- 
 flamed, encountered a new obstacle in the way of 
 Lubomirski's restoration. Czarneski, who had suc- 
 ceeded him as general, was dead and the King had 
 appointed Sobieski to the post. The King, by this 
 step, had put himself in an embarrassing situation 
 and the consequence of it was that the war recom- 
 menced with greater fury than before. 
 
 The King, heading an army of twenty-six thou- 
 sand men, marched in search of the enemy of 
 eighteen thousand. The two factions approached 
 near each other on the thirteenth day of July in the 
 palatinate of Cijavia. This was the first occasion 
 that Sobieski acted as general. There was a morass 
 intervening between the two armies which the King 
 ordered him to pass. Sobieski explained to the King 
 the danger of such a project, it being easy to see that 
 the enemy would suffer only such a number to pass 
 as they could conquer, but the King refused to regard 
 the remonstrance, and ordered Sobieski to assume 
 his command. The King's troops entered the 
 morass, were soon embedded in the mud and only 
 succeeded in crossing with the greatest difficulty. 
 
 Besides being animated by their countries' inter- 
 ests, which both sides claimed, at the same time evinc- 
 ing a willingness to tear one another to pieces, there 
 was perpetual hatred between the two opposing gen-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 19 
 
 crals, both of whom were not only brave in action, 
 but gifted in the arts and learned in the skill of 
 warfare. One general, newly appointed to office, at- 
 tacked another who had been degraded and dishon- 
 ored to make room for him. The one fighting his 
 own cause, his reputation, his name, everything at 
 stake as well as the reputation and future of the 
 many who had joined him, fell upon Sobieski with 
 the power of a thunderbolt and attacked him as soon 
 as ho emerged from the morass. Thus the royal 
 army was overpowered before it could come into 
 action, and the King, beholding the defeat of his 
 army, from the first side, had only himself to blame 
 for the useless destruction of four thousand of his 
 own troops. Indeed, the whole army would have 
 been destroyed had not Sobieski brought it off the 
 field of action with the greatest skill under such 
 difficulty. Though a defeated general is usually 
 blamed, in this case every one attributed the loss of 
 the day where it belonged — to the blunder of the 
 King. 
 
 The King, now filled with regret at his foolhardi- 
 ness in refusing to abide by the counsel of Sobieski, 
 encamped upon the banks of the river Pilcza, where 
 he showed a willingness to receive counsel and ad- 
 vice. 
 
 Lubormirski, far from feeling elation at his late 
 victory, sought to make his peace wath the King.
 
 20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 He was inflexible in no point save that which he 
 deemed to be to the best interests of his army and 
 his country, and, having secured satisfaction for 
 them, he was content with having the decree of his 
 proscription revoked and asked for no further favor 
 for himself. 
 
 Being restored to kingly favor, Lubormirski dis- 
 banded his army and went to Jaroszin, accompanied 
 only by his principal generals, where he met the 
 King. The reconciliation was effected, but it was 
 in such a way as it always is between a king and a 
 subject who is himself dreaded. But, being well 
 acquainted with kings, and although perfectly free 
 to remain in Poland, Lubormirski returned to Bres- 
 lau, where he died, very suddenly, some six months 
 later. It was openly charged by his friends that his 
 death could not be attributed to natural causes. 
 
 Sobieski had learned to conquer while serving 
 under an able master, but from now on was prepared 
 to more than surpass any teacher he had ever known. 
 Hitherto he had lived, since his reentry into Po- 
 land, in almost a continuous state of combat in which, 
 being unmarried, he had often risked ending his life 
 and his family line together. He was at this time 
 arrived at the age of thirty-six and if the thoughts 
 of love and companionship, home and children, had 
 entered his mind, they must have been put aside, for 
 the lust of war and conquest, in the name of his
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 21 
 
 native country, had taken the place of such ties, so 
 that we find him now, not only an eligible match, 
 but one who, on account of his magnetism, form and 
 carriage, must have stirred the heart of more than 
 one girlish bosom.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 AMONG the maids of honor whom the 
 Queen had brought from France, little 
 suspecting that one of them was a future 
 queen, the Polish nobles took particular 
 notice of one whom the Queen herself particularly 
 honored. The name of this young woman was 
 Mary Casimira de la Grange, daughter of Henry de 
 la Grange and Francis de la Chatre who had been 
 governess to Queen Louisa. Thus the young woman 
 united two of the most ancient families of the prov- 
 ince of Bery, distinguished for having produced sev- 
 eral of the marshals of France. 
 
 Genry de la Grange was better knovsm as the Mar- 
 quis d'Arquien, Captain of the Guard to Philip of 
 Orleans, the only brother of Louis XIV. Mary, the 
 daughter, who followed the Queen of Poland, mar- 
 ried Radziwil, palatine of Sendomir and Prince of 
 Zamoski (a town of Poland in the palatinate of 
 Beltz), and was the mother of four children who 
 died very young and who were not long survived by 
 the Prince. 
 
 Sobieski, persuaded that favor is a good support 
 to merit, and knowing that the Queen continued her 
 
 protection over the young widow, asked the hand of 
 
 22
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 23 
 
 the Princess Mary in marriage so precipitately that 
 she scarce had time to dry her tears from the demise 
 of Princo Radziwil. In order to preserve the 
 decency of mourning, the Queen of Poland arranged 
 for a secret marriage between Sobieski and Mary 
 Kadzivvil and then wrote to the Marquis d'Arquien 
 asking for his consent. 
 
 The Marquis d'Arquien replied that it was a 
 thing unheard of to marry again in a month after 
 the death of the former husband ; that, for his part, 
 he was not dazzled by the fame of Sobieski and 
 that, knowing that his daughter had derived but 
 little happiness from her first marriage he had re- 
 solved upon settling her again in her native country 
 and had hoped that the well known equity of Her 
 Majesty would have permitted him the full posses- 
 sion of the authority parents hold over their children, 
 by all the laws of God and man, but that the thing 
 being done without his consent, which consent had 
 seemed unnecessary, the respect he owed a great king 
 prevented him giving his sentiments in full and that 
 he should not forget the offense committed by his 
 daughter, Madame Zamoski, as he termed her. 
 
 Men should loam to submit to the inevitable, par- 
 ticularly when the inevitable has already happened, 
 with better grace, and we fancy that the ^larquis 
 must certainly have written in quite a different man- 
 ner could he have foreseen that the marriage of his
 
 24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 daughter to John Sobieski was to elevate her to a 
 throne and be the means of loading him with wealth 
 and honors. 
 
 Pope Innocent XII never forgot that he gave his 
 benediction to the nuptial ceremony, while he was 
 the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland, and testified, upon 
 all occasions, a singular affection for the illustrious 
 pair. 
 
 The Queen of Poland, friend of Madame Sobieski, 
 died in 1667, but Sobieski was still high in favor with 
 the King, and held the esteem of the entire nation, a 
 condition which was not always to last. His rise 
 was also promoted by events which occurred, with 
 uncommon rapidity, in his favor. When Lubormir- 
 ski took up arms against the King it left the va- 
 cancy, — in the Grand-Marshalship, which Sobieski 
 filled in 1665. A year after that the death of Czar- 
 neski made him Petty General. He had now but 
 one step farther to go to become one of the most con- 
 siderable persons in the Republic. And that one 
 step was taken when Grand General Potoski passed 
 away (1667), and Sobieski was advanced to Grand 
 General, resigning the office of Petty General to De- 
 metrius Wiesnowieski, palatine of Beltz. 
 
 These two Generals, Petty and Grand, receive 
 from the King a staff called Boulaf which is a short 
 mace terminating at one end in a large head, either 
 gilt or massive silver, and sometimes enriched with
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 25 
 
 jewels. But in the army it is not the staff that in- 
 dicates the general, but a long lance adorned at one 
 end with a horse's tail, contrived so as to be seen 
 at a great distance, either on the march, in time of 
 action or when in camp. Each general has his tent, 
 Petty General on one side and Grand General on 
 the other side of the line, each with this ensign of 
 office which is called Boutchouk. 
 
 The power of the Grand General was limited only 
 by his own will, but besides the staff of Grand Gen- 
 eral, Sobieski possessed in addition the office and title 
 of Grand Marshal and by this means held within 
 his power both civil and military authority, a cir- 
 cumstance which at first caused great murmuring be- 
 cause both the spirit and the customs of the Republic 
 directed that these two offices should always be kept 
 separate, as their union conferred too formidable a 
 power upon one man, but Sobieski, by his subsequent 
 conduct, put a stop to all discontent. 
 
 At this time, as if to try again the ability of Sobi- 
 eski, an army of eighty thousand Tartars appeared 
 upon the frontiers of the Kingdom, and the Cossacks, 
 always in a state of irritation and insubordination 
 against their rulers, always rebellious, always ready 
 at any and all times to strike a blow against Poland, 
 were ready to join now with the Tartars in their aim 
 at her destruction. 
 
 The army of Poland, at this time, numbered not
 
 26 THE LIFE OF 
 
 over twelve thousand, and the department was in so 
 low a state financially that the Grand Treasurer de- 
 clared that there was not sufficient moneys to pay 
 the old troops much less money for new forces nec- 
 essary to go against the Tartars and Cossacks. The 
 King was wholly abandoned to despair and daily be- 
 came more and more disgusted with the crown so 
 that he no longer exerted himself to support the irk- 
 some demands of his high position, and, as is to be 
 supposed, the evil grew more and more, so that a way 
 out was most urgent. The Tartars, sustained by the 
 Cossacks, advanced hourly and rapidly and great ap- 
 prehension was felt from the Turks. 
 
 In general, the people expected nothing but ruin 
 for the Kepublic, but not so Sobieski. He did not 
 despair, but if ever he needed a second with whom to 
 share the burdens and discuss ways and means it was 
 now, with the gates on every side in danger from 
 foes from without. Yet every thing and every one 
 seemed, at this most critical juncture, to fail and to 
 make matters still more serious, Wiesnowieski, Petty 
 General, fell seriously ill so that the whole burden 
 fell upon Sobieski who labored constantly and con- 
 sistently to increase his little, and apparently wholly 
 inadequate, army. Undaunted he began the march 
 over the extensive territory and was supplied with 
 fresh recruits as he went. He formed bases of sup- 
 plies and magazines of provisions and ammunitions.
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 27 
 
 He not only emptied his own private purse, but he 
 borrowed funds to re-supply the public treasury so 
 that, finally, he marched with twenty thousand men 
 toward the palatinate of Russia to meet a hundred 
 thousand soldiers and to try and defeat them. 
 
 With so small a force it became necessary to resort 
 to pitting the strength of his wit against the foe 
 rather than to try to meet so great a force with so 
 small an one. Sobieski therefore decided to detach 
 some of his troops and, under competent generals, 
 he sent them out to scour the country and to harass 
 the enemy continually and incessantly, himself 
 marching on toward the camp of the enemy and as 
 though victory were already his, he wrote to his wife 
 who had gone on a visit to her native country, France, 
 that upon such and such a day he would, with twelve 
 thousand men, shut himself up in a fortified camp 
 before Podahieoz, a place that Doroscensko, the Cos- 
 sack general, intended to besiege and upon that day, 
 and from that place, he would march out upon the 
 enemy and, in the end, would ruin the powerful 
 adversary. 
 
 Such faith in one's ability was almost sufficient 
 within itself to accomplish the purpose, but when 
 France, that is, the Court of France, was thus in- 
 formed by Madame Sobieski of her husband's daring 
 plan, the Prince of Conde, who at that time was con- 
 sidered as one of the very greatest soldiers and
 
 28 THE LIFE OF 
 
 strategists of Europe, declared the act to be sheer 
 madness, and that there was not one single grain of 
 possibility for its success. 
 
 In the meantime Sobieski had called together a 
 council of his officers and laid the plan before them 
 in the eloquent, persuasive manner in which he was 
 wont to address his army and its leaders, but with 
 no exception they all condemned the plan as entirely 
 impracticable and freely prophesied destruction for 
 Sobieski and his army. The result of the counsel 
 was not long in being spread among the common 
 soldiery, who became disheartened, and it became 
 necessary for the Grand General to address them as 
 he had done the others. 
 
 " I am determined," were the memorable words 
 upon that occasion, " to make no change in my plan. 
 The event will show whether it be well laid or not. 
 As to what remains, I lay no restraint upon such as 
 have not the courage to face a glorious death. Let 
 them retire and die in flight by the sword of a Cos- 
 sack or a Tartar. For myself I shall stay here 
 with those brave soldiers who love their country. 
 This crowd of robbers makes no impression upon 
 my mind. I know that Heaven has often given vic- 
 tory to small numbers, when animated with valor 
 and can you doubt but God will be for us against 
 these infidels ? " And all who were present looked at 
 each other in shame and amazement and not one
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 29 
 
 thought again of leaving camp. 
 
 The Tartars were free to march on and penetrate 
 into the heart of Poland, but they chose, rather, to 
 deprive the kingdom of its only resources by attack- 
 ing this little army with all their forces and they 
 were too well acquainted with the fame of Sobieski 
 to care to leave him behind them. 
 
 Sobieski had already taken some prisoners whom 
 he made use of to menace the Tartarian General at 
 a time when he had everything to fear for himself 
 and his own small force. " Go," said he to the 
 prisoners as he dismissed them, " tell the Sultan 
 Nuradin that I will treat him in the same manner 
 he treated my brother. I will have head for head." 
 The only answer that Nuradin gave was to hasten 
 the attack. 
 
 The enemy poured in upon the camp from all sides 
 and on all sides was w^armly received, while the ar- 
 tillery kept playing briskly. At length a way was 
 forced in a weak place, but the Poles, rushing thither, 
 drove them back, sword in hand, beyond the en- 
 trenchments. The plain w^as soon covered with the 
 bodies of the slain. The Poles' loss was four hun- 
 dred, but the Tartar loss could not be more than 
 estimated in a general way, as they, according to 
 their ancient custom, carried their dead off the field 
 of battle and burned them so that they might neither 
 be counted nor stench to pollute the air with poison.
 
 30 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Battles are not, ordinarily, of many hours' dura- 
 tion, a popular belief being to the contrary. Some 
 of the world's greatest decisive battles have been 
 fought and won in half a dozen hours, some in even 
 less time than that. While of course, as in some 
 well known and authentic cases, they have lasted for 
 several days, in this case the battle raged back- 
 ward and forward, over and round about the be- 
 sieged camp, for seventeen days and each moment 
 was fought as hungrily by either side as though that 
 moment were to decide the fate of each. On the 
 part of the foe, whose superior numbers gave them 
 great confidence, it was attack upon attack, while 
 upon the part of the besieged it was advance upon 
 advance. The last day of all was the most bloody. 
 Sobieski had given orders that the outlying detach- 
 ments which had been harassing and scourging in 
 unexpected places, should return to the main army, 
 by easy and (to the enemy) insensible approaches, 
 as their presence was more needed within the lines 
 than without, for it was becoming evident that the 
 Tartars, provoked, disheartened and chagrined by 
 such great resistance from so small a band, had re- 
 solved upon a general assault and that the moment 
 was near at hand which would decide the fate of the 
 Republic. 
 
 Sobieski realized, as did each and every man in 
 the army, that if they were lost, Poland was lost;
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 31 
 
 that they and tlie Republic would then be at the 
 mercy of Tartar and Cossack in whom was neither 
 mercy nor the fear of God. This little Spartan band 
 had learned from former experience that the troops 
 of the opponent were not invincible, but the oppo- 
 nent, when it became a surety that they were to be 
 met with at least a brave front, set up a cheer of de- 
 risive howling, but the joyful cries of the barbarians 
 were almost instantly lost in the clamor of battle. A 
 very delug'o of blood was spilt and victory seemed 
 wavering in the balance, but before either side could 
 claim an advantage the several detachments arrived 
 and attacked the enemy in flank. The brave Piwot, 
 in particular, having laid in ruins the quarters of the 
 Cossacks, carried off their convoys, defeated their 
 foraging parties, redoubled his glorious efforts and 
 attacked, sword in hand, with his two thousand cav- 
 alrymen, driving all before him. At the sight of 
 such splendid fighting, in the face of such odds, the 
 very sutlers and peasants converted everything they 
 could find into weapons and resolved to do their 
 part and to have a part in the victory which was 
 by now but feebly disputed. The carnage would 
 have been universal had not the victors been wearied 
 with so much bloodshed. 
 
 The Tartars, little accustomed to pitched battles, 
 began to look behind them and soon after gave way, 
 lost their ranks, and became so utterly demoralized
 
 32 THE LIFE OF 
 
 that confusion and dismay prevailed among them. 
 When they saw that they had lost they took to flight 
 and drew the Cossacks with them. 
 
 At this hour Sobieski, whose bravery and skill had 
 animated the whole engagement, hoped to keep his 
 word with Nuradin and ordered his life to be spared 
 should he be overtaken on the route of flight, that 
 he himself might have the grim pleasure of sacrific- 
 ing him for the sake of avenging his brother's death. 
 But ISTuradin and Doroscensko had retired so early 
 that they feared no pursuit, leaving behind them 
 twenty thousand of their dead upon the field of bat- 
 tle. The full horror of the Tartar-Cossack ravages 
 was revealed after the retreat of the enemy. The 
 Poles saw with horror the sacked villages, the country 
 seats and town palaces of the nobles as they lay razed 
 to the ground, the churches smoldering in their 
 ruins upon which lay great heaps of rotting carcasses 
 and the frontiers entirely laid waste, but the body of 
 the state was preserved and Sobieski's success not 
 only astonished and electrified Poland but all the 
 world joined in the acclaim to the great statesman- 
 soldier who had accomplished the seemingly impos- 
 sible. He had not only won a victory but that vic- 
 tory was over their most terrible foe and was a vic- 
 tory unparalleled in modem warfare. By this sin- 
 gle achievement he had earned the right to be called 
 the greatest soldier of his age and his glory is still
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 33 
 
 undimmed by the Napoleons, the Washingtons or 
 the Lees who have come after him. It was not only 
 a victory as victories are estimated, but so great was 
 the achievement that the foe was in utter panic and 
 terror, an unheard of state for a Cossack or Tartar, 
 who had begun the war but who now groveled for 
 peace which the conquerors were more than glad to 
 grant. 
 
 Sobieski now returned to the capital of Poland, 
 victorious. He received the acclaim and plaudits of 
 a grateful people all the way. Each village, each 
 hamlet vied in doing him homage. He was, beyond 
 peradventure, the savior of his people, of his country, 
 and was received at the capital with every demonstra- 
 tion of joy, and right amid the shouts of the admiring 
 multitude, he received news that filled him with 
 greater joy than he had ever known. And that news 
 was the message that unto him a son had been born, 
 in Paris, where his wife was visiting, and where she 
 had gone for her accouchement that she might be near 
 her own people while her husband followed the un- 
 certain fortunes of war. This child was afterwards 
 known as Prince James. Louis XIV, the Grand 
 Monarch of France, was his godfather. The child 
 was named in full James Louis Sobieski, thus unit- 
 ing the names of his illustrious grandfather and god- 
 father.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 WINTER was the season allotted for 
 the Diets, that the operations of war 
 should not be interrupted. That of 
 the present year was opened in the 
 month of February. The Republic ofJPola nd ha d 
 many customs which resemBed the customs, of an- 
 cienTTibme and which the student may apply as 
 he win. The Grand General gave, as was custom- 
 ary, an account of the instructions he had received 
 from the Senate, of the operations and success of the 
 latest campaign, or the campaign which had been 
 entered upon since the convening of the previous 
 Diet, told of the distinguished actions of those who 
 shared his labors, dwelling much longer upon the ac- 
 counts of his co-laborers than upon his own deeds, 
 and his address was received with applause by all 
 the orders of the assembly whereupon the Vice- 
 Chancellor, rising from his seat at the foot of the 
 throne, gave solemn thanks, in the name of the Re- 
 public, to this deliverer of his country in her sore 
 distress and to all who had assisted in the preserva- 
 tion of Poland. His remarks were but a degree 
 less animated, all of which was a most worthy man- 
 ner of receiving the returning heroes and one which 
 , 34
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 35 
 
 few, if any, countries of Europe could have emulated, 
 as in pure monarchies the King must receive all the 
 attention, flattery and popular applause. 
 
 Casimir, King of Poland at this time, had noth- 
 ing to do, no part to take in this great victory be- 
 yond ordering prayers over the success of the cam- 
 paign and giving solemn thanks to God in the great 
 church of Warsaw. 
 
 No doubt the occasion gave him more liberty to 
 give vent to the deep religious trend of his nature, 
 but, notwithstanding the victory of his army, a feel- 
 ing of melancholy and despair was upon his spirits, 
 lie Avas inconsolable for the loss of his Queen, and 
 yet by no uncommon contradiction between the judg- 
 ment and the affections, his conscience was uneasy 
 at having married her, she having been his brother's 
 wife. Although the authority of the Pope had long 
 since quieted his religious scruples, he now looked 
 upon himself as accountable for all the calamities 
 which the voice of the Republic had openly attributed 
 to his marriage and his administration. His mind 
 was so completely overwhelmed with grief that he 
 became insensible to the burdens, the responsibili- 
 ties of royalty, and soon after this surrendered the 
 crown and retired to a monastery in France. 
 
 Upon the abdication of Casimir, several candi- 
 dates presented themselves for the crown of Poland. 
 The Czar of Muscovy's son, Pagotski ; Prince of
 
 36 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Transylvania ; the young Duke of Anguein ; and in 
 case of his rejection, the Prince of Conde, his father. 
 There were also some others who entered the lists: 
 Prince Charles of Lorraine — son of Duke Francis ; 
 and the Duke of Newberg, Palatine of the Rhine. 
 
 The Eepublic soon dismissed the first four for 
 different reasons. The Czar's son on account of re- 
 ligion, though he offered to renounce that. Eagot- 
 ski was rejected because Poland was still smoking 
 from the fires of that war which his father had 
 kindled in the kingdom, and the objections to the 
 Duke of Anguein were his extreme youth and a cer- 
 tain crime which was committed by another, it hav- 
 ing been in his favor that Casimir had attempted 
 to bring the premature election which was against 
 the most sacred precedent and law of the country. 
 Even France had withdrawn from the young Duke 
 her protection and had given it to his father, Prince 
 of Conde. The son could only give promise of 
 future merit while the father was already an ae- 
 complished statesman and soldier, renowned for the 
 many battles in which he had been the victor, never 
 having been conquered except by Turenne, which 
 was a defeat but without in any way dimming his well 
 deserved glory. It required the greatest of exertion 
 and influence to blast the chances of such an one for 
 the crown, but that blow was struck by no less a 
 personage than Louis XIV himself, who had treated
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 37 
 
 with the Swedes for the election of the Prince, 
 but a sudden upheaval had changed the interests 
 of France, the elector of Jh-andeuburg having 
 identified himself with his enemies and made him- 
 self formidable in the low countries. It was of 
 great importance to disunite him from this ally and 
 it was as a sop to him that the crown of Poland 
 was presented to his view for the Duke of JS^ewberg, 
 from whom the Elector expected great advantages. 
 Therefore Louis XIV hesitated not at all in making 
 it known to the Poles that he desisted from his first 
 demands and presented the Duke of JSTewberg for 
 their consideration. 
 
 The situation, when the Diet was finally opened 
 in the month of May, was acute. For, with the 
 throne vacant, all the courts of justice and all, in 
 fact, all governmental machinery, is at a standstill 
 and all the power of authority was transferred to the 
 Primate, who, in quality of interest, had mure 
 authority than even the King, but as he had no time 
 in which to make a surplus of power a formidable 
 weapon the Republic never objected to it. 
 
 Picture to yourself a great, free people going unto 
 the Fields of Wola, at the gates of Warsaw, to choose 
 their king. It must have been, indeed, an inspiring 
 sight. All the nobles of the kingdom had the right 
 of ballot. The Poles upon one side, the left side of 
 the Vistula, the Lithuanians upon the opposite bank, 
 
 r y Ck (^
 
 38 THE LIFE OF 
 
 each with its respective banner, and making a sort 
 of civil army amounting to from one hundred to one 
 hundred and fifty thousand men — even sometimes 
 as high as two hundred thousand — assembled to- 
 gether to exercise the highest act of freedom, the 
 right to vote. 
 
 In this great assemblage, those who were not able 
 to provide themselves with horse and sabre stood be- 
 hind, on foot, and armed with scythes which did not 
 seem to make them feel one whit the less proud, as 
 they had the same right of voting as the mounted, 
 armed men. 
 
 Just here it may be well to explain that the title 
 of nobility, in Poland, did not necessarily signify 
 that the noble was a man of wealth or opulence. 
 Sometimes quite the contrary, for a man was ennobled 
 by the king for any conspicuous act of bravery or for 
 any generous and noble deed. Possession of land, 
 learning or heredity had nothing whatever to do with 
 the creation of nobles. For instance, Sobieski, after 
 his great victory at Vienna (which was in 1683 and 
 is anticipating by about fifteen years), ennobled 
 every man who was in his cavalry, but such a title of 
 nobility could not extend to his progeny, still during 
 life such nobles had all the powers and privileges 
 of the hereditary noblemen, for they, too, were king 
 makers, and not only could the entire nobility assist 
 in making kings, but by inversing the law, they
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 39 
 
 could unmake them as well, henco due provision 
 was made, in cases of emergency or necessity, to re- 
 move a king with the slightest preliminary or cere- 
 mony. 
 
 In this election, on the field of Wola, all who 
 openly aspired to the throne of Poland were ex- 
 pressly excluded from the field of election, that their 
 presence might not embarrass or in any way whatso- 
 ever influence the voters. 
 
 The Polish king must be elected by a total suf- 
 frage, even one dissenting voice having the power to 
 deprive him of the crown. As an instance worthy 
 to recount, one noble opposed the election of Uladis- 
 lus VII, and upon being asked what objection he 
 could possibly find, he coolly replied, " I will not 
 say. That is my own concei'u. I will not permit 
 him to be king." The proclamation was, therefore, 
 suspended for some hours and the interim devoted to 
 making an effort to win over this noble who had 
 chosen to block the election. It was finally accom- 
 plished and the king was most anxious to know upon 
 what the noble had based such strong opposition. 
 His reply was: "I was determined to see whether 
 the rights of a single nobleman against the entire 
 voice of the remaining nobility would be respected or 
 whether it was an idle boast, and whether our liberty 
 was still in existence. I am satisfied that it is and 
 you can depend upon me, sire, as one of the most
 
 40 THE LIFE OF 
 
 loyal subjects of the realm." 
 
 This law, strange as it may seem to us in an 
 age when the will of the majority is decisive, was 
 after all perhaps a wise one, at least it was quite 
 plausible in theory, but had it been kept rigorously 
 Poland could not have had such a thing as a law- 
 fully elected king. They therefore gave up a real 
 unanimity and contented themselves with the appear- 
 ance of it; or rather, if the law which prescribed it 
 could not be enforced that law was proscribed and 
 if money could not sufficiently persuade the electors, 
 then the assistance of the saber was sought. So 
 ends in dust and ashes too finely wrought theories 
 of government as the proper ending for all theories 
 that will not bear the light of practical application. 
 
 However, before the Poles ever came to the extrem- 
 ity of arms to settle any election, their elections 
 were carried on with enviable decorum and every ap- 
 pearance of freedom. The Primate, in a few words, 
 recapitulated to the mounted Nobles, the merits of 
 the candidates, setting forth, in detail, their lives, 
 their characters, their achievements and their quali- 
 fications for the crown. He exhorted them to choose 
 the most worthy ; invoked Heaven, gave his blessing 
 to the assembly and returned and remained alone 
 with the marshal of the Diet while the Senators dis- 
 persed themselves into the several palatinates to pro- 
 mote a unanimity of sentiment. If the effort was
 
 KING JOHN S0T3TESKI 41 
 
 successful, the Primate, himself, went to collect the 
 votes, naming all the candidates, once more, and upon 
 the name of their choice the nobles replied " Szoda," 
 moaning *' That is the man of our choice," and im- 
 mediately the air resounded with his name with 
 cries of " Vivat " and the noise of pistols. If all 
 of the palatinates agreed upon one name then the 
 Primate mounted on horseback and, amidst the most 
 profound silence, succeeding the greatest noise, he 
 asked, three successive times, if all were satisfied. 
 Upon a general approbation, he three times pro- 
 claimed the King of Poland. The Grand Marshal 
 of the Crown took up the proclamation and voiced it 
 three times more at the three gates of every camp. 
 Ah, how glorious a sovereign this, possessed of royal 
 qualities ! And how glorious his title to king when 
 given by the suffrages of a whole nation. 
 
