"If 
 

 
r 
 
THE 
 
 OF 
 
 CHARLES THE TWELFTH, 
 SING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 BY M. DE VOLTAIRE. 
 
 A. JfEW TRANSLATION, FROM THE LAST PARIS EDITIOar. 
 
 HARTFORD, Ct. 
 
 °UBLISHED BY ANDKUS AND JUDD. 
 
 1833. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/historyofcharles01volt 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 An abridgment of the History of Sweden, to the reign of Charles XII. — 
 His education.— His enemies. — Character of Czar Peter Alexiowitz. 
 — Curious anecdotes relative to that prince and the Russian nation. — 
 Muscovy, Poland, and Denmark, unite against Charles. 15 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 A remarkable and unexpected change in the character of Charles. — At 
 the age of eighteen he engages in a war against Denmark, Poland, and 
 Muscovy. — Finishes that with Denmark in six weeks. — Defeats eighty 
 thousand Russians, with only eight thousand Swedes. — Marches into 
 Poland.— A description of Poland and its government. — Charles gains 
 many battles, and becomes master of Poland, where he prepares to 
 appoint a king. 40 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Stanislaus Leczinsky elected king of Poland. — Death of the cardinal 
 primate. — Skilful retreat of General Schulembourg. — Exploits of the 
 czar. — Foundation of Petersburgh. — Battle of Frauenstad. — Charles 
 enters Saxony. — Peace of Altranstad. — Augustus abdicates the crown 
 in favour of Stanislaus. — General Patkul, the czar's plenipotentiary, is 
 broke upon the wheel, and quartered. — Charles receives the ambassa- 
 dors of foreign princes. — Visits Augustus. 83 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 Charles quits Saxony. — Pursues the czar. — Penetrates into the Ukraine. 
 — His losses. — Is wounded. — The battle of Pultowa. — Consequences 
 of that battle. — Charles is forced to fly into Turkey. — His reception in 
 Bessarabia. 120 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 State of the Ottoman Porte. — Charles takes up his abode near Bender. — 
 His employments. — His intrigues at the Porte. — His designs. — Augus- 
 tus regains his throne. — The king of Denmark makes a descent upon 
 Sweden. — All the other dominions of Charles are attacked. — The czar 
 enters Moscow in triumph. — The affair of Pruth. — History of the 
 czarina, who, from a peasant, became an empress. 149 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 Intrigues at the Ottoman Porte.— The kam of Tartary and the pacha of 
 Bender endeavour to force Charles to depart.— He defends himself 
 with forty domestics against a whole army. — Is taken and treated as a 
 prisoner. » lg2 
 
4 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 book vn. 
 
 The Turks convey Charles toDemirtash. — King Stanislaus taken thither 
 at the same time. — The bold action of M. de Villelongue. — Revolutions 
 in the seraglio. — Battle in Pomerania. — Altena burnt by the Swedes. 
 —Charles sets out on his return to his own dominions. — His 
 strange manner of travelling. — His arrival at' Stralsund. — His mis- 
 fortunes. — Successes of Peter the Great. — His triumphant entry into 
 Petersburgh. 210 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 Charles gives his sister in marriage to the prince of Hesse. — Is besieged 
 at Stralsund, and escapes to Sweden. — Enterprise of Baron de Gortz, 
 his prime minister. — Plan of a reconciliation with the czar, and of a 
 descent upon England. — Charles besieges Frederickshall, in Norway. 
 «— Is killed. — His character. — Gortz is beheaded. 241 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 EDITION die MACCE. 
 
 Incredulity, says Aristotle, is the source of all wisdom* 
 This maxim is exceedingly proper for all who read history, 
 and ancient history in particular. 
 
 How many absurd facts! How many fables shocking 
 to common sense! What then? Do not believe a word of 
 them. 
 
 There were kings, consuls, and decemvirs in Rome ; the 
 Roman people destroyed Carthage; Caesar conquered P o ra- 
 pe y ; these are all truths : but when you are told that Castor 
 and Pollux fought for them ; that a vestal with her girdle 
 set afloat a stranded vessel ; that an abyss closed as soon as 
 Curtius had thrown himself into it — do not believe a word of 
 it. You read every where of prodigies; of predictions ac- 
 complished; and of miraculous cures performed in the tem- 
 ples of Esculapius — do not believe a word of them.. But a 
 hundred witnesses have signed the verbal process of these 
 miracles upon brazen tables! and the temples were filled 
 with votive tablets which attest the Cures ! 
 
 Believe they were fools and knaves who attested what 
 they never saw ; believe they were devotees who made pre- 
 sents to the priests of Esculapius as often as their children 
 were cured of a cold; but of the miracles of this god, do not 
 believe one word. 
 
 But the Egyptian priests were all sorcerers, and Herodotus 
 admires their profound science in Demonism ! Do not be- 
 lieve a word of it. Herodotus had his information from their 
 own mouths. 
 
 I shall always distrust whatever is marvellous; but ought 
 I to carry my incredulity so far as to doubt facts, which are 
 in the common order of human events, because they are de- 
 ficient in moral probability ? For example, Plutarch assures 
 us, that Caesar in complete armour threw himself into the sea 
 of Alexandria, holding in the air, with one hand, papers 
 
6 
 
 PREFACE TO THE 
 
 which he wished to keep dry, and swimming with the other. 
 Do not believe a word of this story of Plutarch's ; rather be- 
 lieve Caesar himself, who says not a word of it in his Com- 
 mentaries ; and be sure that when a person throws himself 
 into the sea, and has papers in his hand, that he will wet 
 them. 
 
 You will find in Quintus Curtius, that Alexander and his . 
 generals were perfectly astonished when they beheld the flux 
 and reflux of the ocean, which they did not expect. Don't 
 believe a word of it. It is exceedingly probable that Alex- 
 ander, when he was drunk, killed Clytus ; that he loved He- 
 phestion as Socrates did Alcibiades : but it is not at all likely 
 that the pupil of Aristotle should be ignorant of the flux and 
 reflux of the ocean. There were philosophers in his army ; 
 it was sufficient to have been upon the Euphrates, at the 
 mouth of which there are tides, to have been acquainted with 
 this phenomenon. Alexander had travelled in Africa, the 
 coasts of which are washed by the ocean. Could his admiral, 
 Nearchus, be so ignorant as not to know what was known to 
 every child upon the banks of the river Indus ? Such non- 
 sense repeated by so many writers throws too much discredit 
 upon historians. 
 
 Father Maimbourg copies from a hundred other writers, 
 a story of two Jews having promised the empire to Leo Isau- 
 ricus, upon condition that when he was emperor, he should 
 pull down the images. What interest had these two Jews 
 to hinder Christians from having pictures? How could these 
 two wretches promise the empire ? Is it not insulting the 
 reader to present him with such fables ? 
 
 It must be allowed that Mezeray, in his hard, low and un- 
 equal manner, together with ill-digested facts, relates many 
 absurdities as great as those we have mentioned. He tells 
 us that Henry Vth of England, who was crowned king of 
 France at Paris, died of the piles for having sat down upon 
 the throne of our kings ; and gravely relates the appearance 
 of St. Michael to Joan of Arc. 
 
 I do not even believe ocular witnesses when they tell me 
 things repugnant to common sense. The Sieurde Joinville, 
 or rather his translator, assures me in vain that the Emirs of 
 Egypt, after having assassinated their Sultan, offered the 
 crov. n to St. Louis their prisoner. I could as soon believe 
 that we had offered the crown of France to a Turk. What 
 probability is there, that the Mahometans should have thought 
 of making that man their sovereign, whom they could not 
 
EDITION OF MDCCL. 
 
 7 
 
 consider in any other light than as a leader of barbarians whom 
 they had taken in battle, that could not be acquainted with 
 their laws or their language, and who was the capital enemy 
 of their religion ? Nor can I give him greater credit, when he 
 tells us, that the Nile overflowed at the feast of Saint Remy 
 in the beginning of October. I shall dispute with equal bold- 
 ness the history of the Old Man of the Mountain, who, upon 
 the news of St. .< uis's crusade, despatched two assassins to 
 kill him, and next day, upon hearing of his virtue, sent off 
 two couriers to countermand them. This has too much the 
 air of an Arabian tale. 
 
 There is nothing certainly more probable than that crimes 
 have been committed, but none should be related that can- 
 not be proved. We find in Mezeray, accounts of more than 
 sixty princes " who have swallowed a mouthful but 
 he adduces no proof, and a popular report should only be 
 held as a report. 
 
 I will not believe even Livy, when he tells me that Pyr- 
 rhus's physician offered to the Romans to poison his master 
 for a bribe. The Romans had scarce begun to coin money, 
 and Pyrrhus could have bought the republic, if it would have 
 set itself to sale. The place of first physician to Pyrrhus 
 was probably more lucrative than that of consul. I will not 
 believe this story, till it has been proved to me that some first 
 physician of one of our kings has asked one of the Swiss 
 cantons to pay him for poisoning his patient. 
 
 Let us equally mistrust whatever appears exaggerated. 
 An innumerable army of Persians impeded by three hundred 
 Spartans at the pass of Thermopylae, does not stagger my 
 belief. The nature and disposition of the country render 
 such an event credible. That Charles XII., with eight 
 thousand veterans, defeated at Narva about four score thou- 
 sand ill armed Muscovite peasants, though it astonishes me, 
 yet I believe it ; but when I read that Symon de Montfort, 
 with nine hundred soldiers in three bodies, routed an army of 
 a hundred thousand men, I must loudly express my infi- 
 delity. I am told it is a miracle ; but is it likely that God has 
 worked this miracle for Symon de Montfort ? 
 
 I should doubtless call in question the combat of Charles 
 XII. at Bender, but that the truth of it has been attested to 
 me by several ocular witnesses, and the character of Charles 
 XII. renders probable this heroical extravagance. This mis- 
 trust which we ought to entertain for particular facts, let us 
 exercise also in regard to the manners of foreign nations* 
 
8 
 
 PREFACE TO THE 
 
 Let us refuse our confidence to every historian, ancient and 
 modern, who relates to us things contrary to the nature and 
 turn of the human heart. 
 
 All the first accounts of America talked only of man-eaters 
 It seemed, according to them, that the Americans eat men 
 as commonly as we do sheep. This fact, better ascertained, 
 dwindles into a small number of prisoners who have been de- 
 voured by their conquerors instead of the worms. 
 
 The ancients, and their innumerable and credulous com- 
 pilers, repeat to us incessantly, that at Babylon, the best po- 
 liced city in the universe, all the women and girls prostitu- 
 ted themselves once a year in the temple of Venus. I have 
 no difficulty in believing, that at Babylon, as well as else- 
 where, pleasure was to be purchased with money ; but I 
 can never persuade myself, that in the best policed city which 
 was then in the universe, every father and every husband 
 should send his wife and his daughters to a market of public 
 prostitution, and that legislators should command this extra- 
 ordinary commerce. Every day a thousand equal absurdi- 
 ties are published respecting the manners of the east ; and, 
 for one traveller like Chardin, how many have we like Paul 
 Lucas ! 
 
 A Greek monk, a Latin monk, writes, that Mahomet the 
 Second delivered the city of Constantinople over to pillage, 
 that he broke with his own hand the images of Jesus Christ, 
 and that he turned all the churches into mosques. To ren- 
 der this conqueror more hateful, they add, that he cut off the 
 head of his mistress to please his janissaries, and that he cut 
 up the bellies of fourteen of his pages to find which of them 
 had eaten a melon. A hundred historians copy these miser- 
 able fables, and the dictionaries of Europe repeat them. 
 Consult the real annals of Turkey, compiled by Prince Can- 
 temia, you will see how ridiculous are all these lies. You 
 will learn that the great Mahomet the second, having taken 
 one half of the city of Constantinople by assault, deigned to 
 capitulate with the other, and preserved the churches ; that 
 he created a Greek patriarch, to whom he granted greater 
 honours than the Greek emperors had ever given to the pre- 
 decessors of that bishop. In short, consult common sense, 
 and you will judge how ridiculous it is to suppose that a 
 great monarch, learned, and even polite as Mahomet the 
 Second was, should eviscerate fourteen pages for a melon; 
 and if you are ever so little informed of the manners of the 
 Turks, you will see how extravagant it is to imagine that the 
 
EDITION OF MDCCL. 
 
 9 
 
 soldiers should concern themselves with what passes be- 
 tween the sultan and his women, and that an emperor 
 should cut off the head of his favourite to please them. 
 It is thus, however, that the greater part of history is 
 written. 
 
 It is not so with the history of Charles XII. I can affirm, 
 that if ever any history was entitled to belief, this is. I com- 
 posed it originally (as is known) from the memoirs of Mons. 
 Fabricius, of Messrs. de Fierville and de Villelongue, and 
 from the testimony of many ocular witnesses. But as wit- 
 nesses do not see all, and as sometimes they see wrong, I 
 fell into more than one mistake, not only with regard to ma- 
 terial facts, but also in the relation of some anecdotes, which 
 in themselves are indifferent, but which furnish matter of 
 triumph to contemptible critics. 
 
 I have even made use of the history written by Norberg, 
 chaplain and confessor to Charles XII., although it is a work 
 very ill digested and very ill written, replete with trifling 
 facts foreign to the subject, and which sets the most impor- 
 tant events in the most trilling light. It is in fact a mere 
 tissue of rescripts, declarations, and publications which are 
 usually made in the name of kings when they are at war, 
 but which never serve to lay open the true state of affairs. 
 They are useless to the politician and the soldier, and tire- 
 some to the reader. A writer may consult them sometimes 
 only in a case of necessity, for information, just as an archi- 
 tect may employ the old rubbish in a building. 
 
 Among the public pieces with which Norberg has loaded 
 his wretched history, there are to be found many which are 
 suppositious and absurd; such as the letter of Achmet, em- 
 peror of the Turks, whom that historian calls sultan bashaw 
 by the grace of God.* 
 
 This sam^ Norberg makes the king of Sweden say that 
 which he neither said or could have said relative to King 
 Stanislaus. He pretends that Charles XII., in answer to 
 the objections of the primate, told him, that Stanislaus had 
 made many friends during his journey to Italy; although it 
 is certain that Stanislaus was never in Italy, as it is confirm- 
 ed by the testimony of that monarch himself. 
 
 Norberg had neither understanding, wit, nor acquaintance 
 with the affairs of the world, and this is probably what de- 
 termined Charles XII. to choose him for his confessor. I do 
 
 * See the letter of M. Voltaire to M. Norberg. 
 
10 
 
 PREFACE, &c. 
 
 not think he has set his prince in the light even of a good 
 christian, but most assuredly he has not made him a hero. 
 Charles XII. would, ere this, have been forgotten, had he 
 none other than Norberg to preserve his name from obli- 
 vion. 
 
 It is proper to remark in this place, that there was pub- 
 lished a few vears since, a small pamphlet, entitled, " His- 
 torical and critical remarks upon the history of Charles XII. 
 by M. de Voltaire." This little work is Count Poniatow- 
 sky's. It consists of answers he had given to fresh questions 
 on my part during his late journey to Paris, but his secretary 
 having taken a double copy of it, it fell into a bookseller's 
 hands who did not fail to print it, and the corrector of the press 
 in Holland entitled Mr.. Poniatowsky's information " a Cri- 
 tique," to sell it the better. This is one of the most trilling 
 frauds which are practised in that trade. 
 
 La Mottray, a servant of Monsieur Fabricius, has also 
 printed some remarks upon this history. Amidst the mis- 
 takes and the frivolousness with which this critique of La 
 Mottray abounds, there is, notwithstanding, something both 
 useful and true, and I have taken care to profit by it in the 
 later editions, and especially in this ; for in writing history 
 nothing must be despised ; we must consult, if we have the 
 opportunity, both kings and valets-de-chambre. 
 
DISSERTATION 
 
 ON THE 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 There are very few sovereigns whose history ought to have been 
 written apart. In vain have flattery and malignity exerted themselves 
 for almost every prince. There is but a very small number of them 
 whose memory we preserve, and this number would be still smaller if 
 we remembered only such as were virtuous. 
 
 The princes that have the best claim to immortality are they who have 
 done some good to mankind ; thus, as long as France shall endure, it 
 will remember the affection of Louis the Twelfth for his people. The 
 great faults of Francis the First will be forgiven for the sake of the arts 
 and sciences of which he was the father. Blest will be the memory of 
 Henry the Fourth, who conquered his inheritance first by his valour and 
 then by his clemency. The magnificence of Louis the Fourteenth 
 will be applauded, who protected the arts which Francis had called into 
 existence. 
 
 For a contrary reason, we preserve the memory of bad princes, as we 
 record fires, plagues, and inundations. 
 
 Conquerors are a species between good kings and tyrants, but partake 
 most of the latter, and have a glaring reputation. We are eager to know 
 the most minute circumstances of their lives. Such is the miserable 
 weakness of mankind, that they look with admiration upon persons glo- 
 rious for mischief, and are better pleased to be talking of the destroyer 
 than the founder of an empire. 
 
 As for those princes who have made no figure either in peace or war— 
 who have neither been remarkable for great virtues nor vices — their lives 
 furnish so little matter either for imitation or instruction, that they are not 
 worthy of notice Of so many emperors of Rome, Greece, Germany, 
 
12 
 
 DISSERTATION. 
 
 and Muscovy — of so many sultans, caliphs, popes, and kings — how few 
 are there whose names deserve to be recorded any where but in chro- 
 nological tables, where they are of no other use but to mark the 
 EPOC has ! 
 
 There is a vulgar among princes as well as among the rest of man- 
 kind ; yet such is the itch of writing, that a prince is no sooner dead, but 
 the world is immediately deluged with volumes under the name of me- 
 moirs, the history of his life, or the anecdotes of his court. By these 
 means books have been so multiplied, that were a man to live a hundred 
 years, and employ them all in reading, he would not be able to run over 
 all that has been published relating to the history of Europe for the last 
 two centuries. 
 
 This desire of transmitting such useless stories to posterity, and of fix- 
 ing the attention of future ages upon the most common events, is owing 
 to the weakness of those who have long lived in some court, and have 
 had the misfortune to bear any part in public affairs. They think the 
 court they have lived in the finest, their king the greatest, and the affairs 
 they have been concerned in the most important that ever were ; and they 
 imagine posterity will behold them in the same light. 
 
 If a prince has had wars abroad, troubles or intrigues at home ; if he 
 buys the friendship of his neighbours, or sells his own-, if, after some 
 victories and some defeats, he makes peace with his enemies ; his sub- 
 jects, heated with the quick succession of these events, think they were 
 born in the most marvellous era since the creation. And what then ? 
 This prince dies ; new measures are taken ; the intrigues of his court, 
 his mistresses, ministers, generals, wars, nay, he himself, is for- 
 gotten. 
 
 Ever since Christian princes have been endeavouring to outwit one 
 another, making sometimes peace, sometimes war, they have signed 
 thousands of treaties, and fought as many battles, and the great and the 
 infamous actions which have been done are innumerable. Yet should 
 this heap of events and details be transmitted to posterity, they would 
 most of them confound and destroy each other, and the memory of those 
 only would survive, which have occasioned great revolut-' jns, or 
 which having been related by good authors, are preserve^ like pic- 
 tures of obscure persons, only because they were drawn 1 y a masterly 
 hand. 
 
 A particular history of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden had not increa- 
 sed this public grievance, were it not that he and his rival, Peter Alexi- 
 owitz, a much greater man than himself, have been, by the confession of 
 all the world, the most extraordinary personages that have appeared for 
 more than twenty centuries. Yet was not the trifling satisfaction of re- 
 lating extraordinary actions the sole motive for writing this life ; it was 
 suspected that its perusal might become advantageous to princes, if this 
 
DISSERTATION. 
 
 13 
 
 book should by chance fall into their hands. Certainly there is no sove- 
 reign who, by the study of the history of Charles XII., ought not to be cured 
 of the madness of conquering ; for where is the sovereign who can say, 1 
 have greater courage, more virtues, more resolution, more strength of 
 body, greater skill in war, or better troops, than Charles the Twelfth ? 
 If, with all these favourable circumstances, and after so many victories, 
 he was so unfortunate, what may other princes expect, who shall have as 
 much ambition, with less talents and tewer resources ? 
 
 This history is composed from the relations of some persons of dis« 
 tinction, who have spent several years with Charles the Twelfth, and 
 Peter the Great, Emperor of Muscovy ; and having retired long after 
 the death of those princes to a free country, have no interest in disguising 
 the truth. 
 
 Monsieur Fabricius, who lived seven years in intimacy with Charles 
 XII., Mons. de Fierville, minister from France, Mons. de Villelonque, 
 colonel in the Swedish service, Mons. Poniatowsky himself, have fur 
 nished these memoirs. i 
 
 Not one fact is advanced upon which eye witnesses of irreproachable 
 veracity have not been consulted ; which makes the history very dif- 
 ferent from those gazettes which have hitherto come out under the 
 title of Lives of Charles the Twelfth. 
 
 Many little skirmishes between the Muscovite and Swedish officers 
 are omitted ; for it is the life of the king of Sweden, not his officers, that 
 is here intended to be written ; and of his life we have only selected 
 the most important events. We are persuaded that the history of a 
 prince consists not of all he has done worthy to be transmitted to pos- 
 terity. 
 
 It is necessary to observe that many things which were true at the time 
 of writing this history in 1728, were no longer so in 1739. For instance, 
 trade began at that time to be less neglected in Sweden ; the Polish 
 infantry was better disciplined, and had a uniform, which it did not wear 
 at the first period. In reading history, we must always consider the time 
 of its writing. A person who should read only the memoirs of the Car- 
 dinal de Retz, would take the P rench nation for a set of enthusiasts, 
 breathing nothing but faction, madness, and civil war. To read the 
 history of the fortunate years of Louis the Fourteenth, one would judge 
 them a people born only for obedience, conquests, and the polite arts. 
 Another, who should see the memoirs of the first years of Louis the 
 Fifteenth, would remark nothing in our nation but its effeminacy, an 
 extreme avidity for wealth, and too much indifference for every thing 
 besides. 
 
 The present Spaniards are not the Spaniards of Charles the Fifth, 
 and yet they may deserve that character in afllw years. The English 
 of this age no more resemble the fanatics in Cromwell's time, than the 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 DISSERTATION. 
 
 monks and monsignori who fill the streets of Rome are like the ancient 
 Scipios. I doubt whether the Swedish troops could suddenly become 
 so formidable as those of Charles the Twelfth. We say of a man, that 
 he was brave at such a time ; and so we may say of a nation, that they 
 were so and so in such a year, or under such an administration. 
 
 If any prince or minister of state should meet with disagreeable truths 
 in this book, remember that being public men, they owe an account of 
 their actions to the public ; that this is the price with which they pur- 
 chase their greatness ; that history is a witness, and not a flatterer ; 
 and that the only way to force men to speak well of us, is to act 
 well. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Argument. — An abridgment of the History of Sweden, to the reign of 
 Charles XII.— His education. — His enemies.— Character of Czar Pe- 
 ter Alexiowitz. — Curious anecdotes relative to that prince and the 
 Russian nation.— Muscovy, Poland, and Denmark, unite against 
 Charles. 
 
 Sweden and Finland form a kingdom one third part greater 
 in extent than France, but very inferior to it in fertility, and 
 at this time in population, This country extends nearly 
 from the fifty-fifth to the seventieth degree of north latitude, 
 being in length three, and in breadth two hundred French 
 leagues, and lies under a severe climate, that hath hardiy 
 either spring or autumn. Winter prevails there nine months 
 of the year ; the heat of summer immediately succeeding to 
 the winter's excessive cold; it beginning to freeze in the 
 month of October, without any of those insensible gradations 
 which in other countries usher in the seasons, and render 
 the variation the more pleasing. Nature, as a compensation, 
 however, has given to this severe cHmate a serene sky and 
 a pure air. The almost continual heat of the summer's sun 
 produces flowers and fruits in a short time. The tediousness 
 of the long winter nights is alleviated by the morning and 
 evening twilights, which last in proportion as the sun is more 
 or less removed from Sweden. At the same time, the bright- 
 ness of the moon, which is not obscured by clouds, but in- 
 creased by the reflection of the snow laying upon the earth, 
 and frequently by the northern lights, renders it as convenient 
 to travel in Sweden by night as by day. The cattle are in 
 this country, through want of pasturage, smaller than those of 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 the more southern parts of Europe. The men are larger; the 
 serenity of the sky conduces to their health, as the rigour of the 
 climate does to their strength ; they live even to a greater age 
 than other men, when not debilitated by the immoderate use 
 of wine and strong liquors, which the northern nations seem 
 to be more immoderately fond of in proportion as they are 
 denied to them by nature. 
 
 The Swedes are well made, robust, active, and capable of 
 sustaining the greatest fatigue, hunger, and penury. Born to 
 a military life, full of pride, more brave than industrious, they 
 have long neglected, and even to this day but badly cultivate, 
 the arts of commerce, which only can supply them with what 
 is wanting to their country. It is said to be principally from 
 Sweden, of which one part is still named Gothland, that those 
 multitudes of Goths issued forth, who, like an inundation, 
 overwhelmed Europe, and rent it from the Roman empire, 
 which had for five hundred years been its usurper, its legisla- 
 tor, and its tyrant. 
 
 The northern countries were at that time much more 
 populous than at present ; not only from their religion af- 
 fording the inhabitants an opportunity of furnishing the state 
 with a greater number of subjects, by the possession of a plu- 
 rality of wives ; but because the women themselves knew no 
 reproach like that of sterility and idleness ; and being as la- 
 borious and robust as the men, they attained earlier, and re- 
 mained longer in the time of fecundity. 
 
 Sweden preserved its liberty till the middle of the four- 
 teenth century : for though during so long a period there 
 happened more than one revolution in government, such 
 revolutions turned out constantly in favour of freedom. To 
 its chief magistrate was given the name of king, a title that 
 in different countries has very different degrees of power 
 annexed to it. In France and Spain it signifies an abso- 
 lute monarch ; in Poland, Sweden, and England, the head 
 of the commonwealth. The king of Sweden could do no- 
 thing without the senate ; and the senate depended upon 
 the states general, which were often convened. The 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 17 
 
 representatives of the nation in these numerous assemblies, 
 were the gentlemen, bishops, and deputies of the towns; 
 and, in process of time, the peasantry, a class of people un- 
 justly slighted in other nations, and enslaved in almost all 
 the countries of the North. 
 
 About the year 1492, this nation, though jealous of its 
 liberty, and boasting even to this day of having conquered 
 Rome thirteen centuries ago, was reduced to slavery by a 
 woman, and a people less powerful than themselves. 
 
 Margaret Waldeinar, the Semiramis of the North, Queen 
 of Denmark and Norway, joining address to force, conquered 
 Sweden, and formed these three great states into one king- 
 dom. After her decease, the country was distracted by civil 
 wars; throwing off and submitting again to the Danish yoke, 
 under the alternate administration of kings and popular pro- 
 tectors. Two of these tyrants oppressed them terribly about 
 the year 1520 ; the one, Christiern II. King of Denmark, a 
 monster in vice, without one compensating virtue ; the other 
 an archbishop of Upsal, primate of the kingdom, equally 
 barbarous with King Christiern. These two, in concert, 
 caused the consuls and magistrates of Stockholm, together 
 with ninety-four senators, to be seized in one day and mas- 
 sacred by the common executioners, under the pretext that 
 they were excommunicated by the Pope, for having defended 
 the rights of the State against the Archbishop. After this, 
 they gave up Stockholm to be pillaged, and the whole town 
 was put to the sword, without distinction of age or sex. 
 
 While these men, agreeing as to the means of oppression, 
 and differing only in dividing the spoil, were committing 
 acts of the greatest cruelty, and exercising a most tyrannical 
 despotism, a singular and novel event gave a turn to the 
 affairs of the North. 
 
 Gustavus Vasa, a youth descended from the ancient Kings 
 of Sweden, issued forth from amidst the forests of Dele- 
 carlia, where he had lain concealed, in order to deliver his 
 country from slavery. He had one of those great souls which 
 nature so seldom forms, possessed of all the qualities neces- 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 sary to govern mankind. The advantages of a fine person, and 
 a noble mien, prepossessed every one in his favour, so that 
 he gained partisans wherever he appeared. His eloquence, 
 to which his engaging deportment gave peculiar force, was 
 the more persuasive, as it was artless and simple. His en- 
 terprising genius formed those projects which to the vulgar 
 appear rash, but are imputed to a noble daring by great 
 minds; and these his courage and perseverance enabled him 
 to accomplish. Intrepid yet prudent, of a gentle disposition 
 in a ferocious age, he was, in short, as virtuous as it is sup- 
 posed the head of a party can possibly be. 
 
 Gustavus had been the hostage of Christiern, and had 
 been detained a prisoner, contrary to the law of nations. 
 Having escaped from prison, he had disguised himself in 
 the habit of a peasant, and wandered about in the mountains 
 and woods of Delecarlia; where he was reduced to the 
 necessity of working in the copper-mines, for subsistence 
 and concealment. Buried as he was in these subterraneous 
 caverns, he had the courage to form the design of de- 
 throning the tyrant. . To this end, he discovered himself to 
 the peasants, who looked upon him as one of that superior 
 order of beings to which common men owe a natural sub- 
 mission. These servile savages he soon converted into sol- 
 diers. He attacked Christiern and the Archbishop, repeated- 
 ly defeated them, banished them from Sweden, and at last 
 was deservedly chosen by the States, king of that country 
 of which he had been a deliverer. 
 
 He was scarcely established on the throne, when he un- 
 dertook an enterprise still more difficult than conquest. The 
 real tyrants of the State w r ere the Bishops, who, having en- 
 grossed almost all the wealth of the kingdom, made use of it 
 to oppress the subjects, and make war upon the King. Their 
 power was the more formidable, as popular ignorance held 
 it to be sacred. On the Catholic religion, therefore, Gusta- 
 vus revenged the criminality of its ministers ; so that in less 
 than two years, Lutheranism was introduced into Sweden ; 
 and that rather by the arts of policy, than by the influence. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 19 
 
 of authority. Having thus conquered the kingdom, as he 
 used to express it, from the Danes and the clergy, he reigned 
 a successful and absolute monarch to the age of seventy, 
 when he died full of glory, leaving his family and religion in 
 peaceable possession of the throne. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus was one of his descendants, common- 
 ly called the Great Gustavus. This prince made a conquest 
 of Ingria, Livonia, Bremen, Verdun, Wismar, and Pomera- 
 nia, besides above a hundred places in Germany, which, 
 after his death, were yielded up by the Swedes. He shook 
 the throne of Ferdinand the Second, and protected the Lu- 
 therans in Germany, in which he was secretly assisted by 
 the See of Rome, who dreaded the power of the emperor 
 much more than that of heresy. It was this Gustavus who, 
 by his victories, contributed in fact to humble the House of 
 Austria; although the glory of that enterprise is usually 
 ascribed entirely to Cardinal de Richelieu, who well knew 
 how to procure himself the reputation of those great actions 
 which Gustavus was content with performing. He was on 
 the point of extending the war beyond the Danube, and per- 
 haps of dethroning the Emperor, when he was killed, in the 
 thirty-seventh year of his age, at the battle of Lutzen, which 
 he gained over Walstein, carrying with him to his grave 
 the name of Great, lamented by the people of the North, and 
 respected even by his enemies. 
 
 His daughter Christini, a woman of uncommon genius, 
 was much fonder of conversing with men of letters than of 
 reigning over a people whose knowledge was confined to 
 the art of war. She rendered herself as famous for resigning 
 a throne, as her ancestors had been for obtaining or esta- 
 blishing it. The protestants have aspersed her character, 
 as if it were impossible for a person to be possessed of great 
 virtues without adhering to Luther ; while the papists have 
 triumphed too much on the pretended conversion of a 
 woman who was no more than a philosopher. She retired 
 to Rome, where she passed the remainder of her days 
 in the midst of the arts she was fond of, and for which 
 she had renounced a kingdom at twenty-seven years of age. 
 
20 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 Before her abdication, she prevailed on the states of 
 Sweden to elect her cousin, Charles Gustavus X. son to the 
 Count Palatine, and duke of Deux-Points, to succeed to the 
 crown. This prince added new conquests to those of Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus ; carrying immediately his arms into Poland, 
 where he gained the famous battle of Warsaw, which lasted 
 three days. He waged a long and successful war with the 
 Danes ; besieged their capital ; re-united Schonen to Sweden ; 
 and confirmed, at least for a time, the Duke of Holstein in 
 the possession of Sleswick. Experiencing afterwards a re- 
 verse of fortune, he concluded a peace with his enemies, 
 and turned his ambition against his subjects. Thus he 
 formed the design of establishing a despotic government in 
 Sweden, but died, like Gustavus the Great, in the thirty- 
 seventh year of his age, before he had been able to complete 
 that system of despotism which was brought to perfection 
 by his son, Charles XI. 
 
 Charles XI. a warrior like his ancestors, was more des- 
 potic than any of them. He abolished the authority of the 
 senate, which was declared the senate of the king, and not 
 of the kingdom. He was frugal, vigilant, indefatigable ; 
 which would have made him beloved by his subjects, had 
 not his despotic spirit converted their love into fear. 
 
 In 1680 he married Ulrica Eleonora, daughter to Frede- 
 rick III. King of Denmark, a princess of great virtues, and 
 worthy of greater confidence than her husband reposed in 
 her. Of this marriage, on the 27th of June, 1682, was born 
 King Charles XII. the most extraordinary man, perhaps, 
 that ever appeared in the world. In him were united all 
 the great qualities of his ancestors ; nor had he any other 
 fault or misfortune but that he carried all these virtues to 
 excess. It is this prince of whom we propose to write 
 whatever we have learned with certainty relating either to 
 his person or his actions. 
 
 The first book he was set to read, was the work of Samuel 
 Puffendorff, in order to give him an early knowledge of his 
 own and the neighbouring States. The first foreign laa- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 21 
 
 guage taught him, was the German, which he continued ever 
 after to speak with the same fluency as his mother tongue. 
 At seven years of age, he was a proficient in horsemanship ; 
 when the violent exercises in which he delighted, and which 
 discovered his martial turn, soon gave him a vigorous con- 
 stitution, capable to support the fatigues to which his natural 
 inclination prompted him. 
 
 Though gentle in his infancy, he betrayed an inflexible 
 obstinacy. The only way to bend him, was to awaken his 
 sense of honour; with the name of Glory, everything could 
 be obtained from him. He' had an aversion to Latin; but as 
 soon as he heard that the kings of Poland and Denmark un- 
 derstood it, he learned it presently, and retained so much of 
 it as to be able to speak it all the rest of his life. The same 
 means were employed to engage him to learn the French ; 
 but he persisted, as long as he lived, in the disuse of that 
 tongue, which he would not speak, even to the French am- 
 bassadors themselves, though they understood no other. j 
 
 As soon as he had acquired a little knowledge of the La- 
 tin, his teacher made him translate Quintus Curtius; a book 
 to which he was attached still more on account of the sub- 
 ject than the style. The preceptor, who explained this au- 
 thor to him, asking him one day, what he thought of Alex- 
 ander; " I think," said the prince, "I could wish to resemble 
 him." "But," resumed the preceptor, "he lived only two 
 and thirty years." w And is that not long enough (replied 
 he) for one who has conquered kingdoms ?" The courtiers 
 did not fail to report these answers to the king his father, who 
 exclaimed, " This boy will surpass his father, and even Gus- 
 tavus the Great." Amusing himself one day in the royal 
 apartments in viewing two plans, the one of a town in Hun- 
 gary, which the Turks had taken from the emperor; the 
 other of Riga, the capita! of Livonia, a province conquered 
 by the Swedes, about a century before ; under the plan of the 
 town in Hungary were written these words, taken from the 
 book of Job : " The Lord hath given it me, and the Lord 
 hath taken it from me; blessed be the name of the Lord." 
 
22 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 The young prince having read this inscription, immediately 
 took, a pencil, and wrote under the plan of Riga, " The Lord 
 hath given it to me, and the devil shall not take it from me." 
 Thus, in the most indifferent actions of his childhood, his 
 unconquerable spirit would frequently discover the charac- 
 teristic traces of an uncommon genius, which plainly indica- 
 ted what he would one day prove. 
 
 He was eleven years of age when he lost his mother ; 
 who died on the fifth of August, 1693, of a disease, as was 
 supposed, owing to the bad usage she had received from her 
 husband, and to her endeavours to conceal her chagrin. 
 Charles XI. had, by means of a certain court of justice, call- 
 ed the Chamber of Liquidations, erected by his sole authori- 
 ty, deprived a great number of his subjects of their wealth. 
 Crowds of citizens ruined by this chamber, nobility, mer- 
 chants, farmers, widows, and orphans, filled the streets of 
 Stockholm, and daily repaired to the gates of the palace, to 
 vent their unavailing complaints. The queen relieved these 
 unhappy people as much as lay in her power; she gave them 
 her money, her jewels, her furniture, and even her clothes : 
 and when she had no more to give them, she threw herself 
 in tears at her husband's feet, beseeching him to have pity on 
 his subjects. The king gravely answered her, "Madam, 
 we took you to bring us children, not to give us advice 
 and from that time he is said to have treated her with a se- 
 verity which shortened her days. 
 
 He died four years after her, on the fifteenth of April, 1697, 
 in the forty-second year of his age, and the thirty-seventh of 
 his reign, at a time when the Empire, Spain, and Holland, on 
 one side, and France on the other, had referred the decision 
 of their quarrels to his arbitration, and when he had already 
 begun the work of pacification between these powers. 
 
 He left his son, who was then fifteen years of age, a throne, 
 well established at home, and respected abroad; subjects 
 poor, indeed, but warlike and loyal; with finances in good 
 order, and under the management of able ministers. 
 
 Charles XII. at his accession to the throne, found himself 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 23 
 
 not only the absolute and undisturbed master of Sweden and 
 Finland, but also of Livonia, Carelia, Ingria, Wismar, Wi- 
 bourg, the islands of Rugen and Oesel, and the finest part 
 of Pomerania, together with the dutchy of Bremen and Ver- 
 dun, all of them the conquests of his ancestors, secured to 
 the crown by long possession, and by the solemn treaties of 
 Munster and Olivia, and supported by the terror of the Swe- 
 dish arms. The peace of Ryswick, begun under the auspi- 
 ces of his father, being concluded under those of the son, he 
 found himself the mediator of Europe at the commencement 
 of his reign. 
 
 The laws of Sweden fix the majority of their kings at the 
 age of fifteen ; but Charles XL, who was entirely absolute, 
 deferred by his last' will the majority of his son to the age 
 of eighteen. In this he favoured the ambitious views of his 
 mother Edwiga-Eleonora, of Holstein, dowager of Charles 
 X., who was appointed by the king, her son, tutoress to the 
 young king, her grandson, and regent of the kingdom, in 
 conjunction with a council of five persons. 
 
 The regent had a share in the management of public af- 
 fairs during the reign of her son. She was now advanced 
 in years; but her ambition, which was greater than her ge- 
 nius, prompted her to entertain the hopes of possessing au- 
 thority for a long time under the king, her grandson. She 
 kept him at as great a distance as possible from affairs of 
 state. The young prince passed his time either in hunting or 
 in reviewing his troops, and would even sometimes exercise 
 with them; which amusement seemed 6pWj$*ybe the natural 
 effect of his youthful vivacity. He never fefrayed any dis- 
 satisfaction sufficient to alarm the regent, who flattered her- 
 self that the dissipation of mind occasioned by these diver- 
 sions would render him incapable of application, and leave 
 her the longer in possession of the regal power. 
 
 One day in the month of November, in the same year his 
 lather died, after having reviewed several regiments, as Piper, 
 the counsellor of state, w% standing by him, he seemed to 
 be absorbed in a profound reverie. " May I take the liberty 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 (said Piper to him) of asking your majesty what you are 
 thinking of so seriously?" "I am thinking, (replied the 
 prince,) that I am worthy to command these brave fellows; 
 and I dont like that either they or I should any longer re- 
 ceive orders from a woman." Piper immediately seized this 
 opportunity of making his fortune ; but conscious that his 
 own interest was not sufficient for the execution of such a 
 dangerous enterprise as the removal of the queen from the re- 
 gency, and the hastening of the king's majority, he propo- 
 sed the affair to Count Axel Sparre, a man of an ardent 
 mind, and who sought to procure himself credit. On being 
 flattered with the confidence of the king, Sparre entered in- 
 to his measures, and undertook the management of the whole 
 business, while he was working only to promote the interest 
 of Piper. The counsellors of the regency were soon brought 
 over to the scheme, and precipitated the execution of it, in 
 order to recommend themselves the more effectually to the 
 king. 
 
 They went in a body to propose it to the queen, who by 
 no means expected such a declaration. The states-general 
 were then assembled ; the counsellors of the regency pro- 
 posed the rffair ; there was not a dissenting voice ; the poinl 
 was carried with a rapidity that nothing could withstand ; 
 so that Charles XII. had only to signify his desire of reign- 
 ing, and in three days the states bestowed the government 
 upon him. The power and credit of the queen sunk in an 
 instant ; she led afterwards a life of retirement, more suita- 
 ble to her age, though less agreeable to her temper. The 
 king was crowned on the 24th of December following, on 
 which day he made his entry into Stockholm, on a sorrel 
 horse shod with silver, having a sceptre in his hand, and a 
 crown upon his head, amidst the acclamations of a whole 
 people, fond of novelty, and conceiving always gr jat hopes 
 from a young prince. 
 
 The ceremony of the consecration and coronation belongs 
 to the archbishop of Upsal ; almost the only privilege that 
 remains to him of the great number that were enjoyed by 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 23 
 
 his predecessors. After having anointed the prince, ac- 
 cording to custom, he held the crown in his hand, in order 
 to put it upon his head ; when Charles snatched it from 
 him, and crowned himself, regarding the poor prelate all the 
 while with a stern look. The multitude, who are always 
 dazzled by every thing that has an air of grandeur, ap- 
 plauded this action of the king. Even those who had groan- 
 ed most severely under the tyranny of the father, suffered 
 themselves to applaud in the son this arrogance, which was 
 a presage of their slavery. 
 
 Charles was no sooner master of the kingdom, than he 
 made Piper his chief confidant, entrusting him at the same 
 time with the management of public affairs, making him 
 prime minister, though without the name. A few days after, 
 he created him a count, which is a dignity of great emi- 
 nence in Sweden, and not an empty title, that may be as- 
 sumed without any importance, as in France. 
 
 The beginning of the king's reign gave no very favoura- 
 ble idea of his character ; so that it was imagined he had 
 been more impatient to reign than worthy of it. He che- 
 rished, indeed, no dangerous passion ; but his conduct dis- 
 covered nothing buf the violences of youth and obstinacy. 
 He seemed to be equally haughty and indolent. The * am- 
 bassadors who resided at his court took him even for a per- 
 son of mean capacity, and represented him as such to their 
 respective masters. The Swedes entertained the same 
 opinion of him : nobody knew his real character : he did not 
 even know it himself, until the storm that suddenly arose in 
 the North, gave him an opportunity of displaying his con- 
 cealed talents. 
 
 Three powerful princes, taking the advantage of his 
 youth, conspired, almost at the same time, to effect his ruin. 
 The first was Frederick IV. king of Denmark, his cousin. 
 The second was Augustus, elector of Saxony and king of 
 Poland. Peter the Great, czar of Muscovy, was the third, 
 and the most dangerous. It is necessary to unfold the 
 
 * The original letters confirm this. 
 B 3 
 
2G 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII 
 
 origin of these wars, which produced such great events. To 
 begin with Denmark : 
 
 Of the two sisters of Ciiaries XII., the eldest was married 
 to the duke of Holstein, a young prince of an undaunted 
 spirit, and of a gentle disposition. The duke, oppressed by 
 the king of Denmark, repaired to Stockholm with his 
 spouse, and throwing himself into the arms of the king, 
 earnestly implored his assistance, not only on account of 
 being his brother-in-law, but as he was likewise the king of 
 a people who bore an irreconcilable hatred to the Danes. 
 
 The ancient house of Holstein, dissolved into that of 01- 
 denburgh, had been advanced by election to the throne of 
 Denmark in 1449. All the kingdoms of the North were at 
 that time elective ; though the kingdom of Denmark soon 
 after became hereditary. One of its kings, called Christiern 
 III., had such an affection for his brother Adolphus, or at least 
 such a regard for his interest, as is rarely met with among 
 princes. He was unwilling to see him destitute of sovereign 
 power, and yet he could not dismember his own dominions. 
 He therefore divided with him the duchies of Holstein, Got- 
 torp, and Sleswick, by a whimsical kind of agreement, which * 
 was, that the descendants of Adolphus should ever after 
 govern Holstein in conjunction with the kings of Denmark ; 
 that those two dutchies should belong to both in common ; 
 and that the king of Denmark should be able to do nothing 
 in Holstein without the duke, nor the duke without the 
 king. So strange a union, of which, however, there has 
 been within these few years a similar instance in the same 
 family, was for near the space of eighty years, the source of 
 perpetual disputes between the crown of Denmark and the 
 house of Holstein-Gottorp ; the king always endeavouring 
 to oppress the dukes, and the dukes to render themselves 
 independent of the kings. A struggle of this nature had cost 
 the last duke his liberty and sovereignty ; both which, how- 
 ever, he recovered at the conferences of Altena, in 1689, by 
 the interposition of Sweden, England and Holland, who 
 became guarantees for the execution of the treaty. But as 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 27 
 
 a treaty between princes is frequently no more than a sub- 
 mission to necessity, till the stronger shall be able to crush 
 the weaker, the contest was revived with the greater viru- 
 lence than ever between the new king of Denmark and the 
 young duke; during' whose absence at Stockholm the Danes 
 had committed some acts of hostility in the country of Hol- 
 stcin, and had entered into a secret agreement with the king 
 of Poland to crush the king of Sweden himself. 
 
 Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony, whom neither the 
 eloquence nor negotiations of the Abbe de Polignac, nor the 
 great qualities cf the Prince of Gcnti, his competitor for the 
 throne, had been able to prevent from being chosen king of 
 Poland about two years before, was a prince no less remarka- 
 ble for his incredible strength of body, than for his bravery 
 and gallantry of mind. His court was, next to that of 
 Lewis XIV., the most splendid of any in Europe. Never 
 was a prince more generous or munificent, or bestowed his 
 favours with a better grace. He had purchased the votes of 
 one half of the Polish nobility, and overawed the other by 
 the approach of a Saxon army. Thinking he should have 
 occasion for his troops, in order to establish himself the more 
 firmly on the throne, he wanted a pretext for retaining them 
 in Poland; he therefore resolved to employ them in attacking 
 the king of Sweden, which he did on the following occasion. 
 
 Livonia, the most beautiful and the most fertile province 
 of the North, belonged formerly to the Knights of the Teu- 
 tonic!*: Ord^r. The Russians, the Poles, and the Swedes, 
 had disputed the possession of it. The Swedes had carried 
 it about a hundred years ago ; and it had been solemnly 
 ceded to them by the peace of Olivia. 
 
 The late King Charles XL, amidst his severities to his sub- 
 jects in general, had not spared the Livonians. He had strip- 
 ped them of their privileges, and of part of their patrimo- 
 nies. Patknl, unhappily so famous afterwards for his tragi- 
 cal death, was deputed by the nobility of Livonia, to carry 
 to the throne the complaints of the province. He addressed 
 his master in a speech, respectful, indeed, but bold, and full 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 of that manly eloquence which calamity, when joined to 
 courage, inspires. But kings too frequently consider these 
 public addresses as no more than vain ceremonies, which it 
 is customary to suffer, without paying them any regard. 
 Charles XL, however, who could play the hypocrite ex- 
 tremely well, when he was not transported by the violence 
 of his passion, gently struck Patkul on the shoulder : w You 
 have spoke for your country," said he, " like a brave man, and 
 I esteem you for it ; go on." Notwithstanding, in a few days 
 after, he caused him to be declared guilty of high treason, and, 
 as such, to be condemned to death. Patkul, who had se- 
 creted himself, made his escape, and carried his resentment 
 with him to Poland ; where he was afterwards admitted into 
 the presence of King Augustus. Charles XI. was now dead ; 
 but Patkul's sentence was still in force, and his indignation 
 still unabated. He represented to the Polish monarch the 
 facility of conquering Livonia, the people of which were pro- 
 voked to despair, and ready to throw off the Swedish yoke, 
 at the same time that their king was a child, and incapable 
 of making any defence. These representations were well 
 received by a prince already desirous of making so great a 
 conquest. Augustus had engaged at his coronation, to exert 
 his utmost efforts to recover the provinces which Poland had 
 lost; and he imagined that, by making an irruption into 
 Livonia, he should at once please the people, and establish 
 his own power ; in both which particulars, however plausi- 
 ble, he at last found himself disappointed. Every thing was 
 soon got ready for a sudden invasion, without even conde- 
 scending to have recourse to the vain formalities of declarations 
 of war and manifestoes. The storm thickened at the same 
 time on the side of Muscovy; the monarch who governed 
 that empire deserves the attention of posterity. 
 
 Peter Alexiowitz, czar of Russia, had already made him- 
 self formidable by the battle he had gained over the Turks 
 in 1697, and by the reduction of Asoph, which opened to 
 him the dominion of the Black Sea. But it was by actions 
 still more glorious than his victories that he aspired to the 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 29 
 
 name of Great. Muscovy, or Russia, comprehends the northern 
 parts of Asia, and of Europe, extending from the frontiers of 
 China for the space of fifteen hundred leagues, to the borders 
 of Poland and Sweden. This immense country, however, 
 was hardly known to Europe before the time of Czar Peter. 
 The Muscovites were less civilized than the Mexicans, when 
 discovered by Cortes : born the slaves of masters as barba- 
 rous as themselves, they remained in a state of ignorance, 
 in want of all the arts, and in such an insensibility of that 
 want, as suppressed every motive to industry. An ancient 
 law, which they held as sacred, forbade them, under pain 
 of death, to leave their native country without permission 
 of their patriarch. This law, enacted with a view to pre- 
 clude them from all opportunities of becoming sensible of 
 their slavery, was yet acceptable to a people who, in the 
 depth of their ignorance and misery, disdained all commerce 
 with foreign nations. 
 
 The sera of the Muscovites bears date from the creation 
 of the world ; since which they conceive 7207 years were 
 elapsed at the beginning of the last century, without being 
 able to assign any reason for this computation. The first 
 day of their year answered to the thirteenth of September, 
 new style. The reason alleged for this regulation is, that 
 it is most probable God created the world in autumn, the 
 season when the fruits of the earth are in their full maturity. 
 Thus, the only appearance of knowledge which they had, 
 was founded in gross error : not one of them ever dreamed 
 that the autumn of Muscovy might possibly be the spring 
 of another country, situated in an opposite climate. It was 
 not long since the people at Moscow were going to burn the 
 secretary of a Persian ambassador, who had foretold an 
 eclipse of the sun. They did not so much as know the use 
 of figures ; but in all their computations made use of little 
 beads strung upon brass wires. They had no other manner 
 of reckoning in the offices of revenue, not even in the trea- 
 sury of the czar. 
 
 Their religion was, and still is, that of the Greek Chris- 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 tians, but mixed with many superstitious rites, to which they 
 were the more strongly attached, in proportion as they were 
 the more extravagant, and their burthen the more intolera- 
 ble. Few Muscovites would dare to eat a pigeon, because 
 the Holy Ghost is painted in the form of a dove. They re- 
 gularly observed four Lents in the year ; during which time 
 of abstinence they never presumed to eat either eggs or 
 milk. God and St. Nicholas were the objects of their wor- 
 ship, and next to them the czar and the patriarch. The 
 authority of the last was as unbounded as the ignorance of 
 the people. He pronounced sentence of death, and inflicted 
 the most cruel punishments, without any possibility of an 
 appeal from his tribunal. He made a solemn procession 
 twice a year on horseback, attended by all his clergy. The 
 czar on foot held the bridle of his horse, and the people 
 prostrated themselves before him in the streets, as the Tar- 
 tars do before their Grand Lama. Confession was in use 
 among them, but it was only in cases of the greatest crimes. 
 In these, absolution was necessary, but not repentance. They 
 thought themselves pure in the sight of God, as soon as 
 they received the benediction of their papas. Thus they 
 passed without remorse, from confession to theft and mur- 
 der; and what among other Christians is a restraint from 
 vice, with them was an encouragement to wickedness. They 
 would not even venture to drink milk on a fast ; although 
 on a festival, masters of families, priests, married women, 
 and maids, would make no scruple to intoxicate themselves 
 with brandy. There were religious disputes, however, 
 among them, as well as in other countries ; but their great- 
 est controversy was, whether lay-men should make the sign 
 of the cross with two fingers or with three. One Jacob 
 NursofT, in the preceding reign, had raised a sedition in As- 
 tracan, on the subject of this dispute. There were even 
 some fanatics among them, as there are in those civilized 
 nations where every one is a theologian ; and Peter, who 
 always earned justice into cruelty, caused some of these un- 
 happy wretches, called the Voskojesuits, to be committed to 
 the flames. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 31 
 
 The czar, in his extensive empire, had many other sub- 
 jects who were not Christians. The Tartars inhabiting the 
 western coasts of the Caspian Sea, and the Palus Macotis, were 
 Mahometans; the Siberians, the Ostiacks, and the Samoie- 
 des, who lie towards the Frozen Sea, were savages, some of 
 whom were idolaters, and others had not even the know- 
 ledge of a God ; and yet the Swedes, who were sent pri- 
 soners among them, were better pleased with their manners 
 than with those of the ancient Muscovites. 
 
 Peter Alexiowitz had received an education that tended 
 still more to increase the barbarism of this part of the world. 
 His natural disposition led him to caress strangers, before 
 he knew what advantages he might derive from their ac- 
 quaintance. A young' Genevese, named Le Fort, of an an- 
 cient family in Geneva, the son of a druggist, was the first 
 instrument he employed in the course of time, to change the 
 face of affairs in Muscovy. This young man, sent by his fa- 
 ther to be a merchant at Copenhagen, quitted his business, 
 and followed an ambassador of Denmark to Muscovy, from 
 that restlessness of mind which is always experienced by 
 such as feel themselves superior to their situation. He took 
 it into his head to learn the Russian language. The rapid 
 progress which he made in it excited the curiosity of the 
 czar, who was yet in his youth. Le Fort became acquaint- 
 ed with him ; he insinuated himself into his familiarity ; he 
 often talked to him of the advantages of commerce and na- 
 vigation ; he told him how Holland, which h act never pos- 
 sessed the hundredth part of the states of Muscovy, made as 
 great a figure by means of her commerce alone, as the Spains, 
 a sinall province of which she had formerly been, both use- 
 less and despised. He entertained him with the refined po- 
 licy of the princes of Europe, with the discipline of their 
 troops, the police of their cities, and the infinite number of 
 manufactures, arts, and sciences, which render the Euro- 
 peans powerful and happy. These discourses awakened the 
 young emperor as from a profound lethargy ; his mighty ge- 
 nius, which a barbarous education had repressed, but had not 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 been able to destroy, unfolded itself almost at once. He 
 resolved to be a man, to rule over men, and to create a new 
 nation. Many princes before him had renounced their crowns 
 from disgust to the weight of business, but none like him 
 had ceased to be a king, in order to learn how to govern 
 better. This is what was done by Peter the Great. 
 
 He left Muscovy in 1698, having reigned but two years, 
 and went to Holland, disguised under a common name, as it 
 he had been a domestic servant of the same Mr. Le Fort, 
 whom he sent in quality of ambassador extraordinary to the 
 States General. As soon as he arrived at Amsterdam, he 
 enrolled himself among the shipwrights of the India Com- 
 pany's wharf, under the name of Peter Micha^loff, but he 
 was commonly called Peter Bas, or Master Peter. He 
 worked in the yard like the other mechanics. At his leisure 
 hours he learned such parts of the mathematics as are use- 
 ful to a prince, fortification, navigation, and the art of draw- 
 ing plans. He went into the workmen's shops, and exam- 
 ined all their manufactures, in which nothing could escape 
 his observation. From thence he went over to England, 
 where, having perfected himself in the art of ship building, 
 he returned to Holland, carefully observing every thing that 
 might turn to the advantage of his own country. At length, 
 after two years of travel and labour, to which no man but 
 himself would have willingly submitted, he again made his 
 appearance in Muscovy, with all the arts of Europe in his 
 train. Artists of every kind followed him in crowds. Then 
 were seen for the first time, large Russian ships in the Bal- 
 tic, and on the Black Sea, and the ocean. Stately buildings, 
 of a regular architecture, were raised among the Russian 
 huts. He founded colleges, academies, printing-houses, and 
 libraries. The cities were brought under a regular police. 
 The clothes and customs of the people were gradually chan- 
 ged, though not without some difficulty ; and the Muscovites 
 learned by degrees the true nature of a social state. Even 
 their superstitious rites were abolished ; the dignity of the 
 patriarch was suppressed ; and the czar declared himself the 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 33 
 
 head of the church. This last enterprise, which would have 
 cost a prince less absolute than Peter both his throne and his 
 life, succeeded almost without opposition, and insured to 
 him the success of his other innovations. 
 
 After having humbled an ignorant and a barbarous clergy, 
 he ventured to make a trial of instructing them, though by 
 that means he ran the risk of rendering them formidable ; but 
 he was too sensible of his own power to entertain any fear 
 of it. He caused philosophy and theology to be taught in 
 the few monasteries that still remained. True it is, this 
 theology still savours of that barbarous period in which Peter 
 civilized his people. A person of undoubted veracity assured 
 me that he was present at a public disputation, where the point 
 of controversy was, Whether the practice of smoking tobacco 
 was a sin? The respondent maintained that it was lawful 
 to get drunk with brandy, but not to smoke, because the 
 Holy Scriptures saith, " that which proceedeth out of the 
 mouth defileth the man, and that which entereth into it doth 
 not defile him." 
 
 The monks were not pleased with this relormation. The 
 czar had hardly erected printing-houses, when they made 
 use of them to decry him. They declared in print that 
 Peter was Anti-Christ, for that he deprived the living of their 
 beards, and allowed the dead to be dissected in his Acade- 
 my. But another monk, who aimed at promotion, refuted 
 this book, and proved that Peter could not be x4.nti-Christ, 
 because the number 666 was not to be found in his name. 
 The libeller was accordingly broke upon the wheel, and the 
 author of the refutation was made bishop of Rezan. 
 
 This reformer of Muscovy enacted, in particular, a very 
 salutary law, the want of which reflects disgrace on many 
 civilized nations. This enacted, that no man engaged in the 
 service of the state, no citizen established in trade, and 
 especially no minor, should retire into a convent. 
 
 Peter knew of what infinite consequence it was to pre- 
 vent useful subjects from consecrating themselves to idle- 
 ness, and to hinder young people from disposing of their 
 B2 
 
34 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 liberty at an age when they were incapable of disposing of the 
 least part of their patrimony. But this law, though calculated 
 for the general interest of mankind, is daily eluded by the 
 industry of the monks ; as if they were in fact gainers by 
 peopling their convents at the expense of their country. 
 
 The czar not only subjected the church to the state, after 
 the example of the Turkish emperors, but, by a more mas- 
 terly stroke of policy, dissolved a militia similar to that of 
 the Janizaries ; and accomplished, in a short time, what the 
 Sultans had long in vain attempted. He disbanded the 
 Russian Janizaries, who were called Strelitz, and kept the 
 czars in subjection. This body of soldiery, more formida- 
 ble to their masters than to their neighbours, consisted of 
 about thirty thousand foot, one half of which, remained at 
 Moscow, while the other was stationed upon the frontiers. 
 The pay of a Strelitz was no more than four rubles a year ; 
 but this deficiency was amply compensated by privileges and 
 extortions. Peter formed at first a company of foreigners, 
 among whom he enrolled his own name, and did not think 
 it beneath his dignity to begin the service in the capacity of 
 a drummer, and to perform the duties of that mean office; 
 so much did the nation stand in need of examples ! By de- 
 grees he became an officer. He gradually raised new regi- 
 ments ; and at last, finding himself master of a well dis- 
 ciplined army, he broke the Strelitz, who durst not disobey 
 him. 
 
 The cavalry were nearly the same with that of Poland, or 
 what the French formerly was, when the kingdom of France 
 was no more than an assemblage of fiefs. The gentlemen were 
 mounted at their own expense, and fought without discipline, 
 and sometimes with no other arms than a sabre or a bow, in- 
 capable of command, and consequently of conquest. 
 
 Peter the Great taught them to obey, both by the example 
 he set, and the punishment he inflicted ; for he served in 
 the quality of a soldier and subaltern officer, and as czar he 
 severely punished the boyards, that is, the gentlemen, who 
 pretended that it was the privilege of their order not to serve 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 35 
 
 but by their own consent. He established a regular body 
 to serve the artillery, and took five hundred bells from the 
 churches to be converted into cannon. In the year 1614 he 
 had thirteen thousand pieces of ordnance. He likewise 
 formed companies of dragoons, troops very suitable to the 
 genius of the Muscovites, and to the size of their horses, 
 which are small. -In 1738, the Russians had thirty regi- 
 ments of these dragoons, consisting of a thousand men each, 
 well disciplined and accoutred. He likewise established 
 regiments of hussars in Russia, and had even a school of en- 
 gineers, in a country where, before himself, no one under- 
 stood the elements of geometry. He was also himself a good 
 engineer; but his chief excellence lay in his knowledge of 
 naval affairs; he was an able sea captain, a skilful pilot, a 
 good sailor, and expert shipwright, and his knowledge of 
 these arts was the more meritorious, as he was born with a 
 great dread of the water. 
 
 In his youth, he could not pass over a bridge without 
 trembling : on all these occasions, he caused the wooden 
 windows of his coach to be shut; but of this constitutional 
 weakness he soon got the better by his courage and resolu- 
 tion. He caused a beautiful harbour to be built at the mouth 
 of the Tanais, near Asoph, in which he proposed to keep a 
 number of gallies ; and some time after, thinking that these 
 vessels, so long, light, and flat, would probably succeed in 
 the Baltick, he had upwards of three hundred of them built 
 at his favourite city of Petersburgh. He showed his subjects 
 the method of building ships with deals only, and taught 
 them the art of navigation. He had even learnt surgery, 
 and, in a case of necessity, has been known to tap a person 
 for the dropsy. He was well versed in mechanics, and in- 
 structed the workmen. 
 
 The revenue of the czar, when compared to the immense 
 extent of his dominions, was indeed inconsiderable. It never 
 amounted to four and twenty millions of livres, reckoning the 
 mark at about fifty livres, as we do to-day, though we may 
 not do so to-morrow. But he may always be accounted rich 
 
36 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 who has it in his power to accomplish great undertakings. 
 It is not the scarcity of money that debilitates a state; it is 
 the want of men, and men of abilities. 
 
 Russia, notwithstanding the women are fruitful and the 
 men robust, is not very populous. Peter himself, in civili- 
 zing his dominions, unhappily contributed to the decrease 
 of his people. Frequent levies in his wars, which were 
 long and unsuccessful ; nations transplanted from the coasts 
 of the Caspian Sea to those of the Baltick, destroyed by fa- 
 tigue, or cut off by diseases ; three-fourths of the Muscovite 
 children dying of the small pox, which is more dangerous in 
 those climates than in any other; in a word, the melancho- 
 ly effects of a government, savage for a long time, and bar- 
 barous even in its police ; these are the causes that in this 
 country, comprehending so great a part of the continent, 
 there are still vast deserts. Russia is, at present, supposed 
 to contain five hundred thousand families of gentlemen ; two 
 hundred thousand lawyers; something more than five mil- 
 lions of citizens and peasants, who pay a sort of land-tax ; 
 six hundred thousand men in the provinces conquered from 
 the Swedes. The Cossacks in the Ukraine, and the Tar- 
 tars that are subject to Muscovy, do not exceed two millions. 
 In fine, it appears that in this immense country there are not 
 above fourteen millions of people, that is, a little more than 
 two-thirds of the inhabitants of France.* 
 
 While the czar was thus employed in changing the laws, 
 the manners, the militia, and the very face of his country, he 
 likewise resolved to increase his greatness by encouraging 
 commerce, which at once constitutes the riches of a particu- 
 lar state, and contributes to the interest of the world in ge- 
 neral. He undertook to make Russia the centre of trade 
 between Asia and Europe. He determined to join the Duna, 
 the Volga, and the Tanais, by canals, of which he drew the 
 
 * This was written in the year 1727. The population of Russia hath 
 greatly increased since that time, as well by military conquest, as by th« 
 arts of civil policy, and the care which has been taken to induce fo- 
 reigners to come to and reside in the country. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 37 
 
 plans ; and thus to open a new passage from the Baltick to 
 the Euxine and Caspian Seas, and from those seas to the 
 Northern Ocean. The port of Archangel, frozen up nine 
 months in the year, and which could not be entered without 
 making a long and dangerous circuit, did not appear to him 
 sufficiently commodious. So long ago, therefore, as the year 
 1700, he had formed a design of opening a sea-port on the 
 Baltick, that should become the magazine of the north, and 
 of building a city that should prove the capital of his empire. 
 
