POland hath had often very pow­erful Enemies to deal with, as the German Empire, the Knights of the Teutonick Order, since their esta­blishment in Prussia, often backed by German Forces; the Tartars who have made frequent incursions, and some­times traversed the Countrey from one end to the other. The Turks who came [Page 56] in the year 1621. to Choczin upon the Niestre with an Army of four hundred thousand men, and seemed to swallow up the Kingdom, and the rather, be­cause at the same time the King of Swe­den, Gustavus Adolphus entred into Lief­land with a considerable force, yet have the Poles made head against all these Enemies, though never so redoubtable, and those Wars never appeared so dan­gerous to them, as that which insued upon the defection of the Cossacks in the year 1648. almost at the very moment of the death of their King, for these Rebels did not onely ingage all those of Black Russia to rise with them, but at once laying off all that mortal and ir­reconcileable hatred which they have always had for the Tartars, they made a League with them, and did proceed further to implore the assistance of the Turk towards the total ruine and de­struction of Poland.

Having therefore joyned their for­ces with those of the Infidels, they made in less then four years time, four great [Page 57] irruptions into this Kingdom with Ar­mies of two or three hundred thousand fighting men, who were the more for­midable, by reason that their Infantry, hardned to all labor and injuries of the weather, and sufficiently warlike by their frequent incountring the Tartars invasions, were now sustained and backed by the Tartar Cavalry, which without contradiction would be the best in the world if it were exercised with the same Martial Discipline as that of Christendom.

Bogdan Kmielniski was the first spark which kindled this fire, and the hinge upon whom this war moved, he was born a Gentleman, son to the Podstar­roste of a Polish General, being inrol­led young in the Cossackian Militia; from a private soldier he attained by degrees to the charge of a Captain, and was deputed from this Militia to the Diets of Poland, was afterwards made Commissary-General, and in the end General, having besides this some tincture of literature, a thing very rare [Page 58] in any of those people; King Ʋladi­slaus being weary of languishing in a slothful quietness, while that most part of the other Kings and Princes of Christen­dom were in action, in the year 1646. designed a war against the Praecopian Tartars, whom he pretended to drive out of Crimea, and judged Kmielniski, worthy to Command the Cossackian Ar­my, of which he made very great ac­count, especially in this expedition; but the Kings designe not being second­ed by the Christian Princes, who were employed otherwise, nor by the Veneti­ans themselves, upon whose assistance he did very much depend, and on the other side the States of Poland being jealous of his raising forces, he was obliged to disband and pay off his Troops with a good part of his Queens Dowry. Kmielniski was by this means out of service, yet soon found occasi­on of imploying himself upon a dis­pute which happened about his Estate, between him and Czapliniski, Lieute­nant to Konielpolski, Great ensigne of the Crown, and was the more exaspe­rated [Page 59] by the ill treatment which his own Wife and Son received, who in the strife happened to be struck with a Cudgel: he was not long before he returned the injury, for discovering that the Russes were disposed to set themselves free, and could no longer relish that peace, which instead of procuring them repose, gave a greater opportunity to their Noblemen to keep them in servitude and oppression; he very well managed their discontents, and assured himself of the Cossacks, retiring himself about the beginning of the year 1648. to­wards the Porohi, or Isles of the Borist­henes, there to fortify and put himself in defence against any assault of the Polanders.

Some thought, and with great pro­bability, that King Ʋladislaus, being willing to take in hand again the de­signe of his expedition against the Tar­tars, entertained a private correspon­dence with him, and was the cause un­der-hand that the Cossacks revolted, to the end that the States of Poland fur­nishing [Page 60] him with an Army to suppress them, when they came to meet, they might joyn their forces, and the great­est part being strangers, and Com­manded by those who are intimate with them, they would little have re­garded the Orders of the States, but followed this Prince against the Tartars and against the Turks also, with whom they would necessarily have been in­gaged, having attacqued the former; but howsoever it was, Kmielniski seeing that the Letters which he sent into Po­land to complain of the injuries done to the Cossacks, and to him in particular, although full of submission and prote­stations of Obedience, were of no effect; but on the contrary, the Great General Potoski was preparing to come against him; and distrusting his own strength, he called for assistance from the Tartars, who passed the winter in the desart Plains, seeking their opportunity to make their ordinary inroads, and plun­der in Ʋkrain, conducted by Tohaibeg, one of their Captains, a brave Com­mander, but often mutinous, and re­fractory [Page 61] to the Orders of the Cham.

The great distance of places was fa­vourable to Kmielniski, and kept the Polish Generals some time from the knowledge of his private Treaties, but so soon as they had certain advice thereof, they resolved to march with all diligence towards the Zaporovian Islands, and to stifle this revolt in its Cradle, they dispatched therefore on that side, a part of the Polish Army de­signed for the Guard of the frontiers, and particularly the body of Cossacks entertained in the service of the States under the conduct of Schomberg their Commissary. Stephen Potoski, Son to the General Sapiha Czarnecki, and some other Officers. Part of the Cossackian Militia which was imbarked upon the Boristhenes, being arrived at the Porohi, went immediately over to Kmielniski, violating in favour of their Countrey-men, their Oath of Allegiance to the Polanders, which they had so lately taken. Kmielniski marching with this recruit against the rest of the Cossacks, [Page 62] easily obliged them to follow the ex­ample of the former. among these lat­ter, there were some Troops of Dra­goons which did excellent service in this war against the Polish Nobility, who to save the charges of a German Guard, which the Gentlemen of that Countrey used to have about their per­sons, had Armed and Habited many of those Countrey-men after the fashion of the German Dragoons, renewing thus their courage by the change of their condition, and bringing them out of the baseness of slavery. Kmielniski fortified with these revolting Cossacks, found no great difficulty to overcome the rest of the Polish Troops, who were not in all above fifteen hundred men; the Poles defended themselves some days in the middle of their Tabor, A certain intrench­ment made with their Chariots but ha­ving lost their Canon, and not being a­ble to resist so great a number which en­compassed them on all sides, they were all either slain or made slaves by the Tartars; Sapitza was one of these, Schomberg was mortally wounded, and Potoski not being able to be carried a­way, [Page 63] died in the field. Kmielniski careful­ly managing this advantage, had the Glory which ordinarily accompanies the first victory, made head against the rest of the Polish Army, which consist­ed of about five thousand men, and whose Commanders having long ex­pected the news of their first Troops ordered towards the Boristhenes, and now being certainly informed of their defeat, as that also the Cossacks had de­serted them, and that the Tartars were joyned with the Rebels, thought it ne­cessary to retreat, for the preservation of the forces of the Kingdom, but it was now too late, for the Bacmates So they call the Tartari­an Hor­ses. o­vertaking them, began to skirmish with them, and some Tartars being taken pri­soners, did confess upon the Rack, that their Army consisted of forty thousand men, besides seven thousand Cossacks, and the Countreymen of the adjacent Colonies who came in hourly to them. The Polish Council of War delibera­ting therefore what was to be done, found no expedient better then that of continuing their retreat in the mid­dle [Page 64] of their Chariots, neither was this sufficient, for they had scarce marched halfe a League before they entred into a thick Forrest, whose bottom was Marshy and full of Boggs, and to make them still more exquisitely unhappy, the Cossacks who remained with them, to the number of eighteen hundred, did then forsake them, so that after four hours striving, as well against the bad ways as their enemies, and their Tabor being broken up, and they set up­on on all sides, most of them were either killed upon the place, or choaked in the Mudd.

This misfortune which happened a­bout Korsun, became more sensible to Poland by reason of the death of King Ʋladislaus the IV who died at this time at Mereche in Lithuania in the two and fiftieth year of his age, no man doubt­ing but this Prince by his valour joyn­ed with all those other great perfecti­ons which he was endowed with, and which made him venerable and belo­ved by his own, as well as esteemed [Page 65] and feared by his enemies, would by his Authority and great name, have quickly suppressed this new rising, and but yet Infant Rebellion of the Cossacks.

The Kings death was not presently known to Kmielniski, who, if he had been informed of it, would not have failed to have shown more fierceness then he did after the defeat of the Po­lish Army; upon which he wrote a ve­ry submissive Letter to the King, in which he laid all that was passed upon the insolence of the Governors, and upon the Rapines and insupportable Exactions of the Jews, who for Farmers of the Kings Land, and of many Gen­tlemens Estates, he asked pardon for what he was constrained to doe in his own defencc, promised to send back the Tartars, and to live in obedience to his Majesty, if he would be pleased to maintain him and his Cossacks in their liberty and priviledges granted them by the former Kings his predecessors, but a while after he understood the King was dead, by a Letter sent him [Page 66] from Adam Kisiel Palatine of Braclaw by the hands of a Greek Monk: this Pala­tine who was also a Greek, used very milde and obliging expressions to bring back the head of the Cossacks to his o­bedience, setting forth to him the an­tient fidelity of the Zaporowski Cossacks, who though they were very jealous of their Liberty, were always very con­stant, and lived in a State where all persons, but chiefly Men of War, had always free access to make good their interests, and to complain of their inju­ries which they received; that he, be­ing the onely Senator of the Greek Re­ligion, and Protector of their Rites and Churches, which he did always most heartily defend: did conjure him by the Saintity of the same Religion, and the Honour of the Russian Nation, that he would send home the Tartars, and lead the Cossacks back into their ordina­ry stations, and that in the mean time he would depute some persons to make known the injuries which they and he in particular had received, and to desire some redress, offering his own care [Page 67] and services to help them to all the sa­tisfaction they could pretend to, and withal, he was a person of that rank and quality in the State, that no Deter­minations or Orders could be given either for peace or war, without his being advertised of it; but he assured them, he should always be inclined to have these disorders terminated in a peaceable way, rather then to have them entertained by the continuation of a Civil war; and that their Arms at present imployed in their mutual Ru­ine, might be more profitably, and gloriously made use of against the ene­mies of Christendome. The Tartars were apt upon the least occasion to take up Arms, but their first heat and cho­ler being past, they returned of them­selves, and were reconciled without a­ny Mediation, they should therefore take their leaves of them, and retain nothing but this laudable custom of theirs. The Monk who carried this Letter was in great danger of falling in­to the hands of the Tartars, but esca­ping with much difficulty, he arrived [Page 68] at the Camp of Kmielniski, which he found confused enough; the General called the soldiery together in a tumul­tuous way, had the Letter read before them, and was the first himself who ap­proved the Council of the Palatine of Braclaw; and being backed by the Plu­rality of voices, it was determined that all acts of hostility should cease, and that they should wait for an answer from the Court of Poland; that the Tartars should be sent back into the de­sart Plains, with Orders there to keep themselves ready upon all occasions, and that the Palatine should be invited to come to the Camp. This moderation of Kmielniski, when his affairs were at that heighth, surprized all the world, although it were not void of artifice, for as on one side it appeared that he had put a stop to the course of his victories, to hinder any further blood­shed, and to obtain pardon more easily, so on the other, he made this osten­tation of his power to the Polanders, to extort from them, what he could not perhaps have obtained onely by his [Page 69] submission. Retiring therefore into the Town of Bialacerkiew, he kept him­self quiet, while that Crzivonos, another Commander of the Cossacks, a person of little worth, but bold and horribly cru­el, harrassed Black Russia and Podolia, Kmielniski pretended to disallow of these violences, and promised to put this Crzivonos and five other Comman­ders of the Peasants in Rebellion in­to the hands of the Polanders, but this was all to amuse them, that he might at the same time the better seize upon the fortress of Bar.

Jeremiah Michael Duke of Wisnowitz arriving on the borders of Russia with some Troops, to whom were joyned those of Janus Tiskewitz, Palatine of Kiovia, and the Kings Regiment of Guards, Commanded by Ossinski, Lieu­tenant-General of Lithuania, opposed these incursions of Crzivonos, and stop­ped his progress who would otherwise have overrun the Kingdom with those great numbers with him. Many other Troops and the Rear made up of the [Page 70] Nobility of the Frontiers, making a new Army, they marched against the Cossacks, and the rebellious Peasants, after they had endeavoured a second time, but all in vain, to make an ac­commodation with their Comman­ders.

The State of Poland was made more sensible upon this occasion then ever before of the greatness of that loss which it sustained by the death of their King; there being now no person of Authority enough to Command so ma­ny Great men as were at that time in the Army, who would by no means give place to one another and their dis­sentions and disorders at length grew so high, that the most judicious, consider­ing in what condition affairs were, thought it absolutely necessary to avoid fighting; in pursuance of which Coun­cil, it was resolved that they should re­treat in good order in the middle of their Tabor towards Constantinow; but these Orders were so ill understood then, when some Troops about Pilaucze [Page 71] began to move; others not waiting their times, marched away before the rest, and began a confusion, which being increased by the obscurity of the night, and communicated to all that followed, it struck such a panick fear into the whole Army, that even the most brave were not exempt from it, who could not be so soon informed of the cause of this general flight and consternation: This would have secu­red an intire victory to Kmielniski, if he had not been involved in the same ignorance, but he knew so little of what passed, that he took this flight of the Polanders for a stratagem, nor could he beleeve the truth of the report, and instead of pursuing them with all dili­gence, he contented himself to follow them slowly, and with all circumspecti­on, till at length being undeceived, with a sad heart he turned his forces against Leopold, a Town very considerable for its Trade, especially into the East, and indifferently strong, but at that time not furnished with Forces or Provisi­ons, fit for its defence. Arcissenski an [Page 72] old Officer who had a long time served abroad, and been a Commander under the Hollanders in Brasil, was left therein, and put in hopes of being speedily re­lieved from the Lesser Poland. The Inha­bitants Commanded by this Officer made a strong resistance for some days, but the Castle forsaken by those who defended it, being taken by the besieg­ers, and there being little hope left of holding out long against so numerous an Army as lay before the Town, and the want of Provisions being afflicting already, they redeemed themselves and bought off the Enemy from the Walls with a considerable sum.

The Cossacks having quitted Leopold, came before Zamoscie, a Town forti­fied after the modern way by John Za­moski, Great General, and Great Chan­cellor of Poland in the time of King Si­gismund, Father to the two last Kings.

This place was at that time the one­ly Asylum for the Nobility of Russia, who had been driven from their Estates by the revolted Peasants, and there [Page 73] being a good party in the Town from the Palatinates of Belz, and Sendomir, and fifteen hundred men which Louis Weiher Palatine of Pomerania had brought thither out of Prussia; all the attempts which the Cossacks and rebelli­ous Peasants made for a months time, were all in vain, so that after they had lost many men, they retreated to the bottom of Russia.

