JOHN SOBIESKI. (continued 2)

Siege of Trembowla.Ibrahim was dismayed at the king’s success. He had captured the position of Podhaic, but he could not reduce the garrison of Trembowla, commanded by Chrasonowski, a man of determined courage. He now redoubled his assault upon that place, which must have fallen but for the arrival of John with the Polish army. The king posted his troops to advantage and prepared for the attack; but during the night (Oct. 6th) Ibrahim intercepted a letter to the besieged, which informed him that the king in person was at the head of the Poles. Retreat of the Turks.He at once raised the siege, and without striking a blow retreated precipitately to Kaminiec, and thence across the Danube. John would have pursued him beyond the outskirts of Podolia, but the Polish vanguard, dreading a winter’s campaign in the enemy’s country, set fire to the bridges, and compelled their king to suspend his march.

Return of the king.The whole country clamoured for his return, and the Diet was impatient to return thanks to its deliverer. The Vice-chancellor declared in the Senate that the king moved like a tortoise towards the throne, but like an eagle towards the enemies of the republic. He was now ready to gratify the general wish, and returning to Zolkiew received a number of foreign ambassadors sent to congratulate him upon his election,—among them Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester,[64] whom Dr. South was attending as domestic chaplain. The French ambassador solicited John’s alliance against Brandenburg and the empire, and held out hopes of persuading the Turks to make peace. But the king deferred all fresh engagements for the present; his grand aim in life was to save Poland from the Ottoman grasp.

Cracow was, as usual, the scene of the coronation, which was fixed for the 2nd of February (1676). Burial of the two last kings.Two days earlier, according to the Polish custom, John followed to the grave the body of Michael, and the interest of the ceremony was deepened on this occasion by the obsequies of Casimir. The ex-king had died three years before, of grief, it was said, at the fall of Kaminiec.[65] The reigns of the two deceased kings, so fruitful in misfortunes to Poland, comprised the whole of Sobieski’s wonderful career, and it was fitting that their royal mourner should be he to whose prowess they were chiefly indebted for retaining the crown. Coronation.The coronation took place amid general rejoicings, broken only by a few murmurs when the crown was set upon the queen’s head. It was not long before she showed her unfitness to wear it.

Diet of 1676.Two days later (February 4th) the Diet met, and was conspicuous for its loyal enthusiasm. The king was entreated not to lay down the office of Grand General, but he wisely refused a privilege so invidious, and conferred the post upon his old enemy, Demetrius Wiesnowiesçki. He displayed the same generous spirit in his other appointments, offering the primacy to Olzowski, the favourite of Eleanor, and the Grand Marshalate to Lubomirski, son of his old rival. The brave Jablonowski was rewarded with the post of Second General. His elevation caused some trouble. The Diet proposed to make these dignities triennial, which, in the present reign at least, would have been a salutary enhancement of the royal power; but the queen, out of gratitude to Jablonowski, worked hard in secret to defeat the proposal. The king, though he favoured it at heart, appeared neutral; and the project fell through.

John availed himself of the favourable temper of the Diet to take exceptional measures for the national defence. He proposed a capitation subsidy upon all alike, clergy as well as laity, and strongly urged the necessity of forming a permanent infantry. Hitherto this branch of the service had been fixed at one-third of the regular army (16,000), but it had never reached this standard, and being composed only of the peasants and poorer nobles, commanded by foreign officers, its equipment was disgracefully inefficient.[66] The Diet voted that the army should be raised to 73,000 men, thus augmenting it by 25,000,[67] and that of these 35,000 should be infantry. No king had ever obtained such concessions from the nobility, but they were not granted without a violent opposition. The old expedient was tried of drawing out the Diet, but John defeated it by submitting to a continuous sitting, and presiding upon the throne for forty consecutive hours. He was able to announce that the Great Elector had promised him succours, and that he hoped for an alliance with Muscovy. The Diet did not rise before paying him the unusual compliment of a decree that all the starosties which he had held should remain hereditary in his family.[68]

The king fails to levy troops.Unfortunately their good resolutions were not carried into effect. Although the Dietines ratified their proceedings, it was beyond the king’s power to overcome the inertness and lethargy of the nobility. The patriotic spirit died out at once when the magic of his personal influence was withdrawn. Seizing upon a rumour which was industriously raised by Austria, that the king was treating in secret with the Turks and would use the money for his own purposes, they refused to pay the subsidy, and threw every obstacle in his way. John hastily assembled at Leopol those troops which had not been disbanded; but, although their number is variously stated, some even placing it as low as 10,000, it probably did not amount to one-half of the force that the Diet had decreed.

Armament of the Turks.Meanwhile, Köprili had not been idle. He assembled an army of 100,000 Turks, to be accompanied by a vast host of Tartars. But his aim was more pacific than in the former campaigns. He was beset by the proffered mediation of the European powers, especially of Louis XIV., who wished to evade his promise of sending armed assistance to Poland. Moreover, the condition of Asiatic Turkey distracted his attention; his allies, the Cossacks and the Tartars, inspired him with distrust; and he felt that his fortune was outshone by the star of John Sobieski. The name of the Polish hero was such a terror in the Ottoman ranks that threats alone could induce many of the officers to serve against him. Köprili looked out anxiously for a competent general. He chose Ibrahim, Pacha of Damascus, called “Shaitan” (Satan), from his combined bravery and cunning, and gave him instructions to procure an honourable peace.

Invasion of Galicia.Ibrahim secretly hoped to do more than this, for he was confident that he could drive the king to extremities. He pushed on at once into Galicia and crossed the Dniester, expecting that John would attack him; but finding that the king lay inactive at Zurawno, a small town on the left bank, he advanced against him without delay. John called in his squadrons of horse, which had been harassing the Tartars, and prepared to improve his position. It had been chosen with admirable judgment. He lay with the Dniester and the mountains behind it covering his rear, while his left rested on the town of Zurawno, and his right was protected by woods and marshes. In front of his lines ran a rapid torrent, called the Swiczza, which was easily fordable, and offered facilities for the construction of entrenchments. On this task John employed his whole army, and collected all the provisions within reach. When the seraskier appeared on the heights in his front, he left his lines and offered him battle (September 25th); but this was declined, for all the Turkish troops had not yet come up. Siege of Zurawno.Ibrahim, when he had assembled them, formed them into a vast arc, including the town of Zurawno, the Polish army, and the wood on its right, with each of his wings resting on the river. He then commenced a regular siege. His artillery was splendidly handled; and his miners rapidly approached the Polish entrenchments. John at once employed counter-mines, but the experience of the Turks in Candia gave them a vast superiority. The king was anxious to bring on a general action, and in a skirmish on the 29th of September the Poles had the advantage, but they lost heavily. John’s situation was becoming desperate; the Tartars who commanded the river prevented the arrival of provisions by that route; and the Turkish artillery made frightful havoc in his ranks.

Proposals of peace.The liveliest alarm prevailed in Poland. The Senate called out the Pospolite and placed Prince Radziwill at its head; but the assembling of such a body was necessarily slow. Meantime another engagement took place at Zurawno (October 8th), in which 2,000 Turks were slain; but John failed to break through the enemy’s lines, and was once nearly surrounded and cut off from his men by a body of janissaries. When however the siege had lasted nearly twenty days, the Tartan khan, whose dominion was menaced by the Muscovites,[69] pressed Ibrahim to conclude a peace. The Seraskier knew the straits to which the Poles were reduced, and he therefore sent an envoy to propose the ratification of the treaty of Buczacz and an offensive alliance against Muscovy. Refused by the king.John replied shortly that he would hang the next man who brought him such a message. The bombardment recommenced, and the soldiers murmured against their king’s obstinacy. Paz repaired to the royal tent and announced his intention to desert. “Desert who will,” cried John, “the Turks shall not reach the heart of the republic without passing over my corpse.” He then rode down the ranks, and reminding the soldiers that he had extricated them from many a worse plight, he gaily asked them if his head were enfeebled by the weight of a crown. Yet he passed the night in the gravest anxiety, and when morning broke (October 14th) he quitted his lines and drew up his whole force in order of battle.

Ibrahim proposes fairer terms.The Turks were astounded; and the Tartars cried out that there was magic in his boldness. Brave though he was, Ibrahim dared not face the chances of a defeat. He knew that the Pospolite was approaching; he suspected that the Tartars had been bought over; and he saw winter rapidly closing in. Above all, he remembered that his instructions were pacific, and that a serious reverse might cost him his head. Peace of Zurawno.Before the armies engaged, he proposed a peace upon honourable terms. No mention was now made of tribute. The Porte was to retain only Kaminiec and a third of the Ukraine; the question of Podolia was referred to a subsequent conference; each army was to restore its prisoners of war. It is said that Sobieski, with the sentiments of a Christian knight, inserted an article to provide for the establishment of a Latin guard at the Holy Sepulchre.[70] After witnessing the release of 15,000 captives, and the departure of the Turks (October 16th), John retraced his steps to Zolkiew. He soon encountered the Pospolite, which was advancing to his relief, and the two armies celebrated the conclusion of peace with a grand flourish of trumpets.

