The Eastern Front(14)

For a few seconds, he stroked his large and prominent nose. Then, as Jozef had expected he would, the hetman sidestepped the issue. "I keep hearing rumors that the Americans are well-disposed toward Poland," he said. "Is that true, Nephew?"

"Well . . . It's complicated. On the one hand, yes. They tend to have a favorable attitude toward Poles. Quite favorable, actually."

"Why?" asked Lukasz.

"Several reasons. The first and simplest is that the country they came from was a country created by immigrants. Many of those immigrants were Polish."

The hetman grunted, and hefted a wine glass. "So I've heard. But I would assume many of them were Swedes also."

"There were immigrants from Sweden, yes, and other Scandinavian countries. But most of the Scandinavian immigrants settled elsewhere in America. Places called Minnesota and Wisconsin. There were many more Poles in the area from which Grantville came."

He made a little wagging gesture with his hand. "But that's only one reason, and perhaps not the most important. Some Poles, including noblemen, helped the Americans in their war of independence with England. And, in much more recent times—‘recent,' at least, as Americans see it—their principal antagonist was Russia. And since Poland was under Russian control—"

He restrained himself from adding: because of idiots like those who control the throne and Sejm.

"—and Poles chafed at the situation, the Americans were favorably disposed toward us."

Koniecpolski finished drinking from his cup. "And on the other hand?" he asked.

Jozef shrugged. "Despite their reputation for fanciful notions—what they themselves call ‘romanticism'—the Americans are every bit as inclined toward being practical and hardheaded as anyone else. The fact is, whether they are favorably disposed to us or not, they have formed a close political relationship with the king of Sweden. There are some aspects to that relationship which do not particularly please them, true. Still, by and large, most Americans think their bargain with Gustav Adolf has worked quite well for them. They are not going to jeopardize it because of some favorable sentiments toward us—which, when you come right down to it, are rather vague and nebulous sentiments in the first place."

Koniecpolski nodded again. His eyes never left Jozef's face, though. "And there's something else."

Jozef took a deep breath. "Yes, there is. Whatever favorable sentiments may exist among the Americans toward we Poles as a people, there are no favorable sentiments—not in their leadership, at any rate—toward the Commonwealth as it exists today. I have heard some of their speeches, Uncle, and read a great many more of their writings. That includes, for instance, a speech given by Michael Stearns in which he states that the two great evils which loom before the world today are chattel slavery in the New World and the second serfdom in eastern Europe. Both of which must be destroyed."

"His term?" asked Koniecpolski. "Destroyed?"

"One of his terms. Others were ‘eradicated,' ‘crushed,' and ‘scrubbed from existence.' He is quite serious about it, Uncle. He believes the great evils that afflicted the world he came from were caused, in large part, by the ever-widening divergence between the western and eastern parts of Europe. This, he claims, is what underlay the two great world wars that were fought in the century from which he came, in the course of which tens of millions of people died. And he lays the blame for that divergence upon the fact that, where serfdom vanished in western Europe, it had a resurgence in the eastern lands."

"He's no longer the prime minister of the USE, however," pointed out Lukasz.

"Yes—but that's beside the point. We were talking about the Americans, not the USE. Whether Mike Stearns is the prime minister or not, he still retains the personal allegiance of the big majority of Americans. That even includes Admiral Simpson now, who was once his most prominent opponent among the up-timers." Jozef finished his own glass of wine and set it down on a side table. "Besides, while he is no longer prime minister, he is now one of the three divisional commanders in Torstensson's army. The same army, I remind you, that crushed the French at Ahrensbök. So it's hardly the case that he's vanished from the scene."

The hetman shifted his massive shoulders. The gesture was not quite a shrug. "I may not even disagree with you, Jozef. But it doesn't matter. I am the grand hetman of Poland, not its king. Nor, perhaps more importantly, am I the Sejm. They will make the decision, not me—but I must tell you that King Wladyslaw is strongly inclined to intervene."