We must not pass over in silence the assistance which the Poles received from his most Christian Majesty, who al­though the fire of Civil war began al­ready to be kindled in France, permit­ted that the eight hundred Auxiliaries raised at his expence by Colonel Chri­stopher Przemski, who Commanded a Polish Regiment in Flanders should be joyned to the Poles Army under the same Colonel, who out of this recruit form­ed one good Regiment. Kmielniski be­ing retired with his Forces into their Winter Quarters; some great persons on the behalf of Poland begun to treat with him of Peace, but they received [Page 74] very haughty answers, all the advan­tages of the last Campagne having ren­dred him more insolent then before, so that it was as much as they could doe to prevail with him to consent to a truce for some moneths.

The Praeludes of a new war began on both sides before the time was ex­pired; the Rebels forces provoked the Polish in divers places, but bore away the marks of their fool-hardiness ha­ving been worsted almost every where by Andrew Firley, Governor of Belz, and Stanislaus Landskoroniski, Govern­or of Camieneche, between whom the new King John Casimir, presently after his election, divided the Command of his forces, they received amongst o­thers, very notable shocks at Zwiehal, Ostropol, Bar, and other places, which were retaken, with great destruction of the Rebels, and rich booty to the Polanders.

Kmielniski seeing that the Spring ap­proached, which he expected with im­patience [Page 75] after that he had called in the Tartars again, took the field to make a new inroad into Poland: the Poles al­so gathered together to cross his de­sign, and their Commanders having de­liberated in what place they ought to stay, till the rest of the Forces of the Kingdom were come up to them; a­mongst many advices, of which, one amongst others was to lodge under the Cannon of Camienesche, the importance of which Fortress being a bar against the Turks was such, that the preserva­tion of it deserved that it should be preferred before any other considerati­on whatsoever; the advice of Firley prevailed, who judging it not fit to draw off the Army from the frontiers, lest they should be exposed to the ir­ruption of the Enemy, made choice of the Town of Zbaras, belonging to the Duke Wisnowitski, as a place most con­venient for his design, and for the re­ception of those recruits which they expected, he had no more then nine thousand men with him, taking in those Troops which some Noble-men had [Page 76] raised at their own expences, he had with him amongst other Commanders, Landskoronski, the Count of Ostorog, Great Cup-bearer to the Crown, joyn­ed with him as Colleagues; Duke De­metrius, Jeremiah Michael Wisnowitski, and Alexander Koniespolski, Great En­signe to the Crown, Son of the defunct Great General of the same name. Ge­neral Firley foreseeing that he should soon be environed with an Army almost innumerable, did presently furnish him­self with provisions, and repaired the old Fortifications as well of the Town as of the Castle of Zbaras, and secu­red his Camp by a good intrenchment flancked with Forts and Redoubts, and taking a particular care of a certain Lake which furnished him abundantly with water, that it might by no means be turned away by the enemy. He was no sooner intrenched, but the Army of the Tartars and Cossacks came and en­compassed them in on all sides in such numbers, that there have been seldom seen the like forces together, since those of Attila and Tamberlan; and that which [Page 77] was never known before, the Cham himself was there in person, thinking to swallow up the Kingdom of Poland as a prey, which could not escape him, and which Kmielniski did not fail to make him believe infallibly his own; so that he made so little esteem of this handful of Polish Soldiers, which were the onely forces which appeared then to defend the Frontiers; that he resolved not to take them by Famine, but to force their Camp, which he thought he might so much the more easily execute by reason that the number of his Army was such, that he had no need to be sparing of his Men.

He made a General Assault upon the 13 of July, 1649. which was very furi­ous, and he himself at the Head of his Forces; who not understanding well the danger, and unacquainted with the Polish valor, rushed on desperately to this Attack; the cheif assault was made upon the Quarters of General Firley, as most of all exposed. Those that assaulted them, were under covert by [Page 78] the convenience of a Neighboring Valley: So that some of them, who had already forced the intrenchment, were beaten off with great difficulty. Firley and Prince Wisnowitski defended themselves valiantly; the latter seeing his Men begin to give way. prohibited them by his command shooting any longer against the Tartars, whom he gave out to have promised Peace and Friendship to their Generals; and by this Artifice, encouraged and perswa­ded his Soldiers so far, that they sup­posing now they had onely the Cossacks to deal withal, had new vigor infused into them, and after having slain a great number, repulsed the rest asto­nished at their desperate bravery, ha­ving now sustained that same day se­venteen assaults.

The Cossacks renewed them again the following days, but still with less suc­cess, although they joyned stratagems to force, for to make the Polanders think that they had received new For­ces from the Turks, they habited divers [Page 79] of their own after the Turkish manner, who conducted a Party of Horse the same way habited, but were really onely Turkish Vests stuffed with Straw, and set on Horsback. But the manner of this deceit was easily dis­covered to the Polanders by their Per­spective Glasses.

Kmielniski sent in Letters often, in some of which he exhorted Firley to an accommodation; in others, he solli­cited the German Troops to desert them; but finding that he prevailed nothing, either by force or art, he thought upon attacking the Polish Camp by approaches, and imployed the re­volted Peasants who were in great number in his Army, to work in them day and night; so that in few days he advanced them to the very foot of their Intrenchment.

This new attempt of the Cossacks, troubled the Poles more then the for­mer, and seeing that they were now shut up closer, and that it would be [Page 80] difficult for them to maintain their first intrenchment, they made others nearer to the Town: Into which, they retired themselves as soon as they were perfected, and divers, even of the Of­ficers themselves, were of opinion, that they should quit all that was with­out, and shut themselves up into the place; but this advice appearing very dangerous, was not followed. But besides the extremity they were re­duced to, in having scarce any space left them to stir in, their Provision be­gan to be scarce, and their Provender for their Horses; So that they dying every day in heaps, caused an unsup­portable stink in the Camp. A morsel of Bread was sold for Ten Poltoracks, and a Tun of Beer for Fifty FlorinsPolto­racks is about Two-pence English. A Florin Twenty Polto­racks.. The Soldiers lived upon no other Pro­vision, then the Flesh of Dogs and Horses. Kmielniski knowing in what condition the besieged were, became more insolent, and would grant them no terms but what were very hard. The Cham shewed himself more courte­ous, yet having demanded that Wisno­witski [Page 81] and Koniespolski should come and confer with him. And the Poland­ders refusing that these great persons should put themselves into his hands, he was very much offended. The Polish Generals might well send Messengers to the King of Poland, to let him know in what extremity they were, and to de­sire a speedy relief; for most of them fell into the hands of the Cossacks or Tartars; and if any one escaped in their going out, yet they received no answer, they being either killed or taken prisoners in their return. How­soever the Generals pretended, that from time to time they received news from His Majesty of Poland; and that he would speedily come to relieve them; and that it might be the more firmly believed, they affixed the Kings Seal to the Letters which they feigned, having taken it off from other Letters which they had formerly received. Thus they encouraged the besieged Army, and induced them to have Pa­tience, both by the artifice and sweet­ness of their Discourse.

[Page 82]Some, even of the Principal Offi­cers, who had provisions sufficient for themselves, left their good Meals which they might have made, and be­took themselves to eat stinking Horse­flesh and Dogs-flesh, to make these un­savory Dishes be better relished by their Soldiers. Firley, although he were infirm, by reason of his years and mala­dies, would have made use of the same fare, had he not been often hindred by those who were about him. Wisnowitski and Koniespolski neglected not in the mean time, frequently to sally out upon the besiegers, to put them out of hopes of any speedy victory over people, who still preserved so much vigor and resolution, in the middle of those mise­ries, which they suffered; but besides, the scarcity of Victuals, their want of Ammunition hindred them from shoot­ing so frequently as before. And the Cossacks were no ways negligent on their part; for besides their continual shoot­ing against the Polish Camp, and their frequent assaults, they made approach­es [Page 83] against the Town; and attempted to cut off the Water from the besieged. But these designs not succeeding, they contrived to set the Town of Zbaras on fire, and cheifly one of its Gates, which did very much incommodate them, it being higher then the rest, and the best marks-men of the Poles shot from thence without ceasing; amongst whom Cap­tain Butler did marvellous execution, and Father Muchaveski, a Jesuite, no less; who from the Gate of the Castle killed no less then two hundred Cossacks for his part.

A great company of the Rebels came up to the Gate with Firebrands in their Hands, ready to set it on fire: Having obtained which, it was very probable they would gain the rest; but the be­sieged being advertised of their design, prepared themselves to render it in­effectual, received them briskly, and made a great slaughter. Things were in this posture, when an Arrow shot in­to the Town, brought with it most fortunately a Letter tied to it; by [Page 84] which he who wrote it, although his name were never known, gave them to understand he was a Gentleman; and first excused himself, for serving under the Cossacks; to which he was induced by the outrages which he had received from a certain great person; and by the turn of the Fortune of the Poles the year before, but yet that he had not for all that, lost his love and zeal for his Countrey, as he had testified to them in three other Letters, which he had sent to them in the same manner; and did now give them notice, that the King was certainly coming to their relief, and already arrived at Zborow, that the Cossacks being informed of his coming, would not fail to redouble their assaults against them; but for the same reason they ought to redouble their courage, and prepare themselves to repulse them with their utmost vigor.

The most part of the besieged could not put any confidence in this Letter, supposing it to be a new invention of [Page 85] the Generals: But soon after it was found to be true, and that the King was advanced as far as Zborow to deli­ver his besieged Forces, having sur­mounted all those obstacles which might retard his preparations, and his march. True it is, that his Army was thought by the most intelligent, not onely insufficient to confront that ter­rible number of enemies which he went against, but even to sustain the least Onset from them, it consisting in all, but of Fifteen thousand Soldiers in pay, and Five thousand others raised by the Nobility at their own charge, the rest not being able to come so soon, having been too slow in their Levies; notwithstanding the continual instances of the King, and his earnest diligence in this affair.

Kmielniski and the Cham understand­ing of the march of the King of Poland, divided their Forces, and leaving For­ty thousand Tartars; with a great num­ber of the Cossacks, and revolted Pea­sants before Zbaras; with the rest of [Page 86] their forces marched towards Zborow, and were not discovered by the Kings forces, either by reason that the King had sent none out to inform himself, or that the Countrymen thereabouts, more inclined to favor the Cossacks, as being of the same Religion with them, had not faithfully reported what they knew of it; insomuch, that the Cossacks and Tartars arrived at the Kings Camp with­out being any ways discovered, being assisted therein by the Woods, the thick Mists, and the negligence of their ene­my. Nay, Kmielniski himself found means to enter into the Town of Zbo­row, and there to consider at his lei­sure the posture of the Polish Army. And no sooner were the Poles gotten over the Causeys and Bridges, which are in the Marshes about the Town, and began to put themselves in order, but they found that they were on a sudden charged by the Cossacks and Tar­tars.

The fight began about the Baggage, the Tartars came soon after and fell [Page 87] upon the back of the Kings Forces, having crossed a Water; where the Peasants by a remarkable Treachery, had broken down a Causey which kept it up, and so rendred it fordable to the Infidels. The Nobility of Premislie, and the Cavalry of the Duke of Ostrog sustained the first Onset; but being not able to resist the great numbers of their enemies, many of that Nobility were lost, and all their Baggage.

Stanislaus Wituski and Leon Sapicha Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania, coming to their relief, repulsed the Tartars for a time; but these returning with more impetuosity against the Troops of the Vice-Chancellor, they must now have been suppressed after a contest of six hours, if that the Governor of Sendo­mire, and Baldovin Ossolinski Starroste of Stabnitz, had not given the Infidels a diversion. In which, Ossolinski and di­vers Gentlemen of the Palatinate of Russia were slain; while this passed in the Rear and Flanks of the Polish Army, Kmielniski with his Cossacks, [Page 88] and a Party of Tartars attacked the Front. The King who at the first noise, of their arrival, had put his Forces in­to Batalia, gave the Leading of the Right Wing to the Great Chancellor Ossolinski. This Wing was composed of the Cavalry of the King; and of that of the Palatines of Podolia, Beltz, and Enhoff Scarroste of Sokal, and other Regiments: And ordered the Left Wing to be commanded by George Lu­bomirski, starroste of Cracovia, and the Duke Coreski; where besides the Regi­ments of Horse were divers Companies of Voluntiers.

The Main Battel made up of the In­fantry, and where the King himself was in Person, was commanded by Major General Hubald of Misnia, who had served a long time in the German Wars, and had afterwards commanded the Militia of Dantzick; and by one Wolff a Gentleman of Liefland, Governor of Cracovia; both which had their German Regiments with them.

[Page 89]The Tartars extending themselves wide before the Vant-guard, as if they came onely to observe them, after they had closed of a suddain after their manner of fighting, threw themselves upon the right wing, where they were received bravely, and finding that the Foot were defended with their Pikes, and not in a condition to be broken up, they passed to the left wing, which they were able to shake more then the other, Coreski who was at the head of them, had his Horse shot from un­der him. Ruzouski was wounded with an Arrow through the Cheeks, yet did not neglect with the Arrow sticking still in the wound, to goe and adver­tise the King of the danger wherein the left wing was, his Majesty of Poland not regarding the Dignity of his per­son, ran in all haste to encourage his soldiers by his presence, bringing them on again which were flying away, and complaining that he had no more Offi­cers to Command them; yet notwith­standing he himself would take their [Page 90] place, and he had been insenbly ingaged in the hottest of the battel, if those a­bout him had not detained him. The presence of the King who exposed him­self in this manner for their safety, did reanimate his soldiers as much as the dreadful number of their enemies had discouraged and astonished them, and afterwards they fought with more heat, nor would be forced to give ground.

Some Tartars having broken in on one side were repulsed again by the discharge of their Cannon, and by two Companies of Foot Commanded by Ghiza, Captain in the Kings Guards, and in the end the Enemy not being able to get any advantage over them answerable to those great endeavors against the Polish Army, the night co­ming on, terminated that days engage­ment, in which in all likelihood they were to have been cut in pieces; most of the night was spent in consult­ing and giving Order how to receive the Enemy the next day, they made some intrenchments in haste to defend [Page 91] themselves by, and in others they pla­ced their Baggage, but while the King was consulting with the principal Com­manders and Nobility, a report was spread through the Camp, that his Majesty had a design to retreat that night with most part of his.

