♦Broken by the Poles. June 30th, 1651.♦ But the Polish nobility were incapable of learning any lesson from their recent reverses. War was again declared by the Diet in 1650; and the next year Bogdan was defeated by Casimir at Berestezko, owing principally to the desertion of the Tartars. In this battle, John Sobieski received a wound in his head, from the effects of which he suffered constantly until his death. A transitory peace which followed this success was again broken by the Poles, who attacked Bogdan’s son Timothy at Batowitz (June 2nd, 1652), but were surrounded and annihilated. ♦Death of Mark Sobieski.♦ The prisoners, among whom was Mark Sobieski,[26] were all massacred after the battle by the Tartar khan. Another duel wound fortunately prevented John from being among the victims. But he had the pain of seeing that his folly had made his mother despair of the name of Sobieski. Overwhelmed with grief at the loss of her favourite son, and auguring ill from the headstrong passions of John, she quitted Poland and took refuge in Italy. ♦Lessons of the Cossack War.♦ The Cossack war, which had now lasted with little intermission for four years, demands considerable attention. It throws a lurid light on the vices of the Polish constitution, and its bitter lessons cannot have been lost upon a thoughtful mind like that of John Sobieski. By oppression the Polish nobility had converted faithful subjects into deadly foes; and their pride and treachery contrast most unfavourably with the moderation of the Cossack chief. Although we have little information about this period of Sobieski’s life, his ardent temper makes it probable that he joined at first with the most uncompromising of the nobles. But their independence of the regal authority, their disregard for treaties with the serf class, and, above all, their unprecedented employment of the fatal veto (1652), must have soon convinced him that the discipline of self-restraint was the only means left to save his country. Hereafter we shall see him nobly practising this lesson under the most fearful provocation. ♦Anarchy.♦ At this period (1654) Poland was distracted by anarchy at home, and in the next six years she suffered all the usual consequences of civil strife. Henceforward the Cossack war loses its character of a struggle between the republic and her rebellious subjects. ♦The Cossacks call in Muscovy.♦ Its natural result was to draw into the contest those neighbouring nations who might hope to gain advantage from the distracted state of Poland. Bogdan, despairing of concluding any definitive peace without foreign aid, persuaded the Czar Alexis to declare war against Poland, and, on the frivolous pretext that his titles had not received due respect, that monarch invaded Lithuania and took Smolensko (Sept. 10th, 1654).