Great services of the king.Though satisfactory, the terms were not glorious; but that they should have been obtained at all by a handful of men in the direst extremities was cause enough for rejoicing. A moral triumph like this, following so close upon a crisis so dreadful, carries with it an air of romance. Yet, making every allowance for good fortune and the earnest mediation of his allies, we must regard it as due in the first instance to the potency of the name of Sobieski. With an insignificant force at his back he had conducted to a favourable issue five successive campaigns against the Turks—four of them on Polish ground—and had previously many times repulsed the hordes of Tartars which they had poured into the country. By thus foiling the aggression of the Turks when at the height of their power John III. had rendered a signal service to Europe.

Death of Köprili.The minister whose vast designs he had thwarted was now upon his death-bed. Seven days after the peace of Zurawno (October 23rd), Köprili expired at Constantinople. Had it not been for Sobieski this able vizier would have extended the dependencies of Turkey from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and would have found a golden opportunity for his attack upon the empire. His successor Mustapha, called “Kara,” or “the Black,” was a man of a different calibre. He owed his advancement to the intrigues of the seraglio; he had married a daughter of the Sultan and possessed great influence over his master; and he inherited the ambitious dreams of Köprili without his ability to realise them.

Enthusiasm of Europe.All Europe, with the exception perhaps of Austria, rejoiced at the peace of Zurawno. Madame de Sevigné, writing on the 18th of November, 1676, expresses the general admiration for the hero of Poland;[71] and Condé sent a special messenger to congratulate his friend. Louis XIV. eagerly sought his alliance. He commissioned his ambassador in Poland, the Marquis of Bethune, brother-in-law of the king, to invest him with the order of the Holy Ghost. John imprudently accepted the honour, and thus, in spite of the enthusiasm with which he had been received, excited general murmurs. He was accused of wearing the livery of France, and binding the republic to follow her interests. In the Diet which assembled the next year (January, 1677,) his opponents were clamorous. They complained that, besides part of the Ukraine, he had given up Kaminiec, the key of the realm; and that instead of striving to recover them, he was meditating war against Brandenburg and Austria. They also accused him of aiming at absolute power by the secret help of the French monarch. The majority of the Diet, however, did not forget the dangers from which they had been rescued; and Gninski, palatine of Kulm, was sent to Constantinople to ratify the peace of Zurawno.

He supports the designs of France.No notice was taken of the other charges; yet John was undoubtedly conniving at the designs of France. Louis XIV. had promised assistance to the insurgents in Hungary against the emperor, and was encouraging Sweden to attack the Great Elector. It is said that he gained over Sobieski by the promise of ducal Prussia and a larger frontier on the Baltic. At any rate the Marquis of Bethune was allowed to raise troops destined for Hungary in the starosties of the king, while secret permission was given to the Swedes to pass through Courland to attack the Elector.[72] Frederic William naturally resented the attitude of Poland, and in revenge fomented some disturbances which had arisen in Dantzic.

This prosperous centre of commerce enjoyed, as a Hanse town, a large share of independence. Though belonging to the republic of Poland, it was governed by its own magistrates and its own laws. Disturbances in Dantzic,A religious struggle had broken out between the magistrates, who were Calvinists, and the people, who were headed by an eloquent Lutheran preacher. Quieted by the king.John at once visited the city and mediated between the contending parties (September, 1677), and the unusual spectacle was presented of a Catholic acting as arbiter in a Protestant dispute. His moderation won all hearts, and tranquillity was soon restored. The astronomer Hevelius, who was one of the chief citizens, entertained the king in his house, and entitled his newly-found constellation, “Scutum Sobieski.”[73]

Activity of the Turks.John was recalled from Dantzic by the serious intelligence that the new Grand Vizier was placing every obstacle in the way of the conclusion of peace. He kept the Polish envoy for months at the gates of Constantinople; and when at length he gave him an audience, his tone was haughty and unconciliatory. The Austrian court, fearing for itself, had done its utmost to persuade the Porte that the peace of Zurawno was disgraceful to Turkey, and Mustapha, who longed for military glory, encouraged the idea. His first blow, however, was to fall on Muscovy. The Czar Feodor hastened to conclude the treaty with Poland, which had long been pending, but he could look for no assistance from the republic. He was worsted in the campaign which followed, but the vizier, disgusted at the rigour of the climate, looked out for a more alluring prey. His first thought was to reopen the war with Poland; and he announced that he should keep her envoy as a hostage until Podolia was ceded to the Porte (September, 1678).

Coldness of John towards France.John now saw clearly that the danger from Turkey was still pressing. He therefore at once withdrew his support from the French designs in the west, and prepared to confront his old enemy. Reasons.This change in his policy is reasonable enough. He saw that the Hungarian insurgents would probably call in the Porte, and in that case his natural ally would be Austria, while from France he could expect no material help. His judgment was most sagacious; but it was not uninfluenced by personal reasons. He was offended at the pride of the French king, who had refused him on his accession the coveted title of “Majesty,” and had lately treated his queen with some contempt. Immediately after her coronation, his queen had set out for France to take the waters of Bourbon,[74] and to display her dignity in her native country; but on her way she encountered the French ambassador, who delicately hinted that his master could not receive an elective queen with full honours. The “Grand Monarque” could not stoop to receive on equal terms the daughter of the captain of his brother’s Swiss Guards. The queen retraced her steps in great indignation, which subsequent events only tended to increase. Through her husband she begged a dukedom for her father, the Marquis d’Arquien, but Louis, though his language was fair, deferred compliance.[75] Moreover, John could not but regard with disgust the scarcely concealed efforts of France to set the Turks in motion against the house of Austria. The king himself had throughout his life distrusted Austria and counteracted her influence in Poland, but his chivalrous spirit would have revolted from bringing the infidel against her. He now perceived that it was his policy to make common cause with her.

His designs upon Kaminiec.He was anxious to strike the first blow against the Turks by surprising Kaminiec, which was poorly guarded; but for this the consent of the Diet was necessary. He had to publish his universals[76] to the Dietines describing his projects, and to debate the question in the Diet when assembled. This year (1679) it was convened at Grodno, in Lithuania, and so stormy was the session that it was four months before the king’s proposal passed. The Turks were thus enabled to strengthen and re-victual the town at their leisure; and nothing was left to the king but to send ambassadors to the European courts to propose a general league against the Sultan.

Arming of the Turks.A vast armament was in preparation at Constantinople, and no one in Europe knew against whom it would first be directed. Troops were daily arriving from the interior of Asia, and Greece was made subject to a searching levy. It was plainly time for the European powers to show themselves united against the common enemy, but there was little prospect of such a combination. Louis had lately concluded a peace with the Emperor at Nimeguen (1679), but it was scarcely more than a suspension of hostilities.

Polish Embassies in Europe.The Polish ambassador, Radziwill, had no success at the court of Vienna. He could not persuade Leopold that he was in greater danger than Poland. But his proposals were not merely defensive. He urged the formation of a league, “which should hurl back the monster into his native deserts, and revive from its ruins the ancient empire of Byzantium.”[77] But when he arrived at Rome (July, 1680) he found the Pope very favourably disposed towards a crusade. The chair was now filled by Innocent XI., an Austrian by birth, who feared that Vienna was the object of attack, and saw at once that Italy must stand or fall with it. He had been formerly Papal Nuncio in Poland, and in that capacity had bestowed his blessing on the marriage of Sobieski. He now promised his hearty aid to the king, whom he styled, “The invincible lieutenant of the God of armies, that brazen wall against which all the efforts of the barbarians have been dashed in pieces.” He agreed forthwith to furnish a large subsidy.

Alliance with the Pope.This close alliance with the Pope widened the breach between Sobieski and the court of France. There could be no peace between such haughty characters as Innocent XI. and Louis XIV., and they were often at open enmity about the Gallican clergy. Louis hated the Pope above all things for his sympathy with the Austrian court. He now sought to counteract his influence by sending as ambassador to Warsaw Forbin-Janson, at this time bishop of Beauvais, who was to be assisted by Vitry, a man of great resource.

Diet of 1681.When the king assembled the next Diet at Warsaw (Jan. 1681) he found the French party for the first time arrayed against him. He had to report that his embassies had met with complete success only at Rome, but that Savoy and Portugal had sent him their good wishes. The majority of the Diet supported him in his schemes against the Porte; but French intrigue protracted the session for months, and finally dissolved it by the veto on a frivolous pretext. Indignant at these proceedings, Innocent XI., during his lifetime, withheld from Forbin-Janson the Cardinal’s hat, which had been promised him at the accession of Sobieski. Peace with Turkey.Fortunately, however, the Grand Vizier suddenly assumed a peaceful attitude towards Poland, and sent an envoy with conditions which she could honourably accept. Mustapha was evidently bent on some more vast design; but though he studiously concealed its nature, John seems to have divined it from the first.

