General Pardon to Kmielniski and his Army and re-establish the Cossackian Militia in its ancient Form Number and Liberty VIII Besides these Conditions Three hundred thousand Florins were promised to the Cham of which he received an Hundred thousand in ready Money The Articles agreed on with Kmielniski imported thus much that I. FIrst the King should grant a General Bill of Oblivion to all the Cossacks and Rebellious Peasants and that what was passed should be no more looked after then as if it had not been done II. That Kmielniski should fall down and ask Pardon of His Majesty upon his knees III. That he should be continued General of the Cossacks of which the number should be increased to Forty thousand and and in which quality he should depend on none but the King after he had made his acknowledgment as a Polish Gentleman in regard of the States IV. That His Majesty should have a List of the Names and Habitations of the said Forty thousand Cossacks and that upon the death of Kmielniski they should be commanded by one of their own Officers of the Greek Religion V. That the Army besieged at Zbaras should be set at liberty VI. That the exercise of the Greek Religion should be permitted throughout the Kingdom even in Cracovia it self and that its Vnion with the Roman Church should cease VII That the Palatinate of Kiovia should be always given to a Greek VIII That the Metropolitan of the Greeks should have his Seat in the Senate among the Bishops and should have the nineth place IX That the Cossacks should be permitted to make Strong-waters for their own use but not for sale X. That they should be furnished with Cloth to cloath them and Ten Florins a Man to arm them XI That the Nobility coming again into the possession of their Estates should not enquire after or trouble their Subjects for the damages which they might have received during the War XII That those Noblemen whether Catholics or Greeks who had taken part with the General of the Cossacks should not be at all molested but discharged from all what had passed in the last Wars In execution of which Articles the General coming before the King fell upon his knees and with tears in his eyes made a long discourse expressing himself how he had much rather appeared in his presence to receive his approbation for some considerable service done to his Majesty and the State then thus stained with so much Blood But since that the destinies had disposed it otherwise he came to implore his clemency and in all humility the forgiveness of his faults promising to repair them by his future conduct The King answered him by the Vice-chancellor of Lithuania That the Repentance of his Subjects was more acceptable to him then their punishment and that he did heartily forgive what was passed if he would efface the crime which he had committed by his future Zeal and Fidelity to his Countrey After this action Kmielniski and the Cham caused their Forces to retire and the King extreamly happy in escaping so great a danger at so easie a rate went with the Polish Army to Gliniani and afterwards to Leopold Those Forces intrenched at Zbaras reduced to those extremities which you have already heard of maintained themselves all along rather by rage and despair then any hope of help The Inhabitants of that Town not being able to suffer the utmost extremity of Famine were ready either to burn the Town or deliver it up to the enemy but the vigilance of the Polanders having hindred the execution of this tragick design they much sollicited to be let out which was onely granted to their Wives and Children neither were they able to keep their retreat undiscovered but fell first into the hands of the Polish Soldiers who abused them as they pleased and afterwards of the Tartars who led this unfortunate Troop into captivity together with some Servants of the Army who had followed them The One and twentieth of August the Cossacks sent the first news to the besieged of the Peace concluded at Zborow which was believed by some but called in question by most who feared they might not be comprehended in that Treaty they were confirmed in this opinion by a Trumpet who had the boldness to proclaim the same upon his own accord and it had cost him his life if one of the Generals had not interceded for him Afterwards there came a Letter from Kmielniski in which he assured the besieged of their Deliverance upon the payment of a certain sum to the Tartars but the Generals would not accept of this condition and openly declared that since Kmielniski was obliged to draw off his Forces he ought to do it and for the Tartars if they would remain where they were they might do so if they pleased In the end a more faithful and joyful Message was brought them with a Letter by Colonel Minor from the King to assure them of their Liberties without any conditions together with the disposal of the Palatinate of Seudomire vacant by the Death of the Duke of Zaslaw with which his Majesty would gratifie the services of General Firley The Prince Wisnowitskie was presented with the Starrosty of Premisli the Duke of Ostrog with that of Nessewitz Landskoronski with that of Stobnitz and the Palatinate of Braclaw All these recompenses although very considerable yet were they inferior to that valor and heroical Constancy of which all these great persons had given such fair proofs during those two Moneths which they were besieged and continually assaulted in Zbaras Neither was Providence less favorable to the Polanders in Lithuania then in Russia where two of their Armies were as it were led by the hand out of a danger wherein according to all humane appearance they must have perished The Rebellion