Among the rest a small unsightly root, But of divine effect, he culled me out; The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil; . A LITTLE dust the summer breeze A tiny seed by chance airs left, - And crowned at length her simple head And yet hearts go uncomforted. For hearts, dear love, such seedlings are, That need so little, ah, so less Than little on this earth, to bear The sun-sweet blossom, happiness; And sing, those dying hearts that come To go, their swan-song flying home. A touch, a tender tone, no more, A face that lingers by the door To turn and smile, a fond word said, ... A kiss, these things make heaven; and yet To give that little, ere 'tis fled, And sad hearts go uncomforted. I asked of thee but little, nay, Not for the golden fruit thy bough Ripens for thee and thine who day By day beneath thy shadow grow; For fruit, yet blessing some dim spot. Sad hearts that go uncomforted. ELLICE HOPKINS. From The Contemporary Review. TURKISH INVASIONS OF EUROPE IN 1670-83. SOBIESKI'S LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. Now that the Turks have vindicated their right to "do what they like with their own," and declare the present state of the Ottoman empire to be quite satisfactory (in which opinion a certain part of English society seems to agree), it is interesting to turn to the record of a time when there seemed considerable danger that the greater part of Europe might have been subjected to the blessings of their rule, and to recall the terror and dismay with which their advance was regarded, and the desperate efforts made to avert what was then considered as the greatest misfortune that could happen to civilization and Christianity. venus d'entre les barbares, les Turcs étaient aussi les plus redoubtables," says Salvandy; "ils n'apportaient pas simplement la conquête, ils apportaient le brigandage, le rapt, l'apostasie, la mort." Their hordes had passed with fire and sword over Epirus and Greece to Transylvania on one side, and the provinces of the Adriatic on the other. Solyman had, it is true, been beaten back from the walls of Vienna with great loss in 1529, after having taken Belgrade; but the check was only for a time. quences. The fall of Cyprus in the wars of Selim II., who treated the defenders with great barbarity, was succeeded by an attack on Corfu; and although the united fleets of Spain and Venice obtained a great victory at Lepanto, yet Don John of Austria, who commanded, retired immediately. It was A small volume of letters from the hero "a glorious victory," but produced little John Sobieski to his wife, detailing his advantage, for the Turks dictated the progress day by day to the relief of Vienna hardest possible conditions to the Veneand in the battles following it, the success tians, and the battle is generally rememof which at that moment was almost tanta-bered as that in which Cervantes lost his mount to the salvation of Christendom, arm as much as for any political consewere translated from the Polish into French by Count Plater, and published in 1826. It is a scarce book and extremely interesting, showing as it does the noble, disinterested, simple character of the man, and the fearful imminence of the danger which would have reduced Austria, and indeed the whole centre of Europe, to the condition of Bulgaria, Bosnia, etc. It requires, however, to be supplemented and Peace with the Porte was never of any interpreted by contemporary accounts, duration; it was only when weakened by gathered from Salvandy's and Von Ham- dissensions among its disorderly heteromer's histories of Poland and the Otto-geneous subjects, revolts of the Janisman empire. The advance of the Turks continued four times in eleven years, between 1672 and 1683, irruptions of immense hordes of barbarians threatened the centre of Europe, and in each case they were repelled chiefly, if not entirely, by the genius for war of Sobieski, and the influence which his noble character obtained. Isaries, wars with Persia, or the accidental weakness of a sultan, that its onward course was stayed. The fall of Crete in 1669, after a siege which lasted more or less for twenty-four years, and during which two hundred thousand men were said to have fallen on the two sides, was a cruel blow to Christendom, and the pope, Clement IX., was said to have died of grief at the news. From the time of the taking of Constantinople in 1453, the Turks had been a standing menace to Europe. Mahomet II., Bajazet II., Selim I. and II., and Solyman the Magnificent, had all advanced at different times, and on different lines of attack. The fall of Rhodes, of Cyprus, of the islands of Greece belonging to Venice, and the strong places in the Peloponnesus, left them free to advance on the conquest Flushed by success, Mahomet IV. and of Dalmatia, thus threatening Italy, and on his grand vizier Achmet Kiuprili, who was Moldavia, Bessarabia, Servia, Bosnia, Hun- of Greek origin, now entertained the most gary. It was now their object to secure magnificent projects of conquest. The both banks of the Danube. "Les derniers | empire touched the Caspian Sea, the Adri atic, the Indian Ocean, and stretched war with safety. After a short and brilsouth towards the upper waters of the liant campaign against the Cossacks, TarNile; it was now advancing on the Bal- tars, and wild hordes under the khan, the tic, and would soon, they trusted, possess allies and what might be called the adfleets on the north seas and the Indian vanced guard of the Turk, finding that no Ocean alike, while the Archipelago and money and no help were to be had for the the Red Sea would have counted only as impending invasion, Sobieski fell daninland lakes in his dominion. "He hoped gerously ill with anxiety and fatigue, and to reign over the Christian world." The the army, which for many years had represent preparations were directed against ceived from him their only pay and rations, Poland, which had always been the chief and had been led on to constant victory, barrier to the subjugation of the north by indignant now at his treatment by the the Turks. With the exception of a small | king, disbanded, and declared they would subsidy from the pope, she was left to only serve under a chief of their own bear the brunt of the attack alone. choice. The preparations of the Porte were enormous: Tartars were arriving in hordes, Moldavia was full of battalions of strange men from the heart of Asia, the immense siege trains from Candia, consisting of between three and four hundred pieces of cannon, a number hitherto unheard of, were being carried up the Danube, and a numerous fleet was collecting in the Black Sea; seven hundred camels had arrived in Thrace with corn from Egypt; soldiers from Attica and the Peloponnesus, from east and west, filled a vast camp near Adrianople where Mahomet and his vizier held perpetual reviews. But their destina tion was still uncertain. For a whole year the anarchy and confusion of Poland went on increasing, but when news arrived that the sultan had started on his march towards Poland, the soldiers returned to their quarters and swore to follow their old leader to death. The Turks by forced marches advanced on Kaminiek, a fortress situated on the frontier of Moldavia and the Ukraine. It was almost the only strong place possessed by the Poles, and Sobieski had in vain tried to persuade the Diet to keep up its defences. After a siege of less than a month the Turks carried a place concerning which it was said that "God alone could have built it, and He only could take it." Even then the only help which the Polish king thought fit to give in the struggle was to accuse his protector, the "great hetman," of being "an impostor and a The Hungarians had long been making ineffectual attempts to defend their hereditary privileges against the tyranny of the emperor, who ruled over them by an elective right along. At length they rose in rebellion, headed by the chief nobles of traitor." Sobieski, however, not heeding the country. The revolt was put down the insult, threw himself with his scanty with much cruelty, but the insurgents forces on the weak points of the Turkish sought the assistance of the Porte, master lines, pursued the Tartars who had inalready of two-thirds of the country, and vaded the kingdom and were carrying off were ready to join in any attack upon Aus-immense booty, overtook them in the Cartria if its arms were turned in that direction. pathian defiles, and almost exterminated them, liberating nearly thirty thousand The Polish king refused to believe in captives who were being carried off into any danger, and opposed Sobieski's exer- slavery. He turned next on the advanced tions to collect the scattered troops. guard of the sultan's army, which had adThwarted at home and abroad by the jeal-vanced on the Vistula with forty thousand ousy of the emperor and of Louis XIV., men. Mahomet had arranged a camp for he could only get together six or eight himself at Boudchaz among the mountains, thousand men, young, ill-armed, undisci- where, accompanied by his seraglio, he plined, and without provisions. There amused himself with hunting. Sobieski, were soldiers enough in the country to by a coup de main, crossed the river, trouble its peace, but not enough to make rushed on the camp "intoxicated with pleasure and pillage," penetrated even to the imperial tents and the women's quarters, and "the young lord who ruled at Athens and Memphis, Jerusalem and Babylon," on this his first campaign was obliged to fly to save his life. But the miserable Polish king suddenly gave up the struggle and threw himself on the mercy of the invaders, abandoning the Ukraine and Podolia to the Turk, and reducing his country to the condition of a vassal state by promising an annual tribute. Sobieski retired to his estates disgusted and nearly broken-hearted. He had not long been there, when the "Terror of the Turks,” as he was surnamed, was accused in the Diet of having sold his country to the infidel for a bribe of twelve million florins. Enraged at such an attack on his honor, he returned to Warsaw immediately, while his army, furious at such a libel on their beloved chief, swore to avenge the insult in blood. After calming them with much difficulty he proceeded to the Diet, where the very sight of him produced such an impression that when he claimed the punishment of his caluminator from the assembly, and excuses from all members who could for a moment have listened to such an accusation, his demands were accepted in a transport of enthusiasm. The Diet in a pressing message entreated his help against the Turks, and in the strangely hyperbolical language so often used in Poland, termed him "the hero of whom it might be believed, according to the system of Pythagoras, that all the souls of the great captains and good citizens lived again, as not one of their virtues was wanting in him." The miserable informer confessed that he had been been bribed to make the accusation, and was condemned to death, but Sobieski would not allow the sentence to be carried out. The Diet pursued its course until the end of the session with unaccustomed calm under his influence, and at its close the president declared in the same semi-Oriental style, that "the wisdom of a divinity, or, if Sobieski could be considered as a man, the excellence of a hero, had saved the liberty of his country by his virtues and its independence by his exploits. No such man had ever before been formed by nature, and probably never would be so in future!" The Diet then decreed a levy of sixty thousand men, and committed full power over it to the "great hetman." The summer was spent in preparations such as might be expected from Poland; "no men, no material of war, no money, were to be had." For the time, however, disorders in Constantinople, and an insurrection in the Peloponnesus, had checked the projects of the vizier. In November, 1673, however, seven bridges were by his orders thrown across the Dniester, and eighty thousand veterans advanced under the command of the Seraskier Hussein Pasha. A division of Sobieski's small army was sent forward to carry the Turkish outposts; but when they found that they were required to cross a river full of floating