 This sketch of a free and peaceful election is not, 
 we regret to say, what always occurred. The cor- 
 ruption of the great; the fury of the populace; in- 
 trigues and factions and, finally, the corrupting 
 power of foreign gold, aye, and of arms too, some- 
 times filled the air with strife and bloodshed.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 IIST the year 1668 the assembly was already pro- 
 ceeding to vote and the decisive moment ap- 
 proached when Debiczski, standard bearer of 
 Sendomir, a man venerable for his sanctity of 
 manners and gray hairs, gave the Equestrian Order 
 to understand that the faction of the Prince of 
 Conde was reviving ; " that he would be proclaimed at 
 a time least expected if measures were not speedily 
 taken to prevent." Immediately the Equestrian Or- 
 der ran to the Senate and insisted upon excluding 
 the Prince. The demand was most perplexing and 
 the Primate sought his reply in the eyes of the Sen- 
 ators. 
 
 Sobieski, as Grand General, should have been upon 
 the Frontier, but, as a possible aspirant, he was pro- 
 hibited by the law from a seat in the assembly, but 
 the high credit he had acquired by his personal power 
 seemed to have raised him above the constitution, 
 which is always indicative of weakness or decay in 
 a republic where the laws should, at all times, be 
 more respected than any great man, as the laws are 
 (if not, they are supposed to be) the people's will, 
 and in a pure republican form of government the will 
 of the people should be the highest tribunal, else it is 
 
 42
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 43 
 
 no longer a republic. But alas! In all of the 
 world's history this is seldom the case. Sometimes 
 a great name shorn of all former or accompanying 
 honors has been the means of robbing a nation of its 
 liberty. The election of Louis Napoleon as Presi- 
 dent of France is an apt illustration of this lament- 
 able fact. At the time of his election to that high 
 office, he had achieved nothing; his morals were bad; 
 every effort he had made for fame had simply ended 
 in notoriety. He was utterly wanting in genius, in 
 character and in all of the great qualities of his 
 great uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte. And yet, the 
 splendors of the Emperor's name had so dazzled and 
 hypnotized the French peo})le that they had chosen 
 him to bo their leader on the very threshold of their 
 freedom. Such a step was the cause, as is too well 
 known to reiterate, of their downfall in three years. 
 Sobieski, observing the perplexity of the Primate, 
 rose up to speak. It was to his interest that an ex- 
 clusion should be pronounced against the Prince, for, 
 although he was not a candidate, that is, his name 
 had not been mentioned, so far, in connection wnth 
 the crown, yet the natural intuition of so great a 
 mind must have told him that the free nation might 
 at any time look beyond the avowed candidates and 
 that when it did it might be to himself, as its de- 
 liverer, that the eyes of the voters might look ; that it 
 was more than probable that the hero did flatter him-
 
 44 THE LIFE OF 
 
 self with this ambitious thought, there is no doubt, 
 and yet this is the manner in which he spoke: 
 " There is a wide difference in refusing to vote for 
 the candidate and excluding him. A refusal is only 
 an exercise of freedom; an exclusion is a direct af- 
 front. If the Equestrian Order proposes to restrain, 
 in this manner, the liberty of the Senate, I will 
 neither submit to such slavery nor have any share 
 in affronting a great prince, but will quit the as- 
 sembly. If the voters are contented with refusing 
 him their suffrages it is well known that I will al- 
 ways yield to the voice of the electors." But the 
 next day the demand to exclude the Prince became 
 universal so that the Primate pronounced it against 
 his own opinion and that of the Senate. 
 
 For a time, now, tranquillity was restored. The 
 attention of the assembly was next directed toward 
 the young Duke of Newberg and Prince Charles. 
 Their virtues, their vices, the good and the evil that 
 the Eepublic might expect from them if either was 
 chosen, were discussed. It is at such a tribunal, 
 where a Prince presents himself for trial, as it were, 
 that a Prince may know exactly what may be thought 
 or spoken of him, and Poland was unique in that re- 
 spect at that day. Even in this progressive age, the 
 Emperor of Geitnany and the Czar of Russia have 
 not the slightest knowledge of the real sentiment of 
 their subjects toward them, as all expression is most
 
 KING JOHN S0T3TESKI 4 5 
 
 strictly prohibited and if by any oversiglit some bold 
 spirit is allowed such expression his utterances and 
 writings are quickly suppressed. 
 
 But, tempting as such philosophizing is, to proceed 
 to the doings of the Diet, the Senate, the Deputies 
 and nearly all of the Grandees who were for the 
 Duke of Newberg, allowed the good qualities of the 
 Prince of Lorraine, but, after having softened that 
 of his rival, they boasted much of his possessions 
 and of his wonderful promises to the Republic. A 
 body of troops maintained at his own expense, a 
 year's pay to the national forces, a military school 
 for the young nobility, with a fund to assist them 
 in traveling, were indeed advantages and promises 
 that rolled well from the tongue, but Prince Charles 
 was not in a condition to keep such promises as his 
 fortune was not adequate, the French having but re- 
 cently dispossessed his father of his dominions. " If 
 we refuse him," added they, " we have no incon- 
 venience to apprehend upon that account, but if we 
 reject the Duke of T^Tewberg let us reflect that the 
 Powers which have proposed him have armies to 
 make their wishes commands not to be disobeyed 
 without due consideration." 
 
 TIero we have the vci^y' first intimation, in the life 
 of the Ecpublic, not alone of the corrupting power 
 of gold but of fear of foreign armed Powers. But 
 when that fear was spoken, as it had just been, a
 
 46 'Wk THE LIFE OE 
 
 sudden wrath was kindled that swept throughout 
 the entire assemblage. The Senate, the Great Of- 
 ficers and the Deputies were ill defended by the 
 entrenchments that surrounded the Szopa, which was 
 then a vast building of wood, erected in the fields 
 of Wola, for their reception. One part of the Ke- 
 public besieged the other. Several discharges were 
 made as a prelude to what might follow. The Sena- 
 tors and Deputies were seen throwing themselves 
 from their seats, running here and there, or lying 
 flat upon the ground while the balls whistled over 
 their heads. Some arrived at the gates of the 
 camp, but were received with a discharge of fire- 
 arms at their breasts. Some were killed and a large 
 number were wounded, and all forced to return 
 to their places to preserve their lives. Every mo- 
 ment the tumult increased and Potozski, Marshal 
 of the Diet, interposed to quiet it, but it was with 
 great difficulty that they refrained from insulting 
 him and the uproar continued. Nothing is harder 
 to do than to keep voters, particularly voters for the 
 filling of high offices, within bounds. 
 
 From the first opening of this more than notable 
 Diet, hardly a night passed when persons were not 
 assassinated on the streets of Warsaw or upon the 
 field of election. Sobieski had, upon double author- 
 ity, the right to exact obedience, for as Grand Mar- 
 shal he was entrusted with civil authority and as
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 47 
 
 Grand General he had the army at his command and 
 as soon as he exerted his authority he struck awe 
 into the hearts of the people at Warsaw, for he 
 threatened to send for troops and fire upon whatever 
 party that might attempt to disturb or hinder the 
 freedom of the election. The fear of his executing 
 his threats suspended the rage of the assembly and 
 order was once more restored and tranquillity reigned 
 again over the field of Wola. 
 
 " To what purpose — " asked he, " are we murder- 
 ing one another for Princes whom we have never 
 seen, and in whom we have not the slightest interest 
 and who, perhaps, in reality have no interest in Po- 
 land, but would make use of the power given them, 
 no doubt, to smite us in return. Our fathers were 
 far more wise. Scarce was the nation settled when 
 it was divided, as we see it now, among a number 
 of foreign candidates. The calamities which then 
 threatened restored the use of reason. A native of 
 Poland was chosen and this man, who had neither 
 birth, nor prestige nor fortune, governed with such 
 freedom and wisdom that to this day every Polish 
 king is called Piast out of gratitude to that one. 
 Let us leave the Duke of Newberg to govern his 
 large family and small dominions. Let the Prince 
 of I>orraine employ his money in recovering his he- 
 reditary territories. Let us imitate our forefathers 
 and choose a Piast."
 
 48 KING JOHN SOBTESKI 
 
 This is not the first instance in the world's history 
 when a wise speech has calmed an excited and tu- 
 multuous crowd. But what Piast to choose was a 
 difficulty not easily overcome. The assembly, as one 
 man it seemed, turned its eyes upon Sobieski, but 
 if at this point he had flattered himself that the 
 crown was his for the taking, his illusion was of short 
 duration. The more one reflects upon history, 
 ancient or modern, the more he will believe that hu- 
 man affairs are the sport of fortune. The man 
 whom she secretly destined for the throne of Po- 
 land at this time was one upon whom the public 
 had given no thought. He, in fact, was so little in- 
 terested in the election that he was not found in his 
 tent, but in a convent at Warsaw and his name was 
 Michael Wiesnowieski. The two palatines, Opalin- 
 ski and one other, conducted him to the field of elec- 
 tion, without informing him of their design, and 
 there they proposed and nominated him. Olsowski, 
 the Bishop of Culm and the Vice-Chancellor of Po- 
 land, cried out in an enthusiastic strain, " Long 
 live King Michael." The cry flew, immediately, 
 from mouth to mouth ; all the orders repeated it and 
 nothing was wanting but the Primate's proclamation. 
 The Nobles forced him to it vdth a pistol at his 
 breast and Wiesnowieski was King.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE man most surprised in the result of the 
 election was Wiesnowieski EimselXl__He 
 wept as they dragged him to the throne 
 ai;d protested that he was iaca^iable_of 
 filling it and the truth is that he was nptjanda fur- 
 ther truth is that_ sj.nce the Poles had- rejccted^^l 
 foreign ca ndidates and had determined, upon choos- 
 ing a Piast Tt would~seem'tEat they should not have 
 hesifateiJ^for X~niom^O)etwecn^ WiesnowresT^^ and 
 ■Sobieski. Wiesnowieski was scarce thirty years of 
 age; Sobieski, ten years his senior, had nearly 
 reached that maturity of age which is so essential in 
 the ruler of a country. Wiesnowieski's youth had 
 been totally unemployed; Sobieski's had been spent 
 in traveling, in the study of public business and in 
 the fatigues, hardships and exposures of war. 
 Wiesnowieski had held no office in the state; Sobi- 
 eski had obtained the highest by acts of distinction 
 and glory and still went on to acquire new victories, 
 new glories, new honors, new trium])lis. Wiesnowie- 
 ski even lacked that importance which riches are sup- 
 posed to confer. He was poor in purse, living, here- 
 tofore, upon a pension bestowed by Queen Louisa, 
 and upon the liberality of the Bishop of Plocsko; 
 
 49
 
 50 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Sobieski had a vast estate, one of the largest in Po- 
 land and possessed a large number of vassals. 
 Wiesnowieski came to the election with the crowd 
 of ISTobles to join his suffrage with theirs; Sobieski, 
 the first personage of the Republic, under the king, 
 seemed to present himself rather to receive the boon 
 at the hands of the assemblage than to assist in giv- 
 ing it to another man. One circumstance, only, 
 spoke in favor of the new King, and that was his 
 birth. He descended from Koribut, uncle of the 
 Great Jagellon ; his father was Jeremiah Wiesnowie- 
 ski, palatine of Russia and who, although having 
 been possessed of a vast estate in the Ukraine, had 
 been stripped of it by the Cossacks and thereby left 
 his son, Michael, almost penniless, with nothing more 
 than a distinguished name, however empty, but no 
 distinguished name, however worthy the ancestry, 
 was supposed to aspire to such high honors unless 
 fitted to fulfill the duties of the same. 
 
 Never was there a king who needed, nay wanted 
 perhaps, more to be governed than poor Michael 
 Wiesnowieski, and in this case, as in innumerable 
 others, a weakling has always a crafty, wily Mephisto 
 waiting to be called upon. The man ready and will- 
 ing to get the government into his own hands was 
 Casimir Paz, Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, and 
 he possessed all of Michael's confidence. 
 
 N'ow Casimir Paz was not exactly unprincipled,
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 51 
 
 but he was possessed of an inordinate ambition which 
 sometimes overweighed his love of country, and to 
 which was bent his great abilities as a cultivated gen- 
 tleman and superior orator, and withal selfish, he 
 soon thought of promoting the interests of his own 
 family rather than those of his country. 
 
 Sobieski, however, stood up once more in defense 
 of Poland and prevented her from being despoiled 
 and ravaged. 
 
 The Cossacks, notwithstanding the peace they had 
 made with the Kopublic during the reign of Casimir, 
 began to entertain grave suspicion as to the designs 
 of the new king, ]\[ichacl. They feared that he 
 might have a mind to recover the possessions of his 
 family in the Ukraine, as well as of the other Po- 
 lish Nobility who had been robbed of their estates. 
 To dispel these fears, the Cossacks demanded a re- 
 nunciation of these claims, and the Poles, on their 
 side, were most unwilling to begin a war at a time 
 when the Kingdom was greatly exhausted. What 
 was needed, at this critical period, was a diplomat 
 who had the confidence and respect of the Cossacks 
 as well as the implicit confidence of the King. 
 There was only one person who seemed capable of 
 filling the bill so far as both sides were concerned, 
 but for reasons, which we shall soon show, the King 
 (lid not desire to exalt that nnin to the high diplo- 
 matic post, although it was assumed to be but a tem-
 
 52 THE LIFE OF 
 
 porary honor that would be required of any one. ^ 
 Unfortunately for all, the young king had hardly 
 been made the chief ruler when he began to grow 
 jealous of the National Idol, for he knew that he 
 was not only idolized, but that he was loved far 
 more than he, the King, might ever hope to be, and 
 the leader of the almost rebellious Cossacks, that 
 same Doroscensko whom Sobieski had already beaten, 
 was inflexible. It became necessary, so deemed the 
 King, to have recourse to arms, that last resource 
 of Kings which has spilt so much blood, needlessly, 
 ever since the time when men first began to put up 
 masters over their heads. Sobieski, warrior that he 
 was, shed as little as possible for he rightly consid- 
 ered the blood of the Cossacks as belonging to the 
 Republic, since they had really been good subjects 
 before the Poles had made bad slaves of them. It 
 has been so hard for conquering nations to believe 
 that more is gained, after conquest of arms, by kind, 
 humane and just treatment than by imposing double 
 burdens upon the conquered who are already smart- 
 ing under the sting of the lash of learning to sub- 
 ject themselves to new rulers and, perhaps, also, 
 strange customs. Another cause for the mild treat- 
 ment which Sobieski accorded the Cossacks was that 
 his own troops were so depleted that he had recourse 
 to artfully sowing divisons among the Cossacks 
 themselves. He set up new leader against old ; Han-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 53 
 
 ensko against Doroscensko. He reduced to the obe- 
 dience of Poland the cities of Bar, Nimirow, Kalnic 
 and Braslaw and all the country between the Bog and 
 the Xiester. Doroscensko having been entirely over- 
 powered, had no way of saving the balance of the 
 Ukraine but by threatening to give it over to the 
 Turks, if ho was driven to extremities, and this 
 threat made Sobieski suspend operations. 
 
 The congratulations that Sobieski received showed 
 ])lainly the importance of the campaign. '' We can- 
 not sutticiently admire your valor and prudence in 
 this expedition. With such a handful of men how 
 could you recover so many towns and cities, and par- 
 ticularly Braclaw, which alone is a worthy victory. 
 You have opened to us a passage into the Ukraine 
 and will, doubtless, complete its destruction. Even 
 envy itself is forced to own that Poland is indebted 
 to you for its safety." These are the terms in which 
 the Vice-Chancellor wTote Sobieski in the name of 
 the King and the entire Republic, and in this man- 
 ner the Grand General took his revenge for having 
 missed the crown. And what a noble revenge it 
 was. How few examples we have of such sublime 
 self renunciation, which was anything but renuncia- 
 tion, for, was not he steadily gaining and growing 
 in the love of an already worshipful and grateful 
 people? It is no wonder that he was destined to 
 write his name so high, not only as a soldier, but as
 
 54 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the wisest and best of conquerors and Kings. 
 
 However, Sobieski insisted that, without abusing 
 the privileges of victory, to which belongs the spoils, 
 the Poles should treat the Cossacks with kindness 
 and consideration so that, eventually, they might 
 look upon their subjection as a blessing. He sought 
 to bring them back to allegiance by clemency, and the 
 alluring hopes of future prosperity. Had this ad- 
 vice of Sobieski been followed, how much blood and 
 treasure might have been spared, and in after years 
 Poland would not have had fall upon her such evil 
 days. 
 
 This idea of treating the Cossacks with clemency 
 was also the opinion of the Deputies and of the 
 greater portion of the Diet, but the King and his 
 council thought differently. 
 
 The reign of Michael was the reign of favorites, 
 as is the reign of every weakling, and his Council 
 was made up of pensioners to the Emperor Leopold, 
 the Austrian, whose sister Michael had lately mar- 
 ried. And as Leopold was apprehensive of a for- 
 midable invasion which was then preparing in Tur- 
 key, he had devised a plan which was likely to divert 
 it upon Poland. He therefore had no difficulty in 
 pursuading the Polish monarch that all negotiations 
 with the rebel Cossacks were no less dangerous than 
 mean and beneath the dignity of his high and com- 
 manding position. He also had no difficulty in mak-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 66 
 
 ing Michael believe that to pardon Doroscensko was 
 to weaken the royal authority. ^Michael thought 
 himself great by showing himself a weak tool in the 
 hands of the crafty Austrian. 
 
 Doroscensko, by some means, was soon made aware 
 of the attitude of the King, and, fearing to fall into 
 the hands of a provoked sovereign, he went to Con- 
 stantinople to make terms with the Turkish ruler. 
 
 The conditions in Turkey were, briefly, these: 
 Mahomet IV, on his way to the throne, had passe d 
 over the body of his father, Ibrahini I, ..whojiL.ihe 
 janizaries had strangled. He bad ne ver yet ap- 
 pearcd in person at the head of Ids armies^. but his 
 successes seemed unalterable under the nianagemeiit 
 Qf_ the Grand-Vizier, Cuprogli^.a^^man. of abilities 
 equally exalted with his station. The Turks who 
 never gave place to seiitlment made exception for 
 Cijj3rogli, and termed him " The Light of"i^ations," 
 " TheJGuardian of the Laws," '^The Formidable 
 Commander." " 
 
 The saying of Montecuculi, upon retiring from 
 public life, when his rivals finished their course is 
 well known, and also serves as the best possible defi- 
 nition of the standing of Cuprogli. " Should a man 
 who has had the honor of fighting with Turenne, 
 Conde and Cuprogli hazard his glory against per- 
 sons who are only beginning to command armies ? " 
 but that was as resrards the militarv character of 
 
 \ 
 
 \
 
 5^ THE LIFE OF 
 
 Cuprogli which was all that Montecuculi had any 
 knowledge of. 
 
 Cuprogli reflected upon the offer which Doroscen- 
 sko made in which it was designed to conquer Po- 
 land, deferring until another campaign the destruc- 
 tion of the Empire of Vienna, as a victory which 
 would be facilitated by the conquest of Poland. 
 
 Hereupon a manifesto was immediately addressed 
 to Poland, and it was necessary, without delay, to fix 
 upon some expedient for saving the Eepublic. In 
 the Senate, Sobieski spoke with great warmth upon 
 the advisability of appeasing the Cossacks and 
 pointed out the articles in which Poland might make 
 concession, but there is no such thing as persuading 
 weak minds, much less princes who are accustomed 
 to no distinction between might and right. Michael 
 persisted in his obstinacy and returned the Porte no 
 answer as if the menaces were of no consequence. 
 
 From this period may be dated the inception of 
 the league which was formed to dethrone Michael. 
 It is a maxim — we repeat — with the Poles that 
 whatever people has the right to make its king has 
 also the right to unmake him. So that what, in other 
 countries might be called a conspiracy was merely 
 looked upon as a national privilege. Among the 
 chiefs of this league were the Primates, Prazmowski, 
 Sienawski, the Great Standard Bearer, Lubormirski, 
 Palatine of Cracow, Ledchinski, of Masovia, Potoski,
 
 KING JOHN SOPJESKI 67 
 
 of Kiovia, Vielopolski and other nobles of equal im- 
 portance. The enterprise was nothing like as haz- 
 ardous as it would have been in hereditary king- 
 doms, but yet it had its dangers. 
 
 The confederated nobles thought it proper to show 
 their regard to the Emperor Leopold by acquaint- 
 ing him with their designs particularly on account 
 of his sister who shared the Polish throne with Mi- 
 chael. They therefore laid before Leopold all the 
 grievances of the state and poor Michael's inca- 
 pacity to govern. 
 
 Ill proud and haughty nations a lawful king who 
 is despised totters upon his throne while usurpers 
 who are esteemed sit firmly. The English never 
 thought of deposing Cromwell ; for Cromwell had 
 humbled Holland, prescribed the conditions of a 
 treaty with Portugal, beaten the Spaniards, forced 
 France to court his alliance and given the empire of 
 the seas and of commerce to England : France never 
 thought of deposing Napoleon for Napoleon had 
 carried the eagle of France triumphant into every 
 capital of continental Europe. He had made the 
 name of France both glorious and one to be feared 
 by his wonderful achievements, but as for Michael 
 — he was fit for nothing but to ruin Poland.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 HITHERTO the Confederated Nobles, 
 uncertain of Sobieski, whose conduct 
 seemed to indicate an unwillingness to 
 break with the Court, had communi- 
 cated nothing to him of their design, but, having re- 
 flected upon the necessity of gaining him over, they 
 now laid their plan before him. The part that So- 
 bieski should take either for or against this would, 
 in all probability, decide the fate of the King or the 
 kingdom. With all the weight of his dignities as 
 Grand General and Grand Marshal, and at the head 
 of an army which thought itself invincible when 
 headed by him, he espoused the cause of the king- 
 dom against its weak and misguided King. But 
 whether Sobieski, w-hen he decided upon the deposi- 
 tion of Michael, aimed at fixing the attention of the 
 nation upon himself, or whether he had nothing in 
 view but the public good, it is certain that he repre- 
 sented to the Nobles just how dangerous it would 
 be to take Leopold's nomination of a king and, in 
 conformity with the love he always bore France, he 
 proposed the Duke of Longueville whose only merit 
 lay in valor which, alone, will never make a great 
 ruler. The Confederacy was too anxious for a 
 
 58
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 59 
 
 change and to overthrow the present incumbent to 
 weigh things as carefully as they might have done, 
 and trusted implicitly and acquiesced to the pro- 
 posal. They made the utmost expedition to make 
 their wants known to France and the thing was done 
 with so much secrecy by Sobieski that neither the 
 Court of Vienna nor the Court at Warsaw had the 
 slightest suspicions as to what was going on. 
 
 The abrupt dissolution of the last Diet, the one 
 in 1672, furnished the conspirators with a well 
 grounded pretext of calling another, and the King 
 dared not refuse, more especially as it was become 
 necessary to put the Republic in arms, as it was 
 learned that the Turks were actually upon the 
 march. 
 
 Never was a king treated in so unbecoming a 
 manner before his subjects. The Primate, taking 
 advantage of the ferment, addressed Michael in 
 terms such as would have been, in an absolute mon- 
 archy, nothing short of high treason, and while he 
 was still speaking, the Nobles, whose number was 
 greatly increased in the national assembly, signified 
 to Michael that it was the desire that he should vol- 
 untarily abdicate at once and that if he failed to do 
 this ho would be forced to at the point of the bay- 
 onet. 
 
 As soon as Michael saw that Sobieski was in the 
 league against him he despaired of holding the
 
 60 THE LIFE OF 
 
 crown and the catastrophe daily approached nearer 
 and nearer. The splendid equipages advanced to- 
 ward the sea coast in order to receive the Duke of 
 Longueville, whom they destined for the crown, but 
 that Prince was still upon the banks of the Ehine, 
 which Louis XIV was attempting to pass, and 
 where every one knows that the Duke met his death 
 by wantonly firing a pistol upon some Dutchmen 
 who begged their lives upon their knees. " Those 
 scoundrels" (to make use of his own expression), 
 to whom he ordered the French to give no quarter, 
 gave him none. Thereby' the Duke of Longueville 
 realized the truth of the saying of Jesus — " As you 
 mete it out to others so shall it be meted unto you." 
 And with his death was ended the branch of Or- 
 leans-Longueville. The death of the Duke utterly 
 disconcerted the League and gave renewed hope to 
 Michael. 
 
 The King, somewhat uncertain as to whether he 
 was still King or no, assembled all the nobility of 
 the lower order, amounting to several hundred thou- 
 sand men, in the field of Golemba, upon the banks 
 of the Vistula, in the palatinate of Lublin. He had 
 formerly been one of their body and lived upon a 
 level with them, and to them he was, principally, 
 indebted for the scepter. By them he was beloved 
 as an equal and respected as a king. He chose 
 Steven Czameski for Marshal of the Koyal Confed-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 61 
 
 eracy, with power to raise a new army and restore 
 the ancient militia, called Ilastata on account of the 
 lance with which it was armed. 
 
 Poland acknowledged but two grand generals, but 
 the action of the King in creating Czarneslci a grand 
 general made the third, and indeed a great deal more 
 than the ordinary grand general was he, for, being 
 armed with the thunder of war, and the sword of 
 justice, he was, to all intents and purposes, a dicta- 
 tor who could acquit or condemn at pleasure. The 
 Royal Confederates took an oath to maintain Michael 
 upon the throne at the hazard of their lives and for- 
 tunes, and the sacredness of an oath was as much 
 respected in the seventeenth century in Poland as 
 it had been with their ancestors, the Samartians. 
 
 The Senators and all persons holding office were 
 summoned to join the Royal Confederacy within a 
 limited time, upon the pain of confiscation of their 
 goods and loss of dignity if they failed to do so. 
 The time allowed was very short, and had it not been 
 for the stern resolution of Sobioski they must all 
 have thrown themselves at the feet of their pro- 
 voked monarch and his right hand, the dictator, and 
 begged for mercy and clemency, but Sobieaki knew 
 too well that neither would bo sho^^^l and that their 
 only safety lay in pursuing the opposition. 
 
 The Grand Marshal, Sobieski, assembled the army, 
 which now formed a most formidable confederacy,
 
 62 THE LIFE OF 
 
 opposed oath to oath, in the name of God and So- 
 bieski, to maintain the rights and privileges of the 
 nation as delivered down to them from those an- 
 cient warriors who had sealed them with their blood. 
 
 Whilst the Republic was thus arming itself for 
 civil war, Mohammed advanced, like an angry sea, to 
 overwhelm Poland. The King, instead of going to 
 meet the Turks with the hundred thousand Nobles 
 which supported his tottering throne and shovdng 
 by such conduct that he deserved to reign, was em- 
 ployed in prosecuting the first subjects of his king- 
 dom with all the severity of the law. Confiscation 
 of goods, loss of honors and dignities, degradation 
 from the ranks of nobility was decreed against all; 
 but against the leaders of the League, was pro- 
 nounced, in addition, a sentence of death. Of the 
 latter class was Sobieski and the Primates and, to 
 complete the whole, a price was set upon their heads. 
 
 At this news the soldiery gave a shout of indig- 
 nation against the King and the Confederated 
 loobies; then, laying their sabers in the form of 
 crosses, swore to avenge and defend their General. 
 
 It was necessary that such a man as Sobieski had 
 become should, in the very nature of the struggle, 
 either perish or become the first man in the King- 
 dom. " I accept your protestations," he said, " but 
 first let us defend our country." 
 
 Sobieski foresaw that Mohammed would open a
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 63 
 
 campaign with the siege of Kamieniec, capital of Po- 
 dolia, a place still stronger by nature than by art. 
 It had been in all the centuries the bulwark of Po- 
 land against the Turks and the Tartars. Sobieski 
 sent thither eight regiments of infantry to reenforce 
 the garrison, but the Governor, who was wholly de- 
 voted to the Iving, was afraid that these troops would 
 give Sobieski too great authority in the place and 
 therefore refused to admit them, a fatal effect of 
 the civil dissension. 
 
