power, however, continued to grow and make
new conquests until the year A.D. 1672, when they conducted a successful
campaign against Poland, in which forty-eight towns and villages were
ceded to the Sultan, with promise of an annual tribute of two hundred
and twenty thousand ducats. See Encyclopaedia Britannica, Art. Turkey.
This was the last victory they ever gained wherein the Ottoman empire
obtained any advantage. A little later they marched against Vienna, but
sustained a miserable defeat. "Venice and Russia now declared war
against Turkey; misfortune followed misfortune; city after city was rent
away from the empire; the Austrians were in possession of almost the
whole of Hungary, the Italians of almost all the Morea." Encyclopaedia
Britannica, Art. Turkey. So the power of the Ottomans to extend their
conquests and to add to their empire, ended with the victory over the
Poles in A.D. 1672. This fact is even admitted by Demetrius Cantemir,
prince of Moldavia, one of their historians, in the following language:
"This was the _last_ victory by which any advantage accrued to the
Othman state, or any city or province was annexed to the ancient bounds
of the empire." In accordance with this statement, the same historian
entitles the first part of his history up to the victory over the Poles
in 1672 the History of _the Growth of the Othman Empire_, and the
remaining portion, _The Decay of the Othman Empire_.

Calculating now the time during which these horsemen were prepared to
extend their conquests--"an hour, and a day, and a month, and a
year"--we find according to prophetic, or symbolic, time--thirty days in
a month, three hundred and sixty in a year--that it signifies three
hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days. This is exactly the
period of time that elapsed between their first victory in A.D. 1281 and
their last conquest in A.D. 1672. I can not verify the fifteen days,
because no history at my command states the exact days of the month on
which these victories occurred.

One more point of importance must be considered before we conclude this
chapter, and that is the continuance of the Ottoman power. The first, or
Saracen, woe had power to torment men "five months," or one hundred and
fifty years, during which time they continued their ravages. The second
woe began when the command was given to loose the four angels, or the
beginning of the Ottoman conquests. "An hour, and a day, and a month,
and a year," o