♦Affecting scene in the senate.♦ The king intended to ask this of the republic at the Diet of Grodno; but his intention becoming known, he was assailed with the utmost virulence in the senate. The Grand Treasurer termed him despot, tyrant, and destructor of the public liberty; a palatine spoke of him as the enemy of his country. At length the king rose and addressed the senate. He recalled the patriotism and services of his ancestors, and protested his devotion to the cause of liberty. But he begged his hearers to pause, and reflect on the consequences of intestine strife. “Oh, what will be one day the sad surprise of posterity to see that at the summit of our glory, when the name of Poland was filling the universe, we have allowed our country to fall in ruins, to fall, alas! for ever! For myself I have now and then gained you a few battles; but I confess myself deprived of all power to save you. It only remains for me to resign, not to destiny, for I am a Christian, but to the great and mighty God, the future of my beloved country.... I seem to hear already resounding over our heads the cry of the prophet: ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed.’ Your most illustrious Dominations know that I do not believe in auguries. I do not search out oracles; I give no credence to dreams; it is not an oracle, it is faith which teaches me that the decrees of Providence cannot fail to be accomplished.” During this prophetic speech the voice of the old king trembled with emotion, and the senate was deeply touched. The primate knelt at the foot of the throne, and assured him of the loyalty of Poland; and a cry of assent arose from all present. The subsidies were voted by acclamation; but it was only a transient gleam of concord. ♦Continued disturbances.♦ Next year there were rumours of a conspiracy to dethrone the king; and amid the storms of the Diet a bishop named Opalinski said to him haughtily, “Be equitable, or cease to reign!” The insult was soon followed by an apology; but the tumult continued in the assembly, and sabres were freely used before the veto terminated the disgraceful scene.[128] ♦Intended abdication of Sobieski.♦ The king felt himself unable to cope with these terrible disorders, and he instructed his chancellor to prepare an act of abdication (1689); but the unfeigned sorrow of all classes persuaded him to withdraw it. There was little improvement, however, in the temper of future Diets; and the veto was employed as freely as before.