Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/308

Rh 296 POLAND [HISTORY. a trifling addition made to them, but that a very absurd one. To the article declaring that offices should only be conferred on native nobles it was added, &quot;and on such only as have had their honours during three generations.&quot; The leading idea of Sobieski was to drive the Turks out of Europe, and if possible to resuscitate the Byzantine empire. He was soon roused to action by a new invasion of the Turks and Mongols, whose united armies are said to have amounted to 210,000 men, 1 commanded by the Seraskier Ibrahim, whose ferocious character was suffi ciently indicated by his soubriquet, Shaitan or Devil. We are told that Sobieski had only 10,000 men to oppose to this vast host ; he, however, set out from Lemberg, and was soon hemmed in by his adversaries at Zurawno, in Galicia, but by consummate bravery and adroitness suc ceeded in rescuing himself and his soldiers, even conclud ing a treaty with the Porte on favourable terms, by which Poland received back a part of the Ukraine and Podolia. Some years of peace followed, during which the king in vain endeavoured to raise supplies for an army to recon quer the provinces which Russia had appropriated. All his plans were neutralized by the absurd practice of the liherum veto. In 1683 the Turks made their grand inva- Siege of sion which they had long been preparing. After scouring Vienna the plains of Hungary, they advanced to the very walls of ^ Vienna. The emperor Leopold at once fled with his court, but had great difficulty to avoid falling into the hands of the Mongols. The imperial party made no stay till it reached the Bavarian fortress of Passau. Quick in its track followed also the wealthier portion of the inhabitants ; their selfish desertion aroused murmurs of disapprobation, and also considerably thinned the number of the popula tion capable of bearing arms ; many of these fugitives fell into the hands of the invaders, who were capable of any cruelty. The command of the city was taken by Count Stahremberg; he had already approved himself a brave soldier, and had been nominated to the post by the emperor. All classes at once including even priests and women laboured diligently at the fortifications, the bur gomaster Von Liebenberg himself setting an excellent .example. The imperial archives had already been removed : nothing now remained for the devoted city but to await the approach of the enemy. The inhabitants could see the desolated villages, and the fire and smoke of the burn ing cottages were conspicuous for miles around. At sun rise on July 14 the vast hordes of the invaders, a pro miscuous crowd of soldiers, camp-followers, camels, and baggage-waggons made their appearance. The camp was arranged in the form of a crescent ; splendid above all other things was the tent of the vizier, Kara Mustapha, made of green silk, worked with gold and silver, set with precious stones, and containing inside the holy standard of the prophet. Marvellous stories are told of the foun tains, baths, gardens, and all the appliances of Oriental luxury which it contained. Many painful incidents char acterized the siege before the arrival of Sobieski ; a fire at one time broke out in the city, which was only suppressed with difficulty. Diseases raged among the townspeople owing to their being compelled to spend their days in such close quarters and to live chiefly upon salt meat. Relief, however, was rapidly approaching. The elector of Saxony, John George, marched out of Dresden on the 22d July with twelve thousand men and eighteen guns, and reached Krems on the 28th August. The Polish king, who had been solicited by the emperor himself, and to whom all Europe looked now as its saviour, left Cracow accompanied by his son, and succeeded in reaching the quarters of Prince Charles of Lorraine. He was to act in concert 1 80,000 Turks and 130,000 Mongols, as we are told by the Polish historians. with a man who had been competitor with him for the Polish crown ; their meeting passed off amicably, and no subsequent jealousies seem to have marred their opera tions. The Polish and German troops effected their junction at Krems on the Danube, near Vienna ; there were about seventy-seven thousand men ready for active operations in the field. On the 12th September, after mass, Sobieski descended from the city to encounter the dense masses of the Moslems in the plains below. He appeared with his hair partly shaven in the Polish fashion, and, although plainly attired himself, was accompanied by a brilliant retinue. In front went an attendant bearing the king s arms emblazoned, and with him another who carried a plume on the point of his lance. On his left rode his son James, unfortunate in afterwards incurring the hatred of his mother, who perhaps prevented him from being elected to the throne of Poland ; on his right was his old rival, Charles of Lorraine. Before the battle the king knighted his son and made a patriotic address to his troops, in which he told them that on that occasion they did not defend Vienna alone, but rather all Christendom, and that they were not fighting for an earthly sovereign but for the King of kings. The shouts of the soldiers bore to the enemy the dreaded name of Sobieski, familiar to them on many a well-fought field. He is said to have been provoked to give the order for battle by seeing Kara Mustapha, the Turkish commander, tranquilly taking coffee with his two sons in his splendid tent. The assault was made simultaneously on the wings and centre of the enemy. The king himself dashed forward to the pasha s tent, bearing down all opposition and repeating with a loud voice, &quot; Non nobis, non nobis, Domine exercituum, sed nomini Tuo da gloriam.&quot; &quot;Allah !&quot; said the Mongol khan, &quot; the king is surely among them.&quot; In spite of the bravery of the Turks they were overpowered by the elan of the Poles. Six pashas were slain, and the vizier fled with the remnant of his army. The booty taken was- immense. The details of the battle may be gathered from the interesting letters which Sobieski wrote to his wife in the Polish language. She was a Frenchwoman, daughter of Henri de la Grange, captain of the guard to Philip, duke of Orleans, and had been originally maid of honour to Louisa, queen of Wtadystaw IV., was then married to Count Zamoiski, and after his death became the wife of Sobieski. It is said that chiefly on her account the Polish king was induced to assist Austria. The selfish policy of Louis XIV. would have allowed this outpost of all the secret springs of his diplomacy to divert Sobieski from his purpose. He had, however, given mortal offence to this ambitious woman in refusing the title of duke to her father. After the complete rout of the Moslem, Sobieski and his troops entered Vienna, and divine service was performed in the cathedral ; a priest read aloud the text, &quot; There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.&quot; In spite of his success, the brave Pole was doomed to meet with ingratitude at the hands of the emperor Leopold, and through the selfishness of his own troops and the Lithuanian contingent, who seem to have been always at cross purposes with the Poles, he was not able to follow up his victory to its legitimate end. The king, after this brilliant achievement, showed some inclination to be reconciled to Louis XIV., but the emperor succeeded in diverting him by holding out hopes of securing the government of Moldavia and Wallachia for his son. By the treaty of Moscow, which Sobieski con cluded in 1686 with Sophia, the regent of Russia, Smolensk, Severia, Tchernigoff, and Kieff were definitely annexed to the latter country. The private life of Sobieski was embittered by family dissensions ; he was very much
 * Christian Europe to be taken by the Turks, and he used