of preserving her country, and delivering it from the utmost chances of an interreign, from the divine Deity, (as it were by the only motion of whose finger, it is easy that kingdoms be transferred from nation to nation, and kings from the lowest state to thrones ;) and therefore the business was begun according to our country laws, and ancestors' institutions.

After the convocation of all the states of the kingdom ended, in the month of February, at Warsaw, by the common consent of all those states, on the day decreed for the election, the twentieth of April: at the report of this famous act, as though a trumpet had been sounded, and a trophy of virtue erected, the wishes and desires of foreign princes came forth of their own accord into the field of the Poionian liberty, in a famous strife of merits and goodwill towards the commonwealth, every one bringing their ornaments, advantages, and gifts to the commonwealth. But the commonwealth becoming more diligent by the prodigal ambition used in the last interreign, and factions, and disagreeings of minds, nor careless of the future, considered with herself whether firm or doubtful things were promised, and whether she should seem from the present state to transfer both the old and new honours of Poland into the possession of strangers, or the military glory, and their late unheard-of victory over the Turks, and blood spilt in the war, upon the purple of some unwarlike prince; as if any one could so soon put on the love of the country, and that Poland was not so much an enemy to her own nation and fame as to favour strangers more than her own, and valour being found in her, should suffer a guest of new power to wax proud in her: therefore she thenceforth turned her thoughts upon some one in her own nation, and at length abolished (as she began in the former election) that reproach cast upon her, under pretence of a secret maxim," That none can be elected king of Poland, but such as are born out of Poland;" neither did she seek long among her citizens whom she should prefer above the rest; (for this was no uncertain or suspended election, there was no place for delay;) for although in the equality of our nobles many might be elected, yet the virtue of a hero appeared above his equals: therefore the eyes and minds of all men were willingly, and by a certain divine instinct, turned

upon the high marshal of the kingdom, captain of the army, John Sobietski. The admirable virtue of the man, the high power of marshal in the court, with his supreme command in arms, senatorial honour, with his civil modesty, the extraordinary splendour of his birth and fortune, with open courtesy, piety towards God, love to his fellow-citizens in words and deeds; constancy, faithfulness, and clemency towards his very enemies, and what noble things soever can be said of a hero, did lay such golden chains on the minds and tongues of all, that the senate and people of Poland and of the great dukedom of Lithuania, with suffrages and agreeing voices, named and chose him their king, not with his seeking or precipitate counsel, but with mature deliberations continued and extended till the third day.

Certainly it conduced much for the honour of the most serene elect, the confirmation of a free election, and the eternal praise of the people electing, that the great business of an age was not transacted in one day, or in the shadow of the night, or by one casual heat: for it was not right that a hero of the age should in a moment of time (and as it were by the cast of a die) be made a king, whenas antiquity by an ancient proverb has delivered, "that Hercules was not begot in one night;" and it hath taught, that election should shine openly under a clear sky, in the open light.

The most serene elect took it modestly, that his nomination should be deferred till the third day, plainly shewing to endeavour, lest his sudden facility of assent being suspected, might detract from their judgment, and the world might be enforced to believe by a more certain argument, that he that was so chosen was elected without his own ambition, or the envy of corrupted liberty; or was it by the appointed counsel of God, that this debate continued three whole days, from Saturday till Monday, as if the Cotimian victory (begun on the Saturday, and at length on the third day after accomplished, after the taking of the Cotimian castle) had been a lucky presage of his royal reward; or, as if with an auspicious omen, the third day of election had alluded to the regal name of JOHN the Third.

The famous glory of war paved his way to the crown, and confirmed the favour of suffrages to his most serene elect. He, the first of all the Polonians, shewed that the Scythian

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swiftness (troublesome heretofore to all the monarchies in the world) might be repressed by a standing fight, and the terrible main battalion of the Turk might be broken and routed at one stroke. That we may pass by in silence the ancient rudiments of warfare, which he stoutly and gloriously managed under the conduct and authority of another, against the Swedes, Moscovites, Borussians, Transylvanians, and Cossacks though about sixty cities taken by him from the Cossacks be less noised in the mouth of fame; yet these often and prosperous battles were a prelude to greatest victories in the memory of man. Myriads of Tartars had overrun within this six years with their plundering troops the coast of Podolia, when a small force and some shattered legions were not sufficient against the hostile assault, yet our general, knowing not how to yield, shut himself up (by a new stratagem of war) in Podhajecy, a strait castle, and fortified in raste, whereby he might exclude the cruel destruction which was hastening into the bowels of the kingdom; by which means the Barbarian, deluded and routed, took conditions of peace; as if he had made his inroad for this only purpose, that he might bring to the most serene elect matter of glory, victory.