of the Cossacks and Peasants spred it self in the beginning of the War with so much more ease into Lithuania by reason that the Inhabitants of that Countrey are more conformable in their Manners and Religion with the Russes The Cossacks entring at two places had made their inrodes into Polesia a Countrey full of Woods and Bogs and which makes a part of the Palatinates of Kiovia and Volhinia and by treachery had seised upon the Inhabitants of Starodub and Homel people who had favored their irruption Colonel Patz and Volowitz and afterward Prince Janus Radzevil General of Samogitia and Field-Marshal of Lithuania opposed their designs as well as they could with the Nobility of Orsa the Garrison of Bichova and some other Forces gathered together but the assistance of the State came very slowly and Prince Radzevil being sent for to the Diet. The Rebels made use of this occasion of his absence and set upon Sluczk a Town belonging to Prince Bogislaus Radzevil Great Master of the Horse of Lithuania Sosnowski who was Governor of it defended it bravely against them and Horsch Governor of Orsa defeated Fifteen hundred Men at Czeresko and Mirski
their quarters and to chastise the Peasants who had taken Arms against their Lords This Letter was received with great respect in appearance but he proceeded with much slowness to execute what the King required of him and on the contrary was very industrious at the same time to make a strict League with the Turk and Great Duke of Moscovy whose friendship he desired with the more importunity by reason that he promised himself more security and advantage in his Alliance then in the others because of the Conformity of the Religion of the Muscovites with the Cossacks The Great Duke approved not of this Rebellion yet desired to make his advantage by it The great success which Kmielniski had had against the Poles made him esteem them as a defeated and depressed people and to begin a causless quarrel with them in hopes to obtain from them during the bad condition of their affairs a revocation of the Treaty which he had been forced to make with King Vladislaus before Smolenko when his whole Army was disarmed and taken which besieged that Fortress He demanded also in satisfaction for the affronts done him by some of the Polish Nobility and among others by Prince Witnowitski and Koniespolski who had not onely neglected to give him all his titles but had also written in terms injurious to the reputation of the Moscovite Nation that the States of Poland should give up to him the City of Smolensko with its dependances and should pay him the sum of an Hundred and fourscore thousand Ducats VVhereupon his Majesty of Poland having sent a Gentleman named Barlinski to the Great Duke to be more clearly informed concerning the insolent demands of his Ambassador upon whom in the mean time he had set a Guard This Envoy brought back an Answer which testified rather the inclination the Moscovite had to observe the former Treaties with Poland then to come to a breach and in effect although the Great Duke would with much joy have seen the increase of the Greek Religion yet he could not look with a good eye upon the growing greatness of Kmielniski nor be without some apprehension that the Rebellion of the Cossacks and Peasants might also spred it self into his own Countrey whither already some sparks had flown of that fire which had burned Poland So that the Moscovite Ambassador was forced to declare in the presence of the King and the Senators That he of his own head had prepared those Propositions which he had delivered and the Peace was confirmed between the Poles and the Great Duke The continual correspondence which Kmielniski held with the Turks of which the King of Poland was advertised by the Neighboring Princes and his insolent carriage towards the State obliged his Majesty to call a General Diet of the Kingdom in the end of the year One thousand six hundred and fifty in which this Prince represented the insupportable behavior of the General of the Cossacks the contempt he had both of the King and State the injuries which many of the Nobility had received the loss of their Estates and their not being able to be restored against Kmielniski his great forces which he strove to increase by the addition of Tartars and Turks so that he was in a condition to gather together on the suddain an Army of more then Fourscore thousand Men every Cossack inrolled of which the number by the last Treaty amounted to Forty thousand had a servant on Horsback and another on Foot besides a Laborer to Till the Grounds that their design was to shake off utterly all obedience and to set up a new Government under the Protection of the Grand Signior So that they would be capable of performing any thing if that they did not soon put a stop to the course of their pernicious designs There were some in the Assembly who calling to minde the evils caused by the last VVar were of opinion That Peace at any rate was to be preferred before it and alledged that the Forces of the Kingdom were now notably decreased whereas those of the Cossacks were very powerful both of themselves and by the assistance of the Ottoman family which protected them so that it would be much better to keep close to the Treaty of Zborow But the greater number making reflections upon what was passed and what was to be expected considered that there were but two ways to be taken the one to ruine the Cossacks or the other to let the Kingdom perish miserably that the King had onely a title and precarious authority over them no more then they pleased themselves that they were now upon the design of forming a Principality from