without the consent of the republic.
[45] See Daleyrac, chap. i. p. 39.
[46] A “seraskier” was a commander-in-chief, who received his
commission direct from the Grand Vizier.
[47] The chiefs of these principalities, now united under the
name of Roumania, had been offended at the insolence of the
seraskier, and their troops, being Christians, disliked serving
under the Turks.
[48] _History of the Grand Viziers, Mahomet and Ashmet Cuprogli_,
by F. de Chassepol; Englished by John Evelyn, junior, published
1677. See bk. iv.
[49] Salvandy (i. 419) says Hussein was cut down by Prince
Radziwill; but most accounts agree that he escaped and died of
his wounds at Kaminiec.
[50] Coyer appears to have first made this statement. It would
be interesting to know his authority. His mainstay, _Familiar
Letters of the Chancellor Zaluski_, does not support him.
[51] Coyer says that the Polish army, on their way to Kotzim, met
this envoy.
[52] Letter 329. “La victoire du Grand Maréchal est si grand
qu’on ne doute point qu’il ne soit élu roi.” She does not however
know much about Sobieski, for a little later (Letter 333) she
represents him as of a different religion from the nation.
[53] Connor, who is evidently repeating the gossip of the king’s
reign, says that he “worked underhand for himself.”
[54] Salvandy enumerates them (i. 430), but it can hardly be
supposed that they all sent envoys. Among them were the Duke of
York and his son-in-law, the Prince of Orange.
[55] Coyer says that Michael Paz, in the council of war after
the battle of Kotzim, burst out with this as a condition of his
supporting any candidate.
[56] Dr. South describes him as follows: “He is a tall, corpulent
prince, large-faced, and full eyes, and goes always in the same
dress with his subjects, with his hair cut round about his ears
like a Monk, and wears a fur cap, extraordinarily rich with
diamonds and jewels, large whiskers, and no neck-cloth.”--_Letter
to Dr. Pococke_, p. 5.
[57] Czartoryski, Archbishop of Guesna, had died suddenly at a
banquet given by Sobieski.
[58] Three contemporary authorities give this eloquent speech _in
extenso_; and the language which is common to all of them, and
which is here quoted, enables us to understand its electrical
effect upon the audience.
[59] This generally occurred on Church lands, for nobles could
make themselves heard against the general in the Diet. Daleyrac
(chap. i. p. 12) says that he had heard of these officers making
6,000 francs by bribes.
[60] No queen of Poland was entitled to any allowance from the
republic (or pension in case of widowhood) without having been
crowned.
[61] Daleyrac (ch. i. p. 11) says that the Lithuanians are a
worse scourge to the country than the Tartars. We shall find them
as barbarous to the friendly people of Hungary.
[62] Coyer makes the astounding mistake of stating that Köprili
died in 1674, and was succeeded in the command in Poland by Kara
Mustapha. (pp. 210, 216, 8vo ed.)
[63] The account followed by Salvandy (ii. 29) represents the
whole Turkish army, nearly 200,000 strong, as having been
present. Coyer, following Zaluski, gives the account in the text.
[64] He had been previously received by John in the camp at
Leopol. The German name for that town is Lemberg.
[65] He died of apoplexy on receiving the intelligence.
[66] Daleyrac (ch. i. 22). The infantry formed the rear guard,
and when composed of Cossacks, were useful in a dangerous retreat.
[67] The regular army, called “Komport,” or sometimes
“Quartians,” was supposed to consist of 48,000 men, of which
12,000 were Lithuanians; but it hardly ever reached this amount.
(Daleyrac, ch. i.)
[68] This was a most valuable addition to his revenue.
[69] Coyer says that the Muscovites were advancing into Poland to
the king’s relief, but this seems improbable.
[70] Coyer implies that the condition was refused, Ibrahim
scornfully remarking that the Greeks, who then held the holy
places, were Christians as well as the Latins.
[71] Letter 537. “La paix de Pologne est faite, mais
romanesquement. Ce héros, à la tête de quinze mille hommes,
entourés de deux cent mille, les a forcés, l’épée à la main, à
signer la traité. Il s’était campé si avantageusement que depuis
La Calprenède on n’avait rien vu de pareil.”
[72] The expedition was made and failed ignominiously.
[73] Palmer, _Memoirs of Sobieski_. See also _Biographie
Universelle_, art. “Hevelius.”
[74] Bourbon l’Archambault, in the department of Allier.
[75] He alleged as his reason the poverty of the marquis.
Some scandal was caused by the attempt of the French queen to
secure this honour for a certain Brisacier, her attendant, who
represented himself as the natural son of Sobieski during his
visit to France. John could not remember the circumstances, and
the French queen afterwards denied that she wrote to him upon the
subject. The affair was never explained.
[76] In which he summoned the Diet and enumerated the agenda.
[77] Oratio principis Radziwill ad Imperatorem.
[78] The Diet afterwards sent succours to the relief of Vienna,
and the electors of Bavaria and Saxony each commanded a
contingent.
[79] DALEYRAC, Preface to _Polish Manuscripts_.
