Chapter 24
It was good to sleep in the arms of his wife; the Cossacks had rigged up a double bed by driving stakes into the ground, lashing poles around them, and stringing a rope bed base. Aleksej appreciated it. Maria looked at it dubiously, but lay down cautiously.
"It's fairly comfortable," she said in some surprise.
"It's a delight," said Aleksej, sinking into it. "I hope your sister is not going to be too angry with me for the death of her husband."
"She had little say in the matter; I was lucky to have a considerate and handsome young husband I fell in love with. I believe Anna endured her marriage."
"Well, that is good," said Aleksej. "I don't feel amorous, I'm too tired."
"I'm not sure I'm amorous myself; baby has been rather active," said Maria. "Helena said it's normal if you have a more active lifestyle than I'm used to; I... I think I'd like to do more to make sure our babies are healthier."
"Well, if you say so," said Aleksej, dubiously. "I feel better for doing more."
oOoOo
Helena did not ask if her husband was in the mood; for him not to be in the mood would be worrying, and she was eager.
"I think I'm with child again," she said, happily, much later. "I'm usually hornier when I'm pregnant."
oOoOo
Sobiepan Zamoyski settled himself into Chochim, and proceeded to expect to be bored. Unless his sister really expected an invasion from the south? Surely not... the Battle of Chocim in 1621 had established the border as being the Dniester River, and had been a bit of a stalemate, but at least had not permitted the Turks to take too much territory. Instead, parts of Livonia had been taken by the Swedes on the opposite border... land Jeremi had negotiated to have returned. Sobiepan was not sure if he admired Jeremi or cordially detested him. Of course, he would have despised his brother-in-law had Jeremi permitted him more licence for being a relative. But he was still sore at being thoroughly whipped by his sister, in as concise, icy, and sarcastic a way as Jeremi would have managed.
And mostly he was sore that his love-nest and the delectable Marysieńka had been ripped from him in one stroke, instead of having a chance to negotiate the disbanding of the one in return for the other. Though Gryzelda had done a brilliant job of bamboozling the Frenchman! Sobiepan admired the astuteness whilst deploring the effects on himself. Well, all his harem now had good matches, and serve Gryzelda right when they turned up at court.
Sobiepan was a selfish, pleasure-seeking man, but he was not ignorant or stupid. He reflected that since 1621, there had been a bit of a run on Sultans in the Ottoman Empire, and the current one, Sultan Mehmed IV, was known as 'the warrior' and 'the hunter' as his epithets, and having come to power through a coup, in 1648, was probably out for a bit of glory. And with the Rzeczpospolita engaged in a war with the Moskale, he could, perhaps, be expected to see if he could seize more land than the ill-fated Osman the Young, who had been held by the forces of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz. A man who was associated with an earlier Jan Zamoyski, the first to hold the title Ordynat, and after whom Sobiepan was proud to be named.
"I will be as famous," muttered Sobiepan to himself.
oOoOo
Sobiepan was wary when he was told that a group of Tatars had ridden into Chochim.
"I'll see them," he said. It might be a declaration of war if they had joined with the Ottomans. His heart beat faster.
The Tatars were a colourful group, with the distinctive eastern cast to their eyes, and swarthy. The leader bowed.
"My name is Toqtamiş Giray, cousin of our Khan, Mehmet IV Giray," he said. Sobiepan noted idly that it was an odd coincidence that the khan held the same name and number as the Ottoman sultan. The Tatar went on, "I have been given full power to negotiate with the Polish Commonwealth. Are you of sufficient importance to negotiate with me?"
"I... I believe so," said Sobiepan. "My sister is married to the Polish king."
"Well, now!" said Toqtamiş. "My Khan offers his sister, Çulpan, in marriage to close the deal. She is beautiful as befits someone named for the morning star. And that would make her the sister of your king, yes?"
"In principle, yes," said Sobiepan. "You wish to ally?"
"Yes; the Ottomans want too much for too little," said Toqtamiş. "We suffer raids from the Cossacks, and get little protection from the Ottomans. We don't want to be a part of your Rzeczpospolita, but we would like to be favoured allies."
