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WORKS OF
Henryk Sienkiewicz
+------------------------------+
| IN DESERT AND WILDERNESS |
| WITH FIRE AND SWORD |
| THE DELUGE. _2 vols._ |
| PAN MICHAEL |
| CHILDREN OF THE SOIL |
| “QUO VADIS” |
| SIELANKA, A FOREST PICTURE |
| THE KNIGHTS OF THE CROSS |
| WITHOUT DOGMA |
| WHIRLPOOLS |
| ON THE FIELD OF GLORY |
| LET US FOLLOW HIM |
+------------------------------+
PAN MICHAEL.
Since Saint Michael leads the whole host of heaven, and has gained
so many victories over the banners of hell, I prefer him as a
patron.--THE DELUGE, Vol. I, p. 120.
PAN MICHAEL.
An Historical Novel
OF
POLAND, THE UKRAINE, AND TURKEY.
A SEQUEL TO
“WITH FIRE AND SWORD” AND “THE DELUGE.”
BY
HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ.
_AUTHORIZED AND UNABRIDGED TRANSLATION FROM
THE POLISH BY_
JEREMIAH CURTIN.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
1917.
_Copyright, 1893, 1898_,
BY JEREMIAH CURTIN.
_All rights reserved._
Printers
S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, MASS., U.S.A.
TO
JOHN MURRAY BROWN, Esq.
MY DEAR BROWN,--You read “With Fire and Sword” in manuscript: you
appreciated its character, and your House published it. What you
did for the first, you did later on for the other two parts of the
trilogy. Remembering your deep interest in all the translations, I
beg to inscribe to you the concluding volume, “Pan Michael.”
JEREMIAH CURTIN.
VALENTIA ISLAND, WEST COAST OF IRELAND,
August 15. 1893.
INTRODUCTION.
The great struggle begun by the Cossacks, and, after the victory
at Korsun, continued by them and the Russian population of the
Commonwealth, is described in “With Fire and Sword,” from the
ambush on the Omelnik[1] to the battle of Berestechko. In “The
Deluge” the Swedish invasion is the argument, and a mere reference
is made to the war in which Moscow and the Ukraine are on one side
and the Commonwealth on the other. In “Pan Michael,” the present
volume and closing work of the trilogy, the invader is the Turk,
whose forces, though victorious at Kamenyets, are defeated at Hotin.
“With Fire and Sword” covers the war of 1648-49, which was ended
at Zborovo, where a treaty most hateful to the Poles was concluded
between the Cossacks and the Commonwealth. In the second war there
was only one great action, that of Berestechko (1651), an action
followed by the treaty of Belaya Tserkoff, oppressive to the
Cossacks and impossible of execution.
The main event in the interval between Berestechko and the war with
Moscow was the siege and peace of Jvanyets, of which mention is
made in the introduction to “With Fire and Sword.”
After Jvanyets the Cossacks turned to Moscow and swore allegiance
to the Tsar in 1654; in that year the war was begun to which
reference is made in “The Deluge.” In addition to the Cossack cause
Moscow had questions of her own, and invaded the Commonwealth
with two separate armies; of these one moved on White Russia and
Lithuania, the other joined the forces of Hmelnitski.
Moscow had rapid and brilliant success in the north. Smolensk,
Orsha, and Vityebsk were taken in the opening campaign, as were
Vilno, Kovno, and Grodno in the following summer. In 1655 White
Russia and nearly all Lithuania came under the hand of the Tsar.
In view of Moscow’s great victories, Karl Gustav made a sudden
descent on the Commonwealth. The Swedish monarch became master of
Great and Little Poland almost without a blow. Yan Kazimir fled to
Silesia, and a majority of the nobles took the oath to Karl Gustav.
Moving from the Ukraine, Hmelnitski and Buturlin, the Tsar’s
voevoda, carried all before them till they encamped outside Lvoff;
there the Cossack hetman gave audience to an envoy from Yan
Kazimir, and was persuaded to withdraw with his army, thus leaving
the king one city in the Commonwealth, a great boon, as was evident
soon after.
When Swedish success was almost perfect, and the Commonwealth
seemed lost, the Swedes laid siege to Chenstohova. The amazing
defence of that sanctuary roused religious spirit in the Poles, who
had tired of Swedish rigor; they resumed allegiance to Yan Kazimir,
who returned and rallied his adherents at Lvoff, the city spared
by Hmelnitski. In the attempt to strike his rival in that capital
of Red Russia, Karl Gustav made the swift though calamitous march
across Poland which Sienkiewicz has described in “The Deluge” so
vividly.
