Bogdan's wise policy now spared the farmsteads and the Roman Catholic churches dear to the Polish peasants. But upon the castles of the nobility, stored with treasures of art which excited the admiration of every European traveller who had visited these distant lands, the advancing host wreaked its anger. Bogdan no longer desired a mere Cossack vengeance. He was now the leader of a popular
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movement or jacquerie which sought to secm-e the same privilege for the peasants of Poland that his victories promised for the Cossack inhabitants of the Ukraine. While the only electors of the "republic"— the pri\ileged nobles — still deliberated at Volna over the choice of a king, Bogdan had become the undisputed ruler of the Ukraine. By establishing popular rule over an ever increasing expanse of Polish territor\% he seemed about to solve the problem of who should be king, in his own way.
In the castle at Zamosc, one of the last of the "impregnable" fortresses of the Polish borders, the armies of Bogdan were besieging a distinguished company including the heads of nearly aU the greatest feudal families of the western provinces. Here, with their servants and treasures, were gathered the refugees of Plavace, the lords and ladies of the great families of Viesnowiecki, Zamoyski, Sobieski, besides others of lesser note. To join in the defense of this last stronghold of his caste, John Sobieski, the future hero of all Christian Europe, had passed during the night through the triple lines of the Cossack armies.
Under this brilliant young chieftain the besieged forces still held out, when after five weeks of armed debate the choice of the electors of Poland fell at last upon the candidate least obnoxious to the majority of the electors. The honour was thrust upon an unwilling prelate, the Cardinal John Cazimir,
a brother of the late king. This solution appeared preferable to a choice of the Russian Tsar Alexis, whose ambitious plans would have joined Poland and Russia in a "personal union."
Cardinal John Cazimir (who was so strangely to end his days in exile as Abbot of the Convent of St. Germain des Pres in Paris) has been described as "too passionate for the Church, too feeble for the throne and, above all, too honest and straightforward for his time and country." His first royal act showed the latter traits. Refusing to listen to the partisans of Prince Jeremy — who, in spite of the thorough beating the Polish nobles had received, continued to threaten the rebellious Cossacks with all manner of legal punishments solemnly voted in high conclave of the Diet — he offered to treat with Bogdan's armies on the basis of their old guarantees.
Over his royal signature, he wrote to their leader, proposing almost in the terms used between sovereign and sovereign, that the past be forgotten. At the same time he promised to revive and confirm the ancient privileges of the Cossacks which had been so treacherously violated by the Jeremites. The royal messenger was instructed to deliver at the same time to Bogdan, if he were prepared to accept them, the horse-tail standard and other regalia formerly conferred on every Cossack hetman by the kings of Poland. Although the fortunes of war had raised the man thus honoured above the
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power of the Polish throne, Bogdan placed his lips respectfully upon the King's signature. As a proof of immediate obedience, he ordered that the final assault about to be delivered upon the castle of Zamosc should be abandoned. Chivalrously trusting to the royal word, the army of Cossacks and peasants was removed some ten miles from the waUs of this last battered stronghold of PoHsh nobility. But the generosity of the Cossack chieftain and the hopes of the popular party were once more to be deceived. By breaking the royal promises. Prince Jeremy and a band of confederated "nobles" were able to throw themselves upon the undefended camp of the Cossacks, winning a treacherous but temporary advantage. The ifortunate Cazimir, although a stranger to the cts of Jeremy and protesting against such \"iolacion of his agreement, was none the less forced to march to the assistance of the Polish forces.