the Polish-Lithuanian nobleman Aleksander Jozef Lisowski, had even invaded Muscovy twenty years earlier at the head of an outlaw army. He’d besieged Bryansk, defeated two Russian armies sent against him, burned Belyov and Likhvin and taken Peremyshl, and then defeated another Russian army at Rzhev. He’d finally left at that point, but not before burning Torzhok also.
Lisowski himself had died not long afterward. But his men still remained and still considered themselves an army. The Lisowczycy, they called themselves; “Lisowski’s men.”
There were possibilities out there in the frontier lands of eastern Europe; eastward as well as to the south. People came to such lands for many reasons; usually running from something but also looking for adventure and fortune. Former serfs, former free men, former noblemen-the distinctions became blurry in the borderlands; sometimes, to the point of vanishing altogether.
What could happen in such lands, if there were a true czar to serve as a rallying point?
She didn’t know, but she planned to find out.
