10 Poland, Vnst and Present. JAN. 



had deposed their profligate king, Wenceslas, and as the unparalleled 

 achievement of northern war, broke the power of the Teutonic knights 

 upon the field ; of their immense host of 150,000 men, slaying 

 50,000, taking 11,000, and leaving among the dead the grand master 

 and three hundred knights. 



A striking and characteristic scene, worthy of the finest ef- 

 forts of the pencil, preluded the battle. Jagellon, to draw the 

 enemy off some strong ground, had feigned a retreat. The knights 

 looked on him as already defeated, and the grand master, in the spirit 

 of his Scythian ancestors, sent him as an emblem of his fate, two 

 bloody swords with a message. " Our master," said the deputies, " is 

 not afraid to furnish you with arms to give you courage, for we are on 

 the point of giving battle. If the ground on which you are encamped 

 is too narrow for you to fight upon, we shall retire and give you room." 

 The taunt only inflamed the indignation of the Polish nobles, but 

 Jagellon calmly took the swords, and with a smile thanked the grand 

 master for so early giving up his arms. " I receive them/' said the 

 bold northern, " with rejoicing ; they are an irresistible omen. This 

 day we shall be conquerors : our enemies already surrender their sabres." 

 Instantly rising, he ordered the signal to be made for a general advance ; 

 the army rushed on with sudden enthusiasm ; the boasted discipline of 

 the knights was useless before this tide of fiery valour; their ranks were 

 helplessly trampled down ; and their whole chivalry destroyed upon the 

 ground. The taunt had been proudly answered. 



The affairs of Poland now became mingled, for the first time, with 

 the politics of western Europe. In 1571 Segismond Augustus died, 

 the last of the race of Jagellon, an honoured name, which had screened 

 the follies of his successors during the long course of two hundred 

 years. The vacancy of the throne was contested by a crowd of princes. 

 But the dexterity and munificence of the celebrated Catharine de 

 Medicis carried the election in favour of her second son, Henry Duke of 

 Anjou, brother of Charles the Ninth. The diet which established this 

 prince's claim, was still more memorable for the formation of the " Pacta 

 Conventa/' or great written convention of the kings of Poland, by 

 which they bound themselves to the commonwealth. The previous 

 bond had been a tacit, or verbal, agreement to observe the laws and 

 customs. But experience had produced public caution ; and by the final 

 clause of the te Padta Conventa/' the king elect now declared, that " if 

 he should violate any of his engagements to the nation, the oath of 

 allegiance was thenceforth to be void." The crown had, until this 

 period, been hereditary, liable, however, to the national rejection. 

 From the era of the Pacta Conventa it became wholly elective; an 

 example single among European governments, and giving warning of 

 its error by the most unbroken succession of calamities in the history of 

 modern nations. 



Poland was still to have a slight respite. On the vacancy after the 

 death of Wadislas in 1648, Casimir, the last descendant of the Jagellon 

 blood, was found in a cloister ; where he had entered the order of Jesuits. 

 Popular affection placed him on the throne. He governed wisely a state 

 now distracted with civil faction and religious dispute. At length grown 

 weary of the sceptre, he resigned it for the crosier of the Abbot of St. 

 Germain de Pres, in France ; and enjoyed in this opulent and calm 

 retreat a quiet for which he had been fitted by nature, and which he 