 To make matters worse, Mohammed appeared be- 
 fore Kamieniec with a hundred and fifty thousand 
 men about the end of July. In addition, a hundred 
 thousand Tartars arrived there, by his direction, at 
 the same time so that his army totalled two hundred 
 and fifty thousand, commanded upon this occasion 
 by Cham-Selim-Gcirai in person. For a long time 
 the nation had had no such distinguished a com- 
 manding officer, nor such an able leader both in war 
 and peace. The Turkish generals paid great heed 
 to his judgment, and, with him at the head, the Tar- 
 tars would imdertake anything. In another coun- 
 try he would have introduced politeness, letters and 
 arts, for whenever he could lay aside the saber he 
 took up the pen, and Cantemir calls him an excel- 
 lent philosopher and historian. 
 
 Cham-Selim Geirai had for lieutenant-generals 
 his two sons. Sultan Galga and Sultan Nuradin.
 
 64 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Scarce had they paid their respects to the Grand- 
 Siegnior than he ordered them to make incursions 
 as far as the Vistula while the Cossacks, stimulated 
 by resentment, carried desolation on another side. 
 Mohammed was the idol of this great multitude 
 which exhausted the earth but Cuprogli was its soul. 
 
 Sobieski, with thirty-five thousand troops, could 
 not give battle to the Turks, before Kamieniec, with 
 their overwhelming forces. He, therefore, aban- 
 doned this fortress to its horrible fate, for it was of 
 the utmost importance to stem the stream of Tar- 
 tars which was making its way toward the very 
 heart of the Kingdom. 
 
 We must not lose sight of the hundred thousand 
 soldiers under the King at Golemba, and Sobieski 
 with his small troops at Lovicz. An imprudent 
 step of ]^uradin discovered to the Turks upon which 
 side lay true courage and regard for the welfare of 
 Poland. The young Tartar, as he coasted the pala- 
 tinate of Lubin, took his course between the two 
 armies in camps two. The King and his generals 
 took it into their heads that this movement was 
 planned in concert with Sobieski and the alarm felt 
 was so great that the King did not feel himself safe 
 surrounded with a hundred thousand armed ISTobles, 
 but took refuge within the walls of Lubin, a town 
 about six leagues distant from where he was en- 
 camped, and the Nobles dispersed.
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 65 
 
 Sobieski, having nothing further to fear from his 
 ovvn countrymen, displayed all his greatness. The 
 man who had just been condemned to death did his 
 utmost to save his judges. He went in search of 
 the Tartars wherever they appeared. His first vic- 
 tim was Nuradin, whom ho overtook and defeated 
 at the gates of Krasnabrod, a village in the palatinate 
 of Lublin. The victory was so complete that the 
 General escaped almost alone to the army of his 
 brother, Sultan Galga, who, to avoid a like disaster, 
 marched towards the Niester, in order to join forces 
 with the Cham, but he was prevented by the amazing 
 diligence of Sobieski and his loss exceeded that of 
 his brother. The plain of Nimirow was covered 
 with Tartars, breathing their last upon the booty 
 they had carried away. 
 
 Sobieski, leaving his infantry with the baggage, 
 followed the fleeing army with his cavalry. 
 
 Another battle was fought at Grudec and another 
 at Komarna, whence the two sultans had escaped 
 again in the utmost disorder. Having passed the 
 Niester, they ex])ected to have some respite with the 
 shattered remnant of their forces, but Sobieski was 
 tireless in their pursuit ; they then threw themselves 
 across two other rivers, the Stry and the Chevitz, 
 which Sobieski also passed. At length the two 
 sultans joined their father. 
 
 The Cham, who had as yet been in no engage-
 
 66 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ment, was strong enough to avenge his two sons, 
 but, being intimidated by their disasters, and still 
 more solicitous over his vast plunder, its safety and 
 preservation, which, however, embarrassed his army, 
 rendering it that much less fit for service on the 
 field, he sought only to avoid an engagement. This 
 plunder, being the spoils, interested Sobieski still 
 more than it did the Tartar, for, besides furs, silver 
 and gold, the Tartars were carrying off vast herds 
 of cattle, both for war and agriculture, and thirty 
 thousand slaves of all ages, sex and conditions, most 
 of whom were usually employed in tillage. The 
 least valuable portion of the spoil was a number of 
 monks. 
 
 The Cham kept fleeing but Sobieski never lost 
 sight of him for a single hour, and, having more 
 experience than the Tartars, waited for an oppor- 
 tunity to attack him with advantage. He found 
 it, at last, at Kallusa, at the foot of the Crapec 
 mountains, in a narrow pass where the enemy had 
 not room to draw up their troops. The battle was 
 very fierce and bloody for the Cham left upon the 
 field some fifteen thousand of his troops and all of 
 his booty. It was an affecting, and no doubt a most 
 gratifying, sight to the patriotic Sobieski when the 
 irons were taken from the thirty thousand Poles and 
 put upon the Tartars who were taken after the ac- 
 tion.
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 67 
 
 The multitude of unhappy wretches whom Sobi- 
 eski had recovered had given up all hope of ever see- 
 ing home, wife and kindred, but now, filled with 
 gratitude for their deliverance, they fell prostrate 
 before their deliverer who, himself, fell prostrate be- 
 fore the God of battle.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 POLAND was now delivered from the Tar- 
 tars but not from the Turks. But if the 
 hundred thousand nobles had attacked the 
 Turks while Sobieski pressed upon the 
 Tartars who knows if Kamieniec might not have been 
 saved ? 
 
 The Turks were perfectly acquainted with sieges 
 before the Christians. At that of Candy they made 
 parallel lines in their trenches. Upon the present 
 occasion Cuprogli applied all his knowledge of the 
 military art. For nearly a month an enormous train 
 of artillery had been playing upon the place so that 
 nothing was left but a heap of ruins and the rocks 
 upon which they stood. This rock, however, was 
 accessible only by means of a bridge, and the Vizier 
 shuddered when he considered the Mussulman blood 
 that must be shed, in an assault upon Kamieniec. 
 He, therefore, took advantage of the Governor's blun- 
 der. He knew, as it was his business to know such 
 things, that when the Governor had refused admit- 
 tance to Sobieski and his soldiery he had admitted all 
 the nobility of Podolia, men, women and children, 
 who made his position more precarious than it might 
 otherwise have been. The Vizier had recourse to 
 
 68
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 69 
 
 bombs which, falling into such a small area which 
 was overcrowded, heaped the dead upon the dying. 
 The cries of the women and children enervated the 
 soldiers and slackened the vigor of the defense, but 
 there was no talk of surrendering. Cuprogli next 
 employed another means of inflicting torture and 
 terror. IIo gave the besieged to understand that 
 if the place was not surrendered wntliin twenty-four 
 hours that all should be put to the sword, old and 
 young, down to the very infant at the breast. This 
 menace, accompanied by every indication of prepa- 
 ration for a general storm, struck terror into every 
 heart and a parley was arranged and held on the 
 20th of August. 
 
 A major of artillery, enraged at the surrender of 
 a place which might have been better defended, 
 resolved not to survive so great a loss. At the en- 
 trance to the bridge there was a large tower that 
 served for a powder magazine. In this he placed 
 a match and mounted the platform from where he 
 saw the Turks enter the place and the Poles run out 
 to implore mercy of the besiegers. The magazine 
 soon blew up and buried the officer who had fired it, 
 with all else who were within a certain distance, 
 both Turks and Poles, in the burning ruins. The 
 deed was indeed a brave one, but the Poles who es- 
 caped had great difficulty obtaining a pardon for 
 the crime of which they were not only innocent but
 
 YO THE LIFE OF 
 
 ignorant. 
 
 Mohammed was now master of Kamieniec and Po- 
 dolia. He sent garrisons into all the places of the 
 Ukraine which was possessed by the Cossacks. The 
 Poles, or rather that faction of Poland, which had 
 oppressed the Cossacks repented, but the repentance 
 was too tardy to undo the mischief still to be done 
 by the Cossacks. Misfortune did not, however, end 
 with this move upon the part of the Turkish gen- 
 erals, for, elated at so much victory, the Sultan re- 
 solved to push his armies into the very heart of the 
 Kingdom. Each day but added its new disaster to 
 the previous day's toll. 
 
 Sobieski brought back his victorious troops from 
 the foot of the Crapac mountains, which divide Po- 
 land from Moldavia, Transylvania and Hungary. 
 At this juncture if he had decided to get himself 
 proclaimed King he would, probably, have suc- 
 ceeded, but he was wholly taken up with contriving 
 how best to attack them so that his forces might 
 have some chance of winning in the unequal con- 
 test. 
 
 King Michael was now in such a situation that he 
 dreaded the success of his own General quite as much 
 as that of the Turks, so he sent emissaries to Mo- 
 hammed, encamped at Bouchaz, to sue for peace, of- 
 fering to let him make all the conditions except one, 
 keeping him, Michael, upon the throne, and this was
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 71 
 
 not at all disagreeable to the Sultan, for at that time 
 Podolia and the Ukraine were both flourishing prov- 
 inces and both yielded to the conqueror, which was 
 Poland's material loss. Her utter abasement came 
 in the clause which engaged to pay an annual and 
 perpetual tribute to Turkey of a hundred thousand 
 golden ducats. One must be a Pole to conceive 
 just how humiliating and terrible was this dis- 
 graceful treaty which provided not alone for the loss 
 of two of its most powerful provinces, but for tribute 
 to the despised Turks, by a strong and powerful Re- 
 public which was, virtually, acknowledgment that 
 the Turks had at last conquered Her, so proud of 
 Her power and independence, now to bend to such a 
 galling yolr<^. And to climax the catastrophe. Her 
 King, like other lesser Princes, was glad to bend the 
 knee and become one of the first slaves of the Porte, 
 obliged to march at his command, against all the 
 enemies of the Ottoman Empire, Christians as well 
 as others. Such was the famous, infamous treaty 
 of Bouchaz. 
 
 The peace which Michael had just signed, not only 
 covered Poland with ignominy, but was an open vio- 
 lation of its laws and an affront to the whole people 
 which could not be borne. For a king of Poland 
 could make neither peace nor war without the con- 
 sent of his subjects, and of all laws which have ever 
 been devised by the wisest of law makers, there is
 
 72 THE LIFE OE 
 
 none wiser. 
 
 Sobieski, whose hands were tied by the terms of 
 peace, returned to his camp at Lovicz. Michael, 
 endeavoring to make a show of generosity and dig- 
 nity without being possessed of either, sent an order 
 to the army and to the Grand General, by name, to 
 take a new oath of allegiance to him upon which con- 
 dition he promised to forget the past and to restore 
 all the proscribed to their former honors and estates. 
 Sobieski replied that he and the army would take the 
 required oath, provided that the King would make 
 a new one for himself toward the Eepublic, without 
 any equivocation, and swear to observe the articles 
 which had been omitted from the Pacta Coventa by 
 a designed precipitation. These articles were a se- 
 curity against all the violations over which the Pri- 
 mate had reproached him. 
 
 Michael was highly incensed at being put upon a 
 level with the nation, as if it were an affront to that 
 majesty which the nation alone could and had con- 
 ferred upon him, and, provoked at the refusal of the 
 proffered pardon, breathed nothing but vengeance. 
 
 However, in the present situation, there was much 
 greater need that Sobieski should be pacified than 
 the King. And Sobieski, armed and backed by a 
 powerful faction, the King found it necessary, or 
 rather expedient, to erase his name and all of the 
 members of the League from the writs of proscrip-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 73 
 
 tion; after which ho sent a deputation to the camp 
 at Lovicz to assure them of his affection and to in- 
 vito them to a diet of pacification — which was held 
 at Warsaw, February, 1673. 
 
 Whether it would be prudent for Sobieski to at- 
 tend a diet of pacification was a subject of much con- 
 jecture in the army. The officers and soldiers repre- 
 sented, with great emotion, the dangers that might 
 attend his acceptance, but heroes depend for protec- 
 tion upon their superior talents and majestic virtues 
 rather than the ability to bow to the conventional. 
 
 Once in convention, it would seem that Sobieski, 
 if any person present, had a right to assume a high 
 and lordly manner on account of his triumph over 
 the Tartars and his almost certain victory over the 
 Turks but for the treachery of the King, but he for- 
 got that there had been intended a scaffold for him 
 and a price set upon his head. Upon these subjects 
 no complaint escaped him. It was as though it had 
 never boon, but ho painted, in the most glowing 
 colors, the grievances of his country. The King 
 was present to hear Sobieski, as his station obliged 
 him to be in all assemblies of the Nation, but the 
 preferment of the throne was awed by the genius of 
 Sobieski. And llichael felt, in his poor, weak way 
 that he was in the presence of his master and one des- 
 tined to become great by the force of character. 
 He had also another wound to bear, for Sobieski shed
 
 Y4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 tears over the treaty of Bouehaz and appealed from 
 the King to the Kepublic which had not yet signed 
 
 "I away its rights for the life of slavery and ruin under 
 
 the hated yoke. 
 
 I Even under the fire of Sobieski's eloquence, it was 
 
 affirmed and asked — " Such a proceeding is easy 
 enough in Warsaw, but how will it be received in 
 Constantinople ? " — " With extreme indignation no 
 doubt," was Sobieski's rejoinder to the query — 
 " but we have courage and sabers still left us. We 
 shall not wait for the enemy to come to us but must 
 go to them instantly." 
 
 Dignity and eloquence, combined with virtue and 
 sincerity, will always, had always, prevailed with 
 great assemblies. The fire of the Polish Demosthe- 
 nes caught the Senate and the Equestrian Order. 
 The treaty of Bouehaz was declared void. Peace 
 was broken and war begun. In fancy the Poles saw, 
 already, the exalted Mohammed trembling under the 
 sword of their Grand General. 
 
 In their commendations, the Poles have something 
 of the swelling style of the Atlantic. Some declared 
 that the Greeks would have taken Sobieski for the 
 god Apollo, whose oracles disclosed futurity; others, 
 were for revivifying the doctrine of Pythagoras and 
 insisted that all the souls of all the great ancients 
 were combined and had passed into the body of So- 
 bieski. But one thing is certain and that is that
 
 KING JOHN SOEIESKI 75 
 
 Sobicski was greater than the King who was com- 
 pelled to listen to all this superlative praise from the 
 lofty eminence of his throne.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WAR having been decided upon and 
 while the recruits were being raised 
 and collected, Sobieski dispatched 
 spies into Wallachia and Tartary to- 
 wards the Danube and to the Turkish camp at Choc- 
 zin; of which last they gave a terrifying account, 
 describing it as looking like an immense fortress 
 erected to command Poland on account of the com- 
 munication it had, by means of bridges over the 
 Niester, with Podolia and Kamieniec. 
 
 Sobieski was far from deceiving himself as to the 
 risk he ran, but he was so pleased with the great 
 project in view that he dispatched courier after 
 courier to the Grand-General of Lithuania, Michael 
 Paz, to hasten the march of his troops. 
 
 The Lithuanian troops failed to arrive before 
 September was almost finished but finally came upon 
 the plains of Glinian, a few leagues from Leopol, 
 where the Poles impatiently awaited them, and their 
 impatience was not without reason for it was high 
 time the campaign were being closed rather than be- 
 gun. The army, however, being at last assembled, 
 advanced into the Bucovine, a forest thirty leagues 
 long by as many broad, where a branch of the Cra- 
 
 76
 
 KmG JOHN SOBIESKI 77 
 
 pac mountains forms defiles so extremely difficult to 
 pass that a seasoned traveler can scarce do so with- 
 out shuddering. 
 
 It seems probable that there was nothing known 
 at Constantinople as yet regarding the advance of 
 the Polish armies nor the breach of the treaty which 
 such a march meant, for they were met by the Turk- 
 ish envoy who M-as coming into Poland for the pur- 
 pose of collecting the first payment of the tribute 
 agreed upon in the shameful treaty which Sobieski 
 Avas determined to invalidate. The envoy behaved 
 with all the haughtiness which he deemed his posi- 
 tion as the envoy from a conquering to a conquered 
 nation demanded and Sobieski respected the law of 
 nations, allowing him to continue his journey unmo- 
 lested while his army advanced into the forest where, 
 it was expected, the passes would be disputed, but 
 the enemy did not appear until they arrived upon 
 the plain at the farther side and then there but a few 
 bodies which retired with great rapidity. 
 
 Sobieski hastened his march along the banks of 
 the Pruth and, leaving it, appeared on the ninth of 
 November before the camp of Choczin. The town 
 on the right side of the river was defended by a cita- 
 del and a fort on the left side covered the head of a 
 bridge. It was in this very place, some fifty years 
 previously, where Sobieski's father had performed 
 such great achievements. The son was now attempt-
 
 78 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ing greater^ with this difference only, that at that 
 time the Poles defended the camp, and at the pres- 
 ent they had come to attack it. The Seraskier Hus- 
 seim, a disciple of the famous Cuprogli, was Com- 
 mander in Chief, and had with him eighty thousand 
 of those veteran troops that had conquered the isle 
 of Candy. 
 
 A council of war was held in the night, in which 
 Paz, weighing the inequality of forces, protested that 
 it would be a punishable piece of temerity to expose 
 to certain destruction the last hope of the Polish Re- 
 public, and that, as for himself, he would retire at 
 sunrise with his Lithuanians, to preserve them for 
 the service of his country. 
 
 Sobieski, more harassed by friends than enemies, 
 answered that he had foreseen everything that now 
 presented itself, except this resolution of Paz; that 
 the situation of things was far from giving him any 
 terror; that it was much more dangerous to retire 
 before an enemy of superior strength, than to attack 
 them; and that, in short, the only favor he desired 
 of him was to stay and be a spectator of the first 
 blows. What an appeal this was ! Of a patient, su- 
 preme patriot, confident of his own power, and beg- 
 ging that those who should have been at his side, 
 should at least witness his action when he should 
 deal the first blow at their powerful enemy. 
 
 Paz himself loved glory, and since Sobieski was
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 79 
 
 obstinately bent upon seeking it, be would bave been 
 greatly mortified at his finding it without him. 
 
 On the 10th, everything was prepared for the at- 
 tack. There was, in the Polish army, a body of Cos- 
 sacks, gained over by Sobieski's liberality; their 
 leader, Samuel Motovildo, impatient to signalize 
 himself at their head, opened the scene, without wait- 
 insr for the General's order. 
 
 But this day was not the day that Sobieski des- 
 tined for the effusion of blood. He continued with 
 his army in battalia, hoping that the enemy, with 
 such a superiority, would come out of camp ; but the 
 day was spent in cannonading. Towards the even- 
 ing, an unexpected event increased the forces of the 
 Tok's: On the right side of the Turks, there was a 
 separate camp of between seven and eight thousand 
 Walachian and Moldavian cavalrymen which, though 
 Christians, were under the command of the Infidels. 
 This was a source of great mortification and sorrow 
 to the Christian heart of Sobieski. This war, after 
 all, was nothing more nor less than a struggle be- 
 tween the contending faiths of the followers of Mo- 
 hammed and the followers of Jesus, and now in this 
 extreme hour, that a large and important force of 
 Christians should be found ready to deal blows at the 
 Christian army in behalf of the power of ^lohammed 
 was almost unthinkable. These troops did not an- 
 swer the expectations of the Seraskier, either in num-
 
 80 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ber or beauty, and the two Hospodars who conducted 
 them were therefore treated like slaves, showing the 
 contempt which the followers of Mohammed always 
 did show to such Christians, so called, when they 
 found them ready to betray their country and their 
 religion. The Seraskier even forgot himself so far 
 as to strike the Moldavian with his battle-ax, with the 
 result that the Princes, stimulated by lust for re- 
 venge, came and offered Sobieski themselves and 
 their troops. The Turks beheld this desertion with 
 indignation, but were unable to prevent it, and, 
 whether or not Sobieski felt their offer a lofty one, it 
 nevertheless was preferable to having them arrayed 
 against him, if for no other reason than that of prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 The following night was extremely severe for the 
 soldiers to continue under arms. They were half 
 frozen by the snow, which fell in great abundance, 
 but Avhen they saw Sobieski visit the posts, rest him- 
 self upon the carriage of a cannon and refuse a tent, 
 they were encouraged. At break of day he observed 
 that the enemy's ranks were thinner than usual ; the 
 same number of colors were flying upon the parapet, 
 but much fewer janizaries were to be seen. The 
 Turks, accustomed to a mildness of climate, which 
 the Poles were unacquainted with, were less capable 
 of fatigue. Their strength was exhausted by having 
 been four-and-twenty hours under arms in such se-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 81 
 
 vero weather; and, thinking that the Poles would not 
 daro to attack them in open daylight, they retired to 
 take a little rest. 
 
 " This is the moment that I have waited for," 
 said Sobieski, to the officers who were about him, 
 " carry my orders for the attack," and he instantly 
 set them an example, which, upon any other occasion 
 would be found fault with in a general. Observ- 
 ing that the first brigades were wavering between 
 courage and fear, he made his own regiment of dra- 
 goons, a troop formed by himself, alight from their 
 horses ; and, putting himself at their head, he 
 marched up to the Turkish intrenchmcnts. He was 
 too bulky to mount with ease, and while his men were 
 assisting him, he was all the while exposed to the en- 
 emy's fire, but at length appeared upon the parapet 
 with his dragoons. The infantry, seeing his danger, 
 and fearing for him, rushed on violently on the right 
 and left to sustain him and, forcing the first posts 
 one upon another, turned their own cannon against 
 them. 
 
 In the meantime Jablonowski, Palatine of Russia, 
 made a motion of the utmost importance. The cav- 
 alry had not yet forced its way, and the infantry was 
 afraid of being surrounded if it advanced too far ; he 
 therefore came around by the camp which the Molda- 
 vians had quitted, and forced through with the Pan- 
 corns. Sobieski had foujrht on foot for near an
 
 82 THE LIFE OF 
 
 hour ; he was at length supplied with a horse, and the 
 rest of the cavalry soon entered through the intrench- 
 ment itself. 
 
 Surprise occasions greater confusion than fire and 
 sword. The Turks, being hard pushed on all sides, 
 left many men and much ground ; but the Poles, find- 
 ing a greater number of empty tents than of enemies, 
 stopped to pillage: a common fault with troops that 
 are not under the strictest discipline, and a grave 
 fault too. Many battles that are supposed to have 
 been won have been lost again by the greed of the 
 soldiers for plunder. If the victory was at all un- 
 certain, it was at this juncture. The Turks, 
 charmed at the power of their wealth, took courage 
 and repulsed the victors. Sobieski, with the Towa- 
 risz, sustained this first shock, and was seconded by 
 Jablonowski with Pancerns. Lesczinski, Palatine of 
 Pudalchia, brought up the plunderers to their colors, 
 and victory, which seemed to depart, appeared again, 
 accompanied with order. 
 
 Sobieski, in the heat of action, did not neglect to 
 take care of consequences. He ordered Baron de 
 Boham, a French officer, to march to the bridge to 
 cut off the enemy's retreat. By this time there were 
 none who stood their ground, but the janizaries only, 
 who dared not give way in the presence of the brave 
 Solyman who commanded them. The Seraskier, on 
 his part, did all that could be expected from a gen-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 83 
 
 oral who was forced in his camp. He recalled and 
 brought back to action his broken squadrons. 
 
 But when some of tlio runaways, being repulsed 
 from the bridge, brought intelligence that the retreat 
 was cut off, the Turks, instead of deriving fresh 
 courage from despair, had no sensation left, but that 
 of terror. A body of between six and seven thou- 
 sand cavalrymen endeavored to escape in a place 
 where the rocks were lower than usual ; but were 
 charged by the Lithuanians, who forced their way by 
 that very entrance, and drove them back upon the 
 field of battle where they ran with full speed against 
 a body of Polish cavalry. Sobieski, vi'ho was seen 
 everywhere, and seemed to be at every place, hap- 
 pened to be in this body. Woe be to that General 
 who, on such occasion, cannot act the soldier. So- 
 bieski could and fortune assisted him as much as his 
 own valor. A Turk aimed at him a mortal blow 
 which was received by a young hero named Zelinski, 
 whose death was quickly avenged; and there suc- 
 ceeded a scries of single combats in the midst of a 
 general action. At last, the Palatine of Kalisch and 
 the Castlellan of Posnania came up with a body of 
 horse, and disengaged the Poles. The whole camp 
 was covered with dying infidels. The Spahis pur- 
 sued on their horses at random, with no other view 
 but to avoid the sabers of their pursuers. The Se- 
 raskier, covered with wounds, thought only how to
 
 84 THE LIFE OF 
 
 save the ruins of his wretched army; but how to ef- 
 fect it was the diflSculty. The only way of retiring 
 that he could discover, was either over a few paths 
 across the rocks, or upon the waves of the Niester. 
 From this moment the state of the Turkish army 
 no longer presented the idea of a battle, but of a com- 
 plete rout, where destruction was multiplied in all 
 its- various forms. Here the flying squadrons threw 
 themselves from the top of rocks and were dashed 
 in pieces against other rocks below, where men and 
 horses were heaped one upon another; there the 
 broken infantry took refuge towards the citadel, 
 which was incapable of containing any more, and 
 sent them back to the sabers of the enemy. At a 
 greater distance, the cavalry plunged into the river, 
 and were delivered, by being shot in the midst of it, 
 from this scene of horror. Even such as reached 
 the other side, or had crossed before the breaking 
 of the bridge, were not safe. They drew themselves 
 up in battalia to receive and protect such of their 
 companions as should attempt the passage; but the 
 impetuous Mandreoski, a Brigadier of horse, could 
 not bear to see them live. He threw himself into 
 the river, followed by his brigade ; but in mid-stream 
 he received a wound from a musket ball which de- 
 prived him of all sense. He was brought back to 
 the place he set out from, but not until ten years 
 after in a still more celebrated battle did he lose his
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 85 
 
 life. His troops, still pursuing their point, were 
 joined by other squadrons; and the enemy, being 
 everywhere broken, retired for safety under the walls 
 of Kamieniec. 
 
 The river was covered with ten thousand turbans, 
 and the earth with twenty thousand slain, among 
 which were eight thousand janizaries. The victory 
 cost the Poles between five and six thousand killed 
 and wounded. When we consider the immense su- 
 periority of the conquered army, the whole tale reads 
 like a fable. But one of these two suppositions will 
 account for it; either it is a great disadvantage to 
 wait for an enemy in intrenchments, or Heaven 
 fought on the side of the Poles. There is a third, 
 which will perhaps give a better solution: When men 
 fight, not for the whim of a Sovereign, but for the 
 real interest of themselves and their country, they 
 are raised above the common level. When they 
 have the incentive to fight for home and country, 
 their dearest interests and rights ; when men are con- 
 scious of this, they are almost unconquerable. 
 
 The Poles took a great number of prisoners who 
 received the treatment usually accorded to prisoners 
 of those days, which in this day of enlightenment 
 looks harsh and cruel. There is no better evidence 
 of the world's progress than in the humane treatment 
 of prisoners of war, compared with what it was in 
 the days of Sobieski. He show^ed great humanity
 
 86 THE LIFE OF 
 
 to the wretches who waited for their fate in the cita- 
 del of Choczin, which contained vast riches, being 
 the place where the Greeks, Armenians and Jews 
 kept their magazines for the camp. The artillery 
 was brought up against it the same day, and it soon 
 capitulated. 
 
