♦Projects of the queen.♦ While her late husband was still lying in state the queen had resumed her favourite project of retaining the crown by a marriage with Charles of Lorraine. That prince left the army of the Rhine and appeared upon the frontiers; and the emperor massed troops for his support on the borders of Little Poland. ♦Candidates.♦ Sixteen[54] other candidates appeared in the field, but many of these were Protestant princes, whose chances were small; and the contest seemed to lie between Lorraine and the young Duke of Neuberg, the son of his old antagonist. The latter, though a German prince, was supported by Louis XIV. as the heir of the Elector Palatine, and therefore an important ally. ♦Preparations for the election.♦ No artifice was spared by the queen’s party to prevent the proposal of Sobieski. The Pazes brought forward a measure in the Diet for the exclusion of a Piast on account of the misfortunes of the late reign; and when this was unfavourably received, they insisted that the new king must be unmarried.[55] The Diet refused to sanction any measures of exclusion, and wrote to press for Sobieski’s presence. But the hero was now at Zolkiew attending his wife in a dangerous illness, upon the origin of which various rumours were afloat. His enemies averred that he had poisoned her himself to secure the queen’s hand; his friends hinted that the queen had done so to be sure of the crown at all hazards. These speculations were set at rest by the recovery of Madame Sobieska; but her husband still delayed to appear in public. He wrote, however, to the Diet, strongly urging that the threatening attitude of the Turks rendered any delay dangerous; and it was decided on this advice that the election should not be made by the whole Pospolite, but by a representative Diet. But the regulation was practically ineffective; for the Diet being held in the open air, the nobles attended as usual to watch the conduct of their deputies.