The extream danger into which af­fairs were brought, rendered the re­port of this Retreat more probable, and it wanted little, but the same con­sternation had happened there as be­fore at Pilaucze. The King who was just retired to repose himself a little be­ing informed of it, got presently on horseback, and riding up and down through the Camp, undeceived them, and by his presence shewed how vain the impression was, they had received of his retreat, of which he did declare he never so much as thought of, but was resolved to stand it out against the Enemy, putting them in hopes of a favourable success in the next days undertaking. Amongst the proposals at the Council of War upon the pre­sent [Page 92] conjuncture of affairs, that of at­tempting to disingage Kmielniski from the Cham, was most approved of, and therefore a Tartar prisoner was sent with a Letter from his Majesty, in which he gave him to understand, that he could not beleeve that he had lost all sense and memory of those favours which he had received from King Ʋla­dislaus, from whom when he was for­merly taken prisoner in Poland, he had received so favourable an enter­tainment and his liberty, and to whose bounty he was beholden for his pre­sent Dignity, and that after this it was strange he should associate himself with Rebels and Slaves, but that he ought not to promise himself any great ad­vantages from so unjust a confederati­on. Since God would give no blessing on such designs; in the mean time his Majesty thought it convenient to put him in mind of the obligation which he had to the King his predecessor, and withal to offer him his own friendship, if so be that he esteemed that more then an Alliance with Rebels; the an­swer [Page 93] of this Letter was not so sudden­ly received, and the next day morn­ing, so soon as it was day, the Army of the Cossacks and Tartars appeared in Batalia, the first against the City of Zborow, and the latter fell upon the Baggage.

Four hundred light Horse were able for some time to amuse the Cossacks with divers skirmishes. and afterwards being sustained by a greater number, they drove them off beyond the Town, and those who did attend the baggage having taken Arms, preserved it against the Tartars.

The enemies afterwards divided themselves into three bodies, and at as many places attacked the Kings Camp, after having first of all seized upon a Church which did Command it, where having planted a Battery by their continual shooting from which they had forced many who defended it to retire; they had almost made themselves Masters of it, and one of [Page 94] their most resolute soldiers had alrea­dy planted Colours upon the Works, when that a great body of the Kings party running together, made so brave a resistance, that the enemy did not onely give over the assault but the fight, the servants sallied out to pursue them, and shewed such courage upon this oc­casion, that some proposed they should have Horses given them, and be or­dered into Troops to increase the num­ber of their forces, and being reinfor­ced with this supply drawn from the Army it self, they might then hazard a Battel, others were of the opinion, that it could not be expedient to ven­ture so far, seeing that after a defeat they would necessarily be reduced to the same extremity as those at Zbaras, out of this diversity and incertainty of Council, wherein the Poles then float­ed, knowing not which way to steer, it pleased providence to conduct them happily to their Port. The Cham who before all these assaults upon both the Polish Armies, had promised him­self a speedy and certain victory, and [Page 95] now finding to the contrary, so much fearless resolution among them, began to be weary of this war, and to shew himself more inclined towards an ac­commodation, wrote a civil answer to the Kings Letter, in which he ac­knowledged himself obliged to the Crown of Poland; and that if his Ma­jesty after his Election had applied himself to him, he would have set a greater value on his friendship, and em­braced it sooner then the interest of the Cossacks, but they had neglected it so much, that they scarce considered him as an ordinary man, although they might well perceive how advan­tagious his friendship might be, and now seeing there was an occasion of re­newing their antient Alliance, he would not be backward on his side, but pro­mised to oblige the Cossacks to lay down their Arms and to return to their obedience, provided that the Articles of the former Treaties were observed; and that if his Majesty desired to name a place to confer in, and send his Chan­cellor thither, he would send his Vi­zier. [Page 96] This Letter was also accompa­nied with one from Kmielniski, full of respect, and in which he assured the King of his fidelity and future servi­ces.

The Conference being accepted of by his Majesty of Poland, and the place appointed between both the Armies, The Vizier and the Great Chancellor Ossolinski, met according to appoint­ment. The Vizier demanded that they should pay the pension which they were accustomed to give the Cham for the services which he was bound to ren­der to Poland, which King Ʋladislaus had refused to pay; that they should sa­tisfy the Zaporouski Cossacks, and for the dammages and expenses which the Tartars had been at in this expedition, and the blood they had lost, it should be permitted them to make their excur­sions and plunder the Countrey in their return, in the mean time there was a suspension of Arms granted though in­terrupted by some hostilities; the next day which was the seventeenth of Au­gust [Page 97] the Plenipotentiaries returned to the same place of Conference, each ac­companied with two others. The Chan­cellor of Poland took with him the Pa­latine of Kiovia, and the Vice-Chancel­lor of Lithuania. The Visier brought Sieferkaz and Sulimaz Aga, to whom Kmielniski was joyned, to desire a Bill of Oblivion for himself. His Cossacks, and the revolted Peasants, and that they should provide for the maintenance of their Liberty, and the Greek Religion; and after divers contests, the Peace was concluded the same day with the Cos­sacks and Tartars, upon these Condi­tions.

I. THat there should be Peace and Brotherly friendship for the fu­ture between John Casimir, King of Po­land; as also the Kings His Successors, and Islan Gierey, Cham of Tartary, and the whole Family of the Giereys.

II. That the King should freely pay the ordinary Pension of the Tartars, sending it to Camienesche, by Deputies appointed thereto.

[Page 98]III. That in consideration of this, the Cham should be bound to assist the King with all his Forces against any Enemy, as often as it should be required.

IV. That the Cham should secure the Frontiers of Poland, from the Incursions and Robberies of his Subjects.

V. That the rest of his Forces before Zbaras should immediately dislodge, and let the Polish Army, which was there, march with all liberty to any place where it should please His Majesty of Poland to command them.

VI. That the Cham should without any delay, leave the Countreys and Dominions belonging to the King; and all his Forces the same, and those Turks which he had with him.

VII. That the King, in consideration of the Cham, would grant a General Par­don to Kmielniski and his Army, and re-establish the Cossackian Militia in its an­cient Form, Number, and Liberty.

VIII. Besides these Conditions, Three hundred thousand Florins were promised to the Cham, of which, he received an Hun­dred thousand in ready Money.

[Page 99]The Articles agreed on with Kmiel­niski imported thus much, that

I. FIrst, the King should grant a Gene­ral Bill of Oblivion to all the Cos­sacks, and Rebellious Peasants; and that what was passed should be no more looked after, then as if it had not been done.

II. That Kmielniski should fall down and ask Pardon of His Majesty upon his knees.

III. That he should be continued Gene­ral of the Cossacks; of which, the number should be increased to Forty thousand; and and in which quality, he should depend on none but the King, after he had made his acknowledgment as a Polish Gentleman in regard of the States.

IV. That His Majesty should have a List of the Names and Habitations of the said Forty thousand Cossacks, and that upon the death of Kmielniski they should be commanded by one of their own Officers of the Greek Religion.

V. That the Army besieged at Zbaras should be set at liberty.

[Page 100]VI. That the exercise of the Greek Religion should be permitted throughout the Kingdom, even in Cracovia it self; and that its Ʋnion with the Roman Church should cease.

VII. That the Palatinate of Kiovia should be always given to a Greek.

VIII. That the Metropolitan of the Greeks should have his Seat in the Senate among the Bishops, and should have the nineth place.

IX. That the Cossacks should be per­mitted to make Strong-waters for their own use, but not for sale.

X. That they should be furnished with Cloth to cloath them; and Ten Florins a Man to arm them.

XI. That the Nobility coming again into the possession of their Estates, should not enquire after, or trouble their Subjects for the damages which they might have received during the War.

XII. That those Noblemen, whether Catholics or Greeks, who had taken part with the General of the Cossacks should not be at all molested, but discharged from all what had passed in the last Wars.

[Page 101]In execution of which Articles, the General coming before the King fell upon his knees, and with tears in his eyes, made a long discourse, expressing himself how he had much rather ap­peared in his presence, to receive his approbation for some considerable ser­vice done to his Majesty, and the State, then thus stained with so much Blood. But since that the destinies had disposed it otherwise, he came to im­plore his clemency; and in all humility, the forgiveness of his faults, promising to repair them by his future conduct. The King answered him by the Vice-chancellor of Lithuania, That the Re­pentance of his Subjects was more ac­ceptable to him, then their punishment; and that he did heartily forgive what was passed, if he would efface the crime which he had committed by his future Zeal and Fidelity to his Coun­trey.

After this action, Kmielniski and the Cham caused their Forces to retire, [Page 102] and the King extreamly happy in escap­ing so great a danger, at so easie a rate, went with the Polish Army to Gliniani, and afterwards to Leopold.

Those Forces intrenched at Zbaras, reduced to those extremities which you have already heard of, maintained themselves all along, rather by rage and despair, then any hope of help.

The Inhabitants of that Town, not being able to suffer the utmost extremi­ty of Famine, were ready either to burn the Town, or deliver it up to the enemy; but the vigilance of the Po­landers having hindred the execution of this tragick design, they much solli­cited to be let out, which was onely granted to their Wives and Children; neither were they able to keep their retreat undiscovered, but fell first into the hands of the Polish Soldiers, who abused them as they pleased, and after­wards of the Tartars, who led this un­fortunate Troop into captivity toge­ther with some Servants of the Army who had followed them.

[Page 103]The One and twentieth of August, the Cossacks sent the first news to the besieged of the Peace concluded at Zborow, which was believed by some, but called in question by most, who feared they might not be comprehend­ed in that Treaty; they were confirm­ed in this opinion by a Trumpet, who had the boldness to proclaim the same upon his own accord; and it had cost him his life, if one of the Generals had not interceded for him: Afterwards there came a Letter from Kmielniski, in which, he assured the besieged of their Deliverance upon the payment of a certain sum to the Tartars; but the Ge­nerals would not accept of this condi­tion, and openly declared, that since Kmielniski was obliged to draw off his Forces, he ought to do it; and for the Tartars, if they would remain where they were, they might do so if they plea­sed. In the end, a more faithful and joyful Message was brought them, with a Letter by Colonel Minor from the King, to assure them of their Liberties [Page 104] without any conditions, together with the disposal of the Palatinate of Seu­domire, vacant by the Death of the Duke of Zaslaw, with which his Majesty would gratifie the services of General Firley. The Prince Wisnowitskie was presented with the Starrosty of Premisli, the Duke of Ostrog with that of Nes­sewitz, Landskoronski with that of Stob­nitz, and the Palatinate of Braclaw.

All these recompenses, although very considerable, yet were they inferior to that valor and heroical Constancy; of which, all these great persons had given such fair proofs, during those two Moneths which they were besieged, and continually assaulted in Zbaras.

Neither was Providence less favor­able to the Polanders in Lithuania, then in Russia, where two of their Armies were, as it were, led by the hand out of a danger; wherein according to all humane appearance, they must have perished.

[Page 105]The Rebellion of the Cossacks and Peasants spred it self in the beginning of the War, with so much more ease in­to Lithuania, by reason that the Inhabi­tants of that Countrey, are more con­formable in their Manners and Reli­gion with the Russes.

The Cossacks, entring at two places, had made their inrodes into Polesia, a Countrey full of Woods and Bogs, and which makes a part of the Palatinates of Kiovia and Volhinia, and by trea­chery had seised upon the Inhabitants of Starodub and Homel, people who had favored their irruption. Colonel Patz and Volowitz, and afterward Prince Ja­nus Radzevil, General of Samogitia, and Field-Marshal of Lithuania, oppo­sed their designs as well as they could, with the Nobility of Orsa; the Garri­son of Bichova, and some other Forces gathered together; but the assistance of the State came very slowly, and Prince Radzevil being sent for to the Diet. The Rebels made use of this occasion [Page 106] of his absence, and set upon Sluczk, a Town belonging to Prince Bogislaus Radzevil, Great Master of the Horse of Lithuania. Sosnowski, who was Gover­nor of it, defended it bravely against them; and Horsch, Governor of Orsa, defeated Fifteen hundred Men at Cze­resko, and Mirski, Major General of the Lithuanian Army, retook from them Prinsko, a populous Town, and the Seat of a Greek Bishop, which they had made themselves Masters of, by the treachery of the Inhabitants. Hladki one of the Principal Commanders of the Cossacks, who was within to defend it, was slain; and because this place was one of their principal retreats, it was sacked and burnt to ashes to serve for an example.

Prince Radzevil returning from the Election of the King of Poland, al­though the season of the year was very unfit for War; after that he had redu­ced onely by the fame of his approach, the Towns of Turow and Grodek, went and laid down before Mozyr, which [Page 107] being defended for some days very ob­stinately, was taken by storm by Gan­skowski, Lieutenant Colonel in Radze­vil's Regiment, and Michnenko, one of the chief of the Rebels, being taken therein, the Prince commanded he should be beheaded by the Common Hangman, and his Head set upon the top of the Castle.

From thence he marched with his Forces towards the River Berezina, where he attacked Bobroisko; the In­habitants were received into grace, up­on condition, That they would deliver up their Arms; and those among them, who had been the Authors of this In­surrection, or who had made a League with the Cossacks; which coming to the knowledge of those who were to be delivered up, they retreated into a Tower, and set it on fire, preferring this voluntary death, before that with which the Conqueror threatned them. Produ­bitz who commanded them, received with the rest the punishment of his Re­bellion.

[Page 108]The Winter and the Truce put a stop to the War in Lithuania, as well as in Poland for some Moneths; but in the Spring, Kmielniski entring into the Kingdom again, sent into this Province Helia Holota to renew the War with Ten thousand Men, to whom many Rebellious Peasants were to joyn them­selves. This General thought to sur­prise part of the Lithuanian Army in their Winter-quarters at Zahal, upon the River of Pripecz; but Radzevil's For­ces gathering together in haste put them to flight, and drove them into a Marsh, where he and his Army perished. Stephen Podobaylo was substituted in his place by Kmielniski, who gave him or­der to intrench himself between the Boristhenes, and the River of Zula, which he did, and set fire on Loiowo­grod, least it should serve for a place of retreat to the Lithuanians: Yet Gozi­euski setting forward with some Troops to oppose his designs, having sent some Foot down the Boristhenes, seised on a place capable of incommodating him [Page 109] very much. After this Kmielniski sent again into Lithuania Thirty thousand Men, under the Command of Crziezeus­ki, a Polish Gentleman.

