of insurrection, the Ukraine Cossacks having risen against John
Cassimar, the king. Charles Gustavus thought that this presented him an
opportunity to obtain celebrity as a warrior, with but little danger of
failure. He marched into the doomed country, leaving behind him a wake
of fire and blood. Cities and villages were burned; the soil was
drenched with the blood of fathers and sons, his bugle blasts were
echoed by the agonizing groans of widows and orphans, until at last, in
an awful battle of three days, under the walls of Warsaw, the Polish
army, struggling in self-defense, was cut to pieces, and Charles
Gustavus was crowned a conqueror. Elated by this infernal deed, the most
infernal which mortal man can commit, he began to look around to decide
in what direction to extend his conquests.

Ferdinand III., anxious as he was to preserve peace, could not but look
with alarm upon the movements which now threatened the States of the
empire. It was necessary to present a barrier to the inroads of such a
ruffian. He accordingly assembled a diet at Frankfort and demanded
succors to oppose the threatened invasion on the north. He raised an
army, entered into an alliance with the defeated and prostrate, yet
still struggling Poles, and was just commencing his march, when he was
seized with sudden illness and died, on the 3d of March, 1657. Ferdinand
was a good man. He was not responsible for the wars which desolated the
empire during the first years of his reign, for he was doing every thing
in his power to bring those wars to a close. His administration was a
blessing to millions. Just before his death he said, and with truth
which no one will controvert, "During my whole reign no one can reproach
me with a single act which I knew to be unjust." Happy is the monarch
who can go into the presence of the King of kings with such a
conscience.

The death of the emperor was caused by a singular accident. He was not
very well, and was lying upon a couch in one of the chambers of his
palace. He had an infant son, but a few weeks old, lying in a cradle in
the nursery. A fire broke out in the apartment of the young prince. The
whole palace was instantly in clamor and confusion. Some attendants
seized the cradle of the young prince, and rushed with it to the chamber
of the emperor. In their haste and terror they struck the cradle with
such violence against the wall that it was broken to pieces and the
child fell, screaming, upon the f