whence they were to expect most dismal events if they gave them time to increase and establish themselves that they interpreted the Treaty after their own manner and gave it what sence they pleased that the State had yet considerable Forces if they were well imployed and that as affairs then stood they were better able to give a stop to their new and rising power then they could afterwards resist them when they were raised fortified and established by time that the King was brave and active and with small Armies having done great exploits he would obtain more signal advantages over his enemies when the States should proceed to a more vigorous and powerful undertaking These Reasons but much more the new demands of the Cossacks at the same time caused all the rest of the Diet to be of this opinion and unanimously to resolve of a VVar against them The Cossacks Demands were these That according to the Articles of the Peace at Zborow the Union of the Greeks and Roman Catholicks should be abolished that Kmielniski should remain Soveraign beyond the Boristhenes that none of the Nobility or Gentry of Poland should for the future have any power over the Peasants of that Province that if the Gentlemen would live there they should be obliged to work as well as the Peasants that Nine Bishops should swear in full Senate to see all this observed that for Hostages they should give up four Palatines to Kmielniski which he should chuse in consideration of which Articles he promised to pay to the King of Poland yearly a Million of Florins and afterwards they reduced their Demands to Four 1. THat they might be put in possession of a Countrey wherein they might live without any Communication with the Poles 2. That His Majesty and Twelve of the Principal Senators of the Kingdom should bind themselves by Oath always to observe the Peace of Zborow 3. That for their greater security three of these Senators should remain with their General 4. That their should be no further Vnion of the Roman and Greek Churches But all there Demands being very exorbitant and no body willing to trust to the Faith of a Man who was not contented with the promise which the King and State had given him by their Confirmation of the Treaty of Zborow at the last
great services should receive three payments extraordinary there should be Twelve thousand Men in continual pay for the Guard of the Frontiers That the Articles concluded on between the King and the Cossacks and Tartars at Zborow should be confirmed That three of the Cossackian Gentlemen should be admitted to Publick Offices And that for the supply of these great expences there should be a new Impost laid upon all Poland and Lithuania and Customs upon Merchandises granted to his Majesty for his Signal Exploits in the last Campagnia It was also thought fit to establish a Senator at Kiovia to be vigilant near at hand over the Actions of the Cossacks and to decide the differences which might arise in performance of the Treaty Adam Kisiel appointed a while after to be Governor of that Town was thought to be a person most able to acquit himself worthily in that charge and to register the Forty thousand Men of which the Cossackian Army was to consist according to the last Treaty and to give them their necessary instructions Kmielniski observed this Peace almost a year and testified in all appearance his good intentions but apprehending least the Polanders whom he had forced in the unhappy conjuncture of their affairs to grant him extraordinary conditions should now repent of it and search out ways to elude the performance of them he thought that he could not do better then by powerful Alliances to secure to himself these advantages which had been conceded And to this intent he applied himself to the Grand Signior and the Great Duke of Muscovy but especially to the first by whose favor he hoped to render himself considerable to all the World He pretended also to desire the Friendship of the Hospodar or Prince of Moldavia but it was onely to amuse him that he might the better surprise him and force his Countrey For in the mean time he made an ill impression of him upon the mindes of the Grand Signiors Officers to whom he represented him as a secret enemy to the Turks and an intimate Friend of the Polanders and that by his means the Poles had hitherto received continual intelligence of theirs and the Tartars designs They assured therefore Kmielniski of the Protection of the Grand Signior and that he should be invested with Black Russia to hold it in Fee of the Ottoman Empire they received the acknowledgments of his dependance on them and his promises of fidelity in their service and permitted him to execute his designs against the Prince of Moldavia which he did with great dissimulation and made use of the Tartars in it to whom he joyned onely Four thousand Cossacks and the better to keep secret his intentions The Cham sent to him to thank him for his assistance against the Circassians and desired further that he would lend him his Forces to go against Moscovy to revenge the injuries which he had received from the Great Duke So that while the Neighboring Princes perswaded themselves that the Tartars were going to War in Moscovia the Hospodar of Moldavia who was one of this number and lived in the ordinary careless security of a high Peace found himself encompassed in with a numerous Army of Tartars and the Four thousand Auxiliary Cossacks All that could be done upon so sudden and unexpected an accident was to run into the Woods near Jasz his principal City In the thickest of which the Hospodar with his family and as many as he could get together in haste intrenched