For these four last years the famous victories of Sobietski have signalized every year of his warlike command on the Cossacks and Tartarians both joined together; the most strong province of Braclavia, as far as it lies between Hypanis and Tyral, with their cities and warlike people, were won from the Cossack enemy

And those things are beyond belief, which two years ago the most serene elect, after the taking of Camenick (being undaunted by the siege of Laopolis) performed to a miracle by the hardness and fortitude of the Polonian army, scarce consisting of three thousand men, in the continual course of five days and nights, sustaining life without any food, except wild herbs; setting upon the Tartarians, he made famous the names of Narulum, Niemicrovia, Konarnum, Kalussia, obscure towns before, by a great overthrow of the Barbarians. He slew three sultans of the Crim Tartars, descended of the royal Gietian family, and so trampled on that great force of the Scythians, that in these later years they could not regain their courage, nor re-collect their forces. But the felicity of this last autumn exceeded all his victories; whenas the

fortifications at Chocimum, famous of old, were possessed and fortified by above forty thousand Turks, in which three and forty years ago the Polonians had sustained and repressed tre forces of the Ottoman family, drawn together out of Asia, Africa, and Europe, fell to the ground within a few hours, by the only (under God) imperatorious valour and prudence of Sobietski; for he counted it his chief part to go about the watches, order the stations, and personally to inspect the preparations of warlike orduance, to encourage the soldiers with voice, hands, and countenance, wearied with hunger, badness of weather, and three days standing in arms; and he (which is most to be admired) on foot at the head of the foot forces, made through, and forced his way to the battery, hazarding his life devoted to God and his country; and thereupon made a cruel slaughter within the camp and fortifications of the enemy; while the desperation of the Turks whetted their valour, and he performed the part of a most provident and valiant captain: at which time three bashaws were slain, the fourth scarce passed with difficulty the swift river of Tyras; eight thousand janizaries, twenty thousand chosen spachies, besides the more common soldiers, were cut off; the whole camp with all their ammunition and great ordnance, besides the Assyrian and Phrygian wealth of luxurious Asia, were taken and pillaged; the famous castle of Cotimia, and the bridge over Tyras, strong fortresses, equal to castles, on each side the river, were additions to the victory. Why therefore should not such renowned heroic valour be crowned with the

legal reward of a diadem? All Christendom have gone before us in example, which, being arrived to the recovery of Jerusalem, under the conduct of Godfrey of Bulloin, on their own accord gave him that kingdom for that he first scaled the walls of that city. Our most serene elect is not inferior, for he first ascended two main fortresses of the enemy.

The moment of time adorns this victory unheard of in many ages, the most serene king Michael dying the day before, as it were signifying thereby that he gave way to so great valour, as if it were by his command and favour, that this conqueror might so much the more gloriously succeed from the helmet to the crown, from the commander's staff to the sceptre, from his lying in the field to the regal throne.

The commonwealth recalled the grateful and never to be forgotten memory of his renowned father, the most illustrious and

excellent James Sobietski, castellan of Cracovia, a man to be written of with sedulous care; who by his golden eloquence in the public councils, and by his hand in the scene of war, had so often amplified the state of the commonwealth, and defended it with the arms of his family. Neither can we believe it happened without Divine Providence, that in the same place wherein forty years ago his renowned father, ambassador o. the Polonian commonwealth, had made peace and covenants with Cimanus, the Turkish general, his great son should revenge with his sword the peace broke, Heaven itself upbraiding the perfidious enemy. The rest of his grandsires and great grandsires, and innumerable names of famous senators and great officers, have as it were brought forth light to the serene elect by the emulous greatness and glory of his mother's descent, especially Stanislaus Zelkievius, high-chancellor of the kingdom, and general of the army, at whose grave in the neighbouring fields, in which by the Turkish rage in the year sixteen hundred and twenty he died, his victorious nephew took full revenge by so remarkable an overthrow of the enemy: the immortal valour and fatal fall of his most noble uncle Stanislaus Danilovitius in the year sixteen hundred and thirty-five, palatine of Russia, doubled the glory of his ancestors; whom, desirous of honour, and not enduring the sluggish peace wherein Poland then slept secure, valour and youthful heat accited at his own expense and private forces into the Tauric fields; that by his footing, and the ancient warlike Polonian discipline, he might lead and point the way to these merits of Sobietski, and being slain by Cantimiz the Tartarian Cham in revenge of his son by him slain, he might by his noble blood give lustre to this regal purple. Neither hath the people of Poland forgot the most illustrious Marcus Sobietski, elder brother of our most serene elect, who, when the Polonian army at Batto was routed by the Barbarians, although occasion was offered him of escape, yet chose rather to die in the overthrow of such valiant men, a sacrifice for his country, than to buy his life with a dishonourable retreat; perhaps the divine judgment so disposing, whose order is, that persons pass away and fail, and causes and events happen again the same; that by the repeated fate of the Huniades, the elder brother, of great hopes, removed by a lamented slaughter, might leave to his younger brother surviving the readier pas