 He had even then attempted the discovery of a north-east 
 passage to China; and the manufactures of Pekin and Paris 
 were intended to embellish his new city. 
 
 A road by land, 754 versts* long, running through marshes 
 that were to be drained, was to lead from Moscow to his new 
 city. Most of these projects have been executed by him- 
 self; and the two empresses, his successors, have even im- 
 proved upon those of his schemes that were practicable, and 
 abandoned only such as it was impossible to accomplish. 
 
 He always travelled through his dominions as much as his 
 wars would permit ; but he travelled like a legislator and a 
 naturalist ; examining nature every where ; endeavouring to 
 correct or perfect her; taking himself the soundings of seas 
 and rivers ; ordering sluices, visiting docks, causing mines to 
 be worked, assaying metals, and in directing accurate charts 
 to be drawn ; in the execution of which he himself assisted. 
 
 He built upon a desert spot the imperial city of Peters- 
 burgh, containing at present sixty thousand houses, the resi- 
 dence of a splendid court, whose amusements are of the 
 most refined taste. He built the harbour of Cronstadt, on 
 the Neva, and St. Croix, on the frontiers of Persia ; he 
 erected forts in the Ukraine, and in Siberia; established 
 offices of admiralty at Archangel, Petersburgh, Astracan, 
 and Asoph ; founded arsenals, and built and endowed hospi- 
 tals. All his own houses were mean, and executed in a bad 
 taste ; but he spared no expense in rendering the public 
 buildings grand and magnificent. 
 
 * A verst consists of 754 paces. 
 4 
 
33 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 The sciences, which in other countries have been the slow 
 product of so many ages, were, by his care and industry, 
 imported into Russia in full perfection. He established an 
 academy on the plan of the famous societies of Paris and 
 London. The Delisles, the Bulfingers, the Hermannus's, 
 the Bernouilles, and the celebrated Wolf, a man who ex- 
 celled in every branch of philosophy, were all invited and 
 brought to Petersburgh at a great expense. This academy 
 still subsists ; and the Muscovites, at length, have philoso- 
 phers of their own nation. 
 
 He obliged the young nobility to travel for improvement, 
 and to bring back into Russia the politeness of foreign coun- 
 tries. I have myself seen young Russians, who were men 
 of genius and science. It was thus that a single man hath 
 reformed the greatest empire in the world. It is, however, 
 shocking to reflect, that this reformer of mankind should 
 have been deficient in that first of all virtues, the virtue of 
 humanity. Brutality in his pleasures, ferocity in his man- 
 ners, and barbarity in his revenges, sullied the lustre of his 
 many virtues. He civilized his subjects, and yet remained 
 a barbarian. He was conscious of this, and once said to a 
 magistrate of Amsterdam, " I reform my country, but am 
 not able to reform myself." He has executed his sentence 
 upon criminals with his own hands, and at a debauch at 
 table has shown his address at cutting off heads. 
 
 In Africa, there are princes who thus with their own hands 
 shed the blood of their subjects ; but these pass for barba- 
 rians. The death of a son, whom he ought to have corrected, 
 or disinherited, would render the memory of Peter the ob- 
 ject of universal hatred, were it not that the great and many 
 blessings he bestowed upon his subjects, were almost suffi- 
 cient to excuse his cruelty to his own offspring. 
 
 Such was Czar Peter; and his great projects were little 
 more than in embryo, when he joined the kings of Poland 
 and Denmark against a child whom they all despised. The 
 founder of the Russian empire was ambitious of being a con- 
 queror ; and such he thought he might easily become by (he 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 39 
 
 prosecution of a war, which being so well projected, could 
 not fail, he imagined, of proving useful to all his designs ; 
 the art of war was a new art, which it was necessary to teach 
 his people. 
 
 He wanted, besides, a port on the east side of the Baltick, 
 to facilitate the execution of his schemes. He wanted the 
 province of Ingria, which lies to the north-east of Livonia. 
 The Swedes were in possession of it, and from them he re- 
 solved to take it by force. His predecessors had claims upon 
 Ingria, Esthonia, and Livonia ; and the present seemed a 
 favourable opportunity of reviving those claims, which had 
 been buried for a hundred years, and had been extinguished 
 by treaties. He entered, therefore, into a league with the king 
 of Foland, to wrest from the young Charles the Twelfth all 
 the territories that lie between the Gulph of Finland, the 
 Baitick Sea, Poland, and Muscovy. 
 
40 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 BOOK It 
 
 Argument. — A remarkable and unexpected change in the character of 
 Charles. — At the age of eighteen he engages in a war against Den- 
 mark, Poland, and Muscovy. — Finishes that with Denmark in six 
 weeks. — Defeats eighty thousand Russians with only eight thousand 
 Swedes. — Marches into Poland. — A description of Poland and its 
 government. — Charles gains many battles, and becomes master of Po- 
 land, where he prepares to appoint a king. 
 
 Thus did three powerful sovereigns threaten the infancy 
 of Charles the Twelfth. The news of these preparations 
 dismayed the Swedes, and alarmed the council. All their 
 distinguished generals were dead ; and they had every rea- 
 son to tremble under the reign of a young king, who had, as 
 yet, given them but a bad opinion of his abilities. He hardly 
 ever came to a council for any other purpose than to lay his 
 legs across on the table; absent and indifferent, he never ap- 
 peared to interest himself in any thing. 
 ^ As the council were one day deliberating, in his presence, 
 on the dangerous predicament in which they stood, some of 
 them proposed to avoid the impending tempest by negotia- 
 tions ; when the young prince immediately rose with the 
 grave and assured air of a man of superior abilities, who had 
 fixed his resolution. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said he, " I am resolved never to begin an 
 unjust war, but never to finish a just one but with the de- 
 struction of my enemies. My resolution is fixed ; I will 
 march and attack the first who shall declare w ar ; and when 
 I shall have conquered him, I hope to strike terror into the 
 rest." All the old councillors, astonished at this declaration, 
 looked at each other without daring to answer. In short, 
 surprised at having such a king, and ashamed to appear less 
 confident than him, they received his orders for the war 
 with admiration. 
 
 They were still more agreeably surprised when they be- 
 held him renounce at once the most innocent amusements of 
 
,CING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 4t 
 
 his youth. From the first moment of his preparing himself 
 for the war, he began an entire new course of life, from 
 which he never after departed a single moment. Full of the 
 idea of Alexander and Caesar, he determined to imitate those 
 two heroes in every thing but their vices. He no longer in- 
 dulged himself in magnificence, sports, and recreations ; and 
 reduced his table to the most rigid frugality. He had before 
 loved pomp in his dress ; but he now dressed himself as a 
 common soldier. It was generally supposed that he had . 
 formed a strong attachment to a lady of his court ; but whe- 
 ther this supposition was true or not, it is certain that he 
 from that time renounced all fondness for the sex, not only 
 from the fear of being governed by them, but to set an ex- 
 ample to his soldiers, whom he was desirous of bringing 
 back to the most rigid discipline ; and perhaps, also, from 
 the vanity of being deemed the only king who could subdue 
 a passion so difficult to surmount. He likewise, resolved to 
 abstain from wine during the rest of his life. Many people have 
 told me that he made this resolution merely to get the better 
 of his inclinations in every thing, and to give an additional 
 lustre to his self-denial ; but by far the greater part assured 
 me, that he was determined by those means to punish him- 
 self for an excess which he had been guilty of, and for an 
 affront he had offered to a lady at table, even in the presence 
 of the queen, his mother. Even if that be true, this self- 
 condemnation of his behaviour, and the abstinence which 
 he imposed on himself throughout his life, is a species of he- 
 roism not less to be admired. 
 
 His first step was to grant assistance to his brother-in- 
 law, the duke of Holstein. Eight thousand men were im- 
 mediately sent into Pomerania, a province bordering upon 
 Holstein, to fortify the duke against the attacks of the Danes. 
 And indeed the duke had need of them. His dominions were 
 laid waste, his castle of Gottorp taken, and the city of 
 Tonningen pressed by an obstinate siege, to which the king 
 of Denmark had come in person in order to enjoy a conquest 
 which he imagined certain. This spark began to throw the 
 
42 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 empire into a flame. On the one side the Saxon troops of 
 the king of Poland, those of Brandenburgh, Wolfenbuttle, 
 and Hesse Cassel, advanced to join the Danes. On the 
 other, the eight thousand men sent by the king of Sweden, 
 the troops of Hanover and Zell, and three regiments of 
 Dutch, came to assist the duke. At the time the little coun- 
 try of Holstein became thus the theatre of war, two squad- 
 rons, the one from England, and the other from Holland, 
 appeared in the Baltick. These two states were guarantees 
 of the treaty of peace of Altena, which treaty the Danes had 
 broken through ; the English and Dutch therefore were in 
 earnest, at this time, to support the oppressed duke of Hol- 
 stein, because it was for the interest of their commerce to 
 check the growing power of the king of Denmark. They 
 knew that the Danish king, being once master of the pas- 
 sage of the Sound, would impose the most oppressive laws 
 on the mercantile nations, as soon as ever he was in a situa- 
 tion to do it with impunity. This mutual interest has long 
 engaged the Dutch and English to maintain, as much as pos- 
 sible, the balance of power between the northern princes : 
 they, therefore, joined the young king of Sweden, who ap- 
 peared in danger of being crushed by the combination of so 
 many enemies, and supported him for the same reason that 
 the others attacked him — because they looked upon him as 
 incapable of defending himself. 
 
 Charles was amusing himself with hunting the bear, when 
 he received the news of the Saxons having made an irrup- 
 tion into Livonia: the manner in which he practised this 
 amusement was as novel as dangerous ; he used no other 
 arms than forked sticks, and a small net fixed to some trees ; 
 a b'ear of an inconceivable size ran directly at the king, who 
 brought it down to the ground, after a long struggle, by the 
 aid only of the net and his stick. It must be confessed, 
 that, in reflecting on such adventures, on the personal strength 
 of King Augustus, and the travels of Czar Peter, one would 
 be apt to think we lived in the days of Hercules and Theseus. 
 
 Charles set out on his first campaign the eighth of May, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 43 
 
 new style, in the year 1700; when he quitted Stockholm, 
 to which he never after returned. An innumerable crowd 
 of people accompanied him as far as the port of Carlscroon, 
 offering up prayers for his success, and with tears expressing 
 their admiration. Before he left Sweden, he established at 
 Stockholm a Council of Defence, composed of several sena- 
 tors, whose duty it was to take care of every thing that re- 
 garded the navy, the army, and the fortifications of the coun- 
 try. The body of the senate was to regulate, provisionally, 
 every thing in the interior part of the kingdom. Having thus 
 established a regular mode of administration in his dominion, 
 his mind, devested of every other care, was entirely taken 
 up with the war. His fleet consisted of three and forty 
 ships; that in which he himself sailed, was called "The 
 King Charles,'' and was the largest that had ever been seen, 
 carrying an hundred and twenty guns. In this ship Count 
 Piper, his first minister of state, General Renschild, and 
 the Count de Guiscard, ambassador from France to Sweden, 
 embarked along with him. He joined the squadrons of the 
 allies, when the Danish fleet declining the combat, gave the 
 three combined fleets an opportunity of approaching Copen- 
 hagen nigh enough to throw into it several shells, 
 
 Certain it is, that it was the king himself who then pro- 
 posed to General Renschild to make a descent, and to be- 
 siege Copenhagen by land, while it was thus blocked up by 
 sea. Renschild was astonished at a proposal which showed 
 equal marks of skill and courage in a prince so young and 
 so unexperienced. Every thing was immediately prepared 
 for the descent, and orders given for the embarkation of five 
 thousand men, who lay upon the coasts of Sweden, and 
 joined the troops they had on board. The king quitted his 
 large ship, and went into a frigate of less weight : they then 
 began by sending off three hundred grenadiers, in small shal- 
 lops ; and among these were some small flat bottomed boats, 
 which carried the fascines, chevaux-de-frise, and the imple- 
 ments of the pioneers ; then followed five hundred men in 
 other shallops ; and lastly came the king's chosen ships of 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 war, together with two English and two Dutch frigates, who 
 were to favour the debarkation under cover of their cannon. 
 
 Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is situated in the 
 Isle of Zealand, in the midst of a beautiful plain, having the 
 Sound on the north west, and the Baltick Sea on the east, 
 where the king of Sweden -then lay. At this unexpected 
 movement of the vessels, which threatened a descent, the 
 inhabitants, confounded by the inactivity of their own fleet, 
 and by the movements of the Swedish vessels, waited with 
 terror to see on what part the storm would fall. The Swe- 
 dish fleet stopped over against Humblebeck, about seven 
 miles from Copenhagen, at which place the Danes instantly 
 assembled their cavalry. Their foot were posted behind en- 
 trenchments, and all the artillery they could bring up was 
 turned against the Swedes. 
 
 The king then quitted his frigate, and got into the first 
 barge, at the head of his guards; when the French ambas- 
 sador standing next to him, he said to him in Latin, (for he 
 would never speak French,) "You have nothing, Mr. Am- 
 bassador, to do with the Danes : you need £•) no farther, if 
 you please." " Sire," answered the Count de Guiscard, in 
 French, " the king my master ordered me to reside with 
 your majesty ; I flatter myself you will not banish me your 
 court, which was never more brilliant than it is to-day." In 
 saying this, he gave his hand to the king, who leaped into 
 the barge, into which Count Piper and the ambassador im- 
 mediately followed. They advanced under shelter of the 
 cannon of the ships which favoured their landing. The 
 long boats were as yet but three hundred paces from the 
 shore, when Charles, impatient at their slow motion, threw 
 himself from his barge into the sea, sword in hand, having 
 the water above his waist : his ministers, the French ambas- 
 sador, the officers and soldiers, immediately followed his ex- 
 ample, and marched to the shore, in spite of a shower of 
 the enemy -s musketry. The king, who had never in his 
 life heard a volley of muskets loaded with ball, demanded 
 of Major General Stuart, whom he perceived near him, what 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 45 
 
 it was that, occasioned the whizzing in his ears ? u It is the 
 noise of the musket-balls that they fire upon you," said the 
 major to him. "Good!" replied the king; "then from 
 henceforward that shall be my music." At this instant the 
 major, who had explained the noise made by the musket- 
 shot, received one in his shoulder ; and a lieutenant dropped 
 down dead on the other side of the king. 
 
 It generally happens that the troops who are attacked in 
 their trenches are beaten, because those who make the at- 
 tack always possess an impetuosity, which those who merely 
 defend themselves can never arrive at ; besides, the waiting 
 the enemy's approach is often an acknowledgment qf their 
 own weakness, and of their adversary's superiority. The 
 Danish cavalry and militia, after a feeble resistance, took to 
 flight. The king, thus become master of their intrenchments, 
 fell upon his knees to return thanks to God for this first suc- 
 cess of his arms. He immediately caused redoubts to be 
 raised towards the town, and marked himself a place for the 
 encampment. In the mean time, he sent back his transports 
 to Schonen, a part of Sweden bordering upon Copenhagen, 
 for a reinforcement of nine thousand men. Every thing con- 
 spired to favour the vivacity of Charles : these troops were 
 already assembled on the shore, and ready to embark ; ac- 
 cordingly the next day a favourable wind brought them to him. 
 
 This transportation was effected in the sight of the Danish 
 fleet, which did not dare to advance. Copenhagen being 
 intimidated, immediately despatched deputies to the king, to 
 beseech him not to bombard the town. He received them 
 on horseback, at the head of his regiment of guards, and the 
 deputies threw themselves on their knees before him. He 
 made the town pay him four hundred thousand rix-dollars, 
 and ordered them to bring in all sorts of provisions to the 
 camp, for which he promised faithfully to pay. They car- 
 ried him the provisions, because it was necessary to obey, 
 although they did not much expect that the conquerors would 
 have so much condescension : the carriers, however, were 
 greatly astonished at being paid generously, and without de- 
 
46 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES JUL 
 
 lay, by the lowest soldiers in the army. There had long 
 prevailed among the Swedish troops a strict discipline, which 
 had not a little contributed to this v ictory ; and the young 
 king increased its severity. There was not a soldier that 
 dared to refuse payment for what he bought, still less to go 
 a plundering, nor even to go out of the camp. He did still 
 more ; for in a victory his troops did not strip the dead till 
 they had received his permission ; and he easily brought 
 them to observe this law. Prayers were regularly said in 
 his camp twice a day, at seven o'clock in the morning, and 
 at four in the afternoon ; at which he never failed to assist 
 in person, and to set the soldiers an example of piety as well as 
 of valour. His camp, much better regulated than even the city 
 of Copenhagen, had every thing in abundance ; the peasants 
 preferred selling their commodities to the Swedes, their ene- 
 mies, rather than to the Danes, who did not pay them so 
 well. Even the citizens were obliged to come, more than 
 once, to seek in the camp of the king of Sweden those pro- 
 visions which their own markets failed to furnish. 
 
 The king of Denmark was at this time in Holstein, whither 
 he seemed to have gone for no other purpose than to raise 
 the siege of Tonningen. He saw the Baltick Sea covered 
 with the enemy's ships, a young conqueror already master 
 of Zealand, and ready to seize on his capital. He therefore 
 caused it to be published throughout his dominions, that those 
 who took up arms against the Swedes should have their 
 liberty. This declaration was of great weight in a country 
 formerly free, but in which, at that time, all the peasants, 
 and even many of the citizens, were slaves. Charles sent 
 word to the king of Denmark, that he made war only to 
 oblige him to make peace, and that he must either resolve 
 to do justice to the duke of Holstein, or see Copenhagen de- 
 stroyed, and his kingdom put to the fire and sword. The 
 Dane was too happy in having to do with a conqueror who 
 piqued himself on his justice. A congress was assembled 
 in the town of Travendal, on the frontiers of Holstein. The 
 king of Sweden would not suffer the negotiations to be de- 
 
G OF SWEDEN. 
 
 47 
 
 layed by the arts of ministers, but was determined that the 
 treaty should be finished with the same rapidity with which 
 he had descended into Zealand. It was, in effect, conclu- 
 ded on the fifth of August, to the advantage of the duke of 
 Holstein, who was indemnified for all the expenses of the 
 war, and delivered from oppression. The king of Sweden, 
 satisfied with having succoured his ally, and humbled his 
 enemy, would accept of nothing for himself. Thus Charles 
 XII., at eighteen years of age, began and finished this war 
 in less than six weeks. 
 
 It was precisely at this time that the king of Poland in- 
 vested the town of Riga, the capital of Livonia, and the czar 
 also advanced, on the side of the east, at the head of near a 
 hundred thousand men. Riga was defended by the old 
 Count d'Alberg, a Swedish general, who, at the age of eighty, 
 joined the fire of a young man to the experience of sixty 
 campaigns. Count Fleming, afterwards minister of Poland, 
 a great man in the field, as well as in the cabinet, and Pat- 
 kul the Livonian, pressed the siege, under the inspection of 
 the king ; but in spite of several advantages that the besie- 
 gers had gained, the experience of the old Count d'Alberg 
 rendered their efforts useless, and the king of Poland de- 
 spaired of taking the town. He at last laid hold of an ho- 
 nourable pretence for raising the siege. Riga was full of 
 merchandise belonging to the Dutch. The States General 
 ordered their ambassador at the court of Augustus to make 
 representations to him on that head. The king of Poland 
 needed not much intreaty. He consented to raise the siege 
 rather than occasion the least damage to his allies ; who were 
 not astonished at this excess of complaisance, of which they 
 knew the true cause. 
 
 There remained, then, nothing more for Charles to do, to 
 finish his first campaign, than to march against his rival in 
 glory, Peter Alexiowitz. He was the more exasperated 
 against him, as there were at that time at Stockholm, three 
 Muscovite ambassadors, who had just sworn to the renewal 
 of an inviolable peace. He could not comprehend, as lie 
 
 9 
 
48 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLLV XII. 
 
 piqued himself on a most rigid integrity, that a legislator, 
 like the czar, could make a jest of what ought to be sacred. 
 The young prince, full of honour himself, did not imagine 
 that there could be a system of morality for kings different 
 from that for individuals. The emperor of Muscovy had just 
 published a manifesto, which he had much better have sup- 
 pressed. He there alleged, that the reason of his making 
 war was, that he had not sufficient honour paid him when 
 he passed incognito through Riga ; and likewise, that they sold 
 their provisions to his ambassadors at too dear a rate. It 
 was for these injuries that he ravaged Ingria with eighty 
 thousand men. 
 
 He appeared before Narva^at the head of this great army, 
 on the first of October, at a. season of the year more severe 
 in this climate, than it is in the month of January at Paris. 
 The czar, who in this inclement season, would sometimes 
 ride post four hundred leagues to see a mine or a canal, was 
 not more careful of his troops than of himself. Besides, he 
 knew that the Swedes, since the time of Gustavus Adolphus, 
 could make war in the midst of winter as well as in sum- 
 mer ; he, therefore, wished to accustom the Russians like- 
 wise to know no distinction of seasons, and to render them, 
 one day, not in the least inferior to the Swedes. In this 
 manner, at a time when the ice and snow obliged other na- 
 tions, even in temperate climates, to suspend the war, did 
 the Czar Peter besiege Narva, within thirty degrees of the 
 pole, while Charles XII. advanced to relieve it. The czar nc 
 sooner arrived before the place, than he hastened to put in 
 practice what he had just learned in his travels. He mark- 
 ed out his camp, fortified it on every side, raised redoubts 
 at due distances, and opened the trenches himself. He had 
 given the command of his army to the Duke de Croi, a Ger- 
 man, and a skilful general, but who at that time was little 
 assisted by the Russian officers. As for himself, he held no 
 other rank in his own troops than that of a lieutenant. He 
 thus set the example of military obedience to the nobility, 
 who were till then undisciplined, and who were only used 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 49 
 
 to govern ill-armed slaves without experience or order. It 
 was not to be wondered at, that he who turned carpenter at 
 Amsterdam to procure himself fleets, should serve as lieu- 
 tenant at Narva- to teach his country the art of war. 
 
 The Russians are robust, indefatigable, and perhaps as 
 brave as the Swedes; but time and discipline ulone can ren- 
 der troops warlike and invincible. The only regiments from 
 which any thing was expected were commanded by German 
 officers, but they were few in number. The rest were bar- 
 barians, forced from the forests, and covered with the skins 
 of wild beasts ; some were armed with arrows, and some 
 with clubs ; few of them had fusees ; none had seen a regu- 
 lar siege ; nor was there a good gunner in the whole army. 
 A hundred and fifty cannon, which ought to have reduced 
 the little town of Narva to ashes, were scarcely able to make 
 a breach ; while, on the other hand, the artillery of the city 
 destroyed, at every discharge, whole ranks of the enemy in 
 their trenches. Narva was almost without fortifications ; 
 and the Boron de Hoorn, who commanded it, had not a thou- 
 sand regulars ; and yet this innumerable army could not re- 
 duce it in ten weeks. 
 
 It was the fifteenth of November when the czar was ap- 
 prized that the king of Sweden, having crossed the sea with 
 two hundred transports, was upon the march to the relief of 
 Narva. The Swedes were but twenty thousand strong; yet 
 the czar had no superiority but in number. Far, then, from 
 despising his enemy, he employed every art he was master 
 of to overpower him. Not content with eighty thousand 
 men, he prepared another army to oppose him, and to cross 
 him at every turn. He had already ordered near thirty thou- 
 sand men, who advanced by long marches from Pleskow. 
 He then took a step which would have rendered him con- 
 temptible, if a legislator who had performed so many great 
 exploits could be made so. He quitted his camp, where his 
 presence was necessary, in quest of this fresh body of men, 
 which might have arrived very well without him, and ap- 
 peared by this behaviour to be afraid of engaging in an in- 
 
50 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 trenched camp, a young and inexperienced prince who might - 
 come to attack him. 
 
 But be this as it may, he wanted to inclose Charles be- 
 tween two armies. This was not all ; thirty thousand men, 
 detached from the camp which lay before Narva, were posted 
 a league from the city, on the road along which the King of 
 Sweden was to pass ; twenty thousand Strelitz were placed 
 at a greater distance on the same road, jmd five thousand 
 others formed an advanced guard. All these troops Charles 
 was obliged to march over before he could arrive at the camp, 
 which was fortified with a rampart and a double ditch. The 
 king of Sweden had landed at Pernaw, in the Gulph of 
 Riga, with about sixteen thousand of his infantry, and a little 
 more than four thousand horse. From Pernaw he hastened 
 his march to Revel, followed by all his cavalry, and only four 
 thousand foot. As he always marched on first, without 
 waiting for the rest of his troops, he soon found himself, 
 with his eight thousand men only, near the advanced posts 
 of the enemy. He did not hesitate a moment about attack- 
 ing them ; which he did, one after the other, without giving 
 them time to be acquainted with what a small number they 
 had to engage. The Muscovites, seeing the Swedes thus 
 rush upon them, thought they had the whole army to en- 
 counter, and the advanced guard of five thousand men, who 
 were posted among the rocks, a station in which one hun- 
 dred resolute men might have repulsed a whole army, be- 
 took themselves to flight on the first approach of the Swedes. 
 The twenty thousand men who were behind, seeing their 
 companions fly, took the alarm, and carried disorder with 
 them into the camp. All the posts were carried in two days ; 
 and what upon other occasions would have been counted for 
 three victories, did not retard the march of the king a single 
 hour. At last he appeared, with his eight thousand men, 
 fatigued with so long a march, before a camp of eighty thou- 
 sand Muscovites, defended by one hundred and fifty pieces 
 of cannon ; and scarcely had the troops taken a short repose, 
 when, without deliberating, he gave orders for the attack. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 51 
 
 The signal was two fusees, and the word in German, 
 " With the aid of God." A general officer having repre- 
 sented to him the greatness of the danger, " Why ! do you 
 imagine," said he, to him, "that with my eight thousand 
 brave Swedes, I .shall not be able to march over the bodies 
 of eighty thousand Muscovites ?" A moment after, fearing 
 that there appeared a little gasconade in these words, he run 
 after the officer himself: "Are you not, then, of my opi- 
 nion ?" said he to him : " Have I not a double advantage 
 over my enemies ? The one, that their cavalry can do them 
 no service ; and the other, that the place being narrow, their 
 great number will but incommode them; and therefore I 
 shall in reality be stronger than they." The officer did not 
 dare to be of a different opinion ; and they marched against 
 the Muscovites about mid-day, on the 10th of November, 
 1700. 
 
 As soon as the cannon of the Swedes had made a breach 
 in their intrenchments, they advanced with their bayonets 
 fixed on their fusees, having at their backs a furious shower 
 of snow, which came in the face of the enemy. The Rus- 
 sians stood their ground for half an hour, without quitting 
 their side of the trenches. The king made his attack upon 
 the right of the camp, where the quarters of the czar were, 
 hoping to encounter him, not knowing that the emperor him- 
 self was gone to seek the forty thousand men who were ex- 
 pected every moment to arrive. At the first discharge of 
 the enemy's muskets, the king received a shot in his neck; 
 but it being a spent ball, it lodged in the plaits of his black 
 cravat, and did him no harm. His horse was killed under 
 him. M. de Spart told me, that the king sprung nimbly up- 
 on another horse, saying, " These gentry here make me do 
 my exercise;" and continued fighting and giving orders with 
 the same presence of mind. After three hours engagement, 
 the intrenchments were forced on every side. The king 
 followed the right of the enemy as far as the river Narva 
 with his left wing, if about four thousand men who were 
 pursuing near forty thousand can be so called. The bridge 
 
52 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 breaking under the fugitives, the river was in a moment fill- 
 ed with the dead. The others, desperate, returned to their 
 camp, without knowing where they went ; they there found 
 some barracks, behind which they posted themselves. There 
 they defended themselves for some time, not being able to 
 make their escape; but at last their generals, Dolgorouky, 
 Gollofkin, and Federowits, came and surrendered themselves 
 to the king, and laid their arms at his feet. At the same 
 time arrived the Duke de Croi, general of the army, who 
 likewise surrendered himself, with thirty officers. 
 
 Charles received all these prisoners of distinction with as 
 much politeness, and in as friendly a manner, as if he had * 
 been paying them the honours of an entertainment in his 
 own court. He detained none but the generals. All the 
 subaltern officers and soldiers were conducted, unarmed, as 
 far as the river Narva ; and were there furnished with boats, 
 that they might pass over to their own country. In the mean 
 time, night approached, and the Muscovites on the right still 
 continued fighting. The Swedes had not lost fifteen hun- 
 dred men; while eighteen thousand Muscovites had been 
 killed in their intrenchments, a great number drowned, and 
 many had passed the river; yet there still remained a sufficient 
 number in the camp to have entirely destroyed the Swedes. 
 But it is not the number of the dead, it is the terror of the survi- 
 vors that occasions the loss of battles. The king took the ad- 
 vantage of the small part of the day that remained, to seize the 
 enemy's artillery. He posted himself advantageously between 
 their camp and the town, where he slept some hours on the 
 ground, wrapped up in his cloak, waiting for day-break, that 
 he might fall on the enemy's left wing, which was not 
 yet entirely routed. But at two o'clock in the morning, 
 General Wade, who commanded that wing, having heard of 
 the gracious reception the king had given to the other gene- 
 rals, and in what manner he had dismissed all the subaltern 
 officers and soldiers, sent to beseech the same favour. The 
 conqueror told him, that he had nothing to do but to approach 
 at the head of his army, and lay down his arms and colours 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 53 
 
 at his feet. Accordingly, this general soon after appeared 
 with his Muscovites, who were about thirty thousand in 
 number. They marched uncovered, soldiers and officers, 
 through less than seven thousand Swedes. The soldiers, in 
 passing before the king, threw their guns and swords upon 
 the ground, and the officers laid their ensigns and colours at 
 his feet. He caused the whole of this multitude to be con- 
 ducted over the river, without detaining a single soldier pri- 
 soner. If he had kept them, the number of the prisoners 
 would have been at least five times greater than that of the 
 conquerors. 
 
 He then entered victorious into Narva, accompanied by the 
 Duke de Croi, and other general officers of the Muscovites. 
 He caused their swords to be returned them; and knowing 
 that they wanted money, and that the merchants of Narva 
 would not lend them any, he sent a thousand ducats to the 
 Duke de Croi, and live hundred to each of the Muscovite 
 officers, who could not cease admiring this treatment, of 
 which they had not even an idea. A relation of the victory- 
 was immediately drawn up to send to Stockholm, and to the 
 allies of Sweden ; but the king struck out with his own hand 
 every thing which appeared too much in praise of himself, 
 and to reflect on the czar. His modesty could not, however, 
 prevent them from striking at Stockholm several medals, to 
 perpetuate the memory of those events. Among others, 
 they struck one which represented the king on one side, 
 standing on a pedestal, to which were chained a Muscovite, 
 a Dane, and a Pole ; on the other side was a Hercules, armed 
 with his club, having under his feet a Cerberus, with this in- 
 scription : Tres uno contrudit ictu. 
 
 Among the prisoners taken at the battle, of Narva, there 
 was one who exhibited a striking instance of the revolutions 
 of fortune : he was the eldest son and heir of the king of 
 Georgia; he was called the Czarasis Artschilou. This title 
 of czarasis signifies a prince, or son of the czar, among the 
 Tartars, as well as in Muscovy ; for the word czar, or tsar, 
 meant a king among the ancient Scythians, from whom aU 
 
 5* 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XIL 
 
 these people are descended, and is not derived from the Cae- 
 sars of Rome, so long unknown to these barbarians. His 
 father Mitelleski, czar and master of the most beautiful part 
 of the country which lies between the mountains of Ararat 
 and the eastern coasts of the Black Sea, had been driven 
 from his throne by his own subjects in 1638, and had cho- 
 sen rather to throw himself into the arms of the emperor of 
 Muscovy, than have recourse to the Turks. The son of this 
 king, at the age of nineteen, desired to follow Peter the Great 
 in his expedition against the Swedes, and was taken fighting 
 by some Finland soldiers, who had already stripped him, and 
 were going to kill him, when Count Renschild rescued him 
 from their hands, clothed him, and presented him to his 
 master. Charles sent him to Stockholm, where this unhap- 
 py prince died in a few years after. The king, on seeing 
 him depart, could not help making, in the hearing of his of- 
 ficers, a natural reflection on the strange destiny of an Asi- 
 atic prince, born at the foot of Mount Caucasus, going to live 
 a captive among the snows of Sweden. " It is," says he, 
 " as if I were one day to be a prisoner among the Tartars of 
 the Crimea." These words made no impression at the time; 
 but in the sequel, they were remembered too well, when an 
 event turned them into a prediction. 
 
 The czar was advancing by long marches with the army 
 of forty thousand Russians, thinking to surround his enemy 
 on all sides ; when he heard, before he had proceeded half 
 way, of the battle of Narva, and the dispersion of his whole 
 camp. He was not so obstinate as to think of attacking with 
 hi.s forty thousand men, without experience or discipline, a 
 conqueror who had just destroyed eighty thousand men in 
 their intrenchrsents. He returned upon his footsteps, and 
 pursued, without ceasing, the design of disciplining his troops, 
 at the same time that he civilized his subjects. " I know 
 very well," said he, " the Swedes will beat us for a long 
 time, but in the end, they themselves will teach us to beat 
 them." Moscow, his capital, was in terror and confusion 
 at this defeat. Nay, such was the pride and ignorance of 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 55 
 
 the people, that they imagined they had been conquered by 
 a power more than human, and that the Swedes were real 
 magicians. This opinion was so general, that public prayers 
 were ordered to be put up on this occasion to St. Nicholas, 
 patron of Muscovy. This prayer is too singular not be re- 
 peated. It is as follows : 
 
 " thou, who art our perpetual consoler in all our adver- 
 sities, great St. Nicholas, infinitely powerful, by what sin 
 have we ofFended thee in our sacrifices, kneelings. bowings, 
 and thanksgivings, that thou hast thus abandoned us ? - We 
 have implored thy assistance against these terrible, insolent, 
 enraged, dreadful, and unconquerable destroyers, when like 
 lions and bears who have lost their young, they have attacked 
 us, terrified, wounded, and killed by thousands, us thy peo- 
 ple. As it is impossible that this can be without sorcery 
 and enchantment, we beseech thee, great St. Nicholas, to 
 be our champion and our standard-bearer, to deliver us from 
 this tribe of sorcerers, and to drive them far from our fron- 
 tiers, with the recompense that is their due." 
 
 In the mean time that the Muscovites were complaining 
 to St. Nicholas of their defeat, Charles XII. returned thanks 
 to God, and prepared himself for new victories. 
 
 The king of Poland had reason to expect that his enemy, 
 being conqueror over the Danes and Muscovites, would pre- 
 sently fall upon him ; he therefore united himself firmer 
 than ever with the czar. These two princes agreed upon 
 an interview, that they might take their measures in concert. 
 They met at Birzen, a small town in Lithuania, without any 
 of those formalities, which only serve to retard business, and 
 which were not suited either to their situation or their hu- 
 mour. The princes of the north see each other with»a fa- 
 miliarity which is not yet established in the southern parts 
 of Europe. Peter and Augustus passed five days together 
 in pleasures which bordered upon excess ; for the czar, 
 though he wanted to reform his nation, could never correct 
 in himself his dangerous propensity to debauchery. 
 
 The king of Poland engaged himself to furnish the czar 
 
56 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 with fifty thousand German troops, which were to be hired 
 of different princes, and for which the czar was to pay. The 
 czar, on his side, was to send fifty thousand Russians into Po- 
 land, to learn the art of war, and promised to pay to Augus- 
 tus three millions of rix dollars in two years. This treaty, 
 if it had been executed, might have been fatal to the King 
 of Sweden : it was a ready and sure method of renderiug 
 the Muscovites good soldiers ; it was, perhaps, forging chains 
 for a part of Europe. 
 
 Charles prepared himself to prevent the king of Poland 
 from reaping the fruit of this league. After having passed 
 the winter at Narva, he appeared in Livonia, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Riga, the very town which Augustus had in 
 vain besieged. The Saxon troops were posted along the 
 river Duna, which is very broad in that place: Charles, who 
 was on the other side of the river, was obliged to dispute 
 their passage. The Saxons were not commanded by their 
 prince, he being sick; but were headed by the Marshal 
 de Stenau, who took the office of general ; under whom 
 Prince Ferdinand, duke of Courland, commanded; and that 
 very Patkul now defended his country against Charles XII. , 
 sword in hand, who formerly vindicated its rights with his 
 pen, at the hazard of his life, against Charles XI. The King 
 of Sweden had caused some large boats to be built on a new 
 plan, the sides of which were much higher than ordinary, 
 and could be raised or let down like a draw-bridge. When 
 raised, they covered the troops on board ; and when let 
 down they served as bridges to land them. He made use 
 also of another artifice. Having remarked that the wind 
 blew from the north, where he lay, to the south, where the 
 enemy's camps were, he ordered that they should set fire to 
 a quantity of wet straw ; from which a thick smoke arising, 
 it spread itself over the river, preventing the Saxons from 
 seeing his troops, or observing what he was about. Under 
 the cover of this cloud, he ordered several barks to put off, 
 full of wet fuel ; so that the cloud always increasing, and 
 driven by the wind into the eyes of the enemy, made it im- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 57 
 
 possible for them to know whether the king was passing the 
 river or not. Meanwhile he alone conducted the execution 
 of his stratagem. Having got over the greater part of the 
 river, " Well," says he to General Renschild, u the Duna 
 will be as favourable to us as the sea of Copenhagen ; be- 
 lieve me, general, we shall beat them." He arrived in a 
 quarter of an hour at the other side ; and was mortified that 
 he was the fourth person that leaped on shore. He imme- 
 diately landed his cannon, and formed a line of battle, while 
 the enemy, blinded with smoke, could not oppose him, ex- 
 cept by a few random shot. The wind having dispersed the 
 smoke, the Saxons saw the king of Sweden already advanc- 
 ing towards them. 
 
 Mareschal Stenau lost not a moment : scarce had he per- 
 ceived the Swedes, when he fell on them with the best part 
 of his cavalry. The violent shock of this body falling upon 
 the Swedes at the instant they were forming their battalions, 
 threw them into disorder. They gave way, were broken, 
 and pursued even into the river. The king of Sweden ral- 
 lied them in a moment, in the middle of the water, as easily 
 as if he had been exercising at a review ; after which his 
 soldiers marched more compact than before, repulsed Ma- 
 reschal Stenau, and advanced' into the plain. Stenau finding 
 that his troops were astonished, like an able general, made 
 them retire into a dry place, flanked with a morass and 
 a wood, where his artillery lay. The advantage of the 
 ground, and the time thus given to the Saxons to recover 
 their first surprize, restored to them their former courage. 
 Charles did not hesitate to attack them; he had fifteen thou- 
 sand men with him ; Stenau and the duke of Courland about 
 twelve thousand, with no other artillery than one dismounted 
 iron cannon. The battle was obstinate and bloody; the 
 duke had two horses killed under him ; he penetrated three 
 times into the centre of the king's guard : but at last, having 
 been knocked off his horse by a blow with the butt-end of 
 a musket, disorder prevailed throughout his army, which no 
 longer disputed the victory. His cuirassiers carried him off 
 
58 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 with great difficulty, bruised and half dead, from the thickest 
 of the fight, and from under the horses heels, which tram- 
 pled on him. 
 
 The king of Sweden, after his victory, flew to Mittau, the 
 capital of Courland. All the towns of this duchy surrendered 
 to him at discretion, so that it was a journey rather than a 
 conquest. He passed without delay into Lithuania, con- 
 quering as he went along. He felt a flattering satisfaction, 
 and he confessed it, when he entered as conqueror the town 
 of Birzen, where the king of Poland and the czar had con- 
 spired against him some months before. 
 
 It was in this place that he first conceived the design ol 
 dethroning the king of Poland, by the hands of the Poles 
 themselves. Being one day at table, his mind entirely taken 
 up with this enterprise, and observing his usual temperance 
 of diet, he was wrapped in profound silence, and seemed ab- 
 sorbed in the greatness of his conceptions, when a German 
 colonel, who was present at dinner, observed, loud enough 
 to be heard, that the repast which the czar and the king of 
 Poland had made in the same place, was somewhat different 
 from that of his majesty. " Yes," said the king, rising, " and 
 I shall the more easily spoil their digestion." In short, in- 
 termixing a little policy with the force of his arms, he did 
 not delay to prepare the event which he had meditated. 
 
 Poland, a part of the- ancient Sarmatia, is a little larger 
 than France, but less populous, though it is more so than 
 Sweden. Its inhabitants were converted to Christianity only 
 about seven hundred and fifty years ago. It is very singular 
 that the language of the Romans, who never penetrated into 
 this country, is at this time spoken no where in common but 
 in Poland ; there every body speaks Latin, even among the 
 very servants. This extensive country is very fertile : and 
 the people are consequently less industrious. The artists 
 and traders you meet with in Poland are Scots, French, and 
 Jews, who buy, at a low price, corn, cattle, and the different 
 commodities of the country ; these they dispose of at Dantzic 
 and in Germany, and sell to the nobles at a high price, to 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 59 
 
 gratify the only species of luxury which they know and love. 
 Thus this country, watered with the most beautiful rivers, rich 
 in pastures, in salt mines, and covered with luxuriant crops, 
 remains poor in spite of its plenty, because the people are 
 slaves, and the nobility are proud and indolent. 
 
 Its government is the most perfect model of the ancient 
 government of the Goths and Ce^ae, which has been correct- 
 ed or altered every where else. It is the only state that has 
 preserved the name of a republic with the royal dignity. 
 
 Every gentleman, has a right to give his vote in the elec- 
 tion of a king ; and may even be elected himself. This most 
 estimable right is attended with the greatest abuses ; the 
 throne is almost always put up to auction ; and as a Pole is 
 seldom rich enough to buy it, it has been often sold to stran- 
 gers. The nobility and clergy defend their rights against 
 the king, and deprive the rest of the nation of theirs. All 
 the people are slaves; such is the destiny of men, that the 
 greater number are every where, by some means or other, 
 subjected to the less. There the peasant sows not for him- 
 self, but for his lord ; to whom himself, his lands, and the 
 labour of his hands, belong, and who can sell him, cr cut his 
 throat, as he would the beast in his field. All who are gen- 
 tlemen are independent. There must be an assembly of the 
 whole nation to try him in a criminal cause ; and as he can- 
 not be seized till he is condemned, he is hardly ever punish- 
 ed. There is a great number of poor; these engage in the 
 services of the most powerful, receive a salary, and do the 
 meanest offices for it. They like better to serve even their 
 equals than to enrich themselves by commerce, and as they 
 dress their master's horses, give themselves the title of elec- 
 tors of kings, and destroyers of tyrants. 
 
 Whoever sees the king of Poland in the pomp of royal 
 majesty, would believe him the most absolute prince in Eu- 
 rope ; he is, however, the least so. The Poles really make 
 that contract with him, which in other nations is mere sup- 
 position between the king and his subject. The king of Po- 
 land even at his consecration, and in swearing to the pacta 
 
60 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 conventa, absolves his subjects from the oath of obedience, in 
 case he violates the laws of the republic. 
 
 He fills up all offices, and confers all honours. Nothing 
 is hereditary in Poland but the land, and the rank of the no- 
 bility. The son of a palatine, or of the king, has no right 
 to the dignities of his father ; but there is this great differ- 
 ence between the king and the republic, that the former can 
 take away no office after he has given it ; while the repub- 
 lic may take away the crown from him, if he transgresses the 
 laws of the state. 
 
 The nobility, jealous of their liberty, often sell their votes, 
 but seldom their affections. Scarcely have they elected a 
 king, but, fearing his ambition, they oppose him by their ca- 
 bals. The grandees whom he has made, and whom he can- 
 not unmake, often become his enemies, instead of remain- 
 ing his creatures. Those who are attached to the court, are 
 objects of hatred to the rest of the nobility; this always forms 
 two parties; an unavoidable division, and even necessary in 
 those countries where they will choose, at the same time, to 
 have kings, and to preserve their liberties. 
 
 Whatever concerns the nation, is regulated in the states 
 general, which they call diets. These states are composed 
 of the body of the senate, and of several gentlemen. The 
 senators are the palatines and the bishops ; the second or- 
 der is composed of the deputies of the particular diets of each 
 palatinate. At these great assemblies, the archbishop of 
 Gnesna, primate of Poland, and viceroy of the kingdom dur- 
 ing the interregnum, presides, and is the first man of the 
 state, next to the king. There is seldom any other cardinal 
 in Poland but him; because the Roman purple giving no 
 precedence in the senate, a bishop who shall be a cardinal 
 will be obliged either to take his rank as senator, or re- 
 nounce the solid rights of the dignity of his own country, to 
 support the pretensions of a foreign honour. 
 
 These diets, by the law r s of the kingdom, ought to be held 
 alternately in Poland and Livonia. The deputies often de- 
 cide their business sword in hand, in the same manner as the 
 
KING OF SAVED EN. 
 
 61 
 
 ancient Sarmatians, from whom they are descended, and 
 sometimes even in liquor, a vice of which the Sarmatians 
 were ignorant. Every gentleman deputed to the states ge- 
 neral enjoys the same right which the tribune of the people 
 at Rome had, of opposing the laws of the senate. Any one 
 gentleman who says, " I protest," stops by that single word 
 the unanimous resolutions of all the rest; and if he leaves 
 the place where the diet is held, the assembly is dissolved. 
 
 They apply to the disorders which arise from this law, a 
 remedy more dangerous than the disease. Poland is seldom 
 without two factions ; unanimity in their diets, therefore, be- 
 ing impossible, each party forms confederacies, in which 
 they decide by the plurality of voices, without paying any 
 regard to the protests of the minority. These assemblies, 
 not warranted by law, but authorized by custom, are held in 
 the name of the king, though often without his consent, and 
 against his interest; something in the manner in which the 
 league in France made use of the name of Henry III. to 
 ruin him ; and as the parliament of England, which brought 
 Charles I. to the block, began by placing that prince's name 
 to all the resolutions which they took to destroy him. When 
 the commotions are finished, it is the part of the general 
 diets to confirm or quash the acts of these confederacies. 
 A diet can alter every thing that has been done at pre- 
 ceding ones ; for the same reason that in monarchical coun- 
 tries a king can abolish the laws of his predecessor, and even 
 his own. 
 
 The nobility, who make the laws of the republic, consti- 
 tute its strength also. They appear on horseback upon any- 
 great occasion, and are able to form a body of above a hun- 
 dred thousand men. This great army, called the pospolite, 
 moves with difficulty, and is ill-governed : the difficulty of 
 obtaining provision and forage, makes it impossible for it to 
 continue long assembled : it has neither discipline, subor- 
 dination, nor experience ; but the love of liberty which ani- 
 mates it renders it always formidable. 
 
 These nobles may be conquered, or dispersed, or even 
 6 
 
62 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 held in slavery for a time, but they soon shake off the yoke ; 
 
 indeed they compare themselves to the reed, which the wind 
 bends to the ground, but which rises again as soon as the 
 wind ceases to blow. It is for this reason that they have no 
 places of strength : they will have themselves to be the 
 only bulwark of the republic ; nor will they sulfer their king 
 to build any forts, foi fear he should make use of them more 
 to oppress than to defend them. Their country is of course 
 entirely open, except two or three frontier towns. If in a 
 war either civil or foreign, they resolve to sustain a siege, 
 they are obliged to raise fortifications of earth, repair the old 
 walls that are half ruined, and enlarge their ditches that are 
 almost filled up, so that the town is generally taken before 
 the intrenchments are completed. 
 
 The pospolite are not always on horseback to defend the 
 country ; they never mount but by the order of the diets, 
 though sometimes, in extreme dangers, by the simple order 
 of the king. 
 
 The ordinary guard of Poland, is an army which ought 
 always to be maintained at the expense of the republic. It 
 is composed of two corps, under the command of two dif- 
 ferent commanders in chief. The first corps is that of Po- 
 land, and ought to consist of thirty-six thousand men : the 
 second, to the number of twelve thousand, is that of Lithu- 
 ania. The two generals are independent the one of the 
 other; and though they are nominated by the king, they are 
 accountable to nobody for their actions but the republic, and 
 have an unlimited authority over their troops. The colonels 
 are absolute masters of their regiments ; and it belongs to 
 them to maintain and pay the soldiers as they are able ; but 
 being seldom paid themselves, they ravage the country, and 
 ruin the peasants, to satisfy their own avidity, and that of 
 their soldiers. The Polish lords appear in these armies with 
 more magnificence than they do in the towns; and their 
 tents are more ornamented than their houses. The cavalry, 
 which makes up two thirds of the army, is composed of gen- 
 tlemen, and is remarkable for the beauty of their horses, 
 and tfte richness of their harness and accoutrements. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 65 
 
 The gendarmes in particular, whom they distinguish into 
 hussars and pancernes, nev er march without being accom- 
 panied by several valets, who hold their horses, which are 
 adorned with plates and nails of silver, embroidered saddles, 
 saddle-bows, and gilt stirrups, and sometimes of massy silver, 
 together with large housings, trailing after the manner of the 
 Turks, the magnificence of whom the Poles imitate as much 
 as possible. 
 
 In the same degree that the cavalry is fine and superb, the 
 infantry was then proportion ably wretched, ill clothed, un- 
 armed, without regimentals, or any thing uniform. It was 
 so, at least, till about the year 1710. These infantry, who 
 resemble wandering Tartars, supported with an astonishing 
 fortitude, hunger, cold, fatigue, and all the hardships of war. 
 
 One may see in the Polish soldiers the character of the 
 ancient Sarmatians, their ancestors, the same want of disci- 
 pline, the same fury to attack, the same readiness to fly from 
 and to return to the attack, and likewise the same disposi- 
 tion to slaughter when they are conquerors. ■ 
 
 The king of Poland flattered himself at first, that in case 
 of necessity, these two armies would right in his favour ; that 
 the Polish pospolite would arm themselves at his orders ; 
 and that all these forces, joined to the Saxons, his subjects, 
 and to the Muscovites, his allies, would form a multitude 
 before which the small number of the Swedes would not 
 dare to appear. But he saw himself almost at once deprived 
 of these succours, by means of that very eagerness which 
 he had shown to have them all at once. 
 
 Accustomed in his hereditary dominions to absolute power, 
 he imagined, too fondly, that he might govern in Poland as 
 he did in Saxony. The beginning of his reign made mal- 
 contents ; and his first proceedings irritated the party who 
 had opposed his election, and alienated almost all the rest. 
 The Poles murmured to see their towns filled with Saxon 
 garrisons, and their frontiers lined with troops. This nation, 
 much more jealous of maintaining its liberty than anxious to 
 attack its neighbours, did not regard the war of King Augus- 
 
HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 tus against the Swedes, and the irruption into Livonia, as an 
 enterprise advantageous to the republic. It is difficult to de- 
 ceive a free people respecting its true interest. The Poles 
 knew, that if this war, undertaken without their consent, 
 should prove unsuccessful, their country, open on every side, 
 would become a prey to the king of Sweden ; and that, if it 
 was successful, they would be enslaved by their own king, 
 who, being then master of Livonia and Saxony, would shut 
 up Poland between these two states. In this alternative, 
 either to be slaves of the king whom they had elected, or to 
 be ravaged by Charles XII., who was justly incensed, they 
 raised but one cry against the war, which they believed to 
 have been declared more against themselves than Sweden. 
 They regarded the Saxons and the Muscovites as the for- 
 gers of their chains ; and seeing, soon after, that the king of 
 Sweden had overcome every thing which opposed his pas- 
 sage, and was advancing with a victorious army into the very 
 heart of Lithuania, they exclaimed against their sovereign 
 with so much the more freedom, as he was unfortunate. 
 
 Two parties at this time divided Lithuania ; that of the 
 princess Sapieha, and that of Oginsky. These two factions 
 began from private quarrels, and, at last, terminated in a civil 
 war. The king of Sweden attached himself to the piincess 
 Sapieha; and Oginsky, ill supported by the Saxons, found 
 his party almost annihilated. The Lithuanian army, whom 
 these troubles, and the want of money, had reduced to a small 
 number, was partly dispersed by the conquerors. The few 
 who held out for the king of Poland, were separated into 
 small bodies of fugitive troops, who wandered about the 
 country, and subsisted by rapine. Augustus saw nothing in 
 Lithuania but the weakness of his own party, the hatred of 
 his subjects, and an hostile army conducted by a young king, 
 enraged, victorious, and implacable. 
 
 There was, indeed, an army in Poland, but instead of its 
 being composed of thirty-six thousand men, the number pre- 
 scribed by law, there were not even eighteen thousand, not 
 only ill-paid, and ill-armed, but their generals knew not as 
 yet which side they should take. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 65 
 
 The only resource of the king was, to order his nobility 
 to follow him : but he was afraid of exposing himself to a 
 refusal, which would have discovered his weakness, and 
 consequently have augmented it. 
 
 It was in this state of trouble and uncertainty that all the 
 palatinates demanded a diet of the king, in the same manner 
 as in England, when all the bodies of the state, in difficult 
 times, present addresses to the king, beseeching him to con- 
 voke a parliament. Augustus had more need of an army 
 than a diet, in which the actions of the king, are strictly scru- 
 tinized. However, it was necessary that he should assem- 
 ble one, lest he should incense the nation beyond a reconci- 
 liation ; it was accordingly appointed to be held at Warsaw, 
 the second of December, in the year 1701. He soon per- 
 ceived, however, that Charles had at least as much power 
 as himself in this assembly. Those who favoured the Sa- 
 piehas, the Lubomirsky, and their friends, the Palatine Lec- 
 zinsky, treasurer of the crown, (who owed his fortune to 
 King Augustus,) and especially the partizans of the princes 
 Sobiesky, were all secretly attached to the king of Sweden. 
 
 The most considerable of these partizans, and the most 
 dangerous enemy that the king of Poland had, was the Car- 
 dinal Radziejousky, archbishop of Gnesna, primate of the 
 kingdom, and president of the diet. 
 
 He was a man full of artifice and mystery in his conduct, 
 entirely governed by an ambitious woman, whom the Swedes 
 called Madame Cardinal, and who never ceased engaging 
 him in intrigue and faction. The talent of the primate con- 
 sisted, as we are told, in making use of circumstances with- 
 out seeking to give birth to them. He appeared often to be 
 irresolute, for who is not so in a civil war ? King John So- 
 biesky, the predecessor of Augustus, had first made him 
 bishop of Warrnia, and vice-chancellor of the kingdom. 
 Radziejousky, being yet but a bishop, had obtained the car- 
 dinalship by the favour of the same king. This dignity- 
 soon opened his way to that of primate : thus uniting in his 
 
 6* 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 own person every thing to impose upon mankind, he was in 
 a state to undertake any thing with impunity. 
 
 He tried his credit, after the death of John, to place the 
 Prince James Sobiesky on the throne ; but the torrent of ha- 
 tred which the father had incurred, though a truly great man, 
 overwhelmed his son. After this, the cardinal primate joined 
 to the Abbe de Polignac, ambassador of France, to give the 
 crown to the prince of Conti, who was in effect elected. 
 But money and Saxon troops triumphed over his negotia- 
 tions. He suffered himself, at last, to be drawn over to the 
 party that crowned the elector of Saxony, and waited with 
 patience for an opportunity of making a division between 
 the nation and this new king. 
 
 The victories of Charles XII., protector of Prince James 
 Sobiesky, the civil war in Lithuania, and the general aliena- 
 tion of men's minds from King Augustus, made the cardinal 
 primate believe that the time was arrived when he might 
 send Augustus into Saxony, and open King John's son the 
 way to the throne. This prince, formerly the innocent ob- 
 ject of the hatred of the Poles, had begun to engage their 
 affections from the time of their hatred to King Augustus ; 
 but he durst not as yet conceive an i(Jea of so great a revo- 
 lution, of which the cardinal was insensibly laying the foun- 
 dation. 
 
 At first he seemed to wish to reconcile the king and the 
 republic ; he sent circular letters, dictated, in appearance, by 
 the spirit of concord and charity ; common and well known 
 snares, but with which men are always caught. He wrote 
 an affecting letter to the king of Sweden, conjuring him, in 
 the name of Him whom all Christians equally adored, to 
 give peace to Poland and her king. Charles XII. answered 
 the intentions of the cardinal rather than his words. In the 
 meantime, he remained in the great duchy of Lithuania with 
 his victorious army, declaring that he would not disturb the 
 diet; that he made war against Augustus and the Saxons, 
 and not against the Poles ; and that so far from attacking the 
 republic, he came to relieve it from oppression. Those let- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 67 
 
 ters and these answers were intended for the public. The 
 emissaries that were continually going and coming between 
 the cardinal and Count Piper, and the secret assemblies at 
 the prelate's house, were the springs that regulated the mo- 
 tions of the diet; they proposed to send an ambassador to 
 Charles XII., and unanimously demanded of the king, that 
 he would call no more Muscovites to his frontiers, and that 
 he should also send back his Saxon troops. 
 
 The bad fortune of Augustus had already done what the 
 diet required of him. The league secretly concluded at 
 Birzen with the Muscovites, was now become as useless, as 
 it had at first appeared formidable. He was far from being 
 able to send to the czar the fifty thousand Germans he 
 had promised to raise in the empire. Even the czar, 
 a dangerous neighbour of Poland, was in no haste to 
 assist, with all his force, a divided kingdom, from whose 
 misfortunes he hoped to reap some advantage. He content- 
 ed himself with sending twenty thousand Muscovites into 
 Lithuania, who cid more mischief than the Swedes, flying 
 every where before the conqueror, and ravaging the lands of 
 the Poles, till at last, being pursued by the Swedish gene- 
 rals, and finding nothing more to pillage, they returned in 
 bodies to .their own country. With regard to the shattered 
 remains of the Saxon armies beaten at Riga, Augustus sent 
 them to winter and recruit in Saxony, to the end that this 
 sacrifice, involuntary as it was, might regain him the affec- 
 tions of the irritated Poles. 
 
 The war was now turning into intrigues. The diet was 
 divided iato almost as many factions as there were palatines. 
 One day the interests of King Augustus prevailed, the next 
 they were proscribed. Every one cried out for liberty and 
 justice ; but no one knew what it was either to be free or 
 just. The time was lost by caballing in private and haran- 
 guing in public. The diet knew neither what they wanted, nor 
 what they ought to do. Great assemblies have" hardly ever 
 taken right counsel in civil broils; because the most coura- 
 geous amongst them are engaged the sedition, and the 
 
68 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 well disposed are generally a prey to their fears. The diet 
 dissolved in tumult the 17th of February, in the year 
 1702, after three months of cabals and irresolution. The 
 senators, who are the palatines and bishops, remained at 
 Warsaw. The senate of Poland has a right to make laws 
 provisionally, which the diets seldom disannul. This body 
 being less numerous, and accustomed to business, was far 
 less tumultuous, and decided with greater despatch. 
 
 They decreed, that they should send to the king of Swe- 
 den the embassy proposed in the diet : that the prospolite 
 should mount their horses, and hold themselves in readiness 
 at all events ; they made several regulations to appease the 
 troubles in Lithuania, and still more to lessen the authority 
 of the king, which was more to be feared than that of Charles. 
 
 Augustus chose rather at that time to receive hard laws 
 from his conqueror than from his subjects. He determined 
 to sue for a peace to the king of Sweden, and wanted to 
 make a secret treaty with him. It was necessary to conceal 
 this step from the senate, whom he regarded as an enemy 
 still more untractable than Charles. This was a delicate af- 
 fair; he entrusted it to the countess of Konigsmark, a Swedish 
 lady of high birth, and to whom he was at that time attach- 
 ed. This lady, celebrated in the world for her wit and beau- 
 ty, was more capable than any minister to bring a negotia- 
 tion to a happy conclusion. Moreover, as she had an estate 
 in the dominions of Charles XII., and had lived a long time 
 in his court, she had a plausible pretext to seek this prince. 
 She therefore went to the Swedish camp in Lithuania, and 
 addressed herself directly to Count Piper, who, too hastily, 
 promised her an audience with his master. The countess, 
 among those perfections which rendered her one of the most 
 amiable persons in Europe, had the singular talent of speak- 
 ing the languages of several countries which she had never 
 seen, with as much elegance as if she had been born there; 
 she even amused herself, sometimes, in writing French verses, 
 which might have been mistaken for the production of a 
 person born at Versailles. Those she composed for Charles 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 69 
 
 XII., history ought not to omit. She introduced the hear 
 then gods praising the different virtues of Charles. The 
 piece concluded thus : 
 
 Enfin ehacun des Dieux discourant a sa gloire, 
 Le plaeoit par avance au Temple de Memoire ; 
 Mais Venus ni Bacchus n'en dirent pas un mot. 
 
 Nay, all the gods to sound his fame combine. 
 
 Except the deities of love and wine. 
 
 All her wit and beauty were, however, thrown away upon 
 a man like the king of Sweden, who constantly refused to 
 see her. She therefore resolved to throw herself in his way 
 as he rode out to take the air, which he frequently did. She 
 one day met him in a narrow path : she descended from her 
 carriage as soon as she perceived him ; the king made her a 
 low bow, turned his horse about, and rode back in an instant ; 
 so that the only advantage which the countess of Konigsmark 
 gained from her journey, was the satisfaction of believing 
 that the king of Sweden feared nobody but her. 
 
 The king of Poland was now obliged to throw himself 
 into the arms of the senate. He therefore made them two 
 proposals, by the palatine of Marienburgh; the one, that they 
 should leave to him the disposition of the army of the re- 
 public, to whom he would pay, out of his own revenue, two 
 quarters advance ; the other, that they should permit him to 
 bring back twelve thousand Saxons into Poland. The car- 
 dinal primate returned him an answer, as severe as the refu- 
 sal of the king of Sweden. He told the palatine of Marien- 
 burgh, in the name of the assembly, "that they had resolved 
 to send an embassy to Charles XII., and that he would not 
 advise him to bring back any Saxons." 
 
 The king, in this extremity, wished to preserve the ap- 
 pearance, at least, of royal authority. He sent one of his 
 chamberlains, on his own part, to wait upon Charles, to 
 know from him where and how his Swedish majesty would 
 be pleased to receive the embassy of his master and the re- 
 public. Unluckily they had forgot to ask a passport from 
 the Swedes for this chamberlain ; the king of Sweden, there- 
 fore, instead of giving him audience, caused him to be thrown 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 into prison, saying, " that he expected an embassy from the 
 republic, and not from Augustus." This violation of the right 
 of nations no law but that of a superior force could excuse. 
 
 Afterwards Charles, having left behind him garrisons in 
 several towns in Lithuania, advanced beyond Grodno, a town 
 well known in Europe for the diets that are held there, but 
 ill built, and badly fortified. 
 
 A few miles on the other side Grodno, he encountered the 
 embassy of the republic : it was composed of five senators. 
 They desired, in the first place, to regulate the ceremony of 
 their introduction, a thing that the king was unacquainted 
 with : they then demanded that the republic should be styled 
 " most serene," and that the coaches of the king and the 
 senators should be sent to meet them. They were answered, 
 that the republic should be styled " illustrious," and not 
 " most serene," and that the king never made use of car- 
 riages ; that he had many officers about him, but no sena- 
 tors ; that a lieutenant-general should be sent to meet them, 
 and that they should come on their own horses. 
 
 Charles XII. received them in his tent, with some appear- 
 ance of military pomp ; their discourse was full of caution 
 and reserve. It was remarked, that they were afraid of 
 Charles, that they did not love Augustus, but that they were 
 ashamed to take, by command of a stranger, the crown from 
 a king whom they had elected. Nothing was concluded, 
 and -Charles gave them to understand, that he would settle 
 all disputes at Warsaw. 
 