This Commander had procured Kmi­elniski liberty, when he had been taken by the Poles, and had received the same favor from him again; the last year, after the defeat of the Polish Ar­my at Carsun, and the favorable enter­tainment he received, together with the fortunate posture of Kmielniski's affairs, engaged him in his service. Be­ing therefore entred into Lithuania, af­ter he had passed the Pripecz, he made as if he would besiege Rzeczicza, a Town very advantagiously seated; but marched directly against Prince Rad­zevil's Army, imaging upon the advice that was given him, That this Prince had sent out some Regiments, he might easily force the rest, and came very near before they had news of his march. But Chodorkowitz went out with some Horse, at the first noise of them, and be­ing backed with Four hundred Foot, [Page 110] commanded by Podlek and Juskiewitz, he opposed himself against the first Onset of the Cossacks; and receiving divers charges from them, the rest of the Troops had leisure to put them­selves in Bataglia: And at length Gon­zieuski and Niewarowitz, with the Hus­sars forced the Left-wing of the Ene­my into a Wood, where at first they made a great firing, and overthrew di­vers who advanced too far; but at last, being constrained to retreat far­ther in, they were not in condition to fight any longer.

In the mean time, some Squadrons, which the heat of the engagement had drawn out too far, were incompassed in by the Cossacks, and ready to be cut in pieces, if that Komorouski, whom Prince Radzevil had sent before with a thousand Men to discover and take pri­soners, had not happily come in and disingaged them. He that commanded the Right-wing of the Cossacks, seeing this Recruit, and apprehending that it might be followed by a greater, and [Page 111] that some Ambush was preparing for him retreated also into the Wood, and wherein he thought himself not secure enough, till he had intrenched himself. While these things were doing, the Cossackian General Podobailo, who was coming to the relief of Crziezeuski with Twelve thousand Men, passed the Bo­risthenes in Boats: And it is certain, if he had arrived a little sooner, and be­fore the other Troops had been broken, the Lithuanian Army had been in ex­tream danger; but the Forces of Podo­bailo were scarce half passed over, and had begun to intrench themselves, when Prince Radzevil marched direct­ly towards them, and after a fierce charge, put them to the rout, and drove them into the River. So that besides Three or four hundred which saved themselves by swimming, Four thou­sand five hundred of them were either killed or drowned. Colonel Tisenhausen, Nold, and Fechtman, with their Germans, fell upon the rest of Podobailo's Forces, who with their Tabor went to joyn them­selves to Crziezeuski.

[Page 112]This General coming out of the Wood, wherein he had retreated to re­ceive them, was presently wedged in again by the Hussars, and forced to in­trench in haste with Arms of Trees bro­ken off, or any thing that came to hand; even with dead bodies. And having understood that night by his Spies, that Prince Radzevil prepared for a new at­tack the next morning, he retreated in all haste; leaving the heaviest of his Baggage behind him, and he himself be­ing wounded in many places, was left by the way, and fell into the hands of the Lithuanians, and died some time af­ter in their Camp. Notwithstanding this shock, the War was kindled still more fiercely, and many thousand Cos­sacks had passed the Pripecz at Babica, to make a new irruption into Lithuania, and to reinforce their party when the peace at Zborow was concluded. In exe­cution of which Treaty, the Cossacks were called back out of this Country as well as out of Poland.

THe King of Poland returning to Warsaw, in the midst of the Ac­clamations of his People, who could not sufficiently express their joy and acknowledgments to him, for what he had done for the preservation of the Kingdom; applied himself with all diligence in the Diet, which he held towards the end of the year, to the establishment of the Peace lately con­cluded with the Tartars and Cossacks. [Page 114] The result of this Diet, which ended the Twelfth of January, One thousand six hundred and fifty, was, That all the Polish Soldiers should be immediately satisfied: That the Army which had been shut up at Zbaras, in consideration of their great services, should receive three payments extraordinary, there should be Twelve thousand Men in continual pay for the Guard of the Frontiers: That the Articles concluded on, between the King, and the Cossacks and Tartars at Zborow, should be con­firmed: That three of the Cossackian Gentlemen should be admitted to Pub­lick Offices: And that for the supply of these great expences, there should be a new Impost laid upon all Poland and Li­thuania; and Customs upon Merchan­dises granted to his Majesty, for his Signal Exploits in the last Campagnia.

It was also thought fit to establish a Senator at Kiovia, to be vigilant, near at hand, over the Actions of the Cossacks, and to decide the differences which might arise in performance of the Trea­ty. [Page 115] Adam Kisiel, appointed a while af­ter, to be Governor of that Town, was thought to be a person most able to ac­quit himself worthily in that charge, and to register the Forty thousand Men, of which the Cossackian Army was to consist, according to the last Treaty, and to give them their necessary in­structions.

Kmielniski observed this Peace almost a year, and testified in all appearance his good intentions; but apprehending least the Polanders whom he had forced, in the unhappy conjuncture of their affairs, to grant him extraordinary con­ditions, should now repent of it, and search out ways to elude the perform­ance of them; he thought that he could not do better then by powerful Alliances, to secure to himself these advantages which had been conceded.

And to this intent, he applied him­self to the Grand Signior, and the Great Duke of Muscovy; but especial­ly to the first, by whose favor he hoped [Page 116] to render himself considerable to all the World. He pretended also to de­sire the Friendship of the Hospodar or Prince of Moldavia; but it was onely to amuse him, that he might the better surprise him, and force his Countrey: For in the mean time he made an ill impression of him upon the mindes of the Grand Signiors Officers, to whom he represented him as a secret enemy to the Turks, and an intimate Friend of the Polanders; and that by his means, the Poles had hitherto received continual intelligence of theirs, and the Tartars designs. They assured therefore Kmiel­niski of the Protection of the Grand Signior, and that he should be invested with Black Russia, to hold it in Fee of the Ottoman Empire; they received the acknowledgments of his depend­ance on them, and his promises of fide­lity in their service, and permitted him to execute his designs against the Prince of Moldavia, which he did with great dissimulation, and made use of the Tartars in it; to whom he joyned onely Four thousand Cossacks, and the [Page 117] better to keep secret his intentions. The Cham sent to him to thank him for his assistance against the Circassians, and de­sired further, that he would lend him his Forces to go against Moscovy, to re­venge the injuries which he had recei­ved from the Great Duke: So that while the Neighboring Princes per­swaded themselves, that the Tartars were going to War in Moscovia, the Hospodar of Moldavia, who was one of this number, and lived in the ordinary careless security of a high Peace, found himself encompassed in with a numerous Army of Tartars, and the Four thou­sand Auxiliary Cossacks. All that could be done upon so sudden and unexpected an accident, was to run into the Woods near Jasz, his principal City. In the thickest of which, the Hospodar, with his family, and as many as he could get together in haste, intrenched themselves with Trees cut down; and afterwards drew himself out of this danger, upon the payment of Twenty thousand Du­cats to the Tartars, and the promise of his Daughter in marriage to Timotheus [Page 118] Kmielniski his Son: Upon which con­dition Kmielniski did recede from many hard terms which he had put upon the Hospodar.

In the mean time, the Peace with the Poles was every day violated by the Cossacks; their numerous Army was extended much beyond their quarters. The Peasants who were not inrolled, sustained by them, would not receive those Gentlemen, their Landlords, who were to enter upon possession of their Estates again, but treated them ill, and massacred divers. This deportment of theirs, and the expedition against Mol­davia, obliged Potoski, the Generalissi­mo, who was newly returned out of his prison in Tartary, to march with the Polish Army, and incamp near Camie­nesche.

Kmielniski was much surprised at the first news of this march; and there be­ing with him at that time divers who were deputed from the Nobility, to complain of the Rebellion, in the [Page 119] which the Peasants persisted, and their refusal to acknowledge them; he com­manded, that all those who were sent to him, should be drowned the night fol­lowing. But these Orders being given when he was in drink, filled with Wine and Strong-waters, after he had di­gested his debauch, and been informed by his Wife of what he had done, he presently revoked his sentence just when they who had the charge of it, were ready to execute it. Afterwards he sent Craucenski, one of his Officers, to the General Potoski, to give him to under­stand, That he could not but be asto­nished at the approach of the Polish Forces, in such a time, when they had Peace with all the World, and a power­ful Army of Cossacks at their disposal for the security of the Frontiers.

The General in answer reproached him for their daily breach of Peace, and the ill Treatment which the No­bility received from their Subjects; and for the War which Kmielniski had un­dertaken without their knowledge [Page 120] against the Prince of Moldavia; and that although he were Great General to the States of Poland, yet he ought to have advertised them of it; he added, that he could not leave that station wherein he was by the Kings Order, without express command from his Ma­jesty.

This Answer was no way pleasing to the Envoy from Kmielniski, who de­clared how much his Master would be ill satisfied with it, and mingled threat­nings of War with his discourse; but proceeded not to breach of Peace, ei­ther by reason of the nearness of the Polish Army, and the Great General, whose admired desert or redoubted courage, might turn him from it; or because, that the designs he laid of rai­sing a Principality for himself, were not yet mature enough to disclose this am­bitious project; or, that he was willing to set down contented with his expedi­tion into Moldavia, and with having made a new Alliance, although by force of Arms.

[Page 121]In the mean time the Nobility in Ʋ ­kraine were as ill treated, as if it had been in time of War; so that many were obliged every day to retire. Those persons who had great estates, and the Duke of Wisnowitz, in particular, re­ceived scarce any Rents; the continual complaints of which to the King, in­duced him to write to Kmielniski, and to reproach him for the War which he had undertaken, contrary to his order, against the Hospodar of Moldavia, and for the injuries which the Nobility re­ceived, injoyning him to draw back the Zapoovian Army into their quarters, and to chastise the Peasants who had taken Arms against their Lords.

This Letter was received with great respect in appearance, but he proceed­ed with much slowness, to execute what the King required of him; and on the contrary, was very industrious at the same time, to make a strict League with the Turk, and Great Duke of Moscovy, whose friendship he desired with the [Page 122] more importunity, by reason that he promised himself more security and advantage in his Alliance, then in the others, because of the Conformity of the Religion of the Muscovites with the Cossacks. The Great Duke approved not of this Rebellion, yet desired to make his advantage by it.

The great success which Kmielniski had had against the Poles, made him e­steem them as a defeated and depressed people, and to begin a causless quarrel with them, in hopes to obtain from them, during the bad condition of their affairs, a revocation of the Treaty, which he had been forced to make with King Ʋladislaus before Smolenko, when his whole Army was disarmed and taken which besieged that Fortress: He de­manded also, in satisfaction for the af­fronts done him by some of the Polish Nobility, and among others, by Prince Witnowitski and Koniespolski; who had not onely neglected to give him all his titles, but had also written in terms in­jurious to the reputation of the Mosco­vite [Page 123] Nation; that the States of Poland should give up to him the City of Smo­lensko with its dependances, and should pay him the sum of an Hundred and fourscore thousand Ducats. VVhere­upon his Majesty of Poland having sent a Gentleman, named Barlinski, to the Great Duke, to be more clearly in­formed concerning the insolent demands of his Ambassador; upon whom, in the mean time, he had set a Guard. This Envoy brought back an Answer, which testified rather the inclination the Moscovite had to observe the former Treaties with Poland, then to come to a breach; and in effect, although the Great Duke would with much joy have seen the increase of the Greek Religion, yet he could not look with a good eye upon the growing greatness of Kmiel­niski, nor be without some apprehen­sion, that the Rebellion of the Cossacks and Peasants, might also spred it self in­to his own Countrey, whither already some sparks had flown of that fire which had burned Poland. So that the Mosco­vite Ambassador was forced to declare [Page 124] in the presence of the King, and the Senators, That he, of his own head, had prepared those Propositions which he had delivered, and the Peace was confirmed between the Poles, and the Great Duke.

The continual correspondence which Kmielniski held with the Turks, of which, the King of Poland was adver­tised by the Neighboring Princes, and his insolent carriage towards the State, obliged his Majesty to call a General Diet of the Kingdom, in the end of the year One thousand six hundred and fifty; in which, this Prince represent­ed the insupportable behavior of the General of the Cossacks; the contempt he had both of the King and State; the injuries which many of the Nobility had received; the loss of their Estates, and their not being able to be restored against Kmielniski his great forces, which he strove to increase by the addition of Tartars and Turks; so that he was in a condition to gather together on the suddain, an Army of more then Four­score [Page 125] thousand Men, every Cossack in­rolled, of which, the number by the last Treaty, amounted to Forty thou­sand; had a servant on Horsback, and another on Foot, besides a Laborer to Till the Grounds; that their design was to shake off utterly all obedience, and to set up a new Government under the Protection of the Grand Signior: So that they would be capable of perform­ing any thing, if that they did not soon put a stop to the course of their perni­cious designs.

There were some in the Assembly, who calling to minde the evils, caused by the last VVar, were of opinion, That Peace at any rate was to be pre­ferred before it; and alledged, that the Forces of the Kingdom were now no­tably decreased, whereas those of the Cossacks were very powerful, both of themselves, and by the assistance of the Ottoman family which protected them; so that it would be much better to keep close to the Treaty of Zborow: But the greater number making reflections upon what was passed, and what was to be [Page 126] expected, considered that there were but two ways to be taken; the one to ruine the Cossacks, or, the other to let the Kingdom perish miserably; that the King had onely a title and precarious authority over them, no more then they pleased themselves; that they were now upon the design of forming a Principality, from whence they were to expect most dismal events, if they gave them time to increase and establish themselves; that they interpreted the Treaty after their own manner, and gave it what sence they pleased; that the State had yet considerable Forces, if they were well imployed; and that as affairs then stood, they were better able to give a stop to their new and rising power, then they could afterwards re­sist them, when they were raised, forti­fied, and established by time; that the King was brave and active, and with small Armies having done great ex­ploits, he would obtain more signal advantages over his enemies, when the States should proceed to a more vigo­rous and powerful undertaking.

[Page 127]These Reasons, but much more the new demands of the Cossacks at the same time, caused all the rest of the Diet to be of this opinion, and unanimously to resolve of a VVar against them.

