[20] We find only the bare statement that they visited England (Salvandy; Palmer, _Memoirs of John Sobieski_). It is possible the civil war may have deterred them. [21] Of these only five were paid to the family of the murdered man, the other five going to his lord. [22] _Commentariorum Chotimensis belli libri tres._ CRACOW, 1646. [23] These were not broken during a march, differing in this from the laager. See DALEYRAC, ch. i. p. 24. [24] It was not a feudal tenure, however, for the nobles did not acknowledge any vassalage to the king. It was merely a bargain.--DALEYRAC, ch. i. p. 23. [25] Dyer (_Modern Europe_, vol. iii. p. 42, ed. 1864) gives no authority for his extraordinary statement that Wladislas entered into an elaborate conspiracy with the Cossacks against his own kingdom. Nothing could be more foreign to his character. [26] Coyer makes Mark Sobieski die four years earlier, but his account of the Cossack war is so confused, that it is difficult to tell to what events he refers. [27] He was descended from the elder branch of the house of Vasa--that of his grandfather, John III. of Sweden. His father, Sigismund III. of Poland, had by his Polish sympathies and Catholic education, alienated the affections of the Swedes. [28] The Polish regular army was so called because a fourth of the royal revenues was employed to maintain them. SALVANDY, i. p. 404. [29] Coyer, who is followed by other writers, says that Sobieski was once a hostage with the khan of the Tartars at his own request, and made him a steady friend of Poland. [30] Frederic William, the founder of the greatness of the house of Hohenzollern. [31] He only carried the standard in the Pospolite; his office was a high military command. Coyer makes this the reward of his quelling the mutiny at Zborow, which seems most improbable. [32] Daleyrac (ch. i. p. 28) represents the army as being at the mercy of the Grand Treasurer, who frequently pocketed the money. [33] The mansion of a Polish noble was called his “court.” [34] But he says she was then only thirty-three, and she was certainly six years older. Louise de Nevers would not have taken away to Poland a child of five years as part of her suite. [35] Connor (_Letters on Poland_, Letter iv.) actually represents that he was unwilling to marry her until tempted by a large dowry. [36] A letter of Sobieski, describing this plan to his wife, who was staying in France, was shown to Condé, who had no hope of its success. [37] He was tormented with remorse for marrying his brother’s widow. [38] Connor (Letter iii.) mentions having heard this from aged Poles. [39] He stayed till the diet of election was opened. [40] The next king, though related to it, could hardly be said to belong to it, as he was descended from Korybuth, uncle of Jagellon. [41] Connor, Letter iv. [42] Begun by his duel with one of their clan in 1648.