 His march was preceded by a manifesto, which the cardi- 
 nal and his party spread over Poland in eight days. Charles, 
 by this writing, invited the Poles to join their vengeance to 
 his, and pretended to show them that his interest and theirs 
 were the same. They were, however, very different : but 
 the manifesto, supported by a great party, by the confusion 
 of the senate, and the approach of the conqueror, made a 
 very strong impression. They were obliged to own Charles 
 for protector, because he)would be so, and because it was 
 happy for them that he contented himself with this title. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 71 
 
 The senators who opposed Augustus, published this mani- 
 festo aloud, even in his presence ; the few who were attach- 
 ed to him observed a profound silence. At last, when they 
 were apprised that Charles was advancing by long marches, 
 they all prepared in the greatest confusion to depart. The 
 cardinal quitted Warsaw among the first; the greatest part 
 fled with precipitation ; some retired to their estates to wait 
 the end of this affair, while others went to arm their friends. 
 Nobody returned with the king, except the ambassadors of 
 the emperor and of the czar, the pope's nuncio, together with 
 a few bishops and palatines attached to his fortunes. He 
 was obliged to fly, as there was nothing as yet decided in 
 his favour. He hastened before his departure, to hold a 
 council with the small number of senators who still repre- 
 sented the senate. But however zealous they were to serve 
 him, they were nevertheless Poles, and had all conceived 
 so great an aversion to Saxon troops, that they did not dare 
 to grant him the liberty of recalling more than six thousand 
 men for his defence, and even voted that those should be 
 commanded by the grand general of Poland, and sent back 
 as soon as they had made peace. The armies of the re- 
 public, indeed, they committed to his care. 
 
 After this resolution, the king quitted Warsaw, too weak 
 to resist his enemies, and little satisfied even with his own 
 party. He immediately published orders for assembling the 
 pospolite and the armies, which were little more than empty 
 names. He had nothing to hope for in Lithuania, where the 
 Swedes then were. The army of Poland, reduced to a few 
 troops, wanted arms, provisions, and inclination to fight 
 The greatest part of the nobility, intimidated, irresolute, and 
 disaffected, remained at their different estates. In vain did the 
 king, authorized by the laws of the land, order, on pain of 
 death, that every gentleman should mount his horse and fol- 
 low him ; it was become a problematical point whether they 
 ought to obey him or not. His great resource was in the 
 troops of the electorate, where the form of government be- 
 ing entirely absolute, did not leave him a doubt of theii 
 
72 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 obedience. He had already secretly commanded twelve 
 thousand Saxons to advance with precipitation. He like- 
 wise recalled the eight thousand men he had promised the 
 emperor in his war against France, and whom the necessity 
 into which he was reduced obliged him to withdraw. To 
 introduce so many Saxons into Poland, was to exasperate all 
 minds, and violate the law made by his own party, who al- 
 lowed him only six thousand ; but he knew very well, that 
 if he was conqueror they would not dare to complain, and if 
 he was conquered they would not forgive his having intro- 
 duced even the six thousand. At the time these soldiers 
 were arriving in troops, and he was going from one palatinate 
 to another, to assemble the nobility who were attached to 
 him, the king of Sweden appeared before Warsaw on the 
 fifth of May, 1702. At the first summons, the gates were 
 opened to him. He dismissed the Polish garrison, disband- 
 ed the city guard, established posts in every part of the town, 
 and ordered the inhabitants to come and deliver to him their 
 arms ; but, content with disarming them, and being unwill- 
 ing to irritate them, he demanded a contribution of no more 
 than one hundred thousand livres. 
 
 Augustus was at this time assembling his forces at Cracow, 
 and was very much surprised to see the cardinal arrive there. 
 This man pretended to keep up the decency of his charac- 
 ter to the very last, and endeavoured to dethrone the king 
 with the exterior behaviour of a good subject; he gave him 
 to understand that the king of Sweden appeared disposed to 
 listen to a reasonable accommodation, and humbly asked per- 
 mission to seek him. The king granted him what he was 
 not able to refuse, that is to say, the liberty of doing him 
 mischief. 
 
 The cardinal primate hastened immediately to find the 
 king of Sweden, before whom he had not as yet dared pre- 
 sent himself. He saw this prince at Pragg, near Warsaw, 
 but without the ceremonies with which he had received the 
 ambassadors of the republic. He found this conqueror 
 dressed in a coat of coarse blue cloth with gilt brass buttons, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 73 
 
 large boots, and buff skin gloves which came up to hi* el- 
 bows, in a chamber without tapestry, in which were his 
 brother-in-law the duke of Holstein, Count Piper, his first 
 minister, and several general officers. The king advanced 
 several paces to meet the cardinal ; and they had a confe- 
 rence together, standing, of a quarter of an hour, which 
 Charles finished by saying aloud, " I will not give peace to 
 the Poles till they have elected another king." The cardi- 
 nal, who expected such a declaration, caused it to be imme- 
 diately known to all the palatinates, assuring them of the 
 extreme sorrow he felt at it, and representing, at the same 
 time, the necessity there was to obey the conqueror. 
 
 At this news, the king of Poland plainly perceived that he 
 must either lose the thione, or preserve it by a battle. He 
 exhausted all his resources for this great decision. All his 
 Saxon troops were arrived from the Saxon frontiers, and the 
 nobility of the palatinate of Cracow, where he still was, 
 came in crowds to offer him their services. He exhorted 
 each of these gentlemen to remember their oaths, and they 
 promised to shed the last drop of their blood to support him. 
 Encouraged by their support, and by the troops who bore 
 the name of the army of the crown, he went for the first 
 time to seek, in person, the king of Sweden, whom he pre- 
 sently found advancing towards Cracow. 
 
 The two kings met on the 13th of July, in the year 1702, 
 in a vast plain near Clissau, between Warsaw and Cracow. 
 Augustus had near twenty-four thousand men, while Charles 
 had no more than twelve thousand. 
 
 The battle began by discharges of artillery. At the first 
 volley from the Saxons, the duke of Holstein, who commanded 
 the Swedish cavalry, a young prince of courage and virtue, 
 received a cannon-ball in his reins. The king asked if he 
 was killed, and was told yes : he made no answer : some 
 tears fell from his eyes ; and he held his hand up to his face 
 for a moment; when all of a sudden, he spurred his horse 
 with all his might, and rushed into the midst of the enemy 
 at the head of his guards. 
 
 D 7 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 The king of Poland did every thing that could be expected 
 from a prince who fought for his crown. He led his troops 
 himself three times to the charge ; but he had only the Sax- 
 ons to fight with him ; for the Poles, who formed his right 
 wing, ali fled at the commencement of the battle, some 
 through fear, and others through disaffection. The good 
 fortune of Charles carried all before it ; and gained him a 
 complete victory. He took possession of the enemy's camp, 
 their colours and artillery, and of Augustus's military chest. 
 He did not stop in the field of battle, but marched directly 
 to Cracow, pursuing the king of Poland, who fled before him. 
 
 The citizens of Cracow were hardy enough to shut their 
 gates against the conqueror. He caused them to be broken 
 open, and the garrison did not dare to fire a single gun, but 
 were driven with whips and canes into the castle, where the 
 king entered with them. One officer of artillery only having 
 courage to prepare himself to put the match to a cannon, 
 Charles threw himself upon him, and tore it out of his hand. 
 The commander threw himself on his knees before the king. 
 Three Swedish regiments were quartered at discretion 
 among the citizens, and the town taxed with a contribution 
 of a hundred thousand rix dollars. The Count de Steinbock, 
 who was made governor of the town, having been told that 
 there were some treasures hid in the tombs of the kings of 
 Poland, which are in the church of St. Nicholas at Cracow, 
 had them opened, but found nothing, except some ornaments 
 of gold and silver, which belonged to the church, of which, 
 however, he took a part ; and Charles even sent a gold cup 
 to one of the Swedish churches, which would have raised 
 the Polish catholics against him, could any thing have pre- 
 vailed against the terror of his arms. 
 
 He departed from Cracow with a fixed resolution to pur- 
 sue the king of Poland without ceasing : but a few miles 
 from the town his horse fell, and he broke his thigh bone. 
 He was obliged to be carried back to Cracow, where he was 
 confined to his bed for six weeks, in the hands of his sur- 
 geons. This accident gave Augustus a little respite. He 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 75 
 
 immediately caused it to be reported throughout Poland and 
 Germany, that Charles XII. was killed by this fall. This 
 false report, believed for some time, threw every mind into 
 astonishment and apprehension. In this short interval, he 
 assembled at Marienburgh, and then at Lublin, all the orders 
 of the kingdom, before convoked at Sendomir. This as- 
 sembly was very numerous, few of the palatinates refusing 
 to send their deputies thither. He regained almost every 
 heart by presents and promises, and that affability so neces- 
 sary to absolute kings to make themselves beloved, and to 
 elected kings to enable them to maintain their thrones. 
 The diet was soon undeceived with regard to the false report 
 of the death of the king of Sweden ; but motion having been 
 given to this great body, it suffered itself to be carried along 
 by the impulse it had received, all the members swearing to 
 continue faithful to their sovereign ; so much are great as- 
 semblies given to change. The cardinal primate himself, 
 affecting still to be attached to Augustus, came to the diet of 
 Lublin, where he kised the king's hand, and did not refuse 
 to take the oath with the rest. The oath was, that they had 
 never attempted, nor ever would attempt, any thing against 
 Augustus. The king excused the cardinal from the first 
 part of the oath, and the prelate blushed when he swore to 
 the last. The result of this diet was, that the republic of 
 Poland should maintain an army of fifty thousand men, at 
 their own expense, for the use of their sovereign ; that they 
 should give six weeks to the Swedes to declare either for 
 peace or war ; and the same time to the princess Sapieha, 
 the first author of the troubles in Lithuania, to come and ask 
 pardon of the king of Poland. 
 
 But, during these deliberations, Charles recovered of his 
 wound, and overturned every tiling before him. Always 
 firm in the design of forcing the Poles to dethrone their king 
 with their own hands, he caused a new assembly to be con- 
 voked at Warsaw, through the intrigues of the cardinal pri- 
 mate, to oppose that of Lublin. His generals represented to 
 him, that this affair might be attended with endless delays, 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 and prove ineffectual at last ; that, in the mean time, the 
 Muscovites were improving in military science every day, in 
 presence of the troops he had left in Livonia and Ingria ; 
 that the skirmishes which often happened in those provinces 
 between the Swedes and the Russians, were not always at- 
 tended with advantages to the former ; and lastly, that his 
 presence there might very soon be necessary. Charles, as 
 unshaken in his projects, as impatient in his actions, replied, 
 a Should I be obliged to stay here fifty years, I will not de- 
 part till I have dethroned the king of Poland." 
 
 He left the assembly of Warsaw to combat by their ora- 
 tions and writings that of Lublin, and to seek to justify their 
 proceedings by the laws of the kingdom ; laws always equi- 
 vocal, which each party interprets to his own interest, and 
 which success alone renders incontestable. As for himself, 
 having increased his victorious troops with six thousand 
 horse and eight thousand foot, which he had received from 
 Sweden, he marched against the remainder of the Saxon 
 army which he had beat at Clissau, and which had time to 
 rally and recruit, while his fall from his horse had confined 
 him to his bed. This army shunned his approach, and re- 
 tired towards Prussia, to the north west of Warsaw. The 
 river Bug was between him and his enemies. Charles swam 
 across it at the head of his cavalry, whilst the infantry sought 
 a ford somewhat higher. They came up with the Saxons 
 the first of May, 1703, at a place called Pultesk. General 
 Stenau commanded them, to the number of about ten thou- 
 sand. The king of Sweden, in his precipitate march, had 
 no more than the same number, certain that a less number 
 would suffice. The terror of his arms was so great, that one 
 half of the Saxon troops fled at his approach, without giving 
 him battle. General Stenau stood, indeed, for a moment, 
 with two regiments ; but presently after was obliged to join 
 in the general flight of his army, which was dispersed be- 
 fore it was conquered. The Swedes did not take more than 
 a thousand prisoners, nor kill more than six hundred; ha« 
 ving more difficulty to pursue than to defeat them, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 77 
 
 Augustus having nothing but the remains of his Saxons, 
 who were beaten on every side, retired in haste to Thorn, 
 an ancient town of royal Prussia, situated on the Vistula, 
 and under the protection of the Poles. Charles immediately 
 prepared to besiege it ; and the king of Poland, who did not 
 think himself secure, retired, and flew into every corner of 
 Poland where he could possibly assemble any soldiers, and 
 into which the Swedes had not penetrated. In the mean- 
 time, Charles, amidst so many rapid marches, swimming 
 across rivers, and hurried along with his infantry mounted 
 behind his cavalry, had not been able to bring up his cannon 
 before Thorn, and was obliged to wait till it came from Swe- 
 den by sea. 
 
 While he was posted here, a few miles from the town, he 
 would often advance too nigh the ramparts, for the purpose 
 of reconnoitering the enemy. The plain dress which he al- 
 ways wore was, in these dangerous excursions, of more utility 
 than he was aware of; as it prevented his being remarked 
 and singled out by his enemies, who would have fired upon 
 his person. One day, having advanced too near, with one 
 of his generals,* named Lieven, who was dressed in a blue 
 coat, trimmed with gold, and being afraid that the general 
 would be too easily distinguished, he ordered him to walk 
 behind him ; prompted to it by that magnanimity which was 
 so natural to him, and which prevented him from reflecting, 
 that he exposed his own life to imminent danger to save that 
 of his subject. Lieven saw too late the error of putting on 
 a remarkable dress, which endangered all those who were 
 near him ; and fearing equally for the king in any place 
 whatever, hesitated whether he should obey : in the midst 
 of this contest, the king took him by the arm, and placing 
 himself before him, entirely screened him ; but at this in- 
 stant a volley of cannon, which came in flank, struck the 
 general dead on the spot which the king had scarcely quit- 
 
 * In the first editions it was said that this general was in scarlet, but 
 the chaplain Norbeg has so well proved that his uniform was blue, that 
 we have corrected this error. 
 
 7* 
 
78 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 ted. The death of this man, killed exactly in his stead, and 
 because he had endeavoured to save him, contributed not a 
 little to confirm him in the opinion, which he entertained 
 throughout his life, of an absolute predestination ; and made 
 him believe that his fate, which had preserved him in so sin- 
 gular a manner, had reserved him for the execution of yet 
 greater things. 
 
 Every thing succeeded with him : his negotiations and 
 his arms were equally happy. He was present, as it were, 
 in every part of Poland ; for his grand Mareschal Renschild 
 was in the heart of the kingdom, with a large body of troops; 
 about thirty thousand Swedes, under different generals, 
 spread to the north and east over the frontiers of Muscovy, 
 withstood the efforts of the whole Russian empire ; and 
 Charles himself was in the west, at the other end of Poland, 
 at the head of his choicest troops. 
 
 The king of Denmark, tied up by the treaty of Travendal, 
 which his weakness had prevented him from breaking, re- 
 mained silent. This monarch, always prudent, did not dare 
 to discover his disgust at seeing the king of Sweden so near 
 his dominions. At a greater distance towards the south-west 
 lay the duchy of Bremen, between the rivers Elbe and We- 
 ser, the most remote territory of the ancient Swedish con- 
 quests, filled witli strong garrisons, and opening to the con- 
 queror a free passage into Saxony and the empire. Thus, 
 from the German ocean almost to the mouth of the Boris- 
 thenes, comprehending the whole breadth of Europe, and 
 even to the gates of Moscow, all was in consternation, and 
 on the point of a general revolution. His ships, masters of 
 the Baltick sea, were employed to transport into Sweden the 
 prisoners he had made in Poland. Sweden, tranquil in the 
 midst of these great commotions, enjoyed a profound peace, 
 and shared in the glory of its king without bearing the bur- 
 dens of war, as the victorious troops were paid and main- 
 tained at the expense of the conquered. 
 
 In this general silence of the north before the arms of 
 Charles XII., the town of Dantzick dared to displease him 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 79 
 
 Fourteen frigates and forty transports were bringing the king 
 a reinforcement of six thousand men, with cannon and am- 
 munition, to begin the siege of Thorn. It was necessary for 
 these succours to pass the Vistula. At the mouth of this 
 river is Dantzick, a free and wealthy town, which enjoys, 
 with Thorn and Elbing, the same privileges in Poland tlxit 
 the imperial towns possess in Germany. Its liberty has been 
 alternately attacked by the Danes, the Swedes, and several 
 princes of Germany, and nothing has preserved it but the 
 mutual jealousy of those powers. Count Steinbock, one of 
 the Swedish generals, assembled the magistrates in the king's 
 name, and demanded passage for the troops and ammunition. 
 The magistrates, with an imprudence common to those who 
 treat with a superior power, were afraid either to refuse, or 
 absolutely to grant his request. The general, however, 
 obliged them to grant him more than he had at first demand- 
 ed; and even laid the town under a contribution of a hun- 
 dred thousand crowns, by which means he made them pay 
 for their imprudent hesitation. At last, the reinforcement, 
 cannon, and ammunition, having arrived before Thorn, they 
 began the siege the 22d of September. 
 
 Robel, governor of this place, defended it for a month 
 with a garrison of five thousand men; at the end of which 
 time he was obliged to surrender at discretion. The garri- 
 son was made prisoners of war, and sent into Sweden. Ro- 
 bel was presented to the king disarmed. That prince, who 
 never lost an opportunity of honouring merit in his enemies, 
 gave him a sword with his own hand, made him a considera- 
 ble present in money, and dismissed him on his parole. 
 The honour which the town of Thorn derived from having 
 formerly given birth to Copernicus, the founder of the true 
 system of the globe, was of no service to it with a conqueror 
 too little acquainted with these subjects, and who had not 
 yet learned to reward any thing but valour. But this poor 
 and paltry town was condemned to pay forty thousand 
 crowns ; an excessive contribution for such a place. 
 
 Elbing, built on an arm of the Vistula, founded by tho 
 
80 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 Teutonic knights, and annexed likewise to Poland, did not 
 profit by the fault of the Dantzickers, but hesitated too long 
 about giving passage to the Swedish troops. It was still 
 more severely punished than Dantzick. Charles entered 
 Elbing the 13th of Dec. at the head of four thousand men, 
 with the bayonets fixed to the ends of their fusees. The 
 inhabitants, struck with terror, threw themselves on their 
 knees in the streets, and begged for mercy. He had them 
 all disarmed, quartered his soldiers upon the citizens, and 
 then, having sent for the magistracy, he exacted, that very 
 day, a contribution of two hundred and sixty thousand crowns. 
 There were in the town two hundred pieces of cannon, and 
 four hundred thousand weight of powder, which he seized. 
 A battle gained could not have procured him so many ad- 
 vantages. 
 
 All these successes were the forerunners to the dethroning 
 the king of Poland. 
 
 Scarcely had the cardinal swore to his king that he would 
 attempt nothing against him, than he repaired to the assem- 
 bly at Warsaw, always under the pretext of peace. He ar- 
 rived, speaking of nothing but of concord and obedience, 
 though he was accompanied by a number of soldiers whom 
 he had raised on his own estate. At last he threw oft' the 
 mask, and on the 14th of February, 1704, in the name of 
 the assembly, declared " Augustus, elector of Saxony, inca- 
 pable of wearing the crown of Poland." They all pronoun- 
 ced with one voice, the throne to be vacant. The wish of 
 the king of Sweden, and consequently that of the diet, was 
 to give to Prince James Sobiesky the throne of the king his 
 father, King John. James Sobiesky was, at this time, at 
 Breslaw in Silesia, waiting with impatience for the crown 
 which his father had worn. He was one day hunting, with 
 Prince Constantine, one of his brothers, a few miles from 
 Breslaw, when thirty Saxon horsemen, secretly sent by King 
 Augustus, rushing suddenly out of a neighbouring wood, sur- 
 rounded the two princes, and carried them off without re- 
 sistance. Fresh horses had been prepared, on which they 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 81 
 
 were conducted to Leipsick, and there closely confined.* 
 This stroke deranged the measures of Charles, the cardinal, 
 and the whole assembly of Warsaw. 
 
 Fortune, who sports with crowned heads, placed almost 
 at the same instant Augustus in danger of being nearly taken 
 himself. He was at table, three leagues from Cracow, re- 
 lying upon an advanced guard, posted at some distance, 
 when General Renschild appeared, after having carried off 
 his guard. The king of Poland had but just time to mount 
 his horse, with ten others. General Renschild pursued him 
 for three days, on the point of seizing him every moment. 
 The king fled as far as Sendomir, the Swedish general still 
 pursuing him ; and it was only by singular good fortune that 
 this prince escaped. 
 
 During all this time, Augustus's party and that of the car- 
 dinal treated each other as traitors. The army of the crown 
 was divided between these two factions. Augustus, at last, 
 forced to accept of support from the Muscovites, repented 
 that he had not had recourse to them sooner. One time he fled 
 into Saxony, where his resources were exhausted ; then he 
 returned to Poland, where no one dared to assist him. On 
 the other hand, the king of Sweden, victorious and tranquil, 
 reigned over Poland more absolutely than Augustus had ever 
 done. 
 
 Count Piper, who had a mind as much formed for politics 
 as his master's was for true greatness, now proposed to 
 Charles XII. that he should himself take the crown of Po- 
 land. He represented to him how easy it might be done, 
 with a victorious army, and a powerful party in the heart of 
 the kingdom already subdued. He tempted him wit.h the 
 title of '• Defender of the Evangelical Religion," a name 
 which flattered the ambition of Charles. It would be easy, 
 he said, to do in Poland what Gustavus Vasa had done in 
 Sweden — to establish Lutheranism, and to break the chains 
 of the people, already enslaved by the nobility and clergy. 
 Charles was tempted for a moment ; but glory was his idol. 
 To that he sacrificed his own interest, and the pleasure he 
 
82 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 would have enjoyed in taking Poland from the pope. He 
 told Count Piper that he was more flattered by giving than 
 gaining kingdoms : and added, smiling, "you was intended 
 for the minister of an Italian prince." 
 
 Charles was still near Thorn, in that part of royal Prussia 
 which belongs to Poland ; from whence he extended his 
 views to what was passing at Warsaw, and kept the neigh- 
 bouring powers in awe. Prince Alexander, brother to the 
 two Sobieskies who were carried into Silesia, came and im- 
 plored his assistance to revenge his wrongs. Charles granted 
 his request so much the more readily, as he imagined he 
 could revenge himself at the same time. But impatient to 
 give a king to Poland, he proposed to Prince Alexander his 
 mounting the throne, from which fortune seemed determined 
 to exclude his brother. Charles little expected a refusal ; 
 but Prince Alexander told him, that nothing should ever en- 
 gage him to profit by the misfortunes of his elder brother. 
 The king of Sweden, Count Piper, all his friends, and par- 
 ticularly the young palatine of Posnania, Stanislaus Lec- 
 zinsky, pressed him to accept the crown : he was resolute. 
 The neighbouring princes heard with astonishment this un- 
 common refusal, and knew not which to admire most, a king 
 of Sweden who at twenty-two years of age gave away the 
 crown of Poland, or Prince Alexander who refused it. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Argument. — Stanislaus Leczinsky elected king of Poland. — Death of 
 the cardinal primate. — Skilful retreat of General Schulembourg. — Ex- 
 ploits of the czar. — Foundation of Petersburgh. — Battle of Frauenstad. 
 — Charles enters Saxony. — Peace of Altranstadt. — Augustus abdicates 
 the crown in favour of Stanislaus. — General Patkul, the czar's pleni- 
 potentiary, is broke upon the wheel and quartered. — Charles receives 
 the ambassadors of foreign princes. — Visits Augustus. 
 
 Young Stanislaus Leczinsky was, at this time, deputed 
 by the assembly of Warsaw to make a report to the king 
 of Sweden of several differences which had arisen during 
 the absence of Prince James. Stanislaus had a happy coun- 
 tenance, full of boldness and sweetness, with an air of pro- 
 bity and frankness, which of all external advantages is the 
 greatest, and gives more force to words than even eloquence 
 itself. The wisdom with which he discoursed of the King 
 Augustus, the assembly, the cardinal primate, and of the 
 different interests which divided Poland, struck Charles. 
 King Stanislaus did me the honour to relate to me, that he 
 said to the king of Sweden, in Latin, " How can we proceed 
 to an election, if the two princes, James and Constantine So- 
 biesky, are captives?" and that Charles made answer, "How 
 can we deliver the republic, if we do not make an election ?" 
 This conversation was the only intrigue that placed Stanis- 
 laus on the throne. Charles prolonged the conference, that 
 he might the better sound the genius of the young deputy. 
 After the audience, he said aloud, that till then he had not 
 seen a man so proper to reconcile all parties. He made no 
 delay in informing himself of the character of the Palatine Lec- 
 zinsky. He learnt that he was full of bravery, and inured to 
 fatigue ; that he accustomed himself to sleep on a straw mat- 
 tress, and would not have any of his domestics to attend his 
 person ; that he observed a temperance not common to that 
 climate, possessed great economy, was adored by his vassals, 
 and the only lord, perhaps, in Poland, who had any friends at 
 
84 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 a time when men acknowledged no ties hut those of interest 
 and faction. This character, which in several things accord- 
 ed with his own, determined him entirely; and at the end 
 of the conference he said aloud, " There is the man that shall 
 always be my friend;" which words they soon perceived sig- 
 nified, " There is the man that shall be king." 
 
 Charles, who had taken his resolution on the instant, could 
 not have found, in all Poland, a fnan more proper to reconcile 
 all parties than the person he had chosen. The leading fea- 
 tures of his character were humanity and benevolence. 
 Wheu Stanislaus was afterwards withdrawn into the dutchy 
 of Deux Pouts, some partizans who had formed a design of 
 carrying him off were taken in his presence. " What have I 
 done to you," said he to them, " that you would deliver me to 
 my enemies ? Of what country are you ?" Three of these ad- 
 venturers replied that they were Frenchmen. " Well, then," 
 said he, "be like your countrymen, whom I esteem, and be 
 incapable of a vile action." When he had finished speaking, 
 he gave them all that he had about him, his money, watch, 
 and gold box, and they quitted him with tears and with ad- 
 miration. This I know from two ocular witnesses. 
 
 I can say, with the same certainty, that one day as he w T as 
 arranging the state of his household, he put upon the list a 
 French officer who was attached ti him. The treasurer asked 
 in what quality his majesty chose he should be upon the list. 
 "In quality of my friend," said the prinse. 
 
 I have seen a long work which he had composed, to reform, 
 if it had been possible, the laws and manners of his country. 
 In this writing he makes a sacrifice of the privileges of the 
 nobility to which he belonged, and of the royal prerogative 
 which had been given to him, to the public good, and to the 
 necessities of the people; a sacrifice which is more glorious 
 than the gaining of battles. 
 
 When the primate of Poland found that Charles XII. had 
 nominated the Palatine Leczinsky, as Alexander had nomi- 
 nated Abdalonimus, he repaired to the king of Sweden, to en- 
 deavour to make him change this resolution, as he wished ta 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 85 
 
 give the crown to one Lubomirsky. " But what have you 
 to allege against Stanislaus Leczinsky ?" said the conqueror. 
 " Sire," said the primate, "he is too young." To which 
 the king drily replied, " he wants but little of my age ;" 
 turned his back upon the prelate^ and immediately sent the 
 Count de Hooru to signify to the assembly of Warsaw, that 
 it was necessary to elect a king in five days, and that they 
 must also elect Stanislaus Leczinsky. The Count de Hoorn 
 arrived the 7th of July, and fixed the day of election on the 
 12th, in the same manner as he would have ordered the de- 
 campment of a battalion. The cardinal primate, disap- 
 pointed of the fruit of so many intrigues, returned to the as- 
 sembly, and exerted his whole strength to set aside an elec- 
 tion in which he had no part. But the king of Sweden ar- 
 riving at Warsaw incognito, obliged him, for that time, to be 
 silent. All that the primate could now do was not to be pre- 
 sent at the election ; and as he could neither oppose the con- 
 queror, nor was willing to second him, he confined himself 
 to an useless neutrality. 
 
 Saturday, the 12th of July, the day fixed for the election, 
 being come, they assembled at three o'clock in the afternoon 
 at Colo, the place appointed for this ceremony; the bishop 
 of £osnania came and presided at the assembly, in the place 
 of the cardinal primate. He arrived attended by several 
 gentlemen of the party. The Count de Hoorn and two 
 other general officers assisted publicly at this solemnity, as 
 ambassadors extraordinary from Charles to the republic. 
 The session lasted till nine in the evening, when the bishop 
 of Posnania finished it by declaring, in the name of the diet, 
 Stanislaus elected king of Poland; they instantly threw up 
 their hats into the air, and the noise of their acclamations 
 drowned the cries of the opposers. 
 
 It was of no service to the cardinal primate, or to those 
 who were willing to remain neuter, to absent themselves 
 from the election : they were obliged the next day to attend 
 and perform homage to their new king. He received them 
 as if he had been perfectly satisfied with their conduct ; but 
 
 8 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII, 
 
 the greatest mortification they underwent, was that of being 
 compelled to follow him to the quarters of the king of Swe- 
 den. That prince rendered to the sovereign he had just 
 made all the honours due to a king of Poland ; and to give 
 a greater weight to his new dignity, he assigned him both 
 money and troops. 
 
 Charles XII. departed immediately from Warsaw 7 , to finish 
 the conquest of Poland. He had ordered his army to ren- 
 dezvous before Leopold, the capital of the great palatinate 
 of Russia, a place important in itself, and still more so by 
 the riches with which it was filled. It was imagined that 
 it would have held out fifteen days, on account of the forti- 
 fication's which Augustus had built there. The conqueror 
 sat down before it on the 5th of September, and the next 
 day took it by assault. All who dared to resist were put to 
 the sword. The troops, victorious and masters of the town, 
 did not separate themselves to run to pillage, notwithstand- 
 ing the great treasures which were in Leopold. They ar- 
 ranged themselves in order of battle in the great square. 
 There, those who remained in the garrison came and sur- 
 rendered themselves prisoners of war. The king caused it 
 to be published by the sound of trumpet, that all those in- 
 habitants who had any effects belonging to Augustus or his 
 adherents, should bring them to him before the close of the 
 day, on pain of death. The measures were so well taken, 
 that few dared to disobey ; and four hundred chests, filled 
 with gold and silver coin, plate, and other valuable things, 
 were brought to the king. 
 
 The beginning of the reign of Stanislaus was distinguished 
 almost at the same time by an event widely different. Some 
 affairs which absolutely demanded his presence had obliged 
 him to remain at Warsaw. He had with him his mother, 
 his wife, and two daughters. In this confusion he had nearly 
 lost his second daughter, who was but one year old. She 
 had been carried away by her nurse, who had lost her way, 
 and he found her in the manger of a stable in a neighbour- 
 ing village, where she had been abandoned. It was this 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 8T 
 
 very infant whom fate, after still greater vicissitudes, eleva- 
 ted to be queen of France. 
 
 The cardinal primate, the bishop of Posnania, and some 
 grandees of Poland, composed his new court. It was guard- 
 ed by six thousand Poles of the army of the crown, who had 
 lately entered into his service, but whose fidelity had not as 
 yet been proved. General Hoorn, governor of the town, 
 had not more than fifteen hundred Swedes with him. There 
 was a profound tranquillity at Warsaw, and Stanislaus pro- 
 posed to deport in a few days for the conquest of Leopold; 
 when all on a sudden, he was informed that a numerous ar- 
 my was approaching the town. It was King Augustus, who, 
 by a new effort, and one of the most skilful marches that 
 ever general made, had deceived the king of Sweden, and 
 was coming with twenty thousand men to fall upon Warsaw, 
 and to carry off his rival. 
 
 Warsaw was very ill fortified ; the Polish troops who were 
 to defend it, were not to be relied on ; and Augustus having 
 spies in the town, Stanislaus must have perished had he re- 
 mained there. He accordingly sent back his family into 
 Posnania, under a guard of Polish troops, such as he had 
 most confidence in. The cardinal primate fled among the 
 first to the frontiers of Prussia ; many of the nobles took 
 different roads ; as for the new king, he immediately set out 
 to find Charles XII., learning, at an early period, to suffer 
 disgrace, and forced to quit the capital, of which he had been 
 but six weeks before elected sovereign. The bishop of 
 Posnania was the only person who could not escape ; he was 
 confined by a dangerous distemper in Warsaw. Part of the 
 six thousand Poles followed Stanislaus, the rest escorted his 
 family. Such whose fidelity it was not judged prudent to 
 expose to the temptation of returning to the service of Augus- 
 tus, were sent into Posnania. As for General Hoorn, who 
 was governor of Warsaw for the king of Sweden, he remain- 
 ed with his fifteen hundred Swedes in the castle. 
 
 Augustus entered into his capital as a sovereign irritated 
 and triumphant. The inhabitants before laid under contri- 
 
ss 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 bution by the king of Sweden, were still more hardly treat- 
 ed by Augustus. The cardinal's palace, and all the houses 
 of the confederate lords, with all their wealth, both in town 
 and country, were given to pillage. What was the most 
 surprising in this sudden revolution was, that the pope's nun- 
 cio, who came with King Augustus, demanded, in the name of 
 his master, that they should deliver up to him the bishop of 
 Posnania, as subject to the church of Rome, in the quality of 
 a bishop, and the favour of a prince placed on the throne by 
 the arms of a Lutheran. 
 
 The court of Rome, which has always strove to augment 
 its temporal power by means of its spiritual, had, a longtime 
 since, established in Poland a kind of jurisdiction, at the 
 head of which is the pope's nuncio. Its minister's never 
 let slip any favourable opportunity to extend their power : a 
 power revered by the multitude, but always opposed by those 
 of more wisdom. They attributed to themselves a right to 
 judge of all ecclesiastical causes ; and, in times of trouble, 
 had usurped several other prerogatives, in which they main- 
 tained themselves till about the year 1728, when these 
 abuses w r ere corrected ; abuses, such as are never reformed 
 till they become absolutely intolerable. Augustus, happy in 
 any opportunity of punishing the bishop of Posnania with 
 decorum, and, at the same time, desirous to please the court 
 of Rome, against which at any other time he would have 
 exerted himself, delivered the Polish prelate into the hands 
 of the nuncio. The bishop, after beholding his house pilla- 
 ged, was carried by the soldiers to the house of the Italian 
 minister, and from thence sent into Saxony, where he died. 
 Count de Hoorn sustained, in the castle, where he was shut 
 up, the continual fire of the enemy ; till the place being no 
 longer able to hold out, he surrendered himself prisoner of 
 war, together with his fifteen hundred Swedes. This was 
 the first advantage that Augustus had, during the torrent of 
 his bad fortune, over the victorious army of his enemy. 
 
 This last effort "was the blaze of a fire that was just going 
 out. His troops, who were assembled in haste, consisted of 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 89 
 
 Poles, ready to abandon him on the first misfortune ; of Sax- 
 on recruits who had never till then seen any thing of war ; 
 of vagabond Cossacks, more fit to plunder the conquered 
 than to conquer ; and all of them trembled at the very name 
 of the king of Sweden. 
 
 That conqueror, accompanied by King Stanislaus, went to 
 seek his enemy, at the head of his choicest troops. The 
 Saxon army fled every where before him. The towns for 
 thirty miles round sent him their keys ; nor was there a day 
 which was not signalized by some advantage. Success be- 
 came too familiar to Charles. He said, u it was rather go- 
 ing to hunt, than going to war," and complained that his 
 victories cost him so little. 
 
 Augustus entrusted the command of his army for some 
 time to Count de Schulembourg, a very able general, but 
 who had need of all his experience at the head of a dispirit- 
 ed army. He studied more to preserve his master's troops, 
 than to conquer. He carried on the war by stratagem, the 
 two kings pushed it with vigour. He stole several marches 
 upon them, took possession of some advantageous posts, and 
 sacrificed part of his cavalry to give his infantry time to make 
 a sure retreat. 
 
 After many feints and countermarches, he found himself 
 near Punitz, in the palatinate of Posnania, thinking ^hat 
 Stanislaus and the king of Sweden were at fifty leagues dis- 
 tance from him. He learned upon his arrival, that the two 
 kings had marched those fifty leagues in nine days, and that 
 they were come to attack him with ten or twelve thousand 
 horse. Schulembourg had but eight thousand foot and a 
 thousand horse. 
 
 It was necessary to maintain himself against a superior 
 army, against the name of the king of Sweden, and against 
 the natural fear with which so many defeats had naturally 
 inspired the Saxons. He had always maintained, 'against 
 the opinions of the German generals, that infantry was able 
 to resist cavalry in the open field, even without the assistance 
 «f chevaux-de-frise j and he this dav made the experiment 
 
 8* 
 
90 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 against a victorious cavalry, commanded by the two kings, 
 and by the choicest of the Swedish generals. He posted 
 himself so advantageously, that he could not be surrounded. 
 The first rank, armed with pikes and fusees, knelt down 
 with one knee upon the ground ; and the soldiers placed 
 closely together, presented to the enemy's horse a kind of 
 rampart, pointed with pikes and bayonets; the second rank 
 inclined a little over the shoulders of the first ; and the 
 third, standing upright, fired at the same time from behind 
 the other two. The Swedes, with their usual impetuosity, 
 pressed down upon the Saxons, who expected them with 
 firmness : the fire of the fusees, together with the points of 
 the pikes and bayonets, maddened their horses, who began 
 to rear instead of advancing. By these means the Swedes 
 attacked in disorder, and the Saxons defended themselves 
 by keeping their ranks. 
 
 If Charles had dismounted his cavalry, Schulembourg's 
 army must have been routed without resource. This was 
 the chief apprehension of that general, who expected that 
 hie enemy would take this resolution every moment ; but 
 neither the king of Sweden, who had so often put in prac- 
 tice all the stratagems of war, nor any of his generals, con- 
 ceived this idea. This unequal combat of a body of cavalry 
 against infantry, continued with frequent interruptions, and 
 resumed attacks, near three hours. The Swedes lost more 
 horses than men. Schulembourg gave ground at last, but 
 his troops were not broken, fie formed them into an ob- 
 long square; and though he was wounded in five places, he in 
 this form maintained an orderly retreat in the middle of the 
 night, into the little town of Gurau, about three leagues 
 from the field of battle. But he had scarcely begun to 
 breathe in this place, when the two kings suddenly appear- 
 ed after him. 
 
 Beyond Gurau, in marching towards the river Oder, was 
 a thick wood, by leading them through which the Saxon 
 general saved his fatigued infantry. The Swedes, without 
 hesitation, pursued them through the wood, advancing with 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 91 
 
 difficulty through paths scarcely passable by foot-travellers. 
 The Saxons had not crossed the wood above five hours be- 
 ' fore the Swedish cavalry. On the other side of this wood 
 runs the river Parts, at the foot of a village named Rutsen. 
 Schulembourg had sent for boats to be immediately assem- 
 bled, who carried over his troops, of which half were de- 
 stroyed. Charles arrived at the same time that Schulem- 
 bourg had reached the opposite shore. . Never did a con- 
 queror pursue his enemy so vigorously. The reputation of 
 Schulembourg depended upon his escaping from the king of 
 Sweden : the king of Sweden, on his side, imagined his 
 glory interested in taking Schulembourg, and the remains 
 of his army : he lost no time, but made his cavalry swim over. 
 The Saxons found themselves shut up between this river of 
 Parts and the great river of the Oder, which takes its source 
 in Silesia, and is very deep and rapid at this place. 
 
 The destruction of Schulembourg appeared inevitable : he 
 attempted^ however, to extricate himself from this extremity 
 by one of those strokes of art which are equivalent to victo- 
 ries, and which are so much the more glorious as fortune 
 has no share in them. He had no more than four thousand 
 men remaining : upon his right was a mill, which he filled 
 with his grenadiers ; upon his left, a marsh ; a ditch lay be- 
 fore him ; and his rear-guard was upon the banks of the Oder. 
 He had no pontoons for passing the river, but so early as tjie 
 evening before, he had ordered floats to be prepared. Charles 
 the moment of his arrival attacked the mill ; persuaded, that 
 as soon as it was taken, the Saxons must either perish in the 
 river or in the field, or that at least they must surrender at 
 discretion, together with their general. However, the floats 
 were ready, the Saxons passed the Oder by favour of the 
 night, and when Charles had forced the mill, he no longer 
 found the enemy's army. The two kings bestowed their 
 encomiums upon this retreat, which is to this day spoken of 
 with admiration in the empire, and Charles could not pre- 
 vent himself from saying, " Schulembourg has conquered 
 us to-day;" but what covered Schulembourg with honour 
 
92 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 scarcely proved of any service to Augustus. That prince 
 abandoned Poland once more to his enemies : he retired into 
 Saxony, and prepared with precipitation the fortifications of 
 Dresden ; being afraid, and not without reason, for the capi- 
 tal of his hereditary dominions. 
 
 Charles XII. now beheld Poland reduced to subjection ; 
 and his generals, following their king's example, had just 
 beat in Courland several small bodies of the Muscovites, 
 who, since the great battle of Narva, had only shown them- 
 selves in small parties, and made war in those quarters like 
 the vagabond Tartars, who pillage, fly, and then return only 
 to fly again. 
 
 Wherever the Swedes came, they imagined themselves 
 sure of a victory, even when they were only twenty to a hun- 
 dred. At this happy conjuncture, Stanislaus prepared for 
 his coronation. Fortune, who had elected him at Warsaw, 
 and who had also driven him thence, again recalled him 
 thither, amidst the acclamations of a crowd of nobility, whom 
 the fortune of war had attached to him." A diet was there 
 convened, and every obstacle removed ; nor were there any 
 but the court of Rome who opposed him. 
 
 It w T as natural for Rome to declare for King Augustus, who 
 from a protestant had become a catholic, that he might mount 
 the throne ; and against Stanislaus, placed on the same throne 
 by the great enemy of the catholic religion. Clement XII., 
 at that time pope, sent briefs to every prelate of Poland, 
 and above all to the cardinal primate, by which he threaten- 
 ed excommunication to those who dared to assist at the con- 
 secration of/Stanislaus, or attempt any thing against the 
 rights of King Augustus. 
 
 If these briefs were delivered to the bishops who were at 
 Warsaw, it was to be feared that some would obey through 
 weakness ; and that the greater part, availing themselves of 
 the circumstance, would render themselves more trouble- 
 some, as they were the more necessary. Every precaution 
 was therefore used, that the letters of the pope should not 
 be received in Warsaw. However, a Franciscan received 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 93 
 
 the briefs secretly, in order that he might deliver them 
 into the prelate's hands. He immediately gave one to 
 the suffragan of Chelm : this prelate, who was strongly at- 
 tached to Stanislaus, carried it to the king unopened. The 
 king caused the monk to be brought to him, and asked him 
 how he dared to take charge of such a business. The Fran- 
 ciscan replied, that it was by order of his general. Stanis- 
 laus desired him for the future, to mind the orders of his king 
 in preference to those of the general of the Franciscans ; 
 and instantly banished him the town. 
 
 The same day a placard was published by the king of Swe- 
 den, by which it was forbidden, under the most grievous 
 penalties, to all ecclesiastics, secular as well as regular, then 
 in Warsaw, to meddle with the affairs of state. For greater 
 security, he had guards planted at the gates of every prelate, 
 and forbade any stranger to enter the town. He took upon 
 himself these little severities, in order that Stanislaus should 
 not quarrel with the clergy at his accession. He said, that 
 he relaxed himself from his military fatigues in stopping the 
 intrigues of the Romish court, and that he must fight against 
 that with paper, when he was obliged to attack other sove- 
 reigns with real arms. 
 
 The cardinal primate was solicited by Charles and Stanislaus 
 to come and perform the ceremony of the coronation. But 
 as he did not imagine himself obliged to quit Dantzick to 
 consecrate a king whom he did not wish to have been elect- 
 ed, and as his policy was never to do any thing without' a pre- 
 text, he resolved to provide a lawful excuse for his refusal. He, 
 therefore, caused the pope's brief to be fixed in the night- 
 time to the gate of his own house. The magistrates of 
 Dantzick, struck with the indignity, made strict search after 
 the offenders, but they were never found. The primate 
 feigned to be irritated, but nevertheless was well satisfied- 
 He had now a pretext for not consecrating the new king ; 
 and at the same time kept fair with Charles XII., Augustus, 
 Stanislaus, and the pope. He died a few days after, leaving 
 his country in a dreadful confusion, and had gained no ad- 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 vantage by all his intrigues, but that of embroiling himself 
 at once with the three kings, Charles, Augustus, and Stan- 
 islaus, with the republic, and with the pope, who had order- 
 ed him to repair to Rome, to give an account of his conduct : 
 but as even politicians have sometimes remorse in their last 
 moments, he wrote to King Augustus, on his death bed, be- 
 seeching his pardon. 
 
 The consecration was performed with tranquillity and 
 magnificence, the 4th of October, 1705, in the city of War- 
 saw, notwithstanding the custom which subsists in Poland 
 of crowning the kings at Cracow. Stanislaus Leczinsky and 
 his wife Charlotta Opalinska were consecrated king and 
 queen of Poland by the hands of the archbishop of Leopold, 
 assisted by several other prelates. Charles XII. saw the 
 ceremony incognito, the only advantage he reaped from his 
 conquests. 
 
 While he was giving a king to the conquered Poles, and 
 Denmark did not dare to trouble him ; while the king of 
 Prussia sought his friendship, and Augustus was withdraw- 
 ing himself to his hereditary dominions; the czar was be- 
 coming every day more and more formidable. He had but 
 weakly supported Augustus in Poland ; but he had made 
 powerful diversions in Ingria. 
 
 As for him, he not only begun to be a good soldier him- 
 self, but he likewise taught the art of war to the Musco- 
 vites ; discipline was established throughout his troops ; he 
 had good engineers, an artillery well served, and many good 
 officers; and he likewise knew the great art of subsisting his 
 armies. Some of his generals had learned both how to fight, 
 and as occasion required to decline fighting ; besides, he 
 formed a navy capable of making head against the Swedes 
 in the Baltick. 
 
 Confiding in all these advantages entirely owing to his own 
 genius, and the absence of the king of Sweden, he took Narva 
 by assault the 21st of August, in the year 1704, after a regular 
 siege, and after he had prevented its receiving any succours, 
 either by sea or land. The soldiers, once masters of the 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 95 
 
 town, ran to pillage, and abandoned themselves to the most 
 enormous barbarities. The czar ran on every side to stop the 
 disorder and massacre ; he snatched the women from the hands 
 of the soldiers, who, after they had violated them, were going 
 to cut their throats. He was even obliged to kill with his own 
 hands several Muscovites, who would not obey his orders. 
 They show to this day at Narva, in the town-house, the table 
 upon which he laid his sword as he entered; and they repeat 
 the words with which he addressed the citizens, who were 
 assembled there : " It is not with the blood of the inhabi- 
 tants that this sword is stained, but with that of the Musco- 
 vites, which I have shed to save your lives." 
 
 If the czar had always observed this humanity, he had 
 been the first of men. He aspired to more than to destroy 
 towns : he, at that time, was founding a city not far from 
 Narva, in the middle of his new conquests ; this was the 
 city of Petersburgh, which he has since made his residence, 
 and the centre of commerce. It is situated between Fin- 
 land and Ingria, in a marshy island, around which the Neva 
 divides itself into several branches, before it falls into the 
 Gulph of Finland : he himself drew the plan of the city, the 
 fortress, and the harbour, the quays which embellish it, and 
 the forts which defend its entrance. This island, unculti- 
 vated and desert, which was nothing but a heap of mud 
 during the short summer of those climates, and in the win- 
 ter a frozen pool, into which there was no entry but through 
 pathless woods and deep morasses, and which had, till then, 
 been the haunt of wolves and bears 7 was filled in 1703 with 
 above three hundred thousand men, whom the czar had as- 
 sembled from his dominions. The peasants of the kingdom 
 of Astracan, and those who inhabit the frontiers of China, 
 were transported to Petersburgh. He was obliged to clear 
 forests, to make roads, to drain marshes, and to raise banks, 
 before he could lay the foundation of the city. Nature was 
 forced in every thing. The czar was resolute to people a 
 country which did not appear to be destined for men ; nei- 
 ther the inundations which razed his works, the sterility of 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 the soil, the ignorance of the workmen, nor even the mor- 
 tality, which destroyed two hundred thousand men in the 
 beginning, could make him change his resolution. The 
 town was founded amidst the obstacles which nature, th 
 genius of the people, and an unhappy war, had raised against 
 it. Petersburgh had become a city in 1705, and its harbour 
 was filled with ships. The emperor attracted strangers by 
 his beneficence, distributing lands to some, giving houses to 
 others, and welcoming every artist that came to civilize this 
 savage climate. Above all, he had rendered Petersburgh 
 inaccessible to the efforts of his enemies. The Swedish 
 generals, who frequently beat his troops in every other quar- 
 ter, were not able to hurt tins infant colony. It was tran- 
 quil in the midst of the war which surrounded it. 
 
 The czar, thus creating to himself new dominions, always 
 held out his hand to Augustus, who was losing his ; he per- 
 suaded him by General Patkul, who had lately entered into 
 the service of Muscovy, and was then the czar's ambassador 
 in Saxony, to come to Grodno, to confer with him once more 
 on the unhappy state of his affairs. Augustus came there 
 with some troops, accompanied by General Schulembourg, 
 whose passage over the Oder had rendered him famous 
 through the north, and in whom he placed his last hope. 
 The czar arrived there, also followed by an army of 70,000 
 men. These two monarchs concerted new plans for carrying 
 on the war. Augustus, being dethroned, was no longer afraid 
 of irritating the Poles, by abandoning their country to the 
 Muscovite troops. It was resolved that the army of the czar 
 should divide itself into several bodies, to stop the king ol 
 Sweden ,at every step. It was at the time of this interview 
 that Augustus renewed the order of the White Eagle ; a 
 weak resource to attach to his interest some Polish lords, 
 more desirous of real advantages than of an empty honour, 
 which becomes ridiculous when it is held of a prince who 
 has nothing of a king but the name. The conference of the 
 two kings finished in an extraordinary manner. The czaf 
 departed suddenly, and left his troops with his ally, to hasten 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 97 
 
 and crush a rebellion with which he was threatened in As- 
 tracan. Scarcely was he gone, before Augustus ordered Pat- 
 kul to he arrested at Dresden. All Europe was surprised 
 that he dared, against the law of nations, and in appearance 
 against his own interest, to throw into prison the ambassa- 
 dor of the only prince who protected him. 
 
 The secret spring of this transaction, as a son of King Au- 
 gustus did me the honour to tell me, was as follows : Patkul, 
 proscribed in Sweden for having defended the privileges of 
 Livonia, his native country, had been general to Augustus ; 
 but his high and lofty spirit could ill accord with the haugh- 
 tiness of General Fleming, the favourite of the king, who was 
 more imperious and lofty than himself; he, therefore, passed 
 into the service of the czar, whose general he then was, 
 and his ambassador at the court of Augustus. Possessed 
 with a penetrating genius, he plainly perceived that the views 
 of Flemings and the chancellor of Saxony, were to propose 
 a peace to the king of Sweden, at any price whatsoever. He 
 immediately formed a design to prevent them, and to effect 
 an accommodation between the czar and Sweden. The 
 chancellor discovered his project, and obtained leave to 
 seize his person. King Augustus told the czar that he was 
 a traitor who betrayed them both. He was, however, no 
 farther culpable than in having served his new master too 
 well ; but an ill-timed service frequently meets with the 
 punishment due to treason. 
 
 In the meantime, on one side, the seventy thousand Rus- 
 sians, divided into several small bodies, were burning and 
 ravaging the lands of Stanislaus' adherents ; while, on the 
 other, Schulembourg was advancing with fresh troops. The 
 good fortune of the Swedes dispersed these two armies in 
 less than two months. Charles XII. and Stanislaus attacked 
 the separate bodies of the Muscovites, one after the other, 
 with such spirit, that one Muscovite general was beat before 
 he heard of the defeat of his companion. 
 
 No obstacle could stop the conqueror ; if he found a river 
 between him and the enemy, Charles and his Swedes swam 
 E v 9 
 
98 HISTORY OF CHARLIES XII. 
 
 across it. A party of Swedes took the baggage of Augus- 
 tus, in which were two hundred thousand crowns of silver 
 coined. Stanislaus seized eight hundred thousand ducats 
 belonging to Prince Menzikoff, the Muscovite general. 
 Charles, at the head of his cavalry, marched thirty leagues 
 in twenty-four hours ; every soldier leading a horse in his 
 hand, to mount when his own was weary. The Muscovites, 
 terrified and reduced to a small number, fled in disorder be- 
 yond the Boristhenes. 
 
 While Charles was driving the Muscovites before him, 
 even into the very heart of Livonia, Schulembourg repassed 
 the Oder, and came at the head of twenty thousand men to 
 give battle to the grand Marshal Renschild, who was es- 
 teemed the best general of Charles XII., and was called the 
 Parmenio of this Alexander of the north. These two illus- 
 trious generals, who seemed to participate of the destiny of 
 their masters, encountered each other near Punitz, in a place 
 called Frauenstad, a spot already fatal to the troops of Au- 
 gustus. Renschild had but thirteen battalions, and twenty- 
 two squadrons, which made in all about ten thousand men. 
 Schulembourg had double that number. It is remarkable, 
 that he had in his army a body of six or seven thousand 
 Muscovites, who had been long disciplined in Saxony, and 
 were looked upon as veteran troops, who united the ferocity 
 of the Muscovites to the German discipline. The battle of 
 Frauenstad was fought the 12th of February, 1706 ; but this 
 very General Schulembourg, who, with four thousand men, 
 had, in some measure, baffled the fortune of the king of 
 Sweden, sunk under that of General Renschild. The 
 combat did not last a quarter of an hour. The Saxons 
 did not resist a moment ; and the Muscovites threw down 
 their arms as soon as they saw the Swedes : the panic was 
 60 sudden, and the disorder so great, that the conquerors 
 found on the field of battle seven thousand loaded fusees, 
 which the enemy had thrown down without firing. Never 
 was defeat more sudden, more complete, or more disgraceful; 
 and yet no general ever made a finer disposition than Schu- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 99 
 
 lembourg, even in the opinion of the Swedish generals, as 
 well as of the Saxons, who saw in this day how little human 
 prudence is mistress of events. 
 
 Among the prisoners they found an entire regiment of 
 French. These unfortunate men had been taken by the 
 Saxon troops in 1704, at the famous battle of Hochstet, so 
 fatal to the grandeur of Louis XIV. They had entered since 
 that, into the service of King Augustus, who had formed 
 them into a regiment of dragoons, and had giveii the com- 
 mand to a Frenchman of the house of Joyeuse. The colo- 
 nel was killed at the first, or rather the only charge of the 
 Swedes, and the whole regiment was made prisoners of war. 
 The same day these Frenchmen begged to serve Charles 
 XII., and they were accordingly received into his service by 
 a singular destiny, which reserved them once more to change 
 their conqueror into their master. 
 
 With regard to the Muscovites, they begged their lives on 
 their knees ; but were inhumanly massacred, about six 
 hours after the combat, to revenge the violences offered by 
 their countrymen, and also that the Swedes might get rid 
 of prisoners whom they knew not how to dispose of. 
 
 The king, upon his return to Lithuania, learned this fresh 
 victory ; bat the satisfaction he received from it, was dis- 
 turbed by a small degree of jealousy. He could not prevent 
 himself from saying, "This is the last time that Renschild 
 shall be compared with me." 
 
 Augustus now saw himself without resources; he had no 
 place left him but Cracow, in which he was shut up with 
 two regiments of Muscovites, two of Saxons, and some troops 
 of the army of the crown, by whom he was even afraid of 
 being delivered up to the conqueror; but his ruin was com- 
 plete, when he learned that Charles XII. was at last entered 
 into Saxony, on the first of September, 1706. 
 
 He had marched through Silesia, even without deigning 
 to advertise the court of Vienna. Germany was alarmed. 
 The diet of Ratisbon, which represents the empire, but 
 whose resolutions are often as ineffectual as solemn, declared 
 
100 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 the king of Sweden an enemy to the empire, if he passed 
 the Oder with his army; which circumstance determined him 
 to march the sooner into Germany. 
 
 At his approach, the villages were deserted, and the inha- 
 bitants fled on every side. Charles behaved here as at Co- 
 penhagen ; he caused it every where to be published, that 
 he was only come to give them peace, and that all those who 
 would return home, and pay the contribution he demanded, 
 should be treated as his proper subjects, but that the rest 
 should be pursued without quarter. This declaration, from 
 a prince who was never known to break his word, made 
 those return in crowds who before had fled from fear. He 
 pitched his camp at Altranstad, near the plain of Lutzen, a 
 field famous for the victory and death of Gustavus Adolphus. 
 He went to see the place where that great man was killed. 
 When they had conducted him to the spot, " I have endea- 
 voured," said he, " to live like him ; God will grant me one 
 day, perhaps, a death as glorious." 
 
 i He sent orders from the camp to the states of Saxony to 
 assemble, and transmit to him, without delay, the registers 
 of the electoral finances. As soon as he had them in his 
 power, and was informed justly of what Saxony was able to 
 furnish, he taxed it at six hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 rix dollars a month. Besides this contribution, the Saxons were 
 obliged to furnish every Swedish soldier with two pounds of 
 flesh, two pounds of bread, two pots of beer, and four sols a 
 day, together with forage for their horses. The contribu- 
 tions thus regulated, the king established a new police to 
 protect the Saxons from the insults of his own soldiers; he 
 ordered, that in every town where he placed garrisons, the 
 inn-keepers who quartered his soldiers should give certifi- 
 cates every month of their conduct, in default of which the 
 soldier was not to have his pay. Besides this, inspectors 
 went every fifteen days from house to house, to inform them- 
 selves whether the Swedes had committed any outrage ; and 
 they were likewise authorized to indemnify the inn-keeper, 
 and punish the offender. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN 
 
 101 
 
 It is well known under what severe discipline the troops 
 1 of Charles XII. were kept : that they never pillaged towns 
 taken by assault, before they received permission; that 
 they even then plundered in a regular manner, and left 
 off at the first signal. The Swedes boast to this day 
 of the discipline which they observed in Saxony, while 
 the Saxons complain of the terrible outrages they com- 
 mitted; contradictions which it would be impossible to 
 reconcile, were it not known how differently different 
 men behold the same object. It was scarcely possible but 
 that the conquerors would sometimes abuse their rights, as 
 the conquered would take the slightest injuries for the most 
 enormous outrages. One day, as the king was riding near 
 Leipsick, a Saxon peasant came and threw himself at his 
 feet, beseeching him to grant him justice on a grenadier, 
 who had just taken from him what was designed for his fa- 
 mily's dinner. The king immediately caused the soldier to/ 
 be brought to him : " Is it true," said he, with a stern coun- 
 tenance, "that you have robbed this man?" "Sire," said 
 the soldier, " I have not done him so much injury as you 
 have done his master ; you have taken from him a kingdom, 
 I have taken from this fellow nothing but a turkey." The 
 king gave the peasant ten ducats with his own hand, and 
 pardoned the soldier for the wit and boldness of his reply; 
 saying to him, " Remember, friend, that if I have taken a 
 kingdom from Augustus, I have kept nothing to myself." 
 
 The great fair of Leipsick was held as usual; the mer- 
 chants coming there in perfect security : they saw not one 
 Swedish soldier in the fair ; one would have said that the 
 army of the king of Sweden was in Saxony only to preserve 
 the safety of the country. He commanded throughout the 
 electorate with a power as absolute, and a tranquillity as pro- 
 found, as he did in Stockholm. 
 
 King Augustus, wandering in Poland, deprived at once of 
 his kingdom and electorate, at last wrote a letter with his 
 own hand to Charles XII., begging him to grant a' peace. 
 He secretly charged the Baron D'Imhoff, in conjunction with 
 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 M. Fingstein, refendary of the privy council, to carry this 
 letter, and gave them both full powers, and a blank 
 signed: "Go," said he to them, "endeavour to obtain for 
 me reasonable and christian conditions." He was reduced 
 to the necessity of concealing those overtures, and to decline 
 the open mediation of any prince : for, being then in Poland 
 at the mercy of the Muscovites, he had reason to fear that 
 that dangerous ally, whom he was now going to abandon, 
 would take vengeance on him for his submission to the con- 
 queror. His two plenipotentiaries came to Charles's camp 
 in the night-time, and had a. private audience. The king, 
 having read the letter, told them they should have his an- 
 swer immediately ; and accordingly retiring to his closet, he 
 wrote as follows : 
 
 " I consent to give peace on the following conditions, in 
 which it must not be expected that I ever will make the 
 least alteration* 
 
 I. u That Augustus renounce forever the crown of Poland; 
 that he acknowledge Stanislaus as lawful king ; and that he 
 promise never to think of remounting the throne, not even 
 after the death of Stanislaus. 
 
 II. a That he cancel all other treaties, particularly those 
 he had made with the Muscovites. 
 
 III. "That he honourably send back to my camp the prin- 
 ces Sobiesky, with the other prisoners whom he has taken. 
 
 IV. " That he deliver up all the deserters who have en- 
 tered into his service, particularly John Patkul ; and that he 
 6top all proceedings against such as have deserted from his 
 service and entered into mine." 
 
 This written answer he gave to Count Piper, with orders 
 to settle the particulars with the plenipotentiaries of Augustus. 
 These gentlemen were shocked at the severity of the pro- 
 posals, and used all the little arts that men without power 
 can employ, to mitigate, if possible, the rigour of the king. 
 They had several conferences with Count Piper; but that 
 minister answered all their arguments with this short reply : 
 " Such is the will of the king, my master, and he never 
 changes his resolution." 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 103 
 
 While these negotiations were carrying on in Saxony, for- 
 tune seemed to put Augustus in a condition to obtain more 
 honourable terms, and to treat with his conqueror on a more 
 1 equal footing. 
 
 Prince Menzikoff, generalissimo of the Muscovites, enter j 
 ed Poland with a body of thirty thousand men, at a time 
 when Augustus not only did not desire their assistance, but 
 even dreaded it. He had only with him some Polish and 
 Saxon troops, making in all about six thousand men. With 
 so small a body of troops, surrounded by the army of Prince 
 Menzikoff, he had every thing to fear in case the negotiation 
 should be discovered. He saw himself at once dethroned 
 by his enemy, and in danger of being taken prisoner by his 
 ally. In this delicate crisis, one of the Swedish generals, 
 named Meyerneld, at the head of ten thousand men, appear- 
 ed at Calish, near the palatinate of Posnania. Prince Men- 
 zikolf pressed Augustus to give them battle ; who, being 
 greatly embarrassed, delayed the engagement under various 
 pretexts ; for, though the enemy had but one third of his 
 number, there were four thousand Swedes in Meyerfield's 
 army, and that alone was sufficient to render the event doubt- 
 ful. To attack the Swedes during the negotiations, and to 
 lose the battle, was, in effect, to deepen the abyss in which 
 he was already plunged. He resolved, therefore, to send a 
 trusty servant to the general of the enemy, in order to give 
 him some distant hints of the peace, and advise him to re- 
 treat. But this advice produced an effect contrary to what 
 he expected. General Meyerfleld thought they were laying 
 a snare to intimidate him ; and for that reason resolved to 
 hazard the battle. 
 
 The Russians now, for the first time, conquered the Swedes 
 in a pitched battle. This victory, which Augustus gained 
 almost against his will, was entire and complete. In the 
 midst of his bad fortune, he entered triumphant into War- 
 saw, formerly his flourishing capital, but then a dismantled 
 and ruined town, ready to receive any conqueror, and to ac- 
 knowledge the strongest for king. He was tempted to seize 
 
104 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 upon this moment of prosperity to go with the Muscovite 
 army to attack the king of Sweden in Saxony. But when 
 he reflected that Charles XII. was at the head of an army 
 hitherto invincible ; that the Russians would abandon him 
 on the first intelligence of the treaty he had begun ; that his 
 Saxon dominions, already drained of men and money, would 
 be equally ravaged by the Swedes and Muscovites ; that the 
 empire, engaged in a war with France, could afford him no 
 assistance; and that, in the end, he should be left without 
 dominions, money, or friends ; he thought it most advisable 
 to comply with the terms the king of Sweden should im- 
 pose. These became still more severe, when Charles heard 
 that Augustus had attacked his troops during the negotiation. 
 His resentment, and the pleasure of farther humbling an 
 enemy who had just vanquished his forces, made him inflexi- 
 ble upon all the articles of the treaty. Thus the victory of Au- 
 gustus served only to render his situation the more misera- 
 ble ; a circumstance which perhaps never happened to any 
 one but himself. 
 
