Ukraine, under his protectorate, reached from the Danube to the Carpathian Mountains. The tide of war was evidently now to be turned on Austria.
The emperor took fright, but it was in vain that he sought help in his peril. France was his deadly enemy; the elector of Brandenburg rejoiced in his humiliation; a child, of nine years old, afterwards to be known as Peter the Great, reigned in Russia. Poland only remained; Leopold had treated Sobieski as a personal enemy; he had refused all help in the perils of Poland, but now he literally implored the king to come to his assistance, and the Austrian envoy positively flung himself at his feet in the fervency of his entreaties. It was difficult to say whether Leopold was meanest in adversity or prosperity. Sobieski now indeed commanded the position, and his alliance was sought on all sides. Louis XIV. offered his aid in securing the inheritance of Poland for his son, and promised to assist him in obtaining Hungary for himself. Leopold had recourse to the great argument of the house of Austria in all times, the hand of an archduchess for the young prince, his son; Mahomet solicited his friendship, and declared that the armaments he was preparing were not intended to be used against him.
Sobieski refused all offers for himself, and, after long considering what would be most advantageous to his country, threw in his lot with the empire. He did his best to persuade Leopold to treat the Hungarians with fairness, if only to detach them from the Porte, but with small success, Leopold could not do the right, even when it was his interest. At length it was announced that the sultan and his grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, were marching from Constantinople, where the standard of Mahomet had been unfurled, with great pomp at the Seraglio. The whole of Europe and Asia seemed to be in movement; Christianity and Islamism, civilization and barbarism, were preparing for a decisive battle. The first blow was to be struck on Austria, the second on Italy. "The vizier will never be satisfied till he has stabled the horses of the sultan in the Basilica of St. Peter," said one of the defenders of Candia.
The Turkish preparations had lasted nearly seven years, and were equally gigantic and minute. All the provinces had furnished their contingents of soldiers from the Euphrates and the Nile; whole Arab tribes, Kourds, Mamelukes, Greeks, Albanians, and Tartars, were marching under the same flag. The merchant vessel of all nations which came within reach were seized to bring munitions of war from Smyrna, Aleppo, and Alexandria; two thousand camels had been employed for years in the transport of corn, etc., from the Ægean Sea to the Danube; the river itself was covered with boats; ten thousand wagons were collected to convey stores through Hungary, which began to suffer under the burden of her ally as much as under that of her oppressor.
Sobieski would have made any efforts to detach Hungary from the Turks, and had an interview with Tekeli, but without success, as he could give no pledges for Leopold's good faith. He made an alliance with Sweden and the Ukraine, and attempted negotiations with the czar, with Persia, Venice, and Louis XIV. His cabinet was said to be the best served in Europe, the East was open to his spies, and he had friends even in the Divan; and he now warned the emperor that the Porte was marching on Vienna, and that the suburbs ought to be demolished lest they should afford shelter to the enemy; but Leopold judged his defender by himself, mistrusted him, and refused to follow his counsels. Between Belgrade and Buda the sultan stopped, and confided to Kara Mustapha with great pomp the double aigrette of heron's feathers, the golden robe and quiver of diamonds, signs of sovereign power, and the standard of Mahomet, an emblem that the contest was in the cause of Islam. He then returned to his beloved chase, where thousands of men were employed in driving game, on the slopes of the Balkan.
Louis XIV.,[1] utterly regardless of anything but his own fancied interest and pique against the empire, chose this opportunity of making an alliance with Tekeli, and sent his fleet to the Baltic to attack the allies of the emperor. Sobieski was therefore obliged to divide his troops, while Leopold could only collect thirty thousand men on the Danube, and even threw every obstruction in the way of his deliverer. But the cause was everything
- ↑ Among the multitude of petty meannesses to which the great Louis condescended was a letter which he wrote to Tekeli at this time. In describing the blessing which had been given to Hungary, he praised the entire liberty of religion which was enjoyed there. In the same official Gazette, appeared a declaration that the property of any Protestant who had escaped from the kingdom would be confiscated, and all contracts they had entered into annulled. The governor of Poitou, in the same paper, announced that he had made 39,849 conversions, adding an edict by which any of the "converts" found entering a Protestant church were condemned to the galleys.
