resolved to prosecute “with my utmost Vigour” the insertion of the title into the new Capitulations;[40] and so to score off all the ambassadors who went before and bequeath a legacy of imperishable lustre to all those who should come after him. A comprehensive programme, excellent in conception; but for its execution Sir John had to wait. While the Grand Signor hunted, his Grand Vizir was busy conducting hostilities with Poland and, simultaneously, negotiations for peace. Sir John was kept informed of these proceedings by the Dutch Resident, who, with his wife, his children and his Secretaries, followed the Ottoman camp, having orders from his Government to watch the march of events in concert with the Emperor’s Resident. Holland and Germany were then at war with France, which endeavoured to bring about an agreement between Poland and Turkey and to induce the latter Power to turn her arms against the Emperor. England, on the other hand, had recently made peace with Holland, and the Dutch Resident, before his departure from Constantinople, had recommended his “Nation” to Sir John’s protection. He now wrote to him about the prospects of peace. An envoy from the new King of Poland, John Sobieski, was expected in the Grand Vizir’s camp every moment; and in case of an agreement, it was said that the Ottoman Army would join the Polish in a common campaign against the Muscovite. What inclined the Turks to an accommodation, besides Sobieski’s conciliatory attitude, was the fear of an attack from Persia. So Sir John’s informant reported. “But, My Lord,” said Sir John, “notwithstanding these fayr Intimations of Peace there can be no certainty of it, For the Publique Prayers have bin made these ten dayes over the Empire for the Gran Signor, which begin not till He is out of His own Territory’s, and must continue till victory or Peace.... In the Interim it seems by the vast Quantity of Slaves that dayly from the Black Sea are sent hither, that the Turke meets with little opposition.”[41] In the interim, we, for our part, cannot do better than take a look round at the place in which Sir John lived, the people among whom he moved, and the things that occupied his enforced leisure. Such a description will make the subsequent narrative more intelligible and instructive, without unduly delaying the action; for, truth to tell, many months had to elapse before there was any action worth mention. FOOTNOTES: [33] Finch to Coventry, Sept. 9, 1675, _Coventry Papers_. [34] Finch to Coventry, Jan. 11-21, 1674-75, _Coventry Papers_. [35] See Winchilsea’s despatches, _passim_, _S.P. Turkey_, 17, 18, 19; _Finch Report_; Rycaut’s _Memoirs_; Covel’s _Diaries_, p. 207. [36] The Latin version of that Charter is preserved at the Public Record Office, _S.P. Turkey_, 1. A copy of it, with an English rendering, will be found in Hakluyt’s _Navigations_ (Glasgow, 1904), vol. v. pp. 178-89.