TERROR OF THE TURK 363
in person. The official document was antedated to 31 March to avoid the stigma
of April Fool's Day.^7
Vienna's plight in the summer of 1683 rapidly grew desperate. The Turks
came on much faster than the allies, and laid siege in the middle of July with a
force of some 140,000 men. The defenders under Rudigen von Starhemberg
were obliged to lock themselves inside an encircled city. The Emperor withdrew
his Court to Linz. For Sobieski the prospect was invigorating. It was a situation
he had faced before on many occasions, against an enemy whose every move he
knew by heart. An autumn canter across the Carpathians, expenses paid, to
relieve the capital of Christendom was irresistible.
The Polish expeditionary force began to assemble at Cracow in mid-summer.
The royal camp gradually filled with 26,000 men and 29,000 horses - 25 regi-
ments of Hussars; 77 troops of Cossacks; 31 of Light Horse; 2 of arquebusiers;
37 regiments of infantry, and 10 of dragoons; and the Corps of Artillery. A much
smaller force of 10,000 men was dispatched to Podolia to create a diversion on
the Turkish flank. The Lithuanians with a further ten thousand were ordered to
make for a rendezvous in Moravia. The main army moved off on 29 July in two
columns. One under Hetman Jablonowski marched on a northerly route to
Silesia through Tarnowitz (Tarnowskie Gory), Ratibor (Raciborz), and
Troppau (Opava); the other under the Field Hetman Michat Sieniawski went
through Bielsko (Bielitz) and Teschen (Cieszyn). Joining together at Olomutz,
they made for Nikolsburg, and for Tulln on the Danube, where they were due
to meet the German princes under Charles of Lorraine. Eight thousand wagons
with food for six months rumbled on at fifteen miles a day. From Brno, Sobieski
wrote to Marysienka:
A mile Beyond Brno, in the village of Modric,
29 VIII 1683, Before midnight.
There have been no remarkable occurrences since my last from Olomouc. We hear no
more of Tokoly; and the Tartars have disappeared without a trace. Once we have crossed
the bridge, those who are to follow must exercise caution, and make a wide detour from
the direct road to Vienna. I urge this particularly upon the Palatine of Pomerania who
bears about him my monies from the Prince-Bishop of Warmia. From there it is only thir-
teen miles to Vienna. The Marshal of the Court intercepted me with the post the other
side of Brno. There, too, I encountered the former Princess of Holstein, who had
attended Queen Eleanore, and several other ladies-in-waiting. She is married to the Duke
of Lichtenstein, whose boorishness is among his lesser vices. I confess that she is so
altered that we who knew her formerly can scarce persuade ourselves that it is indeed she,
- so fat and tall, just like Mme. l'Etreux.
I heard Holy Mass at the Franciscan church in Brno. It was a time of Indulgence, and
the establishment of the feast of St John the Baptist, whose martyrdom is celebrated
today. The town is beautiful and well-walled; the castle on its high hill is particularly
notable - a great fortress. As for the country, there is nothing to equal it in the world: -
the soil surpassing that of the Ukraine: the hill-sides strewn with grape vines that cover
the houses like peach-blossom: more hayricks in the fields than one might ever hope to