ice, to put such a barrier between themselves and their homes, that they were being led into a country without towns or villages, and surrounded by innumerable Turks, they broke out into open mutiny. Once before Sobieski had quelled a similar revolt; now with his imperious cloquence he called upon his men in the name of their duty and their country to follow him, and, as always was the case both with friends and foes, he gained the day. He led them to the battle of Kotzim, on the other side of the Dniester, where Hussein had established himself in a camp defended by strong fortifications, natural and artificial, and by rocks and marshes. To attack such a position with such troops as Sobieski could command, at such a time of year, without provisions and with weak artillery, seemed an impossible task in all eyes but his own. Fifty years before, however, the Poles, under his father, James Sobieski, had conquered at the same spot, and the good omen gave them courage. The weather was dreadful, and the snow was falling thickly, when he disposed his troops for the attack. All night long the preparations went on. "Comrades!" cried he, passing along the ranks, his dress, his arms, his thick moustache covered with hoarfrost, "you have suffered, but the Turks are worn out; | ambassadors of the different powers had these men from Asia are half conquered each their faction; they gave money; already by the cold. The last twenty-four they made great promises; the meanest hours have fought for us. We shall save motives were appealed to, and the most the republic from shame and vassalage. undisguised corruption prevailed. WarSoldiers of Poland, fight for your coun- saw became one vast camp for six leagues try, and remember that Jesus Christ fights round, where the whole equestrian order for you!" Sobieski himself had heard had established itself; an innumerable three masses since daybreak, the army population of servants, often noble like had been blessed by a priest, and now get- their masters; almost all the army, Jews ting off his horse, sabre in hand, he led merchants, doctors, the creditors of the his infantry across the trenches. The nobles, the lawyers, had all collected there; Turks, who had believed an attack impos- the different palatinates were nearly desible in such weather, alarmed at the tri- serted except by the peasants. umphant shouts of the Poles, defended themselves but ill; charge after charge of the young Polish cavalry, in full armor, cut to pieces their best troops; they turned to fly, but the bridge of boats had been broken down by Sobieski's orders; twenty thousand men were believed to have fallen in attempting to cross the rapid, half-frozen river; "the water ran with blood and corpses for miles." In the camp the carnage was frightful; under the axes, the lances and scimitars of their assailants lay thousands of dead bodies, half of them Janissaries and Spahis. The green standard of Hussein, given him by the sultan, was seized, sent to the pope, and still hangs in St. Peter's. The victory was complete; all the Turkish garrisons of the neighboring towns retired, leaving devastation and fire as monuments of their passage; and thanks were given in almost all the churches in Europe for the "most memorable_battle | gained against the infidel for three hundred years." The Polish king died the night before the fight, and, by an act of tardy deathbed repentance, named John Sobieski as one of his executors. The plain of Vola had been chosen for the electoral camp; a great wooden pavilion, the szopa, occupied the centre, where the senate and the great nobles sat, but the deliberations were held in the open air, that the equestrian order might have an eye upon its representatives. The noise and excitement were tremendous; tournaments and jousts, with javelins and lances; regiments of soldiers, Wallachs, Cossacks, Tartars, crossing and recrossing; innumerable stands of arms; immense tables, round which each faction collected its clients; trains of noble ladies on horseback, the wives of the palatines and senators, distributing exhortations and presents; cavalcades of gentlemen, battle-axe in hand, galloping past; fiery encounters, begun in drunkenness and ending in blood; "scenes of tumult, pleasure, discussion, and war, a true image of Poland herself, filled the plain," observes Salvandy. A vast circle of white tents surrounded the whole space those belonging to the nobles were built like sham fortresses, castles, towers, or long galleries, containing stables, bath-rooms. kitchens, council-chambers, formed of silk and rich stuffs, often booty taken from the It was now necessary to elect another Turk, with a profusion of golden crescents, monarcha difficult and dangerous oper- balls, and ornaments, rivalling each other ation in Poland, even in the calmest in expense and savage and inordinate luxtimes. The Poles were the only people ury. The magnificence of the dresses in Europe who still preserved the ancient was as great; almost all wore Eastern usage of a national assembly where the costumes; caftans and robes of brocade deliberations were carried on by a whole and fur, embroidered, or edged and lined nation in arms. The difficulty of feeding with rare furs, and clasped with diamonds; two hundred thousand citizens thus col- splendid arms, jewelled belts, swords, daglected together had constantly obliged gers, and pistols ("many diamonds and them to separate without having settled little linen," was Madame de Motteville's affairs, and on this occasion a Diet, com- observation on the Polish nobles a few posed of the senate and of members years before); sixty or seventy thouelected by the country, was directed to sand gentlemen were there, any one of choose the new chief of the nation. All whom might, by law, be chosen king the the princes in Europe who were tired of next day, and whose demeanor showed living on the steps of a throne became their pride in this vain and hurtful privicandidates. Every species of intrigue was lege. Sobieski himself was absent, but brought to bear upon the electors; the the tents taken from the vizier of Ma |