The Cossacks Demands were these, That according to the Articles of the Peace at Zborow, the Union of the Greeks and Roman Catholicks should be abo­lished; that Kmielniski should remain Soveraign beyond the Boristhenes; that none of the Nobility or Gentry of Po­land should for the future, have any power over the Peasants of that Pro­vince; that if the Gentlemen would live there, they should be obliged to work as well as the Peasants; that Nine Bishops should swear in full Se­nate to see all this observed; that for Hostages they should give up four Pa­latines to Kmielniski which he should chuse, in consideration of which Arti­cles he promised to pay to the King of Poland yearly a Million of Florins, and afterwards they reduced their Demands to Four.

[Page 128]1. THat they might be put in possessi­on of a Countrey, wherein they might live without any Communication with the Poles.

2. That His Majesty and Twelve of the Principal Senators of the Kingdom should bind themselves by Oath always to observe the Peace of Zborow.

3. That for their greater security, three of these Senators should remain with their General.

4. That their should be no further Ʋnion of the Roman and Greek Churches.

But all there Demands being very ex­orbitant, and no body willing to trust to the Faith of a Man, who was not contented with the promise which the King and State had given him, by their Confirmation of the Treaty of Zborow, at the last Diet; they had no other thoughts but of making VVar. To per­form which the more advantagiously, they resolved to raise Fifty thousand Soldiers, to whom were to be joyned the Auxiliaries of the Noblemen and [Page 129] their Attendants, in case of need; and many thought it fit, that the Auxiliaries should be spared, as a party reserved against the last extremities; and that it were better to augment the number of the Soldiers to be raised. It was pro­posed also, that the War should be begun before the Spring, to hinder the Cossacks from making their due prepa­rations, and to come at them with the more facility, while the Rivers and Marshes were yet frozen; in which, they ordinarily secure themselves in their Marches, and in their Incampings. Besides which, they could not, but with great difficulty be assisted either by the Turks or Tartars; the former not being accustomed to so rigorous a cold, and the latter would scarce finde Forrage in this season for their Horses. But this project could not immediately be put in execution, the Forces which were or­dered by the Diet, could not so soon be raised; so that the King sent onely the Field Marshal Calinouski to cover and defend the Frontiers from the as­sault of the Cossacks, if they should re­solve [Page 130] upon War, rather then Peace; which was also to be once again offer­ed them, upon the same terms as at the Treaty of Zborow. The intentions of Kmielniski quite contrary to Peace, were soon made known by the Hostili­ties which he began to commit upon the Frontiers. Nieczai, one of his Ma­jor Generals, put all the Countrey to Fire and Sword, and massacred those who were deputed to him from the Pala­tine of Braclaw, in the presence of a Turkish Envoy; but by the Forces of the same Palatine, and those of Kali­nouski, he was driven into the City of Crasna; and part of his Men were cut in pieces in their retreat, after they had forsaken the Castle, which they could no longer hold; and amongst others, Nieczai himself, whom a Gentleman named Baibuza, killed with his own hand, the rest were driven into a Vil­lage where they were together with it, either plundred or reduced to Ashes. Bohun, another General of the Cossacks, in the place of Nieczai, made head a­gainst Kalinouski, and seised upon the [Page 131] City of Winnicza seated upon the Ri­ver Bog; but the Poles having crossed the River, with great pains took the Castle by assault, in which they slew a number of their enemies, who had been assisted by Gluki, one of their Colonels. At last Bohun being reinforced by the Cossackian Regiments of Czherin, Prziluka, Lubiecz, and Braclaw, each consisting of Two thousand Men, Kali­nouski was obliged to go out of the Town, after that he had left a Guard therein of Foot, and some Servants with the Baggage belonging to his Ar­my, and to draw up his Forces in Ba­taglia in the Fields adjoyning, but some sudden fear possessing those who were left in Winnicza, they forsook the Town, and the Cossacks encompas­sing the Polish Forces, constrained them to retreat in disorder under the Cannon of Bar, with the loss of Four thousand five hundred Footmen and their Artil­lery.

This shock obliged the King of Po­land, who was gone on Pilgrimage to [Page 132] Zurowitz, a place of Devotion in Lithu­ania, to take his journey in all haste to­wards the Frontiers, where the great General Potoski was gathering together his Forces about Sokal. This Prince be­ing arrived at Lublin, was informed of the irruption of the Cossacks into Podo­lia, and the Confederation between the Grand Seignior and Kmielniski, and that the Emperor had sent an Ambassa­dor to Constantinople; so that he saw himself obliged to use his utmost endea­vors, and to Summon all his Auxiliaries together.

Kalinouski who was retreated from Bar to Kamienecz, having received or­ders to come with all diligence towards the Army. After that he had lest a suf­ficient garison for the defence of that Fortress, which was a place of so great importance to Poland, and all Christen­dom, was followed in his march by Eigh­teen thousand Cossacks and Two thou­sand Tartars; while the rest of their For­ces which amounted to more then Three­score and ten thousand Men, resolved [Page 133] to attack Kamienecz, without the order or knowledge of their General. And having taken the Castle of Panocze near to it, by composition, where they got considerable booty. They made many assaults upon this Fortress, but all in vain, being continually repulsed with so great a loss, that they were ready to cut their Officers in pieces, who had exposed them to so dangerous an enter­prise, without acquainting Kmielniski with it; who so soon as he knew it, sent them orders to remove. Those who were bent upon the pursuit of the Forces of Kalinouski, had not much better success in setting upon them, sometimes in the Front, sometimes in the Flank, and sometimes in the Rear; being always repulsed with great valor by the General, although with the loss of many of his own. Upon the Fourteenth of May, 1651. they set upon Zobieski his Regiment, but were so received, that they left many behinde them; and amongst others Canowiecz, one of their Colonels, and a Tartarian Murza. At length Kalinouski was constrained by [Page 134] reason of the difficult Passages, and the bad ways, to leave his Carriages. To repair which loss, and to make his Army appear more numerous to the enemy, he set the Servants upon those Horses which drew the Baggage; and after having sustained many assaults, and escaped the many difficulties and inconveniences of the March, he arri­ved most fortunately at the Camp Roy­al, in the end of May.

The Forces raised at the expence of the States, and by the Noblemen came in daily from all parts, there were reckoned Ten thousand of these latter; and the whole Army, together with the Nobility, made up an Hundred thousand fighting Men, besides the Ser­vants, who were very numerous, and most of them furnished with Horse and Arms. This great Army not being able to subsist long in one place, without suffering the want of Provisions; after that all care possible was taken to fur­nish them, it was resolved, they should be employed as soon as could be. In a [Page 135] great Council of War, which was held thereupon, and lasted a whole night; some proposed to divide the Army in­to two Bodies, and to send the first, consisting of the Common Soldiers, against the enemies, while his Majesty might attend the success of the War at Sokallo, with the Voluntiers and Aux­iliaries, for a reserve against the greatest extremity: But this advise was not ap­proved by the King, nor by many of the Principal Officers, who remonstrated that if the Army were thus divided, it might be more easily encountred and defeated by the enemies; but being all in one Body, they would not onely be in a condition to oppose, but also to overcome them. They concluded therefore to march directly towards them, by the most short and easie way, which was, that by Berestesko. The King set forward with all his Forces upon the Fifteenth of June, and sent out divers parties to hear news of the Cossacks. The Marshy, Moorish places which he was to travel through, and the great number of Carriages caused his Forces [Page 136] to march scatteringly. So that he thought it necessary to divide them in­to Ten Brigades, if we may so name a Body of Ten or twelve thousand men, of which number each was composed; he reserved the first for himself, gave the command of the second to the great General Potoski; the third to the Gene­ral of the Campagne Kalinouski, Pala­tine of Czernihovia; the fourth to John Simon Szcavinski, Palatine of Brestch; the fifth to the Duke of Wisnowitz, Palatine of Russia; the sixth to Stanis­laus Potoski, Palatine of Podolia; the seventh to the Grand Marshal of the Kingdom Lubomirski; the eighth to Stanislaus Landskoronski, Palatine of Braclaw; the nineth to the Vice-chan­cellor of Lithuania, Sapieha; the tenth to Koniespolski, the Great Ensign to the Crown. The Polish Army came the next day, being the Sixteenth, to Wygnanka, a place abounding in Water, and good Pasture Grounds; where they under­stood by a Soldier, who had left the Cossacks Army, that Kmielniski was gone from his Camp, which lay between [Page 137] Zbaras and Wisnowitz, to go meet the Cham, whom he expected with impa­tience; having called for his assistance, not trusting enough in his own Forces, although he had a prodigious multitude of revolted Peasants joyned with his Cossacks, but had as yet but Six thou­sand Tartars with him.

The King arriving at Berestesko, of which Town, the Count of Lesno, under Chamberlain of Brzestia is Lord; he in­camped near it, all along the River of Ster, which washes this place on all sides, and then sent out Three thou­sand Horse under the command of Stemkouski and Czarneski, to be cer­tainly informed of the enemies march, and understood by some prisoners whom they took, that the Cham was come to Kmielniski with a numerous Army, and that he had sent out parties to learn in what place and condition the Polish Ar­my was. Upon this news, it was re­solved of in a Council of War, to dis­lodge from Berestesko, and to place themselves at Dubno, a Town belong­ing [Page 138] to the Palatine of Cracovia. The Baggage began to move, and the Army was about to march with a resolution to encounter the Cossacks wheresoever they should oppose them, when the Duke of Wisnowitz, who was of the Guard, sent to advertise the King, that Kmielniski and the Cham were coming in all haste towards him. And the Grand General understanding by a Peasant, that the enemies promised themselves assured victory, if they could fall up­on the Polish Army, intangled in the way, resolved to stay at Berestesko, and the Baggage was ordered to be brought back, which was upon the way. Scarce were they returned into the Camp, but the Scouts brought word, that the whole Army of the Cossacks and Tartars were near to Pereatin, a Village within five hundred paces; so that the Generals presently drew up the Polish Army, left the River Ster on one side of them, and lined all the Wooded places near, with divers Companies of Foot, for fear of an Ambush.

[Page 139]The Twenty seventh of June, about night, Ten thousand Tartars drawn out from the rest, came near to the Polish Army, to take a view of it, making, as if they came to provoke them to fight. The Grand Marshal, and Grand Ensign, not being able to suffer their insolence, went out with their Regiments, by the permission of the Great General, and the assistance also of Wisnowitski his Re­giment, and ingaged them a long while, repulsed them, and drove them back half a League. Upon the Eight and twentieth, there was another more fierce skirmish; the Cham placed him­self and his whole Army upon certain Eminencies in sight of the Poles, strength­ned with some of the choice Forces of the Cossacks. The Polish Army being al­so drawn up in order, the Regiments of the Palatine of Brzestia and Pome­rania, of the Duke Bogislaus Radzevil, and the Palatine of Witebsko with the Horse of Przemislia and Volhynia, went to set upon the Tartars, who to revenge the defeat they received the day be­fore, [Page 140] seeing that the Horse was backed but with a small number of Foot, they poured in upon them great numbers of Men. Landskoronski was the first who could put a stop to this torrent, neither was it done without the loss of many of his own Men, and of his Brother; and he himself was so incompassed by a great number of those Infidels, that to disingage him, there were sent out the Regiments of the Great General, of the General of the Campagne, of the Palatine of Russia, of the Grand Marshal and of Sapieha. The fight grew hot upon the arrival of this reinforce­ment, and many were slain on both sides; the Tartars lost about a Thousand Men, and divers prisoners of consider­able note were taken, amongst others, the Secretary to the Cham. The Poles had Three hundred of theirs slain, and amongst them Casanouski, Governor of Halicz, Ossolinski, Starroste of Lublin, Nephew to the Great Chancellor de­ceased, Stadniski Under-Chamberlain of Sanoc, Ligeza Sword-bearer of Przemislia, Rrecziski, Captain Jourdan [Page 141] and divers Gentlemen of the Palatinate of Lencincia; and so ended the Engage­ment of the Eight and twentieth of June. The Night following, having con­sidered in their Council of War, that the Enemies design was to delay time; and to reduce the Polanders to extre­mities for want of Provision in a Coun­trey too far distant from any place whence they might draw their subsist­ance, they thought it better to employ their Army, while it was in its strength and vigor, and determined to give Battel the next day: The King spent most of the night at his devotions, and in ordering his affairs; so soon as it was day, he drew up his Army, without the enemies perceiving it in the least, by favor of a great Mist, which con­tinued till Nine in the Morning. The Right Wing of the First Line was com­manded by the Grand General Potoski, and under him by Landskoronski, Pala­tine of Braclaw, Opalinski Palatine of Posnania, Lubomirski Grand Marshal of the Kingdom, Sapieha Vice-Chancellor of Lithuania, Koniespolski Grand Ensign [Page 142] to the Crown, the Count Ʋladislaus of Leszno, Under-Chamberlain of Posna­nia, the two Zobieski's Sons to the Go­vernor of Cracovia deceased; and some other great Persons who had raised Forces at their own expences. The Conduct of the Left Wing was commit­ted to Kalinouski General of the Cam­pagne, to the Dukes of Ostrog and Zas­law, to the Palatine of Brzestya, the Duke of Wisnowitz Palatine of Russia, to Stanislaus Potoski Palatine of Podolia, to John Zamoiski, and to Colonel En­hoff of Liefland; many of which had joyned the Forces which they had rai­sed in their own Countreys to those of the States. The King took charge of the main Body of the Army, composed of the German and Polish Foot; at the Head of which, stood the Artillery, commanded by Sigismond Priemski, who was General of it, and had been a long time Major General under the Swedes in Germany. The Second Line, in the middle of which, his Majesty of Poland took his place, consisted of Horse, and was commanded amongst [Page 143] other Officers, by Tyskewitz, Great Cup-bearer of Lithuania. The Body of Reserve, was commanded by Colo­nel Meydel, Great Master of the Game, and by Colonel Enhoff, Starroste of So­kal, and was composed of the Horse of Grudzinski and Rozraceuski; and of the Foot of Prince Charles, Brother to the King, and of Koniespolski's, and Colonel Du Plessis, a Frenchman. The Baggage and Ammunition was left in the Camp, which was intrenched on one side, and defended on the other by the Town and the River. The King had left some Companies of Foot there­in for a Guard, who appeared afar of much more numerous then they were, by reason of their Lances, which by the Kings Orders, the Huzzars had left to them; every one of which had a Red Penon or Little Streamer at the end; and when they were all drawn up in order, made a very fair show. The Sun dispersing the Mist, which till that time, had covered the Army, it ap­peared to the Enemy like a beautiful perspective on a Theatre, when the [Page 144] Curtain is drawing up, who were sur­prised at their number and good order; notwithstanding their Army was more numerous, and covered all the Countrey as far as could be seen. The Tartars possessed themselves of divers little Hills, from whence there was an easie descent, and filled up all the space in form of an Half-Moon: They had the Cossacks on their Right Hand, opposite to the Left Wing of the Polish Army, with whom were also joyned some Squa­drons of Tartars; and near to them was the Tabor of the Cossacks, composed of divers Ranks of Chariots; in the mid­dle of which, were part of their Forces able to sustain all assaults whatso­ever.