1681-2.He spent the two succeeding years in strengthening and disciplining his army, and in those peaceful employments to which he was so much attached. At a wild spot, six miles from Warsaw, he constructed his palace of Willanow, and introduced on his estate the Dutch system of farming. For a time all the clamours of faction were hushed; but it was only the calm which heralds the approaching storm.

Designs of Louis XIV.Louis XIV. had never abandoned his encroachments upon the empire. At the end of 1681 he availed himself of a legal fiction, created by his own “Chambers of Reunion,” to occupy Strasburg, Casale, and other important towns on the imperial frontier. The Diet of Ratisbon vehemently protested against this spoliation, but in vain. They did not dare to provoke him to open war; for it was known that his envoys were strongly urging the Turks to invade Austria. His plan seems to have been to acquire the glory of saving the Empire after the fall of its capital, and to exact in return for his services large territorial concessions. His ambition was to have the Dauphin proclaimed king of the Romans.

The Turks protect Hungary.At length his policy seemed on the point of success. Kara Mustapha threw off the mask (1682), and declaring Hungary tributary to the Sultan, announced his intention of protecting the new province. Count Emeric Tekeli, who had ably headed its revolt since 1678, was invested with the caphtan as hospodar. Schemes of Leopold.Leopold vainly endeavoured, by his minister Caprara, to obtain a renewal of the peace made with the Turks in 1664; but the influence of France in the divan was too strong for him. He then turned to the Diet at Ratisbon;[78] but its counsels were divided, the western electors being in favour of war with France. His only hope seemed to be an alliance with Poland, yet his relations with the king were not cordial, and he had lately refused his offer of a league. He made the attempt, however, and succeeded beyond his hopes. John was convinced that the peace which he had concluded with the Turks was merely temporary. It therefore seemed his duty to strike at once while he could be sure of an ally. Such a course was in keeping with his life-long purpose to curb the Ottoman power. It also agreed well with the hatred which his queen had conceived against the court of France, and the promise of an archduchess for his son was not to be despised.

Offers of France to the king.Louis left no stone unturned to divert him from his resolution. He tempted him with the provinces of Silesia and Hungary, to become the property not of the republic but of the king and his heirs, if he would join him against the Empire; French conspiracy against him. and finding him proof against his offers he began a conspiracy to dethrone him. On the assembling of the next Diet (January 27th, 1683) the heat of parties was tremendous. When Leopold’s ambassador, the Count of Walstein, and Palaviccini, the Papal Nuncio, had stated their proposals of alliance, the deputies in the pay of France put in their protest. Besides placing every obstacle in the way of public business, they appealed to the outside public. Pamphlets appeared daily in which the policy of the king was warmly condemned. The selfish cabinet of Austria, which had refused to save Poland, was declared her eternal enemy, and the nobles were warned that the king could not ally himself with such a court without imbibing its despotic views.

Discovered by the king.The opposition gathered strength, and the consequences might have been serious had not the king fortunately intercepted some letters of the French ambassador, which disclosed the details of his plot (March). He read these letters in full Diet, and their contents excited the utmost indignation. The ambassador boasted that through Morstyn, the Grand Treasurer, he knew all the secrets of the cabinet, that he had bought over numbers of the principal nobles, whose names he gave, and that the nation was so venal that he felt certain of destroying the league. He added that the king had rejected all his offers, but that he trusted to make him powerless. Among the nobles mentioned were Jablonowski, now Grand General of Poland, and Sapieha, who, since the death of Michael Paz, had been Grand General of Lithuania. The latter belonged to a family upon which the king had showered his favours.

His tact.John used this information with wonderful tact. He at once declared that the ambassador, to show his zeal to his master, had evidently slandered the grandees; Morstyn alone, whose guilt was proved by a letter in his own hand, deserved the punishment of treason. The king concluded by saying that he trusted the Diet would help him to show the French king that the Polish nation was not altogether venal. The speech was received with shouts of applause, and the suspected nobles were now foremost in supporting the king. A similar change took place in the nation, and the French ambassador found it unsafe to go abroad without an escort. The Grand Treasurer would have been brought to trial if he had not escaped to France.

Alliance with the empire.The immediate result of this discovery was the conclusion of an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Austria (March 31st). Leopold bound himself to bring 60,000 men into the field; the republic was to furnish 40,000. There was an express stipulation that neither party should apply to the Pope for leave to break his oaths. The Papal Nuncio procured the addition of a clause, by which John bound himself to command his troops in person.[79] Leopold in return conceded to him that title of “Majesty” which he had so long withheld.

Exertions of Sobieski.This treaty was a serious blow to the policy of Louis XIV. Forbin-Janson, who soon quitted Poland in disgust, comforted his master by the assurance that John was far too unwieldy to take the field. The same idea prevailed throughout Europe, and especially in the Turkish camp. He was now so stout that he required aid to mount his horse; but he had not lost one spark of his youthful fire. His army needed complete reorganisation, and he spent several hours each day in the field. He did not neglect measures of policy. He proposed to the Emperor the extension of the league, and confided to him his favourite scheme of reviving a republic in Greece. By that means alone, he thought, the Turkish empire could be confined within bounds. He sent an embassy to the Sophy of Persia, but could not persuade him to declare war against the Porte.[80] He then tried to mediate between the Emperor and the insurgents in Hungary, and succeeded so far as to obtain a promise from Tekeli that Moravia should be left untouched.[81] Finally he tried to promote a good understanding between France and Austria, but Louis sullenly refused his mediation.

The Vizier’s forces.The preparations of the Grand Vizier were now complete, and in the spring he advanced his vast host to Essek, in Hungary. He had under his standards at least 300,000 combatants[82] and 300 pieces of artillery. He was accompanied by Selim Gieray, the terrible Tartar khan, and by a crowd of his nomad horsemen.

Rapid advance of the Turks upon Vienna.The Emperor could scarcely realize the peril in which he stood. He reckoned that his frontier fortresses would detain the Turks for at least two campaigns. Fortunately Sobieski, by means of a letter which his Cossack spies intercepted[83] in Bulgaria, was enabled to assure him that Vienna would be the first point of attack. This intelligence was soon put beyond a doubt. The Duke of Lorraine, general of the Imperial forces, who with scarcely 30,000 men was covering Upper Hungary, was compelled to retreat. The whole Turkish army continued to advance by forced marches, leaving the fortresses in their rear; and Lorraine had barely time to throw 8,000 infantry into Vienna and retreat beyond the Danube, before 50,000 Tartars, the advanced guard of Mustapha, appeared at the gates (July 9). Leopold had profited by Sobieski’s warning to demolish the extensive suburbs where the nobility resided, but the city was wholly unprepared for defence.

Panic at Vienna.The night before Lorraine’s arrival the Emperor himself with his court fled precipitately to Linz, and thence to Passau. The peasants of the southern plain were flocking into the city by hundreds, while many of the citizens followed the Emperor in his flight. Measures for defence.It was left to Lorraine, with the governor, the intrepid Count Stahremberg, to concert measures of resistance. The fortifications were hastily repaired, and the counterscarp protected by thick palisades, but it was doubtful whether they could stand an assault, owing to the neglect of a long security. A body of 5,000 citizens was formed to assist the garrison, which did not amount to 14,000 men. A week later (July 14) the Grand Vizier occupied the plain, and opened the trenches before the city.

Terror of Europe.Meanwhile all Europe, and especially Italy, was seized with consternation at the rapid march of the Turks. The plans of the King of France, who had advanced his army to the Rhine, were somewhat disconcerted. Finding himself pointed at as the cause of the invasion of Christendom,[84] he made a show of magnanimity, and suspended his threatened blow. It is even said that he offered the Emperor a contingent of 80,000 men, which was rejected with becoming scorn; but the statement seems improbable.

Sobieski urged to hasten his march.The Pope sent pressing messages to Sobieski to bring his succours before it was too late. The Emperor also, writing with unwonted deference, begged him to place himself at the head of the Imperial troops. “However inferior we are in number,” he says, “your name alone, so terrible to the enemy, will ensure a victory.” He added that his troops were waiting at Tuln, fifteen miles north-west of Vienna, and that at that point a bridge had been constructed over the Danube.[85] Lorraine, generously forgetting their old rivalry for the crown of Poland, wrote that he should be proud to serve under such an hero. His own skill had given some hope to a declining cause. Assisted by some Polish cavalry, he had captured the bridge of Presburg from Tekeli, but his force was too small to do any damage to the besiegers.

Siege of Vienna.It is indeed a marvel that Vienna did not fall almost at once. Within a week of the opening of the trenches, the besiegers had reached the palisade of the counterscarp, and, as cannon could not be used for its defence, many of the garrison lost their lives in a hand-to-hand combat. On the 7th of August the counterscarp was captured after an engagement in which both sides suffered great loss. The besieged especially lost many officers, and the brave governor was seriously wounded. From this time forward the city must have succumbed if the Vizier had ordered a general assault. Mustapha knew this, but he imagined that the booty would be enormous, and he did not wish it to fall into the hands of his soldiers. He had pitched his vast pavilion in the gardens of the Emperor’s palace, called the Favourite, and here he passed his days in the pursuit of pleasure. His miners advanced steadily, but in other respects he was inactive.