[80] DALEYRAC, ch. ii. p. 44.
[81] Salvandy (ii. 161) says that in August Leopold offered to
cede him the kingdom of Hungary, and to guarantee the succession
to his family, and that John answered that he wished for no other
reward but the glory of deserving well of God and man. The offer,
if made, could not have been _bona fide_.
[82] This is the estimate of Sobieski himself in his famous
letter to the queen after the battle. He bases it on the number
of tents, which he places at nearly 100,000. Daleyrac says that a
list was found in the Grand Vizier’s tent, which gave the number
of the Turks alone as 191,800.
[83] Daleyrac tells an amusing story of the way in which these
Cossacks brought in their prisoners. The king offered a reward to
those who could catch him a “Tongue” whom he could cross-examine.
A Cossack brought a prisoner to the king’s tent, flung him on
the ground like a sack, and went away without a word. Shortly
afterwards he came back, and putting his head into the tent,
said, “John, they have paid me the money; God restore it thee!
Good-night!”
[84] “The siege of Vienna had given terror to all Europe, and
the utmost reproch to the French, who ’tis believed brought in
the Turks for diversion that the French king might the more
easily swallow Flanders, and pursue his unjust conquests upon the
empire, while we sat unconcerned and under a deadly charm from
somebody.”--EVELYN’s _Diary_, September 23rd, 1683.
[85] Letter of the Emperor to the King of Poland from Passau,
August 24th.
[86] A grand subscription was being raised in Rome. Cardinal
Barberini alone gave 20,000 florins.
[87] DALEYRAC, chap. i. p. 21, and SALVANDY.
[88] Published by N. A. Salvandy; translated by M. le Comte
Plater. Paris, 1826.
[89] SALVANDY, ii. pp. 173, 174, quoted in _Foreign Quarterly
Review_, No. xiv. vol. vii.
[90] He begins every letter to her, “Seule joie de mon âme,
charmante et bien-aimée Mariette!” He calls himself her faithful
and devoted Celadon, and reminds her that it would soon be her
turn to become the wooer. Yet he was fifty-nine years old, and
she was probably forty-eight.
[91] His army probably did not know of it; but Daleyrac says he
had the news from a spy. It is inconceivable that he should not
have employed a few scouts.
[92] His order of battle given in Coyer (pp. 316-318), in which
the Duke of Lorraine commanded the centre, was written previous
to the ascent of the Kahlemberg.
[93] SALVANDY (ii. 190) says that at this moment there was an
eclipse of the moon, which increased the panic; but Daleyrac,
whose account he follows in other respects, does not mention it.
[94] Sobieski relates these particulars in Letter ix.
[95] DALEYRAC (ii. 41). This information he had from some captive
Turks.
[96] He added that he had travelled for four leagues over Turkish
corpses. Unfortunately for the credibility of his tale, his
journey to Rome lay in the direction opposite to the field of
battle.
[97] _Annales de l’Empire._ He states the Polish loss at 200.
[98] This is the number given by the French official gazette at
the time.
[99] Yet, when shortly afterwards an official at court was
presented with a sword of Sobieski, the interest excited was
intense, and engravings were taken of it. SALVANDY (ii. 420)
says that the sword of Sobieski was the cherished possession of
Napoleon at St. Helena. A French prelate was author of the witty
distich:
Dignior imperio numne Austrius? anne Polonus?
Odrysias acies hic fugat, ille fugit.
[100] “Votre Majesté s’est montrée digne non seulement de la
couronne de Pologne, mais de celle de l’univers. L’empire
du monde vous serait dû, si le ciel l’eût reservé à un seul
potentat.”
[101] Constantine Wiesnowiesçki, cousin of the late king Michael,
the Emperor’s brother-in-law.
[102] Prince Eugène, who was present, says, “N’étant pas fait
encore aux manières allemandes je m’amusai beaucoup de la fiére
entrevue de l’empereur avec le roi de Pologne.” Sa vie écrite par
lui même. Paris, 1810.
[103] Letter x.
[104] Letter xii.
[105] Letter xv.
[106] “Si namque ad clangorem memoratae victoriae vel levis
armorum terra marique succedat ostentatio, procul dubio
gemens sub Tyrannide Grecia ac ipsa Constantinopolis perfido
recalcitraret domino, suasque respiceret origines.... Forte
Mahometanum Imperium ad sua devolvatur principia, et ubi satis in
altum surrexerit lapsu graviori ruat.”--Letter of Sobieski from
Vizier’s tent, September 13.
[107] VOLTAIRE, _Annales de l’Empire_. Curiously enough,
Sobieski, in Letter x. (September 17), after mentioning
Hannibal’s inaction after his victory, says, “To-day we know well
how to profit by ours.”
[108] Letter x.
[109] Letter xi.
[110] Chèvremont (_L’état actuel de Pologne_, 12mo, 1702) talks
of the “vile et mesquin empressement,” which he showed by this
act. He constantly speaks of him as “ce roi avare.” As Chèvremont
was secretary to the Duke of Lorraine, it is to be feared that
the latter was not satisfied with his share of the spoil.
