allegiance
to the Russian sceptre. This fatal blow, which in effect turned the
balance of power, so long fluctuating between Poland and Russia, in
favour of the latter, failed, however, to teach moderation to the Polish
aristocracy; and the remainder of the Cossacks, who still continued in
their ancient seats under the Ataman Doroszenko, finding themselves
menaced by a fresh attack, embraced the resolution of "placing
themselves under the shadow of the horsetails," by becoming the
voluntary vassals of the Porte, of which they had so long been the
inveterate enemies. In spite of the violent reclamations of the Polish
envoy Wizocki, the offer was at once accepted, and a mace and kaftan of
honour sent to the ataman as ensigns of investiture, while the Poles
were warned to desist from hostilities against the subjects of the
sultan. The refusal to accede to this requisition produced an instant
declaration of war, addressed in an autograph letter from Kiuprili to
the grand chancellor of Poland, and followed up, in the spring of 1672,
by the march of an army of 100,000 men for Podolia. The sultan himself
took the field for the first time, attended by Kiuprili and the other
vizirs of the divan, and carrying with him his court and harem, and the
whole host, after a march of four months from Adrianople, crossed the
Dniester in the first days of August.

The distracted state of Poland, where the helpless Michael Coribut
Wiecnowicki bore but the empty title of king, precluded the possibility
of even an attempt at resistance, and the grand marshal of the kingdom,
the heroic John Sobieski, who, with only 6000 men, had held his ground
against the Cossacks, Turks, and Tartars, through the preceding winter,
was compelled to withdraw from Podolia. The whole province was speedily
overrun; the fortresses of Kaminiec and Leopol were yielded almost
without defence; and the king, terrified at the progress of the
invaders, sued for peace, which was signed September 18, 1672, in the
Turkish camp at Buczacz. Kaminiec, Podolia, and the Cossack territory,
were by this act ceded to the Porte, besides an annual tribute from
Poland of 220,000 ducats; and Mohammed, having caused proclamation to be
made by the criers that "pardon for his offences had been granted to
the rebel _kral_ of the _Leh_,"[B] (Poles,) returned in triumph to
Adrianople, leaving his army in winter quarters on the Danube.

The Diet, however, indignantly refused either to ratify