Chapter 36
"Sobiepan, I want you to take temporary governorship of Moldavia," said Jeremi. "Work with the partisans, and take as much time as you need to appoint a local to rule. I believe the Ottomans did a little paring down of their nobility. Make sure they understand that we want to know their needs and wants, and are ready to negotiate making them an independent protectorate."
"Why would we do that?" asked Sobiepan.
"Because if the Ottomans bounce back, or the Wallachians or Transylvanian Hungarians or Bohemians decide they want a piece of Moldavia, if it is part of the Rzeczpospolita, we have a border violation. If it is a separate protectorate, we go to aid an ally, but are not, ourselves, compromised. This is why we are retaining ties with, but not absorbing either the Crimea or Russia. Even with Jurij's roads and canals, there is only so much land we can easily administer until such time as we have consolidated what we have, dealt with recalcitrant szlachcice who will not give up on serfdom or move to more efficient farming methods. We need the integrity of the Rzeczpospolita as it stands... with the possible addition of the Brandenburg-Prussian lands... to be profitable enough to make sure we can raise an army at the drop of a hat, and afford to fund foreign wars. We are still vulnerable, too, to the Holy Roman Empire wanting to prevent us from becoming too powerful. It's a time requiring delicate political manoeuvring."
"I see," said Sobiepan. "I wouldn't have thought it through, but I can understand when you lay it out."
"I know; and I appreciate that," said Jeremi. "And as my brother, you are uniquely placed to negotiate."
"Thank you for trusting me."
Jeremi clapped him on the shoulder in a friendly way so he did not have to say, 'I don't trust you in the least, Sobiepan, but I know your abilities and this isn't beyond them.'
oOoOo
The current which helped sail back up to the Commonwealth ran near the coast, and it was foolish not to take advantage of it.
It was an advantage that they might also sail past within sight of the retreating Ottoman army, with former Ottoman warships flying the white eagle, and politely applaud.
"One day..." muttered Kara Mustafa to himself.
It would be a long time before he could wipe out the humiliations of the Sarmatians; he had too much consolidating to do. But one day, he would have the power to wipe the smiles off their impudent faces and make them prostrate themselves before him.
He was unaware of Jurko's plans with Turhan Sultan to neutralise that threat.
oOoOo
Jurko bid farewell to Chmielnicki, Von Kettler, and Sapieha at the mouth of the Dniestr. He and Michaś embraced Juryk, who elected to go to get to know his father better.
"I've been grateful to have a family to grow up in, and a mother in Aunt Gryzelda, but I need to spend some time with Papa," said Juryk. "And spend time in the Sich."
"I'll join you soon," said Michaś. "But if Jurij turned up without us both, Mama would have a cat and wonder what had happened to us."
"I will send a letter ahead, with your love attached, Juryk," said Jurko. "So Gryzelda is not worried."
"Thanks, Jurij," said Juryk, gruffly. He embraced the man who had been an older brother to him as much as to his actual brother. Juryk also wanted to be closer to his brother, Timofey, but Jeremi's family would always be his family as well.
Jurko had written a report for the young Sapieha to take back to his father, the Field Hetman of Lithuania. Jurko had written that the young man and his command had acquitted themselves extremely well, showing coolness under fire, decisiveness in battle, and firmness in discipline. His winged hussars had done much of the fighting against the few Sipahis left in the city and the palace guards, whilst the Cossacks faced the martial gardeners.
"It'll be a lot easier to venture through the Dardanelles now," said Von Kettler. "Without having to worry about stray Ottomans or Venetians."
"You could go and take Crete if you wanted," said Jurko, laughing.
Von Kettler considered.
"You know, it might not be such a bad idea," he said. "A toehold in the Mediterranean might be useful."
"Well, I leave it in your hands if you feel like it," said Jurko. "But I would suggest that you actually approach the Venetians, and negotiate a base rather than trying to take it as such – pointing out that they can retain control of it purely because of our actions in wiping out the Turkish fleet."
"I'll compose a letter to the Doge right away, and send a tender with it," said Von Kettler. "Sure you don't want to join the fun?"
"Oh, I won't deprive you of the fun," said Jurko. "You'll pay your taxes to the crown for any profits accruing. I've a mind to start a naval academy and enrol my brother and daughter as some of its first trainee officers."
oOoOo
"Jurij!" Jeremi's glad cry rang out. "Michaś! Helena! Róża! Jan!" He ran towards the wharf, where the ships flew the flag of the Grand Admiral of the Commonwealth Fleets, or Grand Hetman of the Waters. Jurko had chosen a blue ground with yellow ripples on it, and the white eagle perched on the symbol of the Korybut as a central design. It had streamed proudly in the wind of their passage, and now fluttered gently in a light breeze. Jeremi embraced his sons, daughter-in-law and adoptive granddaughter, and his son's best friend. "Longinus! Jadwiga!" He embraced more of those he considered family. "Juryk?" he asked, suddenly fearful.
"Went off with his father," said Jurko. "I claimed this diamond as some of my share, Papa, so I could give it to you as a hat pin. I suspect you could buy a small kingdom with a bauble this size." The diamond was pear-shaped and surrounded by forty-nine smaller diamonds, and was itself almost as long as the top two joints of a man's finger.1
"Jurij! I cannot accept so princely a gift, you give me so much!" gasped Jeremi. Jurko grinned.