Soon after his return from Silesia, the Polish king sent an embassy
to the Tsar. Austria sent another to strengthen it and arrange a
treaty or a truce on some basis.
Yan Kazimir was eager for peace with Moscow at any price,
especially a price paid in promises. The Tsar desired peace on
terms that would give the Russian part of the Commonwealth to
Moscow, Poland proper to become a hereditary kingdom in which the
Tsar himself or his heir would succeed Yan Kazimir, and thus give
to both States the same sovereign, though different administrations.
An agreement was effected: the sovereign or heir of Moscow was to
succeed Yan Kazimir, details of boundaries and succession to be
settled by the Diet, both sides to refrain from hostilities till
the Swedes were expelled, and neither to make peace with Sweden
separately.
Austria forced the Swedish garrison out of Cracow, and then
induced the Elector of Brandenburg to desert Sweden. She did this
by bringing Poland to grant independence to Princely, that is,
Eastern Prussia, where the elector was duke and a vassal of the
Commonwealth. The elector, who at that time held the casting vote
in the choice of Emperor, agreed in return for the weighty service
which Austria had shown him to give his voice for Leopold, who had
just come to the throne in Vienna.
Austria, having secured the imperial election at Poland’s expense,
took no further step on behalf of the Commonwealth, but disposed
troops in Southern Poland and secured her own interests. The
Elector, to make his place certain in the final treaty, took active
part against Sweden. Peace was concluded in 1657 and ratified in
1660 at Oliva, With the expulsion of the Swedes the historical part
of “The Deluge” is ended, no further reference being made to the
main war between the Commonwealth and Moscow.
Since the Turkish invasion described in “Pan Michael” was caused by
events in this main war, a short account of its subsequent course
and its connection with Turkey is in order in this place.
Bogdan Hmelnitski dreaded the truce between Moscow and Poland. He
feared lest the Poles, outwitting the Tsar, might recover control
of the Cossacks; hence he joined the alliance which Karl Gustav had
made with Rakotsy in 1657 to dismember the Commonwealth. Rakotsy
was defeated, and the alliance failed; both Moscow and Austria were
opposed to it.
In 1657 Hmelnitski died, and was succeeded as hetman by Vygovski,
chancellor of the Cossack army, though Yuri, the old hetman’s son,
had been chosen during his father’s last illness. Vygovski was a
noble, with leanings toward Poland, though his career was firm
proof that he loved himself better than any cause.
In the following year the new hetman made a treaty at Gadyach with
the Commonwealth, and in conjunction with a Polish army defeated
Prince Trubetskoi in a battle at Konotop. The Polish Diet annulled
now the terms of the treaty concluded with Moscow two years before.
Various reasons were alleged for this action; the true reason was
that in 1655 the succession to the Polish crown had been offered to
Austria, and, though refused in public audience, had been accepted
in private by the Emperor for his son Leopold. In the following
year Austria advised the Poles unofficially to offer this crown
(already disposed of) to the Tsar, and thus induce him to give the
Commonwealth a respite, and turn his arms against Sweden.
The Poles followed this advice; the Tsar accepted their offer. When
the service required had been rendered the treaty was broken. In
the same year, however, Vygovski was deposed by the Cossacks, the
treaty of Gadyach rejected, and Yuri Hmelnitski made hetman. The
Cossacks were again in agreement with Moscow; but the Poles spared
no effort to bring Yuri to their side, and they succeeded through
the deposed hetman, Vygovski, who adhered to the Commonwealth so
far.
Both sides were preparing their heaviest blows at this juncture,
and 1660 brought victory to the Poles. In the beginning of that
year Moscow had some success in Lithuania, but was forced back
at last toward Smolensk. The best Polish armies, trained in the
Swedish struggle, and leaders like Charnyetski, Sapyeha, and Kmita,
turned the scale in White Russia. In the Ukraine the Poles, under
Lyubomirski and Pototski, were strengthened by Tartars and met
the forces of Moscow under Sheremetyeff, with the Cossacks under
Yuri Hmelnitski. At the critical moment, and during action, Yuri
deserted to the Poles, and secured the defeat of Sheremetyeff, who
surrendered at Chudnovo and was sent a Tartar captive to the Crimea.
In all the shifting scenes of the conflict begun by the resolute
Bogdan, there was nothing more striking than the conduct and person
of Yuri Hmelnitski, who renounced all the work of his father.