Measures of Sobieski.At the first news of the danger of Vienna Sobieski hastened to Cracow, where his army was assembling. His hussars answered his summons with alacrity, but the Lithuanians were slow to take the field. He had no intention of waiting for them, although the troops under his orders were scarcely half the complement of 40,000. He sorely needed funds for their equipment; but as the Papal subsidies had not arrived,[86] he gave lavishly from his private treasury. He had not intended to take his Turkish body-guard; but they begged leave to accompany him, and offered to give hostages.[87]

His rapid march to the Danube.On the 15th of August he quitted Cracow, accompanied by his son James, and having reviewed his troops at Tarnowitz, in Silesia (August 18), pushed on for the Danube. Leaving his main body at the head of 2,000 horse, he traversed like a whirlwind the plains of Moravia, and arrived at Tuln on the 2nd of September. The prince who was reported too infirm to take the field, had covered on horseback 350 miles in little more than ten days. Finding the bridge unfinished and scarcely half the Imperial forces assembled, he could not restrain his impatience. “Does the Emperor take me for an adventurer?” he exclaimed angrily. “I have left my army to command his. It is not for myself, but for him I fight.” Three days later (September 5th) the Polish army under Jablonowski appeared, and soon afterwards the succours from Bavaria and Saxony.

Forces of the allies.Before the king’s arrival there had been divisions of opinion among the imperial generals; now all men cheerfully obeyed his orders. The whole force amounted to 70,000 men, of whom 21,000 were from Austria, 18,000 from Poland, and 31,000 from Bavaria, Saxony, and the Circles. Of these at least 38,000 were cavalry. John had never commanded an army of nearly this strength, and he was confident of success. He bade the Imperialists consider not the vast numbers of the enemy but the incapacity of their general. “Would any of you,” he asked, “have suffered the construction of this bridge within five leagues of your camp? The man cannot fail to be beaten.”

Exertions of the king.In his letters to the queen, which have most fortunately been preserved,[88] we can follow the inmost thoughts of the great commander during these most anxious days. He twice remarks with evident pleasure that the German troops obey him better than his own. At the same time he is disgusted with the trifling squabbles over etiquette which occupy so much of his time. Even his necessary duties allow him no leisure. “Continual harangues, my interviews with the Duke of Lorraine and the other chiefs, innumerable orders to be given, prevent me not only from writing, but from taking food and rest.”[89] Yet his unreasonable consort, for whom his devoted fondness appears in almost every line,[90] complains that he does not read her letters. “I must complain of you, my dear, my incomparable Mariette.... Can you say seriously that I do not read your letters? The fact is that I read each of them three times at least; first, when they arrive, secondly, as I go to bed, when at last I am free, and, thirdly, when I set myself to answer them.... If sometimes I fail to write at length, can you not explain my haste without the help of injurious suppositions? The armies of two continents are but a few miles from each other. I must think of everything; I must provide for the smallest detail.”

Passage of the Danube.On the 6th of September the army crossed the Danube. The splendid equipment of the king’s hussars attracted universal admiration; and his ill-clad infantry looked especially mean by contrast. His officers entreated him to allow it to cross by night, but he would not consent. Whilst one of the worst regiments was passing over, “Look at this well,” he cried to the spectators; “it is an invincible body which has sworn never to be clothed but with the spoils of the enemy.” At these words the men, who had hung their heads in shame, marched on erect with cheerful confidence. During the crossing of the bridge a note arrived from Stahremberg with the simple words, “No more time to lose.” The miners were already under the Emperor’s city palace, and numbers of the garrison were dying of dysentery.

Ascent of the Kahlemberg.John called a council of war to decide the route which should be taken. Between him and Vienna rose the lofty ridge called the Kahlemberg; and it was necessary either to go round it by the main road, which was flanked by the Turkish cannon, or to climb direct to the summit. John chose the latter route; but it proved more difficult than he had supposed. Three days were consumed in the ascent. All the heavy baggage had to be left behind, and of the artillery only the Polish light guns could be dragged up. At length, on the evening of the 11th, the Polish hussars lighted their fires among the woods which crowned the heights, and were answered by joyful signals from the cathedral of St. Stephen. Apprehension of the Turks.The Turks were struck with consternation. The Grand Vizier, though he had certain intelligence of the ascent,[91] neglected to oppose it, partly because he despised the Christian army, and partly because he wished to take Vienna before their eyes. But he could not inspire his troops with his own braggart assurance. During the night John’s prisoners, whom he had set free by design, came into the camp and spread the news that the king of Poland was commanding in person. Mustapha loudly expressed his disbelief; but he could not prevent the spread of a panic. At break of day he determined to lead the janissaries to a general assault, while he detached the spahis and auxiliaries to confront the relieving force.

Confidence of Sobieski.From the castle of Leopoldsberg about sunset Sobieski surveyed the scene with mixed feelings. He saw that he would have to make his advance over most precipitous and difficult ground; but his experienced eye was not dismayed either by the imposing array of the Turkish tents or by the multitude of their occupants. Writing to the queen the same night he shows his old confidence: “Humanly speaking, and while putting all our hope in God, one must believe that a general, who has not thought of concentrating or entrenching himself, but is encamped as if we were a hundred miles off, is predestined to be beaten.” He complains, however, that he had not been warned of the steepness of the descent, and must change his order of battle. During the night the noise of the Turkish cannon was such that “we could not close an eye,” and the wind was so high that “it seemed as if the Vizier, who is reputed a magician, had unchained against us the powers of the air.”

Advance of the allies.When day dawned on Sunday, the memorable 12th of September, the wind fell, and the heat was most severe. John attended mass with the Duke of Lorraine in the old church of Leopoldsberg, and received the sacrament. Their order of battle.He then mounted his horse, and ordered the advance. The right wing was occupied by the Poles, under Jablonowski; the centre by the Germans, under the Prince of Waldeck; the left wing by the Imperial troops, under the Duke of Lorraine.[92] The king directed the whole; but his post was in the right wing.

Battle of Vienna.The ground in their front was broken by gullies and rough eminences, and here and there by rude parapets of earth, which served as the boundaries of the vineyards. The Turks in vain attempted to defend these positions; they were driven from point to point by the impetuous hussars, and the Polish artillery, dexterously handled by Konski, did such execution that by midday the army had reached the plain. After an interval of rest the advance was continued, and the villages of Nussdorf and Heligenstadt were carried by the hussars at the lance’s point, not without some loss. At five o’clock the order was given for a halt, and John proposed to rest his wearied troops before the final struggle.

Meanwhile the Vizier, who had been gallantly repulsed by the besieged, had hastened to check the retreat of the Turks. He saw with uneasiness the horse-tails on the Polish lances, and feared that after all the king might be present. At a conspicuous point in the lines he caused the hoisting of a red pavilion, which was surmounted by the standard of the Prophet, and tried to raise the spirits of his troops by his own cool assurance. Seating himself under its shade with his two sons and the Tartar khan he ordered coffee to be served.

The Polish cavalry had advanced so near that John could detect these movements with his field-glass. Provoked at this ostentatious contempt, he bade his artillerymen aim exclusively at the red pavilion, and offered fifty crowns for each successful volley. He also detached a body of hussars to seize a position from which they could fire with more effect. The cavalry dashed forward with the cry of “Sobieski for ever,” and drove the Turks headlong from the spot. “By Allah,” exclaimed the Tartar khan, as he heard their shouts, “the king is really among them.” The Turks had also heard the dreaded name; and all at once a terrible panic arose throughout the camp.[93] “They are defeated,” cried Sobieski, as he saw them waver, and ordering a general advance, he put himself at the head of the Poles with the words, “Non nobis, non nobis, Domine exercituum, sed nomini tuo da gloriam!” Rout of the Turks.The shock of the charge was tremendous, and none but the spahis resisted it. These brave horsemen, surrounded by the rout, stood their ground, but were cut in pieces. The Vizier, weeping like a child, besought the Khan to save him. “I know the King of Poland,” answered Selim; “I told you that we should have to make way before him.”[94] Joining in the flight they effected their escape, although the Vizier was almost captured.

Night had now come on, and John was anxious to secure the camp in case the enemy should return. He therefore discouraged the pursuit, and forbade pillage on pain of death. The Vizier’s quarters.He passed the night, like his soldiers, in the open air, although he took possession of the Vizier’s quarters. In the morning he inspected this vast bazaar of Eastern luxury, which he describes as occupying a space “as large as Warsaw or Leopol.” Mustapha had come, in fact, prepared for a triumph. He is said to have contemplated creating an empire by making himself emperor of the French. He had brought every requirement for making Vienna a Turkish arsenal, and had not omitted the materials for his mosques.[95] Writing to the queen on September 13th, the king says: “The Vizier has taken nothing but his horse and the clothes on his back. He has left me his heir.... His jewels alone are worth some thousands of ducats.... You cannot say to me, my heart, as the Tartar women often say to their husbands, ‘You are not a man, for you have brought me no booty.’... The town could not have held out more than five days. The imperial palace is riddled with bullets; those immense bastions, split in pieces and half falling, look terrible.”