The two Armies being thus placed all the morning was spent in light skir­mishes, but the King doubting lest that the intention of the enemies was to amuse them with these small combats and to set upon them the night fol­lowing, when by reason of the dark­ness they might the better surprize [Page 145] them, he prohibited all his Soldiers upon pain of death from stirring out of their places without order, and com­manded all the Bridges to be broken down which were built over the Ster, that they might not be set upon be­hind, and by this means to ingage his own Soldiers to perform their utmost, all hopes of escaping being cut off, and that the rest of the day might not be spent unprofitably, which was scarce sufficient for a general Battel between two such numerous Armies, he began to salute the Enemies with the Can­non at the head of his Army, and so from time to time to discharge against them as they drew nearer to those Eminencies whereon the Tartars were placed. Divers seeing the day so far spent, were of opinion that the Fight should be deferred till the next morn­ing, but others insisted much upon the contrary, fearing lest the Cossacks might fall upon the Polish Army in the night with their Tabor, which they had ex­traordinarily reinforced, and might therewithal constrain them to quit [Page 146] their Camp. His Majesty therefore caus­ed the Duke of Wisnowitz to begin the charge with twelve Troops of old Sol­diers, backed by the Palatine of Podo­lia, with the Auxiliaries of the Pala­tinates of Cracovia, Sendomir, Lencicia, and Przemistia, the Cossacks received them briskly, and the conflict lasted near an hour, all which time the smoak and dust made them invisible to the rest of the Army; and as the Poles began to give way, they were timely assisted by fresh Forces, which the King sent them; upon whose arrival, the Cossacks were driven into their Tabor, together with the Tartars, who ingaged them upon a rising Ground. In the mean time, the King marched against the great Body of the Tartars, the Right Wing staying near a Wood side, to hinder the design of many of their ene­mies who were in Ambush, with inten­tion to compass in the Polish Army in the heat of the Battel. The King kept the Artillery still before him, which Priemski caused to be discharged very opportunely, and with great success. [Page 147] So that they obliged the Tartars to leave the foot of the Hill, and by degrees made themselves masters also of the top; after they had sustained the dis­charges of the Janissaries Carbines, who accompanied them.

In this place His Majesty of Poland was in great danger of his life, having four Bullets shot from some pieces which the Tartars had by a Wood side, passing very near him, and one of them falling at his feet; but the Poles soon returned them the like: For Otuinouski, Interpre­ter to his Majesty of Poland for the Turkish and Tartar Languages assuring them, that the Cham was there in per­son where they saw the great White Standard. The King ordered a piece of Cannon to be so levelled, that the first shot took one of the Principal Officers, who stood near the Cham; which disturbed and frighted him so much, that he thought not farther of any thing but retreating; that part of his Army which had been driven from the Hill, followed him also, having left [Page 148] some Squadrons behind to disguise his retreat, and amuse the Polanders for some time: But they were soon put to their shifts, and the Poles pursued them a League and a half, till the Night and the swiftness of their Bacmates or Tar­tar Horses secured them; yet they left many in their retreat, wounded and slain, which they were used to carry off, and to burn in their march when they had leisure; esteeming it abomi­nable to leave the dead Bodies of their Friends in the hands of Christians: They left also much of their equipage, as Vestes, Saddles, Cimitars, Chariots, and the Tent and Standard of their Cham, and his little Silver Drum, guild­ed over and covered with a Skin, which serves him for a Bell.

Divers Polanders who had been Slaves to those Infidels, did here re­cover their Liberty, but many others were killed by them, when they saw they could not carry them away with them in their retreat, which was so hasty, that they travelled Ten French [Page 149] Leagues the same day. The King after he had sent out divers Troops of Horse in pursuit of the Tartars, went with the rest of his Army against the Tabor of the Cossacks, where they were still in great numbers, and had Forty pieces of Ordnance which played continually. Kmielniski was retreated with the Tar­tars in hopes to engage them again to fight, but he could by no means per­swade them to it; but on the contrary, was very ill treated by the Cham, and reproached as one that had cheated him, and not made known the true state of the Polish Army, but had made him believe they were not above Twenty thousand; and therefore he threatned to send him to the King of Poland, in exchange for those Murza's which were Prisoners there, and would not let him go free, till he had sent or­der to Czeherin to deliver up a consider­able sum of Money, and part of the Booty which he had formerly taken in Poland.

[Page 150]The night following the King order­ed there should be a Publick Thanks­giving in the Camp, for this Victory, which cost him but Twelve hundred Men, his enemies having lost Six times as many; he passed the night in his Coach: And although it was very Rainy, he neglected not to cause the Cannon to be mounted upon the Hill, which was forsaken by the Tartars, the more conveniently to beat the Tabor of the Cossacks in pieces; which not­withstanding the Rain, they had forti­fied with a broad deep Ditch, and lined with Muskettiers in those places where it was most weak and open, and had a Marsh behind them, which did sufficiently se­cure them. By reason of Kmielniski his absence, they conferred the command of their Army upon one of their Offi­cers, called Dziadziali, a person of re­markable cruelty. They had recourse to all remedies probable to give them help, they wrote to the King, to im­plore his clemency, and to testifie to him the extream desire which they had [Page 151] for Peace; but seeing their Arms and Pens were both together in their hands, their Prince thought of no other way, but of reducing them by force; which appeared also not difficult to accom­plish, by reason they began already to fall into divisions amongst themselves. Some of the Polish Commanders were of opinion, that they should drown the Camp of the Cossacks, by making a dam and stopping the Course of the Water; but the advice to batter it down, was followed , and to this pur­pose they brought great Cannon from Brody, a Fortress built by the deceased Grand General Koniespolski: They made also Bridges above and below their Camp, for the better communica­tion of the Polish Forces, and raised many Forts and Redoubts in the most eminent places, from whence they might make their Batteries.

The Fourth of July, the Cossacks sur­prised one of these Forts, wherein were two pieces of Ordnance and Fourscore Polanders, whose Heads they struck off [Page 152] with their Sythes, Arms, which their Foot ordinarily make use of instead of Pikes. But General Hubald ran upon them, and drove them from it, and for­ced them to leave the Cannon which they were carrying away into their Ta­bor. The same day the Cossacks posses­sed themselves of a Hill, by which means they could the more easily seek out Forrage; but the Grand Ensign dislodged them, and brought away Five hundred of their Horses.

The fifth they came out of their Camp, in great number, in appearance as if they would give the Poles battel again, but they were driven back into their Intrenchments after a strong in­counter, and the loss of Four hundred of their Men. Sokol and Piascozin, of the Polish side, were wounded in this conflict, which was attended with a continual discharge of the Artillery on both sides, and great destruction.

The Cossacks seeing themselves thus ill handled, betook themselves to stra­tagems, [Page 153] and in the night following at­tacked the Polish Army with all their Force; but their design was prevented first by the fall of the Rain, and then by the vigilance of the King and his Generals, who doubled their Guards. At this time Mehemet Czelebey, a Con­verted Tartar, who had been a long while in the service of the Great Gene­ral, and had been made a Captain by him, having been sent out with a party to pursue the Tartars, returned into the Camp, bringing back prisoner with him, a Tartar of quality, named Mur­tasa Aga, one of the Cham's Kinred, who had been wounded at the Battel of Berestesko, and was not able to follow the rest, and had offered Fifteen thou­sand Rixdollars to Czelebey for his ran­som; but this Polonised Tartar, prefer­red his Faith and Promise which he had many years since ingaged to the Great General his Master, before all the Money and other considerable advant­ages, which this great person of Tar­tary offered him, if he would return with him into his Countrey. He report­ed [Page 154] also, that he had found by the way, more then Ten thousand Tartars, either slain or wounded, which they had left behind them: An extraordinary mark of their precipitous flight, their custom being to burn them, rather then leave them in the power of their Enemies.

The Cossacks whose last design took no effect, were now more and more backed in and incommodated; their onely refuge was the passage which they kept through the Marsh; by which they went out to Forrage, and by which they might retreat. But Colonel Bala­ban who was placed with Ten thousand Men on the other side of the Water, began to constrain the Liberty of the Excursions; and it was determined, that more Forces should be sent on that side to hinder them altogether.

At length the Polish Artillery thun­dering against their Tabor, with more execution then ever, they sent out three Deputies, Kresa, Colonel of the Regi­ment of Czeherin, Hladki, and Percas­lauski, [Page 155] to desire Peace; they applied themselves first to the Great General, who severely reproaching them for their cruelty and perfidiousness, told them, That they had rendred them­selves unworthy of the favor of his Ma­jesty of Poland; and that they did not deserve to be used as Christians, after that infamous Alliance which they had made with the Turks and Tartars.

The King notwithstanding, by the advice of the Senators, admitted them to Audience under a Pavillion set up­on the Hill, from whence the Tartars had been driven; where they fell down upon their faces, and presented a Let­ter in the name of all the Cossacks, and often begged for Mercy, Mercy, repeat­ing this word at all the requests they made; and upon all occasions, kissing the Hands and Garments of the Sena­tors who were there present. His Ma­jesty of Poland having called his Coun­sel, answered them by the Bishop of Culm, his Great Chancellor, That al­though their crimes were such, that [Page 156] they ought to have made them loose all hopes of Pardon; yet his Majesty de­siring to be conformable to the Divine Goodness and Mercy, did impart his; and if they would give sufficient proofs of their true Repentance, and perfect Submission, he would pardon all what was passed, upon those conditions which they should receive in writing the next day about Eleven of the Clock. Till which time, a Cessation of Arms was granted as they desired. Cresa, their Principal Deputy, remained as an Host­age, and the other Deputies returned upon the Seventh at the hour appoint­ed, to receive the Articles, upon which the King of Poland would grant his Par­don and Abolition of their Misdemean­ors.

It was demanded by these Articles, That they should first put Twelve of their Principal Commanders in Hostage, till they could deliver up unto the King their General Kmielniski, and Wihouski his Secretary.

[Page 157]2. That they should restore the Ar­tillery, and the Ensigns which they had taken in the War.

3. That they should give up the Standard belonging to the General of their Militia, to be disposed of to whom his Majesty pleased.

4. That if they were not contented, that their number should be reduced to Twelve thousand for the Guard of the Frontiers, this Article should be refer­red to the next Diet.

5. That as to their Priviledges which they might pretend to, those onely should be continued to them which were granted by the deceased General Koniespolski in the year One thousand six hundred and twenty eight.

The Deputies returning to their Camp, and making known these Con­ditions of Peace, brought back the next day this Answer.

That as to the first Article they would promise, to do their utmost, to [Page 158] put Kmielniski and his Secretary into the Kings hands, and would yield to the Second and third; but as for more, they could never agree to, nor hold to any other Articles, then those of the Treaty of Zborow.

The King much offended at this Answer, redoubled his Batteries and resolved absolutely to exterminate them, as they on the contrary would chuse rather to die, then to recede from that Treaty.

They answered to the discharges of the Polish Artillery, but not so often; which gave suspition that their Powder was spent: Some were so bold as to ad­vance so near to the Polish Camp, that they heard the orders which were given to the Polish Soldiers; which being known, they were obliged to change their orders; as also, the design they had formed of giving a general assault to their Tabor: And so strongly did the Cossacks resist all the attempts of the Polanders against them, that their valor had merited extraordinary Commenda­tions, if it had not been accompanied [Page 159] with many detestable cruelties, as Flea­ing alive, burning by degrees; and doing a thousand other mischeifs to the Polanders who fell into their hands. So much did the proposing of those Con­ditions, wherewith they were to buy their Peace, inspire them with Rage and Fury, in which they were kept on by their Popes (for so they call their Priests) who ceased not to encourage them with the hopes of the quick re­turn of their General, and the Tartars. But the inconveniences which they suf­fered, and the long absence of Kmiel­niski undeceiving them from the false hopes they sustained of a speedy assist­ance, they began to desire Peace very earnestly; their Commanders who saw that it could not be effected, but to their prejudice, resisted with all their power: And seeing that Dziadziali, whom they had substituted in the room of Kmielniski, did lend an Ear towards an accommodation, they forsook him, and set up Bohun in his place; who to signalize the beginning of his new Ge­neralship, upon the information he re­ceived [Page 160] that the Palatine of Braclaw had passed the River with some Forces, to shut up those Passages which the Cos­sacks made use of to go out to For­rage, and by which, they might at last retreat; he went out with a good num­ber of the Old Cossackin Militia, and two pieces of Cannon, to drive them back, and to reinforce the Guards which they had placed in the Forts, made for the preservation of the Passage: But scarce was he out of the Camp, when as the jealousie and suspition which they had a long time harbored, That the old Soldiers and Officers had a de­sign to retreat and leave the rest, be­gan now to break out, and a new rai­sed Cossack, having published it a­loud, That Bohun was gone out to this intent. The noise of it imme­diately spred it self throughout the Camp, and caused such a consternation, that every one began to flie in the greatest disorder.

