The Deluge (Polish: Potop) is a historical novel by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, published in 1886. It is the second volume of a three-volume series known to Poles as "the Trilogy," having been preceded by With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i mieczem, 1884) and followed by Fire in the Steppe (Pan Wołodyjowski, 1886). The novel tells a story of a fictional Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth soldier and noble Andrzej Kmicic and shows a panorama of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Swedish invasion of Poland known in the Polish tradtion as „Potop” (hence the title). Kmita is a patriot who, nevertheless, unexpectedly and unwittingly finds himself on the wrong side of the conflict as a new war starts to ravage the already weakened Commonwealth. This decision costs him dearly as his beloved Olenka now sees him as a traitor. This is an epic panorama of a country that is torn not only by a war with the external enemy, but also by a struggle with unscrupulous nobles who use their coun
