The intrigues of the French court were defeated by those of a Frenchwoman. Sobieski had espoused, in 1665, ten years before his accession to the throne, Marie Casimire de la Grange, daughter of Henri de la Grange, Marquis d’Arquien. She had early acquired an influence over her husband, which she exerted in a manner almost uniformly detrimental to his peace, his interests, and those of his kingdom; and the wife of 41 continued now to exercise over the consort of 53 the dangerous fascination of a mistress. It pleased that Providence, which so frequently works out its greatest designs by contemptible instruments, to disappoint this woman in an intrigue which she had set on foot at Versailles for the elevation of her father to a French dukedom. On her announcement of an intended journey to France, question had been raised in this quarter also as to that title of Majesty which has been mentioned as affecting her husband’s relations with Austria. These, and such as these, were the influences which are said at this critical moment to have caused the scale to descend in favour of Austria, to have outweighed the uxorious Sobieski’s recollections of his education in France, to have saved Vienna and rescued Hungary from Mahometan rule. That other and sounder considerations had not their influence upon Sobieski’s decision, it would be preposterous to suppose. Sincere and earnest to the verge of bigotry in his attachment to the Romish form of Christianity, he could not look with indifference to the probable success of the Turkish arms in Hungary and Austria. He had received, however, assurances from Turkey that in the event of his continued neutrality the Polish frontier should be kept free from invasion. To that neutrality he was in strictness bound by the fidelity with which the Ottoman Porte had observed the engagements of her last pacification with Poland—a fidelity which all historians agree has usually characterized the proceedings of the Porte, and which stands out in strong and frequent contrast with the practice of Christian States. Relying on the faith of treaties, Mohammed IV. had left the important fortress of Kaminiec and the frontier of Podolia unguarded; and if Sobieski had sought for an excuse to avoid alliance with Austria, he might have found it in the obligations of the Treaty of Zurawno, which had been so faithfully observed by the Turks. Rome, however, was at hand to dispense with these obligations towards the infidel. Advisers meanwhile were not wanting to suggest that by continuing awhile a spectator of a struggle which must produce exhaustion on either side, and by striking in at the proper time and in the proper quarter, Sobieski might best find occasion to recover from the Turk the much coveted fortress of Kaminiec. It was under such circumstances that the good genius of Christendom stepped in in the disguise of an intriguing Frenchwoman. Influenced for once in a right