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.