 While this was passing between the Pruth and the 
 ISTiester, the Turkish Aga proceeded on his journey; 
 and, arriving at Leopol about the beginning of No- 
 vember, found the King lying at the point of death. 
 An ulcer in the kidneys, blood instead of urine, con- 
 vulsions in his stomach, and continual vomiting, left 
 him so small a remnant of life, as would not permit 
 him to give audience. In short, Michael^ died on 
 tl^e 10th of November, leaving no children^ At the 
 timeof'thB'^rng's death he was thirty-five years of 
 age. He spent four years upon the throne, and 
 these four years were spent in uneasiness, infamy, 
 disturbance and horror. Probably with but a single 
 exception, this King was the most unfortunate of 
 any of the Sovereigns that were chosen to reign over 
 the Republic. If the cro^vii is capable of making 
 any man happy, it must be him only who is able to 
 wield it. Michael, who was naturally of a humane 
 temper, would have been a good King if he had been 
 a great one; but he was utterly w^anting in all ca- 
 pacity. He was entirely lacking in all the qualities 
 of a successful Sovereign. When he was elected
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 87 
 
 King, he cried out to those who surrounded him, " I 
 have been elected to a position that I am incapable 
 of filling." Whether he was sincere or not, in this 
 declaration, he spoke the truth when he made that 
 statement. All that he got by being exalted to the 
 regal dignity was to be drenched with gall, without 
 the least particle of comfort. He felt all the annoy- 
 ance, all of the embarrassment, but none of the good ; 
 for he expired on the evening before the victory of 
 Choczin. 
 
 The news of the King's death, being received by 
 the army, furnished many with a fair pretense for 
 returning home: such as were loaded with spoils of 
 the East were impatient to lay up their booty safely ; 
 others, who were tired with the labors of so severe 
 a season, eagerly wished for the end of it; and all 
 alleged that the election of a new King was the only 
 thing that should now engage the attention of the 
 Polish nation. 
 
 Sobieski represented that the election could not 
 como on before spring, and that the winter might be 
 usefully employed in driving the Turks out of Uk- 
 raine, and, perhaps, in making an attempt upon 
 Kamieniec. It is surprising that he, who had so 
 many claims to the crown, if merit be any claim at 
 all, should be so little in haste to return to Warsaw 
 and form a party in his own favor. That he wished 
 to be king, there is no question. To be a Sovereign,
 
 88 THE LIFE OF 
 
 a ruler of a people, a free people, an elective Sover- 
 eign, was indeed a great honor; one that no one 
 could despise, and that Sobieski desired it, there is 
 no question; but so devoted was he to his country 
 and to his duty, that he could not, even in his own 
 interests, be remiss in any one of his obligations to 
 his country ; so instead of returning to his home, he 
 was busy in animating the Poles to new enterprises ; 
 but he was stopped by an order from the Primate, 
 requiring him to bring the army without delay back 
 into Poland. The will of the Interrex is more sa- 
 cred than that of the King, and there was nothing 
 left for him to do but to obey. All that the Grand- 
 General could do was to leave a garrison at Choczin, 
 where the Poles raised a hillock which they call 
 Mogila, to be a rude monument of a glorious victory. 
 If we consider this celebrated expedition on the 
 side of conquest, it presents no very advantageous 
 idea. The only acquisition was Choczin, a heap of 
 cottages covered with straw. The citadel, which was 
 a good one for the country, was retaken by the Turks, 
 in the winter. But if we view it on the side of glory, 
 and as being the preservation of Poland, there are 
 very few of equal luster, or so highly interesting. It 
 prevented the treaty of Bouchaz from being ratified 
 by the first pajTnent of the tribute agreed upon ; sus- 
 pended the slavery of Poland; weakened the Turks 
 by the destruction of their best army, and taught
 
 KIXG JOHN SOBIESKI 89 
 
 them that Poland, with only very inferior forces, 
 was capable of braving their immense power and su- 
 perior nnml)ers. 
 
 Sobieski, covered with ftlorv, now came to Lcopol, 
 where he received the congratulations of all the or- 
 ders of the State. The most distant palatinates sent 
 Deputies to the Deliverer of their country. Ix;t 
 kings be intoxicated, if they may, with the incense 
 that is so profusely, however lacking in spontaneity, 
 offered them after victories, in which they have com- 
 monly no share ; that which Sobieski received was 
 the tribute of deep national gratitude and joy. At 
 the report of the triumph of Choczin every one left 
 off mourning for a king who was not worthy of lam- 
 entation. 
 
 In the meantime Warsaw was filled with intrigues 
 that were forming for the election of a king, but So- 
 bieski stayed at Lcopol, as if he had no pretensions. 
 The best title to it, he must have thought, was to 
 continue to defend his country; he, therefore, fixed 
 his residence at Leopol for the winter, where he 
 was in readiness to restrain the incursions of the Tar- 
 tars and the Cossacks, or to endeavor, if an oppor- 
 tunity offered, to win over the latter. 
 
 The Diet of Convocation which precedes that of 
 election, was summoned to meet on the fifteenth day 
 of January, 1674. It was to have ended in fifteen 
 days; but the desire which every one had to see So-
 
 90 THE LIFE OE 
 
 bieski present at it, caused it to be postponed to the 
 22d of February; he refused, however, to gratify 
 this earnest wish, being wholly taken up with the 
 enemy. Sobieski had now become, more than ever, 
 the hero and idol of the army and of the nation. 
 What a wonderful experience he had had! In all 
 the world's history I think there has never been a 
 parallel case, where a general, with the stamp of out- 
 lawry upon him, \vith the sentence of death imposed, 
 has marched out at the head of an army and delivered 
 the Republic and saved the King himself. At least 
 I do not know of any parallel case. No wonder that 
 the nation worshiped him. Whether he was so san- 
 guine that he would be elected King that he need 
 make no effort, or wholly from a patriotic desire to 
 watch the boundaries of the Republic against the en- 
 emy, each one must determmefor himself. I be- 
 lieve that the latter reason was why he did not ap- 
 pear at the Diet. Everything went on quietly in 
 the Diet, under the direction of the Primate. The 
 death of the King and the time of election were no- 
 tified, according to custom, to the Powers of Europe ; 
 and the field of election was opened on the first of 
 May. 
 
 Sobieski showed, or perhaps only simulated, so 
 much indifference for the crown, that, notwithstand- 
 ing the repeated instances of the Electors who had a 
 mind to be profited by his superior talents, he did
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 91 
 
 not arrive until the tenth of May. Perhaps his de- 
 lay might be partially founded on policy, in order to 
 be more taken notice of; but the entire absence in 
 all his life of any attempt at the dramatic rather in- 
 clines the writer to believe that that was not his ob- 
 ject. This was his first appearance before the As- 
 sembly of the Estates since the victory of Choczin; 
 and he was received with a pomp which might well 
 astonish the foreigners then present, who were not 
 accustomed in their own countries to see Generals 
 receive any such honors of triumph. In those days, 
 however skillful the general, however great his tri- 
 umphs, all the glory went to the Sovereign, but in a 
 Republic like Poland, as in all republics, the people 
 are more apt to show their appreciation for the one 
 to whom they have just reasons to be indebted. 
 
 Of the six competitors for the CrowTi, there were 
 four who had not even the slightest chance to ingra- 
 tiate themselves in the inclinations of the voters; 
 these were Prince Thomas of Savoy, the Duke of 
 Modena, Prince George of Denmark and the Prince 
 of Transylvania. The other two, Prince Charles of 
 Lorraine and the Prince of Xewberg, entered the 
 lists. 
 
 Sobieski raised up a third party, by representing 
 that, in the present situation of the republic, when 
 it was on the eve of being attacked by the whole Ot- 
 toman power, it wanted a hero of tried abilities,
 
 92 THE LIFE OF 
 
 whose bare name might be an omen of victory. That 
 this hero would not be found in the Prince of New- 
 burg, who had never paid his addresses to military 
 glory, nor even in Prince Charles, who had only been 
 honored with her first smiles, was certain. But their 
 wants would be amply supplied by the Prince of 
 Conde, who had received all the favors she could be- 
 stow, and was so celebrated in Europe that they 
 ought to have given him the Crown when the throne 
 was last vacant, without bestowing it upon a wretched 
 libel, the authors of which dared not show them- 
 selves ; but that it was not yet too late to choose them- 
 selves a king whom all the powers would be ambi- 
 tious of, if they had a power to dispose of themselves. 
 Sobieski's proposal continued a mystery, which 
 was not long coming to light. It was surprising that 
 the Diet should never think of giving the Crown to 
 him who was the Hero of Poland. But while his 
 talents and his virtues brought him near the throne, 
 there were two pretenses that kept him at a distance 
 from it; Mary d'Arquien, his wife, was looked upon 
 by the Grandees, as unworthy of that station. 
 " That highest of all honors," said they, " is fitter 
 for the blood of the House of Austria." Thus it is 
 that men often sacrifice their happiness to a shadow. 
 It seems almost incredible that the achievements of 
 Sobieski, his great ability, and the gratitude of the 
 nation and their unwillingness to shower their great
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 93 
 
 honors in appreciation of his achievements did not 
 cause the Diet to acknowledge him bv all odds to be 
 the candidate above all others, capable of the great 
 trust that they would bestow; yet they stopped and 
 hesitated simply because his wife was not popular 
 with the Court. Another obstacle of greater weight 
 was the positive exclusion given by the Lithuanians 
 to every Piast : " A nation," said they, " which has 
 suffered so much from the weak government of 
 Michael, should look for a foreign born king." 
 This too seems most remarkable, when it w^as shown 
 that the weakest and the most incapable of her kings 
 had been foreign Princes ; and yet they forgot all of 
 this when they remembered the last mistake they 
 made in the election of Michael. To the Queen 
 alone must be laid the blame for she had secretly 
 brought about this exclusion, which was such a dis- 
 grace to Poland. The Lithuanians did not allege 
 the true reason. The Queen and the Paz could not 
 be persuaded that Sobieski had no design upon the 
 Crown. lie appeared in the Diet with all the mag- 
 nificence of a king, and had all the merit requisite 
 for that station ; it was necessary, therefore, to ex- 
 clude him, under the flimsy excuse that he bore the 
 title of a Piast. 
 
 It w^as obvioiis that Sobieski was strong enough 
 to make himself master of the election, being already 
 master of the Polish army, which called loudly for
 
 94 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the Prince of Conde, and followed in this particu- 
 lar the directions of its General, without penetrat- 
 ing into his designs. The Paz, with the army of 
 Lithuania, less numerous indeed than the other, pre- 
 pared to support the interests of the Queen and 
 Prince Charles. The two brothers had all the as- 
 cendant they could over the Lithuanians ; they knew 
 that Prince Charles was in Silesia, with a body of 
 troops which, when joined to theirs, would be a 
 match for the Polish army. These possibilities for 
 a civil war struck with horror all who sincerely loved 
 their country. 
 
 In this fermentation of opposite factions, Sobi- 
 eski proposed a method of reconciliation, which w^as 
 fit only to embroil things still more. Queen Elea- 
 nora should break off her engagement with Prince 
 Charles, and give her hand to the Prince of N^ew- 
 burg, from whom the Republic had more to expect, 
 on account of his great fortune; and upon this con- 
 dition the Prince of Conde should withdraw his pre- 
 tensions. To bring this about a deputation from the 
 Senate waited upon the Queen, who, having engaged 
 her heart and her jewels to Prince Charles, showed 
 by her answer that she continued inviolably attached 
 to him; and the Ambassador of Vienna protested 
 loudly that his Court would never give up its Candi- 
 date. Thei Grandees persisted in giving him their 
 votes, and he would probably have had the Crown
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 95 
 
 if Florian Czartoriski, the Primate and Interrex, 
 had lived a few days longer. His death weakened 
 Prince Charles' party and changed the whole phase 
 of the election. 
 
 Andrew Trzebiski, Bishop of Cracow, a man of 
 loss warmth, took his j)lace in the Diet of Election, 
 and performed the function of Interrex, but could 
 not unite the votes of the Assembly. In one part 
 was heard the name of Prince Charles; in another 
 the Prince of Newburg; and, louder still, that of 
 Conde. At last the Palatine of Russia, Stanislaus 
 Jablonowski, a Senator equally respectable for his 
 birth and his fortune, his knowledge of the law, and 
 his behavior in arms, w^ho always spoke as he 
 thought, and was a friend to Sobieski, because he 
 loved his country, rose up and endeavored to put an 
 end to this state of uncertainty. " If, in our choice 
 of a king," said he, " we were to be determined by 
 appearances only, it would be nearly equal, whether 
 wo chose the Prince of Ix)rraine or the Prince of 
 Newburg ; hoth of them have blossoms to show, b\it it 
 is fruit that wo want ; and upon this footing I would 
 give my suffrage to the great Conde, the Prince of 
 France, were it not that fruit which is too ripe is 
 on the point of decaying. Sobieski, in proposing 
 him, considers only that blaze of glory which gilds 
 over the ruins of the hero ; but is his forgetting him- 
 self a reason for our following his example ? Sobi-
 
 96 THE LIFE OF 
 
 eski is in person before your eyes. His age, his 
 health, his vigor, his talents, and his fortune all 
 speak loudly in his behalf. He was born in the same 
 country, and educated in the same principles and 
 sentiments with yourselves. You have often 
 profited by his superior abilities in the Senate and 
 the Diet, and have repeatedly been led to victory 
 under his auspices. He has supported the Crown of 
 Poland, and will know how to wear it. By looking 
 out for a king among foreigners, do you mean to 
 have it said that Poland produces no heroes of its 
 own ? By choosing out of foreign sovereign fami- 
 lies, we have more than once brought ruin upon our 
 country. You are discharged of all obligations to- 
 wards Queen Eleanora, by her refusing the husband 
 that was offered her ; but you are still bound to your 
 country, whose welfare depends upon your choice of 
 Sobieski." 
 
 Scarce had Jablonowski done speaking when five 
 palatinates — that is to say, their deputies, castel- 
 lans, palatines and many other nobles — cried out, 
 " Sobieski forever ! We will all perish together or 
 have him for our King." The Palatine of Russia, 
 which was Sobieski's native country, distinguished 
 itself by its zeal above the rest, and before the end 
 of the day, the acclamation became general among 
 the Poles ; but the Lithuanians were extremely averse 
 to this choice. There were some reasons for this, but
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 97 
 
 Olio in particular; the scathing address of Sobieski, 
 when they were about to desert him in battle, when 
 they were brought to their sense of duty by his ad- 
 dress, still seemed to rankle in their bosoms. The 
 two Pazs quitted the Assembly abruptly, with their 
 friends, to enter before the Register of the Chancery 
 a protest against the election, as not being unani- 
 mous, and the reader remembers that there must be 
 unanimity to secure election. So the crown was still 
 in suspense during the succeeding night, which was 
 spent in agitation and discord. Jablonowski and the 
 luterrex did all they could to unite the suffrages. 
 At last the two Pazs, after having spent the whole 
 night to no j)urpose, in contriving methods of mak- 
 ing the election miscarry, and reflecting upon the 
 inferiority of their number, and the danger that 
 might attend their obstinacy, appeared again in the 
 field of election on the 19th of INIay, and Sobieski, 
 by a unanimous consent, was proclaimed Iving. 
 The faint and languid pleasure of a king who reigns 
 by right of blood and ancestry, without any merit 
 upon his own part, and in most cases, as the world's 
 history shows, without any qualities of either head 
 or heart, who reigns barely by the right of blood, is 
 not to be compared with that of a king who is made 
 so by the election of a free people, conferring the 
 Crown upon the object of its love and its esteem. 
 Never did the Polish nation discover more joy
 
 98 KIN'G JOHN" SOBIESKI 
 
 than upon this last occasion. The Senate, the 
 Equestrian Order, the Army, and the people con- 
 ducted the new King with civil and military pomp, 
 with the roar of cannon and repeated acclamations 
 to the Great Church of St. John, to return thanks 
 to God, who had often been thanked at the same altar 
 for kings that he had given in his anger; but the 
 Poles now flattered themselves that they had made 
 no mistake.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 WHILE all Warsaw was filled with 
 rejoicing, Queen Eleanora was sick 
 out of mere convenience. The new 
 king paid her a visit; but this 
 king was not Prince Charles, and the throne must 
 bo resigned to Mary d'Arquien. 
 
 Eleanora's followers in the Senate attempted in- 
 stantly to avenge her cause, and perhaps to give 
 Sobieski a distaste to the throne, before he was seated 
 in it. With this view, they drew up the Pacta Con- 
 voiita, in terms which confined the expense of the 
 King's household, and the royal authority, within 
 narrower limits than had anciently been set to them. 
 Sobieski saw the designs that were laid for him 
 and avoided them by exerting a noble spirit of dis- 
 interestedness, which always succeeds with great 
 men. " You have chosen me," said he, " for your 
 King, but the work is not yet completed, and I am 
 still in a state of hesitation. The Republic has not 
 yet delivered to me the instrument of election, nor 
 have I yet accepted it, in that solemn form which 
 ratifies the whole transaction ; and therefore, if you 
 show a distrust of me by laying fetters upon me, 
 
 99
 
 100 THE LIFE OF 
 
 which my predecessors would have refused, I reject 
 them and the crown together." 
 
 This generous behavior stopped the mouths of 
 these disturbers ; and the face of the Eepublic, after 
 some debates, assumed at last an air of serenity and 
 peace ; and, everything being quiet, or at least seem- 
 ing to be so, the new king received in form the in- 
 strument of election in the same great church to 
 which he was conducted upon quitting the field of 
 election. 
 
 Sobieski, at the time of his election, was forty-five 
 years old; an age equally distant from the heat of 
 youthful passions and the cold of old age; an age 
 when all the talents display themselves in full luster ; 
 and, if the throne w^ere to be given to the advantages 
 of figure, he would have deserved it in this view also ; 
 a tall and graceful person, a full face, regular fea- 
 tures, an aquiline nose, eyes full of fire, a frank and 
 open countenance, made up his picture. He had not 
 yet that bulkiness of body which in time made him 
 less graceful ; he had only that plumpness which in- 
 dicates vigorous health and suits so well with the 
 Polish habit. He derived from nature that majestic 
 air, with which courtiers compliment every sover- 
 eign. He took the appellation of John III, a name 
 to which the two kings, who had borne it before him, 
 had done no honor. Mary, his Queen, was possessed 
 of an elegant form, a majestic air, a fine complexion,
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 101 
 
 sparkling eyes, a stately look, a great deal of wit; 
 her only fault was perhaps in being a little too artful. 
 
 The Austrian queen forgave her all this, but could 
 not forgive the loss of the throne, the luster of which 
 could, for the future, only give her pain. A few 
 months after she retired into Silesia, by the direc- 
 tion of the Emperor, her brother. This retreat was 
 concealed at first under the pretense of a journey, 
 that she might not lose her settlement; for, by the 
 laws of Poland, whoever enjoys any advantages from 
 the public, must be an inhabitant of the kingdom; 
 and a very wise and just law this is. But, though 
 she had lost the throne, there still remained Prince 
 Charles, whom she married in 1G7S; and if love 
 could have made amends to ambitious minds, Elea- 
 nora might have been fully satisfied. 
 
 The new queen, though her ambition had been so 
 amply gratified, was yet eagerly desirous of a further 
 object. The King was contented with having de- 
 served the crown, but she was impatient to try it on. 
 To hereditary kings, the coronation is a mere cere- 
 mony, which adds nothing to the authority they 
 derive from their birth ; but, to elective i)rinces, it is 
 a solemn and necessary act, which puts them in pos- 
 session of sovereign power. The interval between 
 the election and coronation is a continuation of the 
 interregiuim, which still leaves the government in 
 the hands of the Primate. The new king dates his
 
 102 THE LIFE OF 
 
 reign only from the day when he is crowned, and his 
 hands are so tied up, that he cannot sign himself 
 " King/' without adding " elect " ; just as the Presi- 
 dent of the United States of America receives no 
 authority, no distinction, no honor, until after his 
 inauguration. 
 
 ISTotwithstanding so many disadvantages, to which 
 Sobieski might have put an end with a single word, 
 Ee~was~iaore in haste to avenge his country than to 
 reign over it. In this respect he stood not alone but 
 in a very small company of men. He had gained 
 the crown solely by his own merit, and he now 3e- 
 f^red his 'eof'ohation to give hims^lf^up entirely to 
 the war against the Turks. The Republic I'epaid 
 t^is act of generosity with another; for the law was 
 broken through on this occasion, and he was author- 
 ized to date his reign from the day of his election; 
 to^ decide peace and war. This was a generous act 
 of the nation, but well deserved, and it also author- 
 ized him to publish universals under his privy-seal, 
 for the assembling of the Diets and the Pospolite, in 
 case of necessity, to send dispatches to foreign courts 
 under the same seal ; and to fill up vacant offices. 
 
 Mohammed had no design of avenging, this year, 
 the defeat of Choczin. Cuprogli was lately dead, and 
 some of the last words that he spoke, fixing his eyes 
 upon the Alcoran, were these : " Prophet, I shall 
 soon see whether thy words are true; but, be they
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 108 
 
 true or false, I am sure of being happy, if virtue be 
 the best of all religions." These memorable words 
 can be uttered by few men, but in this case they were 
 spoken with all sincerity. Though classed as an in- 
 fidel, as the Christians called the Mohammedans, this 
 great man had all the virtues of the men enlightened 
 by the followers of the Nazarene. The death of this 
 great man left the Ottoman Empire in a state of 
 languor; and John III thought it a favorable oppor- 
 tunity to reap the fruits of his victory. His first 
 object w^as to recover the Ukraine ; the Cossacks hav- 
 ing given themselves to the Turks, in a mere fit of 
 despair; and already felt the weight of their new 
 yoke. They would not venture to make trial of the 
 King's clemency ; but, being informed that he w^as 
 marching against them, and that Mohammed did not 
 arm in their defense, they looked out for a third mas- 
 ter, and fled by troops to the Russian territories, on 
 the other side of the Borysthenes. 
 
 Mohammed, however, sent an order to the Cham of 
 Tartary to defend the Ukraine with all his forces, 
 upon pain of incurring the displeasure of the Porte. 
 
 Paz, with his Lithuanians, joined the Polish army 
 in the beginning of September. His equal and his 
 rival was now become his King; but the majesty of 
 the monarch did not humble the pride of the subject. 
 This was very characteristic of the Polish noblemen. 
 They esteemed that one who was the maker of the
 
 104 THE LIFE OE 
 
 King was as great as the King himself. Paz ordered 
 a dnun-major of his army to be hanged, for daring 
 to beat the general by the King's order, without wait- 
 ing for his order. Hard at all times is the fate of 
 inferiors who come in the way of two contending 
 powers! John took no notice of the affront. 
 Whether he did right or wrong, his conduct was ap- 
 proved by the Senators, who were then in the army, 
 because they had need of Paz. The King gave up 
 his own resentment to the Eepublic; and exceeded 
 the promises he made at his election ; for he paid the 
 troops with his own money during this whole cam- 
 paign, and entered the Ukraine at the head of be- 
 tween thirty and thirty-five thousand men. Earely, 
 if ever, before or since, in the world's history, has 
 a king or sovereign paid his army from his own 
 purse. Several places surrendered at the firing of 
 the first cannon. The monarch's clemency induced 
 several of the Cossacks to come over to the Polish 
 service ; and thus a great deal of Cossack and Polish 
 blood was spared. Had the diplomacy of Sobieski 
 prevailed at the beginning of Michael's reign, all of 
 this valuable force would by now have been loyal to 
 the republic. The Cham, with a hundred thousand 
 Tartars, contented himself with harassing the Polish 
 army, but would not venture a battle. 
 
 Human, the largest and most populous town in the 
 Ukraine, was in daily expectation of its subsequent
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 105 
 
 fate. It contained nearly twenty thousand inhabi- 
 tants, and a numerous garrison; but John III be- 
 sieged and took it in the Cham's presence; and to 
 show his contempt of the Tartar, divided his army, 
 in order to carry on different operations at the same 
 time ; for the frost and snow gave intimation that no 
 time was to be lost. Paz drove the Tartars before 
 him, routed all their small parties, and favored by 
 this means all the attempts of the army ; but his zeal 
 cooled at last and he took the road to Lithuania, con- 
 trary to the promise which ho had given the King. 
 Here, it should not be forgotten, that in Poland the 
 authority of the King is binding only to a certain 
 degree; the Grand-general scarce feels it at all; 
 nevertheless, the action of the Grand-general at this 
 critical moment of the campaign was an imperative 
 duty. 
 
 Had it not been for this defection, the King would 
 have completed the conquest of the Ukraine, a coun- 
 try which had been a scene of slaughter for thirty 
 years together; being, therefore, no longer able to 
 keep the field with the remnant of his forces, he dis- 
 tributed them among the conquered places. As for 
 himself, instead of going to mix witli his court in 
 the pleasures of ^Yarsaw, he fixed his winter quarters 
 at Braclaw, a place that every one dreaded. Here 
 he experienced the labors of royalty before he had 
 tasted its pleasures. His presence produced two
 
 106 THE LIFE OF 
 
 good effects. It kept the Poles from deserting, for 
 they dared not murmur or even cast a look towards 
 Poland, when they saw the King share their fatigues. 
 This action is always characteristic of the great, and 
 later in our Civil War (the Rebellion of 1861 in the 
 United States of America), Grant and Sherman did 
 likewise. This gives heart and courage to the soldier 
 and inspires him with patriotism. It also restrained 
 the Tartars who were preparing to take advantage of 
 the Pazs' defection, and the extreme rigor of the 
 season. No horses in the world are comparable to 
 those of the Tartars for bearing fatigue, and the Tar- 
 tars are at least as hardy as their horses. 
 
 The Cham, seeing the Polish army diminished and 
 separated, gave his son, Sultan Galga, a part of his 
 forces, in order to attack the Poles on the side of 
 Human and Raskow, while he himself fell upon 
 Braclaw and Kalnik. He even undertook the siege 
 of the latter place, and employed the Cossacks on 
 that service; for the Tartars never make war but on 
 horseback. But Sobieski did not give him time to 
 carry on his work ; he presented himself in the fight 
 of the Tartars, and the siege was raised. 
 
 At last, the Cham resolved to close all with a de- 
 cisive blow. Sultan Galga had met with such a re- 
 ception everywhere, that he dared not make any 
 attempt; the Cham, therefore, united all his forces, 
 and appeared before the gates of Braclaw, where
 
 KING JOHN" SOBIESKI 107 
 
 Sobieski had shut himself up ^vltll a small force. 
 The Cham's design was either to draw him from be- 
 hind the walls, or to leave him the mortification of not 
 daring to come out. But the King suffered him to 
 dauce attendance for some days ; and, at a time when 
 he least expected it, made a sally with his cavalry; 
 attacked him, saber in hand, and the Cham lost two 
 thousand men and many prisoners in an hour's time. 
 The Cham, being worsted upon all occasions, and 
 unable to obtain booty in a country which he was 
 ordered to defend, retired to his own dominions, and 
 left the Poles in peace ; but this peace was soon to be 
 succeeded by a greater alarm than ever.
 
 CHAPTEE XI 
 
 MOHAMMED, at length, roused Mmself 
 from his inertness, and devoted his 
 thoughts to revenge. The breaking of 
 the treaty of Bouchaz, the defeat at 
 Choczin, the insolence of the Poles, whom he consid- 
 ered nothing more nor less than a conquered people ; 
 their real weakness, and the greatness of his own 
 strength; all served to provoke him. The general, 
 to whom he had entrusted his revenge, was Kara- 
 Mustapha, a mere courtier, educated in the seraglio, 
 who, by the charms of his person, had gained the good 
 graces of the Sultana Valike. The rendezvous was 
 appointed at Bender, the place Avhere Charles XII, 
 though a prisoner, still made himself feared. 
 
 The triumphs of the King hindered the distresses 
 of the Republic from being felt ; but they were now 
 aggravated beyond measure and every one murmured 
 against him as the author of the war. Discourses of 
 this sort, under an absolute monarchy, pass off like 
 a fleeting cloud. The monarch, whether he hears 
 them or not, ruins or saves his own people in his o\vn 
 way. But, in a mixed government, the King must 
 
 108
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 109 
 
 subdue his own subjects by reason, before he can con- 
 quer his enemies by force. 
 
