Back again! I had to wait for parts for the computer. However, all seems good...
Chapter 30
"Here they come," said the Cossack lookout at the fortress. Their leader, a man named Volodymyr, who had a cheeky grin and nerves of steel, nodded.
"Make sure you keep a bring-em-near on the other fort, now; and when they show signs of waking up, we fire."
The fleet of Kurland sailed confidently along in the pre-dawn gloom. Happy to continue through the hours of darkness, unlike many of the shipping in the Black Sea, half the fleet had passed the choke-point before there was a shout from the other fort.
Volodymyr grinned.
"Now let us wake them up, my children."
The loaded, aimed, and ready cannons of the Rumelihisari spat shot down onto the smaller consort fort in a very rude divorce from their union. They had reloaded and fired three times before there were people running about waving to them, frantically waving flags.
"They appear to have woken up," said Volodymyr, gaily. "Another one should breach the outer bailey. And with luck it will tip all the cannons off. Oh yes, look at them tumble. Let's lose our Janissary headgear, lads, and lurk."
oOoOo
Jurko had been dozing, and woke to the rumbling sound of gunfire to the north. He rolled upright and was awake in an instant. Michaś and Juryk had ceded their masks to more experienced men, there only being half a dozen of the masks which had been able to be made in total. In covering cloaks, those masked ran up towards the little fortress.
And the gate opened to reveal a patrol, combat ready.
This was a gift; and the Cossacks stormed forward with their pepper bombs.
The other Cossacks followed, ready to tie up or kill coughing Janissaries, needing care to stay out of the smoke, though they had tied wet linen rags over their faces. One got too close, and Jurko noted out of the corner of his eye two of his fellows seize him unceremoniously and dip him a few times upside-down off the wharf.
It should wash the worst of it off.
And then they could just wait until the cloud of smoke had blown away to walk in.
The quality of the cannons here was very high; and there were a sufficiency of stores of gunpowder to please any artilleryman.
"Well, that's handy," said Jurko.
The guns would be going onto the ships of Kurland, no doubt.
"Dear God, you look uncanny," said Von Kettler. "It's enough to terrify anyone, even before you smoke them out like wasps."
"Good way to look on Janissaries," said Jurko. "A group mind of dangerous and armed insects, without the benignity of bees, who follow their queen for the good of all."
"I imagine they're depleted; Osman took most of the city's Janissaries, and I wager so has Mehmet."
"You're probably right. Good; let's spread out and take the golden quarter. Remind your lads of the rules."
"I did. Palaces only. No rape. Respect to the ordinary citizens."
"I'll be patrolling. I'll hang anyone who disobeys."
Jurko had to hang a couple of Swedes and one Kurlander, who got carried away. He personally kicked a would-be rapist off a pretty Jewish girl, and bowed to the ground to her.
"My apologies, miss," he said.
Justice was summary.
Some slaves joined them when called upon to do so; some did not. The enslaved girls of one brothel hanged their owners before attaching themselves to the Cossacks. They were ready and willing, and Jurko shrugged, and designated one ship as their preserve. There was fighting in the streets with some loyal troops, but most of the citizens shut their doors, closed their shutters, prayed in whatever way was their custom, and left the streets to the invaders.
Jurko permitted his men to satiate themselves on loot from the gaudy palaces, brocades, carpets, golden and silver vessels, anything which was not attached which took their fancy, and barges in which to store and tow their ill-gotten gains.
And then he called a halt; and his men halted.
There were a few scuffles with the Swedes, but it was born upon them rapidly that they were here to do a job for which the loot was the pay.
"And I am quite prepared to sink the barges you have filled with treasure if I don't get your work for the loot," said Jurko, harshly. "Most people get paid after their assignments. Now, we have to hold this city for two months; and I expect you to do your duty for the chance you have had to loot. Anyone who doesn't agree can go; but without loot. This is no game. This is to ensure your country's shipping safety through the Bosphorus and on the Black Sea. By treaty with your Queen. Don't like it, go argue with her."
He had compliance.
"How many did we lose?" Jurko asked.
"About four hundred," said Kuryło. "Those damned gardeners are also sailors and they're tough! And the Janissaries left behind did not want to surrender. I suspect that they'd be killed if they did. But then, we always knew it was going to be a tough fight, Ataman."
"I hate losing anyone," said Jurko. "Find glass-makers; our own lads can do the leatherwork, and quilt the linen, I want more masks, and if their vision is poor, well better than being permanently gone. I want to subdue these buggers rather than kill them, and if they're coughing, they aren't shooting."
"There are mirror-makers here, their glass will be good," said Kuryło. "We didn't even know if it would work before we tried it, so there was no point making a heap of them before."
"What are we going to do about the Jedi Kule?" asked Jan. "Are we going to go in to negotiate and get out with pepper grenades as you first suggested?"
"I think we should call on them to surrender, and if they do not, we just guard the gates," said Jurko. "If they fire on us, they have to explain why they smashed up various palaces. I think I will send a letter outlining our intentions for the city, and telling them that they will do best to just comply with our hopefully temporary rule. I also want to have the religious leaders summoned to address them. Have we control of the streets?"
"We appear to have; the majority of the armed forces went with the Sultan."
"Good. I have no desire to kill people defending their homeland. Summon the religious leaders and set Swedes to watch the gates of the Jedi Kule. If they are concentrated, they are easier to watch. I don't trust them to behave."
"Then some more will be hung," said Jan.
Jurko considered deeply, and produced a letter.
"To the commander of the fortress known as the Jedi Kule, greetings.