"Will it to me, then; and don't let the Rzeczpospolita steal it for the crown jewels," he said.
"I shall," said Jeremi. "It shall be a Korybut treasure. Why, it must, with the extra stones, weigh a quarter of a Grzywna!" he added as Jurko put the flashing gem into his hand.
"Easily!" said Jurko. "Isn't it pretty? It catches the light so beautifully, I thought it would look well in your throne room, so perhaps you can attach it to a chain as well. I brought pearls for Gryzelda."
"Did you keep anything for yourself?"
"The library," said Jurko. "Papa, some of the books were looted from Hungary; once I've had them copied, they would be a massive bargaining chip to return. There's a couple of thousand of them, some of them hand-written and not printed. If we can print them, we can give back the originals. There's a huge number of classical scrolls amongst them. I'm reading Procopius on Byzantine military architecture," he added happily. "And we need to print things like that."
"Now that's a thought," said Jeremi. "And a gift to the Holy Roman Emperor, who also happens to be King of Hungary... have them copied and got ready to print as soon as you might, my son. Bribery is always a good and valid tactic of diplomacy."2 He considered. "To be honest, as some of them are said to be the only copies of some work, it's more valuable than a score of diamonds, but fewer people would value it. My son, you are a treasure."
"And the Sejm won't go without; the tithing to the Commonwealth will fill the coffers with enough loot to make a profit from the war," said Jurko. "We stripped all the palaces like a plague of locusts, not to mention every store of wealth we came upon. Kara Mustafa isn't rich enough anymore to go to war."
"I am glad of that," said Jeremi, gravely. "I read in the beads of sweat on his brow and his body language when I spoke of the death of Mehmet that he had engineered it; and I invented a spurious spy who had seen him do it. He did not deny it."
"That makes me easier in my mind in having set him up to have a long, productive, and unhappy life," said Jurko. "I guessed in what Timofey did not say that you suspected this Kara Mustafa."
"That sounds like a tale," said Jeremi.
"I suggested to Mehmet's mother, who is still an attractive woman, that if she were his chief consort, she could breed a son with him as his heir to the Sultanate, whilst making sure to poison him just enough to keep him weak and ill, and when her son is old enough to rule properly, she could finish him off, telling him why."
"A coincidence; I suggested he should marry the regent sultana as a mark of continuation, for political reasons," said Jeremi.
They shared identical grins.
"Is one sorry for him?" asked Jurko.
"No," said Jeremi. "I compared him to you at the same age, when first I came to know you, my son. The ambition might lead one to see similarities, but you were ever an enthusiast, hot-blooded, full of the joys of life, and able to take pleasure in the simplest of things. Kara Mustafa is a cold, calculating fellow, who is careful of his outer poise. I hope I am wrong, but he seems to me to be too cold to love, and I fear that I saw too much of myself at that age to be comfortable."
"Why, he may change, as you did," said Jurko. "And if he does, he may yet take pleasure in his own children. But I am not bothered by him, for he has no fleet, Timofey tells me he has no guns, and we double-shotted and triple-charged any we found in Constantinople as well, once we'd finished using them, and all the pay chests are accounted for. The only wealth we did not entirely strip was from the seraglio, where of course we did not venture. Though I believe Helena, Jadwiga, and Róża picked up a few choice pieces of jewellery, ornaments, and other bijouterie."
"And those girls who did not want to be there as well," said Helena, happily. "The rest of the women were glad enough not to be raped to death by a horde of Cossacks and thrown into the sea. We swiped a lot of pretty tiles too, and I managed to loot a tile-maker who knows the secrets of their special glazes. He's the father of one of the missing children, one who did not survive, but he has adopted half a dozen of those who had been rejected to train as his apprentices."
"And that is more wealth for the Rzeczpospolita; my clever wife," said Jurko, happily. "As will be such exotic plants as we have liberated. Tulips such as were not sold to the Dutch during Tulipmania will grow in a Warszawa pleasure garden, along with various orchids, including the one they use to make salep, and peacocks and peahens to wander about to remind the king that there are louder and sillier creatures than the Sejm."
"You are a bad boy," said Jeremi, delighted.
"We have hyacinths, new roses and carnations, and all kinds of other plants," said Jurko. "It seemed to me that if we had a month or so in which to loot, it should be done properly, and with reference to continued sources of revenue and delight. I thought you might lay out a garden of world plants, and have zones from east to west showing the delights of every country. And that would delight visitors also," he added.
"Warszawa will become the centre of the world in future generations," said Jeremi. "Oh, my Jurij! What a legacy to leave for our descendants!"
"Isn't it?" said Jurko.
"Jurko has the soul of an artist," said Helena. "He looted it."
1 The so-called spoonmaker's diamond has a pretty legend attached, being found by a peasant in a midden in Istanbul in 1669. But it has to have come from somewhere before then. So I have assumed it did come from somewhere else, and Jurko found it before it ended up in a midden. It is said to be only 85 carats, yet is also attested the fourth largest diamond in the world; there is a theory that, since it is 42x35x16mm, which should weigh something over 175 carats, that a '1' is missing and it should be 185 carats. The 187ct Jacob diamond is said to be worth over $150million in modern money; and it isn't as pretty. the spoonmaker's diamond is said to be the most valuable diamond in the world. I love loot.
2 Looted by the Ottomans from Hungary; only 216 Corvinae texts survive nowadays out of upwards of 3.000.