Losses of the two armies.The losses of the two armies in the action have been variously stated. Talenti, whom John sent to the Pope with what was believed to be the standard of the Prophet, informed his Holiness that at least 40,000 Turks had perished.[96] Voltaire, with as little truth, states the number at 600.[97] It is evident from the letters of the king, which speak of the slain as making the neighbourhood unhealthy, that nearly 10,000 must have been slain.[98] The loss of the Poles alone was estimated at more than 1,000, and the allies probably lost in proportion.

Entry of Sobieski into Vienna.About midday the king entered Vienna through the breach. He was received with acclamations. Multitudes thronged his horse, and in spite of the frowns of their superiors openly compared him with their fugitive monarch. He entered the church of the Augustine Friars, and, as there was no priest at hand, he himself chanted the Te Deum. Passing on to the cathedral of St. Stephen, he remained long prostrate before the altar, while the same ceremony was performed with greater pomp. Then a discourse was preached to the assembled crowds from the text—“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” On leaving the building, he could scarcely pass through the masses of men who pressed upon him, and begged to kiss his victorious hands. Afterwards he dined in public with Count Stahremberg, and then returned to his quarters, declaring with truth that this was the happiest day of his life.

Joy of all Europe, excepting the French king.He took an almost malicious pleasure in writing at once to inform Louis XIV. of his success. He told him that he felt it his particular duty to report to the most Christian king “the victory which had been gained, and the safety of Christianity.” So disgusted was Louis at the collapse of his plans that he could not trust himself to answer the letter. The French civil journals, in noticing the raising of the siege, speak slightingly of the King of Poland, and try to attribute all the credit to the Count of Stahremberg.[99] But no one was deceived by these manœuvres. All Europe resounded with the praises of Sobieski. From every Catholic pulpit he was eulogised as the bravest defender of the Church. Filicaia and other Italian poets sang of his glory in rapturous strains. Innocent XI. received his envoys with the highest honours, and ordered the standard of the Prophet to be borne in triumph throughout Italy. Queen Christina, who was then resident at Rome, after complimenting the Pope, wrote Sobieski a remarkable letter, in which she declared that she now felt for the first time the passion of envy; she calls him emphatically the greatest king in the world, and displays by other insinuations her hatred for Louis XIV.[100] Ingratitude of Leopold.It is painful to relate the conduct of the Emperor. He, who should have been the first to thank and congratulate his deliverer, was in no hurry to meet him face to face. Entering the city on the 14th, he contrasted with anger the coolness of his reception with the enthusiasm shown to the King of Poland; and it was only when he heard that John was about to continue the pursuit that he was prevailed on to consent to the interview. His punctilious scruples as to his demeanour towards an elective sovereign disgusted his German allies, and the Duke of Lorraine declared that he ought to receive the king with open arms. At length it was agreed, on the proposition of Sobieski, that they should meet on horseback a few paces in front of the Polish army. His interview with Sobieski.Let us hear the king’s own account to the queen. “I will not draw you the portrait of the Emperor, for he is well known. He was mounted on a bay horse of Spanish breed; he had a close coat richly embroidered, a French hat with a clasp and white and red feathers, a belt mounted with sapphires and diamonds, and a sword to match. We saluted each other with politeness; I made him my compliments in a few words of Latin; he answered in the same tongue in choice terms. Being thus face to face I presented my son, who approached and saluted him. The Emperor merely raised his hand to his hat; I was astounded at it. He did the same with the senators and generals, and even with his connection, the Palatine of Beltz.[101] To avoid the scandal and the carping of the public, I addressed a few more words to the Emperor; after which I turned my horse, we saluted each other, and I rode back to the camp.” John here evidently conceals as far as possible the chagrin he felt at the awkward silence of the Emperor, and his distance towards Prince James, his prospective son-in-law. Another account says that he sternly reproved a Palatine, who advanced to kiss the Emperor’s foot, and that he said significantly as he turned away, “Brother, I am glad to have done you this small service.”[102] After the Grand General had shown him the Polish troops, the Emperor returned to Vienna; and two days later sent a jewelled sword to Prince James, and explained that his grateful emotions had deprived him of the power of speech.

Shameful treatment of the Poles.But the Emperor’s ingratitude did not stop here. A day or two after the battle, the Poles (like the French after the battle of St. Gothard) found it difficult to obtain forage or provisions, and they were not allowed to bury even their most illustrious dead in the cemeteries of the city. The king notices bitterly that, since the arrival of the Emperor, everyone shunned them as if they had the plague.[103] The Poles were furious at this studied neglect, and besought John to lead them back at once to Poland. “Our subalterns regret that we have succoured the Emperor; they wish now that the proud race had perished beyond hope of resurrection.”[104]

So seldom had the army served beyond the frontiers, that its discipline, never strictly enforced, was now scarcely regarded; and numbers left the ranks and took the nearest road to their homes. John sympathised with his soldiers, but he had the ardour of a crusading hero, and he felt himself bound by his oath to pursue the infidel, and “strike a second decisive blow.”[105] John’s anxiety to follow up the victory.His letter of the 13th of September to the Marquis of Grana, shows the high hopes with which his glorious victory had inspired him. He expresses his belief that the time had come for the collapse of the Sultan’s power, and urges that further successes in Hungary might produce revolts in the heart of his empire.[106] John has been most unjustly accused of finding a Capua in the Vizier’s tents.[107] The fact is, that during the whole of the campaign, the Poles were in the van. The king was disgusted at the backwardness of the imperial court, though his high and simple nature failed to discern its motive. “It is enough to make one die a thousand times a day,” he says, “to see so many opportunities slip away.”[108]

Suspicions of the Emperor.The fact was that Leopold shrank from sending his victorious neighbour into a rebellious province of his empire. Yet he dared not stop him. His suspicions were increased when John received overtures from Tekeli, the Hungarian leader, and attempted to intercede for him. The Emperor’s coldness had so far alienated his German allies, that the Elector of Saxony withdrew his troops, and the Elector of Bavaria threatened to do the same. He did nothing to recognise the services of the Duke of Lorraine. He coveted the spoil, and even had the assurance to suggest, through his head groom, that John should present him with some of the Vizier’s horses. The gift was made and received as a due. The king also made such handsome presents to many of the German princes, that he gaily tells the queen she will have to be content with the buffaloes and camels.[109] His general distrust of the Austrians was such that he deposited his part of the spoil with the Jesuits.[110]

John advances into Hungary.At length (September 17), weary of waiting for the Imperial troops, he started for the Danube. His design was to attack Lower Hungary, which had been a Turkish province for a hundred and fifty years, and to invest Buda, its capital. Thither the Vizier had retired to rally the remains of his army, and was avenging his defeat by the execution of a crowd of pachas. The Turks could hardly believe that the Christians would retaliate at once by invading their territory, and Sobieski’s advance created the utmost alarm. But he was unhappily delayed at Presburg by a fever[111] which attacked his troops and produced such distress as to shake his resolution to proceed. Intrigues of the queen.Another cause of his chagrin was the scarcely concealed intriguing of the queen among the troops to force him to return. She tried to persuade him that she was in constant fear of the troops of Tekeli. In two admirable letters[112] he tells her the powerful motives which induce him to continue the campaign. He shows her that the Poles are crushing their national enemy without the cost of one sou to the republic, and declares that, since the Christian armies have elected him their generalissimo, he will remain even if his countrymen desert him to finish the campaign. “I have devoted my life,” he says, “to the glory of God and to this holy cause, and to that I will adhere.”