 In order to allay the apprehensions of Poland, the 
 King quitted the Ukraine, after leaving garrisons be- 
 hind him, and led the rest of his troops to Leopol, 
 about the close of April, 1675. His anny, if it 
 deserved that name, was much diminished by sieges, 
 skirmishes, the severity of the winter, and disorders. 
 He raised recruits in the greatest haste, but was 
 forced to drag them out of the arms of consternation 
 and discontent. His power over the minds of men 
 must have been most extraordinary and equal to his 
 reputation, or the Republic would never have con- 
 sented to expose itself with him. He sent orders to 
 the Lithuanians to join him immediately, after hav- 
 ing written to the Grand-general Paz in a style that 
 was likely to make an impression on him; and then 
 formed his plan of action. Judging of the Vizier's 
 abilities by his own, and a wise man always does that, 
 he doubted not of seeing him fall u]ion the palatinate 
 of Russia, which would open a way into the heart of 
 Poland. Upon this supposition, he entrusted the 
 wise Jablonowski with six thousand men, and or- 
 dered him to intrench himself under the cannon of 
 Zloczow, that he might guard that pass. He had 
 only twelve thousand men left to sustain the weight 
 of the war. Leopol, though a weak and wretched 
 fortress, was yet of the utmost importance, as it cov-
 
 110 THE LIFE OE 
 
 ered Kussia and the neighboring provinces. At the 
 gates of this city, King John sat down to wait for 
 the enemy, and was greatly astonished when he 
 heard, in the beginning of July, that the Vizier had 
 entered the Ukraine to throw away his time in be- 
 sieging Human, instead of advancing instantly to 
 crush the little army of the King, that on this occa- 
 sion was so small and insignij&cant that it would 
 seem that the first object he could have had would 
 have been the destruction of this army with its great 
 leader, and then he could do what he desired at 
 pleasure, for it would have left Poland at his mercy. 
 The quick eye of Sobieski detected this great mistake 
 of his opponent, and no one could have seen the mis- 
 take of an enemy quicker than Sobieski, and he ex- 
 claimed, " Since he knows no better than this, I will 
 give a good account of his army, before the end of 
 the campaign." 
 
 The defense of the city was at that time a great 
 responsibility. In a war among the Powers of Eu- 
 rope, the worst that happens when a city is surren- 
 dered is to continue a prisoner of war till an 
 exchange be settled ; but, between the Turks and the 
 Poles, the mildest fate is perpetual slavery, which 
 to a brave man is more terrible than death itself; 
 from Kara-Mustapha there was reason to dread the 
 worst of horrors. 
 
 Human held out fifteen days against this great
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 111 
 
 army. The artillery of the Turks was of an enor- 
 mous weight, and their threats terrible. At length, 
 the place, havinc^ several breaches in its walls, and 
 being without hope of succor, was compelled to sur- 
 render ; but the Vizier, with a barbarity scarce to be 
 ])ardoned when a to\\Ti is taken by storm, glutted 
 himself with blood. Twenty thousand souls per- 
 ished in this awful slaughter; and many an infant 
 was seen vomiting up milk, mixed with blood, upon 
 its mother's breast. The Vizier's design was unques- 
 tionably to frighten Poland, and subdue it by means 
 of terror. 
 
 Human had cost him too great an expense of time 
 and men to undertake more sieges in the Ukraine; 
 ho therefore turned towards the left, and advanced 
 iy quick marches into Podolia. The same acts of 
 cruelty were repeated everywhere and it produced 
 two difTercnt effects: The pusillanimous surren- 
 dered at the first attack, in order to save their lives; 
 but the courageous sought only to die with arms in 
 their hands. 
 
 This last was the character of him who defended 
 Sbaras, a large castle covered with outworks, situ- 
 ated upon a hill, and making part of the large 
 domain of Wiesnowicski, petty-general of the Polish 
 army, who had garrisoned it with six hundred foot, 
 commanded by Des Auteuils, a French nobleman. 
 It was not easy to put the place into better hands.
 
 112 THE LIFE OE 
 
 He defended himself with vigor for two weeks, while 
 the Vizier raved and threatened at his usual rate. 
 There were several noble families who had taken 
 refuge in the castle and pressed Des Auteuils to sur- 
 render; hut he was deaf to the suggestions of fear 
 and threatened to turn them out of the place if he 
 heard any more of this cowardly proposal. The 
 wretches said no more; but, taking an opportunity 
 when Des Auteuils could make no resistance, they 
 gave him several mortal wounds, and threw him over 
 the walls. The Vizier himself was struck with hor- 
 ror at this act of villainy; and covering his natural 
 cruelty with the mask of justice, he cut off every 
 head that he found in the place, to revenge the death 
 of the commander. I am of the opinion that the 
 Vizier, in this instance, was actuated purely from the 
 best of impulses. A traitor is always despised, a 
 coward is hated of God and man, and when this was 
 coupled with the assassination of the brave defender, 
 it was too terrible and contemptible even for the 
 Turk, and in this way he showed his opinion of them. 
 The barbarian by these bloody conquests was only 
 preparing a way for a complete victory that he had 
 planned in his own mind. When he sat do^vn before 
 Sbaras, he detached fifty thousand men, under the 
 command of Sultan ISTuradin, with orders to attack 
 the King without giving quarter to any one, and to 
 spread destruction on all sides as he marched.
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 113 
 
 The King's army, which was encamped at Leo- 
 pol, had received some additions. Tlie whole 
 amounted to fifteen thousand men. Paz, though the 
 danger was extreme, made no haste to join tlie King 
 with his Lithuanians. It must be ever borne in mind 
 that the Lithuanians are really not Poles. They be- 
 came a part of Poland by the marriage of their 
 Prince with the celebrated Polish Queen, Iledwig, 
 and this will account, to a great extent, for the seem- 
 ing indifference of their commander in many cam- 
 paigns, and was often an occasion of embarrassment 
 to the King. 
 
 It is astonishing that the Vizier, instead of em- 
 ploying himself in taking weak places, did not come 
 in person to give battle to the King. This was the 
 affair of honor, the capital point which would deter- 
 mine all the rest. The Tartar whom he charged 
 with this commission had no contemptible reputa- 
 tion, and in a way he was considered one of their 
 ablest soldiers; the best thing, however, that he did, 
 and this is important indeed in the commander, was 
 to advance with great rapidity. His march resem- 
 bled a devouring fire; all the villages and hamlets 
 were burned by his order. He appeared as (piick as 
 lightning before Jablonowski's little camp. He even 
 made an attempt upon the intrenchments ; but that 
 general soon convinced him that it would not be an 
 easy matter to gain any advantage over him, and the
 
 114 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Tartar had a mind to preserve all his forces for a 
 more important campaign. The quickness of his 
 march, and his care to intercept all the Polish cou- 
 riers were so well conducted that, had it not been for 
 the flames which drew near to Leopol, the King, 
 who was never before surprised, would have been 
 now. Early in the morning, the Poles perceived 
 the enemy's army, consisting wholly of Turkish and 
 Tartarian horse, in a vast plain ending at the foot 
 of the mountains. Though it was only the month 
 of August, it snowed hard; there fell also a heavy 
 shower of hail, which happened to incommode the 
 Infidels more than the Christians. All the priests, 
 bishops, and bad philosophers in the Christian army 
 cried out, " A miracle," and the memoirs of that 
 time credulously state that it really was one. The 
 King made use of it to inspire his little army with 
 confidence, without neglecting the precautions of 
 human prudence. He did not wait for the enemy 
 in his camp, but ascended the rising grounds where 
 he ordered the Towarisz to plant their lances upon 
 the highest summit, in order to appear more numer- 
 ous to the enemy, who had already reached the foot 
 of the mountains. He ordered his own regiment of 
 dragoons to descend the hill, in small parties, under 
 cover of the bushes ; and these dragoons, by firing at 
 a very small distance, forced the enemy's vanguard 
 to retire. A Polish squadron filled the first va-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 115 
 
 cancy ; others pressing on, formed in the same man- 
 ner; and the whole army was soon dra\sTi up in 
 battle array, Avhile the lances of the Towarisz were 
 still to be seen upon the eminences. 
 
 The Infidels, seeing no more troops coming down 
 and trusting to their superior number, began the 
 charge with cries and bowlings which probably 
 would have had fatal effects upon an army that heard 
 them for the first time, but the Poles felt no terror 
 at the noise of their enemies; although their attack 
 was really dreadful and made them stagger. The 
 King restored order and suffered the Infidels to 
 throw away their first fire. They returned to the 
 attack several times and the Poles contented them- 
 selves with giving them a warm reception. The 
 King had placed a body in ambuscade to take them 
 in flank, and a battery was advancing upon a hill 
 to i^lay upon them. This was the moment for which 
 the King had waited to attack them in his turn. 
 Never was there a general more determined, nor did 
 the Polish troops ever display greater valor. The 
 Infidels, being attacked in front and in flank, gave 
 way at the second charge and from this instant the 
 confusion increased among them. They were pur- 
 sued to a deep morass where a great number per- 
 ished. They left between fourteen and fifteen thou- 
 sand upon the field of battle, and night saved the 
 rest. Nuradin had boasted that he would take the
 
 116 THE LIFE OF 
 
 King prisoner and present him to the Vizir, but he 
 narrowly escaped being taken himself and carried 
 the news of his own defeat to the camp at Sbaras. 
 
 The Vizier, struck with consternation, resolved 
 upon finishing the campaign with some important 
 blow; it was not by marching in person against the 
 conqueror and wresting from him his victory, but 
 by taking Trembowla, at the entrance of Podolia, a 
 fortress with large and strong outworks, hanging 
 upon a rock, the access to which is practicable only 
 in one place which leads to a little plain covered 
 with a thick w^ood. In order to succeed the sooner 
 in his design and spare the blood of the janizaries, 
 he made use of art before he had recourse to violence. 
 He was uneasy at the reputation of the Governor, 
 Samuel Chrasonowski, a renegade Jew who had quit- 
 ted the laws of Moses for that of Jesus and was more 
 zealous against his brethren of the circumcision than 
 if he had never undergone that operation himself. 
 The Vizir employed a Polish prisoner, Makowiski, 
 to represent to him by letters " that it would be rash 
 to persist obstinately in the defense of a place that 
 must eventually be taken and that he ought rather 
 think of deserving the victor's clemency than pro- 
 voking his wrath." 
 
 Chrasonowski returned a double answer; one to 
 Makowiski, in these terms : " I am not at all sur- 
 prised that, being in irons, thou hast the soul of a
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 117 
 
 slave ; but what astonishes me is the daring to talk 
 of the Vizier's clemency, after what has happened to 
 several places and thyself. Farewell: All the 
 harm I wish thee is that thou maycst live long in 
 the infamy and servitude thou descrvest. Annihila- 
 tion would be to thee a blessing but thou hast not 
 tho courage to confer it upon thyself." 
 
 The answer to the Vizier was not less haughty: 
 " Thou art mistaken if thou expectest to find gold 
 within these walls ; we have nothing here but steel 
 and soldiers; our number indeed is small but our 
 courage is great. Do not flatter thyself that we will 
 surrender for thou shalt never take us till we have 
 all breathed our last. I am preparing to give thee 
 another answer by the mouth of my cannon." 
 
 The Vizier, white with rage, ordered the place to 
 be assaulted with all imaginable fury. The place 
 defended itself beyond what could be expected, and 
 the M'ifc of the Jewish Governor, equally beautiful 
 with Judith and more enterprising, having no op- 
 portunity, like her, to cut off the head of the Vizir 
 while ho slept, made great havoc of the Turks in 
 sallies conducted by herself; filled up their trenches 
 and fought upon the breach. But what can the 
 brave do, when the cowards are more numerous and 
 demand surrender ? 
 
 Chrasonowski had the same inconvenience to 
 struggle with, which had been the destruction of
 
 118 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Des Auteuils and Sbaras. The nobility who had 
 taken refuge in the place, seeing a breach made and 
 grow wider every hour, and dreading the implacable 
 fury of the Vizir if they stood a storm, lost courage. 
 Their despair was the greater as they expected no 
 relief ; but they were mistaken in this particular, for 
 the Lithuanian army had at length joined the Poles 
 in the camp before Leopol. The King was upon 
 his march and, by calling in, upon the way, the small 
 body under Jablonowski, his strength amounted to 
 thirty-three thousand men, but, as there was no news 
 at Trembowla of this relief, it had no eifect in the 
 present critical juncture. Instead of continuing to 
 defend themselves, as they had hitherto done, the 
 nobles communicated their apprehensions and fears 
 to the officers of the garrison. The Jewish heroine 
 heard their consultations from a place where she 
 could not be perceived and there she learned that 
 they were fully determined to surrender. She at 
 once flew to her husband and acquainted him with 
 it, in the thickest of the fire. The brave commander 
 ran to this assembly of cowards : " It is by no 
 means certain/' said he, '' that the enemy will over- 
 power us; hut it is absolutely true that I will blow 
 you up in this very room if you persist in your base 
 design. There are soldiers at the door, with their 
 matches lighted, on purpose to execute my orders/' 
 The prospect of inevitable death put arms again into
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 119 
 
 their hands and they endeavored to wipe off this 
 stain. 
 
 The Vizier was not ignorant that the King was 
 marching to relieve the town and therefore hastened 
 his attack. The place had already been assaulted 
 four times and Chrasonowski, himself, feared what 
 the fifth might do. His wife mistook this just con- 
 cern for a mark of weakness that boded no good. 
 A woman, once over the natural timidity of her sex, 
 becomes more than man. This Roman of the North, 
 armed with two poniards, said to her husband : 
 " One of these is destined for thee, if thou sur- 
 renderest the town; the other I intend for myself." 
 
 It was in this moment of distress that the Polish 
 army arrived. The Vizier raised the siege, not dar- 
 ing to try his fortune against that of the King, but 
 ho was forced to it in this event, becaiise he took his 
 measures too late. He repassed the Janow, a river 
 near the towTi, with all haste; but half his army be- 
 ing still on this side of the river. King John attacked 
 it finally, crying out to the foremost squadrons, 
 " that ho required nothing of them but that he would 
 set them an example of himself." Indeed this had 
 distinguished him in all his battles and in all his 
 campaigns; to make himself one with his army, 
 shirking nothing, never hesitating, particularly in 
 danger and exposure. The battle lasted a long while 
 and the Turks lost eight thousand men and retired,
 
 120 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 
 
 in dismay and consternation, under the cannon of 
 Kamieniec. 
 
 The garrisons of the places which the Turks had 
 captured did not wait for the vengeance of the Poles, 
 but abandoned them to go and rejoin the army. 
 Trembowla owed its deliverance to the intrepidity of 
 Chrasonowski and gratefully confessed it. He him- 
 self was raised to military honors ; his wife contented 
 herself with the applauses of the nation. No woman 
 ever deserved it more than this brave, more than 
 Spartan, woman and, for the time being, all of the 
 absurd prejudices against her race and her religion 
 were forgotten. They only thought of her magnifi- 
 cent womanhood and proclaimed her as a heroine of 
 the nation. 
 
 Kara-Mustapha was now taught that superior 
 numbers, cruelty, and presumption are not sufficient 
 to insure victory. He staid some time at Kamieniec 
 and then directed his march towards the Danube. 
 This campaign had served to teach nations of in- 
 ferior strength not to despair when they have a great 
 leader at their head. 
 
 The army now retired into winter quarters and 
 King John went to repose himself at Zolkiew, a town 
 in the palatinate of Russia, nine miles from Leopol, 
 which made part of the estate of the Zolkiewskis, his 
 ancestors on the mother's side.
 
 CHAPTER XTI 
 
 IN the meantime, Warsaw was impatient to en- 
 joy aaain the presence of its King. The eight- 
 een months whioh had passed since his election 
 lie had employed in a manner that made him 
 still more worthy of the crown; but the crown was 
 not yet resting- upon his noble head. He therefore 
 comj)licd with the wishes of his capital and his 
 coronation was fixed for the second of May, 1670. 
 
 Persons who are fond of magnificent displays, and 
 do not consider what they cost the public, would have 
 boon struck with the splendor of this. All the mag- 
 nificence of Asia was seen united with all the ele- 
 gance of Europe. Slaves from Ethiopia and the 
 East, clothed in azure habits; young Poles in juirple 
 robes, a whole army dressed to the greatest advan- 
 tage; the ecpiipages, men and horses contending with 
 each other in splendor; the gold eclipsed by jewels. 
 Such was the procession in the midst of which Sobi- 
 cski appeared upon a Persian horse, going to take 
 possession of a crown which he had earned by his 
 virtues. 
 
 ^fohanuned, full of wrath and indiiiiiation at a 
 little Kepublic that dared to contend with him, or- 
 dered an army of a hundred and twenty thousand 
 
 Turks and eighty thousand Tartars, making a total 
 
 121
 
 122 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of two hundred thousand, to avenge the honor of the 
 crescent. The command of this army was given to 
 Ibrahim Shaitan, a man of cool valor, great experi- 
 ence, and a second Ulysses for stratagem. The sur- 
 name of Shaitan, which signifies " Devil," was in- 
 tended to express this last quality. Notwithstand- 
 ing the victories of her King, Poland was still upon 
 the brink of ruin. Thirty-eight thousand fighting 
 men were assembled near Leopol, and, with this 
 small number, King John marched against two hun- 
 dred thousand. After a variety of fortune on both 
 sides, yet without coming to any decisive battle, the 
 King found means to have an honorable peace rati- 
 fied for Poland, which was signed on the 29th day 
 of October of the same year. 
 
 Ibrahim had not yet done all that he could with 
 so gTeat a force ; but King John had done much more 
 than could possibly be expected. When he passed 
 the Niester, to stop two such armies upon the fron- 
 tiers, all Europe accused him of rashness and gave 
 him over for lost. But heroes judge better of one 
 another; the great Conde admired his conduct and 
 congratulated him on it by letter. 
 
 And yet, when we reflect on the cause of so long 
 a war, who is there that will dare to be an advocate 
 for severity? The Cossacks complained of oppres- 
 sion, were not listened to, and revolted. Common 
 justice and mild treatment would have quieted the
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 123 
 
 commotion. Wild and war-like and impatient of 
 restraint as the Cossacks were, they yielded readily 
 to kindness and to justice, but, alas! Poland was no 
 exception to the tendency of a nation toward a con- 
 quered people. Such conduct has invariably been 
 one of oppression; rigor involved their governors 
 in a war of thirty-eight years' continuance. The 
 Turks took part in the quarrel and every campaign 
 seemed to open the grave of Poland. At length the 
 catastrophe came, and gave occasion for deploring 
 equally the power of princes and the misery of sub- 
 jects. In four campaigns, Mohammed lost more 
 than two hundred thousand men, and expended sums 
 sufficient to have relieved millions of unhappy per- 
 sons. By so great a waste of men and money, what 
 advantages did he reap ? A few places in Podolia 
 and the Ukraine, which he was not sure of possessing 
 for any length of time. 
 
 On the other side, Poland thought itself suffi- 
 ciently recompensed for all the ravages, burnings, 
 depopulations and horrors it had suffered by being 
 delivered from the tribute yielded by a weak, im- 
 potent king and nobles ; at the time Sobicski was 
 not in council, but was fighting the battles of Poland, 
 turning back another great army that threatened to 
 overwhelm his country, and all this sentence of death 
 still upon him. No wonder Poland, with Sobieski 
 for king, felt amply repaid !
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 IT was now a long time that the Republic had 
 supported itself by dint of arms. At length it 
 began to take breath under the laurels with 
 which its hero had crowned it and the seven 
 succeeding years were years of peace. During this 
 period, some domestic affairs and negotiations with 
 foreign Powers deserve our notice ; but, as they come 
 short of the glory our ideas generally annex to mili- 
 tary exploits we shall still consider the King in that 
 capacity. 
 
 In 16S0 King John turned towards the House of 
 Austria, from which he expected great assistance 
 in an expedition the plan of which he had laid. He 
 knew, by his intelligence in the seraglio, that Mo- 
 hammed intended to attack the Emperor Leopold, but 
 as yet it was only a project, as the Turks generally 
 make immense armaments, there is time for action 
 while they are getting ready. He knew also that 
 Mohammed, depending upon the late treaty with Po- 
 land, had left Kamieniec and Podolia without any 
 great defense. 
 
 The loss of the former was incessantly regretted 
 by the Republic, and its recovery would bring great 
 glory to the King, for let the reader remember that 
 
 124
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 125 
 
 this stronghold of the Republic had been in the pos- 
 session of the Turks and it was an eyesore to the 
 King. Mohammed indeed had reason to be without 
 apprehension, if treaties between Christians and In- 
 fidels are obligator}'; but people form their ideas 
 of morality ujion the principles of the acre, and the 
 place in which they live. Rome was always ready 
 to absolve the Poles from the oaths they had sworn 
 to the Turks. Indeed this has ever been the shame 
 and disgrace of our so-called Christian civilization, 
 whether treating Avith nations of unbelievers or 
 whether treating with conquered tribes, while we 
 extract from them to the uttermost, we never hesi- 
 tate at any time when it suits our convenience to 
 break treaties, break oaths, and disregard our word 
 of honor. The King saw, therefore, that if he could 
 ]irevail upon I>eopold, who was threatened by Mo- 
 hammed, to be beforehand with him, he should have 
 time to seize Kamieniec on a sudden, under a promise 
 of uniting afterwards his arms to those of Leopold, 
 lie thought further of engaging in the league, the 
 Republic of Venice for a diversion by sea, and Rome 
 for a supply of money. 
 
 At all events Ivcopold and John resolved to unite 
 their arms by a treaty both defensive and offensive. 
 The Emperor engaged to furnish an array of sixty 
 thousand men to act in Hungary, and the King of 
 Poland, forty thousand, to be employed where it
 
 126 THE LIFE OF 
 
 should be thought proper. The two Sovereigns were 
 to march to each other's assistance as occasion re- 
 quired and whoever of the two should happen to be 
 with the army was to be Commander in Chief. This 
 last article gave it in effect to King John, for Leopold 
 was no warrior. 
 
 In the beginning of May, 1683, intelligence was 
 received that the Ottoman forces were arriving out 
 of Asia and Africa, in the vast and fertile plains of 
 Adrianople, their usual place of rendezvous when 
 they marched against the Christians. Mohammed 
 came thither with his Court, in order to be nearer 
 the scene of war and to give more life to the expe- 
 dition. Lie might have attacked the empire of Ger- 
 many, before the peace of Nimeguen, when Leopold 
 was engaged with Louis XIV, and then the empire 
 must have been destroyed. The Porte has been gen- 
 erally unfortunate in choosing its time to attack the 
 Christians, who, by tearing one another to pieces so 
 frequently, seem to, present themselves to its strokes. 
 But, after all, if the danger was less now than before 
 the peace of Nimegiien, it was still sufficiently great. 
 
 The General of the Ottoman forces was the Grand- 
 Vizir Kara-Mustapha, the same who had already 
 tried his fortunes against Sobieski at Trembowla and 
 Leopol. He still continued in favor with the Sul- 
 tana Valide ; and, having also gained the high regard 
 of Mohammed, had lately married his daughter.
 
 KING JOHN SOBTESKI 127 
 
 The Sultan does not give to every Vizier his Catis- 
 cherif, that is to say, a full power; but the present 
 had that honor conferred upon him, and porliaps never 
 more unworthily so; a general who had hardly ever 
 won a battle, who had done nothing to merit any such 
 honor, he had received this distinguished token of 
 regard from Mohammed from pure favoritism. 
 Never had ambition and pride, two passions that de- 
 voured him, a more extensive field in which to act. A 
 hundred and forty thousand regular troops consisting 
 of janizaries, Spahis and others; eighteen thousand 
 Wallachians, Moldavians and Transylvanians, com- 
 manded by their respective Princes; fifteen thou- 
 sand Hungarians, led by Tekeli ; fifty thousand Tar- 
 tars, commanded by Selim-Gerai, their Cham; and, 
 if we include volunteers, ofiicers of the baggage and 
 provisions, workmen of all sorts and personal serv- 
 ants, the whole must have amounted to more than 
 three hundred thousand men, thirty-one Bashaws, 
 five Sovereign Princes, with three hundred pieces of 
 cannon ; and the object of this mighty armament was 
 equally great, the conquest of the western Empire. 
 
 The Imperial troops were commanded by Charles 
 V, Duke of Lorraine, the same who was Sobieski's 
 competitor for the crown of Poland in 1674. He 
 was then young, but had already given proofs of 
 having the soul of a hero. The Duke's capacity, 
 much more than his rank, procured him the command
 
 128 THE LIFE OF 
 
 in chief which would have frightened any man but 
 himself, for he had only thirty-seven thousand men 
 to oppose that torrent of Infidels which came to over- 
 whelm the Empire. 
 
 The Vizir advanced on the right side of the Dan- 
 ube, passed the Save and the Drave, forced the Duke 
 before him and made a feint of attacking Eaab while 
 he detached fifty thousand Tartars on the road to- 
 wards Vienna. The Duke, perceiving the stratagem, 
 made a stolen march in his turn; suffered a check at 
 Patronel, and had scarce time to reach Vienna, where 
 he threw in part of his infantry to reenf orce the gar- 
 rison and took post in the island of Leopoldstadt, 
 formed by the Danube on the north side of the city ; 
 while the Tartars arrived about the same time on 
 the south. 
 
 Upon this occasion was seen one of those spectacles 
 which ought to be a lesson to Sovereigns and which 
 move the compassion of their subjects, even when the 
 Sovereigns have ill deserved their tenderness; Leo- 
 pold, the most powerful Emperor since Charles V, 
 flying from his capital Avith the Empress, his mother- 
 in-law, the Empress, his wife, the Archduke, the 
 Archduchesses, and a great part of the inhabitants 
 following the Court in great disorder. 
 
 The whole country was filled with flying parties, 
 equipages and wagons laden with goods — the last 
 of which fell into the hands of the Tartars, at the
 
 KING J0H:N" SOBIESKI 129 
 
 very gates of Lintz. Even this oity, which the Im- 
 perial family fled to in their lirst flight, did not seem 
 a safe asylum, and they were forced to take refuge 
 in Passaw. They lay the first night in a wood where 
 the Empress, who was far advanced in her preg- 
 nancy, found that it was possible to sleep upon straw, 
 surrounded on all sides by terror. Among the other 
 horrors of this night, they had a view of the flames 
 which already consumed Lower Hungary, and ad- 
 vanced towards Austria. The Turks were to be 
 dreaded only as civilized warriors, who conquer by 
 dint of valor; but the Tartars burned, murdered, 
 and carried into slavery. They knew nothing of ten- 
 derness, of love, of mercy or of com])assion. The 
 deepest caves afi'orded an insecure retreat; the trem- 
 bling victims were discovered by dogs trained to hunt 
 men ; and Tekeli, the Chief of the Hungarians, upon 
 this occasion, was a very Tartar. 
 
 The Emperor, by only the first excesses that at- 
 tended this eruption, paid dearly for his acts of 
 violence in Hungary, and the blood of its Nobles 
 that he had s])ilt. He could not be persuaded that 
 Kara-Musta})ha would leave behind him such places 
 as Raab and Comora and fall directly upon Vienna. 
 The King of Poland, who knew better, as is always 
 the case with those who make war in person, gave 
 him warning of it but without effect. 
 
 Vienna had become, under ten successive Emperors
 
 130 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of the House of Austria, the capital of the Eoman 
 Empire in the West. Solyman, the Great, was the 
 first Turkish Emperor that marched against Vienna 
 in 1529, after having been crowned King of Persia 
 at Bagdad, making Europe and Asia tremble at the 
 same time. He failed in his attempt not daring to 
 contend against the fortune of Charles V, who 
 marched to its relief with an army of eighty thou- 
 sand men. Kara-Mustapha, who saw only a hand- 
 ful to oppose him, flattered himself that he should be 
 more fortunate and began the siege on the seventh 
 of July. The Germans are undoubtedly a brave 
 people, but they have never appeared before the gates 
 of Constantinople as the Turks have before those 
 of Vienna. 
 
 The Vizir pitched his camp in the plain on the 
 southern side of the Danube and filled its whole 
 extent, which is nine miles. This camp abounded 
 with everything that was necessary for so vast a mul- 
 titude, money, ammunition and provisions of every 
 kind. The different quarters were commanded by 
 Bashaws, who displayed the magnificence of Kings; 
 but all this magnificence was eclipsed by the pomp of 
 the Vizir, who simply wallowed in luxury. A Grand 
 Vizir's retinue usually consists of two thousand of- 
 ficers and servants, but the present had double that 
 number. His park, that is to say, the space inclosed 
 by his tents, near the palace of the Favorite, was
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 131 
 
 as extensive as the city he besieged. The luster of 
 the richest stuffs of gold and jewels seemed to con- 
 tend with the highly polished glare of arms. It was 
 furnished with baths, gardens, fountains and even 
 curious animals for his amusement. He shut him- 
 self up with his young Icoglans oftener than with his 
 General Officers. The Iman, or Minister of religion, 
 who attended him in this expedition, threatened him 
 with the divine indignation, but the Vizir laughed 
 at his menaces, and plunged himself deeper in de- 
 bauchery. 
 
