Europe rang with the Cossacks’ praises: from scrubby renegades they had turned into latter-day Crusaders, new paladins in a holy war against the godless Mohammedan. ‘The horrible Turk opened his mouth,’ wrote a Polish polemicist approvingly, ‘but the brave Rus thrust his arm within. When Turkey rushed upon Poland with a mighty army, it was stopped by the Ruthenian force.’14