 He had just caused Te Deum to be sung at Warsaw, when 
 Fingstein, one of his plenipotentiaries, arrived from Saxony 
 with the treaty of peace, which deprived him of his crown. 
 Augustus hesitated for a while, but at length signed it; and 
 set out for Saxony, vainly hoping that his presence would 
 soften the king of Sweden, and that his enemy perhaps 
 would remember the ancient alliance of their families, and 
 the affinity of blood that ran in their veins. 
 
 These two princes met for the first time without ceremo- 
 ny, in Count Piper's tent, at a place called Gutersdorff. 
 Charles was as usual in his jack-boots, with a piece of black 
 taffety tied round his neck, instead of a cravat ; his clothes 
 of coarse blue cloth, with gilt brass buttons. He had along 
 sword by his side, which had served him in the battle of 
 Narva, and on the pommel of which he frequently leaned. 
 The conversation turned wholly upon these jack-boots ; 
 Charles telling Augustus that he had not laid them aside for 
 six years, except when he went to bed, These trifles were 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 105 
 
 the only subject of discourse between two kings, one of 
 whom had just deprived the other of his crown ; Augustus, 
 especially, spoke with an air of complaisance and satisfac- 
 tion, which princes and men accustomed to the management 
 of great affairs, know how to assume amidst the most cruel 
 mortifications. The two kings dined together twice. Charles 
 always affected to give Augustus the right hand ; but far 
 from mitigating the rigour of his demands, he rendered them 
 still more severe. It was, doubtless, a very mortifying thing 
 for a sovereign to be forced to deliver up a general officer 
 and a public minister. It was still a greater debasement to 
 be obliged to send the jewels and archives of the crown to 
 his successor Stanislaus. But what completed his degrada- 
 tion was, his being at last compelled to congratulate, on his 
 accession to the throne, the man who was going to usurp his 
 place. Charles required Augustus to write a letter to Stanis- 
 laus. The dethroned king endeavoured to evade the de- 
 mand, but Charles insisted upon his writing the letter, and 
 he was obliged to comply. Here follows an exact transcript 
 of it, which I have seen. It is copied from the original, 
 which is still in the possession of King Stanislaus. 
 
 " SIR AND BROTHER, 
 
 " We little imagined it would have been necessary to en- 
 ter into a literary correspondence with your majesty ; never- 
 theless, in order to please his majesty of Sweden, and to 
 avoid the suspicion of our being unwilling to gratify his de- 
 sire, we hereby congratulate you on your accession to the 
 throne, and wish you may find in your native country more 
 faithful subjects than we have left there. All the world will 
 do us the. justice to believe, that we have received nothing 
 but the most ungrateful returns for our good offices, and that 
 the greater part of our subjects seemed to have no other 
 aim than to hasten our ruin. Wishing that you may never 
 be exposed to the like misfortunes, we commit you to the 
 protection of God. 
 
 " Your brother and neighbour, 
 Dresden, April 8, 1707 " AUGUSTUS, king." 
 
106 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII 
 
 Augustus was obliged to give orders to all his magistrat 
 no longer to style him king of Poland, and to erase this title 
 which he now renounced, from the public prayers. He w 
 less averse to the release of the Sobieskies. These princes 
 upon quitting their prison refused to see him. But the sacri 
 fice of Patkul was the severest of all. The czar of Mu 
 covy, on the one hand, loudly demanded him back as his 
 ambassador ; and on the other, the king of Sweden, with the 
 most terrible menaces in case of refusal, insisted that he 
 should be delivered up to him. Patkul was then confined 
 in the castle of Konigstein, in Saxony. Augustus thought 
 he might easily gratify Charles XII., and save his own 
 honour. He sent his guards to deliver this unhappy man to 
 the Swedish troops; but he previously despatched a secret 
 order to the governor of Konigstein, to let his prisoner 
 escape. The bad fortune of Patkul defeated the pains that 
 were taken to save him. The governor, knowing that Pat- 
 kul was very rich, had a mind to make him purchase his 
 liberty. The prisoner, still relying on the law of nations, 
 and informed of the intentions of Augustus, refused to pay 
 for that which he thought he had a title to obtain for nothing. 
 The guards who were commissioned to seize the prisoner 
 arrived during this interval, and immediately delivered him 
 to four Swedish captains, who carried him forthwith to the 
 general quarters at Altranstad, where he remained three 
 months fastened to a stake with a heavy iron chain ; from 
 whence he was conducted to Casimir. 
 
 Charles, forgetting that Patkul was the czar's ambassador, 
 and considering him only as his own subject, ordered a coun- 
 cil of war to try him with the utmost rigour. He was con- 
 demned to be broken alive on the wheel, and then quartered. 
 A chaplain came to inform him of the fatal sentence, with- 
 out acquainting him with the manner in which 'it was to be 
 executed. Patkul, who had braved death in so many battles, 
 finding himself alone with a priest, and his courage being 
 no longer supported by pride or passion, the sources of hu- 
 man intrepidity, poured a flood of tears into the chaplain's 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 107 
 
 bosom. He was betrothed to a Saxon lady, called Madam 
 d'Enfiedel, a woman of birth, of merit, and of beauty, and 
 whom he expected to have married about the time that he 
 found himself condemned to die. He entreated the chap- 
 lain to wait upon her, to give her all the consolation in his 
 power, and to assure her that he died full of the most ten- 
 der affection for his incomparable mistress. When he was 
 brought to the place of punishment, and beheld the wheel 
 and stakes prepared for his execution, he fell into convul- 
 sions, and threw himself into the arms of the minister, who 
 embraced him, covered him with his cloak, and wept over 
 him. A Swedish officer then read aloud a paper to the fol- 
 lowing effect : 
 
 " This is to declare, that it is the express order of his ma- 
 jesty, our most merciful lord, that this man, who is a traitor 
 to his country, be broke upon the wheel, and quartered, in 
 order to atone for his crimes, and to be an example to others ; 
 that every one may beware of treason, and faithfully serve 
 his king." At the words " our most merciful lord," Patkul 
 cried out, " What mercy ?" and at those of " traitor to his 
 country" — " Alas ! (said he) I have served it but too well." 
 He received sixteen blows, and suffered the most excrucia- 
 ting tortures that can be imagined. Thus died the unfortu- 
 nate John Reinold Patkul, ambassador and general of the 
 emperor of Russia. 
 
 Those who looked upon him only as a rebel, said that he 
 deserved death ; but those who considered him as a Livo- 
 nian, born in a province that had privileges to defend, and 
 remembered that he had been banished from Livonia for no 
 other reason than his having defended those privileges, 
 called him a martyr to the liberty of his country. It was on 
 all hands agreed, however, that the title of ambassador to 
 the czar ought to have rendered his person sacred. The king 
 of Sweden alone, educated in the principles of arbitrary 
 power, thought that he had only performed an act of justice, 
 whilst all Europe condemned his cruelty. 
 
 The mangled limbs of the sufferer remained exposed upcm 
 
108 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 gibbets till 1713, when Augustus having regained his throne, 
 caused these testimonies of the necessity to which he had 
 been reduced at Altranstad to be gathered together. They 
 were brought to Warsaw in a box, and delivered to him in 
 presence of the French envoy. The king of Poland, show- 
 ing the box to this minister, only said, " These are the limbs 
 of Patkul without adding any thing either to blame his con- 
 duct or to bewail his memory, and without any one daring 
 to speak on so delicate and mournful a subject. 
 
 About this time, a Livonian named Paikel, an officer in 
 the Saxon troops, who had been taken prisoner in the field, 
 was condemned at Stockholm, by a decree of the senate ; 
 but his sentence was only to lose his head. This difference 
 of punishments in the same case, made it but too plain that 
 Charles, in putting Patkul to such a cruel death, was more 
 anxious to avenge himself than to punish the criminal. Be 
 that as it may, Paikel, after his condemnation, proposed to 
 the senate to impart to the king the secret of making gold, 
 on condition that he should obtain his pardon. He made 
 the experiment in prison, in presence of Colonel Hamilton 
 and the magistrates of the town ; and whether he had ac- 
 tually discovered some useful secret, or which is more pro- 
 bable, had only acquired the art of deceiving with ability, 
 they carried the gold which was found in the crucible to the 
 mint at Stockholm, and gave the senate such a full, and 
 seemingly such an important account of the matter, that the 
 queen-dowager, Charles's grandmother, ordered his execu- 
 tion to be suspended till the king should be informed of this 
 uncommon affair, and send his orders accordingly. 
 
 The king made answer, "That as he had refused the par- 
 don of the criminal to the entreaties of his friends, he w T ould 
 never grant to interest what he had denied to friendship." 
 This inflexibility had something in it very heroical in a 
 prince, especially as he thought the secret practicable. Au- 
 gustus, upon hearing this story, said, " I am not surprised 
 at the king of Sweden's indifference about the philosopher's 
 ■tone: he has found it in Saxony." 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 109 
 
 When the czar was informed of the strange peace which 
 Augustus had, notwithstanding their former treaties, con- 
 cluded at Altranstad ; and that Patkul, his amhassador ple- 
 nipotentiary, was delivered up to the king of Sweden, in 
 contempt of the laws of nations ; he loudly complained of 
 these indignities to the several courts of Europe. He wrote 
 to the emperor of Germany, to the queen of England, and to 
 the states general of the United Provinces. He gave the 
 terms of cowardice and treachery to the sad necessity to 
 which Augustus had been obliged to submit. He conjured 
 all these powers to interpose their mediation to procure the 
 restoration of his ambassador, and to prevent the affront 
 which, in his person, was going to be offered to crowned 
 heads. He pressed them, by the motives of honour, not to 
 debase themselves so far as to become guarantees of the treaty 
 of Altranstad ; a concession which Charles XII. meant to 
 extort from them by his threatening and imperious behaviour. 
 These letters had no other effect than to set the power of 
 the king of Sweden in a stronger light. The emperor, En- 
 gland, and Holland, were then engaged in a ruinous war 
 with France, and judged it a very unreasonable juncture to 
 exasperate Charles XII. by refusing the vain ceremony of 
 being guarantees to a treaty. With regard to the unhappy 
 Patkul, there was not a single power which interposed its 
 good offices in his behalf; from whence it appears what lit- 
 tle confidence a subject ought to put in princes, and how 
 much all the monarchs in Europe at that time stood in awe 
 of the king of Sweden. 
 
 It was proposed in the council of the czar, to retaliate this 
 cruelty on the Swedish officers who were prisoners at Mos- 
 cow ; but the czar would not consent to a barbarity which 
 would have been attended with fatal consequences, as there 
 were more Muscovites prisoners in Sweden, than Swedes 
 in Muscovy. 
 
 He studied a more advantageous revenge. The main body 
 of his enemy's army lay inactive in Saxony. Lewenhaupt, 
 general of the king of Sweden, who was left in Poland with 
 
 10 
 
110 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 about twenty thousand men, was not able to guard the passes 
 into a country without forts and* full of factions. Stanislaus 
 was in the camp of Charles. Ithe emperor of Muscovy sei- 
 zed this opportunity, and re-entered Poland with above 
 60,000 men. These he divides into several bodies, and 
 marches with a flying camp to Leopold, where there was no 
 Swedish garrison. All the towns of Poland yield to any one 
 who appears before their gates at the head of an army. He 
 caused an assembly to be convoked at Leopold, of much the 
 same nature with that which had dethroned Augustus at 
 Warsaw. 
 
 Poland had at that time two primates, as well as two 
 kings; the one nominated by Augustus, the other by Stanis- 
 laus. The primate nominated by .\ugustus, summoned the 
 assembly of Leopold, to which they, whom that prince had 
 abandoned by the peace of Altraustad, and such as were 
 brought over by the money of the czar, immediately repair- 
 ed. Here it was proposed to elect a new sovereign : so that 
 Poland was upon tlie point of having three kings at once, with- 
 out being able to say which was the real one. 
 
 During the conferences at Leopold, the czar, whose inte- 
 rest was closely connected with that of the emperor of Ger- 
 many, on account of the common dread which they enter- 
 tained of the power of the king of Sweden, secretly obtain- 
 ed from him a number of German officers, who daily arriving, 
 increased his strength in a considerable degree, by bringing 
 with them discipline and experience. These he engaged in 
 his service by several instances of liberality ; and the more 
 to encourage his own troops, he gave his picture, set with 
 diamonds, to all the general officers and colonels who had 
 fought at the battle of Calish: the subaltern officers had me- 
 dals of gold, and every private soldier a medal of silver. 
 These monuments of the victory of Calish were all struck in 
 the new city of Petersburgh; where the improvement of the 
 arts kept pace with the desire of glory, and spirit of emula- 
 tion, which the czar had instilled into his troops. 
 
 The confusion, the multiplicity of factions, and the cod- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 Ill 
 
 tinual ravages prevailing in Poland, hindered the diet of 
 Leopold from coming to any resolution. The czar therefore 
 transferred it to Lublin. But the change of place did not 
 lessen the disorder and perplexity in which the whole na- 
 tion was involved. The assembly contented itself with nei- 
 ther acknowledging Augustus, who had abdicated the throne, 
 nor Stanislaus, who had been elected against their will : but 
 they were neither sufficiently united, nor had resolution 
 enough to nominate another king. Durmg these fruitless 
 deliberations, the party of the Princess Sapieha, that of Ogin- 
 sky, those who secretly adhered to Augustus, and the new 
 subjects of Stanislaus, all made war upon one another, plun- 
 dered each other's estates, and completed the ruin of their 
 country. The Swedish troops commanded by Lewenhaupt, 
 one part of which lay in Livonia, another in Lithuania, and 
 a third in Poland, were daily in pursuit of the Russians, and 
 set lire to every thing that opposed Stanislaus. The Rus- 
 sians ruined their friends and foes without distinction ; no* 
 thing was to be seen but towns reduced to ashes, and wan- 
 dering troops of Poles, deprived of all their substance, and 
 detesting alike their two kings, Charles XII., and the czar of 
 Muscovy. 
 
 In order to quiet these commotions, and to secure the 
 peaceable possession of the throne, Stanislaus set out from 
 Alt.ranstad on the fifteenth of July, 170 7, accompanied by 
 General Renschild, with sixteen Swedish regiments, and 
 furnished with a large sum of money. He was acknow- 
 ledged wherever he came. The discipline of his troops, 
 which made the barbarity of the Muscovites to be more sen- 
 sibly felt, conciliated the affections of the people. His ex- 
 treme affability, in proportion as it was better known, recon- 
 ciled to him almost all the 'different factions; and- his money 
 procured him the greatest part of the army of the crown. The 
 czar, apprehensive of wanting provisions in a country which 
 his troops had laid waste, retired into Lithuania, whew he had 
 fixed the" general rendezvous of his arm;/, and where he re- 
 solved to establish magazines. This retreat left Stanislaus 
 the undisturbed sovereign of almost all Poland. 
 
U2 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XH. 
 
 The only person who gave him any uneasiness, was Count 
 Siniausky, grand general of the crown, by the nomination of 
 Augustus. This man, who was possessed of no contempti- 
 ble talents, and entertained the most ambitious views, was 
 at the head of a third party. He neither acknowledged Au- 
 gustus nor Stanislaus ; and, after having used his utmost ef- 
 forts in order to procure his own election, contented himself 
 with being the head of a third party, since he could not be 
 king. The troops o: the crown, which continued under his com- 
 mand, had no other pay but the liberty of pillaging their own 
 country with impunity ; and all those who had either suf- 
 fered, or were apprehensive of suffering, from the rapacity of 
 these freebooters, soon submitted to Stanislaus, whose power 
 was gathering strength every day. 
 
 The king of Sweden was then in his camp at Altranstad, 
 receiving ambassadors from almost all the princes in Chris- 
 tendom ; some intreating him to quit the empire, others de- 
 siring him to turn his arms against the emperor; and it was 
 then the general report, that he intended to join with France 
 in humbling the house of Austria. Among these ambassa- 
 dors came the famous John, duke of Marlborough, on the 
 part of Anne, queen of Great Britain. This man, who 
 never besieged a town which he did not take, nor fought a 
 battle which he did not gain, was at St. James's a per- 
 fect courtier, in parliament the head of a party, and in 
 foreign countries the most able negotiator of his time. 
 He has done France as much mischief by his politics, as 
 by his arms. Mr. Fagel, secretary of the states general, a 
 man of the greatest merit, has been heard to say, that when 
 the states general had more than once resolved to oppose the 
 schemes which the duke was about to lay before them, the 
 duke came, spoke to them in French, a language in which 
 he expressed himself but very indifferently, and yet he 
 brought them all over to his opinion. Of the truth of this 
 story Lord Bolingbroke assured me. 
 
 In conjunction with Prince Eugene, the companion of his 
 victories, and Heinsius, the grand pensionary of Holland, he 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 113 
 
 supported the whole weight of the war which the allies car- 
 ried on against Fiance. He knew that Charles was incensed 
 against the empire and the emperor; that he was secretly 
 solicited by the French ; and that if this conqueror should 
 espouse the cause of Louis XIV., the allies must be entirely 
 ruined. 
 
 Charles, indeed, had given his word in 1700, that he would 
 not intermeddle in the quarrel between Louis XIV. and the 
 allies ; but the duke of Marlborough could not believe that 
 any prince wduld be so great a slave to his word, as not to 
 sacrifice it to his grandeur and interest. He, therefore, 
 set out from the Hague, with a resolution to sound the in- 
 tentions of the king of Sweden. M. FabricitfS, who then 
 attended Charles XI L, assured me, that the duke of Marl- 
 borough, on his arrival, applied secretly, not to CountPiper, 
 the prime minister, but to Baron de Gortz, who now began 
 to share with Piper the conlidence of the king. He even 
 went to the quarters of Charles XII. in the coach of this 
 nobleman, where there passed some marks of coldness 
 between the duke and Chancellor Piper ; by whom, how- 
 ever, being afterwards presented, together with Robinson, 
 the English minister, he spoke to the king in French. He 
 told him, " that he should esteem it a singular happiness, to 
 have an opportunity of learning, under his command, such 
 parts of the art of war as he did not yet understand." To 
 this polite compliment the king made no return, and seemed 
 to forget that it was Marlborough who was speaking to him. 
 He even thought, as I have been told, that the dress of this 
 great man was too much studied, and that it had too little 
 the air of a soldier. The conversation was tedious and em- 
 barrassing, Charles XII. speaking in the Swedish tongue, 
 and Robinson serving as an interpreter. Marlborough, who 
 was never in haste to make proposals, and who, by a long 
 course of experience, had learned the art of diving into the 
 real characters of men, and discovering the connection be- 
 tween their most secret thoughts and their actions, gestures, 
 tnd discourse, regarded the king with the utmost attentions 
 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 When he spoke to him of war in general, he thought he per- 
 ceived in his majesty a natural aversion to France ; and re- 
 marked that he talked with pleasure of the conquests of the 
 allies. He mentioned the czar to him, and observed that his 
 eyes always kindled at the name, notwithstanding the calm- 
 ness of the conversation. He remarked, besides, a map of 
 Muscovy lying before him upon the table. He wanted no 
 more to convince him that the real design and sole ambition 
 of the king of Sweden was to dethrone the czar, as he had 
 done the king of Poland. He was sensible, that if Charles 
 remained in Saxony, it was only to impose some hard con- 
 ditions on the emperor of Germany. He knew the emperor 
 could make no resistance, and that thus all disputes would 
 be easily accommodated. He left Charles, therefore, to fol- 
 low the bent of his own mind ; and, satisfied with having 
 discovered his intentions, made him no proposals. These 
 particulars I had from the duchess of Marlborough, his widow. 
 
 As few negotiations are finished without money, and as 
 ministers are sometimes known to sell the hatred or favour 
 of their masters, it was the general opinion throughout 
 Europe, that the duke of Marlborough would not have suc- 
 ceeded so well with the king of Sweden, had he not made a 
 handsome present to Count Piper, whose memory still la- 
 bours under the imputation. For my own part, after having 
 traced this report to its source, with all the care and accu- 
 racy of which I am master, I found that Piper received a 
 small present from the emperor, by the hands of the Count 
 de Wratissau, with the consent of his master, but nothing 
 from the duke of Marlborough. Certain it is, Charles was 
 so firmly resolved to dethrone the emperor of Russia, that 
 he asked nobody's advice on that subject, nor wanted the in- 
 stigation of Count Piper to prompt him to wreak his long 
 meditated vengeance on the head of Peter Alexiowitz. 
 
 But what fully justifies the character of that minister, was 
 the honour which, long after this period, was paid to his 
 memory by Charles XII., who, having heard that Piper was 
 dead in Russia, caused his body to be transported to Stock- 
 holm, and gave him a magnificent funeral at his own expense. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 115 
 
 The king, who had not as yet experienced any reverse of 
 fortune, nor even met with any interruption in his victories, 
 thought one year would be sufficient for dethroning the czar ; 
 after which, he imagined he might return, and set himself 
 up as the arbiter of Europe. But, first of all, he resolved to 
 humble the emperor of Germany- 
 Baron de Stralenheim, the Swedish envoy at Vienna, had 
 quarrelled at a public entertainment with the Count de Zo- 
 bor, chamberlain of the emperor. The latter having refused 
 to drink the health of Charles XII., and having declared 
 that that prince had used his master very ill, Stralenheim 
 gave him at once the lie and a box on the ear, and besides 
 this insult, boldly demanded a reparation from the imperial 
 court. The fear of displeasing the king of Sweden obliged 
 the emperor to banish his subject, whom he ought rather to 
 have avenged. Charles was not satisfied with this conde- 
 scension, but insisted that Count Zobor should be delivered 
 up to him. The pride of the court of Vienna was for- 
 ced to stoop. The count was put into the hands of the king, 
 who sent him back, after having detained him some time a 
 prisoner at Stettin. He likewise further demanded, contrary 
 to the law of nations, that they should deliver up to him fifteen 
 hundred unhappy Muscovites, who having escaped the fury 
 of his arms, had fled into the imperial territories. The emperor 
 was obliged to yield even to this strange demand ; and, had not 
 theRussian envoy at Vienna dexterously given these unhappy 
 wretches an opportunity of escaping by different roads, they 
 must have been delivered into the hands of their enemies. 
 
 The third and last of his demands was the most extraor- 
 dinary. He declared himself the protector of the emperor's 
 protestant subjects in Silesia, a province belonging to the 
 house of Austria, not to the empire. He insisted that the 
 emperor should grant them the liberties and privileges which 
 had been established by the treaties of Westphalia, but which 
 were extinguished, or at least eluded, by those of Ryswick. 
 The emperor, who wanted only to get rid of such a danger 
 ous neighbour, yielded once more, and granted all he desi- 
 
116 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 red. The Lutherans of Silesia had above a hundred churches, 
 which the catholics were obliged to cede to them by this 
 treaty : but of many of these advantages which were now 
 procured them by the king of Sweden's good fortune, they 
 were afterwards deprived, when that prince was no longerin 
 condition to impose laws. 
 
 The emperor who made these forced concessions, and com- 
 plied in every thing with the will of Charles XII., was Jo- 
 seph, the eldest son of Leopold, and brother to Charles VI., 
 who since succeeded him. The pope's inter-nuncio, who 
 then resided at the court of Joseph, reproached him in very 
 severe terms, alleging that it was a most shameful conde- 
 scension for a catholic emperor like him, to sacrifice the in- 
 terest of his own religion to that of heretics. " You may 
 think yourself very happy," replied the emperor, with a smile, 
 " that the king of Sweden did not propose to make me be- 
 come a Lutheran ; for if he had, I do not know what I should 
 have done." 
 
 The Count de Wratissau, his ambassador with Charles 
 XII., brought to Leipsick the treaty in favour of the Sile- 
 sians, signed with his master's hand ; upon which Charles 
 said, he was the emperor's best friend. He was far from 
 being pleased, however, that the court of Rome should have 
 employed all its arts and intrigues in order to traverse his 
 scheme. He looked with the utmost contempt upon the 
 weakness of that court ; which, having one half of Europe 
 for its irreconcilable enemy, and placing no confidence in 
 the other, can only support its credit by the finesse of its ne- 
 gotiations ; and yet he resolved to be revenged on his holi- 
 ness. He told the Count de Wratissau, that " the Swedes 
 had formerly subdued Rome, and had not degenerated like 
 her." He sent the pope word, "that he would one day re- 
 demand the effects which Queen Christiana had left at 
 Rome ;" and it is hard to say how far this young conqueror 
 would have carried his resentment and his arms, had fortune 
 favoured his designs. At that time nothing appeared impos- 
 sible to him. He had even sent several officers privatelj 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 1J7 
 
 into Asia and Egypt, to take plans of the towns, and to ex- 
 amine into the strength of these countries. Certain it is, 
 that if any one had been able to overturn the empire of the 
 Turks' and Persians, and afterwards to pass into Italy, it had 
 been Charles XII. He was as young as Alexander, as brave, 
 as enterprising, more indefatigable, more robust, and more 
 virtuous ; the Swedes also were perhaps better soldiers than 
 the Macedonians. But such projects, which are called di- 
 vine when they succeed, are regarded only as chimerical 
 when they fail of success. 
 
 At length, having removed every difficulty, and accom- 
 plished all his designs : having humbled the emperor, given 
 laws in the empire, protected the Lutheran religion in the 
 midst of the catholics, dethroned one king, and crowned 
 another, and rendered himself the terror of all the princes 
 around him, he began to prepare for his departure. The 
 pleasures of Saxony, where he had remained inactive for a 
 whole year, had not made the least alteration in his manner 
 of living. He rode out thrice a-day, rose at four in the 
 morning, dressed himself with' his own hands, drank no 
 wine, sat at table only a quarter of an hour, exercised his 
 troops every day, and knew no other pleasure but that of 
 making Europe tremble. 
 
 The Swedes were still ignorant whither their king in- 
 tended to lead them. They had only a suspicion that he 
 meant to go to Moscow. A few days before his departure, 
 he ordered the quarter-master-general to give him in writing 
 the route from Leipsick. At that word he paused a moment : 
 and, lest the quarter-master should discover his project, he 
 added with a smile — to all the capital cities of Europe. The 
 quarter-master brought him a list of all these routes, at the 
 head of which he placed, in great letters, " The route from 
 Leipsick to Stockholm." The generality of Swedes were 
 extremely desirous of returning home ; but the king was far 
 from intending to lead them back to their native country. 
 " Mr. Quarter-Master," says he, " I plainly see whither you 
 would lead me ; but we shall not return to Stockholm so 
 soon." 
 
118 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 The army was already on its march, and was passing by 
 Dresden, when Charles, who was at the head of his men, 
 always riding, as usual, two or three hundred paces before 
 his guards, all of a sudden vanished from their sight. Some 
 officers advanced at full gallop to see where he was. They 
 ran to all parts, but could not find him. In a moment the 
 alarm was spread over the whole army. The troops were 
 ordered to halt; the generals assembled^ together, and were 
 already in the utmost consternation. At length, they learned 
 from a Saxon, who was passing by, what was become of 
 the king. 
 
 As he was passing so near Dresden, he took it into his 
 head to pay a visit to Augustus. He entered the town on 
 horseback, followed by three or four general officers. The 
 centries of the gate asked them their names. Charles said 
 his name was Carl, and that he was a Draban ; and all the 
 rest took fictitious names. Count Fleming, seeing them pass 
 through the town, had only time to run and inform his mas- 
 ter. All that could possibly be done on such an occasion 
 immediately presented itself to the mind of that minister, 
 who suggested it to Augustus. But Charles entered the 
 chamber in his boots, before Augustus had time to recover 
 from his surprise. Augustus was then sick, and in his night- 
 gown, but dressed himself in haste. Charles breakfasted 
 with him, as a traveller who comes to take leave of his 
 friend ; and then expressed his desire of viewing the forti- 
 fications. During the short time he employed in walking 
 around them, a Livonian, who had been condemned in Swe- 
 den, and now served in the Saxon army, imagining that he 
 could never find a more favourable opportunity of obtaining 
 his pardon, entreated Augustus to ask it of Charles ; per- 
 suading himself, that his majesty would not refuse so small 
 a favour to a prince from whom he had taken a crown, and 
 in whose power he now seemed to be. Augustus readily 
 undertook to make the request. He was then some distance 
 from the king, and was conversing with Hord, a Swedish 
 general. " I believe," said he, smiling, "your master will 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 119 
 
 not refuse me." " You do not know him," replied General 
 Hord ; " he is more likely to refuse you here than any where 
 else." Augustus, however, did not fail to prefer the petition 
 in very pressing terms ; and Charles refused it in such a 
 manner as to prevent a repetition of the request. After 
 having passed some hours in this strange visit, he embraced 
 Augustus, and departed. Upon rejoining his army, he found 
 all his generals still in consternation. They told him they 
 had determined to besiege Dresden if his majesty had been 
 detained prisoner. " Right," said the king, "but they durst 
 not." Next day, upon hearing the news, that Augustus held 
 an extraordinary council at Dresden, " You will find," said 
 Baron Stralenheim, " they are deliberating upon what they 
 should have done yesterday." A few days after, Renschild 
 coming to wait upon the king, expressed his surprise* at this 
 unaccountable visit to Augustus. " I confided," said Charles, 
 " in my good fortune ; but I have seen the moment that 
 might have been prejudicial to me. Fleming had no mind 
 that I should leave Dresden so soon." 
 
120 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 Argument. — Charles quits Saxony. — Pursues the czar. — Penetrates 
 into the Ukraine. — His losses. — Is wounded. — The battle of Pultowa. 
 — Consequences of that battle. — Charles is forced to fly into Turkey. 
 — His reception in Bessarabia. 
 
 Charles at length took leave of Saxony, in September, 
 1707, at the head of an army of forty-three thousand men, 
 formerly covered with steel, but now shining with gold and 
 silver, and enriched by the spoils of Poland and Saxony ; 
 every soldier carrying with him fifty crowns in ready money. 
 The regiments were not only complete, but every company had 
 several supernumeraries, who waited for vacancies. Besides 
 this army, Count Lewenhaupt, one of his best generals, wait- 
 ed for him in Poland, with twenty thousand men. He had 
 also another army of fifteen thousand in Finland ; and fresh 
 recruits were coming to him from Sweden. With ail these 
 forces, it was not doubtMbut that he would dethrone the czar. 
 
 That emperor was at that time in Lithuania, endeavouring 
 to re-animate a party which Augustus appeared to have 
 abandoned. His troops, divided into several bodies, fled on 
 all sides, at the first news of the king of Sweden's approach. 
 He had himself enjoined his generals never to wait for this 
 conqueror with unequal forces; and he was accordingly 
 obeyed. 
 
 The king of Sweden, in the midst of his victorious march, 
 received an ambassador on the part of the Turk. This am- 
 bassador had his audience in the tent of Count Piper, in 
 which all visits of ceremony were received. On these oc- 
 casions, this minister supported the dignity of his master by 
 the appearance of a little magnificence; while the king, who 
 was always worse lodged, worse served, and more plainly 
 dressed than the meanest officer in his army, used to say, 
 that his palace was at Count Piper's. The Turkishambas- 
 sador presented Charles with a hundred Swedish €6ldiers, 
 who, having been taken by the Caimucks, and sold in Tur^ 
 
KING OF SWEDEN 
 
 121 
 
 key, had been purchased by the grand seignior, who had 
 I sent them back to the king, as the most acceptable present 
 I he could make him. Not that the Ottoman pride deigned 
 to pay homage to the glory of Charles XII., but because the 
 sultan, being the natural enemy of the emperors of Russia 
 and Germany, was desirous to fortify himself against them 
 by the friendship of Sweden, and the alliance of Poland. 
 t The ambassador complimented Stanislaus upon his accession 
 to the throne; so that this king was in a short space of time 
 acknowledged by German}^ France, England, Spain and 
 Turkey. There remained only the pope, who deferred the 
 acknowledgment till time should have settled on his head a 
 crown, of which a sinister accident might deprive him. 
 
 Charles had scarce given audience to the Turkish ambas- 
 sador, before he went in pursuit of the Muscovites. The 
 Russians had quitted Poland, and returned to it above twenty 
 different times during the course of the war. This country, 
 which is open on all sides, and has no fortresses to cut off 
 the retreat of an army, gave the Muscovites an opportunity 
 of often revisiting the very spot where they had formerly 
 been vanquished, and even of penetrating as far into the 
 heart of the kingdom as the vanquisher. During Charles's 
 stay in Saxony, the czar had advanced as far as Leopold, 
 situated at the southern extremity of Poland ; but was at 
 this time at Grodno in Lithuania, a hundred leagues from 
 Leopold. 
 
 Charles left Stanislaus in Poland to defend his new king- 
 dom, with the assistance of ten thousand Swedes, and his 
 own subjects, against his foreign and domestic enemies; 
 while he put himself at the head of his cavalry, and march- 
 ed, amidst frost and snow, to Grodno, in the month of Ja- 
 nuary, 1708. 
 
 He had passed the Njemen, about two leagues from the 
 town, before the czar ifnew any thing of his march. Upon 
 the first news of the arrival of the Swedish army, however, 
 the czar quitted the town by the north gate, and Charles en- 
 tered it by the south, having only six hundred of his guards 
 F 11 
 
122 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 with him, the rest not being able to keep pace with hii 
 The czar fled with above two thousand men, apprehending 
 that a whole army was entering Grodno. But being inform- 
 ed the same day by a Polish deserter, that he had abandon- 
 ed the place to no more than six hundred men, and that the 
 main body of the army was still five leagues distant, he lost 
 no time in detaching fifteen hundred horse of his own troops, 
 in the evening, to surprize the king of Sweden in the town. 
 This detachment, under favour of the darkness, arrived un- 
 discovered at the first Swedish guard, which, though consist- 
 ing only of thirty men, sustained, for half a quarter of an 
 hour, the efforts of the whole fifteen hundred. The king, 
 who was at the other end of the town, flew to their assist- 
 ance with the rest of his six hundred guards ; upon which, 
 the Russians fled with precipitation. His army was not long 
 in joining him, when he set out in pursuit of the enemy. 
 All the Russian troops dispersed through Lithuania retired 
 hastily to the eastward, into the palatinate of Minsky, near 
 the frontiers of Muscovy, their general rendezvous. The 
 Swedes, whom the king had likewise divided into several 
 bodies, continued to pursue the enemy for more than thirty 
 leagues. Both the pursued and the pursuers made forced 
 marches almost every day, though in the middle of winter. 
 Indeed, all seasons of the year had long become indifferent 
 to the soldiers, both of Charles and the czar ; the terroi 
 struck by the name of King Charles, now making the only 
 difference between the Russians and the Swedes. 
 
 From Grodno to the Boristhenes eastward, is a country of 
 morasses, deserts, and immense forests. Even in the culti- 
 vated spots there are no provisions to be had, the peasants 
 burying their grain, and whatever else can be so preserved, 
 under ground. These subterraneous stores were discovera- 
 ble only by boring the earth with iron augers : the Musco- 
 vites and the Swedes alternately making use of these provi- 
 sions ; but they Were not always to be found, and even then 
 were not sufficient. 
 
 The king of Sweden, who had foreseen these difficulties, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 123 
 
 had provided biscuit for the subsistence of his army, so that 
 nothing could stop his march. After having traversed the 
 forest of Minsky, where he was constantly obliged to cut 
 down the trees to clear the road for his troops and baggage, 
 he found himself on the 25th of June, 1708, on the banks of 
 the river Berezine, opposite to Borislow. 
 
 The czar had in this place assembled the best part of his 
 forces, and intrenched himself to great advantage ; his de- 
 sign being to hinder the Swedes from crossing the river. 
 Charles posted some regiments on the banks of the Berezine, 
 over against Borislow, as if he meant to attempt a passage in 
 the face of the enemy. At the same time marching his army 
 three leagues higher up the river, he threw a bridge across 
 it, cut his way through a body of three thousand men, who 
 defended that pass, and without halting, marched on toward 
 the main body of the enemy. The Russians did not wait 
 his approach, but decamped, and retreated toward the Bo- 
 risthenes, breaking up the roads, and destroying every thing 
 in their way, in order to retard the pursuit of the Swedes. 
 
 Charles surmounted all these obstacles, and advanced to- 
 ward the Boristhenes. He was opposed in his march by 
 twenty thousand Muscovites, intrenched at a place called 
 Hollosin, behind a morass, which could not be approached 
 without passing a river. Charles did not delay the attack 
 till the rest of his infantry should arrive, but plunged into 
 the water at the head of his guards, and crossed the river 
 and the morass, the water frequently reaching above his 
 shoulders. While he was thus pressing forward to the ene- 
 my, he ordered his cavalry to go round the morass, and at- 
 tack them in flank. The Muscovites, astonished that no 
 barrier could defend them, were instantly routed by the king, 
 who attacked them on foot with his guards, and by the 
 Swedish cavalry. 
 
 These having forced their way through the enemy, join- 
 ed the king in the midst of the battle. He then mounted 
 on horseback ; but observing soon after a young Swedish 
 gentleman, named Guillenstern, for whom he had a great 
 
124 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES Xil. 
 
 regard, wounded and unable to walk, he obliged him to take 
 his horse, and continued to command on foot at the head of 
 his infantry. Of all the battles he had fought, this was, per- 
 haps, the most glorious ; being that in which he encounter- 
 ed the greatest dangers, and displayed the most consummate 
 skill and prudence. The memory of it is still preserved by 
 a medal, with this inscription on one side, Silva, Paludes, 
 Aggeres, Hostes victi : on the reverse the following verse of 
 Lucan, Victrices copias alium laturus in Orbem. 
 
 The Russians thus driven from their posts, repassed the 
 Boristhenes, which divides Poland from Muscovy. But this 
 did not induce Charles to give over the pursuit; who follow- 
 ed them across that great river, which he passed at Mohi- 
 low, the last town of Poland, and which alternately belongs 
 to the Poles and to the Russians ; the usual fate of frontier 
 towns. 
 
 The czar, seeing his empire, in which he had lately esta- 
 blished the polite arts and a flourishing trade, thus exposed 
 to a war, which, in a short time, might overturn all his mighty 
 projects, and perhaps deprive him of his crown, began to 
 think seriously of peace ; and accordingly ventured to make 
 some proposals to that purpose by a Polish gentleman, whom 
 he sent to the Swedish army. Charles, who had not been 
 accustomed to make peace with his enemies, except in their 
 own capitals, replied, " I will treat with the czar at Mos- 
 cow." When this haughty answer was reported to the czar, 
 he said, " My brother Charles always affects to play the part 
 of Alexander; but I flatter myself he will not find in me 
 another Darius." 
 
 From Mohilow, where the king passed the Boristhenes, 
 as you advance toward the north, about thirty leagues along 
 the banks of that river, still on the frontiers of Poland and 
 Muscovy, you enter the country of Smolensko, through 
 which lies the great road that leads from Poland to Musco- 
 vy. This way the czar directed his flight, and the king 
 pursued him by long marches ; so that part of the Russian 
 rear-guard was frequently engaged with the dragoons of the 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 125 
 
 van-guard of the Swedes. The latter had generally the ad- 
 vantage, but they were weakened even by victory in these 
 small skirmishes, which were never decisive, and in which 
 they constantly lost a number of men. 
 
 On the 22d of September, 1708, the king attacked a body 
 of ten thousand horse, and six thousand Calmucks, near 
 Smolensko. 
 
 The Calmucks are Tartars, living between the kingdom 
 of Astracan, subject to the czar, and that of Samarcande, 
 belonging to the Usbeck Tartars, and the country of Timur, 
 known by the name of Tamerlane. The country of the 
 Calmucks extends eastward to the mountains which divide 
 the dominions of the Mogul from the western parts of Asia. 
 
 The inhabitants of that part of the country which borders 
 upon Astracan, are tributary to the czar, who lays claim to 
 an absolute authority over them ; but their vagrant life hin- 
 ders him from making it good, and obliges him to treat them 
 in the same manner in which the grand seignor treats the 
 Arabs; sometimes conniving at, and sometimes punSjfei$ 
 their depredations. There are always some of these Cal- 
 mucks in the Russian army ; and the czar had even reduced 
 them to a regular discipline, like the rest of his soldiers. 
 
 King Charles attacked these troops with only six regi- 
 ments of horse and four thousand foot; broke the Muscovites 
 at the first onset, at the head of his regiment of Ostrogothia, 
 and obliged them to fly. He pursued them through rugged 
 and hollow ways, where the Calmucks awhile concealing 
 themselves, soon re-appeared, and cut off the regiment at 
 the head of which the king fought from the rest of the Swe- 
 dish army. The Russians and Calmucks jointly surrounded 
 this regiment, and forced their way even to the king's per- 
 son. Two aids-de-camp fighting near him fell at his feet 
 The king's horse was killed under him ; and as one of his 
 equerries was presenting him with another, both the equerry 
 and horse were shot dead upon the spot. Charles then 
 fought on foot, surrounded by his officers, who instantly 
 flocked around him. 
 
126 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 Many of them were taken, wounded, or slain, or pushed 
 to a great distance from the king by the crowds that assailed 
 them ; so that he was soon left with no more than five at- 
 tendants. With his own hand he had killed above twelve 
 of the enemy, without receiving a single wound ; owing to 
 that surprising good fortune which had hitherto attended 
 him, and upon which he constantly relied. At length, a 
 colonel, named Dardof, broke his way through the Calmucks, 
 and with a single company of his regiment arrived time 
 enough to save the king. The rest of the Swedes put the 
 Tartars to the sword. The army recovered its ranks ; Charles 
 mounted his horse, and fatigued as he was, pursued the 
 Russians for two leagues. 
 
 The conqueror was still in the great road to the capital of 
 Muscovy. But the distance from Smolensko, near which 
 the battle was fought, to Moscow, is about a hundred French 
 leagues ; and the army began to be in want of provisions. 
 Count Piper earnestly entreated the king to wait till General 
 Lewenhaupt, who was bringing him supplies, together with 
 a reinforcement of fifteen thousand men, should arrive. The 
 king, who seldom, indeed, took council of any, not only re- 
 jected this wholesome advice, but, to the great astonishment 
 of all the army, quitted the road to Moscow, and began to 
 march southward towards the Ukraine, the country of the 
 Cossacks, lying between Little Tartary, Poland, and Mus- 
 covy. This country extends about a hundred French leagues 
 from north to south, and almost as many from east to west. 
 It is divided into two parts nearly equal, by the Boristhenes, 
 which runs from the north-west to the. south-east. The chief 
 town is Bathurin, situated upon the little river Sem. The 
 most northern part of the Ukraine is rich, and well culti- 
 vated. The southernmost, lying in the forty-eighth degree 
 of latitude, is one of the most fertile countries in the world, 
 and yet one of the most desolate. Its wretched form of 
 government stifles in embryo all the blessings which nature, 
 if properly encouraged, would bring forth for the inhabitants. 
 The people of these cantons, indeed, neither sow nor plant, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 127 
 
 j j because the Tartars of Budziack, Precop, and Moldavia, 
 
 If being all of them free-booters and banditti, would rob them 
 
 If of their harvests. 
 
 The Ukraine hath always aspired after liberty ; but being 
 
 j surrounded by Muscovy, the states of the grand seignor, 
 and by Poland, it has been obliged to choose a protector, 
 
 1 and consequently a master, in one of these three states. 
 
 . The inhabitants at first put themselves under the protection 
 
 ! of the Poles, who treated them too much like vassals. They 
 afterwards submitted to the Russians, who governed them 
 with as despotic, a sway. 
 
 They had originally the privilege of electing a prince un- 
 der the name of general; but they were soon deprived of 
 that right; and their general was nominated by the court of 
 Moscow. 
 
 The person who then filled that station was a Polish gen- 
 tleman, named Mazeppa, born in the palatinate of Podolia. 
 He had been educated as page to John Casirair, and had re- 
 ceived some tincture of polite learning in his court. An in- 
 trigue which he had in his youth with the lady of a Polish 
 gentleman having been discovered, the husband caused him 
 to be whipped with rods, to be bound stark naked upon a 
 wild horse, and turned adrift in that condition. The horse, 
 which had been brought out of the Ukraine, returned to his 
 own country, and carried Mazeppa with him, half dead with 
 hunger and fatigue. Some of the country people gave him 
 assistance ; and he lived among them for a long time, sig- 
 nalizing himself in several excursions against the Tartars. 
 The superiority of his knowledge gained him great respect 
 among the Cossacks ; and his reputation greatly increasing, 
 the czar found it necessary to make him prince of the 
 Ukraine. 
 
 Being one day at table with the czar at Moscow, the em- 
 peror proposed to him the task of disciplining the Cossacks, 
 and rendering them more docile and dependant. Mazeppa 
 replied, that the situation of the Ukraine, and the genius of 
 the nation, were insuperable obstacles to such a scheme. 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 The czar, who began to be overheated with wine, and had 
 not, when sober, always the command of his passions 
 called him a traitor, and threatened to have him impaled. 
 
 Mazeppa, on his return to the Ukraine, formed the design 
 of a revolt; the execution of which was greatly facilitated 
 by the Swedish army, that soon after appeared on the fron 
 tiers. He resolved to render himself independent, and t 
 erect the Ukraine, with some other ruins of the Russia 
 empire, into a powerful kingdom. Brave, enterprising, an 
 indefatigable, he entered secretly into a league with the kin 
 of Sweden, to accelerate the ruin of the czar, and to convert 
 it to his own advantage. 
 
 The king appointed a rendezvous near the river Desna, 
 where Mazeppa promised to meet him at the head of thirty 
 thousand men, with ammunition and provisions, together 
 with all his treasures, which were immense. The Swe- 
 dish army, therefore, continued its march on that side, to 
 the great regret of all the officers who knew nothing of 
 the king's treaty with the Cossacks. In the mean time, 
 Charles sent orders to Lewenhaupt to bring his troops and 
 provisions, with all possible despatch, into the Ukraine, 
 where he proposed to pass the winter, that having once se- 
 cured that country, he might the more easily conquer Mus- 
 covy in the ensuing spring. He continued still to advance 
 towards the river Desna, which falls into the Boristhenes at 
 Kiow. 
 
 The obstructions the troops had hitherto encountered in 
 their march, were but trifling in comparison of what they 
 met with in this new route. They were obliged to cross a 
 marshy forest, fifty leagues in length. General Lagercron, 
 who led the way with five thousand soldiers and pioneers, 
 misled the army thirty leagues too far to the east ; nor did 
 the king discover the mistake till after a tiresome march of 
 four days. With difficulty they regained the right road; but 
 almost all their artillery and wagons were lost, being either 
 stuck fast, or entirely sunk in the morass. 
 
 After a march of twelve days, attended with many yexa- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 129 
 
 tious and untoward circumstances, during which they had 
 consumed the small quantity of biscuit that was left, the ar- 
 my, exhausted with hunger and fatigue, arrived on the banks 
 of the Desna ; the very spot which Mazeppa had marked out 
 as a place of rendezvous; but instead of meeting with that 
 prince, they found a body of Muscovites advancing towards 
 the other side of the river. The king was astonished, but 
 resolved immediately to pass the Desna, and attack the ene- 
 my. The banks of the river were so steep, that the soldiers 
 were obliged to descend to the water with ropes. They 
 crossed it in their usual manner, some on floats which were 
 made in haste, and others by swimming. The body of Mus- 
 covites which arrived at the same time, did not exceed eight 
 thousand men ; so that it made but little resistance, and this 
 obstacle was also surmounted. 
 
 Charles advanced farther into this desolate country, alike 
 uncertain of his route and of Mazeppa's fidelity. That Cos- 
 sack appeared at last, but rather like a fugitive than a pow- 
 erful ally. The Muscovites had discovered and defeated his 
 design ; they had fallen upon the Cossacks and cut them in 
 pieces. His principal friends being taken sword in hand, 
 had, to the number of thirty, been broke on the wheel ; his 
 towns were reduced to ashes ; his treasures plundered ; the 
 provisions he was preparing for the king of Sweden seized; 
 and it was with great difficulty that he himself made his es- 
 cape with six thousand men, and some horses laden with 
 gold and silver. He gave the king, nevertheless, some hopes 
 that he should be able to assist him by his intelligence in 
 that unknown country, and by the affection of the Cossacks, 
 who, being enraged against the Russians, flocked to the 
 camp, and supplied the army with provisions. 
 
 Charles hoped, at least, that General Lewenhaupt would 
 .ome and repair this misfortune. He was to bring with him 
 about fifteen thousand Swedes, who were better than a 
 hundred thousand Cossacks, together with ammunition and 
 provisions. At length he arrived, in much the same condi* 
 tion with Mazeppa. , 
 
130 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 He had already passed the Boristhenes above Mihilovv, J 
 and advanced twenty leagues beyond it, on the road to the 
 Ukraine. He was bringing the king a convoy of eight thou- I 
 sand wagons, with the money which he had levied in his 
 march through Lithuania. He no sooner approached the 
 town of Lesno, near the conflux of the rivers Pronia and j 
 Sossa, which fall into the Boristhenes at a great distance be- 
 neath it, than the czar appeared at the head of near forty 
 thousand men. 
 
 The Swedish general, who had not sixteen thousand com- 
 plete, disdained, however, the defence of intrenchments. A 
 long train of victories had inspired the Swedes with so much 
 conlidence, that they never informed themselves of the num- 
 ber of their enemies, but only of the place where they were. 
 Accordingly, on the seventh of October, 1708, in the after- 
 noon, Lewenhaupt without hesitation advanced against him. 
 In the first attack, the Swedes killed fifteen hundred Rus- 
 sians. The czar's army was thrown into confusion, and fled 
 on all sides. The emperor of Russia saw himself upon the 
 point of being entirely defeated. He was sensible that the 
 safety of his dominions depended upon the success of this 
 day, and that he must be utterly ruined, should Lewenhaupt 
 join the king of Sweden with a victorious army. 
 
 The moment he saw his troops begin to give way, he flew 
 to the rear guard, where the Cossacks and Calmucks were 
 posted. " I charge you," said he, " to fire upon every one 
 that runs away, even on me myself, should I be so cowardly 
 as to fly." Returning then to the van, he rallied his troops 
 himself, assisted by the Princes Menzikoif and GalUtzin. 
 Lewenhaupt, who had received strict orders to rejoin his 
 master, chose rather to continue his march than renew the 
 battle, imagining he had done enough to prevent the enemy 
 from pursuing him. 
 
 Next morning, about eleven o'clock, the czar attacked him 
 upon the border of the morass, and extended his lines with 
 a view to surround him. The Swedes faced about on all 
 sides, and the battle was maintained with equal obstinacy. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 131 
 
 The loss of the Muscovites was three times greater than that 
 of the Swedes ; the former still kept their ground, and the 
 victory was left undecided. 
 
 At four in the afternoon, General Baver brought the czar 
 a reinforcement of troops. The battle was then renewed for 
 the third time, with more eagerness than ever, and lasted 
 till night, when, at length, superior numbers prevailed; the 
 Swedes were broke, routed, and driven back to their bag- 
 gage. Lewenhaupt rallied his troops behind the wagons. 
 The Swedes were conquered, but disdained to fly. They 
 were still about nine thousand in number, and not so much 
 as one of them deserted. The general drew them up. in or- 
 der of battle, with as much ease as if they had not been de- 
 feated. The czar, on the other side, remained all night un- 
 der arms, and forbade his officers under pain of being cashier- 
 ed, and his soldiers under pain of death, to leave their ranks 
 in order to plunder. 
 
 Next morning at day-break, he ordered a fresh assault. 
 Meantime, Lewenhaupt had retired to an advantageous situa- 
 tion at the distance of a few miles, after having nailed up 
 part of his cannon, and set fire to his baggage-wagons. 
 
 The Muscovites arrived time enough to prevent the whole 
 convoy from being consumed by the flames. They seized 
 about six thousand carriages, which they saved. The czar, 
 desirous of completing the defeat of the Swedes, sent one of 
 his general, named Phlug, to attack them again for the fifth 
 time. That general offered them an honourable capitulation, 
 Lewenhaupt refused it, and fought a fifth battle, as bloody as 
 any of the former. Of the nine thousand soldiers he had 
 left, he lost about one half, the other remained unbroken. At 
 length, night coming on, the Swedish general, after having 
 sustained five battles against forty thousand men, passed the 
 Sossa, with about five thousand soldiers that remained. The 
 czar lost about ten thousand men in these five engagements, 
 in which he had the glory of conquering the Swedes ; and 
 Lewenhaupt that of disputing the victory for three days, and 
 of effecting a retreat without having been forced in his last 
 
132 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 post. Thus he arrived at his master's camp with the honour 
 of having so bravely defended himself, but bringing with 
 him neither ammunition nor army. 
 
 The king of Sweden thus found himself destitute of pro- 
 visions, cut off from all communication with Poland, an 
 surrounded with enemies, in the heart of a country where h 
 had no other resource than his own courage. 
 
 In this extremity, the memorable winter of 1709, whic 
 was still more severe in that part of Europe than in France, 
 destroyed numbers of his troops; for Charles resolved to 
 brave the seasons, as he had done his enemies, and ventured 
 to make long marches during this mortal cold. It was in 
 one of these marches that two thousand men fell down dead 
 with cold almost before his eyes. The dragoons had no 
 boots, and the infantry were without shoes, and almost with- 
 out clothes. They were forced to make stockings of the 
 skins of wild beasts, in the best manner they could, and they 
 were frequently in want of bread. They had been obliged 
 to throw almost all their cannon into the -marshes and rivers, 
 for want of horses to draw them ; so that this once flourish- 
 ing army was reduced to twenty-four thousand men, ready 
 to perish with hunger. They no longer received any ad- 
 vices from Sweden, nor were able to send any thither. In 
 this condition, only one officer complained. "What," said 
 the king to him, "are you uneasy at being so far from your 
 wife ? If you are a true soldier, I will lead you to such a 
 distance, that you shall hardly be able to hear from Sweden 
 once in three years." 
 
 The Marquis de B***, afterwards ambassador in Sweden, 
 told me, that a soldier ventured, in presence of the whole 
 army, to present to the king, with an air of complaint, a 
 piece of bread that was black and mouldy, made of barley 
 and oats, which was the only food they then had, and of 
 which they had not even a sufficiency. The king received 
 the piece of bread without the least emotion, eat every mor- 
 sel of it, and then cooly said to the soldier, " It is not good, 
 but it may be eaten." This incident, trifling as it is, if in- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 133 
 
 deed any thing that increases respect and confidence can be 
 called trifling, contributed more than all the rest to make 
 the Swedish army support those hardships, which would 
 have been intolerable under any other general. 
 
 In this situation, he at last received news from Stockholm; 
 but they brought only advice of the death of his sister, the 
 duchess of Holstein, who was carried off by the small-pox, 
 in the month of December, 1708, in the twenty-seventh 
 year of her age. She was a princess as mild and gentle as 
 her brother was imperious in his disposition and implacable 
 in his revenge. He had always entertained a great affection 
 for her ; and was the more afflicted with her death, as now 
 beginning to taste of misfortunes himself, he was of course 
 become a little more susceptible. 
 
 He was also informed, that money and troops had been 
 raised in Sweden, agreeably to his orders ; but nothing 
 could reach his camp, as between him and Stockholm there 
 were near five hundred leagues to march, and an enemy su- 
 perior in number to engage. 
 
 The czar, who was as active as the king, after having sent 
 fresh troops to the assistance of the confederates of Poland, 
 who, under the command of General Siniauski, exerted 
 their joint efforts against Stanislaus, immediately advanced 
 into the Ukraine, in the midst of this severe winter, to make 
 head against the king of Sweden. He continued to pursue 
 the political scheme he had formed, of weakening his ene- 
 mies by petty rencounters, wisely judging that the Swedish 
 army must in the end be entirely ruined, as it could not 
 possibly be recruited. The cold must certainly have been 
 very severe, as it obliged the two moniarchs to agree to a 
 suspension of arms. But on the first of February they re- 
 newed their military operations, in the midst of frost and 
 snow. 
 
 After several slight skirmishes and some losses, the king 
 perceived, in the month of April, that he had only eighteen 
 thousand Swedes remaining. Mazeppa alone, the prince of 
 the Cossacks, supplied them with provisions, without which 
 
 12 
 
134 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 assistance the army must have perished with cold and hun- 
 ger. At this conjuncture, the czar made proposals to Ma- 
 zeppa, to return again under his authority. But whether it 
 was that the terrible punishment of the wheel, by which 
 his friends had perished, made the Cossack apprehend the 
 same danger for himself, or that he was desirous of reveng- 
 ing their deaths, he continued faithful to his new ally. 
 
 Charles, with his eighteen thousand Swedes, had neither 
 lost the design nor the hope of penetrating to Moscow. He, 
 therefore, toward the end of May, laid siege to Pultowa, 
 upon- the river Vorska, at the eastern extremity of the 
 Ukraine, and more than thirteen leagues from the Boris- 
 thenes. This country is inhabited by the Zaporavians, the 
 most extraordinary people on the earth. They are a collec- 
 tion of ancient Russians, Poles, and Tartars, professing a 
 gpecies of Christianity, and exercising a kind of free-booting, 
 resembling that of the buccaneers. They elect a chief, 
 whom they frequently depose or strangle. They suffer no 
 woman to live among them, but carry oft all the children for 
 twenty or thirty leagues around, and bring them up to their 
 own manners. In the summer, they always live in the open 
 fields ; in the winter they shelter themselves in large barns, 
 which contain four or five hundred men. They fear nothing, 
 live free, and brave death for the smallest booty, with the 
 same intrepidity as Charles XII. did, in order to obtain the 
 power of bestowing crowns. The czar gave them sixty 
 thousand florins, in the hope to engage them in his interest 
 They took his money, but, through the intrigues of Mazep- 
 pa, immediately declared in favour of Charles ; though their 
 service was of very little consequence, as they esteem it a 
 folly to fight for any thing but plunder. It was no small 
 advantage, however, that they were prevented from doing 
 harm. The number of their troops was at most but about 
 two thousand. Ten of their chiefs were presented one 
 morning to the king ; but they had great difficulty t* prevail 
 on them to remain sober, as they commonly begin the day 
 by getting drunk. They were brought to the intrenchments, 
 
ICING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 135 
 
 where they showed their dexterity in firing- with long car- 
 bines ; for being placed upon the mounds, they killed, at the 
 distance of six hundred paces, such of the enemy as were 
 pointed out. To these banditti, Charles added several thou- 
 sand Wallachians, whom he had hired from the cham of Lit- 
 tle Tartary. He then laid siege to Pultowa with all these 
 troops of Zaporavians, Cossacks, and Wallachians ; which, 
 joined to his eighteen thousand Swedes, made up an army, 
 of about thirty thousand men, but an army in a wretched con- 
 dition, and in want of every thing. The czar had formed a 
 magazine in Pultowa, which, if the king had taken, he would 
 have opened himself a way to Moscow ; and have been able 
 at least, amidst the great abundance he would then have pos- 
 sessed, to wait the arrival of the succours Which he still ex- 
 pected from Sweden, Livonia, Pomerania, and Poland. His 
 only resource, therefore, being in the conquest of Pultowa, 
 he pressed the siege of it with great ardour. Mazeppa, who 
 carried on a correspondence in that town, assured him that 
 he would soon be master of it. This hope re-animated the 
 whole army ; for the soldiers considered the taking of Pul- 
 towa as the end of all their miseries. 
 
 The king perceived, from the beginning of the siege, that 
 he had taught his enemies the art of war ; for, in spite of all 
 his precautions, Prince MenzikofF threw succours into the 
 town, by which means the garrison was strong to the num- 
 ber of almost five thousand men. 
 
 They made several sallies, and sometimes with success : 
 they likewise sprung mines ; but what rendered the town 
 impregnable was the approach of the czar, who advanced 
 with seventy thousand men. Charles went to reconnoitre 
 them on the twenty-seventh of May, the day of his birth, 
 and beat one of their detachments; but as he was returning 
 to his camp, he received a shot from a carbine, which pierced 
 his boot, and shattere 1 the bone of his heel. There was 
 not the least alteration observable in his countenance, from 
 which it could be suspected that he was wounded ; he con- 
 tinued to give orders with great composure, and after this ac- 
 
136 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 cident remained near six hours on horseback. One of his do- 
 mestics observing that the sole of the king's boot was covered 
 with blood, ran to call the surgeons; and the pain was now 
 become so exquisite, that they were obliged to assist him in 
 dismounting, and to carry him into his tent. The surgeons 
 examined the WDund, and were of opinion that the leg must 
 be cut off. The consternation of the army on this occasion 
 was inexpressible, till one of the surgeons, named Newman, 
 who had more skill and courage than the rest, affirmed, that 
 by making deep incisions he could save the king's leg. " Fall 
 to work then presently," said the king to him, " cut boldly, 
 and fear nothing." He himself held his leg with both his 
 hands, and beheld the incisions that were made in it as if 
 the operation had been performed upon another person. 
 
 While they were laying on the dressings, he ordered an 
 assault to be made the next day ; but he had hardly given 
 this order, before he was informed that the whole army of 
 the enemy was advancing against him. It became then ne- 
 cessary to alter his measures. Charles, wounded and inca- 
 pable of acting, saw himself situated between the Boris- 
 thenes and the river that runs to Pultowa, in a desert coun- 
 try, without any places of security, without ammunition, and 
 
 ?in the face of an army which at once cut off his retreat, and 
 presented his being supplied with provisions. In this ex- 
 tremity he did not assemble a council of war, as has been 
 published in some other accounts, but on the night between 
 the seventh and eighth of July, he sent for Velt Mareschal 
 Renschild into his tent, and without deliberation, or the least 
 discomposure, ordered him to make the necessary disposi- 
 tions for attacking the czar next day. Renschild made no 
 
 p^Bjfcctions, and went to carry his orders into execution. At 
 the door of the king's tent he met Count Piper, with whom 
 he had had a misunderstanding for some time, which fre- 
 quently happens between the min'ster and the general. 
 Piper asked him if he had any news. v **'No," said the 
 general coldly, and passed on to give his orders. As soon 
 as Count Piper had entered the tent, " Has Renschild told 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 137 
 
 you nothing ?" said the king. "Nothing," answered Piper. 
 "Well, then, I will tell you," replied the king; "to-mor- 
 row we shall give battle." Count Piper was terrified at so 
 desperate a resolution ; but as he well knew it was impossi- 
 ble to make his master change his mind, he expressed his 
 surprise only by his silence, and left Charles to sleep till 
 break of day. 
 
 It was on the 8th of July, 1709, that the decisive battle of 
 Pultowa was fought between the two most extraordinary 
 monarchs that were then in the world : Charles XII., illus- 
 trious from nine years of victories; Peter Alexiowitz from 
 nine years of labours, taken to form troops equal to those of 
 Sweden: the one glorious for having given away dominions; 
 the other for having civilized his own : Charles fond of dan- 
 gers, and fighting for glory alone; Alexiowitz not avoiding 
 dangers, and making war only for advantage : the Swedish 
 monarch liberal from greatness of soul ; the Muscovite never 
 giving but with some design : the one, master of a continence 
 and sobriety beyond example, of a magnanimous disposition, 
 and never cruel but once; the other, not having yet devested 
 himself from the barbarism of his education and of his coun- 
 try, as much the object of terror to his subjects as of admira- 
 tion to strangers, and too prone to excesses, which even 
 shortened his days. Charles bore the title of "invincible," 
 of which a single moment might deprive him ; the neigh- 
 bouring nations had given Peter Alexiowitz the name of 
 " great," which, as he did not owe it to his victories, he could 
 not lose by a defeat. 
 
 To have a distinct idea of this battle, and the place where 
 it was fought, we must figure to ourselves Pultowa on the 
 north, the camp of the king of Sweden on the south, stretch- 
 ing a little toward the east, his baggage about a mile behind 
 him, and the river of Pultowa on the north of the town, run- 
 ning from east to west. 
 
 The czar had passed the river about a league from Pulto- 
 wa, toward the west, and was beginning to form his camp. 
 
 At break of day the Swedes appeared before the trenches 
 12* 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 with four iron cannon, which was the whole of their artil- 
 lery ; the rest were left in the camp, with about three thou- 
 sand men, and four thousand remained with the baggage ; 
 so that the Swedish army which advanced against the ene- 
 my, consisted of about one-and-twenty thousand men, of 
 which there were about sixteen thousand Swedes. 
 
 The Generals Renschild, Roos, Lewenhaupt, Schlipen- 
 back, Hoorn, Sparre, Hamilton, the prince of Wirtemberg, 
 the king's relation, and some others, the greatest part of 
 whom had seen the battle of Narva, put the subaltern offi- 
 cers in mind of that day, wherein eight thousand Swedes de- 
 feated an army of eighty thousand Muscovites in their in- 
 trenchments. The officers exhorted the soldiers by the same 
 motive, every one encouraging each other in their march. 
 
