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On the Field of Glory: An Historical Novel of the Time of King John Sobieski

Henryk Sienkiewicz




  Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive

  Transcriber's Notes:

  1. Page scan source: https://www.archive.org/details/onfieldofgloryhi00sieniala

  2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].

  ON THE FIELD OF GLORY

  THE WORKS OF HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ

  TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL POLISH BY JEREMIAH CURTIN.

  * * *

  _The Zagloba Romances_

  With Fire and Sword. 1 vol. The Deluge. 2 vols. Pan Michael. 1 vol.

  * * *

  Quo Vadis. 1 vol. The Knights of the Cross. 2 vols. Children of the Soil. 1 vol. Hania, and Other Stories. 1 vol. Sielanka, and Other Stories. 1 vol. In Vain. 1 vol. Life and Death and Other Legends and Stories. 1 vol. On The Field Of Glory. 1 vol.

  * * *

  Without Dogma. (Translated by Isa Young.) 1 vol.

  ON THE FIELD OF GLORY

  AN HISTORICAL NOVEL OF THE TIME OF KING JOHN SOBIESKI

  BY HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ _Author of "Quo Vadis," "With Fire and Sword," "The Deluge," "Knights of the Cross" etc_.

  TRANSLATED FROM THE POLISH ORIGINAL BY JEREMIAH CURTIN

  BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1906

  _Copyright, 1906_, By Jeremiah Curtin * * * _All rights reserved_

  Published January, 1906

  THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

  TO SIR THOMAS G. SHAUGHNESSY, PRESIDENT OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

  * * *

  My Dear Sir Thomas:

  Railroads are to nations what arteries and veins are to eachindividual. Every part of a nation enjoys common life with every otherthrough railroads. Books bring remote ages to the present, and assemblethe thoughts of mankind and of God in one divine company. I find greatpleasure on railroads in the day and the night, at all seasons. Youenjoy books with a keen and true judgment. Let me inscribe to you,therefore, this volume.

  Jeremiah Curtin.

  INTRODUCTORY

  The book before us gives pictures of Polish character and life on theeve of the second great siege of Vienna.

  Twice was that city beleaguered by Turkey. The first siege wascommanded by Solyman, that Sultan who was surnamed Magnificent bywestern nations; to Turks he was known as the Lord of his Age and theLawgiver.

  The first siege was repelled by the bravery of the garrison, by theheroism of Count Salm its commander, by the terrible weather of 1529,and also through turbulence of the Janissary forces. The second siegewas crushed in 1683 by Sobieski's wise strategy, the splendid impetusof the Poles, and the firmness of the allies.

  Had the Polish king not appeared the Sultan would have triumphed, henceSobieski and his men are hailed ever since as the saviours of Vienna.

  The enthusiasm of the time for Sobieski and his force was tremendous.

  "There was a man sent from God whose name was John," this was theGospel read at the Thanksgiving Mass in Saint Stephen's, the cathedral,the noble old church of that rescued and jubilant city. Some Poles wentto Rome after that to get relics; the Pope gave this answer: "Takeearth steeped in blood from the field where your countrymen fell atVienna."

  Many times have men here in America asked me: Are the Poles really heldby such an intensity of passion? if they are, why does it seize them,whence does it come, what is the source and the cause of it? I reply tothese questions as best I am able, and truthfully: It comes from thesoul of the Slavs in some part, and in some part from history. ThePoles have as a race their original gift to begin with; this gift, orrace element, has met in its varied career certain peoples, ideas, andprinciples. The result of this meeting is this: that the Polish part ofthe Slav world holds touching itself an unconquerable ideal. It hasabsorbed, as it thinks, certain principles from which it could not nowseparate.

  The Poles could not if they would, and would not if they could, bedissevered from that which, as they state, they have worked out inhistory, that which no power on earth can now take from them, and towhich they are bound with the faith of a martyr.

  Through ideas and principles, that is, truths gained in theirexperience as a people, and which in them are incarnate and living, thePoles feel predestined to triumph, time, of course, being given.

  What are these ideas and principles? men ask of me often. Combined allin one they mean the victory and supremacy of Poland. They have beenworked out during centuries, I answer, of Polish experience withGermany, with Russia, with Rome and Byzantium, with Turks and withTartars. But beyond all do they come as the fruit of collisions withGermany and Russia, and as the outcome of teachings from Rome and thestern opposition of Byzantium. Through this great host of enemies andallies, and their own special character, came that incisive dramaticcareer which at last met a failure so crushingly manifest.

  The inward result and the spiritual harvest to be reaped from thisawful catastrophe are evident only through what is revealed in theconduct, the deeds, and the words of the people who had to wade throughthe dreadful defeat and digest the experience.

  Polish character in most of its main traits was developed completelyeven earlier than the days of Sobieski, and the men who appeared thenin action differ little from those of the present, hence the picturesin this volume are perfectly true and of far-reaching interest in ourtime.

  JEREMIAH CURTIN.

  January, 1906.

  ON THE FIELD OF GLORY