Moldavia. The Ottomans could not presently retaliate, being occupied in Persia, so Petru was free to continue his intrigues between Ferdinand and Zápolya. The Poles tried in vain to have him replaced in 1538, appealing to the sultan to punish him. Then the over-zealous Petru, deserted by his own boyars, his capital Iași ablaze, and faced with a Turkish-Tatar-Polish army headed by Suleiman the Magnificent, who was bringing Ştefan Lăcustă to the throne, had to flee to his Transylvanian fortress of Ciceu. It is said that, during this flight, Rareş wandered for two weeks in the impassable forests of Transylvania, with difficulty making his way through spiny vegetation and ancient bushes and trees. Overcome by hunger, thirst, shock and despair, he was seen by a group of fishermen. Since he himself had been a fisherman, he was recognized and they sheltered and cared for him. Once he had recovered, his hosts garbed him in fishermen's clothes and showed him a shortcut to his citadel. Second period of rule It took over two years and various political changes in Transylvania and Moldavia before Petru was able to gain the sultan's forgiveness and regain the Moldavian throne in early 1541. Entering the country, he captured voievod Alexandru Cornea and his faithful boyars and killed them. Now, however, he was no longer trusted to wage wars, especially because he no longer retained his special links with Muntenia, his son-in-law Vlad VII Vintilă having been slain. Nor could he take back the Budjak, occupied by Suleiman, nor even the citadels of Ciceu and Cetatea de Baltă, except as simple fiefdoms (which he did in 1544), for their walls had been razed by George Martinuzzi. In 1541, Rareş caught Transylvanian voievod István Majláth at Făgăraş, on the sultan's orders, and sent him to Constantinople. In 1542 he tried unsuccessfully to take Bistriţa. Another failure was his enthusiastic involvement in plans for a crusade by Christian princes against the Ottomans. He lent the head of the proposed crusade, Joachim II of Brandenburg, 200,000 florins, but the initiative was abandoned when Buda was besieged in 1542 and Rareş died, still a Turkish vassal, on 3 September 1546. He is buried in the monastery that he endowed, Probota Monastery. On the ecclesiastical and artistic front, he continued the tradition inherited from Stephen the Great. Aided by his wife Jelena, he built and repaired numerous churches, including in Baia,