As commander of the Sarmatian Commonwealth occupation force, I call upon you to surrender your fortress to preserve your own lives, and those of any prisoners you have. If you do not feel inclined to surrender, we will keep you within the fort to live or die. This occupation force hopes to be gone when the Sultan is made to capitulate and come to the negotiation table. We have no desire to harm the citizens of Constantinople nor to permanently deprive the Ottoman Empire of this jewel of a city.
Jurij Korybut Wiśniowiecki Bohun, Prince, Grand Hetman of the Waters."
"What, dragging out all the titles for ceremonial?" said Jan. "You forgot, 'husband of Helena and posse=-ssor of the body of a young god.'
"I didn't want to frighten them with so much glory," said Jurko.
"They won't surrender," said Jan.
"No; but if they are shut up inside, they are our prisoners, and the Swedes imprisoned in having to guard them. Something for everyone," said Jurko.
"Except the Swedes."
"I find my indifference towards the happiness of mercenaries expanding every time I see one," said Jurko.
The religious leaders, somewhat resentful and sullen, found themselves in audience before the handsome Cossack.
"Gentlemen," said Jurko. "I trust Latin is a lingua franca for all. I don't run to all the disparate languages of the Ottoman Empire. I see most of you nodding, which is good. I am Jurij Korybut Wiśniowiecki Bohun, son of the King of the Sarmatian Commonwealth, Grand Hetman of the Waters. I need to ask you to spread the word that the occupation force hopes to be gone before many months have passed; we have no desire to disrupt the day-to-day running of the city. My men are forbidden to rape any woman, and to loot any ordinary house or business, or any religious house. I will take very seriously any reports of any of my force here contravening my will in this matter. Please take any concerns to a Cossack, who will see your complaints dealt with fully. Your Sultan has marched on our country, and so I am holding your city hostage against him coming to the negotiation table with my father. He has sent me in person, knowing that I will treat your populace with respect, and will not violate your rights."
"What will happen if the Sultan does not sign a treaty satisfactory to your father, your highness?" asked one of them, a man in white. Jurko thought that meant a Muslim.
"With deep regret, we will displace the populace from the city, offering refuge in the Commonwealth to any non-Turks who ask for it, and we will raze it to the ground and plough it with salt," said Jurko. "Indeed, we offer haven in the Commonwealth to any who feel unhappy here, and displaced, as we have offered freedom to any slaves, from any nation, who wish to move in freedom to our glorious Commonwealth, where the rights of free faith and creed of any member are enshrined in law," he added.
"I am the Patriarch of the Greek Church," spoke up an elderly man of much dignity. "Is it true that your father had Patriarch Nikon hanged for trying to correct the practices of the Eastern Orthodox Church?"
"No," said Jurko. "My father had him arrested for sedition and religious intolerance, and handed him over to the Church Council of Kiev to discipline as they saw fit. I'm not sure what they did with him, and as he was a nasty old man whose sole desire was to disrupt the faith and joy in the love of Jezus Christ our Saviour, I don't much care. If the Russians cross themselves in a different way to the Greeks or the Cossacks, or the Catholics, they cross themselves in remembrance of our Lord and His sufferings on our behalf. How it is done is irrelevant. Protestants wear the cross but do not cross themselves at all and their love for God is no less. Jews are the brothers of Jezus, and are still awaiting their Messiah, and that's nobody's business but theirs, for they love God as Jahweh. Muslims love God as Allah. Equally, the pronunciation of our Saviour's name is irrelevant; we all do it wrong, because His language was likely Aramaic or Hebraic, which means the only people likely to get it right are the Jews."
This engendered a few murmurs of discontent. Jurko frowned, and went on.
"We are but mortals, and for any one man to say 'this is the only way to love God' is an arrogance so mighty that it proves him no man of God at all, but a heretic to all ways. Indeed, it contravenes the commandments, because it places ritual as an idol. I'm not here for religious debate, however, but to keep the peace, to respect the beliefs of all, if necessary to deal with anyone who tries to raise doctrinal trouble, and to let you all get on with your lives as normally as possible. And doubtless I have offended some of you in my ecumenism, but if I have done so, you should perhaps search inside yourselves to find out if your faith is built only on ritual and not on the purity of your belief."
"Some say that the Messiah is come in the person of Sabbatai Sevi," said a rabbi.
"From your neutral tone, you are as sceptical as I am," said Jurko. "If this Sabetha Sewi is indeed the second coming... from my point of view... nothing on earth will prevent his glory from showing. But I have heard that he is not a man to whom humility comes easily, which prejudices me against belief in his divine origin. I think that any good Jew should investigate his lineage with great care, since you keep careful records of genealogies, and check first whether he is indeed of the Line of David. Go back to the writings of Isaiah."
"Your words are balanced and wise," said the rabbi, nodding. "I thank you that your response is not an automatic denial, as one might expect from a Christian."
"I don't consider myself sufficiently Godly to take any stance, save to fight, if I have to, to be permitted to worship in the way which is my choice; and to fight for the right of anyone else to do so," said Jurko.
"Is this the way your father feels as well?" asked the rabbi.
"It is, indeed; we have debated together, he and I," said Jurko. "He converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, because he felt more comfortable in the faith, and on due consideration, and much prayer, I followed his lead. But we feel some ties to Orthodoxy, for our upbringing in it, and are agreed that a form of worship should be a matter of personal choice. Our king is always a Catholic, because we are a predominantly Christian nation, and Catholicism is the base from which all others have grown, and therefore as a king is father to his people, his faith should be as the root to its branches in the rest of the Commonwealth."
"I see that," said the rabbi. "I would argue that Judaism is the root."
"It is a point, but to do that denies that the majority believe that the messiah has come," said Jurko. "But we have Jewish noblemen, a move which my father has argued for. Now, I trust I may count on you all to make this difficult period of occupation, which is in response to the aggression of your own Sultan, pass as easily as possible. I will not be amused by civil disobedience."