[111] A kind of dysentery, called the Hungarian fever.
[112] Letters xx. xxi.
[113] Letter xvii.
[114] Letter xvi. Coyer, who had never seen this letter, takes up
his favourite theme of a king pursuing selfish glory; and Coxe
(_House of Austria_, ii. 449) countenances the idea.
[115] Letter xvii.
[116] This, as Coyer says, was most discreditable to the
Christians. But Sobieski explains that the Turks had “made no
prisoners” two days before, and that the sight of the bleeding
heads of Poles upon the rampart of the fort maddened his troops.
[117] Letter xix.
[118] Letter xxi. The king notices in the same place that the
Turks called him their executioner on account of the number of
men which his victories had cost them.
[119] Quoted by SALVANDY, ii. 282-284.
[120] Letter xxix.
[121] This we learn from a letter of Sobieski to the Pope, dated
from Javarow, August 15th, 1684. Having 60,000 men (two-thirds
of them Cossacks), he started with large hopes. “Me ad Turcarum
regiam [illos] ducturum.... Liberator Orientis rediturus vel pro
Christi fide moriturus.” Sooner than give up the crusade, he
announced that he would resign the crown “tamquam ut humillimus
miles vitam in Hungaricis agminibus funderem.”
[122] Said to have been the same Paz with whom he fought a duel
in his youth.
[123] A letter of the king to Jablonowski after this defeat, in
which he gently complains of his coldness, shows his character in
a most amiable light. “Whether I have merited your indifference
or not, come promptly to dissipate the cloud which has covered
our intimate friendship, and believe that your presence will be
more efficacious towards my speedy recovery than all the art of
my physicians.”
[124] Chèvremont (p. 116) says that both she and the king
received bribes from France, but as secretary to the Duke of
Lorraine he is an Austrian authority. He admits that even on the
morrow of the battle of Vienna the Emperor had no intention of
fulfilling this promise of the hand of the archduchess.
[125] The dangers of this expedition did not deter John from
antiquarian researches. Passing an ancient mound he ascended it,
and after examination pronounced it to be the work of Decebalus,
king of Dacia.
[126] All the orders of the realm sat together while the Diet
lasted.
[127] He seems to have been in favour of John Casimir’s attempt
to name a successor.
[128] Candles were not allowed in the Diet, and the session
having lasted a long time, a Lithuanian took advantage of the
dusk to smack a bishop in the face, and a tumult ensued. About
the same time Sapieha, the Lithuanian general, had a grave
quarrel with the Bishop of Wilna. One party used excommunication,
and the other violence, and no efforts of the king could
reconcile them.
[129] She was always intriguing in the Diet, and did her utmost
to dissolve that of Grodno. She was accused of selling offices
of state, and binding the recipient to support one of her sons
at the next election (Connor). She certainly had a control over
the king’s appointments, and he so loved domestic peace that he
generally followed her advice.
[130] Prince James (born in 1667) was called the son of the Grand
Marshal, and the other two the sons of the king.
[131] This marriage made him brother-in-law of the sovereigns of
Spain, Portugal, and Austria.
[132] Letter xi. from Presburg, September 19th.
[133] CONNOR, _Letters on Poland_.
[134] The others, besides the Slavonian, were French, Italian,
German, and Turkish.
[135] SOUTH’s _Letter to Dr. Edward Pococke_, p. 5.
[136] Connor describes a discussion as to what part of the body
the soul inhabits.
[137] It is to be feared, however, that Bethsal had sometimes
abused his position.
[138] CONNOR, Letter iv.
[139] “The king opened his coffers to the designs of the League
so far that his own family could scarcely believe it.”--DALEYRAC,
Preface.
[140] DALEYRAC, chap. i. p. 33.
[141] Connor says that the grandees paid him outwardly the
highest respect, never eating with him at his table, and that
those who most abused him in Parliament showed him great
deference elsewhere.
[142] BURNET (_History of his Own Time_, iii. 348) asserts that
“he died at last under a general contempt.” This is curious side
by side with the fact that shortly before his death the new Pope,
Innocent XII., proposed to him to mediate between France and
Austria.
[143] Salvandy (ii. 395) says that it was also the day of his
accession. It certainly was not the day of his election, or of
his signing the “pacta conventa,” or of his coronation.
[144] Connor says that he died of a dropsy turned into a scirrhus
or hard tumour. The blood being prevented circulating, the
humours were driven to the head, and apoplexy ensued.
[145] It is said that she attempted to procure the election of
Jablonowski with the intention of marrying him. She soon left
Poland and resided in France, where she died in 1717, at the age
of eighty-two.
[146] SALVANDY, ii. 409. The fact is almost incredible.
[147] It is said that he refused to learn Latin until he heard
that the Polish hero was a proficient in that language. When he
was told of his death he exclaimed, “So great a king ought never
to have died.”
[148] Zaluski relates several instances of his readiness to
own himself in the wrong, and of his unwillingness to avenge a
personal insult.
[149] By Charles X. of Sweden. It is said that documents are in
existence which prove that Louis XIV. also entertained the idea.
[150] Zolkiewski.
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