themselves with Trees cut down and afterwards drew himself out of this danger upon the payment of Twenty thousand Ducats to the Tartars and the promise of his Daughter in marriage to Timotheus Kmielniski his Son Upon which condition Kmielniski did recede from many hard terms which he had put upon the Hospodar In the mean time the Peace with the Poles was every day violated by the Cossacks their numerous Army was extended much beyond their quarters The Peasants who were not inrolled sustained by them would not receive those Gentlemen their Landlords who were to enter upon possession of their Estates again but treated them ill and massacred divers This deportment of theirs and the expedition against Moldavia obliged Potoski the Generalissimo who was newly returned out of his prison in Tartary to march with the Polish Army and incamp near Camienesche Kmielniski was much surprised at the first news of this march and there being with him at that time divers who were deputed from the Nobility to complain of the Rebellion in the which the Peasants persisted and their refusal to acknowledge them he commanded that all those who were sent to him should be drowned the night following But these Orders being given when he was in drink filled with Wine and Strong-waters after he had digested his debauch and been informed by his Wife of what he had done he presently revoked his sentence just when they who had the charge of it were ready to execute it Afterwards he sent Craucenski one of his Officers to the General Potoski to give him to understand That he could not but be astonished at the approach of the Polish Forces in such a time when they had Peace with all the World and a powerful Army of Cossacks at their disposal for the security of the Frontiers The General in answer reproached him for their daily breach of Peace and the ill Treatment which the Nobility received from their Subjects and for the War which Kmielniski had undertaken without their knowledge against the Prince of Moldavia and that although he were Great General to the States of Poland yet he ought to have advertised them of it he added that he could not leave that station wherein he was by the Kings Order without express command from his Majesty This Answer was no way pleasing to the Envoy from Kmielniski who declared how much his Master would be ill satisfied with it and mingled threatnings of War with his discourse but proceeded not to breach of Peace either by reason of the nearness of the Polish Army and the Great General whose admired desert or redoubted courage might turn him from it or because that the designs he laid of raising a Principality for himself were not yet mature enough to disclose this ambitious project or that he was willing to set down contented with his expedition into Moldavia and with having made a new Alliance although by force of Arms. In the mean time the Nobility in Vkraine were as ill treated as if it had been in time of War so that many were obliged every day to retire Those persons who had great estates and the Duke of Wisnowitz in particular received scarce any Rents the continual complaints of which to the King induced him to write to Kmielniski and to reproach him for the War which he had undertaken contrary to his order against the Hospodar of Moldavia and for the injuries which the Nobility received injoyning him to draw back the Zapoovian Army into
yield to which he gave this resolute answer that he cared not to live but desired onely to die like a soldier and at last was run through with a Pike by the hand of another German who came in to reinforce the assault The Polanders found in the Cossacks Camp besides a number of Women and Children a very considerable booty and forty pieces of Ordnance and much Powder many Ensignes and amongst others the Standard which the King at his election sent to Kmielniski as a mark of the confirmation of his Generalship and another which King Vladislaus sent to the Cossacks when he intended to imploy them in a war which he designed against the Muscovites another which the Cossacks took from the Poles the last 25 of June the Sword which the Greek Patriarch sent to Kmielniski as an acknowledgement to him for his taking upon him to defend the Greek Church The ornaments for a Chappel and other rich moveables of a Greek Prelate who stiled himself Archbishop of Corinth and was the Resident of the Patriarch with Kmielniski he it was that most of all incouraged and kept on the Rebellion of the Cossacks and Russians and was much against any accommodation he was killed in his flight with an Arrow shot by a young man a Polander They found also Kmielniski his Cabinet wherein was the Seal of the Zaporovian Army and divers Letters from the Grand Signior the Great Duke of Muscovy and the Prince of Transylvania with about thirty thousand Rixdollars which were designed for the Tartars Vests lined with rich Furrs Arms in great number and Provision in abundance and even the Pots and Spits at the fire a signe that their flight was not at all premeditated This defeat cost the Poles not many men and but one Captain of Radzevil his Regiment of Foot who was slain at the attacquing of the three hundred Cossacks who retired into the Marsh Besides those who were already sent to pursue the Cossacks the General of the Campagnia and the Duke of Wisnowitz with seven Regiments were Commanded out to hinder them from rallying who killed all they overtook a great number of them attempting to retreat by Dubno three thousand were cut in pieces by the Garrison of that Town and divers others as they passed over a long Causey The King leaving almost all the Auxiliaries at Berestesko marched