Page:The travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch - Volume II.djvu/77

Rh

the course of the first week of Lent, the Emperor dispatched the six Archons, having with them, as we ascertained, more than three hundred thousand troops: and a report was spread, that the Emperor himself would speedily follow them: for he was exceedingly exasperated when the two accounts were brought to him; one, that the accursed Radzivil had seized on the city of Mohilov; and the other, of what had taken place in the country of the Cossacks—of the devastation, slaughter, rapine, and burning, which had been committed there; particularly when he saw the prisoners sent him by Chmiel, taken from the Tartars, Poles, Hungarians, Moldavians, and Germans; and when he heard from Chmiel how God had granted him the victory over them, by the prowess of the Emperor's high estate, and the dread of his name. We, for our parts, could not believe in the report of the Emperor's speedy departure; as he had not completed even a month's residence in the capital. But when we were assured of its truth, our joy, which had commenced at his arrival, fled away; and our grief and sorrow increased as the time of his departure drew near. We began to utter prayers, from the bottom of our hearts, against that enemy of God and of the Christian Church, Radzivil; as we had before directed our imprecations against Stephani Beg of Moldavia; for, without doubt, the Creator raised up these two for a punishment on Christians. One would think that these enemies of God were only to appear, in our time, for the increase of our sorrow, anxiety, and confusion, which have driven us from our own country, and do not quit us. One reason why we supposed that the Divine vengeance was exercised on his Church, was deduced from what happened through Vasili, at the time he ascended the throne; by whose hand were slaughtered more than one hundred thousand Christians, of Moldavians, Wallachians, Hungarians, Greeks, Servians, Bulgarians, Arnaouts, Turks, Arabians, Tartars, Poles, Cossacks, and other nations. For Rh