 The king, carried in a litter at the head of his infantry, 
 conducted the march. A party of the cavalry advanced by 
 his order to attack that of the enemy ; and the battle 
 began with this engagement at half an hour past four in the 
 morning. The enemy's cavalry was posted toward the 
 west, on the right side of the Russian camp. Prince Men- 
 zikolf and Count Gallowin had placed them at certain dis- 
 tances between redoubts lined with cannon. General Schli- 
 penback, at the head of the Swedes, rushed upon this body 
 of cavalry. All those who have served in the Swedish troops, 
 know that it is almost impossible to withstand the fury of 
 their first attack. The Muscovite squadrons were broken 
 and routed. The czar, who ran up to rally them in person, 
 had his hat pierced with a musket ball ; MenzikofT had three 
 horses killed under him ; the Swedes cried out " victory !" 
 
 Charles did not doubt but that the battle was, gained ; he 
 had sent in the middle of the night General Creuts, with 
 five thousand horse or dragoons, who, were to take the ene- 
 my in Hank, while he attacked them in front ; but as his ill 
 fortune would have it, Creuts mistook his way, and did not 
 appear. The czar, who thought he was ruined, had time to 
 rally his cavalry. He now in his turn, fell upon that of the 
 king, which, not being supported by the detachment of 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 139 
 
 1 Creuts, was broken in its turn. Schlipenback was taken 
 ! prisoner in this engagement. At the same time, seventy- 
 two pieces of cannon played from the camp upon the Swe- 
 dish cavalry ; and the Russian infantry, opening their lines, 
 advanced to attack that of Charles. 
 
 The czar now detached Prince Menzikoff to go and post 
 himself between Pultowa and the Swedes. Prince Menzi- 
 koff executed his master's orders with dexterity and ei sedi- 
 tion ; and not only cut off the communication between the 
 Swedish army and the camp before Pultowa, but, having 
 met with a corps de reserve, of three thousand men, he sur- 
 rounded them, and cut them to pieces. If Menzikoff per- 
 formed this exploit of bis own accord, Russia owes its pre- 
 servation to him : if it was by the order of the czar, he was 
 an adversary worthy of Charles XII. Meanwhile, the Rus- 
 sian infantry came out of their lines, and advanced into the 
 plain in order of battle. On the other hand, the Swedish 
 cavalry rallied within a quarter of a league from the enemy ; 
 and the king, assisted by Velt-Mareschal Renschild, made 
 the necessary disposition for a general engagement. 
 
 He ranged the remainder of his troops in two lines, his 
 infantry occupying the centre, and his cavalry the two wings. 
 The czar disposed his army in the same manner ; he, how- 
 ever, had the advantage of numbers, and of seventy-two 
 pieces of cannon, while the Swedes had no more than four 
 to oppose him, and began to be in want of powder. 
 
 The emperor of Muscovy was m the centre of his army, 
 having then only the title of major general, and seemed to 
 obey General Zeremetoff. But he rode from rank to rank 
 in the character of emperor, mounted on a Turkish horse 
 which was a present from the grand seignor, animating the 
 captains and soldiers, and promising rewards to them all. 
 
 At nine in the morning the battle was renewed. One of 
 the first discharges of the Russian cannon carried off the two 
 horses of Charles's litter. He caused two others to be put 
 to it A second discharge broke the litter in pieces, and 
 overturned the king, uf four-and-twenty drab ants, who re- 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 lieved each other in carrying him, one-and-twenty were kill- 
 ed. The Swedes, struck with consternation, began to stag- 
 ger; and the cannon of the enemy continuing to mow them 
 down, the first line fell back upon the second, and the se- 
 cond began to fly. In this last action, it was only one line 
 of ten thousand Russian infantry that routed the whole Swe- 
 dish army ; so much were matters changed ! 
 
 All the Swedish writers affirm, that they would have gain- 
 ed the battle, if they had not committed several blunders ; 
 but all the officers pretend, that it was a great error to give 
 battle at all, and a greater still to shut themselves up in a 
 desert country, against the advice of the most prudent gene- 
 erals, in opposition to a warlike enemy, three times stronger 
 than Charles, both in the number of men and the many re- 
 sources from which the Swedes were entirely cut off. The 
 remembrance of Narva was the principal cause of Charles's 
 misfortune at Pultowa. 
 
 The prince of Wirtemberg, General Renschild, and se- 
 veral principal officers, were already made prisoners ; the 
 camp before Pultowa was stormed ; and all was thrown into 
 a confusion, against which they had no remedy. Count Piper, 
 with some officers of the chancery, had left the camp, and 
 neither knew what to do, nor what was become of the king, 
 but ran about from one corner of the field of battle to the 
 other. A major named Bere, offered to conduct them to the 
 baggage ; but the clouds of dust and smoke which covered 
 the country, and the confusion of mind so natural amidst 
 such consternation, brought them directly to the counter- 
 scarp of the town, where they were all made prisoners by 
 the garrison. 
 
 The king refused to fly, and was unable to defend him- 
 self. It was at this instant that General Poniatowsky hap- 
 pened to be near him, colonel of Stanislaus's Polish guards, 
 a man of extraordinary merit, who had been induced, from 
 his attachment to the person of Charles, to follow him into the 
 Ukraine, without possessing auy command. He was a man 
 who, in all the occurrences of life, and amidst those dangers 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 141 
 
 in which others would at most have displayed their courage, 
 always took his resolution with despatch, prudence and suc- 
 cess. He made a sign to two drabants, who took the king 
 under the arms, and placed him on horseback, notwithstand- 
 ing the extreme pain of his wounds. 
 
 Poniatowsky, though he had no command in the army, 
 became on this occasion a general through necessity, and 
 rallied five hundred horse near the king's person ; some of 
 them drabants, others officers, and a few private troopers. 
 This body being assembled, and animated by the misfortune 
 of their prince, made their way through more than ten Rus- 
 sian regiments, and conducted Charles through the midst of 
 the enemy for the space of a league, to the baggage of the 
 Swedish army. 
 
 Charles, being pursued in his flight, had his horse killed 
 under him ; Colonel Gieta, though wounded and spent with 
 loss of blood, gave him his. Thus, in the course of the flight, 
 they twice put this conqueror on horseback, who had not 
 been able to mount a horse during the engagement. 
 
 This surprising retreat was of great consequence in such 
 distressful circumstances; but he was obliged to fly still fur- 
 ther. They found Count Piper's coach among the baggage, 
 for the king had never used one since he left Stockholm; 
 they put him into this vehicle, and took their route toward 
 the Boristhenes with great precipitation. The king, who 
 from the time they put him on horseback till his arrival at the 
 baggage, had not spoke a single word, at length iuquired 
 what was become of Count Piper. They told him he was 
 taken prisoner, with all the officers of the chancery. " And 
 General Renschild and the duke of Wirtemberg r" added the 
 king. " They are also prisoners," said Poniatowsky. " Pri- 
 soners to the Russians !" returned Charles, shrugging up his 
 shoulders : " Came, then, let us rather go to the Turks." 
 They could not perceive, however, the least mark of dejec- 
 tion in his countenance; and whoever had seen him at that 
 time, without knowing his situation, would never have sus- 
 pected that he was conquered and wounded. 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 While he was getting off, the Russians seized his artillery 
 in the camp before Pultowa, his baggage, and his military- 
 chests, in which they found six millions in specie, the spoils 
 of the Poles and Saxons. About nine thousand men, Swedes 
 and Cossacks, were killed in the battle, and about six thou- 
 sand taken prisoners. There still remained about sixteen 
 thousand men, including the Swedes, Poles, and Cossacks, 
 who fled toward the Boristhenes, under the conduct of Ge- 
 neral Lewenhaupt. He marched one way with these fugi- 
 tive troops, and the king took another road with some of his 
 horse. The coach in which he rode broke down in their 
 march, and they again set him on horseback. To complete 
 his misfortune, he wandered all night in a wood ; where, his 
 courage being no longer able to support his exhausted spi- 
 rits, the pain of his wound becoming more intolerable through 
 fatigue, and his horse falling under him through weariness, 
 he lay several hours at the foot of a tree, in danger of being 
 surprised every moment by the conquerors, who were search- 
 ing for him on all sides. 
 
 At last, in the night of the ninth or tenth of July, he found 
 himself opposite to the Boristhenes. Lewenhaupt had just 
 arrived with the remains of his army. The Swedes beheld 
 with a mixture of joy and grief, their king, whom they had 
 believed dead. The enemy was approaching, and the Swedes 
 had neither a bridge to pass the river, time to make one, 
 powder to defend themselves, nor provision to support an 
 army, which had eat nothing for two days. At the same 
 time, the remains of this army were Swedes, and the con- 
 quered king was Charles XII. Almost all the officers ima- 
 gined that they were to wait there with firmness for the 
 Russians, and that they should either conquer or die on the 
 banks of the Boristhenes. There was no doubt but Charles 
 would have taken this resolution, had he not been exhaust- 
 ed with weakness. His wound was now come to suppura- 
 tion, attended with a fever ; and it hath been remarked, that 
 men of the greatest intrepidity, when seized with a fever, 
 which is common in suppuration, lose that instinct of valour, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 143 
 
 which, like other virtues, requires the direction of a clear 
 head. Charles was now no longer himself. It is what I 
 have been assured of, and what is most probably the truth. 
 They carried him along like a sick person in a state of in- 
 j sensibility. There was yet, by good luck, a sorry calash, 
 which they accidentally had brought thither with them. 
 This they put on board a little boat ; and the king and Ge- 
 neral Mazeppa embarked in another. The latter had saved 
 several coffers full of money; but the current being too 
 rapid, and a violent wind beginning to rise, the Cossack 
 threw more than three-fourths of his treasures into the river 
 to lighten the boat. Mullern, the king's chancellor, and 
 Count Poniatowsky, a man more necessary to the king than 
 ever, by the resources which his ingenuity furnished in every 
 difficulty, crossed over in other barks, with some officers. 
 Three hundred of the Swedish cavalry, and a great number 
 of Poles and Cossacks, trusting to the goodness of their 
 horses, ventured to pass the river by swimming. Their troop, 
 keeping close together, resisted the current and broke the 
 w aves ; but all those who attempted to pass a little below 
 were carried down by the stream, and perished in the river. 
 Of the infantry who risked the passage, not one arrived on 
 the opposite shore. 
 
 While the shattered remains of the army were in this ex- 
 tremity, Prince Menzikoff approached with ten thousand 
 horsemen, having each a foot soldier behind him. The car- 
 cases of Swedes who had died by the way, of their wounds, 
 fatigue, and hunger, sufficiently apprized him of the road 
 w hich the fugitive army had taken. The prince sent a trum- 
 pet to the Swedish general, to offer him a capitulation. 
 Four general officers were immediately despatched by Lewen- 
 haupt to receive the commands of the conqueror. Before 
 that day, sixteen thousand soldiers of King Charles would 
 have attacked the whole forces of the Russian empire, and 
 would have perished to a man rather than surrender. But 
 after the loss of a battle, and flight of two days, deprived of 
 the presence of their prince, who was himself constrained 
 
HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 to fly, the strength of every soldier being exhausted, and 
 their courage no longer supported by hope, the love of life 
 overcame their natural intrepidity. Colonel Troutefette alone, 
 since governor of Stralsund, observing the Muscovites ap- 
 proach, advanced with one Swedish battalion to attack them, 
 hoping, by this means, to induce the rest of the troops to fol- 
 low his example. But Lewenhaupt was obliged to oppose 
 this unavailing ardour. The capitulation was settled, and 
 the whole army were made prisoners of war. Some sol- 
 diers, in despair at the thoughts of falling into the hands of 
 the Muscovites, precipitated themselves into the Boristhenes. 
 Two officers of the regiment of the brave Troutefette, killed 
 each other, and the rest were made slaves. They all filed 
 off in the presence of Prince Menzikoff, laying their arms 
 at his feet, as thirty thousand Muscovites had done nine years 
 before at those of the king of Sweden at Narva; with this 
 difference, that the king dismissed all those Muscovite pri- 
 soners, whom he did not fear, an'* the czar retained the 
 Swedes who were taken at Pultovra. 
 
 These unhappy creatures were afterwards dispersed 
 through the czar's dominions, particularly in Siberia, a vast 
 province of Great Tartary, which extends eastward to the 
 frontiers of the Chinese empire. In this barbarous country, 
 where even the use of bread was unknown, the Swedes, be- 
 come ingenious through necessity, exercised the trades and 
 employments of which they had the least notion. All the 
 distinctions which fortune makes among men were there 
 banished. The officer who could not follow any trade was 
 obliged to cleave and carry wood for the soldier, now turned 
 tailor, clothier, joiner, mason, or goldsmith, and who earned 
 his subsistence. Some of the officers became painters, and 
 others architects ; some of them even taught the languages 
 and mathematics. They even established some public 
 schools, which in time became so useful and famous, that 
 children were sent thither from Moscow. 
 
 Count Piper, the king of Sweden's first minister, was a 
 long time confined in prison at Petersburgh. The czar was 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 145 
 
 | persuaded, as well as the rest of Europe, that this minister 
 |i had sold his master to the duke of Marlborough, and drawn 
 I on Muscovy the arms of Sweden, which might have given 
 I peace to Europe. He, therefore, rendered his confinement 
 I the more severe. The minister died a few years after in 
 I Muscovy, little assisted by his own family, who lived in opu- 
 I lence at Stockholm, and vainly lamented by his king, who 
 would never condescend to offer a ransom for his minister, 
 which he feared the czar would not accept of, as no cartel 
 of exchange had ever been settled between Charles and the 
 i czar. 
 
 The emperor of Muscovy, elated with a joy which he 
 i took no pains to conceal, received upon the field of battle 
 j the prisoners, whom they brought to him in crowds and 
 I asked every moment, " Where, then, is my brother 
 • Charles!" 
 
 He did the Swedish generals the honour of inviting them 
 to his table. Among other questions which he put to them, 
 he asked General Renschild, " what might be the number of 
 his master's troops before the battle ?" Renschild answered, 
 " that the king alone had the muster-roll, and would never 
 communicate it to any one ; but that for his own part, he 
 imagined the whole might be about thirty thousand, of which 
 eighteen thousand were Swedes, and the rest Cossacks." 
 The czar seemed to be surprised, and asked, " how they 
 durst venture to penetrate into so distant a country, and lay 
 siege to Pultowa, with such a handful of men?" "We are 
 not always consulted," replied the Swedish general, " but, 
 like faithful servants, we obey our master's orders, without 
 ever presuming to contradict them." The czar, at this an- 
 swer, turned about to some of his courtiers, who were for- 
 merly suspected of having engaged in a conspiracy against 
 him : "Ah ! (says he) see how a king ought to be served j" 
 and then taking a glass of wine, " To the health," says he, 
 " of my masters in the art of war." Renschild asked him 
 who were the persons whom he honoured with so high a 
 G 13 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 title. "You, gentlemen, the Swedish generals," replied the 
 czar. " Your majesty is very ungrateful, then," replied the 
 count, W to treat your masters with so much severity." After 
 dinner, the czar caused their swords to be restored to all the 
 general officers, and behaved to them like a prince who wish- 
 ed give his subjects a lesson of generosity and politeness, 
 with which he was well acquainted. But this very prince, 
 who treated the Swedish generals with so much humanity, 
 caused all the Cossacks that fell into his hands to be "broke 
 upon the wheel. 
 
 Thus the Swedish army, which left Saxony so triumphant- 
 ly, was now no more. One half of them had perished with 
 Aunger, and the other half were either massacred or made 
 slaves. Charles XII. had lost in one day the fruit of nine 
 years labour, and of almost a hundred battles. He was fly- 
 ing in a wretched calash, having by his side Major-Genera] 
 Hord, who was dangerously wounded. The rest of his party 
 followed, some on foot, some on horseback, and others in 
 wagons, through a desert, where they neither saw huts, tents, 
 men, beasts, nor roads ; every thing was wanting, even water 
 itself. It was now the beginning of July ; the country lay 
 in the forty-seventh degree of latitude ; the dry sand of the 
 desert rendered the heat of the sun the more insupportable; 
 the horses dropped down by the way ; and the men were 
 ready to die with thirst. A brook of muddy water, which 
 they found towards evening, was their only resource ; they 
 filled some bladders with this water, which saved the lives 
 of the king's little troop. After a march of five days, he at 
 last found himself on the banks of the river Hypanis, now 
 called Bogh by the barbarians who have disfigured the very 
 names of those countries which once flourished so nobly in 
 the possession of the Greek colonies. This river joins the 
 Boristhenes some miles lower, and falls along with it into 
 the Black Sea. 
 
 On the other side of the Bogh, toward the south, stands 
 the little town of Oczakou, a frontier of the Turkish empire. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 147 
 
 The inhabitants seeing a troop of soldiers approach, to whose 
 dress and language they were strangers, refused to carry 
 them over the river without an order from Mehemet Pacha, 
 governor of Oczakou. The king sent an express to the go- 
 vernor to demand a passage. This Turk, not knowing what 
 to do in a country where one false step frequently costs a'man 
 his life, did not dare to take any thing upon himself with- 
 out having first obtained the permission of the seraskier of 
 the province, who resides at Bender, in Bessarabia. While 
 they were waiting for this permission, the Russians, who 
 had made the king's army prisoner, had crossed the Boris- 
 thenes, and were approaching to take him also. At last the 
 pacha of Oczakou sent word to the king, that he would fur- 
 nish him with one small boat to transport himself and two 
 or three of his attendants. In this extremity, the Swedes 
 took by force what they could not obtain by gentle means : 
 some of them went over to the other side in a small skiff, 
 seized on some boats, and brought them to the hither bank 
 of the river. This proved their safe-guard ; for the masters 
 of the Turkish barks, fearing they should lose such a fa- 
 vourable opportunity of getting a good freight, came in crowds 
 to offer their service. At the same time, precisely, arrived 
 a favourable answer frQm the seraskier of Bender : but the 
 Muscovites appeared, and the king had the mortification to 
 see five hundred of his men seized by the enemy, whose in- 
 sulting bravadoes he even heard. The pacha of Oczakou, 
 by means of an interpreter, asked his pardon for the delays 
 which had occasioned the loss of these five hundred men, 
 and humbly intreated him not to complain of it to the grand 
 seignor. Charles promised, though not without giving him 
 as severe a reprimand as if he had been speaking to one of 
 his own subjects. 
 
 The commander of Bender, -who was likewise seraskier, 
 a title which answers to that of general, and pacha of the 
 province, which signifies governor and intendant, immedi- 
 ately sent an aga to compliment the king, and to offer him a 
 
t48 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 magnificent tent, with provision, baggage wagons, and all 
 the conveniences, officers, and attendants, necessary to con- 
 duct him to Bender in a splendid manner ; for it is the cus- 
 tom of the Turks not only to defray the charges of am- 
 bassadors to the place of their residence, but likewise 
 to supply, with great liberality, the necessities of those 
 princes who take refuge among them, during the time of 
 their stay. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 149 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 Argument. — State of the Ottoman Porte. — Charles takes up his abode 
 near Bender. — His employments. — His intrigues at the Porte. — His 
 designs.— Augustus regains his throne. — The king of Denmark makes 
 a descent upon Sweden. — All the other dominions of Charles are at- 
 tacked. — The czar enters Moscow in triumph. — The affair of Pruth. 
 — History of the czarina, who from a peasant becomes an empress. 
 
 Achmet III. at that time governed the Turkish empire. 
 He had been placed upon the throne in 1703, in the room 
 of his brother Mustapha, by a revolution like to that which 
 transferred the crown of England from James II. to his son- 
 in-law William. Mustapha, by submitting in every thing 
 to his mufti, whom the Turks abhorred, provoked the whole 
 empire to rise against him. His army, by the assistance of 
 which he hoped to punish the malcontents, joined his ene- 
 mies. He was seized and deposed in form, and his brother 
 taken from the seraglio in order to be created sultan, almost 
 without spilling a single drop of blood. Achmet shut up the 
 deposed sultan in the seraglio at Constantinople, where he 
 lived for several years, to the great astonishment of Turkey, 
 which had been accustomed to see the death of her princes 
 immediately follow their dethronement. 
 
 The new sultan, as the only recompense for a crown 
 which he owed to the ministers, to the generals, to the offi- 
 cers of the Janizaries, and in a word, to those who had 
 had any hand in the revolution, put them all to death 
 one after another, for fear they should one day attempt a se- 
 cond revolution. By the sacrifice of so many brave men, he 
 weakened the strength of the nation, but at the same time 
 established his throne, at least for some years. He next ap- 
 plied himself to amass riches, and was the first of the Otto- 
 man race who ventured to make a small alteration in the 
 current coin, and to impose new taxes ; but he has been 
 obliged to stop short in both these enterprises for fear of an 
 insurrection. The rapacity and tyranny of the grand seignor 
 
150 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 are seldom extended farther than the officers of the empire, 
 who, whatever they may be in other respects, are domestic 
 slaves to the sultan ; while the rest of the mussulmen live in 
 profound tranquillity, without fearing for their lives, their 
 fortune, or their liberty. 
 
 Such was the Turkish emperor in whose territories the 
 king of Sweden sought an asylum. As soon as he set foot in 
 the sultan's dominions, he wrote him a letter, which bears 
 date the 13th of July, 1709. Several copies of this letter 
 were spread abroad, all of which are now held spurious ; 
 but of all those I have seen, there is not one which does not 
 mark the haughtiness of the author, and is not more con- 
 formable to his courage than his situation. The sultan did 
 not return an answer till toward the end of September. The 
 pride of the Ottoman Porte made Charles sensible of the dis- 
 tinction it placed between a Turkish emperor and a king of part 
 of Scandinavia, a conquered and fugitive Christian. For the 
 "rest, all these letters, which are seldom written by sovereigns 
 themselves, are but vain formalities, which neither discover 
 the character of the princes, nor the state of their affairs. 
 
 Charles XII. was in effect in no other situation in Turkey, 
 than that of a captive, honourably treated ; yet he conceived 
 the design of arming the Ottoman empire against his ene- 
 mies, and flattered himself that he should reduce Poland un- 
 der the yoke, and subdue Russia. He had an envoy at Con- 
 stantinople ; but the person that served him most effectually 
 in his vast projects, was the Count de Poniatowsky, who 
 went to Constantinople without any commission, and soon 
 rendered himself necessary to the king, agreeable to the 
 Porte, and, at last, dangerous to the grand viziers them- 
 selves.* 
 
 One of those who seconded his designs with the greatest 
 address, was the physician Fonseca, a Portuguese Jew, settled 
 at Constantinople, a man of knowledge and of the world, 
 
 * It was from this nobleman I received not only the remarks which had 
 been published, and of which the chaplain Norberg hath made use, but 
 likewise several other manuscripts relating to this history. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 151 
 
 well qualified for the management of business, and perhaps 
 the only philosopher of his nation : his profession procured 
 him a free access to the Ottoman Porte, and frequently gain- 
 ed him the confidence of the viziers. With this gentleman I 
 was very well acquainted at Paris, who confirmed to me all the 
 particulars I am going to relate. Count Poniatowsky has 
 informed me, both by letters and in conversation, that he 
 had had the address to convey some letters to the Sultana 
 Valide, the mother of the reigning emperor, who had for- 
 merly been ill used by her son, but now began to acquire 
 credit in the seraglio. A Jewess, who was often admitted 
 to this princess, never ceased to recount to her the exploits 
 of the king of Sweden, and charmed her ear by these rela- 
 tions. The Sultaness, moved by that secret inclination with 
 which most women feel themselves inspired, in favour of 
 extraordinary men, even without having seen them, openly 
 espoused this prince's cause in the seraglio, whom she call- 
 ed by no other name than that of her lion. " When will 
 you," would she sometimes say to the sultan, her son, " as- 
 sist my lion to devour this czar?" She even so far dispensed 
 with the austere rules of the seraglio, as to write several let- 
 ters with her own hand to Count Poniatowsky, in whose 
 custody they still are at the time of my writing this history. 
 
 Meanwhile, they conducted the king with all honour to 
 Bender, through the desert that was formerly called the wil- 
 derness of the Gatae. The Turks took care that nothing 
 should be wanting on the way to render his journey agreea- 
 ble. A great many Poles, Swedes, and Cossacks, who had 
 escaped from the Muscovites, came by different roads, to in- 
 crease his train on their march. By the time he reached 
 Bender, he had eighteen hundred men, who were all main- 
 tained and lodged, they and their horses, at the expense of 
 the grand seignor. 
 
 The king chose to encamp near Bender, rather than lodge 
 in the town. The seraskier, Jussuff Pacha, caused a mag- 
 nificent tent to be erected for him ; and tents were likewise 
 provided for all the lords of his retinue. Some time after, 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 Chailes built a house in this place ; the officers followed his 
 example, and the soldiers raised barracks; so that this camp 
 insensibly became a little town. The king not being yet 
 cured of his wounds, was obliged to have a carious bone ex- 
 tracted from his foot ; but as he could mount a horse, he re- 
 sumed his usual labours, always rising before the sun, tiring 
 three horses a day, and exercising his soldiers. His sole 
 amusement was sometimes playing at chess; and as the cha- 
 racters of men are often discovered by the most trifling inci- 
 dents, it may not be improper to observe, that he always mo- 
 ved the king in his game, and even made more use of him 
 than of the other pieces ; by which he lost every party. 
 
 At Bender, Charles found himself amidst an abundance of 
 every thing, very uncommon to a conquered and fugitive prince; 
 for besides the more than sufficient quantity of provisions, 
 and the five hundred crowns a day, which he received from 
 the Ottoman munificence, he still drew money from France, 
 and borrowed of the merchants at Constantinople. A part of 
 this money served to forward his intrigues in the seraglio, in 
 buying the favours of the viziers, or procuring their ruin. 
 The rest he distributed with great profusion among his offi- 
 cers, and the Janissaries who composed his guards at Ben- 
 der. Grothusen, his favourite and treasurer 1 , was the dis- 
 penser of his liberality ; a man who, contrary to the custom 
 of persons in that station, was as fond of giving as his master. 
 He carried him one day, an account of sixty thousand crowns 
 in two lines ; ten thousand crowns given to the Swedes and 
 Janissaries, by the generous orders of his majesty, and the 
 rest spent by myself: "It is thus I would have my friends 
 give in their accounts," said the king : "Mullern makes me 
 read whole pages for the sum of ten thousand livres. I like 
 the laconic stile of Grothusen much better." One of his 
 old officers, who was suspected of being somewhat covetous, 
 complained to him that his majesty gave all to Grothusen. 
 "I give money," replies the king, "to none but those who 
 know how to use it." This generosity frequently reduced 
 him so low, that he had not wherewith to give. More eco- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 153 
 
 nomy in his liberality would have been as honourable, and 
 more for his interest : but it was the failing of this prince, 
 to carry every virtue to excess. 
 
 Great numbers of strangers went from Constantinopole to 
 see him. The Turks and the neighbouring Tartars came 
 thither in crowds ; all respected and admired him. His in- 
 flexible resolution to abstain from wine, and his regularity m 
 assisting twice a day at public prayers, made them say, 
 "this is a true Mussulman:" and they burned with impa 
 tience to march along with him to the conquest of Muscovy. 
 
 During his stay at Bender, which was much longer than 
 he expected, he insensibly acquired a taste for reading. 
 Baron Fabricius, a gentleman of the duke of Holstein, a 
 young man of an amiable character, who possessed that 
 gayety of temper, and easy turn of wit, which is so agreea- 
 ble to princes, was the person who engaged him in these 
 literary amusements. He had been sent to reside with him at 
 Bender to take care of the interests of the young duke of Hol- 
 stein ; and he succeeded therein by rendering himself agreea- 
 ble. He had read all the best French authors. He per- 
 suaded the king to read the tragedies of Peter Corneille, 
 those of Racine, and the works of Despreaux. The king 
 Had no relish for the satires of the last author, which indeed 
 are far from being his best pieces, but he was very fond of 
 his other writings. When he read that passage of the eighth 
 satire, where the author treats Alexander as a fool and a 
 madman, he tore the leaf. 
 
 Of all the French tragedies, Mithridates was the one which 
 pleased him most, because the situation of that monarch, 
 vanquished and still breathing revenge, was conformable to 
 his own. He showed M. Fabricius the passages that struck 
 him, pointing them out with his ringer ; but would never 
 read any of them aloud, nor ever hazard a single word in 
 French. Nay, when he afterwards saw M. des Alleurs, the 
 French ambassador at the Porte, a man of distinguished 
 merit, but acquainted only with his mother tongue, he an- 
 swered him in Latin; of which when M. des Alleurs pro- 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 tested he did not understand four words, the king, rather 
 than talk French, sent for an interpreter. 
 
 This was the employment of Charles XII. at Bender, 
 where he waited till a Turkish army should come to his as- 
 sistance. His envoy presented memorials in his name to the 
 grand vizier, and Poniatowsky supported them with all his 
 interest. The talent of insinuation never fails of success. 
 He was always dressed in the Turkish fashion, and had free 
 access to every place. The grand seignor presented hirn 
 with a purse of a thousand ducats, and the grand vizier said 
 to him, " I will take your king in one hand, and a sword in 
 the other, and will lead him to Moscow at the head of two 
 hundred thousand men." This grand vizier was called 
 Chouilouli-Ali Pacha; he was the son of a peasant of the 
 village of Chourlou. Such an extraction is not held as a 
 reproach among the Turks, who have no ranks of nobility, 
 neither that which is annexed to certain employments, nor 
 that which consists in titles. With ihem, the dignity and 
 importance of a man's character depend entirely upon his 
 personal services; a custom which 'prevails in most of the 
 eastern countries, and indeed a custom the most natural, 
 and which might be productive of the most beneficial effects, 
 if posts of honour were conferred on none but men of merit; 
 but the viziers for the most part are no better than the crea- 
 tures of a black eunuch, or a favourite female slave. 
 
 The first minister soon changed his mind. The king 
 could do nothing but negotiate ; but the czar could give 
 money, which he did ; and even made the money of Charles 
 serve him on this occasion. The military chest which he 
 took at PuKowa furnished him with new arms against the 
 vanquished king ; and it was no longer the question at 
 court, whether war should be made upon the Russians. The 
 interest of the czar was all powerful at the Porte, which 
 granted such honours to his envoy as the Muscovite ministers 
 had never before enjoyed at Constantinople. He was al- 
 lowed to have a seraglio, that is to say, a palace in the quar- 
 ter of the Franks, and the liberty of conversing with other 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 155 
 
 foreign ministers. The czar even thought he might demand 
 that General Mazeppa should be put into his hands, as 
 Charles had caused the unhappy Patkul to be delivered up 
 to him. Chourlouli-Ali Pacha knew not how to refuse any 
 thing to a prince who made his demands with millions in 
 his hand. Thus the very same grand vizier who had before 
 promised in the most solemn manner to lead the king of 
 Sweden into Muscovy with two hundred thousand men, 
 dared to propose to h\m to consent to the sacrifice of Gene- 
 ral Mazeppa. Charles was enraged at this demand. It is 
 hard to say how far the vizier might have pushed the affair, 
 had not Mazeppa, who was now seventy years of age, died 
 exactly at this juncture. The grief and indignation of the 
 king were greatly augmented, when he learned, that Tolstoy, 
 now become the czar's ambassador at the Porte, was public- 
 ly attended by the Swedes that had been made slaves at Pul- 
 towa, and that those brave soldiers were every day exposed 
 to sale in the market at Constantinople. Nay, the Russian 
 ambassador said aloud, that the Mussulman troops at Ben- 
 der were placed there more with a view to secure the king's 
 person than to do him any honour. 
 
 Charles, abandoned by the grand vizier, and vanquished 
 by the czar's money in Turkey, as he had before been by his 
 arms in the Ukraine, saw himself deceived and despised by 
 the Porte, and almost a prisoner among the Tartars. His at- 
 tendants began to despair. He himself alone remained firm, 
 and never appeared dejected even for a moment. The sul- 
 tan he believed to be ignorant of the intrigues of Chour- 
 louli-Ali, his grand vizier; he resolved, therefore, to acquaint 
 him with them, and Poniatowsky took the charge of this 
 hazardous enterprise. The grand seignor goes every Frida^ 
 to the mosque, surrounded by his solaks, a kind of guards, 
 whose turbans are ornamented with such high feathers that 
 they conceal the sultan from the sight of the people. When 
 any one has a petition to present to the grand seignor, he 
 endeavours to mingle with the guards, and holds the petition 
 aloft. Sometimes the sultan deigns to receive it -himself ; 
 
156 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 but he oftener orders an aga to take charge of it, and has the 
 petitions brought to him on his return from the mosque. 
 There is no fear of any one daring to importune him with 
 useless memorials and trifling petitions, as less is written at 
 Constantinople in a whole year, than they do at Paris in one 
 day. There is still less danger of any memorials being pre- 
 sented against the ministers, to whom the sultan often sends 
 them without reading. Poniatowsky had only this method 
 to convey the king of Sweden's complaints to the grand 
 seignor. He drew up a heavy charge against the grand vi- 
 zier. M. de Feriol, then the French ambassador, and who 
 gave me an account of the whole affair, had the memorial 
 translated into the Turkish tongue. A Greek was hired to 
 present it. This Greek, having mingled with the guards of 
 the grand seignor, held the paper so high for a long time, 
 and made such a noise, that the sultan observed him, and 
 took the memorial himself. 
 
 This method of presenting memorials to the sultan against 
 his viziers, was frequently employed. A Swede called Le- 
 loing, gave in another petition a few days after. Thus, in 
 the Turkish empire, was Charles XII. reduced to the neces- 
 sity of employing the same expedients with an oppressed 
 subject. 
 
 Some days after this, the sultan sent the king of Sweden, 
 as the only answer to his complaints, five-and-twenty Ara- 
 bian horses, one of which, that had carried his highness, 
 was covered with a saddle and housing enriched with precious 
 stones, with stirrups of massy gold. This present was ac- 
 companied with an obliging letter, but conceived in general 
 terms, and such as gave reason to suspect that the minister 
 had done nothing without the sultan's consent. C^hourlouli- 
 Ali, too, who knew the art of dissembling, sent the king five 
 very curious horses. But Charles, with a lofty air, said 
 to the person who brought them, " return to your master, 
 and tell him I never receive a present from an enemy." 
 
 Poniatowsky having already dared to present a memorial 
 against the grand vizier, next formed the bold design of 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 157 
 
 deposing hira. He knew that this vizier was disa- 
 greeable to the sultana-mother, that Kislar-Aga, the chief 
 of the black eunuchs, and the aga of the janissaries, also 
 hated him ; he therefore prompted them all three to speak 
 against him. It was something very surprising to see a 
 christian, a Pole, an uncommissioned agent of the king of 
 Sweden, who had taken refuge among the Turks, caballing 
 almost openly at the Porte, against a viceroy of the Ottoman 
 empire, who, at the same time, was both an able minister 
 and a favourite of his master. Poniatowsky could never 
 have succeeded, and the idea of such a project alone w r ould 
 have cost him his life, if a power superior to all those that 
 operated in his favour, had not given a finishing stroke to 
 the fortune of the grand vizier Chourlouli. 
 
 The sultan had a young favourite, who afterwards govern- 
 ed the Ottoman empire, and was killed in Hungary in 1716, 
 at the battle of Peterwaradin, gained over the Turks by 
 Prince Eugene of Savoy. His name was Coumourgi-Ali 
 Pacha. His birth was very little different from that of 
 Chourlouli, being the son of a coal-heaver, as Coumourgi 
 signifies, coumour in the Turkish language signifying coal. 
 The emperor Achmet II. uncle of Achmet III. having met 
 Coumourgi, while yet an infant, in a little wood near Adria- 
 nople, was struck with his extreme beauty, and caused him 
 to be conducted to the seraglio. He was beloved by Mus- 
 tapha, the eldest son and successor of Mahomet; and Ach- 
 met III. made him his favourite. He had then no other 
 place but that of selictar-aga, sword-bearer of the crown. His 
 extreme youth did not allow him to. pretend to the post of 
 grand vizier, but yet he had the ambition to aspire to it. 
 The Swedish faction could never win the affections of this 
 favourite. He was never the friend of Charles, nor of any 
 other christian prince, nor of any of their ministers, but on 
 this occasion he served the king without intending it; he 
 united himself with the Sultaness Valide, and the great of- 
 ficers of the Porte, to depose Chourlouli, whom they all ha- 
 ted. This old minister, who had long and faithfully served 
 
 14 
 
158 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 his master, fell a victim to the caprice of a boy, and the in 
 trigues of a foreigner. He was stripped of his dignity and 
 riches ; his wife, the daughter of the late Sultan Mustapha, 
 was also taken from him ; and himself was banished to 
 Caffa, formerly called Theodosia, in Crim Tartary. The bull, 
 that is to say, the seal of the empire, was given to Numa 
 Couprougli, grandson of the great Couprougli, who took 
 Candia. This new vizier was, what ill-informed Christians 
 can hardly believe it possible for a Turk to be, a man of in- 
 flexible virtue, a scrupulous observer of the law, and one 
 who frequently opposed justice to the will of the Sultan. 
 He could not endure to hear of a war against Muscovy, 
 which he treated as unjust and unnecessary; but the same at- 
 tachment to his law that prevented his making war upon the 
 czar contrary to the faith of treaties, made him respect the 
 duties of hospitality toward the king of Sweden. He would 
 say to his master, " The law forbids you to attack the czar, 
 who has not offended you ; but it commands you to succour 
 the king of Sweden, who is an unfortunate prince in your 
 dominions." To this prince he sent eight hundred purses ; 
 (every purse containing five hundred crowns) and advised 
 him to return peaceably to his own dominions, either through 
 the territories of the emperor of Germany, or in some of the 
 French vessels, which were then in the port of Constantino- 
 ple, and which M. de Feriol, the French ambassador at the 
 Porte, offered to Charles to conduct him to Marseilles. 
 Count Poniatowsky negotiated more than ever with this mi- 
 nister, and acquired such a superiority in these negotiations 
 with an incorruptible vizier, as the gold of the Muscovites 
 was unable to dispute. The Russian faction thought their 
 best resource was to poison such a dangerous negotiator. 
 They accordingly won over one of his domestics, who was 
 to give him the poison in a dish of coffee ; but the crime 
 was discovered before it was carried into execution ; the 
 poison was found in the hands of the domestic, contained 
 in a small vial, which was carried to the grand seignor. 
 The prisoner was tried in a full divan, and condemned to 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 159 
 
 tbe gallies; for the justice of the Turks never punishes 
 with death those crimes which have not been executed. 
 
 Charles XII., who could never be persuaded but that, 
 sooner or later, he should be able to engage the Turkish 
 empire in a war against Muscovy, rejected every proposal 
 which was held out for his peaceable return home ; and 
 never ceased to represent to the Turks the formidable power 
 of that very czar whom he had so long despised ; his emis- 
 saries were perpetually insinuating that Peter Alexiowitz 
 wanted to make himself master of the navigation of the 
 Black Sea ; and that after having subdued the Cossacks, he 
 would carry his arms into Ciira T'artary. Sometimes these 
 representations animated the Porte, at others the Russian 
 ministers rendered them of no avail. 
 
 While Charles XII. suffered his fate to depend upon the 
 caprice of viziers, and while he was alternately receiving 
 favours and affronts from a foreign power, presenting peti- 
 tions to the sultan, and subsisting upon his bounty in a de- 
 sert, all his enemies, awakened from their former lethargy, 
 invaded his dominions. 
 
 The battle of Pultowa was the first signal to a revolution 
 in Poland. King Augustus returned to that country, pro- 
 testing against his abdication, and the peace of Altranstad, 
 and publicly accusing Charles, whom he no longer feared, 
 of robbery and cruelty. He immediately imprisoned Fing- 
 stein and ImhofF, his plenipotentiaries, who had signed his 
 abdication, as if in so doing they had exceeded their orders, 
 and betrayed their master. His Saxon troops, which had 
 been the pretext of his dethronement, conducted him back 
 to Warsaw, accompanied by most of the Polish palatines, 
 who had formerly sworn fidelity to him, and had afterwards 
 taken the same oath to Stanislaus, and now come to do it 
 again to Augustus. Siniausky himself rejoined his party, 
 and, having lost the idea of becoming king, was content to 
 remain grand-general of the crown. Fleming, his first 
 minister, who had been obliged to quit Saxony, for a time, 
 for fear of being delivered up with Patkul, now contributed 
 
160 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 by his address, to bring back to his master's interest a great 
 part of the Polish nobility. 
 
 The pope absolved the people from the oath of allegiance 
 which they had taken to Stanislaus. This step of the Holy 
 Father was exceedingly apropos, and, supported by the forces 
 of Augustus, was of considerable weight : it strengthened the 
 credit of the court of Rome in Poland, who had no inclina- 
 tion at that time to contest with the sovereign pontiff their 
 chimerical right of interfering in the temporal concerns of 
 princes. Every one voluntarily returned to the government 
 of Augustus, and received, without repugnance, a useless ab- 
 solution, which the nuncio did not fail to represent as abso- 
 lutely necessary. 
 
 The power of Charles and the grandeur of Sweden were 
 now drawing toward their last period. More than ten 
 crowned heads had long beheld, with fear and envy, the 
 Swedish power extending itself far beyond its natural 
 bounds, on the other side of the Baltic sea, from the Duna 
 to the Elbe. ' The fall of Charles, and his absence, revived 
 the interested views and jealousies of all these princes, 
 which had for a long time been laid asleep by treaties, and 
 by their inability to break them. 
 
 The czar, more powerful than all of them put together, 
 profited by his late victory : he took Wibourg and all Care- 
 lia, overrun Finland with troops, hud siege to Riga, and sent 
 a body of forces into Poland to aid Augustus in recovering 
 his throne. This emperor was at that time what Charles 
 had been formerly, the arbiter of Poland and the North ; 
 but he consulted only his interest, while, on the other hand, 
 Charles had never hearkened to any thing but his ideas of 
 revenge and glory. The Swedish monarch had succoured 
 his allies and destroyed his enemies, without reaping the 
 least fruit from his victories ; the czar, conducting himself 
 more like a prince, and less like a hero, would not assist the 
 king of Poland but on condition that Livonia should be 
 ceded to him ; and that that province, for which Augustus 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 161 
 
 had kindled the war, should remain for ever in the posses- 
 sion of the Muscovites. 
 
 The king of Denmark, forgetting the treaty of Travendal, 
 as Augustus had that of Altranstad, began from that time to 
 think of making himself master of the duchies of Holstein 
 and Bremen, to which he renewed his pretensions. The 
 king of Prussia had ancient claims upon Swedish Pomera- 
 nia, which he now resolved to revive. The duke of Meck- 
 lenburgh saw with envy that the Swedes were still in pos- 
 session of Wismar, the finest town in the duchy ; that prince 
 was to marry a niece of the Russian emperor ; and the czar 
 wanted only a pretext for establishing himself in Germany, 
 after the example of the Swedes. George, elector of Hano- 
 ver, sought to enrich himself, on his side, with the spoils of 
 Charles. The bishop of Munster, too, would have been 
 willing enough to avail himself 6f some of his claims, had 
 he been able to support them. 
 
 Twelve or thirteen thousand Swedes defended Pomera- 
 nia, and the other countries which Charles possessed in 
 Germany ; it was there that the war was most likely to be- 
 gin. This storm alarmed the emperor and his allies. It is 
 a law of the empire, that whoever invades one of its pro- 
 vinces, shall be reputed an enemy to the whole Germanic 
 body. 
 
 But there was still a greater embarrassment; all these 
 princes except the czar were then united against Louis XIV. 
 whose power, for a long time, had been as formidable to the 
 empire as that of Charles. 
 
 Germany, at the beginning of this century, had found it- 
 self hard pressed from south to north, between the armies of 
 France and Sweden. The French had passed the Danube, 
 and the Swedes the Oder, and had their forces, victorious 
 as they then were, been joined together, the empire had 
 been undone. But the same fatality that ruined Sweden, 
 had likewise humbled France : Sweden, however, had still 
 resources left ; and Louis carried on the war with vigour 3 
 
162 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 though without success. Had Pomerania and the duchy of 
 Bremen become the theatre of war, it was to be feared that 
 the empire would suffer by it; and that being weakened on 
 that side, it would be less able to stand against Louis XIV. 
 To prevent this danger, the emperor, the princes of the em- 
 pire, Anne, queen of England, and the states general of the 
 United Provinces, concluded at the end of the year 1709, 
 one of the most singular treaties that ever was signed. 
 
 It was stipulated by these powers, that the war against the 
 Swedes should not be made in Pomerania, nor in any other 
 of the German provinces, but that the enemies of Charles 
 XII. should be at liberty to attack him any where else. The 
 czar and the king of Poland acceded to this treaty, in which 
 they caused to be inserted an article as extraordinary as the 
 treaty itself; this was, that the twelve thousand Swedes who 
 were in Pomerania, should not be permitted to leave it to 
 defend their other provinces. 
 
 To secure the execution of the treaty, they proposed to 
 raise an army to preserve this imaginary neutrality. This 
 army was to encamp on the banks of the Oder. An unheard 
 of novelty, surely, to raise an army to prevent a war ! Even 
 the princes who were to pay the army, were most of them 
 interested in beginning a war which they thus pretended to 
 prevent. The treaty also imported, that the army should be 
 composed of the troops of the emperor, of the king of Prus- 
 sia, of the elector of Hanover, of the landgrave of Hesse, 
 and of the bishop of Munster. 
 
 The issue of this project was such as might naturally have 
 been expected ; it was not carried into execution. The 
 princes who were to have furnished their contingents for 
 completing the army, contributed nothing : there were not 
 two regiments formed. Every body talked of a neutrality, 
 but nobody observed it ; and all the princes of the north, 
 who had any interest in quarrelling with the king of Sweden, 
 were left at full liberty to dispute with each other the spoils 
 of that prince. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 163 
 
 At this juncture, the czar, after having quartered his troops 
 in Lithuania, and having giv en orders for the siege of Riga, 
 returned to Moscow, to display to his people a sight as new 
 as any thing he had hitherto done in the kingdom : this was 
 a triumph of nearly the same nature with that of the ancient 
 Romans. He made his entry into Moscow on the first of 
 January, 1710, under seven triumphal arches, erected in the 
 streets, and adorned with every thing which the climate could 
 furnish, or which a flourishing commerce, rendered such by 
 his care, could produce. A regiment of guards began the 
 procession, followed by the pieces of artillery taken from the 
 Swedes at Lasno and Pultowa, each being drawn by eight 
 horses, covered with scarlet housings hanging down to the 
 ground; then came the standards, kettle-drums, and colours, 
 won at those two battles, carried by the very officers and 
 soldiers who had taken them ; and all the spoils were fol- 
 lowed by the choicest troops of the czar. After they had 
 filed off, there appeared in a» chariot, made on purpose,* the 
 litter of Charles XII. found on the field of battle at Pul- 
 towa, all shattered with two cannon shot : behind this litter 
 marched all the prisoners two and two : amongst them ap- 
 peared Count Piper, first minister of Sweden, the celebrated 
 Mareschal Renschild, the Count de Lewenhaupt, the Gene- 
 rals Slidenback, Stackelberg, and Hamilton, and all the of- 
 ficers who were afterwards dispersed through Great Russia. 
 Immediately after these, appeared the czar himself, mount- 
 ed on the same horse which he rode at the battle of Pulto- 
 wa. A little after him came the generals who had had a 
 share in the success of the day. Then followed another re- 
 giment of guards ; and the wagons loaded with the Swedish 
 ammunition, closed the whole. 
 
 This pageantry was accompanied with the ringing of all 
 the bells in Moscow, with the sound of drums, kettle-drums, 
 
 •Mr. Norberg, confessor of Charles XII., here corrects the author, and 
 affirms that the litter was carried by the soldiers. For the truth of thesa 
 essential, circumstances, we refer to those who saw them* 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 trumpets; and an infinite number of musical instruments 
 were heard, alternately with the salute of two hundred pieces 
 of cannon, and the acclamations of five hundred thousand 
 men, who, at every pause the czar made in this triumphal 
 entry, cried out, " long live the emperor our father." 
 
 This dazzling exhibition augmented the people's veneration 
 for his person, and perhaps made him appear greater in their 
 eyes than the real advantages they had derived from him. 
 Meanwhile he continued the blockade of Riga. His gene- 
 rals made themselves masters of the rest of Livonia, and part 
 of Finland. At the same time the king of Denmark came 
 with his whole fleet to make a descent upon Sweden, where 
 he landed seventeen thousand men, whom he left under the 
 command of the Count de Reventlau. 
 
 Sweden was at that time governed by a regency compo- 
 sed of several senators, whom the king appointed when he 
 departed from Stockholm. The body of the senate looking 
 upon the government as their right, became jealous of the 
 regency. The state suffered by these divisions : but when; 
 after the battle of Pultowa, the first news they heard at 
 Stockholm was, that the king was at Bender, at the mercy 
 of the Turks and Tartars, and that the Danes had disembark- 
 ed in Schonen, and had taken the town of Helsimburgh, their 
 jealousies then vanished, and they turned their whole attention 
 to the preservation of Sweden. Sweden was now drained, in 
 a great measure, of regular troops ; for though Charles had 
 always made his great expeditions at the head of small ar- 
 mies, yet the innumerable battles he had fought in the space 
 of nine years, the necessity he was under of continually re- 
 cruiting his forces, the maintaining his garrisons, and the 
 standing army he was constantly obliged to keep in Finland, 
 Ingria, Livonia, Pomerania, Bremen, and Verdun, had cost 
 Sweden, during the course of the war, above two hundred 
 and fifty thousand men ; so that there did not remain eight 
 thousand of the ancient troops, which, with the new raised 
 militia, were the only resources Sweden had. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 165 
 
 The nation is naturally warlike ; and every people insen- 
 sibly adopts the disposition of its king. They talked of no- 
 thing from one end of the country to the other, but the pro- 
 1 digious achievements of Charles and his generals, and of the 
 old regiments that fought under them at Narva, Duna, Clis- 
 sau, Pultusk, and Hollosin. The lowest of the Swedes ac- 
 quired from them a spirit of emulation and glory. Their af- 
 fection for their king, their pity for his misfortunes, and their 
 implacable hatred to the Danes, contributed to increase this 
 ardour. In several other countries the peasants are slaves, or 
 treated as such ; but here they compose a part of the state, 
 are considered as citizens, and, of consequence, are capable 
 of more refined sentiments ; so that this new raised militia 
 became, in a short time, the best troops of the north. 
 
 General Steinbock put himself, by order of the regency, 
 at the head of eight thousand of the ancient troops, and about 
 twelve thousand of these new militia, to go in pursuit of the 
 Danes, who ravaged all the country about Helsimburgh, and 
 had already laid contributions on some of the more inland 
 provinces. 
 
 There was neither time nor opportunity to give' clothing 
 to the new militia, so that most of these boors came in their 
 coarse linen frocks, having pistols tied to their girdles with 
 cords. Steinbock, at the head of this extraordinary army, 
 overtook the Danes about three leagues from Helsimburgh 
 on the 10th of March, 1710. He wished to have given his 
 troops a few days rest, to raise intrenchments, and to allow 
 his new soldiers a sufficient time to accustom themselves to 
 behold the enemy ; but all the peasants called out for battle 
 the very day they arrived. 
 
 Several of the officers then present, have since assured me 
 that they saw every soldier foaming with rage and choler, so 
 great is the national hatred of the Swedes to the Danes. Stein- 
 bock profited by this ardour of their minds, which in the day 
 of battle, is of <as much consequence as military discipline, 
 and attacked the Danes. A circumstance was now display- 
 
166 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XIT. 
 
 ed of which, perhaps, the whole history of mankind cannot 
 furnish above two examples : the new raised militia, in their 
 first assault, equalled the intrepidity of veteran soldiers. Two 
 regiments of these ill armed peasants cut in pieces the regi- 
 ment of the king of Denmark's guards, of which there re- 
 mained only ten men alive. 
 
 The Danes, entirely defeated, retired under the cannon 
 of Helsimburgh. The passage. from Sweden to Zealand is 
 so short, that the king of Denmark received the news at 
 Copenhagen of the defeat of his army in Sweden the very 
 same day on which it happened, and sent his fleet to bring 
 off the shattered remains of his army. The Danes quitted 
 Sweden with precipitation five days after the battle ; but 
 being unable to carry off their horses, and unwilling to leave 
 them to the enemy, they killed them all in the environs of 
 Helsimburgh, and set fire to their provisions, burning their 
 corn and baggage, and leaving in Helsimburgh four thou- 
 sand wounded men, of whom the greatest part died with the 
 infection occasioned by so many dead horses, and for want 
 of provisions, of which even their countrymen deprived 
 them, to prevent the Swedes from enjoying it. 
 
 At the same time, the peasants of Delecarlia, having in 
 the depths of their forests heard the report of their king's 
 being a prisoner among the Turks, sent a deputation to the 
 regency of Stockholm, and offered to go at their own ex- 
 pense, to the number of twenty thousand, and deliver their 
 master from the hands of his enemies. This proposal, 
 which was better calculated to display their courage and af- 
 fection to their king than to produce any real advantage, 
 was received with pleasure, though it was not accepted ; and 
 the senators took care to acquaint the king with it, at the 
 same time that they sent him an account of the battle of 
 Helsimburgh. 
 
 Charles received this pleasing news in his carnp near 
 Bender in the month of July, 1710 ; and a little time after 
 another event happened which contributed still more to 
 strengthen his hopes. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 167 
 
 The grand vizier Couprougli, who opposed all his designs, 
 was deposed about two months after he had entered into his 
 office. The little court of Charles XII. and those who still 
 adhered to him in Poland, gave out that Charles made and 
 unmade the viziers, and governed the Turkish empire from 
 his retreat at Bender ; but he had no share in the disgrace 
 of that favourite. The rigid probity of the vizier is said to 
 have been the sole cause of his fall. His predecessor had 
 not paid the janissaries out of the imperial treasury, but with 
 the money he had raised by extortion : Couprougli paid 
 them out of the treasury. Achmet reproached him with 
 preferring the interest of the subject to that of the emperor : 
 "Your predecessor, Chourlouli," said he, " knew how to 
 find other means to pay my troops." " If," replied the 
 grand vizier, " he had the art of enriching your highness by 
 rapine, it is an art of which I glory in being ignorant." 
 
 The profound secrecy observed in the seraglio seldom 
 permits such particulars to transpire to the public ; but this 
 fact was published at the same time with Couprougli's dis- 
 grace. This vizier's boldness, however, did not cost him 
 his head, because true virtue can frequently cause itself to 
 be respected, even by those whom it offends. He was per- 
 mitted to retire to the island of Negropont. These particu- 
 lars I learned from the letters of M. Bru, my relation, first 
 interpreter to the Ottomon Porte, and I have related them 
 in order to display the true spirit of that government. 
 
 After this, the grand seignor recalled from Aleppo Baltagi 
 Mehemet, Pacha of Syria, who had been grand vizier be- 
 fore Chourlouli. The Baitarjis of the seraglio, so called 
 from Balta, which signifies an axe, are slaves employed to 
 cut wood for the use of the princes of the Ottoman blood 
 and the sultans. This vizier had been a Baltagi in his 
 youth, and had ever since retained the name of that office, 
 according to the custom of the Turks, who take without 
 blush-, the name of their first profession, or that of their fa- 
 ther, or even the place of their birth. 
 
168 HISTORY OF CHAKLES XII. 
 
 At the time Baltagi Mehemet was a slave in the seraglio, 
 he was so happy as to do several little services to Prince 
 Achmet, who was then a prisoner of state in the reign of 
 his brother Mustapha. It is permitted the princes of Otto- 
 man blood to keep for their pleasure a few women who are 
 past the age of child bearing, (an age that arrives very early 
 in Turkey,) but still handsome enough to please. As soon 
 as Achmet became sultan, he gave one of these female slaves, 
 whom he had ardently loved, in marriage to Baltagi Mehemet 
 This woman, by her intrigues, made her husband grand vi- 
 zier ; another intrigue displaced him ; and a third made him 
 grand vizier again. 
 
 When Baltagi Mehemet came to receive the bull of the 
 empire, he found the party of the king of Sweden prevailing 
 in the seraglio. The Sultaness Valide, Ali-Coumourgi, the 
 favourite of the grand seignor, the Kislar-Aga, chief of the 
 black eunuchs, and the aga of the janissaries, inclined to a 
 war with the czar : the sultan was determined in the same 
 resolution ; and the first order he gave the grand vizier was 
 to go and attack the Muscovites with two hundred thousand 
 men. Baltagi Mehemet hal never made a campaign, yet 
 he was not the idiot that Swedish malcontents have repre- 
 sented him. He said to the grand seignor, upon receiving a 
 sabre from him, adorned with precious stones, "your high- 
 ness knows that I was brought up to handle an axe to cleave 
 wood, and not a sword to command your armies : I will, not- 
 withstanding, do my best to serve you; though I should not 
 succeed, remember I have intreated you, beforehand, not to 
 impute the blame to me." The sultan assured him of his 
 friendship, and the vizier prepared to carry his orders into 
 execution. 
 
 The first step of the Ottoman Porte was, to imprison the 
 Russian ambassador in the castle of the seven towers. It is 
 the custom of the Turks to begin by arresting the ministers 
 of those princes against whom they declare war. Strict 6"b- 
 Bervers of hospitality in every thing else, in this they violate 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 169 
 
 the most sacred law of nations. They commit this act of 
 injustice under the pretext of equity, believing, or at least 
 desirous to have it thought, that they never undertake any but 
 just wars, because they are consecrated by the approbation 
 of the mufti. Upon this principle, they take up arms, as 
 they imagine, to chastise the breakers of treaties, of which 
 they themselves are often the first violators; and think they 
 have a right to punish the ambassadors of those kings with 
 whom they are at enmity, as being accomplices in the trea- 
 chery of their masters. 
 
 To this manner of reasoning, they join a ridiculous con- 
 tempt which they affect to entertain for christian princes and 
 their ambassadors, the latter of whom they consider in no 
 other light than as the consuls of merchants. 
 
 The han of Crim Tartary, whom we call the kam, recei- 
 ved orders to hold himself in readiness with forty thousand 
 Tartars. This prince governs Nagai, Budziack, part of Cir- 
 cassia, and all Crim Tartary, a province known in antiquity 
 by the name of Taurica Chersonesus, into which the Greeks 
 carried their arms and commerce, and founded powerful 
 cities, and into which the Genoese since penetrated when 
 they were masters of the trade of Europe. In this country 
 are to be seen the ruins of some Greek cities, and some 
 monuments of the Genoese, which still subsist in the midst 
 of desolation and barbarism. 
 
 The kam is called emperor by his own subjects : but this 
 grand title does not make him less a slave of the Porte. 
 The Ottoman blood, from which the kams are sprung, and 
 the right they pretend to the empire of the Turks, in case an 
 heir should be wanting to the throne, render their family re- 
 spectable, and their persons formidable, even to the sultan 
 himself. This is the reason that the grand seignor dares not 
 venture to destroy the race of the kams of Tartary, though 
 indeed he seldom allows any of these princes to reign to a 
 great age. Their conduct is closely inspected by the neigh- 
 bouring pachas, their dominions are surrounded with janis- 
 H 15 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 saries, their inclinations thwarted by the grand viziers, and 
 their designs always suspected. If the Tartars complain of 
 the kam, the Porte deposes him under that pretext; if he is 
 too much beloved by his people, that is* still a higher crime, 
 for which he is most certainly punished. Thus almost all 
 of them are driven from sovereign power into exile, and end 
 their days at Rhodes, which is generally their prison and 
 their grave. 
 
 The Tartars, their subjects, are the greatest thieves on 
 earth, and what appears impossible, are at the same time the 
 most hospitable people. They will go fifty leagues to attack 
 a caravan, or pillage a village; yet when any stranger of any 
 Tank whatever happens to pass through their country, he is 
 not only received, lodged, and maintained every where, but 
 through whatever places he passes, the inhabitants dispute 
 with each other the honour of having him for their guest, 
 and the master of the house, his wife, and daughters, are 
 ambitious to serve him. This inviolable regard to hospi- 
 tality they have inherited from their ancestors the Scythians, 
 and they still preserve it on account of the small number of 
 strangers that travel among them, and the low prices of all 
 sorts of provisions, which render the practice of such a vir- 
 tue not exceedingly burdensome. 
 
 When the Tartars go to war in conjunction with the Otto- 
 man army, they are maintained by the grand seignor ; but 
 the booty they get is their only pay ; and hence it is that 
 they are much fitter for plundering than fighting. 
 
 The kam, won over by the presents and intrigues of the 
 king of Sweden, at first had obtained leave to appoint the 
 general rendezvous of the troops at Bender, and even under 
 the eye of Charles, in order to convince that monarch that 
 the war was undertaken solely for his sake. 
 
 The new vizier Baltagi Mehemet, not lying under the 
 same engagements, would not flatter a foreign prince so 
 highly. He changed this disposition, and assembled this 
 great army at Adrianople, on whose vast and fertile plains 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 171 
 
 the Turks usually draw up their armies, when going to make 
 war upon the Christians : there the troops that arrive from 
 Asia and Africa repose and refresh themselves for a few 
 weeks. But the grand vizier, in order to he beforehand 
 with the czar, allowed the army hut three days rest, and 
 then marched to the Danube, and from thence to Bessa- 
 rabia. 
 
 The Turkish troops at this day are not so formidable M 
 they were in ancient times, when they conquered so many 
 kingdoms in Asia, Africa, aud Europe; when, by the strength 
 of their body, their valour, and numbers, they triumphed 
 over enemies less robust and worse disciplined than them- 
 selves. But now that the Christians are more expert in 
 the art of war, in a pitched battle they almost always 
 beat the Turks, and even with unequal numbers. If the 
 Ottoman empire hath made some conquests lately, it hath 
 been only over the republic of Venice, more esteemed for 
 wisdom than for war, defended by strangers, and little suc- 
 coured by the Christian princes, who are always divided 
 among themselves. 
 
 The janissaries and spahis make their attack in a disor- 
 derly manner, incapable of attending to the commands of 
 their general, or rallying themselves. Their cavalry, which 
 ought to be excellent, considering the goodness and activity 
 of their horses, is not able to withstand the shock of the 
 German horse ; and their infantry did not yet know how to 
 make use of fixed bayonets. Besides all this, the Turks 
 have not had an able general since the time of Cou- 
 prougli, who conquered the isle of Candia; a slave, brought 
 up in the idleness and solitude of a seraglio, made a vizier 
 through favour, and a general against his will, conducting 
 an army raised in a hurry, without discipline or experience, 
 against Russian troops, hardened by twelve years war, and 
 proud of having conquered the Swedes. 
 
 The czar, to all appearance, must have vanquished Baltagi 
 Mehemet ; but he was guilty of the same fault with regard 
 
172 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 to the Turks, which the king of Sweden had committed 
 with respect to himself; he despised his enemy too much. 1 
 On the first news of the Turkish preparation he left Mos- 
 cow, and, having given orders for turning the siege of Riga 
 into a blockade, assembled fourscore thousand men on the 
 frontiers of Poland. * With this army he took the road 
 through Moldavia and Wallachia, formerly the country of 
 the Dacians, but now inhabited by Greek Christians, tribu- 
 taries to the grand seignor. 
 
 Moldavia was, at that time, governed by Prince Cantemir, 
 of Greek extraction, and who united in his person the talents 
 of the ancient Greeks, the knowledge of letters and of arms. 
 He was supposed to have descended from the famous Ti- 
 mur, known by the name of Tamerlane. This origin ap- 
 pearing more honourable than a Greek one, they attempt to 
 prove the reality of the descent by the name of this con- 
 queror. Timur, say they, resembles Temir ; the title of Kam, 
 which Timur possessed before he conquered Asia, is inclu- 
 ded in the word Cantemir ; therefore Prince Cantemir is de- 
 scended from Tamerlane. Such are the foundations of 
 most genealogies ! 
 