also in pursuit of them towards Krzmienecz but found in all that journey nothing but spectacles of horror the ways being strewed with dead bodies and the Woods filled with those miserable persons who after their defeat fled into the thickest part of them where they found no other sustenance for many days than the Barks of Trees and most of them were so weak that their Legs were not able to serve them in their flight the indignation of the Polanders at length was changed into pity at the sight of these Skeletons and instead of pursuing them to destroy them they did it to give them their lives and to perswade them to preserve themselves The King himself seeing them in this deplorable condition caused Provisions to be distributed amongst them and assured them of pardon if they would leave the rebellious Cossacks and return to their Houses thus did his Polish Majesty shew his Clemency and not rigorously put to the sword that rebellious people whereby he must have necessarily depopulated one of the principal Provinces of his Kingdom which served for a Rampart to the rest and must consequently have ruined a number of Gentlemen and chief of the Nobility who having great Estates there could not have received their Rents if the Countrey had been unpeopled The Peasants in Poland being a part of the Gentlemens inheritance and by this means they being deprived of their Tenants it would have been very difficult for them to find others to serve them in the Tenure of Villenage and this is the true Motive which then and at other times hath hindred the utter ruine of the Cossacks without which consideration it would not have been difficult to have destroyed them The King judging his presence necessary to terminate this War and to compleat the Reduction of the Cossacks made account to march with his whole Army to Kiovia and from thence to send his Forces and Orders necessary for the accomplishing of this design But the Nobility opposed it alledging That the necessity of his Affairs did oblige him to return and that part of the Army would be sufficient to perform what remained That the Cossacks were scattered and in no condition to rally after this defeat that if any of them should take up Arms again the raised Troops would be sufficient to hinder and render useless all their attempts whatsoever and in one word that there could be no pretence of leading the Nobility into a Countrey desolate and laid waste by the continual violencies of the Cossacks and Tartars and where they might be famished so that upon a general Council held at Orla of all the Commanders and Officers of the Army it was determined that those who would return should be satisfied which were the greater number and his Majesty of Poland after he had left his Instructions with the Great General Potoski for the consummating that which he had so happily undertaken took his journey towards Warsaw having first had a promise from the Nobility of a new supply of Men and Money The King before his departure also received an account how that the Cham being informed of the defeat of the Cossacks had hastened his retreat towards Crim and that the four thousand Turks who came to their assistance having also intelligence of it had passed the Boristhenes with all diligence This news was accompanied also with that of the defeat of the Cossacks in Lythuania by Prince Radzevil The Cossacks to the number of twelve thousand Commanded by Niebaba one of their Generals had placed themselves near to Loiowogrod at the entrance of the River Sesz into the Boristhenes where after they had made Works to secure to themselves the passage over those Rivers their General left Forces to guard them Prince Radzevil General of Lythuania hearing of this resolved to set upon them and to this effect sent before him Major General Mirski with three thousand chosen men with Orders to pass the Boristhenes and he himself embarked with the rest of his Foot and his Artillery while his Horse marched by Land at his arrival he set upon their intrenchments on one side while that Mirski to whom he had given the signal by the discharge of some of his Cannon was to fall upon the other the Cossacks defended themselves bravely for an hour and half after which they were overthrown and cut in pieces Niebaba coming with his Army to the relief of his Prince Radzevil although that Mirski were not yet joyned with him as having not passed the River which parted them neglected not to incounter him and after a sharp conflict in which three of the principal
Colonels of the Cossacks and Niebaba their General was slain overthrew their Army killed three thousand men took many prisoners and amongst the rest the Nephew of Niebaba the rest saved themselves in their Camp which was not far from the place of Battel which they also sodainly abandoned as also the City of Lubiecz and Czernobel near to it who yielded up themselves without making any great resistance to Gonsieuski General of the Artillery of Lythuania after which Prince Radzevil took his way towards Kiovia to put an end to the remainder of the Rebellion in those parts General Potoski imployed himself to the same purpose in Volhynia where the difficulty of getting Provisions having forced him to divide his Army into many parts he appointed their Rendezvous to be at Lubertowa a Town which in the heat of all the war had preserved it self by the convenience of its scituation and number of its Inhabitants and from thence to goe and make an attempt upon Pawolocz and Bialacierkiew giving a strict Command that the Officers should order it that their Soldiers should so behave themselves in that manner that the Peasants might by no means be