THE SWEDISH CONNECTION 345
expedition moved off in the autumn of 1609 under the command of the reluc-
tant Zolkiewski. Its one precise aim was to recover the fortress of Smolensk.
The siege was laid. But in the following July, after Zolkiewski's startling victory
at Klushino, in which the combined Tsarist and Swedish armies were destroyed,
unexpected developments occurred. Szujski was removed by a court rebellion.
The Poles advanced to Moscow unopposed, and the assembled boyars invited
Zolkiewski to protect them from the unbridled anarchy of the warring factions.
In a treaty signed on 27 August, the boyars were to receive the rights and priv-
ileges of the Polish szlachta, whilst the King's son, Prince Wladyslaw, was to be
proclaimed Tsar. A Polish garrison under Alexander Gosiewski, Starosta of
Wieliz, was installed in the Kremlin. All went by improvisation. With no precise
instructions to hand, Zotkiewski was not to know that the King disapproved of
his dispositions. Szujski was sent to Warsaw, to be paraded with his brothers in
front of the Sejm before dying in detention at the castle of Gostyn. Both King
and Zolkiewski returned to Poland. The predicament of the Polish garrison in
the Kremlin deteriorated sharply. Isolated by the defection of their previous
Russian sponsors, their efforts to defend themselves against the intrigues of one
Lepunov, caused the Great Fire of 1611. The situation was described by
Zolkiewski, whose Beginnings and Progress of the Muscovite War was written
to justify his own conduct:
Anxious to execute his scheme for clearing our men out of the city ... and in league with
people in Moscow who were favourable to his enterprise, Lepunov called out the Streltsy
quietly at night, and concealed them in the houses of accomplices. There were also many
Muscovites friendly to us who gave warning... for Lepunov himself was approaching
the city... and a strong force of boyars had been assembled. They were a mile or two
from the capital when our men caught sight of them. Thereon, our men resolved among
themselves to set fire to the wooden-town and to the district inside the White Wall: to
shut themselves inside the Kremlin and in Kitaygorod: and to attack the streltsy and any-
one else they met. On the Wednesday before Easter they did so. Having been drawn up
and marched out by regiments, they set fire to the wooden-houses. The Starosta of Wieliz
himself went out by the gate on the right side, onto the ice of the river: Pan Alexander
Zborowski with his regiment was in the centre: Colonel Marian Kazanowski on the left
toward the White Wall: Pan Samuel Dunikowski next to him. The first to be killed was
Prince Andrew Galitzin, who up to that point had been under guard...
Although the Muscovites were shaken by our men's quick resolve and by the Fire,
many of them sprang to arms, occupying the Gate and a great part of the White Wall. But
Kazanowski attacked and drove them off. .. There was great slaughter among the press
of human beings, and much weeping, with the cries of women and children, as at the Day
of Judgement. Moreover, many men threw themselves into the flames together with their
families, and were burned. Others decided to flee to the armies which they knew to be in
the vicinity...
On Holy Thursday, there was a report that Prince Dimitr Trubetskoi and Prince Vasili
Massalsky were approaching with the other boyars... The Starosta of Chmielnik, and
Zborowski, having selected part of their regiments, went out to meet them. Our men
joined battle with the Muscovites only one mile from the city, and routed the entire force.