 But from whatever family Cantemir descended, he owed 
 all his fortune to the Ottoman Porte. Yet, scarcely had he 
 received the investiture of his principality, when he betrayed 
 the Turkish emperor, his benefactor, to the czar, from when 
 he expected greater advantages. He flattered himself that 
 the conqueror of Charles XII. would easily triumph over a 
 vizier of so little reputation, who had never made a cam- 
 paign, and who had chosen for his kiaia, that is to say, his 
 lieutenant, the in tend ant of the customs in Turkey. He 
 made no doubt but all the Greeks would readily follow his 
 standard, as the Greek patriarch had encouraged him in his 
 
 * The Chaplain Norberg asserts, that the czar compelled every fourth 
 man in his dominions, able to bear arms, to follow him to the field. Had 
 this been true, his army would have amounted, at least, to two millions 
 of men. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 173 
 
 revolt. The czar, therefore, having made a secret treaty 
 with thij prince, and received him into his army, advanced 
 into the country; and in the month of June, 1711, arrived 
 on the northern banks of the river Hierassus, now Pruth, 
 uear Jassy, the capital of Moldavia. 
 
 As soon as the grand vizier heard that Peter Alexiowitz 
 was advancing on that side, he immediately quitted his 
 camp, and following the course of the Danube, resolved to 
 cross the river on a bridge of boats, near to a town called 
 Saccia, at the same place where Darius formerly built the 
 bridge that went by his name. The Turkish army used 
 such diligence, that they soon came in sight of the Musco- 
 vites, the river Pruth lying between them. 
 
 The czar, sure of the prince of Moldavia, never thought 
 that the Moldavians would fail him. But the prince and 
 his subjects have very often different interests. The Mol- 
 davians preferred the Turkish government, which is never 
 fatal to the great, and which affects a great lenity and mild- 
 ness to its tributary states : they dreaded the Christians, and 
 especially the Muscovites, who had always treated them 
 with inhumanity; they, therefore, carried all their provisions 
 to the Ottoman army ; the contractors also, who had engaged 
 to furnish the Russians with provisions, executed in favour 
 of the grand vizier the very agreement which they had made 
 with the czar. The Wallachians, neighbours to the Mol- 
 davians, discovered the same attachment to the Turks ; so 
 much had the remembrance of the Russian cruelties aliena- 
 ted all their minds. 
 
 The czar, thus deceived in his hopes, which, perhaps, he 
 had too eagerly entertained, saw his army on a sudden des- 
 titute of forage and provisions. The soldiers deserted in 
 troops, and his army was soon reduced to less than thirty 
 thousand men, ready to perish with hunger. The czar ex- 
 perienced the same misfortunes upon the banks of the Pruth, 
 in having trusted himself to Cantemir, as Charles XII. had 
 done at Pultowa, in relying upon Mazeppa. Meanwhile 
 15* 
 
174 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 the Turks passed the river, hemmed in the Russians, and 
 formed an intrenched camp before them. It is surprising 
 that the czar did not dispute their passage, or, at least, re- 
 pair this error by attacking the Turks immediately after their 
 landing, instead of giving them time to destroy his army with 
 hunger and fatigue. It would seem, indeed, that Peter did 
 every thing in this campaign to hasten his own ruin. He 
 found himself without provisions, having the river Pruth be- 
 hind him, an hundred and fifty thousand Turks before him, 
 and forty thousand Tartars continually harassing his army 
 on the right and left. In this extremity, he openly said, 
 " Here am I, at least, in as bad a situation as my brother 
 Charles was at Pultowa." 
 
 Count Poniatowsky, an indefatigable agent of the king of 
 Sweden, was in the grand vizier's army, together with some 
 Poles and Swedes, who all imagined the ruin of the czar to 
 be inevitable. 
 
 As soon as Poniatowsky saw that the armies must infalli- 
 bly come to an engagement, he sent to the king of Sweden, 
 who immediately set out from Bender, accompanied by forty 
 officers, enjoying in idea the pleasure he should have in fight- 
 ing the emperor of Muscovy. After many losses, and seve- 
 ral destructive marches, the czar was driven back to the 
 Pruth, having no other intrenchment than a chevaux-de-frise 
 and a few wagons. A few troops of the janissaries and 
 spahis attacked his army so disadvantageous^ situated ; 
 but their attack was disorderly, and the Russians defended 
 themselves with a firmness which the presence of their 
 prince, added to their despair, gave them. 
 
 The Turks were twice repulsed. Next day M. Ponia- 
 towsky advised the grand vizier to starve the Russian army, 
 which being in want of every thing, would, together with 
 the emperor, be obliged, in a day's time, to surrender at dis- 
 cretion. 
 
 The czar hath, since that time, more than once declared, 
 that in his whole life he never felt any thing so tormenting 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 175 
 
 as the agitation in which he passed the night: he revolved 
 in his thoughts, that all he had been doing for so many years 
 to promote the glory and happiness of his country, that so 
 many grand undertakings, which had been already interrupt- 
 ed by wars, were now, perhaps, going to perish with him, 
 before they were fully accomplished ; and that he must ei- 
 ther be destroyed by famine, or attack about an hundred and 
 eighty thousand men with feeble and dispirited troops, di- 
 minished one half in their number, the cavalry almost en- 
 tirely dismounted, and the infantry exhausted with hunger 
 and fatigue. 
 
 In the beginning of the night, he had sent for General 
 Czercmetolf, and ordered him, without deliberation, or ta- 
 king his opinion, to have every thing in readiness at the 
 break of day for attacking the Turks with fixed bayonets. 
 
 He likewise gave the most positive orders that all the 
 baggage should be burnt, and that every officer should keep 
 but one wagon, in order that, if they were conquered, the 
 enemy might not obtain the booty they expected. 
 
 Having regulated every thing with the general for the 
 battle, he retired to his tent, oppressed with grief, and agi- 
 tated with convulsions, a disorder with which he was often 
 attacked, and which always recurred with redoubled vio- 
 lence when he was under any perturbation of mind. He 
 gave orders that no one should dare to enter his tent in the 
 night, on any pretext whatever : not choosing to receive any 
 remonstrance against a resolution which, though desperate, 
 was necessary; and still less that any one should be a witness 
 of the distressed situation in which he found himself. 
 
 In the mean time, the greatest part of the baggage was 
 burnt, as he had ordered. The whole army followed the 
 example, though with much reluctance ; and several buried 
 their most valuable effects in the earth. The general offi- 
 cers had already given orders for the march, and were en- 
 deavouring to inspire the army with that confidence which 
 they themselves wanted ; but the whole soldiery, exhausted 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 with hunger and fatigue, marched without spirit or hope. 
 The women, with which the army was needlessly crowded, 
 6et up the most lamentable cries, which contributed still 
 more to enervate the men ; and next morning every one ex- 
 pected death or slavery as the only alternative. This de- 
 scription is by no means exaggerated ; it is exactly con- 
 formable to the accounts that were given by officers who 
 served in the army. 
 
 There was at that time in the Russian camp a woman as 
 extraordinary, perhaps, as the czar himself. She was then 
 only known by the name of Catherine. Her mother was a 
 poor country woman, called Erb-Magden, of the village of 
 Ringen, in Esthonia, a province where the people were 
 serfs or glebe slaves, and which was then under the govern- 
 ment of the Swedes. She never discovered her father, and 
 had been baptized by the name of Martha. The vicar of 
 the parish, out of charity, brought her up to the age of four- 
 teen ; at which age she went to service at Marienbourg, at 
 the house of a Lutheran minister of that country called 
 Glurk. 
 
 In 1702, being then eighteen years of age, she married 
 a Swedish dragoon. The day after her marriage, a party of 
 the Swedish troops having been beat by the Muscovites, the 
 dragoon, who was in the action, was missing, nor could 
 his wife discover whether he had been made prisoner, 
 nor indeed at any time afterwards learn what was become 
 of him. 
 
 A few days after she was made a prisoner herself by Gene- 
 ral Baur, in whose service she staid some time, and after- 
 wards in that of Mareschal Czeremetoff, by whom she wa9 
 given to Menzikoff, a man who experienced the greatest vi- 
 cissitudes of fortune, having been raised from a pastry 
 cook's boy to the rank of a general and a prince, but who 
 was at last stripped of every honour, and banished into Si- 
 beria, where he died in misery and despair. 
 
 It was at a supper given by Prince Menzikoff that tha 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 177 
 
 emperor first saw her, and instantly became enamoured of 
 her. He privately married her in the year 1707 ; not se- 
 duced to it by female artifices, but because he thought he 
 had met with a woman capable of seconding his schemes, 
 and even of maintaining them after his death. He had long 
 before, divorced his first wife Ottokesa, the daughter of a 
 boyard, who was accused of opposing the alterations which 
 he made in his dominions ; a crime in the eyes of the czar 
 the most unpardonable, as he would suffer nobody in his 
 family whose thoughts did not agree with his own. He 
 thought he had now found in this foreign slave the qualities 
 of a sovereign, though she had none of the virtues of her 
 sex : he, however, for her sake, disdained the prejudices 
 that would have governed a man of common ideas, and 
 therefore had her crowned empress. The same talents 
 which made her the wife of Peter Alexiowitz, procured her 
 the empire after the death of her husband. Europe hath 
 beheld with surprise this woman who was never able to 
 read* or write, and compensating for her education and her 
 weaknesses by her firmness, and filling with glory the throne 
 of a legislator. 
 
 At the time she married the czar, she renounced the Lu- 
 theran religion, in which she had been born, for that of 
 Muscovy ; in which religion she was re-baptized, according 
 to the rites of the Russian church, and instead of the name 
 of Martha, she took that of Catherine, by which she was 
 ever after known. This woman happening to be in the 
 
 * The Sieur de la Mottray pretends that she had a good education, 
 and could both read and write very well. The contrary of this is known 
 to all the world. The peasants of Livonia are never permitted to 
 learn either to read or write, owing to an ancient privilege, which is 
 termed the benefit of clergy, formerly established among the barbarians 
 who were converted to Christianity, and still subsisting in this country. 
 The memoirs from which this anecdote is taken farther adds, that the 
 Princess Elizabeth, afterwards empress, always signed for her mother, 
 from the time she could write. 
 
 H2 
 
178 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 camp at Pruth, she held a council with the general officers 
 and the Vice-Chancellor Schaffirof, while the czar was in 
 his tent. 
 
 In this conference it was resolved to ask a peace of the 
 Turks, and endeavour to persuade the czar to agree to it. 
 The vice-chancellor wrote a letter to the grand vizier in his 
 master's name, which letter the czarina carried into the em- 
 peror's tent, notwithstanding his prohibition : and having by 
 tears and entreaties prevailed upon him to sign it, she imme- 
 diately collected all her jewels, money, and most valuable 
 effects, and even borrowed of the general officers pwbieh 
 6iim being amassed, formed a considerable present: she then 
 sent it, with the letter signed by the czar, to Osman Aga, 
 lieutenant to the grand Vizier. Mehemet Baliagi at flrsr 
 answered with the lofty air of a vizier, and a conqueror, " let 
 the czar send me his prime minister, and I shall then con 
 sider what is to be done." The Vice-Chancellor Schaffirof, 
 upon this, immediately set off to the Turkish camp, provided 
 with some presents, which he publicly offered to the grand 
 vizier, sufficient to show him they stood in need of his cle- 
 mency, but too inconsiderable to corrupt his integrity. 
 
 The first demand the vizier made was, that the czar should 
 surrender at discretion with the whole army. The vice- 
 chancellor replied, that his master was going to attack him 
 in a quarter of an hour, and that the Russians would perish 
 to a man, rather than submit to such infamous conditions. 
 Osman joined his remonstrances to the demand of Schaffirof. 
 
 Mehemet Baltagi was no warrior; he saw that the janis- 
 saries had been repulsed the evening before, so that Osman 
 easily prevailed on him not to expose to the hazard of a bat- 
 tle such certain advantages. He therefore granted at first, a 
 suspension of hostilities for six hours, during which they 
 should agree upon the conditions of the treaty. 
 
 During the parley, there happened a little incident which 
 may serve to show that the Turks often pay more regard to 
 their word than ' is in general imagined. Two Italian gen 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 i79 
 
 tlemen, relations of M. Brillo, lieutenant colonel of a regi- 
 ment of grenadiers in the czar's service, having gone in quest 
 of forage, were taken prisoners by some Tartars, who brought 
 them to the camp, and offered to sell them to an officer of 
 the janissaries. The Turk, enraged at their daring to vio- 
 late the truce, arrested the Tartars, and carried Jfiem him- 
 self before the grand vizier, together with the two prisoners. 
 
 The vizier sent back the two gentlemen to the czar's 
 .camp, and ordered the Tartars who had been chiefly con- 
 cerned in the transaction, to be beheaded. 
 
 In the mean time the kam of Tartary opposed the conclu- 
 sion of the treaty, which would deprive him of all hopes of 
 plunder; Poniatowsky seconded the kam with the most per- 
 suasive argument: but Osman carrit^his point, against the 
 importunity of "the Tartar, and the insinuations of Ponia- 
 towsky. ^ # 
 
 The vizier thought, that by concluding an advantageous 
 peace he should sufficiently serve his master. He insisted 
 that the Muscovites should/leifver up Azoph, burn the gal- 
 lies which lay in that harbour, demolish the important cita- m 
 dels built upon the Palus Maeotis, and give the cannon and 
 ammunition of all those fortresses into the hands of the grand 
 seignor ; that the czar should withdraw his troops from Po- 
 land ; that he should not incommode the little number of 
 Cossacks that were under the protection of the Poles, nor 
 those who depended on the Turks ; and that for the future, 
 he should pay the Tartars a subsidy of forty thousand se- 
 quins a year ; a disagreeable tribute imposed a long time 
 past, but from which the czar had delivered his country. 
 
 At last, the treaty was going to be signed, without so 
 much as making mention of the king of Sweden. All that 
 Poniatowsky could obtain of the vizier was, to insert an ar~ 
 tide, by which the czar engaged not to incommode Charles 
 in his return ; and, what is very remarkable, it was stipulated 
 in this article, that the czar and the king of Sweden should 
 be at liberty to mak» peace if they wished it, and if they 
 could agree upon the conditions. 
 
180 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 On these conditions the czar was permitted to retire with 
 his army, cannon, artillery, colours, and baggage. The 
 Turks furnished him with provisions, so that he had plenty 
 of every thing in his camp two hours after the signing of the 
 treaty, which was begun, concluded, and signed the twenty- 
 first day-^f July, 1711. 
 
 Just as the czar, now extricated from this terrible dilemma, 
 was marching off with drums beating and colours Hying, the 
 king of Sweden arrived, impatient for the fight, and to be- 
 held his enemy in his power. He had rode above fifty 
 leagues from Bender to 'Jassy. He arrived the very moment 
 the Russians were beginning to retire in peace ; but he 
 could not penetrate to the Turkish camp without passing the 
 Pruth by a bridge trn^£ leagues distant. ^ Charles, who ne- 
 ver did any thing like other men, swam^across the river at 
 the hazard of being, drowned, andMraversed tne Russian 
 camp at the risk of being taken ; he, however, reached the 
 Turkish army, and alighted at the tent of Poniatowsky, who 
 has related this fact to me both* in conversation and in his 
 correspondence. The count came to him with a melancholy 
 air, and tola him he had lost an opportunity which, perhaps, 
 he would never be able to recover. 
 
 The king, fired with resentment, ran immediately to the 
 tent of the grand vizier, and, with an inflamed countenance, 
 reproached him with the treaty he had concluded. " I have 
 a right," says the grand vizier, with a calm air, " to make 
 peace or war." " But," adds the king, " had you not the 
 whole Russian army in your power?" " Our law orders,'' 
 answers the vizier gravely, M to give peace to our enemies 
 when they implore our mercy." " And does it command 
 you," resumes the king, in a passion, " to make a bad treaty 
 when you may impose what laws you please ? Did it not de- 
 pend upon you to lead the czar prisoner to Constantinople ?" 
 
 The Turk, driven to extremity, replied drily, " and who 
 would have governed his empire in his absence ? It is not 
 proper that all kings should leave their dominions." Charles 
 made no other answer than by a smile of indignation. He 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 181 
 
 then threw himself down upon a sopha, and eyeing the vizier 
 with an air of contempt and resentment, stretched out his leg, 
 and entangling his spur in the Turk's robe, purposely tore it; 
 after which he rose up, remounted his horse, and with de- 
 spair in his heart returned to Bender. 
 
 Poniatowski continued some time longer with the grand 
 vizier, to try if he could prevail upon him, by more gentle 
 means, to extort greater concessions from the czar; but the 
 hour of prayer being come, the Turk, without answering a 
 single word, went to wash and to say his prayers. 
 
 16 
 
182 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 Argument. — Intrigues at the Ottoman Porte. — The kam of Tartary and 
 the pacha of Bender endeavour to force Charles to depart. — He defends 
 himself with forty domestics against a whole army. — Is taken and 
 treated as a prisoner. 
 
 The fortune of the king of Sweden, so changed from what 
 it had been, persecuted him even in the most trivial circum- 
 stances. He found, on his return, his little camp at Bender, 
 and all his apartments, overflowed by the waters of the Nies- 
 ter : he therefore retired to the distance of a few miles, near 
 to the village called Va*nitza ; and, as if he had had a secret 
 foreboding of what was to befal him, he there built a large 
 house of stone, capable, on occasion, to sustain an assault for 
 some hours. He even furnished it magnificently, contrary 
 to his usual custom, in order to command respect from the 
 Turks. 
 
 He likewise built two other houses, one for his chancery, 
 and the other for his favourite Grothusen, who kept a table 
 at the king's expense. While the king was thus employed 
 in building near Bender, as if he had intended always to re- 
 main in Turkey, Baltagi Mehemet, dreading more than ever 
 the intrigues and complaints of this prince at the Porte, had 
 sent the resident of the emperor of Germany to Vienna, to 
 demand a free passage for the king of Sweden through the 
 hereditary dominions of the house of Austria. This envoy 
 in three weeks returned with a promise from the imperial 
 regency that the honours which were due to him should be 
 paid to Charles XII., and that he should be safely conducted 
 to Pomerania. 
 
 Application was made to the regency of Vienna, because 
 Charles, the emperor of Germany, who had succeeded Jo- 
 seph, was then in Spain, disputing the crown of that king- 
 dom with Philip V. While the German envoy was executing 
 this commission at Vienna, the grand vizier sent three pachas 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 183 
 
 to the king of Sweden, to signify to him that he must quit 
 the Turkish dominions. 
 
 The king, who had been informed of the orders with 
 which they were charged, caused immediate notice to be 
 given to them, that if they presumed to make him any pro- 
 posals contrary to his honour, or to the respect which was 
 due to him, he would have them all three hanged that very 
 moment. The pacha of Thessalonica, who delivered the 
 message, disguised the harshness of the commission under 
 the most respectful terms. Charles finished the audience 
 without deigning to return the least answer. His chancel- 
 lor, Mullern, who remained with the three pachas, briefly 
 explained to them his master's refusal, which already they 
 sufficiently comprehended by his silence. 
 
 The grand vizier did not give up the point; he ordered 
 Ismael Pacha, the new seraskier of Bender, to threaten the 
 king with the sultan's indignation^ if he did not make his 
 determination without delay. This seraskier was a man of 
 mild temper and engaging address, which had gained him 
 the good will of Charles, and the friendship of all the 
 Swedes. The king entered into conference with him : but 
 it was only to tell him, that he would not depart till Achmet 
 had granted him two demands — the punishment of the grand 
 vizier, and a hundred thousand men to return with him into 
 Poland. 
 
 Baltagi Mehemet knew very well that Charles remained 
 in Turkey only to ruin him ; he took care to plant guards 
 along all the roads from Bender to Constantinople, to inter- 
 cept the king's letters. He did more; he retrenched his 
 " thaim," that is to say, the provision with which the Porte 
 furnishes those princes to whom she grants an asylum. That 
 of the king of Sweden was immense, consisting of five hun- 
 dred crowns a day in money, and a profusion of every thing 
 that could contribute to maintain a court in splendor and 
 affluence. 
 
 As soon as the king understood that the vizier had pre- 
 sumed to retrench his allowance, he turned to the steward 
 
184 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 of. his household, and said, " Hitherto you have only had 
 two tables, but I command you to have four from to-morrow." 
 
 The officers of Charles XII. were accustomed to esteem 
 nothing impossible which their master ordered ; at present, 
 however, they had neither money nor provisions, and 
 were obliged to borrow at twenty, thirty, and forty per 
 cent, of the officers, domestics, and janissaries, who were 
 grown rich by the profusion of the king. M. Fabricius, the 
 envoy of Holstein, Jeffreys, the minister of England, with 
 their secretaries and friends, gave all that they had. The 
 king, with his usual stateliness, and without any concern 
 about the morrow, subsisted on these presents, which could 
 not have sufficed him long. It was, therefore, necessary to 
 elude the vigilance of the guards, and to send secretly to 
 Constantinople to borrow money of the European merchants. 
 All refused to lend money to a king who seemed to put him- 
 self out of a condition^ ever to repay them. One English 
 merchant alone, named Cook, ventured to lend him about 
 forty thousand crowns, being content to lose them in case 
 of the king of Sweden's death. This money was brought 
 to the king's little camp just as they began to be in want of 
 every thing, and without hopes of any relief. 
 
 In this interval, M. Poniatowsky wrote, from the very 
 camp of the grand vizier, a relation of the campaign at 
 Pruth, in which he accused Baltagi Mehemet of cowardice 
 and treachery. An old janissary, provoked at the weakness 
 ' of the vizier, and gained moreover by the presents of Ponia- 
 towsky, undertook to deliver this account; and having ob- 
 tained leave of absence, presented the letter with his own 
 hand to the sultan. 
 
 Poniatowsky, a few days after, left the camp, and repaired 
 to the Ottoman Porte, to form intrigues against the grand 
 vizier, according to his usual custom. 
 
 Circumstances were favourable. The czar, finding him- 
 self at liberty, did not hurry himself to perform his engage- 
 ments ; the keys of Azoph did not arrive ; the grand vizier, 
 who was answerable for them, and who, with reason, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 185 
 
 dreaded the indignation of his master, did not dare to ap- 
 pear in his presence. 
 
 The seraglio, at that time, was filled more than ever with 
 intrigues and factions. These cabals, which exist in all courts, 
 and which, in European courts, commonly end with the dismis- 
 sion of the minister, or at most in his banishment, never fail at 
 Constantinople to occasion the loss of more than one head : they 
 proved fatal to the old vizier Chourlouli, and to Osman, that 
 lieutenant of Baltagi Mehemet, who was the principal author of 
 the peace of Pruth, and had afterwards obtained a considerable 
 post at the Porte. Among Osman's treasures was found the 
 czarina's ring, and twenty thousand pieces of gold of the 
 Saxon and Russian coin, which was a proof that money alone 
 had saved the czar of Muscovy from the precipice, and ruin- 
 ed the affairs of Charles XII. The vizier Baltagi Mehemet 
 was banished to the isle of Lemnos, where he died three 
 years after. The sultan did not seize his effects, either at 
 his banishment or at his death. He was far from being rich, 
 and his poverty is a justification of his character. 
 
 To this grand vizier succeeded Jussuf, that is to say, Jo- 
 seph, whose fortune was as extraordinary as that of his pre- 
 decessors. He was born on the frontiers of Muscovy, was 
 taken prisoner at six years of age, together with his family, 
 and had been sold to a janissary. He had been for some 
 time a servant in the seraglio, and at last became the second 
 person in that very empire wherein he had been a slave ; 
 but he was only the shadow of a minister. The young Se- 
 lietar-x<Ui Coumourgi elevated him to that slippery post only 
 while he waited for an occasion to fill it himself ; and Jus- 
 suf, his creature, had nothing to do but to set the seals of 
 the empire to the will of this favourite. The politics of the 
 Ottoman court seemed to undergo a total alteration, from the 
 very beginning of this vizier's administration. The czar's 
 plenipotentiaries, who remained at Constantinople, both as 
 ambassadors and as hostages, were treated better than ever ; 
 the grand vizier confirmed with them the peace of Pruth ; 
 but that which mortified the king of Sweden above all was, 
 
 16* 
 
186 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII 
 
 to hear that the secret alliance made with the czar at Con- 
 stantinople, was brought about by the mediation of the am- 
 bassadors of England and Holland. 
 
 Constantinople, since the time of Charles's retreat to Ben- 
 der, was become what Rome hath so often been, the centre 
 of the negotiations of Christendom. Count des Allures, the 
 ambassador from France, supported here the interests of 
 Charles and Stanislaus ; the minister of the emperor of Ger- 
 many opposed them ; and the same collisions prevailed here 
 between the Swedish and Muscovite factions, with which 
 we have long seen the court of Rome agitated by those of 
 France and Spain. 
 
 England and Holland, who seemed to be neuter, were not 
 so in reality ; the new commerce which the czar had open- 
 ed at Petersburgh attracted the attention of these two com- 
 mercial nations. 
 
 The English and Dutch will be always for that prince 
 who shall most favour their trade. There was much to be 
 obtained from the czar, and therefore, it is not surprising 
 that the ministers of England and Holland should serve him 
 secretly at the Ottoman Porte. One of the conditions of 
 this new alliance was, that Charles should be immediately 
 obliged to quit the Turkish empire ; whether it was that the 
 czar hoped to seize his person on the road, or that he thought 
 Charles less formidable in his own kingdom than in Turkey, 
 where he was always on the point of arming the Ottoman 
 troops against the Russian empire. 
 
 The king of Sweden was continually soliciting the Porte 
 to send him back through Poland with a numerous army. 
 The divan, in fact, resolved to send him back with a simple 
 guard of seven or eight thousand men, not as a king whom 
 they wished to assist, but as a guest whom they wanted to 
 get rid of. For this purpose, the Sultan Achmet wrote to 
 him in these terms : 
 
 u Most powerful among the kings, adorer of Jesus, redresser of 
 wrongs and injuries, and protector of justice in the ports and 
 republics of the South and North; shining in majesty, friend 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 187 
 
 of honour and glory, and of our Sublime Porte, Charles, 
 King of Sweden, whose enterprises God crown with suc- 
 cess l n 
 
 u As soon as the most illustrious Achmet, formerly 
 Chiaux-Pachi, shall have the honour to present you with 
 this letter, adorned with our imperial seal, be persuaded and 
 convinced of the truth of our intentions therein contained, 
 to wit, that though we did propose, once more, to march 
 our ever victorious army against the czar, yet that prince, to 
 avoid the just resentment which we had conceived at his de- 
 laying to execute the treaty concluded on the banks of the 
 Pruth, and afterwards renewed at our Sublime Porte, having 
 surrendered into our hands the castle and city of Azoph, 
 and endeavoured, through the mediation of the ambassadors 
 of England and Holland, our ancient allies, to cultivate a 
 lasting peace with us, we have granted his request, and 
 given to his plenipotentiaries, who remain with us as hos- 
 tages, our imperial ratification, after having received his 
 from their hands. 
 
 " We have given to the most honourable and valiant Del- 
 vet Gherai, kam of Budziack, Crim Tartary, Nagay, and 
 Circassia, and to our most sage counsellor and generous se- 
 raskier of Bender, Ismael, (may God perpetuate and aug- 
 ment their magnificence and wisdom,) our inviolable and 
 salutary order for your return through Poland, according to 
 your first desire, which hath been renewed to us in your 
 name. You must, therefore, prepare to depart under the 
 auspices of Providence, and with an honourable guard, be- 
 fore the approaching winter, in order to return to your own 
 territories, taking care to pass as a friend through those of 
 Poland. 
 
 " Whatever shall be necessary for your journey shall be 
 furnished you by my Sublime Porte, as well in money, as in 
 men, horses, and wagons. We above all things exhort and 
 recommend to you, to give the most positive and precise 
 orders to all the Swedes and other persons in your retinue, 
 to commit no outrage, nor be guilty of any action that may 
 
188 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 tend either directly or indirectly to violate this peace and 
 alliance. 
 
 " You will by these means preserve our good will, of 
 which we shall endeavour to give you as great and as fre- 
 quent marks as occasion shall offer. Our troops destined to 
 accompany you shall receive orders conformable to our im- 
 perial intentions." 
 
 Given at our Sublime Porte of Constantinople, the four- 
 teenth of the moon Rebyul Eurech, 1214, which an- 
 swers to the nineteenth of April, 1712. 
 
 This letter did not yet deprive the king of Sweden of his 
 hopes : he wrote to the sultan, that he should ever retain a 
 grateful remembrance of the favours his highness had be- 
 stowed on him, but that he believed the sultan too just to 
 send him back with the simple guard of a flying camp into 
 a country still overrun by the czar's troops. In effect, the 
 emperor of Russia, notwithstanding the first article of the 
 peace of Pruth, by which he engaged himself to withdraw 
 all his troops from Poland, had sent fresh ones into that 
 kingdom ; and what appears surprising, the grand seignor 
 knew nothing of the matter. 
 
 The bad policy of the Porte in having always, "through" 
 vanity, ambassadors from the Christian princes at Constan- 
 tinople, and not maintaining a single agent at the Christian 
 courts, is the cause that these discover and sometimes con- 
 duct the most secret resolutions of the sultan, and that the 
 divan is always in profound ignorance of what is publicly 
 going on in the Christian world. 
 
 The sultan, shut up in his seraglio among his women and 
 eunuchs, can see only with the eyes of the grand vizier : 
 that minister, as inaccessible as his master, wholly engrossed 
 with the intrigues of the seraglio, and having no foreign cor- 
 respondence, is commonly deceived himself, or else deceives 
 the sultan, who deposes or orders him to be strangled for 
 the first fault, in order to choose another minister as igno- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN 189 
 
 rant or as perfidious, who behaves like his predecessors, and 
 60on shares the same fate. 
 
 Such, for the most part, is the inactivity and the profound 
 security of this court, that were the Christian princes to 
 league themselves against it, their fleets might be at the Dar 
 danelles, and their land forces at the gates of Adrianople, 
 before the Turks would dream of defending themselves; 
 but the different interests which will ever divide the chris- 
 tian world, will preserve the Turks from a fate to which, by 
 their want of policy, and by their ignorance of the art of 
 war, both by sea and land, they seem at present exposed. 
 
 Achmet was so little informed of what passed in Poland, 
 that he sent an aga to see whether it was true that the czar's 
 troops were still in that country ; the king of Sweden's two 
 secretaries, who understood the Turkish language, accom- 
 panied the aga, and were to serve as witnesses against him, 
 in case he should make a false report. 
 
 This aga saw the truth of the king's assertion with his 
 own eyes, and informed the sultan of every particular. Ach- 
 met, fired with indignation, was going to strangle the grand 
 vizier; but the favourite, who protected him, and who thought, 
 he should have occasion for him, obtained his pardon, and 
 supported him some time longer in the ministry. 
 
 The Russians were now openly espoused by the vizier, 
 and secretly by Ali Coumourgi, who had changed sides ; but 
 the sultan was so provoked, the infraction of the treaty was 
 so manifest, and the janissaries, who often make the minis- 
 ters, the favourites, and even the sultans tremble, demanded 
 war with such clamour, that no one in the seraglio durst of- 
 fer a more moderate proposal. 
 
 The grand seignor immediately committed to the seven 
 towers the Russian ambassadors, who were now as much 
 accustomed to go to prison as to an audience. War was 
 declared afresh against the czar, the horsetails were display- 
 ed? and orders were given to all the pachas to assemble an 
 army of two hundred thousand men. The sultan himself 
 
190 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 quitted Constantinople, and went to fix his court at Adriano- 
 ple, that he might be nearer to the seat of war. 
 
 In the mean time, a solemn embassy sent to the grand 
 seignor by Augustus, and the republic of Poland, was ad- 
 vancing on the road to Adrianople. At the head of the em- 
 bassy was the palatine of Mazovia, with a retinue of above 
 three hundred persons. 
 
 Every one that composed the embassy was seized and im- 
 prisoned in one of the suburbs of the city : never was the 
 king of Sweden's party more sanguine than on this occasion ; 
 and yet this great preparation was rendered useless, and all 
 their hopes were again disappointed. 
 
 If we may believe a public minister, a man of sagacity and 
 penetration, who resided at that time at Constantinople, 
 young Coumourgi had already other designs in his head than 
 that of disputing a desert country with the czar by a doubt- 
 ful war. He had proposed to strip the Venetians of the Pe- 
 loponnesus, now called the Morea, and to make himself mas- 
 ter of Hungary. 
 
 He waited only for the execution of his great designs till 
 he should have attained the post of grand vizier, from which 
 he was still excluded on account of his youth. In this view 
 it was more for his advantage to be the ally, than the enemy 
 of the czar.* It was neither his interest nor his inclination, 
 to keep the king of Sweden any longer, and still less to arm 
 the Turkish empire in his favour. He not only desired to 
 dismiss that prince, but he openly said, that for the future, 
 no christian ambassador ought to be suffered at Constantino- 
 ple ; that all these ministers in ordinary were but so many 
 honourable spies, who corrupted or betrayed the viziers, and 
 had too long influenced the intrigues of the seraglio ; and 
 that the Franks settled at Pera, and in the streights of the 
 Levant, were merchants, who needed a consul only, and not 
 an ambassador. The grand vizier, who owed his post and 
 his life to the favourite, and, what was more, stood in fear 
 of him, complied with his intention with the more alacrity, 
 as he had sold himself to the Russians, and hoped by this 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 191 
 
 means to be revenged on the king of Sweden, who had en- 
 deavoured to ruin him. The mufti, a creature of Ali Cou- 
 mourgi, was also the slave to his will : he had advised the 
 war with Russia, when the favourite wished it ; but the mo- 
 ment this young man changed his opinion, he pronounced it 
 to be unjust : thus was the army hardly assembled before 
 they began to listen to proposals of accommodation. The 
 vice-chancellor Schaffirof, and young CzeremetofF, hostages 
 and plenipotentiaries of the czar at the Porte, promised, 
 after several negotiations, that the czar should withdraw his 
 troops from Poland. The grand vizier, who well knew that 
 the czar would never execute this treaty, made no scruple 
 to sign it ; and the sultan, satisfied with having, in appear- 
 ance, imposed laws on the Russians, remained still at 
 Adrianople. Thus, in less than six months, was peace rati- 
 fied with the czar, war declared, and peace renewed again. 
 
 The principal article of all these treaties was to oblige 
 the king of Sweden to depart. The sultan, however, was 
 not willing to endanger his own honour, and that of the Ot- 
 toman empire, by exposing the king to the risk of his being 
 taken by his enemies on the road. It was stipulated that 
 he should depart, but on condition that the ambassadors of 
 Poland and Muscovy should be responsible for the safety of 
 his person : these ambassadors accordingly swore in the 
 name of their masters, that neither the czar nor the king of 
 Poland should molest him on his journey ; and Charles was 
 to engage, on his part, that he would not attempt to excite 
 any commotions in Poland. The divan having thus settled 
 the fate of Charles, Ismael, seraskier of Bender, repaired to 
 Varnitza, where the king was encamped, to acquaint him 
 with the resolutions of the Porte, insinuating to him with 
 great address, that there was no longer time for delay, and 
 that he must necessarily depart. 
 
 Charles made no other answer, than that the grand seignor 
 had promised him an army and not a guard, and that kings 
 ought to keep their word. 
 
 In the mean time, General Fleming, the minister and fa- 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 Tourite of Augustus, maintained a secret correspondence 
 with the kam of Tartary and the seraskier of Bender. La 
 Mare, a French gentleman, a colonel in the service of 
 Saxony, had made more than one journey from Bender to 
 Dresden, and all these journeys were suspicious. 
 
 At this very time, the king of Sweden caused a courier, 
 whom Fleming had sent to the Tartarian prince, to be ar- 
 rested on the frontiers of Wallachia. The letters were 
 brought to him, and deciphered, from whence it clearly ap- 
 peared that a correspondence was carried on between the 
 Tartars and the court of Dresden ; but the letters were con- 
 ceived in such ambiguous and general terms, that it was dif- 
 ficult to discover whether Augustus only intended to detach 
 the Turks from the interest of Sweden, or whether he meant 
 that the kam should deliver Charles to his Saxons as he 
 conducted him back to Poland. 
 
 It seems hard to believe that a prince so generous as 
 Augustus would, by seizing the person of the king of Swe- 
 don, endanger the lives of his ambassadors, and of three 
 hundred Polish gentlemen, who were detained at Adriano- 
 ple as pledges for Charles's safety. 
 
 But, on the other hand, it is well known, that Fleming, 
 the absolute minister of Augustus, was a subtle man, and 
 not very scrupulous. The outrages committed on the king 
 elector by the king of Sweden might seem to render any 
 revenge ^excusable ; and it might be thought, that if the 
 court of Dresden could buy Charles from the kam of Tartary, 
 they would easily purchase the liberty of the Polish hostages 
 at the Ottoman Porte. 
 
 All these reasons were discussed by the king, Mullern, 
 his privy chancellor, and Grothusen, his favourite. They 
 read the letters again and again ; and, their unhappy situa- 
 tion making them more suspicious, they resolved to believe 
 the worst. 
 
 A few days after, the king was confirmed in his suspicions 
 by the precipitate departure of Count Sapieha, who had 
 taken refuge with him, and now quitted him abruptly to go 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 193 
 
 to Poland to throw himself into the arms of Augustus. In 
 any other situation he would have regarded Sapieha only as 
 a malcontent ; but in his present delicate condition he did 
 not hesitate to believe him a traitor. The repeated importu- 
 nities with which they now pressed him to depart, con- 
 verted his suspicions into certainty. The obstinacy of his 
 temper coinciding with these appearances, confirmed him 
 in the opinion that they intended to betray him, and deliver 
 him up to his enemies, though this plot hath never been 
 fully proved. 
 
 He might deceive himself in supposing that Augustus had 
 made a bargain with the Tartars for his person ; but he was 
 much more deceived in relying on the succours of the Otto- 
 man court. Be that as it will, he resolved to gain time. 
 
 He told the pacha of Bender, that he could not depart 
 without having money to pay his debts ; for though his 
 " thaim" had for a long time been restored to him, his libe- 
 rality had always obliged him to borrow. The pacha asked 
 him how much he wanted. The king replied, at a hazard, 
 a thousand purses, amounting to fifteen hundred thou- 
 sand livres of our money in the best Coin. The pacha 
 wrote to the Porte ; and the sultan, in the room of a thou- 
 sand purses which Charles had asked, sent twelve hundred, 
 and wrote the pacha the following letter : 
 
 Letter from the Grand Seignor to the Pacha of Bender. 
 
 " The purport of this imperial letter is, to acquaint you, 
 that upon your representation and recommendation, and 
 upon that of the most noble Delvet-Gherai-Kam to our Su- 
 blime Porte, our imperial munificence hath granted a thou- 
 sand purses to the king of Sweden, which shall be sent to 
 Bender, under the care and conduct of the most illustrious 
 Mehemet Pacha, formerly chioux-pacha, to remain^ in your 
 custody till the time of the departure of the king of Sweden, 
 whose steps God direct, and then to be given to him, toge- 
 ther with two hundred purses more, as an overplus of our 
 imperial liberality, which exceeds his demands. 
 I 17 
 
194 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 u With regard to the route of Poland which he is deter- 
 mined to take, you and the kam who are to accompany him, 
 shall take such wise and prudent measures as may, during 
 the whole journey, prevent, as well the troops under your 
 command as the retinue of the king of Sweden, from com- 
 mitting any outrage, cr being guilty of any action that may 
 be reputed contrary to the peace which still subsists be- 
 tween our Sublime Porte and the kingdom and republic of 
 Poland, to the end the king may pass as a friend under our 
 protection. 
 
 " By doing this (which you must expressly recommend 
 to him to do) he will receive on the part of the Poles every 
 honour and respect due to his majesty ; of which we have 
 been assured by the ambassadors of King Augustus and the 
 republic, who on this condition have even offered them- 
 selves, together with several other Polish nobles, if we re- 
 quired it, as hostages for the security of his passage. 
 
 u When the time which you, together with the most no- 
 ble Delvet-Gherai, shall fix for the march shall arrive, you 
 shall put yourselves at the head of your brave soldiers, 
 among whom shall be the 7*artar c ; having the kam at their 
 head ; and you shall then conduct the king of Sweden with 
 his retinue. 
 
 il So may it please the only God, the Almighty, to direct 
 your steps and theirs. The pacha of Aulos shall remain at 
 Bender with a body of spahis and another of janissaries, 
 to defend it in your absence; and in following our imperial 
 orders and intentions in all these points and articles, you 
 will render yourself worthy of the continuance of our im- 
 perial favour, as well as the praise and recompense due to 
 all those who observe them." 
 
 Done at our imperial residence of Constantinople, the 
 2d of the moon Cheval, 1214 of the Hegira. 
 
 During the time they were waiting for this answer from 
 the grand seignor, the king wrote to the Porte, complaining 
 of the treachery of which he imagined the kam of Tartary 
 
KING OF SWEDEN". 195 
 
 to be guilty ; but all the passages were so well guarded, and 
 besides, the minister was against him, that his letters never 
 reached the sultan; nay, the vizier stopped M. des Allerra 
 from coming to Adrianople, where the Porte then was, for 
 fear that minister, who was an agent of the king of Sweden, 
 should endeavour to disconcert the plan which he had formed 
 for obliging him to depart. 
 
 Charles, enraged to see himself thus hunted, as it were, 
 from the grand seignor's dominions, determined not to quit 
 them at all. 
 
 He might have desired to return through the territories of 
 Germany, or to take shipping on the Black Sea, in order to 
 sail to Marseilles by the Mediterranean ; but he rather chose 
 to ask nothing, and to wait the event. 
 
 When the twelve hundred purses were arrived, his trea- 
 surer Grothusen, who had learned the Turkish language dur- 
 ing his long stay in the country, went to wait upon the pacha 
 without an interpreter, with the design of drawing the mo- 
 ney from him, and then to form some new intrigue at the Porte, 
 being continually held up by the foolish supposition, that the 
 Swedish party would at last be able to arm the Ottoman em- 
 pire against the czar. 
 
 Grothusen told the pacha, that the king was not able to 
 prepare his equipage without money. "But," said the pa- 
 cha, " we shall settle all the expenses of your departure ; 
 your master has no occasion to be at any expense while he 
 continues under the protection of mine." 
 
 Grothusen replied, that there was so much difference be- 
 tween the equipages of the Turks and those of the Franks, 
 that they were obliged to have recourse to the artificers of 
 Swedeu and Poland, resident at Varnitza. 
 
 He assured him that his master was disposed to depart, 
 and that this money would facilitate and hasten his departure. 
 The pacha, too credulous, gave the twelve hundred purses! 
 and attended the king in a few days after, in a most respect- 
 ful manner, to receive his orders for his departure. 
 
 His surprise was inconceivable, when the king told him 
 
196 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 he was not yet ready to go, and that he wanted a thousand 
 purses more. The pacha, confounded at this answer, was 
 some time before he could speak. He then retired to a win- 
 dow, where he was observed to shed some tears. At last, 
 addressing himself to the king, " I shall lose my head," says 
 he, " for having obliged your majesty : I have given you the 
 twelve hundred purses against the express orders of my so- 
 vereign." Having said this, he withdrew, oppressed with 
 grief. 
 
 As he was going, the king stopped him, and said, that he 
 would excuse him to the sultan. "Ah !" replied the Turk, 
 as he departed, " my master knows not how to excuse faults, 
 he knows only to punish them." 
 
 Ismael Pacha carried this piece of news to the kam, who 
 had received the same orders with the pacha, not to suffer 
 the twelve hundred purses to be given to the king before his 
 departure, and yet consented to the delivery of the money ; 
 he was as apprehensive as the pacha, of the indignation of 
 the grand seignor. They both wrote to the Porte to justify 
 themselves ; protesting that they had given the twelve hun- 
 dred purses upon the solemn promises of the king's minister 
 that he would depart without delay ; and beseeching his 
 highness not to impute the king's refusal to their disobedi- 
 ence. 
 
 Charles still persisting in the idea, that the kam and pacha 
 wanted to deliver him up to his enemies, ordered M. Funk, 
 at that time his envoy at the Ottoman court, to lay his com- 
 plaints against them before the sultan, and to ask a thousand 
 purses more. His own great generosity, and the little -ac- 
 count he made of money, hindered him from seeing the 
 meanness of this proposal. He did it merely to have a re- 
 fusal, and in order to have a fresh pretext for not departing. 
 But it is to be reduced to strange extremities, to stand in 
 need of such artifices. Savari, his interpreter, an artful 
 and enterprising man, carried his letter to Adrianople in spite 
 of the strictness which the grand vizier had used to guard 
 the passes. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 197 
 
 Funk was obliged to make this dangerous demand. AH 
 the answer he received was, to be thrown into prison. The 
 sultan, enraged, convoked an extraordinary divan, and, what 
 very seldom happens, spoke himself on the occasion. His 
 speech, according to the translation then made of it, was as 
 follows : 
 
 " I have scarce known the king of Sw,e<!en but by his de- 
 feat at Pultowa, and by the prayer he preferred to me, to 
 grant him an asylum in my dominions. I have not, I be- 
 lieve, any need of him; nor any reason either to love or 
 fear him : notwithstanding, without consulting any other mo- 
 tive than the hospitality of a Mussulman, and my own gene- 
 rosity, which sheds the dew of its favours upon the great as 
 well as the small ; upon strangers as well as my own sub- 
 jects : I have received and succoured him with all things, 
 himself, his ministers, officers, and soldiers, and have not 
 ceased for these three years and a half to load him with 
 presents. 
 
 " I have granted him a considerable guard to conduct him 
 into his own kingdom, fie asked a thousand purses to de- 
 fray some expenses, though I pay all. Instead of a thousand, 
 I granted him twelve hundred. After having got these out 
 of the hands of the seraskier of Bender, he asks a thousand 
 purses more, and refuses to depart, under a pretence that the 
 guard is too small, whereas it is but too large to pass through 
 the country of a friend. 
 
 " I ask, then, whether it be to violate the laws of hospi- 
 tality, to send back this prince; and whether foreign powers 
 ought to accuse me of violence and injustice, in case I should 
 be obliged to compel him by force to depart." 
 
 All the divan answered, that the grand seignor acted with 
 justice. The mufti declared that hospitality from Mus- 
 sulmen toward infidels was not commanded, and much less 
 toward the ungrateful ; and he gave his fetfa, a kind of 
 mandate, which generally accompanies the important orders 
 of the grand seignor. These fetfas are revered as oracles*, 
 
 17* 
 
196 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 though the very persons by whom they are given, are as 
 
 much slaves to the sultan as any others. 
 
 The order and fetfa were carried to Bender by the Boyouk 
 Imraour, grand master of the horse, and a chiaou pacha, 
 first usher. The pacha of Bender received the order at the 
 house of the kam of Tartary, from whence he immediately 
 repaired to Varnitza, to ask the king whether he would de- 
 part as a friend, or reduce him to the necessity of putting the 
 orders of the sultan in execution. 
 
 Charles, thus menaced, was not master of his passion. 
 "Obey your master if you dare," said he, "and leave my 
 presence." The pacha, fired with indignation, returned at 
 full gallop, contrary to the usual custom of the Turks ; and 
 chancing to meet Fabricius in his way, he cried out to him, 
 without checking his horse, " the king will not hear reason; 
 you will see strange things presently." The same day he 
 discontinued the supply of the king's provisions, and remo- 
 ved his guard of janissaries. He caused intimation to be 
 given to all the Poles and Cossacks at Varnitza, that if they 
 wished to have any provisions, they must quit the camp of 
 the king of Sweden, and repair to Bender, and put them- 
 selves under the protection of the Porte. They all obeyed, 
 and left the king without any other attendant than the offi- 
 cers of his household, and three hundred Swedish soldiers 
 to make head against twenty thousand Tartars, and six 
 thousand Turks. 
 
 There was now no provision in the camp, either for the 
 men or their horses. The king ordered twenty of the fine 
 Arabian horses which had been sent him by the grand seign- 
 or, to be shot without the camp, saying, " I will have none 
 of their provisions nor their horses." This was an excel- 
 lent regale to the Tartars, who, as is well known, think 
 horse flesh delicious food. In the mean time, the Turks and 
 Tartars invested the king's little camp on every side. 
 
 The king, without the least discomposure, made a regular 
 intrenchment with his three hundred Swedes, in which work 
 he himself assisted ; his chancellor, his treasurer, his secre- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 199 
 
 taries, his valets-de-chambre, and all bis domestics, giving 
 likewise their assistance. Some banicadoed the windows, 
 and others fastened beams behind the doors, in the form of 
 buttresses. 
 
 As soon as the house was sufficiently barricadoed, and the 
 king had gone round his pretended fortifications, he sat 
 down to chess with his favourite Grothusen with as much 
 tranquillity as if every thing was in the greatest security. 
 Happily M. Fabricius, the envoy of Holstein, did not lodge 
 at Varnitza, but at a small village between Varnitza and Ben- 
 der, where Mr. Jeffreys, the English envoy to the king of 
 Sweden, likewise resided. These two ministers, seeing the 
 storm ready to burst, took upon themselves the office of me- 
 diators between the Turks and the king. The kam, and es- 
 pecially the pacha of Bender, who had no mind to offer vio- 
 lence to the Swedish monarch, received with eagerness the 
 offers of these two ministers. They had two conferences at 
 Bender, in which they were assisted by the usher of the se- 
 raglio, and the grand master of the horse, who had brought 
 the sultan's order, and the mufti's fetfa. 
 
 M. Fabricius* declared to them, that his Swedish majesty 
 had many cogent reasons to believe that they meant to de- 
 liver him up to his enemies in Poland. The kam, the pacha, 
 and all the rest, swore by their heads, and called God to 
 witness, that they detested so horrible a perfidy, and that 
 they would shed the last drop of their blood, rather than suf- 
 fer such disrespect to be shown to the king in Poland ; add- 
 ing, that they had in their hands the Russian and Polish 
 ambassadors, who would answer with their lives for the least 
 affront that should be offered to the king of Swecifcn. In 
 fine, they complained bitterly that the ting should conceive 
 6uch injurious suspicions against people who had received 
 him so politely, and treated him with so much humanity. 
 Though oaths are frequently the language of perfidy, Fabri- 
 cius suffered himself to be persuaded by the Turks : he 
 
 The whole of this account is related by M. Fabricius in his letters. 
 
200 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XIT. 
 
 thought he could discern in their protestations that air of 
 truth which falsehood can, at best, but imitate imperfectly. 
 He knew perfectly well there had been a secret correspon- 
 dence between the kam of Tartary and King Augustus ; but 
 he was at last persuaded, that the only end of their negotia- 
 tion was to oblige Charles XII. to quit the dominions of the 
 grand seignor. Whether Fabricius deceived himself or not, 
 he assured them that he would represent to the king the in- 
 justice of his suspicions. "But," adds he, u do you intend 
 to compel him to depart?" "Yes," says the pacha, " such 
 is the order of our master." He then entreated them to con- 
 sider seriously whether that order implied that they should 
 shed the blood of a crowned head. " Yes," replies the l^am, 
 in a passion, " if that crowned head disobeys the grand 
 seignor in his dominions." 
 
 In the mean time, every thing being ready for the assault, 
 the death of Charles XII. seemed inevitable ; but the order 
 of the sultan not expressly saying whether they were to kill 
 him in case of resistance, the pacha prevailed on the kam to 
 let him despatch an express to Adrianople, where the grand 
 seignor then resided, to receive the last orders of his high- 
 ness. 
 
 M. Jeffreys and M. Fabricius, having procured this short 
 respite, hastened to acquaint the king with it : they arrived 
 with all the eagerness of people who bring good news ; but 
 were received very coldly : he called them officious media- 
 tors, and still persisted in his opinion, that the order of the 
 sultan, and the fetfa of the mufti, were both forged, inasmuch 
 as they had sent to the Porte for fresh orders. 
 
 The English minister retired, firmly resolved to interfere no 
 more in the affairs of so inflexible a prince. M. Fabricius, 
 beloved by the king, and more accustomed to his humour 
 than the English minister, remained with him, to conjure 
 him not to hazard so precious a life on such an unnecessary 
 occasion. 
 
 The king, for answer, showed him his fortifications; and 
 begged he would employ his mediation only to procure him 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 201 
 
 some provisions. The Turks were easily prevailed upon to 
 allow provisions to be convened to the king's camp until the 
 return of the courier from Adrianople. The kam himself 
 had strictly enjoined his Tartars, who were eager for pillage, 
 not to make any attempt against the. Swedes till the arrival 
 of fresh orders ; so that Charles went sometimes out of his 
 camp with forty horse, and rode through the midst of the 
 Tartars ; who, with great respect, left him a free passage ; 
 he would even ride up in front of their lines, which they 
 opened rather than resist him. 
 
 At last the order of the grand seignor being come, to put 
 to the sword all the Swedes who should make the least re- 
 sistance, and not even to spare the life of the king, the 
 pacha had the complaisance to show the order to M. Fabri- 
 cius, to the end that he might make his last effort to turn 
 the obstinacy of Charles. Fabricius went immediately to 
 acquaint him with these sad tidings. " Have you seen the 
 order you speak of ?" said the king. "Yes," replied Fa- 
 bricius. " Well, then, go tell them, in my name, that this 
 second order is another forgery, and that I will not depart." 
 Fabricius threw himself at his feet, fell into a passion, and 
 reproached him with his obstinacy, but all to no purpose. 
 " Return to your Turks," said the king to him, smiling; 
 "if they attack me, I shall know how to defend myself." 
 
 The king's chaplains likewise threw themselves on their 
 knees before him, conjuring him not to expose to certain 
 death the unhappy remains of Pultowa, and especially his 
 own sacred person ; assuring him that resistance in such a 
 case was altogether unjustifiable ; an& that it was a direct 
 violation of all the laws of hospitality, to resolve to continue 
 against their will with strangers who had so long and so 
 generously supported him. The king, though he had not 
 been angry with Fabricius, fell into a passion with his 
 priests^ and told them that he had taken them to pray for 
 him, and not to give him advice. 
 
 The Generals Hord and Dardoff, whose sentiments had 
 always been against hazarding a battle which could not fail 
 
202 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 of proving unsuccessful, showed the king their breasts i 
 covered with wounds which they had received in his ser- , 
 vice, and assured him that they were ready to lay down 
 their lives for him ; but begged that it might be, at least, 
 upon a more necessary occasion. " I know, by your wounds 
 and my own," says Charles to them, " that we have fought 
 valiantly together. You have done your duty hitherto ; do 
 it to-day likewise." Nothing now remained but to obey. 
 Every one was ashamed not to court death with their king. 
 This prince, being now prepared for the assault, flattered 
 himself in secret that he should have the honour of sus- 
 taining, with three hundred Swedes, the efforts of a whole 
 army. He assigned to every man his post : his chancellor, 
 Mullern, and the secretary, Empreus, and his clerks, were 
 to defend the chancery-house ; Baron Fief, at the head of 
 the officers of the kitchen, were stationed at another post ; 
 the grooms of the stable and the cooks had another place to 
 guard ; for with him every one was a soldier : he then rode 
 from the intrenchments to his house, promising rewards to 
 every one, creating officers, and assuring them that he would 
 make captains of the very meanest of his servants who 
 6hould right with courage. 
 
 It was not long before they beheld the army of the Turks 
 and Tartars advancing to attack this little intrenchment with 
 ten pieces of cannon and two mortars. The* horses' tails 
 waved in the air ; the clarions sounded ; the cries of " Alia, 
 Alia," were heard on every side. Baron Grothusen re- 
 marked, that the Turks did not mix in their cries any in- 
 jurious reflections against the king, but that they only called 
 him, "Demirbash," (head of iron.) He, therefore, in- 
 stantly resolved to go out of the camp alone and unarmed ; 
 and accordingly advanced to the lines of the janissaries, 
 most of whom had received money from him. " What, my 
 friends," says he to them in their own language, u are you 
 come to massacre three hundred Swedes who are defence- 
 less ? You, brave janissaries, who have pardoned fifty 
 thousand Russians upon their crying amman y (pardon,) have 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 203 
 
 you forgot the many favours you have received from us ? 
 and would you assassinate this great king of Sweden whom 
 you love, and whose liberality you have so often experi- 
 enced ? My friends, he desires but three days, and the 
 orders of the sultan are not so strict as you are taught to 
 believe. " 
 
 These words produced an effect which Grothusen himself 
 could not have expected. The janissaries swore by their 
 beards that they would not attack the king, but would give 
 him the three days he demanded. In vain the signal for as- 
 sault was given ; the janissaries, so far from obeying, threat- 
 ened to fall upon their commander, if the three days were 
 not granted to the king of Sweden. They then went to the 
 pacha of Bender's tent, crying out that the sultan's orders 
 were forged. 
 
 To this unexpected sedition, the pacha had nothing to op- 
 pose but patience. He affected a satisfaction at the gene- 
 rous resolution of the janissaries, and ordered them to re- 
 turn to Bender. The kam of Tartary being an impetuous 
 man, would have given the assault immediately with his 
 own troops ; but the pacha, who was not willing that the 
 Tartars should have all the honour of taking the king, while 
 he himself, perhaps, might be punished for the disobedience 
 of the janissaries, persuaded the kam to wait till the next 
 day. 
 
 The pacha, on his return to Bender, assembled all the of- 
 ficers of the janissaries, and the oldest soldiers, to whom he 
 read, and also showed them the positive order of the sultan, 
 together with the mufti's fetfa. Sixty of the oldest, with 
 venerable white beards, who had received a thousand pre- 
 sents from the hands of the king of Sweden, proposed to go 
 to him in person, to intreat him to put himself into their 
 hands, and to permit them to serve him as guards. 
 
 The pacha agreed to it, as there was no expedient he 
 would not have adopted, rather than have been reduced 
 to the necessity of killing this prince. These sixty old vete- 
 rans accordingly repaired the next morning to Varnitza, ha- 
 
204 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII 
 
 ving nothing in their hands but long white rods, the on! 
 arms of the janissaries when they are not at war ; for th 
 Turks regard as a barbarous custom the christian manner 
 wearing swords in time of peace, and going armed into th 
 houses of their friends, and the churches. 
 
 They addressed themselves to Baron Grothusen and Cha 
 cellor Mullern : they told them that they came to serve faith- 
 ful guards to the king ; and that if he pleased, they would 
 conduct him to Adrianople, where he might himself speak 
 to the grand seignor. At the time they were making this 
 proposal, the king was reading letters which were brought 
 from Constantinople, and which Fabricius, who could no 
 longer attended him in person, had sent him secretly by a 
 janissary. They were from Count Poniatowsky, who could 
 neither serve him at Bender nor Adrianople, being detained 
 at Constantinople by order of the Porte, from the time of his 
 making the imprudent demand of the thousand purses. He in- 
 formed the king, "that the orders of the sultan to seize or mas- 
 sacre his royal person, in case of resistance, were but too true ; 
 that indeed the sultan was deceived by his ministers ; but that 
 the more he was imposed upon, he would for that very reason 
 be the more faithfully obeyed ; that he must submit to the 
 times, and yield to necessity; that he took the liberty to ad- 
 vise him to try every expedient with the ministers by way 
 of negotiations ; not to be inflexible in a matter which re- 
 ' quired the gentlest management ; and to expect from time 
 and good policy, a remedy for that evil, which, by violent 
 measures, would be only rendered incurable. " 
 
 But neither the proposals of the old janissaries, nor the 
 letters of Poniatowsky, could give the king even an idea that 
 he could yield without incurring dishonour. He chose ra- 
 ther to perish by the hands of the Turks, than to be in any 
 respect their prisoner ; he therefore dismissed the janissaries 
 without deigning to see them, and sent them word, that if 
 they did not immediately depart, he would cut of their 
 beards; which, in the eastern countries, is esteemed the 
 most outrageous of all affronts. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 205 
 
 * The old men, filled with the most lively indignation, re- 
 turned home, crying out as they went, " Ah, this head of 
 iron ! since he will perish, let him perish." They went 
 and gave the pacha an account of their Commission, and in- 
 formed their comrades at Bender of the strange reception 
 they had met with. Every one then swore to obey the pa- 
 cha's orders without delay, and were as impatient to begin 
 the assault as they had been backward the day before. 
 
 The word of command was immediately given ; the Turks 
 marched up to the intrenchments ; the Tartars were already 
 waiting for them, and the cannon began to play. The ja- 
 nissaries on the one side, and the Tartars on the other, in an 
 instant forced the little camp : hardly twenty Swedes drew 
 their swords ; the whole three hundred were surrounded 
 and made prisoners without resistance. The king was then 
 on horseback, between his house and his camp, with the 
 Generals Hord, Dardoff, and Sparre ; and seeing that all his 
 soldiers were taken prisoners before his eyes, he said, with 
 great composure, to these three officers, " come, let us go 
 and defend the house. We will fight," adds he with a smile, 
 " pro aris and focis.' 7 
 
 Accordingly, he galloped with them up to the house, in 
 which he had placed about forty domestics as sentinels, and 
 which he had fortified in the best manner he was able. 
 
 These generals, accustomed as they were to the daunt- 
 less intrepidity of their master, Vere surprised to see him. re- 
 solve in cold blood, and even with an air of pleasantry, to 
 defend himself against ten pieces of cannon and a whole 
 army ; they followed him with some guards and domestics, 
 making in all about twenty persons. 
 
 When they came to the door, they found it besieged by 
 the janissaries; two hundred Turks and Tartars had already 
 entered by a window, and had made themselves masters of 
 all the apartments, except a large hall, into which the king's 
 domestics had retired. This hall was happily near the door 
 at which the king designed to enter with his little troop of 
 
 18 
 
206 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 twenty persons ; he threw himself off his horse with pistol 
 and sword in hand, and his followers did the same. 
 
 The janissaries fell upon him on all sides : they were ani- 
 mated by the promise which the pacha had made, of eight 
 ducats of gold to every one who should only touch his clothes 
 in case they could take him. He wounded and killed who- 
 ever approached his person. A janissary whom he had 
 wounded, clapped his carbine to his face, and had not his 
 arm been pushed aside by the motion of the crowd, which 
 moved backwards and forwards like a wave, the king had 
 certainly been killed. The ball grazed upon his nose, and 
 carried away with it the tip of his ear, and then broke the 
 arm of General Hord, whose destiny it was to be always 
 wounded by the side of his master. 
 
 The king plunged his sword in the janissary's breast; at 
 the same time his domestics, who were shut up in the great 
 hall, opened the door ; the king entered like an arrow, fol- 
 lowed by his little troop ; they instantly shut the door, and 
 barricadoed it with whatever they could find. In this man- 
 ner was Charles XII. shut up in a hall with all his attendants, 
 consisting of about sixty men, officers, guards, secretaries, 
 valets-de-chambre, and domestics of every kind. 
 
 The janissaries and Tartars pillaged the rest of the house, 
 and filled the apartments. " Come," says the king, " let us 
 go and drive these barbarians out of my house :" and put- 
 ting himself at the head of his men, he, with his own hands, 
 opened the door of the haU that led to his bed-chamber, 
 rushed into the room, and fired upon those who were plun- 
 dering. 
 
 The Turks, loaded with spoil, and terrified at the sudden 
 appearance of the king, whom they had been accustomed to 
 respect, threw down their arms, leaped out of the window, 
 or retired to the cellars : the king taking advantage of their 
 confusion, and his own men being animated with success, 
 they pursued the Turks from chamber to cli amber, killing 
 or wounding those who had not made their escape ; and in 
 a quarter of an hour cleared the house of their enemies. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 207 
 
 In the heat of the fight, the king perceived two janissa- 
 ries who had hid themselves under his bed : one of them 
 he killed with his sword ; the other asked for mercy, by 
 crying " amman." " I give thee thy life," said the king to 
 him, " on condition that you go and give to the pacha a faith- 
 ful account of what you have seen." The Turk readily 
 promised to do this, and was allowed to leap out at the win- 
 dow like the rest. 
 
 The Swedes being at last masters of the house, again shut 
 and barricadoed the windows. They were not in want of 
 arms, a ground room full of muskets and powder having es- 
 caped the tumultuary search of the janissaries. These they 
 employed to good service ; they fired through the windows 
 almost close upon the Turks, of whom, in less than half a 
 quarter of an hour, they killed two hundred. 
 
 The cannon still played upon the house ; yet, as the stones 
 were very soft, they only made some holes, but demolished 
 nothing. 
 