After a few days his troops were able to resume their march, and they were joined by the Imperialists on the 2nd of October. They crossed the second arm of the Danube, and followed its course on the left bank. The first Turkish fortress in their way was Strigonia, called by the Hungarians Gran, a place of great strength on the right bank, communicating by a bridge with the fortified suburb of Parkan on the opposite side. The vanguard of the Polish cavalry, always a march in advance of the infantry and the Imperialists, had descended the hills to reconnoitre this fort, when suddenly a large Turkish force issued from the works and appeared in their front (October 7th.) He is defeated at Parkan.Before the Poles could form in line they had to sustain a tremendous charge, and were put to flight. The king, who was close behind with the main body, could not rally the fugitives, and found himself obliged, with his 4,000 hussars, to charge the enemy in his turn. His onset was unsuccessful. The Turks opened their lines to enclose the Poles, and this caused a panic which ended in a rout. The king and his personal escort strove in vain to stem the rush of the Turks; they were swept along in the mêlée. The pursuit was hot; and the king, who was one of the last to turn his horse, was in great danger. A spahi raised his scimitar to strike him, but was hewn down before his blow fell. John was hurried along breathless, scarcely able to hold the reins, and jostled by the mad haste of his flying troops. At length the Imperialists appeared, and the Turks desisted from the pursuit. The king lay down upon a bundle of hay, sorely bruised, but more afflicted in mind than in body. It was the first defeat he had sustained, and it was embittered at first by the supposed loss of his son, who however escaped unwounded. When the Austrians came up, with sorrow in their faces and joy at their hearts, he raised himself with dignity, and said, “Gentlemen, I have been well beaten, but I will take my revenge with you and for you.” His Cossack infantry, who heard that he had perished, bewailed him as a father; and he was deeply touched by their devotion.[113] Several historians have asserted that he brought on this engagement in order to crown himself with glory before the arrival of his allies; but his letter to the queen after the battle shows beyond a doubt that his cavalry had orders not to fight, and that the vanguard were taken unawares.[114]

The Poles hastily buried their dead in order to conceal their losses, and were so dispirited that the king could scarcely persuade them to wipe out the defeat. Great victory of Sobieski at Parkan.Although three days after he says that his body is “as black as a coal,”[115] his exertions were unremitting to prepare his army for a grand attack. The Turks, as he had expected, were elated at their victory. A report spread widely among them, which even reached the European courts, that the hero had been slain; and they took a fresh lease of courage. The Vizier sent them reinforcements; and when, two days later (October 9th), the Christian army defiled into the plain of Parkan, they found a large force drawn up to receive them. The same morning the Turks commenced the attack, and repeatedly charged the left wing commanded by Jablonowski. They were beaten back with splendid courage; the steady advance of the king with the right wing upon the fort of Parkan threw them into confusion; and when the Christians charged in their turn, the Turks gave way on all sides. Storming of the fort.The fort was taken by storm, and no quarter was given;[116] numbers of fugitives were drowned in the Danube; several pachas were captured, and at least 40,000 Turks perished.

Writing to the queen on the following day, John speaks of the victory as “even greater than that of Vienna.” Flight of the Vizier.The Vizier was seized with dismay, and fled precipitately to Belgrade. His flight enabled the king to exclaim with pride that now at last, after two hundred years of slavery, Hungary was delivered from the infidel. He adds, “This has surpassed my expectation, and I believe that of my contemporaries.”[117]

Capture of Strigonia.John was anxious at once to lay siege to Buda, which he regarded as the goal of the campaign, but the Duke of Lorraine persuaded him to begin with Strigonia. This was one of the strongest fortresses in Hungary, and had been occupied by the Turks for a hundred and forty years. Yet the place surrendered in a fortnight, although the garrison was composed of 5,000 janissaries. Well might the Turkish pachas exclaim to the Poles that their king was raised up by God to be the scourge of Islam.[118]

John could now no longer resist the eagerness of his nobles to return to Poland. Return of the Poles.Early in November the armies separated, and the Poles retraced their steps through Hungary. Before their departure the king had endeavoured to mediate between Tekeli and the commissioners of the Emperor, but the sole favour which he could obtain for the insurgents was the promise of a general amnesty, and his disinterested efforts only resulted in increasing Leopold’s suspicions of his motive.His efforts on behalf of the Hungarians. Yet he could not give up the attempt; he longed to establish the strong barrier of a free people against the Turkish advance; and as a last resource he begged for the help of the Holy See. In his instructions to his minister at Rome,[119] he claims this favour from the Imperial Court as his due, and indignantly disowns the unworthy motives imputed to him. “The sole interest of his Sacred Majesty is to rally the nations against the pagans. For that end he demands that the nation which he has re-conquered for Christendom should be treated after a Christian fashion.” But the Pope was so closely bound to the policy of Leopold that he cared not to interfere; and nothing was done to restore the ancient liberties of Hungary. John was deeply indignant, but his conscience would not permit him to insist on this concession as the price of his sworn alliance.

Their hostility to his army.His friendly relations with Tekeli were broken off by the rapine of the Lithuanians, who, on hearing of the spoils of which their tardiness had deprived them, had set off in haste towards the south, and were plundering Upper Hungary. The inhabitants, regarding John as responsible for these reckless freebooters, and knowing nothing of his efforts in their behalf, shut themselves up in their towns and treated him as an enemy. Though he could scarcely obtain provisions for his troops, he was loth to relinquish his design of quartering them in Hungary. But the queen had hit on a new method of preventing him, which was more effective than the murmurs of his men. She suddenly ceased to answer his letters. “For five weeks,” he complains, “I really have not known whether there is a Poland in the world.”[120]

Triumphal entry into Cracow.He closed the campaign gloriously on the anniversary of Kotzim (November 11th), by capturing Schetzin after a few hours’ siege, and then returned home through the Carpathian Mountains. The ground was frozen so hard that the tents could not be pitched, and it was Christmas-eve before the victorious army, laden with the spoils of the East, entered Cracow in triumph. A few days later the Grand Vizier received with resignation his sentence of death from the Sultan, and ere long the head which had dreamed of the conquest of Europe was adorning the gates of the seraglio.

General results of the campaign.The result of this grand campaign was to change the course of history. Hitherto, as at Lepanto and at St. Gothard, the Ottoman arms had never received more than a temporary check; from henceforward we find the empire of the Sultan constantly losing ground in Europe. John Sobieski had recovered in two months more than had been gained in a hundred years. The chief explanation of this decline is doubtless internal decay; but the glory of the Polish hero consists in the singleness of aim which enabled him in a moment of supreme danger to disregard old enmities, and to fly to the defence of Western Christendom, then too disunited to defend itself.

Advantages to Poland.Poland gained more by this campaign than she was ready to confess. The Turks had for ever lost the offensive, and were so much engaged in their conflict with the Empire, that they could not think of revenging themselves upon the republic. But they still retained the fortress of Kaminiec; and until this sore was closed, the danger seemed ever present. The Cossacks however, from whom that danger had first arisen, now acknowledged the king’s authority, and falling upon the Tartars as they returned from Vienna, routed them with immense slaughter. But the renown procured by the victories of the king was more advantageous still. Venice and Muscovy besought the honour of an alliance with Poland; and she never stood higher among the nations than at this moment.

Campaign of 1684.Civil troubles prevented John taking the field early the next year (1684).[121] In August, however, he marched into Podolia, and after taking Jaslowicz, approached the walls of Kaminiec. Since he could not hope to reduce it by blockade, his only resource was to erect a fort in the neighbourhood; and this he effected in the face of the enemy, who dared not risk a battle.

He returned to Zolkiew in November, dissatisfied with the results of the campaign. Jealousy of John’s generals.At its outset he had been attended by numbers of distinguished foreigners, anxious to serve under so great a prince, but he had found himself enfeebled by the lukewarm support of his two Grand Generals, Jablonowski and Sapieha. Both were jealous of his monopolising the glory by commanding in every campaign; but each of them had ulterior reasons. Jablonowski was the chief of the faction of Louis XIV., who was straining every nerve to gain over Poland; Sapieha dreamed of separating Lithuania from Poland, and becoming sovereign of the Grand Duchy. In the ensuing Diet the faction of each had its complaints against the king. The former blamed him for his ill-success against Kaminiec; the latter accused him of depriving Lithuania of her rights by summoning the Diet to meet at Warsaw instead of at Grodno. The Lithuanians at first refused to attend it, but they yielded on the king’s proposal that it should be called the Diet of Grodno. Their opposition to his plans, however, was relentless, and one of the family of Paz[122] carried his abuse so far as to threaten to make him feel the weight of his arm. Such was the treatment that was reserved for the saviour of Europe at the hands of his own subjects!

Unsuccessful campaign of 1685.His health had now become so feeble that in the next campaign (1685) he was able to gratify Jablonowski by leaving him in command. His loss was at once keenly felt. Skilful though he was, the Grand General allowed his army to be caught in a defile in the forest of Bucovina, and it required all his ability to rescue it from utter annihilation. Ashamed at his own pride no less than at his reverse he shunned the royal presence.[123]

Perfidy of Leopold.The zeal of the king for the cause of the Emperor was cooled about this time by the marriage of the archduchess, who had been promised to Prince James, to the Elector of Bavaria. The queen[124] was impelled by her resentment to join the French party, and Leopold had too much cause to fear that she would induce John to make a separate peace. Father Vota.He therefore sent a Jesuit named Vota as his secret agent to the court of Warsaw. The mission of the holy father was not openly political; his journey was supposed to have been undertaken to convert the heretics of the Greek church; but the Emperor trusted that his literary and social talents would procure him an ascendancy over the king of Poland. He is described as a man of wide knowledge and wonderful powers of conversation; and his religious habits and unobtrusive demeanour preserved him from suspicion. He devoted himself to the king’s pleasure, and often slept on the floor of an ante-chamber in order to be at hand to entertain his weary hours. He easily kept him faithful to the league against the infidel, and hinted that the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia might, if subdued by his arms, become hereditary in his family. John knew well that they would merely become provinces of Poland; but he was anxious to extend her frontiers to the shores of the Black Sea. The king tries to revive commerce.In spite of the opposition of the nobles he wished to revive her commerce; and a mercantile treaty which he contemplated with Holland would have been assisted by the acquisition of a double sea-front.