constrained to quit their Houses or to destroy what Provisions were left The Gentlemen also took all care to bring the Peasants to their former duty promising them by Letters and Messages that they should be most favourably dealt withal if they would return to their obedience In the mean time Kmielniski having with a summe of Money appeased the Cham and freed himself returned into Vkrain to strengthen and confirme the minds of those people which the last defeat and his absence had very much shaken and taking the same course as formerly in those places where he could not be in person by his Letters and Emissaries he gave new heat to their courage which was very much abated exhorting them to maintain the cause of the Publick and putting them in mind how fortune was momentary and changeable and if of late she had declared her self in favour of the Poles yet she had left the Cossacks Strength and forces sufficient to renew the war and recover their losses and to feed their hopes he gave out that one Ragoci in Poland was revolted and thereby had obliged the King to draw back the greatest part of his Army to stop his progress that the Flower of the old Cossackian Militia was gathering together and that in few days the Tartars would come and joyn with them again to revenge their last defeat and to keep up the hopes of this people still more high from time to time he dispatched several Embassies to the Cham which he accompanied with magnificent promises to induce him to afford him new supplies remonstrating to him that the security of both their fortunes depended upon it and that the ruine of the one would infallibly expose the other to the Polish power he sent also three Envoyes to the Ottoman Court to represent to them that if the Cossacks were assisted by the Grand Signior they might be in a condition to make head against all the Forces of Poland but if they were abandoned they must be necessitated to an accommodation and in the end to make war against himself Prince Janus Radzevil to whom Hlebowitz Palatine of Smolensko was joyned having left Fronckewitz Lieutenant-Collonel of the Hussars with some Forces about Czernihow to hinder the excursions of that Garrison went towards Kiovia after they had forced from those Quarters the Cossackian Collonels Antonio and Orkussa and put their Forces into such disorder that they were constrained to burn their Tabor and their Bridge and fly into the Town neither did they stay there any time for the terror of the march of the Lythuanian Army spreading it self through the rest of the Cossackian Forces who thought to shelter themselves in the Countrey about they quitted that Town which was one of their principal Retreats The Inhabitants seeing they were deprived of their Garrison and all other means of defending themselves sent their Supplications to the Polish General by their Archbishop and their Archimandrit or Abbot of their chief Greek Monastery requesting of him that he would spare that City which the King had always the goodness to preserve and which during the last wars had served for a place of refuge to the Polish Nobility which request was granted by Prince Radzevil who onely disarmed them to take away from them for the future the opportunity of doing ill Kmielniski hearing of the loss of Kiovia doubled his diligence and sought out all means imaginable to bring a new Army into the Field able to stop the progress of his enemies and the unfortunate posture of his affairs suggested counsel to him full of fury and despair in the middle of which he found not only his Cossacks but a great part of the Peasants also inclined to try again the fortune of the war and among these latter there were some who openly declared that it was disgraceful to them to be dejected for the ill success of one Battel and that those who overcame them now they had formerly overcome and the same might be performed again but if that Fortune should obstinately declare her self for the Poles there was still a place left them to retreat into the Countrey of the Turks where they might live with more freedom then in Russia to which intent they had already wrote to the Bassa of Silistria So that many of the Peasants went every day to joyn with Kmielniski and the Cossacks began their incursions and violencies in many places particularly those who inhabit near the Niester and Wallachia who are more accustomed to these Robberies then the other General Potoski had sent out two thousand men under the Command of the Starroste of Kamienecz his son against them but instead of sending him the recruits which he demanded he called him back again judging it more convenient to to keep his Forces in one body the General sent afterwards seven Squadrons towards Bialacierkiew to hear news of the Cossacks but instead of obeying their Orders they fell to plunder a Town called Pawolocz and were met withal by two thousand Cossacks and five hundred Tartars not far from thence who set upon them and drove them to the Gates of that Town took away all their booty and had utterly defeated them had not the Forces of the Duke of Wisnowitz arrived in time to their assistance by whose help they made head against those who pursued them and drove part of them into their Tabor and part into Bialacerkiew it was known by some Tartar prisoners taken upon this occasion that there were but two thousand of them with Kmielniski but that in a few days four thousand others were expected and that the rest of those Infidels were gone to refresh their Horses in the Pastures of the desart Plains and had received Orders to be in readiness to return upon the first occasion into Poland This news made General Potoski