 The kam of Tartary and the pacha, who were desirous of 
 £ taking the king alive, and being ashamed to lose so many men, 
 and to employ a whole army against sixty persons, thought 
 it advisable to set fire to the house, in order to oblige the 
 king to surrender. They caused some arrows, twisted about 
 with lighted matches, to be shot upon the roof, and against 
 the doors and windows, and the house was in flames in a 
 moment. The roof all on fire, was ready to tumble upon 
 the Swedes. The king, with great calmness, gave orders to 
 extinguish the fire : finding a little barrel of liquor, he took 
 it up himself, and, assisted by two Swedes, threw it upon the 
 place where the fire was most violent. It happened that 
 the barrel was filled with brandy ; but the hurry insepara- 
 ble from such a scene of confusion, hindered them from think- 
 ing of it in time. The fire now raged with double fury; 
 the king's apartment was entirely consumed; the great hall 
 where the Swedes were was filled with & terrible smoke, 
 mixed with sheets of flame, which entered in at the doors of 
 the neighbouring apartments ; one half of the roof had sunk 
 
208 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 within the house, and the other fell on the outside, cracking 
 amidst the flames. 
 
 In this extremity, a guard called Walberg ventured to cry- 
 out, that it was necessary to surrender. " There is a strange 
 man," said the king, " to imagine that it is not more glorious 
 to be burnt than taken prisoner!" Another sentinel, named 
 Rosen, had the presence of mind to observe, that the chan- 
 cery-house, which was but fifty paces distant, had a stone 
 roof, and was proof against fire ; that they ought to sally 
 forth, take possession of that house, and then defend them- 
 selves. " There is a true Swede for you," cried the king, 
 embracing the sentinel, and made him a colonel upon the spot. 
 " Come on, my friends," says he, " take as much powder and 
 ball with you as you can, and let us take possession of the 
 chancery sword in hand." 
 
 •"The Turks, who all the while surrounded the house, saw 
 with admiration, mixed with terror, the Swedes continue in 
 the house all in flames ; but their astonishment was still 
 greater, when they saw the door open, and the king and his 
 followers rushing out upon them like so many madmen. 
 Charles and his principal officers were armed with swords 
 and pistols : every man fired two pistols at once, as soon as 
 the doors were opened ; and, in the twinkling of an eye, 
 throwing away their pistols and drawing their swords, they 
 made the Turks recoil above fifty paces. But in a moment 
 after, this little troop was surrounded ; the king, who was 
 booted, according to his usual custom, entengled himself with 
 his spurs, and fell ; one-and-twenty janissaries at once sprung 
 upon him ; he immediately threw up his sword into the air, 
 to save himself the mortification of sunendering it. The 
 Turks carried him to the quarters of the pacha, some taking 
 hold of his legs, and others of his arms, in the same manner 
 as sick persons are carried to prevent their being hurt. 
 
 The moment the king found himself taken prisoner, the 
 violence of his temper, and the fury which such a long and 
 desperate fight must have naturally inspired, gave place at 
 once to a mild and gentle behaviour. He dropped not a 
 
£ING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 209 
 
 Word of impatience, nor was an angry look to be seen in his 
 face. He regarded the janissaries with a smiling counte- 
 nance ; and they carried him off, crying " Alia," with an in- 
 dignation mixed at the same time with respect. His officers 
 were taken at the same time, and stripped by the Turks and 
 Tartars. It was on the 12th of February, 1713, that this 
 strange event happened, which was followed with very sin- 
 gular consequences.* 
 
 *M. Norberg, who was not present at this event, hath in this particular 
 part of his history only copied the account from M. de Voltaire ; but he 
 has mangled it, he has suppressed several interesting circumstances, and 
 has not been able to justify the temerity of Charles XII. All that he has 
 been able to say against M. de Voltaire, with regard to the affair of Ben- 
 der, is reducible to the adventure of the Sieur Fredericus, valet-de-cham- 
 bre to the king of Sweden, who some pretended was burnt in the king's 
 house, and who, according to others, was cut in two by the Tartars. La 
 Mottray alleges likewise, that the king of Sweden did not use the words 
 " we will fight pro aris and focis :" but M. Fabricius, who was present, 
 affirms, that the king did pronounce these words, that La Mottray was 
 not near enough to hear them, and that if he had, he was not capable of 
 comprehending their meaning, as he did not understand a word of Latin. 
 
 18» 
 
210 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XH 
 
 BOOK VII. 
 
 Argttment. — The Turks convey Charles to Demirtash. — King Stanis- 
 laus taken thither at the same time. — The bold action of M. de Vil- 
 lelongue. — Revolutions in the seraglio. — Battle in Pomerania. — Al- 
 tena burnt by the Swedes. — Charles sets out on his return to his own 
 dominions. — His strange manner of travelling. — His arrival at Stral- 
 sund. — His misfortunes. — Successes of Peter the Great. — His trium- 
 phant entry into Petersburgh. 
 
 The pacha of Bender waited in his tent with great so- 
 lemnity the arrival of Charles, attended by one Marco, an 
 interpreter. He received that prince with the most pro- 
 found respect, and entreated him to repose himself on a sofa : 
 but the king, not regarding the Turk's civilities, continued 
 standing. 
 
 " Blessed be the Almighty," said the pacha, " that your 
 majesty is alive ; my despair is bitter at having been obliged, 
 by your majesty, to execute the orders of his highness." 
 The king, only vexed that his three hundred soldiers suffered 
 themselves to be taken in their intrenchments, replied, 
 u Ah ! had my soldiers defended themselves as they ought, 
 you would not have forced our camp in ten days." " Alas," 
 cried the Turk, " that so much courage should be so ill em- 
 ployed !" He ordered the king to be conducted back to 
 Bender on a horse richly caparisoned. His Swedes were 
 all either killed or taken prisoners ; Charles's equipage, fur- 
 niture, papers, and most necessary utensils, were either 
 plundered or burnt ; and Swedish officers were to be seen 
 on the public roads, almost naked, and chained two and 
 two, following on foot the Tartars or janissaries. The 
 chancellor and the general officers had no other destiny ; 
 they were made the slaves of the soldiers to whose share 
 they had fallen. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 211 
 
 Ismael Pacha having conducted Charles to his seraglio at 
 Bender, gave up to him his own apartment, and ordered him 
 to be served like a king, but not without taking the precau- 
 tion to place janissaries as sentinels at the chamber-door. 
 A. bed was also prepared for him ; but he threw himself 
 down upon a sofa, booted as he was, and fell fast asleep. 
 An officer that stood near him in waiting covered his head 
 with his cap; but the king, upon awaking from his first 
 sleep, threw it off ; and the Turk beheld with astonishment 
 a sovereign sleeping in his boots, and bareheaded. The 
 next morning, Ismael introduced Fabricius into the king's 
 chamber. Fabricius found his majesty with his clothes 
 torn, his boots, his hands, and his whole body covered with 
 blood and powder, and his eye-brows burnt, yet maintaining 
 a serene countenance even in this condition. He threw him- 
 self upon his knees before him, without being able to utter 
 a word ; but soon recovering from his surprise by the free 
 and easy manner in which the king addressed him, he re- 
 sumed his usual familiarity, and they began to talk of the 
 battle of Bender with much pleasantry. " They say," said 
 Fabricius, u that your majesty killed twenty janissaries with 
 your own hand." a Well, well," replied the king, " a story 
 always gains one half by report." In the midst of this con- 
 versation, the pacha presented to the king his. favourite 
 Grothusen, and Colonel Ribbins, whom he had had the 
 generosity to redeem at his own expense. Fabricius un- 
 dertook to ransom the other prisoners. 
 
 Jeffreys, the envoy of England, joined with him to pro- 
 cure the money to defray the expense. A Frenchman, whd$ 
 had come to Bender out of curiosity, and who had wrote a 
 short account of these transactions, gave all that he had. 
 These strangers, assisted by the interest, and even by the 
 money of the pacha, redeemed not only the officers, but also 
 their clothes, from the hands of the Turks and Tartars. 
 
 Next day the king was conducted, as a prisoner, in a cha- 
 riot covered with scarlet, towards Adrianople : his treasurer, 
 Grothusen, was with him ; Chancellor Mullern and several 
 
212 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 officers followed in another carriage ; several were on horse- 
 back ; and when they cast their eyes on the chariot in 
 which the king was, they could not refrain from tears. The 
 pacha was at the head of the escort. Fabricius represented 
 to him, that it was shameful the king should want a sword, 
 and begged he would give him one. " God forbid !" said 
 the pacha, u he would cut our beards for us if he had one." 
 However, in a few hours after he gave him one. 
 
 As they were thus conducting this king, disarmed and a 
 prisoner, who but a few years before had given law to so 
 many states, and had seen himself the arbiter of the north 
 and the terror of Europe, there appeared in the same place 
 another example of the frailty of human grandeur. King 
 Stanislaus had been seized in the Turkish dominions, and 
 they were now carrying him to Bender, at the very time 
 that they were carrying Charles from it. 
 
 Stanislaus being no longer supported by the hand which 
 had made him king, and finding himself without money, 
 and consequently without interest in Poland, had retired, at 
 first, into Pomerania; and not being able to preserve his own 
 kingdom, he had done every thing, as far as was in his power, 
 to defend the dominions of his benefactor. He had even gone 
 to Sweden, in order to hasten the reinforcements that were 
 so much wanting in Livonia and Pomerania ; in short, he 
 had done every thing that could be expected from the friend 
 of Charles XII. At this time, the first king of Prussia, a 
 very prudent prince, being justly apprehensive of the too 
 near neighbourhood of the Muscovites, thought of entering 
 into a league with Augustus and the republic of Poland, in 
 order to send back the Russians to their own country, and 
 of engaging Charles XII. himself in this project. Three 
 great events were to be produced by this plan ; the peace of 
 the north, the return of Charles to his own dominions, and 
 the establishment of a strong barrier against the Russians/al- 
 ready become formidable to Europe. The preliminary arti- 
 cle of this treaty, upon which the public tranquillity de- 
 pended, was the abdication of Stanislaus; who not only ac 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 213 
 
 cepted the proposal, but even charged himself with being 
 the negotiator of a peace which deprived him of his crown. 
 Necessity, the public welfare, the glory of the sacrifice, and 
 the interest of Charles, to whom he owed every thing, and 
 whom he loved, decided him. He wrote to Bender ; ex- 
 plained to the king of Sweden the situation of his affairs, 
 their misfortunes, and their remedy; and conjured him not 
 to oppose an abdication become necessary from the course 
 of events, and honourable from its motives ; he also en- 
 treated him not to sacrifice the interests of Sweden to those 
 of an unhappy friend, who sacrificed himself, without re- 
 pining, to the public good. Charles received these letters 
 at Varnitza, and said to the courier in a passion, in presence 
 of several witnesses, " If my friend will not be a king, I 
 shall be able to make one of another person." 
 
 Stanislaus was obstinately bent on the sacrifice which 
 Charles opposed. The times seem as if they were destined 
 by Providence to produce stiange sentiments, and still more 
 extraordinary actions. Stanislaus resolved to go himself 
 and prevail on Charles, though he ran a greater risk in ab- 
 dicating the throne than ever he had done in obtaining it. 
 One evening, about six o'clock, he stole from the Swedish 
 army, which he commanded in Pomerania, and set out, ac- 
 companied by Baron Sparr, who hath since been an ambas- 
 sador in England and France, and another colonel. He as- 
 sumed the name of a Frenchman, called Haran, then a 
 major in the Swedish army, and who lately died commander 
 of Dantzic. He passed close by the whole army of the 
 enemy; was sometimes stopped, and as often released by 
 virtue of a passport which he had in the name of Haran ; 
 and, at last, after many perils and dangers, arrived on the 
 frontiers of Turkey. 
 
 When he had reached Moldavia, he sent back Baron Sparr 
 to his army, and entered Yassy, the capital of Moldavia, 
 thinking himself safe in a country where the king of Sweden 
 had been treated so respectfully ; he was far from suspecting 
 what was then passing. 
 
£14 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 He was asked who he was ; to which he answered, that 
 he was a major of a regiment in the service of Charles XII. 
 At the very mention of the name, he was seized, and car- 
 ried before the hospodar of Moldavia, who, having already 
 learned from the gazettes, that Stanislaus had privately with- 
 drawn from his army, conceived some suspicions of the truth. 
 
 The king's countenance had been described to him, which 
 was very easily distinguished by its fullness, as well as its 
 agreeableness, and an air of sweetness which he possessed 
 to an uncommon degree. 
 
 The hospodar interrupted him, put to him a great many 
 captious questions, and at last asked him what commission 
 he held in the Swedish army. Stanislaus .and the hospodar 
 carried on their conversation in Latin. "Major sw?«," said 
 Stanislaus. " Imo Maximus es," replied the Moldavian ; 
 and immediately presented him with a chair of state. He 
 treated him as a king, but yet like a king who was a pri- 
 soner, and he placed a strict guard about a Greek convent, 
 in which he was obliged to remain till they received the sul- 
 tan's orders. The orders were to conduct him to Bender, 
 from which place Charles XII. had been just removed. 
 
 The news of this event was brought to the pacha at the 
 time he was accompanying the king of Sweden's carriage. 
 The pacha immediately acquainted Fabricius with it, who 
 approaching Charles's chariot, told him he was not the only 
 king that was a prisoner in the hands of the Turks, for that 
 Stanislaus was but a few miles off, under a guard of soldiers. 
 " Run to him, my dear Fabricius," said Charles, without 
 being disconcerted at the accident ; " tell him never to make 
 peace with Augustus, and assure him that in a little time our 
 affairs will change." So inflexible was Charles in his own 
 opinions, that, abandoned as he was in Poland, attacked in his 
 own dominions, a captive in a Turkish litter, and led a pri- 
 soner without knowing whither they were carrying him, he 
 still counted on fortune, and still expected to have a hun- 
 dred thousand men from the Ottoman Porte. Fabricius 
 hastened to execute his commission, attended by a janissary, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 215 
 
 having obtained permission from the pacha. At a few miles 
 distance he met the body of soldiers that conducted Stanis- 
 laus ; he addressed himself to a cavalier that rode in the 
 midst of them, clad in a French dress, and but indifferently 
 mounted, and asked him in the German tongue where the 
 king of Poland was. The person to whom he spoke was 
 Stanislaus himself, whom he did not recollect under this dis- 
 guise. " What !" said the king, " do you no longer remem- 
 ber me?" Fabricius then represented to him the wretched 
 state in which the king of Sweden was, and his unalterable 
 but useless obstinacy in his designs. 
 
 As Stanislaus approached Bender, the pacha, who was 
 upon his return, after having accompanied Charles several 
 miles, sent the king of Poland an Arabian horse, with a mag- 
 nificent harness. 
 
 He was received at Bender amidst a discharge of the ar- 
 tillery ; and excepting his liberty, of which he was at first 
 deprived, he had no cause to complain of the treatment he 
 met with.* In the mean time, Charles was conducted to 
 Adrianople. That town was already filled with the account 
 of his late battle. The Turks condemned and admired him at 
 the same time ; but the divan, exasperated, already threat- 
 ened to confine him in one of the islands of the Archipelago. 
 
 Stanislaus, king of Poland, who did me the honour to in- 
 form me of the greatest part of these particulars, assured me 
 also, that it was proposed in the divan to confine him like- 
 wise in one of the islands of Greece ; but a few months af- 
 ter, the grand seignor, being mollified, permitted him to de- 
 part. 
 
 M. des Alleurs, who could have taken his part, and could 
 have prevented them from offering such an affront to every 
 christian king, was at Constantinople ; as was also M. Po- 
 
 *The good Chaplain Norberg alleges, that this is a contradiction, say- 
 ing, that King Stanislaus was at once detained a prisoner, and treated as 
 a king at Bender. How ! had not this poor man discernment enough to 
 perceive, that it is possible for a man to be a prisoner, and yet loaded 
 with honours at the same time ? 
 
216 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 niatowsky, whose fertile and enterprising genius they had 
 ever dreaded. The greatest part of the Swedes at Adriano- 
 ple were in prison ; and the sultan's throne seemed to be 
 inaccessible on all sides to the complaints of the king of 
 Sweden. 
 
 The Marquis de Fierville, who had resided with Charles 
 at Bender as a private agent of France, was at that time at 
 Adrianople. He dared to form the design of rendering that 
 prince a service, at a time when he was abandoned or op- 
 pressed by every one. He was happily seconded in his de- 
 sign by a French gentleman, of an ancient house in Cham- 
 pagne, called Villelongue, a man of intrepidity, who, not 
 having at that time a fortune equal to his courage, and be- 
 sides dazzled with the reputation of the king of Sweden, had 
 come to Turkey with a view of entering into the service of 
 that prince. 
 
 M. de Fierville, with the assistance of this young man, 
 wrote a memorial in the name of the king of Sweden, in 
 which he made that monarch demand satisfaction of the sul- 
 tan for the insult offered in his person to all crowned heads, 
 and for the treachery, real or supposed, of the kam and pacha 
 of Bender. 
 
 In this memorial, he accused the vizier and other ministers 
 of having been corrupted by the Russians, of imposing upon 
 the grand seignor, of having intercepted the king's letters 
 to his highness, and of having by their artifices extorted 
 from the sultan an order so contrary to the hospitality of 
 Mussulmen, by which the law of nations was violated, and 
 in a manner so unworthy of a great emperor, attacking with 
 twenty thousand men, a king who had none but his own do- 
 mestics to defend him, and who relied upon the sacred word 
 of the sultan. 
 
 When this memorial was drawn up, it was necessary to 
 have it translated into the Turkish language, and written 
 in a particular hand, upon a paper made on purpose, which 
 it is necessary to make use of for every thing which is pre- 
 sented to the sultan. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 217 
 
 They applied to several French interpreters in the town; 
 but the affairs of the king of Sweden were so desperate, and 
 the vizier declared so openly against him, that not a single 
 interpreter dared even to translate it. At last they found 
 a stranger, whose hand was not known at the Porte, who, 
 having received a handsome recompense, and the assurance 
 of profound secrecy, translated the memorial into the Turkish 
 language, and wrote it upon the proper sort of paper. Ba- 
 ron d'Advirson, a Swedish officer, counterfeited the king's 
 signature. Fierville, who had the royal signet, set it to the 
 writing ; and they sealed the whole with the arms of Swe- 
 den. Vilielongue charged himself with the delivery of this 
 packet into the hands of the grand seignor as he went to the 
 mosque, according to his usual custom. The like methods 
 had been frequently employed to present memorials to the 
 sultan against his ministers ; but that very circumstance ren- 
 dered the success of inis enterprise the more difficult, and 
 the danger still greater. 
 
 The vizier, who foresaw that the Swedes would demand 
 justice of the sultan, and being instructed by the unhappy 
 fate of his predecessors, had given peremptory orders to al- 
 low no one to approach the grand seignor's person, but to 
 seize every one who should be about the mosque with peti- 
 tions in their hands. 
 
 Vilielongue knew of this order, and was not ignorant that 
 he run the risk of losing his head. He laid aside his Frank's 
 dress, and put on a Grecian habit ; and, concealing the let- 
 ter in his bosom, repaired betimes to the neighbourhood of 
 the mosque to which the grand seignor resorted. He coun- 
 terfeited the madman, and dancing between two files of 
 janissaries, through which the sultan was to pass, he pur- 
 posely let drop some pieces of money from his pockets, as 
 if by chance, in order to amuse the guards. 
 
 When the sultan approached, the guards endeavoured to 
 remove Vilielongue; but he fell on his knees and struggled 
 with the janissaries ; at last his cap fell off, and he was dis- 
 covered by his long hair to be a Frank : he received several 
 K ' 19 
 
218 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 blows, and was very roughly handled. The grand seignor, 
 who was near, heard the scuffle, and demanded the cause of 
 it. Villelongne cried out with all his force, "Amman! 
 Amman ! Mercy !" pulling the letter out of his bosom. The 
 sultan ordered the guards to let him approach. Villelongue 
 instantly ran to him, embraced his stirrup, and presented 
 the memorial, saying, " Sued crall dan ; It is the king ol 
 Sweden who gives you this." The sultan put the letter in 
 his bosom, and proceeded to the mosque. In the mean while 
 they secured Villelongue, and imprisoned him in one of the 
 exterior apartments of the seraglio. 
 
 The sultan having read the letter, upon his leaving the 
 mosque, resolved to interrogate the prisoner himself. What 
 I relate here will perhaps appear somewhat incredible ; but 
 yet nothing is here advanced but what is vouched by the 
 letters of M. de Villelongue, and when so brave an officer 
 asserts any thing upon his honour, he merits some credit 
 He assured me, then, that the sultan laid aside his imperial 
 garb, and the particular turban which he wears, and dis- 
 guised himself like an officer of the janissaries, a thing 
 which he frequently does. He brought along with him an 
 old man of the island of Malta, who served as an interpreter. 
 By favour of this disguise, Villelongue enjoyed an honour 
 which no Christian ambassador had ever obtained ; he had 
 a private conference with the Turkish emperor for a quar- 
 ter of an hour. He did not fail to represent the wrongs 
 which the king of Sweden had suffered, to accuse the mi- 
 nisters, and to demand satisfaction, with so much the more 
 freedom, as in talking to the sultan he was only supposed 
 to be talking to his equal. He could easily discover, not- 
 withstanding the darkness of his prison, that it was no other 
 than the grand seignor himself; but this only served to give 
 him the more spirit in the conversation. The pretended of- 
 ficer of the janissaries said to Villelongue, " Christian, as- 
 sure thyself that the sultan, my master, has the soul of an 
 emperor; and that if your king of Sweden has reason on 
 his side, he will do him justice." Villelongue was soon 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 219 
 
 after set at liberty; and in a few weeks after a sudden 
 change was seen in the seraglio, which the Swedes attri- 
 buted to this singular conference. The mufti was deposed ; 
 the kam of Tartary was banished to Rhodes ; and the se- 
 raskicr pacha of Bender confined in one of the islands of 
 the Archipelago. 
 
 The Ottoman Porte is so subject to the like revolutions, 
 that it is difficult to decide whether the sultan really meant 
 by these sacrifices to appease the king of Sweden or not. 
 Indeed, from the treatment which that prince received, it 
 does not appear that the Porte had any great inclination to 
 oblige him. 
 
 The favourite Ali-Coumourgi was suspected of being the 
 sole cause of all these changes, in order to serve his own 
 particular views. It was said that he caused the kam of 
 Tartary and the seraskier of Bender to be banished, under 
 the pretence that they had given the king the twelve hun- 
 dred purses in contradiction to the orders of the grand 
 seignor. He likewise raised to the throne of Tartary the 
 brother of the deposed kam, a young man of his own age, 
 who had little regard for his brother, and upon whom the 
 favourite depended greatly in prosecuting the wars he had 
 meditated. With regard to the grand vizier Jussuf, he was 
 not deposed till some weeks after, when Soliman Pacha ob- 
 tained the title of first vizier. 
 
 It is incumbent on me to declare, that M. de Villelongue 
 and several Swedes assured me, that the letter presented to 
 the sultan in the king's name, was the cause of all these 
 great changes at the Porte ; but M. de Fierville, for his 
 part, has assured me of the contrary. But, indeed, I have 
 found the like contradictions in many memorials that have 
 been submitted to my perusal. In such cases, it is the duty 
 of a historian to give matters of fact ingenuously, without 
 endeavouring to dive into motives ; and to confine himself 
 to the relation of what he does know, without guessing at 
 things which he is not acquainted with. 
 
 In the mean time they had conducted Charles XII. to the 
 
220 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 little castle of Demirtash, near Adrianople. An innumera- 
 ble number of Turks were assembled in this place to see the 
 arrival of that prince, whom they carried from his chariot to 
 the castle on a sofa; but Charles, that he might not be seen 
 by the crowd, put a cushion upon his head. 
 
 The Porte was several days before it would grant him his 
 request to reside at Demotica, a little town six leagues from 
 Adrianople, and near the famous river Hebrus, now called 
 Marizza. " Go," said Coumourgi to the grand vizier Soli- 
 man, "and tell the king of Sweden that he may stay at 
 Demotica all his life ; I will be answerable, that before the 
 expiration of one year, he will demand of his own accord to 
 be gone ; but let your chief care be, not to furnish him with 
 money." 
 
 Thus was the king conveyed to the little town of Demo- 
 tica, where the Porte allowed him a " thaim," consisting of 
 a considerable quantity of provisions for himself and his re- 
 tinue ; but they would only grant him five-and-twenty crowns 
 a day in money to buy pork and wine, two kinds of provi- 
 sions which the Turks never furnish to others. The purse 
 of five hundred crowns a day, which he had at Bender, was 
 withdrawn. 
 
 Scarcely had he arrived at Demotica with his little court, 
 when the grand vizier Soliman was deposed, and his place 
 filled by Ibrahim Molla, a man of a high spirit, of great cou- 
 rage, but the coarsest manners. It is not useless to make 
 known his history, that the reader may be acquainted with 
 the characters of all those viceroys of the Ottoman empire, 
 upon whom the fortune of Charles so long depended. 
 
 He had been a common sailor till the accession of the sul- 
 tan Achmet III. This emperor frequently disguised him- 
 self, either in the habit of a private man, of a priest, or a 
 dervise ; and used to slip in the evening into the coffee- 
 houses of Constantinople, and the public places, to hear 
 what was said of him, and to collect the sentiments of the 
 people. One day he heard this Molla complaining that the 
 Turkish ships never took any prizes, and swearing, that if 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 221 
 
 he were a captain of a ship, he would never enter the port 
 of Constantinople without bringing some vessel of the infi- 
 dels along with him. The grand seignor the next day or- 
 dered the command of a ship to be given to him, and that 
 he should be sent upon a cruize. The new captain returned 
 in a few days after with a Maltese bark, and a galley of Ge- 
 noa. In about two years time he was appointed captain 
 general of the navy, and at last grand vizier. As soon as he 
 arrived at this post, he thought he could dispense with the 
 favourite; and to render himself the more necessary, he 
 projected a scheme for commencing a war against the Rus- 
 sians : with this view, he pitched a tent not far from the 
 place where the king of Sweden resided. 
 
 He invited that prince to come and see him, with the new 
 kam of Tartary, and the French ambassador. The king, 
 who became more proud as he became more unfortunate, 
 considered it a most daring affront, for a subject to send him 
 an invitation ; he therefore ordered his Chancellor Mullern 
 to go in his place; and he himself, who was always in the 
 extremes, lest the Turks should not pay him that respect 
 which was due to his royal person, or oblige him to com- 
 promise his dignity, took to his bed, and resolved not to quit 
 it as long as he should stay at Demotica. He remained ten 
 months in his bed, pretending to be ill. Chancellor Mul- 
 lern, Grothusen, and Colonel Dubens, were the only persons 
 who were admitted to his table. They had none of the 
 conveniences with which the Franks are generally provided ; 
 all these they had lost at Bender ; consequently, their meals 
 were far from being served with pomp or with elegance. 
 They waited on themselves ; and during#he whole time 
 Chancellor Mullern performed the office of cook. 
 
 During the time that Charles was thus passing his time in 
 bed, he was apprized of the desolation of all his provinces 
 that were situated within the limits of Sweden. 
 
 General Steinbock, rendered illustrious by his driving the 
 Danes out of Scania, and having conquered their choicest 
 troops with a handful of peasants, still maintained for some 
 19* 
 
222 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 time the reputation of the Swedish arms. He defended, as 
 far as he was able, Pomerania, Bremen, and what the king 
 still possessed in Germany; but could not hinder the com- 
 bined armies of the Danes and Saxons from besieging Stade, 
 a town of great strength and importance, situated on the 
 banks of the Elbe, in the duchy of Bremen. The town 
 was bombarded and reduced to ashes, and the garrison 
 obliged to surrender at discretion, before Steinbock was able 
 to advance to their assistance. 
 
 This general, who had about twelve thousand men, of 
 which one half were cavalry, pursued the enemy, who were 
 twice as numerous, and, at last, overtook them in the duchy 
 of Mecklenburg, at a place called Gadebush, near a river 
 which bears the same name. He arrived opposite to the 
 Saxons and the Danes on the 20th of December, 1712. He 
 was separated from them by a morass. The enemy had this 
 morass in front, and a wood in their rear ; they had also the 
 advantage of number and situation ; and their camp could 
 not be gained without crossing the marsh under the fire of 
 their artillery. 
 
 Steinbock passed at the head of his troops, arrived in or- 
 der of battle, and began one of the most obstinate and 
 bloody engagements which ever happened between these 
 rival nations. After a sharp conflict for three hours, the 
 Danes and Saxons were routed, and obliged to quit the field 
 of battle. 
 
 It was in this battle that a son of Augustus by the coun- 
 tess of Konigsmark, known by the name of Count Saxe, 
 served his apprenticeship in the art of war. This is the 
 same Count Sa4fc who had the honour afterwards to be 
 elected duke of Courland, and who wanted nothing but 
 power to put himself in possession of the most incontestible 
 right which any man can have to sovereignty, I mean the 
 unanimous vote of the people. This is also the man who 
 has since acquired a more solid glory by saving France at 
 the battle of Fontenoy, by conquering Flanders, and merit- 
 ing the reputation of the greatest general of our age. He 
 
■ 
 
 KING OF SWEDEN. 223 
 
 commanded a regiment at Gadebush, and had a horse killed 
 under him ; I have heard him say, that the Swedes always 
 kept their ranks ; and that, even after the victory was de- 
 cided, and the first lines of these brave troops having their 
 enemies lying dead at their feet, there was not a single 
 Swedish soldier who dared even to stop to strip them, before 
 prayers were read in the field of battle ; so steady were 
 they in the strict discipline to which their king had always 
 accustomed them. 
 
 Steinbock, after this victory, remembering that the Danes 
 had reduced Stade to ashes, went to retaliate on Altena, 
 which belongs to the king of Denmark. Altena stands be- 
 low Hamburgh, on the banks of the Elbe, which can con- 
 vey ships of considerable burthen into its harbour. The 
 king of Denmark had favoured this town with many pri- 
 vileges, with the design of establishing a flourishing com- 
 merce ; the industry of its inhabitants, encouraged by the 
 prudent measures of the king, had already added Altena to 
 the number of rich and commercial cities. Hamburgh had 
 conceived a jealousy at this, and wished for nothing so 
 much as its destruction. As soon as Steinbock was in sight 
 of Altena, he sent a trumpet to acquaint the inhabitants, 
 that they must retire with as many of their effects as they 
 could carry off, and that he was going to raze their town 
 to its foundation. 
 
 The magistrates came and threw themselves at his feet, 
 and offered him a hundred thousand crowns for ransom. 
 Steinbock demanded two hundred thousand. The inhabi- 
 tants begged that they might, at least, be permitted to send 
 to Hamburgh, where their correspondents resided, assuring 
 him that next day they would send him that sum ; but the 
 Swedish general replied, that they must give it instantly, or 
 he would immediately set Altena in flames. 
 
 His troops were already in the suburbs with torches in 
 their hands. A feeble wooden gate, and a ditch, already 
 filled up, were the only defence of the inhabitants of Altena, 
 These unfortunate people were obliged to quit their houses 
 
224 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES Xlf. 
 
 with precipitation in the middle of the night. It was the 
 ninth of January, 1713. The rigour of the season, then ex- 
 cessive, was augmented by a violent north wind, which ser- 
 ved at once to spread the flames with more expedition through 
 the town, and to render the miseries of the poor people who 
 were exposed in the open fields the more intolerable. Men 
 and women weeping and wailing, and bending under the 
 weight of their furniture, fled to the neighbouring hills, 
 which were covered with snow. Many palsied old men 
 were carried thither on the shoulders of the young. Several 
 of the women, who were newly delivered, fled with their 
 babes in their arms, and perished together from the cold on 
 the hills, throwing their last looks towards the flames which 
 consumed their country. All the inhabitants had not time 
 to quit the town before the Swedes set fire to it. The con- 
 flagrations continued from midnight till ten in the morning. 
 Almost all the houses being of wood, they were entirely con- 
 sumed ; and the next day there was not the least appearance 
 that there had been a town on that spot. 
 
 The aged, the sick, and women of tender constitutions, 
 who had taken refuge in the snow, while their houses were 
 in flames, at last crawled to the gates of Hamburgh, and be- 
 sought the inhabitants to receive them within the walls, and 
 to save their lives. But this was denied them, because there 
 had been some contagious distempers in Altena, and the 
 Hamburghers had not so great a regard for its inhabitants 
 as to expose themselves to the danger of having their own 
 town infected by receiving them. Thus did the greatest part 
 of these miserable people expire under the walls of Hamburgh, 
 calling on heaven to witness the barbarity of the Swedes, 
 and the treatment of the Hamburghers, which was not less 
 inhuman. 
 
 All Germany cried out against this violence ; the ministers 
 and generals of Poland and Denmark wrote to Count Stein- 
 bock, reproaching him with a cruelty so enormous, as perpe- 
 trated without necessity, and remaining without excuse, pro- 
 voked the vengeance of heaven and earth. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 225 
 
 Steinbock replied, " that he should not have carried things 
 to such extremities, except to teach the enemies of the king, 
 his master, not to make war for the future like barbarians, 
 but to pay some regard to the laws of nations ; that they had 
 filled Pomerania with their cruelties, laid waste that beauti- 
 ful province, and sold near a hundred thousand of the in- 
 habitants to the Turks ; and that the torches which had laid 
 Altena in ashes, were but reprisals for the red hot bullets by 
 which Stade had been consumed." 
 
 Such was the fury with which the Swedes and their ene- 
 mies carried on the war. If Charles had appeared in Po- 
 merania at this time, it is reasonable to imagine he might 
 have recovered his former good fortune. His armies, though 
 removed at so great a distance from his person, were still 
 animated by his spirit ; but the absence of a chief is always 
 prejudicial to his affairs, and prevents even victories from be- 
 ing turned to account. Steinbock lost by piecemeal the 
 great advantage he had gained by such signal actions, as at 
 another time would have proved decisive. 
 
 Victorious as he was, he could not prevent the Russians, 
 Danes, and Saxons, from joining. His quarters were beat 
 up ; he lost some troops in several little skirmishes ; and 
 two thousand of his men were drowned in passing the Ei- 
 der, as they were going to their winter quarters in Hplstein. 
 All these losses, in a country surrounded on every side by 
 powerful enemies, were utterly irreparable. 
 
 Holstein was, at this time*, governed by its young duke, 
 Frederic, aged twelve years, nephew of the king of Sweden, 
 and son of that duke who. had been killed at the battle of 
 Clissau. The bishop of Lubeck, his uncle, governed this 
 unhappy country with the title of administrator, which its 
 sovereigns had never possessed in tranquillity. 
 
 The bishop, who feared for the states of his ward, was 
 desirous to preserve an apparent neutrality ; but it was im- 
 possible to remain neuter between the army of the king of 
 Sweden, whose heir the duke of Holstein might become, 
 and the armies of the allies ready to invade that state. 
 
226 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 Count Steinbock, pressed by the enemy, and no longer 
 able to preserve his small army, summoned the bishop-ad- 
 ministrator to consent to its being received within the fort- 
 ress of Tonningen. The bishop found himself reduced 
 either entirely to sacrifice the king's army, or to draw upon 
 Holstein the vengeance of Denmark. 
 
 He had recourse to artifice, that dangerous resource of 
 the weak. He ordered Colonel Wolf, who commanded in 
 Tonningen, to receive the Swedish troops in his fortresses, 
 but at the same time exacted of that officer that he should 
 never mention that order, and Steinbock, on his side, took 
 an oath to keep the negotiation secret. 
 
 It was necessary that Wolf should take upon himself to 
 receive the army in his garrison as of his own authority, and 
 that he should appear to disobey the orders of his sovereign. 
 All this finesse turned out unfortunately for the duke, the 
 country, and for Steinbock. The czar, the king of Den- 
 mark, and the king of Prussia, blockaded Tonningen. The 
 provisions which were to have come to this small army, 
 failed by a fatality, which through this whole war ruined 
 the affairs of Sweden. 
 
 At last, Steinbock was forced to surrender himself prisoner 
 to the king of Denmark, with his troops, on the 13th of 
 March, 1713. Thus was this army irretrievably dissipated, 
 which had gained the two celebrated victories of Helsim- 
 burg and Gadebush, under a general of whom was enter- 
 tained the highest expectations ; and the king of Denmark 
 had the satisfaction to hold as his prisoner, the person who 
 had thwarted all his designs, and reduced his town of Al- 
 tena to ashes. Steinbock, when he quitted Tonningen, as- 
 sured the king of Denmark that he had never entered that 
 town but by stratagem, and that he had deceived the gover- 
 nor. This officer swore to the same thing, and preferred 
 the dishonour of having been surprised to the divulging the 
 secret of his master. 
 
 The duke of Holstein and the bishop-administrator pro- 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 227 
 
 tested that they had observed the neutrality ; they implored 
 the mediation of the king of Prussia and the elector of 
 Hanover. But all this finesse not being supported by force, 
 did not prevent the king of Denmark from besieging Wolf 
 in Tonningen, a short time afterward, with his own troops 
 and those of the czar. This commander surrendered as 
 Steinbock had done, and at last confessed the secret, of which 
 the Danes had but too many suspicions. 
 
 This furnished the king of Denmark with a pretext for 
 taking possession of the states of the duke of Holstein, 
 which have never yet been entirely restored to him. This 
 same king of Denmark, who ravaged, without scruple, the 
 duchy of Holstein, had yet the generosity to treat Steinbock 
 with consideration, and gave an example that kings are 
 often more guided by their interests than their revenge. 
 He left the incendiary of Altena free upon his parole at 
 Copenhagen, and affected to heap favours upon him ; till 
 Steinbock having attempted to escape, had the misfortune 
 to be -stopped, and to be convicted of having broke his pa- 
 role. Then he was strictly guarded, and reduced to ask 
 pardon of the king of Denmark, who granted it to him. 
 
 Pomerania being without defence, became a prey to the 
 allies, excepting Stralsund, the Isle of Rugen, and some 
 neighbouring places, and was sequestered in the hands of 
 the king of Prussia. The states of Bremen were filled with 
 Danish garrisons. At the same time the Russians overran 
 Finland, and beat the Swedes, who, being inferior in point 
 of numbers, and their resolution forsaking them, they be- 
 gan to lose their superiority of valour over enemies who 
 were now inured to war. 
 
 To complete the misfortunes of Sweden, the king was obsti- 
 nately determined to remain at Demotica, and still flattered 
 himself with the hope of having assistance from the Turks, 
 in whom he ought no longer to have reposed any confidence. 
 
 Ibrahim Molia, that bold vizier, who had been so obsti- 
 nately bent on a war with the Russians, in opposition to the 
 favourite, was strangled between two doors. 
 
228 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 The place of vizier was become so dangerous, that no 
 one dared to accept of it ; it continued vacant six months. 
 At last the favourite, Ali-Coumourgi, assumed the title ol 
 grand vizier. Then were all the hopes of the king of Swe- 
 den crushed at once. He knew Coumourgi so much the 
 better, as he had been served by him when the interest of 
 that favourite and his own happened to coincide. 
 
 Charles had now been eleven months at Demotica, buried 
 in sloth and oblivion : this extreme indolence succeeding so 
 suddenly the most violent exercises, had at last actually 
 given him the disease which he had before feigned. His 
 death was believed throughout Europe. The council of re- 
 gency which he had established at Stockholm when he left 
 his capital, no longer received any despatches from him. 
 The senate came in a body to Princess Ulrica Eleonora, the 
 king's sister, and intreated her to take the regency into her 
 own hands, during the long absence of her brother. She 
 accepted the proposal ; but when she perceived that the 
 senate wanted to oblige her to make a peace with the czar 
 and the king of Denmark, who attacked Sweden on every 
 side, and well knowing that her brother would never ratify 
 such a peace, she resigned the regency, and sent into Tur- 
 key a long detail of the transaction. 
 
 Charles received his sister's packet at Demotica. The 
 arbitrary principles which he had imbibed at his birth, made 
 him forget that Sweden had formerly been free, and that in 
 ancient times the senate governed the kingdom conjointly 
 with the king. He regarded this body as a parcel of do- 
 mestics, who wanted to usurp tjhe command of the house in 
 their master's absence ; he wrote to them, that if they pre- 
 tended to assume the reins of government, he would send 
 them one of his boots, from which he would oblige them 
 to receive their orders. 
 
 To prevent, therefore, these pretended attempts upon his 
 authority in Sweden, and to defend his kingdom, now in 
 the last extremity, deprived of all hopes of assistance from 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 229 
 
 the Ottoman Porte, and relying on himself alone, he signi- 
 fied to the grand vizier his desire of departing, and returning 
 by the way of Germany. 
 
 M. des Alleurs, the French ambassador, who was charged 
 with the affairs of Sweden, made the proposal in his name. 
 u Well," said the vizier to him, u did not I tell you, that a 
 year would not pass before the king of Sweden would desire 
 to depart ? Tell him it is at his choice to go or stay ; but 
 let him come to a fixed determination, and appoint the day 
 of his departure, that he may not a second time embarrass 
 us as he did at Bender." 
 
 Count des Alleurs softened the harshness of this answer 
 to the king. The day was accordingly fixed ; but before 
 Charles would leave Turkey, he resolved to display the 
 pomp of a great king, though involved in all the difficulties 
 of a fugitive. He gave Grothusen the title of his ambassa- 
 dor-extraordinary, and sent him to take leave in form at Con- 
 stantinople, followed by a retinue of eighty persons, all su- 
 perbly dressed. 
 
 The divers stratagems to which he was reduced in order 
 to raise a sufficiency to defray this expense, were as humili- 
 ating as the embassy was pompous. 
 
 M. des Alleurs lent the king forty thousand crowns. Gro- 
 thusen had agents at Constantinople, who borrowed in his 
 name, at the rate of fifty per cent, interest, a thousand 
 crowns of a Jew, two hundred pistoles of an English mer- 
 chant, and a thousand livres of a Turk. 
 
 In this manner did they amass a sum sufficient fb enable 
 them to act, in the presence of the divan, the brilliant come- 
 dy of the Swedish embassy. Grothusen received at Con- 
 stantinople all the honours that the Porte usually pay to 
 kings' ambassadors-extraordinary on the day of their audience. 
 The design of all this parade was only to obtain money from 
 the grand vizier ; but that minister was inexorable. 
 
 Grothusen proposed the borrowing a million from the 
 Porte. The vizier replied coldly, that his master knew hour 
 
 20 
 
230 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 to give when he thought proper, but that it was beneath his 
 dignity to lend ; that the king should be furnished with 
 abundance of every thing necessary for his journey, in a 
 manner worthy of the person that sent him back ; and that 
 the Porte, perhaps, might even make him a present in gold 
 bullion, but that was not to be looked upon as certain. 
 
 At last, on the 1st of October, 1714, the king of Sweden 
 set out on his journey from Turkey. A capigi pacha, with 
 six chiaoux, came to attend him from the castle of £)emir- 
 'tasli, where that prince had resided for some days past ; he 
 presented him, in the name of the grand seignor, with a large 
 tent of scarlet, embroidered with gold, a sabre with the guard 
 mounted with jewels, and eight beautiful Arabian horses, 
 with fine saddles, and stirrups of massy silver. It is not be- 
 neath the dignity of history to observe, that the Arabian 
 equerry who had had the care of the horses, gave the king 
 an account of their genealogy; a custom which hath been 
 long established among these people, who seem to pay more 
 attention to the nobility of their horses, than to that of their 
 men; which is not perhaps so unreasonable, as among ani- 
 mals, those breeds of which care is taken, and which are not 
 crossed, are never found to degenerate. 
 
 Sixty wagons loaded with all sorts of provisions, and three 
 hundred horses, comprised the convoy. The capigi pacha un- 
 derstanding that several Turks had lent money to the king 
 of Sweden's attendants at an immoderate interest, told his 
 majesty, that usury being contrary to the Mahometan law, 
 he intreated him to liquidate all these debts, and to order his 
 resident, whom he should leave at Constantinople, to pay 
 no more than the capital. " No," said the king, " if any of 
 my domestics have given bills for an hundred crowns, I will 
 pay them, though they should not even have received ten." 
 
 He made a proposal to his creditors to follow him, with 
 an assurance that he would not only pay them what he owed, 
 but all their expenses. Several of them went to Sweden ; 
 and Grothusen took care to see them paid. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 231 
 
 The Turks, in order to show the greater deference to 
 their royal guest, made him travel by very short stages ; but 
 this respectful motion was ill suited to the impatient spirit 
 of the king. During the journey, he got up at three in the 
 morning, according to his usual custom. As soon as he was 
 dressed, he went himself and awakened the capigi and 
 chfaoux, and ordered the march during the darkness of the 
 night. The Turkish gravity was deranged by this new me- 
 thod of travelling ; but Charles took pleasure in seeing them 
 embarrassed, and said, it was some little revenge for the af- 
 fair of Bender. 
 
 About the time that Charles reached the frontiers of Tur- 
 key, Stanislaus was leaving them by a different road, and 
 going into Germany, with a view of retiring into the dutchy 
 of Deux-Points, a province bordering on the palatinate of 
 Alsace and the Rhine, and which has belonged to the kings 
 of Sweden ever since Charles X., the successor of Christina, 
 had united it to the crown. Charles assigned to Stanislaus 
 the revenue of this dutchy, estimated at that time at about 
 seventy thousand crowns. Such was the issue of so many 
 projects, wars, and expectations ! Stanislaus could and would 
 have made an advantageous treaty with Augustus ; but the 
 inflexible obstinacy of Charles made him lose his lands and 
 real possessions in Poland, to preserve the title of king. 
 
 This prince remained in the dutchy of Deux-Points till 
 the death of Charles XII., when that province reverting to 
 a prince of the palatine family, he chose his retreat in Wis- 
 semburgh, in French Alsace. Mr. Sum, envoy from King 
 Augustus, making a complaint of this to the duke of Orleans, 
 regent of France, the duke returned him an answer in these 
 remarkable words ; " Sir, tell the king, your master, that 
 France has ever been the asylum of kings in distress." 
 
 The king of Sweden being arrived on the confines of Ger- 
 many, was given to understand, that the emperor had given 
 orders to receive him in every part of his dominioimwith a 
 becoming magnificence. The towns and villages tnrough 
 
 ✓ 
 
232 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 which the quarter masters had previously fixed his route, had 
 made great preparations for receiving him ; all the people 
 waited with impatience to see this extraordinary man pass 
 by, whose victories and misfortunes, whose most trifling ac- 
 tions, and even his keeping his bed, had made so great a 
 noise in Europe and Asia. But Charles had no desire to 
 bear the fatigue of so much pomp, or to exhibit as a specta- 
 cle, the prisoner of Bender; he had even resolved never to 
 re-enter Stockholm until he should have repaired his losses 
 by a change of fortune. 
 
 When he arrived at Targowitz, on the frontiers of Tran- 
 sylvania, after he had taken leave of his Turkish convoy, he 
 assembled his attendants in a barn, and told them all not to 
 give themselves any uneasiness about his person, but to pro- 
 ceed with ail possible expedition to Stralsund in Pomerania, 
 on the coast of the Baltic sea, about three hundred leagues 
 from the place where they then were. 
 
 He took nobody with him except two officers, Rosen and 
 During, and taking a cheerful leave of the rest of his attend- 
 ants, left them filled with fear, sorrow, and astonishment. 
 To disguise himseJf, he put on a black wig, as he always 
 wore his own hair, a gold laced hat, a gray coat, and blue 
 cloak ; and, taking the name of a German officer, rode post 
 with his two fellow travellers. 
 
 He avoided in his w r ay as much as possible, the territories 
 of either his declared or secret enemies, taking the road 
 through Hungary, Moravia, Bavaria, Austria, Wirtemberg, 
 the Palatinate, Westphalia, and Mecklenburg ; by which 
 means he almost made the tour of Germany, and lengthened 
 bis journey by one half. Having rode the whole first day 
 without intermission, young During, who was not so much 
 inured to these excessive fatigues, fainted as he was dismount- 
 ing. The king, who was determined not to stop a moment 
 on the road, asked During, as soon as he came to himself, 
 how much money he had. Upon During's replying that he 
 had about a thousand crowns in gold. " Give me half of 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 233 
 
 them," said the king, " I see you are not in a condition to 
 follow me ; I will therefore finish the journey by myself." 
 During begged he would permit him to repose himself but 
 for three hours, assuring him that by that time he should be 
 able to remount his horse and attend his majesty, and con- 
 jured him to think of the dangers to which he was going to 
 expose himself. The king, inexorable, made him give him 
 five hundred crowns, and called for horses. During, alarm- 
 ed at this resolution, bethought himself of an innocent stra- 
 tagem ; he took the post-master aside, and pointing to the 
 king of Sweden, " that gentleman," said he) "is my cousin; 
 we are travelling together upon the same business ; he sees 
 that I am ill, and yet he will not wait for me, even for three 
 hours ; give him, I beseech you, the worst horse in your 
 stable ; and let me have a cart or any post carriage." 
 
 He slipt two ducats into the post-master's hand, who ex- 
 actly performed his orders ; the king had a horse given him 
 that was both lame and restive ; such was the equipage with 
 which this monarch set out at ten o'clock at night, amidst 
 darkness, rain, wind, and snow. His fellow traveller, after 
 having slept a few hours, followed him in a. cart drawn by 
 strong horses. 
 
 About day-break, at the distance of a few miles, he over- 
 took the king, who not being able to make his horse move 
 on, was travelling on foot to the next stage. 
 
 Charles was obliged to get into During's cart, where he 
 slept upon the straw. Thus they continued their journey, 
 by day on horseback, and sleeping by night in a cart, with- 
 out stopping in any place. 
 
 After sixteen days travelling, not without danger of being 
 taken more than once, they arrived at last, on the twenty- 
 first of November, in the year 1714, at the gates of the town 
 of Stralsund, about one in the morning. 
 
 The king called to the sentinel, and told him that he was 
 a courier despatched from Turkey by the king of Sweden, 
 and that he must speak that moment with General Ducker, 
 
 20* 
 
234 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 the governor of the place. The sentinel answered, that it 
 was too late ; that the governor was gone to bed ; and that 
 he must wait till break of day. 
 
 The king replied, that he came upon business of impor- 
 tance, and told them that if they did not instantly go and 
 awaken the governor, they should be punished the next 
 morning. A serjeant, at last, went and called up the gover- 
 nor. Ducker imagined that it might perhaps be one of the 
 king's generals ; he therefore caused the gates to be opened, 
 and the courier was introduced into his chamber. 
 
 Ducker, half asleep, asked him, " what news of the king 
 of Sweden ?" The king taking him by the arm, " What," 
 said lie, " Ducker, have my most faithful subjects forgot 
 me ?" The general immediately recollected the king, though 
 he could scarce believe his eyes ; and throwing himself from 
 the bed, embraced his master's knees with tears of joy. The 
 news was in an instant spread through the town. Every 
 one got up ; the soldiers surrounded the governor's house. 
 The streets were crowded with the inhabitants, asking each 
 other whether it was true that the king was come. Every 
 window was illuminated, wine ran through the streets, 
 amidst the blaze of a thousand flambeaux, and the discharges 
 of the artillery. 
 
 In the mean time, the king was put into a bed, in which 
 he had not been for above sixteen days ; his boots were 
 obliged to be cut from his legs, they being so much swollen 
 by his extreme fatigue. As he had neither linen nor clothes, 
 they furnished him with a wardrobe- as well as the town 
 could afford, with all expedition. When he had slept a few 
 hours, he arose, and went directly to review his troops and 
 visit his fortifications. The same day, he despatched orders 
 into all parts for renewing the war against his enemies with 
 greater vigour than ever. These particulars, so conforma- 
 ble to the extraordinary character of Charles XII., were com- 
 municated to me by M. Fabricius, and afterwards confirmed 
 by Count Croissy, ambassador to the king of Sweden. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 235 
 
 The christian part of Europe was now in a situation far 
 different from that in which it was when C harks quitted it 
 in 1709. 
 
 The war which had so long raged throughout the south, 
 that is to say, in Germany, England, Holland, France, Spain, 
 Portugal, and Italy, was now terminated. This general 
 peace had been brought about by some private intrigues in 
 the English court. ~ The earl of Oxford, an able minister, 
 and Lord Bolingbroke, one of the greatest geniuses and the 
 most eloquent orator of the age, had prevailed over the fa- 
 mous duke of Marlborough, and persuaded the queen to 
 make a peace with Louis XIV. France having no longer 
 England for her enemy j soon obliged the powers to come" to 
 an accommodation. 
 
 Philip V., the grandson of Louis XIV., began to reign 
 peaceably over the ruins of the Spanish monarchy. The 
 emperor of Germany became master of Naples and Flanders, 
 established himself in his vast dominions ; and Louis him- 
 self aspired no higher than to finish in peace his long ca- 
 reer. 
 
 Anne, queen of England, died on the 10th of August, 
 1714, hated by half the nation for having given peace to so 
 many kingdoms. Her brother, James Stuart, an unhappy 
 prince, excluded from the throne almost at*his birth, not be- 
 ing at that time in England to claim the succession, which 
 new laws would have given him if his party could have pre- 
 vailed, George I. elector of Hanover, was unanimously ac- 
 knowledged king of Great Britain. The throne devolved to 
 that elector, not by right of blood, though descended from a 
 daughter of James, but by virtue of an act of parliament of 
 that nation. 
 
 George, called in an advanced age to the government of a 
 people whose language he did not understand, and to whom 
 he was an entire stranger, regarded himself rather as elector 
 of Hanover than king of England. His whole ambition was 
 to aggrandize his German dominions. He almost always 
 
236 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII 
 
 went once a year to visit his hereditary subjects, by whom 
 he was adored. In other respects, he took more pleasure in 
 living like a private man than a sovereign. The pomp of 
 royalty was to him an insupportable burden. He passed his 
 time with a few old courtiers, with whom he lived in great 
 familiarity. He was not the king that made the greatest 
 figure in Europe ; but he was one of the wisest princes of 
 the age, and perhaps the only one that experienced, on a 
 throne, the pleasures of friendship and a private life. Such 
 were the principal monarchs, and such the situation of the 
 8outh of Europe. 
 
 The changes that happened in the north were of another 
 nature. Its kings were engaged in war, and uuited them- 
 selves against the king of Sweden. 
 
 Augustus had been long restored to the throne of Poland 
 by the assistance of the czar, and with the consent of the 
 emperor of Germany, of Anne of England, and of the States 
 General, who, though all guarantees of the treaty of Altran- 
 stad when Charles XII. could have imposed laws, abandon- 
 ed their engagement when they had nothing more to fear 
 from him. 
 
 But Augustus did not enjoy a tranquil authority. The 
 republic of Poland no sooner recalled their king, than their 
 apprehensions of arbitrary power began to revive ; the nation 
 was in arms to oblige him to conform to the pacta conventa, 
 a sacred contract between the king and the people, and 
 seemed to have recalled its sovereign for no other purpose 
 than to declare w r ar against him. At the commencement of 
 these troubles, the name of Stanislaus was not once mention- 
 ed; his party seemed to be annihilated; no other remem- 
 brance of the king of Sweden remained in Poland, than as of 
 a torrent, which, in the violence of its course, had for a time 
 occasioned a change in the face of nature. 
 
 Pultowa, and the absence of Charles XII., by causing the 
 fall of Stanislaus, had drawn on the ruin also of the duke of 
 Holstein, Charles's nephew, who had not long before been 
 
KING OF SWEDEN 
 
 2ST 
 
 despoiled of his dominions by the kingof Denmark. The 
 king of Sweden had had a sincere regard for the father, and 
 was therefore deeply affected and mortified with the misfor- 
 tunes of the son ; the rather, as having no other object than 
 glory, the fall of those princes whom he had either made or 
 restored was, by him, felt as sensibly as the loss of so many 
 provinces. 
 
 Every one was at liberty to enrich himself with the ruin 
 of Charles's fortune. Frederic William, the new king of 
 Prussia, who appeared to have as much inclination for war as 
 his father had had for peace, began by seizing on Stettin and 
 part of Pomerania, as an equivalent for four hundred thou- 
 sand crowns which he had advanced to the king of Den- 
 mark and to the czar. 
 
 George, elector of Hanover, now become king of En- 
 gland, had likewise sequestered into his hands the dutchy of 
 Bremen and Verdun, which the king of Denmark had as- 
 signed to him as a deposit for sixty thousand pistoles. Thus 
 did they dispose of the spoils of Charles XII. ; and those 
 who possessed any of his dominions as pledges, became, 
 from their interests, as dangerous enemies as those who had 
 taken them. 
 
 As to the czar, he was doubtless the most to be feared : 
 his former defeats, his victories, his very faults, his perseve- 
 rance to instruct himself, and then to communicate that 
 knowledge to his subjects, together with his incessant la- 
 bours, had made him a great man in every respect. Riga 
 was already taken ; Livonia, Ingria, Carelia, half of Fin- 
 land, so many provinces that had been conquered by Charles's 
 ancestors, were now subjected to the Russian yoke. 
 
 Peter Alexiowitz, who, twenty years before, had not a 
 single vessel in the Baltic, at this time beheld himself 
 master of that sea, at the head of a fleet of thirty ships of the 
 line. 
 
 One of these ships had been built by his own hands; he 
 being the best carpenter, the best admiral, and the best pilot 
 in the north. There was not a difficult passage of the gulf 
 
238 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 of Bothnia to the ocean which he had not sounded himself; 
 and having thus joined the labours of a common sailor to the 
 experience of a philosopher and the plans of an emperor, he 
 arrived by degrees, and by dint of victories, to the rank of 
 admiral, in the same manner as he had become a general in 
 the land service. 
 
 While Prince Gallitzin, a general formed under his own 
 auspices, and one of those who seconded his enterprises the 
 best, completed the conquest of Finland, took the town of 
 Vasa, and beat the Swedes ; the emperor put to sea, in 
 order to take the island of Alan, situated in the Baltic, 
 about twelve leagues from Stockholm. 
 
 He set out on this expedition in the beginning of July, 
 1714, at the time that his rival, Charles XII., was keeping 
 his bed at Demotica. He embarked at Gronslot port, which 
 he had built some years before, about four miles from Pe- 
 tersburgh. The new port, the fleet which it contained, the 
 officers, the sailors, were all the work of his own hands ; 
 and wherever he turned his eyes, he could behold nothing 
 but what he himself had in some measure created. 
 
 The Russian fleet, which consisted of thirty ships o( the 
 line, eighty gallies, and a hundred half gallies, found itself, 
 on the 15th of July, on the coast of Alan. There were 
 twenty thousand soldiers on board : Admiral Apraxin was 
 commander-in-chief ; and the Russian emperor served in the 
 capacity of rear-admiral. On the 16th, the Swedish fleet, 
 commanded by Vice-Admiral Erinchild, came up ; and, though 
 weaker by two-thirds, maintained a fight for the space of 
 three hours. The czar attacked Erinchild's ship, and took 
 her after an obstinate engagement. 
 
 The day of the victory he landed sixteen thousand men 
 on the isle of Alan ; and having taken a number of Swedish 
 soldiers that had not been able to get on board Erinchild's 
 fleet, he carried them off in his own ships. He returned 
 into his harbour of Gronslot, with Erinchild's large ship, 
 three others of less size, one frigate, and six gallies, which 
 he had made himself master of in this engagement. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 239 
 
 Having left Gronslot, he arrived at Petersburgh, followed 
 by the whole of his victorious fleet, together with the ships 
 taken from the enemy. He was saluted by a triple discharge 
 of a hundred and fifty pieces of cannon ; after which he 
 made a triumphal entry, which flattered his vanity still more 
 than that at Moscow, because he received these honours in 
 his favourite town, where but ten years before there was 
 not a single hut, and where, at that time, he beheld thirty- 
 four thousand five hundred houses ; in short, because he saw 
 himself not only at the head of a victorious navy, but of the 
 first Russian fleet that was ever seen in the Baltic Sea, and 
 in a country in which, before his time, the very name of a 
 fleet was unknown. 
 
 Almost the same ceremonies were observed at Peters- 
 burgh which had decorated the triumph at Moscow. The 
 Swedish vice-admiral was the principal ornament of this 
 new triumph. Peter Alexiowitz appeared as rear-admiral. 
 A Russian boyard, named Romanodowsky, who usually re- 
 presented the czar on these solemn occasions, was seated 
 on a throne surrounded by twelve senators. The rear-ad- 
 miral presented to him a relation of his victory, and was de- 
 clared vice-admiral, in consideration of his services ; a whim- 
 sical ceremony, but at the same time proper in a country 
 where military subordination was one of the novelties which 
 the czar had introduced. 
 
 The emperor of Russia, at last victorious over the Swedes 
 by sea and land, and having assisted in driving them from 
 Poland, began to exercise his authority there in his turn. 
 He had made himself a mediator between Augustus and the 
 republic ; a glory, perhaps, not inferior to that of creating a 
 king. This honour, and, indeed, all the good fortune of 
 Charles, had fallen to the czar, who certainly made a better 
 use of these advantages than his rival, as his successes were 
 80 managed as to contribute to the interest of his country. 
 If he took a town, the principal artizans in it carried their 
 industry along with them to Petersburgh. The manufao- 
 
240 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 tures, the arts and sciences of the provinces which he con- 
 quered in Sweden, were transported into Muscovy, his do- 
 minions were enriched by his victories, a circumstance that 
 makes him the most excusable of all conquerors. 
 
 Sweden, on the contrary, despoiled of almost all her pro- 
 vinces beyond sea, had neither commerce, money, nor 
 credit. Her veteran troops, which formerly were so formi- 
 dable, had either fallen in battle or perished with hunger. 
 More than a hundred thousand Swedes were slaves in the 
 vast dominions of the czar; and about the same number had 
 been sold to the Turks and Tartars. The human species 
 visibly diminished, but hope revived as soon as the king was 
 known to be at Stralsund. 
 
 The impressions of respect and admiration for him were 
 still so strongly implanted in the minds of his subjects, 
 that the youth of the country came in crowds to enlist un- 
 der his banners, though their native soil wanted hands to 
 cultivate it 
 
t 
 
 KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 241 
 
 BOOK VIII. 
 
 Argument. — Charles gives his sister in marriage to the prince of 
 Hesse. — Is besieged at Stralsund, and escapes to Sweden. — Enter- 
 prise of Baron de Gortz, his prime minister. — Plan of a reconcilia- 
 tion with the czar, and of a descent upon England. — Charles besieges 
 Frederickshall in Norway. — Is killed. — His character. — Gortz is be- 
 headed. 
 
 The king, in the midst of these preparations, gave his 
 only surviving sister, Ulrica-Eleonora, in marriage to Fre- 
 derick prince of Hesse Cassel. The queen-dowager, grand- 
 mother of Charles XII. and the princess, at that time in the 
 eightieth year of her age, did the honours of this festival, 
 on the fourth of April, 1715, in the palace of Stockholm ? 
 and died a little time after. 
 
 The marriage was not honoured with the presence of the # 
 king ; he was still at Stralsund, finishing the fortifications of 
 that important place, threatened with a siege by the kings 
 of Denmark and Prussia. He declared, however, his bro- 
 ther-in-law generalissimo of all his forces in Sweden. This 
 prince had served the States-General in their wars with the 
 French, and was esteemed a good general ; a qualification 
 which contributed not a little to procure him the sister of 
 Charles XII. in marriage. 
 
 Misfortunes now followed one another as rapidly as victo- 
 ries had formerly done. In the month of June, 1715, the 
 German troops of the king of England, with those of Den- 
 mark, invested the strong town of Wismar : the Danes and 
 Saxons united formed about thirty-six thousand men, who 
 marched towards Stralsund, to form the siege of that place. 
 The kings of Denmark and Prussia sunk five Swedish ships 
 near to Stralsund. The czar was then in the Baltic, with 
 twenty large ships of war, and a hundred and fifty transports, 
 on board of which were thirty thousand men. He menaced 
 L 21 
 
242 Hlis 1 ORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 a descent upon Sweden ; sometimes advancing near to the 
 coast of Helsimburgh, and at others appearing before Stock- 
 holm. All Sweden was in arms upon the coasts, every 
 moment expecting an invasion. In the mean time, the czar's 
 land forces drove the Swedes from post to post, until they 
 had dispossessed them of all the places they still held in 
 Finland, toward the gulf of Bothnia ; but the czar carried 
 his conquests no farther. 
 
 At the mouth of the Oder, a river that divides Pomerania, 
 and, after washing the walls of Stetin, falls into the Baltic 
 Sea, is the little isle of Usedom : this place is of great im- 
 portance on account of its situation, which commands the 
 Oder, both on the right and left ; so that the person who is 
 master of this island, is at the same time master of the navi- 
 gation of the river. The king of Prussia had dislodged the 
 Swedes from this place, and had taken possession of it, as 
 well as of Stetin, which he kept sequestered, and all, as he 
 said, pour V amour de la paix, i. e. "for the love of peace." 
 The Swedes had retaken Usedom in the month of May, 
 1715. They had two forts there ; one of which was the fort 
 of Suine, upon the branch of the Oder that bore the same 
 name ; the other, a place of more consequence, was called 
 Pennamender, situated upon the other branch of the river. 
 The king of Sweden had but two hundred and fifty Pome- 
 ranian soldiers to defend two forts and the 'whole island, 
 commanded by an old Swedish officer named Kuze-Slerp, 
 whose name deserves to be preserved. 
 