 In the meantime the luxury of the General did 
 not ill the least diminish the valor of the janizaries, 
 nor was the Turkish artillery at all less formidable. 
 
 Count Staremberg, a man of abilities and expe- 
 rience, who was now Governor of Vienna, and had 
 formerly been so to his Master, had set fire to the 
 suburbs, and by a cruel necessity, burned the sub- 
 stance of the citizens, whom his object was to pre- 
 serve. He had a garrison under him which was 
 computed at sixteen thousand men, but in fact 
 amounted only to eleven thousand at most. 
 
 The Duke of Lorraine, who had taken post on the 
 island of Leopoldstadt and did his utmost to preserve 
 a communication from thoncc with the city, thought 
 himself obliged to retire from it, by the bridges which 
 he had laid across the Danube and now ordered to bo 
 broken down. Never was there a general in a more
 
 132 THE LIFE OF 
 
 desperate situation. For, after he had thrown part 
 of his infantry into Vienna, Raab and Comora, he 
 had not thirty thousand men left to keep the field. 
 
 The Turks did not get possession of the counter- 
 scrap till the seventh of August, after repeated en- 
 gagements for twenty-three days together, with great 
 loss of blood on both sides. Their mines, their 
 continual attacks, the decrease of the garrison, the 
 waste of provisions, all contributed to give the utmost 
 uneasiness; and to so many real evils more imag- 
 inary ones were added. 
 
 The Duke of Lorraine wrote letter after letter to 
 the King of Poland to hasten his march. Notwith- 
 standing all the diligence he had used, his army could 
 not be got together till towards the end of the month 
 of August, 1683. He sent away the first bodies that 
 arrived, and while the main body was getting ready, 
 took up his residence at Cracow, where he did not 
 throw away his time. His fondness for hunting, 
 play and entertainments, never showed itself, but 
 when the Republic was at peace. He examined into 
 the details that he received of the siege ; studied the 
 situation of Vienna by a topographical map ; con- 
 sidered the position of the Turks in every view ; set- 
 tled his order of battle and regulated his marches in 
 order to fix the decisive day. 
 
 When he arrived at Tarnowitz, the first town of 
 Siberia, he reviewed his army which amounted only
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 133 
 
 to twenty-five thousand men and, consequently, far 
 short of the number stipulated in the treaty. Before 
 the review was over, he received a letter from the 
 Emperor. A copy of it may serve to show the power 
 of adversity upon haughty minds, and the return of 
 their pride as soon as the danger was past. " We 
 are convinced (says the Emperor), that, by reason 
 of the vast distance of your army, it is absolutely 
 impossible for it to come in time enough to contribute 
 to the preservation of the place which is in the most 
 imminent danger. It is not therefore your troops, 
 Sire, that we expect, but your Majesty's own pres- 
 ence; being fully persuaded that if your Royal per- 
 son will vouchsafe to appear at the head of our forces, 
 though less numerous than those of the enemy, your 
 name alone, which is so justly dreaded by them, will 
 make their defeat certain." 
 
 It must certainly have cost Leopold a great deal 
 to make this condescension. As soon as he despaired 
 of seeing the Polish army, nothing hindered him 
 from putting himself at the head of his owti troops; 
 but the past and the present made him feel the neces- 
 sity of another commander to whom he no longer 
 scrupled to attribute the qualities of a hero, or to 
 accede the title of Majesty, which lie had before re- 
 fused him. The Emperor concluded his letter with 
 a minute account of all the troops that he was as- 
 sembling, and which were to arrive forthwith at the
 
 134 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 
 
 bridge where they were to pass the Danube, assuring 
 the King that the bridge was already finished. The 
 sequel will show that the Emperor soon altered his 
 language in regard to King John, and was mistaken 
 in his facts. His letter is preserved to this day in 
 the archives of Poland.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE critical situation of affairs, and the 
 confidenco which Leopold reposed in the 
 Polish ruler determined the King to take 
 a step which exposed his own person to 
 danger. 
 
 Leaving his army to the care of the Grand-general 
 Jablonowski, he resolved to go forward himself, ac- 
 cording to Leopold's request, and even to give battle 
 without it if the preservation of Vienna required it. 
 In order to get thither, he had no route to take but 
 across Silesia, Moravia, and that part of Austria 
 which lies to the north of the Danube; three prov- 
 inces that were infested by Hungarians, Turks and 
 Tartars w-hom the Duke of Lorraine, with all his 
 splendid ability and courage, despaired of keeping 
 within bounds any longer. The King, in his march, 
 had only two thousand cavalrymen. Other kings, 
 oven in the midst of an army, have a second army 
 for their guard. His equipage was no greater than 
 that of the brave soldiers that marched with him. 
 Here was another instance of the democratic spirit 
 of the great King which endeared him so much to 
 his soldiers ; he did not claim for himself more than 
 he would concede to them. Nothing but a chaise 
 
 135
 
 136 THE LIFE OF 
 
 attended him, whicli even Prince James, his own son, 
 made no use of; they both traveled all the way on 
 horseback. It is not every king that is formed to be 
 a hero; indeed very few of them, but whoever is 
 animated with that glorious ambition must be able 
 to endure fatiguing marches, suffer hardships and 
 expose himself to dangers like a common soldier, 
 whenever occasion requires it. Napoleon the Great, 
 of more modern days, was a fair example of this. 
 John III was so far from discovering any fear that 
 he himself recovered the whole country from its con- 
 sternation. The peasants, who had sown only that 
 they might not reap, and regretted the fate of their 
 massacred friends, ran together from every hamlet 
 to see their Deliverer, and considered themselves as 
 already delivered. His own troops that he had con- 
 ducted through so many dangers, stood also in need 
 of being encouraged, and he saw to it that no oppor- 
 tunity was left unimproved to strengthen and en- 
 courage them. One morning, when he was a few 
 miles from Olmutz, an eagle flew by him on the right, 
 and, as the Poles had retained some faith in omens, 
 he told them a story out of the Eoman history, and 
 the flight of an eagle was considered as a token of 
 victory. Another day, upon the weather's clearing 
 up, after a thick mist, an inverted rainbow (a phe- 
 nomenon not common, but which sometimes hap- 
 pens) was seen upon the surface of a meadow. The
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 137 
 
 reader will bear in mind that the symbol of the Turk- 
 ish power was the crescent, and this rainbow formed 
 a crescent, but was upside do\\-Ti. The soldiers fan- 
 cied it to be miraculous, and the King did all he could 
 to confirm them in this belief. 
 
 At lencrth, the King reached the banks of the 
 Danube which it was impossible to pass by the bridges 
 of Vienna, in sight of the enemy. He therefore 
 marched to Tuln, a small town on the right side of 
 the river, fifteen miles from Vienna. Leopold had 
 written to John that the bridge at Tuln was finished, 
 whereas, they were now at work upon it. The same 
 letter told him that he would find the German troops 
 assembled in readiness ; but he saw only the Duke of 
 lx)rraine's little army and two battalions that guarded 
 the head of the bridge. At this sight he broke out 
 in a passion : " Does the Emperor take me for an 
 adventurer ? I have left my own army because he 
 assured me that his was ready. Is it for myself, or 
 him, that I come to fight? " The Duke, whose pru- 
 dence was equal to his valor, quieted his indignation. 
 
 The Polish army was left at a great distance ; and 
 yet, to the amazement of every one, it arrived be- 
 fore the Germans. The quickness of its march did 
 great honor to the Grand-general Jablonowski who 
 made his appearance on the fifth of September. 
 
 The German Generals, leaving their troops be- 
 hind, were come to attend the King and could not
 
 138 THE LIFE OE 
 
 help expressing some disquiet at the great day that 
 was approaching : " Consider," says the King, con- 
 temptuously, " the General you have to deal with, 
 and not the multitude that he commands. Which of 
 you at the head of two hundred thousand men would 
 have suffered this bridge to be built within fifteen 
 miles of his camp? This man has no ability to 
 command. We shall conquer him easily." 
 
 The Polish army was, by this time, passing the 
 bridge. The cavalrymen were universally admired 
 for their horses, their dress and fine appearance. 
 This was probably one of the most remarkable bodies 
 of cavalry that ever appeared upon a field of bat- 
 tle. Every man was a nobleman, that is, each pos- 
 sessed a title of nobility; every one of them was a 
 knight and commanded by their King, the most 
 knightly man of that age or any other age. The in- 
 fantry, however, was not so well clothed, and did 
 not make so good an appearance. One battalion 
 among the rest being remarkably ill-clad, Prince Lu- 
 bormirski advised the King, for the honor of the na- 
 tion, to let it pass in the night. The King was of 
 a different opinion, and when the battalion was cross- 
 ing the bridge he exclaimed : " Look at it well ; it 
 is an invincible body that has taken an oath never 
 to wear any clothes but what it takes from the enemy. 
 In the last war they were clad in the Turkish cos- 
 tumes." If this encomium did not furnish them
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 189 
 
 with clothes, it certainly armed them with courage. 
 
 The Poles, when they had crossed the bridge, ex- 
 tended themselves upon the right and were exposed 
 for twenty-four hours together to be cut in pieces, if 
 Kara-Mustapha had known how to make the most of 
 his advantages. At length the bodies of German 
 troops arrived, one after another, and the whole 
 Christian army was assembled by the 7th to the 
 amount of seventy-four thousand men. 
 
 From the camp at Tuln, they heard the roar of the 
 Turkish batteries. Vienna was reduced to the last 
 extremity, and many oflEicers of the first merit had 
 lost their lives. The grave continued open, without 
 ever closing its mouth. The dysentery, a disorder 
 as destructive as the sword, carried off sixty persons 
 a day. Staremberg himself was attacked by it. 
 There were not more than three or four officers left 
 to a battalion ; most of these were wounded ; and 
 nearly all of their chief officers were gone. The 
 soldiers, worn out with fatigue and bad rations, could 
 scarcely walk to the bridge; and those who escaped 
 the fire of the enemy died of weakness. The citizens, 
 who at first ])artook in all the labors of the siege, 
 had recourse to prayer as their only defense, and 
 ran in crowds to the churches where the bombs and 
 balls carried terror with them. 
 
 The Duke of Lorraine had just received a letter 
 from Staremberg who, in the beginning of the siege,
 
 140 THE LIFE OF 
 
 had the firmness and even confidence to write, " I 
 will not surrender the place, but with the last drop 
 of my blood." What a splendid contrast was the 
 spirit of this noble commander compared with that 
 of the cowardly, craven Emperor Leopold! At 
 present he had scarce a gleam of hope remaining. 
 His letter contained only these words : " No more 
 time to lose, my Lord, no more time to lose." 
 
 The _stupid- inaction of Kar^-Mustapha .^cannotJie-. 
 accounted for, except that it was a spirit of over-con- 
 fi.dence. It is certain that if at this time he liad 
 made a general attack, Vienna must have fallen. 
 But avarice extinguished the thunder that he held 
 in his hand. He entertained a notion that the place 
 of residence of the Emperors of Germany must con-" 
 tain immense treasures; and he was afraid thatTie 
 should lose this imaginary wealth by the city's be- 
 ing pillaged, as it inevitably would be, if taken by 
 storm. He chose therefore to stay till the place sur- 
 rendered; an event which, he continued to flatter 
 himself, would occur at any hour. Xor did Lis pre- 
 sumption contribute less to blind him than his ava- 
 rice. He jested at the weakness of the Christian 
 army, which he thought still weaker than it was, and 
 could not suppose it would have the boldness to come 
 and attack him. His intelligence was so bad that he 
 was still ignorant of King John's coming in person. 
 Of all the Princes in the league, the Vizier dreaded
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 141 
 
 him the most, and wo shall soon see that he had just 
 cause. 
 
 The King, when he was just going to march, gave 
 out the order of battle with his own hand ; the fol- 
 lowing is a copy of it, as found among his manu- 
 scripts: 
 
 " The center is to consist of the Imperial troops 
 to which we shall add the regiment of cavalry be- 
 longing to the Chevalier Lubormirski, Marshal of the 
 Court, and four or five squadrons of our horse-guards ; 
 in the room of which we expect to have dragoons, or 
 other German troops. This body is to be com- 
 manded by the Duke of Lorraine. 
 
 " The Polish army, commanded by the Grand- 
 general, Jablonowski, and the other Generals of that 
 nation, is to make the right wnng. 
 
 '* The troops belonging to the Electors of Bavaria 
 and Saxony arc to be placed on tho left wing, to 
 which wc shall add also some squadrons of our horse 
 guards, and other Polish cavalry, instead of which 
 they are to give us dragoons on foot. 
 
 " The cannon is to be divided, and, in case the 
 Electors have not enough, the Duke of Lorraine is to 
 furnish them with some of his. This wing is to 
 consist entirely of the troops belonging to the Elec- 
 tors. 
 
 " The troops of the circles of the Empire are to 
 extend along tho Danube with the left wing, inclin-
 
 142 THE LIFE OE 
 
 ing a little towards the right; and this, for two rea- 
 sons: First, to keep the enemy in alarm, for fear 
 of being charged in flank; and, secondly, to be in 
 readiness to throw the enemy into the city, in case 
 we should not make an impression upon the enemy 
 so soon as we hope. This body is to be conmianded 
 by the Prince of Waldec. 
 
 " The first line is to consist wholly of foot, with ar- 
 tillery, and to be followed closely by a line of horse. 
 If these two lines were to be mixed, they would em- 
 barrass each other in passing the defiles, woods and 
 mountains; but, as soon as we enter the plain, the 
 cavalry is to take post in the intervals between the 
 battalions, which shall be left for that purpose. This 
 order is to be observed particularly by our own horse 
 guards, which shall charge first. 
 
 " If we draw up all our troops in three lines only, 
 we shall take up more than a German league and a 
 half, which would not be for our advantage; and, 
 besides, we must, in this case, pass the little river of 
 Vien, which ought to be left on our right. We must 
 therefore make four lines ; and the fourth will serve 
 for a body of reserve. 
 
 " For the greater security of the infantry against 
 the first attack of the Turkish horse, which is always 
 very warm, great use might be made of spancherais- 
 tres or chevaux-de-f rize ; but they must be very light 
 in order to be carried conveniently and, as often as
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 143 
 
 the battalions halt, bo placed at their head. 
 
 " I make it my earnest request to all the Generals, 
 that, as fast as the army comes down the last moun- 
 tain to enter upon the plain, they will each take their 
 posts according to the directions given in this present 
 order." 
 
 They had only a march of fifteen miles to get at 
 the Turks who were separated from them by nothing 
 but a chain of mountains. Across these there lay 
 two roads, one over the highest part of the ridge ; the 
 other in a place where the hills were lower and the 
 passage more easy. The Council of War, being as- 
 sembled, was for taking the latter; but the King 
 determined upon the former which was much shorter; 
 nor did any of the Princes murmur, because he con- 
 vinced them that the fate of Vienna depended upon 
 a single moment, and that there are cases when ex- 
 pedition ought to be preferred to caution. 
 
 On the 9th of September the whole army was in 
 motion. The Germans, after several attempts to 
 draw up their cannon, despaired of success and left 
 them in the plain. The Poles were more persever- 
 ing, for Konski, Palatine of Kiovia, commander of 
 the artillery, succeeded in getting over twenty-eight 
 pieces and none but these were used on the day of 
 battle. 
 
 This march, which was encumbered with all sorts 
 of difficulties, continued for three days. Two of
 
 144 THE LIFE OF 
 
 them passed without the King's being seen by his 
 Polish army, which began to demand where he was 
 with the utmost anxiety. It appeared that the King 
 had been among the troops of the Empire, endeavor- 
 ing to encourage them to battle. 
 
 The army at length drew near to the last mountain, 
 called Kalemberg. From the top of this hill, the 
 Christians were presented, about an hour before 
 night, with one of the finest and most dreadful pros- 
 pects of the greatness of human power — an immense 
 plain, and all the islands of the Danube, covered with 
 pavilions whose magnificence seemed rather calcu- 
 lated for an encampment of pleasure than to endure 
 hardships of war — an innumerable multitude of 
 horses, camels, and buffaloes ; two hundred thousand 
 men, all in motion; swarms of Tartars dispersed 
 along the foot of the mountain in their usual con- 
 fusion; the fire of the besiegers incessant and ter- 
 rible, and that of the besieged such as they could pos- 
 sibly make ; in fine, a great city, distinguishable only 
 by the tops of the steeples, and the fire and smoke 
 that covered it. 
 
 The besieged were immediately apprised, by sig- 
 nals, of the approach of the army to their relief. 
 To have an idea of the joy that the city felt, a per- 
 son must have suffered all the extremities of a long 
 siege, and be destined with his wife and children to 
 the sword of a merciless conqueror, or to slavery in
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI , 145 
 
 a foreign country. But this gleam of joy was soon 
 succeeded by fear. Kara-]Mustapha, with such an 
 army, had still reasons to expect success though he 
 did not deserve it. The King, who was examining 
 the disposition of his forces, said to the German 
 Generals : " This man is badly encamped ; ho 
 knows nothing of war ; we shall certainly beat him." 
 It would seem that the quick, experienced eyes of 
 Sobieski, with that wonderful intuition of a great 
 commander, could quickly take in and notice all the 
 faults of an antagonist. It is well known that ^lar- 
 shal Villars, then ingloriously employed in the 
 Cevennes, foretold the defeat of Tallard from the bad 
 disposition of his troops at the battle of Ilochstet, 
 and every General who cannot prophesy in the same 
 manner ought to give up his command. 
 
 The cannon on both sides was the prelude to the 
 inqoortant scene of the following day, which was the 
 12th of September, a day that was to decide whether 
 Vienna under Mohammed IV should have the fate of 
 Constantinople under jMohammcd TI, and whether 
 the Empire of the West should be reunited to the Em- 
 l)ire of the East ; perhaps also whether Europe should 
 continue a Christian continent.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 A FEW hours before the break of day the 
 King, the Duke of Lorraine and several 
 of the Generals joined in an act of reli- 
 gion which was very much practiced in 
 those days, not so much in ours. They asked the 
 protection of the Son of God, while the Turks were 
 invoking the one God of Abraham by repeated cries 
 of Allah! Allah! 
 
 This cry redoubled about sunrising, when the 
 Christian army descended from the mountain with 
 a slow and even pace, keeping its ranks together, 
 preceded by its cannon, and halting every few steps, 
 to fire and load again. The front grew wider and 
 deeper in proportion as the space enlarged. The 
 plain was a vast amphitheater where the Turks, in 
 the utmost agitation, beheld the motions of their ene- 
 mies. It was at this time that the Cham of the Tar- 
 tars bade the Vizier observe the lances adorned with 
 streamers belonging to the Polish horse guards and 
 said to him, " The King is at their head," words 
 which filled him with dismay. However superior his 
 own army was in point of numbers, he now knew that 
 he must meet and must combat a leader who had 
 
 never failed of victory. 
 
 146
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 147 
 
 The Vizier ordered the Tartars to put all their 
 prisoners, to the number of thirty thousand, to death. 
 These prisoners had been gathered together, in the 
 march to Vienna, from towns and villages enroute. 
 They were composed of all classes, rich and poor, 
 bond and free, male and female, and of all ages. 
 Instantly he then ordered his troops to march towards 
 the mountain, and at the same time ordered a general 
 assault to be made upon the place. This last order 
 sliould have been given sooner, for the Christians 
 had now recovered courage, while the Janizaries, 
 provoked at their General, had lost it. 
 
 In the meantime the Christians were coming down 
 and the Turks ascended to meet them, so that the ac- 
 tion was soon begun. The first line of the Christian 
 army, consisting wholly of foot, charged with such 
 impetuosity that it made room for the line of cavalry 
 which took post in the interval between the battalions. 
 The King, the Princes and the Generals advancing to 
 the front, fought sometimes with the horse and some- 
 times with the foot. The two other lines followed 
 close upon the foremost. Konski, whose skill in mili- 
 tary art was equal to his intrepidity in action, had 
 the care of the artillery which was loaded with cart- 
 ridge-shot, and fired at a very small distance. 
 
 The scene of this first engagement, in the gi'ound 
 between the plain and the mountain, was broken by 
 vineyards, rising grounds, and little valleys. The
 
 14:8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 enemy, having left their cannon at the entrance of 
 the vineyards, suffered much from those of the Chris- 
 tians. The combatants, being dispersed about on the 
 unequal ground, disputed it with great fury till to- 
 wards noon when the Count de Maligni, brother to 
 the Queen of Poland, got possession of a rising 
 ground which took the Turks in flank, who, being 
 driven from hill to hill, retired towards the plain 
 and drew up along the border of their camp. 
 
 The Christian army, the left wing in particular, 
 transported at this success and crying out victory, 
 must needs push their advantages without intermis- 
 sion. Their ardor was unquestionably noble but 
 the King thought it dangerous. The German cav- 
 alry, being heavily mounted, would soon have been 
 out of wind in the distance between them and the 
 enemy. A still stronger reason was that all the dif- 
 ferent bodies having been engaged, sometimes upon 
 rising grounds and sometimes in valleys, had in- 
 evitably fallen into some confusion and disturbed 
 the order of battle. 
 
 Some time therefore was taken to repair the dis- 
 order, and the plain became the scene of a triumph 
 which posterity will always have a difficulty to be- 
 lieve. Seventy thousand men marched to attack two 
 hundred thousand, and the reader must keep in mind 
 that the Turks and Tartars were well instructed and 
 drilled in the art of war, and in accouterments and
 
 KING JOnX SOBTESKI 149 
 
 in all preparations of a soldier they could not be 
 excelled, and that they possessed qualities that made 
 them regarded as being the best soldiers of the 
 world. This will give the reader some sort of a 
 conception of the daring of seventy thousand men in 
 attacking this mighty host. In the Turkish army, 
 the Bashaw of Diarbekir commanded the right wing, 
 the Bashaw of Buda the left, and the Vizier was in 
 the center, having with him the Aga of the Jani- 
 zaries and the General of the Spahis. 
 
 The two armies continued motionless for some 
 time, apparently like gladiators in the arena, each 
 one waiting for the other to strike the first blow ; the 
 Christians in silence; the Turks and Tartars with 
 their deafening cries accompanied by the sound of 
 clarions. In this awful moment a red pavilion was 
 erected in the midst of the Infidels and close to it 
 the great standard of Mohammed, a sacred object to 
 the professors of the Mussulman faith, like the La- 
 banim of the Roman Emperors, or the Oriflamme of 
 the ancient Kings of France. But this imposture, 
 which sometimes inspires them with as much courage 
 as Truth can give the Christians, did not do its 
 office on this great occasion, for the Vizier had de- 
 prived it of all its virtue. 
 
 As soon as the King had given orders for the 
 charge, the Polish cavalry, saber in hand, pushed 
 vigorously on to the Vizier, whose post was made
 
 150 THE LIFE OF 
 
 manifest by the standard. The first ranks were in- 
 stantly forced and the Poles penetrated even to the 
 numerous squadrons that surrounded the Vizier. 
 The Spahis disputed the victory, but all the rest, Wal- 
 achians, Moldavians, Transylvanians, Tartars and 
 even Janizaries themselves, showed no alacrity, a 
 fatal effect of an army's hating and despising its 
 General. It is doubtful whether in all the world's 
 history we have a single instance where an army that 
 has not the most complete and thorough confidence 
 in its General has ever been victorious, and never 
 where they distrusted or despised their leader. The 
 Vizier attempted to recover their good opinion by 
 showing courage and good behavior, but he had lost 
 his opportunity. He addressed himself next to the 
 Bashaw of Buda and the other generals, who an- 
 swered him only with a silence of despair : " And 
 thou," said he to the Tartar Prince, " dost thou too 
 refuse to help me ? " The Cham saw no safety but 
 in flight. The Spahis were now reduced to their last 
 efforts. The Polish horse had broken and scattered 
 them, and the great green standard of the Ottoman 
 Empire disappeared, the Vizier turned his back, and 
 his flight made the consternation universal. It was 
 soon communicated from the center to the wings, 
 which were hard pressed by all the divisions of the 
 Christian army at the same time; the left by Jab- 
 lonowski, the right by the Electors, while the Duke
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 151 
 
 of Lorraine fell upon the center and the King ani- 
 mated the whole by his actions and his orders. That 
 immense multitude which, under an able leader, 
 ought to have surrounded and overwhelmed its ene- 
 mies in so extensive a plain, was deprived by terror 
 of all strength and presence of mind. Had night 
 been farther off it would have been a total defeat ; as 
 things were it was only a precipitate retreat. 
 
 The King advanced next towards the Janizaries, 
 who were left to continue the siege, but they had all 
 disappeared and Vienna was completely delivered. 
 The victorious troops would fain have entered the 
 enemy's camp, allured by the immense riches that 
 the Turks had left, but the temptation was a dan- 
 gerous one at this juncture. The enemy, favored 
 by the darkness of the night, might return and cut 
 in pieces an army which would bo too much employed 
 in pillage to make any defense. An order was there- 
 fore issued to continue all night under arms upon 
 pain of death.
 
 CHAPTEK XVI 
 
 ABOUT six in the morning the enemy's 
 camp was opened to the soldiers, whose 
 desire for plunder was at first paralyzed, 
 as it were, by a most shocking spectacle. 
 In several parts of the camp mothers were butchered, 
 some of whom had their children still hanging at 
 their breasts. These women were of good repute, 
 not like a certain class that sometimes follows the 
 army and are always a pest to the army and the 
 morals of the soldiers. They were virtuous wives 
 whom their husbands chose rather to kill than to dis- 
 pose to the lusts of the Christians. The children 
 escaped this slaughter, and five or six hundred of 
 them were preserved, whom the Bishop of ISTewstadt 
 took care of and educated in the religion of the con- 
 querors. It seems to have been a practice for the 
 Mohammedans to take their families with them upon 
 these campaigns. It seems so strange as we view 
 it from our standpoint, that they should have in 
 this way exposed their loved ones to all the horrors 
 and the vicissitudes of war. 
 
 jSTever did an army get possession of more abun- 
 dant spoil ; for the Turks, who are economists in time 
 of peace, display great magnificence in the field. 
 
 152
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 153 
 
 The hero of the day had his share upon the present 
 occasion. He wrote to the Queen that the Grand 
 Vizier had made him his heir, and that he had found 
 in his tent the value of several millions of ducats. 
 '* You will have no room," added he, " to say of me 
 what the women of Tartary say, when their hus- 
 bands return empty-handed: 'You are no men be- 
 cause you come back without plunder.' " 
 
 Among the many things which fell into the hands 
 of the soldiers there were two which attracted the 
 notice of all but excited the covctousness of none. 
 One was a large standard which, in the hurry of joy, 
 was taken for that of Mohammed. I'ut this was cer- 
 tainly a mistake, for the singular precautions that 
 the Turks used had always prevented this calamity. 
 The standard is enclosed in an ark of gold with the 
 Alcoran and the robe of the Prophet. This ark is 
 carried by a camel which goes Iwforo the Sultan or 
 Vizier; and, when the standard is displayed in bat- 
 tle, an officer of the race of Mohammed, called the 
 Naikbul-Eschret, was appointed to watch the event 
 of the combat ; and, when the victory inclines ever so 
 little to the side of the enemy, the guard at once dis- 
 appears with all haste from the field of battle with 
 the sacred deposirum. The Vizier, upon the present 
 occasion, accompanied this Officer in his flight. But 
 the Christians, who were fond of being mistaken in 
 this fact, have persisted in declaring that they pos-
 
 154 THE LIFE OF 
 
 sess the famous standard; and the historians, one 
 after another, not excepting the celebrated author of 
 the Annals of the Empire, have adopted their mis- 
 take. The other sacred implement that made part 
 of the booty was a picture of the Virgin found in the 
 Vizier's tent, with this inscription in Latin: 
 
 Per hanc imaginem victor eris, Johannes. 
 Per hanc imaginem victor ero Johannes. 
 
