The Deluge: An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Vol. 2Sienkiewicz, Henryk
History
The Deluge: An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Vol. 2
Sienkiewicz, Henryk
Historical fiction; Poland -- History -- John II Casimir, 1648-1668 -- Fiction
The king’s party arrived at Jivyets late in the evening, and paid
almost no attention to the place, which was terrified by the recent
attack of the Swedish detachment. The king did not go to the castle,
which had been ravaged by the enemy and burned in part, but stopped at
the priest’s house. Kmita spread the news that the party was escorting
the ambassador of the emperor, who was going from Silesia to Cracow.
Next morning they held on toward Vadovitsi, and then turned
considerably to one side toward Suha. From this place they were to pass
through Kjechoni to Yordanovo, thence to Novy Targ, and if it appeared
that there were no Swedish parties near Chorshtyn to go to Chorshtyn;
if there were, they were to turn toward Hungary and advance on
Hungarian soil to Lyubovlya. The king hoped, too, that the marshal of
the kingdom, who disposed of forces so considerable that no reigning
prince had so many, would make the road safe and hasten forth to meet
his sovereign. Only this could prevent, that the marshal knew not which
road the king would take; but among the mountaineers there was no lack
of trusty men ready to bear word to the marshal. There was no need even
of confiding the secret to them, for they went willingly when told that
it was a question of serving the king. These people, though poor and
half wild, tilling little or not at all an ungrateful soil, living by
their herds, pious, and hating heretics, were, in truth, given heart
and soul to the sovereign. They were the first to seize their axes and
move from the mountains when news of the taking of Cracow spread
through the country, and especially when news came of the siege of
Chenstohova, to which pious women were accustomed to go on pilgrimages.
General Douglas, a well-known warrior, furnished with cannon and
muskets, scattered them, it is true, on the plains, to which they were
not accustomed; but the Swedes only with the greatest caution entered
their special districts, in which it was not easy to reach them, and
easy to suffer disaster,—so that some smaller divisions, having
needlessly entered this labyrinth of mountains, were lost.
And now news of the king’s passage with an army had already done its
own, for all had sprung up as one man to defend him and accompany him
with their axes, even to the end of the world. Yan Kazimir might, if he
had only disclosed who he was, have surrounded himself in a short time
with thousands of half-wild “householders;” but he thought justly that
in such an event the news would be carried about everywhere by all the
whirlwinds through the whole region, and that the Swedes might send out
numerous troops to meet him, therefore he chose to travel unknown even
to the mountaineers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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