Great, it is said, was the wonder of the Poles when they saw
him enter their camp. Bogdan Hmelnitski, a man of iron will and
striking presence, had filled the whole Commonwealth with terror;
his son gave way at the very first test put upon him, and in person
was, as the Poles said, a dark, puny stripling, more like a timid
novice in a monastery than a Cossack. In the words of the captive
voevoda, Sheremetyeff, he was better fitted to be a gooseherd than
a hetman.
The Polish generals thought now that the conflict was over, and
that the garrisons of Moscow would evacuate the Ukraine; but they
did not. At this juncture the Polish troops, unpaid for a long
time, refused service, revolted, formed what they called a “sacred
league,” and lived on the country. The Polish army vanished from
the field, and after it the Tartars. Young Hmelnitski turned
again to Moscow, and writing to the Tsar, declared that, forced
by Cossack colonels, he had joined the Polish king, but wished to
return to his former allegiance. Whatever his wishes may have been,
he did not escape the Commonwealth; stronger men than he, and among
them Vygovski, kept him well in hand. The Ukraine was split into
two camps: that west of the river, or at least the Cossacks under
Yuri Hmelnitski, obeyed the Commonwealth; the Eastern bank adhered
to Moscow.
Two years later, Yuri, the helpless hetman, left his office and
took refuge in a cloister. He was succeeded by Teterya, a partisan
of Poland, which now made every promise to the leading Cossacks,
not as in the old time when the single argument was sabres.
East of the Dnieper another hetman ruled; but there the Poles could
take no part in struggles for the office. The rivalry was limited
to partisans of Moscow. Besides the two groups of Cossacks on the
Dnieper, there remained the Zaporojians. Teterya strove to win
these to the Commonwealth, and Yan Kazimir, the king, assembled all
the forces he could rally and crossed the Dnieper toward the end of
1663. At first he had success in some degree, but in the following
year led back a shattered, hungry army.
Teterya had received a promise from the Zaporojians that they would
follow the example of the Eastern Ukraine. The king having failed
in his expedition, Teterya declared that peace must be concluded
between the Commonwealth and Moscow to save the Ukraine; that the
country was reduced to ruin by all parties, neither one of which
could subjugate the other; and that to save themselves the Cossacks
would be forced to seek protection of the Sultan.
Doroshenko succeeded Teterya in the hetman’s office, and began to
carry out this Cossack project. In 1666 he sent a message to the
Porte declaring that the Ukraine was at the will of the Sultan.
The Sultan commanded the Khan to march to the Ukraine. Toward the
end of that year the Tartars brought aid to the Cossacks, and the
joint army swept the field of Polish forces.
Meanwhile negotiations had been pending a long time between the
Commonwealth and Moscow. An insurrection under Lyubomirski brought
the Poles to terms touching boundaries in the north. In the south
Moscow demanded, besides the line of the Dnieper, Kieff and a
certain district around it on the west. This the Poles refused
stubbornly till Doroshenko’s union with Turkey induced them to
yield Kieff to Moscow for two years. On this basis a peace of
twenty years was concluded in 1667, at Andrussoff near Smolensk.
This peace became permanent afterward, and Kieff remained with
Moscow.
In 1668 Yan Kazimir abdicated, hoping to secure the succession to
a king in alliance with France, and avoid a conflict with Turkey
through French intervention. No foreign candidate, however, found
sufficient support, and Olshovski,[2] the crafty and ambitious
vice-chancellor, proposed at an opportune moment Prince Michael
Vishnyevetski, son of the renowned Yeremi, and he was elected in
1669. The new king, of whom a short sketch is given in “The Deluge”
(Vol. II. page 253), was, like Yuri Hmelnitski, the imbecile
son of a terrible father. Elected by the lesser nobility in a
moment of spite against magnates, he found no support among the
latter. Without merit or influence at home, he sought support in
Austria, and married a sister of the Emperor Leopold. Powerless
in dealing with the Cossacks, to whom his name was detestable,
without friends, except among the petty nobles, whose support in
that juncture was more damaging than useful, he made a Turkish war
certain. It came three years later, when the Sultan marched to
support Doroshenko, and began the siege of Kamenyets, described in
“Pan Michael.”
After the fall of Kamenyets, the Turks pushed on to Lvoff, and
dictated the peace of Buchach, which gave Podolia and the western
bank of the Dnieper, except Kieff and its district, to the Sultan.