 The first line, " John, by this image thou shalt 
 conquer," comes from the Virgin ; to which John 
 answers, " By this image, I, John, will conquer." 
 It was evidently an imitation of the sign which Con- 
 stantino claims to have seen in the air when he was 
 marching to give battle to Maxentius. 
 
 The image gave occasion for much speculation. 
 Some thought it very remarkable that the Vizier 
 should have in his tent a presage of his approaching 
 ruin wh;ch ought rather to have been in King John's 
 possession. Others insisted that no miraculous facts 
 should be admitted without an application of the test 
 of severe criticism. The image, however, was placed 
 in a magnificent chapel, built by the Queen of Po- 
 land and the supposed standard of Mohammed was 
 sent to the Pope as an act of homage to the Lord of 
 Hosts. All the cannon remained to the Emperor and 
 the Empire also. The Turks lost a great many colors
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 155 
 
 and it is well kno^vIl that colors are never sur- 
 rendered but with great effusion of blood ; and in- 
 deed, if we take only a transitory view of two armies 
 disputing at first against each other, foot to foot, for 
 six hours, a spot of ground full of eminences and 
 vineyards, and afterwards coming to a general ac- 
 tion, this will be sufficient to show that it could not 
 be done without considerable loss ; but this loss will, 
 after all, be thought small and was so in effect for 
 so great a victory. 
 
 The next day after the victory was a day of glory. 
 Staremberg, the brave commander of the city, who 
 had 80 resolutely and so gallantly and with so small 
 a force of men, resisted the mighty hosts of the Turks 
 for two whole months, had come to pay his respects to 
 the deliverer of Vienna, for here King John thought 
 ho might show triumph without offending the Em- 
 peror, and entered the city over its ruins amidst the 
 acclamations of the people. His horse could scarce 
 get through the multitudes that fell prostrate before 
 him, coming to kiss his feet and calling him their 
 father, their savior, the noblest of all Princes. 
 Vienna in this moment of joy forgot that it had a 
 jealous master; and that master was their cowardly 
 craven Emperor. 
 
 Leopold, who expected to have a triumph in his 
 capital, though he had not been present at the battle, 
 advanced by the Danube, scarce venturing to cast
 
 156 THE LIFE OF 
 
 his eye upon the smoking ruins of so many hamlets, 
 villages, gardens and country-seats. As he drew near 
 the city he heard the firing of cannon, not intended 
 for him. He was wounded to the very heart with 
 this thought, and turning to the Count de Sintzen- 
 dors, said to him: " The weakness of the counsels 
 that you have had a share in occasions me this dis- 
 grace." These words, uttered with that imperious 
 tone which always crushes a courtier, affected the 
 Minister so much, it is said, that he died the next 
 day. A minister who should die of grief at having 
 advised a measure productive of misery to the peo- 
 ple, would deserve tears. 
 
 The Emperor suspended his march, that he might 
 not be a spectator of King John's triumph. A dif- 
 ficulty of ceremony contributed to stop him ; the ques- 
 tion was, whether an elective King had ever been 
 present with an Emperor, and in what manner he 
 had been received ? The Duke of Lorraine, who lis- 
 tened only to the voice of gratitude, answered, " With 
 open arms, if he has preserved the Empire." The 
 Emperor was attentive only to his Imperial dignity, 
 and gave King John to understand that he would not 
 give him his hand, which was the reception the King 
 of Poland expected of a Sovereign Prince. After 
 much negotiation, the matter was settled by arrang- 
 ing to have the two sovereigns meet on horse-back 
 upon the open plain.
 
 KING JOHN SOBTESKI 157 
 
 When the moment of the interview arrived, the 
 King of Poland, in a Polish bonnet and plume of 
 feathers terminated by a large pearl hanging loose, 
 clad in the same armor that he wore on the day of the 
 battle, with a Roman Buckler, on which were en- 
 graved, " Not the actions of his ancestors, but his 
 own," and mounted upon a stately horse with mag- 
 nificent e(pii])[)ing.s, ai)proached the Emperor Avith 
 that heroic presence which nature had given him, and 
 that air which his victory gave him a right to put on. 
 The Emperor talked of nothing but the services done 
 the Poles in all ages by the friendship and protec- 
 tion of the Emperors. At last, however, he let drop 
 the word gratitude for the deliverance of Vienna. 
 At this word the King, turning his horse, said to him : 
 " Brother, I am glad that I have done you that small 
 service." lie was going to put an end to the dis- 
 course, which grew disagreeable, but he obsen'cd his 
 son. Prince James, alight from his horse to pay his 
 respects to the Emperor : " This is a Prince," said 
 he, " whom I am educating for the service of Chris- 
 tendom." The Emperor, without saying a word, 
 only nodded his head ; and yet this was the young 
 Prince whom he had promised to make his son-in-law. 
 Such a picture can only be truly outlined before our 
 later and broader visions, as free dwellers in the free 
 country of our adoption and the true outlines of such 
 a scene serve to make the Polish King, regal democrat
 
 158 THE LIFE OF 
 
 as he was, a kingly sight indeed. 
 
 The King's dissatisfaction with the Emperor would 
 naturally have induced him to return to his own 
 dominions, after having saved the Empire. This 
 was what the Republic intended, and the Queen de- 
 sired ; and this is what he should have done. But he 
 flattered himself that Leopold, notwithstanding his 
 strange behavior, would still perform his promises. 
 The double hope of a match between an Archduchess 
 and his son, and of the crown of Poland's being made 
 hereditary in his family, which hope he had, no 
 doubt, deservedly nurtured, supported him against 
 the Imperial pride. 
 
 Kara-Mustapha, after his defeat, retired to Buda 
 where he expected his fate. His being the son-in- 
 law of Mohammed, was of great use to him, but the 
 Sultana Valide of still greater. The Sultans have 
 a particular respect for their mothers, even beyond 
 what nature prescribes. As Mohammed was full of 
 this filial respect for his mother, she suborned wit- 
 nesses who were glad to gain preferment by compli- 
 ances that are often common enough in courts. The 
 disaster at Vienna was imputed to persons far less 
 criminal than the Vizier. The Bashaw of Buda was 
 strangled and lamented by the whole Ottoman Em- 
 pire. It is true he had, on the present occasion, 
 given up the Vizier to the arms of the Christians but 
 such a defection scarce ever happens but to a despised
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 159 
 
 or detested general. The fault, however, was inex- 
 cusable and he paid for it with his head. Three 
 other Bashaws fell with him. The Cham of the 
 Tartars was deposed, a punishment which he could 
 not have deserved under another Vizier. 
 
 The same courier who was charged with these cruel 
 orders brought the real criminal distinguished marks 
 of his continuing still in favor; but it was upon con- 
 dition of his repairing this misfortune. For, van- 
 quished as he was, he still had an army far superior 
 to that of the conquerors; and the lists were again 
 opened.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE King of Poland began his march on 
 the 17th of September, to complete the de- 
 struction of his enemy, for he thought that 
 nothing was done while anything still re- 
 mained to do. He was followed by the German 
 army, but not so numerous as it was at the battle 
 before Vienna. 
 
 A body of some six or seven thousand Turks, all 
 cavalry, had passed the Danube at Strigonia, in order 
 to guard the head of the bridge belonging to that 
 town. It was commanded by a young man who was 
 the Bashaw, named Kara-Mehemed, born for war, 
 full of fire, ambition, and courage, and who was re- 
 solved to deserve his fortune. 
 
 The Polish troops always encamped before the rest 
 of the army. The King flattered himself with the 
 hopes of crushing this handful of Turks and taking 
 the fort of Barcan at Strigonia; but, not choosing 
 that the Germans should share in this victory, he 
 concealed from them his march. The 7th of Octo- 
 ber was a day of blood. The Turks being covered 
 with a rideau, the Polish vanguard did not think 
 them so near and was attacked before it could draw 
 up in order of battle. Disorder and confusion in- 
 
 160
 
 KING JOHTn" SOBIESKI 161 
 
 stantly seized the Poles; nothing was to be seen but 
 flying parties and heads falling by the saber. This 
 seems to bo but a reaction of what has often been 
 known in the history of warfare. The bravest troops 
 in the world, the best handled and the best led, will 
 sometimes, when surprised, become panic stricken 
 and become unmanageable and flee like cravens. An 
 instance of this, later in the world's history, was the 
 flight of Napoleon's old guard from the field of 
 Waterloo. 
 
 In the midst of this disorder, the King came up 
 with the main body of horse, but his presence did 
 not stop the ])anic stricken trooj)S. The young 
 Bashaw redoubled his activity, and the King had 
 scarce time to form his line. He received the Turks 
 with firmness and even charged them in turn. But 
 the Turks opening their ranks to inclose the whole 
 Polish line, and being stimulated with that rage 
 which distinguished the Mohammedans under the first 
 CailifFs, drove back the left wing, forced the right 
 and penetrated the center. The Towarisz were no 
 longer that intrepid band which, about a century be- 
 fore, had said to their King: "What hast thou to 
 fear with twenty thousand lances ? If the sky should 
 fall we would keep it up with their points." 
 
 In this universal disorder, when every moment 
 added the dying to the dead and it became equally as 
 dangerous to retreat as to resist, the Grand-General
 
 162 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Jablonowski besought the King to escape with his 
 son who fought by his side, and this was effected 
 with the greatest difficulty. 
 
 When this battle was over, the calm that succeeded 
 presented a deplorable scene. The Polish Nobles, 
 who had escaped the slaughter, with downcast eyes 
 and dejected countenance, surrounded their master 
 in mournful silence. The German Generals also 
 had an air of sadness ; but the King knew what was 
 in their hearts. " Gentlemen," said he, with that 
 candor which is never found but in great minds, " I 
 confess I wanted to conquer without you, for the 
 honor of my own nation : I have suffered severely for 
 it, being soundly beaten, but I will take my revenge 
 with you, and for you. To effect this must be the 
 chief employment of our thoughts." This eloquence 
 of the heart is perhaps superior to all the speeches 
 in the world. 
 
 The young Bashaw, proud of the advantage he had 
 gained over so great a king, with an inferior force, 
 was thinking, on his side, of gathering fresh laurels. 
 He dispatched couriers the same night to Buda, with 
 an account of his victory. The Grand-Vizier, with- 
 out losing a moment, sent a body of twenty thousand 
 cavalry, which arrived next day by the bridge of 
 Strigonia, the distance being no more than eighteen 
 miles. 
 
 The King of Poland, who had recovered his
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 163 
 
 stren^h by a night's rest, employed the whole follow- 
 ing day, which was the 8th, in collecting his scattered 
 army, and counseling it for the misfortune of yes- 
 terday, in animating it to vengeance, in combining 
 it with the Imperial troops, and in regulating the 
 order of battle for the morrow. 
 
 The letter he wrote to the Queen, dated this day, 
 informing her frankly of his terrible disaster, was 
 enough to freeze her blood. He told her that he was 
 advancing towards the enemy and that she must 
 expect the enemy to be defeated or bid him farewell 
 forever. 
 
 Tekeli, who was ordered by the Vizier to advance 
 with thirty thousand men, had not arrived on the 
 morning of the 9th when the engagement began. 
 Any one but the young Bashaw would have avoided 
 an action, or at least would not have fought it. It 
 will scarce be believed that twenty-six thousand 
 Turks, all cavalry, and without cannon, could ven- 
 ture a battle against fifty thousand Christians, pro- 
 vided with all the advantages of infantry, cavalry 
 and artillery. The two Bashaws of Silistria and 
 Caramania, commanded the wings. The General, 
 elated with his late victory and promising himself an- 
 other, was in the center. 
 
 The Christian army outstretched that of the Turks, 
 by a full half of its front, and was putting itself in 
 motion to begin the charge, when the Turks, who
 
 164 THE LIFE OF 
 
 were quicker, fell upon them with an impetuosity, 
 attended wath howlings, which it is impossible to de- 
 scribe. A torrent that tumbles from the top of a 
 mountain's brow is neither more noisy nor more 
 rapid. The Christians received them with such firm- 
 ness that not a man lost his post and with such a ter- 
 rible fire that brought men and horses to the ground. 
 The Turks wheeled round to recover a little, and in- 
 stantly returned with greater fury. It was owing 
 to the chevaux de frize, placed at the head of the 
 battalions of the Christian army, that they were not 
 broken. The Turks were often on the point of suc- 
 ceeding and as often repulsed. Never did squadrons 
 perform their evolutions with greater dexterity and 
 quickness nor was the excellence of the Turkish 
 horses ever more fully displayed. 
 
 The Bashaws that commanded the wings, both cov- 
 ered mth blood, were made prisoners, but the General 
 still did everything that could be expected from the 
 most determined courage. He forced his way into 
 the center but being wounded at length in two places 
 with a saber, and perceiving that the strength of his 
 troops was exhausted he thought of making his re- 
 treat. 
 
 The King of Poland, who observed his first dis- 
 position towards it, did not allow him time to execute 
 his intention but advanced at the head of his cavalry 
 to take him in flank and cut off his retreat. The
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 165 
 
 first squadrons were already seen retiring over the 
 bridge. The Christian army now gave a great shout 
 in its turn and, quickening its march, extended itself 
 in the form of a crescent and came up with the 
 enemy. 
 
 The whole was nothing now but a scene of slaugh- 
 ter to the Turks, whose sole object was to fly. Some 
 got to the bridge, but the cannon swept it from end 
 to end ; and, being built of boats, it was soon over- 
 loaded and sunk under the weight. Others ran to- 
 wards the fort but the fort could hold no more and 
 drove them back. Many threw themselves into the 
 Danube which was covered with men and horses, but 
 the shot reached them even here, and the river swal- 
 lowed them up. A body of eighteen thousand, who 
 would not attempt this dangerous way, stayed upon 
 the side of the river in much greater danger. The 
 Janazaries in the fort were spectators of this slaugh- 
 ter and expected this to be their fate. They made 
 all possible signals of surrender ; hung out a white 
 flag, and for fear it should not be taken notice of, 
 tore off the sleeves of their shirts and fastened them 
 to the ends of their weapons. But this day was not 
 a day of mercy. Their sentence of death was writ- 
 ten upon their palisadoes, whereupon the Polish sol- 
 diers saw the bleeding heads of their brethren. The 
 rage that seized them at this sight cost them fresh 
 tears which they might easily have prevented. The
 
 166 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Janazaries, upon the point of being forced when they 
 offered to surrender, made a discharge which did 
 great execution. It was an act of mere despair in 
 the last moment they had to live. Of the twenty- 
 six thousand Turks that were in this engagement, 
 only two thousand escaped before the breaking down 
 of the bridge. The young Bashaw who would have 
 deserved a second victory, if valor was a sufficient 
 title to it, was one of the number. 
 
 Every circumstance of this engagement, the blood- 
 iest of that age, was astonishing. A young war- 
 rior, who had never been in any command, ventur- 
 ing to combat with veteran generals and defying the 
 hero of the age; twenty-six thousand Mohammedans 
 fighting a pitched battle against fifty thousand Chris- 
 tians who were upon the point of being defeated; 
 these same Mohammedans, more than men in the 
 beginning of the action, and less than women in the 
 end; Christians imbruing their hands after the vic- 
 tory in the blood of eighteen thousand men who 
 begged for mercy; a truth which I would willingly 
 suppress if my respect for the fidelity of history 
 would permit it. The extraordinary courage which 
 Mohammed manifested in the beginning of this bat- 
 tle and in the battle of the day before, all proceeded 
 from one man ; the young Bashaw of Buda who was 
 youthful, ambitious and filled with enthusiasm; he 
 electrified his army. This was entirely the reverse
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 1G7 
 
 of former contests and he almost snatched victory 
 from the jaws of defeat. It is one of the marvels of 
 history. 
 
 The taking of Strigonia put an end to the cam- 
 paign and the armies separated. The Poles, before 
 they could reach their native land, had a march of 
 liundreds of miles. Christiana, then at Rome, v^rote 
 to the Conqueror that he had " made her feel, for the 
 first time, the passion of envy, for she really grudged 
 him the glorious title of deliverer of Christendom." 
 This was the ex-Queen Christiana of Sweden, the 
 daughter of the great Gustavus Adolphus, one of the 
 greatest soldiers of his day and the champion of 
 Protestant Europe; but his erratic daughter who 
 succeeded him finally, after many misadventures, re- 
 signed her cro\\Ti and entered the Catholic church 
 and went to live and die at Rome. 
 
 The scene ended tragically on the side of the 
 Turks. The deposition of the Cham of Tartary, and 
 the sacrifice of four Bashaws immediately after the 
 affair at Vienna, was not sufficient to appease the 
 murmurs of the Ottoman Empire. Tekeli was sent 
 to Constantinople, bound hand and foot. Kara- 
 Mustapha was strangled and his head carried to Con- 
 stantinople, a fitting end to the General who had no 
 sense of shame; a brute by nature, and possessed of 
 very few qualities of manhood, who owed his eleva- 
 tion to favoritism alone.
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII 
 
 THE King passed the winter of 1684 at 
 Cracow where he received the congratula- 
 tions of Europe. But In the opinion of 
 the Republic, he had done nothing if he 
 did not retake Kamieniec. Having, accordingly, put 
 himself at the head of the army, he advanced to- 
 wards Jaslowiecz, a town which was the second in 
 Podolia, before the Turks had made themselves mas- 
 ters of that fine province. They had set fire to the 
 town and left nothing standing but the castle, a forti- 
 fication of immense bulk, composed of eight large 
 towers, and situated upon a rock which is made a 
 peninsula by the River Janows. The Poles soon 
 carried this fort which had a garrison of five hundred 
 and thirty Janizaries and thirteen pieces of cannon. 
 The King continued his march along the IS^iester, 
 with the design of throwing a bridge over that river 
 and entering Moldavia, in order to hinder the Turks 
 from having any conomunication with Kamieniec. 
 The whole plan was disconcerted by the great dili- 
 gence of the enemy. The Poles had scarce begun 
 work upon their bridge before twenty thousand Turks 
 and a greater number of Tartars appeared on the 
 other side of the river. It was not possible to throw 
 
 168
 
 KING JOIIX SOBTESKI 169 
 
 a bridge over the river in their presence but the Tar- 
 tars did not want one to get at the Poles. They 
 surrounded the Polish army and harassed it on all 
 sides without ever coming to action, being equally 
 quick in running away as coming on, and always 
 ready to repass the river if they found themselves 
 forced to it. 
 
 In the meantime, Kamieniec, the object of this 
 campaign, was secured from all attempts, and the 
 Polish army suffered much in a country that was en- 
 tirely deserted. To lay siege, in proper form, to a 
 place of such strength, where there was a garrison of 
 ten thousand men and in the presence of a superior 
 army, was a thing impossible. The King resolved 
 therefore, if nothing more could be done, to erect a 
 citadel against Kamieniec, in order to pave the way 
 for its fall at a more favorable time. lie chose for 
 this purpose, at a distance of about three miles, a 
 rock that stood by itself upon the bank of the same 
 river that runs by Kamieniec and not far from the 
 Niester. The fort was completed in six w^eeks; a 
 garrison was put into it and annoyed the town 
 greatly, during the whole time that it continued in 
 possession of the enemy ; for no supplies could be re- 
 ceived but at the hazard of a battle or struggle. 
 
 The King, not pleased with his expedition, formed 
 a plan for letting Poland enjoy at least a taste of 
 the sweets of peace in the midst of war, the end of
 
 ITO THE LIFE OF 
 
 whicli could not be foreseen. Instead of going to en- 
 joy the amusements of the capital he took up his 
 residence upon the frontiers and while he restrained 
 the Tartars, who are always ready for invasions, the 
 Nobles enjoyed their fortunes, the merchants car- 
 ried on their trade, the lands were cultivated and 
 the peasants got bread. 
 
 At the opening af- the- -next-campaign, in 1685, the 
 King proposed in Council to resume the project of 
 the preceding year, which was to enter Moldavia, 
 in order to force the Hospodar to declare in favor 
 of Poland and make use of his assistance to take 
 jKamieniec. The recovery of this bulwark would 
 have made the nation forget all the miseries of so 
 long a war. The army was already assembling, but 
 a disorder detained the King. The Grand-General 
 Jabolonowski readily undertook the charge of all 
 that might happen. 
 
 While the army was upon its march, the King re- 
 ceived a piece of intelligence that struck him with 
 amazement. The Archduchess whom Leopold had 
 promised to Prince James was married to the Elec- 
 tor of Bavaria ; and the King guessed from that what 
 he was to expect from the other promise which re- 
 lated to the securing of the crown of Poland in his 
 family, by the intrigues, the money and the power of 
 the court of Vienna. Being naturally warm and 
 impetuous, he had great difficulty to restrain his re-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 171 
 
 sentmont till the end of the campaign and then take 
 his measures as events would liaj)pen. 
 
 The army had already got through two-thirds of 
 the Bucovine, a forest ninety miles long and as many 
 broad, when the enemy appeared. The two armies 
 drew up in order of battle with a defile between them. 
 The march was by no means equal, for forty thou- 
 sand Turks and as many Tartars were detached to 
 seize the passes behind the Polish army and cut off 
 their retreat. The Tartars were already seen in 
 places that they never before approached ; the in- 
 habitants of the country took refuge in the towns 
 and the towns expected to be forced. The alann in- 
 creased like a torrent till it reached Zolkiew, a place 
 not far from the frontiers where the King resided for 
 the recovery of his health. Though he was still in 
 a weak condition, he put himself at the head of the 
 Nobility of the neighboring provinces and some 
 Lithuanian troops which, coming from a great dis- 
 tance, could not join the army in time. But the 
 catastrophe was over before the King came. Jab- 
 lonowski, after he had been fifteen days in this dis- 
 mal situation, formed a plan for a retreat which 
 seemed impracticable. Behind him there was a 
 wood of alders which grew in a morass deep enough 
 to swallow up men and horses. He ordered his men 
 to take hatchets and cut down the trees close by each 
 other, with the branches uppermost. By this meana
 
 172 THE LIFE OE 
 
 he formed two bridges wide enough for five wagons 
 to pass in front. 
 
 The baggage began to file off, in the beginning of 
 the night, between the eighth and ninth of October. 
 The cavalry followed next and by break of day there 
 remained only fifteen squadrons. The infantry and 
 dragoons, with part of the cannon, came in the rear, 
 and were commanded by Konski, General of the ar- 
 tillery, a man whom it was impossible to surprise 
 and who had distinguished himself in an illustrious 
 manner at the battle of Vienna. 
 
 The Turks at length poured out of the great wood 
 that was in front of the Polish army. The cavalry 
 began the attack and charged with its usual impetu- 
 osity, but was so roughly handled that it retired into 
 the wood again to make room for fresh squadrons. 
 The charge was repeated in this manner ten or twelve 
 times, and the different bodies succeeded each other 
 so fast that the Poles had scarce time to load again. 
 The fire-arms on both sides w^ere no longer depended 
 upon; the Turkish saber and the Polish battle-ax 
 were to decide the point. On both sides there was 
 an equal degree of fury and true courage, but the 
 Poles fought with better conduct. A body of be- 
 tween eleven and twelve thousand men had been en- 
 gaged for ten hours against forty thousand. All the 
 different bodies supported each other like the bas- 
 tions of a movable fortress. Never was any man
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 173 
 
 possessed of cooler valor than Konski. The officers 
 and soldiers cried out to him to take care of himself 
 for the common good: " I have not yet received a 
 wound," he answered, " and I see some of you fight- 
 ing with several." Ilis behavior in this action gave 
 the nation so high an opinion of him that, at the 
 death of the King, later on, he was named among the 
 candidates for the throne and would have been elected 
 iiad it not been for the fatal mistake of permitting 
 foreign Princes to be named for the Polish throne, 
 to which his virtues gave him a fair claim. He was, 
 however, contented with living and dying first Sen- 
 ator and the laurels which he acquired, on this occa- 
 sion will continue fresh to the end of time. As the 
 night drew on, the retreat was completed, the enemy 
 appearing no more. The rear joined the cavalry 
 which, during the whole action, was drawn up in bat- 
 tle in a little plain beyond the wood of alders, ex- 
 pecting all the while to be attacked by the Tartars 
 who were within view. After all, if Konski had the 
 honor of executing this celebrated retreat, Jablonow- 
 ski had the glory of having planned it when it seemed 
 impracticable. 
 
 Jablonowski kept the field for three weeks longer 
 at the head of the invasion of the Tartars. The 
 Polish arms acquired great glory but no real advan- 
 tage in this campaign. The Moldavians were not 
 sul)ducd ; Kamienicc continued in the hands of the
 
 174 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Turks, and the whole design of the armament mis- 
 carried. 
 
 The King returned to Zolkiew, where he endeav- 
 ored to regain his health, not by that delicate and 
 cautious way of living which serves only to prolong 
 a state of weakness, but by following the diversion of 
 the chase. It has always been said that hunting is 
 the image of war. In most parts of Europe this 
 image represents its object of a very small size; but 
 Poland increases its magnitude in imitation of the 
 Asiatic sovereigns who hunt with a complete army. 
 The King kept in pay five hundred Janizaries, all 
 real Turks, taken in battle, armed and dressed in 
 their former manner. A circular space was marked 
 out for them in a forest, which they encompassed 
 with nets, leaving an opening that answered to the 
 plain. At a considerable distance, a line of dogs 
 held in leashes formed a crescent; behind which the 
 King, huntsmen and the spectators were drawn up 
 in another line. The signal being given, other dogs 
 were let loose into the forest and drove before them 
 whatever they found. In a short time there came 
 out stags, elks, auroxes (a sort of wild bull of sin- 
 gular beauty, strength, and fierceness), lynxes, boars 
 and bears, and every species of dogs attacked the 
 beast that was its proper prey. The beasts could 
 neither get back to the forest nor stay by the nets, 
 because the Janizaries were posted there to prevent
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 1Y5 
 
 it. The huntsmen did not engage in the combat, but 
 when the dogs were likely to be overpowered. This 
 mixed multitude of men, horses, and wild beasts, the 
 noise of horns, the variety of combats, and all this 
 apparatus of war, set out with proper magnificence, 
 struck the natives of the south, who were present at 
 it, with sur])rise; nor did the Kepublic murmur at 
 the expense, because it was not defrayed out of the 
 public coffers. 
 
 Hunting, however, was not the King's sole amuse- 
 ment. As the Diet was not to be assembled this 
 year (1086), and it was uncertain whether the war 
 would be renewed or not, he had much leisure upon 
 his hands. The very recreations of a laborious king 
 are a ])ublic benefit. The pleasure of building hap- 
 pening to strike his fancy he pitched upon a delight- 
 ful situation on the banks of the Vistula, about six 
 miles from Warsaw. A Villa now rose out of the 
 ground and the north was ornamented with the ar- 
 chitecture of Italy. But the satisfaction the King 
 enjoyed in raising this edifice did not make him for- 
 get his resentment against I>eopold, and he showed it 
 by declaring a resolution to quit the league. Leopold 
 saw that it was necessary to present him with some 
 other promise to keep him steady, and proposed to 
 him the conquest of Moldavia and Walachia to be 
 possessed as a sovereignty by his family, promising 
 him a body of German troops which should advance
 
 176 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 
 
 from the banks of the Danube to assist him in the re- 
 duction of those provinces. 
 
 This double crown was a strong temptation to the 
 King. On the other side, Mohammed, who daily sus- 
 tained fresh losses, made him an offer, if he would 
 quit the league, to restore Kamieniec with a consider- 
 able sum of money, to indemnify Poland for the ex- 
 penses of so long a war.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 I]!£_^i8 competition between the Republic and 
 bis own family tbe King was not able to decide 
 or did not make the proper choice. He was 
 |)rcvailGd upon by the Jesuits, who controlled 
 the Queen, and the voice of paternal affection, to 
 decide in favor of his family and leave to fortune 
 the interests of Poland. However, he disguised his 
 real design in this expedition under the specious 
 pretense of conquering only for the Republic, and^of 
 recovering Kamioniec in a more glorious manner by 
 cutting off all its succors, since it received none from 
 any other quarter but Moldavia. 
 