Treaty with Muscovy.By a treaty with Muscovy in this year (1686) he gave up Kiow and Smolensko, which had been long in her possession, for a large indemnity, and obtained promises of co-operation in his schemes of conquest. Posterity has blamed him for these concessions; but in his time such was the national contempt for the Muscovites that no danger was apprehended on their side.

Campaign of 1686.His chances of success were excellent. The Emperor promised his aid on the side of Hungary; and a great army of Muscovites was to push forward to the Black Sea. After arranging his plans with the Imperial generals, John assembled his forces at the Dniester, but he found all alike, officers and men, indisposed to a campaign beyond the borders of Poland. But he could not now draw back. He advanced through the deserts of Moldavia to the Pruth, passing on his way the fatal spot where Zolkiewski met with a hero’s death. Descending the river he entered Yassy, the capital, on the 15th of August, and found that the hospodar had fled with his troops, but had left provisions for the invading force, thinking by this means to secure his immunity from punishment, whatever might be the result of the campaign. After two days of rest John pushed on towards the Black Sea. But the heat, the scarcity of water, and the terrible solitude[125] broke the spirit of his army, and suddenly the Tartars appeared in his front. News also arrived that the Turks were within a march of him, and there was no sign either of Muscovite or Austrian succours. Leopold had again deceived him, and had profited by John’s demonstration to capture the city of Buda. There was nothing left but to retreat, and this the king successfully accomplished, through a most difficult country, in the face of the enemy. The Tartars poisoned the rivers and springs, and set fire to the vegetation, while searching clouds of dust and ashes distressed the retiring Poles. At length they reached the frontiers of Poland; and the only person who had reaped any benefit from their sufferings was the Emperor Leopold.

Deposition of the Sultan.In the following year a revolution at Constantinople, provoked by continued disasters, deprived Mahomet IV. of his throne; and had there been a complete accord between the members of the Christian league, the Ottoman empire might have tottered to its fall. No soldier of the Church had laboured more steadily towards this end than John Sobieski; and if it was not realised, the fault lay not with him but with his more powerful allies.

Polish anarchy.As his reign drew near its close, the internal disorders of his kingdom increased. The Emperor never ceased to intrigue with the Lithuanian grandees against his faithful ally, and the French party opposed him for this fidelity to the league. The lesser nobility was devoted to him; but the Senate was now the hotbed of faction. All the grandees wished for the end of his reign, the French party because they disliked his policy, and the Lithuanians because they hated his person. Besides this, every ambitious senator looked to an interregnum as a means of realising his dreams of power.

Diet of Grodno.In the Diet of Grodno in 1688 the king was assailed on all sides. The senators[126] in the pay of France clamoured for peace with the Porte; the Lithuanians, at a hint from the Emperor, accused him of personal aims in his attempt upon Moldavia. Before any subsidy could be voted the Diet was dissolved by the veto; and when the king assembled a convocation he met with the same stormy opposition. Hastily dismissing the assembly, he submitted to a period of inaction; but he had the consolation of finding, on a visit to Wilna in the same year, that even in the Grand Duchy he was regarded by the people with admiration.

John refuses peace with the Turks.A fresh outburst from the French party occurred in the same summer, when he refused to make peace with the Sultan, although he was offered the restoration of Kaminiec. He had bound himself by oath never to make a separate peace without the consent of his allies; but to keep strictly to this article was detrimental to the republic, so sorely in need of reforms, and he had abundant excuse for breaking it in the conduct of the Emperor.

Tries to establish hereditary succession.His scruples were not suggested by a desire for further glory, or by a blindness to the true interests of Poland. His days of warfare were past for ever. He saw only too clearly the failure of the old constitution, and he was anxious before his death to witness the establishment of hereditary monarchy. In striving to have his son declared his successor he was not actuated by merely selfish motives, for when a subject he had held the same principles.[127] But the grandees considered such a proposal as a direct infringement of their privileges; and they were encouraged by Leopold, who found it his interest to preserve Poland in a state of fermentation.

Affecting scene in the senate.The king intended to ask this of the republic at the Diet of Grodno; but his intention becoming known, he was assailed with the utmost virulence in the senate. The Grand Treasurer termed him despot, tyrant, and destructor of the public liberty; a palatine spoke of him as the enemy of his country. At length the king rose and addressed the senate. He recalled the patriotism and services of his ancestors, and protested his devotion to the cause of liberty. But he begged his hearers to pause, and reflect on the consequences of intestine strife. “Oh, what will be one day the sad surprise of posterity to see that at the summit of our glory, when the name of Poland was filling the universe, we have allowed our country to fall in ruins, to fall, alas! for ever! For myself I have now and then gained you a few battles; but I confess myself deprived of all power to save you. It only remains for me to resign, not to destiny, for I am a Christian, but to the great and mighty God, the future of my beloved country.... I seem to hear already resounding over our heads the cry of the prophet: ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.’ Your most illustrious Dominations know that I do not believe in auguries. I do not search out oracles; I give no credence to dreams; it is not an oracle, it is faith which teaches me that the decrees of Providence cannot fail to be accomplished.”

During this prophetic speech the voice of the old king trembled with emotion, and the senate was deeply touched. The primate knelt at the foot of the throne, and assured him of the loyalty of Poland; and a cry of assent arose from all present. The subsidies were voted by acclamation; but it was only a transient gleam of concord. Continued disturbances.Next year there were rumours of a conspiracy to dethrone the king; and amid the storms of the Diet a bishop named Opalinski said to him haughtily, “Be equitable, or cease to reign!” The insult was soon followed by an apology; but the tumult continued in the assembly, and sabres were freely used before the veto terminated the disgraceful scene.[128] Intended abdication of Sobieski.The king felt himself unable to cope with these terrible disorders, and he instructed his chancellor to prepare an act of abdication (1689); but the unfeigned sorrow of all classes persuaded him to withdraw it. There was little improvement, however, in the temper of future Diets; and the veto was employed as freely as before.

Discord in his family.John was not more happy in his domestic than in his public life. His imperious queen was ever his evil genius. Not content with diminishing his popularity by mixing too freely in public affairs,[129] she sowed dissension round his own fireside. The king evidently designed for his successor his eldest son James; for, besides giving him a high command in the army, he allowed him to sit by his side in the senate. But the queen favoured Alexander, her second son, who was more handsome and popular[130] than his brother, and her open partiality produced a fierce hatred between the two brothers. When the Emperor, reminded of the value of John’s friendship by the victories of Mustapha Köprili, gave the Princess of Neuberg in marriage to Prince James[131] (1690), the queen took a violent dislike to her daughter-in-law; and the family breach was widened.

His last campaign, in 1691.Next year the king took the field for the last time, nominally to chastise the Tartars for an invasion in the winter, but really perhaps to escape the miseries of his court. He took with him for the first time his son Alexander, and this so exasperated Prince James that he threatened to leave the country. The king told him that if he went he would take with him a father’s curse, and he was persuaded to repent and ask pardon for his violence. His father said openly that in the ensuing campaign he should more easily get the better of the enemy than of his own sons. He gained a victory at Pererita (August 6), and took a few places in Moldavia, and then returned to his kingdom never to leave it more.

His love of retirement.He spent his last years in retirement, and seldom appeared in public except in the Diet. His palace of Willanow was his favourite residence, and from thence in the summer he would roam from castle to castle, sometimes pitching his tent, like his nomad forefathers, wherever a picturesque spot or a noble landscape attracted his fancy. The queen would have preferred the gaieties of Warsaw; but she followed him into his solitude, and took care that balls, operas, and the other amusements of a court should be going on around him.

His literary tastes.His chief recreation now, as in his most difficult campaigns, was the study of the sciences. He complains to the queen, after the battle of Vienna, that with all his love of reading he has not had a book in his hand for more than three weeks.[132] When he read he always had a pencil in his hand, and his marginal notes displayed uncommon powers of mind. Dr. South—no mean judge—pronounces him to be “very opulently stored with all polite and scholastical learning.” He was fond of writing Polish poetry, and when his daughter Theresa married the Elector of Bavaria he presented her with a copy of verses on the event.[133] Like many others of the Slav race, he was an accomplished linguist. He could converse with ease in six languages, including Latin,[134] and learnt Spanish when he was past fifty. His delight was to assemble around him cultivated men like Father Vota, the French Ambassador Cardinal Polignac, and his physicians, Connor and Jonas, and to “set them very artfully by the ears”[135] on some question of philosophy or natural science.[136] Nor was theology forgotten. He used to give audiences to the schismatic bishops, and listen patiently to their arguments for their respective creeds.