The battle of Hotin, described in the epilogue, made Sobieski king
in 1674. This election was considered a triumph for France, an
enemy of Austria at that time; and during the earlier years of his
reign Sobieski was on the French side, and had sound reasons for
this policy. In 1674 the Elector of Brandenburg attacked Swedish
Pomerania; France supported Sweden, and roused Poland to oppose
the Elector, who had fought against Yan Kazimir, his own suzerain.
Sobieski, supported by subsidies from France, made levies of
troops, went to Dantzig in 1677, concluded with Sweden a secret
agreement to make common cause with her and attack the Elector.
But in spite of subsidies, preparations, and treaties, the Polish
king took no action. Sweden, without an ally, was defeated; Poland
lost the last chance of recovering Prussia, and holding thereby an
independent position in Europe.
The influence of Austria, the power of the church, and the intrigues
of his own wife, bore away Sobieski. He deserted the alliance with
France. To the end of his life he served Austria far better than
Poland, though not wishing to do so, and died in 1696 complaining of
this world, in which, as he said, “sin, malice, and treason are
rampant.”
JEREMIAH CURTIN.
CAHIRCIVEEN, COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND,
August 17, 1893.
NOTE.--The reign of Sobieski brought to an end that part of
Polish history during which the Commonwealth was able to
take the initiative in foreign politics. After Sobieski the
Poles ceased to be a positive power in Europe.
I have not been able to verify the saying said to have been
uttered by Sobieski at Vienna. In the text (page 401) he is
made to say that Pani Wojnina (War’s wife) may give birth
to people, but Wojna (War) only destroys them. Who the Pani
Wojnina was that Sobieski had in view I am unable to say at
this moment, unless she was _Peace_.
PAN MICHAEL.
CHAPTER I.
After the close of the Hungarian war, when the marriage of Pan
Andrei Kmita and Panna Aleksandra Billevich was celebrated, a
cavalier, equally meritorious and famous in the Commonwealth, Pan
Michael Volodyovski, colonel of the Lauda squadron, was to enter
the bonds of marriage with Panna Anna Borzobogati Krasienski.
But notable hindrances rose, which delayed and put back the affair.
The lady was a foster-daughter of Princess Griselda Vishnyevetski,
without whose permission Panna Anna would in no wise consent to the
wedding. Pan Michael was forced therefore to leave his affianced in
Vodokty, by reason of the troubled times, and go alone to Zamost
for the consent and the blessing of the princess.
But a favoring star did not guide him: he did not find the princess
in Zamost; she had gone to the imperial court in Vienna for the
education of her son. The persistent knight followed her even to
Vienna, though that took much time. When he had arranged the affair
there successfully, he turned homeward in confident hope.
He found troubled times at home: the army was forming a confederacy;
in the Ukraine uprisings continued; at the eastern boundary the
conflagration had not ceased. New forces were assembled to defend
the frontiers even in some fashion. Before Pan Michael had reached
Warsaw, he received a commission issued by the voevoda of Rus.
Thinking that the country should be preferred at all times to private
affairs, he relinquished his plan of immediate marriage and moved to
the Ukraine. He campaigned in those regions some years, living in
battles, in unspeakable hardships and labor, having barely a chance
on occasions to send letters to the expectant lady.
Next he was envoy to the Crimea; then came the unfortunate civil
war with Pan Lyubomirski, in which Volodyovski fought on the side
of the king against that traitor and infamous man; then he went to
the Ukraine a second time under Sobieski.
From these achievements the glory of his name increased in such
manner that he was considered on all sides as the first soldier of
the Commonwealth, but the years were passing for him in anxiety,
sighs, and yearning. At last 1668 came, when he was sent at command
of the castellan to rest; at the beginning of the year he went for
the cherished lady, and taking her from Vodokty, they set out for
Cracow.
They were journeying to Cracow, because Princess Griselda, who had
returned from the dominions of the emperor, invited Pan Michael to
have the marriage at that place, and offered herself to be mother
to the bride.
The Kmitas remained at home, not thinking to receive early news
from Pan Michael, and altogether intent on a new guest that was
coming to Vodokty. Providence had till that time withheld from them
children; now a change was impending, happy and in accordance with
their wishes.
That year was surpassingly fruitful. Grain had given such a
bountiful yield that the barns could not hold it, and the whole
land, in the length and the breadth of it, was covered with
stacks. In neighborhoods ravaged by war the young pine groves had
grown in one spring more than in two years at other times. There
was abundance of game and of mushrooms in the forests, as if the
unusual fruitfulness of the earth had been extended to all things
that lived on it. Hence the friends of Pan Michael drew happy omens
for his marriage also, but the fates ordained otherwise.