TERROR OF THE TURK 359
confidante of his deepest thoughts, the inspiration of his prowess. Yet to the end,
she exercised the right of feminine caprice, and an intriguing mind of her own.
She had known Sobieski since her girlhood, but she did not betray any personal
interest in him until she was married at the age of twenty to the ageing Jan
Zamoyski, grandson of the former Chancellor. Thereafter, their relationship
developed into a 'grande affaire' within the 'Grande Affaire' of Jan Kazimierz's
French court. They were secretly married in May 1665 before the body of her
late husband was buried, on the painful condition that Sobieski accept the office
of Marshal from the deposed Lubomirski. They had several children; both sons
and daughters, whose interests were invariably interpreted by the Queen in an
opposite manner from the King. Most interestingly from the historian's view-
point, whenever public affairs kept them apart they conducted a lengthy corre-
spondence. Sobieski's marvellous Listy do Marysienki (Letters to Marysienka)
constitute a prime source for his career. Through the welter of Gallicisms, and
of conspiratorial pseudonyms - among which for 'Celadon' read Sobieski, and
for 'Astree' read Marysierika - it is possible to enter into the King's innermost
feelings:
c. 14 VII1665
Mon cceur, mon ante et mon tout!
Having ridden throughout the night we halted at the very dawn, just a third of a mile
now from His Majesty the King and the army. M. Palatin de Cracovie will probably join
us tomorrow for he is just four miles from His Majesty [the King]. There are very few
mounted regiments with the King and [there is] no sign of the newly hired mercenaries.
All my troops, graceful God, were here and they have already sworn their allegiance to
the King. There was news that Lubomirski has already passed Szczebrzeszyn; I think then
that all this will not now go on for long. We shall soon see God's design.
We have suffered unbelievable incommodite on the way without any provisions what-
soever. Such barrenness it is impossible to imagine. I do not know for the life of me nor
can I imagine what we can possibly eat here in the camp. I hope to see His Highness the
King in three hours and derive fresh information.
My servants have forgotten my black travelling chest without which I am as a man
without an arm. Seek out an occasion and send it on to me as soon as possible, by the
Duke of Leipzig unless he has already left. I have the keys.
I remain as I have been throughout the journey in great melancholy sustained by those
words of Astree on our separation when she promised to reward that unslept night with
love, which I entreat you to bear in your memory. Celadon has well merited that he be loved
and endowed with complaisance from time to time. He, if God grants his health improve,
will strive with every means to seek no greater or more loved beauty than that of his Aurore
to whom, kissing a millionfold, he bids farewell and swears that while thete is life in his
body he will be her most faithful servant and that which God has wished him to be.
Thank the Master of the Royal Hunt for the horses and for all his favours without
which I should have been severely mal accomode. I undertake to repay his every con-
venience.^1
In Sobieski's style, which impressed itself so firmly on the conduct of public
affairs, the 'oriental tradition' held pride of place. Sobieski belonged to a fraternity