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.