"Naturally you would cease raiding our lands for slaves," said Sobiepan.
"Indeed," said Toqtamiş. "If we are your allies, we can raid the Turks and then sell their slaves back to them."
"It has a delightful simplicity to it," murmured Sobiepan. "Forgetting that, as our allies, you would bring their wrath on us."
"They're mobilising against you anyway," said Toqtamiş. "They asked my khan to fall on your Cossack forces from the east. Your Cossack forces have joined with the Don Cossacks; we'd be cut into pieces. The sultan of the Ottomans knows this and hoped we did not; it would suit him to weaken us."
"I can understand that," said Sobiepan. "Please remain as my guests; I should like to gain my king's consent to negotiate fully. I do not think he will quibble. What was it that you wanted in return?"
"Protection, and trade," said Toqtamiş. "We have iron ore in quantities; a lot of salt; wine grapes grow readily, and we have healing springs, and the climate is pleasant. If we were making enough in trade not to need to raid, we think that it would be a place the wealthy would visit for cures at our springs. One of our springs was the base for a hospital set up by your Christian saints, Cosmo and Damian."
"Really? Can they cure syphilis?" asked Sobiepan.
Toqtamiş shrugged.
"There are places where the inhabitants live until they are over ninety and rarely have any illnesses; so maybe. I am not an expert. I am a warrior and a mediator."
"I will write to my king straight away," said Sobiepan. "And also apprise him that the Ottomans think us too occupied to be ready for them."
"This is why we are here; the Sultan thinks your King Jeremi is weak because he makes peace. He forgets that the war with Sweden was brief because it was well-run, and that Jeremi was ready for the invasion by Russia and responded with speed. He wants to menace southern Poland and bring Jeremi to the negotiation table, where he will demand a strip of land at the coast between Moldova and the Crimean Peninsula, to have a contiguous empire, and make it easier to subdue us. Your Cossacks are cutting our peninsula off with gunpowder and we want some of the dues from shipping which will go through there."
"It sounds fair enough," said Sobiepan.
"That, and we want to be left alone," said Toqtamiş. "We have been loosely under the aegis of the Ottomans on the understanding that we run our own affairs, but there is increasing interference. We don't want interference. We will respect your infidel religions, if we are left to our own."
"Quite understandable," said Sobiepan.
oOoOo
"Jurko, you need to collect up your reprobates," said Jeremi.
"The Turks are on the move?"
"Yes. And I've more than one source. Sobiepan is Chochim, and I've written to Chmielnicki to send some backup; Czarniecki can take some mixed light and armoured Cossacks and hussars. We have a tentative alliance with the Crimean Tatars – I am going to be able to write to Sobiepan and praise him, which is good. He's doing well, negotiating."
"The Tatars have a quarrel with the current Sultan, I assume?"
"Yes, Mehmet IV of the Empire does not like Mehmet IV Giray of the Crimea."
"Perhaps he thought he was Mehmet IV first and should be the one and only number four of that name, and... no, I was trying for some word-play there and got a bit strangled in it."
"It's awkward enough, the coincidence of the names and numbers without having word-games with them," said Jeremi. "However, the Tatars are coming to harrass the Ottomans, and I expect Chmielnicki will let some of his children loose on their baggage trains as well, and you and your reprobates can go and do the most audacious looting of all."
Jurko smiled beatifically.
"You give me the most wonderful gifts, Papa," he said. "Alas, I cannot mount Constantinople in a gold locket and give it to Helena to wear."
"You're giving it back – when we have negotiated," said Jeremi, sternly.
"Less a few bits and pieces," said Jurko, happily.
oOoOo
"Good luck, Leka," said Jurko, "I came to say goodbye to you. I've got a couple of names of possibly helpful princes, Aleksej Nikiticz Trubeckoj and Nikita Iwanowicz Odoewski. Papa will take your children with him when he withdraws, but less as hostages, and more to keep them safe. Now you stay on top of things, and don't lose that nice svelte figure the digging has given you; you're almost as beautiful as a Cossack."