 On the fourth of August, the king of Prussia sent fifteen 
 hundred foot and eight hundred dragoons to make a descent 
 upon the island, and they landed without opposition near 
 the fort of Suine. The Swedish commander abandoned this 
 fort to the enemy, as being the least important ; and as he 
 could not safely divide his men, he retired with his little 
 troop to the castle of Pennamender, resolute to defend it to 
 the last extremity. 
 
 There was, therefore, a necessity of besieging it in form. 
 A train of artillery was embarked at Stetin for this effect, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 243 
 
 and the Prussian troops were reinforced with a thousand 
 foot and four hundred horse. On the 18th of August the 
 trenches were opened in two places, and the fort was brisk- 
 ly battered with cannon and mortars. During the siege, a 
 Swedish soldier, who was charged with a private letter from 
 Charles XII., found means to land on the island, to get into 
 the fort of Pennamender, and to deliver the letter to the com- 
 mander ; it was couched in the following words : " Do 
 not fire till the enemy come to the brink of the fosse ; de- 
 fend the place to the last drop of your blood ; I commend 
 you to your good fortune. Charles." 
 
 Slerp having read the note, resolved to obey, and to lay 
 down his life, as he was ordered, for the service of his mas- 
 ter. On the twenty-second, at the break of day, the enemy 
 began the assault ; the besieged having kept in their fire till 
 they saw the besiegers on the brink of the fosse, killed a 
 great number of them ; but the ditch was full, the breach 
 enlarged, and the assailants too numerous. They entered 
 the castle at two different places at one time. The com- 
 mander thought of nothing but of selling his life as dear as 
 possible, and obeying his master's letter. He abandoned if* 
 breaches through which the enemy entered ; intrenched 
 little company, who had all the courage and fidelity to 
 follow him, behind a bastion, and posted them in such a 
 manner, that* they could not be surrounded. The enemy 
 came up to him, astonished that he did not ask for quarter. 
 He fought for a whole hour ; and, after having lost the half 
 of his men, was at last killed, together with his lieutenant 
 and major. After this, the surviving few, amounting to a 
 hundred soldiers and one officer, begged their lives, and 
 were made prisoners of war. They found Charles's letter 
 in the commander's pocket, and carried it to the king of 
 Prussia. 
 
 At the time that Charles lost Usedom, and the neighbour- 
 ing isles, which were soon after taken; that Wismar was 
 ready to surrender ; that he no longer possessed a fleet, and 
 Sweden was threatened with an invasion ; he himself was 
 
244 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 in Stralsund, and that place was already besieged by thirty- 
 six thousand men. 
 
 Stralsund, a town become famous throughout Europe for 
 the siege which the king of Sweden sustained in it, is the 
 strongest place in Pomerania. It is situated between the 
 Baltic Sea and the lake of Franken, upon the straits of Gel- 
 la ; having no entrance to it by land, except by a narrow 
 causeway, defended by a citadel, and by fortifications which 
 were imagined inaccessible. It had a garrison of about nine 
 thousand men, and what was beyond all, the king of Sweden 
 himself. The kings of Denmark and Prussia undertook the 
 siege of this place, with an army of six-and-thirty thousand 
 men, composed of Prussians, Danes, and Saxons. 
 
 The honour of besieging Charles XII. was so powerful a 
 motive, that they soon surmounted every obstacle, and open- 
 ed the trenches in the night, between the 19th and 20th of 
 October, 1715. The king of Sweden, at the beginning of 
 the siege, said, that he could not comprehend how a place 
 well fortified, and provided with a sufficient garrison, could 
 be taken. Not but that in the course of his past victories 
 he had taken several places himself, but hardly ever by a 
 regular siege ; the terror of his arms had carried every thing 
 before them; besides, he never judged of other people by 
 himself, but' always entertained too low an opinion of his 
 enemies. The besiegers carried on their works with vigour 
 and resolution, and were seconded by a very singular acci- 
 dent. 
 
 It is well known that the Baltic Sea neither ebbs nor flows. 
 The intrenchments which covered the town, and which were 
 defended on the west by an impassable morass, and by the 
 sea on the east, seemed to .be secure from every assault. No- 
 body had ever noticed, that when the west wind blew with 
 any violence, the waves of the Baltic were driven back in 
 such a manner, as to leave but three feet depth of water un- 
 der the fortifications, which had always been supposed to be 
 washed by so great a depth of water, as to be impracticable. 
 A soldier having fallen from the top of the fortifications into 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 245 
 
 the sea, was astonished to find a bottom ; he imagined that 
 this discovery might make his fortune, and accordingly de- 
 serted, and went to the quarters of Count Wackenbarth, ge- 
 neral of the Saxon troops, to inform him that the sea was 
 fordable, and that he might penetrate, without much diffi- 
 culty, to the Swedish fortifications. The king of Prussia did 
 not delay to profit by this intelligence. 
 
 In the middle of the next night, the west wind still con- 
 tinuing, Lieutenant Colonel Koppen entered the water, 
 followed by eighteen hundred men ; two thousand advanced 
 at the same time upon the causeway that led to the fort ; all 
 the Prussian artillery fired, and the Danes and Prussians 
 gave an alarm on the other side. 
 
 The Swedes imagined themselves sure of destroying the 
 two thousand men whom they saw advancing with so much 
 apparent rashness upon the causeway ; but all of a sudden, 
 Koppen, with his eighteen hundred men, entered the in- 
 trenchment on the side toward the sea. The Swedes, sur- 
 rounded and surprised, could make no resistance, and the 
 post was carried after a terrible carnage. Some of the 
 Swedes fled toward the town ; the besiegers pursued them 
 thither, and entered pell-mell along with the fugitives : two 
 officers and four Saxon soldiers were already on the draw- 
 bridge, which the Swedes had just time to raise ; so that the 
 men were taken, and the town saved for that time. 
 
 The enemy found in the fort twenty-four pieces of can- 
 non, which they immediately turned against Stralsund. The 
 siege was pushed with such vigour and confidence as this 
 success could not fail to inspire. The town was cannonaded 
 and bombarded almost without intermission, 
 
 Opposite to Stralsund, in the Baltic Sea, is the isle of Ru- 
 gen, which serves as a bulwark to that place, and into which 
 the garrison and citizens might have retired, had they had 
 boats to have transported them thither. This island was of 
 great consequence to Charles ; he saw very clearly, that if 
 the enemy were once masters of it, he should find himself 
 besieged both by sea and land • and perhaps be reduced 
 
246 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 to so great extremities, that he must either bury himself in 
 the ruins of Stralsund, or become a prisoner to those very 
 enemies whom he had so long despised, and upon whom 
 he had imposed the most severe laws. But, notwithstand- 
 ing all this, the unhappy situation of his affairs did not per- 
 mit him to place a sufficient garrison in Rugen, in which 
 there were not more than two thousand men. 
 
 His enemies had been employed for three months before, 
 in making all the necessary preparations for a descent upon 
 this island, upon which it is exceedingly difficult to effect a 
 landing. At last, having finished a number of boats, the 
 prince of Anhalt, with the assistance of favourable weather, 
 landed twelve thousand men upon Rugen, on the fifteenth 
 of November. The king, who seemed to be present every 
 where, was at that time in the island ; he had just before 
 joined his two thousand men, who were intrenched near a 
 small port, three leagues from the place where the enemy 
 had landed ; he immediately put himself at the head of this 
 little troop, and, observing the most profound silence, advan- 
 ced in the middle of the night toward the enemy. The 
 prince of Anhalt had already intrenched his forces, with a 
 precaution which appeared unnecessary. The officers com- 
 manding under him, had no idea of being attacked the very 
 first night, and imagined Charles to be at Stralsund ; but the 
 prince of Anhalt, who well knew what C hade's was capa- 
 ble of, had caused a deep fosse to be sunk, fenced with a 
 chevaux-de-frise, and taken all his measures with as much 
 circumspection as if he had a superior army to contend with. 
 
 At two in the morning Charles came up with his enemies, 
 without making the least noise. His soldiers saying to each 
 other, " pull up the chevaux-de-frise," the words were over- 
 heard by the sentinels, the alarm was immediately given 
 through the camp, and the enemies were instantly under 
 arms. The king, having taken up the chevaux-de-frise, 
 perceived a deep fosse before him. " Ah !" said he, " is it 
 possible ! I did not expect this." However, this surprise 
 did not discourage him. He knew not the number of troops 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 247 
 
 landed ; the enemy also, on their side, were ignorant what 
 a small number they had to engage with. The darkness of 
 the night seemed favourable to Charles ; he took his reso- 
 lution in a moment, and jumped into the ditch, accompanied 
 by the bravest of his men, and instantly followed by the rest : 
 the chevaux-de-frise which were plucked up, the levelled 
 earth, the trunks and branches of such trees as they could 
 find, and the carcases of the soldiers that were killed by 
 random shot, served for fascines. The king, the generals, 
 and the bravest of the officers and soldiers, mounted upon 
 one another's shoulders, as in an assault. The battle is 
 now fought in the enemy's camp. The impetuosity of the 
 Swedes soon threw the Danes and Prussians into confusion j 
 but the numbers were too unequal ; the Swedes were re- 
 pulsed, after fighting for a quarter of an hour, and were 
 obliged to repass the fosse. The prince of Anhalt pursued 
 them into the plain, but knew not that it was Charles XII. 
 that fled before him. That unfortunate king rallied his 
 troops in the open field, and the battle was renewed with 
 equal obstinacy on both sides. Grothusen, the king's fa- 
 vourite, and General Dardoff, fell dead at his feet. In the 
 heat of the battle, Charles passed over the body of the lat- 
 ter, who was still breathing. During, the only person who 
 had accompanied him in his journey from Turkey to Stral- 
 sund, was killed before his face. 
 
 In the midst of the tumult, a Danish lieutenant, whose 
 name I have never been able to learn, recognized the king; 
 and seizing his sword with one hand, and with the other 
 pulling him violently by the hair, said to him, " Yield, Sire, 
 or I kill you." The king had a pistol in his belt, which he 
 fired with his left hand at that officer, who died of the 
 wound the next morning. The name of King Charles, 
 which the Dane had pronounced, immediately drew a crowd 
 of the enemy together. The king was surrounded, and re- 
 ceived a musket-shot below the nipple of his left breast : 
 this wound, which he called a contusion, was two fingers 
 deep. The king was on foot, and in danger of either being 
 
248 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 killed or taken prisoner. Count Poniatowsky was fighting, 
 at this time, near his majesty's person. He had saved his 
 life at Pultowa, and had now the good fortune to save it 
 once more in the battle of Rugen ; he set him on horse- 
 back. 
 
 The Swedes retired to a part of the island called Alteferra, 
 where there was a fort, of which they were still masters. 
 From thence the king repassed over to Stralsund, obliged to 
 abandon his brave troops, who had so well seconded him in 
 this enterprise ; and two days after they were all made pri- 
 soners of war. 
 
 Among the prisoners was that unhappy French regiment, 
 composed of the shattered remains of the battle of Hoch- 
 stet, which had entered into the service of Augustus, and 
 afterwards into that of the king of Sweden. The greatest 
 part of the soldiers w^ere now incorporated into a new regi- 
 ment, commanded by the prince of Anhalt's son, who was 
 their fourth master. 
 
 The commander of this wandering regiment in the isle of 
 Rugen, was the same Count de Vilielongue who had so ge- 
 nerously exposed his life at Adrianople in the service of 
 Charles. He was taken prisoner with his troop, and was 
 afterwards but poorly recompensed for all his services, la- 
 bours, and sufferings. 
 
 The king, after all these prodigies of valour, which served 
 only to weaken his forces, shut up in Stralsund, and near 
 being forced in it, was the same he had been at Bender. He 
 was shaken by nothing ; he employed the day in making 
 ditches and intrenchments behind the walls, and in the night 
 he made sallies upon the enemy. In the mean time, Stral- 
 sund was battered in breach : the bombs fell as thick as hail 
 upon the houses, and half the town was reduced to ashes ; 
 the citizens, however, so far from complaining, were filled 
 with the highest veneration for their royal master, whose fa- 
 tigues, temperance, and courage, astonished them ; they were 
 all become soldiers under him ; they accompanied him in all 
 his sallies, and served him the place of a second garrison* 
 
 1 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 249 
 
 One day, as the king was dictating some letters to his 
 secretary, to be sent to Sweden, a bomb fell on the house, 
 pierced the roof, and burst near the apartment in which he 
 was. One half of the floor was shattered to pieces ; the 
 closet where the king was employed, being partly formed 
 out of a thick wall, did not suffer by the explosion ; and, by 
 an astonishing piece of fortune, none of the splinters that 
 flew about in the air entered at the closet-door, which hap- 
 pened to be open. The report of the bomb, and the noise 
 it occasioned in the house, which seemed ready to tumble, 
 made the secretary drop his pen. " What is the mat- 
 ter," said the king, with a placid air, " why do you not 
 write ?" The secretary could only say, " Ah, sire, the 
 bomb !" "Well," replied the king, " what has the bomb 
 to do with the letter I am dictating to you ? Go on." 
 
 There was, at this time, an ambassador of France shut up 
 with the king of Sweden in Stralsund. It was Monsieur 
 Colbert, Count de Croissy, a lieutenant-general in the 
 French army, brother to the Marquis de Torcy, the cele- 
 brated minister of state, and: a relation of the famous Col- 
 bert, whose name ought to be immortal in France. To send 
 a man into the trenches or on an embassy to Charles XII. 
 was pretty nigh the same thing. The king would talk with 
 Croissy for whole hours together in the most exposed places, 
 while the soldiers were falling on every side of them by the fire 
 of the cannon and bombs, without appearing in the least sen- 
 sible of the risk he run, and the ambassador not choosing to 
 give his majesty so much as a hint that there were more proper 
 places to talk of business. This minister did every thing he 
 was able, before the siege began, to effect an .accommoda- 
 tion between the kings of Sweden and Prussia ; but the de- 
 mands of the latter were too high, and Charles would make 
 no concessions. Count de Croissy derived no other, satis- 
 faction from his embassy, than the pleasure of enjoying the 
 familiarity of that singular man. He often lay by his ma- 
 jesty upon the same cloak ; and had, by partaking of all his 
 dangers and fatigues, acquired a right of talking to him with 
 
250 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES Xn. 
 
 freedom. Charles encouraged this boldness in those he 
 loved ; and would sometimes say to the Count de Croissy, 
 u Veni, maledicamus de rege i. e. " Come, now let us 
 make free with the character of the king." This account I 
 had from the ambassador himself. 
 
 Croissy continued in the town till the 13th of November, 
 when, having obtained from the enemy permission to go 
 away with his baggage, he took his leave of the king, whom 
 he left amidst the ruins of Stralsund, with a garrison di- 
 minished by one half, and resolved to stand an assault. 
 
 In short, two days after, an assault was actually made upon 
 the horn-work. The enemy twice took it, and twice were 
 driven back. The king fought the whole time amidst his 
 grenadiers ; but at last numbers prevailed, and the besiegers 
 remained masters of the place ; Charles continued in the 
 town two days after this, expecting every moment a general 
 assault. On the 21st he staid till midnight upon a little 
 ravelin, that was entirely demolished by the bombs and 
 cannon : the next day, the principal officers conjured him 
 not to stay in a place which it was no longer possible to de- 
 fend ; but his retreat was now become as dangerous as the 
 place itself. The Baltic Sea was covered with Russian and 
 Danish ships, and there were no vessels in the harbour of 
 Stralsund but one small bark with sails and oars. So many 
 dangers, which would render his retreat illustrious, deter- 
 mined Charles to attempt it. He embarked in the night on 
 the 20th of December, 1715, accompanied by ten persons 
 only. They were obliged to break the ice with which the 
 water of the port was covered ; a laborious task, which em- 
 ployed them several hours before the bark could sail freely. 
 The enemy's admirals had positive orders not to suffer 
 Charles to escape from Stralsund, but to take him, dead or 
 alive. Happily they were under the wind, and were not 
 able to get to him ; but he run a still greater risk in passing 
 by a place called La Barbette, in the Isle of Rugen, where 
 the Danes had erected a battery of twelve cannon, from 
 which they fired upon him. The mariners spread every sail, 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 251 
 
 and plied every oar, to get clear of the enemy ; but notwith- 
 standing, a cannon ball killed two men by the king's side, 
 and another shattered the mast of the bark. In the midst 
 of these dangers, the king escaped unhurt, and at last came 
 up with two of his own ships that were cruising in the Bal- 
 tic. The next day Stralsund surrendered, and the garrison 
 were made prisoners of war. Charles landed at Isted, in 
 Scania, from which place he repaired to Carlescroon, in a 
 condition very different from what he was in, when, about 
 fifteen years before, he set sail from that harbour in a ship 
 of an hundred and twenty guns, to give laws to the north. 
 
 Being so near his capital, it was expected that after such 
 a long absence he would visit that place ; but his design was 
 never to enter it again, till he had obtained some signal vic- 
 tory. Besides, he could not bear the thoughts of again see- 
 ing a people by whom he was beloved, and whom, never- 
 theless, he was obliged to oppress, in order to enable him 
 to defend himself against his enemies. He only wanted to 
 see his sister, with whom he appointed an interview on the 
 banks of the lake Weter, in Ostrogothia, whither he rode 
 post, attended only by a single domestic, and returned after 
 having spent a day with her. 
 
 From Carlescroon, where he sojourned during the winter, 
 he issued out orders for raising men throughout his whole 
 kingdom. He thought that his subjects were born only to 
 follow him to the field of battle, and had accustomed them 
 to think so too. Young people were enlisted at the age of 
 fifteen ; and in several villages there were none left but old 
 men y women, and children, and in many places women only 
 were seen ploughing the land. 
 
 It was still more difficult to procure a fleet. To supply 
 the want of this, commissions were granted to the owners of 
 privateers, who, upon obtaining certain privileges, unrea- 
 sonable in themselves, and destructive to the country, equip- 
 ped a few ships : these efforts were the last resources of 
 Sweden. To defray the expenses of these preparations, he 
 was obliged to take the substance of the people. Every 
 
852 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 kind of extortion was invented, under the name of taxes 
 and duties. Strict search was made in every house, and one 
 half of the provisions found in them was carried to the king's 
 magazines ; all the iron in the kingdom was bought up for 
 his use, which government paid for in paper, and sold out 
 again for ready money. A tax was laid on every one who 
 wore any mixture of silk in their clothes, or wore either pe- 
 rukes or gilt swords. A very heavy tax was also laid on 
 chimneys. The people, oppressed with such a load of 
 taxes, would have revolted ^under any other king; but the 
 poorest peasant in Sweden knew that his master led a life 
 still more hard and frugal than himself; so that every one 
 submitted without murmuring to those hardships which the 
 king was first to suffer. 
 
 The public danger served to make them forget their pri- 
 vate misfortunes. They expected every moment to see their 
 country invaded by the Russians, the Danes, the Prussians, 
 the Saxons, and even by the English ; and this fear was so 
 rooted and so strong, that those who had money, or valuable 
 effects, buried them in the earth. 
 
 In effect, an English fleet had already appeared in the 
 Baltic, though its particular destination was not known; 
 and the czar had given his word to the king of Denmark, 
 that the Russians should join the Danes, in the spring of 
 1716, in order to make a descent upon Sweden. 
 
 But it was an extreme surprize to all Europe, which was 
 attentive to the fortunes of Charles XII., when, instead of 
 defending his own country, which was threatened by so 
 many princes, he passed, in the month of March, 1716, over 
 into Norway, with twenty thousand men. 
 
 No general had been known since Hannibal, who, from 
 inability to defend himself at home against his enemies, had 
 undertaken to carry the war into the heart of their own do- 
 minions. The prince of Hesse, his brother-in-law, accom- 
 panied him in this expedition. 
 
 There is no travelling from Sweden to Norway but through 
 the most dangerous defiles ; and when these are passed, one 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 233 
 
 is continually meeting with so many lakes of water formed 
 by the sea amongst the rocks, that there is a necessity for 
 making bridges every day. A small number of Danes might 
 have stopped the progress of the whole Swedish army; but 
 this sudden invasion they had not foreseen. Europe was 
 still more astonished that the czar remained quiet in the 
 midst of all these mighty events, and*that he did not make a 
 descent upon Sweden, as had formerly been stipulated be- 
 tween him and his allies. 
 
 This inactivity was owing to one of the greatest, and at 
 the same time most difficult, schemes that ever was formed 
 by human imagination. 
 
 The Baron Henry de Gortz, a native of Franconia, and a 
 baron in capite of the empire, having rendered several im- 
 portant offices to the king of Sweden during that monarches 
 stay at Bender, was now become his favourite and first 
 minister. 
 
 Never was there a man so bold, and, at the same time, so 
 artful; so full of expedients amidst misfortunes; so un- 
 bounded in his designs, or so active in the prosecution of 
 them : he was frightened by no project, he scrupled no 
 means ; he lavished gifts, promises, oaths, truth, and false- 
 hood. 
 
 From Sweden he went to France, England, and Holland, 
 to try those secret springs which he afterwards meant to put 
 in motion. He was capable of disturbing all Europe ; and, 
 indeed, he had such a plan in his mind. What his master 
 was at the head of an army, he was in the cabinet; and in 
 consequence he had acquired an ascendancy over Charles, 
 which no minister had possessed before him. 
 
 That king, who when only twenty years of age had pre- 
 scribed orders to Count Piper, now received instructions 
 from Baron de Gortz ; so much the more submissive to the 
 direction of that minister, as his misfortunes obliged him to 
 listen to the advice of others, and as Gortz never gave him 
 any but such as was conformable to his courage. He re- 
 marked, that of all the princes united against Sweden, George, 
 
354 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 elector of Hanover and king of England, was the one against 
 whom Charles was most highly incensed, because he was 
 the only one that he had never offended ; and because 
 George had entered into the quarrel under the pretext of ac- 
 commodating it, but in reality to keep Bremen and Verdun, 
 to which he seemed to have no other right than that of ha- 
 ving bought them for a trifle from the king of Denmark, to 
 whom, after all, they did not belong. 
 
 He also suspected that the czar was secretly dissatisfied 
 with his allies, who had all conspired to hinder him from ac- 
 quiring an establishment in Germany, where that monarch, 
 already become too formidable, wanted only to obtain a 
 footing. Wismar, the only town which still remained to the 
 Swedes on the frontiers of Germany, on the 14th of Februa- 
 ry, 1716, surrendered to the Danes and Prussians, who 
 would not even suffer the Russian troops that were then iD 
 Mecklenburgh to be present at the siege. Similar jealousies, 
 reiterated for two years together, had alienated the czar's 
 mind from the common cause, and perhaps prevented the 
 ruin of Sweden. There are many instances of several states 
 in alliance being conquered by a single power, but scarcely 
 any of a great empire being totally subdued by several allies ; 
 for if their united forces happen, for a time, to humble it, 
 their divisions soon give it an opportunity to retrieve its for- 
 mer grandeur. 
 
 The czar had had it in his power, from the year 1714, to 
 make a descent upon Sweden; but whether it was that he 
 could not perfectly agree with the kings of Poland, England, 
 Denmark, and Prussia, allies justly jealous of his growing 
 power, or that he did not think his troops as yet sufficiently 
 inured to war to attack in their own territories a people whose 
 very peasants had conquered the flower of the Danish forces, 
 he still put off the execution of this enterprise. 
 
 But what had chiefly stopped the progress of his designs, 
 was the want of money. The czar was one of the most 
 powerful monarchs in the universe, but was far from being 
 ooc of the richest ; his revenues, at that time, not exceeding 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 255 
 
 twenty-four millions of livres ; he had, indeed, discovered 
 some mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron ; but the profits 
 arising from these were still uncertain, and the working of 
 them was very expensive. He had likewise established an 
 extensive commerce ; its beginnings, however, brought him 
 in nothing but hopes. The provinces which he had lately 
 conquered, increased his revenues without augmenting his 
 power and glory. It required a long time to heal the wounds 
 of Livonia ; a country extremely fertile, but desolated by 
 fire, sword, and distemper, and by a war of fifteen years' 
 continuance, destitute of inhabitants, and as yet chargeable 
 to the conqueror. The large fleets he maintained, and the 
 new enterprises which he was daily undertaking, contributed 
 also to exhaust his finances. He had even been reduced to 
 the miserable resource of raising the value of money7 a re- 
 medy that can never cure the evils of a state, and is parti- 
 cularly prejudicial to a country which receives more com- 
 modities from strangers than it can supply them with. 
 
 This was a part of the foundation upon which Gortz had 
 built his scheme of a revolution. He ventured to propose 
 to the king of Sweden to purchase peace from the Russian 
 emperor at any price whatsoever; representing to him, 
 that the czar was irritated against the kings of Poland and 
 England ; and giving him to understand, that were the forces 
 of Peter Alexiowitz and Charles XII. united, they would 
 itrike terror throughout Europe. 
 
 There was no other way to accomplish this peace with 
 dhe czar, than that of yielding up a great part of the pro- 
 vinces which lay to the east and north of the Baltic Sea ; 
 but then he would represent to the king, that in giving up 
 these provinces, which the czar had already possessed him- 
 self of, and which it was not in his power to retake, he 
 might have the glory of at once replacing Stanislaus on the 
 throne of Poland, replacing the son of James II. on that of 
 England, and of re-establishing the duke of Holstein in his 
 dominions. 
 
 Charles, elated with these great ideas, took no time to 
 
256 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII 
 
 consider of this scheme, but immediately gave his minister 
 a carte blanche. Gortz set out from Sweden, provided with 
 a power which authorized him to do every thing without 
 restriction, and constituted him plenipotentiary to any prince 
 with whom he might judge it necessary to negotiate. The 
 first thing he did was to sound the court of Moscow by 
 means of a Scotchman, named Erskine, first physician to 
 the czar, a man entirely devoted to the interest of the pre- 
 tender ; as was, indeed, almost every Scotchman who did not 
 immediately subsist on the favours of the court of London. 
 
 The physician represented to Prince Menzikoff the im- 
 portance and glory of such a project, with all the vivacity of 
 a man who was himself interested in the cause. Prince 
 Menzikoff relished the overtures, and the czar approved 
 them. Instead, therefore, of making a descent on Sweden, 
 as he had agreed on with his allies, he wintered his troops 
 in Mecklenburgh, and went thither himself, under pretence 
 of settling some disputes which were then arising between 
 the duke of Mecklenburgh and the nobility of that country, 
 but, in fact, to pursue his favourite design of obtaining a 
 principality in Germany, and confident of persuading the 
 duke of Mecklenburgh to sell him his sovereignty. 
 
 The allies were much irritated at this proceeding ; they 
 did not wish to have so formidable a neighbour, who, having 
 once acquired possessions in Germany, might one day cause 
 himself to be elected emperor, and oppress its sovereigns. 
 The more they were enraged, the faster did this great pro- 
 ject of Baron de Gortz advance toward success. He ne- 
 gotiated, notwithstanding, with every one of the confederate 
 princes, for the better carrying on his secret intrigues ; and 
 the czar continued amusing them all with various hopes. In 
 the mean time, Charles was in Norway, with his brother-in- 
 law, the prince of Hesse, at the head of twenty thousand 
 men : this province was defended only by eleven thousand 
 men, separated in different bodies, whom the king and the 
 prince of Hesse had put to the sword. 
 
 Charles advanced as far as Christiania, the capital of this 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 257 
 
 kingdom ; and in this corner of the globe fortune again be- 
 gan to smile on him ; but he never took sufficient precautions 
 to provide for the subsistence of his troops. A Danish fleet 
 and army were approaching to the defence of Norway ; and 
 Charles, being in want of provisions, was obliged to return 
 to Sweden, there to wait the issue of his minister's mighty 
 projects. 
 
 This scheme required at once inviolable secrecy and im- 
 mense precautions, two things almost incompatible. Gortz 
 even caused an assistance to be sought for in the seas of 
 Asia, which, however odious it seemed, was not, on that 
 account, less useful toward the descent in Scotland, and 
 which, at any rate, would have brought money, men, and 
 vessels into Sweden. 
 
 The pirates of every natron, and particularly those of 
 England, having entered into a mutual association, had long 
 infested the seas of Europe and America ; but having been 
 pursued in every part without the least quarter, they had 
 lately retired to the coast of Madagascar, a large island in 
 the east of Africa. These men were all of them despera- 
 does, and most of them famous for actions which wanted 
 nothing but justice to render them truly heroic. They had, 
 for some time, sought a prince who would receive them 
 under his protection ; but the laws of nations shut all the 
 harbours in the world against them. 
 
 As soon as they were informed that Charles was returned 
 to Sweden, they began to hope that that prince, passionate- 
 ly fond of war, forced to carry it on, and in want of both 
 ships and men, would grant them favourable terms : they 
 accordingly sent a deputy to Europe, on board of a Dutch 
 vessel, to make a proposal to Baron de Gortz to receive 
 them into the port of Gottenburgh, whither they offered to 
 repair immediately with sixty ships laden with riches. 
 
 The baron prevailed upon the king to agree to this pro- 
 position ; and the year following two Swedish gentlemen, 
 one named Cromstrom, and the other Mendal, were sent to 
 finish the negotiation with the corsairs of Madagascar. But 
 
 22* 
 
258 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 a more honourable and a more powerful support was soon 
 after found in the Cardinal Alberoni, a man of an extraor- 
 dinary genius, who governed Spain long enough for his 
 own glory, but too short a time for the grandeur of that 
 kingdom. 
 
 He entered with ardour into the project of placing the 
 son of James II. on the throne of England. Nevertheless, 
 as he was just entered into the ministry, and had the affairs of 
 Spain to establish before he could think of throwing other 
 kingdoms into confusion, it was not likely that he would be 
 able for many years to set his hand to this great work ; yet, 
 notwithstanding, in less than two years he changed the face 
 of affairs in Spain ; recovered to that kingdom its credit in 
 Europe ; engaged, as is generally imagined, the Turks to 
 attack the emperor of Germany ; and attempted, at the same 
 time, to take away the regency of France from the duke of 
 Orleans, and the crown of Great Britain from King George. 
 So dangerous is even one man, when he is absolute in a 
 powerful state, and possessed of courage and greatness of 
 souk 
 
 Gortz having thus dispersed through the courts of Mus- 
 covy and Spain the first sparks of that flame which he meant 
 to kindle, went secretly to France, and from thence to Hol- 
 land, where he negotiated with many of the pretender's ad- 
 herents. 
 
 He informed himself more particularly of the force, num- 
 ber, and disposition of the malcontents in England, and also 
 of the money they could furnish, and the troops they could 
 raise. The malcontents asked only the assistance of ten 
 thousand men, and represented the revolution as infallible 
 with the assistance of these troops. 
 
 Count de Gillembourg, the Swedish ambassador in Eng- 
 land, being instructed by Baron de Gortz, had several con- 
 ferences at London with the principal malcontents : he en- 
 couraged them, and promised them every thing they could 
 wish for : the pretender's party went so far as to furnish 
 several considerable sums of money, which Gortz received 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 259 
 
 in Holland. He negotiated also about the purchase of some 
 ships, and bought six in Brittany, with all kind of arms. 
 
 He then sent several officers privately into France, and 
 among others, the Chevalier de Folard, who, having made 
 thirty campaigns in the French armies without any considera- 
 ble addition to his fortune, had lately offered his services to 
 the king of Sweden, not so much from any interested views, 
 as from a desire to serve under a king who had so astonish- 
 ing a reputation. The Chevalier de Folard hoped also to 
 prevail on that prince to adopt his new ideas on the art of 
 war, he having studied that art all his life as a philosopher; 
 and he has since given to the world his discoveries in his 
 commentary on Polybius. His ideas were approved of by 
 Charles, who had made war himself in a manner entirely 
 new, and was never guided by custom in any thing ; he des- 
 tined the Chevalier de Folard for one of the instruments he 
 was to make use of in his projected descent upon Scotland. 
 That gentleman executed the secret orders of Baron de 
 Gortz in France. A great number of French, and a still greater 
 number of Irish officers engaged in this conspiracy of a new 
 kind, which was hatching at the same time in England, 
 France, and Muscovy, and the branches of which were se- 
 cretly extended from one end of Europe to the other. 
 
 These preparations were nothing to what Gortz intended 
 to do ; but it was a great thing to have begun. The most 
 important point, and without which nothing could succeed, 
 was to complete the peace between the czar and Charles. 
 There remained many difficulties to be removed. Baron 
 Osterman, minister of state in Muscovy, refused, at first, to 
 come into de Gortz's measures ; he being as circumspect 
 as the minister of Charles was enterprising. The one slow 
 and regular in his politics, was for suffering every thing to 
 ripen ; while the other, of an impatient spirit, was for reap- 
 ing the harvest as soon as the seed was sown. Osterman 
 was afraid that the emperor, his master, dazzled with the 
 splendour of this enterprise, would grant the Swedes a too 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 advantageous peace ; he, therefore, delayed the conclusion 
 of it by his obstacles and procrastinations. 
 
 Happily for Baron de Gortz, the czar himself arrived in 
 Holland at the beginning of the year 1717. His design was 
 to go from thence into France ; he had not yet seen that 
 celebrated nation, which, for more than a hundred years, 
 has been censured, envied, and imitated, by all its neigh- 
 bours ; he wanted to gratify there his insatiable curiosity of 
 seeing and learning every thing, and, at the same time, to 
 exercise his politics. 
 
 Gortz had two conferences with the emperor at the Hague ; 
 in which he made greater progress than he could have done 
 in six months with the plenipotentiaries. Every thing wore 
 a favourable aspect; his mighty projects seemed covered by 
 an impenetrable secrecy ; and he flattered himself that Europe 
 would only know them by their being carried into execution. 
 In the mean time, he talked of nothing but of peace at the 
 Hague, and openly declared, that he would always consider 
 the king of England as the pacifier of the north ; and he 
 even pressed, in appearance, the holding of a congress at 
 Brunswick, wherein the interests of Sweden and its enemies 
 might be amicably decided. 
 
 The first who discovered these intrigues was the duke of 
 Orleans, regent of France, who had spies in every part of 
 Europe. Men of this description, whose profession it is to 
 tell the secrets of their friends, who subsist by informa- 
 tions, and frequently even by calumnies, were so much in- 
 creased in France under his government, that one half of the 
 nation were become spies on the other. The duke of Or- 
 leans, connected with the king of England by personal en- 
 gagements, discovered to him the plot that was hatching 
 against him. 
 
 At the same time, the Dutch, who took umbrage at the 
 behaviour of de Gortz, communicated their suspicions to 
 the English minister. Gortz and Gillembourg were prose- 
 cuting their schemes with great vigour, when they were 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 261 
 
 both arrested, the one at Deventeer in Guelderland, and the 
 other at London. 
 
 Gillembourg, the Swedish ambassador, had violated the 
 law of nations, by conspiring against the prince to whom he 
 was delegated, and no scruple was entertained of violating 
 the same law by arresting his person. But all the world 
 was astonished to see the States General, through an unheard 
 of complaisance toward the king of England, imprison Ba- 
 ron de Gortz. They even appointed the Count de Welde- 
 ren to examine him. This formality was only an aggravation 
 of their insult, which, rendered useless, turned out to their 
 own confusion. Gortz asked the Count de Welderen if he 
 knew him ? "Yes, sir," replied the Dutchman. "Well, 
 then," replied de Gortz, " if you do know me, you know 
 also that I answer to nothing but what I please." The 
 examination was scarcely pushed any further. All the 
 ambassadors, but particularly the Marquis de Monte- 
 leon, the Spanish ambassador, protested against the outrage 
 offered to the persons of Gortz and Gillembourg. The 
 Dutch were without excuse. They had not only violated a 
 most sacred law by seizing the prime minister of the king 
 of Sweden, who had formed no plots against them, but they 
 acted directly against the principles of that liberty which had 
 drawn so many foreigners into their country, and which had 
 been the foundation of all their greatness. 
 
 With regard to the king of England, he had committed 
 no breach of justice in imprisoning his enemy. He pub- 
 lished in his own vindication the letters of Baron de Gortz 
 and Count Gillembourg, which were found among the pa- 
 pers of the latter. The king of Sweden was in Scania at 
 the time when he received these printed letters, together 
 with the news of his two ministers being imprisoned. He 
 asked, with a smile, " if they had printed his letters also ?" 
 He immediately gave orders for arresting the English resi- 
 dent at Stockholm, with all his family and domestics. He 
 forbade the Dutch resident the court, and took care to have 
 him strictly watched, Meanwhile, he neither avowed nor 
 
262 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 disavowed the proceedings of de Gortz ; being too proud to 
 deny a scheme which he had once approved, and too wise 
 to acknowledge a plot which had been stilled almost in its 
 birth ; he therefore maintained a disdainful silence toward 
 England and Holland. 
 
 The czar took a different course. As he was not named, 
 but only obscurely hinted at in the papers of Gortz and Gil- 
 lembourg, he wrote a long letter to the king of England, full 
 of compliments on the discovery of the conspiracy, and as- 
 surance of a sincere friendship. King George received his 
 protestations without believing them, and pretended to be 
 deceived by them. A conspiracy formed by private men, is 
 annihilated the moment it is discovered ; but a conspiracy 
 formed by king's, only gains strength by its being known. 
 The czar arrived at Paris in the month of May, in the same 
 year. He did not totally employ himself in viewing the 
 beauties of art and nature, in visiting the academies, the 
 public libraries, the cabinets of the curious, and the royal 
 palaces ; he proposed a treaty to the duke of Orleans, regent 
 of France, the acceptation of which would have completed 
 the grandeur of Muscovyi His design was to unite himself 
 with the king of Sweden, who would yield to him several 
 large provinces; to entirely deprive the Danes of the empire 
 of the Baltic Sea; to weaken the English by a civil war, 
 and to draw all the trade of the north to Russia. He had 
 even some thoughts of setting up Stanislaus afresh against 
 Augustus, so that the fire being kindled on every side, he 
 might have -it in his power either to quench or blow it up, 
 as he should find best conducive to his interest. With this 
 view, he proposed to the regent of France to act as a mediator 
 between Sweden and Muscovy, and to make a league offen- 
 sive and defensive with those two crowns, and that of Spain. 
 This treaty, which appeared so natural, and so advantageous 
 to the several nations concerned, and which placed the ba- 
 lance of power in Europe in their hands, was not accepted 
 by the duke of Orleans. He, at that very time, entered into 
 engagements of a quite contrary uature ; he made a league 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 263 
 
 with the emperor of Germany, and with George, king of En- 
 gland. Reasons of state had now so altered the views of 
 all the princes of Europe, that the czar was ready to declare 
 against his old ally Augustus, and to espouse the cause of 
 Charles, his mortal enemy; while France, to oblige the Ger- 
 mans and the English, was going to make war upon the 
 grandson of Louis XIV., after having so long supported him 
 against these very enemies, at the expense of so much blood 
 and treasure. All that the czar obtained by indirect mea- 
 sures, was the prevailing upon the regent to interpose his 
 good offices to procure the enlargement of Gortz and Gillem- 
 bourg. He returned to his own dominions about the end of 
 June, after having shown the French the uncommon sight of 
 an emperor travelling for instruction ; but the generality of 
 that people only took notice of his rude, unpolished manners, 
 the result of his bad education ; while the legislator, the 
 hero, and the creator of a new nation, entirely escaped their 
 observation. 
 
 What the czar sought for in the duke of Orleans, he soon 
 found in Cardinal Alberoni, now become all powerful in 
 Spain. Alberoni wished for nothing so much as the resto- 
 ration of the pretender ; not only as minister of Spain, which 
 had been so ill treated by the English, but as a personal 
 enemy to the duke of Orleans, who was leagued with Eng- 
 land against Spain ; and lastly, as a priest of that church for 
 the sake of which the pretender's father had so imprudently 
 lost his crown. 
 
 The duke of Ormond, as much beloved in England as the 
 duke of Marlborough was admired, had left his country at the 
 accession of King George, and was at that time retired to 
 Madrid. He went from thence, invested with full powers 
 by the king of Spain and the pretender, together with one 
 Jerningham, another native of England, a man of fine address 
 and an enterprising spirit, to meet the czar in his way to 
 Mittau in Courland. He demanded the Princess Anna Pe- 
 trowna, the czar's daughter, in marriage for the son of James 
 
264 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 II.* hoping that this alliance would more strongly attach the 
 czar to the interests of that unhappy prince. But this pro- 
 posal, instead of forwarding, had nearly retarded, for a time, 
 the progress of the negotiations. Baron de Gortz, among 
 his other projects, had long destined this princess for the 
 duke of Holstein, to whom, in effect, she was soon after 
 married. As soon as he was informed of the duke of Or- 
 mond's proposal, he became jealous of its success, and ap- 
 plied every art to set it aside. He, as well as Count Gil- 
 lembourg, was set at liberty in the month of August; the 
 king of Sweden not even deigning to make the least excuse 
 to the king of England, nor to show the slightest disappro- 
 bation of his minister's conduct. 
 
 At the same time the English resident and all his family 
 were released at Stockholm, where they had been treated 
 with much more severity than Gillembourgh had been at 
 London. 
 
 Gortz having obtained his freedom, behaved like an im- 
 placable enemy, having the spirit of revenge joined to the 
 powerful motives by which he had been formerly actuated. 
 He went post to the czar, and, by his artful insinuations, ob- 
 tained a greater ascendancy over that prince than ever. He 
 assured him directly that in less than three months he would, 
 in conjunction with a single plenipotentiary from Russia, re- 
 move every obstacle that retarded the conclusion of a peace 
 with Sweden ; and taking a map in his hand which had been 
 drawn by the czar himself, he drew a line from Wiburg all 
 the way to the Frozen Sea, running along the Lake Ladoga, 
 and undertook to persuade his master to give up all the coun- 
 try lying to the eastward of that line, as well as Carelia, In- 
 
 * The Cardinal Alberoni confirms the truth of all these particulars in 
 a letter of thanks to the author. M. Norberg, whose ignorance of the af- 
 fairs of Europe can only be equalled by the poverty of his genius, alleges, 
 that the duke of Ormond did not quit England upon the accession of 
 George I., but immediately after the death of Queen Anne ; as if George 
 I. had not been the immediate successor of that queen. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 265 
 
 gria, and Livonia ; after that he threw out propositions for a 
 marriage between his czarish majesty's daughter and the 
 duke of Holstein, flattering the czar that the duke might be 
 prevailed upon to yield up his dominions for an equivalent, 
 by which means he would become a member of the empire, 
 showing him afar off the imperial crown, whether it were 
 to be worn by himself or by one of his descendants. He 
 thus flattered the ambitious views of the Russian monarch, 
 and' prevented the pretender from marrying the czarian prin- 
 cess, while he opened to him the road into England, and 
 accomplished all his own projects at once. 
 
 The czar named the Isle of Alan for holding a con- 
 ference between Osterman, his minister • of state, and 
 Baron de Gortz. The duke of Ormond was desired to re- 
 turn to Spain, that the czar might not give too great cause of 
 offence to the English, to whom he had no intention of 
 giving umbrage till he should be ready to make the pro- 
 jected invasion ; Jerningham, the duke's confidant, who was 
 properly instructed, was allowed to stay at Petersburgh, 
 where he lived with so much precaution, that he never went 
 abroad but in the night time, nor ever conversed with any 
 of the czar's ministers, except in the disguise of a peasant 
 or Tartar. 
 
 As soon as the duke of Ormond departed, the czar ac- 
 quainted the king of England with the high compliment he 
 had paid him in dismissing the greatest man in the preten- 
 der's faction ; and Baron de Gortz, full of hope, returned to 
 Sweden. 
 
 He found his master at the head of thirty-five thousand 
 regular troops, and all the coasts lined with the militia. The 
 king wanted nothing but money ; credit, as well at home as 
 abroad, being entirely exhausted. France, which had fur- 
 nished him with some supplies during the last years of Louis 
 XIV. refused to contribute any more under the regency of 
 the duke of Orleans, who was governed by quite contrary 
 maxims. Spain promised him some remittances ; but was 
 not as yet able to furnish much. De Gortz at this time put 
 
 23 
 
266 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 into execution, in its full extent, a scheme which he former- 
 ly tried before his journey to France and Holland ; this was, 
 to give to copper the value of silver; so that a piece of cop- 
 per whose intrinsic value was only a half-penny, should, 
 when stamped with the king's mark, pass for forty pence ; 
 in the same manner as the governors of besieged towns fre- 
 quently pay the soldiers and citizens in leather money, in 
 hopes of being one day able to reimburse them in real coin. 
 This fictitious kind of money, invented by necessity, and to 
 which nothing can give a durable credit but the good faith 
 of government, resembles bills of exchange, the imaginary 
 value of which may easily exceed the real funds of a state. 
 
 These resources are of great use in a free country ; they 
 have sometimes saved a republic, but almost certainly ruin a 
 monarchy ; for the people soon tiring of confidence," the 
 minister is reduced to break his faith; this ideal coin is mul- 
 tiplied to excess; and individuals bury the specie they pos- 
 sess, and the whole machine is dsstioyed, with a confusion 
 which is often accompanied by the greatest disasters. This 
 was what happened to the kingdom of Sweden. 
 
 Baron de Gortz at first issued out his new coin with dis- 
 cretion ; but, by the rapidity of the movement which he 
 could no longer govern, he was in a little time hurried be- 
 yond the limits which he had originally prescribed. All 
 kinds of merchandize and provisions having risen to an im- 
 moderate price, he was obliged to increase the quantity 01 
 the copper coin. But the more it was increased, the less 
 was its value ; at last, Sweden, overrun by this false money, 
 set up a general cry against de Gortz. The people, who had 
 always beheld their sovereign with veneration, could not 
 find in their hearts to hate him, and therefore made the 
 weight of their resentment fall on a minister, who, as he was 
 a foreigner, and chief director of the finances, was doubly 
 certain of the public hatred. 
 
 A tax which he wanted to lay on the clergy, rendered him 
 totally detestable to the nation ; the priests, who too often 
 join their own cause to that of Heaven, publicly pronounced 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 267 
 
 him an atheist, because he demanded their money. Some 
 of the new coin being stamped with the figures of the hea- 
 then gods, they took this occasion to call those pieces le 
 Dieux du Baron de Gortz, the Gods of Baron de Gortz. 
 
 To this public hatred were joined the jealousies of the 
 ministers ; the more implacable, as they were at that time 
 without power to affect him. The king's sister, and the 
 prince her husband, feared hiin as a man attached by his 
 birth to the duke of Holstem, and who might one day be 
 able to place the crown of Sweden on his head. He gained 
 no one's affections in the kingdom but Charles's ; yet this 
 general aversion served only to confirm the friendship of the 
 king, whose opinions were always strengthened by contra- 
 dictions. He now placed a confidence in the baron border- 
 ing on submission ; he gave him an absolute power in the 
 interior government of the kingdom ; and committed to his 
 care, without the least reserve, whatever related to the ne- 
 gotiations with the czar, recommending to him, above all 
 things, to hasten the conferences that were to be held in the 
 Isle of Alan. 
 
 In effect, Gortz had no sooner finished the arrangement 
 of the finances at Stockholm which demanded his presence, 
 than he set out to conclude with the czar's minister the grand 
 scheme he had projected. 
 
 The following are the preliminary conditions of that alli- 
 ance, which was wholly to have changed the face of affairs 
 in Europe ; they were found among de Gortz's papers after 
 his death. 
 
 The czar was to keep the whole of Livonia and part of 
 Ingria and Carelia, and to restore the rest to Sweden; he 
 was to join Charles XII. in the design to re-establish Stanis- 
 laus on the throne of Poland, and was to engage to enter 
 that country with eighty thousand Russians to dethrone Au- 
 gustus, the very king in whose defence he had waged a war 
 of ten years' continuance. He was also to furnish the king 
 of Sweden with a sufficient number of ships to transport ten 
 thousand Swedes to England, and thirty thousand to Ger 
 
268 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 many. The united forces of Peter and Charles were to at- 
 tack the king of England in his states of Hanover, and par- 
 ticularly in Bremen and Verdun ; the same troops would 
 have served to restore the duke of Holstein, and compelled 
 the king of Prussia to accept a treaty by which he would 
 have been deprived of part of those territories which he had 
 formerly taken. 
 
 From this time Charles assumed as lofty airs as if his vic- 
 torious troops, reinforced by those of the czar, had already 
 executed every thing they intended. He haughtily de- 
 manded of the emperor of Germany to conclude the treaty 
 of Altranstad. The court of Vienna scarcely deigned to give 
 an answer to the proposal of a prince from whom she thought 
 she had nothing to fear. 
 
 The king of Poland did not possess so much confidence : 
 he saw the clouds gathering on every side. The Polish no- 
 bility had formed a confederacy against him ; and since his 
 jestoration he had continually been engaged eithe*r in wars 
 or treaties with his subjects. The czar, a dangerous media- 
 tor, had a hundred gallies near Dantzic, and forty thousand 
 men on'the frontiers of Poland. All the North was filled 
 with jealousy and apprehension. Fleming, the most dis- 
 trustful of men, and himself the most to be distrusted by 
 the neighbouring powers, was the first who suspected the de- 
 signs of the czar and the king of Sweden in favour of Stanis- 
 laus. He determined, therefore, to have him seized in the 
 fluchy of Deux Points, as James Sobiesky had formerly 
 been in Silesia. A Frenchman, one of those restless and 
 enterprising spirits who wander into foreign parts to try 
 their fortunes, had lately brought a small number of his 
 countrymen, bold and daring, like himself, into the service 
 of the king of Poland. He communicated a project to Fle- 
 ming, by which he engaged, with thirty French officers, to 
 seize Stanislaus in his own palace, and carry him a prisoner 
 to Dresden. The project was approved. Such enterprises 
 were then very common. Some of those fellows who are 
 called bravoes in Italy, had performed similar acts in the 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 \ 
 
 269 
 
 Milanese during the last war between France and Germany. 
 After that time, several French refugees in Holland had ven- 
 tured to penetrate as far as Versailles, in order to carry off 
 fhe dauphin ; and had actually seized the person of the first 
 equerry, almost under the windows of the castle where Louis 
 XIV. resided. 
 
 Saissan prepared his men and relays of post-horses in or- 
 der to seize and carry off Stanislaus. The enterprise was 
 discovered the night before it was to have been carried into 
 execution. Several of them made their escape, and the rest 
 were taken prisoners. They had no right to expect to be 
 treated as prisoners of war, but rather as a banditti. Stanis- 
 laus, however, instead of punishing them, contented himself 
 with reproaching them with their baseness, and even that 
 he did in terms replete with humanity; he even gave them 
 money to conduct them back to Poland, and by this gene- 
 rous behaviour plainly showed that his rival Augustus had 
 but too much reason to fear him.* 
 
 In the mean time, Charles departed a second time for the 
 conquest of Norway, in the month of October, 1718. He 
 had so well taken all his measures, that he hoped in six 
 months time to make himself master of that kingdom. He 
 rather chose to go and conquer rocks amidst ice and snow, 
 in the depth of winter, which kills the animals even in 
 Sweden, where the air is less cold, than to retake his beauti- 
 ful provinces in Germany from the hands of his enemies. 
 These he expected he should soon be able to recover in con- 
 sequence of his alliance with the czar ; and his vanity, be- 
 sides, was more flattered at ravishing a kingdom from bis 
 victorious enemy. 
 
 At the mouth of the river Tistendall, near the channel of 
 Denmark, and between the towns of Bahus and Anslo stands 
 Frederickshall, a place of great strength and importance, 
 and considered as the key of the kingdom. Charles formed 
 
 * Here M. Norberg accuses the author of want of respect to crowned 
 heads ; as if this faithful account contained in it any thing injurious, or 
 as if we were obliged to relate aught but truth of departed kings. 
 
 23* 
 
270 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 the siege of this place in the month of December. The 
 soldiers, benumbed with cold, could scarcely turn up the 
 earth, which was so much hardened by the frost, that it was 
 almost as difficult to pierce it as if they had been opening 
 trenches in a rock ; yet the Swedes could not be dishearten- 
 ed, while they saw their king at their head, who partook of 
 all their fatigues. Charles had never before undergone so 
 many hardships. His constitution, hardened by eighteen 
 years of severe labours, was fortified to such a degree, that 
 he slept in the open field in Norway in the midst of winter, 
 either on a truss of straw or a plank, covered only with a 
 cloak, without the least prejudice to his health. 
 
 Several of the soldiers dropped down dead at their posts, 
 and the rest were almost frozen to death ; yet as they 
 saw their king suffering like themselves, they did not dare 
 to make the least complaint. Having heard, some time be- 
 fore this expedition, of a certain woman in Scania, called 
 Joan Dotter, who had lived for several months without ta- 
 king any other nourishment than water ; he, who had studied 
 all his life to support the most extreme rigours that human 
 nature could bear, resolved to try how long he could fast 
 without being worn out. He passed five whole days with- 
 out eating or drinking ; and on the morning of the sixth 
 rode two leagues, and then alighted at the tent of the prince 
 of Hesse, his brother-in-law, where he eat heartily, without 
 feeling the least inconvenience from his abstinence of five 
 days, or from the plentiful meal which immediately succeed- 
 ed'.* 
 
 With this body of iron, governed by a soul so enterprising 
 and inflexible in every situation he was reduced to, he could 
 not fail to be formidable to all his neighbours. 
 
 On the 11th of December, being St. Andrew's day, he went 
 at nine in the evening to visit the trenches ; and not finding 
 the parallel so far advanced as he expected, appeared very 
 
 * Norberg pretends, that it was to cure a pain in his breast, that 
 Charles tried this strange abstinence. Confessor Norberg is surely a bad 
 physician 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 271 
 
 much displeased. M. Megret, a French engineer, who con- 
 ducted the siege, assured him that the place could be taken 
 in eight days. u We shall see," said the king, and went on 
 with the engineer to survey the works. He stopped at a 
 place where a branch of the trenches formed an angle with 
 the parallel ; and kneeling on the inner talus, and resting 
 his elbow on the parapet, continued in that posture for some 
 time, to view the men, who were carrying on the trenches 
 by star-light. 
 
 The least circumstances become important, when they 
 relate to the death of such a man as Charles XII. I must, 
 therefore, say, that the whole of the conversation reported 
 by so many writers to have passed between the king and 
 Megret, the engineer, is absolutely false. This is what I 
 know to be the real truth of the matter. 
 
 Almost half of the king's body was exposed to a battery 
 of cannon, pointed directly against the angle where he was : 
 there was no one near his person at this time but two French- 
 men ; one of whom was M. Siquier, his aid-de-camp, a man of 
 courage and conduct, who had entered into his service in 
 Turkey, and who was particularly attached to the prince of 
 Hesse ; and the other was this engineer. The cannon fired 
 upon them, but the king, being the least covered by the 
 parapet, was the most exposed. At some distance behind 
 them was Count Swerin, who commanded in the trenches. 
 Count Posse, a captain of the guards, and an aid-de-camp 
 named Kulbert, were receiving orders from him. Siquier 
 and Megret saw the king me moment he fell, which he did 
 upon the parapet, with a deep sigh. They immediately ran 
 to him : he was already dead. A ball of half a pound weight 
 had struck him on the right temple, and made a hole suffi- 
 cient to receive three fingers at once ; his head was reclined 
 on the parapet, his left eye beat in, and the right one entirely 
 out of its socket. The instant of his wound had been that 
 of his death ; but he had had the force, whilst expiring in so 
 sudden a manner, to place by a natural movement his hand 
 upon the hilt of his sword, and he remained in that attitude. 
 
272 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 At the sight of this spectacle, Megret, a man of peculiar and 
 callous disposition, said nothing but these words, " There ! 
 the play is over, let us be gone." Siquier ran immediate- 
 ly to inform CounFSwerin. They all agreed to conceal the 
 news of his death from the soldiers, till they could acquaint 
 the prince of Hesse with it. They wrapt up the body in a 
 gray cloak. Siquier put his hat and wig on the king's head ; 
 and in this condition they carried Charles, under the name 
 of one Captain Carlberg, through the midst of his troops, 
 who saw their dead king pass them, without ever dreaming 
 it was him. 
 
 The prince instantly gave orders that no one should go 
 out of the camp, and that all the passes to Sweden should 
 be strictly guarded, that he might have time to take the 
 necessary measures for placing the crown on his wife's 
 head, and excluding the duke of Holstein, who might lay 
 claim to it. 
 
 Thus fell Charles XII. king of Sweden, at the age of thir- 
 ty-six years and a half, after having experienced whatever 
 is most brilliant in prosperity, and all that is most poignant 
 in adversity, without having been enervated by the one, or 
 having wavered, though but for a-moment, with the other. 
 Almost all his actions, even those of his private life, bor- 
 dered on the marvellous. He is perhaps the only one of all 
 mankind, and hitherto the only one among kings, who has 
 lived without a single frailty. He carried all the virtues of 
 heroes to an excess, at which they are as dangerous as their 
 opposite vices. His resolution, hardened into obstinacy, 
 occasioned his misfortunes in the Ukraine, and detained him 
 five years in Turkey ; his liberality, degenerating into pro- 
 fusion, ruined Sweden ; his courage, extending even to rash- 
 ness, was the cause of his death ; his justice has sometimes 
 extended to cruelty ; and during the last years of his reign, 
 the means he employed to support his authority differed little 
 from tyfatifty. His great qualities, any one of which would 
 Have been sufficient to have immortalized another prince, 
 proved the misfortune of his country. He never was the 
 
KING OF SWEDEN 
 
 273 
 
 aggressor ; yet in taking vengeance he was more implacable 
 than prudent. He was the first man who ever aspired to 
 the title of conqueror, without the least desire of enlarging 
 his own dominions ; and whose only end in subduing king- 
 doms, was to have the pleasure of giving them away. His 
 passion for glory, for war, and revenge, prevented Kim from 
 being a good politician ; a quality without which the world 
 had never before seen any one a conqueror. Before a bat- 
 tle, and after a victory, he was modest and humble ; and 
 after a defeat, firm and undaunted ; inflexible toward others 
 as well as toward himself, rating at nothing the fatigues 
 and lives of his subjects any more than his own ; rather an 
 extraordinary than a great man, and more worthy to be ad- 
 mired than imitated. His life ought to be a lesson to kings, 
 how much a pacific and happy government is preferable to 
 so much glory. 
 
 Charles XII. was of a tall stature, with a noble air; he 
 had a fine forehead, large blue eyes, full of sweetness, and 
 a handsome nose ; but the lower part of his face was disa- 
 greeable, and too often disfigured by a frequent laugh, at 
 which time he scarce opened his lips ; and he had scarce 
 any beard or hair. He spoke very little, and frequently only 
 answered people with that laugh which was habitual to him. 
 With the inflexible obstinacy of his temper, he always re- 
 tained that timidity which goes by the name of false modes- 
 ty. He would have been embarrassed in a conversation, be- 
 cause, having given up his time entirely to war and action, 
 he had no knowledge of society. Till the time of his resi- 
 dence among the Turks, which furnished him with a good 
 deal of leisure, he had read nothing but Caesar's Commen- 
 taries and the History of Alexander ; yet he had written 
 some reflections on the. art of war, and particularly on his 
 own campaigns from 1700 to 1709. This he owned to the 
 CheValier de Folard, but said that the manuscript had been 
 lost in the unfortunate battle of Pultowa. Some people 
 would describe Charles as a good mathematician^ he pos- 
 sessed, no doubt, a great degree of penetration, but the ar- 
 
274 
 
 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 guments they make use of to prove his knowledge in mathe- 
 matics, are by no means conclusive; he wanted to alter the 
 method of counting by tens, and proposed td substitute in its 
 place the number 64, because that number contains both a 
 cube and a square, and being divided by two is reducible to a 
 unit. This only proves that he delighted in every thing ex- 
 traordinary and difficult. 
 
 With regard to his religion, though the sentiments of a 
 prince ought to have no influence on other men, and though 
 the opinion of a monarch so illiterate as Charles can be of 
 little consequence in these matters, yet it is necessary to gra- 
 tify, in this as well as in every other particular, the curio- 
 sity of mankind, who arc anxious to know whatever relates 
 to this prince. I am informed by the gentleman who fur- 
 nished me with the greatest part of the materials which com- 
 pose this history, that Charles was a serious Lutheran until 
 the year 1707. He then happened to see at Leipsic the fa- 
 mous philosopher, M. Leibnitz, who thought and spoke free- 
 ly, and had already instilled his sentiments into more princes 
 than one. I cannot believe, as it is reported, that Charles 
 conceived an indifference for Lutheranism from the conver- 
 sation of this philosopher, who never had the honour to talk 
 with him above a quarter of an hour ; but M. Fabricius, who 
 lived with him in great familiarity for seven years successive- 
 ly, told me, Charles having seen, during his residence among 
 the Turks, such an infinite variety of religions, his indiffer- 
 ence became greater. La Mottray, in his voyages, confirms 
 this idea. The same, too, is the opinion of the Count de 
 Croissy, who hath several times told me, that of all his old 
 principles, Charles retained none but that of absolute pre- 
 destination, a doctrine that favoured his courage, and justifi- 
 ed his temerity. The czar held the same opinion with re- 
 gard to fate and religion ; but talked of these subjects more 
 frequently, as indeed he did of every thing else with his fa- 
 vourites, with much familiarity; for he had the advantage 
 over Charles, both in the study of philosophy and the gift of 
 eloquence. 
 
KING OF SWEDEN. 
 
 275 
 
 Here I cannot help taking notice of a calumny that is too 
 often raised at the death of princes by the malicious, and too 
 readily believed by the credulous, that their death is always 
 owing to poison or assassination. A report had spread 
 through Germany, that M. Siquier himself had killed the 
 king of Sweden. That brave officer was long grieved at 
 this injurious aspersion; and one day talking to me on the 
 subject, used the following expression : " I might have kill- 
 ed the king of Sweden, but such was my respect for that 
 hero, that had I conceived the thought, I could not have had 
 the courage to carry it into execution." 
 
 I know very well that Siquier himself gave occasion for 
 this heavy accusation, which, even to this day, is believed by 
 a part of Sweden ; he told me that during a raging fever at 
 Stockholm, he had cried out that he had killed the king of 
 Sweden ; and that in the height of his frenzy he even open- 
 ed the window, and publicly begged pardon for the regicide. 
 When he was acquainted, in the course of his recovery, with 
 what he had said in his illness, he was ready to die with 
 grief. This anecdote I did not choose to reveal during his 
 life time. I saw him a little time before his death, and I 
 think I can safely affirm, that, so far from killing Charles 
 XII., he would have suffered a thousand deaths could he 
 have saved his life. Had he been guilty of such a crime, it 
 must have been to have served some prince, who, no doubt, 
 would have liberally rewarded him ; but he died in France 
 extremely poor, and even stood in need of assistance from 
 myself. If these reasons are not sufficient, let it be consi-x 
 dered, that the ball by which Charles fell could not enter 
 into a pistol, and that Siquier could not have executed this 
 detestable crime but with a pistol concealed under his 
 clothes. 
 
 After the death of the king, the siege of Frederickshall 
 was raised ; every thing was changed in the government. 
 The Swedes, more oppressed than flattered by the glory of 
 their prince, lost no time in concluding a peace with their 
 enemies, and suppressing that absolute power which Baron 
 
276 HISTORY OF CHARLES XII. 
 
 de Gortz had made them feel to excess. The states freely 
 elected the sister of Charles XII. for their queen, and obliged 
 her, by a solemn act, to renounce all hereaitary right to the 
 crown, in order that she should only hold it by the suffrages 
 of the nation. She promised, with reiterated oaths, that 
 she would never attempt to restore arbitrary authority, and 
 at last, sacrificing the love of royalty to conjugal affection, 
 yielded the crown to her husband, and engaged the states to 
 elect that prince, who mounted the throne on the same con- 
 ditions as herself. 
 
 The Baron de Gortz, being seized instantly after the death 
 of Charles, was condemned by the senate of Stockholm to 
 have his head cut off at the foot of the gallows of the town ; 
 an example of revenge, perhaps, rather than of justice, and 
 a cruel insult to the memory of a king whom Sweden still 
 admires. 
 
 FINIS,