[Page 161]The Ways and Causeys which they had made in the Marshes near their Camp were too straight, and many fal­ling in, stuck fast in the Mire, although they laid their Vests, Cloaks, and o­ther garments to draw them out. Bohun perceiving this confusion, came with his old soldiers to remedy it, but could not, and the Torrent drawing them in also along with it, they were for­ced to follow the example of the rest. The Palatine of Braclaw seeing the enemies Army come out of their Tabor so precipitously, could not ima­gine what it meant, and thinking at first that they came to fall upon him, he placed himself with the two thou­sand men which he had onely then with him, in a posture the most advan­tagious to hinder his being encompas­sed in, but taking more notice of the enemy a while after, he was better in­formed, and began to pursue them, but was stopped by the force and con­fusion of the rout as they saved them­selves; yet he set upon them as soon [Page 162] as he could, being seconded by the Auxiliaries of the Palatine of Plosko, who making a review at the same time when the flight of the Cossacks began, was the nearest to pursue them; The rest of the Polish Army which did not expect that their enemies should be so sodainly routed, and consequently were not on horseback, except those who guarded the Camp, ran streight to the Tabor of the Cossacks, where finding sufficient booty, they imploy­ed themselves about it, instead of pur­suing their enemies; the Cossacks lost no less in this flight then twenty thou­sand men, either killed by the Poland­ers, or lost in the Woods, Briers, Marshes, and Boggs; two thousand of them retreating to a little hill within their Tabor, not in hopes of any relief, but as men resolved to sell their lives as dear as they could; when they saw themselves constrained to yield to the multitude of the Polanders, some cast themselves into the River, others into the Boggs, and in one place three hundred of them were in a body to­gether, [Page 163] and defended themselves vali­antly against the great number of those who assaulted them, and set upon them on all sides; yet that these also might not despair, and set too little value upon their lives, the Poles offered them both that and any thing else they had of va­lue about them, but this rather incensed them the more; and immediately they took out of their Pockets and Girdles, all their Money: or whatsoever they had considerable, and threw it into the water, and after that, fought till the last man, every one as it were resolving to fight singly against the force of Po­land; and what was very remarkable, one of them held out three hours against all assaults whatsoever, for having got a little Boat in a Pond in the Marshes, and covered himself with the sides of it, he avoided all the shot which they made at him, and in answer, shot away all the Powder he had at them; and with his Sithe repulsed all those who attack­ed him. A Muscovite who set upon him with the same weapon could doe nothing, and for all his skill hardly e­scaped [Page 164] from being cut off by the mid­dle, next, a Gentleman of the Countrey of Czechanou, and a German Foot-sol­dier seeing that the Muscovite could not accomplish his designe, went into the water up to the neck, and begun the fight again, and were received with as much vigor by the Cossack, who was now wounded with fourteen Musket Bullets, to the great astonishment of the Army, and the King of Poland himself in whose sight this was performed; the King who could not enough admire the valour of the man, called out that they should give him his life, upon con­dition that he would yield, to which he gave this resolute answer, that he ca­red not to live, but desired onely to die like a soldier, and at last was run through with a Pike by the hand of an­other German, who came in to reinforce the assault.

The Polanders found in the Cossacks Camp, besides a number of Women and Children, a very considerable boo­ty, and forty pieces of Ordnance, and [Page 165] much Powder, many Ensignes, and a­mongst others the Standard, which the King at his election sent to Kmiel­niski as a mark of the confirmation of his Generalship; and another which King Ʋladislaus sent to the Cossacks when he intended to imploy them in a war which he designed against the Musco­vites; another which the Cossacks took from the Poles the last 25 of June; the Sword which the Greek Patriarch sent to Kmielniski, as an acknowledgement to him for his taking upon him to de­fend the Greek Church. The ornaments for a Chappel and other rich moveables of a Greek Prelate, who stiled himself Archbishop of Corinth, and was the Re­sident of the Patriarch with Kmielniski, he it was that most of all incouraged and kept on the Rebellion of the Cos­sacks and Russians, and was much a­gainst any accommodation, he was kil­led in his flight with an Arrow shot by a young man a Polander. They found also Kmielniski his Cabinet, wherein was the Seal of the Zaporovian Army, and divers Letters from the Grand Signior, [Page 166] the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the Prince of Transylvania, with about thir­ty thousand Rixdollars, which were designed for the Tartars; Vests lined with rich Furrs, Arms in great number, and Provision in abundance; and even the Pots and Spits at the fire, a signe that their flight was not at all preme­ditated.

This defeat cost the Poles not many men, and but one Captain of Radzevil his Regiment of Foot, who was slain at the attacquing of the three hun­dred Cossacks who retired into the Marsh. Besides those who were al­ready sent to pursue the Cossacks; the General of the Campagnia and the Duke of Wisnowitz with seven Regi­ments were Commanded out to hinder them from rallying, who killed all they overtook, a great number of them at­tempting to retreat by Dubno, three thousand were cut in pieces by the Garrison of that Town, and di­vers others as they passed over a long Causey. The King leaving almost all [Page 167] the Auxiliaries at Berestesko, marched also in pursuit of them towards Krzmi­enecz; but found in all that journey no­thing but spectacles of horror, the ways being strewed with dead bodies, and the Woods filled with those miserable persons, who after their defeat, fled into the thickest part of them, where they found no other sustenance for ma­ny days, than the Barks of Trees, and most of them were so weak, that their Legs were not able to serve them in their flight; the indignation of the Polanders at length was changed into pi­ty at the sight of these Skeletons, and instead of pursuing them to destroy them, they did it to give them their lives, and to perswade them to pre­serve themselves. The King himself seeing them in this deplorable condi­tion, caused Provisions to be distribu­ted amongst them, and assured them of pardon if they would leave the re­bellious Cossacks and return to their Houses; thus did his Polish Majesty shew his Clemency, and not rigorously put to the sword that rebellious people [Page 168] whereby he must have necessarily depo­pulated one of the principal Provinces of his Kingdom, which served for a Ram­part to the rest, and must consequently have ruined a number of Gentlemen, and chief of the Nobility, who having great Estates there, could not have received their Rents, if the Countrey had been unpeopled. The Peasants in Poland being a part of the Gentlemens inhe­ritance, and by this means they being deprived of their Tenants, it would have been very difficult for them to find others to serve them in the Tenure of Villenage, and this is the true Motive which then and at other times hath hin­dred the utter ruine of the Cossacks, without which consideration, it would not have been difficult to have destroy­ed them.

The King judging his presence neces­sary to terminate this War, and to com­pleat the Reduction of the Cossacks, made account to march with his whole Army to Kiovia, and from thence to send his Forces and Orders necessary [Page 169] for the accomplishing of this design. But the Nobility opposed it, alledging, That the necessity of his Affairs did oblige him to return; and that part of the Army, would be sufficient to per­form what remained, That the Cossacks were scattered, and in no condition to rally after this defeat; that if any of them should take up Arms again, the raised Troops would be sufficient to hinder and render useless all their at­tempts whatsoever, and in one word, that there could be no pretence of lead­ing the Nobility into a Countrey de­solate and laid waste by the continual violencies of the Cossacks and Tartars, and where they might be famished; so that upon a general Council held at Orla, of all the Commanders and Offi­cers of the Army, it was determined, that those who would return should be satisfied, which were the greater num­ber; and his Majesty of Poland after he had left his Instructions with the Great General Potoski, for the consum­mating that which he had so happily undertaken, took his journey towards [Page 170] Warsaw, having first had a promise from the Nobility of a new supply of Men and Money. The King before his de­parture also received an account, how that the Cham being informed of the defeat of the Cossacks, had hastened his retreat towards Crim, and that the four thousand Turks who came to their assistance, having also intelligence of it, had passed the Boristhenes with all dili­gence: This news was accompanied al­so with that of the defeat of the Cossacks, in Lythuania by Prince Radzevil.

The Cossacks to the number of twelve thousand, Commanded by Niebaba one of their Generals, had placed them­selves near to Loiowogrod, at the en­trance of the River Sesz into the Bo­risthenes, where after they had made Works to secure to themselves the passage over those Rivers, their Ge­neral left Forces to guard them. Prince Radzevil, General of Lythuania, hearing of this, resolved to set upon them, and to this effect, sent before him Major Ge­neral Mirski with three thousand cho­sen [Page 171] men, with Orders to pass the Borist­henes; and he himself embarked with the rest of his Foot and his Artillery, while his Horse marched by Land, at his arrival he set upon their intrenchments on one side, while that Mirski to whom he had given the signal by the discharge of some of his Cannon, was to fall up­on the other; the Cossacks defended themselves bravely for an hour and half, after which they were overthrown and cut in pieces. Niebaba coming with his Army to the relief of his.

Prince Radzevil, although that Mirski were not yet joyned with him, as having not passed the River which parted them, neglected not to incounter him, and after a sharp conflict, in which three of the principal Colonels of the Cossacks and Niebaba their General was slain, o­verthrew their Army, killed three thou­sand men, took many prisoners, and a­mongst the rest the Nephew of Niebaba, the rest saved themselves in their Camp, which was not far from the place of Battel, which they also sodainly aban­doned, as also the City of Lubiecz, [Page 172] and Czernobel near to it, who yielded up themselves without making any great resistance to Gonsieuski, General of the Artillery of Lythuania; after which Prince Radzevil took his way towards Kiovia, to put an end to the remainder of the Rebellion in those parts.

General Potoski imployed himself to the same purpose in Volhynia, where the difficulty of getting Provisions ha­ving forced him to divide his Army in­to many parts, he appointed their Ren­dezvous to be at Lubertowa, a Town which in the heat of all the war had preserved it self by the convenience of its scituation, and number of its In­habitants, and from thence to goe and make an attempt upon Pawolocz and Bialacierkiew, giving a strict Command, that the Officers should order it, that their Soldiers should so behave them­selves in that manner, that the Peasants might by no means be constrained to quit their Houses, or to destroy what Provisions were left. The Gentlemen also took all care to bring the Peasants [Page 173] to their former duty, promising them by Letters and Messages, that they should be most favourably dealt withal, if they would return to their obedience.

In the mean time Kmielniski having with a summe of Money, appeased the Cham and freed himself, returned into Ʋkrain to strengthen and confirme the minds of those people, which the last defeat and his absence had very much shaken; and taking the same course as formerly, in those places where he could not be in person, by his Letters and Emissaries, he gave new heat to their courage, which was very much abated, exhorting them to maintain the cause of the Publick, and putting them in mind how fortune was momen­tary and changeable, and if of late she had declared her self in favour of the Poles, yet she had left the Cossacks Strength and forces sufficient to renew the war and recover their losses, and to feed their hopes, he gave out that one Ragoci in Poland was revolted, and thereby had obliged the King to draw [Page 174] back the greatest part of his Army to stop his progress, that the Flower of the old Cossackian Militia was gathering together, and that in few days the Tar­tars would come and joyn with them a­gain to revenge their last defeat, and to keep up the hopes of this people still more high, from time to time he dis­patched several Embassies to the Cham, which he accompanied with magnificent promises to induce him to afford him new supplies, remonstrating to him that the security of both their for­tunes depended upon it, and that the ruine of the one would infallibly ex­pose the other to the Polish power; he sent also three Envoyes to the Ottoman Court, to represent to them, that if the Cossacks were assisted by the Grand Sig­nior, they might be in a condition to make head against all the Forces of Po­land, but if they were abandoned, they must be necessitated to an accommoda­tion, and in the end to make war against himself.

[Page 175]Prince Janus Radzevil, to whom Hle­bowitz, Palatine of Smolensko was joyn­ed, having left Fronckewitz, Lieute­nant-Collonel of the Hussars, with some Forces about Czernihow, to hin­der the excursions of that Garrison, went towards Kiovia; after they had forced from those Quarters the Cossacki­an Collonels, Antonio and Orkussa, and put their Forces into such disorder, that they were constrained to burn their Tabor, and their Bridge, and fly into the Town; neither did they stay there any time, for the terror of the march of the Lythuanian Army spreading it self through the rest of the Cossackian For­ces, who thought to shelter themselves in the Countrey about, they quitted that Town, which was one of their principal Retreats. The Inhabitants seeing they were deprived of their Garrison, and all other means of de­fending themselves, sent their Suppli­cations to the Polish General by their Archbishop, and their Archimandrit or Abbot of their chief Greek Monastery, requesting of him that he would spare [Page 176] that City which the King had always the goodness to preserve, and which du­ring the last wars, had served for a place of refuge to the Polish Nobility, which request was granted by Prince Radzevil, who onely disarmed them, to take away from them for the future the opportunity of doing ill.

Kmielniski hearing of the loss of Kio­via, doubled his diligence, and sought out all means imaginable to bring a new Army into the Field, able to stop the progress of his enemies, and the unfor­tunate posture of his affairs suggested counsel to him full of fury and despair: in the middle of which, he found not only his Cossacks, but a great part of the Peasants also inclined to try again the fortune of the war, and among these latter, there were some who openly declared, that it was disgraceful to them to be dejected for the ill success of one Battel, and that those who o­vercame them now, they had formerly overcome, and the same might be per­formed again; but if that Fortune [Page 177] should obstinately declare her self for the Poles, there was still a place left them to retreat into, the Countrey of the Turks, where they might live with more freedom then in Russia, to which intent they had already wrote to the Bassa of Silistria.

So that many of the Peasants went e­very day to joyn with Kmielniski, and the Cossacks began their incursions and violencies in many places, particularly those who inhabit near the Niester and Wallachia who are more accustomed to these Robberies then the other. Ge­neral Potoski had sent out two thousand men under the Command of the Star­roste of Kamienecz his son against them, but instead of sending him the recruits which he demanded, he called him back again, judging it more convenient to to keep his Forces in one body, the Ge­neral sent afterwards seven Squadrons towards Bialacierkiew to hear news of the Cossacks, but instead of obeying their Orders, they fell to plunder a Town called Pawolocz, and were met [Page 178] withal by two thousand Cossacks, and five hundred Tartars not far from thence, who set upon them, and drove them to the Gates of that Town, took away all their booty, and had utterly defeated them, had not the Forces of the Duke of Wisnowitz arrived in time to their assistance, by whose help they made head against those who pursued them, and drove part of them into their Ta­bor, and part into Bialacerkiew, it was known by some Tartar prisoners, taken upon this occasion, that there were but two thousand of them with Kmielniski, but that in a few days four thousand o­thers were expected, and that the rest of those Infidels were gone to refresh their Horses in the Pastures of the de­sart Plains, and had received Orders to be in readiness to return upon the first occasion into Poland. This news made General Potoski to delay his march, till the arrival of his Foot and Baggage; when deliberating in Council, with his Officers what was to be done; they de­termined to seize upon Chzastowa, a Town on the way to Kiovia, to fa­cilitate [Page 179] their communication with it and their joyning with Prince Radze­vil; while they lay expecting the Foot at Pawolocz, which marched but slow­ly; the Plague took away in the flow­er of his age Michael Koributh, Duke of Wisniwitz, who had given sufficient proof of his Valor and singular Con­duct in all this War, by which he was deprived of the Revenue of a great Estate in Ʋkrain.