"You're a dick, Jurij," said Aleksej.
"I am glad you love me," said Jurko. "We're off to irritate the Ottoman Empire, and I need to provision and prepare a bit. I'll leave you with some volunteers working on with your shovel masters, and you can send them home when some of those serfs are ready to be officers."
"God go with you," said Aleksej.
oOoOo
Jurko had to collect up his Cossacks and march back to Smoleńsk, where he collected a set of signal flags and a code book. He had set up a page of basic orders, as well as the letters and numbers, and was having them distributed along the canals. Then he might send for a fleet, and reinforcements.
"What's the plan, Ataman?" asked Michaś.
"Oh, you're coming, are you, you cheeky monkey?" said Jurko.
"Of course, Ataman," said Michaś. "I am no younger than Ihor was when he went Cossacking across the sea with you."
"True enough," said Jurko. "Well, I can find you and Juryk plenty of jobs to do; I have a ton of messages to carried, and sent by flag, and you two might as well see how fast you can learn to read and send messages on my flag ship."
"What are you choosing as your flag ship, Jurij?" asked Michaś. "Is it one of the big ones which can't use the smaller canals?
"No, I'm setting my flag on the first warship Helena and I looted, because she's my talisman. I changed whatever Turkish name she had to 'Princess Helena' and loaned her to Papa and Bohdan to bond on an illicit raid... to rescue slaves, of course... before Papa had to become king. I believe they enjoyed themselves mightily."
"Is it true that some slaves are happy?" asked Juryk.
Jurko shrugged.
"I suspect a lot depends on where they end up. I grant the Ottomans this, they don't waste clever people and train them up, regardless of their birth, so I suspect a good number of clever peasants are better off as slaves, in easier jobs more suited to their intellect. We are aiming to do that with the Rzeczpospolita without having the slavery. When every peasant is educated and literate, we will have a more flexible workforce, and one where a man is assessed for himself and his achievements. Papa is doing this by raising talented men to the szlachta, young Michaś; and should you find yourself as king in the future, you can take his work and build on it, until poverty is only to be found with the most unlucky or the most feckless, and there is a new class between peasantry and nobility, currently occupied by rich townsmen and szlachetka, who together become an educated elite to teach, as doctors, as engineers, and so on. Where artisans have their own position in society, and szlachetka either rise to the challenge to use their nominal education and rank to pull their weight one way or another, or their titles are stripped for ineffective usage and they become peasants. Professional soldiers would be in there too."
"It's your dream, isn't it? That any man can rise if he is clever," said Michaś.
"It is," said Jurko, soberly. "Michaś, consider. I've been your brother since you were a small boy; but suppose I had not had an illustrious parent like Papa? Or suppose he had not acknowledged me? Sobiepan doesn't like me, and his father would not have permitted his daughter to wed someone with an acknowledged bastard. I would have been as clever, as able, as imaginative... and feeling unwanted, put down because I had never learned to read more than a little, had very little Latin, or education. I was a brash and wayward youth; I stuck my neck out and risked everything I was on the verge of gaining to speak to Papa about the Cossacks in a positive light. My blood runs cold when I think of the several things that might have been; if he had spurned me, I would have given my imagination to Bohdan against the Rzeczpospolita. If Papa had persuaded me to forget the Cossacks – and for his love, I would have joined a hussar unit to win his respect and approval – then we should not have had the negotiations. And Potocki would have incited a war with the Zaporozhian Cossacks, and what a war it would have been... and with Karol Gustaw then waiting to take us up the back passage as you might say..."
"You did say he was a silly bugger," sniggered Michaś.
"Well, yes, but with Papa and Juryk's papa at loggerheads, he might have made more of a mess of the country," said Jurko. "And Aleksej wanting a slice of Polish pie as well..."
"In other words, it's all because Papa listened to you that we are a rich, powerful nation and full of splendid people with beautiful and irresistible Cossack bodies?" said Michaś.
"Oy!" said Jurko. "That's my line; you're too young and skinny to be... mind you, Papa must have been active at your age to sire me. But that is for you to take as an awful warning not to emulate."
They giggled.
