It was at the head of nearly 100,000 Cossack soldiers and a horde of Tartars whom the promised plunder of the Pohsh castles had enlisted on the side of their bitterest enemies, that the hetman retiu-ned to demand an accounting from the Konietpolski. As he advanced, new volunteers flocked to his standards: Cossacks, peasants, and gentlemen of the Ukraine, whom religious persecution had driven from their estates. In the space of a few weeks he found himself the leader of an army of irregular troops estimated at 300,000 men — a whole people in arms. From now on until his death Bogdan was an uncrowned king — the head of a
Cossack nation for the first time united. As a symbol or scepter of authority he carried in his hand a reed from the shores of the River Dneiper.
Thinking to crush without difficulty this motley gathering (for in spite of the stiffening battalions of Zaporogian frontiersmen the Cossack polki were scarcely a match for the regular troops maintained by the Polish republic) a brilliant company of nobles set forth from Warsaw "as to the chase." Their leader was a brave young general — Stephen Pototski. At Zoltivody — the Yellow Waters — this army of Polish nobles thought to ride roughshod over the peasant bands, but their own defeat was complete and crushing, i
Vladislas, the King of Poland — the wise ruler of a distracted nobility — received on his deathbed a message from Bogdan. Although the Cossack chieftain was now victorious, his letter was a submissive proposal (dated June 2, 1648) suggesting, not dictating, the terms of an honourable peace. The principal privilege asked for was an assurance that the "ancient rights" of the Cossacks, notably the famous "Register of Freemen," should be restored, and that the right of free worship be allowed to those of the Greek-Orthodox faith. Perhaps the very mildness of the tone of Bogdan's communication deceived Prince Jeremy Visnowiecki, the new chief of the Polish armies. Prince Jeremy was the embodiment of Jesuitical intolerance and well-born arrogance, but to these de-
BOGDAN:
fects he joined one doubtful virtue — stupid and uncalculating courage. Strengthened by a few minor successes among his own revolted villages, he now thought only of punishing the offenders. "Strike so that they may feel!!" he had ordered his judges and executioners. The story of his "frightfulness" brought to the Cossack camp new and more desperate le\ies of volunteers.
No reply had even been vouchsafed by the proud nobility to Bogdan's proposal of peace. Indeed none was awaited: on foreign agent and Jesuit priest — the twin scourges of the long-suffering Orthodox peasants of the Ukraine — fell the weight of Cossack vengeance. The stories of the wrongs of these "martyrs" have generally survived the grievances they provoked. It is but fair, however, to search for some underlying motive of justice behind the Cossack brutahties which have been so eloquently exploited. In spite of the naturally prejudiced accounts of Polish historians, the student of the present day will find something besides blind ferocity in the acts of this "coalition of Mussulmen, Socinians and Greeks," who in their furious crusade overthrew churches, burned monasteries, "granting their lives to monks and nuns only to enjoy the spectacle of their forced nuptials, celebrated in the shadow of the sword." *
Fleeing before the advancing Cossack army, a horde of fugitives: old men, women and children,
* Salvandy op. cit. Vol. I, page 191.
the inhabitants of the border villages, brought to the castles and cities of Poland the first news of these unexpected, unbelievable disasters to her armies. Thus at a time when Western Europe was celebrating the end of thirty years of continual bloodshed by signing the treaty of WestphaHa, the border world of the Slav nation took up the burden of war.
After the death of the wise Vladislas, a great Plenary Diet of the nobles of Poland was held on the field of Volna. While the excitable Panye screamed recriminations at each other's heads — trying in disorderly conclave to elect a new king for their distracted nation — Jeremy Visnowiecki with an army of 140,000 men, nobles of Poland with their serfs and mercenaries, tried to stem the tide of invasion at Plavace. But at the approach of the Cossacks and their allies this forlorn hope, gathered from all her wide lands to meet Poland's extremity, melted away in most ungentlemanly panic before the waving of Bogdan's reed — the peasant standard.