After that the Army had spent the five and twentieth of August in ren­dring their last Devoirs to this great person, they marched the next day to­wards Trylisicz, a place well fortified; this Garrison having sent a fierce an­swer to the summons of the Polish Ge­neral to surrender themselves, he Com­manded Priemski-General of the Artil­lery, and Commissary of the Army, and Berg, Lieutenant-Colonel to the Regiment of Prince Bogislaus Radzevil, with seven hundred German Foot to at­tacque them; they lost threescore or fourscore men in the approaches, [Page 180] with Captain Strayse, and Captain Wahl, but being relieved with the Polish Foot, in two hours time they made themselves Masters of the Town and Castle, not­withstanding the obstinate resistance of the besieged, among whom, even the Women did good service, and fought with their Sithes; all here were put to the sword without distinction of Sex or Age. The Governor of the place, a Cossack, was hanged in the heat of blood; the Town was plundered, and what could not be carried away, was with it reduced to Ashes, and this seve­rity wrought better effects then per­haps Clemency could have done, for the Flames being perceived by those of Chwastowa, the three hundred Cos­sacks which guarded that Town, for­sook it, and the Inhabitants also follow­ed their example, although they might well have resisted the Poles, and put them to the expense of a great num­ber of men.

Prince Radzevil expecting the Kings Orders, and that the Polish Army should [Page 181] come to him, kept himself always near to Kiovia, not without some danger; the Enemy endeavouring by all means possible to surprize him, or at least to hinder the General Potoski from joyn­ing with him. Upon the sixteenth of August Colonel Nold being sent out by this Prince, discovered by the Wind­mil near to the Gate of Kiovia, called the Gilded Gate, a great body of Cos­sacks mingled with Tartars, which soon allarmed the Camp, and a party of Light Horse set upon them with such courage, that after they had taken a Bridge which the enemies put much trust in for the securing themselves, they killed a thousand of them upon the place; some of the prisoners confessed that this body of three thousand men was to have joyned with a thousand more, with designe of falling upon the Lythuanian Army in their intrench­ments.

Prince Radzevil after this advantage, set forward to joyn with the Polish Army, after that he had left a sufficient Garri­son [Page 182] in Kiovia, and furnished it with all things necessary for its preservation: General Potoski having sent fifteen hun­dred men before him, advanced with the rest of his Army as far as Vasilikow, to facilitate their conjunction; Kmiel­niski finding himself unable to hinder this, and foreseeing the dammage he must receive from it, deputed divers to the General to Treat with him about an accommodation, and to desire him to interpose the credit he had with the Senate and the Polish Army, to prevent the effusion of so much blood as was rea­dy to be spilled, and to bring the Cos­sacks in favour again with his Majesty of Poland, assuring him they would re­main faithful in his service, and most Religiously observe the Treaty of Zborow; these propositions of peace presented by Kmielniski, made small impressions upon the mind of the Polish General, who being well informed of the continual addresses which he made to the Port, and to the Cham, to ob­tain a speedy supply, and consequent­ly understood that all what he did, was [Page 183] but to gain time and leisure to establish his affairs; he resolved without delay to terminate this controversie by force of Arms. The Polish Army being now considerably reinforced, by the con­junction of the Lythuanians, consisting of nine thousand chosen men; Kmiel­niski although he had received a fresh supply of six thousand Tartars, did not neglect to make another attempt to­wards an accommodation, and the Pa­latine of Kiovia endeavoured with di­vers arguments to induce the Generals to put an end to this War, rather by a general Pardon, then by the conti­nuation of so many cruelties; repre­senting to them that the many troubles which the soldiers had undergone in this Campagnia, and the Diseases reign­ing amongst them, had diminished, and did diminish daily a great number of them, so that the Generals Potoski and Radzevil, condescended to receive the Cossacks deputed to come and desire peace. Kmielniski desiring that some one might be dispatched to him, to conferre with Vihouski his Secretary, [Page 184] and intimate Friend, they sent to him Makouski, a Captain of Horse, with a Letter to him from the General Potos­ki, but because he gave him not the Title of General of the Zaporovian Army, this omission was taken for a great injury, and made a disturbance among the Cossacks; but Makouski ha­ving appeased them by giving them sufficient reasons for what was done; the conference began, in which the Polish Deputy proposed, that Kmielniski should send away the Tartars, and come himself to the Polish Camp and pay his respects to their Generals; he was a­gainst the first of these propositions for a long time, whatsoever his Secretary could doe to draw from him his con­sent, but in the end he agreed to one as well as the other, although his Offi­cers and the Russian Peasants expressed a great deal of repugnancy for the lat­ter. But finding it not convenient to continue this conference in the Cossacks Camp, lest that the Tartars suspecting what they Treated of might attempt something against the persons of the [Page 185] Commissioners, Vihouski did very much instance that it might be removed to Bialacierkiew.

Makouski giving an account to the Generals of the Polish Army, of his Ne­gotiation with the Cossacks, it was thought expedient to send Commission­ers to Bialacierkiew as they desired, to this intent were deputed the Palatines of Kiovia and Smolensko. Zowzieuski, High Steward of Lythuania and Cossa­couski, second Judge of Braclaw, whom they guarded with a great Convoy, of which five hundred Horse onely were permitted to enter the Town. These Commissioners Treating with those of Kmielniski, agreed of all the conditi­ons of peace, excepting some few points which were afterwards to be decided in the two Camps, but were in great danger of their lives, first in the Army of the Cossacks, where Kmielniski and his Officers had enough to doe to de­fend them from the violencies of the Tartars, and the Peasants, who could not endure any propositions of Peace, [Page 186] suspecting always that one of their Ar­ticles would be to reduce them to their former servitude. The Tartars also set upon them in their return, and plun­dered part of their Baggage.

In the mean time General Potoski and Prince Radzevil, seeing that the Treaty was almost concluded, removed from Hermanowka to Bialacerkiew, the place where Kmielniski and the princi­pal Commanders of the Cossacks were to renew their Oath of Allegiance to the King and State, at the approach of the Polish Army, the Cossacks seemed to be very much surprized, but they being certified that it was upon no o­ther designe then to oppose the incur­sions of the Tartars, new Commission­ers were sent on both sides to conclude of what was left undecided at the last conference.

But the Cossacks instead of that pre­sented new propositions, as if they had forgot what had been so lately determi­ned, demanding the performance of the [Page 187] Treaty at Zborow; that the Polish Army should leave the frontiers, and give them liberty to maintain their confede­racy with the Tartars, whom they ac­knowledged to be the true defenders of their priviledges; so that after the Poles had reproached them of their lightness and infidelity, which must needs proceed from the news of some new supply from the Tartars, or the false report of the Grand Signior his sending some considerable Forces; they drew up their Army, and committed the right wing to Prince Radzevil with his Lythuanians, the left to Kalinouski, and reserved the main body for Gene­ral Potoski. The Cossacks and Tartars came also out of their Camp, as if they had no other designe but to observe the posture of the Poles; there passed di­vers skirmishes between them for three days, and divers Companies of the E­nemie hid themselves in Thickets and close places, making frequent attempts upon the Polish Army, annoying them sometimes in the Flanck, and sometimes in the Reer, which it is thought they [Page 188] did to make the Polish Generals more tractable, and to obtain more advantagious conditions of peace. In the mean time they being wearied with the de­lays of Kmielniski, who pretended to disallow of all these attempts and skir­mishes; and being earnest with him to declare his mind, he sent them upon the 26 of September, three Deputies to endeavor seriously the conclusion of the Treaty; these were much more moderate in their demands, although they were very different also from those agreed upon at Bialacerkiew; for af­ter they had concluded that the number of the Cossacks inrolled, should amount to twenty thousand, they demanded also that they might have their Quar­ters in the Palatinates of Braclaw and Czernihow, and this being refused, they insisted, that at least the Polish Forces should not be quartered there during the time that Kmielniski was employed in inrolling the Cossackian Militia; and that they should give him for his own maintenance, the Territories of Czir­cassy and Borowitza. Potoski gave them [Page 189] to understand, that this latter demand could not be granted without express Orders from the King and State, but condescended to the other, after that Kmielniski had secretly informed him that he insisted upon it only to content the revolted Peasants, whom he thought not fit to irritate so long as they kept to­gether, and made so considerable a bo­dy, so that there remained nothing but that he and his chief Officers should come and make their submissions to the Polish Generals, which he was inclina­ble enough to do, after he had recei­ved Hostages for his security, though divers of his Officers with great diffi­culty were brought to consent to it. Upon the 28 of September, he and the principal Commanders of the Cossacks came to the Polish Camp, where with much Humility, and the Tears in his Eyes (which he had always ready to shed, when the necessity of his affairs required) he asked Pardon of the Great General Potoski, and saluted Prince Radzevil, and the rest of the Nobility with all respect. In his presence were [Page 190] the Articles of the Treaty read, and be­ing signed on both parts, and confirmed by Oath; all ended in an entertain­ment which was given to those of his Train.

The Articles were these.

1. THat in consideration of the sub­mission and acknowledgement which the Zaporovian Army and its Com­manders had made to be always obliged to serve the King and State; This Army should be composed for the future of twenty thousand men, which were to be chosen and Registred by their General and Officers, and should have their Quarters in the Countey and Lands belonging to his Majesty in the Palatinates of Kiovia, Braclaw, and Czer­nihow, but the Lands of the Nobility should be free from Quartering of Soldiers.

2. That if any of the Subjects of the Nobility were Registred in the Zaporovian Army, they should be bound to change their Habitations, and to transferre themselves into the Lands belonging to the King in the Palatinacy of Kiovia, but it should be free for them to sell their Goods, whither move­ables [Page 191] or others, and in what part soever they were, without any hindrance or mo­lestation from their Landlords, the Star­roste's or Substarroste's.

3. That they should begin to Register the twenty thousand Cossacks to be retained, within fifteen days, counting from the day of the date of this present Treaty; and that this List or Roll containing the name, surname, and abode of each particular Cos­sack should be Signed by the General of the Cossacks, should be sent to the King, and a Copy of a Copy be kept in the Rolls of Ki­ovia; that those were not Registred or Matriculated, should still enjoy the antient Rights and Priviledges of the Cossacks, but those who should be excluded, should be bound to the same Duty as formerly, in respect of the Kings Lands.

4. That the Polish Forces should have no Quarters in the Palatinacy of Kiovia, in those places assigned to the Cossacks, nor should the latter pretend to any Quarters designed for the Poles in the Palatinacy of Braclaw, and Czernihow, after the Feast of Christmas, by which time they were to make up the Register.

[Page 192]5. That the Gentlemen of the said Pala­tinacies of Kiovia, Braclaw, and Czerni­how, should come into free possession again of their Estates or Starrosties, and draw from thence their Revenues as formerly, onely they should not receive any Taxes or Duties from their Subjects, till such time as the Register were finished, when it would be perferctly known who those were, who were to enjoy the priviledges of the Cos­sacks, and who not.

6. That the General of the Cossacks should have the Town of Czerin for his proper maintenance, and that Bogdan Kmi­elniski at present in that charge, and his successors should enjoy all Prerogatives be­longing thereto, and dispose of all Places and Offices in the Army, and should be un­der the protection of the Generalissimo's of the Crown, to whom they should take an Oath of unalterable Fidelity.

7. That the Greek Religion which the Zaporovian Army professeth, should be maintained in its antient Liberty, and those Bishopricks, Monasteries, Churches, and Ecclesiastical Revenues, which had been usurped during the last War should be resto­red.

[Page 193]8. That those of the Nobility, either Ca­tholicks or Greeks, who had taken the Cossacks part, as also the Inhabitants of Kiovia should be included in the Bill of Oblivion, and consequently should be re­established in their Estates, Rights, Ho­nours; and Priviledges; and that any sen­tence given against them, by reason of the last war, should remain Null and void.

9. That the Jews should keep their pri­viledges of being Free Citizens in the Lands belonging to the King and the Nobi­lity; and that they should be permitted to Farm their Estates and Rights as formely.

10. That the Tartars who were in the Kingdom, should immediately retreat, with­out spoiling the Countrey, and should not be allowed any longer Quarters therein in what place soever; that the General of the Cossacks should doe his utmost to engage them for the future in the service of the State; but if that he could not accomplish it before the next Diet, he and his Cossacks should be bound to renounce their friendship, and to make War upon them as Enemies to the Crown of Poland; and that the Cos­sacks should not make any League, nor en­tertain [Page 194] any correspondence with them, or any other Neighboring Prince; but should remain in a perpetual and constant Fideli­ty and Obedience towards his Majesty and the State, of which they and their Succes­sors were to give proofs upon all occasions when they should be Commanded.

11. That as there never was yet any Cossack inrolled for the guard of the Fron­tiers of Lythuania; so should there not be any at present, but all should remain as it was already agreed upon, within the Limits of the Palatinacy of Kiovia.

12. That seeing the said City of Kio­via was a Metropolitan, and a seat of Judi­cature, therefore there should be but few Cossacks Registred therein.

13. That for the greater security of this Treaty, both the Polish Commissioners and the General of the Zaporovian Army with their Commanders, should be bound by oath to keep it; after which the Polish Army should retire into their Quarters, while the Soldiers who were to compose the Zapo­rovian Army, might be chosen out and Re­gistred; the Tartars should return into their Countrey, and the Cossacks home.

[Page 195] That Kmielniski and the Zaporo­vian Army should send Deputies to the next Diet, most humbly to thank the King and the State for the pardon which he had granted them.

A short time after the conclusion of this peace, the Great General Potoski died of an Apoplexy in the Town of Laticzow, worn out with years and the continual wearisome labors of War; in which he served, first under the famous General Zolkiewitz, he had been in a languishing condition since his last im­prisonment in Tartary; and his great courage made him neglect those Re­medies necessary for the re-establish­ment of his health; so desiring nothing else, as he would openly declare it to his friends, but to die in the Wars, and to finish his life in his Profession; his desires were at last accomplished, and beyond the satisfaction of ending his life so glo­riously, he had this also; just at his death to terminate by his Valor and Conduct, a War so cruel and ruinous to his Countrey.