Patron of learning.Such a prince was of course an ardent patron of learning. During his reign more books issued from the Polish press than in the two centuries preceding; and his liberal views led him to reprimand the Catholic clergy for not admitting into their schools the philosophy of Descartes. Spite of the nobles.The great nobles, many of them wholly unlettered, could not sympathise with these literary tastes, and they showed their spite towards the king in various ways. On one occasion, when illness kept him away from the Diet, the Sapiehas demanded that he should be summoned to attend; and when their motion was lost, they broke up the assembly with the veto. A Jew named Bethsal, who collected his revenues, was condemned to death by the Diet on an unproved charge of sacrilege,[137] and John could hardly prevail to save his life. Charge of covetousness unproved.Many imputed his love of retirement to covetousness, and asserted that he laid up £100,000 a year for the benefit of his sons.[138] The accusation has been often repeated, although his life abounds in instances of his draining his private[139] coffers to serve a pressing public need.

The disorders of the kingdom grew more frightful as John became less able to restrain them. Street brawls between political parties had always been of common occurrence, but the rioters now began to use firearms,[140] and the king had to publish an edict prohibiting the shedding of blood on pain of death. He often sent for the chief nobles, and adjured them by the love of their country to aid him in restoring order.[141] In 1695 the Tartars, tempted by Polish anarchy and by a report of the king’s death, invaded Russia, and besieged Leopol; but they disappeared as quickly as they had come on the approach of Sobieski.

His feeble health.Reports of his death were common in Europe, partly from his feeble health and partly from the interest which many sovereigns felt in the event.[142] He had long been afflicted with dropsy; and a wound in his head, which he had received long before in the Cossack war, now caused serious alarm.

Schemes of the queen.The queen was most anxious that he should make his will, and she deputed her Chancellor, Bishop Zaluski, to make the proposal. The king received it with disfavour. “I am surprised,” he said, “that a man of your sense and worth should thus waste your time. Can you expect anything good of the times in which we live? Look at the inundation of vice, the contagion of folly; and should we believe in the execution of our last wishes? In life we command and are not obeyed. Would it be otherwise in death?” Soon after the queen entered, and read in the face of the bishop the failure of her plan. Zaluski tells us that the next day the king complained bitterly to him of the bodily sufferings brought on by a dose of mercury which she had given him. His frame was shaken by convulsive sobs, and he exclaimed wildly, “Will there be no one to avenge my death?” This was probably only the raving of a distempered brain; but the queen has never been exempt from suspicion, and her conduct after his death only served to confirm it.

His illness,On the 17th of June, 1696, his seventy-second birthday,[143] he lay at Willanow in a state of dreadful weakness. He asked the news from Warsaw, and was told that multitudes were flocking to the churches to pray for his recovery. The intelligence affected him deeply, and he passed the day in cheerful conversation; but towards evening he was seized with an attack of apoplexy.[144] The chief officers hastened to his chamber, and when he awoke to a short interval of consciousness he showed how eager he was to depart by pronouncing the words “Stava bene.” And death.Soon afterwards, about sunset, he breathed his last, and his death, like his birth, was followed by a sudden and frightful storm.

Sorrow of the nation.Only a few of the nobles welcomed his decease; the mass of the nation remembered his glory, and sincerely mourned his loss. The Chancellor Zaluski thus expresses the general sorrow: “With this Atlas has fallen, in my eyes at least (may I prove a false prophet!), the republic itself. We seem not so much to have lost him as to have descended with him into the tomb. At least I have but too much cause to fear that it is all over with our power. At this news the grief is universal. In the streets men accost each other with tears, and those who do not weep are yet terrified at the fate which is in store for us. Terror apart, what grief was ever more natural? He is, perhaps, the first king in whose reign not one drop of blood has been shed in reparation of his own wrongs. He had but one single fault—he was not immortal.”

Quarrels of his family.Amidst such heartfelt sorrow the behaviour of his family alienated from them all public sympathy. Prince James at first refused to admit the queen with the royal corpse to the castle of Warsaw, and when at length he yielded, he hurried away to Zolkiew to seize his father’s treasures. The queen hastened after him to put in her claim, but he turned the cannon of that fortress against her. Burning with indignation, she exerted all her influence before she left the country[145] to destroy his chances of the crown. Such was the magic of his father’s name that at first there was a large party in his favour; but the family quarrels weakened and dispersed it. The Austrian party elected Augustus of Saxony; and the French party thought it necessary to protest by seizing the remains of the late king. The Elector, resolved not to be out-manœuvred, erected a cenotaph to the memory of John III.; and it was not till the next reign, thirty-six years later, that his body received interment.[146]

His sons.The history of his three sons deserves a word of remark. Charles XII., who as a boy was a devoted admirer of John Sobieski,[147] invaded Poland in 1705, and would have offered the crown to Prince James; but the prince, being then in Germany with his brother Constantine, was seized by the Saxon troops, and honourably confined at Leipsic; and, as his brother Alexander nobly refused to profit by his misfortune, the opportunity passed by. Alexander died at Rome as a capuchin, and his two brothers resided in Poland on their estates. James Sobieski had two daughters, of whom the younger, Maria Clementina, was married to the Chevalier St. George, called the “Old Pretender,” and became the mother of the unhappy Charles Edward.

Character of John Sobieski,The life and exploits of John Sobieski have in modern times scarcely received their due meed of attention. Born in a country half civilized, half barbarous, whose independence has now been completely effaced, his glory has not proved so enduring as that of less remarkable men who have figured on a more conspicuous stage. As general, as patriot, and as Christian hero, he will bear comparison with the greatest names in any age. As general.No man ever won so many battles in the most desperate situations; no man ever achieved such deeds with forces often insignificant and always unruly. His fertility of resource was amazing; yet it was only equal to the swiftness of his execution. His chief glory is that, unlike any other great conqueror, his grandest triumphs were obtained in defensive warfare, and that all his efforts were directed either to the salvation of his country or to the honour of his religion. As patriot.His individual greatness appears most striking in the ascendancy which he early acquired in his own country. His frank and simple bearing, his noble mien, and his stirring eloquence, enabled him, while he was still a subject, to sway the minds and wills of his fellow-countrymen as if by an irresistible charm.As Christian hero. He laboured for the safety of Poland with a perfect singleness of aim; and when that was fully secured, he strove with a like fixity of purpose for the destruction of the Ottoman power. To us his crusading ardour may seem to have been out of date, but we must remember that in the seventeenth century the Turks still inspired a lively alarm, and that if at the present day we regard them with pity or contempt, the first step towards this change was accomplished by the sword of John Sobieski.

As king.As a king, he is not entitled to the same high praise. In a land of peace and order he might have ranked as a benefactor to his people, but in the home of licence and anarchy his temper was too gentle and refined to employ the severity which was needed. A king of Poland, if he was to heal the disorders of his realm, must first have made himself feared; the natural temperament of Sobieski made him prefer to be loved. Clemency and generous forgiveness were parts of his disposition;[148] and the necessary result upon his policy was that he resigned himself too easily to bear the vexations which surrounded him. When he did act, his method was most unwise; for in his principal attempt at reform—when he aimed at establishing hereditary succession—he exposed himself to the charge of a grasping self-interest.

As head of his family.But we cannot acquit him of deplorable weakness in the management of his own family. A hasty passion had thrown him into the power of an unscrupulous and despotic woman, and his uxorious fondness left her only too much scope for the activity of her caprice. We have seen more than once that he could oppose her when his duty seemed clearly marked out for him; but, for the sake of his own peace, he allowed her to intermeddle without ceasing in the affairs of Poland. The only result of his indulgence was that very misery in his domestic circle which he had sought to avoid. Of the charge against him of avarice we have already spoken. His chivalrous enthusiasm and cultivated intelligence would have gone far to disprove it, even if the treasure which he left behind him had not been found to be only moderate.

His great services,His services to his country were extraordinary, although he himself confessed that he could not arrest her fall. He found her at the opening of his career plunged in civil strife and beset with foreign enemies; he left her at its close with peace fully assured to her, and with her glory at its zenith. Within two years of his death the peace of Carlowitz was signed with the Turks, by which they renounced all claim to Kaminiec, Podolia, and the Ukraine. The fruit of his victories was thus fully reaped; but his efforts to revive commerce and to form an infantry among the serfs, which would have been the first step to their emancipation, were never afterwards renewed. Could only retard the fall of Poland.A patriot life like his may be said to have tried the institutions of his country, and to have found them wanting. After seventy-five years of anarchy, that dreaded Partition, which had been mooted in his day[149] but which he had postponed for a hundred years, was at length carried into effect. Austria, whom he had saved by his prowess, Prussia, whom he had hoped to reunite to his country, Russia, whom his ancestor[150] had laid at her feet—each took a share of the spoil. No other patriot arose to save Poland from her rapid decline; and John Sobieski may be called the last, as he was the greatest, of her independent kings.

Oxford: A. Thomas Shrimpton and Son, 23 and 24, Broad Street.