 It was a long time since Poland had seen so fine 
 and so numerous an army. It amounted to nearly 
 forty thousand fighting men. When it crossed the 
 Bucovine, a place where it was on the point of per- 
 ishing in the preceding campaign, they threw bridges 
 over all the passes which could either retard their 
 march or hinder their return. The reigning Prince 
 of Moldavia was Constantino Cantemir. He did not 
 stay to surrender, till the army was at the gates of 
 his capital, it was scarce got out of the liucovine 
 when a nobleman arrived from his court who told 
 
 the King that his master thought himself happy in 
 
 177
 
 178 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the prospect of being soon delivered from the Otto- 
 man yoke, to enter into the obedience of Poland ; that 
 he regretted his not being able to come in person to 
 wait upon so great a king ; and that his view in stay- 
 ing for him in his capital was to hinder the people 
 from leaving it. 
 
 The King, charmed with a conquest which would 
 occasion the shedding of no tears, hastened his march 
 to the plain of Cetzora, where the army halted. 
 This plain recalled to his mind the slaughter and the 
 glory of his grandfather, by presenting him with a 
 view of the intrenchments where the famous Zol- 
 kiewski, with thirty thousand Poles, repulsed an 
 army of a hundred thousand Turks and Tartars, and 
 of the pyramid, which was still standing, where the 
 names of that hero addressed the passenger in these 
 animating words : " Learn of me, how sweet and 
 how honorable it is to die for one's country," a 
 maxim that was engraved upon the King's heart 
 from his earliest youth. 
 
 When the King approached the town, he was met 
 by the principal inhabitants, but was surprised at not 
 seeing the Hospodar. Cantemir's situation was ex- 
 tremely critical. One of his sons was an hostage at 
 Constantinople, with four nobles of the country as 
 pledges for his fidelity; and on the other hand, a 
 Christian army was ready to fall upon him without 
 his having any hope from the Turkish forces which
 
 KING JOHN SOBTESKI 179 
 
 were, at this juncture, at too great a distance to de- 
 fend him. He had recourse, therefore, to a pre- 
 tended submission, in order to engage the conqueror 
 to spare his dominions, and, to exculpate himself 
 with the Porte, he took refuge with his family and 
 treasures in the Turkish army which was encamped 
 near the mouth of the Danube. His flight was not 
 disagreeable to the King who, as he resolved to keep 
 his conquests, would have been puzzled how to dis- 
 pose of the Hospodar; but he was displeased at his 
 having carried over his troops to the enemy. He 
 learned, from the Moldavians themselves, that he was 
 the worst prince that had for a long time governed 
 that country ; that having bought his crown at a very 
 dear rate, he was a professed usurer, and behaved in 
 the most oppressive manner and that the very mo- 
 ment of his flight had been distinguished by acts of 
 extortion which exceeded the ordinary measure of his 
 rapaciousness. 
 
 While those things were in this situation in Mol- 
 davia, the Walachians were far from being in a state 
 of tranquillity. Fear, and still more, the humanity 
 of the victor, which was loudly celebrated by fame, 
 induced them to submit and they obliged their Hos- 
 podar to send him a deputation, declaring that their 
 gates were open. 
 
 The King, being now master of Moldavia and 
 Walachia, extended his views still farther. Before
 
 180 THE LIFE OF 
 
 him lay the ancient Bessarabia, now called Budziac, 
 and all that vast country which lies between the 
 Danube and the Niester, up to the coast of the Black 
 Sea. The Crimea itself tempted his ambition; he 
 was pleased with the idea of chastising the Tartars 
 upon their own ground and seemed to intend open- 
 ing himself a passage even to Constantinople by ways 
 which were deemed impracticable. He therefore 
 resumed his march without quitting the Pruth, the 
 water of which was necessary for the subsistence of 
 the army in so dry a season; and, besides this, Avas 
 very wholesome and mitigated a dysentery that raged 
 among the troops. 
 
 When the Poles came to Gallacz, a town not far 
 from the place where the Pruth falls into the Dan- 
 ube, the plain was covered with a confused multitude 
 of Tartars, and, soon after, the Turks made their 
 appearance in good order. The King looked to- 
 wards the Danube, whence he expected the succor 
 which the Emperor had promised him, but Leopold, 
 attentive only to his own interests, was pushing his 
 successes in Hungary. The King, finding himself 
 deceived, felt all the danger to which he had exposed 
 himself. He had been upon the march full three 
 months and must now force his way through fresh 
 troops, superior to his own by more than half their 
 number. The only resource left him was to retreat 
 and this could be done only by weathering a storm
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 181 
 
 for two months together before he reached the port ; 
 and, if ho did not gain any great advantage over his 
 enemies in this campaign, he at least kept them at 
 bay with inferior forces. 
 
 A diet was to be assembled in 1687, but the Senate 
 put Tt off to save expenses at a time when the con- 
 tinuation of the war was so heavj' a burden. The 
 nation, however, though not assembled in form, mur- 
 mured greatly at the projects of its chief. His plan 
 for the ensuing campaign was to secure his conquest 
 of Moldavia by carrying his victorious arms quite to 
 the Black Sea. To execute this design, it was neces- 
 sary that ho should continue steadfast in the league, 
 notwithstanding his dissatisfaction with the Em- 
 peror, to the end that the Turks, being attacked on 
 all quarters, might be more easily dispossessed of 
 their territories on the side of Poland. But. Poland 
 began to suspect that these great projects were calcu- 
 lated for the benefit of his own family more than for 
 that of the nation, and those who had no doubt that 
 this was his intention observed in an angry strain 
 that it was maintaining a war of which there would 
 be no end ; and aiming at distant objects while the 
 enemy was suffered to continue undisturbed at the 
 gates of the Kingdom in a fortress which it was a 
 disgrace not to retake. The King could not help feel- 
 ing that the complaints were just; and the bombard- 
 ment of Kamieniec was resolved on.
 
 182 THE LIFE OE 
 
 The army began its march about the end of June. 
 The King attended the expedition in a languid and 
 exhausted state. It had now been more than thirty 
 years since he went upon the field, and those years 
 had been spent almost continuously in the hardships 
 and exposures and tumults of war, in which he had 
 been the principal and responsible actor, and his mag- 
 nificent frame and splendid constitution, which had 
 been supplemented by a temperate and well regulated 
 life, had begun to give way before the demands that 
 had been made upon him. His mind had lost noth- 
 ing of its former vigor; it was his body that was 
 losing its strength and he collapsed entirely at Jaslo- 
 wiecz where he was obliged to give up the command 
 and Prince James took possession of it with all the 
 ensigns of power. The Prince, therefore, taking the 
 thunderbolt out of his father's hands, advanced to- 
 wards Kamieniec, where he arrived on the 10th of 
 July. The bombardment lasted six days, with a most 
 terrifying noise. The besiegers played upon the 
 town with fifty pieces of cannon and sixteen mortars 
 and the besieged returned their fire from three hun- 
 dred. The Poles soon discovered that their powder 
 was being consumed to little purpose, and therefore 
 slackened their fire when they saw the Tartars pass 
 the Niester and advance towards them. However, 
 nothing decisive happened between the two armies, 
 which only cannonaded each other across the river
 
 KIXG JOHN" SOBIESKI 183 
 
 with little loss. The campaign ended with no other 
 exploit than the min of a few houses in Kamieniee 
 and the death of three or four hundred Tartars who 
 fell into an ambuscade; inconsiderable effects to be 
 produced by so great a cause.
 
 CHAPTEE XX 
 
 THE efforts of the league were attended 
 with success in other places; but the 
 King, when he was informed of the horrid 
 tragedy that the Austrians had enacted in 
 Hungary, repented that he had not set that crown 
 upon the head of his son, when the Hungarians, won 
 by his virtues, solicited him to do it after the battle 
 of Vienna. He observed too that his health was 
 decaying and hoped at least to transmit to him that 
 which he wore himself and resolved to take advan- 
 tage of the approaching Diet to make the Poles con- 
 cur in his design, but this Diet afforded only a scene 
 of distraction. 
 
 At the same time, however (1688), a scene of more 
 joyful sort was preparing for the King at Wilna, the 
 capital of Lithuania, a city which, having never seen 
 its sovereign, was impatient to pay him its homage. 
 The people took no part in quarrels of state; they 
 were attentive only to the glory and the benevolent 
 disposition of their sovereign and left it to the 
 Grandees to criticise his faults. He was received 
 upon the road, and in that great city with those ac- 
 clamations and signs of joy which are never extorted 
 from a free people against their will. 
 
 184
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 185 
 
 From Wilna he repaired to Warsaw, where the 
 Queen was impatient to see him, as much for the 
 pleasure of shariufj; with him in the government, as 
 for the love she bore him. She prevailed upon him 
 to submit to a course of medicine before he took up 
 arms and to concert measures for marrying Prince 
 James to a widow Avhose immense possessions were 
 covered all over Europe. This widow was the heir- 
 ess of the house of Radziwil, the same Prince James 
 would have married once before in the year 1680, 
 and which he lost by means of the Elector of Bran- 
 denburg, who procured her for his son. Prince Louis. 
 The young husband did not long enjoy his acquisi- 
 tion, and the Court of Poland negotiated at Berlin to 
 get possession of the widow, with greater hopes of 
 success than ever. The treaty was already far ad- 
 vanced and the Polish envoy sent word that Prince 
 James' presence was necessary to insure success. 
 The Prince flew to Berlin, entered the town in- 
 cognito, and had a conference with the French min- 
 ister, who was ordered by his master to promote the 
 match with a view to taking off King John from the 
 interests of the House of Austria. He had a private 
 interview with the young widow and got from her a 
 formal promise to marry him in eight months (by 
 which time the conventional period of mourning 
 would be out), upon pain of forfeiting her entire 
 fortune. The marriage-presents were given and
 
 186 THE LIFE OF 
 
 received on each side and the Prince set out for War- 
 saw, perfectly satisfied with his success. In conse- 
 quence of this match he would be in possession of 
 four duchies in the heart of Poland, acquire great 
 personal weight and be a considerable step nearer to 
 the throne. 
 
 The news of the Prince's success was received with 
 great joy by the Court of Warsaw, and particularly 
 by the King, who loved his son tenderly and stood 
 in great need of laying his heart open to the impres- 
 sions of joy. But it was only a transitory gleam, 
 which was soon to be followed by grief. While 
 Prince James was returning home with his promise, 
 a more fortunate rival actually married the lady at 
 Berlin. The husband was Prince Charles of ISTew- 
 burg, third son to the Elector Palatine, and brother 
 to the Empress. The Elector of Brandenburg, to 
 whom Leopold held out the alluring object of a regal 
 crown, favored this act of treachery, if the ill offices, 
 which the maxims of politics have sanctified, if the 
 morality of sovereigns can be called by that name. 
 It was still the Emperor Leopold who thwarted all 
 the views of his ally, the King of Poland, who had 
 saved him from destruction. 
 
 This mortifying blow was received by the Court of 
 Poland with all the transports of grief and revenge. 
 If John had been master of a force equal to that of 
 Leopold or Louis XIV, he would not have been af-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 187 
 
 fronted with impunity in the person of his son. As 
 things were, he submitted to the only expedient he 
 had left, and acted as his weakness, and indeed wis- 
 dom itself, required. lie consulted the Polish law- 
 yers concerning the promise given by the faithless 
 princess, and the penalty to which she had subjected 
 herself. They were of the opinion that the King had 
 a right to confiscate all her estates, but such a sen- 
 tence could bo pronounced only by the tribunal of 
 the nation assembled in a general diet, and the na- 
 tion was, at this juncture, wholly intent upon war. 
 The negotiation of Berlin, and the weak state of the 
 King's health, put oif, till the month of August, the 
 opening of the campaign, which was attended with no 
 success. 
 
 The King could not quit his designs upon the two 
 c^o^^^ls of Moldavia and Walachia, which he hoped 
 to leave to his family, if that of Poland should pass 
 into other hands. The report that he was so much 
 taken up with this great object as to forget Kamieniec 
 gained credence, and therefore he gave affront to the 
 whole nation, and helped create dissatisfaction with 
 his administration. 
 
 The year 1G87 began and ended in sorrow, but the 
 King had a larger share of it than his subjects. A 
 Diet in which all his views proved abortive; the mis- 
 carriage of his attempts upon Kamieniec; a drouth 
 that desolated the kingdom ; the jealousies of oppo-
 
 188 THE LIFE OF 
 
 site factions; the dissensions that reigned among all 
 the orders of the state; all these circumstances filled 
 his mind with melancholy. 
 
 He was also accused of aiming at absolute power. 
 There was not much to sustain such a suspicion, 
 though doubtless there were great temptations to do 
 so. The great king had come to realize the utter 
 hopelessness of maintaining the power of Poland and 
 contiinuing her a great power, with her absurd coa:: 
 stitution. There are only two forms of government 
 that have any right to exist, and one is an absolute 
 monarchy, where all is invested in the hands of a 
 sovereign, and the other is a pure democracy. The 
 latter is always preferable, but such form of govern- 
 ment as Poland possessed was the most unfortunate 
 of all : A republic where the great mass of the peo- 
 ple had no voice; where the governor was in power 
 with the nobility; with the ambitions and the in- 
 trigues of the nobility, there was nothing in it but 
 weakness. The King, no doubt, saw this and I be- 
 lieve had tried to remedy this evil rather than to 
 obtain a permanent crown for his family. Some 
 indications of a desire for absolute power undoubt- 
 edly manifested themselves to the over-suspicious ; 
 but, if he was seriously bent upon it, is it credible 
 that he would have called together the Diet so often ? 
 He could not be ignorant that when a nation is assem- 
 bled it is always superior to its chief, but he pre-
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 189 
 
 ferred the interests of the Republic much more than 
 his own authority and this was manifest from the 
 fact that no other sovereign consulted the nation so 
 often by calling together its Diet as he did.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE approach of the winter of 1691 gave 
 time to the princes of the Christian league 
 to foiTQ new plans and recover their 
 strength. The King of Poland was still 
 hesitating between Leopold and Louis XIV. His 
 reputation in Europe was the greatest of all the 
 European sovereigns, but his power was much less 
 and, therefore, he endeavored to keep terms with 
 them both. His inclinations were for France, but 
 his interest again determined him to side with the 
 House of Austria. Erance indeed did not fail to 
 make him tempting offers, but the House of Austria, 
 by being so near his dominions, was in a condition 
 to fulfill the promises it gave whenever it was dis- 
 posed to keep its word, but there remained the an- 
 noying fact that it never kept its word with the 
 King, and yet, in spite of all this, by some fatality 
 which is not understood, the King of Poland was still 
 disposed toward Leopold. The King, at this very 
 juncture, had a family concern to settle with that 
 court. He wanted to marry his son, Prince James ; 
 and there was no fit match for him in Poland, since 
 that kingdom had lost its richest heiress. France, 
 indeed, might have offered a princess of the blood, 
 
 190
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 191 
 
 but it was resolved to have the daughter of a sover- 
 eign; and Leopold proposed a daughter of the 
 Elector of Palatine. She was sister to that very 
 Charles of Newburg, of whom Prince James had so 
 much cause to complain. By this marriage the 
 house of Sobieski became allied to all the crowns of 
 Europe, and Prince James was brother-in-law to the 
 Emperor. This was the first instance of the Em- 
 peror's having dealt sincerely with the King of 
 Poland, and even in this he consulted rather his own 
 ends than those of his ally whom he fixed more firmly 
 than ever in his interest by this new connection. 
 
 The Emperor being thus appeased and the French 
 faction humbled, the marriage rejoicings were re- 
 sumed with great splendor, when all was again dis- 
 turbed by the disagreement that rose in the royal 
 family. The Queen of Poland, who still ruled in 
 her husband's heart, had a mind to make the Princess 
 of Poland sensible of her power; the latter was not 
 so tractable as the former expected ; Prince James, 
 let it be said to his credit and honor, in this unfortu- 
 nate family dissension in the most chivalrous manner 
 took sides with his young wife. 
 
 His brother, Prince Alexander, was now no longer 
 a child, and began to fix his eyes upon the splendors 
 of the throne. The charms that accompany the first 
 bloom of youth, an open countenance, an agreeable 
 figure, a graceful air, and gentle manners, had gained
 
 192 THE LIFE OF 
 
 for him the heart of his mother; and his obedience 
 to her, in all of her whims and desires, probably had 
 more to do with this than anything else. Even the 
 nation was already prepossessed in his favor ; and it 
 is the nation that makes the king. It was a saying 
 current in the kingdom, that the youngest was the 
 son of the King, and the eldest the son of the Grand- 
 Marshal. Besides, as the letter "J" had been 
 found in the collection of the Polish prophecies to 
 point out King John : the letter " A " was now dis- 
 covered to begin the name of his successor. 
 
 Prince Alexander was, therefore, considered as a 
 rival by Prince James, whose jealousy rose to a 
 higher pitch than ever when the King left Warsaw 
 on the 13th of June, 1691, and took with him this 
 favorite son to present him to the army and form him 
 for military glory, and yet the elder son could not 
 complain of being slighted by his august father. 
 The King had invited him to accompany him with 
 the Princess of Poland, till the expedition was ended. 
 But Prince James, who was dissatisfied with every- 
 thing in his present fit of ill humor, answered that 
 he would not expose his wife to the harsh treatment 
 of the Queen and that as to himself, having no set- 
 tled revenue, he could not bear the expense of the 
 campaign. He thought proper to conceal the true 
 reason and the King, who might have laid his com- 
 mands upon him, left him to his own inclinations
 
 KING JOHN SOBIESKI 193 
 
 and departed without him. 
 
 The next day the Prince was still more uneasy, 
 and, having- advised the Austrian ambassador, gave 
 notice to the Grand-Chancellor that he would leave 
 the kingdom if Prince Alexander continued his jour- 
 ney ; nor will Poland, added he, disapprove of my 
 retiring when J shall inform the ])ublic, in a mani- 
 festo, that the King intends the throne for the 
 younger son, in prejudice of his elder. It is possible 
 that the Queen had formed this project at this time. 
 The whole life of the Queen, since she became the 
 wife of the King, had been one of constant intrigue, 
 su])plementcd always by the Jesuit priest who was 
 constantly in court to do her bidding. But the King 
 certainly never thought of it, and had he been at all 
 prejudiced in favor of his younger sons at an age 
 when the dispositions of the mind do not yet unfold 
 themselves, it is ])robal)le he would have leaned to- 
 ward Prince Constantino, the youngest, who was his 
 very i)icture. Put Prince James' passion would suf- 
 fer him to attend to nothing. 
 
 The King ordered him to be told that he might set 
 out with a father's curse attending him whenever he 
 pleased ; but that he must never expect to see his 
 sovereign and his father. This menace had no effect 
 upon the Prince, who answered that he was going 
 to retire to the Netherlands, of which Spain had of- 
 fered him the government. The King was highly
 
 194 THE LIFE OF 
 
 exasperated and had thoughts of punishing him ; his 
 punishment had already begam, for the couriers 
 dared not visit him and even his friends forsook him. 
 The Jesuit Vota and the Venetian Kesident, both of 
 them eloquent and insinuating, endeavored in a pri- 
 vate conference to convince him of the weakness of 
 his jealousy against his brother whose tender age 
 entitled him to a few empty caresses ; of the injustice 
 of his suspicions with regard to the succession to the 
 crown ; and of the enormity and the danger of rebel- 
 ling against his father and King. They prevailed 
 upon him to ask pardon and told him that he would 
 be very happy if he could obtain it. The Prince, 
 therefore, went to the army to throw himself at the 
 King's feet. The father soon forgave him and per- 
 mitted him to share the laurels which he expected to 
 gather at this campaign. It was an affecting sight 
 to see the hero between his two sons, one restored to 
 favor and already inured to arms; the other already 
 beloved and going to learn the way to conquest and 
 all three marching against the enemies of their coun- 
 try. The Queen and the Princess of Poland stayed 
 behind upon the frontier and, womanlike, concealed 
 their mutual aversion. 
 
 It was resolved in the council of war held by the 
 Poles to enter Walachia, as the siege of Kamieniec 
 still appeared impracticable with their present forces, 
 to make themselves masters by the way of Soroc, a
 
 KING JOHX SOBIESKI 195 
 
 Turkish fortress upon the Niester. In effect, Soroc 
 and Nerzecum were all the fruit of the campaign. 
 The vast quantity of snow which fell uncommonly 
 early, froze the soldiers, broke up the roads, embar- 
 rassed the artilleiy and the wagons, and fatigued 
 both men and horses. When the Polish army ar- 
 rived upon the frontiers of the kingdom they looked 
 as if they had come from a defeat. This was the 
 fourth time that the King failed in his attempts upon 
 Moldavia and Walachia, and the Emperor Txiopold 
 wanted but little of being equally or more unfortu- 
 nate in Hungary. 
 
 This campaign was the last that the King of 
 Poland ever made. It was not his advanced age that 
 made it necessary for him to retire (for he was only 
 sixty-one), but forty years spent in war, during 
 which he never spared his own person; ten in the 
 great offices of the Kepublic; eighteen upon a throne 
 which required constant action ; all these labors had 
 worn out his body and his mind felt the effects of it. 
 He resigned the command of the army to the Grand- 
 General Jablonowski, in order to apply himself 
 wholly to the internal administration of the kingdom, 
 and even this was above his strength. He was in 
 the ambiguous situation of being too far gone to 
 govern himself and not far enough to be wholly 
 governed by others.
 
 CHAPTEE XXII 
 
 THE time drew near when the King of 
 Poland was to end his reign, his life, and 
 his sufferings. It was now four years 
 since he had given up the command of the 
 army; he had lately quitted the frontier, where his 
 presence kept the enemy in awe, and fixed his resi- 
 dence at Warsaw on account of his health. He 
 labored at the same time under the effects of his old 
 wounds, the gout, the gravel, many symptoms of the 
 dropsy, and a gTeat difficulty of breathing; and it 
 was uncertain by which he would fall. He daily 
 lost some portion of that ethereal fire which ani- 
 mates the human frame ; nor could the furs in which 
 he lay wrapped upon the couch restore him either 
 motion or spirits. 
 
 The Turks and Tartars had some knowledge of his 
 condition, but they considered him as a lion, to whom 
 the other animals showed respect, even when he is 
 asleep. They attempted nothing of importance^ at a 
 time when they might have done what they pleased ; 
 only a few Tartars made their incursions which were 
 restrained by the Grand-General Jablonowski. 
 A circumstance still more extraordinary is that 
 
 the King's illness contributed also to save the nation 
 
 196
 
 KING JOHX SOBIESKI 197 
 
 from its own madness. Being just upon the point 
 of losing him, its attention was more taken up \dth 
 the thoughts of a future leader than with the divi- 
 sions that had disturbed its |)eace for the three last 
 years. They who carried their views beyond their 
 own country were divided between the Electors of 
 Bavaria and Saxony and the Prince of Conti. They 
 wlio were iov choosing at home, mentioned Joblon- 
 owski or Konski ; the partisans of the present royal 
 family talked of Prince James or Prince Alexander. 
 The King, in the few easy moments that his disease 
 left him, had a prospect of nothing but misfortunes; 
 his kingdom disturbed by factions within, and at- 
 tacked by enemies without; the crown, which he had 
 gained by merit and worn with glory, just going to 
 become a prey to factions ; uncertain whether it would 
 continue in his family, and that family, by separat- 
 ing into different interests, completing the anxieties 
 of his mind. Ii^ this situation he gave up everything 
 to fortune, and, next to the consolations of religion, 
 had recourse to letters and philosophy for mitigating 
 the evils he felt. 
 
 During the whole winter of 1G96 weekly reports 
 of his death were spread over Europe and Asia. At 
 the approach of spring the increasing warmth of the 
 sun seemed to revive in him a few s])arks of life, and 
 he went to his fine gardens at Villanow to breathe a 
 })urer air, but, alas! he was too far gone to enjoy it.
 
 198 THE LIFE OF 
 
 On the 17th day of June, being Sunday, the King 
 took a walk in his garden at Villanow. He even 
 dined with some appetite, and showed other symp- 
 toms of being better ; but death was busy within him 
 all the while. A few hours after he was seized with 
 a fit of apoplexy, in the midst of the royal family, 
 and fell motionless upon the floor. In about an hour 
 he recovered his senses, and, regretting as it were, 
 being waked out of this sleep of death, in which he 
 was insensible of the miseries of life, he said in a 
 language that w^as familiar to him, " Stave bena " — 
 I w^as well. Every face but his o^vn was frozen with 
 terror. He bore his sufferings with the firmness of 
 a soldier, a philosopher and a Christian; and em- 
 ployed his last moments in endeavoring to convince 
 his children of the necessity of their living in the 
 closest union. He conjured the Queen to have no 
 other interest in view but theirs, if she desired to 
 preserve the crown in her family, recommending 
 them all to follow the advice of Polignac who had 
 merited, he said, their confidence and his. He ex- 
 horted also the Senators w^ho were present to preserve 
 mutual concord for the good of the Eepublic, whose 
 welfare would be an object of his wishes, even in the 
 presence of the gi'eat source of all power, before 
 whom he should so soon appear; and he died, like 
 Augustus, on the same day of the year that he was 
 raised to the throne, in the sixty-sixth year of his
 
 KIXG JOHN SOBIESKI 199 
 
 age, and the twenty-third of his reign. 
 
 Those who lulled and those who envied the King 
 of Poland gave him, even before his death, the name 
 of Vespasian. If he had one of the Emperor's 
 faults, the love of money, he was also possessed of his 
 virtues. Like him, he was raised to the throne by 
 his military services. The charms of his wit, the 
 readiness with which he spoke several languages, his 
 acquaintance with polite literature, the agreeableness 
 of his conversation, the gentleness of his manners, 
 his sincerity in friendship, his conjugal tenderness 
 and paternal affection — all these qualities, which 
 would have made him an amiable man in private life, 
 would have been sufficient for his exalted station. 
 Endued with great strength of body and activity of 
 mind, deeply read in the laws of his country, ac- 
 quainted with the interest of foreign nations, and 
 versed in the theory of war, equally eloquent in the 
 Diet and enterprising in the field, he convinced his 
 countrymen, before he was raised to the throne, of 
 his capacity to govern and defend them. He pos- 
 sessed, in an eminent degree, most of the virtues that 
 become a royal station. lie did justice to his ene- 
 mies, as well as to his friends ; and always behaved 
 to the latter in the same manner as when he wanted 
 their assistance to gain the crown. The warmth of 
 liis temper made him soon take fire; but his heart 
 was void of malice. His cruelty to the Turks, after
 
 200 THE LIFE OF 
 
 a victory, must be attributed to a remnant of the 
 crusading spirit, which, upon these occasions, and 
 these only, soured the natural humanity of his tem- 
 per, which was not sufficiently matured by philoso- 
 phy. He was often affronted in such a state as 
 Poland, where liberty is always upon the watch 
 against the hand that governs ; and yet he never lifted 
 up that hand but against those who offended their 
 country. His zeal for religion was free from the 
 acrimony of an intolerating spirit; Greeks, Protes- 
 tants, Jews, and some remains of the Socinians, 
 lived in peace under his government; and this was 
 no small matter, at a time when other Catholic pow- 
 ers were banishing or massacring their subjects in 
 order to convert them. The dignity of a king did 
 not obliterate from his mind the principles of a citi- 
 zen, and he assembled the nation much oftener than 
 any of his predecessors. He spent his reign in the 
 Senate, in the midst of Diets, and in the fatigues of 
 war; he never thought that the palace of a king 
 should be appropriated to magnificence and luxury; 
 but made himself thoroughly acquainted with men 
 and things. In concerting the plan of his campaigns, 
 he listened to every one, but was determined by him- 
 self alone, and, knowing how necessary the presence 
 of a king is, for the purpose of discipline, celerity 
 and even victory, he always headed his troops in 
 person till the ill condition of his health prevented
 
 KING JOHJ^ SOBIESKI 201 
 
 him. His country always admired, and would per- 
 haps have loved him, if a free people were not always 
 jealous of their liberty; perhaps, too, if he had been 
 less fond of the Queen. He had the singular glory 
 of humbling the Ottoman power, which for a long 
 time had hnmblod the Princes of Christendom. All 
 Europe sought liis alliance, and Poland acquired an 
 importance under his government that it never pos- 
 sessed afterwards. Charles XII, the Alexander of 
 the North, lamented his death in these emphatic 
 terms: " So great a king ought never to have died."
 
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